States who works deep inside the west wing, who has open access to the oval office, how are we, how are we having a conversation about safe returns to school . Right. This is another prime example where its the lack of a National Strategy is hitting home everywhere including the west wing and not only one i think its critical to understand that again, even in the west wing, they have access to that rapid testing, nicole, that most of the country doesnt have. I think schools and parents would be willing to take a chance if they knew their child could get a rapid test result. The west wing has something that even the rest of the country doesnt have, but on top of that, they believe from reports from nbc, that he contracted the virus from his college age daughter who he was kind of staycationing with. This just shows you all the layers, all the testing, how complex this is, and how we have to take it seriously when we say this virus knows no boundaries. Again, were talking about schools, but the same holds true, weve got americans who work and have no choice but to go to work. So we need to think about all the strategies to keep them safe and hopefully as congress thinks about this stimulus package, testing, testing, testing. Weve got to do better. All right, doctor, please stay with us because were going to dig a little deeper on this topic we started querying you on. How we get our schools back to school safely. Our friend, randy, of the American Federation of teachers joins us again for that. Stay with us. Joinuss again for. Stay with us i am in so much debt. Sixtytwo thousand seven hundred and ten dollars and thirtyone cents. Sofi allowed me to refinance all of my loans to one low Interest Rate and an affordable monthly payment. And i just feel like theres an end in sight now and that my debt doesnt define me anymore. Sofi is helping me get my money right. Among my patisensitivity as well tas gum issues. 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With schools set to reopen, either in person or in some hybrid manner very soon, teachers across the country say they are unprepared and uninformed about reopenings even as donald trump calls for schools to do just that. We welcome back to the broadcast the American Federation of teachers and nbc news medical contributor, dr. Patel. So, randy, where are we . So, you know, where we are is that you need as you and i have talked about a lot and the doctor whether reenforce, you need three basic things to reopen schools, school buildings. One, that the covid is under control. That youre not surging cases and with that, you have some kind of testing, tracing, and isolation process so that an outbreak doesnt become a surge. Number two, you need the safeguards that are in place, embedded in schools so that a virus doesnt get transmitted and that includes the six that ive talked about over and over. Masks and physical distancing, cleaning and ventilation, reasonable accommodation and obviously washing hands. And third, you need the resources to be able to do all of this. And so whats happened is without the resources from washington, with covid surging in different places, as people have started to plan, you saw fairfax county, articlington, s we cant do it. You saw l. A. , houston, atlanta, say the surge in cases require us to start remotely. The only real outlier, which is unconscionable right now, is florida, where they cant start in person and yet, theyll close a convention for adults, but they wont actually ensure that kids start remotely given the spike and thats why we sued last week in florida to stop desanctis from jeopardizing kids and teachers lives. Randi, what is the second line of the email from the school nurse . Every parent knows that email. Every parent knows the school nurse and you get a that email. Pink eye in kindergarten. Vomiting and the parent flu in third grade. What is the instruction if the email comes home from the school that says case of covid diagnosed in second grade. Do what . What is the second sentence . School shutting down . Get your kid tested . Stay home for 14 days . So the second sentence is, so, just like what baseball is doing in terms of closing, but they have the tests, this just happened in Westchester County this weekend. Which is a child came up with covid. They have to stop summer school. And then theyre doing the tracing and see another child has covid. So you have to, the second line is, this is part of the reason why we have isolation rooms in schools if they reopen. This is part of the reason we need nurses in schools, which we dont have. But the second line is, your child is safe in isolation. Please come and we need the then make sure all the other parents and teachers know. The school needs to be closed down to really, really, really clean it then we have to find out if you know, how much of an outbreak there was. But this is part of the reason why tif you reopen buildings, there has to be this six foot physical distance iing and everybody has to wear, theyre not going to wear an a eft mask, but they have to wear a mask and have the cleaning and ventilation. Were in an unprecedented moment. The only reason were going through all of this is because we know how important inschool learning is for kids and we know how important it is for kids and we know how important the Digital Divide has been. But in this moment of time, if we dont have the resources and we dont really make the safety, then how are we going to do this . Even if places where theres not a surge. Dr. Patel, is there any way of actually realizing what randi just laid out, that the average test result in new york, its nine days. Across the country, its eight to 14 days, takes that long. And especially an asymptomatic kid, you get a result back 14 days later, you could have taken down a 1,000 person school. Yeah, thats right, nicole. And thats the point. Its not, its not useful to have test federal government it takes honestly even more than 48 to 72 hours. We have technology where we could get the test results faster but were still facing those same supply chain and reagents and swab issues. So you cant make any of this happen as randi said, without those pieces in place. But i think more importantly, you know, we all want the economy, we want everything to kind of get back to as close to normal as possible and i think what were all underscoring is that getting children back to school is part of that, but it can only be done when we feel confidence that we can be healthy. And that means teachers, parents, students, workers, all of us. We have to feel confidence in being healthy. And everything youve heard from randi, her colleagues, my own kids teachers, theyre very nervous that they cannot stay healthy. And i think thats where we have to have a full stop and deal with the issues that randi outlined. Dr. Patel, could i ask you to make a prediction. What percentage of school kids do you think will experience in Person Learning in the fall . Yeah, i mean, you know, ive learned over past election cycles not to get in the business of predictions but heres what i can tell you. Me, too. If you look right now at criteria of positive rates in states, we only have about four states, nicole, that have a less than 5 test positivity rate. And that includes our own district of columbia, maryland and virginia. So we are definitely not looking in four weeks at reopening huge parts of this country and what makes me really sad, randi mentioned this Digital Divide. I am so concerned that were going to have just extreme losses in all sorts of accomplishments all because we couldnt as adults and a nation get our act together and thats, my prediction is that we are going to have an incredibly stressed parent workforce. Incredibly stressed Education Community and that we will see some pockets in some states where they are in person or have hybrid models that work successfully, it will not be a large part of the nation and it certainly will not be the vulnerable communities that really deserve the best chance at this. Dr. Patel, randi, thank you both so much for having this conversation with us. Its so important to so many kids and just so many families. Coming up for us, protests in portland, oregon now for the 60th night in a row and now demonstrations have spread well beyond the northwest as protestors stand up to Donald Trumps surge of federal Law Enforcement around the country. Thats next. Al Law Enforcement around the country thats next. The fight for racial equality has taken center stage as demonstrations unfold across the west coast this weekend. Crowds flooded the streets of los angeles, oakland and seattle, renewing a call to End Police Brutality and in portland, the weeks long stand off between protestors and federal agents alongside local Law Enforcement reached a boiling point. Portland Police Declared sat nights protest a riot after they say protestors breached a fence to a federal courthouse and threw fireworks at officers. Law enforcement fired tear gas to break up the crowd. Joining our conversation is the creator, cohost an executive producer of the circus on showtime, Mark Mckinnon. Also joining us, Cornell Belcher from brilliant corners research. Both of you im sure about wag the dog. Thomas friedman wrote a column last week that trump is doing exact ly that, except declaring war in this instance, inside his own country. Mark, i wonder if you think thats what were seeing and if you think folks on both sides, both the federal Law Enforcement officials and the protestors themselves, are pawns in all that. I dont think theres any question about it, nicole. In a week in which just recently donald trump had to a announce that he was not holding his convention in florida and he started about wearing maskmasksu know he did that for sections of strength. He wanted to be perceived as a strong man. So draw those things on which he had to retreat, i think hes doubling down on this notion of bringing Law Enforcement to local communities, where there are protests of racial justice. And the tragic irony here is on a day when he refuses to pay his respect in person to john lewis, hes Just Announced that hes paying more federal troops or federal Law Enforcement officers to go into these cities. And i just think its hypocritical, too, just from an ideological standpoint. Let states and localities make their own decisions, like on covid, for example, which there should have been more federal leadership. In this case, hes saying, you know, were going to bring in troops, even though the local officials in many cases dont want that help. You know, cornell, the only its so cynical, its so dark, just asking the question feels icky, but it seems the only protection from this is the kind of ground swell of public support for the original cause. The protest started after the killing of george floyd and youve got anywhere from 67 to 74 of americans identifying themselves as agreeing with the aims of black lives matter. But i wonder with your expertise and your eye towards Public Opinion and images, if democrats, you think, have any concern or should have any concern about these images . Well, yes, i think we should have some concern about these images, because, look, theres a reason why trump is pushing this. Youll remember, going back to 2018, when they said that we were basically being invaded by a hoard of immigrants coming from south america, and day after day, we were bombarded by this news that we were going to be invaded. And he literally moved armed forces to the border to stop an invasion. Driving this fear of the other is central to central donald trump. It didnt work in 2018 and i question whether it will work in 2020, because you do see, to your point, i think that 2020 is going to be really about the george floyd voter. And you know, you do see large majorities of white voters, particularly white suburban voters right now, in line with the protests. And supporting the protests. And i will point out that although when you look at a place like portland, thats not huge black populations. So i think its harder to scare suburban moms about protesters when theyre protesting. However, that said. I do worry that sort of the fear tactics that hes trying to use here, this ideal that the country is out of control and there is people out there to destroy your way of life and look at them, and im the only one who can stand up to that has historically worked in the United States of america. We have a whole history of it, of law and order candidates, you know, being the ones who come out on top. The good news, though, is and its why im hopeful this time is going to be problematic for republicans. Its good news, when you look at battleground districts across the country, the Police Reform candidate is actually doing about 20 points better than the law and order candidate, but certainly, im going to be watching to see as they escalate this up, do we get suburban voters pausing and falling back into where they once upon a time were . I mean, mark, cornell makes the perfect point, right . I mean, this worked for donald trump when he scared enough of a coalition, electorally speaking, with promises of whoever was on the other side of a fictional wall that mexico was going to pay for. He tried and failed in 18 with that slowmoving phantom caravan, that somehow miraculously disappeared the morning after the midterms. But i want to ask you specifically about some brandnew reporting in the Washington Post by carol l leonnig. Theres a whole lot of morningafter remorse by all the participants and thats why i started asking both of you of whether or not this is all for show. If the human beings on both sides of these clashes are the victims. The Washington Post reported that National Guard police suddenly moved on lafayette protesters, used Excessive Force before the trump visit. Its a new statement by an iraq veteran who now serves for the National Guard. Heres what he said about the june 1st protest at Lafayette Square. He said that demonstrators were behaving peacefully and that tear gas was deployed in an excessive use of force. And i guess the point of this body of reporting and this Important New Development from Carol Leonnig is that this is a playbook revealed, right . Well, i think the big question for most voters, nicole, is whether or not donald trump is bringing federal troops to actually try to quell violence or if hes using it as a political weapon. And that kind of reporting just suggest that its being used for politics. And i think the big question that most people have when they look at portland or other areas, where theres some conflicts and protests is the question of whether or not bringing in federal Law Enforcement is making the situation better. Its really just throwing gasoline on a fire. Just making the problem worse. Cornell, my last question goes to you. And its almost like the opening of a bad joke. How bad is donald trump . Hes so bad that the Ronald Reagan foundation asked him to stop using their likeness in their advertising. Your thoughts about divisions on the right, about the cisitting president . Oh, nicole, i think your old party has got to have a reckoning come november 2020. You think . Because, look, i think well probably talk about this, also. But when you look at the battleground states and look at the way suburban voters are reacting to this and look at you look at the way minority voters are asking to it, i think republicans are going to have to get off of this train and save themselves fairly soon, because you cant win the future, doubling down on these sort of politics of division. Nicole, rule number one in Cornell Belcher go ahead. Rule number one especially after hes left rule number one especially after hes left this earth. God rest his soul. Mark mckinnon, Cornell Belcher, two of the smartest people to talk to about anything, esp