Summary
Trump pushes conspiracy theories as Biden talks policy. U.S. tops 8 million COVID-19 cases. GOP Senator Sasse slams Trump on private call with constituents. Report says, John Kelly tells friends Trump is most flawed person he's ever met. Romney criticizes Trump for not condemning QAnon. Trump says, if I don't win Florida going to find a way to fire Governor DeSantis. Trump holds campaign event as U.S. tops 8 million COVID cases.
Transcript
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRED ROGERS, AMERICAN TELEVISION HOST: It's a beautiful night in this neighborhood.
All of us have special ones who have loved us into being. Would you just take along with me ten seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are, whomever you have been thinking about, how pleased they must be to know the difference you feel they've made?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOY REID, MSNBC HOST: In many ways, Mr. Rogers seen here accepting a lifetime achievement award from the Television Academy in 1997 serves at antidote for these troubled times. Which by a lot of us were scratching our heads when last night, a senior Trump adviser mocked Joe Biden's town hall, saying it felt like an episode of Mr. Rogers neighborhood. Leave it to the Trump campaign to suggest Mr. Roger, an ordained the Presbyterian minister, by the way, an actual believing Christian, well, unlike Donald Trump, was universally beloved and who was practically synonymous with neighborly goodness, humanity in light is somehow the bad guy.
But let's go ahead and entertain the comparison for just a moment, shall we, and take a stroll through these two neighborhoods. Here was Mr. Biden's neighborhood last night where he offered the glimpse into what his presidency would look like.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We're a diverse country. Unless we are able to treat people equally, we're just never going to meet our potential. But I think the American people want to see that happen. I think they're ready to see it happen.
And I tell you one thing, if I'm elected president you will not hear me race baiting you, you will not here me divide, I'm here trying to unify.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: And then we have Mr. Trump's neighborhood, where conspiracy theories that Osama bin Laden isn't actually dead are legitimized and spread by a sitting president's Twitter account.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That was a re-tweet. That was an opinion of somebody. And that was re-tweet. I'll put it out there. People can decide for themselves. I don't take that position.
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, MSNBC HOST: But I don't get that, you're the president. You're not like someone's crazy uncle who can just re-tweet whatever.
TRUMP: No, no, no, no. That was a re-tweet. And I do a lot of re-tweets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Again. Back across the rationality bridge, to Biden, a proponent of the lifesaving health guideline of wearing masks during a global pandemic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: When a president doesn't wear mask or makes fun of folks like me when I was wearing a mask for a long time, then, as, you know, people say, well it must not be that important.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: And now, back to Doctor Johnny Banana Land where Trump dismisses mask by making up fake science data.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Just the other day, they came out with statement that 85 percent of the people that wear masks catch it. So this is a very tricky --
GUTHRIE: They didn't say that. I know that study. That's in --
TRUMP: Well, that's what I heard and that's what I saw.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: And, finally, the contrast du jour when it came down to each nominee take on testing themselves for COVID-19 while on the campaign trail so they don't kill their own supporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: It's decency, being able to determine whether or not you are, clear.
GUTHRIE: Do you take a test every single day?
TRUMP: No, no. But I take a lot of test.
GUTHRIE: Okay. And you don't know if you took a test the day of the debate.
TRUMP: Possibly I did, possibly I didn't.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Seriously, which nominee sounds like the person you want to lead your country, much less implement policy on your safety, your kids' education and whether or not you could put food on the table? Which one would you rather give access to the button?
With just 18 days left to go before we start tallying up the votes, let's be crystal clear, Donald Trump's neighborhood, where surely no black person can safely walk, where super-spreader rallies are held in senior citizen communities, and where your healthcare in on the chopping block is not a neighborhood that any American should want to live in or even visit in any dimension of space or time.
And this fact will ruin Trump's day. He didn't just fail to top his opponent in substance but also in ratings with more people watching Biden on ABC than Trump town hall on several of NBC's networks. But what these dueling town halls and crucial final weeks of campaigning continue to highlight is that this election is a matter of life and death.
According to an Economist/YouGov poll, 17 percent of Americans have a family member or close friend who was died due to complications from COVID-19, including 29 percent of black voters and 35 percent of Latin X voters. The number of known infections in the U.S. has now surpassed a staggering 8 million with surges and up ticks seen in nearly 40 states, as health officials now warn of a third wave.
Joining me now is Alex Wagner, Co-Host of The Circus on Showtime, Democratic Pollster, Cornell Belcher, and Stuart Steven, Senior Adviser to The Lincoln Project. Thank you all for being here.
And I'm going to start with you, Stuart. Because what we started to see over the last several days, is Republicans waking up as if from a dream, and realizing, oh crap, we aligned ourselves with a guy who's going to tank our entire party. Here is Ben Sasse who I've never heard criticize Donald Trump in public with any courage at all, but here he is behind the closed doors where it's safe and Trump can't tweet at him, I guess, trashing him. He's on a call with his constituents. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BEN SASSE (R-NE): He kisses dictators butts. The United States now regularly sells out our allies under his leadership. The way he treats women and spends like a drunken sailor.
He mocks evangelicals behind closed doors. His family has treated the presidency like a business opportunity. He's flirted with white supremacists.
I'm now looking at the possibility of a Republican blood bath in the Senate, and that's why I've never been on the Trump train.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: You've never been Trump train? Really? That's news to everybody else. But wait, there is more, Maryland governor, his courageous act of standing up to Donald Trump is he's going to write a dead president, Ronald Reagan, on his ballot. He didn't have, you know, the (INAUDIBLE) to just vote for Joe Biden. You've got Mitt Romney going out and saying, how dare you not condemn QAnon and then says both sides both sides, both sides, real courageous there, Mr. Romney. I mean, you're rich man. He can't hurt you. Then you've got John Kelly, who went along with everything, everything, snatching the kids, banning the Muslims, all good. But now he's like, his telling his friends, Trump is the most flawed person he's ever met. What happened to the men of the Republican Party, Stuart?
STUART STEVENS, SENIOR ADVISOR, THE LINCOLN PROJECT: Well, look, I put all those together. I'll (INAUDIBLE) Mitt Romney, he's the one who voted for impeachment, he spoke out against Trump. I think he has been a real clearing call (ph). And if others followed Romney, going back to the spring of 2016, we wouldn't have a President Trump.
But look, I think --
REID: Wait a minute. He voted for one count of impeachment. He voted -- but, wait, he voted to leave Trump in. He voted for one count so that he could be in history saying, he voted for impeachment. But he voted to keep the man in power, because the other count he voted no one, just to be clear.
STEVEN: Well, look, he was the only Republican who voted for impeachment. I think it was courageous act. There was actually no political gain for it. There was nothing to be -- help him in any way to do it. I think that if he -- if everyone had followed Mitt Romney, the Republican Party would be in a very different place. He spoke out clearly in 2016 against him. He's spoken out against his white supremacy. He's the only one that went out marched with Black Lives Matter.
I mean he may not be exactly the Republican that every Democrat would like but I think he's maintained a moral center and has spoken to the moment more so than any other Republican.
And if you take someone like Ben Sasse, it sort of breaks my heart because -- I'm mean, I've been a great admirer of Ben Sasse in many ways. He's the best educated Senator probably in the U.S. Senate. He's someone who should be leading the Republican Party to a better place. And I think he believes exactly what he said in the call.
I just don't understand why he doesn't speak out while other don't speak out. It's baffling to me. And I think it's going to be recorded in history as a great collapse of a moral center of a party.
REID: You know, it might also be recorded, Cornell, as the thing that ended the modern day Republican Party in a sense, right, because it's not attracting new people, it's attracting QAnon believers, right? It's not attracting, you know, new young voters, it's attracting people who believe that maybe Osama bin Laden isn't actually dead, and that maybe John F. Kennedy Jr. didn't die in a plane crash. Like that two is getting in.
And you're starting to see people like Ted Cruz, last week say, oh my God, we're going to lose the Senate. But Ted Cruz -- I mean, Donald Trump insulted his wife. He had the clearest opening to go at Donald Trump. Nope, nope, nope, he's been, you know, a bootlicker the whole time. They've all done it. Marco Rubio, Little Marco, he's like, yes, sir.
You know, we have -- let me just play for you Ron DeSantis doing the thing. This is Donald Trump mocking his favorite governor, Ron DeSantis, in his new state, home state of Florida. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Hey, Ron, are we going to win the state, please? Okay. You know, if we don't win it, I'm blaming the governor. I'll fire him somehow. I'm going to fire him. I will find a way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Cornell, he then called Matt Gaetz repeatedly Rick Gates. And Rick Gates -- Matt Gaetz, he said he'll never love another politician except Donald Trump. That's how much he loves him. And Trump doesn't even know his name.
But, anyway, I'm not go to you to comment on the Republicans. Talk to me about what this landscape really looks like, because there's a lot of PTSD. And people are saying I don't care what the poll say, they're just worried that this, that there won't be another blue wave. Give us the actual data. Where do Republicans stand electorally right now?
CORNELL BELCHER, DEMOCRATIC POLLSTER AND STRATEGIST: Well, I'm glad you didn't ask me about QAnon, because I know nothing about QAnon, Joy. But I do want to -- I think it's interesting what you just play with Senator Sasse. I think that, in a certain way, it encapsulates the environment that we're in. It is, he says behind closed doors, what so many of us think he means and he really feels.
And it's part of why so many voters think Washington is broken and that they can't trust politicians. I mean, it's a perfect encapsulation of everything that's wrong with Washington and with what's wrong with our politics and why so many Americans think our politics are broken is because people continually -- continuously put partisanship and politics ahead of what they fundamentally know what's right.
And so when you look at what's happening now, it is evident and it encapsulates everything that the American people think is wrong with our politics, is that we actually don't, you know, speak truth to power. We're always playing, we're always doing in playing politics and we're always doing political calculations. And I think that there's going to be a reckoning for that in 2020.
I think you got to have a lot of Republicans losing what is typically Republican states. Because to what my friends have been saying here, they don't recognize this Republican Party anymore and they're not being true to sort of what their values and what fundamentally so many of them you would think they once upon a time believed it.
REID: But, you know, I mean, Alex, the idea of, you know, sort of putting party second and (INAUDIBLE) I mean, Dianne Feinstein is just getting torn apart even by pretty much everybody I know was shocked and appalled when she did the whole, oh, Lindsey Graham, you're the greatest thing after the whole theft for the RBG seat, you know, thing for Amy Coney Barrett, the hearings of Amy Coney Barrett and she goes and hugs him. And people are thinking, well, how fast can we primary that lady.
And I think the reason feel that way overall about Republicans is not just what they did to Ruth Bader Ginsburg and not even letting her be in the ground before they starts snatching her seat. But you now have in Ohio, you have a printing company that's now overwhelmed, has not sent ballots out, these are important ballots that need to go to Cleveland, they needs to go to other place in Ohio, Pennsylvania. They had a Trump sign, Trump 2020 flag flying over its headquarters in Cleveland not long ago. They're now behind, way behind delayed sending ballots out. That kind of stuff is why a lot of Democrats say, throw all of bums (ph) out.
ALEX, WAGNER, HOST AND EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, SHOWTIME THE CIRCUS: Let me say, just as we're talking about Republicanism. There is a moral question about what the party should do and then there's an electoral question about what the party should do. And the reality is that Donald Trump and his QAnon conspiracy theories are wildly popular in the Republican Party.
I spent the day yesterday with the 3 percent militia in Georgia. And they are saying the very same thing Trump is saying. I don't know who is mirroring who. But there's a widespread belief in the Republican Party that Joe Biden is affiliated with a pedophile ring and that all of the things that most of the Democratic Party and I would say the educated public that reads mainstream institutions believes in terms of facts and figures, there is a complete repudiation of reality inside the base of the Republican Party right now.
And so we can ask ourselves, you know, why Ben Sasse is doing what he's doing and why Lindsey Graham is doing what he's doing and why they haven't spoken out earlier, or shown the sort of shreds of remaining backbone that they still have. But the fundamental truth is that this stuff is really popular.
And Donald Trump may not be President in 2021 but Trumpism and the sort of poison of misinformation is very much part of Republican DNA at this point. And until and unless there is a whole (INAUDIBLE) repudiation from the top of the party to the grassroots, that is the Republican brand.
REID: And, Stuart, it leaves the question to you, is that, is there a future for the Republican Party in that sense? Does it then shrink into sort of the QAnon party, even after Trump is gone or is there some way to -- is there somebody with the structure to change it? Because if Donald Trump doesn't win, then what? What happens to these people?
Steven: Well, look, I'll break (ph) it quickly about the degree to which Trumpism is embedded in the party. And at the Lincoln Project, we intend to beat Donald Trump and we intend to keep fighting Trumpism. It's not going to go away. If you look at these popular governors, Phil Scott, Charlie Baker, Larry Hogan, they're very popular in blue states, they can't even pick their own state party chairman. They're Trump people.
I think the future of the Republican Party in America is pretty clear. It's California. It's what happened to the Republican Party in California. I mean, not long ago, California was a beating heart of the Republican Party, the electoral citadel. Now, it's in third place. And most importantly, there's really no important public policy decisions made in California where Republicans are even relevant.
Look, you look at America, (INAUDIBLE) 15 years and under majority are non-white. That's a death sentence to the Republican Party, as it currently is.
REID: And I means, I would say, data-wise, Cornell, I assume you agree with that.
BELCHER: I do. And I think it's a long time coming. And I think this is a critical part though, Joy, is this, we are at a tenuous moment where we are to the point we're about to teeter into the coming majority/minority country, or we're coming close to it and power concedes nothing we've been thought. So, if power concedes nothing, Joy, we're into a really bumpy decade. And the Trumpism isn't going away. And we're going to see how much we believe in democracy and how much we just believe in power.
REID: I'm sorry, we don't have a lot more time. Be safe, Alex Wagner, on your travel for sure. Thank you for being here, Cornell Belcher, Stuart Steven, thanks very much.
Up next on THE REIDOUT, reports say Russian intelligence was using Rudy Giuliani to spoon feed misinformation to Donald Trump. Trump was reportedly warned about it but couldn't care less.
Plus, the latest example that Trump is in trouble. He is in Georgia right now. Republicans haven't lost in Georgia in three decade. Senate Candidate Jon Ossoff joins me next.
And Actress Yvette Nicole Brown joins me on the celebration of democracy that we're seeing all across the country as millions vote despite all the obstacles thrown their way.
Back with more of THE REIDOUT after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
REID: Donald Trump was full of confounding answers last night that raised more questions than they answered, like when he was asked about "The New York Times"' reporting on his taxes, including that he has $421 million in debt coming due over the next four years.
He was asked exactly to whom he owes all of that money.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GUTHRIE: Are you confirming that, yes, you do owe some $400 million?
TRUMP: What I'm saying is that, it's a tiny percentage of my net worth.
GUTHRIE: That sounds like yes.
TRUMP: I don't owe Russia money. I don't owe -- I owe a very, very small -- it's called mortgages. People have a house, they put a mortgage.
GUTHRIE: Any foreign bank? Any foreign entity?
TRUMP: Not that I know of.
But I will probably, because it's so easy to solve, and if you'd like to do, I will let you know who I owe, whatever small amount of money.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: OK, when?
According to "Forbes," Trump actually has at least $1 billion in debt.
And that was far from Trump's strangest answer of the night. He had to be reminded that he's not someone's crazy uncle, something with which his niece Mary Trump promptly disagreed via Twitter, because, earlier this week, he retweeted to his 87 million followers a baseless conspiracy theory pushed by supporters of QAnon, a convoluted web of conspiracy theories the FBI has deemed a potential domestic terror threat.
Naturally, when asked to disavow QAnon during his town hall last night, Trump was back to his same old song and dance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GUTHRIE: It is this theory that Democrats are a Satanic pedophile ring and that you are the savior of that.
Now, can you just, once and for all, state that that is completely not true, and...
TRUMP: So, I know...
(CROSSTALK)
GUTHRIE: ... disavow QAnon...
TRUMP: Yes.
GUTHRIE: ... in its entirety?
TRUMP: I know nothing about QAnon.
GUTHRIE: I just told you.
TRUMP: I know very little. You told me, but what you tell me doesn't necessarily make it fact.
What I do hear about it, is they are very strongly against pedophilia. And I agree with that. I mean, I do agree with that...
GUTHRIE: OK.
TRUMP: And I agree with it very strongly.
GUTHRIE: But there's not a Satanic pedophile cult being run by...
TRUMP: I have no idea. I know nothing about them.
GUTHRIE: You don't know that? OK.
TRUMP: No, I don't know that.
GUTHRIE: You, just this week...
TRUMP: And neither do you know that.
GUTHRIE: OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Well, of course, leaving aside his friendship with deceased convicted serial child sexual abuser Jeffrey Epstein and his well-wishing of Epstein's girlfriend and alleged accomplice, there is also the fact that Trump himself praised QAnon followers and welcomed their support back in August, because of course.
For more, I'm joined by Elizabeth Neumann, former assistant secretary for threat prevention and security policy at the Department of Homeland Security, and Malcolm Nance, MSNBC counterterrorism and intelligence analyst.
And, Malcolm, I will start with you.
"The Washington Post" pointed -- put up the Occam's razor explanation for why Donald Trump goes along with everything from dictators to conspiracy theorists to QAnon on to whatever. It's because they like him.
If you like him, he likes you. That's the sort of easy explanation, that he's just sort of simple that way. Is there a darker explanation?
MALCOLM NANCE, NBC COUNTERTERRORISM AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, there's a darker explanation, in the sense that it's been told to me that Donald Trump absorbs the energy of the people who support him.
And once they get a popular theory or a popular ideology, he adopts that himself. And, as you say, I really think it does have some measure that, if you like him, he likes you.
But this is his base. And he is never going to turn on his base. So long as QAnon is out there with Trump flags, he is going to support them. So long as QAnon is out there, even if they're espousing crazy hatred for liberals, all he hears, sort of like that "Far Side" cartoon, right, is blah, blah, blah, crazy hatred for liberals.
This is what he is -- is the information warfare environment that he exists in. It is a bubble of alternate reality. And it doesn't matter if it comes from neo-Nazis. Ku Klux Klansmen, Moscow, or QAnon crazy conspiracy theorists.
REID: Yes, you embrace him, he embraces you back.
Elizabeth Neumann, he's also-called people who support QAnon on people who love our country. He's praised them. So, pretending he doesn't know them is weird, when he's actually openly praised them and praised some of their candidates.
And he does a thing where he will praise or cuddle a far right or dangerous group and then say, oh, I don't know who that is.
Let's listen to him doing that with the Proud Boys.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I don't know who the Proud Boys are. I mean, you will have to give me a definition, because I really don't know who they are. I can only say, they have to stand down, let law enforcement do their work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: As somebody who's been working in this homeland security environment, what is the danger of that?
Because if they're not hearing, I don't support you, or we reject you, or we're going to stop you from the president, it does feel like they're hearing, go forward, stand back, and stand by.
It feels like he's encouraging all of this.
ELIZABETH NEUMANN, FORMER U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY ASSISTANT SECRETARY: He is, Joy.
He is providing that tacit approval. And the way that these conspiracy theories work, whether it's white supremacists or QAnon, at the core of their belief is this idea that there is an elite cabal that controls the government, and, therefore, in order for Trump to survive, he can't come right out and say things, especially not on the first time that he's asked.
So, when he eventually condemns, they view that as, OK, well, he has to go along with the elites, and he's got to win his election, so it's OK that, last night, he condemned us. We really know, because he refused to condemn for all of the many, many times that he's been asked, that he actually supports us.
So it's a wink and a nod effect. And, with QAnon in particular, there are aspects of people that have been attracted to QAnon where a law enforcement person or a counterterrorism person would say they're not really a threat in the way that, say, an extreme -- extremist anti-government or extremist white nationalist might be a threat.
But we do have increased pieces of people taking that QAnon ideology and then planning or carrying out attacks. And, fortunately, only one person has been killed so far, but there have been six incidents in the last few years.
That's why you see the FBI flagging, like, hey, this is a growing concern for us. And it does not make sense. The way the national security system works, the president would get briefed on that, especially when he's been asked about it publicly. They would brief him, this is what QAnon is.
And in particular for QAnon, Trump is a part of the conspiracy theory.
REID: Right.
NEUMANN: He is the savior of the children.
And of all of us from this conspiracy cabal of Democrats that are Satan worshipers and drink children's blood, he's going to expose all of that and save us all. So, if he would have come out and said, it's not true, then it actually helps undermine the entire conspiracy.
But he did the opposite, and it actually feeds the fire.
REID: Yes.
I mean, the reality is, if he was out there, and he was the vanguard of fighting pedophiles, why didn't he start with his friend Jeffrey Epstein, who he was friends with for decades? He didn't seem to do much there.
There's another part to it, Malcolm, is that, if it was just Donald Trump, that would be bad enough. But you have other people who've been sort of seeded around, and they keep popping back up like a bad penny, like the Rudy Giulianis of the world, for instance.
Rudy Giuliani has been around a long time, just nettling black people in New York and making black folks lives' miserable. But now he's back, selling his services to Donald Trump to go and try to find conspiracies against Joe Biden.
You now have a story, "Washington Post" reporting that the White House was warned that Rudy was targeted by Russian intelligence to feed misinformation to Donald Trump, not surprising. Intelligence raised concerns that Giuliani was being used to feed Russian misinformation to the president, said the former officials.
The warnings to the White House, which have not been -- previously been reported, led the national security Adviser, Robert O'Brien, to caution Trump in a private conversation that anything -- any info Giuliani brought back from Ukraine should be considered contaminated by Russia.
That obviously didn't happen. There's still an active lane into Donald Trump's ear and his brain. Rudy is one of them -- from Russia.
NANCE: Yes.
And let me tell you something. I think Frank Figliuzzi said earlier today that never in their wildest dreams could the Kremlin have thought that they could be whispering in the ear of the president's lawyer.
Look, they don't have to whisper in the ear of the president's lawyer. They can go to his daughter, his sons, the chairman of -- the Senate majority leader, the minority leader of the House of Representatives, virtually every person in the Republican Party, and Donald Trump himself.
In 2016, the information flow from Moscow to the United States and their disinformation campaign was to seed information in a broad spectrum out throughout the Republican Party, and it would be amplified and repeated.
This time, Trump's campaign is creating all of that information, and Moscow only has to try to amplify it. But they found their greater effort with their intelligence community is just go tell Donald Trump.
REID: Yes.
NANCE: Give Donald Trump the fishhook that he always wanted, seed fake information into a laptop in Ukraine, which is one of the oldest intelligence tradecraft tricks in the world, right? And never believe anything you find in a laptop just that conveniently answers all your questions.
Donald Trump is the perfect sucker for every old-school tradecraft technique the FSB and Vladimir Putin, the ex-KGB officer, could manage. And it's working.
REID: Yes.
And he's getting a lot of help from some Republicans. Ron Johnson and others come to mind.
All right, Elizabeth Neumann, Malcolm Nance, both -- thank you both very much. Have a great weekend.
And coming up: Donald Trump brings his COVID misinformation super-spreading campaign to Georgia, where more than one million people have already cast their ballots, some waiting in ridiculously long lines.
A new poll shows Democrat Jon Ossoff meeting in his U.S. Senate race there. He joins me next.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
REID: If Democrats want to put a stop to Republicans' minority rule power grab, they need to take back control of the Senate.
The path to victory for Democrats includes Maine, Colorado, and Arizona. Early voting in those states is bonkers. Colorado has seen an increase in early voting of nearly 2400 percent over 2016. That's not a typo, 2400 percent.
Democrats are expanding the map and putting Republicans on defense in unexpected places, like Montana, Kansas, and Georgia. For years, Democrats have openly flirted with the Peach State. A victory there would mean that Democrats have finally made it in the South.
Both of Georgia's Senate seats are on the ballot this year. If no candidate gets 50 percent, the races would go to a run-off. A new Quinnipiac University poll this week shows Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock leading against the Republican incumbents.
As of 5:00 p.m. today, 1.3 million votes have been cast in the great state of Georgia in a sign of just how competitive Georgia has become. Trump is back in the state right now, holding a super-spreader event in Macon.
I'm joined now by Jon Ossoff, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Georgia against David Perdue.
And thank you for being here. Great to talk to you.
And this is becoming an exciting race. I can remember working on a campaign in '04 where one of the dream states in the distance was Georgia. And everyone was saying, one day, that's what we're going, right? Democrats are going to Georgia.
You ran before. And when you ran in district -- in the Sixth District of Georgia, you came pretty close. You came in with 48 to 51 against Karen Handel.
What are you doing differently now, other than raising a lot of money, $21.3 million in the third quarter? What are you doing differently now that you think can get you from just under to 50-plus, 50-percent plus?
JON OSSOFF (D), GEORGIA SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: Well, Georgia in the last 10 years, and especially in the last four years, Joy, has become so much younger and more diverse. Georgia becomes younger and more diverse literally by the hour.
And that's the huge shift that we have seen here. Remember that Stacey Abrams lost by just 1 percent in 2018, infamously running against the man who oversaw the election. That was a 55,000-vote margin. Nearly 800,000 voters have been added to the rolls here since then.
That's why these races are so, so competitive. That's why Mitch McConnell has literally spent more money against me than any other Democratic challenger in America.
REID: Yes, you only lost by 10,000 votes, by the way, and this was in 2017. So you came pretty close then as well.
We have a video that your campaign has sent over. And I just want to let the audience know this came from your campaign. This is not an NBC News-vetted piece of video. So, I just want to warn you all of that.
But I'm going to play this video, because it is of your opponent, David Perdue, at a rally, I guess at the Trump rally that's in Macon, Georgia, tonight, and let's just play that video. And then I will get your thoughts on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. DAVID PERDUE (R-GA): Then Kamala, or Kamala, Kamala, Kamala, Kamala, mala, mala, I don't know. Whatever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: So, basically, that's -- we don't know what he said after that.
(CROSSTALK)
REID: Yes, I'm sorry, I interrupted you. Go.
I just wanted to make sure, before I let you answer, that we just -- I just need to point out, just, from our standards department point of view, that we don't know what he said after that or before that.
But go ahead.
OSSOFF: Well, this kind of vile race-baiting trash talk is what President Trump has unleashed from sitting Republican members of the Senate, I mean, to mock his colleague's name in that way, to show such disrespect for the Indian American community here in Georgia, for black women, to show that kind of open bigotry.
But this is who Senator David Perdue, my opponent, has revealed himself to be during this campaign.
This is the same guy who was running anti-Semitic attack ads on Facebook against me that lengthened my nose. Now he's out here mocking Kamala Harris' name.
Look, my mother came to this country as an immigrant when she was 23 years old because she believed that this country was a place that welcomed people striving for opportunity, that welcomed people fleeing persecution, that we were embracing the idea that we're all Americans, e pluribus unum, out of many, one.
What's happened in American politics in the last four years has broken my mother's heart. It's broken so many hearts. And that this is what our discourse has become, this kind of trash talk, this kind of open bigotry, we need to reclaim America's soul, as Senator Harris and Vice President Biden rightly say. And we can do it by defeating David Perdue here in Georgia.
REID: You know, and I think you make a point that I think is important, is that Senator Perdue actually serves with Kamala Harris.
It's not -- this isn't an unknown person to him. He serves with her right now. He knows what her name is. He's doing that to please and to perform for Donald Trump.
And yet, historically, at least over the last several decades, Georgia has been a state that prefers Republicans. Donald Trump won that state. You are obviously seeing a lot of backlash to that kind of thing, but do you think that that's enough to overcome the sort of fundamental conservatism of a state like Georgia, at least of white Georgia?
OSSOFF: Well, the demographic transition that we were discussing, the youth, the diversity, this is not Georgia 10 years ago. This is a true toss-up state, where there's not only a new coalition emerging demanding change.
It includes a lot of people who have rejected the GOP over the last two years, and particularly this year, as this administration's handling of this pandemic has been so catastrophic, has taken so many lives here, and has destroyed our economy here in Georgia.
But what we're up against, Joy, is voter suppression. Georgia is the front line in the ongoing struggle for voting rights. And this new electorate, which is younger and more diverse, if it can't access polling places, is not going to be able to make itself heard.
And that's why I need help protecting ballot access here and defending the franchise. And I humbly ask folks who are watching who want to see David Perdue defeated and Donald Trump beaten in Georgia to go to ElectJon.com, ElectJon.com, to help us defend the franchise and defeat this kind of open bigotry, this debasement of our politics.
We have problems to solve, a virus to control, an economy to jump-start, a nation that needs healing. My opponent represents everything wrong with American politics. And we are on the cusp of defeating him in Georgia this year.
REID: One-point-two-one-seven million votes have already been cast in the state of Georgia in the early vote, 73,147 votes cast just today. People are voting. I mean, people are definitely interested in this race in both of these Senate races.
Jon Ossoff, good luck. Wish you well.
OSSOFF: Thank you so much, Joy. I appreciate it.
REID: And coming up next -- of course. Thank you very much.
And coming up next: My guests celebrate voting in America, which we were just talking about, despite all the obstacles being thrown in the way.
Actress Yvette Nicole Brown is here, alongside Nyki Robinson, the founder of Black Girls Vote. And they will tell us more.
Stay right there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
REID: With early voting setting records across this country, get-out-the-vote efforts are in full swing. The group Black Girls Vote is focused on mobilizing black women to use their collective voting power to have their voices heard at the polls.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm a black girl who votes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm a black girl who votes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm a black girl who votes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because everyone deserves access to affordable health care.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because I want better education for our children.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because my vote can impact change.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Joining me now is Nykidra Robinson, founder of Black Girls Vote, and actress, producer and activist Yvette Nicole Brown, two friends here.
And I have to show everyone's out there. Everybody's like, why are you dressed down today? Because I'm wearing my Black Girls Vote shirt. But it's not getting on camera because it's too low down.
(CROSSTALK)
REID: So, I'm just letting everybody know that's why I'm wearing a sweatshirt, because I'm dressed for the -- I'm dressed for the occasion.
Nyki, start with you.
Tell me about what you guys doing. You guys have expanded. When I met you, you were doing this in Baltimore.
Where are you guys doing it now? And what is Party at the Mailbox?
NYKIDRA ROBINSON, FOUNDER, BLACK GIRLS VOTE: So, Joy, first of all, thank you so much for having me.
My first interview on national news was with you five years ago, when we started Black Girls Vote.
REID: Yes.
ROBINSON: And that goes to show how much you are committed to giving others a platform such as myself.
So, thank you.
REID: Thank you.
ROBINSON: So, Black Girls Vote, we started in Baltimore. We have grown. We have collegiate chapters, at Morgan State University, our inaugural chapter. Howard University is pending. They're interviewing, the executive board. American University has a chapter, as well as North Carolina A&T.
So, we are committed to engaging, educating and empowering black woman to get out to vote, but, more importantly, educating them and talking about the issues that impact us and our community.
And so, for this year, Party at the Mailbox is something we came up with. As many organizations had to do, we pivoted because of COVID-19. And because of that pivot, we are now -- expanded Party at the Mailbox with a partnership with National Conference on Citizenship.
Our initiative, we're in Philadelphia, as well as Detroit, and we are partying at the mailbox. And we're just bringing a party to you...
REID: Yes.
ROBINSON: ... so that folks enjoy voting in a celebratory way. We are giving folks an experience this election season, because we know that this vote this election year is so critical.
And so we're excited to bring Party to the Mailbox to Detroit, as well as Philadelphia, and Baltimore.
REID: Yes, that's fabulous.
You know, Yvette, we talk about -- we talk all the time about this. I mean, this is so critical, this election.
YVETTE NICOLE BROWN, ACTRESS: Yes, we do.
REID: I mean, and you did something fun the other day.
We -- you did a tweet inviting Chris Evans to Prom at the Polls, which really broke the Internet and broke -- and everything. It was everything. It was so fabulous. He said yes, by the way.
(LAUGHTER)
REID: So, you are now, I guess, dating Captain America, something like that?
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: I have been dating him on Twitter for about a year now. So now we're just going to take it to the polls.
(LAUGHTER)
BROWN: And only on Twitter. That's the thing that's important, only on Twitter, not in real life, not on Instagram, just on Twitter.
(LAUGHTER)
REID: Absolutely.
So, talk about what's at stake here, as you see it, because this -- it really feels -- and we always say this is the most important election of our lifetime. It feels like, this year, it really is.
BROWN: I agree.
Listen, I have been voted since I was 18 years old. And so I can say that this is the most important election of my lifetime. I have lived through all of the others. And I know that this one really matters.
There's things like the air we breathe, being able to go outside without a mask, being able to not be killed in the streets as we're driving around. I mean, these are just little things that I'd like to see handled by the right person being in the White House.
This is not a game. This is not one that you sit out. This is not one that you just back-talk or come up with ideas 18 days before an election to try to derail what Biden and Harris have built. This is a time to roll your sleeves up, every hen in the henhouse. And let's vote out this present danger and bring in decent people that want to make things better.
Everybody has to vote, nonnegotiable.
REID: Yes.
And -- absolutely.
And, Nyki, what I love about your story is that you guys started small. It was just a group of very committed young women who said, we're just going to get out here and do this.
The late Congressman Elijah Cummings embraced you. You were embraced by Marilyn Mosby and lots of people in Baltimore. But it -- I think what you guys have shown is that you don't have to be a huge, huge organization to get other people out to vote.
What can everyday people do to get others to the polls to help out, particularly with this pandemic happening?
ROBINSON: No, you're absolutely right. We have had women who are still committed to us to this same day, because they believe in the mission of Black Girls Vote.
So, for those of you who are at home wondering what you can do, just start by getting one other person to the poll, encouraging them to vote, telling a friend, whatever that may be. Whatever you can do to get them to vote, tell them the importance of voting and empower them.
One of the things that we do at Black Girls Vote, we meet people where they are, because we understand that people have real-life things are happening. And they may not -- voting may not be their number one priority.
But if you are educating them, and you are empowering them, it's something that they understand. And we ask them while we're out in the community, what's your pain point? What's causing you trouble?
And when you start talking to them than at them, then they will start to understand why their vote matters and then we're empowering them to get out to vote.
REID: Yes.
ROBINSON: And I think that's so critical in this election.
REID: Yes, absolutely.
And last word to you, Yvette Nicole Brown. Celebrities are really stepping forward. So, just one quick word of encouragement. Please, encourage other folks to get involved and use their platforms the way you are.
BROWN: I want to say that, first of all, is not lost. There is still time. There's 18 days.
You're a young man named Jerome Foster II, who created Prom at the Polls. That is the thing we joked about at the beginning.
REID: Yes.
BROWN: He's trying to encourage young people to enjoy their senior year at the polls. So, find somebody you want to take to the polls and shout them out, and shoot your shot.
And then just encourage people to find different, interesting, creative ways to go and make a difference.
REID: Yes.
BROWN: Your voice matters. Use it.
REID: Absolutely.
And, listen, if Captain America can get got, you can get whoever you want to go Prom to the polls with you.
BROWN: Shoot your shot.
REID: You can Party at the Mailbox. Do it?
(LAUGHTER)
REID: Yes, Nyki Robinson, Nykidra Robinson, Yvette Nicole Brown.
I'm going to show my shirt one more time. Thank you, guys, very much,
Everybody, vote, vote, vote.
BROWN: Thank you.
REID: All right. Thank you both very much.
(CROSSTALK)
REID: And still ahead, a sneak peek at tonight's documentary -- thank you -- tonight's documentary on Obama White House photographer Pete Souza.
But, before we go to break, you know how important this election is. And so, tonight, we are announcing #votingMVPs.
We want to hear from you. We want you guys to step forward about how you are getting your vote on. Tweet at me @JoyAnnReid or @THEREIDOUT.
You can use the hashtag #votingMVPs with a picture of yourself performing your civic duty. I want to see you online. I want to see your "I Voted" stickers. I will retweet you. You might get a follow. So just do it.
All right, or with your celebrity post-vote bottle of Prosecco. Show me that too, your little cocktail. Use the hashtag #votingMVPs on Twitter or Instagram. I want to see how you voted.
We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE SOUZA, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHER: I documented all the important moments of his presidency, the emotion, the tough decisions, the stressful times, the fun times, but also showing what he was like as a dad, as a husband, just as a human being.
To me, that shows how the job of the president should be done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: That was a clip from "The Way I See It," a documentary featuring photographer Pete Souza's unique viewpoint as the chief official White House photographer during the Obama administration.
I spoke to Mr. Souza earlier this week about the role he played in documenting history.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SOUZA: We need authentic moments for history.
I always looked at my job is just to hang around, hang around and be there when things are happening, and photograph as they're happening. Don't direct anything. Don't stage anything. You either get it or you don't.
And I think -- and that's -- especially in that Situation Room photograph, you can tell the emotion. You can see how tense it is in that room.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: You can see more of my interview with Pete Souza, along with Obama Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and Director Dawn Porter, immediately following tonight's television premiere of "The Way I See It" at 10:00 p.m. Eastern, commercial-free, right after "RACHEL MADDOW," right here on MSNBC.
Get your tissues out. You are going to need them.
And that is tonight's REIDOUT.
"ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES" starts right now.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.END
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