Transcripts For MSNBCW Deadline White House 20200626

Today, two major new cases of men of color dying in confrontations with police. In colorado, the state attorney general will now investigate the death of 23yearold Elijah Mcclain at the hands of police back in 2019. Police said they were responding to a call about a sketchy person wearing a ski mask. He was walking home from a Convenience Store wearing headphones. I want to warn you, this video is upsetting. After an escalating confrontation, mcclain was put into a chokehold, given a sedative, apparently by emts and suffered cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital. He was later taken off life support and died. In tucson, a 22yearold died two months ago after officers responding to a call regarding Disorderly Conduct and again, we want to warn you, this video is disturbing. The Tucson Police Department Said officers did not use a chokehold, but admitted the officers violated guidelines by restraining mr. Lopez face down for 14 minutes. Lopez reportedly pleaded with officers, you hear him on the tape, pleaded for water, called for his grandmother and said he couldnt breathe before dying. Now, his relatives are calling for reform after hundreds of members of his community gathered for a vigil last night to show support for his family. Joining me now is vaughn hillyard, whos been closely following this story. Tell us the latest. Reporter chris, three officers that were involved in that restraint have since resigned. We should note, this was april 21st when this incident in the Early Morning hours took place. Carlos grandmother called the police and it was at that time in which the Police Showed up in which those 14 minutes right there, they greeted the man who was had cocaine in his system, he was found naked, but the first words out of his mouth were, im sorry, and he didnt put up a fight. At that point, they put the man on his chest on the ground. In the next 14 minutes as they attempted to handcuff the man they kept him chest down, throughout that video, he pleaded for water, he said, quote, i cant breathe. He called for his grandmother. 14 minutes into that video, the officer realized the man stopped breathing. Just this week the bodycam footage from one of those officers was released and what happened to carlos became event. I talked to the the police chief put forward his own message. The family doesnt accept that resignation. They want this Police Department to go in and transform the way it views cases like this in the future. I want to read for you part of that autopsy report. It says that, quote, cause of death is described as sudden cardiac arrest. With cardiac left ventricular contributing condition. The manner of the death is undetermined. Again, thats where the family pushes back, they said if it werent for those officers taking the life of their brother, son, he wouldnt have lost his life. Those officers resigned. T those family members last night saying, when they called 911 they were looking for help not for their son and for their father to be killed on the spot. Chris . Vaughn hillyard, thank you. We appreciate that update. Joining the conversation now is former u. S. Attorney paul butler, now a for fes so at the Georgetown School of law. Talk about the legal parts of this in a little bit, but theres horrifying. Theres your book, a horrifying sameness to this, you know, whether its george floyd with knee on his neck, 8 46 with pressure on his back and the words i cant breathe, i cant breathe. This is for i think a lot of people were seeing the way these patterns develop even though, paul, theyre in different parts of the country. Theres a sameness to what were seeing in a lot of these deaths. Down to the words i cant breathe. Thats what mr. Lopez said as the officers squeezed the life out of him. Theyre trained if they put something on phone, faced down on the ground, arms handcuffed behind the back, leaving that person in that position for a period of time creates a risk of death. Thats exactly what happened to mr. Lopez. Now, if these folks werent cops and they indicated that kind of criminal negligence they would be charged with manslaughter. But this new movement is about transparency and accountability for police officers. The concern i have beyond the individual in this case, this happened two months ago, chris, and the major just found out about it last week. Theres video the fact that the mayor didnt know about it until months after it happened indicates a real problem with transparency and, again, accountability. Yeah, and the mayor was on msnbc last night, not only did not she about it and the city council didnt know about it. They put in place a new rule, any time they have a situation like this they have to be informed within 24 hours. You have the case of Elijah Mcclain, that goes back to last year, and only now are people taking it seriously . Chris, the words he said, he said to those officers, respect my boundaries. Im an introvert. All he was doing was walking down the street in a ski mask. The 911 call literally said hes not committing a crime, i dont think hes dangerous, i dont think hes armed the Police Rushed him like a black man. Again, he hasnt done anything wrong. He doesnt understand why hes being attacked by the police and again, this situation escalates until death and theres sameness to this thats tragic. So, the president obviously, none of this i think would have been happening if not for the protests we have seen, the millions of people taking to the streets since the death of george floyd, but the president talked about the demonstrations last night on fox. I want to play some of what he said. Every night were going to get tougher and tougher and at some point theres going to be retribution. There has to be. Theyre vandals. Theyre terrorists in a sense. Talk about the impact of those remarks. Chris, the movement for black lives has resulted in the prosecution of many killer cops the movement for black lives is responsible for stakes right now changing their laws in ways that will make communities much safer, people who are protesting, people in this movement for black lives are reflecting american values, including equal justice under the law much more than the president reflects those values. Paul butler, i always appreciate having you on the program. Thank you so much. You have a great weekend. I want to make a promming note, joy reid is going to host a special hour tonight at 7 00 p. M. Called road to reform. Shell be talking to val demings, hakeem jeffreys. Coming up here, the rise in Coronavirus Infections is being driven by cases in younger people. Well get the latest on that, next. announcer carvanas had a lot of firsts. 100 online car buying. Car vending machines. 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We have a sense that this is going to go on for a while. I think, you know, theres definitely some Wishful Thinking that this would burn itself out over the summer but i dont think thats going to be the case. I think were going to have to live with for several months. Im hopeful that a vaccine can be available in december or january, and with mass vaccination, hopeful ly the pandemic will improved. I wont be surprise at all if we still have a number of cases over the next 12 months. That was a Critical Care physician warning that the coronavirus isnt going anywhere and that we could see cases well into next year. So, lets talk about everything, where it stands as we know it. Here are the facts right now more than 40,000 new cases reported here in the u. S. Yesterday. A record for the second straight day. So far more than a 125,000 americans have lost their lives to the coronavirus. More than 2. 5 million have been infected. In arizona, where hospitals are surging to near capacity, more than 30,000 cases are people between the age of 20 and 44, thats nearly half all of the cases in the state. Florida has the countrys highest percentage of senior citizens, but the median age of people testing positive has recently dropped from 65 to 35 in response the state suspended onpremise Alcohol Consumption today. Meanwhile the governor of texas has just closed most bars in the state and limited restaurant dining, as people younger than 30 represent a majority of cases in several counties there. I want to bring in dr. Michael anderson. Previo you know, doctor for such a long time we heard that this mostly was a disease mostly a virus that impacted old people. Now we have seen this change, to your mind, whats going on here . Is it complicated or just simply were seeing a lot of kids out at beaches and bars and thats what driving that. Its pretty straightforward, chris. This is a pandemic. I dont think about first wave, second wave or fall wave. This is virus before january of this year no one in the world had seen. No immunity to it. Its a very dangerous virus. How many millions of people have died from complications and no age is immune to this. In the children, multisystem inflammatory syndrome, but this pretty straightforward, this is a very dangerous novel virus, this isnt over. Masking, social distancing, handwashing, thats what we in the fight against this pearl harbor of our time if you will. So, today, the Vice President actually said it was encouraging that younger people account for more cases now, listen to what he said. Roughly half of new cases are americans under the age of 35, which which is at a certain level very encouraging news, as the experts tell us, because as we know so far in this pandemic, that younger americans are less susceptible to serious outcome of the coronavirus and the fact that were finding more younger americans who have contracted the coronavirus is a good thing. Well, i do you think its encouraging . Right after that, dr. Fauci came up and get one pal gets it and they pass it on, whats encouraging . Yeah, im not sure if its encouraging or not. I think we have not seen market increase in deaths lately, thats slightly reassuring but what makes these infected younger people, can then infect more and more members of their families or the general public. I think its a good that we havent seen spikes in mortality, but i agree with dr. Fauci, we still have a long way to go and what concerns me is with intensive care units in houston reporting almost 100 capacity with florida ramping up, i dont think we can become complacent in the fact that younger folks are getting infected. I dont think theres a lot of solace there. One of the other things that Vice President pence would not do today is say wear mack. Listen to what Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell had to say. Until we find a vaccine, these are really important. This is not as complicated as a ventilator. And this is a way to indicate that you want to protect others. And we all need, during this period, until we find a vaccine, to think of us as protecting not only ourselves, but others during this highly vulnerable period. And hes holding up the mask and hes saying its very simple. That is the part of this very complicated pandemic and so much we still have to learn about it and so many things, there you go. Thats the simple part, right . Thats the easiest part of this. Wear a mask. It really is. And it cant be political. It is really straightforward. Do you care about your fellow american citizens . This is to protect both me, i touch my face less. Im more cognizant of when im touching my face, but this is to prevent the spread to others so that big spike in folks in their younger age group, wearing this mask, once again, its not political. It says i truly care about preventing the spread of this. And hand washing, social distancing and masks, thats what we have right now. Its really straightforward and the data is irrefutable that this prevents the spread, period. Dr. Michael anderson of ucsf childrens hospital. As people head into their weekend, its not a bad thing to give them that message one more time. Up next, the house of representatives is taking the historic first step toward making washington, d. C. , the 51st state. Back after this. The 51st state back after this. So, no more night sweats. 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We work together. We innovate and create. We meet up and get to work. We find our way forward. Every time. This has been the key to our survival, the key to our growth that whenever we thought we were at our weakest, this is when we became the strongest, became the best version of ourselves, and found our way home. Together. Masimo. Together in hospital. Together at home. History and the house of representatives as they pass a bill to make washington, d. C. , the 51st state, but with Mitch Mcconnell and President Trump both very much against the effort, its success in the house today is probably as far as it will go. Joining me now from capitol hill is nbc news correspondent, leanne caldwell. Did the house Vote Along Party Lines . They did in the sense that all republicans voted against it. There was one democrat who voted against it. One of the most endangered democrats coming from a very red trump district. He joined the republicans but by and large, this is something very popular among democrats. The last time it was voted on in the house was 1993, where it did not pass, so 25 years later, r democrats are saying this is a huge success. Now you mentioned that its going to go nowhere in the senate. Absolutely right. Republicans are adamantly opposed to this. They say its because of reasons it should go through the constitution, but u in reality, its a very political issue. D. C. Is about 85 to 90 democrat. So if they got representation in congress, that would most likely be two democrat senator, democratic member and the house of representatives and republicans are not going to go for that. Thank you so much and thank you for spending this hour with us. Im chris janising. Led ded line white house begins right after this. D ded line whi right after this for small prices, you can build big dreams. Spend less, get way more. Shop everything home at wayfair today. 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Were providing affordable Internet Access to low income families through our internet essentials program. And this summer, xfinity is creating a Virtual Summer camp for kids at home all on xfinity x1. Were committed to helping all families stay connected. Learn more at xfinity. Com education. Its 4 00 in the east. Im Peter Alexander in today for nicole wallace. As the coronavirus surges, reaches alarming level, signs of swipt reopenings by the president adopted by governors in some of the resd of states may be backfiring. Texas and florida today rewinding their reopenings. The governors ordering bars closed once again as daily cases and hospitalizations in both states continue to break records. Cases in the u. S. Surpassing 2. 4 million. Tot totals increasing in 30 states. The death toll surpassing 125,000. All of it of course leaving the president on a steadily shrinking island still down playing the scope of the threat in just the last 24 hours even as the warning signs continue to pile up. Here he is last night blaming testing once again. So we have more cases because we do the greatest testing. If we didnt do testing, wed have no cases. If you have a kid with the sniffles and they say its coronavirus, whatever you want to call it, i said the other night, there are so many names to this, i could name 19 names. Setting a aside the kid with sniffles is nothing to dismiss because a mild virus disease for one person can quickly turn deadly when it spreads to someone else. Take that childs parents or grandparents. On the substance of trumps claim that increased testing is to blame for the surge, the president was fact checked today by the scientists that make up his own Coronavirus Task force, the one the president considering disbanding a few weeks ago, suggesting the worst of the virus was behind us. Its been nearly two months since the last Task Force Briefing and in those two month, the u. S. Death toll more than doubled. More than 70,000 lives lost in two months. Today, dr. Fauci warned about tseverity of the crisis and goig so far as to plead with people in allstates, no matter where they are on their curves, to pull back and be more responsible when it comes to social distancing. This resurgence of cases, i dont think theres time enough now all day to try and analyze and figure out the multifaceted elements that went into that. You know, everything from maybe opening a little bit too early on some to opening a t the righ time but not actually following the steps in an orderly fashion to actually try iing to follow e steps in an orderly fashion, but the citizens didnt feel they wanted to do that for a number of reasons, likely because everyone feels the common feeling of being pent up. You have an individual responsibility to yourself. But you have a societal responsibility because if we want to end this outbreak, this is part of a process that we can be either part of the solution or part of the problem. A resounding reminder of the stakes now. The importance of heeding social distancing guidelines at this fragile moment in the pandemic. But even that message was not allowed to stand on its own in the era of trump. Within that briefing, more mixed messaging. Vice president mike pence echoing President Trumps talking points on test, celebrating despite the evidence, this flat curve and defending the president s crowded indoor rallies in some of the hardest hit states in the country. Heres the Vice President pressed on the hypocrisy. It really dusounds like you saying do as we say, not as we do. Youre telling people to listen to local officials, but in tulsa, you defied local officials to have an event where dozen of secret Service Agents and staffers are now quaurn tee ed after positive tests and in arizona, you packed a church with young people who werent wear a iing masks, so how can y say that the campaign is not part of the problem that dr. Fauci laid out . Well, i want to remind you again that the freedom of speech and right to peaceably assemble is enshrined in the constitution of the giants yooits ayooits an health crisis, the American People dont forfeit or rights. And joining us, peter baker, plus Global Health policy expert and medical contributor, dr. Gupta. Andstoddard peter, its hard for the Vice President , this administration, to argue that they arent doing one thing and saying another. Thats right. They have wanted to be able to say this was behind them so they can move into Campaign Mode and restoring the economy and the facts arent cooperating. The president , a few days ago, had a tweet in which he said we did a great job with the coronavirus. That was past tense. And in fact, we see the coronavirus hasnt yet gone away, even close to it, especially p now in these Southern Western States seeing these extraordinary spikes. So youve got to Vice President , who probably knows better, but is feels caught between not seeming to contradict his president , where he made a pattern of three years of not doing so, and yet not trying to you know, expose himself to the kind of ridicule that has greeted President Trump with some of the things hes said. You know, its an awkward place for this administration to be because there are plenty of people inside the administration who understand this is a serious problem. Not just for these states, but for the country as a whole. If they want the economy the to rebound, they have to have the virus under control because businesses and workers arent going to respond if they think the virus is still not under control. So to the extent they have the economy as their number one priority, its not helped if the virus remains rampant in these states. Youre right. You see that contrast where its the Vice President s loyalty at times appearing to trump, the facts, as we know them. Dr. Gupta, let me ask you, if i can, about where we are right now in this pandemic and i want to put a chart up on the screen for folks to see right now. This shows the United States, the european union, it shows canada and it shows australia. The u. S. There in black is the one with the peak. Again, at the end. So i guess as you look at this, you see the bell curves for those other locations. You see us with this plateau after the first peak and now a rise again. How can the Vice President , how can this administration argue that we have flattened the curve . That we have slowed the spread when you see these figures in front of you . Peter, i wish i could explain the rationale in terms of messaging and how better to understand for the American Public translate what the Vice President s thinking. But i cant. Because its unthinkable. That graph youre showing there is part of a larger story, which is that the infection growth rate for coronavirus is increasing in 32 of 50 states. Nationwide. And unlike in march when i think most of us took this seriously, broader American Public, now youre seeing a poll showing that four in ten americans are wearing in the mountain west, masks when they go out in public. The highest rate of masek wearing is in the northeast at 64 . Masks are only effective if nine and ten individuals wear them nationwide. Theres a tenuation of public will and cooperation with what we know is going to work. We have awful messaging on personal, individuality and free speech from the president and the Vice President today. Bad behavior modeling. They dont ever wear masks in public. And this is the explanation here. So youre basically having a public thats just not willing to deal with it anymore at scale. Youre having worsening statistics as you just showed. So what were going to see is icu beds fill up. I was in the icu a few days ago. Thats what i saw. Youre seeing that in houston. Arizona, youre going to see it in california. So were in a much , much more dire situation than we were in march. We need leadership. We definitely dont have it. You made the point about masks that i would make as well. Striking. A lot of people noting the Vice President today given the opportunity several time, urged americans to pray, but never to wear those masks that you say can only have an impact if nine and ten americans are doing it. Right now. One of the other arguments this administration has made is that the reason were seeing the cases go up is because the tests are going up, but that ignores the fact that the infection rates are rising rapidly as well. Nothing that was happening in hospitals. Is that a Fair Assessment . Peter, this is all a distraction. Its all a distraction so we arent talking about things that matter. To your point, the infection growth rates rising. Thats all that matters. Hospitalization numbers are increasing. Icu beds are being taken up in very dense populations a across texas and florida. Americans are possiblily going to lose their lives because they dont have access to health care. The number of tests for confirmed cases, we test 12 individuals for confirmed case. Countries that have gotten this right, new zealand tests 270 individuals per confirmed case. Estonia, about 70. South korea, about 90. Thats what matters here. We have too narrow of a focus on our testing. Thats why the administration wants to talk about aggregate numbers. It matters who youre testing and how much. Were not doing it enough. Thats what we need to focus in on. And a. B. , lets bring you in here as we look at the sound we played from the president. Just down playing the situation, saying that you know, its all because of test iing at this point. Say thag the threat is not all that significant. He said i cant name how many times ive been in the white house in recent weeks that its dying out our fading away or the like right now, but it becomes increasingly clear this sort of defiance, stunning as it may be, is put iting the president in ts position where he is as we noted, on an island, where the cases keep surpassing him and he wants to focus almost exclusively on other things, most notably, the economy. Right. Dr. Gupta put it nicely to say that starts as a distraction to say that increase in tests is producing now infection reports. Its gaslighting. With the surging in hospitalizations and positivity rates, this is a dangerous thing to do and the president s done this all along with testing. Dr. Gupta also talked about these other countries and testing per capita. Were still not testing our population. I checked this morning. Were still behind 25 other countries. Huge improvement from two months ago when we were behind 48. The president says were this best in the world on testing and the only thing youre seeing on tv is an increase in testing. The idea that this administration is anti mask and anti federal authority and Contact Tracing is so alarming weve forgotten to be outraged about it. When you see Vice President pence, who you know, peter, clearly was trying to walk a line today, where he was, when he was asking for prayer, you could see how earnest his pain was, but he could not even say the word mask. He used cloth or covering or something because he has to tow the company line. Whats an amazing thing to see is that only Mitch Mcconnell and james mattis, and the former Vice President , dick cheney, saying in essence to the public, were in so much danger now. This is spiralling outfa inling control and the president has forfeited his responsibility to lead on this. That were going to do this psa on masks. I think that says it all. Liz cheney, the daughter of the former Vice President , dick cheney, even tweeting a picture of her father wearing a mask with a hash tag that said, real men wear masks. What struck me as much anything today was the fact this briefing even took place. Now approaching two months since the last one. Since we said from the start, there have been 70,000 more americans lives lost during the course of that time. What do you make of the fact that happened . Does that acknowledge theres a a serious problem as dr. Fauci said today, and also the fact it happened at hhs, the Health Department as opposed to the white house. Does that have anything to do with the fact that they dont want the president to be a part of these . I thought that was the most notable part of it. We went through briefing after briefing, night after night, with the president of the United States for weeks on end at 5 00 more or less as the president was taking it seriously to some extent and presenting himself as the major voice of the government and nation in our fight against this invisible enemy, but yesterday or todays briefing, he didnt want to be a part of, obviously. He could have if he chose to. It wasnt at the white house. It wasnt involving the president. It was at hhs. The president was going to go to bed minister for the weekend. Chose not to. A state in new jersey telling people from out of state not to come unless theyve quarantined for 14 days. So you see a president that doesnt want to be the base of this anymore. He doesnt want to be associated with this. Its a remarkable you know shift many the sense. You know, at least in march and april when he was doing these briefings, he was questioned day in, day out by reporters. He didnt always give the answers Public Health experts would have given but you asked a lot of questions that went to the heart of this issue and he was forced to answer them or not as he chose to. Today, he wasnt even willing to come out there and confront the country including and especially the red states who support them. The president was tweeting about coronavirus crisis. He was tweeting about his concerns about the agitators or terr terrorists who were responsible for the effort for trying to pull down one of the memorials in front of the white house. A. B. , let me ask you about another big headline. This is the Trump Administration trying to strike down the Affordable Care act saying if the individual mandate that the whole thing needs to be thrown out, notably, this came on the very same day there were government figures that showed close a half million, roughly 500,000 americans signed up for obama care on the chanexchanges they have lost work due to the recession and virus. A 46 jump over just a year earlier and then yet the president and his administration is taken on obama care right now. This is confounding. Many republicans in his party who were trying to run for reelection typically in the senate, because even though the administration joined this lawsuit with other state, many, many months ago, there were hoping it was for the issue and the Supreme Court was going to take it up after the election which was a lucky break for them. Look, this is an issue of the Affordable Care act. The democrats were on the defense on in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016 and on offense on this issue in 2018 and its why they won. The most important issue in this election that no one talking about is health care. The figures you cited shows how much more the stabilization of the Affordable Care act that democrats are talking up means to voters now in a pandemic who have lost their health insurance. Republicans did not are repeal. They did not replace and theyre vulnerable. Thats why democrats are spending a lot of money on the ground even though were talking about other things to make sure that voters know who are health care insecure, that democrats stand to stabilize and that the administration is trying to obliterate it and destabilize the entire system. It would be devastating. Nancy pelosi describing it as an act of unfathomable cruelty. Last question to you, dr. Gupta. Quickly. The Vice President , former Vice President , joe biden, trying to make this sort of a contrast over compassion. Selling a very different approach, even suggesting as president , he would mandate it so that all americans in public should be wearing a mask. I thought that was a smart decision. Ill take it a step further. We should find an american that chooses not to wear a mask just like we would do with indoor smoking. We need to enforce it. We just cant say lets mandate it. We need to have an enforcement mexico. Im glad the former Vice President did that. Dr. Gupta, peter baker, we appreciate you helping us start things off on this friday afternoon. When we come back right here, the wall street Journal Holding little back, asking if donald trump is even capable of proving that hes worth a second term. And new comments from President Trump himself show they might have a point. Plus, well go to one of the nations biggest hot spots. The state of florida. After the governor appeared to take a victory lap in containing the virus, the state now hitting a new daily record of cases. Were going to speak live to the mayor of miami and sew iing the seeds of doubt about Election Results in november. All those stories are coming up. All osthe stories are coming up. How about no no uh uh, no way come on, no no nnnnono only discover has no annual fee on any card. 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. The wall street journals Editorial Board writes that trump lacks the awareness to prove himself to voters. Quote, he may need a new nickname for sleepy joe biden. How does president elect sound . It says as of now, the president has no second term agenda. His cent events in tulsa and anthony were dominated by personal grievances. He resorted to his familiar themes from 2016 like immigration and denouncing the press, but offered nothing for those who arent already persuaded. And speaking of a second term agenda, the president was asked by his fox news ally, sean hannity, yesterday, what his pyre priorities would be. Take a listen to President Trumps answer. I never did this before. Never slept over in washington. I was in washington i think 17 times. All of a sudden, im president of the United States. I didnt know many people in washington. I was from manhattan, from new york. Now i know everybody and i have great people in the administration. You make some mistakes like an idiot like bolton who all he wants to do is drop bombs on everybody. So with just a little more than four months to go until election day, the president hasnt clearly been able to say what he would do if hes reelected. Joining us, reverend al sharpton and president of the National Action network. Plus, former Top State Department official and author of information wars, rick stangel. Rick, let me ask you out of the gates, as we said, this should be a home run for candidate. Youre sitting there with an ally. Youre on National Cable television. Youre asked what do you want to do if youre president for four more years and yet, for this president , there doesnt seem to be a clear answer. Yes, peter, the classic example of this was ted kennedy in 1980 when he was asked by roger mudd why he was running for president and he couldnt explain it. But ted kennedys answer sounded like it was from the federalist papers compared to Donald Trumps answer. Donald trumps agenda has been the same. Three things. Me, me, me. Thats all he can talk about. He doesnt even understand the question of what a second term agenda is because he has no agenda other than himself. Other than his own grievances as the wall street journal said. He has no policy. Its interesting that he just doesnt understand and people are caught into this, that he doesnt understand what governing is. He knows that he can campaign. He knows he likes to give speeches but he has no idea about governing. Three fourth of americans are giving him very bad points on how hes handled the coronavirus. And rev, let me bring you in if i can. We look at recent polling and it seems that americans have sort of clairified their opinions about the president , certainly over the course of the last several months. Among them, the poll numbers from fox news now, that show nationally, the president is trailing joe biden. In some cases, by double digits. Even fox news again. Thats fox. The president s home team network so to speak, has him down 12 points right now. The president seems to be running in 2020 a lot like he did in 2016, but the circumstances are different and so is his opponent right now. Is he sort of miscasting the situation hes in right now or is it just clearly that most americans kind of recognize what his stick is as one source described it to me . I think hes not only miscasting what he is looking at, i think the fact is that and i dont often agree with the wall street journal, he has nothing but grievances. He has no agenda. He wants to end obama care. He has yet to present what a Health Care Plan from trump would be. He wants to call all of those that protest, call of us anarchists and all, but hes yet to address then what do we do about policing or criminal justice. And on and on and on, its hard when you have created the mess hes in to come up with a coherent message and i think even when he has a friendly interview or like sean hannity is, he cant even fathom what to say so he goes around talking about how many nights he spent in washington. What are you talking about . Youre the president of the United States. He was good at running against something. Demonizing the clintons. Demonizing obama. But when youre the incumbent, you cant run like you are the opposition party. You are the president. Why should we keep you . What is your message . What are you going to continue doing . Thats what we ought to be selling but he know he cant sell it. Were in the middle of a pandemic that if he had acted earlier, we might not be as deeply as were in. Now the states he has depended on are now being hit the hardest. They are also showing in the polls him losing support so hes in wonder land and dont know where to go. And rev, you know, we know as well as anybody right now, the president has relied on his base from the very start, 3840 as it is. They know they need to expand that or o certainly rally that base and others to be competitive when it comes to the general election this fall, but politico writes that the president and his campaign cant even seem to get on the same page as it relates to minority voters. They write in part the president has advanced policies, gone off script in interviews or lashed out on twitter in way as that contradict his own campaigns attempts to slice into the democrats advantages with africanamericans, Asian Americans and hispanics. Some trump allies blame a lack of coordination between the white house and the campaign. The president did better than some expected with africanamericans. Hes been touting the Unemployment Rate as it was before this recession with Asian Americans and others. How significant will those mi r minority communities be . I think theyll be very defining because i think that that is where turnout is going to be. Many of them are are have been the target of not only his words, but of his deeds. We are now at, black unemployment now is as high as its been in many years in the middle of this pandemic and we are the ones that were found to have the most medical problems in terms of being found positive with coronavirus disproportionately. So i think when you look at that and when you look at either white americans that are dealing with loved ones that are sick and hes using racist terms like saying kungfu rather than dealing with the severity of the matter, its not cute no more. Its not funny anymore and he cant just bait people with racist quips. Hes going to have to learn how to govern because he doesnt know how and he does not have time to have a crash course. Yeah, that phrase Kellyanne Conway described as highly offensive to a reporter before she later heard the president use that phrase out loud at a series of his rallies and public events. Rick, to you on the president today, we talk about the mixed messaging and inability to get on a single page. The desire today was to talk about how the task force out there, how they are seriously addressing this crisis in the country, but even as the Vice President stood before National Television cameras, the president was on twit ter focusd on a different topic. Whacking, taking a series of swipes at some of those individuals who are being pursued for vandalism of federal property. Focusing again on that issue related to the Andrew Jackson statue out in frochbt the white house, that has been dividing so many americans. The argument over the con federal flag, statues and Police Reform and racial justice. Yeah. Its very sad, peter. I mean its the same old song. Hes not even running on nixon in 68. Hes running on George Wallace in 1968. All of these things are not even dog whistles of racism. Theyre clarion calls of racism. Megaphones of racism. Yesterday, he said yeah, we need to military to prevent rioters from coming to the white house. A, its implicitly racist. B, it shows he thinks of the military as his personal guarding force. One of the things were seeing and reverend sharpton mentioned this, its not only just africanamericans that are you know, are very much against him or hispanics or Asian Americans. Its older white people. Joe biden is doing 20 points better among older whites against donald trump than Hillary Clinton did. You know, you cant expect him to get young people. You cant expect him to get people of color, but the biden key on his kind of Front Porch Campaign is that a lot of these folks that voted against Hillary Clinton and not for donald trump will be like well, bidens fine. Im going to socievote for him against this guy who has shown no leadership on Police Violence and racism. No leadership on the coronavirus. Biden has to be better and by the way, hes a man of empathy and thats what we need right now. Rev, front porch, is that the place biden should stay . Its working. If i was biden, i would not let him try to bait me out of the basement or the front porch because i would give him automatic tall the room to beat himself. Theres no one beating donald trump better than donald trump. Give him room. I was told by the old minister when i was a younger activist, if you see someone on the edge of a cliff about to go over, give him room. Dont turn what is a suicide into a homicide. Let him do it on his own. Reverend, rick, we appreciate you spending some time with us. Wishing you both a good weekend. After this break, floridas plan to reopen colliding with the reality on the ground. Cases there are exploding. Were going to speak to the mayor of miami, next. 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And until this fight is over, we. Will. Never. Quit. Because they never quit. The state of florida got pretty lucky when the coronavirus first arrived. There was not significant spread, at least initially. Now, however, it is a a very different picture. The state today reported a record setting 9 thousand new cases in the last 24 hours. Nearly quarter of all the cases that florida has seen that have been reported in the last week. So their plan to reopen has now changed. Alcohol consumption at bars is now suspended as officials look for ways to alleviate the exploding case load. We want to bring in the miami mayor who survived his own bout with coronavirus. I appreciate you being with us to walk us through whats going on in your community. Let me walk through these numbers. Florida has now record ed more than 29,000 new infections. Nearly quarter of the states total of confirmed cases have taken place, have been reported, in just the last week. A lot of these as we heard today, from that Task Force Briefing happening among some of those youngest americans. A lot of people that flock to the beautiful weather and beaches of miami right now. How is your strategy changed in the course of the last week or so . Well, the first thing that we did based on the numbers, which were disturbing even in miami, was we implemented a mask in public rule. This week, we just finalized that order yesterday. We also had an emergency ordnance of the City Commission associating fines with, with the fact that you must wear the mask. If you dont wear the mask the first time, you get a warning, third time, its 150 and fourth time, its a 500 fine. And let me walk you through if i can, obviously, among the populations disproportionately hit have been the minority communities. Africanamericans, latinos. Weve talked a lot about the racial divides this virus has exposed. Among latinos, they make up 18 of the population. But they account for 34 of the coronavirus cases nationwide. Miami, obviously, a robust latino population. There. Do you see the same disparity . What do you attribute that to and what can be done to combat it . We absolutely do see it. We have three zip codes in particular in miami, which are the highest rising zip codes. 33125, 26 and 33142. What ive been doing this week, today, also, was ive been doing out and giving out thousands of masks in those zip codes. Want to make sure that people have the ability to protect themselves. Oftentimes, its expensive, it takes forever. They dont know where to procure them. And so what weve done is weve gotten some private donations, hundreds of thousands of masks that have been donated to the city and i went out there personally and started giving out masks on monday and today. And mayor suarez, this surge is obviously resulted in some new eyes, fresh criticism of the states republican governor, who received a lot of praise early on, much of it coming from the white house, from President Trump. Heres something that the governor of florida said just a matter of weeks ago. Take a listen. You got a lot of people in your u profession who wax poetically for weeks and weeks about how florida was going to be just like new york. Wait two weeks, floridas going to be next. Just like italy, wait two weeks. Well, hell, were eight weeks away from that and it hasnt happened. I was the number one landing spot from tens of thousands of people leaving the number one hot zone in the world leaving to come to my state. So weve succeeded and i think people just dont want to recognize it because it challenges their narrative and assumption so they got to try to find a bogeyman. Maybe its the black helicopter circling the department of health. So now it appears to be happening in the state of florida. Something nobody is rooting for. Wed love the see the e rad kag of this, but how do you grade, assess, what youve been seeing coming from state leaders from the governor and others there in fact maybe getting out ahead of this and opening too quickly . Yeah, the city of miami was a city that opened up, that in other words, you know, the governor gave us the ability to open at our own pace and every single metric that we looked at prior to opening showed that our cases had reduced themselves to a very, very low level. For 30 consecutive days, which is twice as long as as the criteria required. I think the problem were having is as we open is the behavior. I think thats why were requiring masks in public and people are just, when we allow things to open, they just went out and pretended like you know, like this virus didnt exist. And so, thats why were doing the mask in public and thats why you know, were finding people who dont abide by the rules. You know, so i think, i think our Biggest Issue right now is making sure that we can address the behavior and that our residents understand that were in this together. If we dont pull together, were going to have major issues with our Hospital Capacity and were going major issues going forward. Yeah and its clear that we may have been premature in thinking this thing was behind us. We got a long way to go is what we have seen over the course of the last couple of days and weeks. Always nice to visit with you. We appreciate your perspective and for spending some time with us. And after this break, donald trump going one step further in his crusade against mail in voting. His latest comments with a hint of irony. Next, live, on deadline white house. Next, live, on deadline white house. We miss you. Like real bad. We cant wait to get you back so weve added temp checks, face coverings, social distancing and extra sanitizing to get the good times going again. Were finally back. And cant wait until you are too. I dont have to worry about that, do i . Are irritated. Harmful bacteria lurk just below the gum line. Crest gum detoxify, voted product of the year. It works below the gum line to neutralize harmful plaque bacteria and help reverse early gum damage. Gum detoxify, from crest. For spending a perfectly reasonable amount of time on the couch with tacos from grubhub . Grubhubs gonna reward you for that with a 5 off perk. doorbell rings [crowd] grubhub fireworks exploding zblncht i think its the most important question. Now we have a mail in thing. Russia, china. Especially china. Not russia. Especially china. Are they going to print millions of ballots using the exact same paper . Using the exact same machines and are they going to print ballots then hand them in . Its not every day you hear President Trump fret about foreign influence in our elections but its apparently top of mind in the conversation surrounding mail in voting. A mechanism his administration has held up as a threat to free and fair elections. And joining us now talk about it, the former congressman and msnbc political contributor, david johnson. David, let me ask you about this, if i can. We saw the president there in the fox news town hall surrounded by his ally, sean hannity and a series of trump voters in the room and when one brought up mail in voting, he said this is the most important question. Weve heard the president talk about Election Fraud despite such limited evidence that it has existed. Certainly not widespread, but isnt is logical conclusion of this at the end of the day, the president is setting himself up to complain or dispute the results of an election just four monts away . . Thats right. He has a singular strategy, to delegitimize the election should he lose. There are a couple of tells in this of why that is his strategy. The first is youre president of the United States. Fix it. And frankly for all republicans who are following his lead, the optics of this for republicans are terrible. Theyre trying to reduce voters access to the ballot box when they could tame take the same issue and show leadership on election security. Fix it. Invest in state infrastructure for elections. Republicans dont want to do that because this is a political argument not a policy argument. The other tell i would say is look at the states he goes after. He likes to pick on democratic states. The state of florida, the nations Third Largest state, has one of the third highest satisfaction rates with vote by mail. Most voters have now begun to adopt it. They are happy with it and guess what . It voted for donald trump in the last election and the governor is a good buddy of Donald Trumps. He wont attack florida over mail in balloting and doesnt want to change it going into november because again, this is a political argument, not a policy argument by the president. So david, is that faununctiof the fact that so many in florida are seniors . Like theres no evidence either that mail in balloting would hurt the president. A lot of seniors, many of those who may have supported white men and women, who may have supported him four years ago, they may be disinclined to go to the polls because theyre worried about their own personal safety. Look, to your point, statistically, it does not indicate if it turns democrat or republican. What we know is for states with senior populations like florida, we see a high adoption rate. It is more convenient for them. Some of these adults are shut in. Cannot quet to the voting booth. We also see it with High Percentage of military voters in florida and now in the covid19 environment as Public Health matter as well and oh, by the way, donald trump is a florida resident, voted by mail, and so did his press secretary. So if its good enough for him, it should be good enough for every american in all 50 states. One of the things that was striking in the conversation the president had last night on fox news was him sort so of worrying about foreign interference. Not about the russians, but he made clear it was about the chinese, suggesting again without evidence, that theres the possibility they might try to produce tons of counterfeit ballots here to sort of flood polling places around the country right now. Did it strike you to hear the president talking about potential for foreign interfeerngs but not the way most americans think about it . Yes, because as you said, with all of the top intelligence officials in the country ever since he was inaugurated confirming that we were attacked by the russians in our 2016 president ial elections and many of them have since confirmed that we are under attack by russias in the 2020 election along with some other countries as well, the president has never bought into that. Hes fought it pretty hard, so it is interesting. Although china right now, as we know, is sort of a convenient punching bag for the president. And he likes to use the specter of this very chinese government. Hes backed up against the wall about the coronavirus. It is an amazing thing. On his charge against asking ballots and vote by mail, you were talking about florida. A vote for florida is a state that is the poster child for republican vote by mail. They, more, maybe the criteria of absentee ballots, are fewer democratic ones are discarded so hes disenfranchising his own voters and secretaries of states know that and theyre trying to quietly expand vote it is a, on the ground, this only helps democrats if theyre able to expand it. It will keep Republican Voters at home. And this conversation, of course, is the role played by the attorney general william barr. He spoke to npr. He said im talking about a comprehensive rule where all the ballots are essentially mailin. There are so many occasions for fraud there that cannot be policed. I think it would be very bad. One of the things i mentioned was the possibility of counterfeiting. The question was, did you have evidence to raise that specific concern . No. Its obvious. Talk about the role of william barr as the president s ally on this fundamental issue. It is amazing that he is doing interviews what he would never do in a courtroom. And evidencefree assertions are common in the Trump Administration. President trump does it all the time but it is stunning to see william barr do it. And if it is an amazing thing to see if you look at all the things hes been doing, interviewing in cases, on the president s behalf, to join in this narrative that the president is setting you as david said to question the results afterwards, after the facts, is really scary. We all know from people looking at different rules for vote by mail that we are probably not going to know on Election Night who the president is. It will take days, maybe even weeks. Thats the kinds of thing bill barr should be telling americans now instead of delegitimizing the process. Strong symmetry in that room. We rated 10 out of 10. As always, thank you for spending time with us right here after this break. Ending the program with a celebration of lives well lived. Helps you redefine whats possible. Now. 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The 1 doctor recommended probiotic. Try align today, the pros in Digestive Health. Also try align dualbiotic gummies to help support Digestive Health. There are few experiences more heart breaking than watching bad things happen to good people. This is brenda from new jersey. Those who loved her most say she was a good person with a gentle heart. The New York Times reports most of her 30 years as a lawyer were spent with the same colleague. The pair of them, they had a system. Brendas kind and conscientious demeanor made her the perfect person to handle family members while her colleague handled the other stuff like personal injury cases. That Partnership Came to an end in 2017 when brenda had to retire because of her diabetes. She needed a new kidney and since compassion evidently runs in the family, she got one from her daughter. But there was more painful her brother died of colin cancer last november and there were further complications from the diabetes. In the early stages of this pandemic, she was in the same rehabilitation facility as her father. They were on lockdown so she was the only one there for him when he passed away. Not long after that, it was brendas time. At the age of 64, she died of coronavirus in a new york hospital. A terribly sad thing happening to a very good person. We hope youll keep her mom, her sister and her daughter in your thoughts. And we told you earlier about how the virus is exploding across southern states. Particularly florida. Well, this is carson davis. She died of the virus on tuesday. Two days after her 17th birthday. What we know about her comes from a tribute her mom posted on facebook yesterday. Carson was a fighter, a helper, and a fierce friend. Devoted to service, she was active in her church community. She volunteered with the special olympics. Carson loved choir. She was good at bowling, too, apparently. Three years varsity and on her most recent report card, straight as. Were hoping tonight that her family knows were thinking about them and well seek to live our lives a little more like carson did with good grace and love. Thats going to do it for us this hour. Im Peter Alexander in for nicole wallace. Our coverage continues with chuck todd right after this quick break. Todd right after th quick break. Thousands of women with metastatic Breast Cancer, which is Breast Cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, are living in the moment and taking ibrance. Ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for postmenopausal women or for men with hr her2 metastatic Breast Cancer, as the first hormonal based therapy. Ibrance plus letrozole significantly delayed disease progression versus letrozole, and shrank tumors in over half of patients. Patients taking ibrance can develop low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infections that can lead to death. Ibrance may cause severe inflammation of the lungs that can lead to death. 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In texas the governor has started rolling back the states reopening plans. Bars were ordered to close today. Restaurant capacity is being scaled back. You can see why. The state is seeing exponential growth in