The knee of a Minneapolis Police officer. Family and mourners gathered at the fountain of praise church to remember his life while calling on this nation to seize this moment as the starting point for change. We are not fighting some disconnected incidents. We are fighting an institutional, systemic problem. No more eight minutes and 46 seconds of injustice and the mistreatment of africanamerican men at the hands of the laws of this nation and anyone else. There will be no more eight minutes and 46 seconds that you will be in pain without getting justice. To change not only this country, not only the united states, he changed the world. George floyd changed the world. Presumptive democratic president ial nominee joe biden also honored george floyd in a video message that linked his murder to the broader struggle for civil rights. We cannot leave this moment thinking we can once again turn away from racism. It stings at our very soul. As Thurgood Marshal once implored, quote, america must dissent from indifference. It must dissent from the fear, hatred and miss trust. We must dissent because america can do better, because america has no choice but to do better. George floyds death in Police Custody has galvanized a nationwide movement that has taken its message even to the doors of the white house. Today the president said nothing about george floyd. The president chose instead to spend this day spreading a Conspiracy Theory about a 75yearold man whos hospitalized recovering from a skull fracture. His name is Martin Gugino. We saw him shoved to the ground by buffalo, new york, Police Officers last thursday during a peaceful protest against floyds killing. Here is what trump posted to social media, and we quote. Buffalo protester shoved by police could be an antifa provocateur. 75yearold martin gu geo was pushed away after appearing to scan Police Communications in order to black out the equipment. One American News network i watched, he fell harder than he was pushed, was aiming scanner. Could be a setup. Two officers have now been charged with assault. Gugino remains hospitalized. Trump cites and the report he mentions was done by a man who was reported for a russian propaganda outlet that u. S. Intelligence says tried to interfere in our 2016 election. In a brief texas message, Martin Gugino issued this statement today. Quote, no comment other than black lives matter. Just out of icu. Should recover eventually. Thanks. New yorks governor was outraged at trumps post and was unsparing in his criticism. How reckless, how irresponsib irresponsible, how crude. I mean if there was ever a reprehensible, dumb comment and from the president of the united states. At this moment of anguish and anger, what does he do . Pours gasoline on the fire. On capitol hill, republican senators were asked for their thoughts on the matter. With just a few exceptions, while it remains remarkable to watch, most were reluctant to speak. Do you think thats an appropriate move of the president at this moment . I just saw the tweet, and i know nothing of the episodes. Senator cornyn, can you stop as the mics for a second . What do you make of the president s tweet this morning, and does the president need to be more cautious about what he tweets . I didnt see it, so id have to i mean, you know, im sure that my office will be able to get me a copy of it, but i didnt see it. So no real response to it but why not . I dont think it should be surprising in general because he tweets a lot. I saw the tweet. It was a shocking thing to say, and i wont dignify it with any further comment. Just saw that this second. It makes no sense we are fanning the flames, not at this time. This is not good. You want to weigh in on the president s tweet this morning about the buffalo protester . No. I dont have anything for you now. Some profiles in courage there. Later, the man who leads those republicans in the senate did his best to not say anything at all. The president said that he could be an antifa provocateur. He said that he fell harder than he pushed, and he questioned if he was set up. Was that appropriate . Well, as i said, what weve been talking about here in the Senate Republican conference is what we think is the appropriate response to the events of the last few weeks. What about the president s tweet, though . Was that appropriate, sir . As i said, we are discussing in the Senate Republican conference what response we think is appropriate to the events of the last two weeks. So there was that. And not to be outdone, here is Trumps White House chief of staff. Did you have a reaction to the president s tweet earlier today . Regarding the man in buffalo . I beg your pardon . Did you have a reaction to the president s tweet i learned a long time ago not to comment on tweets, and im not going to break that practice. But they are official statements regardless of the medium. Should the president be tweeting about possible conspiracy theories . Notably no comment there from the president s soninlaw either. Meanwhile, this man, republican senator tim scott, the only africanamerican senator in the republican party, has been tasked with coming up with their partys response to House Democrats proposed bill on Police Reforms. The white house is also very involved in that effort. Tomorrow one of George Floyds brothers is expected to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on the topic of Police Reforms. In another development, politico has spoken to ten members of the national guard, who say they were uncomfortable with the way they were used at protests in response to George Floyds killing. Quote, they felt that while they swore an oath to uphold the constitution, their presence at times intimidated americans from expressing their opinions and even escalated the tension. One guard member, who was assigned to clear protesters out of Lafayette Square last monday told politico this. Quote, the crowd was loud but peaceful and at no point did i feel in danger, and i was standing right there in the front of the line, he said. A lot of us are still struggling to process this, but in a lot of ways i believe i saw civil rights being violated in order for a photo op. Lets bring in our leadoff Discussion Group on a tuesday night, shall we . Ashley parker, pulitzer prizewinning White House Reporter for the washington post. Alexi mccammond, political reporter for axios. And Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National committee, former Lieutenant Governor of the great state of maryland, now the host of the Michael Steele podcast. Good evening and welcome to you all. Ashley, the president made the choice to tweet out what he tweeted, that this 75yearold protester, well known by all the buffalo area western new york protesters, apparently had the technical skill to be carrying out electronic scanning of Police Officers via his phone. A friend of his interviewed tonight finds it remarkable he can do anything with his phone except place calls. So has the president decided to go to war with the demographic youve got . Well, put it this way. The president his aides were debating him giving a speech and they still are, sort of addressing the current turmoil. It would be a speech, not quite a speech on race, but on race and on policing and on law and order and against the backdrop of all of this, as they were discussing it even earlier this week, they knew it was possible in fact, they feared it was possible that the president would Say Something or tweet something, and then this morning he did just that. There are moments that are controversial that the president and the white house think are good for them. Theres still a lot of belief inside there that that photo op you just referenced in front of the church was a positive. But every Single Person i talked to today, senior advisers in the white house, lowerlevel staff, campaign advisers, allies in the president s orbit said simply this tweet was someone said stupid, dumb, unhelpful, a distraction, and it is incredibly frustrating to them because they think he was actually making some small inroads among black voters before this happened. And not just that, a tweet like this doesnt just turn off black voters, but it turns off huge swaths of the electorate, including suburban women who hes going to need to win in november. Alexi, you spoke recently with two women a whole lot of people hope have their names at or near the top of joe bidens potential vp list. Mayor bottoms of atlanta, who has really given a kind of clinic in what mayoring looks like during this crisis, and congresswoman demings, who has the added interesting line item on her resume of having been former police chief in orlando, florida. What did you learn from them that our audience would profit from learning . Well, thank you for having me, brian. And thats right. I spoke with both congresswoman demings and mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms of atlanta for axios an hbo show. When talking to congresswoman demings, it was interesting thinking through some of the things that she thinks we could do to move forward, similar to mayor bottoms. The one thing that mayor bottoms said that i think is interesting about how this moment is different is that she feels theres a lot of buyin from a lot of different people in a way that we havent had before. Congresswoman demings, on the other hand, being a member of congress of course and knowing how the system works from the inside out was talking about some of the things that we have achieved in the past. Of course like the Voting Rights act, the sicivil rights act and lot of Bipartisan Legislation she hopes theyre going to start seeing moving forward now. Weve seen how Senate Republicans are putting together a package led by senator scott. Were seeing how democrats and other democrats like Kamala Harris are talking about Police Reform in a kind of sweeping way to move forward. Again, i think the interesting thing that mayor bottoms said is theres a feeling and its almost an intangible, brian. Its not policy, but its an intangible thing that theres a feeling of buyin that there are a lot of americans, to ashleys point, whether its suburban women, whether its older voters, whether its black folks, who are recognizing that theres a massive problem happening in the country right now and that President Trump isnt necessarily making that better. Michael, you and i are old enough to remember 1989, and i brought you something tonight. Here now, please witness and feast your eyes and ears on Bryant Gumbel and donald trump from 1989. Okay. I think today that a welleducated black person, male or female, has a tremendous advantage over a welleducated white person, and i felt that for a long time. And i hope that anybody in the audience thats black and is watching can hear me say this, and im talking now as a person that employs thousands and thousands of people. A welleducated black has a tremendous advantage over a welleducated white in terms of the job market. And i think sometimes a black may think that they dont really have the advantage or this or that, but in actuality today, currently, its a great ive said on occasion, even about myself, if i were starting off today, i would love to be a welleducated black because i really do believe they have an actual advantage today. Im sorry. Ill let you catch your breath, michael. The question is how much of that man do you think survives how much of that man do you think survives in our president today . That man wasnt real then. Look who youre talking about. This is the same guy recall the central park five . This is the guy who was looking at those five young black men and saying they should be should be executed. I mean, you know, and he qualifies it. A highly educated, not just an educated. You have to be highly educated. I mean come on. Can we can we not play this game and think that theres something remarkable about what was said here . All we got was what we know, and now we just know it more than we probably did then. And the reality of it is this idea, this notion that, you know, were making small inroads in the black community. Well, come to the black community. I invited the president to join me in baltimore back when he made the comment about Living Conditions in baltimore. I said, join me in baltimore. Lets sit down with the community and have the conversation. I mean so, you know, when you do that, then people will begin to take seriously what you say. Brian, can i add something. Ashley, i brought something for you too. These are sure, sure, sure. Sorry. I just want to say and i know its difficult because were virtual. But i just wanted to say lets think about the 2016 election and how much the president has changed since 1989 and 2016 when he told black voters, what do you have to lose, suggesting that things are so bad for the black community that it was okay for them to take a chance on thencandidate trump in 2016. So i think that says all we need to know. Of course everything weve seen from him in the last two weeks alone, but lets not forget how he talked about black voters in 16. Yes. And as i remember, he liked to twin that with the quote you walk down the street, and you get shot. Ashley parker, i have something for you too. Marketing phrases and how they have changed over time from the guy who sees himself as the brand manager. Were going to make America Great again. Remember the theme make America Great again. Make America Great again wouldnt work out too well, right . Its going to be keep America Great. Its called keep America Great, exclamation point. Ladies and gentlemen of south carolina, the best is yet to come. Sleepy joe biden. Thats the slogan were going to use, transition to greatness. Its a transition to greatness, and greatness is next year. I am your president of law and order. So i gave you a couple examples there, ashley. No one can complain at lack of variety. How are they feeling in real time, in real terms, about the reelection . Well, transition to greatness and the septuagenarian protester really had it coming just dont have quite the same ring. And thats a reflection of the fact that this is a president who even though he didnt always rely, he cared a lot about polls, but he didnt do focus groups. He didnt always trust the polls, and he relied on his branding instinct and his gut instinct, and it often proved right. He did things that the political wise folks said would kill him, would doom a candidacy, and he prevailed. But this is sort of the first moment in talking to people on the campaign in the president s orbit where that gut is kind of misfiring. Now, they say, look, hes dealing with a deadly pandemic. Hes dealing with racial unrest in the country. But they feel like he doesnt have a message exactly. He is flailing and casting about. For instance, even that tweet this morning, they were saying, look, the president needs to be hammering home the idea of an economic comeback, which to be clear is not exactly happening just yet, and attacking democrats perhaps unfairly for wanting to defund so, alexi, back to our previous conversation. What would this president say in a potential National Address . The week is still young. In a speech written by Stephen Miller . Brian, dont do that to me. Dont do that to me, brian. Okay. Im sorry. We have seen the way hes tweeted about this. No, no. Im obviously giving you a hard time. That is all to say that we have seen the way the president talks about these things when hes left to his own devices. To ashleys point, and to my colleague jonathan swans reporting this week, a small group of who they think are highly influential political advisers for the president s Reelection Campaign meant to have a private meeting not long ago to discuss a more hopeful and optimistic message to try to balance out the harsh law and order rhetoric were hearing from the president. They wanted to focus, again to ashleys point, on this economic comeback about this Great American comeback, using words like rebuilding and restoring. Were not seeing that message from the president. Were not seeing any type of hopeful or optimistic messages from the president other than nods to the economy or unemployment numbers, which didnt paint a whole picture of the unemployment numbers. So no matter who writes the speech, we know that the president will say what hes actually feeling at the end of the day. And if its about race, i dont know that weve heard a National Speech from the president about race. So we could be in for any number of things. And, Michael Steele, the fear among republicans is that this president truly may be on the wrong side of history, that that sound you hear in the distance is the demographic train leaving the station. And talk to me about all the downballot effects of the president choosing to go his way. Thats a big concern right now among a number of candidates running for anything from u. S. Senate to governor to state legislatures, particularly with redistricting top of the batting order beginning in 2021, w