Meet the Press NOW — October 16

If It's Wednesday, it's 20 days to the election. Vice President Harris's battleground, Pennsylvania, quoting moderate Republicans as she doubles down on her attacks on former President Trump, calling him unhinged and unstable. And Trump hits back, leaning into inflammatory rhetoric, casting his political rivals as sick, evil and the enemy from within, while sidestepping questions about whether he would respect and encourage a peaceful transfer of power. Plus, another ultimatum for Israel is the Biden administration warns that it might restrict military assistance if Israel does not improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza within the next 30 days.

Welcome to be the press now. I'm Garrett Hake in Washington as both presidential candidates pursue very different strategies to reach voters. With just 20 days until election Day at this hour, Vice President Harris is hitting the trail on the critical battleground of Pennsylvania for the second time this week. You're looking at live pictures of Harris speaking in the suburbs of Philadelphia at an event focused on outreach to disaffected Republicans and calls for bipartisan unity.

She will continue that outreach later tonight in an interview on Fox News as her campaign continues to focus on a big, tense strategy to eke out votes in an election that remains deadlocked at the polls. At the same time, Harris is trying to shore up support from the Democratic base, particularly among black men. In an interview with radio host Charlemagne the God in Detroit yesterday, Harris acknowledging those votes can't be taken for granted. I need to earn every vote, which is why I'm here having this canned conversation with you and your listeners.

I have to earn people's support and I'm working to do that. Before we go to another topic call, I want to say there was a time I had politeness, tell me once that if you're running for a national election, it's bad electoral strategy to say you are going to do things specifically for, for black people, which is why a lot of politicians don't speak directly to their plans for black people. Is that a thing? I don't, I don't know that that's true.

I think that what is true is that I am running to be president for everybody. But I'm clear eyed about the history and the disparities that exist for specific communities. And I'm not going to shy away from that. The media blitz comes as former President Trump doubles down on recent comments calling Democrats who oppose him, quote, the enemy from within.

A threat so severe, according to Mr. Trump, that he would consider calling in the US military. Here he is defending some of those comments from the Fox newstown Hall that aired earlier today. It is the enemy from within.

And they're very dangerous. They're Marxists and communists and fascists and they're sick. They're dangerous for our country. We have China, we have Russia.

We have all these countries. If you have a smart president, they can all be handled. The more difficult are, you know, the Pelosi's, these people, they're so sick. This so evil.

It comes as Mr. Trump is also repeating false claims about 2020 election fraud while sidestepping questions about committing to a peaceful transfer of power. Here he is during a testing interview with Bloomberg at the Economic Club of Chicago yesterday. Will you commit now to respecting and encouraging a peaceful transfer of power?

Well, you had a peaceful transfer of power. You had a peaceful transfer of power. You had a peaceful. Come on, Brent.

President, you had a peaceful transfer of power compared to Venezuela. But it was by far the most, the worst transfer of power for a long time. We had a term peacefully and patriotically. These were people, if you think an election is crooked, and I do, 100%, and it was love and peace.

And some people went to the Capitol and a lot of strange things happened there. But you had a peaceful, very peaceful. I left. I left the morning that I was supposed to leave.

I went to Florida. And you had a very peaceful transfer. And joining me now is RNBC News. Tnalli Rafa is the White House covering the Harris campaign.

Dasha Burns is in Atlanta, Georgia, covering the Trump campaign. And Vaughn Hilliard is in Kingman, Arizona, where the Trump campaign is hoping to convince Republicans to vote early. Ally, I'll start with you. The vice president is speaking right now.

What have we heard from her so far today? Yeah, Gary, the vice president taking the stage just a few minutes ago, and she's appearing with, she says, Over 100 Republican leaders in Pennsylvania who she says come from a range of former Republican administrations, including the administration of former President Trump. And she's making the case that all of these leaders respect the oath of office, respect the rule of law in this country. She's bringing up former President Trump's actions specifically on January 6th as the attack on the Capitol was underway.

She's talking about how Republicans and her campaign have more similarities than differ differences, saying that Republicans, specifically those disaffected Republicans, those never trouble Republicans who may feel like their party has moved on without them, have more in common with her than they may think. And this is all part of her effort to reach out to those Republicans, to really throw everything the Harris campaign has at the wall, trying to make sure that all voters including these Republicans come out on election day. And does the campaign think it can make real inroads of Republicans who aren't voting for Trump? Like if you're gonna vote for Republican down, not just if you used to be a Republican and you don't like Trump anymore, they do.

And this was an investment that we saw made even back when this was the still Biden campaign. Remember they hired that Republican outreach director to lead this effort. Ever since then we've seen the Harris campaign, ever since she took a choice from President Biden lean into this. You saw her appear with former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney a couple weeks ago talking about what they have in common and what more they can as far as their similarities.

Again, saying that they should put country before a party. And you see the vice president as well as her running mate, Governor Tim Walls lean more into, I'm sorry, outside of their comfort zone, sitting down with more conservative media outlets. Walls sitting down for two weekends in a row with FOX News. And Fox says that that was at the insistence of outreach of the actual Ashley the Harris campaign.

And now tonight we're going to see the vice president herself sit down for the first time with this interview with Fox News an anchor of Brett Bear. So this is something that they hope is going to pay off with just a couple weeks left. But it is a months long effort that they see as definitely worth worth the energy and investments into this effort carrier. Well, if that's one end of the big tent, the other part is shoring up the base.

We mentioned the Harris campaign working to mobilize the black folks specifically among black men. Obviously this is happening in real time that Charlie and the guy interviewed with just yesterday. But is there any sense that the overture the campaign is making our payment return? I think it's still too early to tell since we're just over the last week seeing really the campaign really lead into this effort.

But we've seen in poll after poll the vice president struggled to meet President Biden's numbers where they were in 2020 with specifically this room. And that's why you see her doing this, this outreach on Monday when she was in Pennsylvania meeting with black business owners. And then as mentioned yesterday in Detroit sitting down with Charlamagne the God talking on that radio show that's very popular with black listeners. And she's leaning on the help of the super surrogates and in this case former President Obama, who the campaign sees as the perfect person to help deliver this message.

And we're told from sources familiar that this is going to be a very personal effort for him up until election day. So here's campaign hoping that all of that put together will pay off for election day, period. All right, Rafa Force at the White House. Allie, thank you.

And Dasha, it was only a few weeks ago where Donald Trump was criticizing Kamala Harris for her perceived laugh of interviews. Now, we've not seen much of him outside of the more friendly conservative platforms. What is the Trump media strategy with the three weeks to go now? Is it just to keep him off of unfriendly airwaves?

Well, right now the campaign feels good. They feel like the indicators are pointing in the right direction and they feel like they just need it. Keep hammering the message, keep hammering the opponent. They've been watching the Harris media blitz and feel like she's created some openings for them to make those clips and to be critical of her.

They've been playing that clip from the View where she says there's not a thing she would do differently than President Biden. They have been playing that at every rally that I've been to recently. Although I'll say today, yesterday, the massive early voting numbers in Georgia might be a good sign, maybe worrying sign for former President Trump, a good sign for Vice President Harris. I will say he did do that Bloomberg News event and he is doing a Univision town hall today.

So they're laying out there a little bit. The thing that they want to do right now is no hard is no unforced errors and try to stay to the message. And that's really what they're hoping to do, that, that discipline which can be challenging with the former president in the last three weeks. Yeah, you look to that end, you talk about moments creating cliffs.

There's this enemy from within moment that the former president keeps going back to defend. Are you thinking about any concern among the campaign or among other Republicans that this is kind of him stepping on a rake or giving the vice president the kind of contrast she would like to make? Yeah, the campaign doesn't want any headlines that aren't about the economy or immigration. You saw him even at the town hall with women on FOX News yesterday.

So many of those answers. He was trying to bring it back to immigration. But then there are moments where he can't help himself. And he does say things like enemy from within.

He doubled down on that in another recent interview saying that the people at Nancy Pelosi are evil and dangerous. Yeah, the allies don't love that. At the same time, some people in his campaign say, look, this is the time to really put pressure on the opponent to paint that bleak picture of the country might look like if Vice President Harris does win. And so there's that split between his advisors, those who are like, yeah, let's be aggressive and trust gonna be Trump and do it in his own way.

And others would wish he would just stick to the economy and immigration merit. Clearly not just sticking to anything here these last couple of days. Dasha Burns in Atlanta. Dasha, thank you.

And Vaughn, you're in Arizona, where Trump is doing something that may seem a little bit unusual. He's talking about turning out his base, voting early, not on election day. What are you hearing right? Number one, Gary, I think the point that you and Dasha were just making here is that that sort of rhetoric could create many MAGA faithful to Donald Trump, and that is what galvanizes them to come out to the polls.

And as you mentioned, this go around, Donald Trump's actually telling people to vote early. I want to let you hear from a couple folks because we're here in Mojave county, which is you could call MAGA country of Arizona. This is a place that 75% went for Donald Trump in 2020. And there's a belief that they can juice turn in this Trump area to compensate for what may be a deficit in the likes of Maricopa county, which is the greater suburban area around Phoenix.

I want you to listen to a few of the folks who we talk to going to the early voting location by voting for the former president. Prepare 2020 for Donald Trump in 2024. From your eyes, overwhelming. Why did you vote earlier this year?

Honestly? Because Donald Trump told me to. He keeps saying it, and I've been thinking about it, and so here I am. But you want him to have that power.

Robert, that last gentleman you heard from, he did not go in 2020. He's one of those people who was a registered Republican, didn't vote in 2020, who they believe are gonna make a difference. The first one we hear from Jody is one of what they say is a 600 volunteer grassroots network out here of folks who are identifying registered Republicans in vote in 2020. And they are of the belief in the way that they're persuading themselves, energizing themselves to get up every day.

Garrett, is to say that they get 10 more registered Republicans to come out to the polls than did in 2020. They believe that would make up the difference to give Donald Trump the victory here in Arizona. Right. They've got to find these people who are Trump supporters, but not Trump voters and make them change hats.

It's gonna be an interesting search all across the country. And you're on top of for us today. Thank you. And joining now to break down some more of this is our NBC News chief Political analyst, Chuck Todd.

So, Chuck, as Harris is trying to appeal to everyone on the trail, our latest poll shows she may be getting bogged down by Joe Biden's record. Your call this week. He called his unpopularity the mood music of this election. How so?

Well, let me just look at, you can just look at our own polling, right. We also tested the term Biden nomics. It was super underwater. Democrats barely have a positive view of Biden on its independence.

Two to one against it. Overall, nearly two to one against it. When you look at his job approval rating, he's at his lowest disapproval that he's been in all year, 54%. Well, that's still a majority of the larger majority.

More people disapprove of Joe Biden's presidency than will collectively vote for the winner of this presidential election, Garrett. Which means there are going to be people that Harris has to win over who don't like Joe Biden's presidency. Look, I think it also conforms to what you're seeing. And I think, and very much, Garrett, that what I was writing about, how the Harris campaign is campaigning and frankly, what Trump is trying to do sort of tells you where this electorate is.

The electorate is shifted to the right in this country. Okay. For the last four years, the Republican Party has re registered, has done voter registration. There's some circles around the Democratic Party voter registration.

They have up the numbers. This is a different electorate. This is a. While the map may look the same, the country has shifted a pointer to the right.

What does that mean? It means Harris has to win a majority of independents and some of these Trump skeptical Republicans. So in theory, she's talking to the right group of voters. And the question is, is she saying what's necessary to then get them to do something they normally don't do, which is not vote for a Republican.

Right. And I think that's the question. Has she broken from Biden enough? They know, you know, you can see they know who their voter is, that they have to get what are they messaging to that voter correctly.

And my argument is they're frankly a bit too bogged down by Biden and Biden's record and they haven't found a better way to separate yet. Look, this is hard for many sitting vice presidents, but Al Gore broke Harder than she did from Clinton. Hubert Humphrey broke harder from LBJ than she has. Both still ended up losing, but they lost by a nose hair.

Okay. And I don't think she's broken enough yet from Biden. Well, and Biden himself seem to give her a little bit of permission almost yesterday. Let's listen to this.

Every president has to cut their own path. That's what I did. I was loyal to Barack Obama, but I cut my own path as president. That's what Kamala's gonna do.

She's been loyal so far. She's gonna cut her own path. Obama will take the country in the wrong direction. And that's one of the most important differences in this election.

So what does cutting grown path look like, Chuck? What does it need to look like? I mean, I was struck by the fact that her opportunity agenda for black men included legalizing marijuana, which I didn't feel like got a lot of attention. It was definitely a policy break for Biden.

Yes, that's a policy break, but that's a policy break. That sort of, it's not a, you know, that isn't a big deal to the other voter. She needs, and I think the voter she needs more is that Senate right voter that doesn't like Trump, that would prefer, let's just say something that's slightly more to the right than the Democrats are offering her is going to be able to come out incredibly say, I'm with you now and I'm to the right of Joe Biden. It depends on how she says it.

So, for instance, on the border, I think she missed an opportunity two weeks ago. On one hand, she tried to virtue signal that she was going to be as tough on the border. You know, she wasn't going to let this policy go, you know, and she tried to be a little tougher. She worded it wrong.

She needs to acknowledge that the Biden administration didn't get it right. So there's a way here to play a little Clinton triangulation. It's a simple thing. Hey, we can get this policy right.

Is there? Now we're finally getting it right. And I'm Garrett, I'm not going to let it go backwards. So then you take a wee.

You sort of do a little mea culpa, but you sort of say, he blew it. I'm not going to blow it to me, and the buck stops with me. And then you let reporters know, wow, that's a big break. She has not done something enough where the public says, wow, now that's a Break from Biden, by the way.

You know what you can learn from Joe Biden? That guy, that guy throws Barack Obama under the bus constantly thinking, you know, so I, I don't think they ought to worry about what Biden and his staff thinks if she does it. I sort of wonder if it's a trap where the Trump campaign immediately comes out and says, oh, well, if you were so essential. Well, Garrett, so what?

That actually only helps them with that voter. They're looking, they don't, that voter doesn't trust or like Donald Trump. So there's nothing, you know, so that's not, I mean, in some ways you want to do it enough where Trump does notice and then accidentally reinforces your message to that group of voters. Checking the 30 seconds or so we have left, DJ Donald from Monday night.

Is this the kind of thing that's going to be still a factor in voters minds in 20 days or when they're voting right now? You know, the other part of when I say that people don't like Biden in this election, the other thing they didn't like about him was that he was aging and not all there. Anytime I think Donald Trump introduces the idea that oh, he's not well, he's not as with it as he was the last time or he's kind of getting odder or he's getting, I don't think that helps him. That stuff was hidden when Biden was his opponent.

So look, we have plenty of polling to prove that they didn't like the wanting like Biden as the oldest president we've ever elected. Well, now it's Donald Trump that's in position to be the old president elected. And those moments I think allow Harris to bring up age and that's his biggest negative. Yeah, we'll see if they continue to add up over the next 20 days.

Chuck, God, thank you for that analysis. And coming up, we'll dive deeper into the latest from the campaign trail as both campaigns take shots at each other on the issue of fitness for office. Plus, it could be the Democrats best shot at holding the Senate pulling off an upset in Texas. No.

Yes, that's right, Texas. As Ted Cruz and Democratic challenger Colin already face off in their first and potentially only debate. My panel joins me to break it all down next. You're watching me depress now.

Welcome back. And staying on the campaign trail, last night was debate night in my home state of Texas. Republican Senator Ted Cruz and Democrat congressman calling all red on stage in Dallas for the first and likely the only time his cycle as Democrats are once again hoping to pull off an upset in a Lone Star state as their path following the Senate journey seems to be narrowing everywhere else. Already hit crews hard on everything from abortion to leaving Texas for Cancun during the middle of a winter storm to his Persona in the center.

He's never there for us when we need him. When the lights went out in the energy capital of the world, he went to Cancun. On January 6, when a mob was storming the capital, he was hiding in a supply closet. And when suffice poor security about a generation came out of the United States Senate, he took it down.

He's been one of the most divisive senators in the entire country. If you don't like how things are going in Washington right now, well, you know what? He is singularly responsible for it. He's introduced this new kind of anger tainment where you just get people upset and you podcast about it and you write a book about it and you make some money on it, but you're not actually there when people need you.

Like when the lights went out when 30 million Texans were relying on a senator to spring into action. He went to Cancun. That's who he is. At the same time, Cruz did his best to tie Allred to Kamal Harris and other Democrats, which could go a long way in a state that hasn't voted for Democratic president since the 1970s.

Understand, at home, Colin Allred is Kyle Harris. Their records are the same. I've served with both of them. They voted in favor of open borders over and over and over again.

And now they are desperately trying to hide that from the voters. I spent 12 years fighting every single day to defend jobs and freedom and security. Congressman already wants to destroy what we've got in Texas because he shares Nancy Pelosi and Kyle Harris's value. I will fight to keep Texas.

Texas. And joining me now on set is Shelby, Shelby Talcott, reporter for Semifor NV Nyack, president and executive director of the center for American Progress Action Fund, and Republican strategist and former Trump White House official Matt Mauers. Shelby, I'll start with you. Texas has been, you know, Lucy, playing the football for Democrats from cycle after cycle after cycle.

Is there anything that should make us think this time will be anything different? I mean, the polls are closer in this race, but not in the presidential race. But what I thought was interesting in that debate was how representative it was of the presidential debate. We saw Ted Cruz r struggle on his abortion answers.

We saw allred struggle on immigration. And we also saw a really long exchange about transgender participation in sports, which the Trump campaign has really honed in on in recent weeks and begun putting out campaign ads and highlighting that more and more. So it was really representative of what's going on in the presidential election as well. And that's, I feel like a slippery issue, the transgender sport thing.

It's a Hu reaction to Trump events from me. There's clearly motivating. I feel like beta work kind of snuck up on Ted Cruz six years ago. I guess now it's hard to imagine Con Allred sneaking up on him.

How hopeful should Democrats be about that race? Or do you think it's full school potential? I mean, listen, it's within the larger bear. And you know, I think that is something that Texans would not have thought, Republicans would not have thought at the start of the cycle.

They thought Florida and Texas were safe seats. So correct to call it all right. And you know, he's really put that race in play. And I do think he really hit on the points that are going to put him over the top, which is not going after Republicans but going after Ted Cruz.

Right. And it is Ted Cruz on abortion who, you know, was way upstep with where most Texans are on this issue, no exception for rape and incest. And he was uncomfortable with that answer. It was ted Cruz on January 6th who, you know, was the one who objected, who was actually, along with Josh Hawley, the one who told people to come and protest.

And so I think you could see him trying to appeal to the moderate republic Republican he'll have to win over Republicans, win the state. I thought he had a fantastic debate. He's going to need a lot of suburban Republicans who are going to vote for Republicans up and down and about, but who don't like Ted Cruz. Matt, the rest of the Senate map is looking increasingly favorable to Republicans.

I mean, how do you view the likelihood that we are dealing with Republican Senate majority here next year? I mean, even if they don't pick up on these blue ball states, they seem to be pretty close. Yeah. I mean, you got to remember most of the Senate battleground in states and matters being fallen MAGA territory.

Right. These are states that Donald Trump is going to win by probably 10 or plus points. Certainly in the case of West Virginia and Montana, two seats that are essentially off the board for Democratic, Democratic, Democrats, I'd argue at this point, I mean, Donald Trump's going to win Montana by close to 20 points, West Virginia by, I don't know 100 points. And then you've got combat Ohio where Donald Trump is likely to win by at least eight points.

And most folks think that's kind of the breaking point for the undercard right Bernie Moreno to be Sherrod Brown and increasingly red state. You know, looking at Texas and Florida Republicans actually clear Republican senators I've talked to than NRSC have long recognized that before in Texas we're gonna be somewhat close but there's an insurmountable issue for Democratic Democrats. A win in each of the states and everything that being said is fine. If you want to get to 47, 48% in state like Texas to get that final 5% or so, it's gonna be really challenging.

An ever increasing national environment in these state races like Shelby talking about. I mean we're a parliamentary system essentially you're voting for the top of the dickens shut on down. Really makes it difficult for Democrats to succeed in Texas when Trump wins by probably at least five points. And Texas Democrats will tell you, especially when you don't start until three weeks before election, you've got to circle that infrastructure much earlier.

On the topic of Democrats, Republicans and potential for crossover votes, I wanna play a little bit with Kamala Harris just had to say at her event in suburban Philadelphia on this very issue. Let's listen. He has stated that one of the biggest threats America faces is quote, the enemy from within the he considers any American who doesn't support him or bend to his will to be an enemy to our country. Anyone who tramples on our democratic values as Donald Trump has, anyone who has called for the, quote, termination of the Constitution of the United States as Donald Trump has, must never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States.

What do you mean? Is that an effective play for Republicans? Is that a play for Democrats who will get more motivated by being reminded all these things they don't like about Trump? I think it's the core argument.

I hope we keep sharing something like this for the last three weeks. Listen, there's one thing. Since 2016, all Donald Trump has done is lost. He lost in 18, he lost in 20 MAGA and Trump got crushed in 22 when they should have won.

And the reason is that Americans are deeply uncomfortable with this extremism, with this thirst for power with its comfort around violence. Remember in 22, one of the defining events was Paul Pelosi getting attacked and Donald Trump laughing about it and mocking it. And that is who Republicans are, who Donald Trump is today. And I think Kamala Harris has To spend the last few weeks reminding not only people who are not engaged in politics, yes, there's something that's secure you have to turn out.

And people who are Republicans like reminding that they are cross pressure that they might still be Republicans on November 6th, but they're not for MAGA and Trump on November 5th shall be unique. Spend a lot of time covering Donald Trump, and I'm sure he got a lot of the same feedback I did a year ago, which was from Democrats saying, why do you platform him? Why do you put them on TV here in your stories? Now it's the opposite.

Democrats are saying, you gotta go and watch Trump out. You gotta watch the whole thing. What do you make of that strategy of exposing voters to more Trump? And have you ever seen anything like that in a race you've covered before?

No. This is certainly unique, especially when it comes to Donald Trump. And I think it's interesting because when Kamala Harris first got into the race, she really abandoned that Joe Biden argument of Donald Trump's a threat to democracy. This is her version of that argument.

But she's using Donald Trump's own words just to sort of bring it back around and to say it in a different way that her campaign feels will be more effective to those voters. Now, I'm sure he talks to undecided voters just as much as I have. I think that the challenge for her is convincing some of these voters to take his words seriously. Because when I talk to a lot of undecided voters, they say, well, we had Donald Trump for four years and he didn't do all of these things, so why should we take him literally this time around?

And that's going to be the challenge. Now, if you're advising the Trump campaign here, would you have him out doing more friendly media? Would you have him addressing these things more fulcibly? I mean, the strategy right now seems to be basically hiding from most difficult questions.

Well, and part of that's a strategy based upon where you believe the racist today or not. If you ask the Trump campaign and. And they'll protect you privately as much as publicly. They believe they're winning right now.

Right. They believe they're up by at least a point. And a solid point that's going to hold for the next three weeks in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Mission, they put out a repo. And Nevada, even according to the poll, they put out funding for resealing this past week in the last few days.

And so what do you do in Europe? You hold the ball. Right? You have a pretty Good defense.

You're trying to just talk to your audience. Not to mention the fact that there's really no undecided voters, right? I think very few. If you look at polling, there's maybe 2%.

And I'm adventure to guess as someone whose won campaigns before that, half those people are lying and the other half are just not going to show up. And by lying, I mean they made up their mind. But I still want to tell you I said this on our viewers have heard these status before in their context. I don't care any undecided voters about Donald Trump.

I think everyone's concerning how they feel about Donald Trump, but they're not entirely sure necessarily how they feel about Kamala Harris. And to that end, her going on Fox News today. Naveen, do you think there are minds that can be made up by doing that and is there a side benefit of knowing that the number of Fox News viewers in the country will probably be watching? Well, listen, I think the thing when you look at these surveys, there is 3 to 4% who have made up their mind at some level.

Right. They might, you know, have a bias one way or the other, but they've made up their mind on Trump. And so I do think there's work for her to do on two fronts. One is continue to make them feel comfortable.

I think one of the incredible things of this campaign is that she went from being 15 solid points underwater and her favorability to be consistently net favorable or even which I think is something from the Trump campaign a little bit now. But she think that is a huge failure for the Trump campaign because their whole theory of the case in August is we're gonna make her unpopular. And the second Shelby's point is really important. If the threat is just about what Trump did in the first term, I think it fails.

I think we're saying we survive this. That's why Project 2025 has been so important. I think it's gonna be a big part of the last three weeks because as the playbook of what we moving forward and it's much scarier for voters on the hear an argument I've been skeptical of but has shown up in the polling as something that does seem to be working. I would love to spend more time on this.

So we have to leave it there. We've got a lot more news we got to do. Shall we meet in nine hours? Thank you all for coming in.

And after the break, the ballot secured the vote in an intensifying misinformation campaign and threats against election workers, Colorado's top elections official, Secretary of State Jenny Griswold joins us next. You're watching Me the Press now as the day wraps up, get the scoop on what's been happening with here's the scoop with a podcast for NBC News with me, your host Gasudian. We'll take a deep dive into today's top stories with NBC News's trusted journalist. It's a fresh take, a sharp, thoughtful and it's informative.

Bring you closer to headlines, conversations that are shaping our world. The Front page, the Zeitgeist. Here's the scoop from NBC News. Listen daily on Spotify.

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Voting has already begun in Colorado, where registered voters can now start casting their ballots by mail. It comes as secretaries of state across the country contained with growing threats of violence against election workers and an increase in misinformation designed to deceive voters or undermine the confidence in the results. Top officials in Colorado encourage voters this week to be wary of intimidation and election disinformation. The RNC, meanwhile, says it has recruited more than 200,000 volunteers to watch polls in Democratic cities next month.

NBC News has exclusive reporting on how Trump allies stoked election chaos in Detroit in 2020 and what they're planning for this November. I'm joined now by Colorado Secretary of State Jennifer Griswold. She's also the chair of the Democratic association of Secretaries of State. Madam Secretary, thank you for joining us.

Georgia, which just started its early voting yesterday, saw record turnout for the first two days of its in person early voting. What type of turnout are you expecting what you've seen so far in Colorado? Well first off, thank you for having me and that's great that Georgia's seeing such high turnout. We hope to have record turnout.

Also now in Colorado, ballots start to go out Friday. They have to be mailed by this Friday. So there's a week to get those mail ballots out. And we expect there to be a great election this year just like always.

For folks who don't know, Colorado is 100% vote by mail and runs things a little bit differently than a lot of other states, we're dealing with the misinformation part of this. How do you talk to people who are concerned about things like the dropboxes and whether or not they're monitored all the time? How can you assure voters that all of their votes will be counted, that there won't be widespread fraud beyond the fact that there hasn't been in the past? Well, first off, every active voter in Colorado is mailed a mail ballot.

But we also have weeks of early voting and election day voting. This election will have over 400 dropboxes and over 300 in person voting centers open all across the state. Our election model prioritizes access and security. And it's very important to push back on basically misinformation that says you have to give up access for security.

That's just not true. And when it comes to all this information, I've been really proud to lead the way nationally on counter disinformation. I launched the first office on election disinformation and countering it back in 2019. Since then, we have been pushing out proactive initiatives to Colorado voters urging them to go to a trusted source and to be aware of this information.

And then just this year, we led one of the nation's first laws along with several other states on deepfakes, which is a new aid AI potential of this information that changes how someone speaks or what they are doing manipulates it. And it might be really hard for voters or any Americans to understand what's real or not if we don't get ahead of deepfakes? Yeah, I'm familiar with that particular problem. Talk to me about what your additional steps your office has taken to try to combat this misinformation.

And are you more concerned about misinformation leading up to people casting their votes or misinformation about what the voting says, what the results are? We're concerned about all types of election disinformation, specifically with deepfakes, which are AI altered images or audio of candidates or officials. We on top of just passing a law to regulate that have gone through disaster scenario trainings with our county election officials and have response plans in place if there is deep fake information about the electoral process. Disinformation is just so, so damaging for electoral process.

And make no mistake, one of Donald Trump and the Madreich's aims is to push out election disinformation to confuse folks. It has been used as a basis to suppress the vote. It has been used to incite threats to election workers into our election systems. And it's so important that we push back on the lies, but also that we have clear consequences to anybody who would try to undermine the electoral process for their own political gain or because of disinformation.

Well, you know, when you're out there online, it's what one man's disinformation is another's free speech. It's a huge sort of battle in that ecosystem. On the far right especially. I want to ask about the poll watchers part of this.

I mentioned 200,000 volunteers or so, the RNC basically assembling an army of poll watchers all around the country, mostly in Democrat heavy cities, which you have, you know, at least one in college. How do you balance these poll watchers rights to monitor what's happening there without voters feeling intimidated at the polls? Well, poll watchers who are following the law and our credentials are a positive thing. We have poll watchers provide oversight of the electoral process and report back to candidates or campaigns to provide that layer of transparency.

That's not anything new. But what is not acceptable is any type of intimidation, and we will be taking that very seriously. In the state of Colorado, intimidation is illegal. We do have cameras up in front of all the dropboxes across the state.

We will be referring any type of intimidation to law enforcement. And there's a series of new laws in place that I've ran over the last several years, including making it illegal to have a gun close to a Dropbox, a polling center or where ballots are processed. No voter should be afraid or feel afraid to cast the ballot. And no election worker should feel afraid for doing their job either.

Back in March, you said that you were disappointed by a Supreme Court ruling that Donald Trump must be allowed to remain on the Republican primary ballot there. Say Republicans then tried and failed to impeach you in the weeks after that ruling. Now we're three weeks from Election Day. What's your response to Trump supporters who feel like you can't preside over an election which he's on the ballot and do your job fairly well?

First off, that's absolutely ridiculous. I presided over various elections with Republicans and Democrats, including Donald Trump, and presided over it correctly. And I think the basis of your question actually rests in disinformation. You know, Republicans allege.

Well, I'll tell you, Republicans in our state House alleged that I acted to keep Donald Trump off the ballot, when in fact, Republican unaffiliated voters cast a law lawsuit against me as defendant to keep Donald Trump off the ballot, arguing that the Constitution would bar him because of his role in the insurrection. Now, by the time we went to the United States Supreme Court, I did side with the Colorado Supreme Court that did find that Donald Trump did engage in insurrection. Now, the United States Supreme Court never overruled that. They just said Congress has to act before a state.

And I want to share the effects of disinformation that really started to spout out around this case in September. They had led to over a thousand death threats or violent threats against me and my family. So that's just one snapshot of how easy it is for disinformation to spread and unfortunately, bad political actors to lean into. House Republicans in Colorado did try to impeach me on basically lies that I brought this lawsuit, that they even alleged that Donald Trump was not on the presidential primary ballot, which he indeed was.

And I'm still standing. The impeachment didn't go anywhere. I'm not going to be stopped because of threats, intimidation or lies. And I encourage election workers all across the country to stand firm.

We're here to make sure every Republican, Democrat, unaffiliated voter can vote. All right. Colorado Secretary of State Janet Griswold, thank you for your time. I hope you have a very boring election day.

Thank you. And Silicon, the little blue dot that could mean big things in this tight presidential race. We'll take you to Omaha, Nebraska, the blue city of a red state whose quirky electoral vote split is now in the spot spotlight. You're watching me the Press now.

Welcome back. Vice presidential nominee Tim Walls will travel at Omaha Saturday to campaign in Nebraska's 2nd congressional district. It's a singular blue dot in a deep red state. One presidential electoral vote is at play there.

In a race of 270 electoral votes, every vote matters. Ryan Astri of WOWTNBC Omaha takes us to the Nebraska district that could, if it's close, swing the election. The blue dot marks the spot in the Nebraska district that could break an Electoral College tie this November. And now that the threat of changing Nebraska to a winner take all state is over, the spray painted Blue dot has been surfacing more and more in Omaha front yards.

Some people don't know what it is, but then they immediately realize if they're aware of politics and the Electoral College and how things work in this country. Oh, I get it. It represents Democrats, hopes to WIN Congressional District 2, and with it, one key electoral vote in an otherwise red state in the middle of the country. That's because while most states have a winner take all system, Nebraska, like Maine, accounts for wins inside congressional districts.

The blue dots are just making conversations and starting conversations about voting this year and how important that is. Congressional District 2 is the purple outlier in the state's largest and most diverse city. Yes, completely vacant. Harris Mary Barrett is a lifelong Nebraska Democrat, but she supports the Republican congressional candidate Don Bacon.

And history shows there are plenty more voters like Mary. In 2020, Republican Don Bacon won his district by 5 points, while Biden beat Trump by 7. I'm a Democrat. I'm a Harris Bacon voter.

Anne Ashford's late husband represented this district in Nebraska in the U.S. house of Representatives before Republican Don Bacon beat him in 20. The constituents are always more important than political parties. It's vital to keep a level head and be the adult in the room.

Since 1992, when Nebraska changed its law to split its electoral votes, the Nebraska blue dot has only actually been blue twice for Obama in 2008 and Biden in 2020. And both times, the Republican congressional candidate won. With the rise of the blue dot in Omaha, Trump supporters are getting creative with their signs, too. This homeowner has a red dot with Trump's signature hair on it only has been turned into PAC Man.

His appetite is to take down those blue dots. Here's the key. With Republican and Democratic voter registrations fairly even here, there are 100,000 independents. Those voters will decide whether five electoral votes go to doubt Trump or four go to Donald Trump and one to Kamala Harris.

Reporting from Omaha NBC station WWT, I'm Brian Mastery. Nice spot there from Brian mastery. Thank you. NBC 490 is going to break down exactly what's at stake in Nebraska's 2nd congressional district with just 19 days until the election.

All right, well, let's take a look. You can see this is Our Road to 270 map here in gray, all the core battlegrounds, they say. Notice here's Nebraska. And it's got those strikes, right?

The strikes. That means it's that state that gives them out. As you just saw, the electoral votes by congressional districts state itself sadly red. But the blue strike that District, that second district is expected to go Democratic for Kamala Harris.

No, by the way, Maine, the other state that does it this way, expected to be blue in the presidential race as a state. But there's one district there that Donald Trump has won handily two times now, again expected to go for Trump. All of the money, all the resources, all the attention you just saw going into that second district, why is it so important? It's especially important for Democrats because if there's an electoral map scenario for Kamala Harris that absolutely hinges on locking it down, it would look like this split the battleground into two, sort of north and south.

The polling for Harris has been a little bit better in the northern tier of the battleground than in the southern tier. So this is all just for the sake of showing this, but this is, you know, how the parties are thinking about this as well. If Harris were to get Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, you can see we light em up blue and she gets to 270, the exact magic number. And then the polling's been a little bit better for Trump generally in the southern tier of battleground state.

So if Trump were to get North Carolina, he won it in 16, and in 20th he were to get Georgia. If he were to get Arizona, and if he were to get Nevada, now you see 270, 268 doesn't get tighter than that. Or does it? Because that is where the one electoral vote in Nebraska comes into play again.

Right now it's assumed to be Democratic. And in this scenario, it would absolutely essential for Democrats to hang onto it because obviously if you call it up right there, see if we can call it up on the screen and it is not popping up. But I'll show you because I think you do the math at home anyway, one less for Harris would be 269. One more for Trump would be 269.

There's your 269, 269 tie. The important thing is, if this ever is a tie goes to the House, every congressman doesn't get a vote, every state gets a vote. And no matter which party controls the House, the overwhelming expectation is Republicans will have more state delegations. So a tie in baseball goes to the runner.

A tie in the Electoral College almost certainly goes for Trump. That's why Democrats are so heavily invested in that district. And the good news for Democrats is the polling says they're ahead in the second district in Grass. The New York Times seen a poll recently.

9 point advantage. Look, it's a suburban metropolitan district. Those are the kinds of places Democrats have been surging in the Trump era. So Democrats expected to win there, but there's a scenario not too hard to conjure where they absolutely must win there.

I can't drink a Celsius Sundays. We're going to talk about 269. 269ties just makes me entirely too anxious. Steve Kornacki, thank you for that.

Up next, the Biden administration's warning to the Israeli government saying they could restrict military aid if humanitarian conditions in Gaza do not improve with the latest from Tel Aviv next. You're WATCHING ME, the PRESS now. Welcome back. The Biden administration is once again urging Israel to do more as the humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate.

In a letter, Israeli officials, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned that the US could restrict military assistance to Israel if it doesn't take steps to address humanitarian needs in Gaza within the next 30 days. Today, Israel announced 50 trucks carrying food, water and medical supplies entered northern Gaza. But aid groups say that's just a fraction of what civilians need. Joining me now is Hal Durani reporting for us in Tel Aviv.

So let's pick up there. We've seen video of some of this aid entering northern Gaza. How far does 50 trucks really go? And do you get the sense that Israeli officials are taking this threat seriously?

I think it's a wait and see situation. There was a 30 day grace period extended by the Biden administration in this letter. In fact, senior Palestinian politicians we spoke to, including one today in Ramallah, said that this 30 day period is essentially, quote, and I'm quoting Mustafa Barghouti, shameful because that means that people who are now on the verge of famine or who need food and medicine desperately could possibly die during that period. Your question about whether the 50 trucks are enough is no, is the short answer.

Before Octo 7, 500 trucks went into Gaza and that's when Gaza was able to produce some of its own food and there wasn't a near total destruction of the infrastructure in the besieged enclave. Also, sources inside Gaza told NBC news that those 50 trucks didn't really stop in the very north of the Gaza Strip and they went to Gaza City. So not in the Dubai refugee camp where there is really the greatest need, where since October 1, no food, no medicine, no infant formula has made it into the enclave since then. So but we are hearing from the US's Ambassador to the UN Ambassador Thomas Greenfield.

She said that it's unacceptable that if there is indeed a starvation policy, that that is not something that the United States would stand behind. And just like many of the sort of most of the pressure and a lot of the pressure that was applied by the United States over the last year on Israel, it's going to be a question of whether or not Israel responds positively. It has not done so in most of the cases. Barrett Holograni, thank you for that reporting.

That's gonna do it for us today. We're back tomorrow with more Meet the Press. Now. The news continues with Hallie Jackson right now.

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