This is a life-changing election. This will determine what America is going to look like for a long, long time.

This is the most important election in the history of our country.

Welcome to Pods Have America. I'm John Favre. I'm Dan Pfeiffer.

On today's pod, Dan talks to political message Guru Anat Shankar Osorio about the most effective ways to persuade voters in the home stretch.

Before that, we'll talk about Trump going to war with the head of the CDC, what the president's town hall might tell us about how he'll handle the debates, and the results of our latest change research polar coaster survey of new and infrequent voters.

But first, check out this week's Pod Save the World to hear Tommy and Ben call bullshit on the Israel UAE Barrain peace deal, dig into what's going on with the Taliban peace talks, and chat with former US ambassador to Russia, Mike McFal, about the protests in Belarus and how a Biden administration should approach Russia.

Also, make sure to check out the latest episode of Mystic America where Ben talks about ending our endless wars in the Middle East.

It's an outstanding series. I highly recommend you catch up if you haven't had a chance.

I also highly recommend that you subscribe to Crooked Media's Nightly Newsletter. What a day.

It's a quick, informative, very funny rundown of all the days news. It's written and curated by our own hilarious Sarah Lazarus and the Crooked team.

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All right, let's get to the news. The top headline in the New York Times homepage last night was Trump again scorn science on vaccine and masks, which I imagine is exactly what the campaign planned as the message of the day, just seven weeks before the election.

Want to get that Trump scorn science headline.

So here's what happened. Centers for Disease Control Director Robert Redfield made two important statements during his Senate testimony on Wednesday. First, he said that universal mask use could end the pandemic and added, quote, I might even go so far as to say that this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against COVID than when I take a COVID vaccine.

Second, he said that even if a vaccine were approved now, it won't be, quote, generally available to the American public to get back to our regular life until mid 2021.

Later that day, Trump called the White House press conference to publicly rebuke Redfield for offering, quote, incorrect information on both the effectiveness of masks and the timeline for a vaccine. Here's what Trump said.

I saw the statement I called him. I said, what did you mean by that? And I think he just made a mistake. We're ready to go as soon as the vaccine happens. I think it would be very soon when I called up Robert today. I said to him, what's with the mask? He said, I think I answered that question incorrectly. I think maybe he misunderstood it.

So I wanted to dive into the specifics on both the mask comments and the vaccine comments, but like just overall, do you think anyone in the White House or in the campaign believes that Trump going to war with his CDC director is good for him? That a political plus.

Well, someone in a campaign thinks that just not Trump's campaign because the important context here is that Biden went out and gave a speech yesterday that said that if he were elected president, he would listen to the scientists when it came to the vaccine and was worried that Trump would overrule the scientists.

Trump called a press conference with a specific purpose of overruling the scientists on the vaccine. So no, John, it is not good for Trump. I think Trump is probably.

I'm not sure how much more damage he can do to himself on how voters view his management of the coronavirus. It has been pretty steady high in the beginning, a little lower the summer and then kind of steady for the last six weeks or so.

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