To expect on election day and what it will take for voters to trust the results. Plus every one of the women ive, weve interviewed is qualified and ive narrowed it down. Biden zeros in on hipi. When will he decide . What it will mean for his campaign. Announcer from abc news, its this week. Here now, chief anchor george stephanopoulos. Good morning, and welcome to this week. As we come on the air this morning, the number of covid cases here in the u. S. Is crossing 5 million, more than any other country in the world. And the millions of americans who have lost their jobs during the pandemic are facing a new week without extended benefits after the collapse of talks between the white house and congress. Late yesterday, President Trump announced that he would take action on his own, signing a series of documents that he claimed would address the crisis facing workers, renters and the unemployed. To cheers from his country club members, he blamed it on failed talks with democrats in congress. Nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumer have chosen to hold this vital assistance hostage. On behalf of very extreme partisan demands. And were joined now by the Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. Senator, thank you for joining us this morning. Lets talk about the president s proposals. First of all, trump wants to replace the 600 the unemployment federal benefit replaced with 300, he said the states will kick in another 100. Does he have the power to do that . Will you go to court to stop him . Let me first say, george, overall, we have this huge crisis, the largest economic crisis since the depression, the greatest Health Crisis since the pandemic, and unfortunately the president s executive orders described in one word could be in three words, unworkable, weak and far too narrow. The event at the country club is just what trump does, a big show but it doesnt do anything, and as the American People look at these executive orders they will see they dont come close to doing the job. One, what they proposed and second whats left out. Whats proposed. On the unemployment benefit, first, the 600 a week has been very successful. Its kept millions of people out of poverty, its pumped more money into the economy, Consumer Spending is probably the best thing in the economy. The president says keep people from working. Evidence shows thats not the case. Americans want to work. With 10 , 11 unemployment, you cant find a job and people shouldnt be given a pay cut. Second, this is an unworkable plan. Most states will take months to implement it because its brand new, its sort of put together with spit and paste. Many states because they have to chip in 100, they dont have money, they wont do it. To boot, it depletes the Hurricane Trust Fund to defer this money to pay for this money at a time when were at the height of hurricane season. Can the president do that, is it legal . Is it legal . Well, you know, ill leave that up to the attorneys, it doesnt do the job. It doesnt come its not going to go into effect in most places for weeks and months because its so put together in a crazy way, if he would have renewed the 600 as we did in heroes bill through january things would proceed smoothly. The payroll tax cut . Most employers its a deferral, and so it accumulates until january when it expires, employees are just going to continue to withhold the money. I talked to some, they dont want their employees to be stuck with a huge bill in december, so its not going to pump money into the economy, and second, the president said if elected i will forgive all this, that depletes money out of Social Security and Medicare Trust funds. If youre a Social Security recipient or medicare recipient, you better watch out if President Trump is reelected. Lets talk about how you get back to the table. You say these proposals are narrow and unworkable. Republicans say your trilliondollar offer is just a budget gimmick. Youre not cutting any programs, will you compromise more . Well, look, weve compromised a great deal. But one more point on the executive orders what they leave out, nothing on testing, we have a regime thats not testing, the president has messed up testing unlike any other countries. Nothing to help reopen schools safely. They need lots of money to reopen schools, not only for ppe but for bus routes, because kids cant sit next to each other. For ventilation systems, for hot spots, lot of schools want to convert their gyms and cafeterias for classrooms. Were going to see layoffs. This isnt an abstract concept. A firefighter is a firefighter. A person who drives a bus, a person who picks up the garbage, those are important jobs. Its not in there. Theres no money to help us with elections. Theres no money to help us with post office, very little money to no money to feed children and no real help for eviction of people, so they leave out a lot. So what we have democrats propoese proposed. What we proposed originally the 3. 4 trillion heroes bill was carefully done and it meets the needs, huge needs, twothirds of the American People by survey data prefer our 3. 4 trillion to their 1 trillion, which doesnt do the job, but in an effort to compromise, Speaker Pelosi told the negotiators from the president s office, well come down a trillion, you come up a trillion, that would bring us to 2. 4, then to 2. We can get in the middle. They said absolutely not. I said to them, its your way or the highway, they said yes, thats not the way to create the deal. Heres my hope, george, that now that theyve done these executive orders, and the American People will see how narrow, how not doing the job they are, that republicans who hung their hat on these executive orders will be forced by the economy, by the healthcare crisis, where a thousand people are dying a day, and were not making the progress. Get the American People to come to the table and come up with an agreement. Lets talk about where you could compromise more. One provision youre pushing is appeal a cap on state and local tax deductions. Thats a longterm goal of yours. Why does that have to be in the emergency covid bill . Well, first, state and local governments are hurting and one of the reasons was the elimination on the cap of state and local, it hurt state revenues. This idea that its rich people, go to long island, talk to a typical couple, maybe hes a firefighter and shes a teacher, they need that deduction. This affects the middle class, in suburbs, in the red states and the blue states, but were willing to come down a trillion dollars and well compromise and meet them halfway. They dont want to meet halfway, they dont want to meet any way and thats what the American People should understand that weve made a big offer, a huge offer, in an effort to get this thing going, well make well make that well cut that trillion and it wont be so easy because these are real needs of people. This isnt an abstract game. So many republicans say, they dont want to spend one nickel. Mitch mcconnell said 20 republican senators dont want to spend any money, not even the trillion that the president has proposed, and thats sort of reminiscent of herbert hoover, when the stock market crashed. Herbert hoover and some of the conservatives said, dont spend any money and we had the great depression. Were fighting for peoples needs. We need testing. We need our schools to open safely. We need to prevent firefighters and teachers and others from being laid off. Thats what were doing. This isnt a game. Theyre so wrapped up in their ideology. We hate government. Well, i got to tell you something, the republican mantra, let the private sector do it alone just doesnt work when you have a huge recession and a huge healthcare crisis. I want to ask about election interference. The Intelligence Community put out a new warning friday about foreign election interference, china wants biden to win, russia is actively interfering now to help trump. Iran is also looking for opportunities. I know you received classified briefings. Does that Public Statement accurately reflect whats happening right now and what, if anything, can be done to counter the interference . First, i cant talk about what happened in the briefing. There are public reports and firms have said that russia is attempting to interfere in our elections. The deputy of the dni said it just yesterday. So, yes, its absolutely true that russia is trying to interfere from Public Information and Public Statements. We are trying, democrats are trying to stop it in the defense bill. We want to put tough sanctions on russia. Chris van hollen has a bill, bipartisan, i believe its with marco rubio to stop it. Trump is resisting. Why does he not want to stop russia from interfering in this election . You have to ask that question. Your colleague Richard Blumenthal said its so alarming, so chilling that it should be declassified. He says every american has the right to see. Without compromising sources, yes. They should know another thing, these hearings that johnson and graham are doing, some of it is now public is based on false russia intelligence about joe biden, in other words, false russia reports on joe biden. They should be ashamed of themselves for what theyre doing. Letting the russians manipulate us or try to manipulate us. Senator schumer, thanks for your time this morning. Thank you, george. Lets get a white house response from the president s top economic adviser, larry kudlow. Thank you for joining us. This morning, let me give you a chance to respond senator schumer. You saw him right there saying that the president s proposal are weak, narrow and unworkable. Well, look, i think that providing significant economic assistance, even though the numbers are coming in very strong, good jobs number on friday, declining unemployment, weve created over 9 million jobs in three months, thats record. Theres still a lot of hardship out there and heartbreak out there. The point that President Trump made yesterday is that on a several occasions we tried to get, for example, a compromised deal on the unemployment assistance, which ran out, the federal unemployment assistance, thats a key point. And another key point is the Eviction Moratorium because the democrats rejected various compromises, at least twice to my knowledge. The president felt he had to take action, and it will be timely action. It will be temporary action to be sure mostly out until the end of this year. But lets help those larry, the president doesnt extend the federal Eviction Moratorium. I looked at the executive order, it simply directs hud to find a way to help people and it doesnt include extending the Eviction Moratorium. Look, thats not entirely true. It is true. I just read it. The secretary of health, if any determination is made that theres a Health Threat of Community Spread due to evictions or forbearance that they would take action, so thats clear, and thats exactly what the Health Secretary is going to do. We also are going to be working through other agencies to spend some money for example for rental assistance and federally backed housing, whether its Single Family or multifamily, if theres any forbearance, so its just says theres going to be a review, i can tell you, george, the intent of that is that the review will prevent any evictions. Weve been fortunate so far. But this is a guardrail and it will work out beautifully. Okay, i understand that. You say thats the intent. Clarify, im reading page 3, such action may include encouraging and providing assistance to Public Housing authorities, minimizing evictions and foreclosures, it doesnt talk about extending the moratorium. Some other issues as well, especially on this proposal to extend Unemployment Insurance benefits, 300 federal contribution, 100 from the states under a new program, you heard senator schumer said states wont be able to get this up and running in time and a huge delay in getting the money to people. Well, look, i dont think there will be a huge delay. The Labor Department has been working with the states, the states are the ones that process the federal benefits before. So i dont see any reason why it would be all that difficult. Most of their systems have been upgraded. The Labor Department will be deeply involved in helping them out. I mean, in terms of delays what good is delay of the legislation if you cant if you dont think you can process anything . We should have gotten this done weeks ago, now we will take 75 of the cost share so that if states put up another 100 from 350 or 400, which is their average across the country, then youll have essentially 300 to 400plus, really if the states are generous, 800 unemployment assistance per week out to the end of the year, i think thats a compromised view, we tried to get that through a couple times. We werent able to compromise. So the president s gone ahead and done it himself. I think its going to help a lot of people. That plus the payroll tax and some other things. On the payroll tax, its not a tax cut, its a tax defrlg. Deferral. Senator schumer has talked to employers will continue to withhold the money they dont want to be on the hook for it later on. It will only help those who actually have jobs. Finally, even some republicans are weighing. Senator ben sasse said its unconstitutional slop. President doesnt have the power to unilaterally rewrite the payroll tax law. Well, okay, i appreciate those things, maybe well go to court on them. Were going to go ahead with our actions anyway. Our counsels office, the Treasury Department believes it has the authority to temporarily suspend Tax Collections so were banking on that. Weve had also the repurposing of funds, george, that was decided in our favor in the Supreme Court case involving the mexican wall a while back. So we think we can do it. I do think the president and its in executive order would like very much to make the deferral a permanent deferral. In other words, hell essentially let it go in future months rather than a payback. So it will be, you know, loan forgiveness in effect, and i think businesses will welcome it. Youre right, there are many people working than not working, thats a good thing. But there are roughly 140 Million People who are working. There are roughly 15 million, 16 million who are unemployed. The unemployed is too high. But the 140 million theyre going to get a gigantic wage increase, probably 1200 between september 1st and december 31st and, again, well do everything we can to forgive those loans. I think thats an incentive to work for those who are heroes during the pandemic and also for the unemployed it gives them the incentive to come back to work to offset some of the excesses of unemployment assistance. You just said this could face legal challenge, that seems pretty clear thats going to happen. You said right now the democrats are also saying youre not doing enough on testing, to help schools, state and local governments, why not go back to the negotiating table and get this done, isnt the quickest and easiest route to guarantee relief . Well, i dont think the president has said we can go back to the negotiating table, weve not said no to that. Except his team walked away. Secretary mnuchin. Well, look, secretary mnuchin and chief meadows have been up there every single day for long periods of time. We provide as much staff and policy support as we can behind the scenes to back it up. We have proposed a large School Assistance for covid. We want kids to go back to school. We put 105 billion on the board and the democrats rejected it. We actually exceeded their original. It was 100 billion. Across the board weve done all these things, i listened to what senator schumer was doing. Saying. We have massive testing program. Were testing 1 Million People per day. I think Something Like 60 million, 65 million, by far the largest in the world. Thankfully by the way, with the distancing and with the masking and with the hygiene and with the testing where applicable, weve seen now the mitigation is working and the curves are flattening out in texas and california and florida. Thats a real good thing. We put these things look, can i just i dont want to get overly political. For heavens sake, the president said yesterday, onethird of the democratic proposals had absolutely nothing to do with covid. Theyre talking about harvesting mailin votes, mailin votes themselves, no signatures, no sending assistance to illegal aliens. Letting felons out of jail. Its a very liberal left democratic wish list that had nothing to do with covid. Well remove that stuff we would probably have Better Grounds to negotiate. Larry, we could go back and forth on that. Democrats complain that the president wanted to put funds for building an fbi building in Downtown Washington in way some critics said would help his hotel. You made that point about covid and mitigation, the Washington Post is reporting this morning, that an internal model of the president s counsel and economic advisers predicts quote a looming disasters with the number of infections expected to rise later in august, september and october in the midwest and elsewhere, have you seen this analysis, how worried are you . I have not, george. I have not seen that analysis. All my discussions with my colleagues i havent heard anything about that. As ive said, having gone through a very tough period as the virus spreads to the south and west. It looks like were making pretty good progress. Am i worried in general . Im always worried in general. Things happened here that no one expected. Were constantly concerned. We sent our cdc people, ambassador dr. Deborah birx shes gone down to look at the hot spots and emphasizing, again, our guidelines, fauci has done the same thing, stephen hahn has done the same thing, Vice President pence has been all over it. The president has been monitoring it and is now reporting to the nation each evening. On a daily basis. Sure were always worried. But i havent seen that kind of apocalypse scenario. I case in the game, you cant rule anything in or anything out. I understand that. No, im not aware of any such scenario coming from the cdc. Larry, thank you for your time this morning. Thank you, george. Up next fivethirtyeights nate silver handicaps the race to be joe bidens running mate. Well be right back. Silver handicaps the race to be joe bidens running mate. Well be right back. So, if your networks down, youre down. Verizon knows your customers need to reach you seamlessly. Your team needs to work from different places across many devices. 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Heres one piece of evidence, of the 28 people nominated to be Vice President as part of major president ial tickets since world war ii 20 were senators or governors. Or about 70 . That might favor senator Kamala Harris over other possibilities like susan rice. Another data point, of those 28 Vice President ial nominees, 13 would later go on to run for president , so about half, but that number shoots up to 75 of those who actually became Vice President. With joe biden ahead in polls, that vp spot becomes even more valuable. So when i hear advisers complaining that harris is too ambitious, no reason to keep her off the ticket. The vp is often a steppingstone to president ial aspirations. As it was of course for joe biden. The last number 78 is how old joe biden will be as of inauguration day. Harris at age 55 would fit the bill, also susan rice at 55. Illinois senator Tammy Duckworth whos 52. Add it up im not really making predictions here. I buy the conventional wisdom that harris is the favorite, wellknown, wellqualified name that has run for National Office before. Thanks to nate. Are we heading toward chaos on election day . Will voters be able to trust the results . Our legal experts weigh in when we come back. Results . Our legal experts weigh in when we come back. Freak it has three times the cleaning power of the leading spray to dissolve kitchen grease on contact. And its great for bathrooms just keep pumping the power nozzle to release a continuous burst of mist and make quick work of big jobs. It even works on stainless steel. It cuts through 100 of dirt, grease and grime. Available with easytoswap refills. To get three times the cleaning power, try clean freak from mr. Clean. Come on in, were open. All we do is hand you the bag. Simple. Done. We adapt and we change. You know, you just figure it out. Weve just been finding a way to keep on pushing. Weve just been finding a way to keep on pushing. 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Peter, literally one of the closest elections in americas history. 104 million americans voted. 600 votes approximately separated gore and bush in the state of florida and now by one vote on the Supreme Court this election is over. Back in 2000 we didnt know who was going to be the next president until the Supreme Court shut down the florida recount five weeks after election day, and if this years race is close we could see a repeat or worse. The president s attacks on mailin voting, delays at Postal Service, among the challenges that could make this election the most litigated in history. With potential court fights across several states, the outcome unknown for days or even weeks after election day. Were going to keep an eye on Election Security all through the campaign. Our chief legal analyst dan abrams, kate shaw. Kate, let me begin with you. Everyone wants a safe and secure election. You want the country to be confident that the Election Results reflect the will of the voters. Thats the goal. Whats the most significant threat to that right now . Oh, gosh, george, there a lot of possible threat of foreign interference. Some foreign powers are already working to interfere with the election. The question is what election interference may look like, if were talking about hacking campaigns or even attempting to penetrating the apparatus, those things could pose a threat to very legitimacy of our election. Other types of interference, the promotion of misinformation on social media, they could violate the law but any legal action could be too late to take any effect. So whether platforms like twitter or facebook are going to be vigilant about identifying fraudulent accounts and doing takedowns and purges is going to be critical. Lot of the responsibility is going to lie with American People. I think going into this final stretch of the campaign its going to be really important to take a pretty skeptical view of political information that we see on social media knowing that the sources of it may not be reliable, so taking all of it with a very serious grain of salt. But i dont think except for some penetration of election equipment none of that necessarily poses a threat to the legitimacy of the election. And dan, the president has married the concerns of foreign interference with his concerns about mailin balloting. Ou the biggest risk that we have is mailin ballots. Its much easier thing for a foreign power, whether its russia, china, iran, north korea, its much easier for them to forge ballots and send them in. Its much easier for them to cheat with universal mailin ballots. Is that a real concern . I dont think that foreign interference with regard to mailin ballots is the number one concern, or should be the number one concern out there, remember, when youre talking about universal mailin ballots, lets be honest about the issues are. Again and again you hear people say, they get sent to places where no ones there anymore, theyve moved, those are real issues, but thats not voter fraud. Voter fraud then is the person who decides theyre going to risk their freedom to take said ballot, falsify information and then send it in. This notion about foreign powers being able to take on make up names, make up signatures and the exact kind of paper and the rest of the Security Issues that come in and for the people that are counting the votes to not recognize that those votes and those names and those addresses dont match with what they have on their voter rolls thats a real long shot. Voting should be the number one concern not necessarily because of fraud, but because all of the legal battles were seeing right now over how to count them. When did they come in . Did they come in by election day . Did they come in after . Were they postmarked . Did they have the proper signatures . Its really more of a question of undercounting rather than overcounting. Kate, that could extend election day far beyond election day, if you have close votes in batt battleground states. The president often cites whats happened here in new york where its taken several weeks to talk all the ballots, the danger here it seems like its not that fake ballots will be counted but that the legitimate ballots wont be counted . I agree of messiness in the elections. You know, messiness is inherent, there are long lines, confusing ballots, ballots that are printed in confusing ways. There are delays in ballots arriving or returning on time. And more often than not, that messiness actually ends up preventing eligible and eager voters from successfully casting their ballot. More concern of denial of meaningful access to the ballot in this system or manufactured fraud concern. This will play out after the election. Theres litigation ongoing right now and a lot of it framed around the question, who gets to vote and how . Democrats have obviously understand or believe that maximizing access to voting will be in their political interest, and republicans in some of these lawsuits seem to be broadcasting that they believe restricting access will be in their electoral interest. The political coalitions, each party understands them. But all of that is a litigation that were seeing play out now, and as dan said, the debates will shift to mechanisms of counting. Some of these Access Restriction themes may play out if postelection litigation. In particular, the states where you cant even count ballots until election day, i think its very likely we could see days if not weeks counting, recounting and potential litigation play out. Dan, ive been reading all kinds of nightmare scenarios that in fact no one reaches a majority in the Electoral College when the term of the president and the Vice President ends. You know, look, i think thats very unlikely. As we saw in gore v bush in 2000, we saw the courts can certainly expedite when they need. They can force the secretaries of state to move more quickly and theyll say to them, look, if you dont finish by x date were no longer going to allow you to continue to count votes. I dont see that being a significant concern, this is going to come down to as kate said, is it close . If its close there are going to be fights. Were already seeing the fights now on how the counting should occur, once the counting does occur youre going to see additional fights as well. Thank you very much. Roundtable is up next. Well be right back. Well be right back. Weve always made quality furnishings for the many people. And when we sell many of them, we make them more affordable. And when we sell many of them, to us, that just makes sense. Ikea. Make the dream yours. I dont think that who the Vice President makes that much difference in the election. Its about joe biden versus donald trump, and thats what the elections about. Since lyndon johnson, i dont think any Vice President has made a positive difference except from a negative standpoint perhaps sarah palin. Speaker pelosi weighing in on joe bidens pick. Lets talk about it now with our roundtable. Joined by our chief political analyst matthew dowd, paul begala, republican strategist Alice Stewart, and Christina Greer professor of Political Science at fordham university. I want to start by putting up the list of what seems to be the finalists for Vice President now for joe biden, you have Kamala Harris as weve mentioned, you also have val demings, karen bass, susan rice. Elizabeth warren, Gretchen Whitmer and Tammy Duckworth. Christina greer, let me begin with you, is Speaker Pelosi right this isnt going to be a difference . Well, i think this does make a difference. Because joe biden is 77 years old, and many voters are look ing at the president ial nominee as someone who can step in and possibly repair and clean up the damage that donald trump and his administration has done. But also looking at who can be the future of the party in 2024, i agree with the speaker that sarah palin made a negative difference. But joe biden initially he said that he was going to choose a black woman, he then backtracked and said that he would choose a woman. We do know that black women have been the foundation of the Democratic Party, might i even argue of democracy these past few decades. It would send a very strong signal to the party that theres an appreciation of all the talent that black women in elitelevel positions have served. But also as the voting populous. Now, i think that we face an existential crisis with the trump administration. If joe biden doesnt choose a black woman, i dont think the black voters will stay home but it will definitely send a message that the party th recognizes that black people continue to contribute to wins but when it comes to executivelevel leadership we have to again wait our true. Alice stewart, the Trump Campaign taking practice shots at everyone on the list. Yeah, its easy to do and thats part of the political game that we play. And i think nate silver hit the nail on the head, its still a guessing game at this point. Theres generally historically more of a tendency to lean towards senators. Kamala harris has gotten some beef within the Democratic Party because of how rough she was in the debates. But its part of the process. I dont think whether its a female or black female really makes a big difference. I think you need the best person for the job, not the right race, color or gender for the job, but the truth is, if joe biden is going to continue to run on the liberal policies of this current Democratic Party and gets someone onboard that supports the far left agenda of the Democratic Party thats not going to work in the general election. It helped him in the primary to become the democratic nominee, but where President Trump is and most americans they want to see policies that support the markets, that support our economy, that support education, that supports healthcare, thats going to be where voters go in november and its not the far left new face of the Democratic Party. Matthew dowd, does the pick matter more this year because of joe bidens age, number one, and because of how much campaigning has changed during the pandemic . Well, you know, were in such a time of disruption. I think matters to a degree. Im of the one, there are 88 days until election. After he picks and the Vice President ial debate, after this, this election is fundamentally, george, about donald trump and. Perception of donald trump and where people think the country today, almost 80 of the country thinks were on the wrong track, a vast majority of the public disapproves of the president. Until donald trump changes those dynamics, which he fundamentally has to if he wants a legitimate chance at winning this election, he has to change those things. Who the Vice President is and really fundamentally what their attacks on joe biden arent going to matter until donald trump changes the perception of himself. This is a much different election from 2016. Its not an open seat. Its a reelection race. All reelection races for the last 70 years have been decided upon the perception of the person running for election and thats donald trump, and no president has ever been reelected with a net negative job Approval Rating and donald trump right now is more akin to where jimmy carter was at this point of time. It will matter for a few days. It will matter for governance. Obviously who the Vice President is in office, it will matter for joe bidens legacy and how that continues on, but for the election its five days that matter. One of the big questions, paul begala, is whether the president can change the perception of himself during this pandemic, one of the things that you write about in your book, how the pandemic has changed the perception about everything. It has changed everything. Its eliminated trumps two greatest superpowers first, hes made politics spectacle. For a lot of his followers. It doesnt matter. Its just show business for ugly people. No more its now a life and death matter. In fact, we lost 1,240 souls yesterday to covid. If that pace continues today, and no reason to doubt it wont, well lose 52 during this broadcast alone, so theres no time to worry about the show business theatrical that mr. Trump showed yesterday for example talking to his wealthy country club buddies. At his country club. So thats first. Politics is no longer a spectacle. The second is, hes lost his ability to divert the cameras. Gosh, hes great at this. He can always divert us. When Hurricane Maria was destroying puerto rico, you know what trump did . He attacked colin kaepernick. An africanamerican athlete for taking a knee during the national anthem. Also, i know he was trying to divert the cameras. You cant divert the cameras anymore when youre losing a thousand people a day, god help us. The only way for him to win is to his job, it means testing, it means tracing, it means isolation, and it means treatment. And alice, we did see the president all this week trying to come out and give more press conferences on the covid crisis. Putting out those executive orders yesterday. Which seem like theyre going to draw a fair amount of fire, at least in the short term. Is that enough for the president or does he have to get back to negotiating table and get a bill through the congress . Well, to get a bill through congress you need to get congress to get together and talk about this, and i thought it was very telling at top of the show, george, when schumer said that what the president did yesterday was far too narrow, well, look, what pelosi and the democrats have done is far too broad and too far from passage, thats not going to work for the American People. If the democrats want to win in the race to play santa claus and put their policies in a package to help people affected by covid thats going to be at the detriment of American People. 600 that the democrats wanted to continue to provide to americans thats not incentive to get people off the couch and into work. A study by the university of chicago shows that this 600 the democrats want to continue to provide people who are unemployed is more than a lot of people make when theyre actually at work, that provides zero incentives for these people to go and get jobs. Republicans are being wise and being thoughtful in this. Its better to provide incentives for people to get back to work, tax cuts for those who need it. Instead of paying people not to work, which is exactly what the democrats want to do, its part of their playbook. Its not going to work in terms of turning the economy around. One of the other things that Christina Greer, that the democrats are fighting for in this pandemic package is money for the Postal Service, so many concerns that delays, because of defunding in the Postal Service, were going to have delays of getting in those mailin ballots. Real chaos come election day in the counting of the ballots. Thats a real threat. And we also have to remember the u. S. Postal service employs a vast majority of black middleclass workers, always been an employment sector to help people move into the middle class. Not only a threat to our democracy and voting, its an economic issue. When voters go to the polls, theyre thinking about, am i better off now than i am four years ago . Theyll say absolutely not because of education, health and covid, because there are no jobs to go to, people want to work, i agree with that. There are no jobs to go to. There are so Many Industries that have been destroyed and decimated. The real threat to our democracy the president is setting the stage, there will be fraud at the United StatesPostal Service, but we know the president has voted by absentee ballot, as has most members of his family, so by defunding the Postal Service its a direct attack on the november 3rd elections. We should really Pay Attention not only to the leadership at the postoffice, but all 50 states who are struggling with how theyll be able to have a successful election season with very few resources from the federal government. Matthew dowd, one of the things that has been hampering the republican strategy as they go through economic talks, during these talks, divisions among republicans, on the payroll tax, on how much to spend, youd think the president would be doing everything he possibly could to get money approved now, he cant afford to hoped to have this vshaped recovery to flat ten out in november. This whole discussion the president has really no theory of governance and has no really fundamental ideology in my view. I dont think this is going to be an election of liberal and conservative. The president isnt a conservative, as you watch him on various policies. But he really no theory of governance. When asked what he was going to do in the next four years if he reelected . He had no answer to that question, and i think part of that is he on the shoot from the hips daily basis, picking one thing, i think the republicans have really struggled in this era of donald trump to figure out who is or what is the way they want to govern and what is their fundamental philosophy on the approach to the country. Obviously, were facing two fundamental crises at this time. The president doesnt have a consistent theory of government did, the president is missing that piece and running for reelection without a philosophy or theory of government makes it very difficult for him. Paul begala, do the democrats risk overplaying their hands in these negotiations . No. No. People are hurting. People want help. I mean, its music to my ears. When Alice Stewart accuses the democrats of being santa claus, they need emergency responders. Democrats have to focus on Social Security. Last night joe sent out a tweet, and he said this, today, donald trump stated if reelected hell undermine the entire financial footing of Social Security. This suspension of the payroll tax would cut the funding of Social Security. Which is already being cut of course because of the recession, were collecting less revenue in payroll taxes. When you do that, youre cutting Social Security, democrats need to know this in their bones, they need to have this in their cells. They need to know that if they communicate to people that donald trump in his last two budgets proposed cutting Social Security, medicare, medicaid, by 2 trillion, and now hes doing it again as a socalled emergency covid package, hes bragged about it again and again. I have this in my book, theres an entire chapter about trump wanting to cut Social Security, medicare and, that chapter is called this chapter will beat trump i guarantee it. Joe biden knows that. Alice, you get the final 20 seconds. Well, thank you. In pauls great book, i encourage people to read, he talks about division. Its not President Trump, its democrats who are refusing to come to the table and have the conversation. That divides americans who need relief on covid. Look, the people of this country want to go back to work. They need a lifeline not a hammock and thats exactly what the democrats are providing. Thats all we have time for today. Thank you all. Thank you at home for watching. Have a great day