Michael cohen case which, oh, by the way, includes individual one, donald trump, who is accused in all of those documents of directing the crimes Michael Cohen was committing, and thats the case, that we discovered tonight that william barr has been trying to interfere with as soon as he got the job. And if there is a systemic effort inside Prosecutors Office to let the president s tendrils to extend to prosecutorial decisions for there to be political pressure or on how cases are resolved and brought or not brought, among other things, the judiciary should know about that because in some cases judges may want to correct for that or investigate that or figure that out if prosecutors are being importuned in that way. So i realize that prosecutors are constrained in terms of what they can tell us, the public, but when cases are getting messed with, when there is interference, in the same way its a really serious thing to intimidate a witness or to do other thing to obstruct justice, if the obstruction of justice is happening from the upper echelons of the Justice Department at the direction of the president , we need to know about it. And this New York Times story tonight with these incredibly well sourced anecdotes about whats happening inside sdny, i feel like it is the first crack of us starting to see that. And more prosecutors, more people who know whats been happening inside Prosecutors Offices with this stuff need to squawk, need to let us know, or we cant help fix it. If tonights polls are correct, todays New York Times polls, if they are correct, at noontime on january 20th, donald trump will become available for indictment as individual one in that case because he will no longer be president of the united states. And one of the Big Questions about that case is what happens. What happens if donald Trump Leaves Office at the end of the first term. Does he immediately in effect get indicted in the Southern District of new york for the same charges Michael Cohen has gone to prison for. For which u. S. Attorneys assistant u. S. Attorneys have spoken overtly in court in terms of his criminal liability for those acts. I mean, it does not get more serious than that in terms of whether or not this is a country that is built on the rule of law or not. And what we have seen the attorney general do to the u. S. Attorneys office in d. C. , where he decapitated and took over and used it, as far as we can tell, to squelch cases related to the president and to bring about unusual and extra legal lenience for the president s associates in that office, we are now seeing him make the same attempt on the new york Prosecutors Office, and were learning tonight all this backfilled information about how much pressure they have been facing for months, since barr has been in office. I mean, it is this is John Mitchell stuff. I mean, this is as bad as it gets in terms of the administration of justice. So far Jeffrey Berman did succeed in fighting off this pressure in incredibly heroic style and getting his deputy installed as his successor who he trusts and generally people trust to continue his work. Its just been the story Jeffrey Berman has to tell is the most remarkable story that i just cant wait for. Yeah, exactly. I dont think you have underdescribed this as all. I think youve got it. I could go on and on. Thank you, rachel. Thank you very much. Thank you, lawrence. Thank you. As i said congresswoman katie porter will be joining us tonight. In a house hearing today, she got to question the chairman of the securities and Exchange Commission, jay clayton, who just happens to be the person william barr said would be nominated to replace Jeffrey Berman as the u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york when that scheme became public last friday night. Katie porters questioning did not go well for jay clayton today. Youll see that later. And Stacey Abrams is going to join us on a week that saw some record Voter Participation rates thanks to mailin voting, something Stacey Abrams is trying to make available to all voters in november. Jerry reid and trymaine lee are going to join us to discuss the bipartisan vote, really a historic vote in the house of representatives tonight on police reform. It is the only congressional action ever taken because it was provoked by the Police Murder of an unarmed black man. We have had Police Murdered of unarmed black men throughout the history of this country. George floyds murder was the very first one that ever provoked congressional action. The bill that passed the house tonight is called the George Floyd Justice in policing act of 2020. And at the end of this hour, we have a special report about air travel. That youre definitely going to want to hear about. When i think about air travel now, im not traveling because i worry about the risk of infection inside the airplane, but what about the risk of infection at tsa checkpoints . A senior tsa officer with 20 Years Experience is now officially a whistleblower warning of the coronavirus dangers at tsa check points. He will join us at the end of this hour with his whistleblower report. If you are thinking about possibly flying anywhere this summer, you have got to hear what he has to say about whats been happening at tsa check points. Today donald trump took his president ial campaign to wisconsin where he said the second stupidest thing he has ever said about the coronavirus. Donald trump told his wisconsin audience, quote, these are his words, easy to memorize, if we didnt test, we wouldnt have cases. But we have cases because we test. Now, as you ponder that rank stupidity, here is the man himself saying it. If we didnt test, we wouldnt have cases. But we have cases because we test. That would be like saying if we didnt test for cancer, we wouldnt have cancer, but we have cancer because we test. Thats the president of the united states. Thats the way his mind actually works. Thats why he is incapable of processing any of the scientific knowledge being developed by covid19. Thats why he is incapable of processing any of the stein scientific knowledge about covid19. That was of course the stupidest thing that donald trump has ever said about covid19. And thats why he stopped having white house briefings about it, because it became clear when he said that, it became clear even to donald trump that he would inevitably continue to say grotesquely stupid things in white house briefings about the coronavirus and dangerous things. So those briefings had to be stopped. But donald trump cannot stop his president ial campaign, and he cannot stop pretending that coronavirus is not a problem. And so those two things came together today in wisconsin when he said if we didnt test we wouldnt have cases. But we have cases because we test. And because of shockingly imbecilic statements like that, donald trump is running 11 points behind joe biden in wisconsin, the state where he said that today. And the latest New York Times poll released today. Donald trump won wisconsin four years ago and now hes losing wisconsin by 11 points, and thats why he went there today. Donald trumps trip was paid for by taxpayers. The white house labeled it an official government trip because donald trump made his speech at a shipyard that builds navy ships. But as john bolton has told us and we already knew, everything donald trump does and says is about his election. So this is not the last trip that will be paid for by the taxpayers and falsely labeled by the white house as an official government trip. Donald trump decided to say the second stupidest thing hes ever said about coronavirus on a day when the cdc director revealed a stunning new dimension of the pandemics reach in the united states. Cdc director Robert Redfield said our best estimate right now is that for every case thats reported there actually are 10 other infections. Experts have long believed that we were undercounting coronavirus cases in the united states. But we now have an official estimate that there have been ten times more infections than we thought. That estimate is based on the presence of coronavirus antibodies in blood tests nationwide. As of tonight, there are 2,424,025 confirmed cases of coronavirus in this country. And as of tonight, we have suffered 123,161 deaths from coronavirus in this country. Today joe biden went to pennsylvania where, according to the New York Times poll released today, joe biden has a 10 point lead on donald trump. Joe biden gave a speech in which he showed the best way to campaign against donald trump is with Donald Trumps own words. President trump publically claimed that, and i quote, anybody, anybody that wants a test, anybody can get it. It simply was not true, and he knew it. Then five days ago, in his Campaign Rally in tulsa, oklahoma, admitting he admitted telling people, and i quote, we have to slow the testing down. Slow it down, please. He actually said it. In his hour and 50 minute speech, slow the testing down, please. At first his spokes people tried to say he was joking. But then trump himself said he wasnt joking. He called testing, quote, a double edged sword. Testing is a double edged sword. Thats the quote. Lets be Crystal Clear about what he means by that. Testing unequivocally saves lives. And widespread testing is the key to opening our economy again. Thats one edge of the sword. The other edge is he thinks that finding out that more americans are sick will make him look bad. Thats what hes worried about. Hes worried about looking bad. Well, donald trump needs to stop carrying about how he looks and start carrying about what is happening in the rest of america. Joe biden wore a mask before and after his speech in pennsylvania today. Joe biden is on the winning side of the mask issue in america with the latest New York Times polls showing that 54 of people say they always wear a mask when they expect to be in proximity of others. Another 22 say they usually wear a mask. So thats 76 of americans wearing masks, while only 22 support the donald trump position of rarely or never wearing a mask. Thats just one of the ways donald trump is losing in the latest New York Times poll, which gives joe biden a 14 point lead nationally, 15 to 36. Joe biden also leads donald trump in every battleground state polled by the New York Times. I already messages mentioned the 11point lead biden has in wisconsin. The 10 point lead in pennsylvania. But joe biden also has an 11 point lead in michigan at 4736. A 6 point lead in florida at 4741. A sevenpoint lead in arizona at 4841. And a ninepoint lead in North Carolina at 4940. And a fox news poll in battleground states also has very bad news for donald trump. And the fox news poll in florida joe biden has a 9 point lead over donald trump, 4940. In georgia joe biden leads donald trump 4745, which is a tie within the margin of error in a state that should be overwhelmingly republican. And in texas another republican state joe biden is running one point ahead of donald trump, 4544. Leading off our discussion tonight a physician and director of the columbia universitys National Center for diseases, disaster preparedness. John heilemann is with us. Hes a National Analyst for nbc news. He is an executive director of recount. And, doctor, i want to begin with this new estimate that the real infection number is ten times higher than what has been reported. What is your reaction to that . Yes, lawrence. So the actual is 20 million case as opposed to the two plus million. The fact of the matter is that by the end of this year, i think we will see 150 million at least cases because we have been Public Health officials estimating from the very beginning of this that about 50 of the population was actually going to be infected with the coronavirus. Not everybody is going to get very sick. In fact, the vast majority will be relatively symptom free, but there is going to be a whole lot of americans that will come down with this disease between now and the end of the year with a lot more deaths that were currently experiencing at this moment, lawrence. And also, doctor, what about the surges that were seeing around the country. They seem to be mostly in the southwest. Is there a way we can interpret that . Well, first of all, in a pandemic like this, we see exactly what we have been seeing, that at one point new york, you know, was the global epicenter of this disease with a totally overwhelmed health situation. Du its a whackamole situation. It is typical for a pandemic to spread from one place. It diminishes, moves to another place. Were seeing it now really, really breaking out in the sun belt and the southern parts of the u. S. It is very, very dangerous. A lot of things are making that the case. But dont forget, we are still in the first wave. Were having first parts of the wave appearing at different places but we havent begun to see the totally expected second and third waves happening in the fall and winter of this year, lawrence. And john heiland, were showing on the screen there today texas another record high day for Coronavirus Infections in texas. And donald trump basically polling in a tie in texas. Joe biden one point ahead. Those two things are related. And if things get worse and worse in texas with the coronavirus, who knows what happens to the president ial campaign polling. Right. I mean, lawrence, one of the things thats true is that, you know, three months ago at the beginning in the first peak of the first wave, you know, you saw the geographic split, right, where it was mostly blue states blue cities, places like, no Washington State and california were affected by the coronavirus. And out of that grew this red blue divide where the culture war that donald trump wanted to foment. He said over here is the liberals wearing the masks and we good freedom loving americans dont do that. That was an easy Political Division to try to sow and ride when most of red america hadnt been affected by coronavirus. We all said three months ago whats going to happen to the politics once this gets to red america, which it will inevitably for the reasons dr. Redlener said and others. We all wondered. Thats exactly what were seeing now, right, whether in tulsa, oklahoma, in the texas example you gave in battleground states like arizona where the easy cheap politics that trump was is a master of and that he was indulge in for the last three months started to look incredibly foolish because even the republicans in those states are looking at him and saying, this is ridiculous the way youre behaving and we care more about your life than some culture war you want to age and this is going to hurt him in a lot of states including some places like texas. And, john, the mask issue in the polling is so fascinating that you have a maximum of 22 who see masks the way donald trump sees masks. Joe biden very carefully putting his mask on and off, never been caught without it in Public Places when hes not speaking. It seems to me that that mask issue is bigger politically than we could have imagined. Much bigger. And, lawrence, ill tell you, you know, another thing that we used to talk about three months ago and i know it was a conversation that took place in the Biden Campaign and other places, right, where it was like on one side you had Public Health and on the other side you had political advantage, and they watched donald trump. They said donald trump has the air waves. Hes on television every day. Joe biden is being cautious. Hes afraid to go out on the campaign trail. Theyre trying to keep him healthy. And that was seen as a political disadvantage. Now we look up and its june and the way this disease has unfolded and the way the Politics Around it played out, it turns out that being on the side i guess in some sense logical, but being on the side of Public Health turns out to be the best political position to be in and joe biden for being cautious and abiding by the cdcs rules is now getting the benefit politically for being the one that cares about Public Health. John heiland and dr. Redlener, thanks for starting off our discussion tonight. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks, lawrence. Thank you. And when we come back, we have breaking news. A bipartisan majority in the house of representatives as passed Historic Police reform bill tonight, a bill that would not have been possible just one month and a day ago when george floyd was still alive. Joy reid and trymaine lee will join us next. Y reid and trymainl join us next all strength, we aint stoppin believe me go straight till the morning look like we wont wait, were taking everything we wanted we can do it all strength, no sweat and ask your doctor about biktarvy. Biktarvy is a complete, onepill, onceaday treatment used for hiv in certain adults. Its not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights hiv to help you get to and stay undetectable. Thats when the amount of virus is so low it cannot be measured by a lab test. 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Everyone gets 5g with our new data options at no extra cost. Thats good. Next item corner offices for everyone. Just have to make more corners in this building. Chad . Your wireless your rules. Only with Xfinity Mobile. Now thats simple easy awesome. Switch and save up to 400 a year on your wireless bill. Plus get 200 off a new Samsung Galaxy s20 ultra. Since George Floyds murder exactly one month ago tonight, millions of protesters have filled the streets demanding. Lawmakers take action against Police Brutality and unjustified Police Killing of unarmed black people. Tonight House Democrats responded to those calls by passing the George Floyd Justice and policing act of 2020. The bill passed 236181 with bipartisan support with three republicans joining all the democrats in voting for the bill. Changes also coming in elections as several progressive candidates had strong showings in democratic primary races in new york, virginia and kentucky on tuesday. As cook political reports, in 2016, dem voters showed an unprecedented desire to nominate women. In 2020 were witnessing another sea change in desire, this time towards black candidates. Joining us now joy reid and the host of am joy on weekend. And trymaine lee is with us a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who hosts the pod caste into america. Joy, your reaction to this house bill passing today and picking up three republican votes today. And the three republicans they picked up today are interesting. Will hurried hurd out of texas, one of the few black republicans, who has been leaning toward it in the way he has been talking about these criminal justice issues. It is not super surprising. And then of course to swing state republicans, michigan and pennsylvania. Look, everyone is playing their politics here. And for, you know, the republican base, criminal Justice Reform is obviously not a priority. But if you are in a swing state, whether you are a senator or a house member, this is going to become a problem for you in november. Because the sea change is not only among black folk. Black people have always agreed there needs to be fundamental reform among policing. It is among white voters. It is among white voters who are saying, wait a minute, my kids are out there marching with the black lives matter kids. Wait a minute. I also agree there is too much brutality. When you see 8 minutes and 46 seconds of brutality on tape, it is a hard thing to look away. Its a new thing that white voters are starting to not look away either. Trymaine lee, i remember your coverage on the streets of ferguson six years ago this summer when Michael Brown was killed by a Police Officer there. There was no legislative action in washington because of that, nothing was even contemplated. It took a lot more to get to this point and it ultimately took George Floyds life to get to get to this point. And there is his name enshrined in this legislation. It is the first Legislation Congress ever considered that was provoked by the Police Killing of an unarmed black man. It is hard to imagine, lawrence, that its only within a month since george floyd was killed. And think about this Seismic Shift that we have experienced. I recall being on air with you when those first tear gas canisters in ferguson were fired off. And we thought that was a movement, right . And then we saw the deaths of eric garner and everyone else bubbling up in the communities. Everyone was pushing back. But the sweeping reform that theyre proposing, banning chokeholds, noknock warrants, kind of chipping away at protections that officers have. But another big one is a national use of force database. Right now we dont know how many People Police are shooting or killing. Right . There is no mandate. So the world is certainly rocking. And the measure of the movement was always going to be what about policy . What about legislation. This is a first step. Clearly it wont pass the senate. But this is a big show. But also you mentioned the primary elections all across the country. These arent just black folks on the ballot, very progressive black folks. A lot of establishment democrats that most certainly should be worried. Yeah. We had two of them on this show last night. And, joy, in new york city, in the state of new york has a ban on Police Chokeholds in law that is literally days old. Its only days old. Yes. Its already been used. Used today in the arrest of a new york city Police Officer for using a choke hold just a few days ago. That kind of action, again, after eric garner, nothing like that happened. After eric garner, after michael griffith, you can go all the way back. You can go back to 1978 a case of a chokehold being used that killed a man in brooklyn. Chokeholds have been used routinely over and over and over again in new york city. Nothing has happened. I cant breathe is what eric garner said, and that didnt convince the majority of americans that something needed to be done. You know, and you wonder what is different now with george floyd. Is it because the officers staring into the camera that look of complete autonomy that i can do this, that there is nothing that can stop me just, i dont care. Im doing this and i know that you see me. Maybe its the indifference. I dont know what it was. Was it the time . Was it 8 minutes and 46 seconds . Whatever it was, its true that george floyd absolutely has changed the world. Yeah. Trymaine, video has made all the difference. We didnt have a video like that of Michael Brown. Thats right. And i think joy is right. To some degree, some level of violence is expected among the community and black folks, right . We tolerate black death and black violence. But it was the spectacle of black death that harkened back to the old lynching photos when you see families crowding around smiling as a black man or woman is hanging from a tree. To watch that man take his last breath, it kind of galvanized across Cultural Coalition that we havent seen. Because now as joy mentioned earlier white daughters and family members are out there also so it creates this different kind of energy. Trymaine lee, joy reid, thanks for continuing this discussion. And trymaines podcast dropped this evening. Its called into america. A new episode this evening called a new generation of black candidates. You can listen to that wherever you get your podcast and joy is hosting a town hall form night called the road to reform. She will be joined by members of the congressional black caucus. Thats friday at 7 00 p. M. Eastern with joy reid here on msnbc. And if you have a question you would like to submit to joys town hall, you can go to msnbc. Com townhall. Reid, i hope i got all that right. Thank you, joy. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. And trymaine lee, thank you for joining us. Thanks. And when we come back, Stacey Abrams will join us to discuss Voting Rights and vote by mail. Well ask Stacey Abrams about a new fox poll, this is a fox poll, it shows joe biden two points ahead of donald trump in georgia, a republican state. Stacey abrams knows a lot about that state and how democrats can win it. Stacey abrams joins us next. [ cellphone chimes ] um, so, were talking 24 7 protection. As it [ cellphone chimes ] [ clears throat ] mara, hello. [ cellphone clicking ] yeah . We can see you on your phone. Oh, my bad. You can continue. [ clicking continues ] [ cellphone chimes ] i think shes still on the phone. [ cellphone chimes ] wthey fell in love with itssing girresistible scent. Looks like their dog michelangelo did too. New gain ultra flings with two times oxi boost and febreze. Lets be honest. Quitting smoking is hard. Like, quitting every monday hard. Quitting feels so big. So try making it smaller, and youll be surprised at how easily starting small can lead to something big. Start stopping with nicorette. Starting small can lead to something big. This virus is testing all of us. And its testing the people on the front lines of this fight most of all. So abbott is getting new tests into their hands, delivering the critical results they need. And until this fight is over, we. Will. Never. Quit. Because they never quit. We had a bunch of important primary elections on tuesday, but we wont know the results for many of them for a week because of the flood of mailin voting this year. Donald trump is increasing panicked by mailin voting tweeting that it would, quote, lead to the end of our great Republican Party. In other words, the Republican Party cannot survive democracy. This week kentucky broke Voter Participation records thanks in part to mailin voting. Iowa also set a record for voter turnout in its primary after the secretary of state sent mailin ballot applications to every registered voter. That has republicans in the state legislature in iowa trying to ban the secretary of state from automatically mailing mailin ballot applications for the president ial election in november. Joining us now is Stacey Abrams, she is the founder of the Voter Protection pac fair fight action. She is also the author of the new book our time is now. Power, purpose and the fight for a fair america. Stacey abrams is the former democratic leader of the Georgia House of representatives. Thank you very much for joining us again tonight. We really appreciate. Thank you for having me. I wanted to get your view of what we learned about mailin voting this week and the surge in voter turnout that some states experienced with it. One, we know it works. Despite the protestations of the Republican Party and the paranoia of donald trump, we know it works. We know it is safe. It is accessible. But the challenge we have is that, number two, it has to be scaled. We are seeing unprecedented participation in our elections via mailin ballots. We know that 34 states allow no excuses. 16 states require an excuse. But every state is going to have to have it. We know that the covid virus is going to ramp up again in the fall and we havent even made it out of the first wave. That means we have to be ready as a nation to defend our democracy by allowing mailin voting for every voter who chooses to use it. What is the situation with mailin voting in what we consider the battleground states, the states that could end up deciding this election . It is a mix. We have mailin voting is permitted in the state of georgia, for example, with no excuses. We just unfortunately had a debacle in terms of actually managing the process and we need to scale it up. We know that in wisconsin, wisconsin is one of a handful of states that requires a signature or a witness in order to sorry, requires a witness or notary to turn in your ballots. We have folks like marc elias who are suing to fix those challenges. But the what we do know is Voter Participation on the democratic side of the ill is up dramatically. And mailin voting is not a democratic or republican way of voting. But when it is convenient, we know that more democrats are participating and thats shifting the landscape for the outcome in november. So we have a lot of battleground state polling released today. We have National Polls showing joe biden with double digit leads. And one of the interesting points in the states that have been polled is georgia which we dont normally have on the list of Battle Ground states. But there is joe biden in a fox poll running ahead of donald trump by two points in georgia. You know it can be done. You came as close to winning the state of georgia if they didnt suppress the vote as well as they did. In your governors election. What does joe biden need to know about winning the state of georgia . That we havent stopped working since 2018. This weve added hundreds of thousands of new voters who are disproportionately young, disproportionately people of color, that we live in a state that has had unfortunately had to bury aum and rayshard brooks. We are driven. We are motivated and we can deliver 16 Electoral College votes and 2 senate seats, both of which will be needed to win our country back and fix our democracy. When you look at the various Voter Suppression tactics that are still alive and still working for republicans in this country, how do you expect that to impact this election . Is it happening in the states that democrats need to win . It is. Republicans have a battle plan. They are planning to raise an army of 50,000 whole patrol, people are going to get in line and try to scare people out of voting. We know that they have committed 20 million to a litigation strategy to restrain people and constrict access to the right to vote. We know they intend to spend up to 60 million in all of their voter intimidation platforms including through the vote honest elections, that they are filing lawsuits to undue and eviscerate the second section two of the Voting Rights action. They are desperate because they know theyre losing. But we are meeting them on the battlefield. We are organized earlier than we ever have been. We are working in the battleground states including states like georgia, North Carolina and arizona that can tip the balance in the sunbelt. We have great candidates in georgia who can carry us to victory. But across this country, we are prepared on our side for the first time to meet them and to win because we are on the side of democracy. Stacey abrams, thank you very much for joining us again tonight. We really appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Thank you. And after this break, it was one of those days in a house hearing room today with congresswoman katie porter. This time the victim was the guy who william barr wanted to make the u. S. Attorney in manhattan. Congresswoman porter joins us next. My gums are irritated. I dont have to worry about that, do i . Harmful bacteria lurk just below the gum line. Crest gum detoxify, voted product of the year. It works below the gum line to neutralize harmful plaque bacteria and help reverse early gum damage. Gum detoxify, from crest. The course structure the it just suits my life perfectly because i am a mom, im a wife. And i was able to complete those Short Courses five to six weeks and then move onto the next until i reached my goal. The sleep number its 360 smart bed. Owest prices of the season on can it help keep me asleep . 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Jeffrey berman issued a statement saying he did not agree to resign. Within 24 hours Jeffrey Berman successfully fought off the attack on his office by forcing the attorney general to agree that Geoffrey Bermans deputy would take over his duties after President Trump then fired Geoffrey Berman on saturday. Congresswoman katie porter was in todays hearing, and she used some of her questioning to focus on just how independent jay clayton can be from Donald Trumps influence in his current job at the securities and Exchange Commission and at any future possible job like u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york. Mr. Clayton insisted that his work has not been influenced by donald trump in any way. And then congresswoman porter said this. How many times have you and President Trump golfed together . Im not going to get into this. This is, you know, it its is it a large number and you have trouble recalling it . No, no, no. Look, i have i have played golf with the president a handful of times. Okay. What did you talk about . Those are private conversations. Are you willing to affirm to this committee that you did not discuss any sec business . There are no conversations that i have had that make me in any way uncomfortable with any my independence. So thats not exactly a denial. Joining us now is congresswoman katie porter, democrat representing the 45th district of california and a member of the oversight and Financial Services committee. Congresswoman porter, thank you very much for joining us tonight. You were kind of lucky that he was already scheduled to testify to this committee and suddenly became the real one of the real centers of that scandal over the weekend involving Jeffrey Berman. What was your sense of his credibility on the issue of how influenced is he by, say, playing golf with donald trump . He was clearly very uncomfortable with that line of questioning. And if there is nothing wrong with it, he should have been willing to provide an answer. There is certainly an appearance of impropriety there. And i think the fact that he was stammering and struggling and really resisting that line of questioning goes to show you he understands it does create at least the appearance of impropriety. The second thing i would say is this is somebody who is trying to pretend hes nonpartisan. But when i called today is the fact that hes actually voted in a partisan way repeatedly as hes led the sec. Yes. That was clearly developed in the rest of the testimony. His answer to you when you said, you know, will you affirm that you have not discussed sec business, what he said was he didnt say any none of the conversations with donald trump made him uncomfortable, but thats kind of the point. Corruption discussions dont make donald trump uncomfortable either. Exactly. The correct answer to that question clearly should have been, yes, i will affirm to the committee that i never discussed the sec business with donald trump. The fact that he didnt give a yes or no to what was really a softball opportunity for him to affirm his independence and his ability to separate himself from the president should be a big point of concern. And i hope the senate takes up some of this line of questioning when they consider his nomination to be u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york. Yeah, if that ever happens. What about your oversight of whats happening with these relief funds, the billions of dollars that have been handed out by the treasury . We now discover today that a lot of dead people got checks from the treasury because the treasury did not bother to check Social Security records about who is alive and dead with Social Security numbers. What other oversight discoveries are you trying to get . Well, its really important that we get full transparency into the Paycheck Protection Program because this was 650 billion. That was one of the largest single relief bills we gave. We have been pressuring for six weeks now. I have been pushing and pushing for full transparency, and we have been making progress slowly with pressure on secretary of treasury mnuchin. But today we learned that 38. 5 billion in paycheck protection loans were returned by businesses. Why would businesses return those loans . Perhaps because they shouldnt have been applying for them in the first place. But for every loan that got returned, we dont know how many got kept. And those are the kinds of questions taxpayers deserve answers to. What do you think they should be trying to achieve with this relief money . Well, the point the name of the program really says it all. Its about helping businesses make payroll. It is about preventing massive labor market disruption. We have already gone back once and doubled the funding for this program, and we may have to give more help to small businesses. But before we do that, we need to make sure that we have transparency, that weve done the analysis, and this program is actually working to save jobs. Thats why we need these data, and we needed them yesterday frankly. Going back to mr. Claytons role at the securities and Exchange Commission, how would you characterize it what youve seen of the way he runs the sec . Well, hes trying to claim now that hes up for this u. S. Attorney job that hes so partisan. Nonpartisan. But the sec has historically really worked hard to take unanimous action because frankly doing things like protecting investors from fraud shouldnt be a partisan matter. But today i went through a number of proposals, most of them marquee actions of the sec under commissioner clayton failed to attract bipartisan support. They were party line 32 votes. So as i said to mr. Clayton today claiming to be nonpartisan doesnt make it so. Congresswoman katie porter, youve done it once again. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. We really appreciate it. Thank you. And when we come back, the inside of an airplane might not be the riskiest space for you from Coronavirus Infection in air travel. What about the tsa line, and what about the tsa agents themselves . A senior tsa official has filed a whistleblower complaint about the coronavirus dangers at tsa checkpoints. That whistleblower will join us next. Keep being you. And ask your doctor about biktarvy. Biktarvy is a complete, onepill, onceaday treatment used for hiv in certain adults. Its not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights hiv to help you get to and stay undetectable. Thats when the amount of virus is so low it cannot be measured by a lab test. Research shows people who take hiv treatment every day and get to and stay undetectable can no longer transmit hiv through sex. 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Also try align dualbiotic gummies to help support Digestive Health. Swithout even on yoleaving your house. Just keep your phone and switch to Xfinity Mobile. You can get it by ordering a free sim card online. Once you activate, youll only have to pay for the data you need starting at just 15 a month. There are no term contracts, no activation fees, and no credit check on the first two lines. Get a 50 prepaid card when you switch. 5g is now included with all new data options. Switch and save hundreds. Xfinity mobile. When i think about air travel now and the reason im not doing it is i think about the coronavirus dangers inside the airplane. But a tsa whistleblower tells us we have a lot to worry about before we even get to the plane. Jay brainard is a senior tsa official in kansas with 20 Years Experience, and he has filed a whistleblower report saying not enough is being done to keep tsa officers safe when screening passengers and not enough was done to keep passengers safe at the tsa checkpoints. As of today, 763 tsa agents have tested positive for coronavirus. Six agents have died. Joining our discussion now is jay brainard. Hes a tsa federal Security Director for the state of kansas and has been with the tsa for almost 20 years. Thank you very much for joining us tonight, mr. Brainard. Obviously youre not here as an official spokesman for the tsa, but youre telling us what your experience has been. How risky are the tsa checkpoints now, and how risky have they been in the past, in the past months of this pandemic . Thats a great question. So theres two questions. What went wrong, and what do we need to do moving forward . At the onset of this early march, we started having a number of transportation Security Officers test positive for covid19. The federal Security Directors, which is what my position is, made efforts to try and get personal protective equipment to the workforce in midmarch. We were denied. We were told to withhold the n95 masks from the workforce. We were not permitted to mandate the wearing of masks until midapril. Protective eyewear, we still cant mandate protective eyewear. So essentially you have our employees at the height of the breakout of covid19 working at airport checkpoints. They dont have the personal protective equipment that they need. And the worst part about this, its in the middle of spring break. We laid an overlay map on march 24th from Johns Hopkins university and lined up the top 25 airports on that map. And it was an exact match with the exception of new orleans. And you can explain new orleans, the breakout there, simply from mardi gras. So the agency did not act swiftly enough. The agency in my opinion did not act responsibly. So Flash Forward now four months later. The administrator has now mandated that they wear masks. We still are at odds about crosscontamination and personal protective equipment when it comes to gloves because we do have a number of touch points with the public where well interact, whether were checking identification of passengers and handing it back to them, whether we are conducting patdowns. Tsa had indicated that they are mandating the changing of gloves every time somebody gets a targeted patdown at the ait machines. Theres been no guidance put out on that. I spoke to a number of my counterparts tonight at the largest airport in the country, and they have seen no guidance on that. I have seen no guidance on that. Jay, let me stop you on that one for a second. So youre saying this he are still in many places using the same gloves to pat down more than one passenger . Absolutely, yeah. You can go to any airport, and the majority of them youll see it. If you change gloves every passenger and youve got an airport that does 30,000 passengers a day, youre going to go through 20,000 pairs of gloves. At the very least, they need to sanitize these gloves between passengers. When you get into conducting a bag search, its important to change those gloves and put on a fresh pair of gloves, because people travel with their personal items. So when you put your hands in the bags and youre searching, youre touching the toiletries and the toothbrush. When we are not sanitizing those gloves at the very least between handling someones identification cards, whether it is conducting a targeted patdown in an area, if we are not sanitizing those gloves, were just passing it along to the next passenger. When the passenger leaves the checkpoint and get on the plane, they touch the seat belt, the arm rest, the tray tables and everything else. Its important for us the agency taking baby steps right now, and baby steps, at least theyre doing it four months later. Theyre starting to go in the right direction. But baby steps are not going to make the air Transportation System safer. Theyve got to implement meaningful procedures. So ive been partnering with the Government Accountability project and tom devine and his team over there to make sure w are going to hold this agency accountable and that were going to put in the types of reforms that are needed. Jane brainard, im sorry im sorry, were over were over our time limit. Were past the hour at this point. Jay brainard, thank you very much for joining us. That is tonights last word. The 11th hour with Brian Williams starts now. Well, good evening once again. Day 1,253 of the trump administration. 131 days to go until the president ial election. Today donald trump was politicking in the state of wisconsin as the director of the cdc reported that the number of americans who have been infected with coronavirus is likely ten times higher than reported
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