Second surge of cases in this first wave. A Record Number of cases are being confirmed right now. Yes, were testing more, but still were not nearly testing enough. In fact the cdc today said that there may be ten times more cases than whats been reported, which would mean north of 20 million infections in the United States. And this afternoon the cdc put out new guidance warning that more people may face an elevated risk. Cdc now warns among adults risk increases steadily as you age. And its not just those over the age of 65 who are at increased risk for severe illness. Earlier this week the cdc director testified that we are still far shy of the number of contact tracers that we need. Bottom line, over the last three days, lets put this in perspective here, the cdc basically our lead agency on this pandemic, has recently said that more people have contracted the virus, more people can get seriously ill from it than we first thought, and we dont have the resources necessary to isolate all these cases. Again, this is americas lead agency on this. Sorry if you missed the press conference involving these new press conference involving these cdc giet linuidelines, oh, wait didnt have one. Across the south and west there are Record Numbers of hospitalizations. In houston the hospitals icu beds are at capacity. The governor announced the state is freezing its plan to reopen as cases continue to rise. Simply put, the data suggests that this country is reopening too quickly, especially when compared to the rate of new cases per capita in places like europe, canada and australia. The white house as it always has done is painting a rosier picture of the problem. The Vice President repeated a claim that was part of an official readout of last nights task force meeting. That cases are stable or declining in 38 states. The public data appears that they have it backwards. Cases seem to be rising or stable in 39 states. We asked the white house for the data theyre citing to back up that claim. Weve been asking since last night and they refuse to share this data. And the president is in part downplaying the situation by pointing to the downward trend in deaths, even though dr. Fauci has publicly sounded the alaumpl over the past two days about the rising cases because deaths usually lag cases, sometimes considerably. The president is pushing for this country to reopen as he wages his reelection on the hopes of an economic recovery, as polling indicates that he is falling substantially behind joe biden, even though he still leads on the issue of the economy. Which makes it all the more remarkable the position hes in. The National Polling right now has him trailing by double digits. New battleground polling has him trailing by pretty much everywhere as you can see. We are now talking about states we didnt think would be in the battleground suddenly in the battleground. Think ohio, think iowa. Joining me from wisconsin is my nbc news colleague Josh Lederman and charlie sykes, an msnbc contributor. Josh, let me start with you. The president is doing a town hall. Give me a sense of what his day has been like so far in wisconsin. Reporter well, so far since he got to wisconsin, chuck, he taped a town hall with sean hannity with fox news before heading here to this ship yard to do a tour of a facility where the presidencies a positive economic message. You can see this ship behind me, this warship, which is one of the ships that they built here at this ship yard that is supposed to build about 1,000 jobs to the region, about a 5. 5 billion contract. The president trying to highlight a positive economic message even as we are getting more and more information about these spikes in cases and concerns about what the president s own campaign and official activities are doing as far as the spread of coronavirus. You can see even here at this event we know the ship builder had said that masks were going to be required for the about 500 people that are here, but there are very few people that we see here Wearing Masks. All of this coming as the Vice President downplaying these concerns and suggesting that in a majority of states that cases are either Holding Steady or declining. Has the president at all today in your and perhaps well find out with the town hall that he did on another network, but has the president adretd ha addressed any of these new elements today . He has not. Hes been trying to stay away from the coronavirus topic today exempt for the town hall. We dont know what happened in that. But hes been focused on trying to put a positive message out there about manufacturing, particularly in light of the really troubling poll numbers that his campaign is seeing not only here in wisconsin but in the other key battleground states. Charlie sykes, im going to show you this one tweet from the president now. The number of this is his word, china virus cases goes up because of great testing while the number of deaths, mortality rate goes way down. The fake news doesnt like telling you that. We actually just reported these in a factual way here. The president doesnt i mean he just doesnt want to deal with this virus and just wants to believe another narrative that doesnt exist. No, the president has chosen to gaslight americans rather than lead them here. What youre seeing is a failure of moral leadership and political leadership. Look, you look at the map of where the outbreaks are occurring and you see that in fact places that have had aggressive mitigation have lowered the infection rate. But the president has basically sent out the signal that its all over, we dont need to take this seriously, and you can see the split screen nation that we have right now. I mean look where look where this is exploding. And rather than providing the essential leadership what the president has done is gambled his political future and the Nations Health on the belief that if we just pretend it went away, that somehow it would disappear, that in fact we could reopen the country, we could make light of Wearing Masks, make light of the social distancing and that somehow both the coronavirus will go away and the economy would come back. I think that he seems to be losing that bet at the moment. And then theres this other aspect that you hear when you see Vice President pence, and i want to play another sound bite for you here. This is from the hhs secretary, alex azar, here. Its spin the Vice President used too about counties and infections. Take a listen. Its important for the American People to know this is a localized situation. The counties that are in hot spots are 3 of american counties. Okay. I get the math hes trying to pull here. But when 3 of these counties are counties like harris, maricopa, miamidade, you get the picture here, charlie sykes. Its sort of like technically accurate, but completely misleading. It is completely misleading and i think this is why this is so dangerous for the president because there is a reality out there. And, you know, this is a president that honestly thinks he can spin or market his way through any problem. But you cant when youre dealing with a pandemic like this. And so we dont what youre getting, though, is this happy talk that is so out of line with the reality. And by the way, i think one of the most dramatic charts that you showed a few minutes ago was watching the lines, the infection rates, in europe and other countries that have dealt with this aggressively and seriously compared to the United States. That chart would suggest that this can be dealt with with proper leadership and whats happening in the United States is failed leadership. The president has no intention, i think, of pivoting back and taking it seriously. Josh lederman, as youve been on the ground today and youve been in some interesting parts of wisconsin, not just where we sometimes cover just milwaukee and madison, but some other parts, what has been the local conversation on this issue of the virus and masks . Reporter well, here in this part of wisconsin, chuck, its a deep red part of wisconsin. Its also a very rural area, so you do have a lot of diehard Trump Supporters who seem confident in the president s leadership on this. That may be one reason that you see them not Wearing Masks as they attend this event and others in the area. But as you go to other parts of this state, you do hear from people who see that the numbers of coronavirus cases even here in wisconsin are rising quickly. And its not just as the president says a matter of you do more testing and you find more cases. Theyre also seeing the Positivity Rate increase here, actually double between tuesday and wednesday. You hear a lot of people concerned about that, not convinced that the government is fully taking this serious enoughing enough to do everything they can to stop the rising mortality rates in just a few days or weeks. Sounds like youre going to be wanting to listen in there in a second, josh, so i will let you do that. But charlie sykes, i want to play a mashup of when florida and texas in particular were getting ready to open up, the president was very excited. Let me play that sound for you. I can tell you on covid or coronavirus or whatever you want to call it, plenty of names, tremendous progress is being made. I spoke with the governor of texas where they have done a fantastic job. Hes got it in great shape, texas. Florida is doing very well. The numbers are actually going down. You look at florida, the state of florida, doing a great job. The job the governor of florida has done, its incredible. The numbers theyre doing. Youve got to open it up. Well, none of those things are true now. And you do get the sense, at least in Governor Abbott, charlie, that if he wants to do more, he could use some political cover. All the president of the United States would have to do is do whats best for your state, ill support you and he doesnt want to give desantis and abbott that kinds of cover. No, youve got to give Governor Abbott some credit to be able to reverse himself on all of this. Look, the ads just write themselves when you play those sound bites. The president failed initially in moving quickly enough to deal with the pandemic. But this is a second failure that is every bit as serious as the first failure, which is to not react in fact to counteract, not provide political cover for governors like abbott, who were trying to reopen. Who were backing off on reopening. Look, the president made this wager that if in fact he aggressively pushed to reopen the country that everything would work out, that wed have a vshaped recovery and that he could run on this as the great comeback story and the economy would come back. The economy is not going to come back until the pandemic is under control. I think were going to pay a huge price. So the president s investment and happy talk, people are paying attention. They know whether youre talking about a battleground state or not. Theyre listening to what the president is saying and then hearing from the medical professionals and seeing these numbers, theyre seeing the contrast between us and whats happened in europe. I think that this is this is going to turn out to be a very, very bad wager. Unfortunately, donald trump is not the only one thats going to pay the price. Very quickly, charlie, it doesnt even seem rational for a guy that is so poll driven, hes not paying tensiattention to th polls. No. And we talked about the president s instincts and ive given him credit for having a r reptilian instinct but hes lost the narrative and is very much out of touch with all of this. Youre seeing the gap between his Wishful Thinking and reality on the ground. I dont think hes caught up with it. But the poll numbers today have got to be sobering because this is really the low point. When you are down by double digits in a state like wisconsin, in pennsylvania, in michigan, that is an existential political crisis. If the president doesnt pivot, he knows whats going to happen. But this president is not capable at this point of pivoting, i think. Hes never been capable of the pivot. People are still waiting for the 2016 pivot. Josh lederman, thank you, sir. Charlie sykes, thank you both for getting us started. Now i want to turn to texas where in addition to pausing the states reopening plans, Governor Greg Abbott is suspending elective surgery in four major counties to preserve hospital space. They include houston, dallas, austin and san antonio. The news comes as the Medical Center in houston reports its icus are full. There are plans in place for hospitals to add more beds. We learned that texas has broken hospitalization records now for 14 straight days. Texas also reported 6,000 new cases for the day. That makes today the third day in a row that texas has reported more than 5,000 new cases. Joining me now is dr. Allison haddock, a houstonbased emergency room physician. Her area is on the brink of a Public Health disaster. She also teaches at the Baylor College of medicine. Dr. Haddock, your colleague there was telling me yesterday that we were talking about 5,000 and 6,000 cases statewide. He was concerned earlier today of 4,000 cases alone in Harris County that we could start to see on a daily basis. Paint the picture, how bad is it . Yep. Yeah, the numbers that were seeing in Harris County are definitely rising very quickly, and thats numbers of hospitalizations, numbers of patients in the icu, numbers of positive tests, percentage of tests that are positive all rising precipitously. So on the hospital bed situation, if youre at capacity but theyre going to add beds, what does that mean . Are we talking about within the medical facilities themselves you can create more icu space or are we going to start to think about finding a Convention Center or an unused arena or Something Like that . Well, one of the advantages that we do have in houston and in texas is that weve seen whats happened in new york and in other states and weve had a chance to be thinking for the past several months about how we can in our area have hospitals expand capacity. So i definitely think well see area hospitals expanding capacity but at some point we might reach the limits of even the ability to expand capacity in our hospitals and well have to start thinking about field hospitals like at nrg stadium, for example. Is that going to need to be a site we can start sending covid patients. The decision by the governor to get rid of elective surgeries for now, we know that the last time those bans went into effect, you know, those temporary bans, it ended up there was another sort of unintended consequence. It kept people away from e. R. S that needed to be there. I assume this is yet another concern . It is. Its definitely a concern. And i want the people of houston to be reassured that just because our icus that are ot 100 capacity does not mean your e. R. S are unable to take care of you. Emergency physicians are very proud of our ability to take care of everyone in any situation. If anyone is in an emergent situation, they should still come to the Emergency Department. Around the country, it is true that not every Hospital System is in the situation that the tmc is in. Weve seen patients with appendicitis and patients with heart attacks who are afraid to go to the Emergency Department for care. We do want everyone to know that the Emergency Departments are there for you in emergencies and we want you to seek care when you need it. If youre at capacity today, where are you going to be on july 4th . I am very worried about the upcoming july 4th holiday. One point that we seem have seen an inflection in our curve is after the memorial day holiday. I think people have a lot of traditions around holidays where they like to get together with friends. In houston, this is a very hot time of year so sometimes those activities are really taking place indoors, which we know is the highest threat for transmission of covid. So i encourage everyone on the fourth of july to find activities where they will not be in close contact with each other and can be Wearing Masks and washing their hands and avoiding the spread of covid because the graph that youre showing right now of tmc bed capacity shows that our hospitals could be pretty full by the time july 4th rolls around. Any actions that were taking today are really going to be benefitting us the most in two weeks. Thats when we really start to see hospitalizations change. So we really need the people of houston to be taking measures and being safe. All right. Other than asking, do you think this needs to become mandatory . Are you asking for Public Officials to make, you know would you like to see Harris County locked down for the next two weeks . I would like to see whatever we need to keep houstonians safe. Id like to see more masks available everywhere. I havent seen any public displays of free masks. At this point in the pandemic, thats something we should be producing and making available to everyone in every part of town, regardless of the income of that neighborhood. I think were all safer if were not going into restaurants. I certainly am encouraging all of my friends and family to cruise takeout, to get their groceries at curbside pickup. Dont go into the Grocery Store and do everything we can to avoid transmission. Would you do anything other than go to work for your job because you had to treat a patient and stay in your house . Would you go anywhere else right now . No. I really have strictly curtailed my activities. I have a hobby thats indoor in houston in the summer that im not participating in. I havent gotten groceries in a Grocery Store since, i think, february. We have not dined in, my husband and i, in a restaurant in months and months. And i think thats really what we need to be doing to keep essential workers safe. I have to go to work. My brotherinlaw, who works in a Grocery Store has to go to work. We need to be protecting the people who have to go to work. The best way we can do that is by staying home. Dr. Allison haddock from the houston area on the ground there on the front lines of the fight there, thanks for coming on and sharing the perspective there. As dr. Osterholm said to me on sunday, he still has the same tank of gas that he had in march which tells you how much he is circulating these days as well. Up ahead, were heading to another place in the sun belt. Im going to talk with the mayor of jackson, mississippi. Its been one month since the death of george floyd. 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[ baseball bat cracks ] with spray mopping to lock away debris and absorb wet messes, all in one disposable pad. Just vacuum, spray mop, and toss. The shark vacmop, a complete clean all in one pad. Swithout even on yoleaving your house. Just keep your phone and switch to xfinity mobile. You can get it by ordering a free sim card online. Once you activate, youll only have to pay for the data you need starting at just 15 a month. There are no term contracts, no activation fees, and no credit check on the first two lines. Get a 50 prepaid card when you switch. 5g is now included with all new data options. Switch and save hundreds. Xfinity mobile. Welcome back. Its not just texas or florida, arizona or california. States out west and across the sun belt are seeing coronavirus cases rise. They dont skip over the small states. Local experts fear residents will not realize it until its too late. Take mississippi which just saw its highest numbers since the pandemic began. Heres what the States Health officer told the associated press. Im afraid its going to take some kind of catastrophe for people to pay attention. When we were in the spring people were clamoring to shut down and we had a brief period of shelter in place. Now we are giving away those hardfought gains for silly stuff. Joining me now is the mayor of jackson, mississippi. Paint the picture, sir, tell me the situation in jackson and how are you doing as far as caseload and hospitalizations . Its a pleasure to speak to you, todd, about this very important discussion. I share dr. Dobbs concerns. I think as we have seen a shift in the media cycle, as we have focused more on rightfully so on the civil uprisings that have taken place, people have lost sight of this very present threat. Here weve seen 192 new cases overnight in mississippi, five deaths, more than 1700 new cases in the county jackson is in. Jackson is the largest city by a factor of three. I would be remiss if i didnt mention the fact that we are a predominantly black city. Weve seen a disproportionate effect on black and brown communities. So we have to remain vigilant and we have to take this threat seriously. The city is trying to be as proactive in its response as possible, but in the absence of a uniform policy from the state, its essentially akin to being on an island where things are opening up all around you. Do you have a sense of this latest outbreak . Is it concentrated . Do you have the contract tracers to tell you are these many hot spots in many places or is this spread just all over and the Contact Tracing isnt helping . We have made endeavors to have a Symptom Tracker as a city, and out of that we are collecting data and pursuing our own level of testing so that we can better understand when the disproportionate effect is taking place in our community. Were doing so to the best of our ability in the absence of data being shared by the state. Dr. Dobbs has been very gracious in his support of our efforts to collect data, but we are still in a struggle to get a datasharing agreement and we encourage the attorney general to support that because the more information we have, the better able we will be to coordinate our efforts to assist. I dont mean to sort of so wait a minute, youre not getting the state is not sharing data with you . Explain what data that theyre withholding here. Its just surprising that this would be data you would assume everybody would be sharing, particularly with the mayor of the largest city. Its frustrating. We are the largest city by a factor of three, the capital city, but even beyond that were the capital of health care. So as caseloads increase, the hospitalization issue will disproportionately affect us. As i have said, dr. Dobbs has been very generous and helpful to our efforts in the city. Weve had many discussions with him and weve had many versions of a datasharing agreement submitted but we have yet to be successful to have the attorney general to submit that and allow us to start sharing this critical information. Its not a partisan issue, its not a political matter, this is a matter of saving lives. And so information is key. Most things are a battle of information and we want to prevail for our community, for our residents and have a coordinated response to where we are seeing the disproportionate effect. Its clear your residents im sure just like everybody else has a bit of fatigue, quarantine fatigue, shelterinplace fatigue, whatever you want to look at it. The fourth of july weekend is coming. Its pretty clear this memorial day week opening did hurt in the sun belt in general. Are you considering any new restrictions in anticipation of the fourth . It is certainly present in my mind. I have indicated that we wont hesitate as were watching the numbers. Obviously some of the critical factors that were looking at is infection rate, our hospitalization rate, the utilization of ventilators, all of those things are very useful data points to make that decision. I think its also critical that we look at how we message. While we have been persistent and warning of the threats, i think that we also need to correlate it with things that people find as positive outlets and really suggest that those opportunities will be limited if we dont adhere to the social distancing and facial covering guidelines. Everybody would like to see football at a certain point. Were in the midst of the south. Everybody would like to see children be able to return to school at some point. And wee to make it clear that if we fail to adhere to these restrictions, then we are making it less and less likely that well be able to accomplish those things. Its like dealing with a teenager sometimes. Okay, if you want this, you have to do this. Before i let you go, the head football coaches of the two biggest universities, mike leach and lane kiffin, are now lobbying to change the state flag. The ncaa, the s. E. C. , conference usa. Youre in the capital there. You know how this legislature is. Its clear that some people are looking for more political cover to do this. Do you think theres enough . And do you think that the legislature will do this or theyre going to punt to a referendum . Well, im happy to see theres a growing coalition in support of the removal of this flag so we can have more unifying imagery over our state. A friend of mine, the actress, formed an Organization Called the human rights collective five years ago and advocated to take down the state flag. So we still want to see that take place. Not only is it a daunting image of the vestiges of the past, the s. E. C. Has come out and opined that they wont have certain events with that flag flying. Hopefully we understand if we truly want to be a part of the new south we have to do so and no longer be part of the noose south. Mayor, im going to leave it there. Appreciate you coming on and sharing your perspective both on the virus and on the flag, sir. Thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me. Up ahead, revelations of another death in Police Custody caught on camera. Plus the vote thats about to happen on capitol hill to try to hold Police Officers more accountable. Youre first. First to respond. First to put others lives before your own. And in an emergency, you need a network that puts you first. That connects you to technology to each other and to other agencies. Built with and for first responders. Firstnet. The only officially authorized Wireless Network for first responders. Because putting you first is our job. And its mission is to make sleep. Feel. Cool. So, no more night sweats. No more nocturnal baking, or polar ice cap airconditioner mode. Because the tempurpedic breeze delivers superior cooling from cover to core. Helping you sleep cool, all night long. During the tempurpedic summer of sleep, save 500 on all tempurbreeze mattresses. And experience your coolest sleep this summer, on our best breeze savings of the year. With spray mopping to lock away debris and absorb wet messes, all in one disposable pad. Just vacuum, spray mop, and toss. The shark vacmop, a complete clean all in one pad. For spending a perfectly reasonable amount of time on the couch with tacos from grubhub . Grubhubs gonna reward you for that with a 5 off perk. doorbell rings [crowd] grubhub fireworks exploding welcome back. We want to warn you were about to show video thats tough to watch. A vigil is scheduled after a video shows a latino man dying while in Police Custody. Get on the ground. Get on the ground now. This happened back on april 21st, more than a month before George Floyds death but the body camera video was only released by the Police Department yesterday. The chief of police is now offering to resign. The Department Says the officers arrested 27yearold Carlos Ingram lopez. Officers restrained him face down for 12 minutes but they say they did not use a chokehold on him. Lopez told the officers he was unable to breathe. An autopsy shows he had cocaine in his system and that he died of cardiac arrest and physical restraint. Officers have resigned from the department while an investigation is underway. The issues of policing practices and use of force are just part of whats being discussed on capitol hill today as House Democrats are set to pass a Police Reform bill named in honor of george floyd. Our own capitol hill correspondent, kasie hunt, joins me now. Kasie, the debate has been going on all day. What have you learned . And i have to tell you, i was really surprised by the report this morning, the white house for some reason really wants to make sure this is a very polarized outcome. Well, chuck, i think that reflects the president s demand for loyalty and it seems as though hes seeing this debate in these terms. I would also say that the president is not approaching this issue in the same way that Senate Republicans are necessarily. The white house has been working behind the scenes very closely with senator tim scott, but the president s public actions are not reflecting the political realities that the senate gop conference is clearly grappling with, which is that people are seeing videos like the one you just played. Its changing opinions and minds. There are republican legislators in mississippi who are saying its time to take the Confederate Flag off the Mississippi State flag. Thats just one small indication of the sea change that seems to be under way right now. And democrats made the calculation that what republicans in the senate wanted to do wasnt good enough by their metrics and based on what they believe they are seeing in the body politic generally and so they said no. They are moving forward with the bill that they have put on the house floor. Emotions are running very high, i would say, on both sides. There is a lot of acrimony. There are some pretty nasty accusations being traded back and forth between the sides. Republicans demanding that Speaker Pelosi apologize for what she said about george floyd and republicans being complicit in murder, saying she should apologize to tim scott. She has refused to do that. She has been very pointed in her language defending herself and the bill that they have written. Overlying all of this, chuck, is the bet that the president is more likely than not to lose reelection and that programs the senate is actually more likely than not to turn over into democratic hands next year, which was not something that we anticipated before. So if theyre willing to wait it out, they may face a much more hospitable landscape for what they want to do in six short months, chuck. That always comes with risks, though. That always comes with risk. It does. You dont want to assume any future. You know what happens when you assume. Everybody knows that saying, i hope. Kasie hunt, thank you. Well have much more ahead on mtp daily. Former republican congressman and chairman of the black news channel, j. C. Watts is my next guest. Joy reid will host a special report tomorrow at 7 00 p. M. Right here on msnbc. Shell talk with members of the Congressional Black Caucus about the path forward. And you can ask a question that can be answered in this show. Just visit msnbc. Com townhall. Ts and absorb wet messes, all in one disposable pad. Just vacuum, spray mop, and toss. The shark vacmop, a complete clean all in one pad. Proof i can fight moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. Proof i can fight psoriatic arthritis. With humira. Proof of less joint pain. And clearer skin in psa. Humira targets and blocks a source of inflammation that contributes to joint pain and irreversible damage. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections. Serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Humira is proven to help stop further joint damage. Want more proof . Ask your rheumatologist about humira citratefree. If you cant afford your medicine, abbvie may be able to help. I opened a sofi money account and it was the first time that i realized i could be earning interest back on my money. I just discovered sofi, and im an investor with a diversified portfolio. Who am i . i refinanced my Student Loans with sofi because of their low interest rates. Thanks sofi for helping us get our money right. This virus is testing all of us. And its testing the people on the front lines of this fight most of all. So abbott is getting new tests into their hands, delivering the critical results they need. And until this fight is over, we. Will. Never. Quit. Because they never quit. Welcome back. Three Police Officers in wimgton, north carolina, have now been fired after recordings of violent racist conversations between the officers, including racial slurs and calls for a race war were caught on a police cars video recorder. Speaking to the press yesterday, wilmingtons police chief condemned their language saying theres no place for this language in our agency or our city. You read this whole story and the actual conversation these officers had, it is alarming. The firing of those officers come as we mark one month since George Floyds death which set off protests in every state in this country and has led to some of the most concrete steps towards Police Reform we have seen in this country. Joining me is j. C. Watts, chairman of the black news channel and hes also the son of a Police Officer. J. C. Watts, its good to see you. I want to start with that perspective that you bring to this conversation. This story in wilmington, north carolina, is truly alarming and its an extreme case of racism and bias. But its an extreme case at a time when a lot of africanamericans will say thats not that is more norm than you think it is. What do you say to that . Well, chuck, i believe in systematic racism, but i dont believe that all racism is systematic. And the way that systematic racism takes hold is if you find situations like this in your corporate culture, if you find Police Officers in your Law Enforcement culture, you need to address it, you need to deal with it. Systematic racism, 1921 in tulsa, oklahoma, you had people that lost their lives and their livelihood. They lost property. To this day nothing has been filed, in spite of the fact that you had d. A. S that knew about it, you had the attorney general of the state at the time that knew about it, the governor that knew about it, the mayor of the city, the police chief, the sheriff. Nothing was ever done, so thats systematic racism. So systematic racism, systematic injustice, those things happen. If you dont address these situations, your entire police force will be impacted in a very negative way. I dont want to age you, but obviously your father was a black Police Officer at a time when there werent many black Police Officers. Sadly, its still we were looking at the numbers in tulsa, oklahoma. The racial the demographics of the police force does not match the community. Well, and, chuck, thats probably pretty consistent unless youre in a city that probably has an africanamerican mayor or a mayor of color, thats probably the case. My father was the first Police Officer, was the first black Police Officer in my little small rural community, population of about 2,000 people when i was there. If you look at the history of the Police Forces back in the 20s, 30s, 40s, you know, you had Police Forces that was infiltrated by ku klux klan members and you didnt see black Police Officers probably become Law Enforcement agents until probably the 70s is when you saw that population grow as black Police Officers. And again, i think Police Chiefs and sheriffs and city managers and mayors around the country recognized that an africanamerican Police Officer could contribute. I know when my dad was offered a job, they wanted him to be a Police Officer just in the plaqblack community. His reply was if im a Police Officer, i should be able to arrest anyone that is breaking the law regardless of the skin color so he eventually became a Police Officer in my own town. So i think those numbers are still trying to catch up with themselves, but you didnt see that population grow in terms of black officers probably until the 70s is when i guess it probably started to take root. That would be subject to check, but i think it was probably the 70s when it took root to see black officers really become a part of Law Enforcement. What would you like to see come out of washington with Police Reform . Well, i do think theres obviously reforms. I dont think that you can look at what has happened over the last four or five years in terms of what happened to walter scott in south carolina, Ahmaud Arbery speaks to us in the fact that systematic racism is something that i would be concerned about there because it was only two it was two months after he was shot that that came to light. I think and i think so Ahmaud Arbery i think was the tipping point. I think george floyd was hopefully the turning point. What we saw, i cant imagine any of us, even Law Enforcement, saying what happened to george floyd and people are saying, hey, check his pulse, hes not breathing. Hes saying i cant breathe. And you had four Police Officers sitting there as calmly as i would in eating my evening dinner. I think that showed the humanity of the country, even Law Enforcement agencies around the country, and hopefully congress can get its act together and perform and come up with some reforms that will be impactful. I think chokeholds, you could start with that. Let me ask you this. Youre cofounder of the black news channel. Just launched this year. How have you approached covering this moment . Well, chuck, unfortunately it has been front and center in our news coverage, as it has been with what you guys are doing there at msnbc. When we launched the black news channel, we felt like we would be a venue for the Africanamerican Community and we would report on news that was culturally specific to the Africanamerican Community. When you look at covid19, i worked on Health Care Disparities with Jesse Jackson jr. And harold ford jr. , Donna Christianson who was a medical professional from the virgin islands. We worked on Health Care Disparities back in the mid90s. And had we been taken seriously or had the system really moved the way we wanted them to move, covid19 would not have been as big of an issue in the Africanamerican Community. I dont think we would have seen the disparity. So obviously thats content with the disproportionate impact that Police Brutality has on Africanamerican Community, incarceration reform. I worked on that while in congress. So those things have disproportionately impacted our demographic, which unfortunately gives us too much content. I wish we did not have to talk about though things, but unfortunately we have been on top of it and they have been front and center in our newscasts. J. C. Watts, i have to leave it there. Its good to catch up with you. Former republican congressman from oklahoma, but youve done a lot of other things since then, including what youre doing now with the black news channel, congrats i miss you that much. Come on. You might miss us on meet the press. The question on every parents mind. Is it safe to send our kids back to school . T safe to send our kik to school . What makes you, you . Your cells. Trillions of them. Thats why centrum contains 24 key nutrients to support your energy. So you can take care of what matters most. And try new centrum minis today. With spray mopping to lock away debris and absorb wet messes, all in one disposable pad. Just vacuum, spray mop, and toss. The shark vacmop, a complete clean all in one pad. Yoohoo, progressive shoppers. We laughed with you. Sprinkles are for winners. We surprised you. On occasion, weve probably even annoyed you. Weve done this all with one thing in mind. To help protect the things you love. And if we cant offer you the best price well help you find a better one. Its not always the lowest even if its not with us. Thats how weve done it for the past 80 years. Not just today, or this month, but always. The coronavirus continues to affect us all, and we are here, actively supporting you and your community. Every day, were providing trusted information from top health experts. Sharing tools to help protect families from fraud. And creating resources to support family caregivers everywhere. As always, you can count on aarp to advocate for you and your family. Join us and stay connected at aarp. Org coronavirus welcome back. The question were all asking. Is it safe to send kids back to school in the fall . My next guest and expert in exposure says yes, kids should be going back to school in the fall. So you made the argument today in the Washington Post that kids can go back to school. Thats not an issue. Everything i hear about, its not the kids thats the problem. It is the faculty. Yes. So thanks for having me back on, chuck. Let me tell you how i got to this decision. Based on the science, yes, it is safe for kids to go back to school and acknowledge that also adults can be protected. Ive been to go forensic investigations of sick buildings for over a decade. The last question i ask before i let someone back into a building, would my answer change if was my kid or my wife. And ive been thinking about kids in schools. There are massive costs to School Closures that were not always talking about. We have virtual dropouts. Take what happened in boston. 10,000 kids didnt log in at all in may. In philadelphia, 50 of Elementary School kids had daily contact. So were losing track of kids. Kids locked down are more sedentary. Many kids rely on schools for nutrition. 30 million kids in schools rely on schools for their meals. Unicef says theyre more likely to experience exploitation and violence. The science says kids are lower risk. Theyre less likely to get sick. Less likely to suffer from adverse effects and early evidence suggests theyre less likely to transfer it to adults. On the adult question, we know there are proven strategies that can keep kids and adults safe. Look what theyre doing in the hospitals with just the basics. They dont even physical distance. They wash their hands, wear masks and have ventilation in the building and they reduce the cases for health care workers. So you believe that on the adult front, even though you cant keep kids from touching each other and all of that, because one of the concerns is, you know, some kids live in multigenerational homes. Yeah, look. I know were all really concerned about this and im on a panel of experts all around boston including experts in some of the hospitals. You see weve controlled Health Care Exposure risk. In high risk environments. Through these basic Risk Reduction principles. In addition to the op ed, we release ad 60page report with all Risk Reduction strategies for classrooms. Wear your mask, wash your hands, also group distancing and physical distancing. There are things we can do. We have to follow a precautionary principle, Health Safety and shared responsibility. Youre a terrific final guest for my hour because you summed everything up quicker, quickly, because i needed that. Joseph allen of harvard Public Health. Making the case. It is safe to send your kids to school. 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Easy. Awesome. Xfinity x1 just got even better with peacock premium included at no additional cost. No strings attached. Just say peacock into your voice remote to start watching today. Thats all we have for tonight. Well be back tomorrow. Good evening to you,ari. Good evening, chuck. Thank you very much. Welcome to the beat. I am ari melber. Brand new action on race and policing in congress