My guests this morning, governors phil murphy of new jersey and Asa Hutchinson of arkansas, and infectious expert dr. Nahid bedalia. Plus about face. Allies of the president now urging people to wear a mask. Wear a mask. Maga should now stand for masks are great again. Governor of abbott of texas orders it. That is why today i am issuing a Face Covering requirement for all counties with more than 20 covid cases. Also, did President Trump ignore warnings of russian bounties on americans . It is dereliction of duty. Or was he not told . He didnt know about it, and im convinced of that. Ill talk to former National Security adviser for president obama, susan rice. Joining me for insight and analysis are former Homeland Security secretary jeh johnson, danielle from American Enterprise group and nbc correspondent peter alexander. Welcome to sunday. Its meet the press. From nbc news in washington, the longestrunning show in television history. This is meet the press with chuck todd. Good sunday morning, and i hope youre having a happy and safe fourth of july weekend. Chuck todd is away this week, but for the second consecutive night on this Holiday Weekend, President Trump gave a divisive speech referring to opponents among other things as marxists and looters while down playing the surging pandemic. The coronavirus is exploding across much of the country with nine of the worst days happening in the last ten days. With 17 states now recording their singleday highs this week, many are closing down bars, restaurants, beaches and gyms. Some for a second time while others have delayed reopenings each as President Trump says he thinks or hopes the virus will just disappear. Health experts are pleading with americans, wear a mask, avoid parties, stay at home. This is serious. At the same time, the administration is scrambling to explain why the president did nothing about intelligence indicating the russians were paying bounties to the taliban to kill american troops. Mr. Trump claimed he was not informed, and hes attacked the news media and calling the story a hoax. The issue has raised the old watergate question, what did the president know and when did he know it and prompted a new one. Now that he knows, what will he do about it . Well get to all of that, but well begin with the growing pandemic and the president spending the Independence Day weekend hoping to divide americans against each other. The radical left, the marxists, the anarchists, the agitators, the looters. Stoking divisions during a national crisis, President Trump hosted two days of crowded celebrations with social distancing optional and few masks, leaning on the culture wars in an attempt to reboot his campaign. Last night on the White House South Lawn we will never allow an angry mob to tear down our statues, erase our history, indoctrinate our children. And at a fireworks display friday at mt. Rushmore, the president continues to make inaccurate claims as he plays down the pandemic. We have tested almost 40 Million People. By so doing, we show cases, 99 of which are totally harmless. Even as many fellow republicans join a chorus of Public Officials urging americans to scale back their fourth of july plans. The virus is spreading so fast there is little margin for error. This should be a wakeup call to all of us that we are in the fight of our lives. Reported cases are up more than 20 in 34 states over the last two weeks, even topping 55,000 cases a day overall. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around. But the president is denying those facts. I think that at some point thats going to sort of just disappear, i hope. The last month has been a tough one for the president with selfinflicted wounds on the virus. So i said to my people, slow the testing down, please. On race and policing. Theres looting. Theres probably going to be shootings. Retweeting a video of a supporter shouting white power and a widening scandal over his handling about a russian plot to kill u. S. Troops in afghanistan. I think its a hoax. Twothirds disapprove the handling of the virus, trailing joe biden in the battleground states. When youre in the barrel and youre getting bad press and the polls are against you you need to do something to say were moving in a different direction. After months of mixed messages on the pandemic, the white house is settling on a new one, learn to live with it. We have some areas where were putting out the flames and the fires and thats working out well. Around the country, many states like texas are making it clear its not working out well, issuing mandatory mask orders and even the president s allies are shifting their tone. Arm yourself with a mask. The stakes are too high for this political debate about protrump, antitrump mask. The people are saying i wish the president would put on a mask every once in a while just because it would make him look as if hes taking it seriously. And joining me now is democratic Governor Phil Murphy of new jersey. Governor murphy, welcome back to meet the press. I see you are at the jersey shore and the beaches behind you look empty, but there are people going to the beaches and many of them are not wearing masks. What is your message to people of new jersey, and should there be a mandatory mask order . Good morning, andrea. Indeed, we are on the gem of the jersey shore here. Most of the beaches are quite crowded. Yes, the answer is unequivocally, wear a mask. The virus outside is a lot less lethal than it is inside, but when in doubt, when youre going out, put on a mask. The president downplayed the pandemic in his speeches this weekend, and in fact said that 99 of the cases shows no harm. What is your response to the president s messaging . Listen, this thing is lethal. New jerseys paid an enormous price and have lost over 13,000 confirmed fatalities from covid19. Were starting to see a small spike in reinfection from folks coming back from places like myrtle beach as well as sin florida, other hot spots. To me, it means we need a National Strategy, and were only as strong as our weakest link and as you mentioned at the outset of the program, i said we went through hell. We cannot afford to go through hell again. We need a National Strategy right now. Masking has to be at the core of that. You and your neighboring state, Governor Cuomo and governor of connecticut have quarantines from people coming in from hot spots. How do you enforce that . At one level its difficult. We have to ask people to do the right thing and be responsible. By the way, New Jerseyans by the millions have done the right thing from the get go. If theyve been traveling to a hot spot or visiting here and new york and connecticut, were doing this with them, as well, were asking folks selfquarantine. We have contact tracers that take their information down and we try to run every one of these cases to the ground, but its mostly a personal responsibility that were asking folks to do the right thing. Have your contact tracers come up with any evidence so far . I mentioned there was a wedding in myrtle beach, and we absolutely have evidence of folks who were at that wedding who came back up to new jersey, jersey folks who were visiting there, and weve got other cases that were running down. Thats the one thats most recent and most prevalent. Do you think there should be a National Mask requirement . I do. I do, andrea. Its become almost not even debatable. When youre going inside or outdoors. As i mentioned this virus is more lethal inside than outside. When you leave your house, put on a mask, there ought to be a national requirement. You delayed the opening of restaurants and i dont want need it tell you because im sure youve been hearing it, that people, Restaurant Owners are really upset. Amy russo, a Restaurant Owner told the new york times, shes in asbury park, not that far from you, that its appalling. We do the buying, sunday to monday deliveries and its insane. Theyre taking a huge hit having bought all of that food and the cleaning supplies. What do you tell those people . We have nothing but sympathy for them, believe me. Its why we need direct federal cash assistance to states so that we can help those restaurants and Small Businesses out. But the choice is either we open inside, or based on the data that we saw and the lethality of this virus inside or we lose people, we literally lose lives. When you combine indoors, lack of ventilation, sedentary, close proximity and you have to take your mask off to eat, and those are bad facts and were just not there yet. Well get there, i hope, but were not ready for it. Are you concerned that after this Holiday Weekend youll see a spike in new jersey the way weve seen spikes elsewhere after the memorial day holiday . Andrea, were already seeing a little of that. Its less because of folks being on the beach and looking slowly but surely. We knew there was a risk associated with that. Its partly that. Its coming back from new jersey from hot spots. So yeah, were not out of the woods yet without any question. Well, seeing you there down there in the jersey shore makes us all want to get out there, as well, but not to be this year for us. Thank you very much, though. Thank you for interrupting your holiday. Safe holiday to you. And there is still a great disparity among regions with the south and the west getting hit the hardest while the northeast is doing a lot better now. Joining me now is the governor of a southern state, Asa Hutchinson. Governor hutchinson, welcome back to meet the press. Good to have you here. Good to be with you, andrea. I dont need to tell you there is a spike happening now in the south and arkansas is also seeing a rise in cases. What do you intend to do . Should you be requiring mandatory mask and Face Covering use . Well, we all should be wearing masks, Face Coverings when we go out in the public or where you cant socially distance. We actually entered an executive order yesterday, friday, in which allows the cities to pass an ordinance that mandates Face Coverings. We wanted to have a model so that everybody can have the same standard if they choose to to adopt that mandate. We are leading by example. I wear a mask when im out in public. This is important for us because when you want to grow the economy, whenever you want to bring people off the unemployment roles, the way you do it is to stop the spread of the virus by covering yourself, protecting others and protecting yourself. Youre showing by example when youre out in public and other republicans are and the president is not. He only is not wearing a Face Covering in public, but he held these huge gatherings over the weekend. South dakota and washington, d. C. Against local objections in washington. What example is that . Well, in terms of the gatherings themselves, you know, a lot of them were canceled here in arkansas. Fourth of july celebrations, just trying to minimize that exposure. But when you look at a National Level, i think its good that we celebrate the independence and its a controlled environment and it was outside in mt. Rushmore and it inspired many. Honestly, i would have liked to have seen more Face Coverings there in order to set an example. But what you have to do on this virus, and there is a virus fatigue in the country right now and you have to live life. You cant stop every activity, but you have to be in a controlled environment in which you do protect yourself and others and take it seriously. So theres this balance of reflecting to america how serious this is and a beg how big a fight were in. At the same time lets manage our way through this so that we can continue to live life even though we are very, very tired of it. Governor, there was no social distancing in south dakota. There were thousands of people there sitting absolutely crowded in and no Face Covering, as well. There should have been Face Coverings and they should have followed guidelines there. I know that its a controlled environment so its more of setting the example. I know how important this was to governor nome. Shes been asking the president about this months ago. This was not something that was set up at the last minute. It was planned, and it was a controlled environment. With all due respect, though, if the president wanted to come and hold a rally in arkansas as he did in tulsa, indoors and in phoenix he had a big gathering there and weve seen secret Service Agents and other members of his advance team now sick and the Vice President s advance in arizona, would you let that happen in arkansas . There would have to be social distancing and wearing of a mask if you cant social distance and you have to follow our guidelines and thats what we would insist upon. Let me show you Governor Abbott and several other republican governors are now changing what they had originally said. Lets watch. We have flattened the curve. Now people understand that the thing doesnt just go away. Our goal is to find ways to coexist with covid19 as quickly and safely as possible. Covid19 is not going away. In fact, its getting worse. I want to encourage people to go out and about and take a loved one to dinner and go retail shopping. Our message is clear. They are safer at home. Governor hutchinson, if greg abbot can change his mind, how about requiring masks for everybody in arkansas . I think thats whats unique about the governors leading and showing flexibility in the state and you look at how weve gone through this in arkansas. You know, we have tightened restrictions and we had a targeted release. Whenever we see an outbreak, we tighten the screws again, because we have to be able to respond and make sure people are following the guidelines. The governors have to be able to adjust to whats happening with the virus. Weve done that in arkansas. We were flat for a long time, and we had a small increase. We went back down and now you see it going back up and were responding to that. Thats what governors do. Thats what we have to do. Let me just say whenever we are testing people, youre having more cases and were also watching the hospitalization and were doing our Contact Tracing. Its a strategy that we have to stick with, and we can see results from it that will help us to fight that virus. Thank you very much. Thank you for being with us today, and thanks for being with us on a holiday and enjoy your Holiday Weekend, governor. All right. Thank you. Great to be with you. And joining me now, Infectious Disease expert dr. Nahid bedalia. Boston university. Doctor, welcome back to meet the press. Whats your reaction to what hutchinson said and the failure of the Face Coverings at these national rallies . Andrea, thanks for having me. Weve done this natural experiment a couple of times now. We know that when we go back to living like were not living in a pandemic, we end up with more cases. Those end up with more hospitalizations which lead to more deaths. Texas, arizona and North Carolina are pointing upward. How do we move forward . The other thing we notice is when we overwhelm the system with too many cases we, by necessity, start having shortages and the inability to respond in cases that are hard hit which are seeing delays in testing. You are seeing the inability to get enough personal protective equipment and our system is not responsive enough. Not only that, but then were leading to a fallout on everybody elses health when Health Care Workers get overwhelmed and it basically affects everybody elses health. How do we move forward . We need this National Strategy and we need to drive the cases down. As you heard governor murphy say as you heard governor hutchinson say, we have to come exist with this virus. We have to create the buffer space. Its a point system. Every activity, almost every activity we take during this pandemic carries risk. When we dont wear masks and when we have large gatherings, were taking away from the social tally, were increasing societys burden of this disease and we as a society have to make those choices. What do we value more . Fall is coming, schools are opening and were having the discussion that carries its own risk. Were looking at providing care for patients whose care has been delayed for the pandemic. And we have to refer the resources to covid19 in areas that are hot spots. We have to make a choice as a society about where were going to expend that energy and where were going to allow that buffer so that we can continue the important aspects of our culture, and our civilization. And the European Union is such a great contrast. They have 400 Million People, a greater population than we have and yet take a look at this graph. Theirs has come down, and they are down and were up to 55,000 daily cases. What are they doing right particularly in places like germany and france, highly industrialized countries compared to us . Well, they started off with the strategy that we pursued in the beginning which we seemed to abandon after memorial day and it was to drive the cases down to such a level that you can track transmission. New jersey is doing that. Theyre able to find new cases coming into their state. And thats the way to move forward. You put the resources in for testing and Contract Tracing and to begin with, you have to start with a place where you have so few cases that you can do that. Once there are too many cases, Contact Tracing cant keep up either. The other strategy is because we didnt pursue that initial stop, and getting to the point to lower cases where we get to break transmission, we are now in a position where we opened and we had to close again. The counties that are hardest hit, they have no option but to close again. Thats more peopleful for the economy and more painful for the businesses as you mentioned. The president keeps talking about the fact that we have massive testing and yet the harvard experts say we are testing half as many as we need to be testing and hes pointing to the fact that these cases are producing fewer deaths and that younger people are being affected. Is he wrong . Hes wrong in the fact that testing leads to more cases. Lets start there. I think we are not testing enough, and the reason we know that at cdc has estimates that we are catching one in ten patients with this disease. Looking at serology studies, studies whether or not you had immunity or were exposed in the past. You take it from there, what does testing do . If this was a war, we wouldnt say we dont want more intel. If we had a flood, we wouldnt want a survey of the land to figure out how bad the damage is. Testing allows us to find more people in the community and more people lead to more cases and its as simple as that. Finding the cases allows us to break the chains of transmission. Look at the advantage with individual patients. If you get diagnosed early and youre somebody who is high risk and youre able to come to care early. Maybe we can improve the mortality. Yes, we are testing more and thankfully we are finding younger people. Younger patients do not exist in a vacuum. They live alongside people who are vulnerable. We need to keep younger patients as well. So testing is an advantage both as a National Strategy and also for the individual patient and we cant forget that. Dr. Bedalia, thanks very much. Thanks for being with us. And when we come back, did President Trump ignore evidence that russia placed bounties on the heads of american troops or was he never told . My interview with former National Security adviser susan rice. Thats next. 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Shop everything home at wayfair today. And welcome back. Wh and welcome back. While there are so many questions about the story that russia offered bounties to the taliban to kill American Service members in afghanistan, among them did President Trump ignore the intelligence or was he never told . If he was not told, why not . And now that he does know, will he do anything about it . Joining me now is the former National Security adviser under president obama, ambassador susan rice. She is also the auth are on of tough love. My story of the things worth fighting for. Ambassador rice, welcome back to meet the press and a happy Holiday Weekend to you. Thanks for being with us. Same to you, andrea. Good morning and happy fourth weekend. Thank you. On this fourth of july weekend, the story of the russian intelligence, the intelligence that russia organized bounties to target american soldiers and coalition officers in afghanistan, the president has now referred to this as a hoax. What message does that send to Vladimir Putin . Andrea, the message to Vladimir Putin is you can kill American Servicemen and women with absolute impunity. This is an extraordinary revelation. The president of the United States has demonstrated absolutely callous disregard for the safety and security of American Forces in the war zone, and theres no explanation for this. Why ten days after the story was First Published and the president s claiming he hadnt been briefed has he not come out and said to the American People my top priority is to protect our men and women in uniform, and i will get to the bottom of this intelligence. I will figure out why it is that russia appears to be targeting our forces, and i will give the American People and the soldiers the appropriate response that it deserves. He said nothing. Andrea, i dont buy the story that he was never briefed. I believe that over a year ago, when the information first came to light in 2019 that my successor, john bolton, would have walked straight into the oval office, as i would have, and informed the president of this intelligence. You dont wait until you have 100 certainty. You tell the commander in chief what he needs to know, when he needs to know it, and so now theyre claiming he wasnt told. Well, if thats the case then maybe these advisers in 2020 when the information came back again and failed to tell him i wouldnt doubt that because theyre scared of him, i believe. But the point is, our service men and women are in a war zone vulnerable. We have credible information that suggests that the russians and maybe putin himself are trying to kill American Service members and the president calls it a hoax. Let me show you some of the responses from the white house officials trying to downplay the reliability of this intelligence. Lets watch. We were dealing with something that was unverified, uncorroborated, no consensus. For us, the professionals, we like to see verified information. Until it is verified it is not briefed up to the president of the United States. Thats how intelligence works. Thats how intelligence works. The intelligence on Osama Bin Laden being in that hideaway in pakistan was 50 50. 50 50 and president obama went after bin laden, and you know the results. Is intelligence ever 100 or no. No, andrea. Look, i was National Security adviser. I can tell the American People with certainty that we dont ever or very, very rarely have 100 certainty, and thats not what were aiming for. We are in this business of protecting the American People and the service men and women have to do so often with imperfect information whachlt we just heard out of my successor, mr. Obrien and the press secretary is a clown show. Thats not how intelligence works and thats not how the National Security adviser and the top cabinetlevel officials who are there to support the president are supposed to the behave. They are supposed to be on top of information like this. They are supposed to run it to the ground. It shouldnt be months or years before we figure out whether something of this significance is actually something we take seriously. In fact, the Intelligence Community did take it seriously. We know that because it was written in the president s daily briefing, the most important and exclusive product of the Intelligence Community. The president didnt read it. Whats extraordinary is that the people around him didnt bring it to his attention, allegedly. Why if this intelligence was important enough to have an interagency meeting on it and it being in the president ially daily brief as you point out february 27th, why did he subsequently have six phone calls with Vladimir Putin and didnt raise this issue and nobody briefed him that he should bring the issue up . Andrea, it makes no sense. None of it adds up. If, in fact, the president is surrounded by such cowards and incompetence that even when hes trying to invite putin to the g7 and has these six phone calls, nobody has the guts to say to the president of the United States, mr. President , we still, i want to remind you, have credible intelligence that the russians are trying to kill u. S. Servicemen and women in afghanistan. This is not the time to be handing putin an olive branch. This is a time to be handing out options to punish him and thats not what happened. This is really extraordinary. We have a president who is doing our arch adversaries bidding, i would say, and hes surrounded by sycophants and weaklings who arent doing their jobs, dont have the confidence in themselves and the mission that they are there to carry out to bring the president the tough messages he needs to hear. Andrea, thats the job of the National Security adviser. Its not an easy job. Often, you have to walk in and tell the president of the United States what he doesnt want to hear and then own responsibility for bringing back to the president options for dealing with that bad news. Thats the essence of the job. Let me ask you about the president s rhetoric this weekend going after his enemies or what he terms his enemy, the news media, protesters and a new ad they have coming up with against joe biden on defunding the police. Lets watch. For all other crime, leave your name and number and someone will get back to you. Our estimated wait time is currently five days. That misstates joe bidens position because he is also against blanket defunding of the police, but what about the president s rhetoric on race . Andrea, its his rhetoric on race, but its his rhetoric broadly. The president went to mt. Rushmore and stood at the white house yesterday on our independence weekend and decided that he was going to stake his legacy and his campaign on preserving confederate monuments and the relics of slavery rather than uniting this country at a time when we need it so badly, rather than laying out an agenda for a second term. He is running away from reality. Running away from 130,000 american souls who have died of coronavirus. Running away from a tanking economy and providing no positive agenda. His whole approach is to pit americans against each other. You are also, of course, being mentioned as someone on the Vice President ial list for joe biden. Obviously, you have the National Security credentials, but how how should americans feel about voting for someone who has never had any experience in electoral politics and never run in a national campaign. Andrea, lets not get ahead of ourselves here, right . Joe biden needs to make the decision as to who he thinks would be his best running mate and i will do my utmost, drawing on my experience of years in government, years of making the bureaucracy work. Ive worked on multiple campaigns, president ial campaigns. Ive been on the campaign trail as a surrogate, and im going to do everything i can to help get joe biden elected and to help him succeed as president whether i am his running mate or im a doorknocker, i dont mind. I just want to get joe biden elected and see the democrats control the senate and retain the house because, andrea, we are at a moment where our democracy is at stake, our leadership role in the world is at stake, where the lives of tens of thousands of americans are on the line, lost to incompetence and callous leadership that could care less. Weve got to change that. This country is a tremendous place, but we have work to do to perfect it. We have work to do to unite it, and this president could care less. We need new leadership. And so in whatever capacity i can serve to support joe biden and support this country, thats what im going to do. Ambassador susan rice, again, thanks for being with us on this Holiday Weekend, our best to you and your family for a safe holiday. Thank you, andrea. And when we come back, President Trump had a terrible june with covid spreading and the russia bounty story, can july be better . Stay with us. [ thunder rumbles ] [ 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. [ beeping ] new fixodent ultra dual power provides you with an unbeatable hold and strong seal against food infiltrations. Fixodent. And forget it. Welcome back, the and welcome back. The panel is joining us from their remote locations. Former Homeland Security secretary jeh johnson, Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise group, and nbc News White House correspondent peter alexander. Welcome to you all. The president s divisive rhetoric over the weekend, two rallies, no social distancing, few masks at all and the rhetoric on race, on the monuments, on america on this july 4th weekend. Andrea, i listened to the president s rhetoric, and i ask myself what happened to American Leadership that doesnt just curse the darkness, but offer a candle . Its very, very depressing to me that there are apparently those advising this president that the path to reelection is to demonize and to divide the American Public and create this image of gremlins running around our communities called marxist, anarchists and terms that i havent heard in years, and you know, the American People really do listen to their National Leaders and they do listen to their president s. The president , particularly this one, we hang on his every word, his every tweet, does have the ability to set the tone to define the terms of the debate, and while all of this is going on we have to recognize the fact that were the nation with the mightiest healthcare capability, but weve had the poorest Health Care Response across the world to covid19, and i believe that much of that has to do with what our National Leaders are saying to us right now about what to do and what not to do in terms of wearing a mask and you know, frankly, at the National Level our president has encouraged what asa refers to as virus fatigue, and hes left it to the governors to manage this problem. And peter alexander, the message that you and your colleagues at the white house for nbc are reporting and the message now will pivot that we have to learn to live with it. Andrea, thats exactly right. I am struck by the clips that you have played of those republican governors and states who have had to reverse their reopenings and halt them august together. In the beginning the president cast him selves as a wartime president. If we are fighting a war here and if hes the commander and the republican governors in states like arizona, florida and texas are his generals and right now they are in retreat as it relates to the president we are seeing the different stages of grief. Youve seen denial, youve seen anger and now it appears youre going to be seeing more acceptance. White house officials telling us they will focus this recognition that the virus is not going to be going away and not before the election. The challenges, whether they can communicate the message, that we have to learn to live with it. Given the fact that the president this last week, as you noted, he says he hopes it is just going to disappear and in recent days he believes it is under control and, quote, being handled. Andrea . And he talked about it in 99 of the cases harmless. Dani plettka, let me play something he said, he seems to be softening his opposition to Face Coverings, but heres how he faced it. It was all about him. I have no problem. I had a mask on and i sort of liked the way i looked. I thought it was okay. It was a dark, black mask, and i thought it looked okay. It looked like the lone ranger, but no, i have no problem with that. And if people feel good about it, he should do it. I want to point out the fact if he wore it like the his eyes and not over his nose. He did wear a mask. It was at the ford plant in michigan, and he has not modeled wearing a Face Covering. Donald trump is the opposite of a we know he doesnt like wearing a mask and hes a narcissist and he has sent a bad message. Theres been a lot of confusion nationally about this, and a lot of americans dont like to be told what to do. A lot of governors like to think theyre speaking for the people and theyre learning lessons. Governor cuomo learned a harsh lesson in new york when he sent elderly coronavirus sufferers into nursing homes, and i think our southern governors are learning as they opened too quickly they may be suffering from not wearing masks. And jeh johnson, the president last night seemed to be conflating the fight against naziism with somehow the civil war. He talked about iwo jima and the marines in the same sentence he talked about celebrating those who fought in the civil war. He said it was not against racism as the critics suggest. He seemed to be celebrating the confederacy the same time as our world war ii heroes. Andrea, make no mistake about it, the civil war was a slavery issue, whether my greatgreatgrandmother should remain a slave. For the rest of her life. That was yet battle was fought and the reason we fought for our nation. And you cant conflate that with the battle of naziism. This president likes to create images and use vocabulary that conjures up a broad brush of good versus evil, white versus black, and i think the American People are frankly smarter than that and will recognize what this is. And dani, let me ask you about russia and Vladimir Putin because the president is now calling that intelligence a hoax. It was important enough to put it in the pdb and to brief the allies and not congress at the time. If it was important enough to put it in the president ial daily brief, there was enough credibility in that intelligence to act on it. Look, there are two things that are important to understand here. The first is that whether the president was briefed on this or not, that was a dereliction of duty on the part of somebody inside the white house. That was a big mistake. We need to understand a lot more about the president s response. The second thing, though, that i want to say is weve done a lot of talking on this show and elsewhere in the country about classified issues about this. This is an unbelievably damaging leap. Leak. Yes, on the one hand we want more accountability from this president. We want to know what hes doing and why hes making decisions and on the other hand, when i see this kind of highly classified information on the front pages of national newspapers, it makes me worry for our Intelligence Community, for our sources, for our methods and people trying to help us in the world. Dont go away. We will return. When we come back, where do we go on vacation during the pandemic. Data download is next. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Latonight, silence it with newd byzzzquil night pain. Because pain should never get in the way of a restful nights sleep. New zzzquil night pain. Silence pain, sleep soundly. 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Average spending per trip was expected to be down by almost 15 . And the way people are getting where theyre going is different. Car trips, that staple of the family Summer Vacation are predicted to decline by 27 while the number of plane trips is said to fall by more than 50 . But the data suggests there may be one winner in the summer of covid, shortterm summer rental properties, houses and cottages available through platforms like airbnb and vrbo. Data from the air dna, a firm that tracks 10 million rental units around the world showsthe steadily in may. In june, rising to counties that are not home to big cities are seeing the biggest increase. Rosario county, texas, home of galveston on the gulf coast is seeing a 94 increase. And Deep Creek Lake offers fishing and boating is up 79 . This is great news. Theres a continued spike in covid cases could change anything, and when we come back, the growing debate of history, culture and renaming sports teams. Welcome back, the panelestists back with us. Take a look at what the president had to say friday night in mount rushmore. Make no mistake, this left wing cultural revolution is designed to over throw the american revolution. To make this possible, they are determined to tear down every statue, symbol, and memory of our national heritage. Here is the president announcing last night this new executive order for a, some sort of a park with statues with all sorts of american heroes. Is he actually moving ahead on that . That was the first we heard from the president on the topic. What was striking in the president s parremarks on frida and saturday was it was a reknock of the inauguration speech. He was attacking Foreign Countries and immigrants and now he is going on the offensive by other americans. What i continue to be struck by is his comments on the statues and the protesters, he has devoted his attention to that topic and taking the focus away from what the fundamental issue was from the protesters at the start. The 10s of thousands, hundreds ofand millions that we saw, on racism, and he has not addressed it certainly not on systemic racism. We are seeing a halt in discussions on the hill. And he was talking about left wing facism, that is new to me. Where do you draw the line when talking about the monuments . I think when the president talks about left wing fascism, its people feeling and sensing lines are being drawn on how they need to behave that they object to. One of the problems with this is we fool ourselves in to thinking that some of the things that the president says doesnt resonate. The question of rule of law, and mobs tearing down statues. Of george washington, and Abraham Lincoln and in some cases of religious figures, again, in california, we saw that. Its important to divide up what donald trump says. In one kay, he is speaking to a base that is angry about a sense that theres no rule of law anymore. On the other, he is not talking about the things he doesnt want to talk about. Whether its police reform, or its the coronavirus. And jay johnson . Yes, so, wheres the line drawn . Thats a very good question. I believe there needs to be a reassessment of our history by someone who is sensitive to our history. All of our history. I believe there needs to be a reassessment when i wat comes t statues of confederate generals. It gets complicated. I have family named washington. They are proud of their name, washington. And they are not changing their name, but changing the name of the with a redskins is long overdue. I tell my friends who were redskins fans, what if the mascot was a lawn jockey, that would have been done away with. And is this not the same thing . Im a big football fan, where do you stand on that . What happened with fedex and nike, as well, appearing to pull the redskins merchandise from the website, its not just the protests in the streets its the corporate sponsors that are having an impact in the conversation as well. Where broadly the conversation is a consideration of discarding the relics of the 19th and 20th century. Remember, it was in the last several days in mississippi that they retired the flag that included in the corner the confederate battle emblem on it. And those corporate sponsors are making it happen quicked. Ron rivera saying, the head of the redskins, he and the owner who said he would never change the name have been having considerations of what the new name would be. And he said, it would be awesome if it started by the start of the 2020 season. Its happening quickly. Yeah, quickly what about the political effectiveness of this. About departmentmocrats, do you the democrats should be concerned . I have faith in the American People to see through the effort to demonize and divide us. I think the president under estimates the wisdom of the American People. If he looks at his approval ratings, he sees they have dropped dramatically in the after math of george floyd and the president s own reaction to it. And we have got to leave it there. Thanks so much for a great round table, thanks to all of you. Jay johnson, and pete alexander, that is all for today. Thanks for watching, have an enjoyable and safe Holiday Weekend. If its sunday, its meet the press. Good evening and welcome to our special american crisis, poverty and the bpan democra a rising death toll due to covid19. And tonight, we will focus on another element of the turmoil. The pandemics devastating impact on americans in poverty. The Census Bureau said that 38 Million People lived below the federal poverty line in 2018