left the best school in the s.e.c. out of your last segment. go commodores. also, president trump right now is attacking susan collins on twitter. a republican in a fight for her life in the state of maine because he heard she may not vote for the nominee. he doesn't even need her vote for amy coney barrett. going after her as she fights for her life in maine. >> that is everything you need to know. >> we want to thank everybody for watching today. our segment with rod and eddie was uncomfortable at times, but that's what we do here. and, you know what, we've got to learn how to stop talking past each other. start talking to each other. we're going to get that panel back and others like it moving forward because we've got to come together as a country. we've got to bridge the gap. we've got to synthesize and come together as people on the left and the right are fighting

illiberalism. >> that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. >> hi there. i'm stephanie ruhle. it is a busy friday. october 16th. let's hunker down and try to get a little smarter. this morning, just 18 days, that's right, 18 days from the election, the presidential candidates are hitting the trail. joe biden heading to michigan while president trump will campaign in georgia. it comes after a split-screen night that displayed the stark choice voters have in this election. the two candidates answering questions at dueling town halls and painting very different pictures of what america looks like now and what it would look like for the next four years. president trump on the defensive press on the coronavirus. conspiracy theories, white supremacy and his tax returns. he described a country turning a corner when it comes to covid and the economy making this pitch for why he deserves another four years. >> because i've done a great

job. we have the strongest economy in the world. we closed it up. we are coming around the corner. the vaccines are coming out soon. and our economy is strong. >> for facts sake, let's give you a reality check to the president's pitch. right now, nearly 900,000 americans have filed for unemployment in the last week alone. 8 million have fallen into poverty since the month of may. and coronavirus cases, they're not turning the corner. they're rising in a total of 44 states. in philadelphia, joe biden's tone was a lot more somber. and the conversation largely policy driven. he painted a picture of an america that is in serious trouble but it could unite under the right leadership. when asked what it would mean if he loses, i want you to listen to what joe biden said. >> i hope that it doesn't say that we are as racially,

ethnically and religiously at odds with one another as it appears the president wants us to be. usually, you know, the presidents, in my view, with all due respect, it's been divide and conquer. the way he does better if he splits us. there's division. and i think people need hope. >> all right. let's dig in. kara lee is covering the white house. and mike memoli is ahead of the president's next trip. the president is headed to georgia. he won this state by 5% in 2016. this is not a state you'd expect him to go to with just two weeks to go before the election day. >> it's certainly not, steph. and, you know, president trump, though, is on the defensive in georgia a little bit. we haven't seen a democrat win the state of georgia since 1992. just to give some perspective on how unusual it is to see a president campaigning in this

state. a republican president campaigning in this state just weeks before the election. but the polls are close. all polls show that this is a potentially tight race in georgia. the vice president, former vice president joe biden is putting the president on defensive just in terms of ad spending there. the president is not spending ads there. so he's going there in person. he's going to hold an event tonight at 7:00 in an airport hangar in macon, georgia. and this is a state, steph, that he really has to win. if he doesn't win georgia, it's just going to show potentially a lot of trends across the country in key battleground states that are not good for the president. and georgia is not the only state he'll be campaigning in today. he's also in battleground florida. he spent the night there after his town hall last night. he's going to do an official white house event with seniors in ft. myers and then hold a rally in ocala, florida, before heading to georgia for his event there. and this is really what the end of the week for the president,

his first week back on the trail since contracting the coronavirus. and you should expect to see a lot of this. we'll see the president on the trail at least one event a day from now until election day, according to his aides. but, to your point, the fact that he's having to make these stops in georgia just really shows how much the president is trying to fight on all different types of turf, steph. >> michael, joe biden headed your way to michigan. when you speak to his team, and they talk you through last night, obviously he was prepared to do a debate. that didn't happen. but do they feel like last night's format was more or less effective? >> yeah, steph, absolutely. the biden campaign wanted that town hall debate. they feel that's a format that both meshes very well with the former vice president in the way he likes to campaign. the way he likes to talk directly to voters. and they think it was going to be a not very good format for the president who bristles at taking these tough questions not just from our colleague savannah

guthrie or the moderator we would have seen in the debate but ordinary voters who don't necessarily agree with them. when the president backed out of this debate, they wanted the next debate coming up to be a town hall debate. we saw a split screen, side by side. at the same time, the biden campaign not thrilled about that. but ultimately, a contrast that for voters flipping back and forth or watched them side by side, it served the vice president very well. we had a very combative exchanges with the president in his town hall versus a serious, somber perhaps at times joe biden, really diving into the issues. and so that's the thing that i think the biden campaign really likes to focus on and they'll be ready for that next debate. the biden team saying they're hoping and ready the president joins them for that debate next week. >> we'll soon find out. let's dig deeper. two of the best political reporters in the business. jeremy peters, political reporter for "the new york times" and robert costa, national political reporter for

"the washington post" and, of course, moderator of "washington week" on pbs which airs tonight. roberto, your takeaway from last night. what did these town halls do or noted do for each campaign? >> you see vice president biden able to present a calm persona. and he's making an argument to suburban voters, not just in the typical states in the industrial midwest but to new states like georgia that mike and carol were talking about that are part of the biden political calculation. georgia, arizona, in addition to north carolina and wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania. it's about reaching out to voters who may not love the democrats' policies but do like the vice president's temperament. >> jeremy, in terms of the american voter, did we get more out of this format in terms of policy and information than a traditional debate? >> i think what made it so different is that absent the

debate context, you had a moderator or an interviewer in this case, with savannah, who was able to interject and fact-check in a way that was impossible in the last couple of debates. and what you saw, i think, was trump pushed back on his heels to a degree that he isn't usually in these interviews. and something that i think was also interesting to note, the physical distance between him and savannah was also really key here. and that he wasn't able to dominate this conversation like he often does through these phone interviews or as we saw him do in the first debate with biden. i think that all that said, to robert's point about the swing voters and the independents in the suburbs that biden is going after, this didn't probably do trump a whole lot of favors. at least according to the republicans i've been speaking

to who are quite worried about this exhaustion factor. and even though donald trump was a more -- a civil version of himself last night than he was in the first debate, he is still donald trump, and he still rubs an awful lot of people the wrong way. and when they see him, it's just like this -- enough already. that a lot of voters are describing. and that's very worrisome for the trump campaign. these rallies he's doing across the country are just reminding a lot of people that they want this all to be over with. >> well, jeremy, he did rub one group of voters the right way. and i'm talking about members of qanon. and i want to share the president's response when he was asked about this group last night. >> i know nothing about qanon. >> i just told you. >> what you tell me doesn't necessarily make it fact. i hate to say that. i know nothing about it. i do know they are very much

against pedophilia. they fight it very hard. but i know nothing about it. what i do hear about it is they are very strongly against pedophilia, and i agree with that. i mean, i do agree with that, and eye. >> but they're not a satanic -- >> i don't know that. >> you don't know that? >> no. >> okay. he likes the fact that they stand against pedophilia. last i checked, pretty much everyone does, and this morning, the president is continuing to share misinformation on twitter and basically saying, not my words. i'm just sharing it. this is the president of the united states sharing dangerous conspiracy theories. >> he is, and this is part of a pattern for his political career going back to birtherism and his questioning of president obama's love of country and credentials. when you see in president trump right now is someone who is at odds with his own

administration. his own government. fbi director chris wray and other officials have testified about qanon. you see fbi field offices around the country concerned about the rise of qanon. conspiracy theories and potential domestic terrorism. these are all facts out there, and this president says he's against pedophilia. as you said, stephanie, we hope everyone is against pedophilia. but there's no evidence of a satanic death cult run by democrats and pedophiles. and not having a clear answer from the executive -- head of the executive branch raises a lot of questions about our civic fabric. >> famous people who want to eat children. jeremy, what's your take on this? wouldn't it have been so easy for the president to clearly denounce this? >> it absolutely would have but we've seen time and time again with him that this is just not his style. he's, first of all, incapable of admitting any type of fault or flaw in his behavior.

he doesn't want to lose an argument or look like he's conceding any point which would be exactly what he's doing if he disavowed qanon more forcefully. i think you have to go back and look at his record here and this is almost word for word what happened in 2016 when he was asked to disavow david duke. now he eventually did, but this was after days of back and forth where he wouldn't do it. and he said, i don't know who david duke is. i'm not sure about these white supremacist groups and what they do. there may be some groups in there that do some good things. i mean, this is almost a script that he reads from when he gets into these situations where he doesn't want to admit fault and where he is worried about potentially signalling to some fringe group that might support him that he's not with them or that they shouldn't be with him.

it's where he's unable to say negative things about people who have said nice things about him. and that's interesting. >> the former grand wizard of the ku klux klan. he got loads of attention because he was not denouncing conspiracy theories. he was sharing a lot of mistruths that savannah guthrie had to fact-check him on and all attention is good attention. all eyeballs were on him. but for joe biden, he sat there for an hour and a half and he talked directly about policy. is that going to be enough to get voters enthusiastic? because you know president trump is going to play this in terms of headlines and attention. even if it's bad attention. >> take a back, steph, and listen to both of these events. you see savannah pressing

president trump on health care and joe biden talking about health care while the questions about white supremacy and qanon are important because they get to the core of the truth in our political debate and leadership. the issue that voters are talking, about the issue, in fact, is health care. and the president's position on that is going to come under greater scrutiny in the final two minutes and that could be the issue that helps them expand the map more than any other issue discussed during these two town halls. >> then let's actually talk about that, jeremy. because is this going to be an issue or is this an issue where president trump is losing voters? he won support in 2016 when he said obamacare isn't good enough. i'm going to repeal it and replace it with something better. four years later, savannah guthrie very clearly said last night, replace it with what? and he didn't have an answer. >> right. despite now saying for two years

really that they would have a plan. his white house would have a plan. they still don't have one. and voters really do see through that in the midst of a pandemic when health care is front of mind even more than usual. this is a real problem. the white house knows this. democrats know this. we wouldn't have seen them this week open the amy coney barrett hearings with a robust discussion about the importance of the affordable care act and how much it means to people in their everyday lives. this is the issue that's turning senate races across the country, and the republicans who have a good argument on health care or are able to forcefully rebut the idea that they would revoke coverage for pre-existing conditions or the republican candidates who are doing quite well. it's very hard to see how the president comes up with good policy, a convincing set of bulletpoints he can put in front of voters between now and election day on this issue. that's just not the kind of politician he is. and he's also, as we saw last night, a very clear contrast

between him and biden where biden was talking to the voters about what he would do for them and trump was talking about himself and how great of a leader he is. >> and a reminder to our audience. with over 12 million americans currently on unemployment, more and more people have lost their employer-led health care and they need to find it somewhere else. this really matters. jeremy, robert, thank you. robert, we'll be watching you at 8:00 p.m. on pbs. coming up next, we know what the candidates have to say. they had a lot to say last night. what about the voters? reaction from two different parts of the country, including a county that president trump won by just three points in 2016. plus, 8 million coronavirus cases and counting. as the u.s. hits its highest daily case count since july. so what does that mean for the fall and how exactly is president trump possibly saying we're turning a corner? ? "the upper hands"...

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right now we're getting fresh voter reaction to last night's dueling town halls with president trump and joe biden. our nbc news polling average has biden ahead of trump by about nine points nationally. nbc's chris jansing spoke with two undecided white voters and black democrat turned trump supporters after the town halls. she joins us now from raleigh, north carolina, and dasha burns

getting reaction from suburban voters in kent county, michigan, one of the five key battleground counties that could swing this election. chris, you are constantly on the hunt for the yetis, the unicorns, the four-leaf clovers. i can't believe there are undecided voters left, but you find them. what did you learn? >> here there are only about 1% or 2% of those so they're not easy to find. these three guys are exactly the kind of guys that keep both campaigns awake at night especially in north carolina where it's still a toss-up. they still think there could be an october surprise. something, even the trump supporter, something between now and the election that could change their mind. and frame this election classically as the choice of the lesser of two evils. take a listen. >> it's a choice between who do you want to steer america into an iceberg? a right wing authoritarian or left wing demagogue. >> my takeaway from the town

hall is biden was very indirect when asked any questions. he talked around it. i felt like trump was much more direct when asked a question. he actually answered it. >> i would need biden to articulate a future for the country. he's been in politics for 40 years. he's not running on anything except that he's not trump. and my problem with trump is that the guy is actively encouraging a civil war which is not cool. >> there's a lot of people that are just in the middle, democrat and republican, and i think john lewis is the one that said it. most americans don't want filet mignon. they want a good burger. they want to spend time with their family. it's on us to hold these people accountable at the ballot box and if they're not doing the job, get them out of there. >> will i vote? yes. it would be between a third party candidate like jorgensen or trump but definitely wouldn't be biden. >> will you vote? >> probably not at this point. i think trump is disqualifying himself on character grounds. >> are we going to see 65%

turnout this election? i doubt it. i really doubt it. >> and that is exactly why you're going to see record amounts of money here in north carolina spent on get out the vote efforts. there's also a big senate race here that will be key to decide chicago party controls the senate. you cannot turn on the tv here without getting bombarded by ads and there's going to be continuing from the republican side door knocks on both sides, tons of phone calls, lots of mailers, stuff left on your door. this is all-out war in the closing days of this campaign, in a state like this, where both the senate and the presidential race are still largely toss-ups. >> chris, you know who else is getting bombarded? you. are you in the middle of a hurricane? looks like a water slide is about to land on your head. >> no, that's just a little bit of, you know -- >> a drizzle. i got that.

all right. dasha, take us to kent county. this is a county that trump won by three points. how are voters reacting? >> hey, stephanie. it sounds like i'm in a different surrounding than chris jansing right now. i'm basically in suburban heaven. i'm smelling apple cider doughnuts, there's a corn maze. these suburban voters are a key demographic to win. donald trump made grand rapids his final campaign stop in 2016. he's coming back to this area to muskegan county tomorrow. i've been talking to voters flipping back and forth between those two town halls last night. i want you to hear from katie morris. she's one of the voters we've been following. a mom two of. she voted for donald trump in 2016. she now regrets that vote. take a listen to what she made of last night. >> you've got a person on one hand, president trump, who is completely -- raises your blood pressure when you watch him. and you have joe biden who is

calm and collected and is truly answering the questions and is interested to hear what the voters actually have to say. you know, versus trump is very defensive, constantly, and can't answer a straight question. and that's really frustrating to see. >> stephanie, katey is planning to vote for joe biden but importantly, she's also planning to vote blue all the way up and down the ballot, something she has never done before in her entire life. she typically leans republican. and that is significant here where there is a key senate seat that democrats need to hang onto and a key congressional seat that democrats are trying to flip. so if the folks at the top of the ticket are impacting voters down ballot decisions, that is important to keep an eye on here. stephanie? >> all right. dasha, chris, thank you so much. i love apple cider doughnuts. that looks like heaven. as opposed to poor chris who has a monsoon landing on her.

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>> it's a k-shaped recovery. if you're on the top, you're doing very well. if you're in the middle or bottom, your income is coming down. you're not getting a raise. >> we are not in a v or a super-v. gdp is not through the roof. not even close. the truth matters but only if you hear it and you deserve to. president trump and vp biden gave very different versions of the economy last night. but the facts don't lie. layoffs continue to slow this recovery. and jobless claim trends are going in the wrong direction. yesterday they hit the highest level we've seen since august. so the economy remains the top election issue this year for so many americans. let's give you a reality check. i want to bring in politico's chief economic correspondent, our friend ben white. let's start with jobs. here's what the president said last night. >> we've created more jobs than this country has ever created. we're up to 160 million jobs. we were never even close to that

number. we were just hitting 160 million jobs. companies are pouring into our nation because of the tax rate. >> what companies are pouring into our nation? >> stephanie, if you are aware of them, i'm not. there's nothing true about what he said other than the fact that the job creation numbers are, in fact, big, but there's a reason for that. and that's because we lost 22 million jobs. and as we reopened, we got some of them back. 10 million or so. we're still only halfway to getting back what we lost. these are jobs that are returning. they're not new job creation numbers. they're people furloughed or laid off, thankfully coming back to their jobs. but as you mentioned earlier, there's still millions of people unemployed. over 20 million get something form of unemployment benefits. so he's taking a number that is, in fact, true without context. in context, it's not very good. and the job creation numbers are slowing considerably as you

mentioned. jobless claims going up. so none of that is true. and these jobs are pouring back in. i have no idea what he's talking about. >> and a reminder. without our next stimulus package we risk losing thousands, possibly millions more jobs. restaurant industry, airline industry and, of course, small businesses, of which we've already lost 100,000 in total. i want to share what president trump said about vp biden's tax plan. >> our economy is going to be next year, if we don't have somebody that raises taxes and quadruples taxes, which they want to do and kills everything, our economy is going to be phenomenal next year. >> ben, i'm going to give you a moment to get out your broken record. vp biden's tax plan will raise taxes only for people making over $400,000, for corporations he's looking to go to a middle point back to -- up to 28%, which many ceos have said would be a good idea.

and a thing that sticks out to me the most, what is this middle class tax cut that the president keeps referring to? he said they did one in the last four years and they're about to do more. i see none that's happened over the last four years and he hasn't laid out any plan for a new one. do you know something i don't? >> i wish i did, steph. i don't, but, yeah, let me play the oldies here on this. i feel like we've talked about it a billion times. obviously, there is no great middle class tax cut plan. he talks about it before each election like everything with him is just around the corner. just going to happen like a new health care plan and all the rest of it. and on biden's tax plan, this idea that he would quadruple taxes and crush the economy is absolute and complete nonsense. biden would raise taxes on those over $400,000. plenty of studies from aei and others, not traditionally liberal think thanks who say it

would create economic growth and reduce taxes on middle class taxpayers. he's trying to scare people into this idea that the biden tax plan would crush the economy. plenty suggesting it would do the opposite and we need higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy to pay for stimulus and other things we need to help those in the middle and at the bottom of the income sphere. and as for this middle class tax cut, he did, in the 2018 tax cut bill give very small tax cuts to middle income americans. and people did get a little tax cut but it wasn't very big and much bigger at the top. >> are you talking about the -- are you talking about expanding the child tax credit? >> yeah, that piece. also there were slight tax reductions on, you know, most earners. a couple thousand bucks over the course of the year which is not a ton of money. it's fine. it's good. but if you weight it to the very top and corporations, you wind up with what we have, which is

exploding debt, exploding deficits and not enough money to invest in the needs that we have. so he can truthfully say he gave small tax breaks to middle income taxpayers but not to the wealthy corporations and biden would not explode tax rates or crush the economy or drive the stock market to zero. that's nonsense. >> speaking of taxes, we've got to talk about this moment when the president was asked about his and specifically who his businesses owe money to. please watch this. >> i don't owe russia money. i owe a very, very small -- it's called mortgages. people have a house. they put a mortgage. >> any foreign bank, any foreign entity. >> not that i know of, but i will probably -- i will let you know who i owe whatever small amount of money. >> okay. first of all, $400 million. whether that's a small amount of

money or a large amount of money, president trump owes it, and he said right there he doesn't owe it to any foreign entities. last i checked, deutsche bank, who we know he owes over $300 million to is a german bank. >> correct. he completely fabricated that. it's in his financial disclosure documents that he owes this money to deutsche bank. the rest of it to something called ladder capital. and again, on these financial disclosures, they are helpful, but they are self-disclosures. and we don't -- they're not vetted or audited. we don't know if they are truth, who else he might owe money to. if we could see tax returns we could get more information. but deutsche bank, a foreign bank in germany. he was completely false and fabricated that piece of information. and $400 million is a lot of money to a lot of people, even if he does have a lot of assets and claims he's underleveraged to use the wonky term for how much debt he has versus equity. he misrepresentd who he owes it to and it presents a conflict of

interest for a president of the united states to be that indebted to a foreign bank and other lenders. and we don't know the full picture. >> speaking of, it would be great if the white house would clarify. this picture. the president said he did a favor to some institutions who were asking him to borrow money from them. you and i both have a -- have backgrounds in economics and me, banking. i can't think of a scenario where a lending institution would say, would you do me a favor and borrow some money from me? when you hear things like that, it's -- something that raises a red flag. ben, thank you so much for joining us. we've got to leave it there. >> they didn't want to lend him money. people were racing to not lend him money. he was down to deutsche bank and some other specialty lenders as the only places. wall street wanted mainly nothing to do with him. so he just made that up. >> doing people favors.

will you do me a favor and borrow money from me? next, the united states logged the most daily coronavirus cases yesterday since the month of july. i'm going to ask former cdc director tom frieden what the numbers are signaling for the coming months. let's get safer.

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now to the latest on the coronavirus pandemic. here are the facts at this hour. nationwide for the first time since july, the united states has surpassed 64,000 new coronavirus cases on thursday. cases are higher in a total of 44 states when compared to a month ago. the total number of cases has now surpassed 8 million. and nearly 219,000 americans have lost their lives. the world health organization says a clinical trial found that covid-19 treatment remdesivir has no substantial effect on a patient's chances of survival.

the ceo of pfizer says the vaccine candidate under development by his own company and by -- could be ready for an emergency use authorization application, and that could be by late november. but that's just an application. and another nfl team has had to close its facilities. the indianapolis colts released a statement this morning saying several people in the organization have tested positive for the coronavirus. i want to go live to maura barrett in iowa. the daily positivity rate is now 20%. as cases surge across the midwest. maura, help us understand how this state is dealing with this increase in cases because the president often blames the governors, blames the mayors, says this is happening in democratic-led regions. that's not the case in iowa. >> absolutely not. and republican governor kim reynolds has been in lockstep with the president. this week the state surpassed 100,000 positive cases, more

than 1500 deaths due to coronavirus. appointments at testing sites like the ones behind me are rapidly filling up as hospitalizations are absolutely surging. they hit a record here this week and all the while, governor reynolds has said that iowans will do the right thing. she says iowans need to learn to, quote, live with it. that's what she said at a press conference yesterday. she was at the president's rally here on wednesday touting how exciting it was that iowa businesses have been able to stay open but these clusters we're seeing around the state aren't centrally located in any one hot spot. it's literally all across the state as we go into these colder months. i spent time this week talking to voters asking what they think of the governor, both state and national response. listen to what herbert williams jr. told me. >> i am very -- it's at a point now, i see a lot of irresponsibility, too. we have public officials not

wearing masks but this term, what they call the super spreader events. it's scary. >> when i spent time talking to more conservative voters who thought wearing masks were a joke, one voter actually told me he thinks the democrats and china didn't want america to be prosperous anymore so that's why they sent coronavirus in. obviously, that's not true. here in iowa, nearly half of the residents disapprove of the governor's response but it's interesting to look at that rural and urban divide when it comes to how we're thinking about what's going to be happening here over the next couple of months. stephanie? >> all right, maura, stay safe where you are. joining us now, former cdc director dr. tom frieden. for the first time since july, the united states has surpassed 64,000 new cases. that was on thursday. what does that tell you about where things are headed right now? >> well, simply put, they're

headed in the wrong direction. we're seeing more cases, and that will be followed by more hospitalizations. and sadly, that will be followed by an increase in deaths. we'll hit 230,000 deaths recorded in this country by early november. the fact is, the tragic fact is that this is the reflection of a failed national response. many, probably most of those deaths did not have to happen. the measures that we can take to slow the spread and to stop the spread have just not been done consistently because of a failure of federal leadership. >> well, the white house has been saying we're getting closer to having therapies to treat it, closer to a vaccine. the w.h.o. is now saying that remdesivir has no substantial effect on coronavirus patients' chances of survival. what do you think about that? >> i think we have to get to the concept of chipping away at this pandemic. there's not going to be one

great thing that's going to make it all go away. not even a vaccine. it's not going to bring a fairy tale ending to this pandemic. i think of it as a one-two punch. one, knock down transmission. and we do that by the three ws. wear a mask, watch your distance, wash your hands. and reduce risky indoor exposures. and then second, when there is spread, do a rapid test, isolate, trace and quarantine program to prevent cases from spreading to become clusters and clusters from spreading to become outbreaks. and we see that fail. and a microcosm of that as you see the white house fail to use masks. overreliance on testing. they have a cluster. they don't stop it. global -- in the u.s., around many parts of the country, you're seeing that same type of failure. a failure to prevent and a failure to stop it. >> what is your reaction to certain members of this white house pushing this idea of herd immunity? >> this is a dangerous,

dangerous fallacy. so let's get to the facts here. about 10 or 15% of americans have gotten covid. and we have lost over -- we've lost about a quarter of a million lives if you count it correctly. now if herd immunity kicks in at 60%, which would be optimistic, and if immunity is strong and long lasting, and we don't know if that's the case, then you'd need to have another 600,000, 7 help -- 700,000, million deaths to get to herd immunity. the only route to herd immunity without vaccine would be through graveyards filled with hundreds of thousands of americans who did not have to die. this comes down to a concept of appealing but wrong concept that we can, quote, protect the vulnerable. let it rip among young people. they'll protect us and the vulnerable will be able to shield them.

but only about 3% of people over the age of 70 live in nursing homes. the vulnerable are also about 40% of all adults in america. so it's all of us. the only way to protect the vulnerable is to reduce the spread of covid. >> you know who is not letting it rip? dr. anthony fauci. he's not letting his kid comes home for thanksgiving this year. and is warning people against planned holiday gather,s for these exact reasons. don't let it rip. we're not out of the woods. what do you think? >> well, i think indoor gatherings, we're seeing a lot of clusters from weddings, funerals, social get-togethers. there are ways to try to get together safely, whether it's outdoors or quarantining for two weeks and then coming together or limiting contact indoors. but it's going to be a tough, tough next few months because of this increase. and the more we get a handle on it the more we take steps to drive the cases down to shut the places where it is spreading and to stop the spread when spread

occurs. the more we can do. the fewer cases, hospitalizations and deaths and the more we can get our economy back. >> all right. dr. tom frieden, always good to have you here. you make us smarter, better and hopefully safer every time we see it. now to the latest not just on coronavirus. the health aspect, but on the economic aspect. the coronavirus relief package that is currently stalled in congress. remember, last night president trump said he's ready to go. it's nancy pelosi. that's not the case. mitch mcconnell telling reporters in his home state of kentucky that he would not put a new relief bill up for a vote on the senate floor and that it all but destroys any hopes that a package is currently being negotiated between the white house and democrats will be passed before election day. the comments come despite a more than hour long talk between secretary mnuchin and nancy

pelosi yesterday. each call they have sounds positive and then goes nowhere. and as each day passes without a new relief package, more and more americans are facing hunger, eviction from their homes, unemployment, and loss of their private health care coverage. joining us now is democratic congressman from california who has publicly urged speaker pelosi to accept the white pack. is that even an option at that point? we keep hearing the president say it's up to nancy pelosi, but does president trump have senate republicans on board? based on what we're hearing from mitch mcconnell, that doesn't seem to be the case. >> well, you're right. i've kacalled for the speaker t make a deal. the problem has been mitch mcconnell. the house democrats we passed something five months ago for 3.4 trillion anticipating the scale of the problem. we then passed a 2.2 trillion

bill. the white house was absent. mcconnell was absent, and now the speaker is negotiating with steve mnuchin. i believe mnuchin is trying to negotiate in good faith. every time they make progress, mitch mcconnell says he's not going to put it on the floor. mitch mcconnell is the obstacle in terms of getting a deal right now. >> so why is mnuchin even sitting down with pelosi if he doesn't have his house in order in the first place with mitch mcconnell? i want to ask, though, you are the only progressive member out there who is urging speaker pelosi to do something. why is that? >> well, the others have followed now. you've had peter welch come out and other members come out. and it's really because the suffering in my district. i remit one of the most affluent districts, and i've seen food bank lines longer than any time

in our history. almost double the requests. you have people who can't afford rent. i had someone telling me yesterday that they may have to sell their house and they've run out of their 401 savings. we have so many restaurants that are going under that immigrants created their whole lives they dedicated to them. there's real suffering out there. i think all of us have a moral obligation to get something done. >> so is your rationale to speaker pelosi, get something done now while people are suffering today and we'll get more done later? >> yes. i think we have to get people unemployment extensions and increase snap and get assistance to the state and local government. the speaker has done an admirable job. the white house was going to give zero to state and local governments. they're up no 3 billion.

n i believe the obstacle is mcconnell. i believe the speaker and mnuchin can come to a deal, and the question is is mcconnell going to allow it? i mean, last night the president says i can get mcconnell on board. then why doesn't he call mcconnell and get him on board? >> what do you tell your constituents who are suffering right now and need help immediately? where can they go? what can they do? >> well, we're directing them to local nonprofits. some of the technology companies in my district have stepped up, but they're hurting. the sad thing is when you're hearing people losing their house, losing their small businesses. and then you have the winter coming up, and i watched your previous report. the coronavirus epidemic, pandemic is spreading. there's greater risk for those businesses. you feel a sense of having the entire congress having let down the american people. i mean, we know the chairman of

the fed is saying we may need to do something for the economy. people are saying we need help. and this has been going on a long time. and yes, it's mitch mcconnell to blame, but all of us in congress are facing a huge pandemic and haven't been able to deliver, and it's really hard for constituents. >> so does your district sort of embody this k-shaped recovery? you're in silicone valley. you have tech giants making tons of money especially if they run publicly traded companies, while at the same time your food banks are overrun. >> you're right. our tech companies have done extraordinarily well because more people are doing zoom calls. more people are on skype. those who can work remotely are doing great. there's been the digitizing of the economy. most of the s&p 500 gain is tech companies. but my district also has the

janitors and food service workers and the bus drivers and a lot of working class families. and they can't afford to live there with the cost of living. they can't afford the rent. they are having a tough time getting food. and the question is a lot of our economic recovery has focussed on stabilizing the markets. but we have not done enough for working families. and there's real suffering. so think about it. if there's suffering in my district, imagine how much suffering there is in less fortunate districts. >> we've got to find a way to help people get through this, and we're only getting through this if we do it together. thank you for joining me on this busy hour. a busy day. thank you for watching. my friend and colleague geoff bennett picks up coverage next joins by senator chris coons. ats they drove to safelite for a same-day repair. and with their insurance, it was no cost to them. >> woman: really? >> tech: that's service you can trust.

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helping neighborhood businesses survive. scott wiener will never stop working until california emerges from this crisis. the bay area needs scott's continued leadership in sacramento. because we know scott is fighting for all of us. re-elect scott wiener for state senate. good friday morning. as we come on the air, donald trump and joe biden about to get back on the campaign trail soon after making their cases to voters in the distant dueling town halls. the two candidates in different cities but also in different universes. clashing from afar on the economy, the election, and the coronavirus. >> the president doesn't wear a mask or makes fun of folks like me when i was wearing a mask for a long time. then as people say well, it must not be that important.