Maxine waters joins me when all in starts now good evening from philadelphia im ali velshi in for chris hayes. The coronavirus nightmare is getting worse in 40 states across the country, and the president continues to fail in leading the country out of this nightmare. So its not surprising that the pandemic is the single biggest thing driving the president ial election right now tonight joe biden was trying to fill that president ial void in his interview with my colleague joy reid on her new show the reid out. And that makes sense given Donald Trumps disastrous and unprechbtd crossexamination about the pandemic yesterday on fox news and so knowing hes got to turn around americas perception of his Coronavirus Response donald trump announced hes going to resume his coronavirus briefings this week. Remember those he stopped doing them back in april after he called them a waste of time and, honestly, hes not wrong because they were nothing more than a sideshow in case you had forgotten about them, this is the kind of stuff we used to get daily from those briefings. Trump brought in ceos to lavish him with phrase, including a fox news favorite, the my pillow guy. He regularly used the briefings to lie and discount the dangers of the virus and blame others for his own shortcomings, and he regularly attacked journalists and in one the very last briefings he suggested that people might ingest bleach, almost as a cleaning, to defeat the virus. So its truly puzzling that the white house believes that more of these briefings will help the president s disastrous response to the coronavirus or the publics perception of them. In any way especially since things havent improved much since those bleach comments today we saw record new coronavirus cases in states like minnesota, alaska, kansas and georgia. Georgia, where the republican governor is suing to prevent atlantas mayor from enforcing a mask mandate american tourists have been banned from entering the bahamas, even though tourists from other countries are allowed into the bahamas, because americans are too dangerous to be allowed into other countries. The canadian government will not allow my hometown team, the toronto blue jays, to play games in their home city because of the risk of carrying the virus from the United States things have gotten so bad that the New York Times reports some republican governors have been, quote, holding latenight phone calls among themselves to trade ideas and grievances they have sought out partners in the administration other than the president , including Vice President mike pence, who despite echoing mr. Trump in public is seen by governors as far more attentive to the continuing disaster. The president got bored with it, david carney, an adviser to the Texas Governor greg abbott, said of the pandemic. He got bored with it the failures of donald trump and his handling of the coronavirus have been on full display throughout this pandemic but we have rarely had him specifically have to answer for them until this weekend when he sat down for an interview with fox newss Chris Wallace do you regret not wearing a mask in public from the start and would you consider, will you consider, a National Mandate that people need to wear masks no. I want people to have a certain freedom and i dont believe in that, no everybody was saying dont wear a mask all of a sudden everybody has got to wear a mask and as you know, masks cause problems too with that being said, im a believer in masks. I think masks are good but sir, testing is up 37 . Well, thats good. I understand. Cases are up 194 . It isnt just the testing has gone up. Its that the virus has spread the Positivity Rate has increased. Many of those cases are young people that would heal in a day. They have the sniffles, and we put it down as a test. You said at one point i think were going to be very good with the coronavirus i think that at some point thats going to sort of just disappear, i hope. Ill be right eventually. I will be right eventually i said its going odisappear. Ill say again, its going to disappear. Does that discredit i dont think so. It is going to disappear, and i will be right eventually thats actually what the president of the United States told Chris Wallace over the weekend as more than 140,000 americans have lost their lives to this virus. Were living through one of the worst Economic Crises since the Great Depression americans know this. And we know that because were seeing it in the polls theyre looking for an alternative to donald trump. Just a little while ago on the debut episode of the reid out joe biden made the case why he is that alternative. The words of president s matter, no matter how incompetent the president is the words of the president can make the market rise or fall they can take us to war. They can bring peace they can do a lot. And so as president of the United States, the first thing im going to do is stand up and talk sense and be honest with the American People, level with them, tell them exactly what i know and whats going to happen and take responsibility for whats happening im joined now by someone who knows how to run and win a Campaign David plouffe. Weighs president Barack Obamas 2008 Campaign Manager and a former white house senior adviser. Hes also the author of the book a citizens guide to beating donald trump. David, good to see you thank you for being here its kind of a remarkable week its always a remarkable week in the Trump Administration but in this last week we have seen poll after poll after poll showing donald trump paring down to his real core of supporters and numbers below which hes not likely to go because people are looking at this coronavirus mess and realizing he just cant be trusted. The numbers, the question ask those things specifically. How does joe biden deal with this does he just sort of stay on the sideline and keep it quiet or can he actually provide something that sounds like a meaningful alternative to people who are losing hope . Well, i think youre right, ali. I think the American People or at least 50 to 55 of them have decided donald trump should not be rehired to be president so joe biden needs now to get hired. He needs to continue to make the case interviews like tonight, he has an announcement of his running mate coming up, the Democratic Convention, the debates most importantly will be an opportunity for people that have already decided i cant take four more years of Donald Trumps incompetence to fill in the blanks and give them comfort and confidence that joe biden will not just be the alternative to trump but a good president. So yes, its really important on the economy, on health care, on the pandemic, on distribution of the vaccine, on bringing the country together infrastructure, all the things that people care about people have to get the sense that hes more than biden is not trump and that he was obamas vp i think theyre really starting to do that i thought his green Energy Speech and Climate Change speech was really important the economic speech about buying and building here in america was really important he needs to do those each and every week ali, ill just make a point. People are voting in battleground states starting in six weeks, so the election is happening before we know it in reality. Whats interesting is a lot of those people in those battleground states, particularly workingclass people whove really felt maybe the last decade or 15 years has been rough, and it has, they bought into his promises, his economic promises, most of which were broken well before the pandemic, which he now has zero chance of fulfilling so at this point people do need that alternative theres a real need for people who thought he was going to make America Great again, who realize theres zero chance thats going to happen. But that is, i think, the remaining piece of the puzzle for the Biden Campaign, which is trump still, his numbers are starting to sag on trust in the economy, but theyre still the best numbers he has. So you have to puncture that first of all, he doesnt have the competence to rebuild the economy because hes not going to deal well with the pandemic, hes not going to deal well with distributing the vaccine hes going to be a disaster. The economy will never, you know, flourish when were still in the grips of a pandemic so you have to puncture that but make the case that hes going to build it back for people like him and people at the very top economically i think joe biden is uniquely suited to make that case when i think about the debates, when i think about the Democratic Convention, to me thats the single most important thing to do amongst many important things, is to say you cant trust donald trump to rebuild the economy for people like you and your family, but you can trust me and heres what im going to do. Either the Democratic Convention or the selection of a Vice President is going to be sort of a Central Point of enthusiasm for the Biden Campaign joy reid asked donald im sorry, joe bide benn that a little earlier on the reid out. Lets listen to what he said are you committed to naming a black woman as your Vice President ial running mate . I am not committed to naming any but the people ive named, and among them there are four black women. So that decision is under way right now. And by the way, black women have supported me my entire career. You all look like all of a sudden there was an epiphany in South Carolina i had had over a 96 , 94 rating in the state with the eighth largest black community in the United States of america, delaware and so theyre the ones as that old saying goes that brought me to the dance i have been loyal. They have been loyal to me and so it is important that my administration, i promise you, will look like america how did he walk that line, David Plouffe . Because hes right he has had the support of the Africanamerican Community in fact, in this particular nomination campaign they brought him to the dance how does he handle that . Well, i think, you know, joe biden has a really unique Vantage Point on this question having gone through it in 2008 and serving as Vice President. He will serve the person hes most comfortable with and confident will be a good governing partner. The campaign is actually secondary to if he wins who he wants to be in that position that job is not a warm bucket of spit anymore that being said, if he decides not to pick a black woman, there is obviously going to be questions. Joe biden has to be comfortable that if he doesnt pick someone who is a black woman that the person hes picking is clearly the person above all else that he wants to be that partner. I think he made a point about his cabinet. And thats an opportunity. Well see ultimately if he announces some potential cabinet picks before the election. But i think to talk about the types of people that youll have in your cabinet is an important way to show diversity as well. I think hes going to pick the person that says you know, whether im in an economic depression digging out of this pandemic, a Foreign Policy crisis, who can deal with congress, who do i want down the hallway in the west wing for me . And i think thats a very personal decision. In many respects pts its a lonely decision. Because he has advisers like any president ial nominee does. But hes got to live with this decision and the most important thing is for voters to say that person can be president on day one. And the good thing is we have over a dozen people i think who will fit that qualification. David, always good to see you. Thank you for joining me this is a little earlier than i typically do tv on a weeknight, so i hadnt had my dinner yet tonight, and thanks for bringing up warm buckets of spit. I think i might just pass on that tonight good to see you tonight. David plouffe, always a pleasure regardless of who wins in november Congress Needs to act now to save millions of americans whose lives have been turned upside down by this virus. Let me just remind you of the numbers. Right now 25 million americans are receiving an additional 600 a week of unemployment benefits. Those are federally added benefits that is scheduled to run out starting at the end of this week different states have different deadlines. But it starts to run out this week House Speaker nancy pelosi and topranked Senate DemocratChuck Schumer are scheduled to meet trumps chief of staff mark meadows and treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin tomorrow can they work out a deal in time to make sure americans have what they need during this crisis joining me to discuss that is the top democrat in the United States senate, senator Chuck Schumer. Of new york. Senator, it is good to see you thank you for being with us. There is really an issue with the degree to which the urgency of this has dimmed certainly among some of your republican colleagues in the senate and the white house, which has decided to sort of put coronavirus on the back burner how do we deal with the fact that for so many millions of americans this is really real. That 600 makes a big difference it might mean the difference between having your home and not having your home. Youre right. Our republican friends and the president have been totally asleep at the switch its three months since we passed the last covid bill, and we have so many different problems facing us that make people unsafe, economically and healthwise. And so mcconnell said, lets take a look. Lets do a pause then he said maybe localities should go bankrupt donald trump has avoided this problem, says its going away. Well, you cant make the coronavirus go away just by wishing it to go away. You have got to do something so for months three weeks ago Speaker Pelosi and i sent a letter to Mitch Mcconnell and said lets sit down and start negotiating. We didnt hear a peep out of him. Now finally theyre beginning to talk to one another. But if you believe the press reports, and from what im hearing they were all divided amongst themselves there are 10 or 15 republicans who dont want to spend a nickel and let us go into the Great Depression because theyre such hard right ideologues. Then there are all kinds of disputes the president actually told the republican senators not to put in any money for testing or Contact Tracing. Well, when you ask yourself, why are we doing so much worse, this is a shame, a shame, we should be ashamed of this, we are doing so much worse than the european countries, italy, spain. They had as virulent a crisis as we did at one point. The east Asian Countries its because were not doing the testing. Were not doing the Contact Tracing that they prepared for and did. And now trump is saying dont do it anymore donald trump has put his head in the sand he is responsible for the safety of the American People, and he has hurt that safety dramatically and our Republican Senate friends are so afraid of donald trump that they dont budge. They dont do anything now all of a sudden, its beginning to dawn on a few of them, and as i said theyre divided, that if they dont do anything the economy is going to just go into a total tailspin and instead of a deep recession, the worst recession weve had since the Great Depression, we could end up with a depression so theyre beginning to nibble at the edges but if you look at what they proposed, it is such weak tea that its not going to solve the problem. Right and the weak tea is a problem because we have more than a Million People signing onto unplamt rolls every week we have airline employees who say soon as the deal they have runs out at the end of october tens of thousands more will be unemployed weve got these stop and start cities that are happening. What is the proposal that you and Speaker Pelosi think makes the most sense ours is a robust, strong proposal its called the heroes act it deals with the major problems lets talk about three or four of them. Number one, it keeps the pandemic Unemployment Insurance going at least until january 31st because were going to have more and more Unemployed People lots of businesses that have just been hanging on by their fingernails are going down what are we going to tell these people dont feed your families get kicked out of your snoemz dont go to the stores and buy things thats the formula for disaster. So thats number one number two, we have in there robust money and specific plans as to how to do testing and