Will be followed. And a raging pandemic, that now shows signs of becoming more contagious, more dangerous, and doing more harm to our fellow citizens. An outgoing lame duck president who refuses to concede an election he lost. And is intent on burning down our democracy on his way out the door. And this hour kicks off what will be continuing coverage of the Georgia Special elections for us into the night. My colleagues and friends, rachel maddow, brian williams, and joy reid will be along starting at 6 30 p. M. Eastern. But right now, long lines at polling places on top of the recordshattering 3 millionplus early votes that have already been cast. Democratic candidates ossoff and warnock must win for the party to take control of the u. S. Senate. While republicans loeffler and perdue are clinging to donald trump, in what has become his desperate, allout assault on democracy itself. In clearer language, its a coup attempt. Heres what is coming to a head this hour. Mike pence is being pressured by trump to turn his ceremonial role tomorrow into an insurgent act. Trump today falsely claiming that the Vice President has the power to reject electors. The Vice President has no such power to reject electors. The president s final attempt to cling to power is being fueled by what has been termed the sedition caucus, 12 u. S. Senators and more than 100 house members. All that is left for mike pence is the stark choice between fealty to donald trump and loyalty to the constitution. Were also covering breaking news, 2020 also ushered in a longoverdue racial reckoning. One of the most searing instances of Excessive Force used against a black man was in the case of jacob blake. He was shot by a Police Officer in front of his children. That shooting has left him paralyzed. Any moment, the kenosha, wisconsin, District Attorney will announce whether any of the Police Officers involved in the shooting will face charges. We do not know what the decision will be. But we can report the city is already bracing for unrest. Wisconsins governor has mobilized 500 National Guard troops. Were going to cover it as soon as it gets under way. Were going to start with election day in georgia. Were joined by Yamiche Alcindor joins us. Also, cornell belcher, and greg bluestein. All eyes are on georgia. What is the latest reporting on the state of the final hours of that race, and how if in any way, Donald Trumps call this weekend changed it . My Text Messages are filled operatives worried about different tea leaves theyre e seeing. We know there are some republican territories with turnout that is pretty solid. And in metro atlanta, its hit or miss. Light turnout, and some heavy turnout. Right now, we know that republicans have a hole to fill. Democrats built an early advantage with early voting, and republicans are reliant on a surge in tuesday turnout to fill that hole. Greg, we have talked over the course of these runoffs, because all eyes instantly turn to georgia. The president elect was in the state yesterday, and his closing message was back on the agenda. Its likely only passable if the two Democratic Candidates win their races tonight. How much is that in the water, that everything were facing as a country, the pandemic, economic support, everything that people live in their daily lives is on the line with tonights votes . Thats a key part of the democratic message. Ignore President Trump, all the distractions, focus on a posttrump american political era. The democrats are saying in just a few weeks, if they win these senate runoffs, they can usher in sweeping Voting Rights measures, new funding to contain the coronavirus. Theyre tuning out President Trump, and focusing on what they can achieve. I got a little chill when you said Voting Rights. Kelly loeffler and david perdue have aligned themselves with Donald Trumps coup attempt, which is literally the disenfranchisement of voters in all the states that donald trump lost. I know nothing surprises you in covering this Republican Party at this hour, but were any of the operatives or advisers to loeffler or perdue troubled by Donald Trumps message last night, where he threatened his own vp at a rally . I got scattered, not just operative, but also some voters, especially more moderate voters. Moderate Republican Voters who may have held their nose and voted for President Trump, they like divided government. But you see this gradual embrace of escalating moves to inv invalidate the election results. They backed the texas lawsuit, and when loeffler last night said she indeed would back trump in congress tomorrow. You know, what is happening tomorrow is very much in the news on the white house beat, yamiche. Reports that donald trump and mike pence lunched today. Ive read every legal analysis of the options before mike pence tomorrow, and there arent any. His role tomorrow is ceremonial. His job is to read the count, not to count it himself or replace it. That said, what is your latest reporting on what pence is expected to do tomorrow . Its tough to say what pence is expected to do. My reporting is based on what he should do, and what legal avenues for him there are. And my understanding is, this is a ceremonial role. He could have opted out, and it still would have gone forward. So the feeling is, he doesnt have any options before him. But hes facing intense pressure from President Trump, but the votes were counted, the election is over, and has been for weeks now. So Vice President pence, unless he wants to completely upend things in a way that is completely out of the norm and beyond any of the experts ive talked to, there are not really any options before him. We have seen with President Trump, people thought it was about fundraising, about the president trying to think of his future, when we saw him continuing to talk about the fact that he was going to win the election and fundraise for the election defense fund. Sunday night, we learned the president is intent on trying to shake down local elected officials to try to find votes and take back the election. It has started this kind of civil war you see going on in the Republican Party. One camp of people, some of them used to be trump allies, and then the others who are sticking by the president. But this really what well see tomorrow should go smoothly, even if it is in some ways raucous. The smooth part will be, joe biden will remain the person who will be president. Cornell, i think yamiche found a way to describe the times. Smooth but raucous. But i sense some angst. And some people around pence are feeling the heat of the direct pressure from donald trump. Im not going to play it, but donald trump at his rally last night started by saying he wont like pence very much anymore if he doesnt betray the constitution and carry out trumps coup. We should call it what it is, a coup is an attack against the state, against the democracy. It also meets the definitions of sedition. But my question, with loeffler and perdue, people more extreme than don rumsfeld and dick cheney. They said what trump is doing is too extreme. Yeah, as a Good Communications person, im going to talk about Something Else entirely. Youre welcome to do so. I was on the phone earlier with mayor bottoms in atlanta, and i have to, before i get to your question, i have to give kudos to the operation that i think youre seeing from the organizations, both the party and campaign organizations, and also thirdparty ones like naacp, and other organizations on the ground. Look, we have more people voting, you know, who didnt vote. Over 40,000 people who didnt vote in the general election have already voted in this election, that we think are africanamericans. Which is extraordinary. Theyre blowing through every turnout prediction in georgia for a runoff. As one who has worked in Runoff Elections in georgia, ive never seen anything quite like this. Theyre on the ground, touching voters, and pulling voters out, and i think they have a Robust Program there. And looks like democrats are talking to the mayor, looks like democrats are going into election day with a bigger advantage today than biden had already on election day in the general election, which is just tremendous. And what republicans have to do right now is, they have to have a huge election day. What is really critical, what you should be watching for is, you know, all the republicans who did not turn out and vote early, will they get the same sort of surge and energy now that donald trump is not on the ballot, and particularly that donald trump has given mixed messages about the election there. Will they get that same sort of surge and that huge election day on the ground in georgia, that they certainly need to overcome what looks like a democrat advantage. To the questions of perdue and loeffler, sort of objecting to the vote, what i find is interesting, in their state, what theyre really doing is, theyre trying to disenfranchise black and brown voters, but more importantly, theyre disenfranchising suburban voters. The biggest difference between Hillary Clinton and biden, its in the suburbs. I have a million more questions for you, and im glad you brought it back to what has happened on the ground. Joe biden mentions Stacey Abrams every time he campaigns there. And his line about her is, theres obviously a personal relationship there and a lot of affection. He said, if i can clone Stacey Abrams and we could have 12 of them, we could change the world. Just try to talk about what you see in terms of the difference, if you can go through different parts of the state, between joe bidens election day, when he prevailed, i think we all now know after listening to the trump tape, about 11,400 what did trump keep saying . 11,440 votes. How do you see it shaping up as improving upon bidens election day in november, and where . That becomes the key question. Its all about these what we call sporadic voters, voters who dont consistently vote in elections turning out and getting a larger share of them, its a 30 30 thing, they need 30 africanamerican, and 30 of the white vote to be successful in georgia. And kudos to Stacey Abrams and the organizations on the ground, registrations increased, from 2016 to 2020, there was a huge increase in registration. When you look at where the vote was different, the portion of the electorate, 4 or 5 points larger in 2020 than in 2016. And that makes all the difference in the world. A lot of what these on the ground organizations have been doing, expanding the electorate, bringing new registrants in, and being more competitive in the suburbs. Look, biden did substantially better in the suburbs than Hillary Clinton did. A lot of that is sort of, is that a rejection of donald trump . Does perdue and loefflers embrace of donald trump, does that continue to turn off certain segments of those suburban voters who once upon a time were reliable Republican Voters . Greg, youve been covering this since the morning after the president ial election was called and all eyes turned to georgia. This dynamic, the early vote, young voters, infrequent voters. What is your sense of how all the groups, did the Democrats Bank on that vote, in the early vote, to be cautiously optimistic . What is your sense of the numbers today . I talked to democrats who are more than cautiously optimistic, theyre overall optimistic. Others are despondent. Thats why its so hard to read the tea leaves right now. But one number that folks keep coming back to, more than 100,000. Thats the number of voters who did not cast ballots in november, but are now casting ballots in the runoffs. With the margins so close, democrats feel like theyve built an advantage among new voters as well, this untapped pool. News has just broken that kenosha county, wisconsins, District Attorney has announced that no charges will be filed against Police Officers in the shooting of jacob blake. Lets listen in to that news conference. Theyll both be available at 5 00 p. M. Today. In addition, there has been a report drafted with all the findings, that also will be available at that time. So now i intend to talk about what steps were taken specifically by the d. A. s office to prepare for the investigation, and what our conclusions are about the law and the evidence in this case. As soon as i saw the video, and shared the same emotional reactions that i think so many people in the public did, my first viewing of the circumstances of the video that certainly went viral immediately, i knew at that time that we needed to do the most independent charging and processing decision that could be done. At the first moment i learned that, i called on the u. S. Attorneys office to do a parallel civil rights investigation that would be a separate investigation and conclusion and findings from our own. The u. S. Attorneys office has a civil rights specialist who prosecutes and makes charging decisions about officers and any misconduct. So they have specialists who do that. They work out of their washington, d. C. , office. They did agree to do an investigation. I know that is going on. And i invite you to contact that office to find out what their status is. Kenosha deserves a second legal opinion other than my own. Im confident about the things im talking about today. But i believe that the healing process begins or is improved by an opportunity for members of the public to see other prosecuting agencies make decisions. And the other thing i did, and i think this is unprecedented in the state of wisconsin, i dont think this has been ever done before. I asked the Wisconsin Attorney general to select for this particular case a use of force expert who i had nothing to do with hiring. I asked them to find someone, so there would be a truly and completely independent expert on issues of police training, and issues of whether the use of force in this case was reasonable. I asked them to select the person without me having any input. What the attorney general did was he asked noble ray, who is with me today, who accepted. And i knew noble rays name, i knew him as a national and state spokesperson for police reform. And talking about bias in policing, and a person hoping to who had spent after a long career at the Madison Police department, his second career was trying to be a voice on those issues on a national level. When i first had my contact with noble ray, had never spoken to him in my life, had never met him in person until after this selection was made, my first conversation with him was about how i wanted in no way to influence the decision he came to about the matters that mattered in this case. I told him, no matter what you conclude, were going to publish that, that will be an independently formed opinion. I wont have any influence, and you will be allowed to put anything you want in there. And i will invite you to offer any opinions we just want to tell you what youre listening to. Thats the kenosha, wisconsin, District Attorney. He said it will take one hour to explain the decision. But the decision is that no charges will be brought against the Police Officer or any of the Police Officers involved in the shooting of jacob blake. He was an unarmed black man who was shot, and the shooting resulted in becoming paralyzed, it happened as he was at the front door of his vehicle with his children in the backseat. I want to bring in gabe gutierrez, live in kenosha, wisconsin, for us. Gabe . Reporter i want to paint the picture of where we are right now. Right behind me, we see a Police Cruiser with several members of the wisconsin National Guard. As you mentioned earlier, the governor has mobilized several hundred members, 500 drootroopsd i want to get to what you just heard from the local District Attorney. Yes, as you mentioned, no charges in this case. A case that has captured nationwide attention. There was unrest following the death of george floyd and the shooting of jacob blake. He was shot seven times. What you just heard from the District Attorney is that applying the law to this case, he believes no charges should be filed in this case. But there is still an investigation ongoing at the federal level as well. But this is what jacob blakes family expected, last night, there was a protest here in kenosha, where his father said this is perhaps what he expected. Late last night, the city Council Voted to approve an emergency declaration, expected to extend for eight days now. But this is a city that really was brought to a standstill when this case happened back in august. Over the last several months, many of the businesses here in kenosha, wisconsin, have remained boarded up. And as you can see behind me, there is great concern of whether anger might boil over once again in this community. But again, the breaking news, the District Attorney here announcing his longawaited decision that no charges will be brought against any of the officers here in this case. The one who fired the shots, his attorney had previously said he believed th