Summary
Joe Biden gains in key states as nation awaits a winner. He closes in on Trump's Pennsylvania lead. Trump makes blatantly false election attacks from White House. Biden calls fro patient and calm as Trump sows doubt. Trump's Georgia lead over Biden Shrinks. Election unsettled as key battleground states count votes. Biden inches close to victory with gains in PA and GA. Trump expands legal challenge as vote counts wind down. White House race narrows in Georgia, PA, Biden lead grows in Nevada.
Transcript
BRIAN WILLIAMS, MSNBC HOST: And good evening once again, day 1,386 of the Trump administration night three of what has become election week in our country, five battleground states remain too close to call. Joe Biden has by our count 253 electoral votes Donald Trump at 214, much of the attention tonight on the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, where Trump's lead has steadily eroded as we've watched. A win by Joe Biden in his home state of Pennsylvania would make him the president-elect that gets him instantly to 270.
In Georgia Trump's won substantially, has also dramatically narrowed. Both are must win states on the Trump side. Today at the White House Trump falsely declared victory adding a laundry list of grievances lies complaints, allegations of cheating, crooked votes, crooked polling. We also heard from Joe Biden today after spending part of his day meeting with medical experts on the pandemic the former vice president called for calm and patience as ballots are counted.
Our country also set a grim new record today, 120,000 new cases of the coronavirus just since we last spoke last night. It erases the new record we set just yesterday. Especially for those who've been watching our coverage all night knowing that the numbers are changing while we watch. We want to get the very latest on the count. So for that, back over to the board and Steve Kornacki. Steve, we watched the last tranche of numbers come in from Philadelphia.
STEVE KORNACKI, MSNBC HOST: Yeah, Brian, it was a pretty big moment there just in terms of how close things suddenly became in Pennsylvania. This is the statewide margin for Donald Trump right now. It is down to 26,319 votes, it is four tenths of one point. And you mentioned, yes, it was Philadelphia. We got a batch of votes from Philadelphia a little bit about 12,000, 13,000 votes. Biden, as has been the case consistently got 90% of them. This is a heavily democratic city. These are the absentee votes. The mail votes were Biden's been doing particularly well. So Biden picked up at 90% of that new batch and it brought the lead there for Trump statewide down to 26,000, leaves us in a situation right now that is this, with that a total taken out of the equation. There's probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 57,000 votes remaining in the city of Philadelphia.
OK, so if we were just talking about Philadelphia, Biden is on course just 90% of the vote, 57,000 ballots is on course to catch and surpass Trump. Then the question is what is happening outside of Philadelphia? We are still waiting on some votes, mail absentee ballots from Delaware County, from Bucks County. We're waiting on some from Lehigh County. We are waiting on 35,000 of them from Allegheny County where Pittsburgh is. There is a smattering of other counties around the state that are as big in population but where you got 2000 absentee ballots here, 1500 there.
And the pattern, no matter what we're talking about in terms of a county in terms of its political leanings, the pattern has been Biden is winning the absentee vote in every county we've seen with at least 60% of the vote, so he's picking up votes everywhere. Again, there's a pool of 57,000 or so left in Philadelphia. There's a pool of about 35,000 left in around Pittsburgh, and there's a pool of tens of thousands left in counties like Lehigh all around the state. And there is nothing we've seen tonight that does not make us suspect Biden, in every one of those pools is going to be getting the clear majority of the votes.
And so we said this earlier, the pace Biden is on, is not just to catch Trump, but is to significantly move ahead of Trump in the vote count. We are waiting to see if there are any curveballs thrown during these vote returns that suddenly Trump is able to win the mail vote and he has not done it in a single county yet. The pattern seems very clear and very unmistakable. So the situation we're in is, we're at the mercy of these counties. We're at the mercy of their boards of elections. We're told by our own Chris Jansing that they are going to be working through the night when they decide to provide an update, they provide the update. They report it out. It comes into our system.
We may get, you know, another update from Philadelphia. We know in Philadelphia too by the way, as they say, they can do 13,000 ballots an hour. And they just released about 15 minutes ago 13,000 ballots. So I wouldn't look for another update from Philadelphia, you know, probably at least for another 45 minutes, but I don't know what timetable they're on beyond that.
But again, if you got another update, like we just had from Philadelphia, where they release 13,000 votes, and where Biden's winning 90% of them, then this almost immediately just that would basically have Trump's statewide lead. It would be cut in half right there. And again, if we get updates, similar updates from any of these other counties it comes down 2,000 votes here, 3000 votes there. So you are just seeing this very, very steady erosion of Trump's lead statewide.
We need to know, again, there's no schedule here for these counties. They will update when they update. If Chris Jansing -- if they were being honest with Chris Jansing, when they told her they're going to go through the night, then I think you can just expect a steady if a little bit uneven continuation of this trend. There is no reason to think that's not what we're going to continue to see.
WILLIAMS: And a couple more seconds here, Steve, people just tuning in wondering why the concentration on Pennsylvania. We have razor thin margins in Georgia and Arizona and Nevada, Pennsylvania, because it's a must for Donald Trump. It's obviously the home state of Joe Biden. And for Joe Biden, it is a potential rocket. It's ballgame to 270 if he gets it.
KORNACKI: Yeah, there it is. Let's just look at the road to 270 map. Biden right now has 253 electoral votes. Donald Trump has 214. You see the states that are unsettled. If Joe Biden wins Pennsylvania, Joe Biden wins the presidency, 273 electoral votes, the rest of these become the exhibition games all of a sudden.
WILLIAMS: Yeah, but still could drag on for weeks of our lives as they go. Steve Kornacki, we thanks for your another day and another night of your service at the board.
Well, speaking of Pennsylvania, my colleague, NBC News Correspondent, Rehema Ellis is with us outside the convention center in Philadelphia tonight. And Rehema, let's spare a word for the hard work that is going on, we're talking about 13,000 ballots an hour, which is easy for us to say. These folks are tired. It's a sprawling complex. They're on their feet on concrete. What a job.
REHEMA ELLIS, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, and they are not giving up on doing this job that they've been tasked to do, Brian. And the numbers that Steve was talking about really are extraordinary in terms of how quickly this is going, because it was just less than two hours ago that we were saying that they had 72,000 mail-in ballots left to be counted in this building here in Philadelphia. And now it's down to 59. And in fact, the Secretary of State who is oversee the elections, she said earlier this evening that she thought the county was going to go so well that they might know who would be the winner here. She backed up from that a little bit, but her point she was trying to make is that they are moving steadily ahead.
There hasn't been any hiccups in the county except for a little bit of this morning, because the Trump supporters have been mounting at a very aggressive campaign to intervene in the counting. And they filed a lawsuit here in Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, asking the court to stop the balloting for a while because they wanted to have more poll watchers in and closer and to see what was going on. The court ruled in favor of the Trump campaign saying that poll watchers could be in and it could be as close as six feet socially distance of course because of coronavirus.
This happened last night. It seems to be a steady thing here. Again, punctuating how important it is the work that's going on behind me. But the point that what happened in terms of what the lower court did, they ruled in favor of the Trump campaign saying, yes, poll watchers, Republicans, Democrats independent can be as close as 16 to those people who are counting that, pause the count for a little bit and then it resumed. They're saying they're not going to stop from this point on.
WILLIAMS: All right, Rehema Ellis in a sometimes loud Philadelphia, Pennsylvania outside where the counting is happening.
And with us now is NBC News Correspondent, Blayne Alexander, who for several days now has been covering the ongoing count in an equally critical battleground in Atlanta, Georgia. Hey, Blayne.
BLAYNE ALEXANDER, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Brian. So I'll start with the latest numbers that we have. We just got some updated numbers from the Secretary of State across the state of Georgia. We're now looking at about 14,000 votes that are still outstanding 14,097 to be specific, but what we're watching closely is the breakdown. Of course, when those votes will come in. But certainly where, that's the biggest thing and the two counties with the biggest share of those votes are Clayton County and Gwinnett County. That's major because they're both metro Atlanta counties. Clayton County is heavily democratic area just to the south of Atlanta, but part of Metro Atlanta, and Gwinnett County is also an Atlanta suburb. And most notably one that flipped blue in 2016 went for Hillary Clinton after being red for some years. So both of those between the two, there are about 8000, 9000 votes that are still outstanding in those two counties alone. So those are what we're watching.
An official in Gwinnett County actually just confirmed to our Priscilla Thompson, that they're done for the night that they're not going to be putting up their numbers tonight. So when you talk about timing, it's still very much a moving target. Keep in mind, there are about seven counties or so, seven or eight counties that still have not reported. So when you ask about timing, it all comes down to those individual counties when they put their information out, when they post those numbers.
The other thing that we're going to be watching very closely though, of course, those numbers that we're talking about with the Secretary of State's office has made it clear that in addition to that group, there are about 8900 or so military and overseas ballots that could be making their way back to Georgia, and be counted if they arrive by end of day tomorrow.
So let me explain those. He says he's not saying that there will be at 900. But that's how many are out there to possibly be returned. So when you're talking about a margin, that's as thin as 1700 votes, which is the difference right now between President Trump and Joe Biden, literally every single one of those votes are going to be crucial. But it also has bearing on the timing, Brian, it means that if they come in at the end of the day tomorrow, they could possibly put this count into the weekend, Brian.
WILLIAMS: And, that's a pretty heavily military state. That's a big chunk of potential ballots, Blayne Alexander, where the count is going on, our thanks.
We now want to welcome in two of our returning veterans on a most unusual Thursday night on their beats Ashley Parker, Pulitzer Prize-winning White House Reporter for The Washington Post and Alexi McCammond, political reporter with Axios.
Good evening, and welcome to you both. And Ashley, I'd like to begin with you and your beat and a piece your byline appeared on tonight. We have to begin with the president, though we're not showing or playing what he said. We couldn't air it live because we frankly couldn't have it between the lies and the blatant attacks on our own system of elections in our country. Tell us what's been going on behind the scenes?
ASHLEY PARKER, THE WASHINGTON POST, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Sure. So the President has cycled through a number of moods, and he's basically 48 hours since the polls closed. And for what it's worth just starting with today, what MSNBC couldn't air, frankly, is what a number of the President's own advisors didn't want him to say either. And that's what they've spent the past day trying to prevent.
So the President woke up this morning, he was angry and defiant. You wanted to say something. Initially, he tweeted, stop the vote. And advisors kind of had to huddle with him and explain, well, sir, if you stop the vote right now, in fact, you would lose. So they work shopped a different phrase, stop the fraud, which again, there is no evidence I need to say, of any widespread voting fraud at all, but it works better for the President's messaging purposes. And then the President spent the day, again, wanting to go out and make the remarks that he ultimately did at the end of the day, and advisors cautioned him not to. They told him to keep a low profile. And they tried to placate him by saying, you know, look, this is our legal strategy. Here's how we're fighting in the states. Here's we have people and allies out defending you on television. Here's where we're fundraising money from donors for this big legal fight. But at the end of the day, the president he wanted to go out, he wanted to make those statements. He increasingly, first came to terms with the idea that he might lose, but he could not accept the reality, which is that if he loses it will be because he loses fair and square because of what Steve Kornacki just outlined.
And so he began saying, if he loses it's because the election will have been stolen from him, and as you said that is basically what he said tonight in that press conference that you didn't air.
WILLIAMS: And Alexi McCammond, a fraught relationship between the Trump White House even Trump family members and Fox News, Fox News has the electoral vote count higher than us. They're up to 64. They called Arizona and that angered all the people around the president, though I know they're still getting heavy air support team Trump is during most of primetime coverage on Fox News.
My question to you is, if this goes 270 for Joe Biden, if as early as tonight or tomorrow or tomorrow night, and we've talked about this before, can you name any potential profiles in courage, adult voices, who can and will approach and talk to the President?
ALEXI MCCAMMOND, AXIOS NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: I mean, Brian, what we know about President Trump, especially at this point in his term is that he listens to himself. And to Ashley's point in her reporting, even when his advisors huddle with him to try to explain these things, we still see the way in which he approaches the podium to say exactly how he's feeling. And exactly what is on his mind, even if his advisors are saying this is not based, in fact, and this actually wouldn't help you win what you're advocating for.
So, you know, it doesn't really matter. But what is interesting is we're seeing some Republicans slowly, but surely come out and say things. Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey, a high profile, Trump loyalist of sorts was on ABC earlier tonight, basically saying, and I'm paraphrasing to the President, put up or shut up, show us the evidence of what you're talking about, or move on. And so we're slowly starting to see this. But you know, these former Republican officials don't really matter so much to the President. And really, at the end of the day, it's what the President feels and what he feels he needs to do to win reelection, and at the very least, to sow confusion and to cast doubt on a legitimate victory if that is what happens for Joe Biden.
WILLIAMS: And Ashley, there's already speculation with the President go along with the kind of pomp and circumstance, if it is Joe Biden, who prevails in this election, would he go along with things like a transition, things like attending the Victor's inauguration?
PARKER: I can tell you, the Biden team, even before Election Day was worried about just that. The idea that he was, I mean, first of all, that he would not participate in a peaceful transfer of power and would continue to undermine democratic institutions, but also that he would not participate in a transition plan. So that was something they were planning for. The rest is some what speculation from Trump aides guessing what he would do because his headspace is really not in those questions of does he or does he not attend the inauguration when he's kind of doubling down and trying to fight.
But there is a sense that, on the whole, he probably would not be particularly gracious, not just that up until Inauguration Day, but even after, I was talking to someone in Trump world today, who said, look it's Donald Trump, he's not going to go away. You know, I said, well, do you think he would run in 2024? Do you think he would tease that run? And this person said, look, again, it's Donald Trump, of course, he's going to tease the idea that he's going to run in 2024.
Now, this person said, do I think that at the age of 78, he would actually run? I don't know, not necessarily, but he plans to be an irritant in the side of Joe Biden, if he doesn't win, and you saw these comments from the President's children today, sort of begging and imploring 2024, Republican helpful to get out and defend the president. But embedded in those halls was this idea, which is true, that the President and the Trump family are going to be big players in Republican politics and less national politics, even if he is out of office.
WILLIAMS: Alexi indeed, what Ashley just said Don, Jr. was on Twitter, almost taking attendance and noting the timestamps of Republicans that he asked come out, you know, where are you we need the army to speak up?
MCCAMMOND: Yeah, I mean, that's exactly right. I don't think anyone expects President Trump to go away from public life anytime soon if he doesn't win reelection. And even before he ran for public office, he was kind of this armchair political analyst of sorts always tweeting critical things, former President Barack Obama and weighing in on different things, whether it was politics of the Republican Party, or what Barack Obama and Democrats were doing. And we know that President Trump likes to have the attention on him and likes to share his message with people.
So it's very likely that he could be doing a number of things and in a number of different roles. And he's been able to do now. I mean, I think about the fact that it could be likely that he'd be guest hosting something like Fox & Friends or calling into Fox & Friends for an hour or two hours, because he wouldn't be able to do that. And because he loves not just weighing in on what's going on, but to Ashley's point, kind of trying to play this kingmaker. We saw him do that in the 2018 midterms, with Republicans really going out to get involved in these intra party fights, and put his thumb on the scale for certain Republicans over others. And he was pretty successful in that. And that gives him power and shows him that what he says goes with the Republican base, and that is not going to disappear. I mean, the thing we need to look at is the popular vote so far, 70 million people have voted for Donald Trump, and that suggests that those people like Trumpism they like the Trump brand and even without Trump as president, he will still continue to like that.
WILLIAMS: Very grateful for these two women for starting us off tonight knowing something about the hours we're all working, Ashley Parker, Alexi McCammond, much obliged.
Coming up for us as we approach our first break, the road to 270 appears to be paved with lawsuits at least for now. But will any of the matter in the end as the actual votes cast by Americans get counted in places like Philadelphia, Maricopa County Arizona as our special coverage of the 2020 presidential election continues on this consequential Thursday night.
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WILLIAMS: The numbers tonight on the -- in the State of Nevada, a lot of counting going on, a lot of votes only 14,438 votes separating the two Joe Biden with a marginal lead in Nevada could end up being an important state before we're done here.
For more on the situation there, we're joined once again by NBC News Correspondent Jo Ling Kent in Las Vegas. Jo, first off, another lawsuit I understand has been filed what are these all alleging. We know what they're trying to stop?
JO LING KENT, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yes in fact they're asking for an injunction to stop the counts here in Clark County because they believe there have been fraudulent votes cast Brian, and specifically talking about one particular voter, Jill Stokey, who says that she went to cast her ballot in-person and was not allowed to do so because her mail-in ballot had already been sent in. We put these allegations to the Clark County registrar today. I asked them what their response was, have they received any evidence on this front as of this afternoon? And they said no, they hadn't.
Joe Gloria told me that they have not received evidence or seen any evidence of improper counting or improper voting in terms of what's happening here in Clark County. Now, this also comes as the Nevada Republican Party's lawyers have submitted a letter to Attorney General Bill Barr and the DOJ saying that over 3000 people have cast their votes improperly from out of state.
Now, of course, to commit this alleged voter fraud, the voters of course, as Pete Williams would point out, would have to have the intent of committing voter fraud. But that's the situation here in Clark County, as they prepare to drop another 51,000 votes tomorrow, that could end up deciding where this state and its key six electoral votes goes. And so this morning, we were waiting for more votes, they only dropped about 14,000. And now the Nevada Secretary of State is saying that look, 90% of the outstanding votes here in Nevada are in Clark County right here in Las Vegas.
And I don't think I could put it any better than our friend John Ralston, friend of MSNBC, a long time dean of reporters out here in Las Vegas. He says, you know, in the city, that's 24/7, this is a place and this is a state where the voting has stopped for the night. Well, in other places it continues to go on, so we will be waiting tomorrow morning at noon Eastern, 9 o'clock local here to get that batch of votes and see where it leans.
Now historically, these mail-in votes have leaned democratic, lean towards the Democrats. But we also know here in Las Vegas, there has been a huge hit to the economy. The national -- the unemployment rate here is higher than the national average. We got jobless claims out yet again today, the state hurting yet again. So that has hurt the Democratic governor here and it may have an impact on Biden. We will have to wait and see until tomorrow morning, Brian.
WILLIAMS: It has been cruel to the economy in Las Vegas. You're absolutely right, Jo. Thank you very much. Again, the difference there of 11,438 voters still too close to call.
Back with us tonight is Jeremy Bash, former Chief of Staff at CIA Pentagon, former Chief Counsel to House Intel. But notably as a young Harvard educated lawyer, he started his legal career, as one of the lawyers on the Florida recount way back in the year 2000.
Jeremy, I presume you've looked at what the marketplace is offering you concerning all these various legal challenges and lawsuits. Do any have more merit than any others?
JEREMY BASH, FORMER, CIA CHIEF OF STAFF: Slim and none and slim just left town. And, Brian, to that point, what you just heard from Jo Ling out in Nevada, of course, the Trump campaign is going in and saying stop the counts. But of course, Joe Biden is ahead. So if Donald Trump gets his way or his lawyers get their way, Biden's victory would be locked in. And I think it points up to a larger dilemma for the president here with these lawsuits is that there is no overarching legal theory. There's no theory of the case about what fraud he's trying to stop.
In Pennsylvania, the big legal victory he got was moving his poll watchers from 10 feet to six feet near the ballots. But he was totally rejected in the effort to stop the vote counts. And of course, you can't have a recount, unless you first have a count. And the votes haven't been counted in Pennsylvania and Georgia. And of course, Brian, with respect to the effort to get a recount in Wisconsin, there is no way they're running those ballots to the machines is going to help Donald Trump get 20,000 votes.
I think there was a recount in Wisconsin in 2016, both Trump and Hillary Clinton got a couple hundred votes out of that that recount was paid for by Jill Stein, by the way, the independent candidate. And Donald Trump has down by 20,000 votes. There's no way he's going to make that up.
WILLIAMS: Jeremy, I want to play an exchange that took place on Sean Hannity tonight with the newly reelected Lindsey Graham. There's kind of generic talk of corruption around the vote, especially in big blue cities like Philadelphia. There's talk of invalidating somehow the result if P.A., in fact goes for Joe Biden, changing the electors will play this. I'll ask you about it on the other side.
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SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Should these Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, if there's corruption in the law, if they don't abide by the law, and they don't allow observers in as the law calls for, should they then invalidate this?
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I think everything should be on the table. So there's the process of observing an election that's being violated. Philadelphia elections are crooked as a snake.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: So Jeremy, you get the tone and tenor of the conversation. A lot of these counts are going on with webcams right above them. We can watch it from the comfort of our homes. What is this talk of potentially changing electors in Pennsylvania?
BASH: Yes, let's unpack this, Brian. So under the Constitution, it says that state legislators can decide how the electors are chosen. And in every state across the country, for the past hundred years, every state without any exception, has said that the people go to the ballot on Election Day or provide legal ballots by Election Day, and they vote for the electors.
Now, what Lindsey Graham is saying is, is maybe the state legislature in a place like Pennsylvania, could substitute their own state of electors. But the problem with that is that there's a statute on the books, 3 U.S.C. 1 that says that the method for appointing electors has to be designated by Election Day, you can't change the rules after Election Day.
So in short, Lindsey Graham's proposal would be radical, extreme anti-democracy, and it would violate state law because the Pennsylvania State laws already said you do it by popular vote, it would violate federal law, which says you can't make the change after election day and would violate the constitution of that Brian is a great idea.
WILLIAMS: Would be interesting to see if even in that case, Republican voices rose up in protest. Jeremy Bash, thank you for being with us tonight in the middle of a legal fight, and counting the votes Americans cast. More of our special coverage right after this quick break.
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WILLIAMS: We have for you a graphic of the uncalled races, the battleground states, we have yet to call mostly and look at the how the differences in vote are quite different. No two of these races, of course, are the same. The outlier being Alaska with a margin of over 50,000 Donald Trump in the lead.
But of course, so much time and attention on the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. That's where our senior national correspondent, Chris Jansing, has been covering all night from the state capitol in Harrisburg. So, Chris, I hope they understand. No pressure. It's not like the eyes of the nation are upon them. OK, maybe a little bit.
CHRIS JANSING, NBC SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, exactly. And I want to pick up a little bit if I can, Brian, what you were just talking to Jeremy Bash about, and that is that Lindsey Graham, when he was on Sean Hannity was kind of raising the specter of the possibility that the GOP legislature that they control the House here could appoint its own slate of electors and essentially hand it to Donald Trump.
Now, we heard you know what Jeremy had to say about the Constitution, et cetera. Having said that, the Democrats are taking it seriously. I'm told literally while you were talking to Jeremy, I was on the phone with two electeds here. They tell me the democratic lawyers from Washington are going to come here tomorrow at Harrisburg, and meet with the state Minority Leader, the democratic Minority Leader of the legislature, this really comports with everything that I have been hearing from folks here in Pennsylvania.
Democrats up and down the line from the beginning of when I came here, and I asked him about the whole concept of the flood of lawyers that the Trump campaign had put out here and I kept getting this sort of pushback saying, we have enough lawyers to deal with whatever they throw at us. And believe me, we understand that it's possible and we are preparing for it.
So this is out of an abundance of caution. The way it was sort of framed to me was that if for some reason, the other states that are close for Joe Biden do not come through and it becomes Pennsylvania or nothing in particular, they want to make sure that they are ahead of the game.
Again, this is a lot of things that would have to fall into line for them to be thinking that this is actually going to happen. But Brian, lawyers are coming tomorrow meet with the Minority Leader here to talk about exactly the discussion that you are having with Jeremy Bash.
WILLIAMS: Yes, I know at least Pennsylvania Democrats have been wary of this and girding for this very possibility. Chris Jansing, thank you for hanging out with us tonight. After the day we have all had.
Let's bring in our political professionals. James Carville is back with us tonight veteran democratic strategist, rose to national fame with the Clinton campaign. These days co-host of the 2020 politics War Room podcast and Mike Murphy, veteran Republican strategist, strategic advisor to Republican Voters Against Trump, which we can officially call a work in progress.
Hey, James, I'm going to start with you. Where do you see things right now tonight? And how worried are you about the foreseeable near future of our republic and the presidency itself?
JAMES CARVILLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I am worried about the Republic. Of course I am. I am zero worried that Joe Biden is not going to win this election. I mean, I know the votes were there out in Pennsylvania, and he's going to win by pretty decisive margin when it's all over. He will go ahead in Georgia it tomorrow, it will be closed. But he will be leaving when they finished campus in the balance. It might be a recount, but he's definitely going to go ahead there.
And everybody feels wonderful. You have Alaska up there. People can take a look at last because they've got 45 percent of the vote is mail-in and a lot of that comes from rural Alaska, which is a heavily democratic area. It were very smart not to call the last yet based on incomplete returns in both the presidential race and the Senate race.
WILLIAMS: Hey, Mike, our decision not to air the President's remarks today, as I said in the moment was not a stunt. It was not theatrics. It was because of what the President of the United States was saying in the Briefing Room. It was also noted, Kelly McEnaney put out a binder he had printed remarks. That means there were enablers at minimum writer's people who knew some of what he was going to say, where do you put that moment in the modern history of the presidency?
MIKE MURPHY, REPUBLICAN VOTERS AGAINST TRUMP: Oh, about as low as you can go. I mean, all presidents have had a couple of yes men around but he's got these yes, dregs, who will just serve his worst impulses. And that is shame on them. And I'm planning in a lot of us than the reform wing of the Republican Party would like to have, like the Home Improvement Commission that 10 minutes from show trials for the staff have made it worse.
It was a disgusting moment. But you know, we know Donald Trump is a prisoner of his own grievances. Everything's about him. He can see that right now. You know, the Philadelphia is going to give them some anti-brotherly love here in the next 12 hours. And it's really, really dim.
So he's coming to grips with that. And he's lashing out at our democracy at the process, because I don't think he has a mind that can understand that people would say no to him. So, you know, it's kind of pathetic more than anything else. But it's a huge insult to our democracy. We need to count the votes and get the big broom and move on.
WILLIAMS: Mike, if indeed, Joe Biden prevails at 270, as you say, as early as the next 12 hours, perhaps. Are you looking for any Republican voices? Are you looking for anyone to pop their head up and be what passes for a profile in courage and perhaps give public comments directed at this president and those around him?
MURPHY: Yes, I believe so. You know, I think the best courage pill for some of these characters is the fact that Trump is going to lose. In fact, ironically, it might have depending on what happens is up in Alaska, it might even get to 306 electoral votes for Joe Biden, should Arizona and Nevada is done if Arizona sticks and both Georgia and Pennsylvania hold up. And then Ironically, the President's very favorite bragging point will be tied by Joe Biden who are absolutely slaughter him in the popular vote.
So, once he is in the rearview mirror, and you saw hints of it already, I think even Trump supporters were offended by his remarks tonight. I think the party is going to want to move on fairly quickly. It won't be gratuitous. There be fear of his supporters. But I think a lot of the Republicans leadership are exhausted with Donald Trump as the rest of us.
WILLIAMS: James, let's talk about your party. And again, if Biden prevails, you'll be rewarded with a new president. But I imagine you also learned a bunch of lessons on election night. I don't think any Democrat did not expect to have a sizable majority in the U.S. Senate by the next morning. And I think a lot of Democrats were really surprised to be down to so many members in the majority in the House, what did you learn?
CARVILLE: Well, what I learned was the 2018 strategy was a really brilliant strategy. And I think we got taken out of that a little bit. I think we got, you know, consumed by Trump. I think the police stuff did not help at all the kind of talk in the primaries about socialism. And all of Joe Biden will be very clear now Senate candidates did not embrace that.
If you look at Miami-Dade, if you look at the Rio Grande Valley, if you look some other places, I think this party did very well blocking and tackling in 2018. You know, in Florida, the minimum wage passed by 60 percent. So, you know, when 2022 and I think I hope I noted president like Biden is going to focus at and I think that the House Democrats learned that we need to go back to our 28 Keynes strategy and executed relentlessly. So that's what I think that we learned here.
And, you know, we got -- the Republican quoted a lot of a lot of women candidates. And, you know, we'll come back in 2022. You know, look, we may -- we're not out of this at all. We're going to have a run off and go to Georgia Senate seats up, and we might even get an Alaska seat.
So before we get married thing, let's be sure it's dead. And as long as it's got a chance it's alive and kicking them kicking, kicking with it. And I won't be spent a lot of time talking to people in Georgia trying to help.
WILLIAMS: And as we've been saying, it looks like the Republicans have a one woman QAnon caucus in the House so they got that going for them. James Carville, Mike Murphy will do this again. Hang in there both of you. Gentlemen, thank you for staying up late with us tonight. Our special coverage of this unending 2020 Presidential Election continues right after this.
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WILLIAMS: We're back and check out a tight race in Arizona separated by 46,667, a nominal lead by Joe Biden but it's a moving target with 90 percent of the vote in, 11 electoral votes at stake. Our correspondent Vaughn Hilliard standing by in Scottsdale, Arizona tonight.
Vaughan two things, on the upside, I think people learn a lot about our geography during this coverage, just looking at flailing for reasons why this is all a good thing. The other thing is people learn a lot about how elections work and sadly election law and various how votes are different.
So you're awaiting another tranche, another bucket of votes out there. We've learned there's early vote, there's late early vote, there's early late vote, which would these be?
VAUGHN HILLIARD, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, do your first point, Brian, it's been fun to introduce people to different parts of Arizona here over these last several days. And when we're talking about buckets, you know, the reality is, is that Maricopa County still makes up about 60 percent of the electorate here in the state. And that's why we've continued to so heavily here in Arizona focus on these numbers.
You just asked what about these next buckets of votes. There are still about 300,000 ballots across the state of Arizona outstanding. 200,000 of those are right here in Maricopa County. And now the results that are set to be released tomorrow morning, we are expecting, about 75,000 more results to be announced tomorrow morning here in Maricopa County.
Those numbers should be our best indicator yet of whether President Trump can maintain the pace that he has kept here in order to catch or eclipse Joe Biden here in the state of Arizona. I say that because tomorrow's batch will include those mail-in ballots that folks instead of mailing in, came to polling locations in turn those over by hand. And we believe that though that data will be different than those voters who even showed up in person.
We keep throwing around that number 59 percent that Donald Trump would have to win among the share of uncounted ballots. So far, he has met that pace. But tomorrow morning, if we see here in Maricopa County, that number rather significantly dip whether it be 55 percent, 53 percent or even lower, that could be an indicator of what is set to come with those other 150,000 ballots that are uncounted here at Maricopa County.
One other note I want to say Brian here was the governor of Arizona, Republican Governor Doug Ducey, here late this evening put out in a tweet essentially backing the ballot process counting that is taking place here in the state, in part saying, we're following established Arizona election law to the letter. I also asked Arizona GOP Chairman Kelly Ward if she had any evidence of any wrongdoing here in the state. She did not provide me a single example here is this ballot continuing process counting continues here. Brian.
WILLIAMS: Native Arizonian Vaughn Hilliard from Scottsdale, Arizona for us tonight. Vaughn, thank you very much. And for the latest on where all these races stand, where the vote count stands, we turn Ali Velshi at the big board because under a provision of the Geneva Convention, Steve Kornacki has a mandatory rest and food period before heading back.
Luckily, if you were watching late into the night last night, you know how deft Ali Velshi is at the big board. Ali, I see you're starting with Georgia.
ALI VELSHI, MSNBC HOST: Yes.
WILLIAMS: Which is such a thin margin.
VELSHI: Very thin margin. Statewide 99 percent of the votes are in and the lead for Donald Trump is 1,805 votes. This lead has been shrinking all night. Now, what we heard was that we weren't getting anything more from Georgia until tomorrow. And literally moments ago, we got brand new news from the commissioners here in Clayton County. This is -- these are the suburbs, the nine counties around Atlanta. Clayton is just south of Fulton County, just south of Atlanta. They will be releasing votes tonight.
Now you can see in Clayton, it's a little lower than the state average it's 95 percent. And so we're expecting maybe up to 4,000 votes coming in here. The lead by the way here is 75,000 votes for Biden in Clayton County, but we're gong to expect another 4,000 votes across the city, these Atlanta area, counties are breaking very heavily in favor of Joe Biden. So you could see this 1805 wiped out within an hour.
Now, let's go to Pennsylvania. That's what we're looking at right now. This is of course the issue. We have a number of outstanding mail votes that are coming in and they are coming in at a rate of about 75 percent in favor of Joe Biden. He doesn't need them to come in at 75 percent. If they break about two-thirds to Biden, given the number of outstanding votes that are there, it will be at the rate we're going probably a number of hours before the statewide advantage that Donald Trump has 23,000 breaks down to 10,000 or lower than that. That's the direction things are going in.
The numbers that are coming in from Allegheny which is Pittsburgh, from Philadelphia County, and these counties around here are the ones we have to look at. We have brand new numbers from Delaware County, just south of Philadelphia, 91 percent are in Biden has a lead of 81,000 votes, it's breaking 62.6 to 36.5
Twenty-four hours ago, we were looking at county, which is north of Philadelphia that actually had Trump in the lead. We knew that was wrong because this is a county that breaks for Biden anyway. 95 percent in Biden's in the lead there. So I think, Brian, the story here for the next few hours is going to be mostly Pennsylvania and a little bit of Georgia.
WILLIAMS: Thank you for that late live. Look at the numbers, the tight races we're covering in the battleground states. Our friend Ali Velshi at the big board tonight. And that's going to do it for this edition of The 11th Hour. Our continuing coverage of the 2020 presidential election continues now with my colleague, Chris Hayes at the top of the hour on the other side of this break.
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