Hi there. Im Stephanie Ruhle live from nbc news headquarters in new york city. It is thursday, august 20th. Lets get smarter. Tonight is the night. We are just 12 hours away from the grand finale of the dnc when joe biden will officially accept his partys nomination for president. Last night, it was his running mate Kamala Harris who took center stage, an historic moment. The first woman of color ever to take her place on a major party ticket. You are pushing us to realize the ideals of our nation. Pushing us to live the values we share. Decency and fairness, justice and love. We have a chance to change the course of history. Were all in this fight. You, me and joe. Together. The other big speaker last night, the warmup act, was former president obama who waited until this convention to level some of his harshest criticism yet of donald trump. In fact, we may have never seen one president take down another the way we did last night. Take a listen. For close to four years now, he has shown no interest in putting in the work. No interest in finding common ground. No interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends. No interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves. Donald trump hasnt grown into the job because he cant. Those were some fighting words. Nbcs ali vitali and Kristen Welker are in wilmington, delaware. So much of the buildup this week for joe biden has been about his decency, his character, humanity. Is that going to be the focus . Will that be what we see of joe biden tonight or is he going to dig into policy . Well, i think he has to do both because last night, frankly, was one of the most substantive nights in terms of policy. I know im a nerd for this, but there was no part of it that wasnt effective and interesting. It was woven into a larger narrative. Thats what the best politicians can do. Talk about substance while also weaving it into a larger story. So i think joe biden should do that. Lean into the policy a little bit. Then theres the question, though, of if he will when we were out on the campaign trail with him, whenever hed go into policy, which was rare, he would apologize to the crowd and apologize for boring them and going a little wonkish. That being said, i do know theres a clamoring from the people who have been watching this democratic primary from the beginning. Yes to talk about how democrats can beat trump but also to move past that. And joe biden has a really interesting story in that he has long focused on the middle class. Thats an area of the country right now thats being decimated by this recession. And what the other speakers did is they showed this dual track of storytelling and substance, going on attack but pressing a path forward. Look at people like Hillary Clinton, elizabeth warren, one of the best at this, barack obama and Kamala Harris who was able to do what all Vice President ial nominees are supposed to do which is tell their own story, tell the story of the person theyre running with and then also go on the attack against their opponents. She was able to highlight, for example, her deep roots as an attorney general, combatting the last economic recession that we saw. Really introducing herself to the country for the first time. And i have to tell you, steph, weve seen how little is normal about this convention consistently throughout these past few nights. But i was in the room where Kamala Harris was giving that speech. It was eerie, quiet, especially for someone who knows what those Convention Halls are supposed to look and sound like. But on television, you couldnt tell any of that eeriness or quiet. It was all powerful, all effective and thats the perk of Kamala Harris on this ticket. Yes, all of her storytelling but when shes prepared, she can be effective at leveling messages substantive and also on the attack. Ali vitali, a nerd in a leopard print mask . That is my kind offers nerd. Lets talk about president obama. He was literally pleading with the American People to save our country from President Trump. I want to share part of what he said. So im also asking you to believe in your own ability to embrace your own responsibility as citizens to make sure that the basic tenets of our democracy endure. Because thats whats at stake right now. Our democracy. That was aggressive. Is that kind of attack a one and done or is this president obamas new lane to be attacking President Trump at every turn . I think it was a preview of things to come, steph. No doubt about that. And take a step back and consider what we actually witnessed last night. President obama, someone who adheres to tradition, broke with it last night. Threw it out the door to go on the attack against President Trump in the most intense way that we have seen yet. Accused him of being a threat to our very democracy. It was remarkable he did it in philadelphia which is, of course, the birthplace of this countrys democracy and the symbolism was lost on no one. So this was remarkable to see him unleash his most scathing attack yet against President Trump. So i think youre going to see that continue. But i also think it is worth highlighting the other part of president obamas message last night which is to get out and vote. He was sending a message to the Democratic Base trying to weave in independents, but also speaking to some of those voters who decided to stay home in 2016. The message was if you want joe biden to win, you cannot stay at home. You cannot take this election for granted and we heard a similar message from former secretary of state Hillary Clinton who spoke last night. She says she knows firsthand how critical every vote is having won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote. And we heard a similar message from former First Lady Michelle Obama who spoke in impassioned terms earlier this month about the need to get out and vote. There was a practical part to this message we heard from former president obama. Youll recall back in 2012, bill clinton was the explainer in chief for then president obama, for his reElection Campaign. In some ways president obama is taking on that mantel for joe biden, explaining the high stakes of this election, steph. Kristen, ali, thank you both so much. I want to dig deeper. Were joined by karine jeanpierre, new chief of staff for Kamala Harris and a Senior Adviser to the biden campaign. Obviously an historic night, a massive moment for senator harris. But now shes got big hurdles she needs to clear. Talk us through how shes going to thread this important needle between being pro law enforcement, pro police and also supporting black lives matter. Hey, stephanie. So good to see you. Sorry i couldnt be there with you. First, like you said, i really want to acknowledge the historic another historic first last night. You had the first black woman and the first woman of Indian Heritage accept the Vice President ial nomination. And thats the first for any Major Political party. You saw someone, a woman, who youll who showed her power, her fierceness, her visionary, the history making that she will be as Vice PresidentKamala Harris. Someone who was who spent her career in pursuit of justice. And someone who understands what the pain that people are feeling right now in the moment. And also the crises, the multiple crises we are in. And also what you saw is someone who is ready to serve, someone ready to be partner with joe biden on day one to turn this nation around when we get there into the white house. But also she also did something that was really critical and key and what someone else said really early on at the top of the show which is that she said the stage for joe biden. She perfectly did that for the Main Attraction joe biden tonight. I want to play something that got a lot of attention last night when she was talking about the coronavirus and how it has hit minority communities especially hard. Watch this. This virus, it has no eyes, and yet it knows exactly how we see each other and how we treat each other. And lets be clear, there is no vaccine for racism. We have got to do the work. What does that work look like . Give smus some specifics. What more can the government do to force that change in america . First of all, we have to talk about it. We have to name whats happening here, which is what joe biden did a couple of months ago when we saw the uprising that was happening in the street. Talk about one of this countrys first original sins. The racism, systemic racism and the work that we need to do to take that on. Not divide us as a country but bring us together and having a real conversation, bringing forth real policies. And we see this. We see the racial inequities with covid19, with the economy. All of these different crises in this moment that were trying to move forward. And that is what a biden harris ticket has done. Those are the policies they have put forward. How do we deal with this that really touches on everyone, that really lifts up everyone whether its the economy, whether its dealing in health care because of the disparities weve seen for so many years. Every night this night, we have seen a convention, a Democratic Convention that has shown that has really shown the American Public that this is what the American People look like. This is the voice and the sound of the American People. We have heard from real people every day in this convention making sure theyre represented. Making sure that were talking about the issues that matter to them. With the democratic party, we are united. Were going to move forward together. We are not going to divide. Were not going to put chaos forward for the American People. When it comes to covid, were not going to say, this is what it is. Thats not who we are. We have to talk about the real issues. And not only that. Not only do we talk about covid, health care. We talked about climate change. We talked about how do we expand how do we not repeal health care . We talked about reducing gun violence. This is what the party is all about. And tonight, joe biden is going to continue, hes going to lay out his vision for this country. This is a man who was met, who was meant to lead us in this amendment. This is a man who understands that the white house is the peoples house. That his job is not about its not about himself, its about the American Public, and thats what we need to see, and thats whats going to happen tonight and moving forward. This is a president ial election. Everybody is voting. But its the swing states. Its the swing states that count most. Lets talk wisconsin, michigan, iowa. What voters does senator harris bring to the polls . Who are they . Look, i think that one of the things we have been doing as a campaign, and i think this ticket shows is that were going to build a coalition. Were going to excite our base. Thats the key here. We have to continue to talk to a key constituency. Thats the only way that were going to win as democrats in november. We have to make sure we bring that same coalition that we saw with the obama biden ticket and build from that. And thats what Kamala Harris brings to the ticket. That also shows what joe bidens leadership is. And weve been doing that because we have someone on the other side, President Trump who divides, who talks to his small base. Hes not expanding his base. Thats how we win in the states you mentioned. Wisconsin, pennsylvania, michigan. It goes on and on. All those key battleground states that we that helps us to get to 270 is expanding our base. Its building that coalition. And thats what were doing every day with this campaign. Well, youve got your work cut out for you. Karine, always great to see you. When we come back, going postal. The Trump Campaign sues my home state of new jersey over its mailin voting plan. The governor is here to respond and President Trump embracing the baseless qanon conspiracy theory. Why . Because they like him. 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They know they cant win you over with their policies so theyre hoping to make it as hard as possible for you to vote and to convince you that your vote does not matter. That is how they win. Concerns over recent changes at the u. S. Post office and how they might affect mailin voting is taking center stage, certainly did at the dnc last night. As postmaster general louis dejoy prepares to testify before the senate, despite dejoys announcement that he will suspend all costcutting measures, exclusive new reporting, exclusive photos reveal that the recent changes may have already caused lasting damage. Nbcs Geoff Bennett broke that very story and joins us now. Explain these photos to us. Last week i obtained this internal Postal Service document that said the Postal Service had plans to remove 671 of these high volume mail sorting machines from postal facilities across the country. At the time, the official word from the Postal Service was this is just a normal business adjustment. That was the phrase they used and they said, look, we moved these machines around from facility to facility based on demand. Well, that explanation didnt hold up based on my reporting because i was talking to postal workers who said, hey, man, look. These machines are only being removed. Theyre not being put back in, reallocated. Fast forward to this past week, postmaster general louis dejoy, as you mentioned, issued that statement where he was going to suspend these operational changes but of these sorting machines, he only said the ones that were currently there would remain. He never explained what would happen to the ones that were removed. We have now obtained these images, part of which you just showed that suggest one of the reasons why these machines cant be restored is because theyve already been decommissioned. Theyve already been dismantled. That right there is a garage in waterloo, iowa. Thats a high volume mail sorting machine that a postal employee who gave us these images told us sorts 35,000 pieces of mail an hour. Another employee at that same facility named Kimberly Carroll told us that without that machine, there had been delays. And people who care about this issue should know Kimberly Carrolls name. The president of the iowa postal workers union. She was the first person to raise red flags about this. We also obtained images from a postal facility in portland, oregon. A postal employee there tells us that machine there wrapped in caution tape was in good working condition and was removed within the last two weeks. And machines plural because its not just one. And Heather Walker at our nbc affiliate in grand rapids, michigan, she also found evidence of a dismantled machine in a parking lot, probably going to be sold for scrap metal right there. Whats interesting about this is House Speaker nancy pelosi had a conversation with louis dejoy and in a statement from the House Speaker she says that dejoy frankly admitted he had no intention of replacing the sorting machines, blue mail boxes and other key mail infrastructure that had been removed and plans for adequate overtime which is critical for the Timely Delivery of mail are not in the works. Steph . The question we hope every senator asks tomorrow, why . Geoff, thank you. I want to turn to my home state of new jersey. The Trump Campaign suing the state over the governors plans to send ballots to all 6. 2 million registered voters. The governor of new jersey, phil murphy, joins us now. Also the cochair of the Democratic National convention. Governor, the president s Campaign Calls what you are doing a brazen power grab. What do you say to that . Stephanie, its good to be with you in the garden state. I wont comment on the specifics of the lawsuit because its a legal matter, but let me just give you a couple of framing thoughts, if i may. Were in the middle of a pandemic. We view our job to balance both Public Health on the one hand and the sacred right to vote which is at the center of our democracy on the other. And thats the balance were trying to strike. Probably more importantly, vote by mail is not new. In new jersey or in most places in america. The president has voted by mail, ive voted by mail. We just had a very successful hybrid primary in early july where we gave folks the option to vote by mail or vote in person. Were proposing the same model for november with some tweets that make it stronger, for instance, if you dont feel good about the Postal Service, drop your ballot off at what will be hundreds of secure boxes around the state. You can hand your ballot in to a poll worker on election day or you can put it in the mail or you can show up and vote in person. We want to expand democracy. It doesnt favor one side or the other. We think this hybrid model makes sense and weve got evidence and experience to prove that. Its not new. But when it comes to new jersey, the president constantly points to an election that took place back in may in paterson, new jersey. Watch this. Take a look at paterson, new jersey. Take a look at many things. Its all over newspapers whats going on with the mailin ballots. Paterson, new jersey, they had a massive amount of voter fraud, and its been a disaster. Paterson, new jersey, disaster. Virginia, disaster. Its a disaster whats going on. They cant count the ballots. They dont know where the ballots disaster . However, the president leaves out a really important point. That people who potentially committed this voter fraud, theyre in a huge amount of trouble. So doesnt that sort of prove that youre doing the right thing. Listen. I am in violent agreement with you, stephanie. Ive spoken with you about this. Ive spoken to the president. This was a local election so not part of the primary i mentioned where we had a lot of success. Secondly, i view it the same way you do. I view it as a positive fact. Folks try to screw with the system. Theyve been indicted. Theyre innocent until Proven Guilty but if convicted theyll pay a huge price for that. Thats the way the system should work and it did work in that case. What is your message to voters. The 6. 2 Million People from new jersey who are going potentially to be sent their ballots. How can they know that those ballots are going to be counted . I have a high degree of confidence theyre going to be counted, stephanie. I spoke yesterday and not for the first time with the chief logistics and operating officer of the post office, dave williams, and a couple of his senior colleagues. It was a nonpolitical, nonemotional, nothing but the facts, this is what were doing. This is what we need. He raised a suggestion for me which were running down on our end. We have extended, not only did i mention you can drop it off on a secure box or hand it to a poll worker on election day. Weve also in the primary and well do so in the general election. Your ballot needs to be postmarked by november 3rd, but it used to be would only give you 48 hours for that ballot to arrive. Weve extended that to seven days under the theory that there may be a significant amount of activity. But, sir last thing i want to say about this is the Postal Service doesnt just do vote by mail. Lets have a robust, wellfunded u. S. Postal service thats there for seniors, rural communities, small business, veterans, et cetera. This isnt just vote by mail. But, sir, youre suing the Postal Service over these delays. Is it the right move to push mailin voting when youre obviously not feeling confident that the Postal Service is getting it done under this postmaster general. Yeah, i wouldnt say we dont think theyre going to get it done. Weve been very tough on them and our primary actually turned out to be quite a success. Remember, were giving folks a number of options. Flexibility. Its a word i want folks to remember here. Even if you vote by mail, you can either post it, drop it, hand it or alternatively show up on election day. Were asking each of our counties to have at least 50 capacity. Each community to have at least one polling location open. Theres lots of ways to vote, and we have a high degree of confidence that this will work and its based not on speculation. Its based on real experience that weve had last month. Before you go, ive got to ask you. Last night at the convention, we heard former president obama warn that voting for President Trump could mean the end of our democracy. Put on an old hat of yours. You are a former bank executive, former partner at goldman sachs. How is it that we see so many super wealthy people hear what president obama said, know that President Trump and all that hes doing could be a threat to our democracy and yet they silently forgive him for what hes doing because the stock market is doing so well . Listen, i dont know that ive got any unique perspective through the lens of the Banking Industry or the very wealthy in this country, but i will say this. I think this week has shown that the reach of the democratic party, the span of the party, has never been bigger or larger. President obama last night, i thought, just was extraordinary. Vice president ial nominee Kamala Harris, likewise. Weve shown, i think this week as a party that we are reaching to all corners of this country. Regardless, frankly, of economic circumstances. And i think its been, so far, a huge and extraordinary week for our party and for the country. Its a great launching pad into the fall. Well, tonight is the big night. All eyes will be on former vp biden. Governor, thank you so much for joining me this morning. Next, you do not want to move a muscle. This Group Believes that the president is secretly saving the world from a satanic cult of pedophiles and cannibals. But the president just said that his qanon followers, they love our country. The dangers of President Trump digging in, siding with this fringe group. Thousands of women with metastatic Breast Cancer, which is Breast Cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, are living in the moment and taking ibrance. Ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for postmenopausal women or for men with hr her2 metastatic Breast Cancer, as the first hormonal based therapy. Ibrance plus letrozole significantly delayed disease progression versus letrozole, and shrank tumors in over half of patients. Patients taking ibrance can develop low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infections that can lead to death. 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I just. When i. Accident forgiveness from allstate. Click or call for a quote today. Its not going away. Covid19. More than ever, california needs rapid coronavirus testing. Robust contact tracing. Support for Community Health clinics. Masks and ppe for those saving lives. For teachers and School Personnel educating students. These heroes are doing their jobs. Now government must do theirs. Keep working through a special session to combat this crisis right now and provide the revenues to solve the problems we know are coming. This morning, a new crackdown. Facebook announced it will remove another 900 pages and groups and 1500 advertisements tied to the qanon conspiracy theory. It say movement that believes President Trump is fighting to stop a satanic cult of pedophiles and cannibals. A movement that the president now officially, publicly embraced yesterday when he was asked directly about them. Well, i dont know much about the movement other than i understand they like me very much. Which i appreciate. But i dont know much about the movement. I have heard that it is gaining in popularity. Ive heard these are people that love our country and they dont like seeing it. The theory is this belief that you are secretly saving the world from this satanic cult of pedophiles and cannibals. Does that sound like something you are behind . Well, i havent heard that, but is that supposed to be a bad thing or a good thing . You know, if i can help save the world from problems, im willing to do it. Im willing to put myself out there. Saving the world from cannibals and a satanic cult. Joining me is Shannon Pettypiece. She asked the president that question and ben collins who has been following the Qanon Movement for years. It basically seemed like the president is willing to accept support from any group no matter how vile they are as long as they like him. And a lot of the language he used here talking about qanon. Weve heard him use talking about White Nationalist groups. I think back to this issue when it came up before and i talked to the president s Business Associates about it. A lot of them said this goes back to when he was a Real Estate Developer and would sell an apartment to anybody as long as their checks cashed. An oligarch, a criminal, a dictator. He just wanted their business. And thats kind of really what it seems like here. He doesnt care who someone is. He just wants their vote. Its interesting on this qanon question. This was an interesting question. He could have said, i dont know anything about this and move on. I was sort of ready for that. But instead he clearly, as you just demonstrated, decided to go full on in and not only disavowing this group but really throwing the support behind their believers and members of their movement. And you know qanon better than anybody. Youve been reporting on this movement, their work for years. Watching the president yesterday embrace them, who a group who believe Hillary Clinton, oprah winfrey, tom hanks and others have a cult that eat children in order to extract a life extending chemical from their blood group. This group that you know so well, how did you feel when you saw the president give them a right on. To be honest, i wasnt surprised. I knew that the president this is an electoral this is a strategy at this point. This is millions of people. Facebook took down these groups. Last week my colleague at nbc news reported that millions of people were in facebook groups about qanon. And its growing by the day and almost a political ways. People have coopted like legitimate hash tags. Things like save the children. If youve seen that trending, thats because qanon recently has taken that group and coopted its message to be about tom hanks and Hillary Clinton, all those things you talked about recently. They are taking an idea that child sex trafficking, which is real, they are turning that into this thing about a cabal, turning that into an electoral message for donald trump on facebook. It wasnt surprising to me that he went in on this at all, but it is extraordinarily dangerous. These are people who have murdered people, who have hijacked trains to try to crash them into boats because they thought the trafficked children were in the boats and they were trying to save them. This is a very dangerous ideology based on, you know, a clandestine war that isnt actually happening. Shannon, any pushback on this from inside the white house . I can tell you this, steph. 11 weeks out from the election, this is not what the white house advisers or the Campaign Advisers wanted to be talking about. They wanted to be talking about jobs, the economy. They dont want to be talking about qanon or a war with the post office. No one in the white house or campaign publicly talking about this but some other republicans have including karl rove who said the president should have come out and disavowed them in an interview on fox news last night. He has been in contact with the Trump Campaign and then jeb bush, no friend of the president s, but also coming out and saying the president should have certainly stood up and said this is crazy. I dont endorse this. Shannon, ben, thank you. Dont go far. Youre going to want to hear this breaking news. Right now steve bannon, former adviser to President Trump has just been indicted by federal prosecutors here in manhattan. Nbcs investigations correspondent tom winter joins us on the phone. What in the world is going on . Stephanie, ive just learned from a spokesperson for the u. S. Attorneys office for the Southern District of new york that steve bannon is in federal custody in new york city at this time. Hes been charged in an dim indictment with four other people alleging fraud for their role in the rebuild the wall. This has been a fund thats raised more than 25 million. Its part of a crowd funding campaign. Essentially what federal prosecutors here say, what the u. S. Attorney says, the acting u. S. Attorney Audrey Strauss says, the defendants defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors to raise millions of dollars under the false pretense that all of that money would be spent on construction. So apparently, according to strauss, while repeatedly assuring donors that the founder and public face of rebuild the wall would not be paid a cent. He schemed to pass hundreds of thousands of dollars to colfauch. This is an investigation that occurred with the Inspector General the United States post office inspectors. It involves, as i said, four individuals, including the former adviser to the president , steve bannon, andrew bataloto and timothy shea, no connection to the former u. S. Attorney in the district of columbia, as well as the current acting head of the dea. So no relation there. But all these individuals have been taken into custody. Theyre expected to be arraigned today and well be getting more details on this indictment as we have a chance to go through it. But the bottom line is the president one of his gurus through his Election Campaign in 2016, someone who has advised the president and recently spoken out on his behalf, as you well know, has got handcuffs around his wrist at this point. Handcuffs around his wrist and there across your screen in the last few moments. Steve bannon with Jared Kushner next to h. R. Mcmaster next to dina powell, former Senior Adviser to President Trump. Next to kellyanne conway. Current adviser to President Trump. And steve bannon now in federal custody. I want to bring in msnbc legal analyst glen kershner. This indictment would bill barrs office been aware that this happened . It depends on how covert the prosecutors in the Southern District of new york wanted to be because sometimes, stephanie, when were getting ready to indict somebody or unseal an indictment, we want to hold our cards very close to our chest in the event we believe one of two things might happen. Either a target or soon to be a defend, will flee or they may go about trying to destroy evidence. But im looking at the doj press release in front of me and i see that the four people that are names as defendants, brian colfage, steven bannon, andrew botalato and timothy shea. That is the fourth name on this indictment. If its the same timothy shea its not. Thank you for clearing that up. Bannon is the biggest blockbuster. The game of chicken will begin. What happens every time somebody is indicted in a consequential federal prosecution, the prosecutors will step to him and see if he wants to cooperate. See if he wants to try to get a deal and save himself. Normally, the prosecution and the department of justice are on the same side, the side of the law. Theyre playing a game of chicken with the defendants. In this case, we have seen bill barr continuously side with the president on his personal issues, with his personal allies. Im thinking most recently roger stone. Do we have any reason to believe, as you said, oftentimes these are often kept under wraps. They may be kept under wraps from the public but would a case like this have made its way up the food chain within the department of justice. Unless the department of justice put a wall, a fire wall up, we have potential conflicts in the department of justice all the time and under those circumstances we try to put up firewalls to keep outside the prosecutorial discretionmaking chain anybody who might have some kind of a personal or even professional interest in whats being investigated. With bill barr, steph, anything goes because we know he is serving as the president s defender, not so much as the voice of the people which is what an attorney general is supposed to be. So were going to have to puzzle through this. Was barr in the decisionmaking chain . Was he outside the decisionmaking chain . And importantly, will he let the department of justice now sort of be a fair broker in talking with bannons lawyers to decide what bannon wants to do. Does he want to flip on the president . Does he want to hold fast for a pardon . Will bill barr due do to this case what he did to the roger stone case and what hes trying to do to the mike flynn case, tank it . You know, this is as contorted as the practice of prosecution gets. My goodness. Glenn, stay with us. Our colleague nbc justice correspondent Pete Williams is joining us. You got new reporting here . Well, according to the Court Documents, this we build the wall thing came and flamed out very quickly. It was founded in december of 2018 and was an immediate astonishing success. A crowd funding effort to raise money to help build the wall on the southern border. Within the first week, according to the government, it had raised 17 million. But it didnt stay in business very long because shortly after that, a crowd source website shut it down over concerns about how the money was going to be used. And according to the Court Documents, the founder of it, this man brian colfage, said that he would not take any of the money, that it was entirely volunteer effort, but it said he did take a lot of money and as for steve bannon, it says he formed a Nonprofit Organization that he controlled. It received about a Million Dollars from this crowd funding effort. Some of which the Justice Department says he used to cover, and im quoting here now, hundreds of thousands of dollars in bannons personal expenses. So its a garden variety fraud case. We have not heard from steve bannon. We have not heard from his lawyers. He will be presented today in new york in manhattan to face these charges. These days, a lot of these Court Appearances tend to be by teleconference so i dont know that hell actually be in the courthouse or whether theyll do this remotely. Were waiting to hear about the details for that. But the Court Documents basically say this thing was pretty suspect from almost from the beginning. Pete, stay with us. I want to bring in former u. S. Attorney barbara mcquade. Barbara, this is obviously breaking news to all of us. But given what youve already seen, what do you think . Well, its an interesting case in that any time you charge a defendant, like steve bannon or anyone else, the first thing that a lawyer wants to talk about is whether theres an opportunity to Exchange Cooperation for leniency. With steve bannon, this is someone who knows where the bodies are buried with regard to President Trump. In the mueller report, theres a lot of information about steve bannon orchestrating a lot of the contacts that they were unable to get to the bottom of. Now that they have leverage over steve bannon, it would be he has an incentive to tell the truth whereas he did not before to robert mueller. All right, barb, thank you. Were going to continue to cover this story as more news breaks. Stunning. Not something we were expecting this morning. Now i want to turn to the latest on the coronavirus pandemic. Here are the facts we know at this hour. Across the nation, the total number of cases has surpassed 5. 5 million. More than 174,000 americans have lost their lives. As the coronavirus continues to spread in schools that have reopened, researchers say the federal government is not tracking im going to say this one more time. The federal government is not tracking the school outbreaks. Some states are not publicly reporting them making it even more difficult to determine how the virus is spreading. The ncaa is now considering moving top tier fall championships to the spring after more than half of its schools canceled or delayed their seasons because of the coronavirus. Joining us now, former acting cdc director, dr. Richard besser. Dr. Besser, coronavirus is spreading in k through 12 schools. The fact that were learning that the federal government isnt keeping track of this, how concerning is that . We need to be paying attention to this. How can we if we dont know it . I know. Its critically important that you know this at the local level, the state level, for many different reasons. We know its going to be next to impossible to open schools in communities where theres widespread transmission. But we also know that even in communities that have this under quite good control, there will be cases in schools. There will be spread in schools. And there will be spread from children and staff and teachers in schools back to their homes, back to their communities. And we need to be able to track that and see whats happening. As this has been going on, weve seen lower income communities hit extremely hard. Weve seen black americans, latinos, native americans hit very hard. We know that children of color are hospitalized at greater rates. If were not paying close attention and not addressing the reasons why were seeing this disparate impact, were going to see the schools open the same pattern of disease continuing to play out. And that should be unacceptable at the federal level, at every state in our country. We might not like what the numbers tell us, but data is our friend. We need to be armed with all the correct information in order to make good choices. Why on earth would there be schools or districts that are not reporting this information. We are now more than six months into this and we dont have a standard by which every state should be reporting all of their cases. And thats unacceptable. There are states figuring it out on their own. I sit on the sevenstate northeast coordinating group, and we talk about this. Each state is figuring it out on their own how to collect the data they need to be able to successfully respond to this. But you want to be able to look across the nation so that you can learn across states whats working, whats not working. What kind of resources are needed at the local level, at school level to ensure that, you know, outbreaks are identified quickly. Because there will be cases in every school that reopens. Thats something we have to accept and be ready for. The question is, can you identify them really quickly . Can you control them . Can you make sure that an outbreak or cluster in one classroom doesnt spread to the entire school . That can be done with the right resources there but i worry that the federal dollars havent come to make sure we can do this safely and all schools in america. Heres whats not working. College age kids, teens, theyre not adhering to the guidelines. Even if these colleges, for example, are doing everything possible, we are seeing these clusters pop up from offcampus house parties. If the human brain between age 14 and 24 is motivated by risk taking and new experiences, can we trust the young adults are going to really make the right moves when so many lives are at stake . Theyre not doing it so far. This is really, really challenging. You know, one of the things that gives me hope when i look across the country is that the Racial Justice movement, the social justice movement, the movement to fight climate change, so much of this is being empowered and led by young people in our country, and we have to find a way to get young people on board with fighting covid, and recognizing the role they play and a lot of young people do. Its not all young people are acting recklessly here, but when you see whats going on, on College Campuses and big parties, getting together, that is really a recipe for disaster, and it doesnt it wont just stay on campus. It will go out into the community, so when you see communities very concerned about large colleges and universities coming back and n session, you can really understand why. A lot of young people are doing the right thing but it only takes a few doing the wrong thing to put so many other people at risk. Dr. Besser thank you for joining us. You always make us smarter. We have to move on because i want to talk economy before we leave. We continuously ask the question, are you better off . Weve seen it on president ial podiums. Are you better off than you were four years ago . That is the question millions of americans are asking this morning, and coronavirus is deepening the economic divide. Tens of thousands of Small Businesses are now closed forever. 30 Million People unemployed, another Million People filed for unemployment in the last week and increase of 135,000 from just one week before. That is worse than analysts were expecting, now that we are back above a million, it is a red flag that layoffs remain high and while all of that is happening at the same time, the stock market, s p 500 hitting record highs this week. We know pockets of the Real Estate Market are booming across this country so lets get some answers. Peter spiegel is the u. S. Managing editor of the Financial Times and ben white, chief economic correspondent for politico. Peter, to you first. The question, are you better off is a very different answer depending on who you ask. It is. Again, we asked this question every month if our poll and there is this partisan divide. We get an economic divide, generally republicans say theyre better off than when trump got into office, generally the wealthier say theyre better off. Over the last month in the chart right there is suddenly the numbers are beginning to turn and i think it has to do with the handling of the pandemic. Weve seen all the numbers on do you think the economy is going to get better in the next three months. Do you think the pandemic will get better in the next month . Everything is twisting in the last month. All of them started turning more pessimistic. We havent seen that since the erlt early days of pandemic. Has to be bad news for the president at a time when hes trying to go next week and make his case to the American People he deserves reelection largely on his economic record youre seeing even republicans, even republicans beginning to turn and say gosh, i am actually not better off now. We see that tick up quite a bit, republicans over the last month. Theyre more pessimistic whether the pandemic is going to turn so that question despite the fact the market keeps going up i think is beginning to undermine the president s popularity. Even the market going up, ben, its deceiving because its not all publicly traded companies. Theres an enormous amount of companies suffering, theyre laying off workers every day, but when you talk about the markets youre really talking about the index which has a disproportionate weighting to those behemoth companies that are killing it. Yes, thats exactly right, stephanie. You look at apple, facebook, amazon, all of these companies that have actually benefited to some degree from lockdowns that were all in our homes ordering stuff and watching netflix and amazon prime and the rest of it. The Broader Market say little better than it was but we also have to remember when talking about stock market gains that so much of this has been driven by 3 trillion of stimulus from the federal reserve, over 3 trillion in stimulus from the federal government. That stimulus is starting to trickle off now, particularly the federal stimulus from congress, with no sign of it coming back so i think you see jobless claims numbers going back up, you see as peter says people starting to feel that theyre really not better off including some republicans, part of that is the fact that this extra unemployment money has run off for people. Stimulus checks not going out. That means Less Consumer spending. That means people hiring less. So this is particularly bad moment to be talking about taking fiscal staple limulus ou the system where we still have the virus and issues with School Reopenings and more people claiming initial jobless claims. This not the time for the federal government to take its foot off the gas. The markets can i jump joen to that point . Sure, peter. Ben is 100 right. The market is dropping. The fed said yesterday things were going down and the federal government decided to stop providing funding for your unemployed beneficiary benefits, starting to see the companies that could be impacted by people stopping to spend. Suddenly people are nervous is the domino effect. I stopped getting my unemployment benefits, cant pay my rent, landlord cant pay the mortgage, the bank nonperforms loans. Bank stocks in particular are selling off so there is the contagion that happened in 2008, the Financial System affects the real economy because congress is not providing the funding, thats what people are nervous about and why were starting to see a selloff today. And the clock is ticking. Time is running out. Gentlemen, thank you both so much. Were going to continue to ask the question, are you better off . Very different answer, depending on who you ask. That wraps up what im going to say was a very beauty hour. Im Stephanie Ruehl reporting live from new york city. My friend and colleague hali jackson picks up breaking news next as we learn more about steve bannon, former adviser to President Trump, being indicted right here in new york city. Ect. Nice. Way more unique fixtures and tiles. Pairing. Nice. Way more top brands in sinks and faucets. Way more ways to rule your renovation. Nice on any budget, with free shipping. Wayfair. Way more than furniture. 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He is the former top aide to President Trump, the first chief strategist in the white house and he is now in federal custody. Bannon has been arrested and charged with defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors in an Online Fundraising scheme, the charging documents as we look through them this morning in the last couple of minutes, allege bannon with long with three other people raised more than 25 million in a campaign they said would fund a wall along the southern border, would build that wall the president wanted but prosecutors in manhattan say it was used to pay for personal expenses. Just before we came on the air, a source closer to bannon familiar with this told me he is expected to plead not gultguilt. Tom winter in new york, Shannon Pettypiece at the white house, good to be with you. Pete, let me start with you. No official comment from bannons attorney b t