Transcripts For KNTV Meet The Press 20240712

We have made truly remarkable progress. We slowed the spread. We flattened the curve. While Anthony Fauci offers a warning to the young. If you get infected you will infect someone else who clearly will infect something else. Health and human secretarial exsalazar and andrew cuomo. John bolton speaks out about President Trump. There is no guiding principle that i was able to discern other than whats good for Donald Trumps reelection. Its a close race to see who could see through him the clearest and try to manipulate him. And the president strikes back. Everyone thought he was crazy because all he wants to do is bomb people. This morning my oneonone with john bolton. I believe america can recover from one term of donald trump. I believe that very, very strongly. Im more worried about a second term. Also mississippi lawmakers take steps to remove the confederate battle emblem. The last of the Southern States to do so. Joining me for insight and analysis are eddie glaude jr. , nbc news capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt and hugh hewitt host on the salem radio network. Welcome to sunday. Its meet the press. From nbc news in washington, the longestrunning show in television history, this is meet the press with chuck todd. Good sunday morning. Throughout his presidency there have been countless this is it moments that opponents of President Trump felt sure would puncture his standing with voters. Charlottesville, immigrant children in cages, impeachment, just to name three. But nothing seemed to move mr. Trum trumps Approval Ratings one way or the other, and hes never been able to tweak, bluster or bluff his way out of. Economic dislocation that come with it is there for all of us to see. Every american is aware of it. Every american is affected by it. Every american has an opinion about it. The past week felt more like april with states and then the whole country setting records for new cases. Cities shutting icu beds. Through it all President Trump has been in denial and President Trump has been the object of avoidance, ridicule and pity around the world. At home, covid has given republicans a permission slip to criticize or ignore the president and provided space for former Administration Officials who like john bolton who i will interview in a moment to criticize a president of their own party. As the number of cases goes up, mr. Trumps political standing goes down, making him now the most dangerous incumbent since george bush lost in 1992. We find ourselves careening toward a catastrophic and President Trump for being among the first to reopen are now backtracking. Abruptly setting new there was widespread noncompliance and that led to issues. If you do need to get out, please wear a mask. On friday the u. S. Set a record for new cases, in 25 states cases have increased by 25 or more over the last two weeks. In nine states cases are up more than 100 . The time for prevention measures was a month ago. Now the wheels are coming off. But on friday at the first Coronavirus Task force briefing in two months the Vice President appeared to deny that reality. We have made truly remarkable progress in moving our nation forward. The nations top Infectious Disease expert dr. Fauci says current efforts to test sick people, isolate them and trace their contacts are not working. We dont extinguish the outbreak, sooner or later, even ones that are doing well are going to be vulnerable to the spread. For months the president has minimized the virus. We have it totally under control. Its one person coming in goes this is going to be gone. Its going to go. Its going to leave. Its going to be gone. This will go away without a vaccine. Six months into the pandemic in the United States, the messages did missing the virus hasnt changed. Were doing well after the plague. Its gone away. This is a localized situation. We slowed the spread. We flattened the curve. We saved lives. But the curve hasnt been flattened. The virus isnt going away and the issues that plagued early testing efforts remain. So i said to my people slow the testing down, please. Did you ask to slow it down . If it did slow down, frankly, i think were way ahead of ourselveses if you want to know the truth. Weve done too good a job. With 25 million tests youre going to find more people. Some would like to see President Trump stop politicizing mask wearing. Until we find a vaccine these are really important. This is not as complicated as a ventilator. Joining me now is the secretary of health and Human Services alex azar. Welcome to meet the press. When are we failing with covid19 when so much of the world is succeeding. We are surging in cases in counties in the southern parts of the United States. Weve gotten reports from our governors that the majority of the positive cases were seeing are age 35 and under. A large number of those are going to be asymptomatic. We have fatality rates and the hospitalization rates are the lee lowest in two months. What are we doing . Were working with local authorities and states. This is a county by county issue so getting in there and getting to the bottom of why the cases and in addition to the traditional Contact Tracing, what were doing now is weve got to test entire a very diffet virus with the asif spreading and get every positive case and get those people isolated. Weve got Hospital Capacity in all of these areas and we have personal protective equipment and well be there to back them up. We now have treatments. We have remdesivir and convalescent plasma. If youve had covid, call your blood bank, American Red Cross and donate plasma to increase our supplies. We have the tools to do this. We just did this in North Carolina, but the window is closing and we have to act and people as individuals have to act responsibly. We need to social distance and we need to wear face coverings if were in places where we cant social distance particularly in these hot zones. Let me ask you this, did we blow it during the first shut down . I thought we were to get our testing up and make sure you had capacity up and one of the big things was Contact Tracing and so it seems pretty obvious what happened here if you are just looking back at a layman. You guys put out guidelines in april about what it would take for a state to open up. No state followed those guidelines at all. Some states followed them okay, pretty closely or came close, but a lot of the states in the south didnt do it at all, and a bunch of them dont have contact tracers. Isnt that why were here . So, chuck, this isnt about opening or not reopening. We have states that are just as committed as the southern state, but arent experiencing this. Weve got to seeing these cases surge in this area, but at its core, we all own as individuals, our individual behavior to make sure that we are practicing appropriate social distancing and wearing facial covering when were not able to and practicing good personal hygiene and protecting our first vulnerable citizens and dr. Birx and dr. Fauci talked about this at a briefing on friday that one of the things about this virus is the asymptomatic, and it is a necessary and not sufficient protection. Weve got to do that, but it cant just be sitting in a Public Health Office Making phone calls. Weve got to get into the community. We have to get dust on the boots and find people and test entire communities to get our positive cases. Thats the type of action woev seen in North Carolina and other communities. Mr. Secretary, i still dont understand why we have enough contact tracers. The head of the cdc said we have less than 100,000 nationwide. We should have 300,000, some experts have thought and again, weve been at this five months now. Why dont we have enough physical contract tracers in these Southern States . Well, chuck, these states have to build up their contact tracers and they have to build up getting out into the states and getting out into the local communities if this is a very communitybased effort at this point. Weve surged people into every one of these states. Were working with them on the ground, but its about getting out, working with ngos and working with community, trusted Community Leaders and getting testing done and getting people isolated, but its important to remember we now have many more tools than we had months ago to deal with this. We have therapeutics. We are on the road to vaccines. We have personal protective equipment and again id say any hospital, nursing home that needs anything, be sure your Governors Office knows and well get that into fema ask well make sure were there to support you. I asked the governor of arkansas, republican Asa Hutchinson if his job would be made easier to get his community and get his state to wear masks if the president he didnt have to wear one, and if he would just tweet it and here was his message. A consistent, National Message wearing a mask and social distancing is very important to making sure everybody understands the importance of it. Nothing beats leadership. Mr. Secretary, multiple times with me in our seven minutes so far that youve talked youve brought up masks and social distancing, but without the president of the United States doing this, how is half the country going to listen . Have you directly asked the president to please ask the country to wear a mask . So im the president s secretary of health. Im telling you, practice social distancing where you cant appropriately social distance. We encourage you to wear a facial covering. The Vice President of the United States stood on stage, walked up on stage wearing a mask even though he doesnt need to in the sense that everyone around him is tested and hes in a bubble. The president , we know is a very unique circumstance as leader of the free world and hes tested constantly and those around him are tested constantly and kept at a distance even with that. Were all saying this. The president s guidelines for reopening. The guidelines have said from day one, practice social distancing. If you cant, wear face coverings. Practice appropriate personal hygiene and always please consider your individual circumstances and those of your household members. Protect the most vulnerable. Those over 80. Those over 65 with three or more of the serious conditions and those are the folks we need to protect right now. You just articulated, do as i say, not as i do. The president of the United States Holding Indoor rallies twice in the last week, and one in a state seeing the potential of an out of control spread, and you avoided the question whether youve asked the president to wear a mask. When he doesnt do it his people dont listen. Well, chuck, im not going to talk about politics, but weve seen Mass Gatherings over the last several weeks with people rightly expressing First Amendment and political views and this is appropriate, but my message is one of Public Health which is if youre going to participate any type of large gathering i encourage you, consider your individual circumstance, consider the circumstance of those you live with and take appropriate precautions that are appropriate to yourself and your community. Secretary azar, i have to leave it there. I appreciate you coming on and sharing the administrations perspective. Thank you, chuck. During the first peak of the covid crisis andrew kwem owe was one of the faces of the response giving daily televised press briefings as new york became the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States. Now cases and deathses are way down in new york and instead of new yorkers being quarantined when they travel to states like florida, its new york that is doing the quarantining of out of state visitors from places like florida. Joining me now is the governor of new york andrew cuomo. Governor, i want to start with what i just heard from secretary azar and our Contact Tracing problem is in the south, and this was surge, in your opinion, preventable . Yeah. Good to be with you, chuck. First, i dont think this is the second surge. Were worried about a second wave. I think were still in the first wave and this is a continuation of the first wave and it was a failed effort tocountry, and as pointed out, new york a totally different place. Look, if you listen to what the secretary said and if you listen to what the president says at the White House Briefing theyre saying what they said three months ago. Theyre basically in denial about the problem. They dont want to tell the American People the truth and they dont want to have any federal response except supporting the state, supporting the states. So i heard that, and i understood where they were. I didnt need to torture the rhetoric. I knew what they were saying. Youre on your own, you know . Right. Its not a good feeling, but its sort of liberating and in new york we just handled it totally differently, chuck. We handled it on our own. Communication, clear, as you mentioned every day and then we came up with a plan and did the testing and did the isolation, and that makes a difference. You followed the set of guidelines i pointed out. I remember this distinctly, only one time did we hear the white house describe the gating criteria and then that phrase y and in all honestly, how hard will it be hard to stop another resurgence in the state if the rest of the country is struggling the way its struggling. Well, thats our problem. Look, the cdc guideline, first of all are just guidelines and they were very vague and i dont even know what they meant. The troajectory has to be comin down and we put in place our own metrics where we used science and we wouldnt open any region unless they hit certain metrics and then we have a phased reopening and we look at a number of hospital beds and you have the testing up and we do more testing than any state in the United States, chuck. We do more testing per capita than any country in the globe. The testing is the key. You do the isolation, and you have enough ppe and enough icu beds and then you from the testing, you have a rate of transmission that you can monitor and you proceed through the phases if you hit that rate of transmission. This is a virus. It doesnt respond to politics. You cant tweet at it. You have to treat it, and we never did that. Now my fear is we had today five deaths. Now we we offer thoughts and prayers to every death in our state, but five deaths is the the lowest number weve had since this started, chuck. We are in the exact opposite end. We have less than 800 people in hospitals. Lowest number basically since we started. How does that number go up in two ways. Lack of compliance, and im diligent about staying after new yorkers and local governments that have to police it. Right. And second, im now afraid of the spread coming from other states because we are one country and people travel, and im afraid the infection rate in the other states will come back to new york and raise that rate again. All right. If Governor Desantis calls you up this afternoon, and Governor Abbott calls you up this afternoon of texas and florida and said lets set politics aside and i know we mouthed off at you a little bit, whats your recommendation . What should we do here . What would you tell them . Ill tell you, i dont wait for them to call. This is new york. Were proactive. My team has called their teams and said look, can we help . When we were in trouble, chuck, we had states all across the nation who came to help us. We had 30,000 volunteers from across the United States who came to help us. So i called those states and i said any way we can help. Weve gone through it. We have the equipment and we have the staff and we have the testing protocols and we have the Testing Software and we have the tracing program. Did we help . Anything you need, ventilators, et cetera and thats the right thing to do from a Community Point of view and a citizenry point of view. Theres also a parochial interest which is if these states keep going up, well have a National Crisis like we have never seen. They said this was the way to help the economy by reopening and its been the exact opposite. Every time the virus goes up, the stock market goes down and if those if those states continue to increase youll see it go all across the nation. Youll see new york on the rise again and youll see the other states starting to go up even more. Has this you have not released a School Opening plan. I know you have some recommendations out, but im curious now because this is my fear is that this new surge or spike that were seeing in the south is now going to delay every School Districts plans for creating maybe a dual hybrid system of some in person, some remote, universities. Are you now thinking that maybe we might not see everything goes remote now in the fall given were living with this virus until theres a vaccine . Well, first on the first point, yes, i agree with that. You know, everybody talked about the economic consequence and the president said we should reopen and thats going to help the economy. It turned out to be exactly wrong, but theres also a social consequence. Children have missed schools. Children have missed interaction with other children and thats part of the socialization process. We are preparing to open schools and we have plans to open schools, but look, chuck, ill be honest with you. Its two months away. Anything can happen in two months. You look back two months and you see how many things have changed. I want to see what the infection rate is and what the disease is doing before we pull the trigger and make the decision. Were looking at this kawasakilike syndrome that is now is an inflammatory syndrome who affects children who were previously infected with covid. I mean thshgs is complicated so lets get the facts and well make the decision when we have to, but were prepared and if this continues across the country, youre right, chuck. Kids are going to be home for a long time. And final question, we talked about this, about Nursing Homes before, and youve taken some heat on the directive and you said you were following a national directive, but let me ask it again, similarly at this point, do you think these Senior Centers are safe. Period . Yeah. Look, theres ive taken political heat, okay . There are facts and theres politics. Theres no doubt in Nursing Homes across this nation. Thats where we saw most of the deaths and not most, but almost 50 of the deaths and Senior Citizens in con grow ghantt settings and it is becoming more and more clear that the infection and the Nursing Homes came from the staff that got infected and brought it in, but in new york were number 46 in the nation in terms of percentage of deaths at Nursing Homes compared to the total percentage. By the New York Times were number 46. So its been unfortunate. In every state we have to do more and figure it out, but if they want to point finger, not at new york. Were 46. You have 45 other states to point fingers at first. I understand that. Are these safe . Are these facilities safe in your mind right now . They are as safe they are as safe well, in this state were testing every week. Every nursing home employee, right . Right. So you can argue that they are safer than a Senior Citizen at home who is receiving care at home. The safest environment, my mother, stay home, dont see anyone. If you are at home and you have an aide coming in that aide is not tested and in a nursing home that staff is tested once a week and seniors do have to be careful wherever they are. Governor cuomo, id love to keep going and i appreciate you coming on sharing your perspective with us. Stay safe out come on in, were open. All we do is hand you the bag. Simple. Done. This smells so good. Big thanks to you guys at home. Were here right now. We adapt and we change. I mean you just figure it out and well do like we do as safely as we can. I got a new job. Were lookin for a day at a time baby. This moment right now. This is our commencement. No, well not get a diploma or a degree of any kind. But we are entering a new chapter in our lives. Our confidence is shaken; our hearts cracked. The kind of a crack that comes from the loss of a job; from life plans falling apart. We didnt ask for it. But we are rising to meet it. And how far weve come isnt even close to how far we can go. How strong we can be. Theres a crack in everything for a reason. How else can the light get in . Tomorrow starts today. Its been only five days since john boltons book the room where it happened hit bookstores. In that time President Trump has call his former National Security adviser, a fool, crazy and someone who wanted to drop bombs on everyone. Bolton has dropped verbal bombs. Hes easily duped by adversaries, is unfit for office and has used his power as president for personal gain. Joining me is the author of said book. Welcome back to meet the press, sir. Thanks for having me. Well, before we get to the substance of your book, i want to get to what we just learned over the last 48 hours. There was reporting this weekend that an arm of Russian Military intelligence has secretly been paying bounties to talibanlinked militias to kill american and other Coalition Forces in afghanistan. Theres a lot we dont know. The u. S. Government has not confirmed or denied the intelligence report. They have only simply denied that the president was informed in march of this. Im just curious of your initial reaction to this report, ambassador. Well, as you say, theres a lot we dont know so we should be cautious, but what we do know from the president s own tweets this morning to me it looks like just another day at the office of the trump white house. I never recalled a circumstance where the president himself goes out of his way to say he wasnt briefed on something. We may be in what the definition of is, is here. When you say briefed, does that mean hes never been told anything about it, but we dont know the quality of the intelligence or the extent of it, if it does go back to march that raises other questions, and the key point is if theres any accuracy to it, if the russians have actually been paying to see americans killed, that is a very, very serious matter. Im just curious. If there was an intelligence assessment like this, can you imagine a scenario where it is withheld from the president . That part of it just seems extraordinari extraordinarily hard to believe, is it not for you . It depends on what the level of confidence in the intelligence is, i tried during my tenure at my white house to read as much intelligence as i could. That doesnt mean i passed all of it on to trump and others. I think its important to understand there needs to be a filter for any president , maybe particularly for this president. Theres obviously more to this story, but it is remarkable to say that the president is going out of his way to say he doesnt know anything about it. Why would he Say Something like that . The answer may be precisely because an active russian aggression like that against American Service members is a very, very serious matter and f nothings been done about it, if its true, for the past four or five months. It may look like hes negligent and he could disown everything if nobody ever told him about it. Let me ask you this, do you think that the president is afraid to make putin mad bec make him mad for 2020 . Honestly, i dont think theres evidence for that, and i think its a mistake on the one hand to say the russia collusion theory was true which some opponents of trump still cant let go of im not saying collusion. Im not saying collusion on this. Hang on. Hang on. Hang on. Versus the donald trump approach which is the russians didnt do anything at all in the election. I think its clear from all of the data and discussed publicly, of course, the russians tried to interfere in the 2016 election and theyll try to do it again this year as will the chinese and maybe the iranians and the north koreans. Thats why during the trump administration, whether the president was fully cognizant of it or not, the agencies and departments charged with trying to prevent that worked very hard to increase our defenses. So why is the president so defensive about putin . I dont as i say, i dont read anything into it necessarily. If i had evidence i would reveal it. I just dont know what to say other than he likes dealing with strong, authoritarian figures. Youve made it clear that you think the president is unfit for office. Do you think a second term of donald trump is an existential threat to the country . Im very worried about it. I think damage has been done in the first term and i lay it out as i see it. I believe america can recover from one term of donald trump. I believe that very, very strongly. Im more worried about a second term and its not just decisions in the National Security space. Im worried about the corruption of the civil discourse in this country by a president who says the sorts of things that you quoted at the outset of our discussion. I think it i think it degrades the body politics. There are plenty of other people doing the same thing, dont get me wrong, and i think it is unpresident ial to behave that way and that will have serious consequencees. Let me ask you about the impeachment and your decision not to testify. Fiona hill, who is the National Security counselor who did testify during the house impeachment investigation and there was this anecdote in there ambassador, after hills testimony bolton asked sarah tinsley, a longtime aide to relay a personal message. You did the right thing. If it was the right thing for fiona hill, sir, why wasnt it the right thing for you . Because i was in a different circumstance. My Deputy Charlie kupperman was subpoenaed by the house not to testify. He went to house. You have the one branch, the legislative branch saying one thing and the Judicial Branch to get the answer and the house of representatives wrote the subpoena. Ive written in the book and the house advocates of impeachment committed impeachment malpractice. I think they played right into Donald Trumps strategy, and lost to him, creating a partisan issue when they might have gotten some republicans who could have helped out and by the end of the process i think everybody, including on the republican side believe that there was a quid pro quo in ukraine, but the house effort didnt take into account the possibility that the white house would argue successfully that even if it were true it didnt rise to the level of an impeachable offense. I think there was another way to do this. We saw it in watergate when there was bipartisan cooperation. If i were one of those that had advocated impeach am in the house i would be looking for other people to blame at the moment, too. Final question. Youve made the case that a second term of donald trump would be really damaging. You have said, though, that you cannot support a joe biden candidacy. What is worse, in your mind . A second trump term or a first term of joe biden . Its a comparison of apples and oranges. Im very unhappy and i dont think im untypical of a lot of conservative republicans who really wish there was a conservative republican on the ballot. Some will vote for joe biden. I respect that. Im not going to do that. Im going to write in the name of a conservative republican. I think others will probably just not vote at the president ial level at all. Its not an easy choice. Its not a happy choice and i wish there were an alternative. Maybe one will come. I dont see it, but thats where we are at the moment. And you have said that you really want to focus helping respect re republicans keep the senate. Senate republicans have enabled donald trump too much and they are part of the problem. What do you say to his critique . Well, i have enormous respect for george will and have over the years. Look, this is part of, i think, the damage to the political system that donald trump has done, that everything has been torqued around donald trump personally. I think politics is about philosophy and thats why i think ultimately it is critical for the republic that the republican keep the majority in the Senate Whether trump wins or loses. Ambassador bolton, i have to leave it there. I appreciate you coming on, sharing your perspective. The book has made quite the flash, and i have a feeling it may linger for some time. Good luck out there. Well, thanks very much. When we come back, the polling, all the polling has gotten much wor for volkswagen today. Youll get 2 years or 20,000 miles of scheduled carefree maintenance. 3 years or 36,000 miles of 24 7 roadside assistance. 4 years or 50,000 miles bumpertobumper limited warranty. 5 years of connected services. And for 6 years you wont have paid any interest. Down the road, youll be grateful you bought a volkswagen today. Welcome back. The panel is with us from their remote locations. Eddie glaude jr. , nbc news capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt and hugh hewitt, host on the salem radio network. I want to begin with an answer that has made the rounds in the political world and it was an answer the president gave to a simple question sean hannity asked him when he said whats your agenda for a second term. Here it is, hugh hewitt. What are your top priority items for a success term. One of the word is still very good. I think talent is more important than experience, ive always said that, but the word experience say very important word. It it has an important meeting. I never slept over in washington, and all of a sudden im president of the United States. You know the story, im riding down pennsylvania avenue with the first lady and i say this is great, but i didnt know very many people in washington. It wasnt my thing. I was from manhattan and from new york and now i know everybody and i have great people in the administration. You make some meistakes like bolton who only wants to drop bombs on everybody. The president did want throw the pitch which is well get back to 3. 5 unemployment in january, and i have two Supreme Court justices and 53 Appeals Court judges and 143 District Court judges. Were going have the economic blue collar boom back. Youve got to deliver on the pitch, but no, i didnt think it was a roger mudd moment at all. Kasie hunt, we have started this week for the first time public on the record criticism of the president s political messaging, john thune, probably the most prominent. Is this the beginning of a crack, at least, in a rhetorical splint between Senate Republicans and the white house . Well, chuck, weve asked ourselves that over and over and over again, and it never has been, but on the other hand, the president previously was winning. He had republican support behind him and the theory was that the Republican Base was going to get them across the finish line and therefore bring Senate Republicans along and this pandemic, i think, has really shattered that theory of the case as we have seen this president s numbers sink in a substantial way, and i dont think you can disconnect that from the rhetoric this were hearing from Senate Republicans. As you pointed out, this isnt a situation where the only americans who are following politics are the ones who are the most invested, the most partisan. The coronavirus has affected and touched every single american household. The numbers of americans who know someone who has died from coronavirus are terribly high, and theyre much higher among households of color who are also newly reengaged in the wake of George Floyds death and if you are someone who is relying on the president s coattails to get you across the finish line in november, this is a very, very difficult place to be. Now, i think, the sense is going to be especially for many voters who have been tuned into this all of the way along that it is far too little, too late for these republicans to break with the president at this stage, chuck. Right. Eddie, why do you believe its been the virus that has produced the first cracks in that floor of support. One of the things we noticed that for the first time sitting at the 44, 45 mark stubbornly, no matter what happened and this is the first time youre starting to see cracks and he went down a couple of floors and hes more in the 40, 41 age. Why the virus how did the virus make this happen while none of those other stories did . In some way, chuck, the virus isnt partisan. It doesnt care about politics to my mind and what it has done in some ways it has created a continuity and a similarity across our differences. Were all vulnerable, and some are more vulnerable than other, and were all strong deal with the fact that some of us have lost loved ones and we cant send them home. We cant attend their funerals and we cant celebrate their lives like we wanted to, like we would do. So i think at the end of the day, ordinary people around the country want a response from the federal government to a pandemic that has disrupted everything in our lives and i think the administration has failed and it has failed not only democrats and independents. Its failed all of americans. Hugh, how would you advise the president to turn this around . It does look like at this point theyve made the decision and secretary azar kept bringing it back to the states, back to the states. I understand thats a federalism response, but its not working. Well, yesterday 500 americans died, chuck, and in germany 680 germans died. The United States death toll has dropped dramatically from may when it was 2700 and in between its been a month and three days since george floyd was murdered. In between we had millions of americans express their anger at overzealous policing and the unnecessary use of violence often lethal against africanamericans and that was an event in the story of this virus. Theres another event in the story of the virus. Theres a ventilator supply now of 50,000 that the president got done. There is a lot more social distancing and a lot of Older Americans are intuitively staying away and the sharp rise in cases is among younger americans. So what the president has to do, look, joe biden is very confident. Hes measure the drapes in the white house basement already. He thinks hes got this in the bag. The president needs to go back to his numbers and say hey, america, who will get us back t donald trump, and i think he has to do that with oneonone interviews with people including you and people that are tough on him in conversation and an interview, a oneonone. Do they want the federal government to take more responsibility in this response . Yes. Yes. Absolutely yes. This has been an unmitigated disaster from the perspective of many of them. Im sorry, but this picture that the world was in january and that President Trump is the one to fix the problems that frankly cascaded on his watch seems to me to be certainly when i talk to Senate Republicans behind closed doors they dont buy. . Im going to pause the conversation here, but i promise everybodys got another shot at this in a moment. When we come back, just how far right now, there are over a million Walmart Associates doing their best to keep our nation going. Because despite everything thats changed, one thing hasnt and thats our devotion to you and our communities. Our priority will always be to keep you and our associates safe, while making sure you can still get the essentials you need. And their financial wellbeing. Since our beginning, our business has been people. Its evident in good times, with decisions focused on the longterm. And crucial when circumstances become difficult. That continued emphasis on people our advisors, associates, clients and communities gives us purpose, strength and a way forward. Today. And always. Welcome back. Data download time. Lets take a look at how the United States is doing compared to other countries in controlling the coronavirus. At 107 cases per one Million People the United States has one of the highest infection rates in the world. Brazils is higher with a infectiouses per one million. Russia and indian are also in double digits per one Million People and we cant be sure how accurate the reporting is in all cases. At other end of the data, germany and italy have made large strides in containing the virus. Both were with 60 new infections per million at one point and are now in the Single Digits and as we pass the sixmonth mark of the virus in the countries, the data first infection does not seem to be playing into infection rates either. The earliest infection case was january 21st with all of the other countries like brazil following a week or so later. The United States is not only the wealthiest nation. We also have the highest Health Care Spending of any of these nations. President trump argues the numbers are only rising because the United States is testing more, but the data suggests that other factors are driving this increase. The United States positive test rate is 6 . Compare to germany at 8. 9 and italy where the positive cases are lower than 1 , actually. One spring of the struggling countries that all of them have in common is leaders like President Trump and brazil who have played down the threat of the virus. Of course, no one leader is entirely responsible for infection rates, but as the pandemic continue the politics and data seem to carry a warning that the voices at the top matter and they may matt a this moment. This moment right now. This is our commencement. No, well not get a diploma or a degree of any kind. But we are entering a new chapter in our lives. Our confidence is shaken; our hearts cracked. The kind of a crack that comes from the loss of a job; from life plans falling apart. We didnt ask for it. But we are rising to meet it. And how far weve come isnt even close to how far we can go. We just have to remember how patient we were. How strong we can be. how strong you can be. and remember this; theres a crack in everything for a reason. How else can the light get in . Tomorrow starts today. Tomorrow come on in, were open. All we do is hand you the bag. Simple. Done. This smells so good. Big thanks to you guys at home. Were here right now. We adapt and we change. I mean you just figure it out and well do like we do as safely as we can. I got a new job. Weve just been finding a way to keep on pushing. Were lookin for a day at a time baby. Welcome back. Panel is back. Kasie hunt, im going to start by giving a hat tip to the team who put together a sort of were here at the half way mark of this calendar year on these are the notable Important News events of the First Six Months of this year and it starts with the killing of suleimani. Im sure, Many Americans forgot that was the beginning of this year. Remember the Iowa Caucuses broke down. We didnt know who the winner was there for a while and there was a point joe biden was in on and on and at some point the virus becomes a dominant feature. In going through this exercise when i hear people say theres still a long time to go, and i look at this list, boy, a lot has happened and nothing has changed the trajectory of this for donald trump. Chuck, i do think that while on the one hand its easy to look at that list and think, man, what are we going to add to it between now and november. There are many possibilities that i think a lot of us dont even want to contemplate and history teaches us that heading into any election this is a period of time that sets things not necessarily in stone, but on a pretty firm trajectory that is very difficult to orient. If you remember to when barack obama was running against mitt rm me. They defined him in this spring and summer period and they just couldnt come back in the fall and thats the big risk here for President Trump, that this time of year is going to cement when he is able to do or not do in the fall, and i think, of course, the challenge for joe bidens campaign is avoiding complacency under these circumstances and i do think they are remembering to what happened to hillary clinton, and i think that complacency is not as big of a risk for him because of what happened there. Hugh hewitt, if there was a message of the week from the administration, it was that they wanted to show that there was a concerted effort here and they were on the side of protecting statues and the administration and you had the barr letter and you had the letter to social media platforms and the social letter to chicago. Do you think an oldstyle law and order type of messaging really is the right messaging right now . I heard a different message, chuck. I think theres a consensus that the statues of the confederacy have to come down. The bases named for treasonous people have to be renamed. I think the john stennis carrier has to be renamed and he was a stone cold racist. It should be changed not by mob violence talking about mob violence and the lincolns speech was very well received. I do believe what kasie just said complacency is the danger and theyve gone hard left and joe biden is not going to cover over the aoc and the squads effect on the party. Eddie glaude, your school, princeton, is dropping wilsons name. Its something that i know you write about in your book. It looks like mississippi is on its way to dropping the confederate emblem that was in their state flag being the southern final state to do this. What does this were at a point of reckoning. I dont think what brother hewitt just laid out in fear of the radical left is whats going to drive us. Its our story and who do we take ourselves to be. Mississippi put it on the flag in 1894 and the president of the sec said we might not have championship events in your state if you continue to embrace the confederacy. So theres big business thats bringing pressure to bear and theres everyday ordinary people what are you commending us who held this view that africanamericans were inferior. In some sense, we are at an inflexion point and were trying to imagine ourselves differently and it will not just take the form of symbols. It will take the form of policy and we have to put the two together in a clear and concise way. Im curious, very quickly. Woodrow wilsons place init be . Well, it should be very quick, it should be just the facts. We should tell the truth about who he is and who he was. Tell the truth about his achievements and tell the truth about his faults and failures. Thats what we need to do and we need to give an interpretation of his presidency that actually reveals how flawed we are and how we are always on the road. Not to necessarily to a more perfect union, but to a more just society. So we need to commend the values that we uphold and cherish as we tell the story of the people that made us who we are. Well, before i say goodbye this morning i want to take note that this is the 100th of the founding of the negro leagues. It is announcing the tip your hat campaign, when africanamericans were banned from organized baseball. President s clinton, bush and obama have all taken tribute which will be released tomorrow. In honor, i tip my grays hat in honor of the negro leagues. Happy anniversary. Thats all for today. Well be back next week because if its sunday its meet the press. Get em now with no contact delivery. This week President Trump suspended new hi visas to save american jobs but does it . Well talk with one of the nations top immigration lawyers aboutfects of it. Plus, state Bar Association is telling law students they cant take Classes Online and its not clear students want to. Thats this week on press here. Good