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Transcript: The ReidOut, October 27, 2020

Guests: Heather McGee, Jon Favreau, Juanita Tolliver, Tom Wolf, William Barber, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

Summary

Candidates deliver closing arguments seven days from election. Trump doubles down on fear and division seven days from election. Trump, Biden visit battleground states in final push. Trump, on plot to kidnap Michigan governor, says 'maybe it was a problem, maybe it wasn't.' By a vote of 5-3, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to throw out any ballots in Wisconsin that are postmarked but not received by the time polls close in November 3rd.

Transcript

ARI MELBER, MSNBC HOST: It's over 20 minutes. I hope you'll check it out.

That does it for THE BEAT with Ari Melber tonight. As always thanks for watching. "THE REIDOUT" with Joy Reid starts now.

JOY REID, MSNBC HOST: Okay, one week, exactly seven days from now at this hour, polls will be closing in several states including Georgia. And the final vote count will begin. Voters even, as we speak, are out in huge historic numbers in states like Pennsylvania taking advantage there of the last day of in-person mail in early voting as we enter the home stretch on what's already a historic election.

More than 66 million of you have already cast your ballots. And against that backdrop, Joe Biden and Donald Trump were out making closing arguments today.

In the first of his two events in the newest battleground state, Georgia, Joe Biden issued a call for unity and healing to overcome the crisis confronting our nation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Divisions in our nation are getting wider. Angry people are upset. Anger and suspicion are growing. And our wounds are getting deeper.

Has the heart of the nation turn to stone? I don't think so. I refuse to believe it. I know this country. I know our people. And I know we can unite and heal this nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: Now, while Biden was holding those events in Georgia, Trump was taking his coronavirus misinformation tour to Michigan, Wisconsin, and tonight, to Nebraska. All states that he won in 2016. At his super-spreader event in Michigan, Trump went all in on his usual message, all fear and division, nothing new, no plan, once again, downplaying the severity of the pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: It's COVID, COVID, COVID. You can't watch anything else. On November 4th, you won't be hearing so much about it. Okay?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: When he also attacked Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who was the target of a kidnapping and murder plot by alleged domestic terror right wing extremist.

Now, if you don't believe that Trump has no real message, because he doesn't, take it from former President Barack Obama, who was out today in Florida laying loose his inner anger translator over Trump's handling of the coronavirus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: What's his closing argument? That people are too focused on COVID. He said this in one of his rallies, COVID, COVID, COVID, he's complaining. He's jealous of COVID's media coverage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: Now if you still have question about Trump's priorities with seven days left until Election Day. He was live rage tweeting about his predecessor even as that rally was ongoing, whining that his favorite net work Fox was carrying Obama's rally, so mean.

Meanwhile just a short time ago at his second event of the day in Georgia, Joe Biden used the word of the late great Atlanta Congressman John Lewis to issue an impassioned plea to get out the vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: He said, quote, the vote is the most powerful non-violent change agent you have in a democratic society.

Use it. You have the power to win this election. Folks, it's time to stand up and take back our democracy. And any place, we can do it here in Georgia. We win Georgia we win everything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: Joining me now is NBC News Correspondent Mike Memoli covering Joe Biden in Atlanta, and Geoff Bennett, NBC News White House Correspondent, covering the Trump campaign in Omaha, Nebraska. Gentlemen thank you for being here.

Mike, I'm going to start with you. Give us a sense of inside the Biden campaign, what is their closing strategy? What is this map that we're seeing unfold for both himself and former President Obama mean to the campaign?

MIKE MEMOLI, MSNBC CORRESPONDENT: Well, Joy, anybody who's been watching our coverage throughout the day has heard this statistic. No Democrat has carried Georgia in a presidential election since 1992. The Biden campaign absolutely thinks they have a chance to win here, as they do in several other states that they had put in this so-called expansion category. Out of 17 states they have identified as battlegrounds as far back as May, they're still competing in all 17. Including red states like Arizona, like Texas, and, yes, like here in Georgia.

But, Joy, there's also something much bigger happening in this final week as part of the closing argument from the Biden campaign. It takes a certain amount of audacity to do what Joe Biden did three weeks ago, and that is give an address in Gettysburg, as he did evoking Lincoln house divided speech there to really speak to what he said was he need to unify the country.

He doubled down on that message today as he evoked FDR in Warm Springs, Georgia, the place where he recovered from polio, saying that Biden -- he was going to be the person who can help the country heal from its divisions. This idea of playing to history of trying to meet this moment at an inflection point in this country is one that really they believe is what's carried Biden to this point.

What is his closing message at this point was also the message he began this campaign with, the idea of trying to restore the soul of America, this battle for the soul of America. And so as the Biden campaign heads into these final seven days, they're competing across the board, playing offense in those blue wall states that they need to win, like Michigan, like Wisconsin, like Pennsylvania, where Biden has been more places than anywhere else since the convention, but also it's a message that is playing in the suburbs, of places like here in Atlanta and also among their core constituencies, African-American voters, which Biden appealed to directly with his remarks, as you said, evoking John Lewis' words there tonight.

REID: Real quick, before I let go of you for a second, Mike, how concerned or how confident is the Biden campaign about some of these other votes? Because he's doing better, most of the polls show, with white voters. He's struggling a bit compared to Hillary Clinton with Latino voters. And there is that issue of Trump going after black men. How confident are they they're going to hold the Obama coalition together in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin?

MEMOLI: Yes, that's certainly one of the reasons we see President Obama out in force, playing that message, speaking directly to his voters. But I talk to a senior strategist on the Biden campaign tonight about what their seeing with this early vote totals. And, yes, in a lot of these key battleground states, the proportion of African-American vote that's voting early is not as high as perhaps they hope it can be.

They chopped that up largely to the fact that African-American voters like to vote on Election Day. They, especially with what the president has been out there saying casting doubt on this process, are worried about whether their vote will be counted.

The exception is here in Georgia. This adviser told me, they're seeing exponentially significantly higher rates of turnout among black voters early. And they talk that all up to what happen in 2018 with Stacey Abrams. People have long memories here in Georgia, and they're determined to have their vote tallied in a big way.

REID: Indeed, I'm sure their memories are long in Georgia.

Let me bring you in, Geoff. You are in Omaha, Nebraska. I know there is a very key Congressional district there. But it is weird as somebody who worked on little bit on campaigns to have a Republican candidate closing -- doing part of the closing argument in Nebraska. What is the campaign thinking?

GEOFF BENNETT, MSNBC WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Right. Yes, and Nebraska is a reliably red state, has not elected a Democrat for president since 1964. But the reason why President Trump is here is because this part of Nebraska and neighbors Iowa, so when he comes here, the thinking is he gets a twofer local media, he gets coverage both in Nebraska and in Iowa.

But it's also true that he's trying to keep Joe Biden from picking off one of five of the state's Electoral College votes. So the second Congressional district, which includes Omaha and the surrounding area, leans Democrat and the thinking that this is a close race. The Trump campaign wants to leave no potential points on the board.

But there is a real disconnect between what the Trump campaign is saying and projecting as compared to the way President Trump is campaigning. So even though Joe Biden leads President Trump nationally and in the battleground states, the Trump campaign privately says, well, our internal polls tell a different story.

And the GOP is closing the gap with Democrats in terms of voter registration in places like Pennsylvania and North Carolina and Florida. And even though Joe Biden is outraising team Trump, the Trump campaign says, hey look, we have all the resources we need to remain competitive.

But President Trump himself, as we've see, is crisscrossing the country, packing state upon state into one day. So, today, he's campaigning in Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska, tomorrow, he goes to Arizona. And he's trying to defend his turf. He's trying to defend mainly Midwestern states that he won in 2016 from Joe Biden.

Michigan -- Donald Trump won Michigan by just 11,000 votes. Right now, Joe Biden is up by nine points according a leading polling average. In Wisconsin, Donald Trump won Wisconsin narrowly, as we know. But even there, that state is leaning Democratic.

So even as the Trump campaign is projecting confidence. That's not the way the candidate is campaigning, Joy.

REID: Yes. It is weird. It's a strange place to be for Republican candidate a week before the election. Mike Memoli, Geoff Bennett, thank you both, I really appreciate you being here tonight. Everybody stay safe.

And with me now, Heather McGee, Co-Chair of Color of Change, and Michael Steele, former Chairman of the RNC and Senior Adviser to the Lincoln Project.

And, Michael, I'm going to start with you. Let's put up the national polling average, which, again, they don't mean a whole lot, you know, as compared to the state polling averages, but they at least give us a sense of what's going on.

Because one of the things that we've been trying to say even in -- when we talk about this race in internally, and when we talk to our friends about this race, because they call us for mental health counseling essentially every day, is that 2020 and 2016 are very different.

Back in 2016, at this point in the race, it was essentially tied within the margin of error. It's a 2.2-point difference between Trump and Hillary Clinton. You've already had the Comey, you know, press conference, which should really shake it up the race completely. Three days out, he would do another press conference.

But from the 11th day to the third day. Hillary was being beating up by the Comey stuff and she was trending down, so at 2.2-point, at 2.2 match game or 2.2 point game then. It's 7.4 on average now. That's the average polling. And Biden is at that magic number of 50. When you see a Republican candidate trying to do a twofer in the Iowa media market by being in Nebraska, does that tell you that they are right to be so confident that they are winning?

MICHAEL STEELE, FORMER RNC CHAIR: No, they have a hole in their campaign, and it's a big one. And the whole is what the voters who have appealed off of the Trump campaign over the last four, five months. It's been a slow, steady drip that they can't plug. And the reason they can't plug it is because of COVID-19, flat lined economy and social unrest.

The president, despite efforts by those in his campaign to renegotiate those issues with the voters has failed to do so. So Trump is essentially kind of running a 2016 campaign in a 2020 COVID environment against an opponent who, unlike Hillary Clinton, voters like and voters see as precedential.

So for those who are trying to make, you know, these comparisons on the numbers, I get it, I understand the reason to be concerned, and I'm concern too. You just want to make sure you deliver your vote, Joy. But the reality of it is, this is not the same as 2016.

Joe Biden has had a steady and consistent lead for at least seven or eight months. And if you go back to 2016, two weeks ago, the gap between Clinton and Trump was four points. The week out is now as you showed 2.2. Joe Biden was at seven points two weeks ago. He was at seven points six weeks ago.

So the point is the voters in large measure have made up their minds. And you still want to turn on out Election Day. Don't get me wrong, you still want to do that and no one should be complacent. But this is not the same race. And I think it's important for people to understand that, again, not to get lackadaisical about it, but you can't sit too much in the corner and cower because the dynamics are different.

REID: And I think there was an important point made too by Mike Memoli, and it is true if you look at campaigns, typically voters of color tend to vote closer to Election Day. They do a lot of early voting but voters of color have in large part been day of voters in a lot of states. So it's hard to tell what's going on, even by the early number.

So, Heather, Trump has been trying to stanch the bleeding with suburban woman, because, interestingly enough, he's doing better with Hispanic voters, which is weird given how abusive he has been toward that community, particularly with Hispanic man, and he is expecting to maybe do as well or maybe slightly better with black men. But where he seems to be hurting is white voters, particularly white college-educated voters.

So here is Donald Trump appeal to suburban woman, I read that as white suburban woman, here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: But they were talking about suburban women, don't lie, Donald Trump. I said I think they do.

I'm also getting your husbands -- they want to get back to work, right? They want to get back to work. We're getting your husbands back to work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: I mean he did everything but tell them to cook a brontosaurus burger before the husband gets home and gets mad. But go ahead and give me your thoughts on that. Is that going to work?

HEATHER MCGEE, CO-CHAIR, COLOR OF CHANGE: I mean, how clueless can that be in an economy where hundreds of thousands of women every week are dropping out of the labor force because of the squeeze of not having child care and elder care and schools open because of his incompetency, corruption, and malfeasance? This is absolutely a women movement moment, and it has been since his inauguration, created the largest single day protest in the history of this country, the women's march, and when in 2018, the first time Americans were able to vote on that, they sent more women to Congress than have ever there before.

He has lost women the largest gender gap and recorded since we started recording the gender gap and so much of it is on the issues of morality, of empathy, of character, which, you know, obviously many of us think should we have made white women particularly vote against him in 2016, because we knew who he was, his unfavorability rating is actually the same today as it was in 2016. But it's so important to not discount how much women have been radicalized, women of all races have been radicalized by this presidency and just the callousness.

REID: Yes. And, you know, if you want to appeal to women, maybe don't joke about a woman governor being threatened by domestic terrorist. Here is Trump doing that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Your governor, I don't think she likes me too much. Hey, I'm the one -- it was our people that helped her out with her problem. And we'll have to see if it's a problem, right? People are entitled to say maybe it was a problem, maybe it wasn't. It was our people, my people, our people that helped her out. And then she blamed me for it. She blamed me. And it was our people that helped her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: I mean, maybe I don't know. I mean, is the domestic terrorist vote like up for grabs? Like is this like a swing vote that Trump is trying to get? I don't understand the strategy here. Do you, Michael?

MCGEE: I mean, you know it's an uncle in a lazy boy strapped on the T.V. at night. That's the strategy. And he goes off on rants (ph) like that. It's not strategic, it's stream of consciousness. It's so far down the radical of speaking only to right-wing voters. That it's barely legible to anybody outside.

Now, the thing that concerns me is Americans all over the country are doing everything they can to vote in this most consequential election of our lifetime that possibly given the threats of the planet in the history of this country.

But Trumpism is still going to be a force in our internet world, still going to be a force in our media, still going to be a force in the Republican Party, even if Donald Trump is elected out of the White House in one week. And that is where those weird dog whistles, the weird conspiracy theories, that's what keeps me up at night.

REID: Yes, that's his new tribe. Feel free to comment on that or on Borat offering him maybe a job. He said he's always looking for people to play super villains in his shows. That was his response at Donald Trump attacking Borat on this. Final word to you, Michael Steele?

STEELE: Now, look, this is the culture crazy part of the program. So everybody can get the popcorn and enjoy it, you know, who just lives and dream of Trump. The rest of us are going to vote. The rest of us are going to vote. We are voting. We're taking this seriously because we know, to Heather's point, just what this mean.

You know, the only thing that changes after Donald Trump is unelected is that he will still have his Twitter account without the presidential seal.

So we still have a great deal of work to do in our culture, as well as our economy to the healing process that has to take place. And Joe Biden will have a lot of work ahead of him, but I think the American people, if they elect him, will be behind and them to get that work done.

REID: Absolutely. And Sacha Baron Cohen is a -- I don't think he's a U.S. citizen. He's a national treasure. People should see that film. It's actually really illuminating about our country in a lot of ways. Heather McGee, Michael Steele, friends, thank you both for being here.

And up next on THE REIDOUT, Democrats are promising payback after Republican ram through a new Supreme Court justice just a week before the votes get counted in this ongoing active election. Look at what that payback might look like.

Plus, Donald Trump whines that Pennsylvania's governor is being mean to him and he threatens to cut off federal aid. Sound familiar? I mean, he got impeach for doing that very thing to Ukraine. Governor Tom Wolf, joins me.

And the new Supreme Court ruling that signals just how far Trump's justices are willing to go to hand him another term as president.

THE REIDOUT continues after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Legitimacy is not the result of how they feel about it. You know, you can't win them all. And elections have consequences.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: Elections do have consequences, Mitch.

And now is the time it show Mitch McConnell and his Republican lemmings how true it is, because, in his haste to jam Amy Coney Barrett on to the Supreme Court in the final weeks before the vote counting begins, McConnell has shown the American people where his priorities lie. And it is not with you or your families.

You see, since May, McConnell has been sitting on a relief bill that would bring vital assistance to the millions of Americans who are out of jobs, losing their homes, or sick from this deadly pandemic. It was called the HEROES Act.

But he has barely lifted a finger to see that you and your families are being protected. And now that is Ms. Coney Barrett has been confirmed, you would think that maybe he would get around to helping you out?

Nope. McConnell has adjourned the Senate until after the election. Of course, none of this would have been allowed to happen without the approval of his fellow Senate Republicans. Remember, 20 of them, 20, including McConnell himself, are on their state's ballot right now.

And they will have to answer for their actions. Elections indeed should have consequences.

Joining me now, Jon Favreau, former head speechwriter for President Obama and co-host of "Pod Save America," and Juanita Tolliver, national political director for Supermajority.

Thank you both for being here.

Let's talk about consequences, because I believe payback is a voter. That is -- I put it on my Twitter feed, because that is how I believe in life, that you don't get mad, you get even.

Let's start with you, Jon Favreau.

Let's put up the list again. Here are the people who are up for reelection right now. Talk to me about which of these people stand to potentially face the retribution of voters the most in a week.

JON FAVREAU, FORMER HEAD SPEECHWRITER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: I think Cory Gardner in Colorado, Martha McSally in Arizona, Thom Tillis in North Carolina, Kelly Loeffler, David Perdue in Georgia, Joni Ernst in Iowa, Lindsey Graham in South Carolina.

I mean, the list is long right now...

(LAUGHTER)

REID: Yes.

FAVREAU: ... of people who are up for election, Republicans who are up for election and may lose their seats.

REID: You recently got a chance.

You guys are so lucky. You got a chance to talk to President Obama. You might have a slight advantage in being able to talk to him.

I mean, this is this his attitude, too, because we know there was a hole, when they go low, we go high. But that was Michelle.

(LAUGHTER)

REID: That really wasn't Barack Obama.

(LAUGHTER)

REID: Like, does he believe this way, that really what voters ought to do is remove Democrats -- remove Republicans from power in order to -- even if they just neuter Mitch McConnell, if he stays in office?

FAVREAU: Yes, I asked him that question.

And one of the things he said is, if the Republican -- if this version of the Republican Party is going to keep blocking any progress whatsoever on any issue, if they're going to treat the courts as a place where you just stack right-wing ideologues to promote right-wing policies, just in case there's an outbreak of democracy in the other two branches of government, if they're going to do this, then not only do we have to show up and vote, and vote in large Democratic majorities, but we also have to do things like remove the filibuster to make sure that we can actually pass things through the Senate, and not have Mitch McConnell block every single Democratic priority or any priority.

REID: Yes.

Juanita, let's talk about the how, because you are with an organization, Supermajority, that's trying to move some of those folks on to unemployment, so that maybe Mitch McConnell will be motivated to help them once they're unemployed.

One of my favorite communists of all time, Ron Brownstein, who I covet desperately -- he's with another network, unfortunately -- he wrote something in "The Atlantic."

And he wrote this: "As the nation's growing racial and religious diversity limits the GOP's prospects, filling the courts with conservative -- conservatives constitutes what Princeton historian Sean Wilentz calls the right-wing firewall against a country evolving electorally away from them," and that that's why they didn't care about the consequences politically, short-term, even though Mitch McConnell claims this will be great for them, of ramming this through, and they don't care whether they pass a bill to help people, right?

I mean, they just want to try to control the courts, because they can't control the votes or the culture.

So, what do you do about that on the ground? And how do you convince people that they can stop that through voting?

JUANITA TOLLIVER, NATIONAL POLITICAL DIRECTOR, SUPERMAJORITY: Look, I think voters, first and foremost, are constantly reminded that we have the power to choose who our leader of this country is, and also choose who represents us in Congress.

And so what I'm going to be really conveying to voters is, remember, carry this as yet another failure from Trump, McConnell and Republicans to meet you and meet your needs in present day. Carry this as another failure if you are a black, a person of color, a person living with preexisting conditions or disabilities as an attack on your civil rights.

Carry this with you to the polls and stay motivated to bring three other people with you to the polls, because this is a turnout game, where your vote will ultimately decide the civil rights situation and democracy that our nation has.

And so I think one of the other things is that I don't understand how the GOP sees this as a political asset. It's most certainly not for the women who have left the work force at the hundreds of thousands. It's certainly not for black and brown communities who have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 and unemployed at disproportionately high rates either.

And so, I'm like, a political asset for whom exactly?

REID: Yes.

TOLLIVER: Because the voters are going to carry this to the polls with them, knowing that you have done nothing to help them, but you did everything to forward your agenda, whether it's on the Supreme Court seat, or making sure corporations had what they needed in this pandemic.

REID: I'm going to ask both of you this question, because you're both involved in this get-out-the-vote effort.

I will start with you, Juanita. Do you think that the anger that we're seeing, particularly among women, particularly women of color -- but really now even white women who voted on the majority for Donald Trump, they are now being called revenge of the white moms. Like, they're so mad and trending away.

(LAUGHTER)

REID: Even white voters in general with college degrees are trending away from Trump.

Does this -- is this a sustainable energy past this election? Because it's a three-cycle thing for the Senate. You got '22 -- 2022 and 2024, if you really want to get rid of all the people involved in Trumpism.

So, I will start with you, Juanita. Is this sustainable energy for the next two cycles?

TOLLIVER: Joy, I just want us to rewind. Remember 2018 and the blue wave that we saw there, the historic turnout, the way suburban women voted in that election, and really gained seats in the House?

Look now at the early voting numbers we have. What -- I believe it passed, what, 65 millions a day have early-voted and are working on GOTV through Election Day.

Look, this energy is there, Joy. I think it's not only going to sustain and through after 2020, but into 2022, into the gov races in 2021, because what we see now is voters fully in their power in deciding who will lead our country.

REID: And, Jon, you have got a little thing called Vote Save America that you are doing that you guys at the podcast are doing.

Is it sustainable past November, past a week from tonight?

FAVREAU: It has to be. There's no other option, because Trumpism isn't going away even if Donald Trump does.

They have a right-wing media empire that's going to continue to radicalize people. They have now stacked the courts for a generation. Mitch McConnell, even if he loses the majority, he will still be around. A lot of these Republicans will still be around, and they will be fighting harder than ever.

And they won't they won't see Joe Biden as a legitimate president. And so I think what we have learned from the Trump era is, no matter what happens next week, democracy is an everyday struggle. It's every single day. And so I hope all of these people who have volunteered and phone-banked and become active in these last four years have learned that they have -- everyone should take a break after this election, but then we have got to keep fighting.

REID: Jon Favreau, formerly of team Obama, now with "Pod Save America" and Vote Save America, Juanita Tolliver from Supermajority, thank you both for being here. I really appreciate you both.

And up next, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf joins me on Trump's threat to punish his state for not doing enough to help Trump's campaign and on the protests taking place in Philadelphia after police fatally shoot a black man in front of his mother with cell phone cameras rolling.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

REID: The road to an Electoral College victory runs directly through Pennsylvania.

From Easton to Erie, the citizens of the Keystone State could well shape the future direction of this country.

But, right now, the state is facing a trifecta of challenges. There's the coronavirus pandemic, which is surging. Pennsylvania reported more than 6,000 new cases in 24 hours, exceeding its record peak in the spring.

Donald Trump has hosted a blitz of super-spreader rallies across the state and is waging an all-out legal assault, trying to limit voting access and limit the amount of time that there is to count those votes.

And, last night, protests broke out in West Philadelphia, after Walter Wallace Jr. was shot and killed by police in front of his mother. Police were responding to a call about a person allegedly with a weapon. And they claimed that Wallace refused to drop a knife.

Relatives told "The Philadelphia Inquirer" Wallace was in distress when police arrived. And neighbors who witnessed the shooting say police did not attempt to de-escalate the situation before opening fire.

The shooting was caught on camera.

Joining me now is Democratic Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania.

And, Governor Wolf, thank you for being here. I have a lot of questions. I'm going to try to get through lots of them.

Let's start with the president of the United States issuing threats against your state and seemingly against you. He tweeted out that Philadelphia needs poll watchers. He's talking about -- he has said in the past he would like to send armed people, or he said military people, or he would like to send police in to watch the polls.

I don't know what that means.

Here he is making a direct statement about you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So, Tom Wolf, next time gives -- give us a little notice, Governor? And I will remember it, Tom.

I'm going to remember it, Tom.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Hello, Mr. President, this is Governor Wolf. I need help. I need help.

You know what? These people are bad. We're watching you, Governor, very closely in Philadelphia.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: We're watching you. A lot of bad things, a lot of bad things happen there with the counting of the votes.

We're watching you, Governor Wolf, very closely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: First question, has the administration reached out to your office in some way to formally threaten to take away things like disaster relief, if you need it, to cut off the state of Pennsylvania from aid, or anything like that?

Because that is what he did to Ukraine and got impeached for. Has anyone from the administration reached out to make those threats formal?

GOV. TOM WOLF (D-PA): No.

REID: OK.

And what about this, "We're watching you." He didn't say who the we are.

Has anyone from the Trump administration reached out to you to say who it is that is watching you, and whether the you means you personally or your voters?

WOLF: No, I don't know who he was talking about. I haven't been reached out to.

We did try to reach out to his campaign, because he was doing these super-spreader events in Pennsylvania, and wanted to make sure he understood that they ought to wear masks, ought to practice social distancing and try to keep his supporters safe.

But we never heard anything back.

REID: Yes.

WOLF: So, that's the extent of the connection that I have had with this campaign.

REID: Are you concerned that, if some natural disaster happens in Pennsylvania, and Trump is reelected, he will deny federal aid to the state of Pennsylvania because he thinks you were mean to him?

(LAUGHTER)

WOLF: I'm absolutely beyond being clear on exactly what he's capable of doing or not capable of doing. Nothing surprises me.

REID: Yes.

The thing about Donald Trump is, a lot of the things he says are silly or maybe, one would even say, kind of stupid, you know?

But the problem is, he's not alone, right? He's enabled by a lot of other Republicans who used to be sort of normal Republicans. Your state legislature, which Democrats do not control, has been very squishy about whether or not they might just give the state's votes to Republicans even -- to Donald Trump even if he loses.

Are you concerned about that?

I want to play for you. This is Representative Malcolm Kenyatta and he was talking about what the Republicans are trying to do to create what's called an Election Integrity Committee. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STATE REP. MALCOLM, KENYATTA (D), PENNSYLVANIA: Every single one of us should raise our voice about what is happening, because if they can't win fair and square, they are committed to cheating. And I think it is -- it is a shame to watch this Pennsylvania House Republican caucus, as I said, go from a caucus to a cult. I'm ashamed to see it happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)REID: So, according to state law in your state, the first ballots are going to be counted, the mail ballots that have been turned in early. You got the in-person votes get counted, and then, lastly, the last ballots to be counted are the provisional ballots. You have a lawsuit by the Trump campaign they don't want to count any ballots that come in after Election Day.

Are you concerned your state legislature will simply steal the election no matter who wins it and give it to Donald Trump in the Electoral College?

GOV. TOM WOLF (D), PENNSYLVANIA: I really appreciate what Malcolm said. But I think the Republicans in the state legislature are not in a position to actually steal the election. And I don't think that they would be allowed to do that. Pennsylvanians really would not put up for that.

REID: Let's talk quickly about the Walter Wallace shooting. We can just play the video of it, and just warn people that it is -- it is -- we'll play it very quickly. Do we have time? Play very quickly.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

REID: I just want to -- and this is pretty disturbing to watch what's happening. This is a young man who his family says was in distress, in mental distress, had a mental health issue. Someone called the police to say someone might have had a knife.

He's then shot in front of lots of people who are out in the streets and officers opened fire with all those people nearby.

Is this something the state plans to investigate? And do you think that looks like professional police work? Firing a gun with lots of crowds nearby, and the person who is shot, mom screaming, right next to him -- does that look like a professional police operation?

WOLF: This looks like this is a part of cycle of injustice that has been going on for far too long, and Walter did not deserve that. His family did not deserve that. But they deserve all our sympathy.

And we have got to make sure this stops.

REID: Have you spoken to the family?

WOLF: Not yet.

REID: Do you plan to?

WOLF: Yes.

REID: All right. Please keep us --

WOLF: If they'll -- if they'll -- if they will talk with me.

REID: OK, that's a very god caveat. Important.

Thank you very much, Governor Tom Wolf. Appreciate your time tonight and hopefully, you'll catch us up on the family. Appreciate it.

OK. And up next, Kamala Harris is not wrong when she says that your voting rights are on the ballot in this election. And the rush to ram through another conservative Supreme Court justice is only raising the stakes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

REID: Last night with eight days left to vote in a key battleground state that's crucial for Trumps victory, the U.S. Supreme Court made a decision that crystallized make haste rush job of confirming Amy Coney Barrett. By a vote of 5-3, the court ruled to throw out any ballots in Wisconsin that are postmarked but not received by time polls close in November 3rd.

The Supreme Court ordered -- the Supreme Court ordered voter suppression isn't just happening in Wisconsin. Other last-minute cases are out there designed to throw the election into chaos in the final hours, or just throw it to Trump.

A very similar case in North Carolina, another critical state that produces razor thin margins. And another case in Pennsylvania, that the state GOP is asking the Supreme Court to reconsider now that the court is armed with Trump's third appointee.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett starts on Tuesday and will swing the nations highest court to a conservative 6-3 majority.

During her hearing, she refused to stay if Trump can delay the election, which he can't do, which is one of the blaring code red signs that told us that Barrett is open to stealing the election for Trump and she's not the only.

The ghosts of the Florida recount have returned to haunt us 20 years later. In a footnote to Monday's concurrent opinion, another Trump appointee Brett Kavanaugh made a shocking and frankly bizarre endorsement of former Chief Justice William Rehnquist concurrence in the 2000 Bush v. Gore fight, that the Supreme Court could overturn rulings by state courts regarding state election laws.

Kavanaugh is one of three current justices who worked on George Bush's side during the legal fight over Florida's 2000 recount. The other two? John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett.

We are now seeing Supreme Court rulings that are clear attempts to nullify the election process, something Trump has been intentionally executing with the help of his party, his attorney general, and now a majority in the Supreme Court. So, keep watching the court.

And for those of you absentee ballots try to drop them off at the polling place or just vote in person, and vote like the Georgians do.

"Politico" reporting that Georgia's legacy of voter suppression is actually fuelling historic black turn out in the state. And that is next.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

REID: We have entered an era of Supreme Court-ordered mass voter suppression intentionally fueled by the Republicans. Perhaps they see the writing on the wall that it's the only way that they can win.

Joining me now is Bishop William Barber and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, both from the poor people's campaign.

And Bishop Barber, I'm going to start with you.

It was sort of an up/down couple of days. You had a judge in South Carolina block the state from rejecting ballots because of mismatches in the signatures. That's the good news.

On the other side of it, you had a Michigan judge side with gun voting -- gun rights advocates, allowing them to open carry firearms at polling places on election day and blocking enforcement of an order by the state attorney general that was trying to bar those weapons from the polling places to prevent voter intimidation.

How confident are you that the courts are prepared to protect voters in this cycle?

BISHOP WILLIAM BARBER, THE POOR PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIR: Well, Joy, I wanted tonight, particularly, Joy, I wanted to say off the bat I'm here tonight just as William Barr, as a man, as a father, not an organization, because what we are seeing is political pathology and it's dangerous to this democracy.

And after watching the last presidential debate and reading again of thousands of people who have died black and poor that didn't have to die, the thousands falling into poverty, thinking about the numbers dying from poverty before COVID, thinking about a country where we lost 500 kids and Latino children and indigenous families who are left dying and McConnell is Trump are willing to put one woman on the court and not protect thousands of people from being put in a casket.

You know, I had a conversation with my children. My daughter said, dad, can't you say something? Because these policies are killing people and they could kill me and others like me. She has a big (INAUDIBLE) -- and then she said, they're trying to steal the election. Can't you as my daddy, as a father, as a man, not a leader of an organization, can't you make it clear?

And, Joy, that question reminded me that to be ambivalent about injustice and the perpetrators of injustice is to assist in injustice. And so tonight, you know, my daughter's question has compelled me and Jonathan and I do speak up for the people we love. That's why I'm voting.

I'm making it clear I'm voting for Joe Biden and Harris and calling on -- and other Democrats running for the Senate because this is out of control. This is -- this is way past anything that ought to be happening in a democracy. This is -- this is political gangsterism and we can't be ambivalent at all.

I breathe and live nonpartisan. But at this moment, Joy, I'm speaking as a man now and as a father and looking at these politics that are putting even my children at risk, my children at risk. And the lies of Trump and his marauding band of crude political operatives and these judges and McConnell and his Senate, we have to turn this around. We have to stop this.

This democracy is literally being hijacked right in front of our faces with no shame.

REID: Yeah. And I know that that's a big deal for you to do that. As you said, you don't endorse political candidates. It's not a thing you do.

Nor do you, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove. And I wonder if you -- you know, same question for you. Do you have a faith in the system that as people vote so will the election go, including the courts allowing the people to be heard?

JONATHAN WILSON-HARTGROVE, THE POOR PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBER: Well, this is deeply personal, as Bishop Barber was saying because people we know and love are being attacked. Their votes are being denied. Families have been separated. People have been attacked. And we don't have reason to believe that this administration will respect the will of all people because they haven't respected all people for this whole administration.

And as a person who was, you know, raised among white folks, who have been targeted with these lies, targeted with the division that this administration has sown into, I also have to say clearly I'm voting for Biden, Harris and Democrats to control the Senate because these policies have hurt my people, too. Just like the extremism of the segregationists who said, you know, we're going to shut down the schools, we're going to drain the pools. This has not only attacked other people, it's also hurt poor white people, white folks who can't get living wages, who can't get health care, who in the midst of this crisis can't get any relief from the government.

So this is about all of us. We need to stand together. We've got to vote together. That's why we've made this decision.

REID: Thank you both for being here and making that clear. Very quickly, Bishop Barber.

BARBER: Yeah, and we got to stop this at the ballot box. Not even wait for the court. We got to stop this at the ballot box.

As a person of faith, there comes a time you got to walk right up and Pharaoh said, let my people go, or like Esther say it, if I perish, I perish. And like Jesus, you got to call people hypocrites.

We can't even let this get into a court situation.

REID: Yeah.

BARBER: We have got to vote.

REID: Make it definitive so it doesn't go to court.

Bishop William Barber, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, thank you both.

And before we go, we want to hear from you. Everybody has a lot of anxiety about this election. We get it. So, tomorrow night, we are bringing together election experts to answer your questions and hopefully ease some of that anxiety.

So, please send your questions to THE REIDOUT on Twitter or on Instagram. You know where to follow us.

And for polling places and locations, for deadlines in your state, please go to NBCNews.com/planyourvote. And for those of you out there getting the thing done, my voting MVPs, keep those photos coming, those pictures coming, tweet at me @thereidout. Or personally on my Twitter feed. Send me a voting MVP pictures.

It's been great having you guys tonight. I hope you guys will send us all your questions because we want to know what is giving you anxiety, and we want to help you out. Sol make sure you send us your questions.

That's tonight's REIDOUT.

"ALL IN" with my friend 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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