Transcripts For MSNBCW Andrea Mitchell Reports 20201001

Overwhelmingly public resources, overcrowding schools and inundating your hospitals. Trump advisers are telling nbc news the president squandered an opportunity at the debate by failing to make inroads with undecided voters, instead coming off as a mean and angry person while repeatedly interrupting joe biden and ignoring the debate prep that he should instead press biden on key topics like china. The debate and the polls are not the only problem for the president today. Our nbc First Read Team noting the Joe Biden Campaign nearly tripled the Trump Campaign in tv and radio ad spending for the month of september. Joining us now, nbc white correspondent Geoff Bennett and Msnbc National Political Correspondent Steve Kornacki at the big board. Geoff, the president told his rally crowd in duluth last night that he won big at the debate. But his close advisers and Top Republicans in washington are very concerned, according to all of our reporting. Reporter youre right about that, andrea, President Trump trying to rewrite recent history, giving himself high marks for his combative debate performance on the debate stage and on the rally stage last night in duluth and on twitter last night, the president tweeting, i won the debate big based on a compilation of polls et cetera. Its not clear what polls hes citing. The takeaway from the president s allies and aides, some of them who we talked to privately, is that he made the Campaign Climate even worse, both with his comportment on the debate stage and his refusal to directly denounce white supremacists, that if the debate was a chance to reset the Playing Field politically, it was a squander opportunied oppo. A few of the ways we know that publicly is the soft criticism hes getting from republican senators, the fact that his campaign, were told, didnt see the kind of fundraising immediately after the debate that they had hoped, and the fact that President Trump is now doing damage control, telling a group of reporters on the south lawn yesterday after the debate, well after the debate, that he doesnt actually know who the proud boys are and saying that they should stand down. The fact that the president says he doesnt know who that group is, is itself curious, because his own administration has said they are a dangerous White Supremacist Group and that such groups pose a Grave National security threat, andrea. Yet even as he was trying to clean that up on the south lawn talking to reporters, hours later in duluth, on the debate stage, as you mentioned, he was still stirring racist and xenophobic sentiment, suggesting joe biden wants to turn minnesota into a refugee camp. What he was referring to is minnesota has a Large Community of somaliamericans. And so even there, the president was still digging a whole for himself as many of his aides and allies see it. And a very prominent member, of course, ilhan omar, the democratic congresswoman, who he still goes after. Steve kornacki, the president is really trying to fire up the base that is mostly white americans. Youre seeing some problems for his Campaign Among those voters this time going. Yeah, i think one way to look at this is, take a look at the polling right now, this is the National Polling average. Where are the polls telling us things have changed demographically from 2016 . I think one thing to realize here is, its not in the democrats favor where things have changed with black and latino voters. This is where democrats and Hillary Clinton finished overwhelming victories with black and latino voters in 2016, this is where theres actually a little bit of slack in the democratic support, still overwhelming margins but you see less. Biden in the polls right now not doing quite as well with black and latino voters as Hillary Clinton did in 2016. Where democrats have made their gains then, if theres slack here, where democrats have made their gains is with white voters. 70 of the electorate in this country, seven out of ten votes cast nationally are from white voters. Trump won them by 17 points in 2016. And the polling right now has that cut more than in half. His margin. He leads still among white voters but he leads biden only by eight points among white voters. Thats the shift. Thats why joe bidens got that large single digit lead thats been steady, its the growth that biden has had among white voters relative to Hillary Clinton. Quickly, we can show you, theres two groups of white voters. These are demographically each very large here. College educated whites, whites without a degree. Thats been the core trump base there. White voters without a degree. Again, the difference from 16, its kind of the same movement in both groups. Look, from seven to 17 with College Educated whites, now big biden lead there. And trump still leading with noncollege whites but thats down nine points there, from 33 to 24, his lead. So theres slack for trump with noncollege whites and theres a much bigger advantage for democrats with college plus whites. Theres where the movement has been, thats why democrats are doing better now than in 16, its among white voters. And briefly, geoff, theres also word from the Debate Commission late yesterday that they are going to change the rules, theyre going to change rules, they havent said exactly how, thats speculation there might be some way for moderators to turn off the microphone if the president were to come in and decide to break all the rules from the beginning. Reporter thats right, the next president ial debate is a town hall format so the format itself would be different from what we saw. Yes, you even have the Debate Commission trying to update itself for the great many ways politics has changed in this trump era, andrea. Thanks so much to Geoff Bennett and of course the great Steve Kornacki at the big board. Joining us now, michael steele, former Republican National committee chairman, now a Senior Adviser at the lincoln project. And ron klain, Senior Adviser to the Biden Campaign and former senior aide to president obama, of course to Vice President joe biden. Ron, first of all, lets go take a look at some of the problems that the president is having with some of the undecided voters but also joe biden, where when he did strike back, when he bristled, some people didnt like that as well. Listen to what one ohio voter told nbcs kate snow. All President Trump needed to do was not interrupt and all biden needed to do was not copy that type of behavior. I think its completely inappropriate to say shut up, man to the president of the United States no matter who he is. Im happy that my children were not awake to see that. Now, ron, i know that, you know, like a schoolyard brawl between two kids, you could say, well, he started it. But is there any secondguessing or seconded thoughts about the way the Vice President responded . And i know undecided voters are a small cohort according to the polling i think, andrea, what were seeing is undecided voters overwhelmingly support the Vice President s work in that debate. And theres no two sides to this. The president of the United States stood on a stage and disrespected the Vice President s late son who served in the military and proceeded to attack his other son, his surviving son, for being a drug addict. I think the Vice President handled that with great equanimity and great restraint. I dont think theres anyone who could have stood next to the president who was spewing hate and divisiveness. I think the Vice President s response was appropriate. All the polls show the Vice President won the debate by 20 or 30 , that people think the trump performance was horrible, k chaotic. Answers the no surprise. Wh it was no surprise. We saw joe biden who stood up to that, spoke out on behalf of the needs to address our nations problems. I think voters saw in cleveland the choice in this race. How concerned are you about another matchup . I know that immediately the Biden Campaign said youre in it, youre not going to duck another debate. The president s campaign has been on both sides of this, subsequently saying that the rules are the rules and they cant be changed in the middle of the game. Yeah, look, i think that, you know, we agreed to do all three debates in june. Vice President Biden is looking forward to the town hall in miami coming up on the 15th of october and the debate in nashville after that. We had a good night, andrea. I think it was unpleasant for the country to see their president behave the way he did. But for the Biden Campaign, we got our message out. We had the largest fundraising day weve ever had the entire campaign in the 24 hours after the debate. And we got a lot of people to go to iwillvote. Com and sign up with their plans for how theyll vote and when theyll vote. I think that, you know, whatever kind of donald trump shows up at the next two debates, joe biden will be ready for that. I assume the president will comport himself better. But if he doesnt, joe biden will be ready for that too. And michael, to that point, the Biden Campaign outraising, outspending, more money in the bank still. What does President Trump have to do . Hes behind in the battleground polls. Hes the one that needed to turn around the trajectory in that debate and clearly he did not. No, he didnt. I think what he has to do is start by listening to the men and women around him who have actually run president ial campaigns and have actually scoped out a strategy, sort of assessing his opponent, joe biden, and recommending approaches and strategies to help him claw back some of those independent voters, some of those white suburban voters who peeled off of him, to reinforce his narrative with africanamerican and hispanic voters since they seem to think that particularly black men are going to buy what theyre selling. But thats hard to do when you have a guy who knows more than everybody else in the room. Thats hard to do when you have someone who gets on the stage and assesses the situation and decides in the moment that hes going to refute the rules that have been agreed to and go his own way. So there is no way to really plan for that. You can do all the strategy in the world, andrea, you know this, right . You can plan all day, but when you get in the moment and the person youre with decides to throw all your strategy out the window, what do you do . You sit back and you wait for the show to unfold as we saw the other night. And i think whether its a town hall meeting with citizens asking the question or the next president ial debate between him and joe with a moderator, the president is going to be his own person and his campaign is going to have to deal with the outcome, the fallout from that, accordingly. I want to play for both of you what the president said last night, all of a sudden, after the push amy coney barreback frn his party that he doesnt know who the proud boys are. You have to give me a definition, i dont know who they are. Reporter you said stand by, what did that mean . Just stand by. Look, Law Enforcement will do their work. Theyre going to stand down, they have to stand down. I misspoke there because, ron, that was on the south lawn, obviously, before going to that rally where he was going off on other tangents including those racial code words about the somaliamericans in minneapolis. So, you know, how do you deal with that in a debate . How do you plan and prep a joe biden for a debate when he was not allowed to finish his sentence and eventually occasionally did lose his cool but tried to get in whatever talking points he could . I thought there was remarkably little conversation about covid in that debate. There was a 15minute segment about covid where the Vice President laid out the consequences of the Trump Administrations failure and explained his plan for fixing it. The problem is not Donald Trumps debate performance. He can come into miami with a perfect debate performance. The problem is hes a failed president. The problem is 200,000 americans are dead from covid and hes going to be the first president since Herbert Hoover to leave office with fewer jobs than when he came in. He can behave better on the debate stage or worse on the debate stage. Its not going to change that reality. Joe biden is going to show up in miami. Hes going to answer the questions that voters have. Hes going to talk about his plans on health care, on the economy, on climate change, on other issues the voters talk about. Donald trump can do something the same, something different, apply the rules, break the rules, whatever he wants to do. The problem here isnt so much debate performance, its a failed performance as president. And to michael steele, even though republicans, a few, you know, both Mitch Mcconnell and tim scott spoke out against the proud boys comments on White Supremacy by the president , there is remarkably little comment from most of the republicans in the senate. I wouldnt categorize their comments from scott and mcconnell as speaking out against what the president said. Because they didnt mention the president. A, they didnt mention the president. B, he misspoke. Really . In the face of that, how do you misspeak when youre answering the question do you reject White Nationalism . How do you misspeak that . I look, the soft pedaling around trump is just old. You know, as americans, were tired of it. Its not even about being a republican or a democrat, being a conservative or a progressive or whatever. Were just americans and were just tired of it. Were tired of the mealy mouthed, you know, whataboutism. Were told about the poor explanations. So, yeah, it is what it is, and it stands on its own for what it is. Michael steele, ron klain, great to see both you guys, thanks very much. A new study shows President Trump is the single largest driver of coronavirus misinformation in the world. But first, past due. Speaker pelosi and secretary mnuchin still trying to come up with an agreement on another round of covid relief as thousands of Airline Workers are laid off today due to lack of funding. Thats next. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. Ways to keep. And at fidelity, youll get planning and advice to help you prepare for the future, without sacrificing whats most important to you today. Because with fidelity, you can feel confident that the only direction youre moving is forward. But a resilient business you cacan be ready for it. Re. A Digital Foundation from vmware helps you redefine whats possible. Now. From the hospital shifting to remote patient care in just 48 hours. 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This comes after the house delayed a vote on a 2. 2 trillion bill today in hopes of a last minute deal. Republicans say the price tag is still too high. Senate majority leader Mitch Mcconnell calling the proposal outlandish. Federal relief has already run dry as unity and American Airlines are furloughing 32,000 workers starting today. Both employees said they would call employees back if an aid bill is reached. One united Flight Attendant now worried about Health Insurance for himself, his mother, and two younger brothers amidst the pandemic. Four years ago, i thought this was going to be a lifetime career for me. And me being told last summer that i will be furloughed on october 1 was really heartbreaking. Meanwhile, coronavirus cases are on the rise in 28 states and the Labor Department announced 837,000 new weekly unemployment claims today. Joining me now is nbc news capitol hill correspondent garrett haake. Garrett, this relief is well past due. Where are the negotiations . Reporter i just spoke to the speaker in the hallway here, she was finishing up another interview. She says shes planning to talk to secretary mnuchin again this afternoon. Unclear if hes coming up here or if theyre speaking by phone. The reality is, despite the democrats coming up with a new offer, the white house appearing to move a little bit on their offer, theres still maybe 600 billion apart. This is not small change. These are big ideological differences in how and how important it is to address the needs of the American People who have been affected by this virus. At her News Conference earlier today, Speaker Pelosi elaborated on that idea about the values being different. I think this is important. Take a listen. Were looking at it from the standpoint of a family making 20,000 a year, a family of four. Theyre looking at it from the standpoint of 150 billion to the wealthiest people in our country. Thats why we not only have a dollars debate, we have a values debate. Still, im optimistic. Reporter andrea, i tried to follow up with the speaker about that optimism, where she sees hope in this, when the two sides arent agreeing on the scale of the problem, its hard to agree on the scale of the necessary solution. But she says negotiations will continue. She wouldnt put a hard deadline on it, despite the fact that weve now tripped over this october 1 deadline, another deadline for the negotiations have been blown through. It feels like to me theres an element of political hot potato here. If the negotiations fall apart and theres no new deal for a Coronavirus Relief deal before the election, nobody wants the blame for having walked away from the table with so many people suffering. Of course that table still includes meadows and mnuchin not always agreeing, and no President Trump. So its not exactly a fullcourt press among the negotiates. Reporter mmhmm. Garrett, thanks for staying on it. And the president claiming the election is rigged and that its already happening. Where is the evidence . Theres none to back him up, spoiler alert, none at all. More on the Misinformation Campaign coming up next. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. Their parents. Im having a big lunch and then just a snack for dinner. So were using a speakerphone in the store. Is that a good idea . One of the ways i do that is to get them out of the home. Youre looking for a grout brush, this is garth, did he ask for your help . No, no. No. We all see it. We all see it. He has blue hair. Okay. Blue. Progressive cant protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. Keep it coming. You dont know him. When you bundle with us. The lack of control whenover my business kai, made me a little intense. But now quickbooks helps me get paid, manage cash flow, and run payroll. And now im back on top. With koala kai. 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President trump ramping up false claims about the voting process as battleground polls show joe biden ahead. The president sparking fears of violence with his call for supporters to monitor polling stations for socalled fraud. In west virginia, the secretary of state there refuting the president s claim that a poll worker was selling ballots. And in philadelphia, the president falsely claimed during the debate that trump poll watchers were blocked from observing in pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Attorney general saying thats flat wrong. Satellite Election Centers are only open in philadelphia to register to vote or get a mailin ballot. This as a new study from Cornell University today shows that President Trump is the single largest driver of covid misinformation in english language media globally. Joining me now, victoria difrancesco soto, joel payne, and david jolly, former republican member of congress, and jeremy peters, political reporter for the new york times. Welcome, everybody. David jolly, first to you. The president is spreading disinformation about voting fraud again during the debate to 73 million americans who were watching. Thats a big megaphone. At the same time, youve got the attorney general william bar, youve got the head of intelligence, the dni, both trump appointees, reinforcing that with briefings and with disinformation. Andrea, its remarkable that as intelligence reports continue to show that there are overseas bad actors trying to influence voting behavior in the United States with misinformation about mailin ballots specifically, that the largest voice domestically with that same misinformation is actually the president of the United States. And it goes to these lingering questions as to why would the president engage in these types of behaviors that often align with the bad actors we see overseas and is it a question of ego or is it actually strategy. And when it comes to the election, do i think its a little bit of both. Certainly its ego, the president preparing for what would possibly be an electoral vote loss. I think hes laying the groundwork to contest the elections in very specific statements and ultimately try to replicate the 1824 election and use the 12th amendment to get this to the house of representatives. I do think that is something that the Trump Administration is beginning to wargame. You saw that nancy pelosi just this week was writing a Dear Colleague letter, sunday night i think, saying, you know, prepare and start working on those congressional districts in your states, because if it went to the house, it would be a vote of 26 republicans versus 22. Its arcane, but thats what it would be. David sanger was writing in had the times today, mr. Trumps unwillingness to say he would abide by the results and his Disinformation Campaign would be more than anything Vladimir Putin could have imagined. All mr. Putin has to do now is amplify the president s message which he has already begun to do. Joel payne, thats a big challenge for democrats. Well, it is. Look, you have, at you said earlier, the biggest purveyor of misinformation is the president. There are underrepresented communities around the country that the president is trying to tear away any remaining faith they may have that their vote counts. And i would just echo one thing that david said. The president is not acting confident. Just at the base level. Hes acting like a guy that thinks hes going to get his butt kicked. You look at polls out of places like South Carolina where Lindsey Graham is begging for money on tv because hes running neck and neck because the president is running neck and neck with joe biden. Yes, theres ego, yes, theres strategy, but at the base level hes acting like a guy who is about to get his lunch money taken from him. Take a look at the polls, which he was bragging last night that the polls are in his favor. Heres what people thought. If you look at the axios poll, the reaction there in an Axios Surveymonkey poll was that trump was acting was a bully, was acting childish, rude. Biden was weak, president ial, poor. So those are the sort of headlines, jeremy, coming out of there. Mmhmm. I think part of the problem is, andrea, that trump and his supporters, his core base of supporters, have really failed to consider the possibility that he might lose fair and square. Theyve considered the possibility that he could lose, but only if the election is stolen from him, because the number one rule in trumps political playbook or his business playbook, his playbook of life, is if donald trump is losing, somebody else has to be cheating. If youre a republican voter who is really invested in donald trump, think about the world you inhabit. Youve been spending years and years listening to stories of exaggerated cases of voter fraud which we know are exceedingly rare. Now you not only have a president who amplifies those false claims, but you have a social media ecosystem, facebook and twitter, that is not doing much to combat this misinformation. I mean, the thing that was so striking about that study that you referenced earlier was all of the bits of misinformation that still exist out there that are being pushed by foreign entities. And you have a president of the United States who is not listening to his Intelligence Community and who is saying, basically, yeah, this is right. Seeding this idea in the voters mind, in the trump voters mind, that the only way he can lose is if this is illegitimate. Because were facing a situation weve never faced before where it may be weeks and weeks before we know the true outcome of the electi election, which we faced in 2000, but never under these circumstances, we may not know the winner on election night, its a real tinder box. And in fact with so many mailin ballots and some not even being counted until election day in many states, its unlikely we will know the winner, unless its a complete landslide. Listen to what my colleague kate snow discovered going back to women voters in suburban cleveland, ohio about their debate reaction. They had been undecided before, some of them. Take a look at this. I was impressed with him because it cannot be easy to deal with someone like President Trump at all. I felt embarrassed as an american, honestly. These are the two people who are thats who wants to be the leader of our country. And some of these women were blaming, in kates reporting, were blaming both of them, victoria, not just the president for starting by breaking the rules, but both of them for namecalling. Andrea, lets go back and talk about why women are so important. We have been outvoting our male counterparts for close to 40 years now. So the women vote is a reliable vote. And its a bloc that has tended to go with the democratic party. Weve seen a gender gap also for decades. But in the suburbs and some of these places that kate was talking to the women, weve seen them switch back and forth. So its that independent, that swing voter unicorn. And the problem that trump has right now, andrea, is that in 2016, he won white n noncollegeeducated women and 44 of collegeeducated white women. Then when we got to 2018, we saw him lose five Percentage Points in both categories. So if you keep doing the math and you think that the trend continues, were going to see him on track to lose maybe a total of 10 Percentage Points of white women who were his solid bloc when we get to 2020. We know that minority women have stuck with the democratic candidate. Theyre going to vote for joe biden, both africanamerican and latinas. But for white women, trump needs them desperately and hes not speaking to them. He didnt speak to them at the debate. Throughout his policy agenda over the last four years, he hasnt spoken to them. This is an incredibly big weak spot for President Trump going into november. And of course all the data show that women are disproportionately affected, victoria, by covid, whether its working from home and also taking care of the home and Everything Else theyre doing, even if theyre homemakers being home, everyone else is home in the lockdown, and it is a lot more work, and their kids are home. So its the double whammy. We were hardest hit by the job loss. So theres a reason its called a shecession. Women are the highest unemployment rates. Latinas have the dubious honor of having the highest unemployment rate. At the same time, as you point out, theres no childcare. So many advances that women have made in the workplace have been erased, either theyve lost their job or they still have a job but they have to multitask, take care of the kids, home school. This is an election where women are feeling the heaviest brunt and theyll make their voice heard at the ballot box. Victoria, thanks so much. And to david jolly and joel payne and jeremy peters, thanks so much to all of you. Nbc news exclusive reporting. Dhs talking points directing officials to show sympathy towards the teen charged in the Fatal Shooting of two kenosha protesters. This is extraordinary. Julia ainsley is next. Stay with us. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. Im susan and im 52 and i live in san francisco, california. 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Joining me with her exclusive regulatory is nbc correspondent julia ainsley. Julia, this is pretty much extraordinary. These were detailed talking points, as i understand it. Give us the background here. Reporter thats right, andrea. So this was immediately in the aftermath of the shooting in kenosha, wisconsin, where Kyle Rittenhouse fatally shot two protesters. Dhs officials immediately got talking points telling them to be sympathetic toward rittenhouse, to say he was trying to protect Small Business owners, to remind viewers or anyone asking that his defense from his attorneys were that he was acting in selfdefense, and to look at him, against what the media was pushing, which they said was a narrative that he was a policeobsessed lone wolf. These were very specific talking points. As you can see, later the president mirrored a lot of these same talking points, that he was acting in selfdefense, that he was running away. Rittenhouse has now been charged with multiple homicides. Its an investigation thats playing out that the dhs has nothing to do with. The fact that there were Law Enforcement officials asked to even weigh in on this incident and instead of coming out and calling for calm, they called for more details on rittenhouse, they supported him, and showed this, this is an example of how the white house and dhs were in lockstep on the political messaging around this event. Its really extraordinary because, as you point out, they were not involved in the prosecution or the investigation. It wasnt their case. And for them to get involved at this detailed level, they were basically echoing what his defense lawyer was saying about selfdefense. Reporter yeah, its really interesting. And as i went back to look at what exactly these talking points were that emerged, officials were a little more careful than the white house had been, but whats clear here is how starkly different these talking points are compared to what were hearing from this administration on leftleaning groups, groups like antifa, we hear over and over again from people like mark morgan of can you say customs and border protection, what they would say about a trump supporter shows how differently these two groups are treated. Julia ainsley, great reporting, thank you so much. And the catholic vote is a very important vote any election time. Joe biden is looking to become the nations second catholic president since jfk as President Trump try to win votes for his Supreme Court nominee, obviously a devout catholic herself. This is Andrea Mitchell reports. We have a lot more coming up. Youre watching msnbc. A lifeti. And if youre troubled by falls and bleeds, worry follows you everywhere. 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This time President Trump is hoping to capitalize on his Supreme Court nomination of judge amy coney barrett, a Roman Catholic with a conservative judicial record, while joe biden, devout catholic, is hoping to become only the second catholic president after john f. Kennedy. Mark shriver is one of the cochairs of catholics for biden. Sister simone campbell, scuff director for lobby for catholic social justice. Simone, its been a while since weve been out there on the bus, its good to see you. It has. But were on a virtual bus right now. A virtual bus. And mark, you recently wrote for the catholic reporter that mr. Biden and mr. Trump have vastly different political bases but both are battling over religious latinos in places like florida and arizona and are talking to persuadable white catholics in the midwest in places like wisconsin and michigan. Mark, how important do you think the catholic vote is turning out to be . That was from the new york times, by the way, way, not yo personal i wanted to clarify that, too. Yes, thank you, andrea. Im sorry i interrupted you there. I think the catholic vote honestly is a big bloc. And i think what the article that i wrote and natural catholic reporter is about the concept of a bunch humility. It is decency. Its empathy. And you see these stories, you saw them with the young kid who stuttered at the convention and the article i wrote also talked about the efforts with the kid that had developmental disabilities. This guy really cares about people. And i hear it on our bus tour across the country im doing with Jennifer Garner where were talking to childcare workers. Overwhelmingly women and theyve not been heard in the past and joe has a great forum on reaching out, making sure theres investments in Child Care Centers across this country. And thats really whats important. How do we get this country back on its feet led by a guy who has humility and decency. Getting back to the article you wrote. You wrote about the Special Olympics when joe biden still managed to show up. Despite the busy schedule, as Vice President , when Sarge Shriver dirked, he was there at the church. And theres so many instances where he gave the eulogy, showed up for your mom. So he doesnt make a big deal out of it. Hes just there for people. Its, you dont see that often in politicians. They want to be front and center. They want to talk. When my mom died he slipped in a side door a note and asked to speak, and asked to talk to the press. And you see that consistently through his life. Not just with members of the shrivers and kennedys. Hes doing with this everyday people. People that hes interacted with. And i mentioned listening to the young man who had the stuttering problem like he did as a youth. Talking to Special Olympics athletes. We sata the tarmac for three or four hours. Flew to idaho because he made a commitment and stuck to the commitment. And athletes from all over the globe were thrilled the Vice President of the United States flew back. He sticks to his commitment, sticks to his word, has humility. Those attributes will resonate with people of all faith. Jews talk about they are tenets of the great religions to repair the world, to help common good. As a friend, hell do that as president of the United States. And thats whats really important. This country at this point in time. Well, sister simone, the secretary of state mike pompeo is in rome, at the vatican. Pretty much snubbed by the pope after he went against the popes position on china because he is so vigorous against china because of covid. And also met with those at the vat gan against pope francis. He really got political. Had a number of meetings today. Of course, ambassador gingrich, the ambassador there. Just seems to be a real attempt to politicize this and pope francis wasnt having any of it. Well, thats certainly true. Pope francis followed his regular practice of not meeting with dignitaries in advance of an election in a particular nation. But i think whats most disturbing to me is that secretary pompeo wants to create the vatican as an extension of u. S. Policy and has no knowledge, no awareness of the work of the vatican to care for those who are catholics within the chinese context. And if i could just add that, one of my sisters, a member of my religious community, our chinese sisters, she stayed behind after the revolution and ministered to her people. And ended up imprisoned in the mao regime and dying in prison. What pope francis has done with his negotiations, with the Chinese Government is to allow catholics to flourish in china. Yes, theres been give and take in this relationship, but in a sense hes doing what my sister, my the sister in my community, gave her life for. Is caring for chinese catholics. And secretary pompeos naive idea of what religious liberty is, is really, i think, a violation of the actual care for chinese catholics. And it has me gravely concerned that for political stunts, for electoral stunts, that this administration would promote something as this. Sister simone, so good to see you. Hope youll come back soon and mark shriver. Thats all we have time for today. Thank you both so very much and before we go, if you want to still listen because we have a very happy 96th birthday wish to jimmy carter. Now the longest living former president. Those 96 years have, of course, been filled with a life of Public Service and wonderful books. Today i remember our coverage of the carter presidency, including the camp david accord so significantly, the panama canal treaty, human rights efforts around the world and on a personal level, those christmases and thanksgivings at the carter home in plains, georgia. The annual Birthday Party the town is throwing there is out this year, of course, because of the pandemic, but perhaps next year for the big 97th. Until then, congratulations on 96 years, president carter. All good wishes from us to you and mrs. Carter for good health continuing as we look forward to next year and next october in person. That does it for this edition of Andrea Mitchell reports. Follow the show online, on facebook and twitte twitter mitchellreports. Chuck todd is up next. Wow. That will save me lots of money. This games boring. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. With spray moppingrk vacmop to lock away debrisuction and absorb wet messes, all in one disposable pad. Just vacuum, spray mop, and toss. The shark vacmop, a complete clean all in one disposable pad. But despite the rising pain and anguish made worse during the pandemic, Insurance Companies still refused to cover Mental Health and addiction treatment. Until now. Senator scott wiener went to work taking them on. Passing a law requiring the Insurance Industry to cover Mental Health and addiction treatment. Now more than ever, californians need Mental Health coverage. I wont let up until the stigma of Mental Health and addiction is finally over. If its thursday, stand by your man . Republicans are wringing their hands as the president is once again unable or unwilling to directly condemn neo fascist and white supremacists. The president is just getting pounded on the air waves by a Biden Campaign thats flush with cash and they are spending it freely. And wisconsins governor warns of a superspreader event as President Trump plans a massive rally amid a massive surge in covid cases and hospitalizations