surpassed as of this morning its total votes cast in 2016. >> oh, my. >> there's one more day of early voting and, of course, election day itself. they've already passed their total number of votes from 2016. >> that's amazing. >> that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. we'll see you monday. >> have a great weekend. hi there. i'm stephanie ruhle. it's friday, october 30th. let's get smarter. four days. that is all that stands between now and election day. nearly 80 million americans have already cast their vote, and in this final stretch, the midwestern states that tipped the scale for donald trump back in 2016 are coming into sharp focus. that is where both candidates are headed today. joe biden will be in iowa, wisconsin and minnesota, while president trump will make a swing through michigan, wisconsin and minnesota. and for this final weekend, the president will zero in on the all-important state of pa,

pennsylvania, while joe biden will also visit the state after stumping with former president barack obama in michigan. this final sprint comes amid a new grim milestone in the fight against the coronavirus. the daily case count passing 90,000 for the first time yesterday. something that is sure to be on the minds of every single voter. but as the candidates held dueling rallies in florida, they had very different messages about the path forward. >> it's rounding the turn. it's rounding the turn. i had it. did you know that? i had to get back on the trail. i said, this is not good timing. and i got better very quickly. >> president trump's superspreader events that he's spreading more virus around the country and here in florida today. he's spreading division in addition. division and discord. >> we are not rounding the turn, but what we do have is a great group here to talk through all the latest details. nbc's garrett haake in green

bay, wisconsin, michael memoli in des moines, iowa. also joining our conversation, yamiche alcindor and eli stokols from the "l.a. times." let's start in florida, one of the most important states in this race. politico reporting that democrats in miami-dade county are sounding the alarm before weaker voter turnout than expected. i want to take you to ellison barber in one second. before we get to florida, i want to turn to garrett haake. garrett, tell us what's going on where you are in this final stretch. >> stephanie, wisconsin is the one that got away for democrats four years ago. they lost this state to donald trump by only 23,000 votes. four times that many people can go to a packers game at lambeau field on any given sunday. that's how narrow the margin was. democrats think this is a state they can flip. the issue is the one more favorable for joe biden. that's the coronavirus. the president getting hammered on his response here. he's under water in the recent

polling for his response to the virus. and it is surging here. the positivity rate in wisconsin is about 4 1/2 times the national average. it is the story on the local news. it is the story in the communities here. and every day that the president talks about how there's light at the end of the tunnel, public health officials like one i interviewed for a story i did overnight last night say this is the nightmare scenario. there is no light at the end of the tunnel right now. we're entering the darkest period of this virus in this state. that's the state in play as you see democrats trying to close things out here with just four days to go. >> mike, let's talk about joe biden's schedule. he's headed to iowa which feels like a reach for the campaign at this point. is this more about the senate race there? >> well, steph, absolutely. the senate race is one of the marquee senate races across the battleground map. republican senator joni ernst in the fight for her life with a strong challenger here. and joe biden knows if he's

elected, he'll need a democratic senate to enact the agenda he's been laying out for months. think about where we are, steph. four days from the election. 270 days removed from the iowa caucuses when joe biden left here on des moines, on caucus night, what were we talking about? the gut punch as joe biden himself called it. a lot of people thought his candidacy was on the ropes. he's coming back today for the first time since then as the democratic nominee for president. and his argument to democrats ahead of the caucus is about why he'd be the best nominee out of the field of 20-plus democratic candidates was precisely for this moment. he was the democrat that could swing back those voters that voted for obama and then took a chance on donald trump in 2016. no country has more obama/trump counties than iowa. the electorate is in tune with that demographic that joe biden has thought to be his base. it didn't work for him then but

they certainly hope it works for him in the general election now as he hopes to win back a state that could help ease the path among these other blue wall states he'll be visiting in the final stretch, steph. >> i want to stay on that, sort of this midwestern wall, michael. is the campaign worried about it? it is surprising that biden is going to minnesota. >> yeah, minnesota, which was a late addition to the schedule for today. the first time, by the way, biden has done three states in one day this entire campaign. minnesota is seen as perhaps a little safer. that was the closest state that hillary clinton almost lost that stayed in her column but only very narrowly. the biden campaign certainly taking nothing for granted here. when you look at how this week has played out on the campaign trail, joe biden starting in georgia, heading to florida. we know kamala harris is in texas today, another state they want to expand, but where are they closing out? exactly, steph. those blue wall states that were -- accused democrats of

paragraphs ta taking advantage of four years ago. that's biden's closing push. >> yamiche's president trump's closing message was supposed to be all about the economy. that hasn't really worked out for him when you put gdp in context of where we are with the health and economic crisis. what is he most focused on and where? >> he is most focused on downplaying the virus and trying to convince people that the virus is being too focused on and that, in fact, when people get the virus, they'll be just like him and get better. what we do know is that something like 228,000 americans have died. 8.9 million people have gotten this virus and as we've shown just this morning on the show, there is -- there are spikes happening in battleground states and in states across the country. so the president really wants to try to get people to believe that this virus is something that can just be put in the back of their minds, that he has it under control, that he'll be

able to get a vaccine quickly. that's his closing argument. it's one that's problematic when you look at all the different people that are grieving loved ones, grieving the loss of school and work. but that is where he's focused on. the other thing i will say is that the president, while aides and advisers have wanted him to focus on the economy, the other thing that this campaign is focused on is trying to make some sort of connection between hunter biden and corruption and joe biden. we've now seen stories, of course, from nbc news that say that some of that is really part of a conspiracy theory that includes a fake person, a fake organization, fake names. but the trump campaign is trying hard to make people focus on hunter biden instead of the virus that is killing americans. >> you know what's not fake? the thousands and thousands of people in hospitals right now who can't talk to or see their families at all. eli, you were covering the president in florida yesterday. and you write about the contrasting messages between these two candidates in the final days. can the president just keep

downplaying the virus? i mean, he talks about this vaccine like it's coming tomorrow. yesterday the ceo of merck said he's not even having a family thanksgiving dinner because he's concerned. >> right. and the president himself, a staple of his new campaign speeches, has been that under joe biden, we'll have no more weddings or family get-togethers, won't be able to get together for holidays, kids won't be going to school. he's describing america right now and what families have experienced in the last six months. there is so much cognitive dissonance needed to listen to his speeches and go along with it. i went to six or seven rallies in the last three days. i can't remember how many states i've been in. at every one, you get the sense that they are these sort of self-reinforcing feedback loops between the president and his supporters, making one another feel good about where things stand. but it is often divorced from reality. and his supporters are, you see them standing there. you see most of them without

masks. they seem fine to go along with the president's narrative on the virus. but if you step back and look at the polling, you see about 60% of the country that does not approve of the president continuing to hold these rallies as the virus and the cases continue to spike. the president is saying, look, i got better. anyone can get better. but in the same speech he's admitting he had 12 great doctors taking care of him at walter reed. it just requires a lot of cognitive dissonance to listen to his message and not see the holes in it. his supporters are willing to go along. not sure the rest of the country is. but this is a president, steph, who believes in the power of images and even if people, you know, may have a problem with him doing the rallies, he thinks it's a positive for people to see these crowds cheering him on, on the tv, and he makes a point of contrasting those with the biden events being much smaller. people in their cars. he thinks the power of images will, you know, supersede the

words and meaning of the things he's saying. >> but eli, even if we're upset that we're not having our big weddings and holiday gatherings, we're living with coronavirus. just last night, don junior said covid deaths are almost nothing. he said that on a day when over 900 americans lost their lives. is this message really working with anyone beyond the president's base or those who are just flat-out covid deniers? >> we're going to have to wait and find out. at this point it doesn't seem like there's any movement. people have made up their minds about this. this is a race that's really turning on the issue of the pandemic more than anything else. and the president and his supporters continue to seem to a majority of americans to be out of touch. denying the realities of this virus that's killed now 225,000 americans and that the president's own, you know, administration is admitting is going to continue on unabated

into 2021 and possibly even 2022. and i think that's on the minds of a lot of voters, especially swing voters as they make their final decisions in these states? >> yamiche, in february, the president wanted to and probably could have made the economy as his message. as his winning message to try to become the president for the next four years. but he's out with an op-ed today, again, just talking about the economy. can he possibly do that given that the sharp decline that we've seen is entirely the fault of corona that we're still living with. you cannot divorce the two. >> he is trying to make that argument, but it also -- we have to note that the president, while again his campaign advisers really wanted to focus on the economy, the gdp and some of the numbers that we're seeing, this v-shaped recovery, that the trump campaign often talks about, the president can't focus on that. he understands that the

coronavirus is top of mind for so many different americans. he can't make the argument that the economy is going swellingly because he's talking to people who have -- millions of them who have lost their jobs. people are scared of losing their homes. getting evicted. this is a country on chaos and on edge. this is a president that understands that people need to know that someone at least cares about them. so instead of him talking about the virus and wanting to really focus on people's pain, he's trying to make this conversation be about the economy and the idea that people are maybe focusing too much on the virus. the thing that i go back to every single day, i was just coming back from florida. i talked to so many different voters. white seniors, puerto ricans, black voters. even if they are a trump or biden supporter, the virus was what they wanted to talk about. they wanted to talk about whether or not they felt they could survive and thrive in the virus. and for the people who think, okay, this is a virus that could have gone wild anywhere, this is a virus that could have killed all these many americans no matter who was president, they are likely a trump supporter. if you are someone who is seeing

the president and thinks that on the campaign trail that cognizant dissonance that eli is talking about is required in order to take him seriously, you're a biden supporter. and there are so many people who said the president simply is not in touch with what i'm seeing on a daily basis. my lived reality with this virus. >> you know who is not losing their homes and not losing their jobs? big wall street investors. and what have they done over the last week? sell, sell, sell because we don't have a strategy to combat covid. i have to move on to florida. before we do, yamiche, have you convinced your mom down in florida to stop going out and getting her nails done? >> no, i have not, stephanie. i have not. and not to belabor this point, but it underscores for me how many people are on edge and wanting to be out of their homes and why president trump's message about people wanting to leave their homes and wanting to go back to normal lands with some people because even people who maybe don't support the president, they do feel anxious.

they want to get their hair done, their nails done, like my mom, but we're living in a reality, according to dr. fauci where that's simply not safe and it's not going to be safe likely until next year and possibly beyond. so you have joe biden giving people in some ways the hard message that even if you want to go out and get your nails done and get a massage, want to have a big dinner with your family, it's simply not safe to do so. i hope my mom is watching, and stop getting your nails done. >> i hope she is because we're going to go to florida right now where my colleague ellison barber is standing by in miami-dade county. she's been talking to voters in these final days. ellison, i know you haven't spoken to yamiche's mom personally, but is that what you're hearing? people are saying, we're sick of this thing and we just want to go out and that resinates with voters? >> it is interesting regardless of who you talk to. the top issue seems to be coronavirus. whether it's they feel frustrated because of shutdowns and they feel like the economy is not really going the way they want to because of things related to covid-19 or they're

worried about the health impacts and feel we need to get this under control before the economy can tick up. everybody talks about that as one of their top issues. look. this is an early voting site where we are. if you look behind me, you see all these tents. it almost feels like a football tailgate. this is all about voting. i want to show you the lineup here. it's a line that's been growing. this polling location opened at about 7:00 a.m. you can see the line here. it has started to wrap around the building back this way. in miami-dade, so far, 52% of registered voters have already voted early, either absentee or in person. we know that turnout is up across the board and from speaking with voters here, this presidential race is neck and neck. >> i'm a small business owner, and my thing is to grow my business and try and improve my business. and i think that trump will help me better survive. >> i think i made up my mind a

long time ago, given the last four years and everything that we've seen. i voted for biden. >> so there is, you're going to hear an airplane flying over because we are near the airport here, but there is a drive-in drop-off option on the other side of the building where people can come drive through, drop their ballot off. most people here seem to be opting for in-person early voting. but some number for you. three days left of early voting. right now the number is up by about 70,000 people so far. a little over 410,000 people have voted early, in person in this county alone. stephanie? >> ellison, thank you. we've got breaking news on early voting. texas. texas just smashed its vote count for all of 2016 four days before the election. what could that mean? we're going to dig in.

plus, a new record high for cases of the coronavirus. 90,000 in one day. how much higher could it go? as one icu nurse shares his message to the country. >> i'm kind of -- i'm broken. i'm broken. and my colleagues are broken. and people say, it's not that big a deal. and i want to take them by the collar and say you dont know what you're talking about. but we didn't stop there. we made a cloud flexible enough to adapt to any size business. no matter what it does, or how it changes. and we kept going. so you only pay for what you use. because at dell technologies, we stop...at nothing. ♪

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now to the latest on the coronavirus pandemic. here are the facts we know at this hour. the united states reporting more than 90,000 new covid-19 infections thursday setting a new record high for daily cases. that is the fourth record high in just the last week. and it's the first time new cases have crossed 90,000 in one day. 33 states reported more than 1,000 new infections on thursday. and the united states reported 982 deaths. i'm going to say that one more time. the united states reported 982 deaths. across the nation, the total number of cases has surpassed 9 million and nearly 230,000 americans have lost their lives since this began. i want to go live to gabe gutierrez in montana where coronavirus cases are surging, push something hospitals there to the breaking point. gabe, you got a firsthand look at the struggle doctors and nurses there are dealing with.

what did you learn? >> hey there, stephanie. yes, we got a rare tour of one of three covid icus in this hospital, st. vincent health care in billings, montana. the doctors and nurses have been swamped for the last several months but especially the last several weeks. when we toured, they had 14 patients on ventilators in that particular icu. at one point, more than 60 covid patients in the hospital. total, they have about 160 adult beds entirely in the hospital. and their concern is what will happen in the coming months as flu season takes hold, as the winter gets here. what will happen? will they have enough staff, not just the beds but the staff. i want to introduce you to joey traywick. he's a registered nurse. late 40s. wife and three kids. he's had to self-isolate himself for the last several months, sleeping in his basement away from his family as he's been

dealing with the patients here. he told us a heartbreaking story about how he has personally held the hands of 23 of his patients after the first one passed away. take a listen to some of our conversations. >> i came back to the room at one point and she had passed. by herself. and i thought, i'm never going to let that happen again. if i have to stay late after work, if it means coming in on my day off, they're not going to pass alone on my unit again. none of them. >> he was able to visit another one of his patients yesterday who was out of isolation and in recovery. and was potentially able to have visitors. and joey told us that it's when

you see those cases he feels like, quote, we won, and he does have hope for the next few months. stephanie? >> gabe, thank you so much for sharing that important story. we need to understand what's happening on the ground. joining us, former cdc director tom frieden, one of my favorite experts. tom, a record 90,000 cases in one day. that's huge. what could that translate to in terms of hospitalizations and deaths in a week or two? >> well, think of it very straightforward. actually that's only about 1 out of every 5 patients who get infected. we're only diagnosing about 1 out of 5 infections. that means that there's a diagnosed case every second, five actual cases every second means that more than one death per minute in the coming weeks. we'll see a decrease in cases over the weekend. that always happens because of less testing, but we're on the upswing.

unfortunately, the harvest of months of failure is going to be weeks and weeks of much harder days and nights fighting covid. >> president trump said deaths are going way down. they're going away. people aren't dying anymore. >> deaths are increasing. they lag cases by a few weeks. it takes a week or two for hospitalizations to increase after cases increase. also what we're seeing is a lot of the spread started in younger people but now it's spreading to older people. nursing homes. there's no age group that's an island. we're all connected. the more we recognize we're all connected the more we can protect one another. and that's currently not happening. we're heading into a hard time because of so many months of failure. the next few weeks and possibly months if we don't turn it around are going to be really difficult. >> how concerned are you about hospitals running out of capacity in the state seeing the

highest spikes. you and i first started talking when new york was experiencing that. >> we hope we won't see something as catastrophic as we saw in new york city in the spring because we've learned. we've learned how to treat people better. we've also learned how to reduce contact with others. wear a mask. watch your distance. wash your hands. reduce risky indoor gatherings. and stephanie, from all over the country, we're hearing about clusters that arise from social gatherings, whether it's a baby shower, a wedding, a party, a pizza party, an after-sports event. it's not actually going to school or going to work that's spreading infection generally. it's the social get-togethers where people are not wearing masks, eating, talking, shouting, singing and that's where the spread is. that's why we all have to recognize we're all in it together. and the more we collaborate with one another, the more we mask up and the more we participate with contact tracing and eventually with vaccination when that

becomes available, the better off we'll all be. >> thank you, tom. every time you're here, you make us smarter. for you at home, it's up to you. you want to believe don junior who said deaths are going away or tom frieden. breaking news in texas. the state just surpassed -- this is crazy -- its 2016 vote total. and early voting isn't even over. kamala harris is in the state today as the cook political report moves that state to a toss-up. texes too a toss-up? do democrats have a chance in the lone star state? we're going to find out. just pick your protein, select your doneness, and let the grill monitor your food. it also turns into an air fryer. bring outdoor grilling flavors indoors with the grill that grills for you. it's made for this guy a veteran who honorably served and it's made for her she's serving now we made it for all branches and all ranks

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breaking news this morning. the texas secretary of state's office is reporting that more than 9 million early ballots have been cast. more votes than were cast in all of 2016. this comes as the biden campaign is taking aim at the lone star state. running mate kamala harris will visit the state today on the final day where early voting is taking place. making stops in ft. worth, mcallen and houston. right now the latest polling there shows president trump with a narrow lead over former vp biden. 47% to 43%. joining us now, nbc's priscilla thompson in ft. worth. her home state of texas. and abby livingston is the washington bureau chief for the "texas tribune." priscilla, why are democrats so hopeful that senator harris' visit can help flip the blue

state? at this point, don't people know what they're doing? >> well, steph, for starters, those tightening poll numbers are giving them a lot of encouragement and why they need to be here. especially because there has actually been a string of polls showing a tightening race. even republican senator ted cruz has admitted that it is shaping up to be quite a race here in texas. but the other thing that is giving the democrats a lot of excitement is those record-breaking turnout numbers we're seeing here in the state. i had an opportunity to speak with former congressman beto o'rourke about that. and he tells me that texas is going to be important not only for the 38 electoral votes that it will award but also for when we could know those results. take a listen to what he said. >> we will know on the night of november 3rd who has won the state of texas. and if it's joe biden, it then becomes mathematically impossible for donald trump to claim victory or prematurely,

illegitimately, illegally, you know, say that he's won. steal the election. contest it in the courts. try to get this in front of his new supreme court justice that he's rushed through the senate. texas can end our national nightmare. >> so democrats certainly see an opening here. but the other thing that that "new york times"/siena college poll revealed is biden has shortcomings when it comes to latino voters here. he's underperforming among that group compared to how hillary clinton did in 2016. that's why, while we see kamala harris here in ft. worth today, she's also going to houston and mcallen, texas, a community along the u.s./mexico border. she'll be there with congressman o'rourke and also former hud secretary julian castro to shore up some of that latino vote in these final days. steph? >> abby, texas has not gone blue since jimmy carter in 1976. how realistic is it, this idea

that the state is in play? >> i think it's realistic. that doesn't mean likely. so if you look at -- what is going on, one of the most fascinating things is, of the things priscilla mentioned, there's an additional factor going in democrats' favor. down ballot, the democrats are competing for the state house of representatives and nancy pelosi has launched a full-on offensive at texas u.s. house seats. there are well-funded candidates running sophisticated campaigns who have been running for two years, some even four years. so joe biden comes into this state with ap infrastructure that has not existed in -- easily 20 years. so i think nbc news and cook political report are correct in rating it a toss-up if only because things are so uncertain and so unstable. >> but talk to us, abby, about who that texan voter is. you're from ft. worth. that is part of the county that went for trump in 2016 but actually voted for beto o'rourke

in 2018. who lives there? who is voting? >> ft. worth and tarrant county is one of the most interesting places in the state because it's urban. it is also suburban. it is also rural. and so you have every cross section of the state concentrated in this area. and i don't think it's a coincidence senator harris is coming down there on top of that because it's part of the dallas-ft. worth metropolitan area and that's the largest television media market in the state. it's a safe bet she'll be on the television news there and also in harris county and down in the valley. >> abby, priscilla, thank you. abby mentioned it, the cook political report. they just moved texas to a toss-up. joining us, the man himself, charlie cook, the editor and publisher of that very report. charlie, texas, a toss-up? why do you say that? >> texas is like several other states that are fast growing with lots of people coming in from other parts of the country, particularly knowledge economy,

people coming into the suburbs. and when you have a state with a distinctive political flavor and then have lots of people moving in from other places, it loses that distinctiveness. it moves back towards the country as a whole, sort of a revert to the main. so texas is losing its texanness and is voting more like the rest of the country and is moving away from just a solid red republican state. but this is a very close race. i think abby was exactly right. it is extremely close. it could go either way. it's not likely to go democrat, but that, you know, this is within a couple of points legitimately. and that point about the texas house being right on the edge. that's absolutely true. so a lot of times, i mean, arizona, georgia, texas, north carolina, these are states that are changing really, really, really quickly. and that ted cruz race was -- was a close call two years ago. was a good sign.

the other thing that's important about texas is, it is the first real state that's likely to have a poll closing that we're going to see real numbers, real quickly so that it's the first of a sequence where texas, it was called in the last election in 2016, at 9:00 eastern time. ohio at 9:36. florida at 10:50. it's a whole series. north carolina, georgia. each of these are hurdles. and if the president misses one single hurdle, the night is over. put your pajamas on. it's going to be really interesting. but texas is going to be a place where, you know, my eyes are going to be, you know, early, early in the evening. >> well, could be a no-pajama night. tell us about the latest swing state polls that you're looking at and where do vp biden and president trump have the best chances? >> well, i think for joe biden,

i think the arithmetic is very simple. win the 20 states that hillary clinton won, plus the district of columbia. that's 232 electoral votes. and then michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania, and that's 278. and he literally doesn't need anything beyond that. he doesn't need the arizona, florida, north carolina, georgia, ohio, texas, iowa. he doesn't need any of those. now he's obviously competing, trying to get as many as he can, but i think the math is really pretty simple and michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania, i think, are going to go biden. pennsylvania is probably the weakest link there, but there are -- i think there's a really good chance that biden is going to carry georgia and north carolina. >> we hear a lot about the silent trump voter who is not answering the phone, who is not talking to pollsters who doesn't have a sign outside that says trump but they'll vote for him

again. your site, however, has an article saying, these polls could be wrong, but that could help vp biden. >> i know exactly where the shy trump voter is. it's a place called denial. it's what people that don't like numbers they see, they try to sort of invent some rationalization. that that's not what happened in polling last time. it was an undersampling of noncollege whites. but the thing is that we had a big blue collar vote, blue collar white vote in 2016 that affected places. but in 2018, you had a surge of college-educated white suburban women who really don't like president trump coming in here. if these polls are wrong, everybody pretends if the polls are wrong it means it's got to be in president trump's favor. not necessarily. i mean, if you have a really, really large increase in turnout

of college-educated white suburban women, this thing could be a lot wider than the polls are showing. >> quickly before we go. any chance the senate goes blue? >> what's the chance of it not? oh, i think it's only about a 1 in 3, 1 in 4 chance that the senate stays in republican hands. i mean, i think we're looking at four -- net gain of four seats, maybe five. and it could go north of that because toss-up races typically break overwhelmingly one direction or the other. you've got one democratic seat, alabama, that's gone. but you have nine republican seats that are on the -- just on the knife's edge and probably three or four of those are pretty much assured to go democratic. so, no, i think this is going to end up being a night that's going to look more like 1980 than it's going to look like 2016 when ronald reagan beat

president carter and democrats suffered huge losses in the house and senate. i think this will be the flip of that. >> wow. a night like 1980. get out your day glow. charlie, always good to see you. you'll have a busy few days ahead. coming up next -- they regret not voting in 2016. five black men in five battleground states explain why getting them to the polls this time is important and why they're going to be there. first, getting small business through this pandemic. i've been sharing the story of jeannine cook, the owner of hairiet's bookshop in our digital series" bouncing back." she first opened in february with the goal of showcasing black authors. six weeks later, covid shut her down. she's navigating the new reality. we talk about that, and you can watch the entire episode on today.com. ♪ i knew that i would, now ♪ i feel good

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so, vote yes on prop 25. in california, we're the only state where wealthy trust fund heirs get their own tax loophole. these tax cheats avoid millions in taxes on vacation homes and coastal mansions depriving our schools. prop 19 closes this unfair loophole that's been exploited by an elite few and helps our schools, firefighters, and seniors. vote 'yes' on prop 19. tell them [record scratch] the party's over. tell them [record scratch] who's supkamala harris.5? harris says, "a corporate tax loophole has allowed billions to be drained from our public schools and local communities. no more. i'm proud to support prop 15." vote yes. schools and communities first is responsible for the content of this ad. this morning, we're seeing

signs of more turnout from black voters this year. back in 2016, it dipped for the first time in 20 years for a presidential election falling 7 points from its record high in 2012. our latest nbc news/"wall street journal" poll has joe biden leading president trump by a whopping 87% with this key voting bloc. trymaine lee spoke with five black men in five battleground states who did not vote in 2016 but are passionate about doing it this time. what changed for these men this time around? >> i'll tell you what, stephanie, each to a man they said they regret their decision to stay on the sidelines in 2016. but after four years of thinly veiled racism, and all the division and violence we've seen in this country, they say they are at an inflection point and enough is enough. let's hear it directly from them. >> let me ask you this. by a show of hands, how many of you all regret not voting in

2016, after everything we've seen in the last almost four years. how many of you all regret it? all you guys regret it. so i'm going to ask you guys. was there a moment kind of where the light bulb went off and, i didn't vote in 2016, but i have to vote in 2020. pierre? >> for me it was the -- when he gets up and he goes, you know, with the neo-nazis and the tiki torches, remember that? he said there's good and bad people on both sides. i'm like, someone was just murdered. the violence that occurred there, that's what you want to use -- it's just him coming forth and not condoning racism. the racist people -- the racism that occurred. and not going against it. kind of like with him not taking a firm stance against it is almost it seems condoning it. that was, okay, i've got to vote this time like for real, for me. that's what did it. >> robert, what was that moment when you said, i was on the bench in 2016. but i've got to get involved

this time. >> breonna taylor. period. it's not fair. it's not fair. and it has to stop. but it's -- it has to stop. and now with the ah-ha moment, the most serious moment of my life in your own house, in your own bed and the person that got charged was charged because he protected his own home. it's sad. it's sad. and i don't have a problem with who you vote for, but we have to change. it's almost choking me up so, yeah. >> derek? >> i think it was -- of course, you know, george floyd, breonna, tamir rice. all down the list. that was the ah-ha moment where i realized i have to not only get involved. i have to stay involved. >> the real emotion there, right? the feelings that systemic racism and violence in this country still shakes people to

the core cannot be overstated. and these men say these are motivating factors to get them involved in 2020. >> trymaine, thank you so much. coming up next, the truth matters but only if you hear it. what millions of americans were watching in the days before they cast their vote. stick around. you need to see this. y making the cloud easier to manage. but we didn't stop there. we made a cloud flexible enough to adapt to any size business. no matter what it does, or how it changes. and we kept going. so you only pay for what you use. because at dell technologies, we stop...at nothing. ♪ dove moisture renew blendshing is different. because at dell technologies, we stop...at nothing. these beads represent dove moisturizers and work with your skin to produce new moisturizers. unlike others, that don't.

proven lasting care for the skin you live in. with the longer fire season, things are burning for longer duration. it's supposed to be for six months and now we're going into probably the rest of the year. it's taking a toll to the mental health of the people who have to fight these fires. my name is melanie, i'm from phoenix, arizona, and i'm a hotshot, a wildland firefighter. depending on what the fire behavior is, we may work into the night. i mean, we've worked to 5 in the morning. so i do the job for the people, but it's also for the love of the environment, and it's a huge toll. i've been doing wildland firefighting for seven years now.

when i come home, everything slows down. that's where those thoughts start to pop up. a helicopter crash. the loss of my squad boss. is that important enough for me to continue this? to keep losing those people. it made me realize the sacrifices that need to be made to do the job, because people are going to continue to die. you keep fighting a battle that doesn't have an end. climate change is going to happen. the earth is changing. our forests are changing. we have the science, we have the technology, but if we don't have leadership that believes in it, then there's no funding, there's no support. there's no solution to the problem. we're all facing it together. we all can either reap the rewards or have the consequences. we need to make this progression, so we can provide a better future for the next generation. i'm joe biden, and i approve this message. please pay attention to

this. tell your mom if you need to. the truth matters. but only if you hear it. and this week in the final days before the election, this is what the millions of americans who tuned into fox news saw. >> today joe biden managed to leave his basement bunker for a tiny, i mean tiny rally in georgia. look at your screen. there are around, well, 30 people. that was it. at joe's event in warm springs, georgia. meanwhile the president held three massive rallies today including different states. >> joe biden's campaign has said he is limiting travel because of co-vid. in a brand new poll out today shows that a majority of americans think that's a good idea. in many states where president trump is holding his rallies, gatherings of that size are not even allowed. not to mention, look at your screen, there's no social distancing and a lot of people not wearing masks.

on monday laura i think gram took it one step further. >> i've been told biden is the true running mate. using the panic button is all they have. the only way to scare old people have into voting for someone seems more like an assisted living resident than the future cost. they are looking for co-vid to do the heavy lifting for old joe. >> the media does not need to look for co-vid. for the last several days the number of new cases have broken records yrksz and no, not just because we're doing more testing. hospitalizations are up 40% across the country this month. and so are deaths with nearly 22,000 americans dying from the virus in october alone. but instead of looking critically at what other countries are doing to tamp the virus down, laura chose to stoke

fear. >> the american left and their media podls have long held up new zealand as the model for how to properly deal with a lot of things including co-vid. anyone who loves freedom should take note. they're throwing people into quarantine camps. no leaving the camp until you're negative. >> quarantine camps? no. what she was talking about are new zealand's country run isolation hotels but that sounds scary if you didn't know that. she also used an old clip of the new zealand prime minister talking about the hotels after her country beat community transmission for the first time back in june. yet, ingram says that policy was new and in response to the rising co-vid case numbers. not true. and then there was tucker carlson who decided in the week before the election to focus on unverified claims about joe biden and his son, hunter. this interview you see with

hunter eers former business associate who alleges that joe biden was involved in a business venture with a chinese oil company drew an audience of more than 7.5 million people. the show's biggest ratings outside of the presidential debates. tucker has complained that the media isn't talking about his interview. let's talk about it. "the wall street journal" reported the proposed venture never received any funding or completed any deals. wall street journal reported that. and when they reviewed corporate records, they found no role for joe biden. nbc news has reached out to him when he first made the allegations, but he didn't respond. fox news is not just reporting these claims. their hosts are using it to sew doubt in the election that is happening right this minute. >> according to google trends data, guess what has been trending over the last few days? can i change my vote, and hunter

biden. >> almost 80 million americans have already cast their vote in this election, and there's no evidence that millions want to change their vote over this. and to add insult to injury, fox's gregg gutfield useed this so-called story to casually float the idea of a constitutional crisis before we even know the election's outcome. >> why don't the republicans start a preemptive impeachment on joe biden in case he wins? they could actually start it tomorrow. >> we are now four days away from the election, and the truth is more important than ever. the truth is that we are in the middle of a pandemic. the truth is that millions of americans are out of work. the truth is that we have to listen to science. and in these final days, instead of debating crowd size or unverified claims or conspiracy

theories, we should be talking about policy, values and ideas. that wraps up this hour. i'm stephanie ruhle. hallie jackson picks up coverage next. up coverage next with the new freestyle libre 2 system, a continuous glucose monitor, you can check your glucose with a painless, one-second scan. and now with optional alarms, you can choose to be notified if you go too high or too low. and for those who qualify, the freestyle libre 2 system is now covered by medicare. ask your doctor for a prescription. you can do it without fingersticks. learn more at freestyle libre 2 dot u.s. ♪ however, there is one thing you can be certain of. the men and woman of the united states postal service. we are here to deliver your cards, packages and prescriptions. and also deliver the peace of mind knowing that what's important to you-like your ballot-is on its way. every day, all across america, we deliver for you.

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today the midwest, the center of the political universe and right now the epicenter of the co-vid pandemic, too, as donald trump and joe biden head into the busiest day yet on the campaign trail. crossing paths in two