And that is not all. On the very same day, we learned that over 221,000 americans have lost their lives from coronavirus. President trump called dr. Anthony fauci and other scientists idiots and said people are tired of hearing about the disease. He also criticized joe biden for listening to fauci, something biden called a badge of honor. The former vp is off the trail for debate prep and will not be back until friday at the earliest. Kamala harris is campaigning virtually. By contrafrkst, President Trump will be campaigning in pennsylvania today and is pushing to do as many rallies as possible. All of this comes with more than 26 million ballots already cast. And we should note, people are sick and tired of hearing about covid, but we dont have an option. It is still with us in a very big way. I want to bring in nbcs Peter Alexander at the white house and ali vitali in d. C. , peter baker for the New York Times and yamiche alcindor. Mr. Alexander, to you first. Lets cut through all the noise. What is the president s closing message, and how is he delivering it . We heard it again over the last 45 minutes on f fox friends. The president against the backdrop of 57,000 cases a day from covid, the highest its been since july. Hospitalizations at roughly 38,000 right now is basically saying that americans dont care about the pandemic. That they want to be left alone. In his words, that they are over it. Again this morning, he suggested we are turning the corner. We know thats not the case right now given those numbers weve seen. He said we were turning the corner with or without vaccines at this point which he insisted would be coming soon. Hes also attacking the nations top Infectious Disease expert Anthony Fauci saying that hes a disaster. Saying hes a bomb that goes off every time hes on tv. And among other things, his attack on joe biden is if he becomes president hed listen to dr. Anthony fauci. Notably, a much larger percentage of Americans Trust dr. Fauci to provide reliable information on the virus than they do President Trump. And finally, the president , obviously, continues with his line of attack on joe biden as it relates to his son hunter biden based on the unverified report, emails that we know federal investigators are looking into to see whether they may be related to a foreign intelligence operation right now. But the president perhaps, stephanie, said it best when on the tarmac coming back from arizona yesterday. He said among other things, im not running scared. Im running angry but in the next sentence he also said im running happy. Hes errat niic in what his mese is and how he views all of this in the waning days. Hes not scared. Hes angry. Hes happy. Ali, lets talk joe biden. Hes off the trail until at least friday while senator harris is off the trail today as well. These are really important days. Weve got 14 to go. And its not like you need to be physically on the trail doing rallies. He could be doing virtual stuff from home. Why doesnt he . We know that hes debate prepping right now. As for kamala harris, technically, shes beaming into wisconsin today. But yesterday she was out on the campaign trail in florida. So shes getting the message out there while biden is off of the trail this week prepping for this debate. But theres two things happening here. The campaign is messaging to surrogates, to donors to others that they need to Campaign Like they are trailing. I obtained a memo from Jen Omalley Dillon to donors reminding them they think this race is closer in Battle Ground states than tv or pundits would tell you. They are trying to make the case against complacency as voters get out to the polls. On the campaigning front, were not seeing joe biden until the latter half of this week. While its not unusual to see a candidate preparing for a debate, with 14 days to go, you typically see a ramp up in them getting out to battleground states. With biden, we have yet to see any ramp up. Were seeing him continue when he is out to do one state per day. On the other hand, trump and pence really emphasizing that contrast as they try to be effectively everywhere over the course of the next 14 days. Sometimes in multiple states at once. Thats the way they campaigns in 2016 when i was out there with him and now, some biden allies are even being pressed on if theres going to be a ramp up at all and the pace that biden is keeping on the trail, those allies saying that biden is campaigning tirelessly. But again there is not a ramp up, though he will get all those millions of eyeballs theoretically thursday night on the debate stage. Mr. Baker, i want to play part of what President Trump said yesterday during a call with staff and the media. People are tired of covid. I have the biggest rallies ive ever had, and we have covid. People are saying, whatever. Just leave us alone. Theyre tired of it. People are tired of hearing fauci and all these idiots, these people, these people that have gotten it wrong. Dr. Fauci who has worked with six administrations. People, sure, people are tired. People are over covid. But covid isnt over us. How does this argument work with any voters . Yeah, youre right. Covid doesnt care whether were tired, whether were sick of lockdowns and masks and all of that. What it cares about is that there are more people out there to infect and were on a spike right now. Were heading into a period that doctors say could be the worst of hardly turning the corner. Were heading right into the thick of it. The president is channeling some frustration that a lot of americans feel and playing into it. But it has longterm consequences. To undermine the credibility of dr. Fauci and government scientists who have, as you point out, work for president s of both parties going back for years, you know, and sticking to the science as best they can is to undermine the credibility of the government as a whole. The to undermine the idea there could be a National Consensus about how to handle this thing. Instead its being made into a partisan issue. If you wear a mask, youre a partisan on one side. If you dont, youre partisan on the other. Thats not going to stop a covid epidemic and thats not going to stop these 700 people dying each day. Thats a new 9 11 every four days. And 220,000 people in america dying overall is equivalent of the entire city of des moines, iowa, at this point being wiped off the map. It seems the president s message seems in contrast to the facts on the ground. Yamiche, the president is not telling the truth when he puts out ads and repeats the line that the middle class will have their taxes raised by joe biden. Thats a lie. But is the economy his strongest argument . If we do get in congress a blue sweep, democrats are going to want more spending, more fiscal support, another stimulus package, thats got to get paid for in some place. And while companies are going to pay more taxes, that does mean it could trickle down and they wont pay their workers more. Should this be an argument the president leans on rather than simply joe biden is going to raise your taxes . Well, the president wants to talk about the economy, yes, as he said. Its a strong argument for him. The problem is that this is not an economy election. This is a covid election. Y peop yes, people, of course, ive talked to democrats and republicans who want their businesses open, have people have jobs again. So many people struggling. And yes, there are people very worried that joe biden will raise their taxes. Before you can do any of this, im thinking about a voter i talked to in florida last week. Before i can ever open up my business, the virus has to be under control. And the president conceded that much today. He said i was a shooin. This was going to be an easy reelection before covid. Thats a worlds away now. Now hes realizing and acknowledging that the virus is a top thing on peoples minds. Thats why in some ways you saw him saying this thing which is that he wants to give the people more relief than the democrats. The swhous at 1. 8 trillion and then somewhere off to the side the president is saying and claiming he wants to do more than 2. 2 trillion but we havent seen those numbers come out of the white house. Youre seeing the president want to run on the economy. Before all this hand, this country was doing well. If im elected. But do voters believe the president can get people through the pandemic . Thats the question on top of mind for voters. Thats the question at the ballot box. But peter baker, isnt it always an economy election . Is the president getting through to people, pushing this idea that whether or not its true your taxes are going to go up under joe biden, and while these people might not say it in public and they dont like the president s rhetoric, they can quietly go to the ballot box and vote for President Trump out of fear that their taxes are going to go up . Yeah, look. I think there are a lot of people who support President Trump because they are worried about a biden presidency because they worry that either he or the people who will support him will push him to the left on taxes, on spending, on other issues that are of concern to americans. There is the sense that the president had the economy going pretty well and knows it pretty well. That is the strongest part of his polling. Although i saw some polling that thats even beginning to slip. His advantage with biden on the economy even is beginning to lose steam. Obviously, thats a tried and true republican message. Its one of the strongest points. Hes not made it consistently as you point out. Hig hes all over the map rather than offering a disciplined, powerful, repetitive message about the economy. What a lot of republicans wish he would do because they feel thats the best path theyve got in these last two weeks. Are you better off warrants a completely different answer for Many Americans seven months into covid. Peter alexander, lets talk about the debate in terms of where we stand. Any chance the president is actually going to bail out, or are the complaints we keep hearing just him working the refs . It appears clear the president is not going to bail out. He said hell participate in the following sentence he said he thinks the commission is very unfair. But in a lot of ways the president couldnt afford to bail out, even if he had a reasonable argument here because he is trailing widely in a lot of these polls. Certainly nationally but also in key battlegrounds. This, as his aides have said to him and to us is really his last, best opportunity to talk to tens of millions of american voters. Consider last week where he wound up doing a town hall. As opposed to that debate that was initially scheduled to take place before he pulled out, once it was decided it would be a virtual debate. He got roughly 14 Million Viewers versus 60 million who see these debates. But even with that as the backdrop, you have to consider how Many Americans have already voted to this point. More than 26 million voting to this time. You talk about working the refs. Usually whether its democrat or republican, the way wed report out Something Like this is if youre complaining about the process or complaining about the reporters, you are losing. And the president right now knows that he needs to turn around things pretty quickly. Among the other complaints, the president says the focus should be on foreign policy. He wants to talk more about that right now. Obviously, top of mind for most americans is the economy and the coronavirus. Yamiche, this has been the longest four years of your life, but take me back to 2016. Peter alexander mentioned it. Trump says hes running angry. In 2016 when he surged in the last two weeks and won the white house, how does running angry today compare to how he was running in that final stretch then . I think he is continuing to run angry. And by doing that, hes lashing out at anyone that he thinks is in his way. Hes demanding things like the attorney general open up an investigation into joe biden. Lashing out at people who have in some ways been his closest soldiers in attorney general bill barr. You also see the president crisscrossing the country. I remember being with the president in the last few weeks of his campaign in 2016 and he was going to places that people thought didnt make sense. He was in small towns in North Carolina and going to wisconsin. Going to minnesota. And what we see the president doing now is going to these places again and trying to make that pitch. But more than running angry hes also trying to make other people angry and trying to make them scared. This morning he said this is a battle of between two things. The American Dream or america becoming a socialist hellhole. Those were his words, not mine. For the president to say that, hes trying to make the case, his Closing Argument is if you elect joe biden hell tear apart the idea of america. Democracy as you know it will be completely gone. Thoork thats him running angry, a bit scared because he is acknowledging its going to be a tight election. He is of course, saying he thinks this is going to be easier than 2016 but i think in some ways thats the president trying to rile up his base and make them really come out. Turn out is going to be huge here. Coming back from a trip in florida, there are so many people in florida that are wondering how am i going to vote . How am i going to do this . Both campaigns are trying to charge people up and make them a bit scared so that they go to the polls. I guess it begs the question. If hes worried about a socialist hellhole, wouldnt a conservative republican say then why are you pushing an even b bigger stimulus package . And always good to remind the American People it was this administration that had to dole out over 30 billion in farm aid because of the failed trade war. Of course, when it comes to social unrest and law and order, President Trump is currently in office. Thank you all so much. Well leave it there. Still ahead doctors sounding alarms as coronavirus cases are surging. Ill be speaking to former fda commissioner dr. Scott gottlieb on what our best treatment option is right now. Plus, a major decision from the Supreme Court on mailin ballots. Our great country is just waiting to be explored. Whatever road you take, make sure your tires are ready to get you there safely. 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What a goal bockey ball, hockey ball, you name it ball. Im gonna be ready. Just say show me peacock into your xfinity voice remote or download the app today. Now to the latest on the coronavirus pandemic. These are the facts we know at this hour. Another day that has experts warning we could be entering a dangerous new phase. Over the last 24 hours, the United States has recorded more than 67,000 new covid cases and 561 deaths. Cases are climbing in 40 states and washington, d. C. , while 23 states are experiencing a percentage increase in coronavirus related deaths over the last two weeks. And in some states, debate they are debating new restrictions. A judge in wisconsin where cases are rising and hospitals are overwhelmed held an order by the governor restricting Indoor Dining to just 25 capacity. Joining me now to discuss, a true expert on this topic, former fda commissioner, scott gottlieb. Always good to have you here. Especially while theres so much confusing information. And i know theres a lot of talk about virus fatigue. We all have it. Were sick of it. Were tired of talking about it. But the cases and deaths are up, especially in the last two weeks. Where do you think were at right now with this virus because it doesnt seem like people are taking it more seriously. Yeah, i think people are tired of what weve been going through but were really nearing the end of the acute phase of this pandemic. Were getting towards the end. Unfortunately, this final chapter is going to be the most difficult. Weve seen hospitalizations rise in 42 states. Cases up in 45 states. Were heading into a very difficult phase with this virus over the next two to three months. Probably the biggest surge of infection weve had so far with this pandemic. As we get into 2021 youll see change of transmission start to break off. So we have a better time to look forward to ahead. But this is going to be a very difficult period, and we need to do what we can to preserve life. I know people are exhausted but this isnt the time to give up on what weve been trying to do to keep people safe and preserve life. Well, one of the reasons people feel somewhat at ease is because President Trump is telling them all about this very successful antibody cocktail that he got. Do you agree with him that this is the path to success . Well, i think this drug could provide benefit. Ive been bullish on these antibody drugs since april and may. The challenge is that we didnt invest early on in manufacturing so were not going to have enough doses for all the people who could benefit from these medicines. Well have to ration them to people who are at high risk of having a bad covid outcome so people who are older, people who may have comorbid conditions. We cant use them as a prophylaxis as a bridge to a vaccine which is one of the ways these drugs could be used if we had more supply. The other challenge is the way the government is designing the way to distribute these drugs. Theyre planning on distributing them to emergency rooms. And these drugs, mind you, have to be given to people when first diagnosed with coronavirus infection. Ideally before they become symptomatic or when they first become symptomatic. Now you have to convince people who are only mildly ill from the virus to go into a busy emergency room and sit for a threehour infusion when theres otherwise probably an epidemic in their local community. Thats going to be a hard proposition. And what ive been advocating is trying to set up services to deliver these drugs to Home Infusion in the home. I think thats a way to get more people to potentially use these medicines. We could have the challenge where we have a shortage of these drugs, not enough really to go around, but even the limited doses we have go unused because of the way were distributing it. Thats my concern right now. I want you to look at this chart because cases are back up above april levels. But actual hospitalizations and deaths per day are both down. Have hospitals figured out how to better treat this and is that our best way to contain the virus . Well, hospitalizations are alagging indicator by a week. Our criteria for hospitalization has gotten more rigid. People arent being hospitalized as easily. The more important part of that story is that length of stay has been reduced because people are doing better in the hospital. Were doing a better job of getting People Better and preserving life in the hospital. So i think what were going to see through this surge is as a percentage of the people who get infected, were going to see fewer people hospitalized and absolutely going to see fewer people succumb to the infection. The problem is that were probably going to be infecting a lot of people and we may see more people get faecinfected thh this surge than we saw in the first two waves. The first centered in the new york metropolitan region and the second in the southern states. This involves really the entire nation. So far its been a regionalized epidemic. Right now it looks like its heading toward a national epidemic. All right. We really need your expertise on this. In the uk, theyre seeking approval to launch a challenge trial where healthy individuals get the vaccine and then they actually get infected with the virus. What do you think about that . The average person . I dont know. The average person thinks that sounds pretty dangerous. Yeah, i think there are really strong ethical questions around this. We do challenge trials in other aspects. Maybe after the antibody drugs are available on the market and you have a medicine that could potential lly rescue someone if they get into trouble with the virus. The real reason to do a challenge trial is to expedite the development of a vaccine. We did large outcome studies. Those studies are under way. If were going to contemplate challenge trials its something we should have done four months ago. Weve taken a different tack when it comes to the development of the vaccines and enrolled these large outcome studies. I hope our audience was listening. That conversation was the exact reminder of why its so important to listen to the experts. Thank you so much for joining us. Always good to see you. Thanks a lot. Coming up next Law Enforcement officers preparing for a different kind of election day threat. Armed people at the polls. First, if this isnt the most 2020 thing youve ever heard, exxonmobil calling out President Trump after he talked about this hypothetical situation when he was in arizona yesterday. I would be the greatest fundraiser in history. All i have to do is call up the head of every wall street firm, head of every major company, head of every major energy company. So i call some guy, the head of exxon. I call the head of exxon. I dont know. Ill use a company. Hi, how are you doing . How is energy coming . You need a couple of permits, huh . Okay. But i call the head of exxon and say, you know, id love to send me 25 million for the campaign. Absolutely, sir. Why didnt you ask . Would you like some more . Exxonmobil where Rex Tillerson used to be the ceo. Exxonmobil responded via twitter saying, we are aware of the president s statement. And just so were clear, it never happened. Whoa i feel good i knew that i would, now i feel good get a dozen double crunch shrimp for one dollar with any steak entree. Only at applebees. This morning, early voting begins in hawaii, louisiana, utah and the critical battleground state of wisconsin where we are already seeing lines like these in milwaukee. Nbcs Shaquille Brewster is there where polls opened just about an hour ago. Shaq, the city has 13 early voting sites and they are opening today. That is up from just three in 2016. Whats it like there . Well, stephanie, lets also go back to the number of how many people have already voted. More than 1. 4 million already have their ballot in hand. More than 860,000 have already voted by mail. And thats before you see what youre seeing today. Take a look at this line here in milwaukee. This is just one of the 13 early voting locations. This line goes far down. Were in somewhat of a shopping plaza. It goes down to the third store down there. And where people have been telling me is they are taking this election extremely seriously. Listen to my conversation with one voter who came out at about 5 00 a. M. Polls opened at about 8 00 a. M. Who came out and was ready to vote about 5 00 a. M. What was driving him to the polls today . Listen to him here. Everything is driving me here today. You know, the pandemic. Taking away the rights to vote and things that were fought for in the 60s. Right people have to be in office to regain the losses that we have had over the past year, year and a half. And the mayor who just pulled up and is greeting voters by the door said this early voting, vote by mail and this early inperson voting is critical to avoiding what we saw back in april during this primary where you had massive amounts of people crammed into a few voting locations there. Poll worker shortages. That helps alleviate the pressure. One thing i should note. While there are more early voting locations this time around, the amount of time people have to vote has actually gone down. That was a restrictions put in place by Governor Scott walker and the Republican Legislature after the 2018 midterm elections. They limited the amount of early voting to just two weeks before the election. Despite that, the city is celebrating they have more locations people can come to and more people using their right to vote by mail. Stephanie . Shaq, thank you. Lets go from one battleground state to another. Im talking pennsylvania where a major Decision Just came in overnight from the Supreme Court who denied state republicans request to limit the mailin voting there. Ive got the perfect person to discuss this with. Former pennsylvania governor and americas first Homeland Security secretary, tom ridge. He is now the cochair of the group vote safe. Im guessing, secretary, when you took this role at vote safe, you might not have realized how crucially important it was going to be. But alas, it is. I want to start with the reaction to the decision in your home state of pennsylvania. What does it mean . Well, for me, it means that the Supreme Court has recognized that november 3rd is the last day you can vote in person. It means to me the Supreme Court said if you exercise your right to vote by november 3rd and it is postmarked that you have three days post november 3rd so the vote can be counted. And i would like to think the republicans and democrats, federal, state and local will all want to maximize voter participati participation. So i welcome the decision and am most grateful that the Supreme Court decided in the fashion that it did. Every vote must count and every vote must be counted. So i certainly welcome that decision. You would like to think that both democrats and republicans want that. But do they . Based on what weve seen over the last few months . Its been pretty clear that whats really interesting is, ive got to tell you, the several months ago, the gop state chairman of in pennsylvania said, lets be as smart as the democrats. Lets make sure that those who need absentee ballots get them to support President Trump or get them to support the other candidates. So its ironic to me that youve got a president whose rhetoric is, i find, just unworthy of a president. Its unbecoming of a president. I find it unconscionable when he thinks we all should vote in person, particularly, mr. President , its called pandemic. Its covid19. 215,000 people have died. Many people dont want to go to the polls, but they do want to exercise their right to vote. I still find it ironic that the president says one thing but the party people, people at the grassroots level, they see it entirely differently. Its important to maximize the vote. And those who need the absentee ballot need to get them, and their votes need to be counted as the Supreme Court said up until three days after november 3rd as long as its postmarked november 3rd. But then to that very point, weve been talking all about early voting. The president has been advocating against absentee ballot. Against early voting. Should we be preparing for an explosion of inperson voting on november 3rd, specifically from President Trumps supporters . Well, i think youll see an explosion on both sides. You just had that wonderful presentation in milwaukee. I mean, i just it should hearten everyone i dont care whether you are republican or democrat to see people lined up waiting for hours to exercise that which is the most fundamental institution in this incredible experiment of selfgovernment. To vote. And i think there will be an explosion of early voting, and i also think that more and more people, given the rhetoric around the november 3rd, will get their absentee ballots in before that date. I suspect there will be more absentee ballots counted around the country before november 3rd than after. Thats one of the challenges we still have in pennsylvania, stephanie. I am hoping that the legislature, which is republican, and the democratic governor get a clean bill and let the guardians of democracy, the volunteers at the local level, the republicans, the democrats, they want to do the great job. They want to count every vote. Let them then begin recanvassing the votes before election day. In pennsylvania, as of today, they cant even go back and verify the signatures until election day, and i think, ive got two more days, that they do the right thing. Not by either political party. Do the right thing by the pennsylvanians who want to cast their vote by absentee and do the right thing by the guardians of the democracy who work tirelessly at the local level to make sure every vote is counted. Well, lets talk about the rhetoric and potentially things that are worse. President trump is going to erie, pennsylvania, today. There are recent reports in that region about people hanging outside polling sites with assault weapons, kkk groups dropping racist flyers at homes that have biden signs on the front lawn. You represented erie county for six terms in congress. Is this a sign hough bof how bas have become there . I think its a sign of a president whose divisive rhetoric has created both chaos around election day and confusion. I think this is a sign that i feel that is of the unconscionable mistamt misstatee president has made over the last several months with regard to the validity and legitimacy of the election, and i, for one, think this is going to put additional burdens on the president we all support our local Law Enforcement and our sheriffs. But if you do that, mr. President , id say call out the dogs. You have local police, men and women wearing the uniform locally, youre going to increase their burden and increase the attention their tension as they go to work on election day by just suggesting this is permissible conduct. In my mind, its absolutely outrageous to even recommend, suggest or infer that thats how somehow, somehow you are protecting the political process by showing up armed at a local election site. Stay home. Vote and let Law Enforcement do what they do best, and thats protect us. Election day now posing a new burden for Law Enforcement. A reminder to our audience later today, the nypd will be talking about their election day preparations with all this talk of threats and poll watchers. Secretary, always good to see you. Thank you so much. Tom ridge. Vote, vote, vote. Vote, vote, vote. All right. Coming up next four months ago he called out to communities everywhere with this warning. Now is the time to plot, plan, strategize, organize and mobilize. Plot, plan, strategize, organize and mobilize. Now rapper and activist killer mike helping change an underserved community. He joins us after the break to talk about money and banking to the underbanked. This country was not built on whitecollar, it was built on bluecollar, hard work. Hard work means every day. Getting it right. Its so iconic, you can just sit it on a shelf if its missing, you know it. Your family, my family, when they drink that coffee, and go man, thats a good cup, im proud because i helped make that cup. Find a stock basedtech. On your interests im proud because i helped make that cup. Or whats trending. Get realtime insights in your customized view of the market. Its smarter Trading Technology for smarter trading decisions. Fidelity. Whosgovernor gavin newsom. The governor says prop 15 is, fair, phasedin, and long overdue reform, that will exempt Small Businesses and Residential Property owners. Join governor newsom. Vote yes on 15. Whos supkamala harris. 5 . Harris says, a Corporate Tax loophole has allowed billions to be drained from our Public Schools and local communities. No more. Im proud to support prop 15. Vote yes. Schools and communities first is responsible for the content of this ad. My question for us on the other side of this camera is after it burns, will we be left with charred or will we rise like a phoenix out of the ashes that atlanta has always done. Will we use this as a moment to say that we will not do what other cities have done and, in fact, we will get better than weve been. If you sit in your homes tonight instead of burning your home to the ground, you will have time to properly plot, plan, strategize and organize and mobilize an effective way. That was rapper and activist killer mike in the wake of the killing of george floyd. For months hes been encouraging others to take their anger and turn it into productive action. Now he is channeling his own advice and teaming up with former Atlanta Mayor and civil rights icon andrew young to start a digital bank to serve black and latino communities who are underbanked. What does that mean . Listen to these numbers. About 17 of black households do not have bank accounts. Compare that to just 3 of white households. And blackowned Small Businesses are about half as likely to obtain bank loans as whiteowned businesses. Well, this new plan, the Greenwood Bank initiative is hoping to change that. Killer mike joins us now. Mike, when you told people to get active and be productive, i think most of us thought you were talking about social justice. Why start a bank . Well, they go hand in hand. You cant have social Justice Without social equality. And in a capitalistic society, if those who capitalism was built on, those people who have been enslaved here and used as cheap labor now if those people dont get active role in capitalism over the opportunity to participate, then what are we left with but a permanent underclass. I believe part of social justice is making sure that Economic Justice happens. I want to go with a false narrative. People who might say, well, these black households maybe just dont have the money for a bank account. Thats not true. They are not underbanked because they dont have enough money for a bank account. In the United States, we dont offer Financial Literacy as part of our education system. And theres not equal access. Is that why youre doing this . Absolutely. Absolutely. I was fortunate to be raised by people that were born in 1922 and 1932. My grandparents raised me. My grandmothers family had been a share cropping family that earned enough money to buy their own farm, their own land. So she came from a more financially secure background than my grandfather whose dad left when he was in third grade and he was left to their to essentially leave school and take care of his sisters. I learned Financial Literacy was important. We were marched in a bank as early as 5, 6 and 8 years old. We started our first bank account. Taught by my grandmother to balance our checkbooks. My sister was better at it. But people learn very early to take care of your coin and your coin will take care of you. I was fortunate to be in a household that happens. That can be taught to third graders, six, seventh graders and all through high school and that should be a part of not just Home Economics once you get to high school but part of our fundamental education from the time were in kindergarten forward. Me, too. I was rolling pennies on rainy days with my grandmother. Absolutely. The greenwood initiative. Talk us through what happened in greenwood because it is a tragic stain on American History that not enough people understand. There have been many tragic stains on American History in relation to the group of people called blacks in america. And this is one of them that i think is curable and fixable. About 100 years ago there was a Community Called greenwood in tulsa and due to racism, bigotry, hatred and violence, it was destroyed. It was celebrated as a black wall street because blacks that had newly been freed had been freed and made their way out west. They created this system in which they had their own schools, their own churches, their own doctors and dentist. They had everything any other community has had that can be successful. They turned a dollar, 36 times in that community before that dollar left. So that dollar landed in businesses to help enrich them and employ people. They then went other to businesses and did the same thing. Now on average the black dollar only stays in our Community Six hours and we dont have many of the fundamental businesses we had during jim crow and segregation and things of that nature. So we dont have the ability as a community to gather capital to support one another in the same way. And the way we can make up for this blight right now is individually getting financially responsible, financially literate. But organizing our dollars to be the tip of the spear so that we may now have a Banking Institution that allows for things like car loans, home loans and will graduate to things like small and Medium Business loans to incentivize to give capital to businesses showing promise and that can grow. And i give atlanta as an example. We dont have a mayor like our last mayor before keshia bottoms, we never get to do a land deal that allows tyler perry to have one of the biggest studios. Its kept all georgians working. The movie industry seems to be moving to georgia and atlanta. If we didnt have mayor jackson that said blacks have to be 29 and 30 of businesses contracts in the city. We never get the Columbia Group who kept a 50yearold restaurant open and which employs people and will be employing more. One hand washes the other and greenwood is providing a path to that. The stronger the change that makes us stronger. All of this is productive change that makes us stronger, smarter and better. Absolutely. Mike, thank you so much for joining us. Please come back soon. Thank you for having me. And everyone, have a good day. Weve been asking this question for months. Are you better off than you were four years ago . Were going to dig into that very question tonight as part of an nbc news now special. In it ill be speaking to Senior Adviser to the biden campaign, jake sullivan, about the impact of raising the minimum wage on Small Businesses hit hard by the pandemic. Sullivan about the impact raising the minimum wage on Small Businesses hit hard by the pandemic. Can we have a 15 minimum wage and also support entrepreneurship and businesses growing and thriving in this country . His analysis of whats happened and where Small Businesses have raised wages to make sure that every Single Person can make a living wage in this country, everyone has done better including Small Businesses. Tune in to our are you better off special tonight at 8 p. M. Eastern on all nbc digital platforms. When i was in high school, this was the theater i came to quite often. The support weve had over the last few months has been amazing. Its not just a work environment. Everyone here is family. If you are ready to open your heart and your home, check us out. We thought for sure that we were done. And this town said not today. Thats why i get up in the morning i have a secret method for remembering all my hr passwords. My boss doesnt remember approving my time off. Lets just. Find that email. The old way of doing business slows everyone down. With paycom, employees enter and manage their own hr data in one easytouse software. Visit paycom. Com for a free demo. Its not just about the white house. The president ial race has dominated this year. But what down ballot could affect the next decade. This year the gop is at risk of losing their grip in states like texas, florida and arizona. With all this added attention, comes a lot of added dollars. Chris jansing got an inside look at some of the massive fundraising being done by local candidates. Hi. Reporter some of the most important races in november features candidates youve probably never heard of. Im a teacher running for district 45. Reporter . Like a North Carolina teacher and church volunteer. How much money have you raised . Over a hall million dollars. Reporter half a million for a seat that pays how much . 14,000 a year. Reporter democrats are flooding we legislative races with cash. A slew of grass roots funded groups leading a fight to regain chambers. Why . Gerrymandering. Giving one party the advantage which republicans did in some key states after big wins in 2010. Judges have compared the drawing of marylands third congressional to a cream scene, and ohios crime scene, and ohios is pumping up the number of republican voters. Mallory roman. Nobody has to compete for votes. We have lazy representatives who dont want to represent us because nobody to going to challenge them. Reporter in North Carolina franciss alma mater is slit into to republican districts. Map manipulation is driving donations. I cant believe people have been so kind to contribute to my race and they dont know who i am, but they know the importance of the election. Reporter important may be an understatement. Again, a once in a decade chance for democrats to take control of being able to redraw these maps and theres another bottom line, stephanie. Its the federal dollars that come in. Were talking about every single year 1. 5 trillion federal dollars. 1. 5 trillion with a t. Chris, thank you for helping us wrap this busy up. Hallie jackson picks up coverage next. Next this week on the upper hands. Special guest flo challenges the hand models to show off the ease of comparing rates with progressives home quote explorer. International hand model jonjon gets personal. Your wayward pinky is grotesque. Then a high stakes pattycake Battle Royale ends in triumph. You have the upper hands its a race to the lowest rate, and so much more. Only on the upper hands. Sprinting past every leak in our softest, smoothest fabric. Shes confident, protected, her strength respected. Depend. The only thing stronger than us, is you. In mass incarceration of black and brown communities. The shame is on all of us. Im working to right the wrongs of injustice. Ending cash bail. Ending the war on drugs. Decriminalizing sex work, and passing major sentencing reform legislation. But until we Reimagine Community safety and end police brutality, we must keep working to reform our racist criminal Justice System thats shameful to us all. President trump has been airing out his grievances with targets old and new from joe biden to dr. Anthony fauci to a Supreme Court ruling affecting ballot in pennsylvania. Well talk to a top official in the sta