that straight ahead. and a major move today in the investigation into breonna taylor's police killing, but we begin tonight with coronavirus surging across the country yet again. new questions about hospital data and what trump is doing with it and the administration going against science. >> the president has said unmistakably that he wants schools to open, and i was just in the oval talking to him about that. when he says open, he means open in full, kids being able to attend each and every day at their school. the science should not stand in the way of this. >> yeah, you heard that correctly. quote, science should not stand in the way of this. we're going to have a lot more straight on this ahead. here's what's happening right now. 41 states with rising infection rates, more than 3.5 million cases nationwide. in florida alone, 54 hospitals are out of icu beds, ten in miami-dade county. c i coronavirus data has disappeared from the cdc website after trump shifted control to his administration. also, new for the first time in a month and a half, trump and dr. fauci finally speaking. it comes as trump aides smeared fauci with false information. moments ago fauci saying this in an interview with facebook's mark zuckerberg. >> one of the important things that we're emphasizing right now that really evolved from a situation that did change is our insistence now on wearing masks. i mean, masks are very important. they protect you from giving infection to someone else. >> fauci very clear there, masks work, yet trump ally georgia governor brian kemp is actually overturning a mask mandate as cases surge in his state, but maryland's republican governor is blasting trump's response as hopeless. now, the virus response is clearly hurting trump in the polls. you might be seeing more of these devastating ads on the air. >> the president took unprecedented steps. >> decisive action. >> because of the unprecedented action that president trump took. >> it is among the reasons why the threat to americans of coronavirus remains low. and i have to tell you, standing here today i couldn't be more proud to stand alongside this president. >> we believe we are slowing the spread. >> we slowed the spread. we flattened the curve. we saved lives. >> i think by memorial day weekend, we will largely have this coronavirus epidemic behind us. >> joining me now is dr. natalie azar, rheumatologist with nnyu l l langone. great to have you with us. let me start with you and get your reaction to that ad. it really plays here on a very important point, which is not just the republican establishment that has come to the defense or rallied behind president trump from governors like brian kemp or greg abbott or ron desantis. it's actually using the vice president against the rise that we're seeing of coronavirus cases. >> i've got to say as i was watching it, i both laughed and groaned at the same time, which i think means it's a pretty effective ad. i don't think there's any question that the president's handling of this has hurt him very badly. his numbers have steadily gone down among the american people on this. the revival of the virus it never went away, but the new increases in the virus are a direct result of putting a political desire to have a big announced reopening and, yes, everything is back to normal, putting that over what scientists and a lot of just plain common sense was saying that we didn't have this beaten. the good news, i think, is that science is fighting back because the american people largely agree with the scientists. if you look at polling on mask wearing, two-thirds of americans believe in it, really small numbers, 15, 20% say they hardly ever or never wear masks. similarly on school openings, most parents really would rather have their kids be in classrooms, but there was an "axios" poll recently that showed that 71% of americans saw it as a large or moderate risk. i think the politicians, trump is going to have to adjust, and some republicans are adjusting. they're finally saying, yes, wae wear masks. >> today was one of those days where i was like i wish i was sitting in that white house press briefing room so i could ask the press secretary, if science is not driving this decision, what is? because if it's politics, you can talk about it. if it's economics, the road still has to go through science. if it's health, it still has to go through science. so for me it's just a bizarre declaration that science is not driving this. dr. azar, your response to the white house press secretary saying that science should not stand in the way of schools reopening, it makes you genuinely wonder what in the world are they calculating to open these schools? >> yeah, ayman, you know, i don't necessarily want to give her the benefit of the doubt, but to me it just sounds like a true misspeak. i mean, no one in their right mind would ever think that was a logical thing to say. what i've heard, you know, some whisperings about is potentially she was referring to, you know, studies that suggest that children are not as likely as adults to, number one, get severely ill which we know, but also to not transmit as readily to others, although there's some caveats to even saying that. so i don't know if her messaging got a little bit muddled with just the wording that she used. quite honestly, i really think she might have not meant to say that because it makes absolutely no sense. >> i'm actually -- i'm not going to give her the benefit of the doubt on that. that is a pretty big statement to make from the press secretary standing there speaking to the entire country and certainly the country deserves better than just some kind of misspeak about science and our children's health. e.j., how do you explain the fact that we've gotten as a country to a point where masks have been made political, where the governor of georgia is literally telling people he will not mandate wearing a mask and prohibiting city officials and counties who do want to mandate wearing a mask from doing so. >> i think this is one of the terrible, terrible things that's happened during crisis where symbols are totems have become central to politics rather than an honest discussion. you can have an honest disagreement over contactually h -- exactly how and when you reopen the country, but the science has just gotten so clear on mask wearing. there's just no doubt that this substantially helps retard the virus. so it's pure symbolism. i would point out that we've been through this before in america, back during the great flu pandemic of 1918. there was actually an organization in san francisco called the antimask league, and these were people resisting mask wearing, people who didn't wear them were called mask slackers, and so we've been here before, but my god, we are in an era where we have an awful lot of good scientific information, and turning this into a partisan symbol is just finally really stupid and dangerous. >> dr. azar, you've probably seen dr. fauci appearing on a lot of digital shows over the last couple of days. that is because he has been b n banned from appearing on tv per se, at least as we understand it. how important is it for the public to be able to hear from this official? and i'm not trying to in any way belittle digital audiences who are watching this, because they probably are watching in large numbers, but it doesn't necessarily carry the same weight as major television appearances, which he used to do before he was sidelined by the white house. >> yeah, no, ayman, it's incredibly important, and i think, you know, for a health care professional like myself to the general public to have a consistent message and frankly transparency from our government has been one of the biggest deficiencies, if not the greatest deficiency. and a point to -- i'd like to make a follow-up point to what e.j. was saying about the masks. we actually have -- in addition to all of the experimental and lab data, we have some real world examples of just how much of an impact mask wearing has in terms of inhibiting viral transmission. one was a study done at mass general with health care workers that showed almost more than half of a decrease in the rates of positivity and health care workers who wore masks and then i'm not sure if you saw this data out of the hair salon where two hair stylists who actually were exposed and mildly symptomatic, nobody got infected, so if anybody needs any more support or encouragement or evidence to support mask wearing, we've got it, but i would also like to add that it's not just that. we still need to do the social distancing and the hand washing. one single loan is not going to make the difference. all three things do and can. we did not know all of this a couple of months ago. shame on us for not implementing this at least now. >> shame on anyone who denied the science so to speak. dr. natalie azar thank you both for joining us. now to a stunning report, russia is trying to steal covid vaccine research. the u.s., uk, and canadian intelligence agencies allege that russia is using malware to hack the -- no word from the white house several hours after that statement was released. joining me now is democratic senator from maryland, chris van hollen. it's great to have you with us this evening. what do you think about this plot, so to speak? what have you been able to gather so far? >> well, ayman, it's good to be with you, and based on everything i'm hearing, these are credible reports. it's not surprising that the russians would try to hack into our systems to try to steal our technology. what is surprising is that they think they can do this with impunity, and i've been pushing this administration from the beginning to have a policy that we say to the russians or any other country or company that wants to try to interfere in our systems, whether they're elections or stealing technology, that there will be a price to pay. that we will say upfront that there will be sanctions imposed on your banks or on certain individuals. unfortunately, at least in the case of russia, they've gotten the message that this administration will let them get away with just about anything. >> what do you want to hear from president trump? because as i just noted, it's been several hours since this came out. the president can't use the line that this is a hoax because this was officially announced by the intelligence agencies and security apparatuses in the uk, canada, and here in the united states, so we can't dismiss it as a report, and yet, we haven't heard anything from the white house on this, not even a tweet. >> well, that's right. we saw the president's reaction to the earlier credible reports that the russians had offered bounties to kill american soldiers in afghanistan. the president tried to dismiss it because he hadn't done anything about it. his silence is very telling. he's always cozied up to putin. you remember that scene just a few years ago at helsinki when he was essentially siding with putin when, you know, putin said, no, we did not interfere in your elections. so it's not surprising, unfortunately, that the president hasn't said anything. let's see what he says at this point in time, but it just underscores the importance of putting in place a policy that tells russia in advance if you interview in our elections or if you try to steal our technology. there will be a price to pay. we have proposed bipartisan legislation to do it, but the administration has not supported that. >> let me hone in on that for a moment. you and senator sasse have legislation to protect american intellectual property, i believe that's what you're referring to there as bipartisan legislation. it would require a report to congress every six months about american ip thefts or attempts, require sanctions on firms and individuals engaged in it. ban travel to the u.s. for those involved in it. what has the reaction been from the white house on that legislati legislation. >> we're still hoping they'll come on board. they have not endorsed it. they actively opposed and continue to oppose another piece of legislation that i introduced with senator rubio called the deter act, which is to set up a similar sort of sanctions regime if we catch the russians interfering in our elections. that seems to be common sense. it has brought bipartisan support. the administration took the position, they don't want to penalize russia if they get involved in our elections. i'm hoping in this case when it comes to theft of technology, the president will be supportive. the track record so far has been abysmal. >> senator chris van hollen, thank you so much for joining us this evening. i appreciate your time as always. >> good to be with you. a stunning new accusation from president trump's niece, mary trump telling msnbc's ra l rachel maddow she's heard president trump use anti-semitic slurs and the n word, we'll talk about it with the reverend al sharpton. i'm ayman mohyeldin, you're watching "the beat" on msnbc. watching "the beat" on msnbc chicago! 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sat down with rachel maddow, and mary trump made some stunning accusations, the president's niece. take a look at this. >> i have to press you on it a little bit, just to ask if the president, if your uncle was an exception to that in your family or if he -- if you ever heard him express, either use anti-semitic slurs or the n word or other sentiments like that. you can't say you ever heard it from him, or did you hear it from him too? >> oh, yeah, of course i did. and i don't think that should surprise anybody given how virulental virulentally racist he is today. >> have you heard the president use the n word? >> yeah. and anti-semitic slurs specifically? >> yes. >> msnbc reached out to the white house for comment, and they said this is a book of falsehoods plain and simple. the president doesn't use those words. i want to bring in reverend al sharpton, host of msnbc's "politics nation" and president of the national action network. rev, great to have you with us. first, let me get you your reaction to this stunning revelation really that you just heard from mary trump, the president's niece saying she heard the president use the n word and use antism-semitic slu. >> well, i would agree with the statement she made that it is stunning, yes, but surprising. if you look at the fact that they were sued and had to settle for discrimination in their real estate business and then this president went on with the central park five where he called for the execution of five innocent young black and brown young men that we -- many in the community, including myself, stood and said they were innocent even after it was found later with dna that they were innocent, he still said they were guilty and that they should not have been given a settlement. but let's fast forward, this is the president that said there were fine men and women on both sides in charlottesville where you had neo-nazis, self-described some of them, neo-nazis that marched against jews, and they were there saying jews will not replace us, and he said there were fine people on both sides, there were blacks and jews on the other side there to protest a confederate statue. if you want to say people have used words that they regret in life, you can only match to the actions to see if that is against their actions. his actions would give clear legitima legitimacy. >> the president was asked about the george floyd and the killing of black men in this country at the hands of police. he fired back dismissing the question saying white people are killed more than black people and also i'm old enough to remember the president making those comments that were widely considered as playing on anti-semitic tropes when he was speaking to a group of republican donors, republican jewish donors and suggesting that they liked a good deal, along those lines. this is a president, rev, who has a track record also while he's in office and running for office of using very racist and anti-semitic tropes. >> and backing them up with his actions in terms of housing discrimination, in terms of criminal justice situations, and in terms of how he characterizes neo-nazis. so let's not just act like these were just words isolated from his actual actions including now. blacks are killed 3.5 times more by police in this country. numerically are more killed by police, that's not the point. the point is the percentage. for him to dismiss that in this era where we are talking about george floyd and any number of cases and him to not even show any kind of concern about that and just flip it and talk about, well, whites do too shows a complete disregard for the lives of black people and a criminal justice system that's systemically racist. >> rev, stay with me for a moment. i want to bring into the conversation, david from, a former speech writer for george w. bush. good to have you with us as well. as we just heard, there's some stunning revelations. as the reverend al sharpton said, perhaps not surprising given what we've seen from the president since he first ran for office and now since he has been president. what is your reaction to hearing mary trump say she heard the president use the n word and anti-semitic slurs? >> through all the years of the trump presidency i've had a couple of mottos to keep me level, and one of them is that while there are many secrets, there are no mysteries. is anyone surprised? is anyone surprised? >> you know donald trump has revealed himself again and again and again, and right now even -- even if the president used perfectly polite language in all circumstances, we are going through a pandemic that disproportionately kills people from certain backgrounds and not from others and that is one of the reasons the president is so negligent about it. open the schools without a safety plan. let people suffer because the people i care about i'm going to protect more. the people i don't care about i protect less. it's not a matter of vocabulary. it's a matter of the way the whole government is operated. it's not just a matter of the president personally, of people around him. many of them would never use improper language, but they do improper things. >> yeah, the president has gone after everyone. he has said derogatory language about immigrants. made derogatory misogynistic comments about women, he's made derogatory comments about immigrants, as you said, david, this is not necessarily a mystery, but you also have to take in mind the people that have defended the president throughout all of these, many of them establishment republicans. you have to wonder at what point they're going to listen to this account from a president trump family member saying officially that she heard these words used and these anti-semitic slurs used and for them to kind of come out and say enough is enough, and we don't stand or support these words being used by the president. >> look, this a titanically large country. it's very difficult to communicate across. when a president gets into trouble, looit's like an ice cu melting in a glass. for a long time the ice cube looks like it's there and then there's another moment and suddenly you realize the ice cube is about to disappear. that's where donald trump is. his support looks like it's there, and then it's going to be not. to the end, millions of people will be with him, in a country of so many, probably millions is not enough. you look at all the charts today of the decline of the president et's support, the decline in republican affiliation, he's in desperate trouble, and one of the reasons this white house is acting more and more frantic, banging at the walls is because they understand they have a problem and they don't know how to solve it. if they just rotated that one campaign manager and rotated in another. the guy they just rotated in was the person they asked to save them in 2018, ask nd he failed. they have a problem, which is 55% and rising, majority of americans think that donald trump is a terrible president because of whom tens of thousands of people are preve preventably dead and we have depression level unemployment. the president believes the magic of messaging is driving people crazy. >> this is a prosecute who has tried to claim he has the support of african-americans when he talks about things like the unemployment numbers, but at the same time as we've noted the dog whistles to his base about racism and race-baiting, they're deafening from how loud they are. >> let us not forget that donald trump launched his political career on birtherism. that is how he introduced himself as a political figure saying that the first black president and only so far of the united states was not one of us. he was born in kenya, and said he was going to produce birth certificates that never happened, and he kept on that all the way to the white house. when those of us that used to deal with trump, he and i fell out again oaf thver that, and hd don't call me a racist. what you're saying is racist, but over time you have to just say he's racist. he's comfortable with racism. he has built a career off of that. he continues as late as this week when he does these police brutality numbers. he embraces racism and anyone that embraces it, comfortable with it, they are in fact racist themselves. you couldn't be comfortable with something that you did not identify and internalize. >> yeah, rev, david stay with me for a second. i want to play for you what mary trump told rachel maddow about why she wrote this book now and not in 2016. take a listen. >> so it wasn't just the speed with which he started upending norms, which he had started doing during the campaign, it was the number of people who lined up to help him in that endeavor, which has only grown longer and more egregious as time's gone on. i can't say that there was a last straw because there have been so many straws, but certainly the horrors at the border, you know, the separating of children from their parents, the torture, the kidnapping, and the incarceration of them in cages was unthinkable, unbearable. and when i had -- when an opportunity presented itself to me to do something, i needed to take a leap. >> so david, to that point that she made about why not in 2016 when she talks about how quickly he was enveloped and somewhat propelled to this position by the establishment, i go back to the point that i asked you earlier a little bit to expand on it, which is at this point now everything that we have seen with the trump administration, his numbers lagging, you heard today from the governor of maryland, a republican who has criticized the president saying there's a lack of leadership. do you begin to see any points within the republican party to distance themselves from this president, or is there a serious price to pay for them like we saw with somebody like jeff sessions who just lost in alabama a senate candidacy. >> it's like the ice cube melts. countries aren't unanimous, and they shouldn't be unanimous. the question is there an accumulation of just enough. so mary trump, who has many personal reasons to dislike and disrespect donald trump, she was quiet in 2016 as she said, and she had her own reasons for that and different people will have different reasons at different times for why they do things that are difficult. i mean, it's difficult for a member of a family to step out. it's difficult for a member of a party to step out. and one of the things i think as we look forward to a better future after 2020, that i think we all have to be mutually understanding, there are people acting in the middle. there are people active at the last minute, but so long as you act, it's better to act early, pretty good to act in the middle, all right to act at the end. it's fine if you act at the very last minute. >> obviously black voters in this country are not monolithic, very complex voters vote on a whole host of issues, but the one thing the president consistently has struggled with is making inroads into the black community, not just because he is tone deaf to them, but at the same time because of some of the policies he has pursued. is there any chance this president as he claims makes inroads with the black voters and do you see a way that this president between now and november can close that gap where joe biden has a commanding lead? >> the black community is not monolithic, but they're not stupid, and whether you are a leftist, a rightist, or one in the middle, you are going to vote your interests. there's nothing this president has done -- and he's had huge opportunities from dell o'ialin criminal justice and policing all the way to what is his program to close the gap, even under the good economy that we had pre-pandemic, we were still doubly unemployed to whites. he never said how he would close that race gap. every opportunity had an education across the board he has failed to say to the black community anything to address the social and real disparities in this country. so it's not a question of whether you are monolithic. the question is are you going to vote in supporting your own interests. there's no reason he's given us to vote in the interests of donald trump, whether or not his niece has come out with a book or not. people are going to vote their interests. he has not addressed blacks interests. >> rev, david, stay with me for a moment. i want to bring in cornell belcher. he worked on president obama's campaigns, great to have you with us on the program this evening. let me get your reaction to this development and how it plays into our electoral politics for a moment because as we talk about the most recent polls, everything has shown, not just when it comes to the issue of black voters but when it comes to racial harmony in this country, the pursuit of racial justice. all of this in the wake of the recent killings of george floyd and breonna taylor and all the others we've seen, the president's handling of this, he gets very, very low numbers and now you have the president's niece coming out saying she has heard him use the n word. that's got to make him pretty much unattainable in terms of closing that gap as the rev was just saying. >> well, but it's not really the one thing. it is a dismal tide. it is a multitude of things. it is both his handling of covid, but let's also understand, this wasn't a president who was well-positioned for re-election before covid. he was a president who was always stuck in the mid-40s, you know, 44, or 42% approval, even before the covid hit and his handling of covid certainly didn't help. when you look at a quinnipiac had a poll that came out just two days or so ago where biden is up 15 points. i got to tell you, as a long-time political hack, if you will, it is really hard for a democrat structurally and historically to get a 15-point lead nationally on a republican, and most of this, i think, is actually turned on his handling of the george floyd incident where at a time where to be a republican or a indicatdemocrat time when americans see that murder and are upset about that as opposed to him trying to bring americans together, he doubles down on his division and rese resentme resentment, and you see suburban voters move away from him more shoo sharply. you even see sort of an erosion right now, even among moderate republicans. some republicans with some racial sympathy sort of moving away from him on this. it is not one thing. it is a dismal tide, but i've got to tell you, his doubling down on the resentment politics right now on americans are so frustrated about the division certainly is not helping. >> yeah, i was going to say there's a new poll that shows 55% of people in the south, in the south view the confederate flag as a symbol of racism. what does this say to you, cornell that this is president who's trying to get reelected on a, quote, white grievance strategy here? he does not want to come out and condemn things like the confederate flag as we heard in the interview there, and how he criticized nascar for banning the confederate flag. he's gone to great lengths to defend soldiers of the confederacy, monuments of the confederacy, vowing people to get serious punishment for it. he hasn't condemned white supremacists zbhooishland white nationalists the same way he has protesters. what does that tell you about his white grievance re-election strategy? >> it tells me he should give his campaign strategy back to george wallace because we are not in that era and at that time right now. i got to tell you, as a pollster, you don't see this sort of turn around in numbers the way you're seeing. i am gobsmacked at how, you got over 60% of white americans now saying racism is a my a jajor prosthetic in this countr -- problem in this country. you have a majority of people in the south now saying take down these confederate symbols is just shocking. we are at an inflection moment in this country. i think there's a lot of good that can be done with new leadership to try to bring us together around some of these racial issues that we've kicked the can down the road on before, and we've ignored before. americans are ready to talk about this, and whether they got there last week or this week, you know, i welcome the conversation with white americans waking up and saying, you know what? racism is a real thing and it's bad for our country and it's bad for our future, but we have a president who is doubling down on that space, and more so than anything else, i think when there's a 15 point -- when he's losing white women and he's losing white college educated women by double-digit, 15 points, this is why. it is the racism stupid. >> let me play devil's advocate here for a moment and talk about the elephant in the room. you perhaps saw the nbc news about wall street journal poll that showed 54% of americans at least approve of the president's handling of the economy. horrible numbers on race, horrible numbers on the pandemic, but at least 54% favorable or approve of the way he's handling the economy. are you at all concerned that when people go into the voting booth, it's not the pandemic. it's not race. it's their wallets that they end up deciding on? >> historically that is true, but we're at a different point in time. look, he had great economic numbers going into 2018, and they were trying to run on the economy in 2018, and about several million more voters, a historic number of voters voted democrat in 2018 than they did before. this is about something a lot more spiritual, about sort of who we are as a people. we are not just transactional animal th animal s. we are people with souls and values, and our souls and our values sometimes come first. i think this is a time when we're putting our souls ask values ahead. >> if we could go to 2016 and lessons learned -- i'm sorry, david, go ahead. >> can i go back on -- >> sure. >> let me make a prediction here. those economy numbers are going to melt very fast in the month of august. why is trump despite everything the unemployment doing so well and the economy, one obvious reason, although people are out of work, because of the income floor as it were voted in the cares act, spending is up. consumers are not doing great, but they're not doing as bad as they could. all of that expires on the 31st of july. people out of work were getting 600 extra dollars a week. that's going to disappear, and suddenly a lot of people are out of work who have been getting by are going to really face crisis beginning the 31st of july, and donald trump is not proposing to renew that. he wants to tie that to a payroll tax cut, and he's holding his -- he's putting a gun to the head of his own re-election campaign. let's reconvene here three or four weeks from now and say when the supplemental unemployment insurance expires on the 31st of july. >> fair point, we'll take that into consideration for sure. let me ask you this, rev, and to play devil's advocate, looking back at the mistakes and lessons of 2016, hillary clinton was also up in the polls. right now it shows that joe biden has a commanding lead over president trump, but is there any concern that perhaps these numbers do not reflect the reality going into the polls in a couple of months from now? >> as alwathere's always the possibility. that is why if i were advising the biden campaign, i would say don't take your foot off the gas and keep going and build on your base and build on those americans that are sick and tired of being embarrassed by this president, those americans that have been marginalized by this president, and those that have been ignored by this president, and the other thing that i would say is give him room because the biggest supporter and helper and aide to joe biden is donald trump. don't get in his way. the more he is out there, the more he will bring himself down. you just remain focussed and confident. if i was advising him, that would be my advice. donald trump makes the case against donald trump better than anyone. >> rev, david from cornell, all stay with me. i want to reset for all of our viewers who may be joining us right now. in case people missed it, at the start of this program and just shortly after we got our first soundbite there from the interview between rachel maddow and mary trump, the president's niece. here is mary trump making the stunning accusations to rachel maddow just moments ago. watch. >> i have to press you on it a little bit. just to ask if the president, if your uncle was an exception to that in your family or if he -- if you heard -- you ever heard him express either use anti-semitic slurs or the n word or other racist slurs or other sentiments like that, do you mean this is an ambient thing in your family, but you can't say you ever heard it from him, or did you hear it from him, too? >> yeah, of course i did. and i don't think that should surprise anybody given how virulently racist he is today. >> have you heard -- are you heard the president use the n word? >> yeah. >> and anti-semitic slurs specifically? >> yes. >> all right, so you heard her there saying the president racist today. again, just to note to our viewers. msnbc reached out to the white house for excellent, acomment, they said. this is a book of falsehoods. the president doesn't use those words. rev, let me pick up on a point you were talking about with the election and joe biden's strategy here. there's been a lot of focus on who he's going to pick as a vice presidential candidate. we know it is going to be a woman. we know there are several black women on that short list. give us your advice to joe biden as he contemplates a vice presidential pick in this current climate with the racial justice pursuits that we're seeing on the streets with these accusations and allegations that the president used the n word and the anti-semitic slurs. this has now become a front and center debate in our country as cornell has said. where do you think the former vice president goes in his pursuit of a vice presidential pick? >> i was very early in saying that i would like to see him choose a black woman, but i did not do it as an ultimatum because i do not think you would want to put him in a position if he does indeed do that, and i still hope he does, that he does it because it looks like it was forced. there are qualified black women that are on the list that could serve this country and politically would be good for him in terms of getting turnout he's going to need for this election. and where joe biden goes, i've had several conversations with him, mostly around social policy. he came to houston to meet with george floyd's family. i'm not trying to influence who he chooses. i'm saying what i would prefer. i think it is time in american history that we stopped acting like black women do not have any number of which are qualified to serve as the vice president of the united states, and i think that statement could be made this year when you have everyone from kamala harris to val demings to stacy abrams and the list goes on and on. i think joe biden would do well to choose a qualified candidate and one that would help with turnout for the election. he needs a large turnout and he needs people that can help to do that. >> we're going to dig into voter suppression. reverend, stay with me. thank you both for joining us this hour, and of course be sure to watch that entire interview, rachel's interview with mary trump tonight at 9:00 p.m. we'll be right back. ht back.imi. you start with america's most awarded network, the one with unbeatable reliability 13 times in a row. this network is one less thing i have to worry about. 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(vo) you include the best in entertainment and you offer it all starting at $35. because everyone deserves the best. this is unlimited built right. only on verizon. well the names have all changed since you hung around but those dreams have remained and they've turned around who'd have thought they'd lead ya back here where we need ya welcome back, america. it sure is good to see you. cranky-pated: a bad mood related to a sluggish gut. miralax is different. it works naturally with the water in your body to unblock your gut. free your gut, and your mood will follow. well, here's to first dates! you look amazing. and you look amazingly comfortable. when your v-neck looks more like a u-neck... that's when you know, it's half-washed. try downy fabric conditioner. unlike detergent alone, downy helps prevent stretching by conditioning and smoothing fibers, so clothes look newer, longer. downy and it's done. in a highly capable lexus suv. at the golden opportunity sales event. get zero percent financing on all 2020 lexus models. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. developing news into the investigation of breonna taylor's killing by the police. the louisville mayor to be nskted for his handling of the case. a press release saying they will be investigating the action and inaction of the fischer administration. the family of breonna taylor accused the mayor and police department of withholding information covering up the truth. this week marks four months since she was fatally shot inside her own home eight types after police used a no-knock warrant to gain access to her apartment, and there have been zero charges. one officer, though, has been fired from the police department. protesters continue to fill the streets in louisville, kentucky, in fact, marching for racial justice, not just there but across the country. all all of them demanding charges in the case of breonna taylor. hundreds gathered at the attorney general's house in louisville, demanding action. 87 of those protesters, believe it or not, were charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing. one of those arrested protesters joins me now. porsha williams, star of the real housewives of atlanta. thank you for joining us. tell me a little about your decision to join the protest and subsequently your arrest and release. >> well, i decided to join the protest because i, just like many americans, feel it's just a complete injustice for it to now be 125 days that we are waiting on justice for precious breonna taylor's life. and for me, love is an action word. so i can't just sit at home, post on instagram, et cetera, and feel like i'm doing something to help this push forward. this entire situation needs to be escalated to the next level. and for me, whatever it takes to make that happen, i will happily be a part of that. i happily sacrifice myself and my freedom in that moment to raise awareness for breonna taylor. just because it's not in the media. just because, you know, you're not seeing it on social media as you were before, her life matters more than ever now. if we don't seek justice for her, if she never receives justice, that's an injustice to all of us african-americans, all humans. so at this point, you know, i'm infuriated. i actually would love this to go to the supreme court. i don't believe that louisville is investigating this properly. it's completely botched, and so i am definitely here to use my voice, my platform, my very body and being to seek justice for this beautiful african-american queen. >> tell me a little bit about the experience you had with breonna taylor's mother, a woman who i've had a chance to speak with on the air here. i know you posted about spending some time with her. talk to us about that experience, what you told her, what she told you. >> you know, breonna taylor's mother is a very strong spirit. i only was able to meet her briefly. she actually sat outside of the jail and waited on all of until freedom, the organization i was with, until we got out. when we got out and i gave her a hug, i could feel her strength. i could feel her being thankful that we were out there trying to give her daughter a voice, making sure her case gets justice, making sure that these cops are being arrested for the murder. she is a very strong person, and i admire her, and i definitely want to, you know, admonish everybody to continue to pray for her and hopefully i'll be able to have other conversation with her in order to bring more light to breonna taylor's case. >> tell us a little about what you plan to do now. you said love is an action word. you consequewent to the protest. protesters were arrested. but where do you see the public pressure campaign against officials in louisville for some kind of action against these police officers? >> i do think it's a start in that they're investigating greg fisher. i think that it is incredibly negligent for any of them to be able to lie down comfortably and sleep in their homes while breonna taylor wasn't afforded that right. and nothing has been done. you know, when we were actually jailed, there was a statement put out by their attorney general basically saying he's been investigating, et cetera. we all know from the facts that have been put out in the public that this investigation was completely mishandled, so it has to be escalated to the next place. the number one concern for me is the fact that they're investigating themselves. that cannot be the place. that cannot take place at this moment. be just being in their precinct, they're all friends. they're buddies. so if you listen to the investigation tapes as the interviewer is interviewing the police officers, she's actually putting words in their mouth. that's a known tactic to help their own. and, you know, this is a good old boys club. we are at this moment in black lives matter trying to dismantle white supremacy within our police system, in the entire system. so, yes, we actually need an outside group to come in and investigate this. they cannot police themselves. >> yeah, so just to pick up on that, you don't believe that the officials in kentucky, in louisville right now, could credibly investigate what happened to breonna taylor. from what you've seen and learned so far about this case, there is some kind of -- not maybe intention al or not, but a cover-up. >> there is absolutely a cover-up. when you create breonna's law banning no-knock warrants but yet the cops are lying and saying they actually did alert her when they entered into her home, that is not true. they actually said they thought drugs were being mailed to her home. there is a complete statement from their mailing system, who actually said that that is not true. they have not had anything being shipped to her house, you know, in such a number that they felt they needed to alert anybody. so there are so many different things that are wrong in this case and so many different levels of cover-up that we as a people demand that there be an outside investigation. i personally demand that the supreme court please step in and create justice. listen, if she does not get justice, you have to know that the unrest that we are living in now is only going to get worse, and i do believe that our country wants to. i pray that they would want to make sure that everybody feels like equal humans on this earth. the fight against racism is not just against black or white. we are fighting for humanity. people are out here being treated as if they're not even human. so if anybody loves america, if you love your fellow brother and sister no matter the color, i would ask you to use your voice to help push this case to the next level for breonna taylor. >> we appreciate you lending your voice to our program tonight. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> all right. finally tonight, i want to bring back reverend al sharpton for an important point he has made about gun violence in america. it is certainly rising across the nation. new york city seeing more gun violence this june than any june over the past 25 years. 17-year-old brandon hendricks, a recent high school graduate and basketball player, was killed by a stray bullet in the bronx earlier this month. rev delivered the eulogy with a powerful message. >> this was done by our brothers that should have been brandon's keeper, not his killer. we are our brother's keeper, and we can't keep our brothers till we do something about the violence in our community. because the way to teach america that black lives matter is to make it matter to each other first. >> all right. back with us is reverend al sharpton. rev, very powerful message there. what's the reaction been so far to that eulogy, but more importantly, to the broader message about gun violence in our cities? >> we must deal with gun violence. we can't even get a background check yet as much as we must tell young people and old people in our community, you cannot use violence. there are people that are all over this country, all of us have worked on a lot of these anti-gun and anti-violence crusades. but the problem is the continued flow of guns into our communities, and we must teach our young people and older people to resist that. we need gun laws, and we must continue to fight for that. and i wanted to bring that home. here's a 17-year-old young man that was on his way to college, scholarship, that was killed. we have a 1-year-old that was killed in new york. we had 60 in chicago last week shot. before that, father's day weekend, over 100. we must address that by telling our people to resist that and to show that we matter to each other. but we cannot let the gun industry duck their responsibility. the nra and others that influence this administration must be taken to task. >> rev, as you very well know, the slogan "defund the police" about reforming the police in this country has been front and center now for the last couple of weeks. you just heard porsha williams talk about it there as well. but, you know, the flip side to that is many people are saying and certainly the president is exploiting that slogan to say defunding the police means that you're going to get a lot more of this type of violence in our inner city. what's your reaction to people who say defunding the police leads to this kind of violence? >> they are talking about using the funds to build a more effective way of policing, dealing with mental health, dealing with community policing. the way that policing has been done has not led to bringing down violence and bringing down crime. look at chicago as an example. so when they say defund, they're not talking about ending police. we're talking about how you make the resources more effective. and if they want to defend the way policing is going now, then they need to explain why we're having these problems and why they're afraid to take on the nra and others. >> why do you believe, sir, that we're seeing this surge of violence now? >> i think that a lot of it is that we see again the communities that are inundated with guns and bullets, and because of the unfair, unequal conditions that people live under, they take things that are immediately available to them and take the frustration out. we don't justify it. we challenge them. but in order to challenge them, you have to expose it. don't be used by the forces that suppress you in the first place. >> all right. reverend al sharpton, thank you so much for joining us this hour. that does it for me this hour. my colleague steve kornacki picks it up next. good evening. i'm steve kornacki in new york. as coronavirus cases continue to surge in states across the united states, the south and the west in particular, many local gastroenterologis governments are grappling with how to curb outbreaks. there have been 3.5 million cases of the virus nationwide. the death toll approaching 139,000. in florida, officials reported nearly 14,000 new cases today and the hig

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