Transcripts For MSNBCW First Look 20200811

Good tuesday morning, everybody. It is august 11th, and im yasmin vossoughian. Weve got a lot to cover this morning. Several governors are expressing their outrage over a lack of clear directives from the president s clear actions aimed at providing coronavirus relief. Most notably, the leaders have taken issue with states being responsible for 25 of the administrations unemployment measure as tax revenues plummet and costs continue to increase. Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo estimates it would cost his state 4 billion. Governor mark dewine says he has no plan to do as trumps order demands. Theyre calling for a cohesive nation all strategy to address the economic fallout. In a joint statement the group chaired by Governor Cuomo and vicechaired by the governor of arkansas called on the white house, two with congress to, quote, come up with a workable solution. When asked when payments will be delivered to struggling americans, the president relayed the message to secretary treasurer steve mnuchin. Here was the time change. Can you give us a time frame . Within a week or two. Mr. Secretary, youre saying when . In the next week or two, most states will be able to execute. Have all the governors signed onto this . We just had a meeting with the governors. They were very ayn just to get money for the people in their states, and depending on the state, we have the right do what we want do. We can terminate the 25 or we dont have to do that. Well see what it is. All right. So republican senator ben sasse who called the president s executive orders unconstitutional slop over the weekend is hit back after being called out by the president on twitter over the weekend said this, rino ben sasse, who needed my support and endorsement in order to get the republican nomination for senate from the great state of nebraska has now that hes got it gone rogue again. He said, since he moved our conversation from private to public, here we are. He went on. I understand youve been frustrated. I didntdown your Reelection Committee and then i ran a primary ad admitting to nebraskans we sometimes agree and sometimes disagree. You also know i never asked for your endorsement nor did i use it in the campaign. None of my disagreements are personal. On the topic that had you mad this weekend, no president , whether named obama or trump or biden or aoc has unilateral power to rewrite Immigration Law or to cut taxes or to raise taxes. This is because america doesnt have kings. He said looks more like a gym rat rather than a u. S. Senator. Absentee ballots were mailed out across the state of virginia. Its a disaster. All over virginia, half a million votes, so thats something you have to think about. We dont to have a rigged election, i know that, and you have to be very careful when you mention as you constantly do russia or you mention china or you mention iran or others that attack our election system. And when you have this mailin voting, its a its very susceptible. Its something that can be easily attacked by Foreign Countries and by, frankly, democrats and by republicans, and i think that its something you have to start thinking about very seriously. Our systems not equipped for it. The post office is not equipped for it. All right. So last week the center for voter information acknowledged that it had mailed approximately half a million applications for absentee ballots to voters in virginia containing a return envelope addressed to the wrong election office. The Virginia Department of elections, which was not involved with the mailer said in a statement this. Any applications that arrive in the wrong localitys office will be forwarded immediately to the correct office for processing. And asked about intelligence showing foreign interference in the upcoming election, particularly russias meddling, the russians instead blame democrats. The other day they said the three countries. They said china, russia, and iran, and some reporter got up and said russia is meddling. I said, didnt it mention china and iran . Why didnt you mention them too . You know what im telling you . Ill tell you whos meddling in our elections. The democrats are meddling by wanting and insisting on mailin ballots where theres corruption all over the place. So President Trump yesterday explained he would rather hold the g7 meeting after the election instead of next month. He also said he would invite russian president Vladimir Putin despite germanys objections to that. Im much more inclined to do it sometime after the election. We were going to do it sometime in september. We could do it through teleconference or a meeting, but i sort of am now suggesting i told my people, yesterday actually, why dont we do it sometime after the election when things are a little bit you have a little more time though about it because its very important. The g7 is very important. [ indiscernible ] i dont know. But we have invited a number of people to the meeting. I certainly would invite him to the meeting. I think hes an important factor, but we will invite certain people that arent in the g7. All right. Joining me now, National Political reporter for politico, alaina snyder. Good to see you this morning. Lets talk about the president s comments when it comes to mailin voting and how hes equating it to Russian Election interference. Theres no evidence to suggest theres any corruption when it comes to mailin voting across this country. In fact, a lot of states have already instituted it locally within their states. What impact if at all does this have on his reElection Campaign, what he is doing when it comes to talking about mailin voting . We weighed out this question clearly. Was answering in response to a question from a reporter questioning whether or not he had raised concerns about election interference from russia and he redirected it to an area where he feels same it ignores very little evidence that theres any fraud associated with mailin voting. In fact, five states are all mailin states. In terms of what sort of impact this might have ultimately for himself, i mean, look, it may very well encourage or, excuse me, discourage republicans from using mailin voting as a way to vote for this president if theyre so inclined. So it has the chance of hurting support for him because weve learned theres no disadvantage to mailin voting. Lets talk about also relief negotiations with states. States say they need money. Theyve been hit hard by the coronavirus especially with the shutdown since spring. You have state speaking out now that theyre 25 responsible for insurance. They were hoping it would fall on the government because theyre hurting so much. Despite the comments by the president , is congress any closer to an agreement when it comes to relief measures. At this point i dont think so. And i think the measures that President Trump signed are evidence of that. He doesnt feel like talks with congress has proceeded in a way that there is going to be some sort of, you know, results for all the last two weeks of conversations between the Trump Administration and House Democrats. And this is a way to circumvent those negotiations so he can try to present to voters, look, im doing what i can to try to fix this. Again, using his words here, the House Democrats are not helping me. They would harshly push against that saying theyre pushing toward these measures, saying they want negotiations. Look. The states themselves have been seeking more money and support from the federal government. So theyre certainly displeased with asking to pony up money themselves, money they may not be in a position to actually give. So this sort of shows how far this is off the rails in terms of where negotiations stand in congress. All right. Politicos elena schneider. Stay close. Im going to talk to you again in just a little bit. Still ahead, lawyers want details about the attorney generals investigation into President Trumps personal business. Also later a new warning from dr. Anthony fauci about the difficult road ahead if the United States has to deal with dual outbreaks of the coronavirus and the flu this fall. Those stories and a check on your weather when we come back. K we miss you. Its totally not the same without you. We miss your lets do this look. The sound of your laugh cry screams. And how you make every day here the best day ever. 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. Buy now and get two days free at the parks. Restrictions apply. Get your glow back. Start running again with a boost of b vitamins and energy from green tea. New dunkin refreshers. Order ahead via the dunkin app for a contactless way to order and pay. America runs on dunkin. Can it one up spaghetti night . Cleaning power of liquid. It sure can. Really . Can it one up breakfast in bed . Yeah, for sure. Thanks, boys. What about that . Uhh, yep it can . Yeah, even that i would very much like to see that. Me too. Introducing tide power pods. One up the toughest stains with 50 more cleaning power than liquid detergent. Any further questions . Uh uh nope one up the power of liquid with tide power pods. Welcome back. The president s attorneys have asked a federal judge for a hearing whether new york prosecutors should be required to reveal the scope of their investigation into the president and his business practices. The New York Times is reporting that a letter filed with district judge Victor Marrero disputed the d. A. s claim to having a wide legal basis to seek eight years of the president s financial records. The president s attorneys expressed disbelief that the investigation was broader than alleged hush money payments to cover up affairs that the president denies, a suggestion that prosecutors made just last week. But even if more extensive financial crimes are being investigated, they argue the subpoena is still too broad and prosecutors should justify each and every document that they request. Also, republican senator ron johnson of wisconsin has issued a subpoena to fbi director christopher wray. Its the first subpoena on the investigation into Russian Election interference. According to politico, the subpoena is for documents only, not testimony. It demands, quote, this, all documents related to the probe. He attempted to counter the argument that his probe will air conspiracy theories. Johnson writes, quote, it is neither me, chairman grassley, or our kmut tees being used to dissem mate russian discrimination. Puppet masters in the kremlin could not be more pleased at the Political Division and discord that has been driven by the Resistance Movement against President Trump. Msnbc legal analyst Danny Cevallos joined es me this mor. Good morning. Good morning. In this letter that i mention, they talk about hunter biden and burisma as well. Talk about this, danny. The subpoena duces tecum is for documents only. It may be revealed to more than one person in a committee. The documents can be from all over and the republicans on the committee can build a case from whatever circumstantial evidence they can get from all those documents, but it is a broad swath of documents for a very broad investigation. If youll recall, last december the Inspector General for the Justice Department concluded that although the initial russia investigation was valid, the fbi made a lot of mistakes. This is going before a preMueller Report era. It was the genesis of that Mueller Report and the Inspector General report. Its taken us several years back. To that end, senator johnson is talking about the possibility of joe and hunter biden actually having ukraine connections that were well, lets just say, not great. And so and he says in his letter specifically, theres been a lot of reporting that hunter and joe biden did nothing wrong, and the senator says, i couldnt disagree more. So for those folks who think hunter and joe biden, the ukraine story is a nonstory, theyre not the people who wrote the documents or are seeking the documents. They think there is some there there. I want to talk about johnson saying he doesnt think thats an accurate assessment that joe biden or hunter biden did something wrong. In fact, theyve been exonerated on many points. So important to note that there as this investigation continues. Lets talk about the manhattan investigation as well. So it seems as if the president s attorneys are essentially saying even if this is a more extensive investigation, no matter what, that every document needs to be justified, every document that they are requested. Is that true . Were pretty far along in this litigation. It was a couple of weeks ago that the manhattan d. A. Said, no, no, no, were not looking at just hush money payments to women. Were talking much broader, possible bank fraud, possible insurance fraud, so for that reason, were seeking a huge group of documents, and the trump side is now arguing, for us to even argue that your subpoena is overbroad, we need to know more about your investigation. So if youre going to ask for that big a group of documents, youre going to have to justify each and every one. This is not the regular way that subpoenas are challenged. Some normal regular joe who challenges a subpoena has a real uphill battle, especially when its issued by a grand jury. Theyre presumptively considered reasonable. So it will be very interesting to see how a court deals with this very important plaintiff in the form of the president. All right. Danny cevallos, thank you as always. Still ahead, despite concerns over the coronavirus, the president says College Football should resume this fall. A look at where players and coaches stand on that. Were back in a moment. Were back in a montme get your glow back. Start running again with a boost of b vitamins and energy from green tea. New dunkin refreshers. Order ahead via the dunkin app for a contactless way to order and pay. America runs on dunkin. Amid reports that the big ten and other Major Conferences are leaning toward canceling the College Football season due to covid, the president took to twitter in support of the players who wish for the 2020 season to be played. In a tweet the president wrote in part this. The athletes have been working too hard, wewanttoplay. Trevor lawrence posted over the weekend laying out the case to play. Lets switch gears and get a check on your forecast with nbc meteorologist bill karins. Good morning, bill. Good to see you this morning. Good morning, yasmin. The big story in the weather world yesterday is what happened through the midwest. Iowa, illinois, indiana were hit hard. This is what we call a derecho. This is a longlived storm that produces high destructive winds over a large swath. This went for miles. This was in chicago. We were prepared for it. Tornado warnings went out. This was in hinsdale, a suburb outside of chicago. We had winds at 110 miles an hour in some locations. There were trees down all over the place. It started at 11 00 a. M. In des moines and then this thunderstorm complex grew in intensity. All the blue dots show you where all the wind damage reports were. This rocked all the way through the chicago area, through indiana. 450 miles long was the damage path. Again, we had numerous wind damage reports. Over 100 miles an hour. It was the longest derecho ive seen in a long time. Those storms have died out, also the ones in oklahoma. Another hot day in the northeast. This will be an official heatwave in many areas in the northeast area. How hot . Boston, 97, syracuse, 97. Thats not that unusual. D. C. Will feel like 101. Today and tomorrow will be the two hottest days of week and then it will cool off toward the weekend. Yasmin, its become a lon hot summer in many areas, especially the northeast. I think wednesday we will get thunderstorms that will cool everyone off. That will be a nice relief. Thank you, bill. Still ahead, everybody, were going to dig into the new reporting that the Trump Administration is considering a ban on u. S. Citizens reentering this country if theyre suspected of having the coronavirus. Also, were just two weeks away from the Republican National convention, and the president is making some final decisions about where hell make his speech. Those stories and more coming up. S speech those stories and more coming up heres your iced coffee america runs on dunkin ive been involved in. Communications in the media for 45 years. Ive been taking prevagen on a regular basis for at least eight years. For me, the greatest benefit over the years has been that prevagen seems to help me recall things those stories and more coming those stories and more coming recommend prevagen. It has helped me an awful lot. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Simon pagenaud takes the lead at the indy 500 coming to the green flag, racing at daytona. Theyre off. In the kentucky derby. Rory mcllroy is a two time champion at east lake. He scores stanley cup champions touchdown only mahomes. The big events are back and xfinity is your home for the return of live sports. Welcome back, everybody. Im yasmin vossoughian. Were going to begin this half hour with the Trump Administration reportedly considering a proposal to temporarily ban american citizens from returning to this country from abroad if authorities believe that person could have the coronavirus. According to the New York Times, the proposal would expand the governments power to prevent entry into this country in individual limited circumstances. The times notes that under the proposal, the government could block a citizen or legal resident from crossing the border into the United States if an official, quote, reasonably believes that the individual may have been exposed to or is infected with the communicable disease. Federal agencies have been reportedly asked to offer feedback to the white house today, though, it is unclear when it might be approved or announ announced. And President Trump doubled down on his claim that children are, quote, as he puts it, virtually immune to covid19 despite increasing evidence that shows otherwise. The coronavirus, 97,000 children tested positive for coronavirus in the last two weeks in july, according to the American Academy of pediatrics. Does that give you any pause about schools reopening for inperson learning . No, no, because they may have, as you call it a case, it may be a karks but its also a case where its a tiny fraction of death, tiny fraction, and they get better very quickly. Yeah, they have they may have it for a short period of time, but as you know, the seriousness of it in terms of what it leads to is extraordinarily small, very, very much less than 1 . Do you still believe that children are essentially immune . Yeah, i think for the most part they do very well. They dont get very sick. They dont catch it easily. They dont get very sichlk ak. And according to the people ive spoken to, they dont transport it or transfer it to other people or certainly not very easily. Yeah, i think schools have to open. We want to get our economy going. We have incredible numbers despite this. If we could get this going, i think its a very important thing for the economy to get the schools going. Theres also the looming issue that churn can put their parents at risk, can put teachers at risk, and their gra grandparents as well. So dr. Anthony fauci starting if people dont comply with masks, there could be a dual effect with flu and coronavirus in the fall and winter. I have to ask a message from the American People. The president said over the weekend that this pandemic is disappe disappearing, that its going to disappear. Youre the nations top Infectious Disease expert in this pandemic. Are you comfortable with those words that this is disappearing . There would have to be an addition to that. We could get it under control if we do the things that were talking about. Its not going to spontaneously by its own devices. Were going to have to act with P Public Health effort. I believe its achievable that it gets quite controlled so we can open up the country and get the economy back. But at 60,000, 70,000, 80,000 cases a day, its not disappearing at the moment. No, its not. All you have to do is look at the data, david. The virus is telling us what it can and will do if we dont confront it properly. All right. Lets talk about 2020 politics here. The New York Times is reporting that joe bide season planning to announce his Vice President ial running mate by the middle of the week. That would leave us around tomorrow. The times also said biden has told allies hes interviewed every finalist in his search and the only thing left for him do is make up his mind. Biden has spoken with the contenders in conversations in remote situations but the timing of these meetings is not necessarily clear. Also the president said either gettysburg or the white house will serve as a backdrop for his nomination acceptance speech. He said we have narrowed the president ial nomination acceptance speech, to be delivered on the final night of the convention, thats thursday, to two locations, the great battlefield of gettysburg, pennsylvania, and the white house. He abandoned plans in both North Carolina and florida because of this pandemic. However, using the white house as a backdrop has raised, of course, understandably concerns among legal and ethics experts who say it is crossing the line between campaigning and the official business of the president. The president said it would entail less security costs. Joining me once again, National Political reporter for politico, elena schneider. Let me first talk with you about the most recent announcement from the president. He hasnt necessarily made it official, but narrowed it down to two locations, the white house as i mentioned and gettysburg. The white house having a lot of issues with it and folks throwing up their hands saying this cannot happen. Talk me through the reactions that youre hearing. So, look, both of these properties present a real ethical challenge for the president. As you said, the white house is federal property, but so is gettysburg. Its run by the National Parks service, which is run by federal employees. They said they would be able to execute these efforts through the rnc and the Trump Campaign so there would be no violations of the hatch act, which is a law that prevents candidates from campaign i campaigning from these properties. It races consistent concerns in that it would be a challenge that would put employees in a situation in which they would need to be in a campaigninglike posture position while doing their job, particularly the National Park Service Employees who keep the parks safe. So this is raising a lot of concerns among ethical experts, but this is President Trumps ongoing search to find a location from an rnc acceptance speech that went from charlotte, North Carolina, to florida, to now we dont know where hes going to be accepting it. All right. With that i want to talk about joe biden as well. We have been waiting with bated breath as to who it is that he will be choosing as his Vice President ial pick, his running mate. At one point there was a reporting that susan rice and Kamala Harris were the top two contenders. Then last week we saw some inklings of possible Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer having talks and meetings with the Vice President as well. Where do we stand as of today, and when do we expect an announcement to be made . So as of today, we are still waiting, and as you noted, there has been other reporting as well as its borne out in my own report, sometime midweek, which could be tomorrow, wednesday. The bestcase scenario for the Biden Campaign, they roll it out through a text message or email. Thats the bestcase scenario. Theres a possibility it leaks in the next 24 hours. But in terms of where things stand with the candidates themselves, youve laid it out. Susan rice and Kamala Harris have been late out as top contenders. The Biden Campaign has stressed that a number of people were able made it to those stages, made it to the late part of the interview process. So theyre trying to keep the pool of potential people as broad as possible for as long as possible to keep peep guessing, and its a nod to the process that even if you dont get picked, its a push to note youve made it this far, and it certainly helps those Democratic Women politically. Hey, just quickly here, do we have any idea as to whether or not biden and his v. P. Pick will be seen together during the convention . Thats a great question. Whether or not we see them in person, its unclear. Certainly we will see them virtually together. But whether or not theyll be in person is not known at this point. All right. Politicos elena schneider. Thank you. Still ahead, everybody, restrictions and a curfew in chicago after a weekend of unrest and looting. Now the political fallout. Well have the latest. Also what Officials Say happened outside of the white house as the president was rushed out of the Briefing Room midsentence. Back in a moment. Midsentence back in a moment find your keys. Find your getupandgo. Find pants that arent sweats. Find your friends. Find your sense of wander. Find the world is new, again. At chevy wed like to take you there. Now during the chevy open road sales event, get up to 15 of msrp cash back on select 2020 models. Thats over fiftyseven hundred dollars cash back on this equinox. Its time to find new roads, again. Excuse me . [ indiscernible ] all right. So that was the moment yesterday when secret service abruptly escorted the president out of the white house Briefing Room. It happened moments after Officials Say a 51yearold man approached a secret Service Officer at a post on the white house perimeter and claimed to have had a weapon. Officials say the suspect then ran aggressively toward the officer, pulled an object from his clothing, and crouched into a shooters stance as if he was going to fire a weapon. Thats when the officers fired, hitting the man in the torso. Boefr the officer and the man were taken to the hospital. The secret service did not answer any questions about the injuries the officer may have suffered or if the suspect had a weapon. The white house says nothing was breach and no one was in danger. The white house was placed on lockdown. The president returned to the Briefing Room about ten minutes later and said everything was under control and resumed the briefing. The city of chicago is under lockdown after days of unrest. Two civilians were shot and more than 100 people were arrested after some began looting and vandalizing local businesses. In addition, 13 officers were injured during the unrest. Hundreds of people took to the streets after people say police shot a man. They say he fit the description of someone who reportedly had a gun in the area. They say the man began running and opened fire on police before officers returned fire. The man was taken to the hospital where he was in stable condition. Chicago police said that tempers flared fueled by misinformation about the shooting. Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the action of leaders, quote, had nothing to do with projected first maemt and called it abject criminal behavior. Lets switch gears and get a check on your weather now with nbc meteorologist bill karins for us. And, bill, take us through those covid numbers before you get us to the weather as were still seeing these numbers on the rise across this country. Yeah. Its interesting. Weve kind of hit almost like a low. Were not really going up as fast as we were. Were not dropping down as low as we were. So its kind of like status quo right now. It will be interesting to see where we head from here. Yesterday we had 49,800 cases. Right now were at 55,000. You see where we were on monday. We had a big jumpup in july. California, florida, texas, they have more. Of coursing they do. They have more people. If you take it per 1 Million People, louisiana is the most widespread. Then it would be arizona, florida, new york, and mississippi, and new jersey. Those are the most infected states by capita, per 1 Million People. Yesterday, was high. Were still around 1,700 per day. If you look at the states with the most deaths. You have nchlk, new york, massachusetts, connecticut, rhode island, and louisiana. As far as the weather headlines, we expect to have a possible tropical depression forming but its way out in the atlantic. Im not concerned about that at all. For today its an august hazy hot and humid for part of the country, and for illinois and indiana, it will not be as hot there. Noenl the only in the 80s. Thanks, bill. Still ahead a look inside axios and a battle over whether uber and lyft drivers should be considered contractors or employees. That and other stories driving your business coming up. That and other stories driving your business coming up. Get your glow back. Start running again with a boost of b vitamins and energy from green tea. New dunkin refreshers. Order ahead via the dunkin app for a contactless way to order and pay. America runs on dunkin. So heres to the strong, who trust in our performance and comfortable, longlasting protection. Because your strength is supported by ours. Depend. The only thing stronger than us, is you. A ruling has been postponed until both companies have a right to appeal and both claim they have been doing so. The Companies Argue theyre not transportation companies, that theyre platforms that facilitate tractions between drivers and passengers, and theyre asking voters to support a ballot that would present this new legislation. Mcdonalds is suing estabrook accusing him of lying and fraud. He was fired for inappropriate sexual relationship with an employee. He still walked inappropriate s relationship with an employee. He walked away with a large compensation, around 40 million. Mcdonalds now claims that easterbrook had three sexual relationships in the year. One of those individuals awarded a large batch of shares so mcdonalds looking to get back the compensation. So theyre looking to see who knew what when. Eastman kodak shares went down yesterday. As the sec investigates a high volu s volume loan that was made. Coming up on morning joe, confusion and frustration over the president s executive order on unemployment benefits. Governors and state officials from both parties are sounding off. Plus Eugene Robinson and what he calls the, quote, wreckage joe biden may acquire in november. And a look at next weeks Democratic Convention. Morning joe is moments away. Morning joe is moments away. N with a boost of b vitamins and energy from green tea. New dunkin refreshers. Order ahead via the dunkin app for a contactless way to order and pay. America runs on dunkin. only tylenol® rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. They release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. Tylenol®. Welcome back, everybody. Joining us from washington with a look at axios a. M. Alexi mccam mond mond. Give us axios 1 big thing. Today is a look inside President Trumps debate prep and campaign. Two weeks ago, President Trump met in a Conference Room in bed minister with a group of allies to discuss topics weighing heavily on the president s mind, thats the three president ial debates against joe biden. Now, President Trump and his team want to focus on this because they want to try to close the polling gap and get within striking distance to joe biden. The interesting thing, of course, is that they want to keep the group small, Something Like five to six people. It included his campaign manager, a senior adviser, soninlaw Jared Kushner and chris christie, who role played Hillary Clinton for donald trump in 2016. Whats their approach on the president s preparation for debating biden . How important do they feel the debates are . The interesting thing now without the fullfledged conventions for democrats and republicans, is that President Trump is putting pressure and importance on the debate in part because the convention is no longer that in person celebration that he and others would love, especially for the Party Heading into the fall but because theyve seen the way that joe biden has been increasing his standing in the polls up until now. They think that joe biden will not submit himself to a big or tough interview, you know, on the networks or with a reporter before election day. So theyre viewing the debates as their last chance, the trump teams last chance to brand biden, attack biden and get into the voters heads before november. A lot of people wondering what the debates are going to look like. I know axios has done a bunch of reporting on what the president ial debates are thinking here. What have you learned . Weve seen how President Trump and his Election Campaign have pressured the commission on debates to add an additional debate before people start voting in september. The Trump Campaign argues thats only fair so that the American People they say can see joe biden in full before they start casting their ballots. But the commission is an independent body. Its not made up of partisans or one party or the other, theyre independent folks that have been doing this since the 80s. Theres no chance theyre going to suddenly bend to President Trumps desires and change the schedule. Or Rudy Giuliani on behalf of President Trump and his Election Campaign sent the election an entire list with proposed moderators they would like to see in the debates. The candidates never get to choose the moderators so i wouldnt expect anybody on the list to make the cut, unless they were already being considered. I want to address the fact that congresswoman cooalexandri ocasiocortez, shes going to be speaking at the Democratic Convention next week. Talk about the significance of her appearance there. Its fascinating because a few days ago us reporters were trying to figure out whether and how she would have a speaking role at the convention. Putting her in a prime time slot on the tuesday of the convention, speaking almost in tandem with senator Bernie Sanders is a way for the Biden Campaign and the dnc to use her, energize young progressives without tying joe biden to her agenda, which could be weaponized against him by President Trump. She will have a prime time speaking slot, that will help with fundraising but its two days before joe biden will speak. And i think thats strategic. Great to see you this morning. Well be reading axios in just a little bit. That does it for me on this tuesday morning, im yasmin vossoughian. Morning joe starts right now. If we didnt close up our country we would have had 1. 5 or 2 Million People already dead. Weve called it right now we dont have to close it, we understood the disease. Nobody understood it because nobody has seen anything like this. The closest thing is in 1917, they say, right, the great the great pa