And we'll start with the presidential race.

We've been checking in with national political reporter who have Minnesota connections.

Back tonight, John McCormack, Minnesota native who writes for the Wall Street J He's also worked at Bloomberg Ne the Chicago Tribune, the Des Moines Register, and the Rochester Post Bulletin.

John welcome back.

Hey.

Thanks, guys.

I'm excited for that 1991 Blizzard segment.

I was a reporter at the Rochester Post Bulletin, happened to be changing apartmen because it was October 31st.

I got into the new apartment, but did not have much food.

So it was it was quite an advent I bet it was John.

All the, going back to the campaign, all about garbage and Puerto Rico an President Trump not surrounding with strong, intelligent women.

How do you reporters pick and ch gaffe to report on?

Yeah, there's a lot to choose fr And, oftentimes a lot of them come late at night So that's, you know, for a newsp that's not ideal timing.

but, yeah, there's been a lot to choose fro I look, I was looking at all the advertising this week too, kind seeing how much of it is negativ how much of it is positive, how is, you know, contrasting ads an a lot of it is negative.

I forget the exact statistic, but something like 40% of all ad are negative.

And Republicans are running a few more negative ads than, than, than the Democrats a But its said that negative ads though, right?

So so I'm wondering, given the n and everything, and with just da can you glean as to which camp may have the momentum at this po Yeah.

I mean, this is my seventh presidential election.

I don't think I can remember one that has been this close in the here in the homestretch.

You guys, you know, go back a wa I don't know if you can think of that have been really this close I think, you know, Trump did definitely have some momentum, in, in mid-Octobe Now whether that has slowed down we don't really know.

Harris has had several good days the last few.

Trump has had a few bad days, distractions, things that, you k probably, you know, his campaign really wish he had not said.

But, you know, the shock value f is so high at this point.

I mean, people dismiss some of the most outlandish thin that he says.

And because we've all sort of become normalized to So how much of this stuff at the end will affect him is just really hard to know.

But, I think anybody who tells y who anybody who tells you they know how this race is going to turn out, don't beli because I just don't think there's any way to really know.

You know, we do think the Democr have a better ground game than the Republicans, but, you k that's that's really hard to qua Accuracy of the polls.

What do y I wouldn't bet a lot on it.

I mean, you know, there's this h underestimating Trump's support.

At least there was in 2016, you know, and in 2018 and 2022, some of the Democratic support was overestimated.

So I think it's just really hard for pollsters to nail these thin You got to remember the margin o In some of these battleground st you know, the survey size is like 600 peop It's it's not a big survey to be It's very expensive to do pollin And there is, you know, some qua polling out there, but there's a lot of garbage polling out there, too.

So, look, look at the polling for trend li but don't, don't, don't think th necessarily going to be predicti How late do you think youre going to work on Tuesday?

When might we, get the results, do you think?

Well, I don't think anybody is really expecting the to to be available by Tuesday ni Now is something like three in t on Wednesday possible perhaps.

but I know our news organization is building in the possibility that it could come as late as it did in 2020, which would be Saturday after the election.

And that does not seem, you know, like it's unlikely, especially if it's very close.

We like most news organizations, depend on the Associated Press t to call the race.

You know, and, and call particul and, you know, I know lots of folks over at the They're going to be especially cautious this time.

So I don't think anybody's going to make these calls.

One of my previous employers, the Chicago Tribune, was was famously known for the Dewey Truman headline.

And, we always had a a talk on election night.

Don't don't race to make these c because you don't want to be the Dewey D Truman headline again.

How many persuadables are out th in the swing states?

Three.

4% or not or fewer.

It's pretty, you know, at the grocery store parking lots and the campaign ev it's pretty hard to find people.

But yeah, that's what the polls Somewhere between, you know, 4 to 6% is maybe undec or or not absolutely decided.

So, you know, the earlier questi about sort of who has the moment who is making gaffes at this las That could matter, you know, to those three, 4 or 5, 6% of people.

We've sure enjoyed having you on the air, John.

Thanks so much for taking the ti I know you're busy, so thank you Great to see you guys.

Take care - Good luck.