Transcripts For MSNBCW MTP Daily 20200810

Reported in this incredibly thorough portrait of the white houses struggles to contain this virus, if the administrations initial response to the coronavirus was denial, its failure to control the pandemic since then, was driven by dysfunction and resulting in a lost summer, according to the report that emerges from interviews with 41 Senior Administration officials and other people directly involved in or briefed on the response efforts. And dysfunction pretty much sums up where we stand right now with Coronavirus Relief talks stalled on capitol hill. The president s executive actions have sewed confusion among state officials and they might not be constitutional either. The president is claiming his actions have somehow pressured democrats to restart negotiations, and he claims that schumer and pelosi now want a deal. Hes also claiming that democrats called him to restart talks. But so far no one knows what hes talking about. Two senior democratic aides tell nbc news that there has been zero contact between the administration and pelosi or schumer about restarting negotiations. When press secretary Kayleigh Mcenany was asked this afternoon which democrats called trump, she didnt answer. Instead telling reporters they can ask the president himself when he holds yet another daily Coronavirus Briefing this afternoon. Right now we expect the president to speak and answer some questions later on this hour, around 5 30 p. M. , and we should remind you, as we often have, that the white house restarted these daily briefings due to their concern over poll numbers. We have yet to hear from a Public Health official at these events. It has just been President Trump nearly always painting a rosy portrait of the crisis. We have a lot to talk about tonight as we await the president. Joining me now is Nbcs Carol Lee from the white house, nbc a Garrett Haake on capitol hill, ashley parker, White House Reporter for the Washington Post and msnbc contributor. And with the medical perspective, dr. Meghan rainy, emergency physician and associate professor of emergency medicine at Brown Universitys medical school. Thank you all for being here tonight. Do we expect to learn anything new from the president tonight . Is there a strategy behind briefing as all of these things have seemingly fallen apart . Well, look, we know that the president has increasingly wanted to come out and be his own spokesperson. Were going to see him do that in just a little bit here again tonight at the white house. The questions have really been signal up, kasie, since he signed these executive actions over the weekend. He has not been able to say, and people who work for him has not been able to say, will these be effective . How will they be effective . Setting aside if theres legal, a whole other question the white house is facing. They were asked today, the press secretary Kayleigh Mcenany was asked when they might start receiving the money, and they couldnt answer that question. She was asked days or weeks and, again, she couldnt answer the question saying, theyre hoping this happens almost immediately. Thats just one piece of this. If you look at another piece of this, they have to figure out how theyre going to get states, because thats part of the president s executive action to put in their amount of money that the president s executive actions call for, particularly on Unemployment Insurance benefits. And they havent really explained how thats going to happen. One of the things that Kayleigh Mcenany suggested is that states go dig into funding that they got in previous relief bills. Well, theres the whole question about, they are saying they need more funding, not that they can go back and dig into their pot for the president s executing orders without anything additional. So theres a number of questions the president is going to be facing here tonight. And also just whether or not hes going to get involved in these negotiations. Should they start to resume. Weve really seen him be on the sidelines until now. And theres a growing chorus of questions about whether or not he needs to come off the sidelines and really engage. He said democrats have called him, obviously as you said, theres no particular evidence so thats also going to be right at the top of the list, kasie. Well, carol, it seems like this was in many ways a negotiating tactic to put these executives orders out there, try to force democrats hands. But i think over the course of the last 48 hours, we realized how you laid it all out right there, the hurdles related to this, has the president , as he often does, been watching the coverage . Does he feel as though this set of actions have failed in the Overall Mission to try to change the course of these negotiations . Well, we know the president pays very close attention to News Coverage, particularly when he sees stuff like this. And, look, the president , he has not really wanted to get that deeply involved in these discussions. So i think one of the things that were going to hear from him today is whether or not or i think people are hoping they will hear from him today, is some sort of roadmap for how this all goes forward because its worth always remembering that whats hanging in the balance here is millions of americans who do not have this sort of relief. So i think you can expect that the president s going to defend his actions. Theyve really been on the defensive since he took these and try to put the burden on democrats and say that its in their court, there is some gamesmanship here though. The white house kind of hoping that this would bring democrats back to the table and at least put the burden on them. But the longer that this goes on, the risk is democrats say lets see your executive actions play out and they dont play out exactly how the white house hopes they can be so its a bit of a gamble here. And its a very good point to underscore there are people watching these negotiations minute to minute wondering if theyre going to have to choose between their car payments, rent, putting food on the table. Garrett haake, lets go over to you. That point carol raised is an important one and it seems to me theres a limited window of time for these negotiations to get restarted or we could be looking at september before we ever get anything done. Whats the latest reporting from there about how democrats are viewing what the president did and where they stand in terms of restarting these talks . Look, were entering the traditional august doe drums up here on capitol hill and both chambers are usually out of significance. The house isnt scheduled to be in until september, although they could vote at any totime sa deal be made. But theyre not so worried about the constitutionality or legality of the orders. Theyre looking to see if they work. All signs are they wont. Chuck schumer were attacking the executive orders as too narrow, too weak, essentially not the kind of thing that will move the dial in and of itself. Where does that lead us . Its hard to see what breaks this logjam. Traditionally lawmakers may be going home to face constituents in town halls. They may run into people trying to decide how to pay those pills. In a pandemic time, theyre less likely to replace that pressure. So what im looking at, republicans are less united than democrats. The democrats can point to the only bill passed on Coronavirus Relief on this new round of negotiations, their h. E. R. O. E. S. Act they passed back in may. Republicans to some degree are still fighting amongst themselves about what should even be in this. Ron johnson was saying hes glad there wasnt a deal. Ben sasse, republican from nebraska, fighting with the president about executive orders. Those would point towards democrats have a stronger negotiating position but it takes two sides to make a deal, and its not really clear if both sides actually want to come to a compromise here. The latest thing ive been noticing is democrats trying to split the republican negotiators, talking about Mnuchin Mnuchin as someone they can deal with, treasury secretary. And mark meadows, bad cop, the guy who got around in this round of negotiations when everything fell apart. I wanted to actually follow up and ask you about that very question. Carol alluded to whether the president was going to get involved. While there certainly have been some folks talking about that, i think you and i both covered the hill long enough to realize it seems every time he gets directly involved, things just fall apart more quickly. But it seems to me he does need to decide if hes on mark meadows side, were not going to have a deal. If hes on steve ma nujs side, it seems like we can get it done, no . That ultimately is the decision the president has to make, how badly does he want to deal for the effect of the country, his poll numbers, whatever you might pick. Mnuchin, a lot of republicans think hes given away too much on the way. Mark meadows, on the other hand, has a long track record as member of the Freedom Caucus in the house of being the guy who tries to blow up deals. If thats what the president wants, that may be what he gets here. What is the end result of what people would like to see happen remains remains moving target, honestly, from the whole thing when the president was talking about an eviction moratorium, something that wasnt in the Senate Republicans bill. Its been hard to figure out if there is a unified republican position on what the exact outcome should be here beyond an outcome as the majority leaders described it. Ashley parker, for this president , we know he thinks about everything in the context of his reelection. And the reality is were going to find out before the election whether these executive orders actually help people the way he claimed over the weekend when he was at hes golf club. Ask the preside is the president s team confident they have done enough . Nancy pelosi and democrats are betting essentially things have gotten so bad if the president doesnt cut a deal with them on the terms that they want, frankly, republicans are going to suffer way more at the ballot box in november. Thats exactly right. And the president is someone, who as we all know at this point is trying to get through the minute, hour, the day. He enjoys showing up to his Bedminster Club to a appreciative audience and announcing these actions in memoranda which is more an executive wish list more than anything else. He likes those headlines, likes those moments. But the challenge, and i spent a lot of this weekend talking to officials in the obama administration, and remember president obama used his pen and phone and did a lot of executive actions at the end and one thing, in order for them to be effective and are there are real questions about the legality and effectiveness of what the president has done, you actually have to be quite committed to them. You need good lawyering i was told. You need a good policy shot, rigorous followthrough and outreach to the states, for instance, that are trying to figure out if they can put up their 25 of what the government will pay for Unemployment Benefits. And in a bestcase scenario that is not what the Trump Administration has. So, again, its a very open question of will these people who dont really care if the democrats passed the first bill or president signed some executive action are waiting, how much money will they get . When will they get it . Will they be able to stay in their homes . Be a few good headlines at bedminster is not going to mean very much to this president when it comes to voters before the november election. That speaks to something you wrote about in a broader piece about the president sort of changing relationship with relevance, if you will. You wrote more than 3 1 2 years into his presidency, trump increasingly finds himself minimized and ignored as many of his more outlandish or false statements are briefly considered and as quickly dismissed and a slide into partial elements could make it even more difficult for trump as he seeks reelection. Have americans, after all of the false information about a pandemic that is surging this summer, staring the fall in the face with kids potentially not going back to school, at what point do they just stop listening to him all together . That is a question i dont mean to imply people dont necessarily pay any attention to his tweets or if he says something incendiary other racist, people dont take note of. But on these big things what you are seeing is the country forcefully moving ahead without him. When the president declared with no real evidence the explosion in beirut was a bomb, diplomats just proceeded with what they knew. Governors and the states and School Superintendents in the states are doing what they believe is best for their students, for their residents, regardless of what the president is saying. Same likely with college football. Even the president s own Health Officials when theyre allowed to speak, theyre publicly contradicting him in many cases, offering a grim reality as opposed to the rosy one hes sharing and republicans on capitol hill, the president s request for a payroll tax cut was basically a nonstarter. And he has very much somewhat by his own choice been sidelined during these negotiations. So hes the president. Its not that he is totally a nonfactor but people have sort of realized that rhetoric in tweets doesnt really matter as much as tangible actions and those executive orders are not the strong fixes the president is hoping they will be. I hate to put you on the spot to give us the grim reality but weve faced grim milestones, including 5 million infections, continually rising death count. And from a medical perspective, and we talk about the politics of this bill, but this Coronavirus Relief package was also intended to have all kinds of money for testing, for tracing, for these types of initiatives that this president has essentially punted to the states. And ashley and her colleagues at the post had previously reported that was in part for the president not to have to take responsibility for bad outcomes. What is it the impact on our ability to fight the virus if we dont get more resources on a National Level put towards this problem . I cannot overstate the impact of the continued lack of federal action on this virus on our countrys health. The idea of the lost days of summer is so poignant to any of us in the health care profession, on the front lines, taking care of increased number of patients with covid19. We had an opportunity in april and may when we brought the virus down to lower levels of prevalence. We had an opportunity to build up testing, to get adequate amounts of personal protective equipment, things like masks, gowns, gloves. Not just for Health Care Providers but also for all of the other essential workers out there. School nurses, teachers, bus drivers. We also had an opportunity to build up Public Health messaging, data sources and messages to the public across the country. We lost that opportunity as well. The news is full right now of reports of Public Health officials who are being driven out of a job because of antiscience sentiment, of data dashboards that are not reliable and arent working and a Public Health messaging that has gone awry. Where we have people who are saying theyre antimask, them overturning state or county pushes for mandates for masking despite the fact that we know masks work, and that if we with all wear masks, we could potentially avoid future shutdowns and save the economy. Its been an absolute abdication of responsibility on the part of the executive branch. It is, frankly, Public Health ineptitude. Any Public Health official who had been put in charge would do better than what the federal government has currently done. Well, weve also learned in the last day or two that a new study shows that 97,000 children tested positive for the virus in these last two weeks of july. I want to ask you about that, doctor, simply because one of the messages i feel has gotten through to people and part of why its reduced anxiety is the perception was children condition the get this and were learning as time goes by and we gather more data that is simply not the case. How do you view this study in the context of parents making decisions about what to do in terms of sending your kids back to school . So i always start discussions about kids in school with a very honnette caveat that i myself am a parent of two schoolage children. So when i read these studies, im interpreting them not also just in terms of science but also in terms of being a parent in my community and my public schools. Many of us in medicine thought early on the data was showing that somehow kids were escaping this infection. That doesnt make sense. Every other respiratory virus affects kids. Every respiratory virus is spread by kids. Well, now we are seeing with the data our suspicions, our fears were correct. Kids are affected by covid19. They catch it at similar rates. They may not be as symptomatic. They may not be as likely to get sick, but especially as they get into the older age groups, theyre just as likely to spread it as adults. How does this affect our interpretation of going back to school . This add grit to what many of us have been saying, if your rates of covid19 in your community are high, and for most of us we are seeing thats a test Positivity Rate of greater than 5 , because we dont have better data than that, if your test data rate is better than 5 , sending kids back to school, particularly middle school and high school, is likely unsafe for the community. Maybe not the individual kid but teachers, nurses, bus drivers and all of the families who touch those kids. Because kids, our data now tells us, can catch this and spread it. We had an opportunity to get the virus under control. We unfortunately did not take that and now were in a really tough position as parents in schools and having to decide between our kids education and the health of our communities. Really difficult news that seems like does not set the stage well for the upcoming fall. Carol lee, Garrett Haake, ashley parker, dr. Megan rainy, thank you very much for being here. I appreciate it. Were awaiting the start of the presss press conference at the white house. Once that begins, we will bring it to you live. And once the white house said theyre ready to restart virus relief talks and this time there could be more money on the table. I will talk to democratic senator ron wyden about what it could take to get a deal. vo weve got your back, road warriors. Because we know you want to get back to going your speed. Steering life at 10 and 2. Youre prepared for this. And so are we. Soon youll get back to skipping the counter without missing a beat. Back to choosing any car in the aisle. Back to being the boss of you. Go national. Go like a pro. Start your day with secret. Secret stops sweat 3x more than ordinary antiperspirants. With secret, youre unstoppable. No sweat try it and love it or get your money back. Puts its customers a wiin charge . Rier well, the good news gets shared. And it gets rated 1 for customer satisfaction. But dont just take our word for it. Take theirs. Its your wireless. Your rules. Only with xfinity mobile. Call, click or visit a store today. Welcome back. Democrats are pushing back on President Trumps claims theyre ready to resume relief talks after the president issued a series of executive actions over the weekend. There are concern the president s recent executive actions may be constitutionally unsound or simply unworkable. Talks between administration negotiators and Top Democrats have so far failed as the two sides remain trillions, with a t, of dollars apart. This morning treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin told cnbc the administration is willing to go back to the negotiating table if democrats are, quote, reasonable. Oregon senator ron wyden joins me now. Hes the Ranking Member of the Senate Finance committee. Senator wyden, its great to have you. Lets start right there. What would get democrats back to the negotiating table . What does Chuck Schumer need to hear from the administration . What does nancy pelosi need to hear from the administration to sit back down . Kasie, first, lets talk about where we are right now. Because to me, the trump goal is essentially to tie the states up in knots to distract from his failures, and what really highlights it is we just got a statement from the Governors Association a bipartisan statement, and it says, and i will quote here, were concerned about the significant administrative burdens and costs this latest action would place on the states. So what weve said is lets get back to the table, lets not slash these benefits that working families depend on, which is what is in trumps executive order, and weve got a proposal from the white house that really reflects what is needed. And trump says he understands the situation. That was his statement over the weekend. The fact is, what hes shown is he doesnt understand the situation at all. The virus is raging on. Peoples benefits are being slashed. They cant make rent. They cant pay for groceries. Weve got a proposal and were willing to do the hard work to find common ground. Its pretty clear though that democratic negotiators have said they were going to come down a trillion dollars from that proposal, if the administration would come up a trillion, the administration essentially walked away from that. What were democrats willing what are democrats willing to compromise on from the h. E. R. O. E. S. Act . Its been very hard to nail down the specifics here of whats actually on the table. Well, you cant negotiate with yourself, kasie, thats the bottom line. We came in there with what i thought was a fair compromise. Again and again, weve taken the initiative. You mentioned the finance committee. I sat for days trying to put together that extra 600 per week each week because i knew that workers would be hurting. Mitch mcconnell had no proposal at all. So you cant negotiate with people who dont want to come to the table. I heard your earlier broadcast, the republicans said that there were negotiations and people wanted to get going, thats just fiction. We have not heard any indication that they really want to get back to serious negotiation. What has the outreach been from Senate Democrats or House Democrats for that matter to Senate Republicans to try and bring them back to the negotiati negotiating table . Because mcconnell has essentially ceded this over to the administration and schumer suggested there has been outreach directly. Has that born any fruits . Are there conversations going on there . I can tell you i have spoken to a number of republicans with respect to the unemployment issue. We said, for example, we would tie Unemployment Benefits to conditions on the ground. That would ensure that people in the vast part of the country would get benefits that would really let them make rent, pay wages. But i took that approach largely because john thune, a member of the Republican Leadership said i understand if folks are hurting theyve got to have good benefits but if unemployment tapers off, the benefit would taper off. Thats essentially what senator schumer and i proposed. Do you think at this point there is a limited time horizon for these negotiations to start back up at all . Is there a necessity to do some sort of shortterm fix, or are we looking at the stalemate dragging into the fall . I dont want that to happen. Senator schumer, the speaker, we all said that. Thats why im sitting at my desk right now. Were ready to go. Were ready to do the heavy lifting. The fact was we did that with respect to unemployment out of the gate. We started covering gig workers and cell phone and independent contractors. Finally the republicans joined us. But were willing, once again, to negotiate on the key kind of issues preventing evictions, making sure people can make rent, buy groceries and, of course, the Key Health Care questions is testing and making sure that we can prevent this virus that continues to rage on and the president seems to not understand that as well with the comments that its going to disappear. Lets talk also briefly about the Postal Service that i know has come up in these negotiations. We know they made significant policy changes that are slowing down, mail delivery in many parts of the country. And this is something democrats have focused on. I imagine it affects your state, particularly rural areas in oregon. What are democrats doing to try to adjust the policies, and do you think that that is something that needs to be done even if you cant find a compromise on a bigger coronavirus bill . Well, again, we feel the pieces of this legislation are related to each other, but what i can tell you is that i think the Trump Administration with respect to the post office is just pretty much sabotage. Pt what i can tell you, having worked out the vote by mail provisions, we know that this country wants to make sure you can vote safely in the middle of a pandemic. Donald trump votes by mail. Its time to make sure that the rest of the country can. And by the way, that way we follow the oregon mile on the nations first mailin United States senator. Senator ron wyden, thank you as always for your time. Its great to have you on the program. Thanks for having me. President trump is set to speak from the white house any moment now. Once his new conference begins, were going to bring it to you live. Also ahead, chicagos night of chaos. Officers are hurt, businesses are looted and more than 100 people are under arrest. The very latest on what sparked the violence. 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If you cant afford your medicine, abbvie may be able to help. [ aevery box has a mission if you cant afford your medicine, to protect everything inside from everything outside. When whats inside matters, count on boxes. [ doorbell rings ] paper and packaging. How life unfolds. Welcome back. Access to Downtown Chicago will be restricted tonight after a night of destruction and looting last night ended in 100 arrests and 13 injured police officers. At a press conference this morning, mayor Lori Lightfoot and Police Superintendent david brown said the unrest and looting stemmed from the shooting of a 20yearold man by police earlier in the night, but made clear that they did not see what happened after as a legitimate form of protest. What occurred in our downtown and surrounding communities was abject criminal behavior pure and simple. And there cannot be any excuse for it, period. This is not legitimate First Amendment protected speech. And today a District Court in minnesota released new body cam footage of interactions with his officers before his death, including one of the officers approaching floyd with his gun drawn. We warn you, this video is disturbing. Let me see your other hand. Im sorry, im sorry. Is please, officer both hands i didnt do nothing. Please both [ bleep ] hands right now all right. What did i do though . What did i do . Put your hand up there god. Put your [ bleep ] handed up there this footage had previously not been officially released to the public but was leaked about a week ago by the daily mail. Nbc Shaquille Brewster was one of the few journalists able to watch that footage last month before it was released to the public and he joins me now from chicago. Shaq, i actually want to start with the violence that we saw, and then well talk a little bit about that george floyd footage. First, whats the latest on the ground ahead of these restrictions in chicago tonight . Kasie, the situation in Downtown Chicago still remains tense this afternoon. You see businesses still boarding up, still cleaning up the mess we saw from the looting and destruction last night. Police say this all started yesterday after a policeinvolved shooting. They say they were responding to a call and saw suspects who then began to run. Thats when he turned, fired officer and thats when he returned that fire shooting and injuring a black man in the inglewood community, a south side neighborhood of chicago. But then they said misinformation started to spread about the age of the suspect, about the circumstances surrounding the community. That led to a tense standoff in that area. But then you saw an organized element where people started to drive caravans into downtown and organize that on social media. Officers saying that thats when you had a criminal element take over. What youre seeing now is officers stepping up their resources. Theyre doing 12hour shift as cross the city. Theyre getting rid of vacation team. You heard from the mayor and superintendent saying theyre taking this seriously and anyone caught on video in connection with that destruction last night will be prosecuted to the fullest except of the law. They say theyre intent on making sure what we saw last night is not repeated tonight. Kasie . Well, of course, shaq, so many of these peaceful, legitimate protests across the country sparked by George Floyds death, which you covered extensively. Can you give us the context for this other piece of news were covering, this release of the body camera footage, why now . Kasie, yes, that body camera video being released now giving the public a more complete view of what happened between george floyd and those Indianapolis Police Department Officers over 2 1 2 months ago at this point. What we know and the reason why this is being released is a group of media organizations asked that the judge make this video public. This video was included as part of a motion to dismiss by one of the former minneapolis Police Department officers. His attorney saying that it showed that this over tried to help george floyd. The officer thomas lane was patient with george floyd during the interaction. But now the public gets to see these cameras and these images. Previously we saw that facebook video. Thats what sparked everything, we saw surveillance video, we saw some dash cam video but now were finally seeing two images, two angles from the Police Perspective with this body camera video. Its now giving new light and shedding new light onto this situation as this case continues and this trial continues and as the police face prosecution in minneapolis. Kasie . Shaq brewster, thank you, as always, for your reporting. Ahead whats the lesson plan for schools in the era of covid19 . The incredible challenges teachers, parents and students are facing as the school year is set to begin. 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As the debate over School Reopening rages across the nation, districts are still making decisions between inperson learning, online instruction or hybrid models. And while some districts have already opened for inperson learning and others plan to do so very soon, in florida the Baker County School district reopened today with optional masks for students and staff. In georgia, this photo of a crowded hallway, no mask in sight from North Paulding High School went viral after the school opened for inperson learning on august 3rd. Today the School Remained closed, a week after that reopening after nine people tested positive for covid19. In new york, Governor Andrew Cuomo gave the green light to the states 732 School Districts to open in person in theyd like. Nationally, one of the it 20 largest k through 12 School Districts, 17 plan to begin the year fully remote, and that raises its own set of questions and concerns about education in equality in our country. Joining me now is the please of the harlem childrens zone, jeffrey canada. Welcome to meet the press. Its great to have you. Lets start with these reopenings broadly. In new york Governor Cuomo gave the states the right to reopen if they want to. Do you think thats the right call . I think its right for a couple reasons. One, new york has the lowest rate in the country and so that gives them the opportunity to do this right. But having said that, kasie, i think we have to follow the science. What does the science say . Kids must wear masks. We must make sure theres social distancing. Weve got to think about who are the ones who are more than likely to spread the infection . And we know thats older kids. So weve got to plan in a safe, smart way, because if we just open this thing up the way theyre doing in georgia and other places, we know were going to end up having to close these schools again. We should take our time, we should do it right, but heres an issue, in communities that were devastated in new york city by covid, and we know where those communities were in queens and brooklyn and the bronx in manhattan, we need to make sure theres a real Testing Program so those people who are the most vulnerable, those families and those children, we dont allow a symptomatic spread to happen in those communities. So maybe we cant test all 1 Million Students in new york city, but we certainly should test the most vulnerable students and families to make sure we dont allow covid to begin to spread in our communiti communities again. Mr. Canada, i just want to warn you and also our viewers, weve gotten the twominute warning from the white house. Were watching to see if the president is going to come out to the podium. Until he does, we want to continue with this conversation and pick up on what you said about inequality. This whole crisis has really underscored the option wealthy parents have that lowerincome parents dont have when it comes for options educating their children. What is our responsibility to the parents and the students who dont have the ability or the money to hire a private tutor or have their private School Classes outside on a lawn under a tent . What should we with be doing to help these schools with these Testing Programs, these social distancing things at this point in time . Let me start, kasie, with what keeps me up at night. We know were not going to be able to have all of the students in the schools. Maybe half the students at a time. But what happens to the parents who have to work . We havent thought about childcare. Do we want to open up our schools, we want our families to go back to work, our parents to go back to work, but you cant go back to work if you have a fourth grader and seventh grader, both are home at different times during the week because we cant have all of the schools in session every day. We did not think this through. Guess whos going to get hurt the worst . Its not going to be people who could work from home. Its going to be the poorest, mostly the people of color or the essential workers in this city and around this country. Theyre going to get it on the chin again because we just havent been smart about making sure we can protect our most vulnerable students. Thats not even to get into the issue of devices and connectivity and other things when we know students are going to have to do part of their learning at home, and were still not taking this issue seriously. And the poor are going to be hurt the worst again. Youve done so much thinking and innovating in the education space over the years. How do you think coronavirus is going to permanently change our Education System . Well, one of the things that i think is going to happen is that were going to recognize that there are some essential tools that all children have to have. And we find this in rural places and in poor communities. The idea that they have no Internet Connection, they dont have devices. Devices and Internet Connection are the same as school books these days. You cant have some schools that have school books and some schools that dont. Were going to have to equalize this issue. This is a basic issue, brown versus board of education all over again. We cannot have these separate but unequal School Systems around this country. So thats one of the issues i think we have to deal with right now because were going to sow the seeds of the next generations inequality by our students who are poor not being able to get online to continue their education during this time of the covid pandemic. And what should congress be doing . This is one of the things that theyve been fighting over and these negotiations have obviously fallen apart but democrats and republicans were very far apart on how best to provide schools with federal aid to get through this. Its clear to me actually, mr. Canada, im so sorry, i have to cut off my own question can here because the president is at the podium. Were going to listen in. Mailin voting that just was revealed just the news, half a million incorrect absentee ballot applications were sent all across the state of virginia, including to many dead people. This was an unprecedented mailing flub thats heightened concerns about the integrity of expanding mailin voting and mailin voting efforts. Its a disaster all over virginia. Half a million votes. So thats something that we have to think about. We dont want to have a rigged election, i know that. And you have to be very careful when you mention, as you constantly do, russia or you mention china or you mention iran or others that attack our election system. And when you have this mailin voting, its very susceptible. This is something that can be easily attacked by Foreign Countries and by, frankly, democrats and by republicans. And i think that its something you have to start thinking about very seriously. Our system is not equipped for it. The post office is not equipped for it. And people should vote like they did in world war i and world war ii, and your numbers will be in 90 days or less. Your numbers will be very good, i think, much better on the coronavirus or the china virus. But its something you have to look just crazy. This just came out, 500,000 incorrect ballot applications sent all over the state of virginia to many people that werent living, they had some sent to pets, dogs. This is what were going to get into, and its going to be a disaster. And its going to be thought of very poorly. Its going to hurt our country. After our News Conference saturday night and the pro growth announcement, were pro jobs, pro health safety, executive orders, the stock market went up 358 points today. So we issued those executive orders, and the stock market went up 358 points today. Its quite a reaction. The dow jones and the s p 500 are now up 50 since march. 50 . Think if you had money in there, if you put your money in, in march, you had 50 . The nasdaq index continues to set new records. Its been up over 14 times, new record in the nasdaq. And the s p 500 and the dow, dow jones, are going to be i mean, the way theyre going, it looks like theyre going to be topping records, hopefully soon. Mr. President . Hmm. Well, this is a bit strange. We saw someone approach the podium at the White House Briefing room, and interrupt the president as he was speaking about mailin voting. Were going to try to figure out what exactly happened there, as we are keeping an eye on this. Do we have carol lee with us from the white house by chance . We have shannon petty peace with us. Shannon, lets just spend one moment on what just happened there. I think you were watching along with me, and youve been covering the white house for a long time. Have you do you recall seeing Something Like that . I mean, it read to me as a security concern potentially. I did not recognize the man who went up there, but he did appear to be one of the security agents, rather than a staffer. You know, that was not a Senior Communications staffer who came out. It wasnt mark meadows or any of the Top Administration officials. It appeared to be someone someone from secret service. I have never seen anything like that happen before in all these briefings. I know my colleagues carol lee and Kristen Welker are at the white house right now, so hopefully well get more details from them. But obviously unusual. In these briefings, there are reporters who have been cleared to be in there. You can see right now it looks like the photographers are shooting something outside. Off when theres a security issue at the white house, the doors are locked. Ive seen this before where the doors get locked to the press Briefing Room and the photographers gather at the windows to see if theres anything going on, on the south lawn where sometimes you might have someone who breaches a security fence, some sort of, you know, issue occurring outside of the white house gates even on that sidewalk. Theyll cause a lockdown in the white house where nobody can get outside of the building, and that appears to be whats happening there right now. Right. Well, just to give our viewers who havent been in the White House Press Briefing Room before, what you were just looking at were those still photographers shannon was talking about. The White House Press corps. And i think that we were also seeing potentially our camera shot out those windows. So the windows theyre looking at, they look out onto the front of the white house, the west front, where many of the reporters if you see reporters from nbc in front of the white house, thats kind of what theyre looking out there. There are also lockdowns occasionally for something that is suspicious but likely turns out to not be Something Worthy of incredible alarm. It will be someone outside the gates or an issue with someone trying to toss something of the fence. Weve had that happen in the past. So we want to underscore we dont have any details about exactly what it was that prompted this. But all of our colleagues are remaining inside the room. So that does suggest that there has been a security lockdown where they close those doors and dont let anyone in or out. Were looking at a wide shot of the white house, as well. If you look closely, you can see agents on the roof of the white house. Shannon, you may be a little more familiar with that protocol. In an earlier shot, we could see someone standing on the front of the roof. I know the agents are up there all of the time, although sometimes theyre more visible than other times. Whats the traditional Security Posture at the white house under circumstances like this . Right. There are always agents on the roof top where you can see them. Now, you made a good point that a lot of times these things get locked down because theres a suspicious package or someone who is outside of the fence who is threatening to cause a disturbance, and under an abundance of precaution, the white house goes into lockdown. I have seen cases where you could all of a sudden see a flurry of activity from the agents, where all of a sudden there are dogs on the north lawn there, which is where our camera is pointing. You can see security dogs out there. You could see the secret Service Agents kind of going into a formation where theyre spread out on the lawn, but that does not appear to be happening on the north lawn. And that shot youre looking at right now is basically Lafayette Square park, the scene of all those protests. That park, at least i believe as of this morning when i walked past, its still closed. So it could be a whole number of things. I mean, were looking right now at the south lawn. You can see where the fountain is at the back of the white house. A whole number of things that can go on to cause the white house to be locked down. But its so unusual to see the president out there at the podium making a speech when hes pulled back in by secret Service Agents. I know some of my colleagues, kelly odonnell, maybe she has seen this before. Certainly in my time covering the Trump Administration, we havent had a moment like this where the president was on live tv and is asked to step back for security reasons. So obviously a lot of questions we dont have an answer to right now. You can see theres an agent out front. I dont think thats unusual. We do often see the agents around a lot right outside the press office. Thats a good point, and thank you for clarifying north and south lawn. Its east and west over at the capitol where i spend a lot of my time. Were looking here at the lawn. There doesnt seem to be anything that would be alarming. However, we should bring to you the pool, the White House Pool per our producer at the white house, is reporting that there is a lockdown inside the Briefing Room. And im so sorry, the control room says weve got someone on the phone but i didnt catch who it was. Carol, youre on the phone with us. Are you in the Briefing Room there and can you give us any insight into whats happened . Yes, i am in the Briefing Room. The president was in the middle of briefing, a secret Service Agent came, got his attention and he said he needed to go. And now hes coming back, we are told. They Just Announced overhead hes returning to the Briefing Room. But the white house has been on lockdown. Weve been on the Briefing Room since this happened, trying to figure out whats going on. Theres a lot of activity outside. So if hes coming back in, that would suggest that perhaps either the threat itself is no longer a threat or perhaps the president assessed that he wished to come back any way. Do you think this is a scenario where they would allow him to come back if there was still something outstanding after pulling him away like that . It seems like that would be unlikely the way they came in and told them he had to leave the Briefing Room. So it would seem it would stand to reason he wouldnt be brought back, the secret service wouldnt clear him to do that unless they felt whatever the situation was, was under control. Carol, what can you tell us about the mood in the room and among the president s aides . Is there a sense of alarm . Is there a sense of relative calm . Whats it like there . So actually, all of his aides who had come out with the president , including secretary mnuchin left. In the Briefing Room, there is a stenographer that usually sits to the side of the podium and recording whatever the president is saying. She has left, and she just also returned here to the Briefing Room. Right now, heres the president. Here we are waiting for the president. That was an interesting end to the hour. Msnbc breaking News Coverage will continue with ari melber after we hear from the president. Thank you very much. There was a shooting outside of the white house, and seems to be very well under control. I would like to thank the secret service for doing their always quick and very effective work. But there was an actual shooting, and somebodys been taken to the hospital. I dont know the condition of the person. It seems that the person was shot byt