President ial debate before hillary clinton, staged a surprise News Conference featuring several women who had accused clintons husband of Sexual Assault or harassment. Donald trump was down in the polls and the access Hollywood Tape had just come out 48 hours earlier, revealing trump openly admitting to his predatory behavior. It was the lowest moment of the president ial race for trump. Hillary Clintons Campaign called the stunt with her husbands accusers a quote, act of desperation. But heres the thing. Desperate people will do desperate things. Here we are exactly four years later, and consider the week that President Donald Trump has had. The president and the first lady tested positive for covid19. The president was airlifted to walter reed where he was hospitalized for three days, during which time his doctor delivered briefings on the president s condition that were either incomplete, misleading, or contradictory, sometimes all of the above. And the president was loaded up with an experimental antibody cocktail as well as an antiviral medication and steroids generally reserved for patients with severe cases of coronavirus. And the number of people connected to the white house and the Trump Campaign testing positive for covid19 grew by the day, sometimes by the hour. Were now up to 27 confirmed cases, including the president s campaign manager, the White House Press secretary, and several of her staff, trumps top speechwriter, two highranking military officials, three republican senators, and the chair of the Republican Party. This has also been one of the worst weeks that the president has had in the polls as voters have digested not just his covid diagnosis and the reckless behavior that produced it but also the president s disastrous performance in his first debate with joe biden last week. The National Polls have been wild this week. Cnn has joe biden up 16 points over trump at 57 . An nbc news wall street journal poll pegged biden at 53 , 14 points ahead of the president. Even fox news has trump trailing by 10 points in its latest poll, five points further behind joe biden than he was last month. Now, battleground state polls are mostly closer, but still very bad for the president. And this week the president learned that the october surprise that he was counting on does not appear to be coming. Trump has for months been touting the imminent release of the Durham Report, which he said would prove once and for all that russia the russia investigation was all a big hoax, and then maybe attorney general bill barr and his handpicked investigator, john durham, would start arresting and indicting Obama Administration officials. There was reportedly so much pressure on john durhams team to produce a report before the election that his top aide quit in protest. Well, this week bill barr has reportedly been telling Top Republicans that there will not be a Durham Report before the election, which might explain why the president has been publicly berating bill barr in recent days. But were going to get to that in just a minute. Also this week the president lost yet another court fight to try to keep his tax records out of the hands of a new york grand jury. But of course the New York Times already has many of those records, and the paper this week continued rolling out stories about the president s precarious financial situation as revealed by those documents. The president s son eric was deposed this week by new yorks attorney general in an investigation into possible financial crimes at the president s company. And so here we are. It is friday. The election is less than a month away. We dont know whats going to happen in that election, but by every metric we currently have, the president is losing, and he has just had a very, very bad week. And desperate people do desperate things. The president this week went on a multihour, all caps twitter spree demanding to know why his political opponents, including joe biden and barack obama, werent being arrested. Where are the arrests, he tweetshouted. He called into the fox business channel for an hour, lashing out at his attorney general and his secretary of state for not doing their part to undercut or indict his political opponents, abruptly pulling out of the next president ial debate on october 15th, and appearing to blame gold star families for giving him coronavirus at a white house event. He released a couple of rambling videos from the white house in jarringly thick, dark makeup even for him and said getting covid had been a gift from god and hed been cured and he felt great, really good, so amazing, better than he did 20 years ago. Apropos of absolutely nothing, he said on twitter hes pulling all troops out of afghanistan by christmas, which was apparently news to the United States military. He said he needed those troops home so they could be ready to fight north korea or china or russia. Also by tweet the president abruptly pulled the plug on talks over a new covid relief bill until after the election, which would have left millions of americans struggling without help for months. And then just as abruptly the president sort of tried to take it back maybe. After his own Justice Department foiled a militia plot to kidnap and possibly kill michigans governor, the president attacked her for her measures to control covid in her state. In other words, he attacked her for the very things the Militia Group said it had targeted her over. Today the president spent over two hours on Rush Limbaughs radio show, where among other things he went on a profanitylaced tirade against iran, saying to iran, quote, if you f around with us, if you do something bad to us, we are going to do things to you that have never been done before. I know it sometimes seems like we say this a lot, but even for this president , this is erratic, manic behavior, and its uncomfortable to say it, but we honestly do not know if any of the president s behavior has anything to do with the medications that hes been on. From everything we know, President Trump may be the only person on earth to get the particular cocktail of medications that hes been given. One of those medications is a powerful steroid that is known to produce hyperactivity and mania. But then again, maybe this is just donald trump. Hes behaving like this because we are less than a month from the election and he feels like hes losing, and this is what we should expect. Thats where we are. The best Case Scenario here is that our president s baseline behavior is simply indistinguishable from that of a person jacked up on heavy steroids. But its also clear that the president s personal Health Crisis is inseparable from the countrys public Health Crisis and that both are creating a political crisis for this white house. As of tonight, a week after the president announced his positive test result, the white house still will not answer the basic simple question of when the president s last negative test was before he tested positive for coronavirus. My intrepid colleague, hallie jackson, spent a full five minutes today trying to get a White House Deputy press secretary to say when the president s last negative test was and if he was tested before the debate like he was supposed to be, and the White House Deputy press secretary simply would not answer. If they are willing to go through the kind of verbal gymnastics that this guy kept up for five straight minutes, chances are the answers not good. And the answer matters. Minnesota Public Health officials report that there are now nine coronavirus cases linked to the president s rally there on september 18th, including two hospitalizations and one person is in the icu. Well, the president was back in minnesota for a rally in duluth on september 30th, barely 24 hours before he announced his own positive test. So how long was the president infectious . Was he getting tested . How many people at how many trump events in the days leading up to his positive test should be concerned, especially if the white house isnt do a bangup job of Contact Tracing . Just last hour the president appeared on fox news for an interview with one of their onair doctors, who himself has played down covid19 in the past. Trump claimed hes been off all medications for eight hours, and, again, just keeps on saying how good he feels. The white house says the president will host a public event on the south lawn of the white house tomorrow, speaking to supporters from the balcony. Then hell hold a Campaign Rally in sanford, florida, on monday even though we dont know exactly where in the course of his illness he is. The second president ial debate, which had been scheduled for next week, was canceled today by the commission on president ial debates because after trump pulled out, joe biden made other plans. And, again, here we are. Its been one of the craziest, most unnerving weeks of this presidency, and that is saying something. We thought wed seen every crisis, but this is new. This is the president feeling cornered and losing with less than a month to the election. What happens next week and the week after that . After the kind of week we thought it could be helpful to check in with yale historian and professor tim snyder. Mr. Snyders joined this program a few times before because he literally wrote the book on how to recognize whether the authoritarian inclinations of this president are shifting toward shifting the country really toward authoritarianism. That book also tells us what we can do about it and what we can learn from other countries that have gone through something similar. The book is called on tyranny twenty lessons from the twentieth. Heres lesson number ten. Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights. So my question is what kind of spectacle might we expect when a leader like donald trump feels desperate . And i know who to ask. Joining me now, tim snyder, professor of history at Yale University and author of a new book our malady lessons in liberty from a hospital diary. Thank you for being with us tonight. I have to be honest with you. We really tumbled this around all day, the team on rachels show, to say is this alarmist . Should we be talking about a slide to authoritarianism . Do all these lies add up to something . What does a desperate donald trump do because a desperate donald trump is different from a desperate ali velshi or tim snyder. Hes got things at his disposal that we dont have. What do you make of this . I think he also has problems that you and i dont have. Hes in a different situation than he was in 2016. In 2016, he could win or he could lose. Now in 2020, you dont see the kind of lightheartedness that you saw in his campaign in 2016. Everything is dead serious, so serious that as you say, it looks desperate. And there are reasons for that. One is that he doesnt have money. Hes about half a billion dollars in debt, and once hes no longer president , people are going to come to collect. And the second is hes under investigation for crimes. He and his company are under investigation for crimes. So long as hes president , he can hold that off. So from his point of view, this is a struggle for life and death. Hes not just desperate, as you say, because hes down in the polls or because he thinks hes going to lose. Hes desperate because hes in that typical authoritarian situation which is unfamiliar to americans but very familiar to people around the world, which is that if the leader loses, hes afraid of jail, and hes afraid of the poorhouse. So thats the structural situation that hes in. Theres no reason to be hysterical about it or consider this alarmist. Thats simply the way hes looking at the world right now. Whats the other side of the equation . Whats the part that were not hearing where there are probably military leaders in this country saying, you all are talking about what happens if he doesnt have a peaceful transfer of power. Dont worry, we got this. Or people who are thinking through how they will preserve the institutions that we all rely upon, that we think of as democracy. Thats a really important question because the institutions dont protect themselves. The institutions only protect us if we protect them first. So if we sleepwalk through november thinking that everything is going to work out automatically, then were going to have big problems. Its right as you say that the military will not intervene. However, what mr. Trump has been trying to do since the summer are two things. First, hes been trying to change the department of Homeland Security into an agency which acts against what he perceives to be domestic terrorist threats. And he, himself, has defined a threat as people protesting around the right to vote. The second thing that hes done is hes been encouraging american citizens to take part in voter intimidation. So these are the things that we have to watch out for. These are the things that we need to be alert for even as we are calm. By the way, these are also the things that Law Enforcement has to Pay Attention to. In the weeks to come, Law Enforcement at every level, local, state and federal, needs to think, am i following the rules here, or am i bending or breaking the rules on behalf of someone who is desperate to stay in power . But what a strange position for Law Enforcement and military to be in, to have to think about whats my oath to, who is my oath to, who is my responsibility to . Two days ago, professor snyder, i was thinking that we were going to be talking about this encouragement of armed people or Trump Supporters to go to polls and conduct poll watching. And now im realizing that the encouragement of armed people may have something to do with this situation in michigan, in which the president had there was one answer to that, and that was to condemn it. And the president stopped short of it. In fact he stopped well short of it, criticizing the governor of michigan for the same grievances that the militia members who have been arrested have had. Thats a dynamic we have not faced in america since the ku klux klan really. Again, i mean this is part of a larger pattern that the president encouraged citizens to rebel against statehouses months ago. The president has been saying for months that its all right for to rebel against democrats at the city and state level. The president s been suggesting the whole summer and the whole fall that the real problem in this country are democratled cities and democratled states. The purpose of this is to create a background atmosphere in which voting itself is going to seem like its questionable and can be challenged. Let me tell you after that long intro about everything thats happened in the last week, you are a calming influence. Professor tim snyder. Professor of history at Yale University and the author of on tyranny twenty lessons from the twentieth century. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for your time tonight sir. We have much more ahead but i want to give you an update on a big story were following tonight. Hurricane delta. Were out of letters. Thats why were on the greek alphabet now. The storm made landfall as a category 2 hurricane in southwestern louisiana at about 7 00 p. M. Eastern time tonight, just 13 miles away from where hurricane laura hit six weeks ago. More than 200,000 people in the area are now without power. Some people who fled the last storm have still not been able to return to their homes, and its currently making its way up the southeastern United States as a weaker category 1 storm. Wind gusts in southwest louisiana have reached nearly 100 miles per hour. Some areas are reporting deadly storm surges of more than eight feet of water. The storms going to continue to head north through mississippi, then tennessee through the weekend. Hurricane delta is the tenth named storm to make landfall this year. Thats the second highest number of named storms in a single season in modern u. S. History. Hurricane season has nearly two months to go. Climate change . What Climate Change . More news ahead this busy friday night. Stay with us. Stay with us tonight, ill be eating a veggie cheeseburger on ciabatta, no tomatoes. [hard a] tonight. Ill be eating four cheese tortellini with extra tomatoes. [full emphasis on the soft a] so its come to this . [doorbell chimes] thank you. [doorbell chimes] bravo. Careful, hamill. Daddys not here to save you. Oh i am my daddy. Wait, what . What are you talking about . Look limu someone out there needs help customizing their Car Insurance with Liberty Mutual, so they only pay for what they need. False alarm. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. The letter to cdc director Robert Redfield says in part, quote, the first thing would be to face the truth. You and i both know that. One, despite the white house spin attempts, this will go down as a colossal failure of the Public Health system of the country. The biggest challenge in a century, and we let the country down. The Public Health texts of the future will use this as a lesson on how not to handle an Infectious Disease pandemic. Two, the cause will be the incompetence and illogic of the white house program. Three, the white house has had no hesitation to blame and disgrace cdc, you, and state governors. They will blame you for the disaster. In six months, they have caused cdc to go from gold to tarnished brass. That is the beginning of a private letter that was sent to dr. Redfield late last month. Although we dont know who leaked it, it was written by a legend in the Public Health world, dr. William foege. Among his many achievements, dr. Foege is largely responsible for the eradication of smallpox. He served for six years as the director of the cdc and for his lifetime of Public Service was presented with the nations highest civilian honor, the medal of freedom. So what he says carries real weight, and in that letter to dr. Redfield, he did not mince words about the need to stand up to the trump administration, telling redfield, quote, resigning is a oneday story, and you will be replaced. But you could send a letter to all cdc employees laying out the facts. You could upfront acknowledge the tragedy of responding poorly, apologize for what has happened and your role in acquiescing, and assure them that you will defend their attempts to save this country. Dont shy away from the fact that this has been an unacceptable toll on our country. It is a slaughter and not just a political dispute. The white house will, of course, respond with fury, but you will have right on your side. When they fire you, this will be a multiweek story, and you can hold your head high. That was what a leading voice in Public Health was calling on dr. Redfield to do just last month. Stand up to the president and be willing to lose your job in the process. That was dr. Foeges advice even before shocking new reporting by the New York Times this evening which reports that the cdc, quote, drafted a sweeping order last month requiring all passengers and employees to wear masks on all forms of public and commercial transportation in the United States, but it was blocked by the white house. This comes on top of another damning piece of reporting from the times. The Rachel Maddow show has reported previously about how the cdcs scientific work at the smithfield meatpacking plant in south dakota was compromised and changed because of political pressure from washington. Now the New York Times has published new details about exactly what happened. Quote, in april a team of cdc scientists inspected a Smithfield Foods plant in south dakota and wrote a report to the company about new guidelines that needed to be adopted to ensure the safety of workers and the sanitation of the food. Vice president pences chief of staff, marc short, directed redfield to soften the language of the report, reducing the agencys recommendations to suggestions. Not long after dr. Redfield dictated changes to the report to his staff in atlanta from the vestibule outside of mr. Pences office, he confided to one of mr. Pences aides at the time, olivia troye, that he felt that he was in an impossible position. Quote, my scientists are telling me what i need to do, he said according to ms. Troye. But he added, quote, i want to make sure the Vice President is happy. Joining me now, olivia troye. She was a member of the White House Coronavirus task force from day one. She was the top aide to Vice President mike pence on coronavirus. She left the white house in august and has since been critical of the president s handling of this pandemic. Ms. Troye, thank you for taking time to be with us tonight. Lets talk about this. You say that and you tweeted that this is absolutely true. You were in conversations where they discussed this mandate, this proposed mandate to have people wear masks on all public and commercial transit. And the Airline Industry was begging for this, and the white house said no. Correct. Thank you for having me first of all, but it is 100 accurate. These conversations have been honestly going on for months. This conversation started probably late spring, early summer, and it went through the summer. We discussed facial coverings for transportation workers. We discussed the importance for the Critical Infrastructure industry. And honestly there was a lot of consent across the task force on the need for face coverings to be mandatory, and these discussions went on for a bit. Towards the end of my tenure, i remember personally actually putting this on the agenda to discuss mandatory requirements for transportation workers because we knew that it was critical, that that is just a fundamental thing to keep these people safe. And i sat in these task force meetings, and, look, my dad was a lifelong truck driver. He drove a truck until the day he passed away, and i kept thinking about him and the Trucking Industry and i was thinking about the subways, and i was thinking about the bus drivers, and i was thinking about the airlines. I mean the flight attendants, all of these people, and also the airlines who i wont get into closeddoor discussions, but i was there where i heard from many Transportation Industries saying, this would really help us out. It would help us out if the u. S. Government would have our backs on this one. And honestly i was shocked tonight when i when that article dropped because literally my heart sanction and i said how is it possible that till today, this is still not a thing that will pass the threshold for this white house . Its just common sense. Were going into the fall. Were going into the winter. We need this. Its egregious. Ms. Troye, i need to ask you because youre one of very few people who have been in a position to be in the front lines of some of this decisionmaking. Youve worked in counterterrorism, and then youve worked on the Coronavirus Task force so youre an expert in things that can kill americans. Dr. Foege in the letter to Robert Redfield said the white house of course will respond with fury when they fire you. This will be a multiweek story and you can hold your head high. Tell me about that pressure not to go up against the white house, not to go up against the president or the Vice President , the political pressure when, in fact, normal people would say, wearing a mask is inconvenient. Im the first one to admit. Fun is not wearing a mask, but i get why i wear it. Why is there this position, and why wont sensible people speak back about it. Its fear. Its fear that these people will completely be vindictive and destroy you. And ive been there. I have felt it, and you get concerned, and you think that theyre going to destroy your reputation, and everything that you have worked for your entire life, that they will just come at you, and that people will believe them. And you dont know what will happen in the days to come. But, look, im living proof that doing the right thing is really the bottom line of what matters. Having the moral courage to do this. And to dr. Redfield, i mean reading that letter was like my heart just just hurt because ive had these conversations with him. I know how much he cares, and i have seen him struggle with this every single day. And that agency quite frankly deserves someone to step forward and say enough. And if doesnt give him a lifeline to say, look, we will have your back. Its okay. I know its hard. I know that you are a man of faith, and i know how much you care. But just enough. Just come forward. Its going to be okay. Youve done your career. We will all have your backs. You have an entire agency of scientists. The data is behind you, and the truth is behind you. And thats all you need. Forget the pressure. Forget these people. They dont even care about you. Weve seen that. And i guess that would be my plea to him. And i say, you know, actually thank goodness for that letter. And though, you know, i work in the National Security field, im not a believer in leaking things and, you know, i certainly never thought id ever be in the position that i am right now where i would speak out. But at some point, this is National Security. We have a duty to tell the truth. Yes. We have a duty to come forward and say enough. Our job is to protect the american people, and that is a very serious job that we all take seriously. Id just amplify that. If you come forward and you bear witness and you speak the truth and you have right on your side, as you said, we will have your back. Olivia troye, thank you. Olivia troye is a former White House Coronavirus task force. She was a member of that force, and she was the top aide to Vice President pence. Thank you for being here tonight. Thank you for having my back. Up next, as the pandemic takes aim at its our pleasure to do that. As the pandemic takes aim at much of the midwest, were going to talk live with one of the doctors on the front line. Stay with us. Well be right back. Be right ba. When was the last time your property tax bill went down . What . Never. Are you kidding me . For years, the residential burden has gone up. While the corporate burden has gone down. Prop 15 reverses that. It closes corporate loopholes and invests in schools, small business, and firefighters. And when the big corporations pay more, your tax bill goes down. Thats right. A savings of a hundred twentyone dollars a year for the average home. Give homeowners a break. Vote yes on 15. This is the cover of the jamestown sun today published in jamestown, north dakota. Quote, north dakota reports Record Number of active covid19 cases. Further down the page, a heartbreaking headline. 17yearold becomes north dakotas youngest covid19 death. Remembered as a devoted daughter, sister, friend, and future cat mom. In neighboring south dakota, similar theme. On the front page of the sioux falls argus leader. Covid19 deaths set new record in the state. And the front passenger of the Des Moines Register today, iowa could prevent many deaths. Experts state situation is dire. And right below that troubling headline is this quote from a local doctor. Quote, our concern is the deaths could continue to rise. Over in helena, montana, the cover of the independent record, 62 of hospital beds occupied. Montanas department of Public Health also reporting 26 of the states 56 counties nearing maximum capacity. The arizona daily star, Arizona Health leader says no specific end in sight for covid. In utah, the Salt Lake Tribune with an entire line graph of new cases taking up half the front page. Covids curve cause for concern. With a Record Number of new cases and death toll that tops 500, utah is in the grips of a surge that has a tired medical community pleading for public cooperation. All theyre asking for is social distancing and wearing a mask. The coronavirus epidemic is surging in the heartland and across the midwest and much of the west. As the country passes 7. 5 million cases and more than 214,000 deaths, the dakotas are in bad shape. They are the top two states with the highest number of new covid cases per capita. South dakota breaking another record for new cases today, crossing the unfortunate milestone of recording more than 5,000 active cases. The state also set a hospitalization record this week. North dakota just as concerning. The state reporting nearly 4,000 active cases today with over 650 new cases and Hospital Capacity is dwindling. The death toll tripled its previous high on wednesday as the state faces a critical shortage of hospital beds. Just 16 available icu beds and 186 regular inpatient beds in the entire state. But things are particularly terrible in wisconsin, where new cases are skyrocketing. The state look at that chart. The state is reporting nearly 3,000 new cases today. The second highest total to date just behind yesterdays record. Hospitalizations across that state rose 36 . The entire state of wisconsin reporting just 16 of hospital beds remain available. In the past two weeks, new cases have jumped by nearly 50 . Their state is reporting a daily case rate of nearly 20 . Governor tony evers this week warned that the virus is, quote, out of control in wisconsin. And atop wisconsins state Health Official echoed those remarks by warning the state is in a dangerous place that is overwhelming the health care system. Joining us now, dr. Nasia safdar, medical director of Infection Control at the university of wisconsin hospital. Dr. Safdar, thank you for joining us tonight. I cannot believe some of these numbers im reading across the midwest and the west, but in wisconsin. Those are numbers that sound like we had months ago before we thought we were on the you know, when we were still on the uptick of coronavirus cases. We are seeing a pandemic in full flare in wisconsin. This is the first time that wisconsin has really experienced the full force of this pandemic, and i think despite all the preparedness and everything that has been going on since march, i think its a little bit hard to fathom how quickly things can get out of control. Because there is viruses exponential spread, you could have 10 cases one day and 100 cases a couple days from then. And its very easy to think that you have capacity one day and then have no capacity the following days. Dr. Safdar, when we were talking about this in some cases in february and in march, we didnt know. Doctors sort of knew basics about ppe and infection spread and pulmonary disease. We know so much today. Why are we seeing these increased numbers . Because i think the fact that we know something doesnt mean that its always being translated into action. So, for instance, we know that we have to limit our physical mobility, that we have to wear a mask, that we have to limit indoor gatherings, that we have to keep a distance from other people and to stay home if we have mild symptoms. But having said that, you know, it doesnt mean that its being done. And until these things are implemented rigorously, carefully, and continuously, it seems difficult to think that we would make a dent in the curve the way it is now. I was im traveling around the country every week now to talk to voters. I was in wisconsin two weeks ago, and the trump voters on my panel very close to when we were supposed to tape it said they werent wearing masks. And it was politicized. It was a political thing. It was about liberty and about freedom. Are you surprised at the degree to which a Public Health issue has become this type of a political issue . You know, i think from the Public Health standpoint, i think masking is one of those things that we have learned a lot about during this pandemic. In the early days, there were shortages of ppe, and so physicians werent necessarily stressing it to the same extent that we are now. But now that we know they work and they work rather well, i think its a shame that more of the population isnt ready to wear them. Is it strange to you, though, that we are having this discussion as a political discussion in this country, that it comes up at president ial debates that basic stuff that the cdc could have told us all to do and we could have had billboards and signs to do it, we dont do . Well, i think Public Health interventions should really be interpreted in the context of the science. And if the science supports that an intervention should be done, then i think Everybody Needs to get behind it and ensure that intervention is done. I mean the stakes here are very, very high. Were talking about record hospitalizations, Record Number of deaths. And if its a seemingly simple intervention like public masking in all areas could prevent that death toll, why not do that . Why not do it . Doctor, thank you for joining us. Dr. Nasia safdar is the medical director of Infection Control at the university of wisconsin hospital. Thank you so much for your time tonight. Thank you. Coming up next, some very good news for democrats in one swing state and proof that pressure does actually work. Stay with us. Ever since darrells family started using gain flings, their laundry smells more amazing than ever. Uh, honey . Isnt that the dogs towel . Hey, me towel su towel. Theres more gain scent plus oxi boost and febreze odor remover in every fling. Gain. Seriously good scent and then found the home of my dreams. But my home of my dreams needed some work sofi was the first lender that even offered a personal loan. I didnt even know that was an option. The personal loan let us renovate our Single Family house into a multiunit home. And i get to live in this Beautiful House with this beautiful kitchen and its all thanks to sofi. The Tipping Point. It is that part of Election Night where youve run out of all your snacks. Your eyelids are getting a little droopy. Youre kicking yourself for scheduling a 9 00 a. M. Meeting on wednesday morning when finally one last states ends up pushing one of the candidates past the threshold of electoral votes and into the oval office in january. It might not happen on Election Night this time, but that state will matter. Its the decider, the clincher, the Tipping Point. And this year the Tipping Point is looking like it might be right here where i am in the commonwealth of pennsylvania. According to the data gurus at fivethirtyeight. Com, pennsylvania has a 26 chance of being the state that delivers this election. Thats a far greater chance by the way than any other state including florida, wisconsin, michigan, and minnesota. Now, just lets be clear. All states matter. Every vote counts, but in the end, pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes could decide this election, which is why this news last week went off like an alarm bell in pennsylvania. Rachel covered it on the show at the time. Republicans in the pennsylvania statehouse introduced a bill to create and control what they were calling an Election Integrity panel, which would allow them to investigate with subpoena power the results of the 2020 president ial election in pennsylvania while the election and votecounting are in process. Democrats in pennsylvania raised strong and loud objections to the bill, saying the panel would be weaponized by republicans to, quote, disrupt the election by subpoenaing ballots and bringing in Election Officials and others to testify before the vote count has been certified, end quote. One state lawmaker, representative malcolm kenyatta, said the bill would be a fatal blow not just to the sanctity of the election here in pennsylvania but a fatal blow to the american experiment itself. This proposed Election Integrity panel dont you love these names, Election Integrity panel to let republicans essentially root around in the ballot boxes before the results are certified would not need the approval of the states democratic governor. With the republican majority in the house, its passage seemed a foregone conclusion until this happened today, late today, this afternoon, after all that outcry from democrats in the states, after National Attention to what they were trying to do, the majority leader in the pennsylvania statehouse sent an email to his republican colleagues announcing that he was pulling the bill. Pennsylvania republicans have dropped their plan to create the socalled Election Integrity panel, at least until after the election. He said that while he still believed it was the right policy, that now is the, quote, wrong time to run the proposal. Tipping point indeed. Joining me now, malcolm kenyatta, democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of representatives, who spoke out passionately against this republican bill. He serves a part of philadelphia county. Representative kenyatta, thank you for being here. You are the proof that Many Americans need tonight that protest and talking up sometimes works. Absolutely. I think that this is another example that our voices matter and for folks who are, you know, getting their mailin ballots, making a plan to vote, your vote matters. And i think that when we see things going on that we know are absolutely wrong, we have to speak up. And im, you know, incredibly grateful that, you know, everybody here at the maddow team spoke out about what happened. Because if you look at what leader benninghoff said, he wasnt ashamed of what hed done. They werent upset about what they did. They were just upset that they got caught, that they got caught. Yes. Let me read that actually. Ill read what he said. Its remarkable actually. Leader kerry benninghoff, the republican leader in the state legislature, said the common themes from those conversations show you that you understand the select committee was being formed with the best of intentions, but the left and their media allies distorted the image of a Bipartisan Committee into a nefarious effort on our part to interfere with the upcoming election. Nothing can be further from the truth. The caucus has hane tained its commitment to the election with on time results unquote. I suppose the allies are us and our sort. Absolutely. Nothing was distorted. All we did was tell the truth about what was in the bill. The chairman everett, we were going back and forth and he kept saying what his intent was, but we looked at the language of the bill, and the language of the bill was in direct contrast to his intent. Pennsylvania as you said in the lead up is the Tipping Point state and one of the most important states in this election. But the reality is its not just what happens at the top of a ticket that matters. Every issue we face is not going to be solved in the oval office. And in fact here who gets to the oval office is going to in large part be decided by what happens in state capitols. So folks who want to see this never happen again i would say pick a statehouse or senate seat here and get busy, get to work. Let me ask you about this. You know, i move between pennsylvania and new york. And i came in two nights ago and i was driving on the pennsylvania turnpike, and every available billboard had turned into a trump billboard. It was all law and order, and it was asians for trump, it was everybody for trump. It was all sorts of trump bill boards. The Trump Campaign seems to have decided this is ground zero. They know its ground zero. And its why this committee was not the only attack that theyve leveled against whats happening here and against our democracy. The president has filed multiple, you know, frivolous lawsuits including one recently against the city of philadelphia itself about poll launchers which he mentioned in the debate saying very bad things happen in philadelphia. You know, im a party to one lawsuit thats being waged by the Pennsylvania Democratic party around ballots and mailin ballots. He lost much of that at the Supreme Court. But one of the things that the Supreme Court in my opinion decided incorrectly was around the ballots. So now if folks dont take their ballots and put it inside the secrecy envelope and inside the envelope their vote wont be counted. What were seeing here is a pattern with President Trump. You know, hes been a counsel artist his entire career lying and stealing, and now he has enlisted the entire Republican Party in husband latest scheme. But whats worse here is that this time his victim would be our very democracy. And so we cant be quiet when things like that happen. The president has tried to intimidate people through tweet and through rally, but were not going to be intimidated. Folks are going to come out and vote like never before. And im telling you, ali, what happens here in pennsylvania at the state level is going to be critical to this. You have candidates where Vice President biden is going to be tomorrow, george scott running for senate and you have colby cole running in western pa against a current colleague of mine now going viral for forcing his 5yearold to smoke a cigar. Im not making it up. He had his 5yearold smoke a cigar, and hes running against him there. And we have candidates in wendy oleman and jennifer omara. So folks can help Pennsylvania House democratic committee, the Pennsylvania Senate Democratic Campaign committee. If we win the state not just for Vice President biden, but if we win the statehouse we can stop them from doing this. Because as he said they can bring this bill up on november 4th and we have to stop that. State representative, good to see you. Thanks for being with us. All right, most election related news these days is anxiety inducing, but on top of this reversal we just talked about here in pennsylvania weve got another piece of positive election news in 2020. Its even calming actually. Its coming up next. Even calmiy its coming up next. Limu emu and doug. And if we win, we get to tell you how Liberty Mutual customizes Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. Isnt that what you just did . Service stand back, im gonna show ya how doug and limu roll, ya you know you got to live it if you wanna wi. [ music stops ] time out only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Balanced nutrition for strength and energy. Whoohoo great tasting ensure with 9 grams of protein, 27 vitamins and minerals, and nutrients to support immune health. And nutrients to tonight. Ill be eating roasted cauliflower tacos with spicy chipotle sauce. [doorbell chimes] thank you. [puck scores] oooow yeah i wasnt ready you want cheese to go with that whine . . Knowinits hard. Re is hard. Eliminate who you are not first, and youre going to find yourself where you need to be. The race is never over. The journey has no port. The adventure never ends, because we are always on the way. Taking california for a ride. Companies like uber, lyft, doordash. Breaking state employment laws for years. Now these multibilliondollar companies wrote deceptive prop 22 to buy themselves a new law. To deny drivers the rights they deserve. No sick leave. No workers comp. No unemployment benefits. Vote no on the deceptive uber, lyft, doordash prop 22. One ride california doesnt want to take. Update on a story the Rachel Maddow show brought you a few weeks ago, a sort of good news you should feel more reassured about the election than you otherwise might have kind of story. The Washington Post reported on a surge in young people offering to be poll workers this year. Over half a Million People across the country signing up for fall election duty. The surge came after scenes like these from wisconsin during primaries in the spring. Long voting lines caused in part by a shortage of poll workers. Poll workers tend to be older and therefore more at risk from the coronavirus epidemic. So lots of them chose not to work at the polls during the primaries. With 25 days to go before the election, the good news is it looked like a lot of places are actually in really good shape in terms of poll workers. Like this headline in the Washington Post. Wisconsin Election Officials go from famine to feast with a swell of poll workers. In tulsa, people are volunteering in unprecedented numbers. Also in the broward and monroe counties, tampa area and florida. And where i am tonight in the suburbs of philadelphia. In all of those places they are reporting having plenty of poll workers and overflow, even, especially young people. But there are still places that are behind. The philadelphia suburbs are full up. Philly itself, just a few minutes away from me, is at least a couple of thousand poll workers short. Counties in north carolina, outside the triangle region, are still looking for volunteers. Ohio, cleveland remains thousands of policy workers short. The state has setup a nifty poll worker tracker so you can see your countys needs and volunteer if your county needs you. Young americans have risen to the challenge, which is great. But lots of poll workers are still needed all across the country. Check in with your local board of elections and see if they need your help. 25 days to go. That does it for us. Rachel is back on monday. Ill see you on velshi tomorrow at 8 00 a. M. This weekend im headed to michigan where well learn more about the alleged domestic terror plot against governor gretchen whitmer. Lawrence, its a rare treat for me to be on tv with you, but its nice to see you my friend. Yeah, this doesnt happen too much. Thank you, ali, and good luck covering, i cant wait to see what you come back with on that. Thank you, sir. Thanks, ali. Donald trump has nothing to do. And he proved that today by spending two hours on talk radio. He actually spent another half hour on another talk radio show after he did the Rush Limbaugh show. No previous president in our history would spend president ial time that way. And in his two hours on the radio today with Rush Limbaugh, donald trump got a glimpse what have might be his future. Spending hours on the radio, competing with Rush Limbaugh, next year, complaining about presiden
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