Transcripts For KNTV Meet The Press 20240712

Memory of our national heritage. My guests this morning, governors phil murphy of new jersey and Asa Hutchinson of arkansas, and infectious expert dr. Nahid beddalia. Plus about face. Allies of the president now urging people to wear a mask. Wear a mask. Maga should now stand for masks are great again. Governor of abbott of texas orders it. That is why today i am ordering a Face Covering requirement for all counties with more than 20 covid cases. Also, did President Trump ignore warnings of russian bounties on americans . It is dereliction of duty. Or was he not told . He didnt know about it, and im convinced of that. Ill talk to former National Security adviser for president obama, susan rice. Joining me for insight and analysis are former Homeland Security secretary jeh johnson, jay apka, and White House Correspondent Peter Alexander. 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, and i hope youre having a happy and safe fourth of july weekend. Chuck todd is away this week, but for the second consecutive night on this Holiday Weekend, President Trump gave a divisive speech referring to opponents among other things as marxists and looters while down playing the surging pandemic. The coronavirus is exploding across much of the country with nine of the worst days happening in the last ten days. With 17 states now recording their singleday highs this week, many are closing down bars, restaurants, beaches and gyms. Some for a second time while others have delayed reopenings each as President Trump says he thinks or hopes the virus will just disappear. Health experts are pleading with americans, wear a mask, avoid parties, stay at home. This is serious. At the same time, the administration is scrambling to explain where the frz did nothing about intelligence indicating the russians were paying bounties to the taliban to kill american troops. Mr. Trump claimed he was want informed and hes attacked the news media and calling the story a hoax. The issue has raised the old watergate question, what did the president know and when did he know it and prompted a new one. Now that he knows, what will he do about it . Well get to all of that, but well begin with the growing pandemic and the president spending the Independence Day weekend hoping to divide americans against each other. The radical left, the marxists, the anarchists, the agitator, the looters. Stoking divisions during a national crisis, President Trump hosted two days of crowded celebrations with social distancing optional and few masks, leaning on the culture wars in an attempt to reboot his campaign. Last night on the White House South Lawn we will never allow an angry mob to tear down our statues, erase our history, indoctrinate our children. And at a fireworks display friday at mt. Rushmore, the president continues to make inaccurate claims as he plays down the pandemic. We have tested almost 40 million people. By so doing, we show cases 99 of which are totally harmless. Even as many fellow republicans join a chorus of Public Officials urging americans to scale back their fourth of july plans. The virus is spreading so fast there is little margin for error. This should be a wakeup call to all of us that we are in the fight of our lives. Reported cases are up more than 20 in 34 states over the last two weeks, even topping 55,000 cases a day overall. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around. But the president is denying those facts. I think that at some point thats going to sort of just disappear, i hope. The last month has been a tough one for the president with selfinflicted wounds on the virus. So i said to my people, slow the testing down, please. On race and policing. Theres looting. Theres probably going to be shootings. Retweeting a video of a supporter shouting white power and a his handling about intelligence about a russian to kill americans. I think its a hoax. Twothirds disapprove the handling of the virus, trailing joe biden in the battleground states. When youre in the barrel and youre getting bad press and the polls are against you you need to do something to say were moving in a different direction. After months of mixed messages the white house is settling on a new one. Learn to live with it. We have some areas where were putting out the flames and the fires and thats working out well. Around the country, many states like texas are making it clear its not working out well, issuing mandatory mask orders and even the president s allies are shifting their tone. Arm yourself with a mask. The stakes are too high for this political debate about protrump, antitrump mask. The people are saying i wish the president would put on a mask every once in a while just because it would make him look as if hes taking it seriously. And joining me now is democratic governor phil manufactury of new jersey. Governor murphy, welcome back to meet the press. I see you are at the jersey shore and the beaches behind you look empty, but there are people going to the beaches and many of them are not wearing masks. What is your message to people of new jersey and should there be a mandatory mask order . Good morning, andrea. Indeed, we are on the gem of the jersey shore here. Most of the beaches are quite crowded. Yes, the answer is unequivocally, wear a mask. The virus outside is a lot less lethal than it is inside, but when in doubt, when youre going out, put on a mask. The president downplayed the pandemic in his speeches this weekend and in fact said that 99 of the cases shows no harm. What is your response to the president s messaging . Listen, this thing is lethal. New jerseys paid an enormous price and have lost over 13,000 confirmed fatalities from covid19. Were starting to see a small spike in reinfection from folks coming back from places like myrtle beach and other hot spots. To me, it means we need a National Strategy and were only as strong as our weakest link and as you mentioned at the outset of the program, i said we went through hell. We cannot afford to go through hell again. We need a National Strategy right now. Unmasking has got to be at the core of that. You and your neighboring state, governor quote owe cuomo and governor of connecticut have peop enforced from people coming in from hot spots. We have to ask people to do the right thing and be responsible and new jerseyians by the milians halions have don thing from the get go. If theyve been traveling to a hot spot or visiting here and new york and connecticut, were doing this with them, as well, were asking folks selfquarantine. We have contact tracers that take their information down and we try to run every one of these cases to the ground, but its mostly a personal responsibility that were asking folks to do the right thing. Have your contact tracers come up with any evidence so far . I mentioned there was a wedding in myrtle beach and we absolutely have evidence of folks who were at that wedding who came back up to new jersey, jersey folks who were visiting there and weve got other cases that were running down. Thats the one thats most recent and most prevalent. Do you think there should be a National Mask requirement . I do. I do, andrea. Its become almost undebatable. As i mentioned this virus is more lethal inside than outside. When you leave your house put on a mask, there ought to be a national requirement. You delayed the opening of restaurants and i dont want need it tell you because im sure youve been hearing it, that people, Restaurant Owners are really upset. Amy russo, a Restaurant Owner told the new york times, shes in as obury park. We do the buying, sunday to monday deliveries and its insane. Theyre taking a huge hit having bought all of that food and the cleaning supplies. What do you tell those people . We have nothing, but sympathy for them, believe me. Its why we need direct federal cash assistance to states so that we can help those restaurants and Small Businesses out, but the choice is either we open inside or based on the data that we saw and the lethality of this virus inside or we lose people, we literally lose lives. When you combine indoors, lack of ventilation, sedentary, close proximity and you have to take your mask off to eat and those are bad facts and were just not there yet. Well get there, i hope, but were not ready for it. Are you concerned that after this Holiday Weekend youll see a spike in new jersey the way weve seen spikes elsewhere after the memorial day holiday . Andrea, were already seeing a little of that. Its less because of folks sitting on the beach looking at fireworks. Weve begun opening up the state showily, but surely and we knew there was risk associated with that. Its partly that. Its coming back from new jersey from hot spots so yeah, were not out of the woods yet without any question. Well, seeing you there down there in the jersey shore makes us all want to get out there, as well, but not to be this year for us. Thank you very much, though. Thank you for interrupting your holiday. Safe holiday to you. And there is still a great disparity among regions with the south and the west getting hit the hardest while the northeast is doing a lot better now. Joining me now is Asa Hutchinson. Governor hutchinson, welcome back to meet the press. Good to be with you, andrea. I dont need to tell you there is a spike happening now in the south and arkansas is also seeing a rise in cases. What do you intend to do . Should you be requiring mandatory mask and Face Covering use . Well, we all should be wearing masks, Face Coverings when we go out in the public or where you cant socially distance. Weve entered an executive order yesterday, friday in which allows the cities to pass an ordinance that mandates Face Coverings and we wanted to have a model so that everybody can have the same standard if they choose to to adopt that mandate. We are leading by example. I wear a mask when im out in public. This is important for us because when you want to grow the economy, whenever you want to bring people off the unemployment roles, the way you do it is to stop the spread of the virus by covering yourself, protecting others and protecting yourself. Youre showing by example when youre out in public and other republicans are and the president is not. He only is not wearing a Face Covering in public, but he held these huge gatherings over the weekend. South dakota and washington, d. C. Against local objections in washington. What example is that . Well, in terms of the gatherings themselves, a lot of them were canceled here in arkansas, the fourth of july celebrations trying to minimize that exposure, but when you look at a National Level i think its good that we celebrate the independence and its a controlled environment and it was outside in mt. Rushmore and it inspired many. Honestly, i would have liked to have saebmore Face Coverings there in order to set an example, but what you have to do on this virus, and there is a virus fatigue in the country right now and you have to live life. You cant stop every activity, but you have to be in a controlled environment in which you do protect yourself and others and take it seriously. So theres this balance of reflecting to remember america how serious this is and a beg fight that were in. At the same time lets manage our way through this so that we can continue to live life even though we are very, very tired of it. Have is no social distancing in south dakota. There were thousands of people there sitting absolutely crowded in and no Face Covering, as well . There should have been Face Coverings and they should have followed guidelines there. I know that its a controlled environment so its more of setting the example. I know how important this was to governor nome. Shes been asking the president about this months ago. This was not something that was set up at the last minute. It was planned and it was a controlled environment. With all due respect, though, if the president would have held a rally in arkansas as he did in tulsa, indoors and in phoenix, he had a big gathering there and weve seen secret Service Agents and other members of his advance now sick and the Vice President s advance in arizona, would you let that happen . Arkansas . There would have to be social distancing and wearing of a mask if you cant social distance and you have to follow our guidelines and thats what we would insist upon. Let me show you Governor Abbott and several other republican governors are now changing what they had originally said. Lets watch. We have flattened the curve. Now people understand that the thing doesnt just go away. Our goal is to find ways to coexist with covid19 as quickly as possible. Covid19 is not going away. In fact, its getting worse. I want to encourage people to go out and about and take a loved one to dinner and go retail shopping. Our message is clear. They are safer at home. Governor hutchinson, if greg abbot can change his mind, how about requiring masks for everybody in arkansas . I think thats whats unique about the governors leading and showing flexibility in the state and you look at how weve gone through in arkansas. You know, we have tightened restrictions and we had a targeted release whenever we see an outbreak, we tighten the screws again because we have to be able to respond and make sure people are following the guidelines. The governors have to be able to adjust to whats happening with the virus. Weve done that in arkansas. We were flat for a long time and we had a small increase. We went back down and now you see it going back up and were responding to that. Thats what governors do. Thats what we have to do. Let me just say whenever we are testing people, youre having more cases and were also watching the hospitalization and were doing our Contact Tracing. Its a strategy that we have to stick with, and we can see results from it that will help us to fight that virus. Thank you very much. Thank you for being with us today and thanks for being with us on a holiday and enjoy your Holiday Weekend, governor. All right. Thank you. Great to be with you. And joining me now Infectious Disease expert dr. Nahid bedalia. Whats your reaction to what hutchinson said and the nature of the Face Coverings at these rallies. Andrea, thanks for having me. Weve done this natural experiment a couple of times now. We know that when we go back to living were not living in a pandemic, we end up with more cases and those end up with more hospitalizations which lead to more deaths. Texas, arizona and North Carolina are pointing upward. How do we move forward . When we overwhelm the system with too many cases we, by necessity, start having shortages and the inability to respond in cases that are hard hit which are seeing delays in testing. You are seeing the inability to get enough personal protective equipment and our system is not responsive enough and not only that, but then were leading to a fallout on everybody elses health when Health Care Workers get overwhelmed and it basically affects everybody elses health. How do we move forward . We need this National Strategy and we need to drive the cases down. As you heard governor murphy say and governor hutchinson say. We have to coexist with this virus. We have to create the buffer space. Its a point system. Every activity, almost every activity we take during this pandemic carries risk. When we dont wear masks and when we wear large gatherings, were taking away from the social tally, were increasing societys burden of this disease and we as a society have to make those choices. What do we value more . Fall is coming, schools are opening and were having the discussion that carries its own risk and were looking at providing care for patients whose care is for the pandemic and we have to refer the resources to covid19 in areas that are hot spots. We have to make a choice as a society about where were going to expend that energy and where were going to allow that buffer so that we can continue the important aspects of our culture, and our civilization. And the European Union is such a great contrast. They have 400 million people, a greater population than we have and take a look at this and that theirs has come down and theyre up to 55,000 daily cases. What are they doing right particularly in places like germany and france, highly industrialized countries compared to us. Well, they started off with the strategy that we pursued in the beginning which we seemed to abandon after memorial day and it was such a level that you can then track transmission and new jersey is doing that. Theyre able to find new cases and thats the way to move forward. You put the resources in for testing and Contract Tracing and to begin with, you have to start with a place where you have so few cases that you can do that. Once there are too many cases Contact Tracing cant keep up either, and the other strategy is because we didnt pursue that initial stop, and getting to the point to lower cases where we get to break transmission, we are now in a position where we opened and we had to close again. The counties that are hardest hit, they have no option, but to close again and thats even more painful for the economies and more painful for the businesses, as you mentioned. The president keeps talking about the fact that we have massive testing and yet the harvard experts say we are testing half as many as we need to be testing and hes pointing to the fact that these cases are producing fewer deaths and that younger people are being affected. Is he wrong . Hes wrong in the fact that testing leads to more cases. Lets start there. I think we are not testing enough and the reason we know that at cdc has estimates that we are catching one in ten patients looking at serology studies, studies whether or not you had immunity or were exposed in the past. You take it from there, what does testing do . If this was a war, we wouldnt say we dont want more intel. If we had a flood, we wouldnt want a survey of the land to find out how bad the damage is. Testing allows us to find more people in the community and more people lead to more cases and its as simple as that. Fieng the cases allows us to break the chains of transmission. If you get diagnosed early and youre somebody who is high risk and youre able to come to care early. Maybe we can improve the mortality. Yes, we are testing more and thankfully we are finding younger people and younger patients do not exist in the vak summe. They live alongside people who are vulnerable. We need to keep younger patients as well. So testing is an advantage both as a National Strategy and also for the individual patient and we cant forget that. Dr. Bedalia, thanks very much. Thanks for being with us. Did President Trump ignore evidence that russia placed bounties on the there are times when our need to connect really matters. To keep customers and employees in the know. To keep business moving. Comcast business is prepared for times like these. Powered by the nations largest gigspeed network. To help give you the speed, reliability, and security you need. Tools to manage your business from any device, anywhere. And a team of experts here for you 24 7. Weve always believed in the power of working together. Thats why, when every connection counts. You can count on us. A lot goes through your mind. With fidelity wealth management, your dedicated adviser can give you straightforward advice and tailored recommendations. Thats the clarity you get with fidelity wealth management. And welcome back. While there are so many questions about the story that russia offered bounties to the taliban to kill American Service members in afghanistan, among them did President Trump ignore the intelligence or was he never told . If he was not told, why not . And now that he does know, will he do anything about it . Joining me now is the former National Security adviser under president obama ambassador susan rice. She is also the auth are on of tough love. My story of the things worth fighting for. Ambassador rice, welcome back to meet the press and a happy Holiday Weekend to you. Thanks for being with us. Same to you, andrewa. Good morning and happy fourth weekend. Thank you. On this fourth of july weekend, the story of the russian intelligence, the intelligence that russia organized bounties to target american soldiers and coalition officers in afghanistan, the president has now referred to this as a hoax. What message does that send to Vladimir Putin . Andryea, the message to Vladimir Putin is you can kill American Servicen with absolute impunity. The president of the United States has demonstrated absolutely callous disregard for the safety and security of American Forces in the war zone and theres no explanation for this. Why ten days after the story was First Published and the president s claiming he hadnt been briefed has he not come out and said to the American People my top priority is to protect our men and women in uniform and i will get to the bottom of this intelligence. I will figure out why it is that russia appears to be targeting our forces and i will give the American People and the soldiers the appropriate response that it deserves. Hes said nothing and andrea, i dont buy the story that he was never briefed. I believe that over a year ago, when the information first came to light in 2019 that my successor john bolton would have walked straight into the oval office as would have, and informed the president of this intelligence. You dont wait until you have 100 certainty. You tell the commander in chief what he needs to know, when he needs to know it, and so now theyre claiming he wasnt told. Well, if thats the case then maybe these advisers in 2020 when the information came back again and failed to tell him i wouldnt doubt that because theyre scared of him, i believe, but the point is our service men and women are in a war zone vulnerable. We have credible information that suggests that the russians and maybe putin himself are trying to kill American Service members and the president calls it a hoax. Let me show you some of the responses from the white house officials trying to downplay the reliability of this intelligence. Lets watch. We were dealing with something that was unverified, uncorroborated in the ic. For us, the professionals, we like to see verified information. Until it is verified it is not briefed up to the president of the United States. Thats how intelligence works. Thats how intelligence works. The intelligence on Osama Bin Laden being in that hideaway in pakistan was 50 50. 50 50 and president obama went after bin laden and you know the results. Is intelligence ever 100 or no. No, andrea. Look, i was National Security adviser. I can tell the American People with certainty that we dont ever or very, very rarely have 100 certainty, and thats not what were aiming for. We are in this business of protecting the American People and the service men and women have to do so often with imperfect information and what we just heard out of my successor, mr. Obrien and the press secretary is a clown show. Thats not how intelligence works and thats not how the National Security adviser and the top cabinetlevel officials who were there to support the president are supposed to the behave. They are supposed to be on top of information like this. They are supposed to run it to the ground. It shouldnt be months or years before we figure out whether something of this significance is actually something we take seriously. In fact, the Intelligence Community did take it seriously. We know that because it was written in the president s daily briefing, the most important and exclusive product of the Intelligence Community. The president didnt read it and whats extraordinary is that the people around him didnt bring it to his attention, allegedly. Why if this intelligence was important enough to have an interagency meeting on it and it being in the president ially daily brief as you point out february 27th, why did he subsequently have six phone calls with Vladimir Putin and didnt raise this issue and nobody briefed him that he should bring the issue up . Andrea, it makes no sense. None of it adds up. If, in fact, the president is surrounded by such cowards and incompetence that even when hes traying trying to invite putin to the g7 no one has the guts to say to the president , mr. President , we still want to remind you, we have credible intelligence that the russians are trying to kill u. S. Service men and women in afghanistan. This is not the time to be handing putin an olive branch. This is a time to be handing out options to punish him and thats not what happened. This is extraordinary. We have a president who is doing our arch adversaries bidding, i would say, and hes surrounded by sick ycophants and weaklings dont have the confidence in themselves and the mission that they are there to carry out to bring the president the tough messages he needs to hear. Andrea, thats the job of the National Security adviser. Its not an easy job. Often, you have to walk in and tell the president of the United States what he doesnt want to hear and own responsibility for bringing back to the president options for dealing with that bad news. Thats the essence of the job. Let me ask you about the president s rhetoric this weekend going after his enemies or what he terms his enemy, the news media, protesters and a new ad theyve come up with on joe biden on defunding the police. For all other crime, leave your name and number and someone will get back to you. Our estimated wait time is currently five days. That misstates joe bidens position because he is also against blanket defunding of the police, but what about the president s rhetoric on race . Andrea, its his rhetoric on race, but its his rhetoric broadly. The president went to mt. Rushmore and stood at the white house yesterday on our independence weekend and decided that he was going to stake his legacy and his campaign on preserving confederate monuments and the relics of slavery rather than uniting this country at a time when we need it so badly, rather than laying out an arc jen agenda for a second time. He is running away from reality. Running away from 130,000 american souls who have died of coronavirus, running away from a tanking economy and providing no positive agenda. His whole approach is to pit americans against each other. You are also, of course, being mentioned as someone on the Vice President ial list for joe biden. Obviously, you have the National Security credentials, but how how should americans feel about voting for someone who has never had any experience in electoral politics and never run in a national campaign. Andrea, lets not get ahead of ourselves here, right . Joe biden needs to make the decision as to who he thinks would be his best runningmate and i would do my utmost, drawing on my experience of years in government, years of making the bureaucracy work. Ive worked on multiple campaigns, president ial campaigns. Ive been on the campaign trail as a surrogate, and im going to do everything i can to help get joe biden elected and to help him succeed as president whether i am his running mate or im a doorknocker, i dont mind. I just want to get joe biden elected and see the democrats control the senate and retain the house because, andrea, we are at a moment. Our democracy is at stake and the world is at stake where the lives of tens of thousands of americans are on the line, lost to incompetence and callous leadership that could care less. Weve got to change that. This country is a tremendous place, but we have work to do to perfect it. We have work to do to unite it, and this president could care less. We need new leadership and so in whatever capacity i can serve to support joe biden and support this country, thats what im going to do. Ambassador susan rice again, thanks for being with us on this Holiday Weekend, our best to you and your family for a safe holiday. Thank you, andrea. And when we come back, President Trump had a terrible june with covid spreading and the russia bounty announcer reliability is everything. 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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Nausea, restlessness and Movement Dysfunction are common side effects. When bipolar depression overwhelms, ask how vraylar can help. Welcome back, the panel is joining us from their remote locations. Former Homeland Security secretary, jeh johnson, and nbc White House Correspondent Peter Alexander. Welcome all. Jeh johnson, first to you, the president s divisive rhetoric over the weekend, two rally, no social distancing, few masks at all. And the rhetoric on race, on the monuments, on america, on this july 4th weekend. Andrea, i listened to the president s rhetoric, and i asked myself what happened to American Leadership that doesnt just curse the darkness but offer a candle. Its very very depressing to me that there are apparently those advising this president is the path to reelection is to demonize and to divide the American Public and create this image of gremlins running around our communities called marxists, and terms i havent heard in years. The American People do listen to their National Leaders, the president , this one, we hang on his every word and tweet, does have the ability to define the terms of the debate. While all of this is going on, we have to recognize the fact that were the nation with the mightiest health care capability, but weve had the poorest Health Care Response across the world to covid19 and i believe that much of that has to do with what our National Leaders are saying to us right now about what to do, and whatnot to do in terms of wearing a mask, and, you know, frankly at the National Level, our president has encouraged what asa refers to as virus fatigue, and hes left it to the governors to manage this problem. And Peter Alexander, the message that you and your colleagues at the white house for nbc are reporting the message now is going to pivot to we have to learn to live with it. Yeah, andrea, thats exactly right. Im struck by the clips you played earlier in the broadcast of those republican governors in states who have had to reverse their reopenings or halt them all together. You remember in the early stages of this pandemic, the president sort of cast himself as a wartime president , that we were fighting a war here, if hes the commander, these in effect, these republican governors and states like arizona, florida and texas are his generals and right now, they are in retreat. As it relates to the president , youre sort of seeing the different stages of grief. You have seen denial, you have seen anger and now it appears youre going to be seeing more acceptance. White house officials telling us they will focus on this sort of acknowledgment, this recognition the virus is not going to be going away, certainly not before the election. The challenge is whether they can communicate that message that we have to learn to live with it, given the fact the president said this past week as you have noted, he is hopes its just going to disappear and in recent days, he says he believes it is under control and being handled, andrea. And you talked about it being in 99 of the cases, harmless. Let me play something also he said. He seemed to soften his opposition to Face Coverings. Heres how he phrased it, it was all about him. I would have no problem. Actually, i had a mask on. I sort of liked the way i looked. I thought it was okay. It was a dark black mask, and i thought it looked okay. It looked like the lone ranger, but, no, i have no problem with that. And if people feel good about it, they should do it. I dont want to point out that if he was wearing the mask the way the lone ranger did, it would be over his eyes, not his face and nose. He once appeared in a mask, and it was not in a public moment. It was a private tour in the ford plant in michigan, and so he has not modeled wearing a Face Covering. No, i mean, donald trump is sort of the opposite of a virtue signaller. He doesnt like wearing a mask. We know hes a narcissist. We know he feels uncomfortable wearing it, and he has sent a bad message. I think theres been a lot of confusion nationally about this. A lot of americans dont like to be told what to do. A lot of governors, you know, like to think that theyre speaking for their people. And theyre learning lessons, Governor Cuomo learned a harsh lesson in new york when he sent elderly coronavirus sufferers into nursing homes. I think our southern governors are learning that as they have opened too quickly, they may be suffering from not wearing masks. And jeh johnson, the president last night also seemed to be con sueding the fight against naziism with the civil war. He talked about celebrating those who fought in the civil war, and he said it was not against racism as the critics suggest. He seemed to be celebrating the confederacy at the same time as our world war ii heroes. Andrea, make no mistake about it, the civil war was over the issue of slavery. Civil war was over the issue of whether or not my ancestors, my great great grandmother should remain a slave for the rest of her life. That was the reason the battle was fought. That was the reason the states sought to succeed from our nation, and you cannot conflate that conflict with world war ii, with the battle against naziism. This president likes to create these images and use vocabulary that conjures up a broad brush of good versus evil, white versus black and i think the American People frankly are smarter than that and will recognize what this is. And danny, let me ask you about russia and Vladimir Putin because the president is now calling that intelligence a hoax. It was important enough to put it in the pdb and to brief the allies, not congress at the time. If it was important enough to put it in the president ial daily brief, there was enough credibility to that intelligence to act on it . Look, there are two things that are important to understand here, the first is that whether the president was briefed on this or not, that was a dereliction of duty oept of somebody inside the white house. That was a big mistake. We need to understand a lot more about the president s response. The second thing, though, that i want to say is we have done a lot of talking on this show and elsewhere if the country about classified issues like this. This is an unbelievably damaging leak. Yes on the one hand, we want more accountability for this president. We want to know what hes doing and why hes making decisions. On the other hand, when i see this kind of highly classified information on the front pages of the national newspapers, it makes me worry for our Intelligence Community, for our sources, for methods, for people trying to help us in this world. Peter alexander, jeh johnson, dont go away. We will return. When we come back, where do we 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. 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. And welcome back. Its Data Download time. Its also summertime because usually vacation time, but covid19 is likely to have serious economic and possible Health Implications for travel hot spots. Going into the summer the numbers did not look good. A u. S. Travel Association Outlook for the industry released in midjune was grim, forecasting total spending would fall from 40 in 2020 compared to 2019. Business travel looked set to drop by more than onethird with Leisure Travel not far behind, with a decrease of close to 30 predicted. It gets worse. Average spending per trip was expected to be down by almost 15 . And the way people are getting where theyre going is different. Car trips, that staple of the family Summer Vacation are predicted to decline by 27 while the number of plane trips is said to fall by more than 50 . But the data suggests there may be one winner in the summer of covid, shortterm summer rental properties, houses and cottages available through platforms like airbnb and brbo and data from air dna, a firm that trackses 10 million around the world shows that it first took a hit around midmarch and took a hit april 12th and since then, the numbers have risen steadily in may. In june rising more than 900,000 per week. Counties that arent home to big cities are seeing the biggest increase. Texas, home to galveston along the gulf coast are seeing a 94 increase. Clinton county, oklahoma, a rural fish and game reserve thats from dallas and Oklahoma City is up 145 and garrett county, maryland, where Deer Creek Lake offers to washington, d. C. And pittsburgh, thats up 579 . This is great news for these communities for now, but a continued spike in covid cases could change everything and when we come back, the growing debate over history, culture a looks like they picked the wrong getaway driver. Theyre going to be paying for this for a long time. They will, but with accident forgiveness allstate wont raise your rates just because of an accident, even if its your fault. Cut sonny. Was that good . Line the desert never lies. Isnt that what i said . No you were talking about allstate and insurance. I just. When i. Lets try again. Everybody back to one. Accident forgiveness from allstate. Click or call for a quote today. Welcome back. The panel is now back with us. Take a look at one of the things that the president had to say last night or rather friday night in mt. Rushmore. Make no mistake, this leftwing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the american revolution. To make this possible they are determined to tear down every statue, symbol and memory of our national heritage. Peter alexander, the president announced last night this new executive order for a some sort of a park with statues, with all sorts of american heroes. Is he actually moving ahead on that . What is the reporting telling you . We wait to see. That was the first we heard from the president on that very topic and what was striking about the president s remarks on friday and on saturday is that it was a redux of his inaugural address of the american carnage speech and then he was attacking immigrants and foreign countries. Now hes going on the offensive against other americans, and what ive sort of been struck by and the remarks of the president continues to focus on the confederate statues and the memorials and protesters trying to take them down and hes devoted the attention to that topic and taken the attention away from the protesters at the very start, and the tens of thousands, and hundreds of millions of Police Brutality and the systemic racism which the president has not addressed and hasnt done much more despite capitol hill seeing a halt in the conversation after his modest efforts with the Police Reform with that executive order. Danny pletka, he was talking about leftwing fascism. Thats new to me. Leftwing fascism, but in using this and in talking about these monuments, where would you draw the line . I think when the president talks about leftwing fascism hes talking about something thats familiar to a lot of americans, frankly. It is people feeling, sensing that there are lines being drawn about how they need to behave that they object to. One of the problems with all of this is that we fool ourselves into thinking that some of the things the president says dont resonate. The questions of rule of law, the questions of mobs tearing down statues, not just of confederates where i think a lot of people find it hard to understand why we still have confederate statues, but of george washington, of abraham lincoln, and in some cases of religious figures in california. Again, its important to divide up when donald trump says. In one case he is very much speaking to a base that is angry about a sense that there is no rule of law anymore. On the other, hes not talking about the things he doesnt want to talk about whether its Police Reform or its the coronavirus. And jeh johnson . Yes. So where is the line drawn . Thats a very good question. I believe there needs to be a reassessment of our history by someone who is sensitive to our history, all of our history. I believe there needs to be a reassessment when it comes to statues of confederate generals and there is a point where it gets complicated. I have family named washington. Theyre proud of their name washington. Theyre not changing their name washington. On the other hand, changing the name of the Washington Redskins are long overdue. Imagine if the emblem of the team was a blackfaced lawn jockey. I think we would know that that would have been done away with a generation or two ago and is this not the same thing . Im a big washington football fan. Peter, i know you are, as well. Where do you stand on that . Given with what happened with fedex and nike appearing to pull the redskins merchandise from their website, its not sort of protest in the streets and the corporate sponsors that are having a real impact in this conversation, as well. Broadly, the conversation is a consideration of discarding these relics of the 19th and 20th century. It was within the last several days in mississippi that retired its flag that included in the corner the confederate battle emblem right now and it is the pressure that were seeing from corporate sponsors and others that appeared to happen very quickly and the head coach of the redskins ron rivera saying he and the owner have promised to never change the name have had conversations about what the new name would be. He said it would be awesome if it happened before the start of the 2020 season. This is happening very quickly, andrea. Jeh, very quickly, what about the political effectiveness of this as a democrat . Do you think democrats should be concerned . Have faith in the American People to see through the effort to demonize and divide us. I believe our president underestimates the wisdom of the American People, and if he looks at his own approval ratings, he sees theyve dropped dramatically in the aftermath of george floyd and the president s own reaction to it. And weve got to leave it there. Thanks so much for a great round table. Thanks to all of you, jeh johnson, Peter Alexander and danny pletka. Thanks for watching. Have an enjoyable and safe Holiday Weekend. Chuck will be back next week and remember if its sunday its meet the press. You spoke. We listened. Tiny tacos are back for good grab a box of 15 or try them loaded. Get em now with no contact delivery. Grab a box of 15 or try them loaded. Bbut what if you couldg do better than that . Like adapt. Discover. Deliver, in new ways, to new customers. What if you could come back stronger . Faster. Better. At comcast business, we want to help you not just bounce back, but bounce forward. And now, with one of our best offers ever, were committed to helping you do just that. Get a powerful and reliable internet and voice solution for only 29. 95 a month for three months. Call or go online today. This week go inside a microfulfillment center. Plus, the start of dumping finds a better way to deliver. And can you boss make you promise not to sue if you get coronavirus . Thats this week on press here. Good morning, everyone. Im scott mcgrew. President Trumps Campaign had attendees sign waivers promising not to sue if they got