Summary
With just eight days left until Election Day, President Donald Trump held multiple packed rallies while Joe Biden blasted the President after his chief of staff said we are "not going to control the pandemic." The Senate voted 52-48 Monday to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court, giving the court a 6-3 conservative majority that could determine the future of the Affordable Care Act and abortion rights. Coronavirus infections explode in Illinois. Donald Trump has sparked fury among doctors after claiming they overreport COVID-19 deaths for financial gain. Early voting records smashed amid enthusiasm wave. Record early voting suggests very high turnout. A fast-moving, wind-whipped wildfire left two firefighters critically injured and forced more than 90,000 residents in Southern California to evacuate.
Transcript
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL, MSNBC HOST: Remora (ph) gets tonight's last word. THE 11TH HOUR with Brian Williams starts now.
BRIAN WILLIAMS, MSNBC HOST: And good evening once again day 1,376 of the Trump administration, eight days until Election Day, which will be exactly one week away by the end of this broadcast here on the east coast.
Here's another number because elections have consequences, Donald Trump has now appointed fully one third of the justices on the United States Supreme Court. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, confirmed tonight by your United States Senate. The vote was 52/48 all Republican votes.
And because elections have consequences, Trump and Biden were both on the road in Pennsylvania today, a week out from the presidential election, and the coronavirus has never been stronger in our country. By any measure, it's now at its height thus far right now, tonight. Average daily new cases now nearing 70,000, that's the highest since this started. Total cases topping 8.7 million, death toll at 226,000 and the U.S. leads the world in both categories.
And with the coronavirus at its height, the President of the United States is insisting with a straight face that it's going away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Attending anyway, we're rounding the church ending anyway. What progress we've made on it too? We understand it. We have the best testing in the world. That's why we show so many cases because we do more testing than anybody else. But we're doing great and oh, excuse me here I am, right? I'm here for you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Three more packed rallies for the President today even in light of new findings that his past rallies have led to spikes in the spread of coronavirus. Then there's Mike Pence, he's the head of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. He's still traveling and out on the trail as he was today even though at least five aides including his chief of staff and personal aide have tested positive for the coronavirus. Pence himself has tested negative but according to CDC guidelines, of course, he should be in quarantine.
Trump's chief of staff was asked about the administration's response to this latest outbreak in the West Wing and to the rise in cases across the country. Here's what we heard yesterday and today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: We're not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation areas --
(CROSSTALK)
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Why aren't we going to get control of the pandemic?
MEADOWS: Because it is a contagious virus. Just like the flu.
We're going to defeat the virus. We're not going to control it. We will try to contain it as best we can, if you look at full context of what I was talking about is, is we need to make sure that we have therapeutics and vaccines.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Joe Biden called out Mark Meadows by name when he criticized the White House earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, (D) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows run on television to admit to the country administration wasn't even trying, trying anymore to deal with a pandemic, no caveats, just a deadly admission. I've been saying for months as you well know that he waved the white flag all the way back then. Some people said I was being harsh, but I was being unfair. The White House's coming right out now and admitting what I said months ago was absolutely true. You know, Mr. President, you have to have a little bit of shame. Just a little bit of shame because people are dying.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: The record level of infections is starting to roil the financial markets that the President so often likes to brag about the Dow lost about 650 today, the lack of a stimulus deal, no sign of an agreement on the horizon isn't helping. Amid all of this, there are some signs of the election tightening. USA Today is reporting Trump is making some gains and nine out of 12 swing states while Biden still holds the lead in 10 of those states.
Meanwhile, Trump continues to cast doubt on the integrity of the election, making outlandish predictions of widespread fraud as he did today, while speaking to voters in Pennsylvania.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're watching you, governor, very closely in Philadelphia. We're watching you. A lot of bad things happen there with the counting of the votes. We're watching you Governor Wolf, very closely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Tonight the Supreme Court ruled Wisconsin, cannot count mail-in ballots that arrive well after the polls close a defeat for dead Democrats in that battleground state. The ruling was a rejection of a pandemic related request from Democrats and civil rights groups to extend the deadline for counting mail ballots received after Election Day.
Tonight the White House held a large south lawn reception to symbolically swear Amy Coney Barrett into the Supreme Court. She'll take her official oath at the high court tomorrow. The last White House event featuring Barrett turned out to be a super spreader it sparked over a dozen cases. Tonight masks were required seating was more spread out.
In her remarks tonight, the newly minted justice stressed her independence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMY CONEY BARRETT, CONFIRMED TO SUPREME COURT: It is the job of a senator to pursue her policy preferences. In fact, it would be a dereliction of duty for her to put policy goals side. By contrast, it is the job of a judge to resist her policy preferences. It would be a dereliction of duty for her to give in to them. The oath that I have solidly taken tonight means at its core, that I will do my job without any fear or favor. And that I will do so independently of both the political branches and have my own preferences.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Here for our leadoff discussion on a Monday night, three of the very best from the staff of the Washington Post. Ashley Parker, Pulitzer Prize-winning White House Reporter, Eugene Robinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning Columnist, Robert Costa, National Political Reporter for the Post, also happens to be Moderator of Washington Week on PBS.
Good evening, and welcome to you all. Ashley, three large gatherings on the road in Pennsylvania today, as you saw a large gathering on the South Lawn tonight, chief of staff is caught on live television saying this cannot be controlled. Is this going to be our life now where this White House is concerned living campaigning as if it can't be controlled all evidence to the contrary?
ASHLEY PARKER, THE WASHINGTON POST, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, and a lot of that, frankly, is intentional. The President and his White House and Joe Biden made two totally different bets on coronavirus. Joe Biden, of course, is rigorous and following all safety and scientific and public health recommendations, often taking precautions that aren't, that even go beyond sort of the letter of the law and the letter of the guidance. And President Trump and his team are the exact opposite. The President has very clearly conveyed to his aides and advisors that he wants to try to pretend that we are in a post COVID world.
He very much from the beginning, and one of the reasons we don't have this pandemic under control is because he tried to imagine it away and wish it away. And now he is just creating that reality in his own bubble, whether it's these huge rallies, mass gatherings that are inadvisable, where people are not wearing masks generally whether it's his own vice president who has a degree of exposure, where people would tell an average person not to travel because you risk getting infected yourself and infecting others or whether it's doing what he did tonight in the same location with the same now justice of that previous super spreader event. This is the reality of the White House wants. And so to answer your question, this is the reality they're going to create, at least for the next eight days.
WILLIAMS: Robert Costa, when the President hits three rallies in one day in the same state, what does that tell you about the race in Pennsylvania?
ROBERT COSTA, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: His advisors, his allies say he's desperate, he's eager to make sure his core voters come out because he cannot win this election. There is no path to reelection, unless he's able to stoke those core voters in rural areas in ex-urban areas, in places that have smaller arenas, places that have seen an industry go away to remind them about his record on trade about when the economy was better. It's about motivating them and that's why there was a rush by the Republicans to install a now justice Barrett on the Supreme Court because they cannot compete at this time and the final week with the erosion in the suburbs, the efforts by Vice President Biden in the suburbs and the cities.
WILLIAMS: Eugene, for the folks who haven't had the pleasure of reading your column where you call this election, a choice between life and death. Please expand that point.
EUGENE ROBINSON, THE WASHINGTON POST COLUMNIST: Well, I was gob smacked by Mark Meadows' confession, I guess, you'd call it yesterday, when he said we're not going to control this virus that was an incredible and unprecedented and surrender to a lethal enemy that has killed 225,000 Americans. And it just stunned me that he would essentially say, we're giving up on actually battling and trying to control it and focus now on vaccines which are come on therapeutics, which are not proven, there are no therapeutics that are that actually, really, really work. I mean, remdesivir works in severe cases. But it was amazing, really. And it does show the contrast between the two candidates, the two campaigns and the two visions.
And the question is, which is closer to the experience of most Americans. Most Americans that I know are dealing with the coronavirus as their daily reality and affects, the kids can go to school, whether they can go to work, whether they have a job, whether their business is open or closed. And so it seems to be a great risk to take the position that well, it's all over. It's all done. Let's not talk about that anymore. But that's the President's position. He's convinced a lot of his base of that position. And he's hoping to mine more baseline voters and add them to its total. So that's the only way you can win.
WILLIAMS: Ashley Parker, our friends over at the New York Times, took just one Trump rally in Wisconsin, and really went through it with a fine tooth comb, though a broad tooth comb is all that's required to find all the false hoods and in a startling graphic, highlighted them all in red for the benefit of our audience, the folks who haven't seen the verbal stylings on the trail of late. Here now a sampling. We'll discuss on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: When you look at our numbers compared to what's going on in Europe and other places, but we're doing well.
It's a choice between a Trump boom and a Biden lockdown. He wants to lock down the country.
Dismantle your police departments, dissolve our borders, they don't want borders, they want open borders.
I think we have every single law enforcement group in the countries endorses.
We gave you the biggest tax cut in history by far. And Biden is proposing the biggest tax hike in history.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: So all of that was wrong. And Ashley, on your part, you just did a deep dive on Veterans Choice and how the president again wrongly claims credit for that and insists on it and will continue to apparently, how do we live in this era? How do you as a White House Correspondent cover this president? What do you have to hold it against?
PARKER: Well, I think just looking at those two stories mine in The Times, The Times took the macro looking at all of the mistruth in one rally. I sort of buried in on the micro and what we described as an anatomy of a singular lie very briefly. This is the President signed an update to VA Choice known as the MISSION Act that did expand VA Choice, but VA Choice was passed and signed under Barack Obama. It was co sponsored by John McCain, and even the MISSION Act that Trump passed, was officially named after John McCain. But Trump has gone in and basically said, he did VA Choice, Obama had nothing to do with it. John McCain didn't have anything to do with it.
So one way we cover it was to really drill down and explain not just that he was telling this falsehood this lie, but the reasons why he's doing it because he is surrounded by aides who enable him, who are either unwilling or unable to tell him the truth. And one of the reasons he does it is because of the psychology of lies, which is the more they are repeated, the more they start to feel true. And one striking thing I found was that at the RNC, the Republican convention, a number of speakers as they were drafting their speeches, they told the speech writers and the President's team, they wanted to put in a line about what Donald Trump had done on VA Choice, because they actually believe what he was saying. He had gotten it so in the ether that they believed this falsehood and they wanted to repeat it themselves.
So that's why the President does it because it is proof stunningly effective for him and the way we grapple with it is we write about it and tell the story in many different ways, graphically, with words and speaking to you.
WILLIAMS: So, Robert Costa, tonight on Fox News, Lindsey Graham went on was Sean Hannity just for a victory lap on the newest justice on the Supreme Court, a lay-up shot and he couldn't get through it without listing his website and begging for money on live television. And I thought that was notable vis-a-vis the victory I think all Republicans, especially those on a ballot in a week thought they had in this nomination. What is there going to be a Justice Barrett boost for the party at the polling place?
COSTA: That was the republican bet. The strategy was to rally the base with the Supreme Court confirmation in the final days of the campaign. But what Republicans are now confronting whether it's Senator Graham in South Carolina, Senator Tillis in North Carolina, Senator Perdue in Georgia, or Senator Cornyn in Texas, are new headwinds, troubling headwinds for Republicans in the south, because the south as an idea may live in the Republican imagination as a place where you have a white electorate that powers you, that conservative electorate.
But if you look at places like Georgia, the population there is growing increasingly diverse. And so as the new south in South Carolina in two parts of Texas, where Californians are coming in, and it's demographically changing. It's politically changing. We saw hints of that in 2018. And now it continues to grow. And the Biden campaign is trying to capitalize on that by sending the contenders there.
WILLIAMS: Gene, Mr. Kushner made news today. I don't think he intend to do when he woke up this morning. But let me play it for you. We'll talk about it on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JARED KUSHNER, SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: There's been a lot of discussion about the issues that were needed in the black community for the last years, but particularly it intensified after the George Floyd situation. And, you know, you saw a lot of people who are just virtue signaling. They go on Instagram and cry or they would, you know, put a slogan on their jersey or write something on a basketball court. And quite frankly, that was doing more to polarize the country that one thing we've seen in a lot of the black community, which is mostly Democrat is that President Trump's policies are the policies that can help people break out of the problems that they're complaining about, but he can't want them to be successful more than they want to be successful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Eugene, it's all yours.
ROBINSON: Well, that was stunning. It just it was a perfect illustration of the cluelessness and alienation of the Trump administration. The Trump White House to the African American community that it claims to champion the ridiculous notion that President Trump has done more for black Americans than arguably anyone since Abraham Lincoln was just, you know, obvious sort of blasphemy to say it ridiculous on one level and just deplorable on another level.
But it shows a quality being out of touch. It's, he had no idea how off key that sounded, you know. I live in a mostly white suburban neighborhood. There are a lot of end racism and Black Lives Matter yard signs in my neighborhood, and there have been for months. And I see that in other neighborhoods, in similar neighborhoods, as well. And I think it's certainly a misreading of the suburban electorate. And it's going to motivate I think, many black Americans to go to the polls, but not for President Trump, to go to the polls and vote for Joe Biden. I think it was, you know, Jared Kushner maybe should have taken the morning off.
WILLIAMS: On that note, Ashley Parker, Eugene Robinson, Robert Costa, we sure appreciate you didn't take the evening off any of you. Thank you very much for starting us off and indeed starting off this new week.
Coming up for us, as COVID takes its toll on our country, it's also taking its toll on our public officials. We'll talk to the Illinois public health director about her emotional, very human response to this pandemic. We'll talk to an E.R. doctor from Michigan who says the President has it all wrong when it comes to coronavirus.
And later as we head into the final stretch, we'll look at what some past presidential campaigns can tell us, if anything at all about what we're living through now. All of it as THE 11TH HOUR gets underway on this Monday night.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP
DR. NGOZI EZIKE, ILLINOIS PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT DIRECTOR: These are people who started with us in 2020 and won't be with us at the Thanksgiving table, 364 33 confirmed cases since the start of this pandemic. Excuse me, please.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Some days the news we have to deal with the news we have to report during an uncontrolled pandemic is too much for any and all of us, as it was too much for the top health official in the state of Illinois this weekend, as that states on new confirmed cases in a single day surpass 6000.
We are so happy to have with us tonight Dr. Ngozi Ezike, Director of the Department of Public Health for the State of Illinois. She's a pediatrician by training who specializes in internal medicine.
Indeed, Doctor, I will often put the death toll in those very same terms. These are people who were around and with us and part of our lives and society. When 2019 turned into 2020 they're not with us anymore. I was so struck by that moment. I'm sorry, it had to happen with cameras rolling and lights blazing in public but tell me what welled up inside you at that moment.
EZIKE: You know, in retrospect, you know, I imagine it was a combination of fatigue as well as frustration, anxiety and pain for how we are doing with this pandemic and what lies ahead of us if this route, if we don't take a detour from this current route.
WILLIAMS: In your view, though, Illinois is hardly alone. We're seeing so many states trending up, what has been the Illinois story? What happened of late? Is it just relaxing standards and people not wearing masks?
EZIKE: It's definitely a partially fatigue. You know, we're a huge state, a very diverse state, largely rural, and also urban center, of course, was Chicago. I think the fact that the north east part of the state, Chicago land, the surrounding collar counties outside of Cook, I think took the biggest hit during the first wave. And so maybe a lot of other portions of the state didn't really get that full brunt of it. And so now as the entire state is feeling it, it's happening with even larger magnitude. We're identifying even more cases, but it's hitting hard before people really had the full adoption of the masking. I think you can see in Northern Illinois, there's better adoption of some of these safety mitigations than maybe lower in the state. And so without that full adoption, I think the spread is just growing, but it is spreading throughout the entire state.
WILLIAMS: And, indeed, here in the New York area, the three governors, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, have decided on this regional treatment because of the interstates and the way people travel and the vagaries of life. I know, Mayor Lightfoot has raised this, is there any plan to treat, especially Northern Illinois, regionally thinking just about the interstate traffic that comes and goes and air travel in and out of O'Hare?
EZIKE: Yeah, I mean, we are a special state that we border, you know, six different states. So we've got a lot of issues, you know, we are actually doing better than all of our bordering states. So, really a regional approach, of course, a national approach is really what we need to move forward, a unified strategy. Because no matter where we are in the states, we know that, you know, every thing is just a flight away. And so it beyond even just, you know, our state, our region, you know, a national strategy would be great to just have us all be working, getting all of our ducks, moving in the same direction so that we can get to the other side of this pandemic much quicker.
WILLIAMS: Final question and forgive me it's a personal question as I was watching you at the press conference, I was wondering if and how coronavirus has affected you and your immediate family and friends?
EZIKE: In my nuclear family, I am fortunate to say that we have not had significant illness in the nuclear family. But definitely if you just move out of the nuclear family, definitely we have had lost. We've had sickness, we've had death. I find it hard to imagine that most people don't find themselves in that category. Unfortunately, many, many people have been front, you know, fate, you know, front and center with devastation, with loss and it's going to really hit home as we get into this Thanksgiving and holiday season.
WILLIAMS: Dr. Ezike, thank you very much for the work that you do. Thank you for accepting our invitation to come on tonight. It's a pleasure to be able to talk to you. Thank you very much.
EZIKE: Thank you so much, Brian.
WILLIAMS: Our broadcast will now take another break. And coming up the President claims there's a coronavirus profit motive for doctors. Our next guest who happens to be an E.R. doctor would like a word.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You know some countries they report differently. If somebody's sick with a heart problem and they die of COVID they say they died of a heart problem. If somebody's terminally ill with cancer and they have COVID, we report them and you know doctors get more money and hospitals get more money. Think of this incentive.
So some countries do it differently. If somebody is very sick with a bad heart they die of COVID they don't get reported as COVID. So then you wonder gee, I wonder why their cases are so low. This country and the reporting systems are really not doing it right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: The President straight up hinting at a profit motive for doctors in the fight against coronavirus. Joe Biden for his part pointed out today. Over thousand doctors and nurses have died of the coronavirus.
But the President goes on despite a surge in new cases and Michigan he's hosting a rally in Lansing tomorrow. The governor Gretchen Whitmer called the event a recipe for disaster. She's urging people not to attend. As we said cases and hospitalizations in Michigan are both up.
Back with us tonight, Dr. Rob Davidson. He's an E.R. doctor in Western Michigan, executive director of the Committee to Protect Medicare. And I've got to say, Doctor, last time you were on you didn't tell us that you were in this for the money. I'm kidding, thankfully, what is the president talking about and what is the profit motive in treating coronavirus patients and indeed placing it down as cause of death.
DR. ROB DAVIDSON, EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: You know, this is just another insult from the president. Remember back in May when he said how beautiful it was to watch doctors running into death like soldiers into bullets. Now he's claiming that we're inflating numbers of COVID-19 somehow making him look bad and making ourselves rich.
Every doctor I've talked to and myself, my wife is a doctor are taking a pay cut this year and we're doing fine but, you know, we're in this to take care of our patients and despite the fact that he hasn't gotten us to PPE we need, still using the same N95 mask for an entire shift. We're still going into patient rooms. We're still taking care of patients like we always have, doing what needs to be done not unlike the president, unfortunately.
WILLIAMS: What's the situation in your state tonight?
DAVIDSON: The cases are exploding. I mean, in West Michigan, I know our case positivity rate is about or test positivity rates about 9 percent. So that's well over 5 percent, it's up 3 percent from just a week ago, hospitalizations are double what they were a week ago, in our system higher by 50 percent than our highest peak back in May.
And so it's, you know, we're getting towards crisis mode. We hope we don't get to the point where we can't provide resources to everyone in our community, but in small community hospitals where I work and really across the state, that's a real threat. And that's what we want to avoid more than anything.
WILLIAMS: We've been looking at the bar graph while you've been talking, and I'll tell you, it doesn't look good. Let me ask you about -- here's the head of the Coronavirus Task Force who also happens to be the Vice President of the United States. He's got five people around him who have tested positive by any measure of CDC standards. The vice president should be quarantining but no not for him.
The President three rallies today alone in Pennsylvania, you get them tomorrow in Michigan. There's new reporting over the weekend about the cases that spike in the communities that host these rallies. When you see this when you hear about this do you, do you want to bang your head against the wall?
DAVIDSON: You know, I do, I mean, we're all working so hard to try to save lives, to try to keep people healthy. I know our hospital system is actually spending money advertising, convincing people they should wear masks and they should distance and then the president comes around spreading disinformation and not only disinformation, but now actually spreading the virus. If you look at those rallies, we had one just 15 miles from here. Nine days ago. Now we have one about 50 miles from here tomorrow, like you said.
And then, you know, the Vice President seems to think there's a set of rules for the rest of us and a set of rules for him. My patients have to miss work for two weeks when they get exposed to someone with COVID-19. The least the vice president could do would be to sit home, do his job from home, get off the campaign trail and model good behavior and not put more people at risk.
WILLIAMS: Doctor, I know everyone you run into these days thanks you for the work you're doing. But for all the patients who cannot do that. Please accept our thanks for the work you're doing and our thanks for coming on this broadcast fresh from your shift and telling it the way it is.
Dr. Rob Davidson with us once again tonight from Michigan. Coming up for us for all those who believe we're witnessing the worst and the most contentious election in our history. Our next guest begs to differ. You want to hear what he has to say about what our history can teach us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRANCIS OJO, MARYLAND VOTER: Since all my years in United States I've never seen quite an unprecedented people just found out and today is not to vote Election Day.
MAGDA JACKSON-COOPER, MARYLAND VOTER: Something that is scary for people because they don't believe that their votes will be heard. I mean, one of the reasons I wanted to stand in line is because I was a little bit worried, you know?
I want to make sure I see it go in myself.
SHAIMAA ALY, IOWA VOTER: After COVID I think there is more to talk about and more to push me out of my seat and go out and vote because the way this crisis has been handled is devastating.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: If you want evidence that people view this as an election of consequence, here's a number, over 62 million of us have already voted early. NBC News is reporting early voting could hit a record smashing 100 million figure by Election Day.
For more, we are happy to welcome to our broadcast Carlos Watson. He's a former contributor to this network. And now and Emmy winner, editor in chief of his own media company. He's also importantly hosting the documentary "That Campaigns That Made History", which debuts tomorrow at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time appropriately on the History Channel.
Carlos, we're thrilled to have you thank you very much for coming on. You have in this first question and answer, I'm going to hand you a tall order. What do you tell folks who want to feel better? And what do you tell folks who say it's never been worse?
CARLOS WATSON, HOST, "THE CAMPAIGNS THAT MADE HISTORY": Brian, first of all, thank you for having me. And I say to both sides, that the U.S. has a history of contested elections or been a half dozen presidential elections in the last 60 years that have been decided by 2 percent or less. And so we've been here before. We know that 2000 was a contentious one.
But in 1968, what I tell people often is that the version of the Proud Boys back then, actually were on the ballot in the form of George Wallace won 10 million votes, 50 electoral votes, almost five states, so it could be worse.
On the other hand, we know the most contentious American election arguably wasn't 2000 but was 1876. And that ended with significant changes in the rights of African Americans. The end of reconstruction took four months. So in some ways, it has been worse. And in some ways, if we go back to the 1800s, we could see quite how bad it really could be.
WILLIAMS: I want to run a clip from the documentary for those old enough to remember it'll be self-explanatory. For those too young to remember this gentleman will talk about him on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARRY GOLDWATER (R), FMR. ARIZONA SENATOR: I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Goldwater's nomination splits the Republican Party, a decision that would reverberate for generation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Well, thanks to Barry Goldwater. President Johnson loved the nickname Landslide Lyndon there was no one who scared Democrats and it turned out moderates more than the Republican senator from Arizona. Carlos, it's been theorized that were he alive today. We probably refer to him as a center left Republican.
WATSON: Yes, no doubt that the parties have shifted. I mean, in bringing up Barry Goldwater, the former senator, former standard bearer in 1964. In many ways people associate him with President Trump if ever there was a rebel, a maverick someone who was almost in some ways I don't necessarily mean this pejoratively, but almost radioactive,
Certainly it was Barry Goldwater. He ended up losing in a landslide. And many would say that that's what it would take for President Trump to accept a loss. And consequently, one of the interesting things that we are seeing in this election, Brian, is it instead of folks focusing in the ways that they normally would on Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, you hear so much focus on a place like Texas, and the idea there is that Texas would be not just a substantive when in terms of the number of electoral votes, but it would be such an announcement, such a rejection, that the thought is that even President Trump if he were to lose Texas, and more importantly, people like Mitch McConnell, and others would have to concede earlier than they otherwise might. And it might end up protracted conversation.
So you see folks like Joe Biden, not only going to places like Ohio, and Michigan, where you'd expect them in the final week. But you see him venturing into Georgia, and potentially even into Texas, which again, would make a big statement if he were to win that.
WILLIAMS: Carlos, of course, everything's changed. Media has changed. We have color television now and did not in the time of Barry Goldwater. But what you didn't see in my recollection of my reading in the time of Goldwater was Republicans who were frightened at the rightward tilt of their party who went out to actively campaign for LBJ.
Today, my contention is groups like the Lincoln project are making the sharpest, toughest, most compelling ads for Joe Biden. And these are Republican, lifelong career political professionals who have been beating up Democrats for a living, but see this as such a political exigency that they're speaking up.
WATSON: Very much so. And obviously people like our friend, Steve Schmidt, has been a part of that on it. By the way, if you remember Mitt Romney's dad was central to that effort in 1964, on the part of kind of moderate and center left Republicans going against their standard bearer.
But, you know, frankly, I think that if it's a close election, and if things come down to it, it won't be the Mitt Romney's that people listen to. It won't be the Steve Schmidt or the Lincoln Republicans. The person who I would keep my eye on keep my eye, frankly, on two people. One is Mitch McConnell, because in the end, if Mitch McConnell's Senate Majority Leader were to say there's enough evidence here that Joe Biden has won it, I think that would be decisive.
The other person, interestingly enough, and it's weird the way the world works, Ted Cruz. I think if Ted Cruz runner up to President Trump or the Republican nomination in 2016, were to step forward amidst the contested election and say, again, I think there's enough evidence here, he wouldn't be seen as a Mitt Romney, he wouldn't be seen as a Lincoln Republican. He'd have a little more credibility.
So it's going to be very interesting, very fractious. You already see the president beginning to kind of proactively call some people on the carpet, whether it's been as FBI Director, or Susan Collins of Maine or others, who he fears are beginning to stray so he's going beyond the Lincoln Republicans in his targeting.
WILLIAMS: By the way with congratulations for one of the most gorgeous home camera setups we've seen on this broadcast, which is saying a lot during a pandemic as a history buff. I can't wait to see the work you've put together.
Carlos Watson, it is great to see you again, again to our audience the documentary is "The Campaign's That Made History," it debuts on the History Channel tomorrow night, some may even find it soothing and calming to see where we've been to try to predict where we're headed.
Carlos, thank you again.
Coming up. Tonight, Mother Nature is throwing its very worst at Southern California. Again, we'll have an update on this freak of nature when we come back.
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WILLIAMS: In Southern California today and tonight, wrap your head around this there are wind gusts in the area around Los Angeles approaching 100 miles an hour and let's be honest here, if we had 100 mile an hour winds around one of the big cities on the East Coast we'd be going crazy.
This is the best way to illustrate it. This is from the satellite. These are the Santa Ana winds that go against our prevailing weather direction. They blow from east to the west out over the Pacific.
Even though power has been cut to tens of thousands of people anticipating wires down, fires have started anyway of course in keeping with this historic fire season. Winds of hurricane force mean fires moving faster than a person can run. It means aircraft are grounded and can't get in on the firefight. We get our reports tonight from correspondent Miguel Almaguer in Irvine, California.
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MIGUEL ALMAGUER, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's not just the size and power these wildfires exploding out of control today, but the epic winds fanning them creating the perfect recipe for disaster.
Fighting flames and Southern California is notorious Santa Ana winds today the critical air attack was grounded after gusts reached 96 miles an hour outside Los Angeles. The power of a category two hurricane. Firefighters struggling to stand their ground to in critical condition.
Bracing for an unprecedented wind event across the state, more than a million have had their power cut to prevent the very kind of disaster that could unfold tonight.
(on camera): On the heels of what has been a historic and deadly wildfire season the winds fanning these flames are expected to last another 24 hours.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIAMS: And our thanks to Miguel Almaguer for that report. Coming up, a tough message for seniors during a tough time for seniors. That would be an uncontrolled pandemic.
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WILLIAMS: Last thing before we go tonight, this is the president during an uncontrolled pandemic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Go out and vote in person, thank you.
Go to the voting booth, and vote early and in person.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Now, any combination of an ounce of empathy and or a third graders understanding of this illness would raise questions naturally about the safety of in person voting during what is an uncontrolled pandemic, especially those in the known risk groups like our senior citizens, and a new ad by a Democratic PAC targeted at Florida seniors attempts to drive that point home.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senior Citizens are the most vulnerable to the coronavirus.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People 55 and older account for 90 percent of Coronavirus deaths.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The pandemic killing senior citizens at an alarming rate.
TRUMP: It affects elderly people, elderly people with heart problems. It affects virtually no but it's an amazing thing.
BIDEN: That's how we see, see this you're expanding. You're forgetting you're virtually nobody.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He tweeted this utterly offensive photoshopped image.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The jab at Biden's age as if there is something wrong with being a senior citizen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At a time when people are dying by tens of thousands in nursing homes.
BIDEN: So many lives have been lost unnecessarily because this president cares more about the stock market than he does about seniors.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A defined president holds another packed campaign rally. It was at a retirement village and most vulnerable age group in this country.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thousands of mainly older maskless people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump is not serious about this plague on seniors.
TRUMP: I got to get out and I have to meet people and I have to see people and I know it's risky to do that. But you have to do what you have to do.
BIDEN: You've worked hard your whole life contributes to society, building the family, building the country, serving America, you deserve security is respect and peace of mind.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: The ad targeted at Florida seniors from the group called the Really American Political Action Committee. That's what takes us off the air tonight.
And that is our broadcast for this back to work Monday night as we start a new week together. One week to go until our presidential election. Thank you so much for being here. On behalf of all my colleagues at the networks of NBC News, good night.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. END
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