Lester Holt isn’t letting Covid-19 interrupt his traditional trip Across America.
Since 2017, the NBC Nightly News anchor has taken viewers of NBC’s flagship newscast to meet with Americans on the ground in various areas of the country, part of a series known as Across America.
After a bit of a delay due to the myriad breaking news events, Holt will anchor Nightly News Monday through Wednesday from key battleground states in next week’s election, making stops in Nevada today, Wisconsin Tuesday and Pennsylvania Wednesday, where he will speak with residents about topics ranging from healthcare, to the economy, racial injustice to the government’s response to coronavirus.
In Pennsylvania, for example, he will talk to voters who voted for President Trump in 2016, after previously voting for President Obama, and in Wisconsin, he will discuss social unrest.
What Holt says he won’t be doing is getting a vote tally from the people he meets.
“What I didn’t want this to be was, ‘Who are you going to vote for?'” Holt told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in an interview last week. “One of the main reasons we are coming to Wisconsin … is it’s also been heavily impacted by the pandemic and the protests over race and policing.”
He added, “These issues don’t end on Nov. 3. Any way you slice it, we’re in for a long slog. … It’s really important to understand what people’s expectations are.”
Holt also spoke with the Wisconsin paper about working from home during the pandemic. Needless to say, he’s happy to get out of the house.
“One of the hallmarks of Nightly News is we’re the [news program] that takes you there,” he said. “I am personally thrilled to break out of our home studio.”