It knew and when it knew it and now dialing back on this whole idea that New York Post story, however controversial it is, jacker dorsey it is now freely allowing people to retreat tweet it to anyone they want, so were on top of the Campaign Travels and on top of the president right now who is seeking out ground he won and stunned the world four years ago. The very very latest right now from Mark Meredith. Hey, mark. Neil, good morning to you. As you mentioned President Trump has a busy day ahead of him making those multiple Campaign Stops in wisconsin and michigan, and then spending the night out in las vegas as you mentioned the Biden Campaign here in delaware today but the former Vice President was holding multiple Campaign Stops this week including in michigan last night. Biden had a chance to speak to supporters about a number of different issues including the auto industry, coronavirus and healthcare during that visit to southfield, outside of detroit but the former Vice President refused to talk to reporters about accusations that he made against his son hurter and whether emails allegedly sent by the bidens show any improper behavior. I know youd ask it i have no responses, another Smear Campaign right up your alley, those are the questions you always ask. Meantime, bidens runningmate, california senator Kamala Harris is off the campaign trail this weekend. She decided to postpone travel and inperson events until monday after two people a harris staffer and flight crew member tested positive for covid both biden and harris continue to test negative for the view researcher and we expect harris will beholding a virtual fundraiser this afternoon next week the Biden Campaign plans to rely on one of its most high profile surrogates former president barack obama to help get out the vote and president obama will campaign on behalf of biden wednesday in philadelphia. The campaign has not yet said what kind of event we can expect but this would not be the first time the former president has spoken out on behalf of the Biden Campaign. Youll remember, neil it was during the Democratic National convention this summer that the former president delivered a blistering rebuke of President Trump and just last week, we saw former first Lady Michelle o deliver a video message and the campaign is calling a Closing Argument relying on the high profile democratic names in the final days of the campaign. Neil . Neil Mark Meredith thank you my friend very very much in the meantime youre keeping track of all of those who have already voted, depending on what data we are getting, at least 21 million americans have already voted. That doesnt include the million s more we see just sort of adding to the nations role day by day in all of this. This could be the first time of that mailin balloting will eclipse that of the voting that we see on the day of the election, itself and in the battleground states thus far , the momentum, thus far, favors joe biden. Now, the trend certainly is that it doesnt necessarily mean it pans out that way, we had similar data in a lot of the battleground states four years ago and we know how reliable that was. Lets go to Jackie Jackie deployment and keeping a close eye on those numbers. Reporter good morning, neil youre right its all about these battleground states making a large push this weekend you talked about early voting the latest figure ive seen is over 22 Million People have already cast a ballot. Lets start in wisconsin though, because that is where trump is headed and you can see , in 2016 , he won that state by a pretty slim margin, but he visit ed it six times and Hillary Clinton never visited that state during the general election. Trump in that margin very close but you can see that these visits do actually move the needle. So where do we stand in wisconsin right now . The rpc average has biden leading by six points at the moment, and then i want to turn to michigan as well, because this is one that we are watching very closely, and even slimmer margin here for President Trump in 2016, but it turned out that the largely blue collar manufacturing state did not stand by Hillary Clinton. The question is, can biden win them over again . Now, biden is polling well with michigan voters and hes ahead by seven points right now, both he and trump need this state. Its very close to ohio, its very close to pennsylvania as well. Speaking of pennsylvania, this is bidens home state. He was born in scranton. Trump pulled it out by a margin not seen in that state in over 100 years, but this time around, it seems like biden could have that home court advantage. In the rcp average, biden is pulling ahead only by 5. 6 points and finally in North Carolina, this is the home state of President Trumps daughter. She made that very clear, during the convention. President trump won it by a healthy margin last time and it makes sense that biden is taking a day off today but he is headed there, and trump is focused elsewhere right now. I want you to take a look at the polls there bidens only ahead by 2. 7 points so clearly, he knows that he has some work to do there, neil. Neil all right, jackie thank you very very much, following all of those developments in the meantime here, have you looked at the calendar for next week . Forget all of the Campaign Travel plans on the 22nd were going to have the Judiciary Committee vote on judge Amy Coney Barrett to become the next associate justice on the Supreme Court perhaps the very next day on the 23rd a full senate vote is very conceivable by the way at the end of next week, she could be sitting on the highest court in the land. Then, theres the issue of wanting to hear from those big social media giants of course weve been hearing a lot about jack dorsey at twitter, Mark Zuckerberg over at facebook and theyre already slated to appear before the Senate Commerce committee and were getting wind that separately the senate Judiciary Committee the same one that has been dealing with the judge barrett hearings wants to hear from these guys as well. Theyve actually subpoenaed dorsey himself, dont know about zuckerberg but its hot and heavy all week long. Lets just assess where we stand as we go into one of the final weeks right before the big election vote. John bussey with us from the wall street journal the associate editor and also christian democratic strategist and lauren clappey, the republican strategist as well so lauren let me begin with you on the busy week coming up and could be a defining one. It be certainly in recent times one of the fastest Supreme Court picks that used to be routine, not too too long ago but anything but now, the significance of that . So i think when we look at the Supreme Court nominee and the vote and her possibly being confirmed next week, i think we have to remember that what this is really going to effect is turnout and enthusiasm and given your reporter just said 21 Million People have already voted this is not a normal election year. Normally, we would have great emphasis on the last week of campaigning on get out the vote, making sure that everyone is out , you know, both parties are getting high turnout, and getting riled up for election day, but thats just not the case as much this year, and so i think when we look at the Supreme Court vote, were going to be looking at turnout among republicans in particular. This is going to be something that we seen with the early poll ing data thats been coming out of some of the states is that the democrats are the ones that are voting at higher rates on absentee early mailin votes less so than the republicans, republicans are planning to vote on the day, the day of, so i think when we look at all of the events next week in particular we need to be looking at them with an eye on republican turnout, because thats going to make the biggest impact on november 3rd. Neil you know, its an interest angle, i wanted to explore, because you looked at the data and the early polling and its been done certainly the early voting thats been done, and if there is passion around the judge barrett issue, and that it could galvanize republican votes, but if so many have already voted, is that opportunity lost . Im just curious what you think of that. Well also because the issue may be resolved well before the election, is that necessarily going to bring republicans to the polls . There may be a vote at least Mitch Mcconnell plans to have a vote before the election, so she may be on the court before people have to go to the polls. Will that drive them to the poll s . Its a big question mark. Youve already said it. The elections been underway for weeks and there will be politics geeks like you and i and others on the panel that are following the events all the way up to november 3, but the electorate has largely made up its mind at this point and i think that youre seeing that in the enthusiasm numbers, and while there may be a lot of events this week coming up to the election, a lot of rallies by both candidates, i think that youre going to see the decisions probably galvanized down back to whats foremost on peoples mind and its not the twitter hearings and it may be the said hearings, the Supreme Court hearings and its the coronavirus and the fact that cases are up and we just saw an election in new zealand where the Prime Minister was reelected based on her effective handling of that issue the mismanagement of the crisis is going to be front and center and i think that thats a big reason why youre seeing enthusiasm uptodate and that youre going to see the enthusiasm right through november 3. Neil you know, im curious your take on the fact that joe biden is not campaigning today. Hes taking the day off. Hes had a very conservative limited schedule that is probably being generous and im wondering if he is repeating the mistakes Hillary Clinton in retrospect made four years ago but even by bidens standards, she was certainly a lot harder worker, that he is avoiding getting out there, avoiding maybe interplays with the president , trying to play itself but it could be interpreted as sitting on a lead that might not be there for long what do you think . I mean, i dont think so. Ill just add one other thing into your very interesting conversation about the Supreme Court on the democratic side, were actually seeing on the ground the dems talking about preexisting conditions so as long as our candidates are tying the issue of healthcare to the Supreme Court, that could actually galvanize some democratic voters, but to your question about the Biden Campaign, i think theyre working very smart. They are where they need to be. The president is basically pulled out of michigan as far as how this goes and they got their surrogates out there. This is what you look at, you look at the last few weeks of a campaign, and you work smart. You be where you need to be. Its difficult, obviously, on both sides with the coronavirus and dealing with all of the Health Implications there of gathering large groups of people which the Biden Campaign is not going to do because its not responsible, but the campaign is doing what they need to do in order to turn out the vote and i think youre seeing it in states like georgia and texas, harris county, travis county, where youre seeing a lot of enthusiasm on the democratic side. I dont think were repeating the mistakes that we made in the past. Weve learned and are being where we need to be in the states that we need to be in right now. Neil all right, watch it closely and just to the point of reference the president has not given up on michigan, maybe Campaign Ad Spending might be in question, but he is going to michigan and he is going to wisconsin so hes revisiting battleground states and i believe in michigan he won by barely 10,000 votes but it was a huge pickup for the gop back then so guys well see how all that sorts out i want to thank you very very much. We told you about the crackdown on twitter and facebook and republicans are even petitioning the federal Election Commission to say this is helping and a one sided attack on conservative s you better do something about this. Now, weve already heard from jack dorsey at twitter who said we didnt communicate this effectively this whole New York Post story whether it was iffy or not, we shouldnt have shut it down or made it very very difficult for people to sort of retweet it. Hes now allowing that but is it too little too late . Senators watching all of this very very closely, right after this. If they dont before the election you are open to expanding the court . Im open to considering what happens from that point on. You said so many times during the campaign all through the course of your career its important to level. It is, but george, if i say no matter what answer i gave you , if i say it, thats the headline tomorrow. It wont be about whats going on now, the improper way theyre proceeding. But dont voters have a right to know where i stand . They do have a right to nowhere they stand before they vote. Youll come out with a clear position before election day . Yes depending on how they handle this. Neil all right, not quite sure about that depending on how they handle this but that is the closest joe biden has come to saying before election day, hell weigh in on this push, some democrats have had to say were going to pack the court and do everything we can reverse what they said was an overreach in handling the judge barrett nomination and rushing it in as they said. Now, again, the timing of that is a little weird and what hes waiting for , is it presumably the vote for judge barrett and after thats cleared they will come out to say whether he agrees with some of those democrats who said no way and senator bill cassidy joins us right now the Louisiana Republican on what he makes of all of this , senator good to have you back. Hes going to wait to see how this works out i think what hes referring to is the vote on barrett. Its fairly safe to conclude right now, its always you dont want to say these things 100 that judge barrett will be confirmed along party lines and then, hes presumably going to announce whether hes for or against packing the court, what do you think . I dont think hell announce but i do think this is part in parcel of their plan. They keep everything close to the vest pretending to have a moderate agenda when in reality and schumer has been talking about this forever, they want to do away with the filibuster, so they can pack the court, make washington d. C. , puerto rico, and american Virgin Islands american states so that then they have a permanent ruling majority on the left. This is how they get the green new deal. This is how they get government takeover healthcare. It is a frightening agenda. Hes not going to tell us before hand, well find out afterwards. Neil all right, you know, the president will be chris crossing the country and very busy not long after dealing with the covid19 virus itself, but its an aggressive schedule and hes obviously targeting a lot of the battleground states, and as you see it now, there are reports even in todays New York Times, senator that a lot of your republican colleagues are afraid that if they dont separate themselves from the president , they could go down too. How real is that fear . I cant speak to peoples local politic, except i see a real clear Politics Today that john james, our Senate Candidate in michigan, is now one point up over gary peters, and that thom tillis has tightened the race in North Carolina and hes only one point down. Those are both places the president has visited recently, so i cant speak for local politics, but reality is where the president visited our guys are doing better. Neil so when you look at all of this , and the virus that now is sort of reappeared as a front burner issue from voters, do you think that works for or against the president and the only reason why i ask is the latest statistics dont look good in terms of the virus 66,000 new cases after 63,000 debatable for the spikes are worrisome to the degree that the president says this is under control. This data seems to indicate otherwise. What do you think . So a couple things about that. There are those who get infected and those who die. If its College Students going to a college bar and getting infected, extremely few of those folks are going to have any problems. Now the folks who die are those who are in Nursing Homes and so youve noticed as weve had an increase in the number of cases, the increase in deaths has not been commensurate thats because we now have a