Transcripts For MSNBCW Deadline White House 20201008

Accurate and reliable information that could reassure the public hes safe to be around. The virtual debate flies in the face of trumps claim hes cured. Cure is the word he used. Reporters learn hes pushing for a return to the campaign trail in person as early as monday which might be why trump announced on fox business if the Debate Commission isnt willing to risk another super spreader event for the sake of president ial optics then hes not participating. No, im not going to waste my time on a virtual debate. You sit behind a computer and do a debate, its ridiculous. Then they cut you off whenever they want. Interesting from a guy calling in. Out there with the people today, joe biden. Hes expected to launch a bus tour across the state of arizona. Still able to interact safely with voters. The mask truther trapped in the white house where every candidate wants to be in the final sprint of election day. Donald trump is running out of options to resuscitate his campaign. Joe biden is opening wide leads in States Donald trump won in 2016 and a double digit lead nationally. The president on the defensive as his campaign flounders is where we start. St phil rucker, carl lee and nick confessore. Phil rucker, let me start with you. Whats the latest on the president s condition . If its knowable, whats the source of the information . Are the doctors doing briefings for you guys . There has not been one today to your knowledge. There was some indication from others in the white house we would be hearing from the president s physician later in the day. Perhaps well get an update on his medical condition. The closest thing we have to any update from the president is a video he put out, another one of these rambling videos from the south lawn or what appears to be the south lawn of the white house where he talks about being cured from the coronavirus and he talks about the experimental drug cocktail that he received at walter reed and how that should be distributed and shared with other people around the country. He made a direct appeal to seniors because polling is showing hes losing the vote of seniors to joe biden. Trump announced in that video that he himself is a senior at 74 years old and he cares first and foremost about fellow seniors. Nick confessore, it strikes me that some of the problem the president finds himself in is his am bbivalence of the risk h has to everyone else. Aides are arguing with the president to back down from his position of not wanting to participate in a virtual debate. Saying if trump hosts a rally instead hell get 3 Million Viewers on fox. If he participates in a debate, 60 Million Viewers would be watching. Its always the case when you need a shift in the election, you dont have the option to opt out of a debate. What do you make of the politics of the game hes playing by saying im not going to do this if its on zoom . I think the president should listen to his advisers. They are correct. The person who needs to change the game right now is donald trump. His campaign is in collapse. His best chance to do that is at the debate. This is about that the president believes a core part of his strategy is the theater of the dominance and posturing. You can see in his comments there hes afraid of not being able to interrupt biden in the debate. Its central to what hes trying to do inside the debate, to do that dominance politics. Biden is sayi his advisers are saying its better for you, youll have a larger audience. He wants to be in the ring. Carol lee, the other problem of putting trump in the room would be connected to your reporting today. Theres increasing evidence that were getting disinformation or incomplete information. Talk about ndas that doctors at walter reed were asked to sign for the unexplained emergency visit to walter reed last fall. We learned from four people familiar with this process, is that when the president went to walter reed, it was a mysterious trip that still remains mysterious today. It was november 2019. It was a saturday. Walter reed wasnt expecting the president. He was there for a couple hours. We learned the president required anyone involved in his care, whether a physician or worked at walter reed and might be privy to his medical treatment, they needed to sign a nondisclosure agreement. We know that at least two doctors at walter reed refused to sign this and were subsequently told they could not be involved in the president s care at that time. You know, the reason why this is significant is were now in this space first of all, that trip is still a question mark. The white house said the president was going for the first half of his physical. Thats not how physicals are done. Its usually right after the beginning of the near year. Its something walter reed is prepared for in advance. Its announced in advance. Now fast forward to almost a year later and were still not getting good, clear answers from the president and his team, his doctors about his health. Weve seen his doctor multiple times cite things like hipaa. All his statements say that hes presenting this information with permission of the president. Hes had conflicting information. Hes held back on information, specifically what the president s lung scans look like for instance. It feeds the perception that the president really wants to hold whatever is going on with him and his health very, very close. Nondisclosure agreement is highly unusual. Obviously you have hipaa, but most of these are active duty military officials. They have top secret security clearances. Anyone you talk to say its unnecessary. This gives a sense how important the president regards this information. Carol lee, its important reporting. I think the theory of the case for why dr. Conley was acting so e evasive and what mark meadow said the morning after the president was admitted, was that he wanted to project an upbeat message for the virus. Everyone felt like it was safe to consider that a projection and say he was projecting an upbeat message for the patient. It seems the nda or Something Like that could have been at play. Lets watch his performance and talk about it on the other side. Reporter has he ever been on supplemental oxygen . Right now hes not on oxygen. You say that now but reporter disclose the president has been administered oxygen. I was trying to reflect the upbeat message for the president , his team, the course of the illness. Didnt want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction. Reporter youre actively not telling us what the lung scans show . There are hipaa rules and regulations that restrict me from sharing certain things for his safety and health and reasons. Carol lee, its possible that one of those reasons also includes an nda . Yeah. I mean, he cited hipaa multiple times and he didnt need to do that. He can say whatever the president wants him to say. Obviously the president didnt want him to disclose certain things. The idea of an nda is so unusual in an instance like this given the setting and the person. These are things that someone who is super famous might ask for because they dont want their doctor to write a tellall book or something at some point. Its not something the president of the United States typically has. I think dr. Conley outlined a number of really in his one statement saying he didnt want to steer the direction of the illness with information. Well, information isnt something that steers someone illness trajectory. He tied himself in knots there and it didnt make a lot of sense. He can say whatever the president tells him he wants him to say. Phil rucker, this matters because the American Public has a right to know about the competence, physical and mental, of the sitting president. As we have said every day since hes fallen ill, we wish him well. Here he is this is a white house that is reported to have refused to do any formal Contact Tracing. Heres Donald Trumps theory on Contact Tracing. He thinks he got the coronavirus from gold star families. Lets listen. I met with gold star families. I didnt want to cancel that. They come within an inch of my face. They want to hug me and they want to kiss me. They do. Frankly im not telling them to back up. Im not doing it. So gold star families who want to kiss him, its his theory thats how he got coronavirus. This is knowable. The cdc could come in and do Contact Tracing if the white house asks them to. They havent asked them to be involved, is that the case . The latest reporting is that the white house turned away the cdc to do Contact Tracing for what is a fairly substantial outbreak of coronavirus. The gold star family statement was remarkable. Rewind a few days the president was phoning into sean hannity the night he tested positive for the coronavirus. He was suggesting he caught it from his senior counselor hope hicks. Theres no evidence to suggest hes caught it from hope hicks. Hope hicks might have caught it from the president. He suggested hope hicks might have caught it from Trump Supporters at rallies or military personnel. Hes all over the map where he might have caught it from and that points to the umbrella problem here, which is that the president has held events as if this was before. He does big in person rallies on the campaign trail. Hes coming into contact with hundreds of people every week. Now hes left to speculate about who he might have caught the virus from. Thats because he didnt take the precautions that the Public Health officials advise every american to be taking to protect themselves. You know, nick confessore, we had the privilege of talking to a lot of doctors. I dont know the political leanings of any of them. To a person, everyone of them is most concerned about two things. One the virus and its rampant spread and the disinformation about the virus thats disseminated by the president , the white house and his supporters. Theres now a new body of disinformation in the four videos that donald trump has o produced including saying thats hes cure. Theyre pure propaganda. Im not going to rebroadcast them. He now is touting regeneron as this new drug, this cureall. The truth is joe biden makes this point. Everything he has said since he became sick is either spin, not backed up by a scientist, straight up disinformation and not one of it not a single word has anything to do with any of us, with anyone at the white house staff. Close to three dozen people in his orbit are infected with coronavirus. One is hospitalized right now, chris christie. Theres been nothing from this president about remorse. A lot of those people think he could have been the wone spreading it to all of them. A lot of people think there was a possibility if he understood the gravity of the disease hes not said anything about anyone but himself. I was struck by the same thing, nicolle. His concern was not that he might have given it to the gold star families, grieving families. His concern was they had given it to him or hope hicks. Its like he looks around him and sees disease carriers. It comes back to this president ial pity party he has of complaining things are stacked against him and so hard for him. He finds it so hard to shift to that mode, even his staff, the people serving him and the danger they were in, that hasnt come up yet, not once as far as ive heard. If you can pull that thread through this moment in the campaign, as we sit here today were 27 days away from an election. Usually elections turn on candie cares about the problems of people like you. People like all of us are concerned with protecting ourselves and loved ones from coronavirus. No one wants him to stay sick. Everyone wants him to recover and heal. Joe biden said its a tragedy that donald trump caught coronavirus. Donald trump called it a blessing. It seems like the president has bigger political problems hes made for himself in his response and his public performances. A more agile politician could have turned this illness into a major pivot. A chance to say this is for real. Ive had it. Ive experienced it. Its terrible to get. Lets be safe. Lets be careful. Lets wear masks. He would have had a story to tell about coming to grips with the Public Health dimension. Instead he really seems focussed on projecting hardiness and strength and dominance. He cant be cowed or bit. Thats who he is. Its a remarkable day when two reporters use the word dominance to describe donald trump. Phil rucker, carol lee, thank you for your reporting and for spending time with us today. Nick is coming back. When we come back, citing zero evidence donald trump is claiming hes now cured of coronavirus and doesnt think hes contagious. How he and the white house have ducked every opportunity to inform the public and those around him with credible information about the president s health. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer was the subject of a right wing protest at the peak of her virus in her state after she issued strict shutdown measures. Today were learning about a plot from members of a michigan militia to kidnap her. Well bring you those developments. Joe biden and Kamala Harris are on the road in arizona. Well bring you what they have to say about the debate. All those stories coming up after a short break. Dont go anywhere. Yes, you are. Im gonna get this place all clean. Ill give you a hand. And im gonna put lisa on crutches wait, what . Said shes gonna need crutches. She fell pretty hard. You might want to clean that up, girl. Excuse us. When owning a Small Business gets real, progressive helps protect what you built with customizable coverage. And im gonna eh, eh, eh. Donny, no. Oh. Reporter doctor, what was the date of the president s last negative test . Im not going to get into all the testing. Im not going to give you a read out of every time the president is tested. Hes tested regularly. Reporter do you remember when he had his last negative test . I dont want to go backwards. We dont know his last negative test. We dont get into the testing protocol for the president. Look weve addressed this. Were not asking to go back through a bunch of records. Reporter when was his last negative test and what was his viral load . Everyone wants that. We dont want to go backwards. Going backwards is a key piece of the puzzle to understanding the coronavirus outbreak. Knowing when the president last tested negative would give us information about when the Administration Last knew that the president was not covid positive. Its information they do not want to share, including how often the president has been tested, whether he was positive before he announced it, which would mean he might have put more people at risk. Lets bring in vaccine expert dr. Peter hotez founding dean of tropical medicine at baylor college. The white house has been on brand in terms of pushing out disinformation, hiding information, our colleague carol lee has reporting on ndas that doctors at walter reed were asked to sign last november for a still unexplained trip from this president to walter reed. What are the questions you have as a physician . Where are the flashing yellow lights for you about what they could be hiding . Well, i mean i think what im most concerned about is the fact there seems to be widespread transmission throughout the white house staff. Its simply for the reason that they relied exclusively on testing and were not really Wearing Masks or doing a significant level of Contact Tracing. So testing is a component of controlling covid19. As weve known for this whole year, its not the only piece and it seems like the white house never pursued that. What i really want to know is how confident are we that members of the white house staff are not transmitting this virus to other people and it would have been nice to have the cdc Contact Tracing in place and also i want to know if the president and his staff with going to go back on the campaign trail and make certain theyre not going to infect other people. Well never get full details about when the president was tested. Its clear that seems like hes instructed others not to say anything about the specifics of his case. Is there any scenario where he could be back out on monday and there would be zero risk . To move a president people that dont work in the white house dont understand how massive an undertaking that is. To move a president you fill up a helicopter. The helicopter flies him to the airplane. He fill up the airplane. There are people that make the airplane run, that run its protective systems. What are the chances that could be done safely as early as monday with this outbreak still unfolding . Again, even if the president was no longer shedding virus which is a possibility, thats the least of it. Theres so much transmission among the white house staff that its moving that whole entourage. Theres a high likelihood theres going to be more infected people. The problem is the white house has not really got their arms around how to control transmission in the white house. They havent been having it. There was no culture of masks or Contact Tracing. Even if we have some assurances that the president is no longer shedding virus, thats the least of it. I was concerned about the debate last night, the Vice President ial debate. Wasnt so much i was worried so much about Vice President pence. It was the entourage around him. Theres so many individuals transmitting virus. My hope is we can limit the inperson campaigning to the november 3rd election. As they say, good luck with that. You know, its an interesting question. We have seen news of other outbreaks. They didnt even do a lot of story telling where those spread to. This outbreak is so vast. Were learning that Kayleigh Mcenany and four members of her staff. Were learning of infections in the resident staff, the secret service. 34 total positives in the president s orbit. Its taken out his campaign manager, his debate prepper. What is behind every positive and identified case . Is there sometimes a radius around them we never know about of asymptomatic cases . Thats the problem, isnt it . We know from multiple models that 50 of the virus transmission is occurring because of asymptomatic individuals. This is whats made this virus so daunting this whole year. Youve got the face of this virus. On one hand asymptomatic individuals are shedding virus. On the other hand you have other individuals getting very sick and going into hospitals and this has made it one of the hardest viruses we ever had to control. Weve had ways of doing it, but it requires a level of rigor and attention to detail the white house has not been willing to do. Theyve done it with one hand tied behind their back, which is not having a culture of masks which is the simplest way to do it. If you wanted to do Contact Tracing at this point, it would be hard to do. I dont see how the white house has the power to do it on their own. Thats where we stand. Theres a debate raging among close trump watchers about whether the steroids have made his behavior in the few opportunities weve had glimpses of him mostly in the videos hes making, let me show you what dr. Fauci said about steroids. One of the things when youre an steroids there are a number of side effects. It makes you hyper energetic. It interferes with your ability to speak. If youre on it for a very long time, which hes not and they dont plan to have him on it for a long time, there are longrange side effects. The side effects you have for a short time, its more youre just very energetic. Thats one of the things that happens. Doctor, i played that because there is a conversation that came out last night in the Vice President ial debate, there was reporting that everyone has been living in about the Vice President being told to be on stand by for an unexplained trip to walter reed. Is it a legitimate line of questioning for the cabinet and congress to want to understand what the president s cocktail regimen on his ability to carry out his official duties . Steroids are well established. The medical Community Knows they can cause mood swings or mania. Dr. Fauci is known for his work on hiv, but hes also an expert on auto immune diseases. He has more experience with steroids as a physician than just about anybody. You want to get the president off steroids and tapering him. Thats one of the things you worry about. Hopefully that will subside in the next couple of days. Then, what were going to have to look at is what the impact of his antibody therapy. If he was very sick, it sounds like he might have been, the antibodies may have made a big difference. We dont know the longterm effects in terms of rebound and that sort of thing. Not so much new virus infection, but any existing impact on inflammation. Theres another face to this virus infection, whether or not this will aggravate it, we dont know. When you come off steroids, sometimes you dont know what a steroid is suppressing, is that right . When you come off steroids, you can have a rebound. Presumably the doctors are looking at either the dose was not high enough to warrant doing it tapered or sometimes you taper the dose so you dont have any rebound issues around blood pressure. Steroids are a very strong medicine. They did so many things to the president so its hard to know. Was it the remdesivir, the steroids or the antibodies . They did so many things to the president at one time. Doctor, its great to talk to you. Its like peeking into your science world. Thank you. When Donald Trump Tweets words like liberate michigan, our next guest says extremists take that as a call to action. Were learning today about a Militia Group plotting to kidnap the michigan governor. That breaking story next. Breakt doctor, am i going to be okay . and i could not give her the answer that i wanted to give her. There is no excuse for why we dont have this under control at this point. Joe biden listens to medical experts. He actually has a plan that does the things that we should have been doing many months ago. And joe biden is not going to let his ego get in the way of fighting the disease. Ff pac is responsible for the content of this ad. Water . Why . ahhhh incoming ahhhahh im saved water tastes like, water. So we fixed it. Mio what do you look for when i want free access to research. Yep, td ameritrades got that. Free access to every platform. Mhm, yeah, that too. I dont want any trade minimums. Yeah, i totally agree, they dont have any of those. I want to know what im paying upfront. Yes, absolutely. Do you just say yes to everything . Hm. Well i say no to kale. Mm. Yeah, they say if you blanch it its better, but that seems like a lot of work. Now offering zero commissions on online trades. We charge you less so you have more to invest. Our head of state spent the past seven months denying science, ignoring health experts, stoking distrust and promoting anger. Just last week the president of the United States stood before the American People and refused to condemn white supremacist and hate groups. When our leaders speak, their words matter. They carry weight. That was Governor Gretchen Whitmer condemning donald trump for stoking fear and violence and reacting to the news that officials have charged 13 men in connection with a foiled plot to kidnap her. Their arrests stem from an fbiled probe on Militia Groups. You might also remember back in march and april, just after the pandemics arrival in this country, protesters, some carrying rifles took to the streets in michigan over whitmers lockdown orders. They reflected attacks and disapproval from trump who admitted to bob woodward he wanted to play the virus time. Heres is trump. Your governor of michigan shes not stepping up. I dont know if she knows whats going on. She sits there and blame the federal government. She doesnt get it done. We send her a lot. Now she wants a declaration of emergency. We had a big problem with a woman governor from you know who im talking about, from michigan. Trumps attacks on whitmer were relentless. He tweeted your governor gretchen halfwhitmer is in way over her head. She doesnt have a clue. In april he tweeted, quote, liberate michigan. Then in may, quote, the governor of michigan should give a little and put out the fire. These are very good people, but theyre angry. Does that sound familiar . Very good people on both sides of the kkk rally. Joining me now elizabeth newman, also tim miller, political director of Republican Voters against trump and former communication director for jeb bushs campaign. Nick confessore is back as well. Elizabeth, this seems like what you warned about when you came out and endorsed joe biden. Exactly. It harkened me back to conversations i had in march when the pandemic started. I have asked my counterterrorism teams to look into whether the effects of the pandemic might lead to increased activity by extremists. We put together a memo that we sent to the security of home land security. Some of that language ended up in the threat assessment that was released two days ago. I noted they included the language about how antigovernment groups are likely to be agitated because of some of the pandemic mitigation measures that are being taken and they mayview this view thi opportunity to carry out acts against the government, basically protest the shutdown or mask mandates. We knew this back in march. The secretary of Homeland Security was briefed on this in april. Yet, you still have the president of the United States exacerbating and throwing fuel on the fire of these extremists who we knew were going to be agitated by this. Its not you read that indictment. Its not a hard leap to see they clearly were taking their cues from the president s language. They were already antigovernment to begin with. They believe that fbi and Law Enforcement have a lot on their hands and the president is not helping them with his language. Its an important distinction, tim miller. These were probably folks who were already agitated as elizabeth said, already antigovernment as an ideology that brought them together. Christopher wray testified this is the most grave bucket of threats to the home land. It would seem that Gretchen Whitmers point today, elizabeth newmans point, what Donald Trumps words do is gives them cover, incentivizes them, gives them license to do what they did, attempt to kidnap gretchen whitmer. You know, nicolle, so many People Like Us knew that this was happening. We feel like were going crazy when we hear what conservative media and our old friends say about the president s rhetoric. He has empowered and motivated this base of mostly white men who are upset with their own lives, upset with politics and looking for an outlet. Donald trump gave them that outlet. Its going to be hard to put this tooth paste back in the tube, nicolle. Its not just if joe biden wins it will go away. This hate that you see online, it is it isnt something just on the internet. It translates into politics and translates into real life and becomes real threats. I thought Governor Whitmer was very gracious when she spoke about this. We arent crazy. This is a threat. Donald trump is intentionally downplaying it and more than that hes stoking it. With all that stipulated, nick confessore, i wonder if chris wray wonders if hes crazy. Hes combatting this threat to our homeland and having to navigate one of the first things that Law Enforcement officials do is investigate the digital footprint. I wonder if theres a need to be delicate if they turn up passionate supporters of when the president tweeted liberate michigan, if they found out that tweet was held out among these groups, how would Law Enforcement handle that . People in Law Enforcement are sometimes reluctant to bring the president assessments on russian interference. Its important to point out we should not too closely link the president s statements and these actions without further reporting. Normally militias operate in a Counter Culture with deep roots, but theyre a Counter Culture. Theyve operated in a separate universe. To see the president of the United States echo or validate what theyre saying by tweeting that michigan is essentially an occupied territory is something thats unprecedented and different. Its not wrong to wonder if the president s rhetoric there is having an impact in, as you say, giving a permission structure to these guys. Theyre saying the president is out there saying these lockdown orders are a threat to the constitution, if youre a militia member, thats a pretty big deal. Elizabeth newman, can you tell us the view from inside . Inside the government take the president out of it. How much do they study words from Public Officials . When you study online radicals, whats the investigation of what radicalizes people online and then in this instance of todays indictment to carry out an act . The studies show that radicalization is not linear. You have people coming in and out of a rad radicalization process. Theres something in their life thats created grievances. When theyre radicalizing, theyre finding community by other people who share those grievances. When you have the president exacerbated those grievances or affirming them to be clear some of them are completely legitimate. There are things we talk about in normal context of politics, things like gun rights or jobs getting shipped overseas and therefore the economy is doing poorly. These are legitimate grievances that certain pockets take advantage of and, instead of looking for the normal political process to address the grievances, theyve given up on that political process or theyre so angry and looking to take matters into their own hands. Eventually they find something is an existential threat and thats when they tend to turn to violence. This is an historical pattern. Its not unique to the current moment. What the president seems to be doing and has done since his 2016 campaign, is tapping into that grievance and exacerbating people who might be prone and vulnerable to radicra to radica. Elizabeth newman, thank you for spending time with us. Tim and nick are sticking around. Up next pence unable to commit to a peaceful transfer of power. Well talk about how to protect your vote next. These are real people, not actors, whove got their eczema under control. With less eczema, you can show more skin. So roll up those sleeves. And help heal your skin from within with dupixent. Dupixent is the first treatment of its kind that continuously treats moderatetosevere eczema, or atopic dermatitis, even between flare ups. Dupixent is a biologic, and not a cream or steroid. Many people taking dupixent saw clear or almost clear skin, and, had significantly less itch. Dont use if youre allergic to dupixent. Serious allergic reactions can occur, including anaphylaxis, which is severe. Tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems, such as eye pain or vision changes, or a parasitic infection. If you take asthma medicines, dont change or stop them without talking to your doctor. So help heal your skin from within, and talk to your eczema specialist about dupixent. 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When the world starts spinning again, lets remember this time where none of us felt secure, and fight for a future where everyone can. Because when the world seems like its standing still. Thats the perfect time for us to change it. When you talk about accepting the outcome of the election, i must tell you, senator, your party spent the last three and a half years trying to efr turn the last election. A i think were going to win this election. And were trying to prevent them from changing the rules and creating a massive opportunity for voter fraud. That was Vice President mike pence. At last nights debate refusing to answer whether trump will commit to a peaceful transfer of power, a long standing tradition seriously threatened by that guy and the president and the refusal to agree to it. Instead, pence, as trump did again today, opted to distract less than four weeks before election day. This morning trump threatened Christopher Wrays career because hes not backing up the claims that the election will be fraudulent. Address christopher wray. Will you replace him in a second term. I dont want to say that yet. Hes been disappointing. He talked about even the voting thing, that he doesnt see the voting ballots as a problem. There are thousands of ballots right now, you pick up any pain in the country and theyre cheating all over the place on the ballot. So how is that not a problem. That is a much bigger problem than china or russia. Meanwhile New York Times and propublica report that bill barr is easing Election Fraud constrains that will allow prosecutors to take steps to interfere with elections. Were back with tim miller and nick confessore. This is extraordinary to me, tim miller, as someone who, again, did not always achieve this but worked in relatively normal white house that sought to, and pay the political price when it didnt achieve keeping politics out of the Justice Department, this is next level, though. This is green lighting and unleashing federal prosecutors at the direction of the president and bill barr to prosecute voting fraud which the fbi director said doesnt exist. Where are we. This was for me the most frustrating part of the debate last night, nicolle. It felt for 85 , 90 of the date that it was 1996 and arguing about differences over fracking and marginal tax rates when all of this stuff was on going. Look at this debate last night. You have a president who is pressuring the attorney general to help undermine our upcoming election but to investigate his political opponents, based on an insane Conspiracy Theory that they tried to coup him over the last election, that they were spying on his campaign which there is absolutely no evidence for or merit to. Meanwhile the president is sitting somewhere in the white house, spreading a deadly virus that he refuses to take seriously on the very public servants, maintenance save, secret service, serving this country. So this undermining of the upcoming election, pressuring the Justice Department to look into his opponents for past election, in the most literal sense, creating a wave of the pandemic within his own white house, that is going to potentially cost peoples lives. And then these folks are just sort of bickering at some point. Mike pence arguing when what my tax rate is going to be next year. It is like who cares. Yeah. Nick, the other sort of surreal aspect of this is this fbi plot that we were just talking about is one that bill barr, who sits atop the Justice Department and donald trump who is the current president , his fbi just uncovered a kidnapping plot hatched by violent militias, theyve said not one word, not a peep from bill barr or donald trump. But donald trump found time this morning to trash and slash the reputation of his sitting fbi director. Look, almost everything the president said this morning on fox was wrong except for one thing. He is disappointed in chris wray and he has put out the message very clearly that the price of his affection is for the fbi director to sign on to a Conspiracy Theory about fraud in the Voting System that he is promoting as part of his message for the campaign. His message is, if i win, i win. If biden wins, it is cheating. That is always the message and that is going to keep being the message and the Justice Department is taking steps to amplify his message. Unbelievable state of affairs. Tick miller and nick confessore, thank you. The next hour starts after a quick break. Dont go anywhere. Quick break. Dont go anywhere. A woman who was young had covid19. I remember her because she had a bracelet that had the names of her children. She asked me, doctor, am i going to be okay . and i could not give her the answer that i wanted to give her. There is no excuse for why we dont have this under control at this point. Joe biden listens to medical experts. He actually has a plan that does the things that we should have been doing many months ago. And joe biden is not going to let his ego get in the way of fighting the disease. Ff pac is responsible for the content of this ad. Traffic and air pollution will be even worse after the pandemic. Thats why we support measure rr to keep caltrain running. Which is at risk of shutdown because of the crisis. To keep millions of cars off our roads, to reduce air pollution and fight climate change. And measure rr helps essential workers like me get to work and keep our communities healthy. Relieve traffic. Reduce pollution. Rescue caltrain. [all] yes on measure rr. I dont believe the polls. Because weve never had this much support. They have 5,000 votes and thousands of trucks all over the country. You have the same polls, they were worse last time. I was fine down in nine different states and i won all of them. I was in nine states, i was down. Big ones. I wouldnt every one of them. Hi, again, it is 5 00 in the east. Whether it is a side effect of the steroids hes taking as part of his coronavirus treatment, or something else, donald trump seems to be drifting further away from reality today. As his reelection chances appear to be slipping away. An nbc news average of National Polls gives joe biden a ten point lead over President Trump and three polls show trump down by 12 to 16 points and the clear politics average of all of the polls in key battleground states shows joe biden leading in, oh, all of them. Among them arizona, where joe biden and Kamala Harris are campaigning together in phoenix, this hour. And will launch their soul of the nation bus tour. This comes as Financial Times columnist edward luc warns if the race is focused on the pandemic, donald trump is facing a blowout. Dont be afraid of covid was Donald Trumps message on leaving the hospital this week. To say he was tempting fate would be an understatement. The president could not know where the disease would leave him. They ought to know the only way he could win reelection is by focusing on anything by the pandemic. He went on to right, yet, he wants americans to be afraid of something that doesnt not seem particularly lethal, the radical left. Yet unafraid of a disease that so far has claimed 212,000 american lives. It does not feel like a winning strategy. And republicans seem to be well aware of that facts bob casta reports the Washington Post as trump support plummets and a possible blue tsunami looms and now trump allies are trying to stain in the holy graces. Quote, there are cracks and fissures all over the ice said trump critic rick tyler in that piece. Donald trump sinking political fortunes and republicans scramble for the exits is where we start with some of our favorite reporters and friends. Bob costa, National Political reporter for the Washington Post and moderator of pbs washington link is here also with us politics professor at Morgan State University and the agreo contributor Jason Johnson and Heidi Pryzbyla is here. Your piece is remarkable. I read it as soon as it popped online last night. You are one of the best source people with your finger on the sort of sense of what hasnt happened in four years. It didnt even happen four years ago this week. There was a little bit of a freak out when access Hollywood Tape came out. Reince priebus started talking about taking trump off the ticket. They are not talking about that now. But there is a serious spoken conversation going on in republican circles about life after trump. It is very muted, nicolle. And i appreciate your generous comments. But it is happening. It is something that is beginning to crack across the ice in the Republican Party as rick tyler said. What youre seeing is senators like john cornyn in texas or Martha Mcsally in arizona or house members uneasy about the president s negotiating style on the stimulus, theyre all starting to speak out on debate stages and elsewhere and carving out their own political space. Knowing they cant do too much because they need the president s core voters, they need the president s Political Capital to appoint, but they do see in all of the polling a possible blue tsunami on the horizon. Jason, let me put up one of the senators that bob casta mentioned. This is mcsally dodging a question, a simple question, you dont even prep for questions like this in debate pep, are you proud of your support for donald trump, here is how she answered. The question was, are you proud of your support for President Trump . Im proud to be fighting for arizona every single day. Is that a yes or no for President Trump. Legislation on President Trumps desk. You look at the legislation, it is to cut arizona taxes. It sounds like shes proud of support im proud to be fighting for arizona. Jason johnson, it sounds like she doesnt want to be tweeted at or perhaps plotted to be kidnapped. But she also doesnt want to create that moment of tape in her last 27 days where she says im proud of my support for donald trump. It is like if you got a 5yearold and it is like did you eat the cookie . Did you eat the cookie, havent seen cookie. Cookie is right there. Either you grabbed it or you didnt and either you like donald trump or you dont. And the fact that marg atha mcsy who has tied her solve to donald trump at 27 days away assaying she couldnt even say his name in the answer. That is a sign of how dangerous and toxic the trump brand has become. Ive said all along nicolle, that trumpism only works for trump. That combination of White Nationalism and sexism and misogyny works for him but it didnt work for missouri and it doesnt work when you were running for governor in virginia. So that is what sally and the republicans are facing. I thought the article was great. But it also has to do with the tact that the money is starting to dry up. People dont want to give to what they think might be the last dam against a blue wave and that is one of the challenges republicans are facing. The money is drying up and were only a couple of weeks away and over 3 million americans have already voted. You know, heidi, i have always felt like trumps political act not transferable. He cant lay his hands on people and do them good. He could lay his hands or tweeting fingers on people and do them a lot of harm. But to jasons point, that was always the case. Let me put up all of the Senate Republicans. So in arizona, mcsally is trailing by 7 points. In colorado, cory gardner the republican trailing by seven. And in iowa joni ernst is behind by five points, in maine Susan Collins is trailing by four points. South carolina Lindsey Graham is tied, in a tied race with democrat Jaime Harrison and in montana, and in georgia perdue leads by three and dan sullivan is up by four. I had this weird feeling in the end of the summer that it was bhor likely that trump wins and Mitch Mcconnell losing his majority than the opposite. Polls are a snapshot. This is the race today. Four years ago this was the week that the russians hacked into emails and started their very Public Campaign to harm Hillary Clintons candidacy. So anything, everything could happen. But right now the republican majority looks as impearled as trumps presidency. And we just, as you know, could not make the same types after assumptions that we made in previous elections. Like you said, where trump wins in the Senate Majority and that is lost. That is now one in the same if you look at some of the assumptions made by political strategists today and in 2017 every single state that voted a certain way in the president ial, there was strong coat tails and that is the way that the senate seat went. That is why were at a point now where some of the best political strategists and pollsters are saying that there is a strong chance that democrats will expand their majority in the house, and theyre in striking range in the senate as well. And to that chart that you just put up, you really paused on Lindsey Graham because i think that was the seminal moment that he likes like he would glide to reelection months ago. On fox news actually begging for money because every metric in this race, republicans are struggling in the polls. Theyre struggling in the money race. If you look at cash on hand just across numbers in the house, the average for democrats is 4 million. Compared to republicans 414,000. So big disparity there. And unless something dramatic happens, it just seems like the combination of the debate, plus the president s covid diagnosis is having a effect on some of these poor groups that had already been moving away from him like voters who dont like either candidate. Like voter who voted for Third Party Candidates and showing those groups moving toward biden, nicolle. You know, i want to show you what nancy pelosi had to say about the 25th amendment. Because it is a small circle of people who actually have spoken out loud about the 25th amendment. It is reported that Rod Rosenstein whipped votes and later he said with sarcasm and anonymous talked about the 25th amendment and nancy pelosi saying shell say more about it tomorrow. But i want to put a political theory in front of you and put the sorts, the thoughts together. There is one event away from the bottom dropping out. The missed opportunity is by not allowing biden to talk, there wasnt an opportunity for biden to give them a moment that they could then, if you look at pattern, distort and circulate and make something up, but that the feeling, the political reality pre trumps diagnosis and i think the handling was more damaging than the diagnosis itself. That event seems, if you look at the polls, to have been this diagnosis in the way that the white house handled it. But i want to play pelosis sound and talk about it on the other side. Do you think it is time to invoke the 25th amendment. Ill talk to you about that tomorrow. Ill talk to you about it tomorrow. Im not talking about it today, except to tell you well see you tomorrow. But you take me back to my point. Mr. President , when was the last time you had a negative test before you tested positive . Why is the wouse not telling the country that important fact about how this spread and made a hot spot of the white house. Bob costa, two parts, one, what does she have on the 25th amendment tomorrow and, two, is it possible the handling of his diagnosis could be so bad could be that second event that does real political damage to him. To your point, in my sorry today a senior republican on background uses the same phrase, bottomed out when it comes to his own view of the Republican Party. And this is someone who works with President Trump and they declined to be named because they wanted to be frank. And everyone is in survival mode and the question is when does this all bottom out. And to the 25th amendment point, this is a growing issue among democrats in recent weeks. You listen to senator bernie sanders, his major address in recent days to Speaker Pelosi talking about mentioning it tomorrow at a news conference, democrats are worried not only about the president s conduct now, but post election should he be defeated and that is why constitutional issues like the 25th amendment are being brought up. But the issue for democrats as they talk about these kind of issues, it is where are the republicans . Who will speak up . Will sources like my own always on background it seems during the trump era finally change their tune and speak on record . Look, i dont want to make i want to put out a theory for why some of the folks speak on background. The one that knows the most, have tied themselves to trump the most closely and the ones that want to benefit from that association. If we enter into this territory, bob costa, with the 25th amendment was a thing and she sounded like she would have something to say about the 25th amendment tomorrow, it is extraordinary to inject into the conversation at this point. It is. And it is based on my own understanding of the Upper Echelon of the Republican Party, it is very hard to see, even if President Trump defies more norms post election, should he be defeated, it would be executed by the Trump Administrations cabinet and Vice President pence. These are people who are loyalists to President Trump. And whether they go to that extreme constitutionally remains to be seen. I havent seen any type of appetite in that group at this point. You know, Jason Johnson, i want to give maybe a counter set of data points, though. The president s behavior is so concerning that all of the leaks are coming from inside of the white house. I mean, it is a lot of reporters on the white house beat that are writing about the really ominous scenes inside the white house. So it would, again, appear to be not the president get sick. I dont think anyone wants the president to have anything other than recovery, his critics want him in good health for this own concession, but the way theyve handled this, has concerned among folks that bob costa talk to and the Senate Candidates that are behind their democratic opponents. We always fail to widen the lens broaden enough for what is possible. But what do you think pelosi is hinting at with the 25th amendment . I think that what shes suggesting is for the first time doing something that a lot of people have been wanting democrats to do. We want them to say what they want to do about the courts and say what their plan would be if trump refuses to acknowledge that he lost. She may actually for the first time lay out an actual plan. Look, this is how we would apply the 25th amendment and these are the reasons that we think it is applicable and these are the people that we will make the pitch to to have him removed. She may be tipping the hand that democrats need to do with the president. This is moved from a toxic Work Environment to a viral Work Environment and i think the people there are not just concerned, i dont think i could do his job, they probably dont think he could protect them any more and that is why the leaking is coming from. This guy is not going to have my back when this all crumbles. You know, heidi, i think a lot about and i want to show you first, heidi, what the president said today about wanting to continue to put these types of folks that are closest to him, either the folks who work on air force one or in the residence or fly marine one or the political staff, he wants to get back on the trail. Lets watch that. I think im better. Im to a point where id love to do a rally tonight. I wanted to do one last night. But i think im better. To a point that i feel better than i did, i jokingly said, 20 years ago. I feel perfect. There is nothing wrong. I had a case. I think it was regeneron that was responsible for it. Because of that it was sort of like almost a gift from heaven because of what i went through and i had you know, i felt pretty lousy. A lot of people did. Nothing in there, we combed that interview for any mention of wanting to protect the safety of the people that would be involved in, quote, doing a rally tonight, wanted to do one last night. Nothing about what hes going to do to make sure when he eventually gets out there, people are safe. How many times have we been on your show nicolle and talk about what it would take for people who are in his inner circle and most loyal to him to talk and to tell us what is actually going on inside of this mans mind and in the of the white house. One of his good friends is dead, herman cain. We know there are people in the white house, at least one, who is very, very ill right now. We havent heard from chris christie. Hes hospitalized. People are dying. And that has to have an impact on a lot of these folks who report to him every day regardless of how loyal they are to the man or to whatever the principles they are or philosophy that they think that he represents. That is got to have a big impact because it is not just them, it is their families, their atrisk grandmother who they may have been meeting with while they go into after they go into the white house and come out, or their children now. It has huge potential impact and the fact that theyre not doing Contract Tracing is something you have to imagine it is something that the people would take personally. Because this is a Community Wide potential spread of multiple layers that is going to hit the hitting the white house and also the senate. We have no idea how many people inside of the senate have been infected. There is a rose garden event, but ron johnson clearly he wasnt there. He got it some other way. So it is affecting health. It is an unbelievable moment. And im so grateful to have all three of you to talk to about it. Thank you so much for starting off this hour. When we return, joe biden and Kamala Harris campaigning together for the First Time Since the democratic convention. Theyre in a democrats until recently, like now, could only dream about winning, arizona. Were expecting them to make remarks as they launch the bus tour. Well bring them to you as soon as they start. Plus after his disastrous performance in the first debate, Donald Trumps decision to skip the next one comes as hes running out of opportunities to things around for his campaign. Steve schmidt and David Plouffe will join us after a short break. Dont go anywhere. Break. Dont go anywhere. The expertise that helps keep hospitals clean, is helping keep businesses clean too. Look for the ecolab science certified seal. Subut when we realized she wasn hebattling sensitive skin, we switched to new tide plus downy free. Its gentle on her skin, and dermatologist recommended. New tide pods plus downy free. Safe for sensitive skin with eczema and psoriasis. See yourself. Welcome back to the mirror. And know youre not alone. Because this is not just a mirror, its an unstoppable community. Come on jesse, one more its every workout. Come on you two, lets go for everyone. So join in now. And see your best self. In the mirror. No, im not going to waste my time in a virtual debate. That is not what debating is about. Sitting behind a computer is ridiculous. And then they cut you off whenever they want. I was a nice guy but a never trumper, came out that hes a never trumper. We do have some of them, maria, believe it or not, because they dont like to win. They called up two minutes ago and it was announced and they theyre trying to protect biden. Everybody is. Most kids go to school that way because of you. Donald trump and his Reelection Team throwing a tant um over a decision made by the commission on president ial debates. Out of concern of health, donald trump hospitalized as a covid patient, so they decided to make the next debate a virtual one. But trump said that wont work for him. He seems worried that the moderator might be able to cut him off. The Biden Campaign announced it will hold a town hall on that day instead and still committed to a third debate, happening the following week. Founder member of the lincoln project, Steve Schmidt and former Obama Campaign manager and msnbc political analyst David Plouffe. I want to read you breaking news about we were just talking about. Nancy pelosi hinting she would have more to say about the 25th amendment tomorrow. My colleague Geoff Bennett who is a White House Correspondent from capitol hill said Speaker Pelosi and jamie raskin will introduce the commission on president ial capacity to discharge the powers and duties of office act to create the process called for in the 25th amendment to ensure to enable congress to help ensure uninterrupted executive branch leadership. And we should say that the first known sort of reported conversation about the 25th amendment came from i believe New York Times reporting about Rod Rosenstein wanting to bhip votes for the 25th amendment after the firing of james comey and it was said to be sarcasm and didnt deny the organizations accompanied by an offer to wear a wire to record donald trump. So it is not the first time that the 25th amendment has come up in the context of donald trump, ste steve shmitt, but how he has handled his own illness. Well, nicolle, if you look at this period of time from the beginning of the debate, through today, his behavior just has been completely unhinged. The debate was a national humiliation. He lacks self control to a degrees that he cant make it through a president ial debate. The issues around taxes, the issues around his hospitalization, the return to the white house, it is just very erratic, very unhinged behavior. We see all of the pathologies of this president playing out. And so by any standard, if this is the captain of an aircraft carrier, if that is the captain of a commercial airliner or a tanker or someone driving a school bus, they would be relieved of their duties and that is exactly what this is. But at the end of the day, it is important to say this is the hands of the American People. The American People are voting. Were seeing polls around the country showing donald trump down 10 points, 12 points, 14 points so the hour of repudiation is at hand. This is all going down. The walls are coming down. The Senate Republicans know it. Everybody is just waiting for the moment of political death which is at hand because they lashed themselves to somebody who had no business being president. Hes profoundly unfit and lacks the mental and moral standing to be the leader of any nation let alone the greatest nation in the world. And we agree with the barking dog. David plouffe, let me ask you, you sort of speak to i think politics head and heart. What does the head say about the race today. You look at all of the swirl that is out there, talk of the 25th amendment, the weird videos the president keeps releasing, his trashing, doing anything from behind a computer, which by the way is how everyone with a privilege of being able to do things from behind a computer is living their lives. It is how most boys and girls in school are going to school right now in large part because of his failures. What how does this all what buckets does this go into when you look at the state of the race right now . First, nicolle, i agree with steve. I dont think it is helpful for donald trump as people are voting and this close to election day, this is discussion of the 25th amendment and whether hes mentally fit to say in office. But the number that matters here is 270. The number of electoral votes, so back to debates, all three of us have been part of terrible first debates for incumbent president s. So when you bomb your first debate, as george w. Bush did in 04 and we did in 2012, you want to have another debate to cover your footing and so donald trump has to debate. If he doesnt, hes waving a white flag. Because what he needs to do in this race, i dont think he could do. But when the undecided and the turnout war, not by doing videos on the south lawn where hes a spray tan drugged up pitch man for regeneron or through twitter. He has got to do debates to reach people. And of course he has to change his routine because he brings that to zoom, much less a town hall, it is going to be a disaster. You cant just wait, stop already. A spray tanned what . A spay tanned drugged up pitch man for reen jerron. This is it is all provable. You know, ive got mitioral hat on and it is all reportable and provable. We know the drugs hes on. Tony fauci talked about the effects of steroids an the appearance is advise able to all even though he would like us not to believe what we see and hear and acting like a pitch man for this drug. Here is what i get to with David Plouffe or with donald trump, why . Every time he opens his mouth and talks about coronavirus, his political fortunes plunge. Why is he dug in and continuing down this path . Well, i think people with that specificity and specialty in Mental Health have examining after decades. We have worked in politics, and when people are making decisions about voting you want to talk about things that would be a good closing argument, that may force them to vote for you. So every time he opens his mouth now or putting out one of these, we make fun of the videos, people are going to die about the videos because a third of the country will not take it seriously. So for the life of me i cant understand this. Now he did admit he was a senior citizen. So clearly his team has convinced him in danger for Senior Citizens and danger with suburban voters and his answer is to say joe biden will destroy the suburbs and black and brown people are going to come live in your neighborhood and which is both racist and bad politics. But the question is his campaign, people paid to try to get to 70 electoral votes must be pulling their hair out because i guarantee this morning that was not planned. His team knows he needs to do the debates. Well have one on the 22nd or trump will somehow with tail between his legs do the virtual debate. But now biden is in the drivers seat. Trump has to backtrack from what he said today or well have one more debate. Maybe that is what trump wants. It is easier to have one not good debate but better than the last one than two. Both of you are sticking around. I have a million more questions for each of you. We also continue to wait for joe biden and senator Kamala Harris at their Campaign Event in phoenix. Well bring that to you when that happens. Dont go anywhere. Deadline white house will be right back. Deadline white house will be right back [ engine rumbling ] [ beeping ] [ engine revs ] uh, you know theres a 30minute limit, right . Tell that to the rain. [ beeping ] for those who were born to ride, theres progressive. Their laundry smells moremily amazing than ever. In flings, uh, honey . Isnt that the dogs towel . Hey, me towel su towel. Theres more gain scent plus oxi boost and febreze odor remover in every fling. Gain. Seriously good scent they do one of the most deven in normal times. S, our Frontline Health care workers. And when these heroes lack the resources they need, that risky job gets ten times harder. Prop fifteen makes corporations pay their fair share. To invest in our communities, in our clinics, in the essential workers who treat everyone rich, poor, and inbetween. Whether its this pandemic or the next health crisis, vote yes on prop fifteen. For all of us. Traffic and air pollution will be even worse after the pandemic. Thats why we support measure rr to keep caltrain running. Which is at risk of shutdown because of the crisis. To keep millions of cars off our roads, to reduce air pollution and fight climate change. And measure rr helps essential workers like me get to work and keep our communities healthy. Relieve traffic. Reduce pollution. Rescue caltrain. [all] yes on measure rr. Were back with two of the smartest political pros in the land. Steve schmidt and David Plouffe. So david mentioned the arm chair psychology. Jonathan lemire tweeted this. There are moments whether it feels like so many of trumps recent decisions are less about him trying to win and more about setting up excuses as to why he lost. I think that is right. But are you surprised that so many people are in on that effort with him . Well, look, at the end, nicolle, what is the rational for the reelection. Hes wrecked the country. Hes done unbelievable damage. He didnt do it alone. Did he with his and collaborators and accompliced in the United States senate and the lie he told was the biggest lethal lie in american history. 250,000 dead people and if it was germany weve had 150,000 more alive. Shattered economy and schooling for every kid in the country is wrecked. Americas way of life, our rituals as we begin are in the middle of the fall, it is all gone. So this is the most inept, the most malice president. Hes divided the country. His record is one of total failure. Hes the greatest failure in the history of United States. And he dont say that what a hyperbole. It is not a contest. Hes the worst president the country has ever had. We havin have intimation if he refuses to lose and that well have a peaceful transition of power that the American People are in charge and the American People decide who the president is and of course were going to have a free and fair election. They cant bring themselves to do it. So this is a rancid corrupt autocratic ideology and it is an amal gum part of the american history, from the daxy and the Jim Crow Movement and the segregationist and we have the Militia Movement in there. Trumpism is an Extremist Movement and youre seeing extremists do what they do. Ee planning the siege for the stab in the back. Hell blame everybody. Im sure in trump mind when he looks at how he got covid, we saw it, he blamed the gold star families. The American People are filthy and theyve infected me with covid and betrayed me. Reason hell lose and step away from power it will never be his fault and it will be the conspiracy against him and the danger in our country is because of trump well have 30 of the country that will never accept the legitimacy of the election. And here is the danger as we look ahead to the next election after this one. Used to be you want to run for president , youre in the democratic party, you go to iowa, and you give a speech establishing your liberal and professional bon a fied and now all of the candidates have to express their Conspiracy Theory bonafide so the 30 of the country that will believe that the election was stolen from trump. Theyre the majority of the Republican Party. And the direction, because of trump, this is all trending in, is we have 180 qanon candidates in and well have 1800 of them in 2022 and we might have 18,000 of them in 2024. So what trump has set loose in the country is going to take a long time to get back underground and get back in the box. But it is going down. Make no mistake about that. You know, and David Plouffe, spl of it seems to be on us. Donald trump and pence theyre not just refusing to say they would accept the results of the election, theyre using the United States Justice Department to interfere in their own election. They green lit the involvement of prosecutors and prosecuting Election Fraud cases. Donald trump today openly today mused in that interview about getting rid of chris wray saying hes disappointed in him because of his voter fraud comments. The voter fraud comments are contained in a video that the fbi put out with four National Security officials communicating to america and the world that the american democracy is still functioning. That is why donald trump is mad at him. Theyre at war with themselves, with their own government. It is worse than just saying, yeah, i might not buy the results. There is no question, nicolle. Hes an autocrat. I think he believes that this whole thing about an election and voting and do i get a second term is nonsense. He wants to rule for the rest of his life. Not because he wants to do good things with the office or even conservative things, it is his ego. And number two, when he loses, his post presidency is going to be cold and unforgiving and that may be a generous term. He owes hundreds of millions of dollars. No one wants to do any business with this guy. So he sees at white house as a safe house. But the last question both of the first president ial debate and the Vice President ial debate was about should we abide by the Election Results and around our democracy and i think joe biden, when they do debate again, really needs to have a stronger moment about that. Because i believe that most americans, maybe even some of the 30 steve mentioned, believe that whoever gets the most votes should win. We should have a peaceful transfer of power. It is okay to spend a couple of days to counts votes. But hes not paid the political price in my view. Which is not just deeply wrong but it is deeply unpopular. May i add something. There is some yeah, go ahead. What i was going to say is we have two debates now where this campaign up in the last question in the debate. It was last question in the Vice President debate and it is the president ial debate ended with the trumpin timation of violence given the proud boys lock and load order and the kidnap attempt on the governor of michigan. But my suggestion for the debate moderators might be for the next debate, lets make this question number one. There is no question, even coronavirus, that is more important than establishing the fidelity of these candidates to american democracy to the republic and to the oath and to a peaceful transition of power directedly the sovereign will of the American People. That is the whole ball game. There is no other question that comes close in importance to that one. Well and it seems like, Steve Schmidt, the next person that talks to donald trump, whether shes a fox news host or a debate moderator or even the walkup person having to film thesei cant accurately quote David Plouffes line, but will you reject the election if you win and if you lose . It is a yes or no question. You either think the vote is messed up and you were rejected no matter the outcome or you think the vote is legitimate. It is a yes or no question and you are either going to refuse to accept your own victory should that come to pass or defeat. But you cant for one and not the other, right . And it seems like getting him on the record would be a national and patriotic purpose that maybe even our friends at fox and friends would take on. It would be interesting. Thank you so much. Go ahead. That is the logical side of the emotional one, is the temperament to yield power should he lose an election. David is right. Hes an auto kratz. We saw mike lee say this today that rank democracy is not the goal. What is he talking about . Were at a dangerous hour on this stuff and we see very quickly radicalizing Trumpist Movement that is becoming more comfortable rejecting overtly the idea of american democracy and that we decide these things in elections. It is extremely scary. It is indeed. Whether we return, an unprecedented critique. The med community blasting the Trump Administration for the handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Of course it is. Deadline white house returns after a quick break. It is. Deadline white house returns after a quick break. What do you look for when you trade . I want free access to research. Yep, td ameritrades got that. Free access to every platform. Yeah, that too. I want to know what im paying upfront. Yes, absolutely. Now offering zero commissions on online trades. I remember herwho was because she had a bracelet that had the names of her children. She asked me, doctor, am i going to be okay . and i could not give her the answer that i wanted to give her. There is no excuse for why we dont have this under control at this point. Joe biden listens to medical experts. He actually has a plan that does the things that we should have been doing many months ago. And joe biden is not going to let his ego get in the way of fighting the disease. Ff pac is responsible for the content of this ad. 20 associate cart pusher. Urly the different positions ive had taught me how to be there for others. I started out as a cashier. I mean, the skys the limit with walmart. Its all up to you. Think it solve it try and crack it breathe it calm it and renew it aarp staying sharp is part of renew active. Get medicare with more. Well, the American People have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any president ial administration in the history of our country. Whatever the Vice President is claiming the administration has done, clearly it hasnt worked. Whether youre looking at over 210,000 dead bodies in our country, american lives. That have been lost. Families that are grieving that loss. And you know, the Vice President is the head of the task force. And knew on january 28th how serious this was. It was a stinging rebuke from senator Kamala Harris. And it is one thing to make that argument, present that case to the public as the president s political opponent, the other choice on the ballot, but it is another thing entirely whether it comes from a prestigious medical journal that hasnt weighed in on a president ial candidate or election in 208 years. Its whole history. After seeing this administrations mishandling of the coronavirus, the new england journal of medicine decided it could no longer keep quiet. The editors write this, quote, with no good options to combat a novel pathogen, countries are forced to make hard choices about how to respond. Here, in the United States, our leaders have failed that test. They have taken a crisis and turned it into a tragedy. Our current political leaders have demonstrated that they are dangerously incompetent. We should not abet them and enable the deaths of thousands of more americans by allowing them to keep their jobs. Wow . Joining us now, dr. Michael anderson, a Critical Care physician and Health Care Executive and Disaster Response consultant. This was such a stunning thing to read. Not just because of the words. Again, theyre very close to the exact words uttered by senator Kamala Harris last night. But because of the source. Talk about that. It really is unprecedented and week after week we think were in unprecedented times and then we find ourselves in another week of unprecedented times. I think what youre seeing in this new england journal editorial, the first in 200 years, to take a political position, right. This is a stalwart of academic medicine that prides on science and randomized trials and pushing the best medicine forward. I think across this country you see anger, the understatement of the century. You see it on the right and left. But it is permeating into the Academic Community because they see the problem that theyre fating over the coming months and years. This pandemic is still here. We still dont have a vaccine. Although were working on it and we still have thousands of americans dying every week. And i think youre seeing this reflected in other journals as. A similar editorial, so i think this anger that we feel in the country is now percolating to the highest levels of academic medicine. You know, yesterday the beginning of the 4 00 hour, dr. Osterholm in his kind way almost chited us and i wonder if you can weigh in as a concerned citizen who helped inform our viewers for the last eight months about what is going on, what harm of the political dispungs is done to the good science and good information . Yeah, i think we have to rely on the scientists on the physicians. I think we have true heroes in dr. Fauci, in the other Public Health officials that are trying to help us focus and what they have been trying to help us focus on is masks should not and cannot be political. Masks prevent the spread of this disease. Social distancing and all the implications on businesses, we understand how horrible that is but thats how we stop the spread of the disease. So yeah, there is a lot of dustup over one patient, the most Important Patient in the government, but i think the scientists and the physicians still say lets keep this all in perspective. Lets work hard to get this vaccine. Lets keep our guard up because we unfortunately have seen a super spreader event in realtime, you know, captured on television. So i think there is continued frustration that weve got to Pay Attention to the Public Health folks. And just to close, dr. Fauci today said that what we have is a baseline of 40,000 infections per day. Thats a level im not comfortable with. Dr. Michael anderson, thank you for spending some time with us today. When we return, as we do every day, remembering lives well lived. Every day, remembering lives well lived. See yourself. Welcome back to the mirror. And know youre not alone. Because this is not just a mirror, its an unstoppable community. Come on jesse, one more its every workout. Come on you two, lets go for everyone. So join in now. And see your best self. In the mirror. Instantly clear every day congestion with vicks sinex saline nasal mist. For drug free relief that works fast. Vicks sinex. Instantly clear everday congestion. Rakuten is free to sign up and its in over 3,000 stores. I use it to buy makeup. Travel. Clothes, electronics to me, rakuten is a great way to get cash back on anything you buy. Sign up today and get cash back with rakuten. She was just the most amazing person at 3 00 in the friend you could call her and say julie, i have an issue, i have a problem and she would be there. A 3 00 in the morning friend. What a beautiful and elegant way to describe any friend. Thats how they describe julie davis. Julie was an elementary schoolteacher and when one of her students lost his mom, she visited every day after school just to make sure that the family was doing okay. According to the shore lit observer, julie wasnt always a teacher. She actually worked in accounting until columbine happened and then sitting there in front of the tv that day cradling her own newborn daughter. Julie had a sudden heroic impulse. She switched careers. Lee anna now 22 years old said she quote felt it in her heart that she could impact students and prevent for tragedies. Wow. Joyful. Compassionate, a fierce friend. Julie died of complications from the coronavirus on sunday. She was only 49 years old. So to honor her memory, lets commit to being a julie davis to someone this week. Be that 3 00 in the morning friend and on that way we can carry on a little bit of her legacy. Well be right back. Little bitr legacy well be right back. Its about the humans. Fun loving, fast paced humans. 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Oh, those are progressive cant protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. Look at that. 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. Thank you so much for letting us into your homes during these extraordinary times. The beat with ari melber starts now. Nice to see you, as always. I want to welcome everyone to a special edition of the beat. Were joined by mary trump, President Trumps niece and the author of how my family created the worlds most dangerous man. Mary, thank you for coming back on the show and to get right to it, ill ask you and the viewers to take a listen to how your uncle just described his Covid Recovery today. Im feeling good. Really good. I mean,