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 designin