Summary
President Donald Trump holds rallies in Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska. Trump attacks Kamala Harris and begs suburban women for votes. Joe Biden bashed Trump as a "con man" who appeals to the worst in Americans as he claimed the president has "waved the white flag" in surrendering to the coronavirus pandemic. Trump claims it's "totally inappropriate" to count ballots after election night. White House testing czar says increased testing is not the sole cause of rise in COVID-19 cases. Wisconsin breaks one-day state records in COVID-19 deaths and cases. Big tech CEOs testify before Congress.
Transcript
OLIVIA TROYE, NATIONAL INSURANCE CRIME BUREAU VICE PRESIDENT OF STRATEGY, POLICY, AND PLANS: So it is appalling to watch the head of the Coronavirus Task Force behaving in this manner.
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL, MSNBC HOST: Olivia Troye, I have to tell you as someone who worked in government myself on the Democratic side of the United States Senate, I can't tell you how much I admire your decision this year to take this stance of being guided by your conscience in this situation. And I think you have the admiration of really everyone watching this program tonight. It's a great example of government service and service to the country. Thank you very much for joining us tonight.
TROYE: Thank you so much.
O'DONNELL: Olivia Troye gets Tonight's LAST WORD. "THE 11TH HOUR" with Brian Williams starts now.
BRIAN WILLIAMS, MSNBC HOST: Well, good evening, once again. Day 1,377 of the Trump administration that leaves exactly seven days to go until Election Day.
We've now entered the most critical part of this race at a time when the coronavirus is at its peak thus far across our country. Donald Trump and Joe Biden have now the final week to amplify their messages and get out the vote.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) UNITED STATES PRESIDENT: You're going to see a red wave like they've never seen before. And they saw a very big one. This is going to be bigger and they know it. It's going to be beautiful. And it's probably going to start. That doesn't have to start on Tuesday. It could start early, early voting.
JOE BIDEN, (D) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Time and again, throughout our history, we've seen charlatans, the con man, the phony populist, who sought to play on our fears, appeal to our worst appetites and pick it the oldest scabs we have for their own political game. We can restore our soul and save our country. And I know we can unite and heal this nation.
Stay empowered, stay optimistic, stay united because you have a sacred duty, the duty to vote.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Today the incumbent President traveled to the upper Midwest to defend his 2016 wins in Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska.
Biden was focused on expanding his reach. He made two stops in Georgia, a battleground state that hasn't gone for a Democrat since Clinton in '92.
First Lady Melania Trump and Barack Obama also pitching in to help the campaigns with appearances in Pennsylvania and Florida. Voter enthusiasm driving massive turnout in early balloting. New data from NBC News and TargetSmart showing over 61 millions of us nearly half of all voters who cast their ballots in 2016 have already voted.
Then there's the reason for all the early vote, the uncontrolled pandemic. As we mentioned, the final week of this election is unfolding as the number of coronavirus cases is now soaring across our country.
NBC News putting it this way tonight. "Infections are spreading across the United States at the fastest rate since the start of the pandemic. And a new poll reveals a majority of adults reported that they know at least one person who's been diagnosed with COVID-19."
The New York Times reports, the U.S. has reported more than 500,000 new cases over the past week. One analysis from the Washington Post notes that Trump's reelection campaign hinges on having his supporters ignore the pandemic.
The AP notes the obvious this virus is particularly intense right now in the states. Trump needs most that would be the upper Midwest. Nevertheless, Trump presented a very different picture of the pandemic during his rallies today, while President Obama offered yet another searing critique of Trump's handling of the virus, while campaigning for Biden in Florida.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We test everybody. In many ways, I hate it. In many ways, I hate it. We test everybody. There are other countries that don't do testing and they show very few cases. I mean, it's a very simple thing. But overall, it's good to have the testing. We find out where it is. And there are a lot of things. But they use it to make us look bad. It's COVID, COVID, COVID, you can't watch anything else.
On November 4, you'll hear it's getting better. It's getting better. He watched no, no they're doing heavy COVID because they want to scare people.
We're rounding like this racetrack. Look at this, it's perfect. We're rounding the curve. We will vanquish the virus.
BIDEN: He's turned the White House into a hot zone. More than 225,000 people in this country are dead. More than 100,000 small businesses have closed, half a million jobs are gone in Florida alone. Think about that. What's his closing argument that people are too focused on COVID, he said this one of his rallies, COVID, COVID, COVID. He's complaining. He's jealous of COVID media coverage.
If he had been focused on COVID from the beginning, cases wouldn't be reaching new record highs across the country this week.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: This afternoon we also heard Trump ramp up his attacks on Kamala Harris, stoking fears about the possibility of a Harris presidency should any harm come to Joe Biden.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: If he gets elected three weeks into his presidency, they'll say Kamala, are you ready? Let's go. That's why they're talking about the -- that's why they talk about the 25th Amendment, right? Three weeks, three weeks in Joe's shot. Let's go, Kamala, are you ready?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Meanwhile, we've learned that the Trump campaign was hacked earlier tonight, the site briefly seized by hackers demanding cryptocurrency to prevent what they threatened to be the release of dirt on the President and his family. We're also getting new reporting on the President's real world finances and business dealings. Washington Post reporting that during Trump's first term, he has directed millions of dollars from us, U.S. taxpayers, and from his political supporters, funneled them into his own businesses.
New York Times, also on the board reporting the federal income tax record show Trump had nearly $300 million in debt forgiven within the past decade, most of it related to his Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago.
Then there's this, a federal judge has denied the Justice Department's effort to step in and shield Trump from a defamation lawsuit brought by magazine columnist, E. Jean Carroll who accused Trump of rape. The government had tried to claim Donald Trump was acting in his official capacity when he told White House reporters that she made up the rape story. The ruling keeps her lawsuit alive.
It's a lot. We're now joined by our leadoff discussion group for a Tuesday night, Philip Rucker, Pulitzer Prize-winning White House Bureau Chief for The Washington Post co-author along with his colleague, Carol Leonnig, of the longtime best seller, A Very Stable Genius. Nancy Cook, White House Reporter for Politico. And A.B. Stoddard, a veteran of political journalism, currently Associate Editor and Columnist over at RealClearPolitics.
Good evening, and welcome to you all. Phil, I'm going to start with you by dint of your beat, what are you hearing, especially from inside this campaign, and I asked, noting that they're in Nebraska, going after a single electoral vote a week out from the election.
PHILIP RUCKER, THE WASHINGTON POST WHITE HOUSE BUREAU CHIEF: Well, what we can expect, Brian, between now and Election Day is the president to ramp up his travel, he's looking at doing 2, 3, 4 even more, rallies a day between now and Tuesday. And that's because he's on the defensive right now. He's behind in these polls. He appears to be losing a number of battleground states, according to virtually all of the data that we've seen in recent weeks.
And he thinks by getting out there, by having big rallies by exhibiting more energy than former Vice President Joe Biden. He can make up that last round. He's going to be heading out west in the next day or so. And we can expect him to be spending considerable time in the in a couple of states that his campaign view as essential, and those include Pennsylvania and Florida first and foremost.
WILLIAMS: Nancy Cook, I've read your reporting on this topic. The President was a coronavirus denier from the start. Is it any surprise that he is telling a different story to rally audiences than we can all see and read about going on around the country?
NANCY COOK, POLITICO WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, I think the difference is that early on in the pandemic, it wasn't something that his own White House and his own family had experienced. But as you remember, in early October, you know, the President got coronavirus, the First Lady, a number of the President's senior staff this week over the weekend, there was an outbreak in the Vice President's office.
And so having gone through these two outbreaks in the White House, it still hasn't really changed the President's attitude towards it. And as cases are spiking in the Midwest and rural areas and a number of battleground states that the President needs to win. We're seeing him basically say that COVID is not that big of a deal. Vaccines are on their way. He's telling people that they'll survive like his family did. And that's really his closing argument that COVID is something that is a bother, and it is something that is an invention of the media, rather than really putting forth a national plan for an argument about what his administration would do to fight it as cases do spike heading into the winter.
WILLIAMS: So A.B. that's the coronavirus. Let's talk about the fact that the President depending on the poll is 20 points underwater, where women voters are concerned and please join us in watching a mash up of how he's trying to remedy that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Kamala, do you like Kamala? Do you like her to be your first president?
This will not be the first woman president. They have like AOC plus three. She has no clue. She has no clue. Did she go to college? Tell me, did she, because I don't know.
Ivanka, she'd be very happy just being home with the kids. And we got our work crazy 60 minutes. Wasn't she rude? She just kept asking me questions. Anger, craziness, right? Fire coming out of her eyes. So we're talking about suburban women don't like Donald Trump. I said, I think they do. I think they do. We're getting your husband's back to work. We're going to do great. And I love women. And I can't help but they're the greatest. I love a much more than the men, much more than the men.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: So A.B. that ought to saw up the women's vote?
A.B. STODDARD, REAL CLEAR POLITICS ASSOCIATE EDITOR & COLUMNIST: It's really hard to believe the way that the President describes this group of voters that he has lost, that is truly going to sink his party if more of them vote Democrat after the midterm elections next week when the votes are tallied. As Joe Biden says, he believes that this suburbia is filled with housewives, who are white, who live in big houses and do not work. And we're afraid of Cory Booker, apparently, the senator he continues to say is going to come put a housing project in their neighborhood if Biden wins election.
These people are working their lives off. They're in the middle of the pandemic. They're working two jobs. He says today, we're getting your husband's back to work. They did not all go to elite colleges. These women in suburbia, he keeps speaking to their people in his own coalition. And he is speaking to them like he's in another time in another country, in the middle of his sort of cheap, biggest act, putting down Kamala Harris, you know, attacking Dr. Fauci, telling them what they know about the pandemic, their whole life is on zoom, and they can't have holidays with their grandchildren is not true, speaking to them, like they're stupid.
And it's just going to be amazing to see what that does, not only to the President's numbers with this sector of the electorate, but what it does all the way down the ballot, when the votes are counted next.
WILLIAMS: So Phil Rucker, as a thoughtful guy and an accomplished author, I figured you could handle a question on the intersection of journalism, and politics. As we mentioned, these two business stories out today, your paper on the dollars the president of funnels into his businesses, New York Times on the Chicago project, which it occurs to me is the real estate job that introduced American television viewers to the RAND 6 originally. And my question is, do stories like this, with everything else going on in the middle of the pandemic move the needle, or bromide alert? Is that cake baked?
RUCKER: Well, Brian, for 61 million Americans, that cake is baked, right, because that's how many people have already cast their ballots in this election, in early voting. But these stories are important. And the reason you're seeing them come out now is because they take a lot of time. And they take a lot of investigative resources at the Washington Post and the New York Times to get them, to get that reporting together an array to the point where it's ready for publication. And so it happens that these stories are ready now, it's right before an election, of course. But it's important for these papers to share them with the public and for the public to read them before the election.
The New York Times, by the way, has been publishing over the last several weeks a series of really important stories about the President's finances, because they've been able to obtain copies of his tax returns going back many, many years, whether that persuades any voters to change their minds in the in the election. I'm not sure. I suspect, you know, many of the Americans who would be outraged that the President has paid so little in taxes or has come up with all of these nebulous business schemes probably are not supporting him to begin with. But the reporting is important. And that piece in The Washington Post was just so striking because it revealed the extent to which the President has used the government to pad his own businesses all the way down, to charging the government to pay for the water that he drinks when he's at Mar-a-Lago, $3 a glass.
WILLIAMS: No question, the work has to go on and in my book journalism is a huge part of the story of these past four years. Nancy, is there anything turning back to the campaign anything about Biden's travels, Biden's strategy that is kind of micro trolling the Trump campaign, anything that worries them based on what they see on the other side?
COOK: Well, I think that we saw today, you know, Biden was in Georgia, basically, the democrats are real opening and Georgia, which is remarkable that really has been a republican stronghold. So I think it's interesting there.
And then, right before we came on air, the Biden campaign announced that the former vice president would not be campaigning tomorrow, he would instead be meeting with advisors and getting briefings on COVID and meeting with health officials. And I do think that was some a plus trolling from the Biden camp. You know, as Trump is spending the week holding these rallies with little social distancing, and no masks and decrying health officials, and trying to make Hunter Biden a thing and sort of downplaying COVID. Biden is really drawing a contrast with him and trying to say, well, I'm focusing on the pandemic. And I'm going to make that a huge priority if I am elected.
WILLIAMS: So A.B. over to Capitol Hill we go where and inexplicably bruised, bandaged and battered, Mitch McConnell has given us a rare quote for him. "At the risk of tooting my own horn, look at the majority leader since L.B.J. and find another one who was able to do something as consequential as this. The "this" he's talking about is the fact that they have just ceded their third justice, Donald Trump has now appointed fully one-third of the U.S. Supreme Court. The question to you, A.B., with the court completed any worry within the GOP about what might be fixing to happen? What might be fixing to change about Mitch McConnell's title, and that old phrase about paybacks comes to mind?
STODDARD: Look, Republicans told me before the midterm elections that Kavanaugh was worth losing the House over. Republicans are also of the same mind in 2020, that getting the six seat on the court, because the court is almost forever and Barrett could serve for 40 years, is probably worth losing, not only the presidency, but the Senate Majority. This has been a goal of Mitch McConnell's for a very long time. President Trump not only would not have three Supreme Court justices, but 220 federal lower court judges, the fastest and largest record in -- since the Carter administration, just a stunning legacy for McConnell and for President Trump.
And it is likely to boomerang and is likely to free up a lot of anti Trump Republicans to now vote for Joe Biden because they believe they've gotten all they can with these three justices, but a lot of Republicans have given up a lot in the Trump era to get their tax cut and these judges seated and they're very pleased with Mitch McConnell's record.
WILLIAMS: As we like to say regularly around here, all of it because elections have consequences. Can't thank our starting three enough on this Tuesday night, Phil Rucker, Nancy Cook, AB Stoddard, greatly appreciate it.
Coming up, as someone put it to our own Nicolle Wallace today, this is not your father's 2016. Democrats are seeing hope in some unlikely places, and the early vote is remarkable. Two of the best strategists in the game are here to talk about key Republican strongholds, the Democrats are hoping to flip.
And later, as Trump rallies in another state in the middle of a surge in coronavirus, no masks, no problem, but we will talk to one of the ER doctors on the front lines. All of it, as THE 11TH HOUR is just getting underway on this Tuesday night.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: You know, there aren't a lot of pundits who would have guessed four years ago that the Democratic candidate for President 2020 would be campaigning in Georgia on the final week of the election or that we have such competitive center races in Georgia. But we do because something's happening here in Georgia and across America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Something is happening, the man says, Joe Biden playing offense today, campaigning as you heard him say in Georgia, a state Democrats have not carried in a presidential election since Clinton '92.
Our NBC News battleground map, in fact currently lists Georgia as a toss up. And both Arizona and Texas were just moved from lean Republican to toss up. Those changes comments The New York Times is reporting Mike Bloomberg is funding a last minute advertising Blitz for Biden, in Texas and Ohio. Times reporting the effort is expected to total around $15 million.
Here with us again tonight, James Carville, Veteran Democratic Strategist who rose to national fame with that very same Clinton presidential campaign, these days is co-host of the 2020 politics War Room podcast, and Mike Murphy, Veteran Republican Strategist and strategic advisor these days to Republican voters against Trump.
Gentlemen, welcome, as always. James, do you feel good? Was it a good call to send Biden to Georgia? Do you see it as winnable? And do you agree that Texas is squishy and potentially turnable?
JAMES CARVILLE, VETERAN DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Yes, yes, and yes. I mean, Georgia, I feel particularly good about. And I was on the phone all day in Georgia. You know, President Clinton is still irritated that we didn't care at 1996. So I, you know, I was born in Georgia. I think that the Atlanta area, people are realizing it looks like Los Angeles now. It's one of the most energetic, diverse places that people really get along with each other. And he's Democrats now. They're really, really working hard. I am very, very optimistic about George. And I don't see anything in the early vote that doesn't that gives me much pause for concern. And the Republicans get their vote out but Georgia is a changing state. Judges are representative of a new American, I think in a good way. And I'm really optimistic about (inaudible).
WILLIAMS: Mike Murphy if you had your druthers, would Biden move to Florida for the next couple of days and have his mail forwarded or are you content with where their travel schedule is?
MIKE MURPHY, REPUBLICAN VOTERS AGAINST TRUMP: Oh, I think they're doing it right. I mean, what's happening here is that the traditional Republican Sun Belt firewall is burning down quickly. I mean, Biden is totally playing on Trump Republican turf now and offense. So he's -- I agree of James, they've got a real chance to grab Georgia, same thing in Florida and Florida is a backbreaker politically for the President. He loses Florida, it's lights out. Georgia is another one he couldn't afford to lose. They're very much in the hunt, North Carolina, and in Arizona.
So the Midwestern states where Trump got his win last time are looking pretty bad. And I've seen Republican polling that shows Biden up a couple in Ohio, and if that's true, Michigan and Wisconsin are gone. So Biden's in a great position. He's got money, he's got momentum, and he's deep into Donald Trump's turf on offense. So that's forcing the Trump campaign with their resource problems. They kind of cannibalize and retrench and fight a pretty tough defensive battle right now.
WILLIAMS: James, when you see the president going after a single electoral vote in Nebraska, does that tell you playing defense?
CARVILLE: Well out of money, they stole it out of the story in the tape but it pleased to campaign for a billion dollars, so down TV in Florida. But I will say this, Brian, I saw less than encouraging story out of Miami Dade about turnout, somebody needs to fix that thing popped out and Democrats get on to make them get some energy down there in South Florida because we got to build up a big margin there. But of course, he's doing that because they're broke. He's pulling amps down. They took it they ran it out to all the corporations and everything else. And those two stories get feel rocking on, talking about all of the other graph that's going on.
When the story of this administration is written, the incompetence, buffoonery division is not going to be the big story. It's going to be the sheer magnitude of the corruption that they're just everywhere in it. And I think vote is the (inaudible) and I think vote is a second. I really did.
WILLIAMS: Mike Murphy, make us all better viewers, what polls matter to you right now? What are you watching?
MURPHY: Well, I'm almost to the point where the polls are a bit academic, you know, the campaigns can tweak a little bit into the last weekend. Remember, we probably have 75 million votes in the pipeline right now that have either already been cast. I think that's numbers in the high 60 or in the final wave of mail and people walking in this week for early voting. So, you know, there's not a lot of throttle control now. And there's no big event that kind of shake it up. But you know, I'm watching Florida, James is right about Miami-Dade. That's where Trump has sold some tickets, particularly in the Cuban community. And there's a lot of performance going on. There are other places where Biden's doing pretty well. But there are things to watch tactically here is the campaign closes. We just put a little more Spanish radio up in Miami and Republican voters against Trump.
But all in all, I'm just kind of watching the metrics on turnout. And I'm wondering, as this horrible COVID pandemic gets worse and worse in some of the upper Midwestern states. How will that affect Election Day voting? And who might be scared away from the polls? Trump is relying on a huge Election Day vote because he's getting slaughtered in the early vote and will it be a headwind for him? Or are his people so riled up? That you know, there'll be some Democrats who don't feel it's safe to vote on Election Day in the Michigan and Wisconsin. So I'm watching the little stuff like that because the big stuffs kind of locked in now.
WILLIAMS: Well, you leave us with a lot to think about. Both of these gentlemen have agreed to stay with us through the break. This will give James two minutes to return to the World Series.
Just ahead, the President says, it would be proper to declare our winner exactly one week from tonight. We will compare election night expectations when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: It would be very, very proper and very nice if a winner were declared on Nov. 3, instead of counting ballots for two weeks, which is totally inappropriate and I don't believe that that's by our laws. I don't believe that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: OK, did you hear that news media the man wants a winner declared a week from tonight? The president just before departing for his rally in Michigan this afternoon. Back with us for round two are our guests and friends of this broadcast, James Carville and Mike Murphy.
Mike because I want a recording of you reacting to Ted Cruz here is what Ted Cruz said to Axios earlier today, your response on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): One of Biden's best points was when he said all of these attacks back and forth about my family and his family. They don't matter what matters is your family that that may have been Biden's best moment actually. And I --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you don't believe voters have moved by the Hunter Biden stuff.
CRUZ: I don't think it moves a single voter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: So Mike, interesting quote there from Ted Cruz, aka --
MURPHY: Yes.
WILLIAMS: -- Mr. Popularity in the US Senate. Do you agree with the Republican from Texas?
MURPHY: Yes, I think somebody wants to slipped a little truth serum into the martini there because he's absolutely right. You know, again, most people think a Hunter is a ceiling fan. I -- You know, this lecture is about big stuff like the COVID pandemic and uniting the country. So I think it's a pretty astute observation by Senator Cruz and I'm not used to those, so I'll give him a salute.
WILLIAMS: So James Carville, by my clock it is 11:34 and 30 seconds at this time, exactly seven days from now at 1134 on election night. What will we be talking about?
CARVILLE: I think we'll be talking about a Biden presidency. I really do. We work on know to show us a range. The range of this ray says it'd be very close electoral went for Trump or a big win for Biden. And I expected well, nobody has time.
And in terms of what to produce it. Let me give credit to my dear friend, President Clinton just in 1992 said they want to make this about my past. I want to make it about your future. And Mike and I both believed that voters on election about them, not, you know, think extraneous things like Hunter Biden's laptop and Rudy Giuliani. So I actually agree with Senator Cruz with Mike on that. But I think if Texas is competitive at 11:30 what Texas competitive then Biden is going to be president. I don't think I doubt that very much.
WILLIAMS: Mike Murphy, you agree with that last point?
MURPHY: Oh, no, James is absolutely right. I mean, we're not going to know everything. But we know a lot again in Ohio and Florida, because they count the absentee early. We're going to know a ton. And are there going to be a lot of cues and clues there later? Same thing in Arizona.
So yes, we could know. Now there's going to be some late vote in Michigan and Wisconsin, the vote on day up could look pretty good for Trump, which is why he's talking like he was about Election Day voting but, you know, the network's they don't only pull on election day, they pull absentee voters. They've been phone and online polling for two weeks.
So it'll be A, decision desk will be able to give hints of who's leaving with the absentee to demystify that and knock down what could be misleading Election Day numbers in the few of the states but I'm with James. I think by midnight there's going to be tears of one campaign and a lot of party at another one.
WILLIAMS: Go ahead James.
CARVILLE: Jay Brosan (ph) will look at five counties. And he's a consultant NBC and he'll feel pretty, pretty good. What's going to happen I promise you. Those clocks are going to be looking at this early, and I'll make my checks will be flying. I guarantee you.
WILLIAMS: Well, we'll be there. If I can go out on a full shot of James. I'm going to quote a friend of this broadcast, Errin Haines formerly of the Associated Press now with the 19th. She writes, LOL, James Carville is like, I'm coming on here for this live hit, but I'm leaving the game on. And that's the James Carville, we love after all. James, go back to the World Series. Thank you for letting me watch over your left shoulder. It's all the game I'm going to see tonight until I get to my DVR.
Gentlemen, it's always a pleasure. James Carville, Mike Murphy out on the left coast. Thank you both so much. Back to the game.
Coming up, hospitals and healthcare workers overwhelmed in the aforementioned state of Wisconsin. Another report from the front lines when we continue.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADM. BRETT GIROIR, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TESTING CZAR: Testing, maybe identifying some more cases. I think that's clearly true. But what we're seeing is a real increase in the numbers compared to the post-Memorial Day surge on even though testing is up this is a real increase in cases. We know that not only because the case numbers are up and we can calculate that but we know that hospitalizations are going up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: You may remember the White House Coronavirus Task Force that is the testing czar even as the president keeps on insisting that we only have so many cases because we do so much testing.
In the real world hospitals in Wisconsin are being overwhelmed by new patients. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporting it this way today, Wisconsin reported its most dismal coronavirus numbers yet, on Tuesday as state health state health officials urged residents to leave home only when absolutely necessary, and warned the crisis would continue escalating. Hospitalizations have seen rapid unimpeded growth for the last five weeks straining short staffed healthcare systems across the state.
For more on that note, we welcome to the broadcast Dr. Jeff Pothof. He's an associate professor at the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Wisconsin Madison. He's also the chief quality officer there and continues to practice as an ER doc flying with the University Hospitals critical care transport program. Doctor, thank you for coming on, what's the situation in your state and in your hospital?
DR. JEFF POTHOF. UNIV. OF WISCONSIN-MADISON MEDICAL SCHOOL ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR: Brian, I wish we had better news but things are a bit dire in Wisconsin right now. We keep seeing record growth of cases, increases of hospitalizations, and the gold standard metric. We're seeing more deaths, more people are dying in Wisconsin of COVID-19. Our hospitals are struggling to keep up right now.
WILLIAMS: I know you're a medical guest and not a political guest. But what does it do to your heart to know that when the President travels and lands in a state like Wisconsin, that is almost by definition, almost by nature, a super spreader event. We know that because we can tell the cases after the fact when he takes off and goes to Washington, and a few days transpire.
POTHOF: You know, it's really frustrating for us as medical professionals. I think when the pandemic started, we were hoping that, you know, the government would be our ally and help us fight this, and to see instances where they're not neutral, but actively working against our efforts to protect citizens in the state. You can imagine that that causes a lot of frustration within the medical community.
WILLIAMS: Also frustrating because you're just a guy living your life out in Wisconsin, is the fact that virus fatigue is at its height at a time when, as of tonight, the coronavirus is at its height to date, in our country.
POTHOF: Yes, I think, you know, we watched early on as New York took a beating. And we didn't want to be that that same way. But with all the fatigue around the mitigation efforts, compounded by a lot of confusion and resonance of the state, hearing a different message from different leaders. I think we've had a lot of people in Wisconsin, kind of throw in the towel and say we're just going to get back to normal. And that's having disastrous effects here in our state. A lot of people are getting sick and a lot of people are dying.
WILLIAMS: I'm told you volunteered to enter one of the clinical vaccine trials. What's that been like? And what stage are you at?
POTHOF: Yes. So I was the first to volunteer for the AstraZeneca-Oxford trial. And, you know, that's been a good experience. I haven't had any side effects. And, you know, one of the things I wanted to do as a leader within our health system was model the way to let people know that, you know, this is something that they can sign up for, they can participate in it and really make progress towards running the final chapters on this pandemic with a safe and effective vaccine.
WILLIAMS: Well, thank you for volunteering to be part of that effort. I'm not sure everyone I know would do the same thing though. We're all hoping to be recipients of it. Dr. Jeff Pothof, thank you for the work you do. Thank you for coming on our broadcast on this Tuesday night.
Another break for us and coming up do you know what when you see it on social media, on Facebook, on Twitter, disinformation that's dressed up real nice, posing as truthful information. There's a lot of it out there, something to do with this election coming up. Our report on it coming up as well.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WILLIAMS: Tomorrow, the CEOs of Facebook and Google and Twitter will face Congress with less than a week ago before election day. The issue of disinformation is likely to come up as it did after 2016 when the Russians mastered and employed all of their platforms with a minimal investment on their part. And in many cases without any resistance at all.
All of the platforms have made last ditch efforts to try and counter the active spread of false information that we know to be going on right now. NBC News correspondent Jo Ling Kent remains on this beat for us. She is back with us tonight from Los Angeles. Hey, Jo.
JO LING KENT, NCB NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Brian, you know, I've got the prepared testimony from Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey and Sundar Pichai. He's the CEO of Google. And the focus is going to be on two things tomorrow, Section 230, it's a federal law protecting internet companies exempting them from legal liability for content posted by their own users. They're going to say it's critical to free expression online.
And of course, the big one is going to be the election. Lawmakers expected to grow all three of these CEOs on issues of perceived censorship, you can expect to hear that from the Republican side election security from both sides and what they're trying to do to prevent another 2016 when as you mentioned, Russia linked accounts try to so -- tried to sow confusion among voters.
So we were -- we know these fake accounts and trolls are very much alive and well right now. So we want to know, how can you best protect yourself? And turns out there's one easy way to learn.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KENT (voice-over): With early voting well underway, disinformation campaigns are in full force on social media, like they were in 2016. Trolls pushing conspiracies and false information to go viral. Once again, Russia linked to entities are often behind them, along with Iran and groups inside the US. So have we learned anything about how to spot the trolls?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The more partisan than issue--
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More partisan, more fringe the better.
KENT: Clemson University researchers, Patrick Warren and Darren Linvill created this online quiz. What is the mission of a troll?
DARREN LINVILL, CLEMSON UNIVERSITY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF COMMUNICATIONS: The trolls want to be your friend, they're out there pretending to be somebody that probably thinks just like you. They want to work to divide us and distract us and to decrease our trust in established institutions.
KENT: Engaging with a harmless looking troll can lead you down a rabbit hole of disinformation. Harmony says she's a conservative college student. And Amy says she's a proud black American. We've blurred their faces because we don't know whose photos were actually used by the two troll accounts tied to Russia's infamous internet research agency. The quiz uses profiles from both trolls and real people to see if you can tell the difference.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is this like a good lesson.
KENT: No one, including yours truly did better than five out of eight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You cannot really trust either side. People really know what they can hide behind.
KENT (on camera): What do you think you learned from this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's surprisingly difficult to spot these things.
KENT (voice-over): One red flag, someone who appears to agree with your opinions.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The one that got me was the African American woman for Black Lives Matter. And then it was like came from Russia.
KENT: But doesn't reveal anything personal about their life.
PATRICK WARREN, CLEMSON UNIVERSITY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF COMMUNICATION: People need to pause and think both Is this true? And is this a person I want to hand my microphone to?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not just going to follow certain pages or just support pages or people if I don't really know about them or know who they are.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KENT: I'm pretty mortified Brian of my five out of eight score. But just to really show you how ongoing. This is Facebook took down more foreign accounts today for nefarious inauthentic behavior. And by the way, we also just got for the first time a disclosure of how many QAnon accounts have been banned.
Facebook now specifically disclosing, they've taken down more than 14,000 groups of militarized social movements, and nearly 19,000 Instagram accounts that represent QAnon. So there's a lot of forces coming at you, as you prepare to vote if you haven't already.
WILLIAMS: So Jo, this marks something of a conversion for companies like Facebook, who have not always been as aggressive, saying, look, we just run the platform. We can't police everything. Any indication that there's going to be fireworks at this thing tomorrow, which I assume will be one of those virtual hearings.
KENT: Yes, every single CEO will be virtual, Brian, and expect a lot of fireworks. We do expect lawmakers from both sides of the aisles to come at these CEOs and say you're not doing enough. Why aren't you doing more of this? What about censoring us on that, and so you can expect them to continue to try to take these CEOs to task but the key here is that Congress has been unable or unwilling to regulate these companies.
And even Mark Zuckerberg himself has said repeatedly come at us with some regulations. We'd love to work with you. But there has been no political will to do so at least not so far as we've seen over the past five or so years.
WILLIAMS: We love having you on this beat for us. Thank you, Jo Ling Kent --
KENT: Thank you, Brian.
WILLIAMS: -- from Los Angeles. We appreciate it. Another break for us. When we come back a warning for all of us from the folks at the Washington Post and this one is a sign of our times.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WILLIAMS: Last thing before we go tonight is something deadly serious with a week to go until this election. It's hard to believe we have to say this in the US of A in the year 2020. But throw this on the pile of things we can't believe we're saying.
The U.S. mail can't be trusted as it once was. That's just a fact. It's because of politics, because of the President's campaign against mailing ballots because of his hand picked Postmaster General, because of forced slow downs and equipment and work rules.
It's not because the Postal Service suddenly got bad at their jobs. Quoting from the Washington Post, for millions of voters who considered using the postal service to cast their ballot for the November 3 election, it's time to find a backup plan.
Election administration and postal experts say with the presidential election a week away mail service continues to lag, especially in certain swing states that could decide control of the White House.
Nationally, 85.6 percent of all first class mail was delivered on time the week of October 16. That's the fourth consecutive week, the on time rate sat below 90 percent for mail that should reach its destination within three days.
Overlapping federal court orders in New York, Pennsylvania, Montana, Washington State and D.C. blocked Postal Service officials from pursuing a cost cutting agenda that delayed much of the nation's mail over the summer.
But those orders and extraordinary steps from within the agency have not restored service levels, leaving voters to navigate the unprecedented diversity of options for casting their votes.
The Post article goes on to say this bluntly, if you've requested a mail ballot, it hasn't arrived yet. It's too late. If you have your ballot and you haven't mailed it in yet, it's probably too late for that too. Find an official Dropbox if possible, or make a safe plan to vote in person, if possible.
If it's any comfort, it won't always be this way. There won't always be a pandemic. There won't always be political pressure on the postal service or a supplicant, Postmaster General. But for now, in this election, The Washington Post has it right. Find a way to vote, find a way to get your vote in and counted for reasons that are not the fault of your letter carrier. The U.S. mail is suddenly not the best way to go with one week to go until this election.
So tough love to take us off the air on a Tuesday night with our thanks for being here with us. On behalf of all my colleagues at the network's 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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