that is going to do it for us tonight. by this time tomorrow we should know about the first who is going to be doing an in-person drive-in rally for the biden/harris ticket tomorrow in philadelphia. that's going to be a first on a lot of different levels. we're watching for that tomorrow as well as further craziness as we head toward the third and final maybe presidential debate on thursday. tomorrow should be nuts. that does to for us for now. see you again tomorrow night. now it's time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell. good evening, lawrence. >> good evening, rachel. and we're going to be joined later in the hour by tim o'brien, who is only one of the people alive outside of trump world who has seen trump tax returns because when donald trump sued him for telling the truth about him and tim o'brien won the lawsuit, in discovery he got to see some trump tax returns. the lawsuit was then settled and

silence agreements were entered into, so he hasn't ever been able to really talk about them, but he's learning -- i think he's learning something in "the new york times" reporting on trump tax returns tonight that donald trump of course, of course, has a checking account in china and has been desperately trying to do business in china for -- for many years. and some of his financial entanglements in china are now being reported by "the new york times" tonight. >> right. he extracted millions of dollars in cash from china -- from chinese and chinese government-linked sources just in the first year that he was serving as president and had a chinese bank account and, oh, by the way, biden's the one who's soft on china. it's just, i mean, every day, every day it's something unbelievable. >> yeah, it's something -- >> every day. >> it's something new for thursday night's debate. maybe it will come up. >> thank you, lawrence. >> thank you, rachel.

well, i want you to concentrate on campaigns for the united states senate, and i always want you to concentrate on that, but i know that in order to do that, i know that we have to first talk about for campaign for president of the united states that has the whole country, including me, on the edge of our seats, so we're going to deal with that in our first segment tonight, the presidential campaign, so that you can then concentrate on the united states senate campaigns like you've never concentrated on them before, because, like the campaign for the presidency, the campaign for control of the united states senate has never been more important. control of the senate is more important than control of the house of representatives. and i'm not just saying that because i used to work in the united states senate. although everyone who worked in the united states senate thinks that. i'm saying that because only the united states senate has the power to decide who sits on the united states supreme court. it is control of the united states senate that controls who ends up on the supreme court.

and so we will be joined later in this hour by m.j. hegar, a former combat pilot who is now close to being the first democrat to win a senate seat in texas in 42 years. she's running in a statistical tie right now in the polls with republican senator john cornyn. joe biden knows better than most presidential candidates ever have that he will be able to accomplish next to nothing if he is elected president and republicans still control the senate. and so we will begin with the presidential campaign, but we will get to the senate. and beginning with the presidential campaign, i will now present to you all of the good news for donald trump contained in the constant flow of presidential campaign polls that are coming out every day. all right. moving on to the good news in the polls for joe biden, because there is absolutely no good news

in the polls for donald trump. we literally do not have enough time to report on all of the good news for joe biden and kamala harris in the campaign polls, including polls of individual states. today with the latest "new york times" national poll of likely voters showing joe biden ahead of donald trump by nine points, 50-41. vice presidential candidate kamala harris made the biden/harris closing argument in the important battleground state of wisconsin where the biden/harris ticket is ahead by eight points. >> it is more than fair to say that donald trump has -- has exhibited a reckless disregard for human life. and there's just no denying that. and, again, when we're looking at the numbers who have been on unemployment, the numbers who have been impacted by covid, the numbers who have been impacted by the existence of all that has happened in terms of the death and the cover-up in our country.

and so here -- where i am now is that we need to look at where we are in terms of joe's vision, okay? because clearly donald trump, they knew what was going on. >> a reckless disregard for human life. that is former california prosecutor kamala harris quoting the california manslaughter statute which uses that exact phrase in defining manslaughter in california, as many other states do. that phrase appears in the manslaughter statutes in states all over this country, a reckless disregard for human life, and donald trump commits that crime every day on video like a dumb bank robber going into a bank with a gun while the video camera captures his every criminal move. donald trump flies around the country and with a reckless disregard for human life gathers people in crowds, violating all the public health guidelines on the coronavirus. no masks. no social distancing.

and then he lies to them, those people in those crowds, about the coronavirus, telling them they don't have to worry about the coronavirus anymore because people are tired of it, because he's tired of it. but he's not tired of lying about it and he's not tired of risking people's lives. reckless disregard for the human lives of the people who trust him. that's who he is endangering the most. donald trump is not endangering people in new york city very much, where everyone knows that donald trump is an ignorable fraud. donald trump is endangering the lives of people who believe in him, people who trust him. those people turn out publicly and gather in crowds at his rallies to show support for him, and in many cases to show how much they love him. and he shows them reckless disregard for human life. reckless disregard for them and their children and their parents

and their grandparents and a majority of americans, a majority of american voters can feel donald trump's reckless disregard for human life and that's why he's behind in every poll that matters. in every state that can possibly be in play, donald trump is behind. he's tied with joe biden in states like georgia, where a democrat shouldn't have a chance, but at least half of georgia now knows that donald trump doesn't care whether they live or die. and so we'll be watching georgia on election night for both the presidential race and the senate races there. the reason georgia is in play is reckless disregard for human life. donald trump won pennsylvania by less than 1% of the vote and he campaigned in pennsylvania tonight without his third wife melania trump, who was scheduled to appear at that event, but according to a spokesman, melania trump, who is 24 years

younger than donald trump, has a, quote, lingering cough and decided not to travel, quote, out of an abundance of caution. melania trump's next trip out of the white house might not come until after election day, once she has time to pack all of her bags. another day in the campaign means another republican or two or more coming out in favor of joe biden. today it was former republican national committee chairman michael steele. who announced his support for joe biden in an ad for the lincoln project. retired admiral william mcraven, the commander who was in charge of the navy s.e.a.l. raid in 2011 that killed osama bin laden announced his support for joe biden in a "wall street journal" op-ed, writing, truth be told, i am a pro-life, second amendment, small-government, strong defense of a national anthem standing conservative, but i strongly believe that diversity and

inclusion are essential to our national success. that education is the great equalizer. that climate change is real. and that the first amendment is the cornerstone of our democracy. most important, i believe, that america must lead in the world with courage, conviction, and a sense of honor and humility. i voted for joe biden. leading off our discussion tonight, john heilemann, an nbc news and msnbc national affairs analyst. he is executive editor of "the recount" and co-host of showtime's "the circus." also with us, renee graham, associate editor at the "boston globe." renee, i wanted to start with you and that language prosecutor harris used today in her closing argument to this jury of voters, a reckless disregard for human life. as soon as i heard it, i knew that's the massachusetts statute for manslaughter. that's the california statute. it is all over the country. and she is not randomly choosing

those words. >> you know, a few months ago, lawrence, the idea was that donald trump was incompetent and that was the problem with his response to the coronavirus. now people realize his response has been lethal. that his response has been sadistic. and it continues to be so. he is out there at these rallies saying, you know, we've turned the corner, everything is going to be fine. he's told people not to let the virus dominate their lives. and meanwhile, hundreds of people are dying every day. tens of thousands of people are getting infected every day. and if that's not a reckless disregard of human life, i really don't know what is because he is still not taking this seriously, and that is the attitude that his supporters have. as you see them all packed together at these rallies as if we're not in the middle of a pandemic that is threatening to become even worse. so, you know, i believe the senator chose her words very carefully because i believe that's what donald trump is displaying, a reckless disregard

for human life. >> john heilemann, i want to take a look at the internals of the "new york times" poll that has more bad news for donald trump. it shows donald trump and joe biden tied on the economy, 47-48, and then joe biden ahead on every other issue. covid response, better unite the country, way ahead, maintain law and order, ahead of donald trump, and the supreme court, choosing supreme court nominees. so, john, i'm serious, when i stopped there at the beginning of this discussion to say i'm now presenting all of the good news for donald trump in the polls, i could not find any. >> yeah, lawrence. the only thing is i would like to hear you say the word manslaughter again a few more times. i love your boston accent when you say manslaughter. >> so it's a very big challenge because i first learned the term in boston, in the massachusetts

law, and believe me, i heard myself stumbling over that, but go ahead, john. sorry. >> oh, man, manslaughter -- >> it's wicked hard for me. >> manslaughter, lawrence. >> it's wicked hard. >> yeah, wicked hard. look, i mean, i noticed that poll today, too, lawrence, for the same reason. the reality is that the fundamental -- the guts of donald trump's political support, to the extent it still existed, have been eroded and eaten away at for months, but the one thing that was left that the trump campaign -- even though it didn't know what to do with this fact, and certainly donald trump has never really tried to capitalize on it in the way that a sane candidate would at the end of a race, was the economy. it's the place where to the frustration of the biden campaign for many months during the pandemic as they have tried to make the case that covid is the economy and the economy is covid and that joe biden because the public widely thinks that biden is better on covid, they could try to translate that over to the economy, but trump's lead on that was stubborn for many, many, many, many months, but the biden people have chipped away at that, chipped away at that.

and this poll today was maybe not the first, but it's a very important poll, it's a very big sample, it comes at a crucial time in the race. to have leveled that off, that one remaining strut that was sort of holding up the trump campaign. and it was the thing that any sane campaign manager would be or any sane candidate would be saying, this is what we got to close on. now, of course, donald trump hasn't been sane, nor has he been closing on that, but for the biden campaign, it is incredibly welcome news. the dearth of support, particularly things like one of the key variables, cares about people like you, cares about people like us, where joe biden has led by a wide margin throughout the year. it is very hard to see what donald trump would win on at this point in terms of issues and attributes. >> the never trump movement is becoming a joe biden movement. we have seen republicans in the past publicly declare that they would not vote for donald trump.

but not go all the way over to saying i'll vote for the democrat. michael steele is the latest, a former chairman of the party. let's listen to the way he announced it today. >> for four years many have said there would come a moment. well, this is the moment. because this ballot is like none ever cast. i'm a lifelong republican and i'm still a republican. but this ballot is how we restore the soul of our nation. electing a good man, joe biden, and a trailblazer, kamala harris, and ensure an orderly transfer of power, or plunge our country into chaos. >> renee graham, another public permission slip for republicans to cross over and vote for joe biden. >> you know, at this point, joe biden's going to need a bigger bandwagon. everyone is getting on the biden/harris bandwagon. there is simply no defensible reason to vote for donald trump.

and that's what people have to realize. they don't want to be associated with this man, with this presidency, and with this campaign, especially with what this campaign has become and the ways that we know it's going to continue to deteriorate. what does it say about you if somehow you're still going to cast your vote for donald trump? and i think what you're seeing with someone like michael steele is the idea of country over party. that, yes, he's still a republican but he realizes that republican standard-bearer is no longer the best option for this country and hasn't been the best option for this country for four years. so i think that's what we're seeing. you get all these people who never would have dreamed voting for a democrat, who are not only doing it but announcing it proudly because they're making it very clear that donald trump is no longer the man for this job. that this country simply can't afford four more years of donald trump. >> john heilemann, texas now with the second largest voting population to california has the

largest number of early votes delivered and recorded. at this point, 4 million. california coming in second, largely possibly because they haven't started in-person early voting yet in california. but these numbers, we could rattle them off every night. these overwhelming numbers. in some states double the year before. and california's case, triple four years ago. this turnout is something that -- that we really don't quite know how to deal with. polling models are all based on an estimate of what the turnout is going to be. it's very hard for the polling models to correctly calculate what this turnout's going to end up being. >> right. and, you know, look, lawrence, i would say that before the pandemic came along, we said in 2019, a lot of smart pollsters, analysts and the campaigns themselves were assuming that 2020 was going to be a record turnout, that there was going to be extraordinarily high

enthusiasm on both sides on whoever the democratic nominee was. that there was going to be a lot of enthusiasm on the democratic side to try to get donald trump out and donald trump was going to also mobilize a lot of enthusiasm on his side. the pandemic, i think, has only amped up that level of commitment and that level of energy. again, on both sides, i would say. the stakes in the race could not be any higher, but it is -- it is a very hard thing now to figure out because you have the -- democrats overwhelmingly showing up to vote early. these numbers are completely off the charts. we have some sense that the democrats are doing what we expected them to do, which is dominate this early vote because a large proportion of democrats want to vote early. more republicans are going to vote on election day. but you are seeing in some of these states -- you mentioned georgia earlier, i would say texas, too, a state that is almost inconceivable that in this cycle would go democrat, but you now have the specter of john cornyn the other day turning on donald trump. if there ever has been a canary in a coal mine that a state is

in play, it's to see john cornyn turn on donald trump. that's a bright red flashing sign that says john cornyn is in deep trouble, and if john cornyn is in deep trouble, texas is in play. >> and that's why john cornyn's democratic opponent m.j. hegar is joining us later in this hour. john heilemann, renee graham, wish me luck to get through the rest of the hour without the boston accent cracking, and thank you very much for starting us off tonight. we appreciate it. >> wicked hard, lawrence. wicked hard. >> thank you, john. and when we come back, guess which presidential candidate in thursday night's debate has a bank account in china. that's next. t.

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there's breaking news from "the new york times" tonight. according to an analysis of donald trump's tax records, which were obtained by "the new york times," the president of

the united states has a secret bank account in china that he has never revealed in his financial disclosure forms. "the times" reports the foreign accounts do not show up on trump's public financial disclosures where he must list personal assets because they are held under corporate names. the identities of the financial institutions are not clear. donald trump has long sought all sorts of business deals in china. his efforts go at least as far back as 2006 when he filed a trademark application in hong kong and mainland china. many chinese government approvals came after he became president. the president's daughter ivanka trump also won chinese trademark approvals for her personal business after -- only after her father became president and she personally joined the white house staff and became a federal employee. according to "the new york times," trump's plans in china

have been largely driven by trump international hotels management, the one with a chinese bank account. in 2017, the first year of the trump presidency, the company reported an unusually large spike in revenue, some $17.5 million, more than the previous five years combined. it was accompanied by a $15.1 million withdrawal by trump from the company's capital account. joining our discussion now, tim o'brien, senior columnist for bloomberg opinion. he is the author of the book "trump nation." and, tim, i always wonder on these nights, what did tim know and when did he know it? since you're one of the very few people who ever got a chance to look at trump tax returns when he was suing you for libel and, of course, you won the case and in the process got a chance to look through discovery at those tax returns. what's your reaction to what -- what i'm learning in "the new

york times" tonight and you might have already had some hint of? >> well, even without looking at donald trump's tax returns, lawrence, nobody should be surprised that he has a bank account in china. he had been -- he tried for over a decade to get business done there. you've already outlined ivanka's efforts. jared kushner prior to trump winning the election was courting chinese investors to bail the kushner family out of 666 fifth avenue. the industrial and commercial bank of china, the biggest bank in china and one of the biggest banks in the world, was a tenant at trump tower. and trump has bank accounts all over the world. most of them have no money in them. he does not let cash sit around very long. but regardless -- and, you know, "the times" story is speculative. they're trying to connect dots. they're leaving a lot of bread crumbs here for people like cy vance at the manhattan district attorney's office to follow.

but even if there's nothing ultimately untoward about what moved through that chinese bank account, you can rest assured that the chinese government was watching it the entire time. elite members in the chinese business community knew what was going in and out of that account. and if there was anything untoward, that then becomes leverage that the chinese government and chinese business interests can exercise over the president of the united states. and this is emblematic of what's haunted the trump administration from day one. is, trump is financially conflicted. he breaks the law or bends the law willy-nilly. and -- and this is a national security threat because he's compromised by relationships like this. >> with this news 48 hours before the presidential debate, how -- what would you suggest as a question that you would formulate based on this information for the presidential debate?

>> well, you know, vice president biden is more of a gentleman than i am, so i don't know how -- how -- whether or not he wants to go for the jugular during that debate. but obviously donald trump has now spent the better part of a week trying to imply that joe biden, who has spent decades in public service and has never had his hand in the till, if joe biden has dust around his shoes, trump and his children are caked with mud from the top of their head to the tips of their toes. i think joe biden should turn to donald trump and say, you've spent a lot of time falsely accusing me of graft. tell us what went in and out of that account. tell us why we should believe that doesn't compromise you as president and aren't you a hypocrite coming after me as routinely as you do? >> well put. we'll wait for that moment in

thursday night's debate. tim o'brien, thank you very much for joining us tonight. >> thanks, lawrence. up next, the supreme court ruling that could have an impact on the presidential election. and what might change if donald trump's nominee for the supreme court gets an opportunity to vote on election cases. ation of two immunotherapies you can take first. one that could mean... a chance to live longer. opdivo plus yervoy is for adults newly diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer that has spread and that tests positive for pd-l1 and does not have an abnormal egfr or alk gene. it's the first and only approved chemo-free combination of two immunotherapies that works together in different ways to harness the power of the immune system. opdivo plus yervoy equals a chance for more days. more nights. more beautiful weekends. more ugly sweaters.

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a federal judge in pennsylvania has allowed pennsylvania to extend by three days the amount of time it has to count all mail-in ballots to make sure those ballots are counted this year. and on monday, the united states supreme court denied a request from pennsylvania's republican party to shorten that deadline. it was a 4-4 tie with chief justice john roberts joining justices sotomayor, kagan, and breyer in denying the request to overturn the extension.

the tie leaves in place the ruling of the lower court from which the court is appealed, so that means the tie leaves in place that three-day extension to count ballots in pennsylvania. pennsylvania's supreme court had previously agreed to the extension due to concerns that potential mail delays related to the coronavirus pandemic could disenfranchise voters. next week, on monday, the united states senate is scheduled to vote on judge amy barrett's nomination to the supreme court. she could then become the deciding vote on any future election-related cases, including any version of this case that might return to the supreme court possibly after the election. joining us now is democratic congresswoman chrissy houlahan. she represents pennsylvania's sixth congressional district, a district that flipped in 2018 to

the democrats after 16 years of republican control. congresswoman houlahan, your reaction to the 4-4 tie in the supreme court. do you think that's the last word on this before the election or might there be any more pre-election litigation on this? >> and thank you for having me. i do believe that this is the last word we will hear on this before the election itself, since it has now been heard by the supreme court of the united states, or denied being heard by the supreme court. and, importantly, these are votes that have been cast before 8:00 p.m. on election day and they'll be counted up until friday after the election day. so they are duly elected -- duly processed votes. >> and the normal -- the law as it was written, as it was in place last year before there was a pandemic, is that that all mail-in ballots must arrive by election day? was that the pennsylvania law? >> so, actually, as of last year

we didn't have no-excuse absentee ballots until this year. and, in fact, we were actually quite fortunate that that happened before the pandemic, and the very first time that we've had that experience was during the primary season itself, so this is all relatively new to us here in pennsylvania. >> so what -- what is the deadline, what is the deadline that the republicans are asking for in -- in their legal case? >> so we -- we were asking for and we were able to receive the fact that ballots could be processed that were stamped by the postage service by 8:00 p.m. on the election day, november 3rd, and they could be counted all the way up and until friday. and the republicans wanted to roll that back and not be able to count those votes that were, in fact, processed on election day. and as you mentioned, that will disenfranchise quite a lot of voters, possibly. >> so if it's a close race or maybe even if it isn't close, we can expect donald trump's lawyers to go back into court in

pennsylvania after election day if donald trump comes in second in pennsylvania and try to get excluded all votes counted after election day? >> i suppose that's a possibility, but i would say that all of these votes, as we just talked about, are -- are actually legal votes. they are votes that have been placed during the election season, during the election process, and they should be duly counted and processed because they are good votes, valid votes by the pennsylvanian people. we've already had about 2.6 million pennsylvanians request these no-excuse absentee ballots. last season or last presidential cycle, we only had about 6 million -- 6.1 million pennsylvanians vote in general, so this is a huge number of people who have asked to -- for the ability to vote by mail, and we really need to make sure that we've processed every one of those ballots. >> well, if there's a new case brought after the election to try to disallow votes counted after election day, it is

entirely possible that judge barrett will be a supreme court justice who will be in a position to break that 4-4 tie vote that we saw. >> yes, sir. and that's actually one of the concerns that -- that i and many others, of course, have about the composition of the supreme court in general, in making sure that it's a balanced court because it's not just issues of access to the ballot that may be at stake, but issues of reproductive issues, maybe health care issues in general, and all of those things we really genuinely believe the supreme court should have a much more balanced composition than it currently is heading towards. >> congresswoman chrissy houlahan of pennsylvania, thank you very much for joining us tonight. >> thank you. i appreciate it. have a good evening. >> thank you. up next, republican senator john cornyn's attempt to run away from donald trump as he runs for re-election in texas. the democratic candidate for senate in texas, m.j. hegar, who is running against john cornyn,

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the second most important thing that's going to happen on election night, the thing i'm going to be watching even more closely than the presidential race, because everyone's going to be watching that, is the fight for control of the united states senate. without a democratic senate, a president biden can do very little. it has been 42 years since a republican lost a senate race in texas. and now texas republican senator john cornyn is polling in a statistical tie, within the margin of error, against his democratic challenger m.j. hegar. and john cornyn is very, very worried. he's distancing himself from donald trump. and he wishes he was running against anyone other than m.j. hegar, who received the purple heart and the distinguished flying cross with valor for saving the lives of her crew and patients after the taliban shot down her medevac helicopter.

>> the first vote she will cast will be for chuck schumer as a leader. >> i'm m.j. hegar, and i'm your opponent. i'm the person you're running against. as inconvenient it is for you, it's me that you're going to have to face in this elebs. >> and that's from the one and only debate for senate in texas. that was two weeks ago. john cornyn is now running scared from m.j. hegar, and away from donald trump. and in an interview with "the fort worth star telegram" editorial board, he compared his relationship to donald trump to a woman married to an abusive husband. the senator said that his relationship with the president of the united states is, quote,

maybe like a lot of women who get married and think they're going to change their spouse, and that doesn't usually work out very well. m.j. hegar tweeted a one-word response to that statement, coward. joining us now is m.j. hegar. she is the democratic nominee for senate in texas. thank you very much for joining us tonight. really appreciate it. so you've got john cornyn running scared and running away from donald trump. how did that explanation of his about, you know, being the woman in an abusive relationship, how did that go over in texas? >> not great. as you can imagine. it's one of many gaffes that he's made that shows he's not really in touch with our state and the people who live here. i guess, you know, the first thing i thought of when i heard it was, he hasn't met enough texas women because we're badass, so i don't know what he's talking about. >> yeah, and there's obviously

millions of texans who have stood up to donald trump in their own ways vocally, and here's a senator who has a term that is -- a term of office that is unrelated to the presidency. i mean, one thing i got to say, it's hard for me to fathom is why a united states senator would ever be afraid of the president. when i was working in the senate on the democratic side, there were plenty of democratic senators who found fault with the democratic president then, bill clinton at the time, on various issues, without ever being afraid of doing that. >> you know, i've spent a lot of time thinking about this, lawrence, as you can imagine, and my only theory that seems to fit all of his actions that really don't make sense to me is that he really is just looking out for himself. when i look at d.c., there are some servant leaders there, but i see a lot of people like him pushing their own self-interest, doing whatever it takes to gain power. he clearly wants to be senate

majority leader. he's voted in line with donald trump 95% of the time. so acting like he somehow is some, you know, regulating, i don't know, voice of reason in the president's ear, he has yet to point out a single instance where he has stood up for our state quietly behind closed doors, privately, and then come out with the, you know, the result that would deliver results for our state. i mean, for his entire term in office, we've been dead last in the country for access to health care, yet john cornyn's the affordable care act repeal's top salesman. we have an immigration problem in texas and he has done nothing but obstruct and smoke and mirrors and just be a slick d.c. politician and serve his party leaders and his wealthy corporate special interest donors. i don't think he ever thought he was going to have to run a real race, and now that he's in the fight of his life, he has nothing to turn to in his record to show what he's done for texas. >> well, you know, i am sure whether you win this seat or not, you have derailed his dream

of being the republican leader of the senate because the republicans are not going to vote for a leader who is just squeaking by, if that, in texas, if he -- if he makes it back to the senate. i want to read something that senator cornyn said to "the houston chronicle" in his running away from donald trump here. he's talking about donald trump here. i think he let his guard down, and i think in his desire to demonstrate we are coming out of this, i think he got out over his skis, frankly. i think it's a lesson to all of us that we need to exercise self-discipline. so there he is talking about how the president has handled the coronavirus, talking to a texas audience about getting out over his skis. what was your reaction to that? >> we don't do a lot of skiing in lawrence -- in texas, lawrence, so i think that was lost on a lot of us. i think if he was a texan he would have said he spiked the ball before he got into the end zone. but, you know, i'd be remiss if

i didn't mention a lot of the stuff that you were covering before i came on, a lot of the concern about the judicial appointments and the challenges. texas is really in a unique position. with our 38 electoral votes, with our voter suppression that has really stopped a lot of people from voting by mail, and yet we have turnout records. we've got people waiting in line for hours. we've had more people vote in the first week of early voting, and we have two weeks left, than voted for donald trump in the entire 2016 election. so we are doing something spectacular in texas. and everybody should be paying attention because with our lack of vote by mail, we're going to have an early presidential election result and one that can't be challenged in the courts by some vote by mail conspiracy theory from this president. so i'm working my butt off to run a coordinated campaign up and down the ballot to deliver real servant leadership and to make a difference in our country. it's a continuation of the oath that i took to the constitution when i put on the uniform. >> we are watching texas tonight, not only in play for a democrat running for senate.

no one's won it since lloyd benson last won a senate seat in texas for the democrats. and for the presidency. we are watching it for -- we'll be watching it for joe biden and kamala harris on election night. did you know that texas was moving in this direction before all of us did only in the last few weeks, really? >> 100%, lawrence, i did. and it's -- it's a combination of factors, really. we'll registered nearly 2 million people since the 2016 election. but it's not just new voters, it's people who have lived here their whole lives like i have who are newly engaged, you know, texas does not like what we're seeing. texas does not think our immigration policies are in line with american values. we don't like seeing the withdrawal of our influence at global bodies like the u.n. we're a military state. we don't like the way the administration has treated our

military. and, you know, i think rural texas is starting to realize, we're the ones fighting for access to education and health care. the things that are really important to rural communities. not just for kids but for employment. i think it's a combination of things. i think trump and biden are tied in texas right now. if we can just maintain this momentum, we're going to have a lot of celebrate in november. >> m.j. hegar, thank you for your service to our country, and thank you for taking on the responsibility to try to continue to serve the country as a candidate and possibly a senator from texas. thank you very much for joining us tonight. >> thanks, lawrence, take care. >> thank you. tonight's last word after this break goes to a woman who lost her husband due to covid-19. she's now speaking out against what kamala harris now calls donald trump's reckless

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this headline is from the new jersey star-ledger. my husband died of covid-19 and i have just one plea to make of you. that is in an article written by alice roberts, whose husband rob, a new jersey police officer, contracted the coronavirus earlier this year. he was working extra shifts when some of his colleagues began getti getting sick in april. when he collapsed, his family did not know he had covid-19. rob was just 45 years old when he died. alice says she's pleading with voters to remember what she calls the president's lack of action after learning the true dangers of the virus in january. alice roberts writes, instead of

responding to the pandemic by bringing the nation together and doing whatever it would take to control the pandemic, he ignored it, downplayed it, and pointed fingers. and instead of using his own recovery to level with the public and admit he was wrong, he chose vanity. as our collective losses continue to pile up, what has president trump lost? nothing. at least not yet. my hope is that he loses this election. joining us now, alice roberts. she's the wife of charles roberts, who died of covid-19 at the age of 45. alice, thank you very much for joining us tonight. i want to say, i'm very sorry for your loss, and sorry to read about what has felt like for you to be watching the president in effect ignoring your loss, if that's a correct interpretation

of what i've read. >> definitely. i mean, i was giving him the benefit of the doubt with what he could have done during the pandemic. and i'm a huge democrat. but it was the breaking point when he became sick, and his actions after that. to me, they were just deplorable. he could have chosen to take his sickness and use it to be more humble and to warn the americans of how bad the pandemic is, and how lucky he was to have such tremendously great care. but that's not the road he took. he chose to be vain and boastful, and arrogant, and i think those were his true colors. and that was really the breaking point for me. to know that he's not really a human that -- i don't really see how people can relate to him.

and i want to just put a face behind all those numbers, because i know 220,000 doesn't sound like anything when it doesn't have a face behind it. and i want to be the face to show it affects lives and families, and it's real. it's not made up or fake. >> as you've been speaking, we've seen pictures of rob and your children. how have your children dealt with this, and what have you told them about or been able to discuss with them about how this happened and how this pandemic has swept through this country? >> i mean, he was always super, super careful. he was still working, we all told the children how careful to be. and we even had the conversation, what if he got sick, would he be okay? of course he would be okay. i'm pretty honest with my children. i don't shield them from much.

having something like this happen, what else can i shield them from? my children are out on their bikes, they're very active, staying busy with school. i think they're gone away from the house a lot so they're not sitting around being sad. so they're trying to stay very busy, i believe. >> alice roberts, thank you very much for joining us tonight. and again, we're very sorry for your loss. i'm very sorry for your loss. i wish we could be discussing something else tonight. but thank you and thank you for sharing what you feel is your civic responsibility at this moment. >> thank you for having me. and please vote, everyone. >> thank you. alice, please say it again. >> please vote. if you haven't already, i know many people have already. but please vote. >> alice roberts gets tonight's last word. "the 11th hour with brian williams" starts now.

♪ and good evening once again. day 1,370 of the trump administration. 14 days to go until the presidential in other words, two weeks from tonight we'll be on the air covering election returns. and, of course, two days remain until the final scheduled presidential debate. the president tonight appeared before his 12th rally in seven days. tonight, as you'll hear in a moment, he told the audience with a straight face and to applause that the pandemic is ending. and we're crushing the virus. of course neither is true as the virus continues to crush large portions of our country. tonight's rally was in erie, pa. the first lady was supposed to be on the trip but cancelled because she is suffering from lingering symptoms from the coronavirus. from the start of tonight's event in the cold