Pandemic. And michigan and wisconsin are two of the states reporting dramatic surges in new infections. The president today is in both of those states, headed to wisconsin later this evening. Its the sixth day of rallies since he was diagnosed with coronavirus. He has been downplaying the dangers of the virus and is also threatening to actually lock up his political opponents, even suggesting last fight hed leave the United States if he loses. Lets go right to michigan, our senior washington correspondent joe johns is on the scene. Michigan has seen record numbers of covid cases. To attendees seem to be concerned about that at all . We know what a battleground state michigan is . Right. A full house here at the muskegan airport, wolf. Can i tell you this, if you look at the headon camera that is recording the president right now, you will probably see a lot of people who are Wearing Masks. But in the crowd at large and its a large crowd, you dont see that many people Wearing Masks. Theyre very sparce and there is no social distancing, of course. Thats an issue, too, especially because here in this state, yesterday we had 2,000 new cases of coronavirus today about 1,800. The numbers are simply not good. Another thing that happened here today the president did mention michigan governor gretchen whitmer. Theyve had words. The president has been highly critical of her because of the restrictions shes placed on the state having to do with coronavirus. When the president mentioned her today, there was also a chant from the crowd that many of us find familiar. Something we heard harkening back to 2016. Listen. You got to get your governor to open up your state. Okay [ cheers ] and get your schools opened. Get your schools opened. The schools have to be opened. Rig right . Lock her up. Lock her up. Lock them all up. No, no, not you that seemingly harmless rhetoric. But you have to remember that very recently 13 individuals were arrested and in a plot to kidnap governor gretchen whitmer. So that makes it much more serious in that context, wolf. And that followed a tweet from the president in which he said liberate whitmer. He said she is behaving like a dictator. Joe johns, thank you for your perspective from michigan. Lets head over to wisconsin, where a crowd is waiting to see the president for what will be his Second Campaign rally of the night. Jeremy dimon is on the ground. Jeremy, with just 17 days to go before election day here in the United States, already more than 22 million americans have already voted, early voting going on, whats President Trumps closing message to these swing state voters . Reporter well, wolf, you are hearing a lot of what we hear from the president particularly on the company trail. Are you hearing a lot of red meat. What you are hearing from the president in the final stretch of the campaign is to try and essentially convince voters and convince american what is they are seeing and what is happening in this country somehow is not happening and what im talking about here, specifically, wolf, is the surge if cases of coronavirus that is happening right now in most states in the United States across the country. The cases are up on average about 30 over the last two weeks. The president s every day in the last week have tried to pretty midinformation about mask wearing. He is also pointing to a surge in cases in europe, even though the situation in the United States in terms of number of cases per capita or deaths per capita is far, far worse. So, wolf, the president made the gamble that even as voters are more concerned about the coronavirus than any other issue that the only way that he thinks he can convince people to vote for him and try and save his reelection prospect is to convince people the situation is not as bad as it really is, wolf. And nowhere is that message more than here in the state of wisconsin, which is experiencing the worst fight than anywhere in the country right now. You arrive at a rally like this, where you see several thousand people packed closely together. No social distancing is happening whatsoever and most people are not Wearing Masks. Wisconsin is going through a very, very horrible situation right now. The president will be heading from michigan to wisconsin later tonight. Jeremy dimon on the scene for us. Thank you very much. Meanwhile, the Surgeon General of the United States jerome adams is warning that wisconsin is way too red. He is not talking about politics. Wisconsin is not alone. Look at this its one of ten states that reported their highest number yet of new covid cases on friday. Lets discuss this and more with cnn medical analyst and battle more commissioner dr. Lena wen and the dean from the school of tropical medicine at baylor university. Overall, there is way too much red across the United States. The numbers are awful. How concerned are you about the next few weeks an months when you say, first of all, these large gatherings with limited mask waergs and virtually no social distancing . Wolf, whats happening now is my heart is breaking. I know what will follow, the permanent injuries and deaths. What we are heading towards quickly tonight or tomorrow is 70,000 new cases per day and then well head to 80,000 new cases per day. If you remember, dr. Faucis apop limitic scenario, he said we could reach 100,000 new cases per day. I think were going to head now finally towards that mark as we progress through the fall and winter, colder months. Its happening right where the president is holding rallies up in chicago, michigan and northern u. S. , going into montana, the dakotas. So this is absolutely devastating. We are about to enter the worst part of our covid19 epidemic, which has already been so devastating for the American People . You are making a really important point. Dr. Wen, when you look at the overall case numbers, you can see there was a dip in the numbers in august. Since then, they started tracking up major league. Take a look at the rise in cases, what itself going on, this week, here in the United States, well put that graphic back up on the screen. Pond there were 41,000. Tuesday 52,000. Wednesday, 59,000. Thursday, 63,000. Yesterday, friday, 69,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States. So those are so awful, tell us whats gentleman on. Well, wolf, i agree with dr. Ho that all these numbers indicate that we are trending in the wrong direction. This is exactly where we did not want to be headed into the winter. And i think what is happening now is a confluence of factors. We have reopenings that were done after memorial day. We had a surge after memorial day. At that point we saw major surges in the south and the west and the sun belt. We saw the upper midwest, while these other areas never plateaued. They never reached a low enough level of infection. Now there are essentially raging infections out of control in multiple parts of the country. But i think that at this point, we need to say that there is, yes, there is a lot that the federal government can and should have done. They should still be doing now. But in the absence of that, there is still a lot that we as individuals can be doing, starting with something as basic as Wearing Masks, but also avoiding gatherings, practicing social distancing. We can make a difference in our communities and also protect ourselves and our loved ones too. And the president suggests we are going in the right direction. That its disappearing, one of the words he used in different days. Doctor, hotez, i know you have been focusing in on the coronavirus like sars for more than a decade. The federal Program Operation warp speed claims it will be able to deliver 300 million doses of a safe and effective covid19 vaccine, maybe by the end of the year. Do you really think thats possible . Zplel, hopefully by the end of the year, wolf, maybe by the end of november, we will know any of the three vaccines in later stage 3 trials, thes tra zenica oxford and moderna and pfizer biotech whether any of them are working and are safe. And once we ghaet signal, then we can start begin releasing it to the public, possibly through emergency use authorization. So the fda has done a good job of late in making certain that these vaccines still reach a very high standard, even though its not quite the same as full approval. I think it will closely approximate it. Then we can genre leasing it. 300 million doses is a lot, of course. The way i like to think of sit every year we release 100 million doses of flu vaccine over a very short period of time over several months. So this is a little more complicated, especially if its an rmna vaccine thats required to work. Because it has that deep, deep freeze, in the case of the pfizer one. That will complicate it. Now they put the u. S. Military out in front to help in distribution. Weve never done that before. General pernas has distribution experience as an army general so we have unknowns using the u. S. Military. We havent done that before and 300 million is not 100 million and that deep freeze, but overall, i have some optimism and i am excited to finally see some vaccine being released and get some virus neutralizing antibodies in all of us, to especially as the federal government has not been willing to embark on any kind of Meaningful National control program, thats all we will have at this point is the vaccine. And i just want to point out what dr. Fauci, dr. Wen has told me over the last few weeks, several of these potential vaccines. We hope they will all work and be safe and effective. But some of them might require not one dose but two doses, lets say, a month or four weeks apart so if you have 300 million available, its really good for 150 Million People if you need two doses and he also says, dr. Wen, that it would be great if they were 60 or 70 effective. That means, what, that 30 of those who get the two doses, lets say, its not going to make much of a difference . Is that what i am hearing . Ye, i think we need to see the vaccine approval process se beginning. Not at the end point, because there still will be many more steps that are involved in distribution in manufacturing, especially if there are two doses, you might lose people, given a second dose. Even after the vaccine is actually given to people, it may still be as you said, wolf, 60to70 effective. Which means the vaccine alone will not be our savior. We will continue to have these pressures, including mask wearing, social distancing that will probably continue for us to reduce as much harm as possible so there is a long road ahead of us. I think right now we need to focus on getting past this winter. Otherwise, this could be the deadliest winter in our recent history, but there are things we can do in order to prevent that from happening. One of the things we can do, get a flu shot. Its really important for everyone to go out there and get a flu shot. The combination of the regular flu season with the coronavirus, that could make things even worse than they already are. You know, dr. Hodez, europe has also hit record numbers right now. Some regions are incurring partial curfews and lockdowns s. Is that what its going to take to get this under control . Yeah, it may be. One of the things i am worried about is this is happening in a difficult period in american life. The numbers are going to rise slooep steeply in november, december and january depending on the outcome of the election on november 3rd. This may be a lame duck executive branch in the federal government. How do we insure that we still have leadership in place in order to help provide those directives and advice from the cdc so there is a combination of factors that makes me very worried that the numbers will be rising steeply. The how engage the federal government will be during these next few months is unclear. Im worried about the Mental Health of the country. People are going to get scared. Theyre going to get upset and maybe even depressed. This is a normal reaction to a stressful situation. I think we need to speak up over Mental Health care and provide access to that and advise people how to do social distancing, who do to social distancing with, were going to get a lot of communications and handholding from the federal government. Im a little worried that it may not be there. So a lot will fall to the governors. Its going to be a tough time. Even if there, is god willing, a safe vaccine that comes up this year, we gen to start getting nit major numbers next year, dr. Fauci has also told me in recent weeks, we should plan for Wearing Masks for much of next year at a machine mum, because its going to be just on the safe side of things. Dr. Wen, thank you so much. Dr. Hotez, thanks, to you as well. Thanks to both of you for what you are doing for the american public, indeed the world. President trump is now in overdrive with several rallies yesterday, two more today, trying to close the gap with joe biden with 17 days left in the campaign. Lots of news unfolding right here in the situation room. We made usaa insurance for this season. And the veterans that never quit on their team. When being a fan gets tough, and stretching your budget gets even tougher. Our agents put in the time and legwork for you,. So saving on Auto Insurance is easy. Because saving a little extra goes a long way. Usaa. What youre made of, were made for. You may not expect the unexpected, but you can certainly take it all. The lexus es. Wow, this rain is bananas. Now available with awd. Lease the 2021 es 250 awd for 359 a month for 36 months. Experience amazing. At your lexus dealer. Only 17 days until this election ends. At least at the ballot box. But early voting is off to a resounding start with more than 22 million votes already cast in 45 states as well as here in washington, d. C. And take a look at the numbers in these five states compared to this point back if 2016. Illinois is seeing a full increase in inperson voting. President trump is out paying his attention to some states, even though theyre normally republican strongholds. David axel road is joining us right now. What does it tell you that some normally red republicanleaning states are teeing a dramatic surge in early voteing . Look, i think there is going to be heavy voting everywhere. The turnout in the midtern elections was kuwait heavy. It was heavy in some republican areas as well as democratic as strong holds. So, and then you look at polling and the interest that people are reporting in this election is a record high so i said for some time i think we will have over 150 Million People voting. It may on a percentage basis be the most participated election weve seen since 1960. Wow. Thats major, indeed. The map included georgia and north carolina. I want to show the viewers travel schedule. We see georgia and north carolina, not to mention arizona, these would normally be firewalls for an incumbent president. Does he gain time going there . First of all, those states are very competitive. Georgia, a state he won by 5 points last time. Biden is a few points in polling averages. The president went to des moines, iowa, he won by nine points. Hes been to ohio, a state he won last time. These are bad signs when you play defense this late in the campaign. Does it help him to go . It stirs excitement among his supporters. Yes. The problem is what the president does when he goes there. The things that he says when he goes there. When you go to these place and tell people we are rounding the corner. You open up on the biden family and call them a criminal enterprise and say they should be locked up. You are exasperating the problem. They dont know what he will do on that platform and it wasnt very helpful. At one point he posted a tweet saying biden is a National Security threat. We are talking former Vice President of the United States and he is saying wide isnt the a National Security threat. You see the tweet. Its not a retweet. This is a president ial statement. When you see that, whats your reactio reaction . My reaction is he is a threat. There have been threats to classified information when he said yesterday bidens family being investigated by local authorities in new york for the way theyve done their business. So its really peculiar. I am telling you, it does not happen him. You look at the polling. He still get some food marks on the economy and he would be driving in that direction and asking miami who is best be it to rebuild the economy. I think a lot of republicans wish he would do that. Instead, he se a superspreader of conspiracy theories and he gets into these strange side fights like he did today with ben sass, a senator from nebraska. A republican who had been critical of him. Hold open for a moment. Im going to play a clip. Here is the republican senator of nebraska ben sass speaking of the incumbent republican president of the United States. I am now looking at the possibility after a republican blood bath in the senate. Thats why i have never been on the trump train and i am not campaigning for him. I think we are staring down the barrel of a blue tsunami. Whats your reaction when you hear senator ben sass make those comments . Hes gone way, way further in criticizing the president. In all fairness, he did not support the president in 2016. But hes been very careful about where he intervenes and what he says. The fact that he is speaking out so boldly now, he backed up the truck, wolf. He went on for minutes and minutes and minutes on a Conference Call with 17,000 supporters. Hes sophisticated enough to know that was not a private consider. So he wanted people to hear what he was saying. I think he reflects the thinking of a lot of republicans right now, this is going in the wrong direction and the president is headed for defeat and could take down a lot of republicans with him. You hear that privately from republicans. Senator sass said publicly what many of them are saying privately. The president went after senator ben sass. At one point he called him on twitter, stupid. David axelrod, thank you very, very much. President trump seizes reelection in clear j