tonight i did speak to former governor ed rendell, a popular blue face living in the red state. he is upset. i wanted to do election postmortem. >> she didn't run a good campaign. she wasn't a great candidate. i believe with all my heart she would have been a terrific president. >> reporter: former pennsylvania governor ed rendell is upset not only because hillary clinton won't be president but that his beloved pennsylvania, is now a red state that helped donald trump win the white house. >> totally disinterested in learning anything about what goes on. he has made no effort to learn about foreign affairs or the military. >> reporter: rendell just doesn't professionally necessity clintons they are close friend and have been for years. he believes campaign staffers, knew hillary clinton was in trouble when vermont a liberal state went her way but with lower numbers then expected. >> as soon as i saw that figure i turn to the people i was watching with and i said we're in trouble. >> reporter: rendell was one of the main drivers to bring democratic national convention in philadelp

>> we ended up releasing several red state battleground polls yesterday and some interesting findings. let's start with my home state of texas where we had donald trump with a 9 point lead over hillary clinton. this is interesting because mitt romney in 2012 ended up winning texas by 15, 16 points. we have it just at 9 points. let's go to arizona where we end up having donald trump with a 5 point lead. there have actually been polls that show even a tighter race. the clinton campaign thinks it's tighter than this. and yet again, this is yet another red state where in 2012, it wasn't looking as good for democrats but let me then bring you to georgia where our poll has a 1 point race will, craig. and then a final red state that i want to be able to go through and this is a monmouth poll that came out recently and donald trump is just 6 points in utah and again, mitt romney ended up getting in excess of 70% in the election. this is a big important story, craig. it kind of tells you that the national polls might not necessarily be aligning with battleground state polls. underperforming ve

hillary clinton, red states favor donald trump. right now, she has enough, just by holding those blue states, to get to 270. look at the top of the map, donald trump at 204 with his red states. he needs more. but here's where the hope is for both of them. first of all, the state of florida is where the hillary clinton team is most confident. they believe based on the early vote, they can win florida. that would effectively end this race. they have a new poll out today in georgia that shows a tie race. as for donald trump, they see hope you in even in new hampshire. both have been solidly democrat. both are trending towards trump. >> jon karl with us tonight, tracking that map every step of the way. jon, thank you. and a reminder, five days to go now, and on election night, our coverage begins, of course, with "world news tonight." and then at 7:00 p.m. eastern, i'll be joining george and the entire powerhouse political team. we will be here all night long. >>> in the meantime, tonight, we do turn to other news, and to a woman who ha

and this evening, even in the red state of georgia, trump and clinton neck and neck. and tonight, melania trump, her first appearance on her own, what she revealed she would fight for as first lady. donald trump tweeting from his plane, he's there on the left, watching his wife and that speech on the big screen. and tonight, the clinton team revealing they're moment like this one just hours before americans go to the polls next week. and take a look tonight. our new tracking poll. clinton at 47%, trump at 45%. we begin with abc's tom llamas. >> reporter: tonight, donald trump sounding like victory is within his grasp. >> i'll tell you, we are going to rule the day, this group. we're going to rule the day. >> reporter: trump in florida, realizing he's got company. there's a little bit of traffic here on the runway. we have our neighbor over here, we'll be following him today. and then just over my shoulder, air force one. >> reporter: trump noticed, as well. jumping at the chance to take on the president. >> he's down here campaigning for crooked hillary. now, why -- w

state of louisiana. polls have just closed, reliably red. in north dakota, the fox team projects with 1% reporting, donald trump will win in the state of south carolina. moving on, the rest of the boards we have tonight, now south dakota, the decision team has made a call in the last few seconds, south dakota will go for donald trump. republicans win south dakota yet again tonight. moving to nebraska, the corn husker state, donald trump in a reliably red state, donald trump holds nebraska and will win the electoral vote in the state of nebraska. in new mexico the race too close to call. a three-way race there. we have all three on the board. this is too close to call in the early going. the empire state of new york, new york has been decided. less than 1% of all precincts reporting. more than 146 people were voting while i was in precinct 1 today at 6:58 a.m. that's all that's insofar. clinton. moving to texas, a state closer this year than in previous contests, only 55% of all precincts reporting. only a 5% spread right now. texas will not b

that progressives could get behind al gore and give him in return, nader could get votes in safe red states. >> reporter: vote-swapping websites popped up but they were called into question. >> a number of republican secretaries of state and attorneys general sent threat letters to the operators of the websites saying that they were engaged in an illegal vote-buying conspiracy. which was ridiculous. they shut the websites down. >> reporter: but a lawsuit followed and finally, in 2007, it was decided that money or anything else of value trades hands. >> a lot of talk about how ralph nader might do -- >> reporter: the so-called nader effect, when just a few votes for a third-party candidate can make a difference, had already happened. >> let's talk about that extremely tight 2000 election and how vote-swapping could have impacted the race. bush, gore, nader. in florida only 537 votes separate al gore and george bush their vote with people in a safe blue state, al gore could have possibly won florida and then the presidency. >> reporter: not wanting to repeat the past has brought new jerseyen

you talked to me about the need for democrats to focus on turning red states purple and red states blue, places like south carolina. you said they're closer than you think. >> that's right. >> after losing wisconsin and pennsylvania in a presidential race, can the democratic party afford that? >> we have to. we have to go into a 50-state strategy plus. adding on, howard dean was so great in that, maynard jackson thought about it even before howard dean, and it was so important to do that. but we have to ramp that up and make sure we're investing in all our state parties and we're building the next bench of democratic talent. >> jamie harrison, chairman of the south carolina democratic party. i told you somebody new was getting in. stay with us. >>> that does it for us tonight. i do just want to say as i'm signing off tonight that i join everybody else in this business, everybody else who has crossed paths with her for any reason, i want to join all of those folks today who have been united with an outpouring of grief in mourning the loss and celebrating the legacy of gwen ifil. was incr

red states, blue states, supporters of legalized weed, hoping to turn them green. >>> and hot in clevelan fever, can they win it all? "nightly news" begins right now. >>> from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. >>> good evening. seven days to go until election day and both hillary clinton and donald trump are on the offense and on message. clinton trying to pivot from the surprise fbi e-mail probe, to make an appeal to women repeal obamacare. and there's less time in this race than those seven days may suggest due to early voting now under way. a record 26 million americans have already voted, that's twice as many than we saw at this point four years ago. chuck todd will update us on the state of the race, but first to the campaign trail, starting with andrea mitchell in florida. andrea, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, lester. this is not where the clinton campaign expected to be with one week to again tonight back in florida, trying to distract attention from the e-mail controversy by revving up their attacks against donald trum

the states in red, donald trump. in the remaining state, donald trump has numeric leads in just about all of them. very slender leadses, maybe 10,000, 20,000 votes out of millions cast, but he does have slender leads in just about all of those remaining states. major garrett is at the trump watch party tonight. major. >> i'm sorry about this phenomenon that is playing out before the entire nation is the donald trump campaign and led always by donald trump, the single most important force within his campaign, him throughout, is that he can do this without the regular support of the republican establishment. he has been at odds with the speaker of the house, paul ryan. i've just been talking to senior house republicans who believe this will give ryan and trump care of, if in fact these trend lines continue and donald trump becomes president-elect of the united states. he fought with other senators, lindsey graham, who was a rifleav him. george w. bush didn't vote for him. george h.w. bush, we are told, did not vote for

you talked to me about the need for democrats to focus on turning red states purple and red states blueid they're closer than you think. >> that's right. >> after losing wisconsin and pennsylvania in a presidential race, can the democratic party afford that? >> we have to. we have to go into a 50-state strategy plus. adding on, howard dean was so great in that, maynard jackson thought about it even before howard dean, and it was so important to do that. but we have to ramp that up and make sure we're investing in all our state parties and we're building the next bench of democratic talent. >> jamie harrison, chairman of the south carolina democratic party. i told you somebody new was getting in. stay with us. when heartburn hits, fight back fast with tums smoothies. it starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue. and neutralizes stomach acid at the source. ♪ tum -tum -tum -tum smoothies! only from tums i'm terhe is.at golf. but i'd like to keep being terrible at golf for as long as i can. new patented ensure enlive has hmb plus 20 grams of protein to help rebuild muscle. for th

a reliably red state in no way surprising. then to alabama, alabama always which mostly means we don't have anything in yet from the state of alabama. on to mississippi. at one point, a long time ago in this session, somebody mentioned mississippi might when a tossup. somebody was wrong. mississippi is solid red and now the state of mississippi, the fox news decision team now calls for the republican, donald trump. almost nothing in, but has been called, the state of mississippi will go republican tonight. then there's missouri. the state of missouri has just been this is brand new on fox. donald trump, fox news decision team projects, excuse me, wins the state of missouri. it's just been called. the numbers aren't on the board yet, but missouri goes to donald trump. the state of tennessee, the volunteer state with its cities, a lot of rural population area, but there was never much question about tennessee. tennessee is reliably red. has been and is. only 1% in, but an enormous lead for donald trump in the early far apart, but

brianna keeler has the latest. >> reporter: hillary clinton in arizona trying to turn this red state blue would be the first time since bill clinton won arizona back in 1996. so it is a tall order. she has a lot of surrogates that she's relying on. big names including her running mate tim kaine who will give a speech entirely in spanish in arizona. also president obama has been campaigning for her, arguing that his legacy is tied to hillary clinton, that he needs to pass the baton to her. and for hillary clinton, she's been hitting donald trump very hard, going negative, as she tries to appeal to the voters in the middle, the ones repelled by donald trump but maybe uncertain about voting for hillary clinton. >> on january 20th, either i or donald trump will be sworn in as the next president of the united states. a lot of people are still considering who to vote for. i think people who are considering voting for him say to themselves, you know, i don't like everything he says, and i don't like a lot of things he's done in his life, but maybe he'll become different when he becomes pres

legitimately the beginning of the end of the war on marijuana in the united states of >> reporter: red state, blue state, maybe green is the color to watch on election night. harry smith, nbc news, san francisco. >>> up next here tonight, a look inside the white house like >>> back now with a look inside a place we rarely get to see. when you think of the white house, your first thought probably goes to the oval office, the east room. but then there is the private part of the white house, the residence. except the people who live there. currently the obamas, who gave the folks at architectural digest a peek. here's nbc's anne thompson. >> reporter: the white house, part office building, part museum, but always home to presidential families. this month, architectural digest takes readers to the second floor where the obamas live. a series of rooms designed by michael smith of los angeles, with obama touches. grammy awards. in the old family dining room, a painting by alma thomas, the first art work by an african american woman to be displayed in the white house. the most famous address in ame

i live in a red state, a blue state. these terms mean something in a way they never did before. 40 years ago that first map came up. now we talk about red and blue all the time. tuesday night, of course, we will be living red and blue all night, maybe into the morning, maybe even a little longer after that, if it's like 2000 all over again, that's our most important number of the day. 270 today, coming up next, as early voting numbers come in from states like north carolina, now a concerning sign for democrats to share, black voters down from four years ago, a big part of the opalm coalition. is it cause for worry for the clinton campaign? i'm going to talk it over with congressman keith ellisson, a clinton supporter. he joins me next. about for the holidays. before his mom earned 1% cash back everywhere, every time. [ dinosaur growls ] and his dad earned 2% back at grocery stores and wholesale clubs. yeah! even before they earned 3% back on gas. danny's parents used their bankamericard cash rewards credit card to give hi

everyone thinks of north carolina as a red state. it is actually a purple state. i went to college there. charlotte is there. more urban center to balance things out. both fighting really hard for that state. >> there is early voting there. the president is going back after hillary clinton today. working hard for that. all right, eugene scott. thank you. >>> hillary clinton. a huge cubs fan kept her motorcade in tempe, arizona to watch the game. she is in north carolina as her army of big name surrogates, including president obama fanned out across the country. she was in arizona because the campaign is hoping to turn that red state blue. cnn's brianna keilar has latest. >> reporter: john and christine, hillary clinton in arizona trying to turn this red state blue. would be the first time since bill clinton won arizona back in 1996. it is a tall order. she has a lot of surrogates she is relying on. big names, including tim kaine. he will give a speech in spanish in arizona. also president obama has been campaigning for her arguing that his legacy is tied to hillar

you talked to me about the need for democrats to focus on turning red states purple and red states bluesouth carolina. you said they're closer than you think. >> that's right. >> after losing wisconsin and pennsylvania in a presidential race, can the democratic party afford that? >> we have to. we have to go into a 50-state strategy plus. adding on, howard dean was so great in that, maynard jackson thought about it even before howard dean, and it was so important to do that. but we have to ramp that up and make sure we're investing in all our state parties and we're building the next bench of democratic talent. >> jamie harrison, chairman of the south carolina democratic party. i told you somebody new was getting in. stay with us. when a moment spontaneously turns romantic, why pause to take a pill? or stop to find a bathroom? cialis for daily use is approved to treat both erectile dysfunction and the urinary symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently, day or night. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do

fox news now projects trump will win the state of arkansas, reliably red no doubt. the early numbers weren't enough. with 42% of all precincts an approximately 22-point lead, donald trump declared the winner in the state of arkansas. now to some of the races we've been waiting to call, here is the state of florida. now 94% of all precincts reporting, donald trump with 140,028-vote lead. still waiting for about half of broward county which has a large hispanic population. much of that hispanic vote had already come in in early voting. but otherwise sprinkled around the state, florida, way too close to call, donald trump with the edge. if someone has a real edge in florida late in the game, that someone, if you had to pick one, would be donald trump. on to ohio. no republican has won it without winning ohio first. 53% of all precincts reporting, donald trump with an approximately seven-point lead in the state of ohio. again, just about half of the donald trump with the edge in ohio, and he has to have it. on to north carolina, north carolina still too close to call. 76

and louisiana is a super red state paradox. because in 2014 it was the poor state 44 percent of its state budget came from the federal government and it was a very largely a tea party event. it was perfect. i was there an exaggerated version of the red state paradox. and then i made one morethen i move.le a lot of people who are doing well had worked hard and have succeeded economically they what it themselves want medicaid or food stamps and i can understand that but how about the environment i wake up and i look and it's kind of foggy.uld and there were certain smells around the place. and sometimes my eyes woulding i stink if i was in west lake. this is a chemical center very proud to say it was the buckle of america's energy belt more companies being lured in incentive money in order to use the cheap natural gas produced by fracking. there was something in the air.look at people were drinking bottled water. and let's look at the environment here. i didn't go there with that in mind it was unavoidable i discovered that the pa

the red states are the states that donald trump has won. all those yellow states, all those yellow states are states where the polls have closed, but we're not yet able to make -- not yet able to make a projection. by the way, nebraska, we are projecting that donald trump will win three of the five electoral votes in nebraska. nebraska, one of two states where they distribute electoral votes, according to congressional districts. let's go over to jake. this is a big win for hillary clinton in new york, because donald trump, that's his home state. originally, he thought he would have a shot, not necessarily in manhattan, but in upstate new york. >> yeah, bragging rights, at the very least. it's a democratic state. let's show some images there of the empire state building, if you're watching right now, and you've sent a photograph of yourself voting with the hash tag my vote to instagram, your images will be making up the mosaic on the empire state building, as new yorkers, democrats, celebrate the win of hillary clinton of that state, the em

and louisiana is a super red state paradox. ecause in 2014 it was the poor state 44 percent of its state budget came from the federal government and it was a very largely a tea party event. it was perfect. i was there an exaggerated version of the red state paradox. and then i made one morethen i move.

that's a traditionally red state where the race was closer this year. technically we have this as a battleground state, but it georgia leans right. but no numbers in at all from the state of georgia. indiana, though, a different story. in the state of indiana, if we roll forward, we have 6% of the vote already coming in. and the reason that we have this much is because of early voting, mail-in ballots and the rest. we already have a call here. the fox news decision desk projects donald trump will win the state of indiana. absolutely no surprise. donald trump. that's the beginning. then there's south carolina, no call yet in south carolina a traditionally red state without any question. fox news does project that donald trump will win the bluegrass state of kentucky. we've just called this from the decision team. 8% of all the votes in. but it's clear based on the statistical analysis of the different counties and districts throughout the state of kentucky, donald trump will win this. points. that gives donald trump the electoral vote from the state of ke