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Conditions apply. Offer includes 1% loyalty rate reduction for qualifying customers. Visit HyundaiCanada.com or your local dealer for details. If it's Monday with eight days to go, Vice President Harrison, former President Trump, Barnstorm key battleground states as Harris allies voice their frustration about the state of the race and the former president faces the fallout from racist jokes and inflammatory remarks at his Madison Square Garden rally last night.
Plus, as the fight for the control of Congress heats up, we'll take you inside the paths to victory for both parties that goes through some key contests and some sleeper races that could be wake-up calls. And the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security warned state and the local law enforcement that domestic violent, extremist pose of potentially major threat to the U.S. election with poll workers, ballot boxes and campaign events, all potential targets. Hi there.
Welcome to Meet the Press Now and Ryan Nobles with just over one week to election day. It is a dogfight. Former President Trump and Vice President Harris blitzing the trail, the Vice President making multiple stops in battleground Michigan, the former president holding two events in Georgia. Harris preparing to deliver what her campaign is billing as a closing argument speech tomorrow, where she's expected to rip in to Mr.
Trump from the White House Ellipse, which, of course, was the same place he gave his January 6 remarks nearly four years ago. The former president meanwhile firing up his faithful with personal attacks, but also facing backlash after a packed rally last night at Madison Square Garden, which was overshadowed by a series of inflammatory remarks from rally speakers. Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, the opening speaker, cracking a racist and vulgar joke about Latinos, while others leaned into sexist and racist rhetoric about Kamala Harris. These Latinos, they love making babies, too.
Just know that. They do. They do. There's no pulling out.
They don't do that. They f***ing inside. Just like they do to our country. There's a lot going on.
Like, I don't know if you guys know this, but there's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. Yeah. I think it's called Puerto Rico. Okay.
All right. She's a fake, a fraud. She's a pretender. Her and her pimp handlers will destroy our country.
It's going to be pretty hard to look at us and say, you know what? Kamala Harris, she's got 85 million votes because she's just so impressive. As the first Samoan Malaysian low IQ former California prosecutor ever to be elected president. So think about this.
Nearly six million Puerto Ricans live on the mainland, and they make up a key slice of voters in places like Battleground, Pennsylvania. So it's no surprise that the Trump campaign today has been trying to distance itself from those comments. It was a comedian who made a joke in poor taste. Obviously, that joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or our campaign.
The joke fell flat, but the crowd was there because they know who president Trump is. They know he wants to be a president for all Americans. The Harris campaign not buying that argument. In fact, they're seizing on those comments about Puerto Rico, which coincidentally came as the vice president was visiting a Puerto Rican restaurant and releasing an economic plan for the island.
Her campaign also touting support from Puerto Rican celebrities. Today, the vice president calling the comments emblematic of Mr. Trump's campaign. Donald Trump's event in Madison Square Garden really highlighted the point that I've been making throughout this campaign.
He is focused and actually fixated on his grievances, on himself, and on dividing our country. And that the campaign hits Mr. Trump on issues of character Harris is also hitting him on issues like reproductive rights. This weekend, leaning on both pop culture and political celebrity to drive that message home, including a particularly emotional plea from former First Lady Michelle Obama.
Your daughter could be the one too terrified to call the doctor if she's bleeding during an unexpected pregnancy. And this will not just affect women. It will affect you and your sons. Your wife is shivering and bleeding on the operating room table during a routine delivery gone bad.
Her pressure dropping as she loses more and more blood or some unforeseen infection spreads, and her doctors aren't sure if they can act. You will be the one praying that it's not too late. You will be the one pleading for somebody, anybody, to do something. Joining us now from the campaign trailers are NBC News team Garrett Hake is following the Trump campaign in Georgia.
Mike Memmally covering the Harris campaign in Michigan, and Shaquille Brewster is in Detroit. Garrett, let's start with you. Trump in Battle Brown, Georgia today. After making this closing argument in Blue, New York, why the decision to come to Georgia today?
Well, because this is still very much on the map for them. Ryan, the Trump campaign has long believed their easiest path or their most straightforward path. The 270 electoral votes is to hold North Carolina, flip back Georgia, which had been a reliably Republican state until 2020, and win Pennsylvania. They've not been able to put any of those states to bed yet.
In fact, the Trump campaign just announced another event later this week in North Carolina. But Georgia is still very much a key battleground. Trump is going to be here a little bit later at Georgia Tech on the campus itself. A lot of young people here.
They are still, of course, trying as we've talked about. For weeks and weeks now, we know particularly some of these young men who are Trump curious, but not yet Trump voters still have the chance to do that here this evening. And we talked quite a bit about the fallout from this weekend's rally at Madison Square Garden. And I do think it's pretty notable that the campaign is making a very specific effort to clean up those comments about Puerto Rico.
I mean, there was plenty of inflammatory stuff that happened during that rally last night, but they seem particularly fixated about this. Why do you think that is? Yeah, it's so telling. I mean, the Trump campaign ethos has been always to apologize for nothing.
And if any kind of joke offends anyone, tell them that the problem is you being offended, not them telling the joke. That has been the response to basically everything about the event last night, except for this one joke. And this is why Ryan, Puerto Rican voters are important constituencies in several of the swing states. Nowhere more so than Pennsylvania, where there are roughly 300,000 Puerto Ricans of voting age who could be influential.
They're facing an endorsement from Bad Bunny, the pop superstar who's very influential in Puerto Rico. And a little bit of something from our NBC News poll that was just looking into, Ryan, about the Puerto Rican vote. Puerto Ricans tend to be a little bit more independent or democratic leaning than Latinos on the whole. And a little bit more likely to say they're skeptical or uncertain about Donald Trump.
We are still, of course, talking about a very, very small sliver of the electorate overall who's still making up their decisions right now. But it's not impossible to think there might be a few hundred, a few thousand Puerto Rican voters doing this kind of thing. It might make a difference. The Trump campaign can't afford to lose any of those people right now.
Yeah, I think, Garrett, we often talk about Donald Trump in the macro sense, right? It's just another thing to add to the pile. And maybe that doesn't move massive amounts of voters. But we're at the stage now where we do have to focus on the micro, right?
And, you know, a few thousand voters, ten thousand voters in certain swing areas could really be the difference between winning and losing the entire presidential race. I think that's exactly right. And there's also this element, Ryan, where sometimes it's a little bit easier to laugh off or disregard Donald Trump's comments. And I hear this from Trump supporters when they're about somebody else.
But eventually the comments come around to be about you. Now, of course, these were not comments from Donald Trump. But we've also not heard him come out and say that he disavows them. Or do you think they're inappropriate?
Or that he disagrees with them? They echo comments he has made about our country, about Latin America, about other countries who have diaspora. They're probably supposed to have a diaspora in this country, because it's part of this country. But you take my point.
All of this could matter, again, at that micro level. And in a race where everybody's paying close attention to it, things that will be decided very, very narrowly. And it seems as though the strategy of the Trump campaign from the very beginning is not to spend that much outreach trying to reach persuadable voters. And they seem to be sticking to that strategy of just driving out the base.
Is that the strategy and the closing days? What should we expect of Trump's tone here in this final stretch of the campaign? Yes and no, Ryan. Remember, they don't think of persuadable voters the same way perhaps you do or perhaps our audience does.
When you say persuadable voters, we're not talking about suburban independents who might have voted for John McCain one year and Barack Obama the next. Their version of persuadable voters are persuadable voters who haven't voted in elections. Maybe ever. They are Trump curious, but are not yet Trump voters.
That's who they're trying to persuade and they're trying to activate. So these people, in their mind, look a lot more like the base, but they think they still have work to convince them not between Trump and Kamala Harris, but between Trump and the couch. Alright. Gary, take the finish slide.
It's like my friend. Just keep running right until the end of it. We'll check back with you. I'm sure multiple times before election day.
Let's turn on Mike Memley, who's covering the Harris campaign for us today. Mike, we did hear the Vice President calling Trump divisive, again, differentiating herself. What should we expect from this big Harris speech that's going to take place on the ellipse on Tuesday? Well, what we're hearing from Harris Advisors is that this is going to be really not just the closing argument in the way we traditionally hear from candidates every election cycle, but the closing argument of a career prostitute or somebody who has in their terms been laying out the evidence for the American people over the last few weeks, and now feels like it's time to send it to the jury.
The message we hear from her tomorrow night will be one that carries her through through election day in the battleground states. And we've talked a lot about the symbolism of where she's speaking from the ellipse. So poignant, of course, because that is where then President Trump spoke on the morning of January 6 before the ride on the Capitol steps inside the building. What they're also drawing attention to is that she'll be doing it with the White House behind her, which she'll use to highlight the contrast.
In some ways pointing not necessarily specifically, but the difference we've seen from President Trump to President Biden as an advisor puts it to see what a president can do to try to unite the country and get things done. That's certainly the way the Biden team feels about what he has done in the White House. And so this vision, this vision contrast, is one that they're really eager to put before the American people. And yes, we will hear her talk about what the American people will see in the White House on January 20th, as she has been so often in the last few days saying, either somebody who is suing over their enemies list, or as she says she will do, be checking off her to-do list.
And we should point out like we are looking at live pictures of the vice president arriving in the battleground of Michigan, Macomb County. She was greeted by, I should say, Senator Gary Peters, who is of course the chair of the Senate Republican Democratic campaign committee. Mike, the campaign has made a big push for disinfected Republicans. Is tomorrow really their final chance to reach them?
Yeah, a campaign advisor is telling me that they are finding one of the most persuadable groups still out there are these disaffected Republicans, and that the January 6th insurrection still is a very meaningful moment for these undecided voters. And so that is something that's so critical. It's worth pointing out, especially as we're talking about the vice president speaking here in Michigan tonight, Alyssa Slochen, who's running in the open Senate race here, will not be in attendance. But one reason why is because she is going to be campaigning across the state with Liz Cheney.
So it speaks to a sort of a confluence of the strategies here. Slochen in her tight race for the US Senate also feels like those are the kind of voters that she needs to win over. Where is she doing it? Not necessarily where we are, not far outside of Detroit in Ann Arbor, but she's doing it in Grand Rapids.
Sort of the traditional home of the Gerald Ford, the centrist moderate Republican as well. And Mike, before we go, we didn't see President Biden today standing in line to cast his vote. How is the campaign planning on using the president in the closing days? Frankly Ryan, not much at all.
It really is striking. The president has been looking for ways where he can feel like he is a part of the campaign. Try to amplify messages that might be supportive of her, but not doing so with a Harris campaign banner behind him. We saw him this weekend with some of his friends from the Union ranks in Pittsburgh, the guys who as he likes to say broke him to the dance.
Today, standing with one of the only candidates who does want to be here by his side, Lisa Blunt Rochester running for Senate there in Delaware. Of course, it's a connection there that's going to help her in that state where she's already heavily favored. Later this week, the president will be in Pennsylvania talking again to union workers. And then tomorrow in Baltimore, he's going to be talking about it through an official event, infrastructure investment.
The kind of will be doing so not far from the Port of Baltimore where that key bridge had collapsed to try to draw attention to the ways in which his administration has been helpful. It does certainly hurt the president not to be as engaged in the campaign. He says he will be doing more, but he is playing very much a sideline role. Okay, Mike Memalee for us in Michigan.
Mike, thanks for that. Let's go now to Shaquille Brewster, where vote counting is underway in Michigan. You're in your Detroit right now, or I think you're in Detroit actually. What are you seeing there at the ballot processing facility?
Well, Ryan, it's usually what you would only see on election day or election night, but it's now starting today. And that's because we know that in Michigan, more than 1.5 million absentee ballots have already been returned. And a new law in this state allows clerks to have the option to start working through those ballots now. And I want you to take a look at what we're seeing.
This is one of the locations or the only location in Detroit. It's a massive convention space. And at those tables, we're actually seeing clerks go through, get those absentee ballot envelopes that are already signature verified. They cut them open.
They open them up. And if the ballot matches the number on the envelope, then they actually put it through the tabulator. And this is the first time that Detroit and folks in this state have been able to start this process before election day. The hope is that it'll speed up when we learn those results on election night, Ryan.
And we are getting a sense of just how many people are voting there in Michigan. And what are the early vote numbers telling us so far? Yeah. Blockbuster numbers.
The Secretary of State this morning was celebrating the fact that you had just this weekend, about 250,000 people going to early vote. That's on top of the number that I gave you before, the 1.5 million who returned their ballots by mail. And again, this is the shift in the law that we've seen in this state where it was in the past, where early voting was not a factor. Early voting did not exist in Michigan.
It was only the only option you had to return that ballot was by mail. So the change in the law is opening up the opportunity for more people to come earlier and participate in this process. And so while they're doing it where you are in Detroit, that's not the way it's happening across the entire state of Michigan, right? So, we know that the first time that the clerk said, I decided not to take this path.
Why is that? Yeah, I mean, you can kind of get a sense. We're in this big warehouse. There are a lot of people here.
There's 50 different tables, more than 280 election workers. This is a big operation to be able to do this for the next eight, nine days. So, you have certain jurisdictions that are essentially saying, hey, we can't dedicate that many resources to go in pre-process. They believe that they can get all of the count done on election day.
And they're saying that they're opting to wait until election day to start that count. Again, the law gives the clerk the option to start this early, but it doesn't mandate or require that clerk start counting their ballots early. And the results from Michigan may be some of the most important that we're going to be looking for on election night. So, hopefully that speeds the process up a little bit.
Shaquille Bruce, thank you for that report. We appreciate it. Coming up, controversies and closing messages. I'll talk to a circuit for the Harris campaign about the state of the race and the state of Harris's closing arguments.
Plus, on high alert, investigators say Russia was behind a fake viral video of Pennsylvania ballots being destroyed, as Chinese hackers target the Harris and Trump campaigns. Those stories are straight ahead. You're watching Meet the Press Now. Welcome back.
As we've noted, some prominent Trump allies and even the Trump campaign itself have been distancing themselves from that racist comedy set at last night's Madison Square Garden rally, where comedian disparaged Latinos in called Puerto Rico an island of garbage. New York Republican Congressman Anthony Diaz-Bazito saying, quote, I'm proud to be Puerto Rican. The only thing that's garbage was a bad comedy set. Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott represents thousands of Puerto Ricans posted this joke bomb for a reason.
It's not funny and it's not true. And the Trump campaign saying that the joke does not reflect the views of their candidate or their campaign. Joining me now to talk more about this, New York Democratic Congresswoman, Lydia Velasquez. She is here, of course, as a surrogate of the Harris campaign, but she's also the first Puerto Rican woman ever elected to the House of Representatives.
Congresswoman, it's great to get your perspective on this. What do you buy of the Trump campaign's effort to distance themselves from these comments? We see other Republicans doing it as well. What's your reaction?
Thank you so much for having me. Well, the Trump campaign may claim that these comments do not reflect their views, but his track record is clear. Trump repeatedly attacked our island in the wake of Hurricane Maria. He claimed Puerto Ricans want everything done for them, derived Puerto Rico as a dirty and poor and suggested selling Puerto Rico or trading it for Greenland.
Ryan, the fact of the matter is that every survey and every speaker that goes into that stage is dead and the campaign knows exactly what they're going to be saying. So we don't buy that. We know who Donald Trump is. We live through it.
I want to show you what Pete Buttigieg, the current Transportation Secretary, what he had to say about this. He said, quote, the strategy is familiar and predictable by now. A pile of outrageous statements all to ensure we spend the next day is talking about him, not about you and not about how Kamala Harris will make life more affordable and restore the right to choose that he took away its bait. Do you agree with the Secretary there?
You just have eight days left. Do you think the Vice President should spend more time talking about herself in her plans or attacking Donald Trump? Well, look, while speakers at Trump's rally were spewing racism toward Puerto Ricans, Kamala Harris was invading a new opportunity agenda for the island. So she's talking to the Puerto Rican people and Puerto Ricans in the mainland who cares deeply about the state of affairs in Puerto Rico.
So she unveiled an agenda that will uplift the Puerto Rican economy, that will restore the power grid, that will lower the cost of health care and will provide accessible housing in Puerto Rico. So while Donald Trump is talking about himself, Kamala Harris is talking about moving an agenda forward that will make Puerto Ricans whole, both in Puerto Rico and in the mainland. And don't forget, we have 450,000 Puerto Ricans in Philadelphia, Valentine, Redding. We don't go there this weekend with both of us going from New York with volunteers so that we discuss with them why Puerto Rico too is on the ballot and importance of getting out to both and getting out early.
And maybe expand that out just a little bit for those of us that aren't members of the Puerto Rican community. How close net are those families that have direct ties to the island that now live here on the mainland? Are they talking to each other all the time? Well, something like this resonates in those communities in a way that some of us might not even understand.
Look, nothing else has been discussed in Puerto Rico right now since last night, and people are really angry. And I sent a message through the press conference that we held today to every family in Puerto Rico to reach out to their relatives here and to say, I cannot vote in Puerto Rico, but you can vote for me. So that is what is important. And yes, Puerto Rico follows very closely the political dynamics here in the United States.
They know exactly what Donald Trump meant when he, speaker of the speaker, was doing hatred and horrible remarks against not only Puerto Ricans, but Latinos. So let's talk about that then, because polling has said that the former president has made some games with Latino voters that some prefer Trump to Harris based on his record in office. What is your case to them for Kamala Harris and not just against Donald Trump, but specifically for Kamala Harris? Kamala Harris is about result.
She is about uniting this country. She's about representing everyone. She's about bringing people together. And that is so important.
We are tired. American people are tired about all the emotional and the dysfunction and the chaos that we witnessed during the four years of Donald Trump. We do not want to go back to that. We need to move forward.
We need to turn the page. And the only one who can do that is Kamala Harris. I want to play for you some of what we heard Kamala Harris say during an interview over the weekend. Take a listen.
What would your first 100 days look like? What would be your top legislative priority? Well, it's going to be lowering costs and a package of legislation that is about lowering costs again on the issue of housing, small businesses, child tax credit, basically putting more money in the hands of American working people, but also cutting middle-class taxes. So Kamala from you, our senior member of the House of Representatives, you're going to be relied upon by the vice president to pass this agenda that's meant to lower costs.
Do you hear a specific legislative priority from her in that answer? And what do you want to hear from her in terms of making this final pitch to voters? Well, look, I am the ranking member on the House Small Business Committee. And of course, we know that in order to keep the economy growing, we have to invest in small businesses.
We have to create a climate that is conducive for small businesses to do what they do best. And that is to create jobs. The fact that she's willing to invest in small businesses, that will create better paying jobs for everyone. Lowering costs, that is a way to deal also with inflation.
So the issues that she is and the policies that she wants to implement will impact families in America. And that is why so many people are running around Kamala Harris. She's talking about policies. She's talking about her agenda, her vision.
What do we hear from the other side? What do we hear from Trump? It's me, me, me. And I just, we have less than 30 seconds here.
But you could face a scenario where say Democrats went out, say Kamala Harris wins the presidency that Republicans still win the Senate. Can she get this agenda passed if there's a divided government? Yes, she can. And you know, she was a member of the Senate.
She has relationships in the Senate. And this is for the sake of the American people. This is to do right by the American people. And I think that she has the personality, the vision, the leadership, the skills to deal with the Republican Senate.
People are tired of partisanship that people want to see a Congress that work for the American people and a president that is able to deliver for the American people. Alright, Congressman Velazquez, your perspective, very important given the news of the last 24 hours. We appreciate you being on with us. Thanks so much.
Thank you. Up next, the key races to watch in the fight for control of Congress with some new polls showing some surprisingly tight Senate races in two reliably red states. We've got the latest from the big board. You're watching the press now.
Welcome back. Let's turn out a two battle for the Battle of Congress with just eight days ago. As we've noted, the Senate map is potentially brutal for Democrats, but there are some glimmers of hope for Democrats today with a new polling showing a pair of Republican incumbents and surprisingly tight races in some places you may not be expecting. Texas Senator Ted Cruz leads Democratic Congressman Colin Allred by four points among likely voters in the latest New York Times Siena College poll, and that is within the polls margin of error.
And according to the Allred campaign, they have a new internal poll, so you'd have to take that with a grain of assault. They have the race tied. Meanwhile, in Nebraska, the incumbent Republican Senator Deb Fisher leads the independent Dan Osborne by just two points among likely voters in that same New York Times Siena College poll. That's also within the margin of error.
NBC's Ally Vitale is at the big board with more. Ryan, you and I spend a lot of time talking about the balance of power in Congress over on the House side, but definitely on the Senate side. And I know that our sources on the Republican side are telling us the same thing. And it's because this map was always going to be very difficult for Democrats, but let's even just assume that a few of these races that we see here on the bottom say in the Republican and Democratic columns from which they began the cycle.
That would mean that Nebraska, which was one of those surprising races that shouldn't be on our radar, but is right now as Deb Fisher plays defense for her seat. Let's assume that goes back to the Republican column. Let's assume that Maryland remains Democratic. Let's also assume the same for Michigan, even though that's an open seat to replace Senator Stabenow.
Let's also assume the same for Nevada, Jackie Rosen. And we can do the same for Wisconsin as well. That leaves us with these key states. Of course, Montana and Ohio are places that you and I talk about a lot.
You were out in Montana with the incumbent Senator John Tester. He's going against the top Republican recruit in Tim Sheehee. I know you know this from the dynamics on the ground, but this is a red state. It means that Tester will have to work harder than ever to outperform what's happening at the top of the ticket where Donald Trump certainly will be fueling turnout there.
That's one of the ones that I'll keep in this column for now, because the other one, and we often talk about in the same breath as Montana, is Ohio, where Senator Sherrod Brown is a Republican. We're Senator Sherrod Brown is also once again trying to test the theory that personality and being a known quantity in the state could mean more than partisan politics, specifically in the Trump era. We'll leave those two here right now. Let's even just assume that Pennsylvania, where Bob Casey is playing defense here against Dave McCormick, let's assume that that actually stays in the blue column too.
Then that leaves us with Montana, Ohio, Florida, where you and I know very well. Rick Scott is in a battle against Congress, former Congresswoman Debbie McParsle Powell. For her, she thought that the abortion initiative on the ballot there could be enough to pull her over, but polls at this point show that this is really Scott's seat to lose. I had some new reporting out of Texas that I thought was fascinating, the All Red campaign saying that they see this as a closer than ever raised.
Let's assume they're right for a second here. Let's put Texas in this column, let's assume that Diego wins in Arizona, and then you could do it this way. And you see Montana and Ohio being the two states that give Republicans control, or what if they're able to pull it out, and Montana and Ohio actually stay in the Democratic column. This is Chuck Schumer's best case scenario.
And if you split these, let's say Ohio stays blue and then Montana, you bring it back over here. This is kind of for congressional reporters, both the best and worst case scenario, tons of excitement in this scenario. It also means a very busy vice president, whoever ultimately is elected Ryan. Okay, Ali, thank you so much for breaking that down for us.
Now, in addition to those contests, my colleague, Kyle Kapoor, has his eye on a few sleeper races to watch on election night that could potentially tip the balance or tell us what kind of night it may be. And Kyle joins me now. You know, Ali talked a lot about Texas and Nebraska. What are some of these other Senate races that you're keeping a close eye on?
Yeah, so let me start by saying these are not the key bellwether races for battle for the Senate control. Everything I'm about to talk about are the sleeper races that have no business being competitive, but could only become competitive if the political wins are blowing strongly in one direction or the other. Or if one candidate overperforms the fundamentals pretty spectacularly. Having said that, Maryland Senate is one of them.
The moderate former governor of Maryland is trying to score a pretty big upset win in a state that Joe Biden cared by 33 points. He is overperforming quite dramatically, but is he going to get as many as 30 points or more of an overperformance? That's very difficult. And his Democratic opponent, Angela also, Brooks, is reminding Maryland voters at every opportunity that if Hogan is elected, then Republicans will probably control the Senate.
She remains the favorite there. The other one is Florida Senate seat. Rick Scott, first term Senator, trying to win a second term another six years in a state that is trending red. This is a very steep hill for Democrats to climb, not only because Florida is trending red, but Rick Scott has a lot of money.
It's a very expensive media market, and the Democratic Party has been frankly in shambles in Florida, but it only went for Trump by three and a half points last time, so I wouldn't take it off the board entirely. And also, Rick Scott has a history of winning, but by very, very thin margins, right? As Democrats will remind you, at every opportunity, yes, whether it's a blue wave, whether it's a red wave, whether it's an incumbent or an open seat, Rick Scott has a way of winning by the tiniest, tiniest of margins. And his folks will remind you, but he's won every single time.
He's never lost. You also highlight a couple of House Republicans that could be intriguing. One of them, probably many people were thinking about, though recently, is the Third Congressional District in Wisconsin. That's where Derek van Orden is seeking reelection election.
Why do you think that's worth watch? A couple of reasons. This is Wisconsin's Third District, Derek van Orden won in this moderately Republican-leaning district by a few points in 2022. And since then, he has drawn national headlines for not the best reasons in terms of his own personal brand.
In one case, he was caught hurling obscenities at Senate pages in the Capitol. In another instance, he was shouting at Biden during the State of the Union admitted that was him, not exactly a Midwest, nice personality that he's built there. That's an interesting one to watch. His Democratic opponent is presenting herself as a moderate, someone who's a little bit more suited to that district.
I also like this because it's Wisconsin. I could tell something about the presidential race. And then finally, if you had to pick one race that nobody's talking about, that we could wake up Wednesday morning and be shocked by what would it be? My personal favorite in this category is Pennsylvania 10, around Harrisburg and Hershey.
Janelle Stelson, a former TV news anchor in that area, is challenging. Scott Perry, a six-term far-right congressman in the former chairman of the House of Freedom Caucus. She's outraged him, she's out campaigned him, she's knocked him back on defense, she's causing to walk back some of his previous stances. He should be walking away with this, but she's portraying him as too extreme for that district.
Okay. All right, we'll hold you to that. We'll be watching next Tuesday night. Thanks for being here.
Appreciate it. For the stars, the Harrison Trump campaign's pulling out all the stops, including celebrity appearances in key swing states in the final countdown to election day. Will it matter? The panel is next to watching me to press out.
Can someone tell me why we are once again holding Kamala to a higher standard than her home? I hope you'll forgive me if I'm a little frustrated that some of us are choosing to ignore Donald Trump's gross incompetence while asking Kamala to dazzle us at every turn. If we don't get this election, right? Your wife, your daughter, your mother, we as women will become collateral damage to your rage.
Welcome back. That, of course, the former First Lady, Michelle Obama. She hit the trail alongside Vice President Kamala Harris in the final stretch of the campaign. Joining me now to talk all about this is our panel.
The Congressional reporter at the Washington Post, Mariana Sotomayor, former Congressman from New York, Joe Crowley, and Republican strategist and former spokesperson for the Young Burgum campaign, Lance Trover. So, Mariana, we hear Michelle Obama focused on issues of women's health, reproductive rights. Kamala Harris, continuing to talk about the dangers to democracy. Which message do you think are they zeroing in on more and which is going to resonate more with voters?
Yeah, you know, it's interesting to see both of the Obama's kind of saying the quiet part out loud that Harris can't necessarily be talking to all the time. I've seen how Harris, for example, is not one who wants to shine a light on her being a woman, on her being a black woman, her being an Indian woman. Those are the things that the Obamas are talking to, that group of people. And I should mention too, like the fact that Michelle Obama was specifically talking to men is exactly what we saw Barack Obama do as well.
Harris, of course, going out, trying to talk to women in a different way, talking about abortion. What is at stake? That's largely been her message also, that message of freedom, the freedom to choose in different aspects. That seems to be what a lot of those persuadable, maybe still undecided voters are hoping to hear from the candidates.
That final argument. Why? Why should I be turning out? And I find it interesting watching football over the weekend because the heads are dominating all the football games that we're watching.
That you see almost her ads, especially in these kind of big broadcasts where they're spending big dollars, kind of very focused on this ad where they're talking about Trump giving tax cuts to the wealthy. So on the stump, democracy, reproductive rights, but that message tailored more to the television ads. What do you make of that? Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, it kind of reminds me a little bit of 2020. Also Biden at the end, very end. There were so many people who were critical in fact that he was just talking about the economy. But it is front of mind, especially when we're out traveling, talking to voters, I mean, anything that has to do with addressing the high cost of anything, frankly.
I think that is why you're seeing, you know, just regular people watching TV, catching that glimpse of a TV ad and being like, okay, she is starting to talk about these things. Trump is not necessarily helping me as a argument. Well, Congressman, we'd be remiss if New York City weren't the center of the political university. We have to ask you about that yesterday and this somewhat controversial rally that the former president held at Madison Square Garden.
You're a good person to talk about this because you represented a district that had portions of the Bronx, Queens, very significant, important populations. How would your former constituents react to what they saw playing out there less? Well, I think anyone who listened to that rally and what was coming out of it, it was clearly racist. It was clearly bigoted.
And I know as a comedian, at the same time, he was not rebuked initially by the campaign. No one came in and took the hook and said, pull him off the stage, have a think that someone had to know what he was going to say. Just don't put someone out. I don't really like that with no understanding what he's going to be saying at all.
It will have some effect. Maybe not necessarily New York City, which already kicked. But you'll look at Allentown in Pennsylvania. You'll look at, we've talked before about upstate, not so much upstate in Rockland County.
There's a fairly large part of the community. And I would just go back historically. There was another island. There was another island in the Atlantic Ocean, Ireland.
The same thing happened to the Irish people, my four bears in this country. They became the target of review. They were focused on it. They said people of garbage were coming from Ireland.
You know, history is repeating itself. And it's unfortunate that we see this happening today that a whole people can go back to what the president did during the hurricane, throwing paper towels at people. You know, the disdain there for folks. And here, you know, these people can't vote on the island for president.
But you know what? Their children and their grandchildren can't hear in the States. And I think that's something that's going to play it out. Les, has the campaign done enough to distance itself from the remarks of this comedian?
Well, I think you saw something that the Trump campaign rarely does. And they put out a statement almost immediately after this came out. And I thought that told you everything you need to know about where they think this was not a campaign. Yeah, do I wish they had a different comedian there?
Yeah, sure. I think they wish they had a different comedian there too. But look, this guilt by association, I don't think applies here. I mean, it wasn't Donald Trump who said it was anybody else who said guilt by association doesn't.
You typically work with these politicians. Maybe for Kamala Harris was Joe Biden's vice president for the last four years. That may be held. But I think the problem for the Harris campaign and for Democrats here is that they spent the last several weeks as well, engaging in dark rhetoric themselves using fascist language, comparing him to Hitler and all this like.
So that it takes away the sting and has less of a leg for them to stand on to go and criticize what happened last night. And if you look at the polls out this morning, I know we have a lot of discussions here every day about things that are happening. Trump rallies or things he might have said. There were new rounds of polling not showing Trump up one in both Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and Titan mission.
So it would seem to me the voters are kind of making up their minds at this juncture moving forward. I do think though, if it's a guilt by association, I would agree with you that nothing should be assigned to anyone just because they're associative of someone. But this is Trump. Trump has been saying this about Latinos coming over the border.
They're rapists. They're murderous. They're out to get you. Illegal immigrants.
They're still Latinos. They're Latinos. And I think there's an association that now he's assigning that scene or this community was assigning that scene to Puerto Ricans. It had a similar joke about Latinos.
And when it comes to your calling, you know, fascist, Trump personally has been calling Harris a fascist, a communist, a fascist, you know, Marxist. I mean, I'm not so sure that Trump actually knows what any of those things mean because it's going to go up. And I think the other probably the distinction here about the way the Harris campaign might be using that language is that they're repeating the comments of his former chief of staff. Does that make it a little bit different than Trump just coming up with this, you know, without, I mean, who's he attributing this to?
Well, I think the voters broadly are just tired of all this, all of this on both sides. I think you see that coming out. But I mean, yes, are they repeating things. But the fascist is not.
I mean, they are amplifying and repeating it. But that doesn't mean they have to. They're feeding into that same type of language that they're trying to criticize the Trump campaign for. Would you say that on Trump as well?
He says it about her directly. He's saying about it before she ever mentioned this. I think we're at a point. Yeah, I think voters across the board are tired of this rhetoric all around.
And I think they're looking beyond it now. What they're looking for is the top two issues they keep talking about, which is the cost of living and the border. Okay, let me, I want to play for you what JD Vance had to say. I'll meet the press this weekend.
Marianne and I'll have you respond to it. Take a listen. Donald Trump recently called his domestic political opponents, quote, the enemy from within. And said they are more dangerous than Russia and China.
Do you believe that people like Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi are more dangerous than Russia and China? Well, I think what Donald Trump said is that those folks pose a greater threat to United States' peace and security because America is strong enough to stand up to any foreign adversary. You agree with him? They pose a larger threat to the United States than Russia and China?
What he said, and I do agree with this, what he said is that the biggest threat we have in our country, it's not a foreign adversary. So you extrapolate that out. He's saying Adam Schiff is a bigger threat than Xi Jinping. I mean, do you think that resonates with average voters in this election?
I mean, it resonates with a Republican base, the MAGA base, of course. But at the end of the day, is it winning over any voter who's really sitting there critically thinking, who am I going to turn out to vote for? I don't think so. I mean, the whole argument so far for Trump has largely been among the MAGA base.
I see him as a defender. I see him getting persecuted by the Democrats all the time. Those voters have had that opinion for a long time. It's not going to really sway, you know, it's not going to sway that base.
So the fact that they're only talking to that base is not necessarily going to win over all of these new voters. I think critically need at certain points in different states. And lastly, maybe expand upon that a little bit, because yeah, the polls show that it's very, very close. But Donald Trump seems to not be that conservative with that 2% that have yet to make up their mind.
At some point does he have to make a pitch to voters that haven't been convinced by him or is just getting out the base the strategy here in the last couple. I'd argue that his campaign is the most focused he's ever had ever run in the last eight years. And I think he's got the best team he's ever had. I got more tech in the last 24 hours.
I received more Texans. This is anecdotal, granted, from people who were watching NFL games yesterday and said, wow, they saw this two-minute commercial with Kamala Brokut. Trump's going to fix it. I heard nothing about the rallies.
I heard nothing about because I think voters are very clear-eyed about who Donald Trump is. And I think that's the problem Kamala Harris has is she's not made the sale to voters. And if you're eight days out and you haven't completed the sale, I'm not sure you're going to be able to do it. We're going to have to look at that.
Mariana, Joe, Lance, thank you all for being here. Just, almost there, guys. I promise. So, the Kam, the latest fallout in the Middle East after Israel's counterattack on Iranian military targets.
Don't go anywhere. You're watching me, the president. Welcome back, turning to the issue of election security. Local and federal authorities are now investigating a pair of fires that burned ballot box, ballot drop boxes in Washington state in Oregon.
This video from Vancouver, Washington, shows what happened there. Democratic Congresswoman Marie Close and Camp Perez, whose district includes Vancouver. And has in a tight race herself said hundreds of ballots were destroyed by the fire. She's calling for law enforcement to honor all ballot drop boxes in the county until election day.
It comes as investigators in Portland, Oregon say three ballots were destroyed when an incendiary device was placed inside a ballot drop box. Authorities said in just the last few minutes that they believe the incidents are related and they suspect that a vehicle of Volvo was spotted at both scenes. The news comes as the intelligence community is out with a new warning to local authorities that domestic violent extremists inspired by conspiracy theories could pose a major threat to the election. And be seen as justice and intelligence corresponding.
Ken Delaney joins me now to talk more about this. So, Ken, what do investigators know about these ballot boxes that were set on fire? They don't know much, Ryan, but this development in the last few minutes appears to be very significant. It looks like they've connected these two incidents through, as you said, a suspect vehicle.
The fire in Portland was put out right away, so it only destroyed a few ballots. But the one in Vancouver did significant damage, and that just shows how vulnerable in some cases paper ballots are in this country. And if there is a group or a person or persons who are now conspiring to destroy them, that is a significant law enforcement target that's going to get the attention of not just local authorities, but potentially the FBI. And it is interesting that we saw these incidents happen because it comes around the same time that an intelligence bulletin that was put out that is warning local authorities about these kind of incidents.
Who are the likely targets outlined in the bulletin? Yeah, it's really grim. The likely targets are election workers, politicians, members of the media, election judges, poll workers. And this document really reflects the reporting that you've been airing, and we've been saying for weeks now, which is that we're in a climate that we've never really seen before, around threats to this election.
And it's driven largely by people who believe conspiracy theories about fraud in the 2020 election believe the vote can't be trusted, and their goal is to attack the system and to terrorize voters. And so, you know, the main threat comes from lone wolves as the law enforcement puts it to disturbed individuals who are radicalized by what they're seeing online, including things from Donald Trump, false allegations of fraud. But the fear is that individual attacks on polling places, on election workers, on judges, on members of the media, any one or two of those could be deeply significant and could really disrupt things leading up to the election. And Ken, we're learning that it was Russia, at least that's what the FBI believes.
That Russia was behind the fake video showing ballots being destroyed in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. How were authorities able to determine that Moscow was behind that video? Yeah, that's another vector here, which is disinformation, foreign-generated disinformation. They made that determination.
Well, they haven't actually said, but private researchers made that determination because they said that that video shared the characteristics of a series of other propaganda videos that are coming from this Russian group that has really been very active in disseminating disinformation propaganda. And this is a huge problem that the intelligence agencies and the FBI are trying to put out information about. It's a real balancing act. When it's a foreign actor, they can do it.
And they've been really leaning forward and disclosing various different schemes and campaigns. But there's a lot of domestic disinformation as well. And they're much more reluctant to call that out as election day approaches. Of course, yeah.
The proliferation of these fake videos, what can be done with artificial intelligence, it is just rapidly advancing. And there's always the problem before election day, but there's also issues after election day that authorities all have to stand on top of. Kendall, I mean, thank you so much for your reporting. We appreciate it.
We're going to turn out in the Middle East and a renewed push for Israeli hostage release talks. The CIA director Bill Burns met with the head of Israel's Mossad spy agency this weekend in Doha. And a statement on ex-Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said that in the coming days, discussions between mediators and Hamas will continue to determine the feasibility of those talks. It comes after Israel launched its retaliatory attacks on Iran on Friday, striking military targets in Tehran, and two other provinces.
But notably not hitting any of Iran's nuclear oil facilities, which President Biden had warned against. And BC News International correspondent, Ross Sanchez, filed this report from Tel Aviv. Three days after Israel carried out an unprecedented set of airstrikes against military targets in Iran, we are hearing a hardening of rhetoric coming from the Iranian regime. Iran initially downplayed the Israeli attack, which is the first time that Israel has ever openly struck its Middle Eastern arch enemy.
But as the smoke cleared and it became clear that not only that four Iranian soldiers were killed in the bombing, but also that a number of military bases were struck, we are now hearing tougher language. Iran's foreign ministry saying it will use all available tools to respond to the Israeli attack while Iran's supreme leader, very much leaving the door open to the possibility of revenge attacks. President Biden is saying he wants to see this as the end of the matter. He's calling on both sides not to escalate further.
But Israel said that it was retaliating for Iran's October 1st ballistic missile attack. And today Israel is a country on edge following a suspected truck ramming north of Tel Aviv yesterday. The ramming took place near the gates of a military base. But the majority of the victims were senior citizens.
One man in his early 70s was killed. More than 30 people were injured. The driver, a Palestinian man with Israeli citizenship, who shot dead at the scene. Raf Sanchez, NBC News, Tel Aviv.
Alright, Raf Sanchez, thank you for that report. And thank you for watching. I'll be back tomorrow with more Meet the Press Now. But before we go on an important programming note, NBC News will have complete election day coverage on Tuesday, November 5th.
Watch NBC News Now for live updates throughout the day. Then Lester Holt and Savannah got through a lead special coverage with live analysis and results as they come in. That starts at 5 p.m. Eastern right here on NBC News Now.
The news continues now with Halle Jackson right now. Drive off in a new Hyundai launcher today with $0 down during the Hyundai Advantage sales event. Take advantage of the $1,000 spring drive bonus and lease the 20-20-60 launcher essential for just $73 weekly at 4.99% for 60 months. And you're covered by a launcher's best-in-class five-year new car warranty.
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