Transcripts For MSNBCW The Rachel Maddow Show 20200623

Day. The w. H. O. Said today that today was the largest number of new coronavirus cases reported worldwide since the start of the epidemic, but for us here at home, its just mindblowing that this far into it, right now on average, one in five of every new coronavirus case reported daily is a case from the United States when we are only 4 of the worlds population. On the daily chart of american new cases reported each day, we had dropped down a little bit, but now we are very clearly climbing back up. We had recently hovered around 20,000, maybe 25,000 new cases each day. Twice in the last few days, though, we have topped 30,000 new cases in a day. Epidemiologist Michael Osterholm now says that we should stop thinking of this thing in terms of a first wave and a second wave because if were just going to keep burning through 20,000, 25,000, 30,000 new infections a day, then this is less like some succession of distinct waves, and he says its more like just a forest fire, just something that is large and raging and, by the way, were not really trying to put it out anymore. More than 20 u. S. States now have rising case numbers each day. In washington state, yakima countys main hospital is now out of beds. Theyre out of icu beds and regular hospital beds. New Covid Patients in yakima county are being shipped out to neighboring counties, but officials in those counties say if this keeps up, theyre going to be full as well. Some washington Covid Patients are now being flown as far away as seattle to find them a hospital bed. Seattle is hours away from yakima county. In the other corner of the country, florida, florida saw its largest spike yet in infections. There are over 100,000 cases in the state now. We are two months away from the Republican National convention being hosted in jacksonville, florida. Thats where they moved it because of coronavirus concerns by local authorities in north carolina. The Republican Party has thus far submitted no safety plan for how theyre planning to deal with infection concerns at the jacksonville rnc. That jacksonville republican convention, again, in two months time, that one really is expected to attract thousands of people unlike the sadly show the president was so disappointed by this weekend in tulsa with that tulsa arena twothirds empty as he spoke. In florida statewide, the governor there is still refusing to release straightforward numbers about things like covid hospitalizations and how much Hospital Capacity is available left in florida. But new cases there do keep hitting new record numbers. The case numbers are just rising relentlessly. We know from local reporting about some florida hospitals being pushed to the point of capacity already even though we dont have statewide numbers for Hospital Capacity. Now as of today, the great city of miami, florida, says they are going to pause their reopening plans because of their serious concerns about rising covid cases in and around miami. A few states over, louisiana also announced plans today to pause their reopening plans, giving case numbers rising once again in louisiana. In texas, where the governor has been very trumpy in his happy talk assertions about the virus while texas case numbers have been going through the roof, rising super steeply since the end of may, even in texas the fact that they have just hit ten Straight Days of record hospitalization numbers appears to have given the State Government there pause as of today. Governor greg abbott of texas now warning that the state of texas may have to close down again in order to try to save lives. At the federal level, the president today refused to entertain questions about whether he really meant it on saturday night in tulsa when he said he told the government to slow down covid testing because all the positive test results were making him look bad. White house officials keep telling reporters that the president was joking when he said that. The president himself does not say that he was joking in those remarks, and he wouldnt answer direct questions about it today. He wouldnt answer direct questions as to the underlying assertion, whether he really is deliberately trying to scuttle test efforts so theres less data about americans getting infected, getting sick and dying from this thing. You might remember there was that senior economic adviser to President Trump who a few weeks ago circulated his own cubic model of what was going to happen to the epidemic. Remember that . He had this graph that he made, which was like distributed on behalf of the council of economic advisers. This graph said the number of coronavirus cases in this country was going to drop to zero by the middle of may. He said, dont worry, theres only ten more days of this thing. By the middle of may, this things going to be over. Not long after that, thats when we got Vice President pence, as head of the Coronavirus Task force, saying in an interview that the whole epidemic was going to be behind us. It was going to be in the Rearview Mirror by memorial day weekend. Perhaps he got that from the council of economic advisers putting out that graph saying it would all be over in midmay. Well, the genius who came up with that it will all be over in midmay idea, he was an economic adviser to the president named kevin hassett. Today he announced that he is resigning. Couldnt come at a better time. I also want to let you know about a breaking News Development that we are following and trying to get some more information on tonight. This is the footage we have got so far of Lafayette Square tonight. Lafayette square also known as black lives matter plaza directly across from the white house. Were getting word tonight. You see protesters try to pull on the statue there. Were getting word tonight that they may have once again used tear gas to clear protesters who are apparently trying to take down that statue of Andrew Jackson. Again, that is a developing story that we are pursuing or reporting on. We will have more on that when we get it. But, you know, on the subject of resignations, with the clarity of hindsight now, it is starting to seem like a recent rash of highlevel resignations from the u. S. Justice Department Might be more interesting than that string of resignations seemed at the time that it was happening. Within just a past couple of weeks, the head of the Criminal Division at the Justice Department, a controversial trump appointee named brian ben could you ski, he announced he was resigning from the Justice Department. In short order, the head of the Civil Division, a man named jody hunt, he too announced hes resigning from the Justice Department. Also we got a surprise announcement that the solicitor general, the lead litigator for the Justice Department, the lawyer who among other things represents the federal government in cases before the Supreme Court, noel francisco. We got word too that he also has submitted his resignation to the Justice Department. I mean attorney general bill barr is still there. Were going to talk with house judiciary chairman jerry nadler in just a moment about his open investigation of bill barr. Were going to talk with new yorker reporter david rohde about his new reporting that bill barr thinks hes going nowhere and hes going to be with trump to the bitter end. But for now, william barr is still there, but it sort of passed without notice that he has just lost the heads of both major divisions in the Justice Department. He lost the head of the Civil Division and the head of the Criminal Division and the solicitor general basically all at once. And its all happened very recently and very quickly. And maybe they all just decided to spend more time with their families all at the same time. Totally possible. But it also seems like this terrible miniseries weve all been watching about the death of the republic, it seems like its recent episodes have taken some very dark and ugly turns that are now getting sort of not just more worrying but more poorly executed. I mean it has only been three weeks. If you just look at the snapshot of whats happened over the past three weeks, it does sort of feel like bill barrs wheels are falling off. Just the past three weeks since attorney general bill barr that for some reason still isnt explained, assumed some type of military command of various federal agents during protests in d. C. Like the one we saw tonight. Under bill barrs command, these federal agents by and large didnt wear insignias or name badges or anything identifying what agency they were from. Bill barr also supposedly commanded these random agents from some kind of fbi outpost. The attorney general did that. You know, general isnt actually a military title. Youre the attorney general, and some people are calling you general barr, but youre not actually a general. Nevertheless, barr sort of assumed command three weeks ago of these federal agents under mysterious authority, and then under his mysterious authority, he ordered these federal officers to attack Peaceful Protesters in Lafayette Park three weeks ago, right . He ultimately ended up defending the tactics and the weapons used by those federal officers by saying in part that nobody should object to the use of pepper spray on those protesters and, you know, on the clergy and reporters and all the rest of the people there. He said nobody should object to the use of pepper spray on those people because according to attorney general barr, he said pepper spray is not a chemical irritant. He thinks its like a spice. Its like a savory seasoning for your eyeballs. Its not an irritant. Its just pepper spray. Shortly thereafter, that episode in which attorney general barr ordered federal agents to attack protesters and then said it was no big deal, those tactics and weapons and gases that they used, shortly thereafter is when the Criminal Division chief resigned and then the solicitor general resigned and then the Civil Division chief resigned. Then in very short order, the first excerpts of the john bolton book came out in which john bolton said, among other things, that the Trump White House carried out, quote, obstruction of justice as a way of life. Boltons book says that attorney general william barr helped the president to interfere in, for example, the prosecution of a turkish bank. President trump had apparently told the turkish president he would take care of that prosecution, hed get rid of it. That case was in the Southern District of new york. What bolton says in his book is that attorney general william barr in fact tried to interfere in that case at the president s request. But the prosecutors in the Southern District of new york wouldnt be messed with, and so that prosecution went ahead. Soon after those excerpts became public, barr then launched an effort to secure a legal injunction against boltons book. He tried to get a judge to order all the copies of boltons book out of circulation. He tried to get a judge to order that boltons book should be retrieved from all the bookstores it had been sent to and all the reviewers it had been sent to and all the news organizations it had been sent to. That effort to try to get a judge to do that with boltons book, that effort failed obviously. It was bizarre that they even tried it. Then in short order, the Trump Administration lost two major cases at the Supreme Court, one right after the other on lgbt civil rights and then on daca, the dreamers case. That dreamers case they lost specifically through the sheer ineptitude of the administrations lawyering abilities. Were still right now awaiting another Supreme Court ruling on whether the president s financial records and tax returns are subject to subpoena by prosecutors or congressional investigators. Attorney general william barr naturally had the Justice Department join forces with the president s personal lawyers to try to shield the president from that kind of scrutiny. But well see. That ruling could come at any time. If theres one prospect that seemingly causes more agita than anything, its the public release of his real financial information. The Supreme Court could rule on that anytime now. Again, attorney general william barr took the interesting step of siding the u. S. Justice department with the president s personal lawyers and his personal interests to try to shield those things from investigators. Then in short order, we learned that the House Judiciary Committee would hold a hearing this week, day after tomorrow, a hearing for which they have scheduled testimony from two whistleblowers, two currently serving Justice Department officials who will testify as whistleblowers as to attorney general barrs repeated interference in the course of justice in ways that are designed to bolster the president s personal and political interests. John elias is due to testify from the antitrust division about William Barrs alleged interference with antitrust cases. Aaron zelinsky is expected to testify as well. He resigned from the roger stone prosecution after barr took a wrecking ball to the u. S. Attorneys office in d. C. , sidelined the real u. S. Attorney, inserted his own handpicked flying monkeys instead, and then swiftly intervened to roll back prosecutions of stone and one other of the president s friends. So i mean this is the last three weeks. I know time has no meaning anymore and its hard to figure out what day it is let alone what week it is. But over the course of three weeks, all of this has been rolling downhill faster and faster. And then friday night, late friday night, just days before this upcoming hearing about bill barr intervening in the course of justice to try to benefit the president , late friday night, classic friday night news dump, attorney general barr rolls out this absolutely botched effort to try to fire the head of the other most important federal Prosecutors Office in the country. He succeeded in decapitating the u. S. Attorneys office in d. C. And getting rid of its independence, taking it over, installing all his own people, making that office do the president s favors. Thats the d. C. U. S. Attorneys office. Barr won there. The other Prosecutors Office that most touches the president s interests is obviously the Prosecutors Office that named President Trump individual one in the Michael Cohen case, the Prosecutors Office that described the president as the person who directed the commission of those felonies that put the president s personal lawyer in federal prison for those illegal hush money payments he made during the 2016 campaign. Its the same Prosecutors Office that recently brought charges against our friends lev and igor for allegedly funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal contributions to republican campaigns and the main super pac supporting President Trumps reelection. They did those things, according to prosecutors, while they were working with the president s other personal lawyer on the ukraine scheme for which the president was impeached back in december. This is the same Prosecutors Office that has reportedly been investigating the president s lawyer himself, rudy giuliani, as to, among other things, whether he was illegally acting as a Foreign Agent while also working as the president s lawyer, ginning up this scheme for which the president has already been impeached. This is the same Prosecutors Office that subpoenaed President Trumps inaugural committee as part of what appears to be an investigation into potentially illegal foreign contributions to the president s inaugural committee as well. Its also the same Prosecutors Office that in september is due to take up the bizarre case of this chicago smalltime banker who allegedly tried to buy himself an appointment as trumps secretary of the army by giving Trumps Campaign chairman, convicted felon paul manafort, millions of dollars in bogus loans as a bribe. That trial of stephen caulk is due to start in september in the Southern District of new york. When attorney general william barr announced late on friday night that the u. S. Attorney in the Southern District of new york was, quote, stepping down, he was apparently ham handedly trying to force that u. S. Attorney into stepping down, into resigning, so that he could slot his own guys into that office much like he did in the u. S. Attorneys office in d. C. But he botched it. It did not work out well. He didnt do it right. I mean barr said in this latenight statement on friday night that Geoffrey Berman had resigned. Geoffrey berman had not, and he very soon made that publicly clear. Barr then said, well, okay, if im not firing you, the president has fired you. Barr then said in writing that President Trump had fired Geoffrey Berman. The president himself then directly contradicted that and said, no, i didnt. I didnt have anything to do with it. I mean among other things, geoff berman fought back against whatever this is that attorney general william barr has just tried to pull off. Geoff berman fought back in such a way that now his deputy, a woman named audrey strauss, will be keeping control of that Office Rather than barr being allowed to put in his handpicked replacements. But with all those cases in sdny, all those ongoing cases that pertain to the president s interests and, honestly, the prospect that if the president is going to be indicted for anything that he did while he was in office, that he would be indicted after being voted out of office in november, once he was no longer president. If you were expecting any sort of indictment for anything the president did while in office, that would likely come from the Southern District of new york. But, hey, the year is young. I mean with William Barrs legitimately horrifying record of intervening in matters of justice on the president s sayso and on the president s behalf, the one way william barr most badly botched this whole thing is that he forgot to come up with any explanation for why he was trying to fire that prosecutor and take over that office with his own guys. He didnt even cook up a cover story. And now judiciary chairman jerry nadler says he has opened an investigation into what exactly william barr has done this time. Oops. Chairman nadler joins us live next. Rs, but what i do count on. Is boost high protein. And now, theres boost mobility. With key nutrients to help support. Joints, muscles, and bones. Try boost mobility, with added collagen. I need all the breaks, that i can get. At liberty butchumal cut. Liberty biberty cut. Well dub it. Liberty mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. 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I really appreciate you making time to be here with us tonight. Thanks for your time, sir. Thank you, rachel. So i, along with everybody, was shocked by the news on friday night that the attorney general was announcing that the u. S. Attorney in new york was stepping down. I was something more than shocked when i saw that u. S. Attorney, geoff berman, respond by saying, i have done no such thing, and i do not intend to resign. Since that happened on friday night, have you been able to figure out any more about what happened . Do you have any idea why attorney general barr has moved to oust that u. S. Attorney and done so in this sort of shocking way that he did . Well, we certainly think that its because this is another instance of the attorney general doing the president s bidding, corrupting justice, and trying to make sure that the Justice Department doesnt do its proper job. It only serves ass an instrumen of the president for whitewashing the improper things hes doing. Thats why were holding this investigation into the corruption by barr of the Justice Department, which weve announced. In terms of mr. Bermans public statements around this sort of botched incident, it was striking to me that he, in his initial statement, immediately talked about protecting the important investigations of that office, making sure that they were not impeded in any way. He sort of outmaneuvered the attorney general over the course of the weekend so that now it is his deputy, his handpicked and trusted deputy who is going to stay in control of that office instead of attorney general barrs handpicked replacements. But obviously the way this all went down and what you just said suggests to a lot of people that there may be investigations here that touch on the president s interest that the attorney general is trying to mess with. If thats the case, how do you figure that out . How do you structure such an investigation to find out if there has been that kind of improper influence . Whos allowed to tell you those sort of things . Well, we are having an investigation because thats exactly what we suspect. We will be having mr. Zelinsky, for example, one of the prosecutor whos resigned because he was told by the attorney general to corruptly change the sentencing recommendations for the president s friend, roger stone. Hell be one of the witnesses. Well have other witnesses, and i think we can get to the bottom of this corruption of the Justice Department by the president and by bill barr. Those witnesses that are going to testify at your hearing on wednesday, do you theyre both serving Justice Department officials. Will they have whistleblower protections so that they cant be retaliated against at the Justice Department for what theyre going to tell you . Theyll be able to say what they have to say. Can you elaborate on that at all . I think no. I think that they will be able to say what they have to say, and thats sufficient for now. Its been reported over the course of this evening both axios and now nbc news reporting that you are that you intend to send a subpoena to the attorney general for his testimony in this investigation that youre launching. Is that true, and what do you expect will be the result . Well, we have begun the process to issue that subpoena. Yes, it is very much true. We are doing that. Do you expect that attorney general barr will respect the subpoena, or do you expect that hell defy it . Well, we dont know that. Subpoenas are supposed to be respected obviously, but the corruption of the attorney general, of barr, may lead him to try to defy it. In terms of mr. Berman we have other we have other go ahead, sir. Let me say we have other remedies too to try to force the attorney general. We can eliminate his office budget. There are a number of things we can do, which we will do. His office budget, like his paper clips budget, or does he have some sort of large discretionary amount of funding that you could cut off . No, no. Were talking about the budget in the department of justice. Ah. In terms of mr. Berman and the firing of this u. S. Attorney, youve said that you have invited him to testify about what just happened, and you said this weekend that you expect him to testify although not necessarily at this hearing thats coming up imminently on wednesday. Can you tell us anything else about whether or not about your invitation to mr. Berman and what we should expect in terms of hearing from him about what hes just been through . Well, we would certainly like mr. Berman to testify. There are issues about his testimony in terms of prejudicing prosecutions, so that may limit that. Well have to see. I just want to i know that youre limited in terms of what you can say, and im limited in terms of what i can articulate about my frustrations on this. But at the top of the show i went through this list of all of the different prosecutions that have happened at sdny just since President Trump has been a candidate that all touch on him, a number of which appear to be ongoing or were potentially looking at superseding indictments for people or existing cases for more people who are connected to the president , including his personal lawyer mr. Giuliani, who has recently resurfaced, is becoming part of the reelection campaign. Im very worried given what weve seen from attorney general barr about the way hes intervened in ongoing investigations and ongoing prosecutions to undo things on behalf of the president. And because other people in the Justice Department respect the tradition and the necessity to not talk about ongoing cases, im worried that there isnt a way for us to find out about that improper pressure. Well, that is the point of the investigation that were doing. We are very worried that the traditional independence of the Justice Department and of the Southern District of new york is being interfered with and subverted corruptly by attorney general barr on behalf of the president. We very much believe that that is what is happening, and that is what we are investigating because that kind of corruption of destroying the independence of the Justice Department of the Southern District and trying to make it into a personal plaything of the president is exactly the kind of corruption that this country cannot tolerate and that we are investigating here. House judiciary chairman jerry nadler. Sir, i really appreciate you making the time tonight. I know these next couple of days are going to be really intense. Thanks for helping us understand. Thank you, rachel. All right. Weve got much more to come here tonight, including a conversation with new yorker reporter david rohde, who has some late reporting tonight about William Barrs own plans in terms of what happens next in his own career. Stay with us. For People Living with hiv, 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. Serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure. Rare, lifethreatening side effects include a buildup of lactic acid and liver problems. Do not take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or rifampin. 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Absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. So you can really promise better sleep . Not promise. Prove. Dont miss our weekend special, save 50 on sleep number 360 limited Edition Smart bed. Ends monday. To learn more, go to sleepnumber. Com quote, on friday night, william barr seemed to embrace obstruction of justice as a way of life in his ongoing defense of donald trump. It didnt go well. In an apparent attempt to protect President Trumps personal lawyer, rudy giuliani, from criminal prosecution, attorney general barr issued a false statement that the u. S. Attorney in manhattan, Geoffrey Berman, had agreed to step down. Barr, surely at trumps behest, was attempting to remove a federal prosecutor who has carried out a series of politically embarrassing investigations of trump allies. So begins the latest piece from bliez winning reporter david rohde at thenewyorker. Com. David rohde has been on the william barr beat in recent months. In this piece he goes on to describe attorney general William Barrs ham handed ousting of the u. S. Attorney in manhattan as capturing, quote, the confusing combination of brazen corruption and sheer incompetence that has become a hallmark of the Trump Administration. Quote, the attempted friday night firing confirmed allegations in a new book by the former National Security adviser john bolton, which trump and barr unsuccessfully tried to suppress, that the president has repeatedly interfered in criminal investigations into friends, political allies, and most of all himself. Heres the reason i want to talk to david rohde about this tonight, not just because hes covered this attorney general extensively for the new yorker and for his latest book, but because david rohdes reporting has led him to some sober conclusions in the last few months about bill barrs Justice Department. Earlier this year david rohde told me on this show that bill barr believes the president has the power to disobey a court order, which is the actual reallife definition of a constitutional crisis and may become a very operable concern if the Supreme Court, in a soon expected ruling, says that the president s financial records and taxes have to be handed over to prosecutors and congressional investigators. Mr. Roed published a piece just last month headlined from the Justice Department to the intelligence community, donald trump and william barr have won, arguing that any guardrails preventing a president from using the Justice Department and intelligence agencies for political purposes have now been, quote, obliterated, which makes it all the more notable tonight that david rohde sees signs that donald trump and bill barrs attempts to turn the Justice Department on its head so that it does the president s bidding, those efforts may be encount ring resistance. Quote, in a sign of how quickly trump and barrs political standing is shifting, one of trumps most fawning backers in the senate, lindsey graham, indicated this weekend that he would not support trumps pick to replace geoff berman at sdny. After other Senate Republicans declined to support trumps pick, barr agreed to appoint bermans deputy following standard practice. Support for barr among career Justice Department officials appears to be eroding. Over the past several weeks, three senior Department Officials have announced their departures. As i mentioned at the top of the show, head of the Civil Division, head of the Criminal Division, and the solicitor general all just resigned in very quick succession. Things feel very uncertain at the u. S. Justice department right now. It kind of feels like just about anything could happen next. Joining us now with what has been a pretty clear crystal ball about this part of our government in the Trump Administration is david rohde, who is executive editor for news at new yorker. Com. Hes also the author most recently of in deep the fbi, the cia, and the truth about americas deep state. David rohde, its great to see you. Thanks for making time to be here tonight. Thank you. Youre so kind to have me on the show. Ive been talking about this for the last, you know, few minutes here on the show. Just spoke with chairman nadler. Let me first just ask you if anything that ive said strikes you as wrong or backwards or if im missing the point of any of this as it has unfolded over these last couple of days. No. Youre absolutely right, and its been surprising. You talked about this threeweek time frame from clearing, you know, the park outside the white house to this, you know, amateurish effort to oust the u. S. Attorney in manhattan on friday. Something seems off in the way bill barr is executing. You spoke with somebody at the Justice Department who wouldnt let you print their name, but somebody who appeared to be close to barrs thinking on this matter in terms of whats going on with him right now. What did that person tell you about how barr is sort of coping with how botched this has all been, like the way this has all kind of fallen apart . The line from the Justice Department is that, you know, bill barr is following the beliefs hes had for decades. You mentioned this earlier, the power of a president to, in essence, run criminal investigations of himself, to pick and choose which prosecutor looks at his allies, and that barr is determined to stay in office through november. Hes standing by his beliefs from law and order. If you remember, barr was agreeing with President Trump that, you know, the streets needed to be dominated, to who, you know, gets to investigate the president and whether he has to obey subpoenas from congress. Well, on that point, jerry nadler, chairman jerry nadler of the judiciary committee, just told me that effectively they are on track towards subpoenaing bill barr to testify as they have opened up an investigation into whether he has been improperly interfering in criminal prosecutions to benefit the president. My expectation based in part on your reporting and analysis is that bill barr will ball up any subpoena that he receives and throw it in the trash immediately, that he doesnt have any respect for those kinds of supposedly mandatory summons at all. I think thats whats going to happen, and then the big change, i think more than anything in the last few weeks in addition to the protests, is the Judiciary Branch is standing up to the president. Chief Justice John Roberts delivered two, you know, politically devastating decisions this week or last week to the Trump Administration. Youve got judge sullivan thats fighting barrs effort to throw out the charges against michael flynn. So i was very worried. I wrote, as you pointed out, that barr and trump were winning. So im surprised, and it is, i think, a positive sign that these judges are pushing back. And, again, as you noticed the key dynamic here is lindsey graham, a republican who has endorsed everything donald trump has done and bill barr has done, is under so much political pressure as he faces reelection in South Carolina that he didnt back this maneuver on friday night. So its a dramatic shift in trump and barrs, i think, political standing and political capital. It might last, given how quickly things have been changing throughout this administration, but something has changed what bill barr is doing is not working, and this attempt on friday night failed. David rohde, executive editor of the new yorker website. David, thank you for your time tonight. Thanks for your reporting. I appreciate you being here. Thank you. You know, i will just say that when bill barr, at the president s behest, decapitated the u. S. Attorneys office in washington, d. C. , engineered the ousting of the u. S. Attorney there, and installed all his own flying monkeys on motorcycles to get in there and botch and screw up and undo ongoing prosecutions and sentencing procedures for people who had already pled guilty or who had been convicted and, as far as we can tell, potentially also installed people to quash ongoing investigations that had not yet led to public indictments where we could see charges when that happened, when he successfully did what he needed to do to eliminate any threat to the president from the u. S. Attorneys office in d. C. , it was seen as sort of like a horror movie, but it didnt cause enough of a backlash that trump and barr didnt just try to do it in the next most Important Office to them too. They got away with it in d. C. Thats why they tried this weekend to do it in new york. And theyll continue trying to do it in new york. Berman is out of there. His deputy is still there, but they will continue because it worked for them in d. C. , and they need it to work for them in new york. And what kind of defense will the rest of the country make of the rule of law and the independent prosecutorial system that accountability and our Constitutional Republic depends on . Seeing what happened in d. C. Should have been a fivealarm fire. Well, now heres another u. S. Attorneys office thats on fire too. Wheres the fire brigade . All right. Well be back. Stay with us. To tmobile essentials and save up to 50 off your Current Service and smartphones. Keep your phones. Well pay them off. Only at tmobile. 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But you do sell investments that earn you high commissions, right . We dont have those. So, whats in it for you . Our fees are structured so we do better when you do better. At Fisher Investments were clearly different. Today is supposed to be what is the beginning of my workweek, but last night i picked up an extra shift, and that is because we dont have enough nurses to take care of all the patients that we have on any given day. So a lot of us are working overtime, several shifts a week just to be able to take care of the volume of patients that we have in the icu right now. So just depending on the week, going to work four shifts or five shifts instead of our three. So today is supposed to be day one, but day two. So thats okay. Last night was tough. Its been a lot of Emotional Distress amongst myself and my coworkers. A lot more endoflife care and conversations. Its been really emotionally distressing. Seeing these young people get sick with families and these lives left to live, um, that just pass away, and its hard. You see them come in, and theyre gasping for air, and you intubate them, and you try to reassure them that its going to be okay, and then its not. And i honestly dont know how bad things are going to get, and its scary. Yeah, im going to go take a shower real quickly, have breakfast with my kids, and try to switch to mom mode and just be a strong, reassuring person in my kids life, give them stability. Thats the best i can do, and if anything, were going to fake it today because im not feeling all right. But were going to make it work. Were going to make it work. Last night was a bit tough in the sense that it was just really busy for the hospital in itself. I didnt get to see our intensivist. She was so busy with several codes and admissions, lots of admissions. So we have very limited space in the icu right now. Its becoming a bit of a problem. It is a problem actually. Theres talks of crisis nurses coming in soon and helping us out, and i would be very thankful for that. Thats melody ortiz. Shes is an icu nurse at Banner University Medical Center in phoenix, arizona. What the Frontline Health providers are saying is that the situation is unsustainably hard. As you heard her say there, for example, she said that some of their patients are hooked up to ecmo machines that are designed to work as an external set of lungs when even a ventilator isnt enough. Ecmo machines are extremely sensitivity life support. At the moment, they cant afford that many staff because theres so many people in this circumstance, so its one nurse per ecmo. Thats how overwhelmed they are at the moment. Its not just Banner University Medical Center in phoenix. As of last night, intensive care units across arizona were at 84 capacity. Every day more than 1,000 people are being hospitalized in that state with no relief in sight. Daily case numbers skyrockets over the past few weeks. And while the state is just barely treading water and dealing with people who are already sick, its also struggling with a testing system that has proven to be among the worst in the nation. This weekend residents in one part of southwest phoenix waited in line for nearly 13 hours just to try to get tested. It was a mileslong line of cars, 13 hours. One man told the Arizona Republic he brought his grandmother in to get tested early at 5 30 in the morning. They sat in the sun for more than nine hours before they decided they couldnt wait any longer, and they just went home and she never got tested. That is a bad sign in a place that is already looking at numbers off the charts with hospitals that are already full. Naturally thats where the president is going tomorrow for a big congregate, inperson, inside event because tulsa was such a success, why not follow it up . His first stop is going to be in yuma, arizona, one of the hardest hit counties in the country. In arizona, they were one of the first Hospital Systems to be overwhelmed, to have to start medevacing their patients elsewhere. Hes going to yuma not to do anything having to do with the pandemic response. Hes going to talk about his wall. From there hell head to phoenix for a kpan speech that more than 3,000 people are expected to attend indoors. Yeah, tulsa went so great, why not start in on phoenix next of all places . Are you thinking about doing a meatpacking plant tour next . Maybe some nursing home events . While youre probably thinking it might be dodgy to attend a tightly packed indoor rally in a state with an exploding coronavirus epidemic, the pastors of the church where the president s going to be speaking want you to know that actually everythings fine. Hey, gang, we have some exciting information about what were doing to fight covid19. Were probably the first church in the nation to weve installed clean air exp. We have Technology Developed by members of our church and weve installed these units. And it kills 99. 9 of covid. Its ionization of the air. It takes particulates out and covid cannot live in that environment. When you come into our auditorium, 99 of covid is gone, killed f it was there in the first place. You can know when you come here, youll be safe and protected. Thank god for great technology, and thank god for being proactive. Amen. Bless you guys. They solved it. They figured out how to get rid of it totally. Nothing to worry about, i suppose. Its not like arizona is in crisis or anything. Everythings fine. Listen to those guys. They got it all under control. Watch this space. [ engines revving ] its amazing to see them in the wild like th shhh. For those who were born to ride, theres progressive. Its like walking into the Chocolate Factory and you won a golden ticket. All of these are face masks. This looks like a bottle of vodka. But when we first got these, we were like whoa [laughing] my threeyearold, when we get a box delivered, screams mommys work mommys work. With this pandemic, safety is even more important to make sure we go home safe every single day. Safety is even more important to make sure we go home as business moves forward, were all changing the way things get done. Like how we redefine collaboration. How we come up with new ways to serve our customers. And deliver our products. But no matter how things change, one thing never will you can rely on the people and the network of at t. To help keep your business connected. Police just sprayed something. You can see them spraying right now. You can see them spraying and backing up the people. Thats shomari stone, a reporter for the nbc affiliate in d. C. Reporting tonight from Lafayette Square, right across from the white house. D. C. And federal park police have used gas again against protesters in Lafayette Square. The u. S. Parks police just sent out this are working to prevent the destruction of the Andrew Jackson statue in front of the white house. The park is temporarily closed. This is an ongoing situation tonight in d. C. Well have eyes on it throughout the night. Our live coverage continues with the last word can lawrence odonnell. Good evening. Just when you think you cant be shocked, the friday night attempted firing of the attorney of the Southern District of new york was stunning and then his comeback, you cant fire me was even more stunning and ultimately Jeffrey Bermans win as i think you have clearly described in your hour is