Just look at whats happening down in georgia. Republican Governor Brian Kemp just banned local governments from mandating that masks be worn in public as cases are rising in that state with more than 3,400 new cases reported just today. Hospitalizations in georgia hitting a new record, over 2,800. Just last week, the mayor of atlanta, keisha lance bottoms, tested positive for coronavirus and she issued a directive requiring masks in her city. Georgias pretty clearly in trump and Governor Kemps reaction is to try to tear down mayor bottoms order. Tonight, Governor Kemp decided to sue atlanta to block the city from enforcing its mask mandate. He argues that mayor bottoms has overstepped her authority and must obey his executive orders under state law. Thats where we are right now. Wearing a mask helps suppress the virus. This many months into the pandemic, it is a basic fact of Public Health. Weve all reached this conclusion. It is probably our only way back to some kind of seminormal life, but Governor Kemp has decided he wants to stop local officials from enforcing maskwearing in his state. Hes going to go to court over it. You got to ask yourself, why would he do this . Right . Like, why would you take the proactive step to go in and stop localities from mandating masks, to sue them and go to court . Especially because in the past he has encouraged people to wear masks voluntarily. Why wouldnt he just let localities require it . And then if he wants to distance himself from that, he can criticize them, they they did the wrong thing. That would be shifty and immoral, but from a political perspective, why go out of your way to stop them . And the only answer, really, is that the Republican Party has adopted the trump view that if you are taking coronavirus seriously, you are in some way betraying the conservative movement. There are a bunch of ways they painted themselves into this corner of denialism is they dont want to upset the president who has been on a weird passiveaggressive antimask campaign for months. Last month, president said he saw masks as a personal rebuke, telling the wall street journal, some americans wear masks as a way to signal disapproval of him. In may he told advisers he believes wearing a mask would send the wrong message and he feared it would look ridiculous. The president has been clear about where he stands on this issue, and republicans dont want to cross him. But theres more to it. Theyre also worried about their own voters. Look at how gingerly some republican politicians have been approaching basic common sense ideas with their hardcore conservative constituents. Florida senator marco rubio, right, represents the state that is in the midst of one of the worst outbreaks in the country. He encouraged people to wear masks by reminding them maskwearing isnt some novel idea they came up with to control us, surgeons, dentists and nurses have used them forever to protect themselves and patients. Tate reed trying to gently suggest that aiming for herd immunity in mississippi, basically let the virus run wild, is probably not the best idea, and encouraging people to wear masks. Quote, theyre a hell of a lot better than widespread shutdowns. Please wear one. That while coronavirus cases in his state are soaring. Hitting a record high today. A lot of states hitting record high today. Hospital zbalgss in mississippi up 90 from a month ago and a sixth of the state legislature has tested positive. Republican Alabama Governor Kay Ivey who famously said several months ago, we are not new york, in her approach to how to deal with covid, reluctantly, almost apologetically issuing a mask order, telling her constituents in a very conservative, very red state, saying i always prefer personal responsibility over government mandate, but the numbers do not lie. Basically, she wishes she could keep pretend, but what am i going to do . They hit a record high yesterday. Intensive care units are almost overwhelmed. And theyre doing the rebellion of their base, a certain portion of whom sees any effort to control the virus as some nefarious political conspiracy. Then they also have to worry about their own political selfinterests. This is interesting because the Republican Partys response to this crisis from the white house down, particularly the white house, it has been so bad across the board it results in an incentive to talk about anything but the topic at hand. I mean, the one and only thing that really matters right now in american life, more than anything, just facing us is the pandemic. Rshs recognize that anything that draws attention to the pandemic is on balance probably bad for them politically, particularly when they were the ones saying lets of up. So they want the virus to be a side show. They want to move on. Republican senator tom tillis of North Carolina, hes up for reelection this year. Hes polling behind his democratic challenger right now. And he said this thing that just blew me away. It gives probably the best example of this mindset. He was speaking at the North Carolina republican Virtual Convention last week. Take a listen. The stakes are very high in this election, but you know why i know were going to win . Because people remember how good their lives were in february. They remember the majorities who brought that prosperity to this country. We are going to win listen to what he said because people remember how good their lives were in february. Really . I mean, that says it all. They want the last few months to not have happened. To be wiped from everyones memories. To be some some fluke, an alternate dimension that weve accidentally warped into and now were just going to warp back out into normalcy. And theyve governed that way, too, by and large, and it hasnt worked. Thats why were in the hell we are. Thats exactly what the fight about masks is about, i think. Masks are a visual reminder that everything is not normal, were in the midst of a once in a century pandemic and on the whole the Republican Party would very much like you to forget that. Joining me on the state of the Republican Party, michael steele, former chairman of the Republican National committee. Michael, there are some exceptions, which ill get to, but im curious your interpretation of this. When i look at kemps actions, i cant make sense of them. Its not do you, brian kemp, issue a statewide mask mandate. What are the politics of saying to atlanta, no, you cant do this when the evidence shows it might help atlanta, might help you, might help save lives. It generally would be helpful for everyone. Yeah, i think the rationale goes along the lines of that, a, the president and georgia are kind of aligned because georgias a red state, and therefore citizens of georgia feel the same way about masks as the president. Well, they may. They may have in february and march and april, but in july, when theyre looking at the number of family and friends in their community who are stricken by this virus and who have died from this virus and it really goes to the little sound you just played with the senator there, thom tillis. Reagan said in 1980 and looking at the carter administration, are you better off today than you were four years ago . This election, were going to be asking the question, are you better off today than you were five months ago, six months ago, seven months ago . Because thats where people are. And i dont care what the hell republicans think about this. This is the reality. You cant walk away from this. Now, the governor yes. And the attorney general of georgia are looking to sue mayor lance bottoms. Why . Because shes asking her people to wear a mask to not only save their own lives, but more importantly, save the lives of the people around her. So what is exactly wrong with that . How is that as the governor said in his in his statement, you know, this disastrous policy, i guess, making people wear masks, threatened the lives and livelihoods of our citizens. How is wearing a mask threatening your life and livelihood . The mayor didnt say, im sorry, you cant run your business, you cant sell your cocacolas, you couldnt have people in your restaurants, she just said we want you to wear a mask. So this is the reality right now for a lot of republican elected officials. Where do you stand . Do you stand in this space thats right. Where you look at the facts and science and deny it or do you stand with trump . And there is this aspect, too, when you talk about kind of the denial. I keep hearing republicans, even susan collins, ones who i think are relatively sensible individuals, you know, i think they can talk to Public Health experts and get a sense. You can tell they dont want to talk about it and or no. Hit a flat tire. It was an accident. And it reminds me of it reminds me a little bit of 2002, the democrats had this approach going into midterm elections where they werent going to talk about 9 11 and the and terrorism and the war on iraq. They wanted to take that off the table and pivot the conversation to prescription drugs. It was like, you cant do that. The idea the Republican Party is going to, you know, lets talk about goya beans and statues. Like, its not happening, guys. This is it. This is the conversation. Yeah, look, you know, i put a can of goya beans on the resolute desk and i start my pitch, and that changes everything. This is everythings good. Because weve got goya beans. The reality of it is, youve got to have sound science and sound policies that align in a way that help these states deal with this crisis. Governor hogan of maryland today laid out in an oped what his experience was. And i think thats the experience of even governors in red states who are sitting in this pool of denial thinking that somehow this is all going to get turned around. And its not. And thats thats the truth that is still surprises me that they dont confront in this, the science is not lying to us. The numbers arent lying to us. As the governor had to admit. And Governor Hogan in maryland i think has done a pretty good job managing this, along with Charlie Baker in massachusetts. In some ways theyre the exception to the rule. The governor writing this oped how testing hamstrung them. His wife from south korea. Coordinated in getting more tests in. These are blue states. Charlie baker and larry hogan dont have to gingerly sell to their own people the way that tate reeves in mississippi apparently has to do, the idea this is real, you should take it seriously and lets crack down on it. They have more political latitude, it strikes me, to kind of approach this in the way that you probably should. Well, they do, but keep in mind that Governor Hogan came under, you know, a lot of pressure from a lot of the, you know, activists who fatality that he should have opened up the state earlier. You know, a month or six weeks before he did. Right. And so they wound up putting that pressure on him. And the irony there is that the leader of that caught covid19. You know, so the governor made his point. And the fact that even when they get ill and they get this virus, they still insist that, well, its not as serious as everyone is making it out to be, and that makes no sense. Michael steele from the state of maryland. Knows maryland very well. Thank you so much for your time tonight, michael. You got to, chris. I want to bring in former senator Claire Mccaskill, served as the democratic senator of missouri for two terms. Governor parsons in your state appeared in an event with donald trump. Missouri has also been setting records in cases. He praised the president s outbreak. I wonder how you gauge this dynamic, the ways in which subtle ways sometimes in which republican governors have kind of put themselves on the side of reopening, on the side of trump, and it makes it hard for them to take the steps they need to to contain the virus. Well, Governor Parson is totally captured by donald trump. If donald trump called the governor of my state tomorrow and said, i need you to put on a leotard and pink tutu and do pirouettes down the hallway in the state capitol, the governor would say, yes, sir. Ive lockoked at a lot of pollsn missouri, chris, and the amazing thing is in the Republican Party when Republican Voters are asked, are you a traditional republican, an evangelical republican or a trump republican . In the old days, evangelical would be by far the number one. Now it is trump republican. Mmhmm. Is, in fact, the plurality of people in the Republican Party. So in a state like mine where trump won by almost 20 points, the governor and going to reflect exactly what the message is from the white house. Let me read you the governor wont wear a mask and wont mandate masks. Let me read you what he said when he was asked about being an at event with a lot of elderly people, no social distancing, inside, and the press corps asked him, and i just want you to hear what the governor said so you realize how nuts this. If i feel i get anything on me, we try to clean it up as soon as possible. Whether thats going to a bathroom or a hand cleaner on me. Now, thats the kind of nonsense that our state is being led by at a time that parents are really worried about what the right thing to do is for their kids in a few short weeks. It is very sad. And its been striking to watch, i mean, the sort of denial and intransigence and this sort of in spite of myself approach weve seen from a lot of republican governors, you know, in greg abbott, too, he backed into it, right . Once the hospitals start to fill up and you have an outbreak. That walmart, walmart makes this big announcement theyre going to have masking in their stores. Kroger, too. Theyre going to require all shoppers to wear masks. And then arkansas basically puts in a mask mandate and it felt like it was a bank shot, right . The state of arkansas couldnt do it, but once they saw walmart could do it, then that gave them the kind of running room they needed to do it. Well, were going to have some interesting conflicts at walmarts across my state and other states like mine. By the way, target announced today also and cvs that theyre going to require masks. And isnt it kind do sad, chris, where were at the point where the president is costing lives and walmart is leading and saving lives . It is a weird backward thing that the leadership in this country is coming from walmart and other retail outlets as opposed to the president of the united states. Its also i mean, there is also this perverse consequence of it all, retail workers in these places, mcdonalds workers, walmart workers have to be the point of enforcement. How many videos have we seen, right, of some poor retail worker, already putting themselves in risk in an indoor setting where theres lots of people coming. Theyre the one that has to enforce this because the responsibility has basically been pushed down to their shoulders because there is no leadership at the top. I know these walmarts. I know where they are. I have been in these walmarts. Im envisioning these walmarts in places like lebanon, missouri, where i guarantee you there are going to be conflicts. I hope walmart is prepared. Right. And is going to protect their staff from the abuse that im confident theyre going to get in many parts of Rural America next week. Yeah. Its really there is a sad. There is a sort of yeah, it is, and its a huge obstacle right now to us succeeding collectively as americans, which we are not doing right now. Former senator Claire Mccaskill in her home in st. Louis. Thank you so much. You bet. Next, despite floridas coronavirus outbreak reaching recordbreaking levels, the governor insists he wants schools to reopen. Ill talk with a pediatrician about the surprising number of children in florida who are testing positive for coronavirus right now right after this. The sleep number 360 smart bed is on sale now. Can it help keep us asleep . Absolutely, it senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable save 25 on the sleep number 360 c4 smart bed with any Smart Adjustable base. Plus 0 interest for 24 months. Ends monday. 49i found you good job. Now im gonna stay here and you go hide. Watch your favorites from anywhere in the house with the Xfinity Stream app. Free with your xfinity service. Now any room can be a tv room. Stream live tv, on demand shows and movies even your dvr recordings. Download the Xfinity Stream app today to stream the entertainment you love. Xfinity. The future of awesome. Right now the virus appears to be utterly out of control in the state of florida, which is the highest rate of growth in the nation. Florida today once again broke its singleday record from deaths from the virus. Hospitals are at near capacity. All signs things are going in the wrong direction, yet Governor Ron Desantis has not mandated maskwearing in the state and vowed to have kids back in school, inperson, in just a few weeks. I am really amazed the extent to which people under the age 18 are at low risk for this, that is something i think that has been borne out in the data in different countries, different states, so we do have data to go on. We can say that, fortunately, our schoolchildren are at less risk. Now, its true. There has been a lot of evidence from around the world in this country to suggest that kidded are, indeed, at a much lower risk than adults. They do not get as sick. They do not transmit as much. And that has been part of why pop have been asking, hoping, thinking we could reopen inperson schools, but there is still a lot we do not know and parents, well, theyre freaked about about the prospect of sending their kids back to school, not to mention teachers and the other adults. This week we learned nearly 1 3 of children tested, tested positive for the virus in florida. That percentage is considerably higher than the state as a whole. Its possible people are more inclined to get their kids tested when they think theyre really sick, but Health Officials say coronavirus could end up causing lifelong damage in kids based on what some doctors are seeing in florida right now. Theyre seeing that there is damage to the lungs. In these asymptomatic children. That is very important. We dont know how thats going to manifest a year from now or two years from now. Is that child going to have chronic pulmonary problems or not . So this is not the virus that you bring everybody together to make sure you catch and get it over with. This is this is something serious, and were learning new information about this virus every day as we see more and more people. Here to sort through the latest science on kids and the virus, im joined by a pediatrician, former maryland secretary of health. Now a professor at John Hopkins Bloomberg school of Public Health. Coauthor of a recent New York Times oped arguing we have to focus on reopening school,not bars. So lets start, doctor, with your sort of 30,000foot view survey of and its incomplete. All our knowledge on the virus is incomplete, but sort of what the best evidence we have about the degree of risk to kids specifically and kids in gathered together in school. Sure. Well, i think its important to realize were stuck between two different issues. On the one hand, we know that kids are suffering because theyre not in school. Not just because of the educational losses, but also food. There are 20 million kids that rely on School Breakfast and lunch. There are reports of child abuse that come from schools. If youre not in school, the teacher cant help the child. There are some really Important Reasons for kids to be in school, but at the same time, its also true were in the middle of a pandemic with a very serious Infectious Disease and we know that kids can get the coronavirus. We know that some of them, fewer than adults, but still some of them will get very sick from the coronavirus, and we also know that they can pass it on and they could infect maybe their teachers are authoriother peopl home. There is reason to be concerned about it. At the same time, we want the goal for kids to be back in school. So the solution is not to say there is no way you can do it and not just say throw them back in school and see what happens, but be thoughtful and follow the path of what other countries have done, which is put in place precautions and only open when things are under control. So i want to talk about that in a second, what that looks like. First, i want to ask you about this florida statistic. Which was surprising to me that youve got 31 Positivity Rate for kids. Now, some of that appears to me intuitively selection bias. A lot morph adulte adults sayino get a test. If you bring your kid, you have a good reason to think that. This suggests this is moving around the child population fairly robustly. What do you think . Well, i dont know exactly because its over a long period of time. Its a relatively, you know, its like 7 or so of all the positives in the state, but it certainly means right. Its not just one or two kids in the state of florida that are getting sick, its more than 10,000, and its something to take seriously. And i think we we ignore the potential harm of this virus at our own peril. So, theres so you talk about sort of how we can do this safely. And heres what ive seen. Before we get to that, how we can do this safely, other countries suppressed the virus. I mean, the daily cases in all of the eu are less than the state of florida, right . So if you suppress the virus, if youre denmark and youve got 100 new cases a day, you know, you can go to school. Is there a safe way to put kids inclass schooling amidst an outbreak with icu capacity nearing full and 10,000 to 15,000 new cases a day . I dont think there is, no. I think you just have to be honest and say, look, if you have that kind of community spread, then you know that adults will be bringing it into the school. People in the community will be bringing it into the school. The kids are more likely to come in even if youve got great protocols in school, youll constantly be dealing with positive tests that are going to be interrupting the school environment. Its going to be super hard to be able to do this. So i think the first step is make sure you have the epidemic under control. In places that appear to have the epidemic under control, in places with very low case growth, this hybrid model being proposed in places. Kids are in school for a few days. Social distancing, kids are wearing masks, all sorts of protocols, no use of the cafeteria. Do you think i guess my question is, like, does that work . It seeps like half a loaf. Well, we cant have normal school. We dont want to have no school so were going to have this sort of strange pandemicera hybrid school. Is that the path forward is that what were going to get in the fall in the bestcase scenario, i guess is my question. Yeah, i think initially thats what it is. Its better safe than sorry, but its also recognizing the importance of school. And from the kids perspective, they get to see their friends, they get to see their teacher, they get a lot of positives from being in school, and for some kids who absolutely need to be in school, it doesnt necessarily have to be hybrid. Like, if theyre children who are getting special services that just make the world of difference to them, i think the schools should prioritize for them to be there every day. Right. Doctor, there is a lot more to dig into this. Id love to return to you on this topic as he wed towards november. Thank you for making asome time. Thanks for having me. Next, senator Kamala Harris on her republican colleagues deciding to wait until the very last minute to talk about giving relief to the millions of people struggling under the pandemic. Joins me after this. This virus is testing all of us. And its testing the people on the front lines of this fight most of all. So abbott is getting new tests into their hands, delivering the critical results they need. And until this fight is over, we. Will. Never. Quit. Because they never quit. I feel like people in washington arent talking about or thinking about as much as they should be the expiration of these extra unemployment benefits. Youre absolutely right. You shouldnt feel that way, you should know that way because if they were so concerned, how is it possible theyve left it well until the second half of july to begin debating whats going to happen when these befonefits ru out at the end of the month. Theyre right. What theyre talking about there is the imminent expiration of coronavirus benefits, particularly 600 a week of extra unemployment. We should be a little more precise, its not people in washington who waited until the middle of july to talk about this, its republicans. The white house, snert majority leader skbhonl the republican senate. Two whole months ago House Democrats passed a 3 trillion Coronavirus Relief bill. Mitch mcconnell declared dead on arrival. The president threatened to veto. And basically the message back then from the white house and republicans was, were done. So now we have 15 days before people lose their additional 600 weekly unemployment benefits. Everyone loses it. Tens of millions of people across the country at once. Keep in mind, more than 1 Million People filed for unemployment just last week and in nine days the federal Eviction Moratorium could come to an end which according to one expert could leave 28 million americans homeless. So, yeah, the time to act was months ago. One of the people who has been pushing for action is senator Kamala Harris. Democrat from california who has introduced a bill to ban evictions, among other things, during this pandemic. And she joins me now. Senator, this deadline, i mean, its the deadline is close. The house has done part of this. Theres going to be negotiations. Do you feel there is the urgency among your colleagues, particularly your republican colleagues or the white house, to act on this as we were racing over a cliff . There better be the urgency chris paw, listen, in june, 1 3 of americans were unable to pay their housing payments, be it rent or mortgage. Were looking were looking at a cliff. We are just on the verge of falling and many americans, millions falling off a cliff because, to your point, the benefits from the relief packages that we previously passed are about to expire. In fact, its estimated 20 million renters are looking at eviction. We have at least 15 million homeowners that are looking at foreclosure. As far as im concerned, housing should be considered a civil right and we should have a great sense of urgency. I worked on this issue back in 2011 when we were battling the banks around the foreclosure crisis. We ended up getting 20 billion out of the banks to deal with it, but people were losing their homes. What that means is were talking about people falling deeper and deeper into despair. Ive introduced the relief act. What it will do is during the course of this crisis ban foreclosures, evingss, ban increases in rent that will also ban the Utility Companies from turning off things like water because, of course, families need water to sustain themselves, plus in the face of this pandemic to wash our hands. And were going to ban negative court reporting. Weve got to help people get through this crisis, and the last thing we want is people are going to end up being homeless through the course of this crisis. Its just the morally right thing to do to help, and it is it is right for the economy. But, you know, well see when the republicans and everybody comes back to d. C. , what we are going to have to battle about, but im prepared to fight this fight. Its a good fight and its a fight worth having. Well, i mean, the politics i cant quite get my head around the politics of this. Youre running for reelection in an Election Year amidst a pandemic. Youre donald trump. Youre the Republican Party. Right. Your fate is tied to him. Are you going to kick a bunch of people out of the like, youre going to let a bunch of people get kicked out of their homes and then take 600 a week away from i genuinely dont get it. What are they doing . It makes no sense. But does it make any sense to walk around with bravado without wearing a mask . Does it make any sense to say state and local governments should not have the support they need when theyre supplying the workers who are on the front lines taking care of the American People . A lot of it doesnt make sense but that doesnt mean we dont fight for what is right. My relief act is one of those things that is about addressing what is imminent, in terms homelessness, evictions, foreclosures, working families who have lost their jobs recently through no fault of their own. So well just have to keep fighting it. I do believe the republicans who obstruct this kind of approach are going to pay for it politically because this is a nonpartisan issue. And the folks who are in that 20 million number of renters who are about to be evicted could care less about the Party Affiliation of their elected leaders. They want to know that theyre going to be supported and theyre going to be protected. And so i think its, to your point, not politically smart, but its morally wrong. And so well just keep fighting to do the right thing. You know, it seems to me that theres a real through line here, right . Which is whether someone with the extra 600 a week through the pandemic bonus or someone who is facing behind on their mortgage or facing foreclosure or a Small Business right now is shuttered and cant meet payroll or rent. Thats right. Thats right. The problem is the same for everyone, people dont have money paw the virus is out there and it shut down the economy, and the government does have money. Thats exactly right. You need to give it that seems the fundamental principle, and republicans are talking about, you know, a 1 trillion cap. How much are you thinking about things like deficit concerns or, you know, worrying about that . And how much do you think the weight on the scales should be on getting money out into peoples hands . We listen, im together with Bernie Sanders and ed markey, im proposing that we have not just that onetime check of 1,200, through the course of this pandemic and crisis we need to give people 2,000 a month as recurrent payments, people below a certain income level, to help them and sustain them through these months of crisis. So that at the end of it, they can get back up on their feet instead of having fallen deep, deep, deep into the crevices of this crisis. And it does not make any sense, to your point, when we have republicans in congress who are standing in the way of supporting working people who have recently lost their jobs, have every intention of working when we can get through this crisis, and just need help from their government. You want to talk about a deficit, lets talk about the deficit created when they passed that tax bill, benefitting the top 1 and the corporations of america. Its pure hypocrisy on their part. This is about investing in the American People and American Families and working people who need their government to see them and protect them through a crisis that was not of their making. Yeah, that i think thats a good way of putting it, and i really, really hope that a fire is lit under the president and Mitch Mcconnell and everyone there. Yes. Because we could be looking at real catastrophe really soon. I know you know that. Senator Kamala Harris, thanks for joining us tonight. Thats right. Of course. Thank you. Next, a preview from Rachel Maddows exclusive interview with mary trump about the allegations in her new tellall book. What she had to say about the president s racism and use of racial slurs after this. Audible is my roadtrip companion. Its kind of my quiet, alone time. Audible is a routine for me. Its like a fun night school for adults. I could easily be seduced into locking myself into a place where i do nothing but listen to books. I never was interested in historical fiction before, but im obsessed with it now. There are a lot of like, classic and big titles that i feel like i missed out since i dont have time to read, mean i might as well listen. If i want to catch up on the news or history or learn whats going on in the world, i can download a book and listen to it. Because i listened to her story over and over again, i made the decision to go ahead and follow my own dream, which was to help other veterans. I think theres like 180 books in my, in my library now. It changes your perspective; it makes you a different person. Its true, its so true. To start your free 30day trial, just text listen17 to 500500. Theres been a lot of talk and a lot of sales of the new book from Donald Trumps niece mary trump which paints a devastating portrait of the president and details the strange psycho drama of being a member of that family. The trump family tried and failed to block the books publication. It was released on tuesday just after a judge lifted a gag order that prevented mary trump from discussing her book publicly. Now mary trump has given her first prime time interview to my colleague Rachel Maddow. It will air tonight at 9 00 p. M. We have an exclusive preview youre going to want to see. Rachel pressie mar about her description of the family in the book and growing up it was sort of normal to hear members of her family use the n word or use antisemitic expressions. I have to press you on it a little bit, just to ask if the president , your uncle was an exception to that in the family or if you ever heard him express either use antisemitic slurs or the n word or other racist slurs or other sentiments like this . Do you mean it was an ambient thing in your family, or did you hear it from him, too . Oh, yeah, of course i did. And i dont think that should surprise anybody, given how virulently racist he is today. Have you heard have you heard the president use the n word . Yeah. And antisemitic slurs specifically . Yes. Asked for comment, a white house spokeswoman said, quote, this is a book of falsehoods, but how would she know what happened . Also, its the white house. You can decide for yourself how truthful you find this account when the full interview airs on the Rachel Maddow show coming up in a couple of minutes on msnbc. The president seeing his poll numbers absolutely plummet and appears remarkably to be driving republicans out of the party. Were going to talk about that right after this. This year, the Alzheimers Association walk to end alzheimers is everywhere. On every sidewalk, track, and trail across this country. All of us are raising funds for one goal a World Without alzheimers and all other dementia. Because this disease isnt waiting, neither are you. Take the first step on your walk right now. Go to alz dot org slash walk. President trump very clearly sees himself as the president not of america but the Republican Party, thats why hes constantly only touting his Approval Rating among republicans. Frequently claiming outrageously high level of support without ever citing a poll. Its weird how its always 96 . And while those madeup Approval Ratings are the only good numbers trump can find these days, even the support within his party is massively misleading. Look at this polling from gallup. In january, 46 identified as republicans and 45 identified as democrats. Only six months later, 15 identified as democrats, up five points, while only 39 identified as republicans, an eightpoint drop in nearly half a year. The president is pushing so many people out of the Republican Party the only ones left are those who approve of trump. To be a republican and to be a donald trump supporter. Its never been more clear. Our new nbc news wall street journal poll asked republicans, do you consider yourself to be more of a supporter of disrupt or more a supporter of the Republican Party . The results were overwhelming . 53 said they were supporters of donald trump first, while only 39 chose supporter of the Republican Party. It is the party of trump. Which is good for donald trump because by literally every other metric things are brutal. Heres how White House Press secretary Kayleigh Mcenany tried to spin the truth earlier today. We believe this president has great approval in this country. His historic Covid Response speaks for itself. This president s response has been historic. We believe his support in his country reflects that. She is telling the truth there. It does speak for itself. It is historic. His level of support in this country and his covid ponce res is certainly reflected in the polling. Look at this one poll from the reliable quinnipiac, only 36 of registered voters approve of the job trump is doing while 65 disapprove. 50 of americans think joe biden would do a better job compared to only 45 from trump. Now, of course, everybody remembers 2016, everybody remembers the polling misses in those crucial midwestern states. This race, though, its dynamics and polling are quite different. The general election polling shows joe biden on average with an eightpoint lead over donald trump. You have to go back to jimmy carter in 1980 to find any president incumbent in a similar situation. Joining me now is nate coen who oversaw the polling of six recent battleground states. That i, you had a comment earlier about the sort of, you know, politics can be complicated. The story here is straightforward and fairly simple. Theres a huge issue thats front of mind and the president is getting terrible marks on it. Is that a feyerick characterization . Yeah, thats fair. Political science people refer to the fundamentals, the sort of underlying factors that drive the opinion of the public. We usually think of that as being driven by the economy. Political scientists have often allowed that it can also be driven by a war. In the case of world war ii or vietnam or korea, and i think its fair to say that right now its being driven by the coronavirus, which while not exactly like a war is something that threatens the lives and security of the American People. And voters have overwhelmingly concluded that the president s done a bad job on that issue and, therefore, they appear poised to vote against him in large numbers, at least if the election were held today. What do you say to people who say, you know, you know, all the pollsters got it wrong in 2016 and there was so much reporting about how it was donald trump was imploding. He was going to be a disaster. Hillary clinton was going to beat him so easily. Then you were wrong. Like, whats different now . Why should people whats different about this race . I mean, the first thing i would point out as you sort of alluded to earlier, chris, joe biden has a much more substantial lead than Hillary Clinton ever had, let alone that Hillary Clinton had in the final weeks of the race. She led by four points in the final real clear politics average. She won by two, so thats a twopoint difference. Joe bidens up by nearly nine points in the real clear politics, as you pointed out. A similar error would leave joe biden up seven points, the same as Barack Obamas decisive victory in 2008. In fact, i think you have to go all the way back to 1996 to find any example of a president ial candidate at this stage of a race leading by nearly nine percentage points. When you think about the very best moments that any candidate has had in recent political memory, a couple of weeks for Hillary Clinton. Barack obama at the end of that 2008 campaign after the financial crisis. George w. Bush after the rnc in 2004. Those were those were six or sevenpoint leads, they werent ninepoint leapeds. Look, the polls could be worse than they were last night. The polls are also better in many respects. Many of the major causes of the polling error last time, even if theyre not entirely remedied. Relying on 2016 data rather than 2012 data. Fewer undecided voters. None of that guarantees the polls are perfect, of course, but there are reasons to think theyre less likely to be systematically biased against the president the same way they were four years ago or at least the same extent. We should also the thing you and i both keep saying this is a snapshot in time. Weve seen events change things a lots. Right. Thats a totally separate category. Exactly. Thats a separate category, but its also important to think of the that, right . Whatever you think about the future, the futures unknown and its uncertain. One thing i wanted to focus on, the quinnipiac polling i thought was interesting, the reverse midas touch. They were going to lean on trumps to open schools because they thought it was a good issue for them. Campaign aides believed reopening schools could boost mr. Trump with women in the suburbs, a group he has struggled with. There is a kernel of insight there. People want their kids to be back in school. Then they did it in this very kind of, you know, the schools must open way. They did it as the cases exploded and now you get the quinnipiac polling on his handling of school and he is more underwater on that than anything. 29 approve his handling of reopening schools. 61 disapprove. Its it seems to me its an issue that if handled differently or by a different president wouldnt necessarily end up that way, but it is interesting to me that he appears to have helped polarize it in the wrong direction. Right. So two points. One is that the president is so polarizing that, you know, he can move Public Opinion again him. And the second is that i think that what youre alluding to that there is a broader problem of prioritization for the president. This is true about reopening the economy. Its true on reopening everything. Everyone wants these things reopened, but for the American People in poll after poll, the priority is fixing the coronavirus. Theyre not willing to take risks. They want to be cautious. So when the president is arguing for reopening everything, its not that people are against reopening, its that they think that it should be done in a way thats safe, and when the president is arguing for reopening, he seems to be consistently doing it in a way that indicates that hes not taking the coronavirus seriously. And if thats priority number one, the other issues arent going to fall into place for him. Yeah, and its interesting to me, we were just showing the Economy Numbers because its been striking to me that that number has been his best number in internals, right . Approval on the economy, each our own nbc poll she was doing fairly well there, one we released yesterday. Hes underwater on that, too, with quinnipiac. Consistently polling, that has been his best thing, and i think thats a combination of major the fact that there has been a lot of stimulative response by the government signed by donald trump. But how how long do you think that can endure . How subject is that to what happens in the next four months . I think that at least when we conducted our poll last month, it seemed to me that the foundations of the president s investment on the economy were sound. Voters didnt think the economy was that important right now. And they were willing to sacrifice it for the coronavirus. So if they thought the economy was they approve 06 the economic policies and their own conditions were the same. For now it seems like he was in a decent spot. Thats interesting. Thank you very much for that. That is all in for this evening. The 11th hour with Brian Williams starts now. Well, good evening once again. Day 1,274 of the trump administration. 110 days to go until the president ial election. The president s niece making news tonight as we knew she would because of what she is saying what she saw inside the