Transcripts For MSNBCW The 11th Hour With Brian Williams 20200306

Fifth democrat to drop out in five days as the race is on between biden and bernie to gain heron endorsement. While the Sanders Campaign is changing strategy on the fly to deal with the biden bounce in the next round of states. And another warning tonight about a potential pandemic of misinformation. Especially on social media. Well let you guess as to who is behind it as the 11th hour gets underway on this thursday night. Well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 1141 of the Trump Administration, leaving 243 days to go until the 2020 president ial election. As the nation grows increasingly anxious about the coronavirus outbreak, our president s focus is clearly on defending his administration and his fight to hold onto the white house. Fox news put on a town hall meeting for the president tonight. Of all places, in joe bidens hometown of scranton, p. A. More on that event lart. The Trump White House is under fire and under pressure for its response to the coronavirus. Right now the number of confirmed cases in the u. S. Rising daily and region by region. There are now well over 200 confirmed cases in this country, but remember, only 1500 people have been tested. Financial markets remain rattled by the relentless spread. Today the dow lost about 970 points, largely erasing the big gains from earlier this week. Both chambers of congress have now approved an 8. 3 billion emergency spending package bill to help fight the virus. The president s expected to sign it tomorrow. At that president ial town hall on fox news tonight, the very first question was about the white house handling of the virus. At the outside of the coronavirus, your administrations response seemed to some as being confusing or minimizing. What plans are being considered on a federal level for the possibility of a longterm disruption . Well, actually we are giving i think really given tremendous marks. One of the things i did is i closed down the border to china and to other areas that are very badly affected. We have 149 cases as of this moment. This morning was 129, and i just see right now its about 149 cases. Its going to all workout. Everybody has to be calm. Its all going to work out. We could have a very longterm plan. We hope that doesnt happen, but we have plans for every single possibility and i think thats what we have to do. We hope it doesnt last too long. And a quick reminder here. This was seven days ago, a week ago today, when the president gave his prognosis for the coronavirus. Its going to disappear. One day, its like a miracle, it will disappear. And from our shores, you know, it do get worse before it gets better. Could maybe go away. Well see what happens. Just tonight he suggested a benefit of the virus is that people are no longer traveling, instead spending their money here in this country. Just 24 hours ago, trump was asked about the World Health Organizations latest assessment of the coronavirus. We have a report today the global death rate 3. 4 , and a report that the olympics could be delayed. Your reaction to that. Well, i think the 3. 4 is really a false number. Now, this is just my hunch and but based on a lot of conversations with a lot of people that do this. So, if, you know, we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work. His answer prompted this response from a key trump ally in the u. S. Senate. Ill listen to the scientist when it comes to the numbers and i would encourage the president , if hes going to report things, to make sure that the science is behind what hes saying. Trump tonight also talked about having to change up his play book going into the 2020 election, adjusting his strategy following joe bidens super tuesday victories over Bernie Sanders and then Elizabeth Warrens dropping out of the race. I was all set for bernie because i thought it was going to happen. You know, we get ready for things, right . So mentally im all set for bernie. Communist, i had everything down. Hes a communist. I was all set. [ applause ] and then we have this crazy thing that happened, right, on tuesday. Bernie would be tougher because hes got a base. I dont think im going to be against bernie. I think its going to be very hard for him to come back. He of course stepped up his attacks on biden making, wait for it, ukraine in the general election. He appeared to suggest the impeachment investigation was ultimately more damaging to biden than to him. Do you think biden is damaged . [ applause ] do you think hes damaged . I think, i think that biden has been damaged, yeah. A lot of people i saw a couple statements, very strong statements by very respected people in your world saying they aimed at trump and they took biden down. Really thats what happened when you think because you look at the son. Heres a guy, didnt have a job, was unfortunately sadly the military was a very sad experience for him. He goes out, he gets 3 million plus 183,000 a month to be a board member of a company that a lot of people said was corrupt. And he had this to say when one pennsylvania resident asked about dialing back the divisive rhetoric. They hit us, we have to hit back. I feel that. Turning a cheek, but i wouldnt be sitting up here if i turned my cheek. With that in mind and here for our lead off discussion on a thursday night, in washington two Pulitzer Prize winners with the Washington Post, hardly seems fair. Phil rucker, White House Bureau chief and Ashley Parker White House Reporter. Phil happens to be owe author with his coauthor carol leonnig. Here with us in new york, jonathan lemire, White House Reporter for the associated press. Good evening, gang. And welcome to you all. And, ashley, id like to begin with you. Is there any degree of fear that youre picking up in the white house that the facts are going to supersede the plot line the president is giving the American People . Is there any degree of surprise that with all this guy has survived and put behind him, to wake up every day, this is sitting in the middle of the road in front of him . Well, theres certainly already a lot of internal infighting and finger pointing and recriminations. And one of the things thats notable is as you said, all this president has faced, a lot of these are crises of his own making. This is a little bit of selfsabotage. This is the rare crises from outside, from abroad, and there is a sense not necessarily in the white house, but certainly administration wide, that there was a period of several weeks from when we found out that there was this virus known as coronavirus in the wuhan province of china to when the president finally appointed vicepresident pence to head this task force, that time was squandered. You can go through and pinpoint discrete instances of when the testing didnt work, when the testing criteria was too narrow, and theres also talk of how the white house, especially the president didnt really take it seriously when it was a Public Health crisis. It took for it to become a political crisis. So that would be the stock market plummeting. That would be what the president viewed as alarmist rhetoric from his aides saying its not a question of if but when. That the president and the white house really gott engaged which frankly started a week ago yesterday. Jonathan lemire, lets keep going on this theme. The president worked the word flu into the fox news interview last night. He has always been able to create this alternate universe. In some cases using his own stats and his own facts. But to ashleys point, this bumps against Public Health, which all of us have a stake in. Sure. His entire life as a celebrity real estate developer, when he was calling in completely madeup stories to the tabloids, to his time as a politician then president , he tries to assert his own reality. He often uses his own set of facts trying to create that reality, which flies in the face of what the rest of us are experiencing every day. And certainly this is one whereby sheer force of personality, he has often gotten away with it. But this is where you say it may be harder. Were seeing it already. Hes downplaying the crisis, okay. Thats standard for a politician. But hes doing so in a case where hes misstating the numbers here. Hes been consistently saying there are far fewer people affected by this than actually are. He thats three times in the last few days been publicly corrected by his advisors when he suggested that a vaccine might be on the market for americans to use in a matter of months. He had to be told, no, it as of going to be a year or more most likely. To ashleys point, he was slow to react, in part, because he didnt want to publicly talk about it because he didnt want to upset the markets or upset xi jinping in china and criticize their handling of this virus here because president xi is someone he worked with as an ally, theyre working on a trade deal together e. Didnt want to be seen as embarrassing him. This is a moment when his supporters even those who get their news from fox news and other Cable Networks who are inclined to believe the president over the more, quote, Mainstream Media who are inclined to take his word for it, even when hes contradicted by most other sources, if people around them are getting sick, if in their local newspaper people are getting sick, their local School District has to be closed, that thats very different. Theyre going to see the market plummet and this is a moment where the president s ability to create his own reality may really be tested. Phil rucker, i want be to play for you and our audience a moment that happened on cnbc, on Live Television earlier today. Well discuss on the other side. Think about how the world would be if you tried to quarantine everybody because of the generic type flu. Now, im not saying this is the generictype flu, but maybe wed be just better off if we gave it to everybody and then in a month it would be over because the mortality rate of this probably isnt going to be any different if we did it that way than the longterm picture. But the difference is were wreaking havoc on global and domestic economies. So, tell us where to lineup for the coronavirus. That actually, as i said, happened on Live Television today. And lets, lets just take a flyer and dismiss the idea hes floating there of giving it to everyone. But, phil, as no one needs to remind you, when this guy goes out before a hometown crowd, he has two major talking points. Look what weve done for you on federal judges, and look at the trump economy. Does this mean, in effect, hell be down to the one talking point . He might be, brian, and thats why the president is so concerned and rattled by this coronavirus story of the last couple of weeks. You know, it would be so easy for him to just stay quiet and say, you know, to the American People, here are the experts that ive appointed to take control of this situation. Listen to them. Theyre going to talk to you every day. Im going to give them all the resources that they need, but im not going to comment on it. I want you to hear the facts from them. But the president cannot resist from adding his own commentary, adding his own false information. He is no expert in Public Health or infectious diseases. Yet keeps weighing in and it speaks to his insecurity and anxiety about the economy. Hes watching that stock market. He sees it as a barometer for his reelection hopes. He knows if the economy dips over the long haul here over the next few months, that spells disaster for his reelection. And so hes trying to use every tool in his tool kit, including his salesmanship to reverse the trends that we see playing out every day. Ashley, i imagine theyd aretha rather do an acclimation and do a coronation type deal. Tonight he said he had his bernie argument all set. He what going to run against him as a communist. We just went through impeachment, which was about joe biden. So what have you gathered is closest to the truth . Who does he want to run against . Well, its a great question, and it depends on who you ask and when. But whats fascinating is throughout this all there were three people, three Democratic Candidates who at various times the president was really truly worried about. The first one on his radar was joe biden. In part, because joe biden was beating him not just in public polls, but in private polls, in one on one match ups. He could cut into his working class space. Then he was worried about Bernie Sanders. Yes, he and his campaign thought he could paint him as the ed said tonight, with a communist brush as a liberal socialist. The president said he worried about Bernie Sanders giving away free things. Look, it doesnt matter what i promise. If sanders is offering free college tuition, its hard to compete with that. Then, of course, he was worried about and irked by mayor Mike Bloomberg because bloomberg was in many cases the person trump portrays himself to be an actual selfmade billionaire. He is now going to have to run against one of those two candidates, sanders or biden, it looks like, who he truly has been worried about. So its unclear right now if hes more worried about biden or more worried about sanders, but these are two men that have occupied his psyche. You can see that in his public comments. You can see that in his tweets. I think well see more of that and more of that angst going forward. And, phil, this may require intel from the other camp, but biden has chosen not to fight back on all things hunter and burisma. Is there any evidence they are planning now as a president ial campaign to fight back . They are, brian. My colleague matt viser and i spent time reporting on this very subject and heard from the biden camp they are preparing to fight back aggressively should trump do as he vowed in that interview with sean hannity, which is make Hunter Bidens work for that Ukrainian Energy firm a major issue in the general election if biden is the nominee. The Biden Campaign knows that they cant afford to be silent on this, that theyre going to have to engage in some way. And they are also planning to try to use that corruption argument back on trump, effectively saying shall and this is some of the biden supporters, by the way saying this that if the president is going to go after bidens son, then erik and don junior may be fair game. Look at the corruption. Look at what theyve done at the trump organization. Look at the selfdealing within the trump family, not only the biden family. Thats a new kettle of fish. Mr. Lemire, is anyone in the trump camp saying maybe burisma is a dead horse . No, it doesnt seem that way. In fact, i received an unprompted text message from a trump person in trump world. Get ready to have the words hunter biden back in your life again. Weve seen the senator from wisconsin moveling towards investigations about burisma. Even though this, of course, was the very thing that got the president impeached trying to push ukraine into probing burisma and hunter biden. They dont seem like theyre backi backing off of it. They feel like biden was damaged during those proceedings. The president has given him credit for the comeback here in the last few days and theyre worried he could reassemble some of the Obama Coalition as well as those working class voters ashley mentioned. But they feel like hunter biden is a play theyre going to use. They still feel fairly confident. Our big three on a thursday night, phil rucker, Ashley Parker and zhong th parker and jonathan lemire, thanks for coming on. The spin when it comes to the coronavirus. We have a doctor on set. Later the race to the white house now minus Elizabeth Warren. Now the remaining men scramble for heron endorsement as the 11th hour is getting underway on a thursday night. Tv just keeps getting better. How you watch it does too. This is xfinity x1. Featuring the Emmy Awardwinning voice remote. Streaming Services Without changing passwords and input. Live sports with realtime stats and scores. Access to the most 4k content. And your movies and shows to go. The best tv experience is the best tv value. Xfinity x1. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Xfinity. The future of awesome. There are now over, as we said, it00 confirmed cases of coronavirus in our country today. Officials in tennessee, maryland, nevada, colorado all reported their first cases. Here in new york state at least 11 new cases reported just today, bringing the total to 22. Eight of those new cases linked to one guy, a commuter to the city who tested positive earlier this week. In the city alone, over 2700 people are now in some form of quarantine. Washington state reported over two dozen new cases today, meaning at least 70 cases in all, death toll there is 11. Amazon, seattle area employees were told to work from home if they could as the virus spreads. It has had a visible effect on that city. This was the scene outside the space needle in seattle today. The usually popular tourist destination, a ghost town. On the up side, you can park again in downtown seattle. Off the coast of San Francisco there is a growing crisis at sea. Aboard this vessel, the grand princess. Its not been allowed to dock because officials learned a previous passenger died of coronavirus. 21 people on board are showing symptoms. Today a military chopper flew test kits to the deck of the ship. In a rare moment of candor, mike pence offered this warning today during a visit to minnesota. We dont have enough tests today to meet what we anticipate will be the demand going forward. For those who we believe have been exposed, for those who are showing symptoms, weve been able to provide the testing. We are happy to have with us here tonight dr. John torres, our nbc news medical correspondent. Doc, i heard it said tonight, only 1500 americans have been tested. Without being an alarmist, how can there not be a commensurate spike on the way in the number of cases we know about . Thats what were going to hear over the next week or two. I tell people not to get too worked up over the numbers. The tests are starting to get out there. There is still a deficit of the tests, but more are getting there. More people will be tested than before. Like he said, people were getting tested if they had symptoms, signs or hospitalized because of coronavirus. But now people who want to get tested because they think they might have it thats a huge number of people will start to get tested well start finding more coronavirus and start seeing more numbers. That number thats been around. We just havent noticed it before. Youre going to see a spike. Part of the spike is because there are new cases, were finally detecting cases that have been here all along. Weve never had a case where were getting in some cases misinformation or information from the president of our country. As i keep saying, local news will be the reality for people around this country from denver to new york. If people are starting to get nervous, how should they change their behavior, if at all, at this early date . So if people are starting to get nervous, i agree with you. We need a lot of information, a lot of accurate information. When youre getting that miscommunication and hearing two Different Things its hard to understand exactly ma to rely on. The cdc is the fantastic choice to go to to get the proper information you need. But the main thing is people just need to do the same thing they would do. If you remember back in the swine flu epidemic that we had, these bad flu seasons, we tell them the same thing. Social distancing which means you want to be a few feet from people, 6 feet in this case. Constantly wash your hands during the day. Dont touch your face until you wash your hands or use alcohol gel on your hands to keep them clean. Do the best you can to stay healthy. If you start getting sick, start having fevers, stay home that way you dont spread it to other people. Those are the best things we can do not only for ourselves, but for everybody else around us. If you do get sick, especially if you have respiratory problems, thats when you want to be seen. If you are being seen, call before you go in because you want to make sure theyre ready for you. Theyll put a mosque on. Just like we did in the flu season. Sure. Lets have you sit here for a while, but not spread it to other people in the waiting room. And when we hear about people in isolation or selfquarantine, does that mean theyre staying home because they may have it . Two Different Things. Quarantine is staying home because you were possibly exposed to it and youre looking for signs and symptoms, mainly fevers, cough, respiratory problems. If youre showing symptoms, especially if you tested positive, then youre isolated. Thats a hospital based system. You get put in isolation where youre not around anybody else or people that come near you are in outfits so they can protect themselves and you get treated appropriately. Quarantine is what were seeing a lot of. Selfquarantines. A lot of that is over abundance of caution. A lot of it doesnt need to happen, but people are getting really worked up and anxious about it. Lets be better safe than sorry. Unfortunately that is having a huge impact on the country, not just economically, but psychologically as well. Ladies and gentlemen watching, this is a busy guy. John torres, our medical correspondent. Thank you for coming by. You bet. Coming up for us now, its a crucial president ial campaign question. Who gets the warren endorsement . Will there be one . When we come back. Its what the hardest part about this is. All those pinky promises, all those little girls are going to do this. Its just going to be a little longer before were able to have a woman in the white house. And but it doesnt mean its not going to happen. It doesnt mean its not going to happen soon. Senator Elizabeth Warrens exit from this race leaves two white guys ages 77 and 78 trying to replace a 73yearold in the white house who happens to be our oldest president. And today the New York Times posed this question. Was it always going to be the last men standing . While shes declined to make an endorsement, saying, and shes correct here, theres time for that, it will be sought after and already is. Earlier today the Washington Post drew this post on twitter. It shows the senators portrait at law school where the portraits hang of the tenured professors surrounded by postit thank you notes of praise for her. Back with us tonight is mara gay, former new york city chief, now the New York Times Editorial Board. Since i said the New York Times Editorial Board, it does remind me warren and klobuchar were your selections. How is the Editorial Board viewing todays news . Both as a member of the board and as an American Woman, i think it is a little bit of a sad day in politics. You know, youve got to be looking 59 this as looking at this as an American Woman and thinking Elizabeth Warren was the most qualified in any ways, experienced candidate in the race. She had the best ideas, which is why we endorsed her. And senator klobuchars were also very impressive. And she really did her homework. And i think there is a sense among a lot of women that you have to be twice as good, and even then its not enough. And i think thats really what happened tonight. But there is a larger context here and i just got back from a trip across the south with Michael Bloomberg and some of the other candidates as well. The reality is that senator warren was running in the shadow of Hillary Clintons loss and voters, democratic voters, especially black democrats in the south who really spoke up so forcefully in favor of joe biden, they are so desperate and so intent on beating donald trump that they are looking for the least risk imaginable. I had voter after voter tell me, you know, we really like Elizabeth Warren, but we dont know if our neighbors are going to vote for and by neighbors, they dont necessarily even mean just democrats. They dont know if we dont know if our neighbors are going to vote for a woman. We look at what happened to hillary. We think maybe its too risky. And thats heart breaking i think to hear, but i think that is the reality, that so many voters are looking for the least risk, and right now thats joe biden. They know joe biden. He may not be barack obama and as inspiring, but hes somebody who they believe is the best bet to get donald trump out of the white house. You have spoken with great knowledge about Mike Bloomberg on this broadcast and others, and so i want to ask you, do you take him at his word, that hes going to become a oneman bank, a oneman super pac, in effect, will that make him the worst and most consequential president ial candidate in modern history . I think money and politics in general is a serious concern and a serious problem. I dont know that this is the Election Year to have that battle. And frankly, i think democrats who voted for joe biden and Michael Bloomberg understand that. I think the need to restore our democracy probably by removing donald trump from the white house is the most important thing, and that, you know, Michael Bloomberg didnt get what he wanted, but he still has an opportunity right now to put his money where his mouth is and to make a huge difference by helping joe biden. And that would be quite a legacy for him. And i think thats what hes looking at. So once he can kind of have a moment, swallow his pride and get back to work, that would be the best thing for the democrats. But you see it as a possibility if he wants to spend a billion bucs beating this guy, he could do it . Absolutely. Theres too much money in politics. It makes it difficult because what we want in politics, the point is to have competition. The point is to have the best candidates and have people from all backgrounds be able to run. And so that gives people real choice, not just super pacs and dark money flooding elections, or even just a single billionaire with good intentions in this case. But that said, this is a huge Election Year. What is at stake is existential for the american republic, but also for Many Americans ask on a personal level. And Michael Bloomberg still has an opportunity to make an impact and make it count. Just back from her southern swing, our friend mara gay of the New York Times. Always a pleasure. Thank you for coming in. Thanks for having me. Coming up, were five days away from the next round of contests, including the critical state of michigan. Well talk to two of the best political reporters on the ground about what comes next for the two guys left at the top of the democratic race. Were five days away from the next democratic primary in six crucial states. Its now a twoman race after a disappointing super tuesday showing, really a shellacking. Bernie Sanders Campaign is making a course correction. They are going to jackson, mississippi, and shifting to michigan instead. Gretchen witmer endorsed joe biden for president. Heres what she told chris hayes tonight. When michigan needed a chula vista, it w a champion, it was barack obama and joe biden. When we needed a champion that would turn their grief into a cause to expand health care to people, thats what we got out of the obama biden presidency and vicepresidency. We know joe. And more importantly, joe knows michigan. Two of our favorites back with us tonight. Alexi mchammond, political reporter for axios covering the Political Campaign and moderator of Washington Week on pbs. Alexi, you heard the commercial right there. She even ended her endorsement the way congressman clyburn did, more importantly, joe knows us. Talk about the importance of michigan. Well, michigan is obviously a really important state for the 2020 election as it was for the 2016 election. And that election, Bernie Sanders won the primary over Hillary Clinton by just 1. 5 percentage points. So it was a really narrow margin victory he had then which suggested hes going to have a lot of work to do to win the state by a larger margin this time around next tuesday. Joe bidens whole schtick was trump came and swept them up. We saw the message he would use in a place like michigan, talk about bidens record on trade and nafta and pushing his argument in this narrative biden is not as solid on trade as Bernie Sanders has been in his record. It remains to be seen whether or not that will be helpful in a place like michigan. Certainly with the automobile situation that could be something that could be helpful for Bernie Sanders as hes trying to overtake biden in this next election. And, robert, i was sitting there looking at the map of remaining states today. Depending on how you look at it, it could get really tight for bernie from here on in. It could very well get tight for senator sanders in the coming weeks. When you talk to his campaign, theyre looking beyond to states like wisconsin, which was strong for senator sanders in 2016. But senator sanders, as you remember from that time as well, he carried on nearly to the convention in philadelphia. And because of the way this is now a twoperson race, his Campaign Advisors believe he could take it all the way to milwaukee this time around. Alexi, biden is closing in as an organization. Theres no debate how empowering it was to have no money, to open no Campaign Field offices, and be rewarded as they were. California, of course, still outstanding to be rewarded, as they were. They want very much to sow that into their kind of closing message. They want to seem inevitable. I think thats exactly right. And the other thing about being inevitable is that, you know, joe biden wants to show that the country and democratic primary voters are clamoring for a more moderate candidate than they see in Bernie Sanders. We saw this before the field winnowed down. We saw the total support that folks like klobuchar and Pete Buttiegieg and joe biden would amass compared to the total support that Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders would get together. And i think that joe biden is really using this to his strength to show that people want someone who is a little more pragmatic than the message and the ideas that Bernie Sanders is putting forward. Especially in these states that are not only important to the Electoral College for the president ial election, but in states like virginia that are really important for downballot races and were really important in 2018 for helping democrats retake control of the house. And, robert, do you take i just asked mara gay this. Do you take bloomberg at his word that he is willing to finance, in effect, the ground war or large parts of it from here on out, willing to become a oneperson super pac, especially given the infrastructure hes already bought, paid for and set up . In short order, he became a huge trump troll just on twitter. For vicepresident biden, its not about taking mayor bloomberg at his word. Mayor bloomberg is going to follow through based on my reporting. He wants to be seen as the political machine that elevates joe biden, that helps win him the white house, that gets credit for keeping the democrats competitive in suburban districts. Politically when you talk to the Sanders Campaign and others of the Democratic Party, they wonder, will there be a political cost to the bloomberg wealth . In this sense, could senator sanders then try to target vicepresident biden as an ally of the billionaires like mayor bloomberg . Will he try to rally liberals around the idea that vicepresident biden is too close to rich people in the Democratic Party . For vicepresident bidens team, they want to have bloomberg as an ally, but youre going to see senator sanders continue to sharpen this critique as it is a twoperson race, on trade as alexi was talking about and iraq and now also on the bloomberg issue. Thank you both for coming on. Well see you down the road. Coming up for us, our next guest is here to tell us what happened 250 years ago today and how it affects us today. When we continue. As our next guest pointed out just this morning, today is the 250th anniversary of the boston massacre. Legal analyst dan abrams new book offers an inside look at how the trial following the massacre and the role one john adams played shaped our current legal system. He writes the british soldiers trial, quote, was as important in the development of american jurisprudence as it was in the political history of this country. The nations legal system was being born in this courtroom with john adams leading the way, establishing the primacy of the rule of law. In fact, he risked his career for it. Back with us tonight is our friend and author dan abrams. Did you know dan was on the air here for many years . Did you further know hes the former general manager of this network . Both true. These days hes chief legal analyst for abc news, c. E. O. And founder of abrams media ill be done with this a second. The host of americas favorite non11th hour cable show live p. D. On a e. He is coauthor of the new book john adams under fire. It is such a treat to see you again. Brian, it is great to be back with you. I just came across my notes when i read a copy of the book you kindly hooked me up with weeks ago. My notes are, you get to meet sam adams before he was a logger. Killroy is in the book. I mean, youll find killroy in the book. Yeah. Branding irons are in the book. Yep. Tell the folks why at a time when by modern standards life was horrendous in this country . Yeah. Why its important today . Because john adams took on as very unpopular case. No one liked the british soldiers. He took on the defense of them in this murder trial. And i think that is established, the basic right of everyone to have an attorney even if its an unpopular case. But from a legal perspective, the standard of reasonable doubt was established in this case. It was the first time the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt was ever set forth in a trial. And i think whats so important about this case is this incident, the boston massacre, five colonists killed, could have easily led to the american revolution. It could have easily been the catalyst, but it wasnt. And you know why . Because people had faith in the law and the rule of law. The governor of massachusetts at the time who was a loyalist, stood up when people were about to demand revenge. And he said we will live and die by the law. And as a result people believed him. They calmed down. They waited for the legal system to work its way through. And john adams represented the soldiers. Who do we see about the fact that federal judges are under attack today . Members of the Supreme Court are under attack today. I think its a real problem. I mean, i think Chuck Schumers comments were reprehensible. Donald trumps constant comments about judges are reprehensible. And i dont mean saying i disagree with the ruling or this judge was wrong. Thats okay. Thats fine. Its the personal attacks. Its shunl its schumer referring to the Supreme Court justices not as justices, but by their last niemz and sounding like hes talking about a threat. Lets be clear. This isnt just about schumer. Donald trump has a history of doing this with regard to judges. If we cant trust our judges, weve got nothing. Do you think maybe bush versus gore was a water mark and a lot of people smart ened up to think, man, was the Political Fix in for a case like that . I understand it was a 54 ruling divided along political lines. The Supreme Court pronounced you cant use it as precedent wills a crazy thing to say, were issuing this ruling. But you can never cite it again in the future. That does sort of raise alarm bells. But you know what . We still i still believe strongly we have to accept the rulings like that whether you agree with it, you dont agree with it, you think it was politicized, you dont think it was politicized. Once we start breaking down the faith in our judges call them the obama judge and the trump judge i think then we have no arbiters. We have no refs any more. And then were in big trouble. Whenever people say to me, do you think were in a constitutional crisis . My answer is no, because people are still abiding by court rulings. All i can say to people is if you want to know the role of a branding iron in what was the america of this time, if you want to meet sam adams before he was a logger, this is your book. This is your author. Dan abrams, john adams under fire, the Founding Fathers fight for justice in the boston massacre murder trial. A great pleasure having you on. Thank you for having me on. Coming up, a warning about what you might be reading these days and where it might be coming from. Last thing before we go here tonight. A warning from the state department and here is the headline in the Washington Post. Millions of tweets peddled conspiracy theories about coronavirus in other countries and unpublishan unpublished rep. It floated hoaxes suggesting coronavirus had been created by the bill and Melinda Gates foundation or was the result of a bioweapon. Another post article goes further, names the suspect here, and we quote. A Top State Department official said thursday that russia is behind swarms of online false personas that sought to spread misinformation about coronavirus on social media sites, stressing the entire eco system of russian disinformation is at play. For that reason twitter, for example, when you search coronavirus now, there is a redirect that appears on the screen pointing you to the cdc. Their facts have been employed the past few days to point out where the president has been shading the truth about the coronavirus. And this additional bit should be said here. We even have to be wary of misinformation from our elected officials. There is a predicate for this. For starters, the members of congress who were willing to repeat russian talking points in defense of the president back when the subject was ukraine. Misinformation only needs the i am paramatter of someone who seems to be reputable. Then it starts to look and feel and sound like actual information. On that note, that is our broadcast for this thursday night. Thank you so very much for being here with us. Good night from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Tonight on all in i will not be running for president in 2020. 2020 is now a twoman race. We have a shot to win the democratic nomination and a shot to beat donald trump. The president does not want me to be the nominee. Tonight where joe biden and Bernie Sanders stand, and the legacy of Elizabeth Warrens candidacy. All those little girls who are going to have to wait four more years, thats going to be hard. Then, the failure of the Trump Administration on coronavirus. As the president suggests it would be fine for people with