In real time, and now the blame game inside the west wing, after President Trump acknowledged he publicly played down the coronavirus he says so as not to create a panic. Were live at the white house and on the campaign trail with how this is affecting candidates and more importantly voters. Across town the other bombshell from dhs now setting up aof off alarm bells in congress. A former top government analyst accusing the agency of actively twisting u. S. Intel to politically benefit the president. The lawyer for that whistleblower joins us live. Daylight out west bringing more orange skies up and down the pacific coast. Look at this, oregon confirming the first two deaths from those outofcontrol wildfires. A 12yearold boy and his grandmother, killed after being trapped in the flames. The states Fire Protection chief takes a minute to join us later in the show, as we cover all of it, up and down the coast. Im Hallie Jackson in washington, carol lee outside the white house, ali vitali in miami and garrett haake. And robert woods also an msnbc political analyst and moderator of Washington Week on pbs. Thanks everybody for being here. Carol, about ever we get into what youre hearing from your sources today i want to play what we know President Trump privately on the record admitted to bob woodward in february and march versus what he was saying publicly at the time. Its also more deadly than your, you know, even your strenuous flus. This is a flu. This is like a flu. This is more deadly. This is five per you know, this is 5 versus 1 and less than 1 . Sometimes they just get the snivels. You know, so this is deadly stuff. This is the new hoax. You just breathe the air, thats how its passed, and so thats a very tricky one, and thats a very delicate one. Its going to disappear one day its like a miracle, it will disappear. Now its turning out its not just old people, bob, but just today and yesterday, some startling facts came out. Young people are almost immune to this disease. The younger the better. Carol, talk to me about the damage control now from frankly all corners of the white house, all corners of trump world here, and what youre hearing from your sources. Reporter were seeing some serious damage control coming from the white house, from the president and his allies. The president is reaching for a familiar playbook, some of the same tactics hes used as hes tried to weather past fire storms, play one is discredit the source, weve seen the president and his allies already out aggressively quickly trying to discredit bob woodward. The president tweeted this morning recently said bob woodward had my quotes for many months. If he thought they were so bad or dangerous, why didnt he immediately report them in an effort to save lives . The president goes on to say because he knew they were good and proper answers, calm, no panic. Woodward has come under some criticism for holding onto these quotes. He said he wanted to report it out and that took some time, but youve seen the president move very quickly to try to contain this fire storm, and part of doing that, hes casting himself as a sort of victim who tried to cooperate with a journalist who was working on a book and thought he could shape it and give his insights and he would have a better outcome and lets take a listen to how he tried to defend himself in an interview last night with fox news. On the book itself, he called i didnt participate in his last one, and he does hit jobs with everybody, but i gave it a little bit of a shot. Sounds like its not going to be good, but if you look at what i said today, i said dont panic. Reporter and that there is another thing the president s been hitting on, that he didnt want to incite fear in people so he held on to what he knew privately and tried to instill calm across the country. Obviously theres a lot of space between instilling calm and doing what the president did after he said privately to bob woodward, this was a deadly virus and then was holding rallies and describing this as something thats not really that significant, its basically the flu. This is obviously becoming a campaign issue, and ali, you know that well, covering the bidenharris campaign. Kamala harris will be headed to miami today. How theyre trying to make this one of the messages in the campaign. Reporter well, it was already one of the messages of the campaign, hallie, both biden and harris have been laser focused on the pandemic and connecting that and trumps mishandling of it to the current economic crisis, but the Biden Campaign Rapid Response team has really been working overtime, they got a video up overnight of these comments trump made with bob woodward and biden himself is more expolice sit telling cnn he does blame trump for the rising death toll. Listen to what he said. The virus is not his fault but the deaths are his fault because he could have done something about it, jake, and look whats happened. Again, 190,000 dead and climbing. Hallie, this is a state, florida, that has struggled with their response to the coronavirus pandemic, obviously governor ran desantis taking many of his cues from President Donald Trump one of his closest allies. Kamala harris coming to the state today. Joe biden will be here tomorrow. Donald trump was earlier here this week. This is his home state this time around in the election. The state is preparing for a lot of political foot traffic in the coming weeks. This is one of the key if not the key battleground state on the map. I regular refer to it as the swingest swing state. The state has tight margins. Barack obama won this state by less than a point in 2012. Trump won by just over a point in 2016. Clearly the candidates starting to ramp this up and i imagine that Kamala Harris and joe biden tomorrow are also going to continue focusing on the pandemic especially in light of these latest comments. Hallie . Makes a lot of sense. Garrett, this news is making the front pages of newspapers not just here inside the beltway but outside as well. We looked at headlines from the key swing states, battlegrounds. Its there, making news everywhere from palm beach to detroit to pittsburgh and beyond. I want to know what youre hearing on the ground. Is this resonating where you are with people youre talking to just this morning . Reporter yes. I dont think this has broken through yet in michigan but theres room for it to, based on conferrings ive had. This goes beyond the typical trump scandal of the moment. Voters in michigan routinely tell pollsters and me that the economy is the number one issue here most recent poll showed joe biden pulling with the president. With the virus and the effects and the long tail on the economy, the idea the president could have prevented lives and the broader impact on the economy could make a difference. The softer Trump Supporters routinely tell me that the president s handling of the virus has been the most disappointing thing about his tenure, they wish hed wear masks more, in a more forthright way. This is the opposite of that and suggests there is room for the Biden Campaign to exploit this for a political perspective in battleground states like michigan. Interesting, thank you. Bob, you obviously are one of the bylines on the headlines with excerpts from the woodward book. The president said he didnt want to create panic, where he was saying he says his argument is Different Things fublly versus privately. In your coverage of the president and my coverage of him he has been comfortable creating urgent messaging around other issues, suburban crime, antifah and others as well. How does this message scare with in the past relates to wanting to keep people calm about various issues . He clearly made a decision to not go public with his feelings he expressed to bob woodward and this injects itself into the Campaign Season with less than two months before election day. Youre right, he raised issues like immigration, border control, caravans from central america, different issues you brought to the forefront of american politics deciding to bring the issues forward. When it came to the pandemic your video at the beginning of the program laid out the private comments and public message to the american people. In another conversation we did not play, bob, june 19th, bob woodward asked the president about white privilege, white men of the same generation who had privileged upbringings and woodward suggested maybe they had a better responsibility to understand the anger and the pain felt by black americans and asked the president do you feel youre in this white privileged cave, im paraphrasing. Here is what the president had to say. No, you really drank the koolaid, didnt you . Listen to you, wow. No, i dont feel that at all. How did this issue of Race Relations come up and what else did the president say about it . The president this a backandforth whether he believes systemic racism exists and said to an extent it does but didnt delve into it in any indepth way. You see throughout the book the conversations with bob woodward and President Trump on other race related matters. Says of senator Kamala Harris, joe bidens running mate, the first black come to be on a national ticket, he says of her at one point, see the hate, see the hate, he exclaims that his senior aide puts in front of him. Senator Harris Associated with the word hate in President Trumps eyes. Hes critical at numerous times of president barack obama referring to him by his first and middle name Barack Hussein and mississippii dismissive and way. Capitol hill team has been trying to pin down republicans to get some reaction to this. Here say little bis a little bi. Look, i didnt look at the woodward book. I hadnt read it. I had not read it. I havent seen his book. You know what i say to my republican colleagues, mika, sorry, im so aggravated. Where the hell are you . From your sources, bob, what are republicans saying behind closed doors and not to the cameras . Theyre saying many things that come adplos Bob Woodwards book, privately concerned but publicly mute and thats been a feature of the Trump Administration, the trump era. Republicans to speak of the woodward titles, they fear the president s rage, they fear his wrath. They believe in the final lap before the election they need his political power to muscle them through in house races and senate races and the last thing they want is a public fight with the president. Bob, quickly here, given the gravity of all this, woodward has come under fire from some corners for not having released some of this information sooner. What is the rationale hes talked about that . Bob woodwards book is an independent project. We recent lay quily acquired th and did our news story. Bob woodward is a hero to many reporters including myself at the Washington Post, someone who is legendary, but he made his own decisions when it comes to this publication and its time line, and how to share its information. The Washington Post has reported on the book, when we acquired the book. Bob costa, i appreciate that. I also thank garrett, carol and ally with us as well. More ahead on this topic as well and plenty more to cover in the show including a whistleblower accusing top Homeland Security officials of breaking laws by lying to congress, and manipulating intel reports to bet ear line with President Trumps political agenda. The attorney for that whistleblower joins me live. 35 active fires torched nearly half a million wake acre oregon. The fire chief is battling to keep this stuff from spreading. This is what ive got. Reporter what youre wearing right now . This is what ive got. Come on in, were open. All we do is hand you the bag. Simple. Done. We adapt and we change. You know, you just figure it out. Weve just been finding a way to keep on pushing. Can it one up spaghetti night . Cleaning power of liquid. Weve just been finding a way to keep on pushing. It sure can. Really . Can it one up breakfast in bed . Yeah, for sure. Thanks, boys. What about that . Uhh, yep it can . Yeah, even that i would very much like to see that. Me too. Introducing tide power pods. One up the toughest stains with 50 more cleaning power than liquid detergent. Any further questions . Uh uh nope one up the power of liquid with tide power pods. To deliver your packages. And the peace of mind of knowing that important things like your prescriptions, and ballots, are on their way. Every day, all across america, well keep delivering for you. Try eucerin advanced repair and switch. It doubles your skins moisture and repairs dry skin over time. So tomorrow can be a different story. Eucerin recommended and used by dermatologists. For spending a perfectly reasonable amount of time on the couch with tacos from grubhub . Grubhubs gonna reward you for that with a 5 off perk. doorbell rings [crowd] grubhub fireworks exploding it is it about 7 15 on the west coast and the sup is coming up there only to reveal more damage, more flames, not less of it, at least six people have died as dozens of fires are spreading at an astonishing rate through california, through oregon, through washington. In Northern California people describe the scene as the end of the world and in washington more acres burned in a day than a typical year. Firefighters are going after 37 fires, four of them are mega fires, fires have already burned a thousand acres or more. 5 of one of the mega fires has been contained. We expect to see a great deal of loss in terms of structures and human lives. This could be the greatest loss of lives and property in our states history. Jake ward is joining us in oregon. That is a stark and disturbing warning from the states governor, talking about the destruction not just to buildings but potentially loss of human life on a scale theyve never seen. Reporter thats right, hallie. You come to a place like this, were right on the edge of phoenix, oregon and medford, oregon, the towns that we were trying to figure out what is the language used here and the word really is destroyed. They have destroyed. You come to a scene like this and for me, my brain, the way i react to the disaster is i get fixated on small details and so you see here, melted aluminum that has come off the chassis of this destroyed car ran into the sewer grates. Some family evacuated when they got that go order and ran out of here and you look around and the impact of it, you realize every single one of these properties belongs to a family that has been cast into the wind. I think over the years, weve become sort of immune in a way to the effects of all of this, especially being based in california the way i have, but oregon was not ready for this. They have never seen this kind of wildfire sweep through as fast as it did, and literally raze entire cities, towns like this, destroyed in an instant, and everyone having to just run for their lives. The scale of this, hallie, is hard to articulate. Its unbelievable to look at, jake. Youre in a neighborhood, is that the deal . I want to get a sense of the context of where you are. It is shocking to look behind you on that street. It looks apocalyptic. Reporter it really is. So over and over again weve been moving through these towns and you should understand for context, these are working class mobile Home Communities this one is called pacific village. Every single home has been destroyed. Ive been on twitter communicating with people who have family in the area, they keep asking us, can you please go and look at this or that mobile Home Community to see if it has survived. So you see people making their lives here. When we look at the maps to see where we are, you can see how lovely it was to live in this place once upon a time and how difficult it must be to see it destroyed. Yes. Jake ward for nbc news here in medford, organize oh, thank you. When we look at the images, its not just the people who live there, its the firefighters who are also trying to get the fires under control, leading those teams joining me is dug graph, Fire Protection chief for the Oregon Department of forestry. Thank you for being with us on the phone this morning and taking your time out of your day to be here. Good morning, thank you for having me. Chief, when was the last time that you saw Something Like this in your Fire Fighting career in oregon . This is unprecedented. This has never happened in oregon. We have not experienced the tremendous loss and destructive fire nature that were seeing over the last 72 hours in our history. How do you manage that, deal with it and what are you telling your cruise . One step at a time. We set a Strategic Direction on a daily basis. Currently it is life safety, removing people, citizens, firefighters out of the fire front, as this pushes through communities and down drainages from the mountains, point protection, which is structural protection and Community Protection where possible. What we really need is a shift in wind conditions and temperatures to then turn and take the offense on these fires. It is early in the morning where you are, although a little later in the morning on the east coast. What are you expecting as the sun comes up . What is the most sort of urgent next step on your plate at the moment . Well continue with that strategic intent through the day. This is the last day of a threeday unprecedented weather event, which included a cold front with dramatic and dynamic, powerful winds on top of a sustained east wind event, which is dry and hot, 20 to 30mileanhour sustained winds, hit the 06mileanhour gusts for three days straight, on top of fuel conditions that are the driest that weve ever seen in oregon for over three decades. Those three events aligned forces for this dramatic fire event for oregon. Were showing people you cant see it but shoewing peopl the riverside fire in organize oh, under a level three go evacuation. Are people paying attention . Are people getting out if theyre being told to get out . Absolutely. We had a 12mile long road filled with cars last night, moving out in advance of that fire front, and relative to what we need, we need to continue to see resources roll into oregon to support, and im seeing that across the nation, new mexico, utah, wyoming, florida, overhead resources continue to pour in. Thats a good, a piece of good news here. Chief grafe from oregon, thank you. A lot of folks around the country are thinking of you. Up next, more in the show including whether you are ready for some football. Weve got an unprecedented nfl season set to kick off tonight in kansas city, and coming up, nbcs mike tirico with his new interview commissioner roger food goodell. How are you going to handle that hypothetical in a situation if on a saturday this team ends up with an outbreak of covid19 positive tests . Give you straightforward advice and tailored recommendations. Thats the clarity you get with fidelity wealth management. And tailored recommendations. Verizon knows how to build unlimited right. Start with americas most awarded network. Im on my phone 24 7. Then for the first time ever, include disney , hulu and espn . Were a big soccer family. Handmaids tale. I love frozen. Then give families plans to mix and match, so you only pay for what you need. And offer it at a price built for everyone. Plus, get the Samsung Galaxy s20 5g uw on us when you buy any note20 5g. And 300 when you switch. The network more people rely on gives you more. And mines unlisted. Try boost® high protein. With 20 grams of protein for Muscle Health versus only 16 grams in ensure® high protein. And now enjoy boost® high protein in new cafe mocha flavor. Everybody felt fine. But now im super sick. Everyone is sick. I just wish we had been more careful. It would have been easier than this. So wear a mask. Do what you can outside. Stay six feet apart. Because some things you just cant take back. Do your part to lower the risk. Over at white house, the volume of damaging information and reports out in just the last week is creating one of the biggest storms of this administration because its not just the president s on tape comments about the pandemic to bob woodward. Its not just the doj moving to defend him against a Sexual Assault claim, its not just his reported military comments or his rejection of a question on white privilege. Its also this explosive, new whistleblower complaint about the dhs. Brian murphy, a top intel an list for dhs before he claims a retaliatory demotion is accusing top officials of lying to congress and manipulating intelligence reports to conform with president trdonald trumps political agenda. He describes directions to hold back an intel report on russian interference because it made the president look bad and says he was told to modify intel assessments on recent protests to match what President Trump was saying about antifah and anarchists. Ken delaneyian is covering all of this. I wonder what the response is from dhs. What are you hearing . Hallie, dhs has not responded to our request for comments but statements are flatly denying in general the substance of this complaint without addressing any of the specifics. I think you set this up well in any other administration this would be an enormous scandal. In the Trump Administration its just a thursday but nonetheless its hugely significant because were talking about russian interference in the upcoming election. Dhs is one of the agencies designed to tackle that, and what the top the former top intelligence official at dhs is saying here is that since 2018,2018, hes been flging alleged manipulation of intelligence on Russian Election interference. There are seven instances in this complaint, hallie, where he describes protected classified disclosures that he made to senior officials and most of them are classified so we dont know what they are but in one case we know thats saying that they ordered him to suppress a report on Russian Election conference which looks a lot like something we reported on last week, hallie, which was a report by dhs saying the russians are trying to raise questions about joe bidens mental and physical health. According to this complaint that, report was sat on at the direction of senior dhs officials and also ordered by the Homeland Security secretary chad wolf to stop reporting on russian interference and report on the activities of china and iran. The next step is an Inspector General investigation into the allegations and congressional subpoena to mr. Murphy and we can expect him to testify under oath to the house intelligence committee. Back to you, hallie. Ken dilanian, thank you. Mark zade, attorney for the whistleblower, their for being on the show. My pleasure. You have gotten any communication with officials yet . No, not at all, and i wouldnt expect it. I will say i did write to dhs last night, late last night indicating or asking whether or not they are going to oppose or in any way try to prevent mr. Murphy from testifying on 291st in a deposition and also because it is going to be a classified deposition, we need the lawyers, myself and my colleagues, to be properly cleared so that we can participate and help prep the client for the information thats going to be provided. You wrote that late last night, you said that letter, i assume you have not heard back yet this morning. What kind of a response are you anticipating . Well, i certainly expect that they approve the tdeposition testimony. That would look bad. As far as our clearances, we go through this all the time, most of my law practice deals with classified information in representing folks Covert Intelligence officers so this is a game that we play with every administration about getting counsel access but i have been previously cleared up to the tssci level, a lot of acronyms for the highest classified levels in our country, which is what a lot of this information is at, and i expect at some point in time that we will be cleared because frankly if the oversight committees and the ig wants to gather the information, theyre going to have to allow at least one of us as his lawyer to be present. I want to ask you about National Security adviser robert obrien. Is he mentioned in the complaint and is he now responding to a piece of the complaint referencing him. He complaint says in may, chad wolf told ryan murphy to cease providing intelligence asse assessments on the threat of russian interference in the United States and instead start reporting on interference activities by china and iran. It said that wolf told murphy that direction came from obrien. Here is obriens reaction. Ive never even heard of that guy, i dont know who he is, and its hearsay. He says he heard it from somebody else. I dont think anyone has been tougher on russia than i or the president has been. China is a serious threat to our elections, iran is a serious threat to the free and Fair Elections here. Mark, whats your response to that . Right, a few things. I didnt hear a denial that he told chat wolf that. So thats one thing. He said he didnt know the client. Thats fine. Weve never said he did. He makes a comment that its hearsay. Well lets understand, under the law for whistleblowers, all you need to do is have a good faith basis and hearsay is perfectly acceptable, and we made it very clear in the complaint that this was chad wolf telling directly to brian murphy what mr. Obrien said. Whether mr. Obrien said it, i have no idea. I dont think brian murphy knows because chad wolf was the one who told it to him. This would be something the congressional oversight committees and the Inspector Generals office will obviously interview folks and if mr. Obrien wants to deny it, thats fine. Well see what mr. Wolf says. Or others who were in the room. Murphys complaint says he was demoted. I want to ask you about the demotion. It describes several years of efforts by murphy to raise concerns to top dhs officials on some of this. The timing may look like it has to do with his demotion rather than urgent sense of manipulated intel. As you mentioned, ryan murphy has been filing complaints and making protected disclosures for two years, well before this demotion in july, and secondly, the motive of a whistleblower, while sometimes relevant, and could be relevant here, because theres going to be credibility issues at concern, there are conversations that ryan murphy details where he had with senior officials so i have no problem with his credibility being on the line and if his motive wants to be questioned, thats fine, but if there are other witnesses to that, and they support him, then the motivation of the whistleblower, the value or relevance diminishes, because at issue is the substance of the allegation. Okay, mark, im out of time but does murphy have evidence hes willing to give congress to back up the complaint . Absolutely, classified evidence. A lot of it. And he plans to do that . Okay. Yes he wants to. Thank you for being with us, mark. Mark, thank you. A lot on that story, we appreciate you being with us this morning. We have a lot more to get to including the nfl looking to tackle both the coronavirus pandemic and Racial Injustice in a big way this season, and all of it kicks off tonight. So whats commissioner Roger Goodells biggest concern as he heads into this extraordinary season . Next up, mike tirico with his new sitdown with the commish. Do not miss it. Tide power pods one up the cleaning power of liquid. Can it one up spaghetti night . It sure can. Really . Can it one up breakfast in bed . Yeah, for sure. Thanks, boys. What about that . Uhh, yep it can . Yeah, even that i would very much like to see that. Me too. Introducing tide power pods. One up the toughest stains with 50 more cleaning power than liquid detergent. Any further questions . Uh uh nope one up the power of liquid with tide power pods. Before money, people tools, cattle, grain, even shells represented value. Then currency came along. They made it out of copper, gold, silver, wampum. Soon people decided to put all that value into a piece of paper, then proceeded to wave goodbye to value, printing unlimited amounts of money as they passed the buck to the future. Thats why its time for Digital Currency and your investment in the grayscale funds. Go digital. Go grayscale. On day one well implement the National Strategy ive been laying out since march. Well develop and deploy rapid tests with results available immediately. Well make the medical supplies and protective equipment that our country needs. Well make them here in america. Well have a National Mandate to wear a mask, not as a burden, but as a patriotic duty to protect one another. In short, well do what we should have done from the very beginning. Our current president has failed in his most basic duty to the nation. Hes failed to protect america. And my fellow americans, that is unforgivable. As president , ill make you a promise. Ill protect america. I will defend us from every attack seen and unseen, always without exception, every time. Im joe biden and i approve this message. Tech when youve got. Safelite can come to you. Tech and youll get a text when were on our way. Tech just leave your keys on the dash and well replace your windshield with safe, nocontact service. Tech schedule at safelite. Com. Singers safelite repair, safelite replace. Eve going faster than a closerollercoaster love like yours will surely come my way ahey, aheyhey [music playing] love like yours will surely come my way cumulusci customer 36 pandemic has claimed the lives of more than 900,000 people around the world that includes more than 191,000 here in the u. S. The number may actually in reality be higher. The New York Times finds underestimations in the official death counts in the u. S. And in more than a dozen other countries. In new york city, a big step in the road to recovery. Governor andrew cuomo is announcing indoor restaurant dining will be allowed to start back up at the end of this month but seating is limited to 25 capacity. In another step toward getting back to some kind of normal, the nfl season kicks off tonight in kansas city, home of the super bowl champon chiefs. Football is one of the first major sports to let fans in the stands since the start of the pandemic. Commissioner roger goodle talked to nbcs mike tirico, host of football night in america. Check it out. As you get ready to start the football season, what are your biggest concerns . Well, first and foremost, the health and safety of our players, our coaches and personnel and our fans. Can we do this safely and we believe we can. We have worked with the nfl players association. Weve worked with our medical experts, the cdc and so many wonderful institutions, and put together protocols that are really to me extraordinary. Im joined by mike tirico. Thank you for being with us this morning. Great to have you on the show. Good to be with you, hallie. Congrats on the baby. Great to have you back on the air. Thank you sir. Good to be here. Lets talk about the nfl, because the league says theyve done 44,000 tests that theyve done, only one player, seven personnel tested positive. Its interesting because the nfl is handling this in a different way than the nba and nhl with the bubble approach. What is your sense of how that is working and what goodell thinks . Working well so well. Bubble was not feasible for the National Football league given the number of teams. Basketball and hockey have done an exceptional job with the bubble finishing up their years going to canada for the nhl and nba in orlando and wnba in florida as well. It wasnt feasible for football but they learned what worked for the other sports, some of the bumps in the road and the ways around that, that Major League Baseball encountered over the last few weeks. Theyve got on it the start line. We havent missed a game. We didnt have a preseason but the super bowl happened. This is the normal day for the opener, so the league is on schedule. That doesnt mean theyll get to the finish line necessarily but at least they got to the starting line and looks like theyre in pretty good shape in terms of the testing. Talk about the significance of having fans in the stands, because that really is not something weve seen in these leagues that people watch. No, nascar has had fans, there have been some races with fans but in general, fans have not been at the baseball games that weve seen or in the bubbles in hockey and basketball. Youre only going to see fans in a handful of stadiums. It happens to be the thursday night open we are kansas city will have fans. The first 20 or so rows of the stadium covered by tarps and fans sitting socially distant with masks, once theyre eating during the game. It will be trial and error. Its going to be based on where the virus is, what the government reactions are to these large gatherings, so its a very small step. What theyre going to do for the places where there are no fans theyll have audio theyve curated from the last four years of home games so if youre in buffalo it will sound like buffalo and theyll play that through the speakers in the stadium and well hear that behind the tv broadcast. One of the things you talked to commissioner goodell about also was the nfls role when it comes to players, the league talking about Racial Injustice and i want to play for folks a little bit of your exchange from the commissioner on that. Okay. You can talk about so many things that have happened to help our country get to a better place, and sports has been a big, big influence on that. Umhum. And were not here to make political statements. Were here to help make our communities better. How do you think thats landing, mike, from players who want to make sure that their voices are heard when it comes to social justice issues . The league has stepped up, hallie, igis cantlie in termsin significantly listening to their player. They didnt do a good job four years ago with the anthem and respecting the flag. Kaepernick was trying to point towards the conversation around the country this spring and summer about Police Treatment of africanamericans, about Different Things happening in communities, and the league is going to allow the players more than ever to have statements about it. Many of the players, coaches official also have names of victims on the back of their helmet for some of the players, to honor them. There is going to be painted on the end of each end zone end racism on one end and were all in this on another one. So the league is doing a lot to as they said inspire change and impact their communities. Now, that will not be well received by everyone. Some folks want their sports without political conversation or with social conversations. That will be an interesting reaction to play out over the next few weeks. Youll see it as you watch the National Football league as youve seen it in the nba and other sports over the last few months. Yes. This new post from the Washington Post out shows support for athletes taking a more vocal stance doing that across the country. I want final thoughts, your reflections as you get ready to cover a season that is extraordinary im sure unlike one youve covered in recent memory. Or any sport. 100 years in the National Football league, this will be oneofakind, like Everything Else were going through in life. I think this generation of individuals that have cell phones, that have voices that are heard, the First Amendment rights are in your hand, in your pocket. You can get out your phone and tweet something or say something. Theyre more willing to have voices heard and not run away from these things, that plus how theyve seen other folks treated is allowing them to use their voice and i think the leagues are giving them the opportunity to be people not just players who we watch for entertainment, how that plays out, i think were months and years away from finding that out but were all supposed to listen a little bit more and trying to make the world better and the listening to these players hopefully can make some communities a little bit better than they have. Mike tirico, love having you on and hearing your thoughts. Thank you for your thoughts. Mike will be back tonight on the nbc side of the network 7 00 eastern, kicking off football night in america and the super bowl champion chiefs hosting Deshaun Watson and the texans for the ncfl season opener. Turning back to politics and the bombshell book from bob woodward and another major revelation that seems to be flying a little bit under the radar here. The president appeared to reveal to woodward that he has a new secret Nuclear Weapon. He tells woodward i have built a nuclear, a weapons system that nobodys ever had in this country before. We have stuff that you havent seen seen or heard about. We have stuff that putin and xi have never heard about before. Theres nobody. What we have is incredible. The post says woodward talked to Anonymous Sources later confirmed it has a secret new weapons system but would not give details and were surprised the president talked about it the aall. Our next guest has some ideas what the president may have been referring to. National security analyst and distinguished fellow at quincy center. Joe, before we get to some of your thoughts on what the president may be talking about, let me get your initial reaction to the president revealing Something Like this, if it is true. If what he said is true, this is a major security breach. He would be unveiling to a journalist and therefore soon to our adversaries a major new weapons system that could accelerate the Ongoing Nuclear arms race, as russia and china would seek to match that capability. Fortunately, i dont think what the president said is actually true. Okay, so what do you think hes talking about, based on your experience sort of covering Weapons Systems in this country . Sure, its very hard to hide a major weapons system. Lots of people think the government isnt telling us everything and thats true but a major weapons system takes years to develop, tens of thousands of people who know about it, but at the time that the president was talking to woodward, this appears to be his first interview, december 5th. We did have a secret new Nuclear Weapon program that was authorized, congress had appropriated the money, we announced wed build it but hadnt yet deployed it. A few weeks after the president speaks the uss tennessee goes on to patrol slips into the wat with a new Nuclear Warhead on one or two of his submarine launch ballistic missiles. This is a lowyield warhead, designed to be many times smaller than the standard warheads that are on these subs, 1 10 the size, almost 1 100th the size. The deployment of that system was secret. Putin and xi, as the president said, probably didnt know about it. It wasnt until the end of january, so six or seven weeks later this is revealed by the federation of american scientists and confirmed on february 4th by the pentagon. The weapon the president is referring to is not so secret and not that much of a weapon, but he was bragging i think to bob woodward, trying to impress him with the might of the United States, so he hyped up this system to be bigger than it actually is. How significant is it that when bob woodward was talking to others in the National Security community and other sources of his, that nobody would talk about it, that nobody would mention it . Do you read anything into that . They are following security protocols, not disclosing classified information. As i say, the deployment of this system was still secret, wasnt officially disclosed. The fact that we produce these systems actually was secret, but we believe the weapons were produced by the end of september. They were following appropriate protocols. The president was not. Joe cirincione, great to have your perspective on the show. Thank you for unpacking that. Straight ahead, were heading over to the hill because the senate is set to vote on the skinny covid relief bill. Might this be the last Time Congress does something to help struggling americans before the election. We keep an eye on the podium where House Speaker nancy pelosi is set to brief reporters. Well take you there when it happens. Come on in, were open. All we do is hand you the bag. Simple. Done. We adapt and we change. You know, you just figure it out. Weve just been finding a way to keep on pushing. With another 884,000 people filing new unemployment claims last week, were monitoring movements happening live on capitol hill on attempts to try to bring those americans relief. You see it on one side of your screen, House Speaker nancy pelosi is set to brief reporters in her weekly news conference. Thats happening while the senate is getting ready for a procedural vote today on a paired down Coronavirus Relief bill. Its a bill that includes Liability Protections and extension to those expanded Unemployment Benefits and a new round of ppp loans. Leaders need 60 votes to move forward. Thats probably not going to happen. To explain why, ill bring in Leigh Ann Caldwell for nbc news to talk about the state of play. We know democrats arent on board. What about the gop congress . Reporter reporters caught up with Mitch Mcconnell and asked if theyd get enough votes. He said we wont know until the vote happens in a couple hours. We know senator rand paul is against this, likely hell get 49, 50, maybe 51 votes in his conference. Its been a long time coming. This is his third attempt at legislation to get most of his mem members on board. It took a bill that will cost just 300 billion, a fraction of hat the democrats want. So while this bill is going this vote is going to happen, its not going to go anywhere. It wont get the support of many, if any, democrats, what this is, hallie, is an attempt for mcconnell to give his vulnerable republicans like senator tom tillis in north carolina, senator Susan Collins in maine, cover to go home and campaign that they are trying to do something despite dysfunction in washington where the real thing is the real talks are completely stalemated. Hallie. Lee ann kaigh ann caldwell o hill. You can catch all of it coming up next hour on msnbc live. Thanks to all of you for joining us here. My colleague craig melvin has a lot more after the break. Do your sneezes turn heads . Try zyrtec. It starts working hard at hour one. And works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. Zyrtec muddle no more. Verizon knows how to build unlimited right. Start with americas most awarded network. Im on my phone 24 7. Then for the first time ever, include disney , hulu and espn . Were a big soccer family. Handmaids tale. I love frozen. Then give families plans to mix and match, so you only pay for what you need. And offer it at a price built for everyone. Plus, get the Samsung Galaxy s20 5g uw on us when you buy any note20 5g. And 300 when you switch. The network more people rely on gives you more. I feel like were forglet me check. Ing. Xfinity home gives you peace of mind from anywhere with professionally monitored Home Security built around you. No, i think were good. Good. So when youre away, you dont have to worry. The tent. We forgot. The tent. Except about that. Xfinity home. Simple, easy, awesome. Hey look, i found the tent and, see, its safe. Call, click, or visit a store today. A good thursday morning to you. Craig melvin here. Millions of americans are dealing with the fallout of this Health Crisis that continues to grip our nation, but this morning the white house is dealing with the fallout of a pr crisis. Recorded conversations between President Trump and Journalist Bob Woodward for his book rage have set off a flatout fivealarm fire in trump world. Excerpts released by
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.