Remarkably, it makes her the first woman and the first jewish person to receive such an honor. Considered the highest in the nation. Well bring the ceremonies to you live. So it will be a really meaningful morning and you will see it all right here. I think you want to witness it. Also this morning, and this is disturbing. President trump is digging in, refusing to commit to a peaceful transition of power if he loses in november. Unrelenting in his mission to sow doubt about the integrity of the election. So we have to be very careful with the ballots. The ballots, thats a whole big scam. We want to make sure that the election is honest im not sure it can be. I dont know that it can be with this whole situation, unsolicited ballots. Millions being sent to everybody. Im not sure the president says this could be a fair election. Well, despite the president s unfounded attacks on mailin voting, requests for such ballots across the country skyrocketing to unprecedented numbers in the midst of the pandemic. According to a cnn survey of election offices in 42 states and the district of columbia. 28 million ballots have been requested and another 43 million are automatically being mailed to voters. More than half a million ballots in just 12 states voting. Election day has already begun in this country. Lets go to Kristin Holmes for more on these numbers. Do we have any sense of how this is split among the parties . Reporter we do. Im going to break that down in one second but i want to give some context here, jim, on just how extraordinary these numbers are. For example, in north carolina, 1 million absentee ballots have been requested as of now. In pennsylvania, the number of absentee ballots and ballots that have been requested is eight times the number of people who even voted preelection back in 2016. As you say, there are some party discrepancy. I want to pull this up here. This is in the key swing states, you see here that 1. 3 million more ballots have been requested by democrats than republicans. But theres a very important caveat here. And that caveat is that this is not that surprising. We know from all of our data, all of our polling that republicans and particularly president trumps supporters they prefer to vote in person on election day. So that number could be made up here. So again, not that surprising. The other thing i want to point out here because its important is that just because were seeing all of these ballot requests doesnt mean that theyre all going to be mailed in or all sent in. This is not an indication of that. What this is an indication of is the enormous amount of interest in this election. No question. So theres another effort under way. This in state legislatures who have enormous power under the constitution to validate the vote. Republicans in key states, theyre taking their own steps to threaten the threaten to undermine the integrity. Tell us what those are, so people understand. Yeah, its not even state legislatu legislatures, but it falls into two categories. One of two categories. Cast doubt on Election Integrity or make it more voters to vote and for states to actually count the ballots. Lets jump in what what we saw in pennsylvania, the u. S. Justice department announced it had the investigation into quote potential issues with a small number of ballots. This is incredibly important because it gives you a preview here of the Justice Department possibly being dragged in more than just in this case to prove Election Fraud in some cases. Now, also in pennsylvania there was a report that a republican state official suggested the state legislature which is also a majority republican could appoint electors to determine who won the election in the state instead of going with the states popular vote if results took too long to be counted. So clearly, casting doubt there just on the power of the vote. Now, in north carolina, this gets a little bit detailed so bear with me. Two republican members of the state board of elections abruptly resigned over a settlement to allow voters to fix absentee ballots with missing information. To give you this context, it was reached with the Board Members they agreed to it with the democratic attorney general and now theyre saying it undermines the absentee ballot to local people to fix their ballots. Now, the Lieutenant Governor also a republican is asking the attorney general bill barr to investigate this. Now, lets take a look at florida. This is the last one, theres a little bit of nuance here too. The republican state attorney general is requesting an fbi investigation into Michael Bloombergs efforts to reinstate the Voting Rights of felons by paying their fees. President trump has said that this is a felony. Theres no indication that this is illegal in any way. Just to give the context here, in florida, if you are a felon you are eligible to vote but only if you have paid up all of your debts like restitution and court fees and bloomberg is trying to do that to get more felons to be able to vote. A large majority of floridians by a referendum granted the felons the right to vote and then a subsequent one that allows them to pay their fees before they vote. This gets down to will your vote be counted . Lets keep in mind that the president s own director of the fbi appointed by him said there is no evidence of widespread mailin voting fraud. He said this just yesterday. Now, we have not seen historically any kind of coordinated National Voter fraud effort in a major election. Whether its by mail or otherwise. Those are critical words from wray and dont forget them. This morning though, the white house chief of staff, mark meadows, criticized him and his comments saying quote, perhaps he needs to get involved on the ground and he would change his testimony on capitol hill. Not so sure about that. Lets bring in our White House Correspondent john harwood and our chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. Im not holding my breath for wray to change his testimony because hes testifying to the fact that theres no widespread evidence of voter fraud, but the fact, john harwood, even after senators like ben sasse responded to the president saying that the president says crazy stuff t senate still felt the need to pass a resolution by unanimous consent reaffirming the peaceful transition of power. How significant they felt the need to do that . Very significant. It is true that the president says crazy stuff all the time. Most of the things the president says are not true. And so people in the political world have to decide when to react to them. Republicans try to avoid reacting as much as possible to avoid endangering their own political futures, but this was a case it was so egregious and they were getting so many questions about it they couldnt avoid it. I think on the setup its important to say that Christopher Wray was telling the truth, but everyone who has any knowledge of the facts knows its the truth. Its why ben ginsberg the leading election lawyer has sort of defected from his side this year and said my party has been looking for Election Fraud on a broad scale for decades and we have not found it because it does not exist. The white house is attacking Christopher Wray because he is telling the truth. Because the truth in this case is not Donald Trumps friend. The Public Opinion is not Donald Trumps friend and all the signs that we have about the where the American People are going in the election is that the majority of the American People are not Donald Trumps friend. Well, lets be straightforward, Jeffrey Toobin, about whats happening here. Theres an effort by the president and others to the president said it in so many words the other day about getting rid of ballots that dont arrive or or really arent counted by november 3rd. Now, just for folks at home, we should note in most elections, military ballots come in days after and counted after the election. I want to play some words from mark meadows this morning and just ask if the way he said it is significant. Have a listen and i want to get your reaction. Hopefully, well be able to make sure that this election goes off like every other election and that the winner on november 3rd will certainly be the new president sworn in on january 20th. Jeffrey toobin, the winner on november 3rd. Notable qualifier there . Yeah. Thats a big tell, what he said, because on november 3rd, in most states, not in every state, but in most states, all we will know is the results of the people who voted in person on that day. We will not know in many states all of the mailin ballots because it will take much more time, several days or perhaps even longer to count them. You know, as you were discussing earlier in the program, mailin ballots favor the democrats enormously. This is whats known this is a phrase i think well be hearing a lot over the next 40plus days, the blue shift. There is is a shift in outcomes over time as mailin votes get counted. But another phrase we may hear is the red mirage. The red mirage is what you hear on Election Night because the mailin votes havent been counted. Republicans are favored on election day. The later votes favor democrats. What mark meadows was saying is lets stop the count in effect on election day during the red mirage. Thats a big controversy to keep an eye on as we think about, you know, how the votes are going to actually be counted. Therefore, disenfranchise those voters, right . We include we should note soldiers deployed overseas. And as we have heard millions upon millions more people than in the past because people dont want to risk their health by voting in person. So were going to have many more mailin votes than we have in the past includes states like nevada and new jersey that are having in effect all mailin votes which they never had before. Jeffrey, help us connect the dots here because the president has repeatedly said that he needs a full bench on the Supreme Court in case the election ends up there. Help us connect the dots a rush for a confirmation, the president s words and, you know, trying to ill legitimize the election. You know, i was thinking about that as john was saying, well, the, you know, the public is against trump. The polls are against trump. Whats not necessarily against trump are the courts. He has filled the courts with a lot of very conservative republicans. He is looking to confirm his nominee to the Supreme Court which could give him a 63 conservative advantage in the Supreme Court. So, you know, if the vote count turns out to be not to the president s liking, it is entirely possible that there could be legal challenges and as in 2000, they could wind up in the Supreme Court. And the president wants a supporter there, wants a third nominee a third justice that he appointed there. So, you know, connecting the dots is very important because its not just that he that the president wants a president a justice who will vote to overturn roe vs. Wade. It was who will vote to uphold his position in the election. Listen theres precedent here. Just go back 20 years. Jeffrey toobin and john harwood, thanks to both of you. I have a sense well be speaking to you on this issue more than once. Maybe more than once. In the days and weeks. Still to come this hour, as the United States approaches 7 million coronavirus infections, dr. Anthony fauci says we have never left the first wave of the outbreak. What that could mean heading into this fall. We are also watching capitol hill this morning where moments from now, Supreme CourtJustice Ruth Bader ginsburg will lie in state in the capitol rotunda. Becoming the first woman ever to do so. A special ceremony to honor her life will take place there. Youll see it live. Stay with us. Vere vision loss. So the National Eye Institute did 20 years of clinical studies on a formula only found in preservision. If it were my vision, id ask my doctor about preservision. Its the most studied eye vitamin brand. If it were my vision, id look into preservision. Only preservision areds2 contains the exact nutrient formula recommended by the nei to help reduce the risk of moderate to advanced amd progression. I have amd. 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Use effective Birth Control while taking dovato. The most common side effects are headache, diarrhea, nausea, trouble sleeping, and tiredness. So much goes into who i am and hope to be. Ask your doctor if starting hiv treatment with dovato is right for you. If youre having difficulty paying for your medications, we may be able to help. Well, this morning, nearly half of the u. S. Is trending in the wrong direction on coronavirus. States you see there in red, orange, experiencing a rise in new coronavirus infections. This as the cdc now projects up to 23,000 more americans could die from the virus in the next three weeks. Thats more than 1,000 per day. Lets go to our lucy kafanov in denver where a University Outbreak has caused a jump in cases. Reporter thats right. The numbers nationwide are extremely dire at the moment. Were averaging 43,000 new cases a day. Thats up 23 over the last two weeks. Most of those increases are in the midwestern states as jim points out and here in colorado, the governor has sort of described the outbreak as being a significant outbreak among collegeaged people. And the epicenter here in colorado is boulder. Now, boulder is the home to the university of boulder, and they have seen a significant outbreak in cases. Yesterday, county officials actually banned gatherings of any size for 18 to 22yearolds to try to curb the spread of the virus. They tried a number of things in the past like taking classes online, getting people to voluntarily stay at home, but kids kept gathering so they had to put out the more stringent measures including this ban on gatherings for the next few weeks. The cdc is predicting up to 226,000 deaths by october 17th. That number is just hard to fathom. Its incredibly big. You know dr. Anthony fauci was asked are we in for a second wave with all of the numbers going up, but the numbers are trending in the wrong direction. And he actually said were in the first wave. You need to see numbers go down in order to get out of the first wave and we simply havent seen that. Another thing the Top Health Officials are warning that even if we do get a vaccine this year, and its not likely to come until the end of the year, masks, social distancing, thats going to be so important for the months ahead until we get that going. Yeah. Lucy kafanov in denver, thank you for that reporting. With us now is dr. Leana wen, Emergency Room Physician at George Washington university. Also formerly the Health Commissioner for the city of baltimore. Good morning, doctor. Lets begin with lucys reporting. So dr. Fauci said were not out of the first wave. Europe got out of the first wave and is living through what appears to be potentially detrimental second waves. Is that foreshadowing what is to come here . Youre right, poppy. We never got over the first wave. We are in that first wave still and that unlike europe, unlike asian countries, we are starting off this fall winter with a very high level of infection. So think back to may when we had reopening after memorial day. We were at 23,000 new infections a day and then we jumped to 70,000 and Health Care Systems were overwhelmed in certain parts of the country. Now were starting off at the tripling, we could be over 100,000 new infections every day coming into fall and winter when we have the convergence of quarantine fatigue, people being indoors, restrictions being lifted, students and kids being in school again. We dont have sufficient testing to be able to sort out whats the flu. What are just normal cold viruses, what are the respiratory pathogens and what is covid19. So i worry about whats ahead and i think it