Transcripts For MSNBCW The 11th Hour With Brian Williams 20200701

Confirmed to nbc news that the white house was made aware of it over a year ago, in early 2019. And in a new report, three officials familiar with that intelligence tell the New York Times that american officials intercepted financial transfers from a bank account that was controlled by the Russian Military to an account linked to the taliban. This afternoon the white house responded, criticizing the media for its coverage, slamming leaks, and defending the president. Since before President Trump assumed office, damaging and oftentimes erroneous leaks seeking to undermine or delegitimize the duly elected president have been published. The president was never briefed on this. This intelligence still has not been verified, and there is no consensus. The president has been briefed on what is unfortunately in the Public Domain because of the New York Times and the irresponsible leaks. More broadly, you know, i would reask the question of whether it was in his material but ask you maybe to defend why the president isnt necessarily reading his pdb when there are these type of issues . The president does read and he also consumes intelligence verbally. This president , ill tell you, is the most informed person and the suggestion that some members may be targeting the president. These are rogue intelligence officers. Members lyft are going after trump is that what youre saying . It very possible could be. Is the Trump Administration taking any action like an audit of the ic . What steps are you planning on taking to try to find the source of the leaks . Make no mistake. The doj has done referrals. 104 on average per year under President Trump. Trumps presumptive fall opponent has now weighed in as well. During his first News Conference in three months, joe biden accused trump of betraying his duty as president. The president ial daily brief is something i read every single day as Vice President. The president read it every day. I was briefed every morning before i got to the white house and then again. So the idea that somehow he didnt know or isnt being briefed, it is a dereliction of duty if thats the case. And if he was briefed and nothing was done about this, thats a dereliction of duty. Democratic lawmakers are demanding answers from the administration. Early this morning 11 democratic members of congress were briefed at the white house by the chief of staff, the National Security adviser, and the director of national intelligence, all of whom have been in the administration for less than eight months. Afterward, the House Majority leader and the Intelligence Committee chairman spoke. The president called this a hoax publicly. Nothing in the briefing that we have just received led me to believe it is a hoax. This was a red flag. It either was not waved, or the president ignored the wave. President truman said the buck stops here. President trump says i never saw the buck. The right people to give the briefing really were not in the room. We need to hear from the heads of the intelligence agencies about how they assess the allegations that have been made publicly. Seven Senate Republicans also got a chance to hear from the administration at another briefing this morning. It was held right after that session for house democrats. One of those republicans later said he believed what the white house had to say. After a very long briefing, im confident that President Trump didnt know about the reporting. There is some confusion in terms of our own intelligence, and it just didnt rise to the level of the president at that time. Two sources tell nbc news that tomorrow the socalled gang of eight, lawmakers the white house usually keeps in the loop on classified intelligence matters, will be getting their own briefing on the bounty issue. The Trump Administration is also trying to navigate the alarming surge in covid19 cases throughout much of the nation. At least 36 states are now seeing a rise in new cases. California and florida are being especially hard hit, both recording over 6,000 new cases each today. On capitol hill, dr. Anthony fauci gave members of the Senate Health committee this warning. Were going in the wrong direction. If you look at the curves of the new cases, so weve really got to do something about that, and we need to do it quickly. Clearly we are not in total control right now. We are now having 40 plus thousand new cases a day. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around. Today the Vice President and the Coronavirus Task force continued to press the importance of masks. Joe biden today offered his own plan on the coronavirus as he criticized trumps response. It seems like our wartime president has surrendered, waved the right flag white flag and left the battlefield. Today were facing a serious threat, and we have to meet it. You called yourself a cheerleader. We dont need a cheerleader, mr. President. We need a president , mr. President. Today the European Union officially barred travelers from the u. S. Citing concerns about covid19. In this country, eight new states have been added to new york, new jersey, and connecticuts 14day quarantine order for visitors to that area. Theres a total of 16 states that now fall under that order from that tristate region. Across the nation, governors are trying to control the latest surges by pausing or rolling back some of the reopening steps they had taken. 17 states have now moved in that direction. One expert says we may need to do even more. We have wasted, i would say, the last four, six weeks and have not acted with the urgency we need, and now were finding ourselves in a difficult situation where i suspect were going to end up having states with shelterinplace orders and having to lock down again. This is what we were all afraid of, but were running out of options. And here for our leadoff discussion on a tuesday night, clint watts, a former fbi special agent, a distinguished Research Fellow at the Foreign Research policy institute. His recent back is messing with the enemy surviving in a social media world of terrorists, hackers, russians and fake news. Also with us, anita kumar, associate editor for politico. And peter baker, chief White House Correspondent for the New York Times. Thank you all for being with us. Peter, let me start with you. We played an exchange there from the White House Briefing this afternoon with kayleigh mcenany, the press secretary. She made a statement there that the president , in her words, reads his briefing materials, these classified briefing hes given each day as the president. I know theres been some discussion about whether he does read them. Shes also maintaining that hes not been briefed on this at all or hadnt been briefed on this before reports emerged in the press in the last few days. Is that the white houses official position on this because there are reports out there, as you know, that this was in his president ial daily briefing. The white houses position is that it was not in there . Well, she didnt actually answer that question. She didnt say whether it was or was not in the president s daily brief. She said he was not briefed. It may be a semantic difference where theyre trying to say tit was simply in writing but not orally briefed, it doesnt count as briefed. Im not sure. But she wouldnt confirm or deny it was in his written material. We learned from john boltons book and weve heard from other people who have worked with this president in the past that hes not a particular fan of the Intelligence Briefings. He doesnt seem to want them as often as his predecessors. He doesnt seem to pay as much attention as some of his predecessors. John bolton wrote Intelligence Briefings were often a waste of time because they were often consumed more by President Trump talking to the briefers rather than listening to what the briefers had to tell him. So its possible this was in his briefing package and he missed it, didnt see it. Its possible he was told this and didnt remember it or process it. It is possible, of course, that this information is still being debated within the Intelligence Community. But what we have not gotten, of course, is a sense of urgency from this white house about a situation that sounds so, you know, threatening to our own troops, especially given that, you know, this is a president who took action against iran for threatening troops in iraq. So i think thats, you know, the question. You heard a lot more anger and umbrage at this White House Briefing about the media reporting whats going on with the russians than you did at the russians themselves. So, clint, again, there are lots of possibilities here about what exactly happened, the sort of chain of events here. But the possibility that this was in the president s daily briefing, this intelligence, this material was in there and that he didnt see it, didnt read it for whatever reason, given as peter is saying that theres been suggestions out there for a while, you know, laymen like me have heard that the president may not always read this material. Do the folks who put the briefing together should they have put that into consideration and tried to find another way to get it to him . I think the case is probably that they tried many ways to get it to him. I mean just look at the situation. It seems its been going on for months, and probably part of the reason we know about this in the public is a general sense of frustration within the Intelligence Community with how information is or is not received by the president. Bringing up things the president doesnt want to hear. Being challenged essentially by information coming in from friends or media reports that he likes that he watches on tv, or even in some cases maybe Vladimir Putin himself providing the information to the president that he prefers over his own Intelligence Community. It has got to be a struggle to go in, try and cram all of this information about situations in the world. Youve got a pandemic. Youve got russia. Youve got china. Youve got cybersecurity. All of these issues, and youre trying to get the president s attention. And im not sure that the president , even if he heard it, would entirely understand what this intelligence is thats being provided to him. Anita, im curious what youre picking up from inside the white house from folks in the president s orbit as this story sort of explodes into the public and is being discussed like this. All of the questions it raises. What are you picking up from folks around the president . Are they concerned about this . Well, i mean obviously its another headache. Whether its going to be longlasting is, you know, were just unclear about. They still are divided at the white house how to approach the pandemic as youve mentioned now that states are seeing these surge in infections. So theyve got multiple things theyre looking at, and this is just another headache. The strategy as you mentioned so far as really been to go after the media, to go after leakers, different people, but really not to talk about the subject itself and not to take that seriously as peter said, but also just not really to talk about that issue at all. What theyre doing is sort of deflecting that. You know, his Campaign Today had a Conference Call with reporters. This didnt come up. They were talking about other issues, trying to hit joe biden on a variety of things. Actually, they didnt have one message. They had about six messages. So i think theyre really trying to figure out how to go about dealing with both of these issues and what that message is going to be. And, peter, im also curious what your sense is of how this is landing with the president s party, specifically with republicans on capitol hill. We have that clip we played of jim inhofe from oklahoma saying hes satisfied with the administrations explanation, but youve had a number of prominent republicans, notably liz cheney in the house among others, who have raised some questions saying they want to get very clear answers here about the intelligence, about what the administration knew, when it knew. The willingness of republicans to stand with the administration here as opposed to take a more aggressive posture maybe in trying to suss out some answers, whats your sense of how this is landing with republicans in congress . Yeah, look, this is coming at the end of what has to be one of the worst, if not the worst month for President Trump of his presidency. It started off june 1st with the clearing of lafayette square. The tulsa rally that was a disappointment to him and the rise again of the coronavirus across particularly the south and the west. And now of course this bounty story. I think that a lot of republicans are nervous. Theyre nervous that this president is not leading them into the Fall Campaign from a position of strength. Hes behind in the polls by double digits, and theyre now looking not just at losing possibly the white house but possibly even losing the senate. So theres less of a reservoir of good will there on the part of individual lawmakers. There are still a lot of course who are standing by the president , and they will because they either support him or agree with him or find him politically important. But youre seeing a lot more nervousness, i think, among the republicans. And i think the republicans too this goes to the heart of something thats been a concern of theirs for 3 1 2 years, the relationship between donald trump and Vladimir Putin has always been one thats confused and perplexed his own party, a party that built its bones on bei being tough with russia. Its something theyve long struggled with. Here you have a situation where there are reports the russians may be actually targeting troops, and the president of the United States hasnt shown any indication these concerned about that, only concerned about leaks about that. Clint, there are questions about what actually is in this intelligence, what is the nature of that information that in some way may have gotten to the president or at least been available to the president. Is it very clear cut in terms of establishing that russia was paying these bounties or offering these bounties, whether theres more conflicting information in there. Theres certainly the possibility here, it seems, that more will be learned, that the Intelligence Community will be able to ascertain more. But the White House Press secretary, kayleigh mcenany, today suggested that the fact that this has now emerged in public could hinder that. Whats your reaction to that . Whats your sense of what shes saying . I think its pretty much nonsense, steve. Look, all of the intel agencies make assessments on the information that they have, but that doesnt necessarily change the overall outcome from all of the parts. I think there is little to no doubt that the russians were undertaking this program. I think they have been targeting the United States in many different ways. Youre looking at the gru, the Russian Military intelligence, which has been at a breakneck pace attacking in the uk, throughout europe, syria, ukraine. If you look around the world, theyve been aggressive in every step of the way, and this is just one more step that theyve taken against the United States that they view as weak and a president that they believe they can manipulate. So when you look at it in its sum, the intelligence fits not only in terms of what we might see from the russians, a payback for what they probably feel from the 1980s but also a pattern of them being aggressive around the world. They see america as weak, and they pounce when they see us as week. Anita, its come up here in this decision, this has been politically a rough month for the white house. Its been a rough month for the president. Hes seen his standing against joe biden in the general election polls start to slip. Hes now about ten points behind nationally. Is there im curious, are you picking up any chatter in the white house about any kind of a concerted effort, any kind of a plan to change the trajectory, the political trajectory . Is it something theyre talking about . Is there something they think they can do . Well, for some months now weve been hearing actually, probably more than months, weve been hearing the possibility of a shake juup over at the campa to talk about, you know, how he can turn things around there. Now, we keep hearing that, and that really hasnt happened. Theres been a lot of criticism of the campaign manager, and hes still around, so im not sure that that is really, you know, going to happen. The president s soninlaw, jared kushner, is a fan of brad parscale, so it doesnt look like thats happening. We have seen a lot of Campaign Officials coming back from 2016, and i think one of the reasons is that the president thinks fondly of that time, right . He won when no one thought he was going to win, and so he wants to bring back some of those people who helped him win in some of those states where they didnt think they could. But youre exactly right. There is a sense that they need to get back on track and theres a difference of opinion on how to do that, both with the campaign and especially with the pandemic right now. Do they go about having more for the pandemic, do they go about having more briefings like we saw a few months ago . Do they stay on track with reopening the economy . Theres a divide. So many times in this white house, there is a divide, and they cant decide what to do. For the election, there is a sense that they need to coalesce around a message, and they dont have what that message is. A few months ago before coronavirus, they would have said, oh, its the economy, the strong economy. Well, thats wiped away, so theyre trying to figure out what to replace that with. All right. Anita kumar, clint watts, peter baker, thank you all for being with us. Appreciate that. And coming up, covid19 is shattering hospitalization records in some areas. Were going to ask a former white house pandemic expert what, if anything, can be done now. And later, its still not clear whether american casualties in afghanistan can be linked to reports of russianfunded bounties, but military families want answers. Were going to speak to a retired fourstar army general who says in 50 years, hes never seen anything like this. The 11th hour just Getting Started on a tuesday night. i thought i was managing. My moderate to severe Crohns Disease. Yes until i realized something was missing. Me. You ok, sis . My symptoms kept me from being there for my sisters. Flight boarding for flight 2007 to chicago. So i talked to my doctor and learned. Humira is for people who still have symptoms of Crohns Disease after trying other medications. And the majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief. And many achieved remission in as little as 4 weeks. 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. Be there for you, and them. Ask your doctor about humira. With humira, remission is possible. If you cant afford your medicine, abbvie may be able to help. There is no guarantee and anyone who has been involved in vaccinology will tell you that we will have a safe and effective vaccine, but we are cautiously optimistic. Working in the investment made by this congress, hopefully there will be doses available by the beginning of next year. We will ensure that our high levels of standards for safety and efficacy are met. Athe f. Da released new fwied ansz on specific conditions that must be met for a new vaccine to be approved. From the washington post, quote, any covid19 vaccine will have to prevent disease or decrease its severity in at least 50 of the people who receive it. Politico reports, quote, one of the leading vaccine candidates developed by nih and moderna is slated to begin phase three trials in july. Modernas ceo has said that if early data is positive, it could begin dosing Health Care Workers in the fall. With us again tonight, dr. Mario ramirez. Hes an e. R. Doctor currently treating covid19 patients. Hes also former acting director for the White House Office of pandemic and emerging threats, helping to lead the obama white houses ebola response. Doctor, welcome. Thank you for joining us. Let me start with a laymans question here. I see a headline, i read a story that says the goal here is to get to at least 50 effectiveness with a vaccine. My reaction is, i take the shot and its got a 5050 shot of working . Is that too low . Thats a great question, steve. You know what, i think what people should know is thats actually okay. Historically our influenza vaccines that we use yearoveryear are only 40 to 60 effective. So that number of 50 is actually right in the middle of that, and i think thats a reasonable estimate to start with. You know, i think as we have subsequent vaccines, assuming that we get there, you know, the second and third iterations will get better. But starting with a goal of 50 is in line with what we used for influenza on an annual basis. I think the context there is whether or not things are being rushed through too quickly. And i think using a goalpost like this, if thats really what the fda sticks to, suggests that thats not the case. So then we talk about there is this drug. Theres a number of drugs being developed right now. I keep hearing reports from one or the other. But heres this one from moderna thats about to enter phase three of its trials. First of all, this is the big one, phase three i always hear. What exactly does that mean . Its another good question, steve. So, you know, whenever we move a therapeutic or a vaccine through clinical trials, they go through three phases. So the first are phase one and two. Those are really designed to test safety in the first phase and whether or not you can give it to somebody and they dont have any side effects. But the second face is whether it actually elicits the response in the body that you want. So if youre giving somebody a vaccine, does it actually produce antibodies . But phase three is really where we figure out in large groups of people, thousands of people, whether or not a vaccine or a therapeutic actually has the clinical effect you want. So thats what tells you whether or not giving a vaccine to somebody actually protects them from getting infected. So one of the interesting things i think we heard at the hearing today as well as in the last few days is that we have several therapeutics that are coming to market. People have talked about fresh frozen plasma, and you referenced the moderna vaccine. Whats important to realize is none of those treatments have gone through phase three trials yet, so we dont have good proof that they actually produce the clinical effect that we want. So what are the prospects . Were hearing, you know, dr. Fauci say if all goes well, early 2021 could have a vaccine out there thats widely available. Realistically, you look at this stuff closely. You understand it. What do you think the prospects are that one of these potential vaccines thats in development may be entering phase three now does work, does hit at least that 50 mark, and by the start of next year, were looking at something that people are taking on a regular basis . You know, i think on the whole, it looks pretty good that well get there by next year. I think dr. Fauci is right to issue a sort of cautionary note. You know, so people have the context for understanding this, if we look at Vaccine Development, you know, over the last 40 to 50 years, the likelihood of developing a successful vaccine from phase zero is about 33 . By the time you get to phase three, youre talking typically between 60 and 80 likelihood of success. So at this point we have, you know, close to six candidates that are in phase two to phase three. Were getting to a much higher rate and a much greater likelihood of success, but were not there. There are certainly viruss that we have been unable to develop vaccines for despite decades of trying. You know, hiv is a great example of that. And then apart from the actual Vaccine Development process, you know, theres the actual aspect of creating production lines and then packaging and distribution. You know, i think operation warp speed and bar ta and all these are sort of parts of the federal government are making good steps to create production lines and take bets on some of these candidates ahead of time so that if one of them works in phase three, we can scale up production really quickly. But its an educated guess. By the way, how important is theres sort of remember the old space race . Theres the Nuclear Arms Race between countries. Now theres a vaccine race playing out internationally. The significance, obviously if its developed here, thats great news for us as americans. What if its developed in another country . Does that raise some complications about the availability to americans and especially, for instance, if it was china that developed it, where theres an adversarial relationship, would that affect the ability of americans to have access to this . Well, you know, steve, there was a story in the news that sort of flew under the radar this week. I notice youre bringing up the reuters study. But the Chinese Government via one of their companies, cancino, decided this week that they were going to start vaccinating their military personnel with their vaccine candidate that had only gone through phase two trials. Now, they didnt issue a lot of information about how theyre going to deploy the vaccine or how many people theyre going to give it to or whether or not this is a voluntary process. But what theyre essentially doing is rolling out the vaccine to large numbers of people and in essence running a phase three trial within their own military. Now, theres questions about whether or not the u. S. Will have access to that data. Id suspect not. But youre right in your point. There is probably no greater geopolitical contest that the u. S. Has been involved with since either the sort of race to get to the moon or possibly the arms race with the soviets because the first country that develops a successful vaccine and in this case the chinese are trying to step out ahead, is going to have enormous geopolitical leverage. Theyre going to have the ability to both sort of price the vaccine but also reconstitute their economy at a much greater scale than those of us who are lagging behind. So i think, you know, this question about the chinese deploying this vaccine to the military should be a significant cautionary point for the United States. Okay. Dr. Mario ramirez, great information. Thank you for the time. Appreciate that. Thanks, steve. And coming up, texas hitting a new daily record in coronavirus cases. And as the case count surges, so do the lines to get tested. The mayor of austin, texas, joins us to talk about the toll the virus is taking on his city when the 11th hour continues. [ engines revving ] its amazing to see them in the wild like th shhh. For those who were born to ride, theres progressive. I dont care who you are. You have a right as an american to earn a living. We have a governor who just keeps making whimsical orders and acting like a lone ranger. It is illegal, and it is discrimination what hes doing to us, us bars here in texas. He took away our right to earn a living and pay our employees. Do not let the government push you around. Do not let them close your bar. The bars are not serving covid and vodka. Bar owners in texas protesting the governors decision to roll back the opening of bars as the state sees a spike in coronavirus cases. A group is suing for a reversal of that policy. Today the state broke its previous record for new cases, topping almost 7,000. Back with us tonight, steve adler. He is the democratic mayor of austin, texas. Your honor, thank you for joining us. I actually im going to start were talking about bars. Austin is a city, of course, that has plenty of them. It was a topic that was on those protesters minds. It also came up at that hearing today with dr. Anthony fauci. Let me play what he had to say on this subject. Take a listen. Outdoor better than indoor. Bars really not good. Really not good. Congregation at a bar inside is bad news. Weve really got to stop that right now. Mr. Mayor, has that been your experience on the ground in austin . It has been in several different ways. You know, we have a lot of people in a small space. People are not wearing masks. People are not social distancing. Kind of the activity in bars were counter to what were trying to do to stop the spread of this virus. Our state found that out. We opened up bars, and it was a painful thing to watch. Does that mean realistically small space, lots of people, just the nature of a bar and apparently what were learning about the nature of transmission of the coronavirus does that mean realistically until theres a vaccine, until theres a way to treat this effectively and quickly, you cant have bars . I think bars are going to have to, for this period of time, figure out how to reinvent or reimagine how they operate. Thats going to happen in many different kinds of businesses. I think what we have learned here in texas between may and june is you cant open businesses the way that businesses were opened back in january and february. We have to learn how to open businesses and at the same time have people masking and having people social distancing. We have to innovate and adapt, and if we dont do that, were going to watch other places do what were doing in texas right now, which is trying to go back to the way things were. Its not going to work. So we just have to adapt and innovate. I imagine its been a few months now, and maybe youve had a chance to think about and get some numbers on the longterm impact economically on your city. Austin obviously tourism. Theres some major events that are annually event there that havent been. Were talking about bars. Were talking about restaurants. When this is finally over and hopefully its in the relatively near future is austin going to be fundamentally changed by this . You know, my hope is that in many ways we come out better than we went in. I hope were a more equitable, more we have a society that deals better with treating populations that are susceptible, that were more sustainable. So i think theres a chance for us to come out in a much better place. But ill tell you the Economic Impact is real severe on lots of people. As we go through this virus and we play all the scenarios for how it is that we can do this dance with this virus, the concept of shutting down, opening up, shutting down, and opening up and that kind of approach, i think, is going to really compound the injuries that we face. If we could come up with and what we need to come up with is the ability to be able to tamp down the virus and then be able to open up the economy in a way that can sustain itself. And that means that it has to be done differently than we do it in january and february. The economy will be different, or our behaviors will be different, but well be able to keep the economy open in a more sustainable way. Thats what this country has not found yet but what we have to find to do this virus in the best way possible. I want to ask you too about the other piece of what we played from dr. Fauci. Bars, hes say, very bad. Indoor restaurants could be similar. He said outdoor better. And weve been hearing that from a lot of experts, the idea that when youre outside in the open air, theres all sorts of factors there that apparently work to our benefit in terms of not contracting this. I notice youre not going to have city parks and pools open for the weekend. Ive been seeing this around the country with the holiday weekend, a lot of beaches closing down. These are outdoor spaces, though. Im just curious, given what were learning outdoor safer than indoor, folks feeling sort of cooped up at home, bars not being open to them. Is there an argument to be made . Do you see one for letting folks go outside and keeping those spaces open . No question but theres an argument to be made for that. And back in march and april when we basically did our stayathome policy, we kept trails home and the ability for people to walk and jog and to be able to be outside. Thats important. But, again, its a question of how you do it. We were concerned that on this july 4th weekend, if we left our parks open, we would have too many people gathering in groups, that we would see the kind of thing we saw back on memorial day. So for this weekend, were going to close the parks and really frankly im encouraging people to stay home and watch fireworks on their tv because im concerned about this weekend. But on an ongoing basis, well keep our trails open, and well be trying our best to make sure that people dont gather in groups, that you go out, you use the park by yourself or with people that are in your household. All right. Mayor steve adler, austin, texas. Thank you for joining us. Appreciate that. Steve, thanks for the invite. All right. And coming up, joe biden calls Donald Trumps response to those reports of russian bounties a dereliction of duty. Were going to ask a retired fourstar general what he thinks when the 11th hour continues. S the open road is open again. 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Get to the bottom of this. Some more there of joe biden today reacting to those reports that the u. S. Has intelligence saying that russia may have offered bounties to the taliban to kill u. S. Troops in afghanistan. Nbc news has not confirmed any link between specific attacks and any alleged offers. Tonight defense secretary mark esper released a statement that reads in part, quote, although the department of defense has no corroborating evidence at this time to validate the recent allegations regarding malign activity by russian personnel against u. S. Forces in afghanistan, i want to assure all of our Service Members that the Department Takes very seriously any and all potential threats against u. S. Military personnel. With us again tonight, retired fourstar u. S. Army general barry mccaffrey, a decorated combat veteran of vietnam and a former battlefield commander in the persian gulf, west point graduate and a former adjunct professor there. General, thank you for joining us. Let me start just with your reaction to the news and the developments of the last few days starting with that initial report in the New York Times and what you have heard from the president and the administration since. Look, steve, ive been part of the National Security Council Meetings for both democratic and republican administrations. With two other administrations, i was in and out of the white house watching National Security interests. I have never seen anything like this in my life. On a given day, there are a thousand National Security challenges were facing. They dont get discussed in the white house nsc. Maybe the top three do. So the allegation as reported by New York Times and corroborated by other media sources, said this went to a full nsc meeting in march. There is absolutely no way that the president wouldnt have been told about these emerging concerns. He had five phone calls with mr. Putin. Ive been present when the president of the United States makes a headofstate phone call or meets a head of state in his office. We go in and brief him, everything about the background of the phone call. Nobody told the president , hey, you got to tell mr. Putin we believe theyre trying to kill our soldiers in afghanistan . So i think its shocking. Mr. Espers statement is profoundly disappointing. This is an interagency conclusion. By the way, this isnt eight guys. These are men and women all over washington, cia, department of treasury, state department, department of defense, jcs, all of them trying to hammer out conclusions about a threat to u. S. Forces. This is utter nonsense. A National Security process is broken. You mentioned that statement from secretary esper. He mentions the men and women in uniform, and this story is ultimately about potentially at least u. S. Military personnel being killed in exchange for bounties offered up by Russian Military intelligence. The effect of a story like this and everything that were talking about right now, what is the effect of Something Like that on our troops . Well, look, i think, you know, Staff Sergeant and e4 level and captain and Lieutenant Colonel and major, they think have these people are trying to kill him anyway. Both the Afghan Forces who can turn guns on them, the taliban haqqani network. So i would not think they would be shocked or particularly disturbed that the russians put a bounty on their head. Just another threat out there on the horizon. The people who are concerned about this right now is what the centcom commander and his staff think about it. What about the afghanistan joint commander in country . The interagency all over . I assume that what went on in mr. Trumps mind was im trying to get putin into the g8, reestablish the g8. I dont want to confront him on any issues. The russians think they can manipulate him and have been successful in doing so. And so i think the word went out he doesnt want to hear this. So maybe he wasnt officially briefed, but theres no way he didnt know about this consensus emerging from the Intelligence Community. Mr. Esper shouldnt have put that statement out. All right. General barry mccaffrey, thank you as always for your time. Appreciate it. And coming up, Mitch Mcconnell now knows who hes going to run against in november. And, oh, by the way, just in the last few minutes, a major surprise. An upset in a republican primary. An incumbent endorsed by the president goes down when the 11th hour continues. Is dr. Harold katz. He used to worry about how to fix the worlds oral health problems. I think ive got it. [narrator] then he invented therabreath formulas. You want fresh breath . Ill give you a fresh breath. [narrator] for fresh breath, healthy gums, dry mouth, and healthy smiles. Whoa, thats fresh. [narrator] now, the worlds mouths have never been healthier. sighs contentedly works for 24 hours, i guarantee it. Therabreath, its a better mouthwash. [narrator] available at walmart, target and other fine stores. All right. We have a winner. This is a primary that officially took place a week ago in kentucky. Remember this one . This was the Democratic Senate primary in kentucky, the right to take on Mitch Mcconnell in the fall. Its going to be amy mcgrath. She will be the democratic nominee. She edges out Charles Booker by two points here. This was a tale of candidates who each had momentum at very different points in the campaign, and that may have affected exactly how these votes worked out. Let me tell you what i mean by that. Mcgrath got in this race a year ago. She had been a Rising National star for democrats in 2018. She ran for the house back then. Remember she had this ad that went viral. Shes a former fighter pilot, got a lot of attention. She had a nearmiss run in 2018, decided last year shed run for the senate against Mitch Mcconnell, got a lot of attention when she got in the race. Got a lot of money when she got in the race. There was an is sump shun in kentucky and nationally for a long time shed be the democratic nominee. Then Charles Booker got in the race late. And then even later, like within the last couple weeks, Charles Booker suddenly started getting a ton of attention in kentucky nationally. Big National Progressive endorsements. But heres why im telling this. Because remember this was an unusual coronavirus pandemic election, and were going to see these all across the country in november in state after state. Here is what i want to show you. The three biggest counties in kentucky. This is like 40 of the state just from these three counties. This is last week. This is the inperson vote. This is a week ago today. This was the official primary day. Folks who actually went out and voted in person. The way were used to these things taking place. Look at this. Booker won overwhelmingly in these three big counties. Remember he had the late momentum. The final week of the campaign. The folks who voted late, the folks who voted on the primary day responded to that, it looks like, and gave him overwhelming margins. But mailin voting, because of the pandemic, because the coronavirus, the vast majority of votes in this race were cast before the final days of this campaign. They were cast weeks ago in some cases. Thats back when mcgrath was in a stronger position. And you can see here bookers margins were much, much smaller in these counties in the mailin voting. In fact, in this county, mcgrath won in a runaway on the mailin voting. So its an interesting thing to keep in mind here. When the votes are cast, whats going on in the campaign when the votes are cast, that can be crucial when you have extensive mailin voting. Also tonight coming in from colorado, this is a largely mailin primary. Democratic race here. This is the right to take on cory gardner in the fall. John hickenlooper, former governor of colorado, former president ial candidate, he got in this race. He will be the democratic nominee running against cory gardner. This is one of those states there are two of them in the battle for the senate the democrats particularly had their eyes on where you have a republican incumbent, cory gardner in colorado, in a state that trump did not carry in 2016. Clinton carried colorado. So that could be an uphill fight for cory gardner. Susan collins in maine, the other republican running in a clinton state for reelection this state. Hickenlooper for gardner. Keep an eye on it. Then here is the big news, the surprising news. Nobody was talking about this before tonight. This is a republican congressional primary in the Third District of colorado. This gentleman, scott tipton, is a tenyear incumbent. He was elected in 2010. The Associated Press says he has been defeated tonight by a challenger named lauren boeber. Lauren bow ber got some attention last year. Maybe you remember this. Beto orourke had an event in colorado. She showed up. He was of course talking about guns, taking away some guns. She showed up at the event. She confronted him. It looks like she has ousted in a republican primary incumbent scott tipton, who had run with President Trumps support. So an Interesting Development here. An incumbent member apparently losing a primary in colorado. Interesting things. The 11th hour continues right after this. Looks like they picked the wrong getaway driver. Theyre going to be paying for this for a long time. They will, but with accident forgiveness allstate wont raise your rates just because of an accident, even if its your fault. Cut sonny. Was that good . Line the desert never lies. Isnt that what i said . No you were talking about allstate and insurance. I just. When i. Lets try again. Everybody back to one. Accident forgiveness from allstate. Click or call for a quote today. Robinwithout the commission fees. So, you can start investing today wherever you are even hanging with your dog. So, what are you waiting for . Download now and get your first stock on us. Robinhood. Little things can become your big moment. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not a cream. Its a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. With otezla, 75 clearer skin is achievable. Dont use if youre allergic to otezla. It may cause severe diarrhea, nausea or vomiting. Otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. Tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. Some people taking otezla reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. Tell your doctor about your medicines, and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Otezla. Show more of you. This crisis is going to be over know exactly when and if youre pregnant or planning to be. And we dont know exactly when the stock market will reach its bottom, weve got to be prepared for this to last a long time. If you assume that youre out of work for nine months but you end up only being out of work for three, well thats great. But if you think youre going to be furloughed for three months and it lasts for nine, well thatll be emotionally devastating. So, weve got to prepare ourselves. Tangibly and practically, as well as psychologically and emotionally. And the last thing before we go tonight, mississippis old state flag is officially no more. Governor tate reeves signed into law today the bill to officially remove the confederate battle emblem that has been a part of that states flag for 126 years. But its not just in mississippi where the old flag is coming down. Right after that bill was signed, in jackson today, back in washington, our Capitol Hill Team was there when the flag was removed from the tunnel in the senate subway. The states senior senator, republican roger wicker, was on hand as a temporary flag with the Mississippi State seal was put in place. That does it for us tonight on the 11th hour. Thank you for being with us. On behalf of all my colleagues at the networks of nbc news, have a good night. Happy to have you with us this hour. The biggest Population Center in the great state of nebraska is, of course, omaha. Lovely omaha. It has a population of nearly a half million people. Thats douglas county, nebraska. More people live there in omaha in that county than anywhere else in that state by a large measure. Down at the other end of the population spectrum is dakota county, nebraska, where the population is only 20,000 for the whole county. Dakota county, nebraska, is tucked up in the Northeast Corner of the state. Its the home of dakota city. Thats the county seat, which itself has a population of