velshi starts now. good morning, it is saturday, october the 3rd. we're 31 days until election day, one month to go. i'm ali velshi, roughly 210,000 americans are dead from covid-19, and roughly 7.4 million have been diagnosed with the disease. president donald trump and first lady melania trump are now two of them. as a precautionary measure and on the recommendation of his physicians, the president is right now in the walter reed national military medical center, and he will be working out of the presidential offices at the facility over the next few days. the white house says that the president is experiencing, quote, mild symptoms. nbc news has learned that trump has a low grade fever. the president's physician, u.s. says trump, quote, remains fatigued but in good spirits, and melania has a, quote, mild cough and a headache. commander connolly also said trump has started remdesivir therapy and has received a single eight-gram dose of regeneron's experimental polyclonal antiviral cocktail. we'll talk more about that in a moment. nbc news medical unit notes that compassionate use requests are a means of, quote, accessing experimental drugs outside of clinical trials, most often in situations where patients have no other options and have severe or life-threatening disease, end quote. and according to regeneron, they are approved, quote, under rare exceptional circumstances on a case by case basis. in his first tweet since announcing his diagnosis, trump sent this video message. >> i want to thank everybody for the tremendous support. i'm going to walter reed hospital. i think i'm doing very well, but we're going to make sure that things work out. the first lady is doing very well, so thank you very much. i appreciate it. i will never forget it. thank you. >> let's look at something the president never took very seriously, contact tracing, trying to figure out where he's been and who he's met over the past seven days, which includes last saturday's rose garden ceremony announcing the nomination of judge amy coney barrett to the supreme court and a campaign fundraiser and rally in minnesota. it also includes a campaign fundraiser thursday night at his private golf course in new jersey. the white house says trump tested positive thursday night, although it's not known whether that was before or after the event in new jersey or before or after he traveled back to washington. vice president mike pence and second lady karen pence have tested negative as has secretary of state mike pompeo, treasury secretary steven mnuchin, attorney general william barr, white house press secretary kayleigh mcenany and rudy giuliani. jared and ivanka trump have also both tested negative. however, it is important for all of us to remember, not just for our government officials but for our own lives that a negative test result only means that the person being tested does not have covid-19 at the time of the test. the incubation period for the virus is long, symptoms can appear as late as 14 days after initial infection. if you've been exposed to someone, you should either quarantine or test regularly over the course of two weeks. nbc news has learned that hope hicks, one of president trump's top aides began showing symptoms of the disease on wednesday evening and reportedly quarantined on the air force one flight back to washington from a trump campaign event held in minnesota. hicks tested positive for covid-19 thursday morning before trump's new jersey fundraiser. another high ranking official in the president's orbit to test positive rnc chairwoman ronna mcdaniel. according to rnc spokespeople she tested positive on wednesday, quote, after a member of her family tested positive. trump's campaign manager bill stepien announced he has covid-19. also testing positive, university of notre dame president reverend john jenkins, utah republican senator mike lee and north carolina's republican senator thom tillis, all three of whom attended trump's announcement last saturday nominating judge amy coney barrett to the supreme court. none of them wore masks. senator lee also met with judge barrett on tuesday. judge barrett has tested negative and now "the washington post" has learned that she actually had covid-19 over the summer and has recovered. however, it's very important to remember that there have been cases of people getting covid-19 more than once. it does not, however, appear to be common. the president's diagnosis, which is startling but not all that surprising given his cavalier attitude toward the disease and precautions like mask wearing came days after what is widely being called the worst presidential debate in u.s. history. one of the people who helped prepare trump for the debate, former new jersey governor chris christie says that the sessions included about five or six people and that, quote, no one was wearing masks in the room. nbc news has also reported that kellyanne conway was a member of that debate prep team. she also taattended judge barrett's ceremony. she also confirmed late last night she is positive for covid-19. and remember, that cavalier attitude i just mentioned, here's the president on tuesday. >> president trump, you have begun to increasingly question the effectiveness of masks as a disease preventer, and in fact, recently you have cited the issue of waiters touching their masks and touching plates. are you questioning the -- >> no, i think masks are okay, you have to understand, i mean, i have a mask right here. i put a mask on, you know, when i think i need it. tonight is an example everybody's had a test, and you've had social distancing and all of the things that you have to, but -- >> just like at rallies. >> when needed i wear masks. >> let me ask -- >> i don't wear masks like him, every time you see him he's got a mask. he could be speaking 200 feet away, and he shows up with the biggest mask i've ever seen. >> he could be 200 feet away and he shows up with the biggest mask i've ever seen. joe biden has responded to the president's diagnosis tweeting, quote, jill and i send our thoughts to president trump and first lady melania trump for a swift recovery. we will continue to pray for the health and safety of the president and his family. biden followed up a short time later, quote, i'm happy to report that jill and i have tested negative for covid. thank you to everyone for your messages of concern. i hope this serves as a reminder, wear a mask, keep social distance and wash your hands. biden expanded on his thoughts at a campaign stop in michigan. >> look, let's -- i'd like to start by acknowledging, which i'm sure all of you do as well, sending my prayers for the health and safety of the first lady and president -- the president of the united states after they tested positive for covid-19. my wife jill and i pray that they'll make a quick and full recovery. this is not a matter of politics. it's a bracing reminder to all of us that we have to take this virus seriously. it's not going away automatically. we have to do our part to be responsible. it means following the science, listening to the experts, washing our hands, social distancing. it means wearing a mask in public and it means encouraging others to do so as well. it means having masking mandates nationwide. >> joining me now white house bureau chief for "the washington post" phil rucker, also an nbc political analyst. notably he was not at last saturday's rose garden ceremony, which is starting to look a bit like a possible coronavirus spreader event. he's also the author of the best seller "a very stable genius: donald j. trump's testing of america." his latest story dives into the details of the past week quoting -- i'm quoting from the article now, invince blt punctured by infection, how the coronavirus spread in trump's white house. phil, good to see you this morning. thank you for being with us. >> good morning. >> i just want to check on you, my friend. how are you feeling? are you good, and have you been tested? >> thankfully i'm feeling great. it's been actually a couple of weeks since i've been physically at the white house and around any of those, so i don't have a lot of concern for exposure at this point, but thank you for asking. >> but your headline is remarkable, invince blt punctured that is a thesis unto itself. we've heard it from you, our reporters, a ton of people, they sometimes function as if it's what we call the before times, right? before coronavirus, for whatever reason there seems to be a sense, and sometimes that happens to us as reporters when we cover stories. i cover hurricanes, we sometimes think the rules don't apply to us the same as it applies to everybody else, but it turns out that they do. >> you're exactly right, and the culture in the white house for hon ho months now has been the before times. you have staffers working around the president in very close proximity, virtually nobody wearing a mask indoors or outdoors, no social distancing to be heard of. they do take rapid tests every morning to make sure that they don't have -- that they don't show up as testing positive for the coronavirus that day. however, those tests are not entirely accurate. it has a reasonably high rate of inaccuracy in some cases, and there's a reliance inside trump's orbit on that test as if it were creating some invin invinceability. for the rest of the day nothing can touch you, that this virus cannot somehow puncture the walls of the white house. the virus doesn't discriminate based on whether you were tested or whether you work in donald trump's administration. the virus is contagious. it's spreading. it's all over washington, d.c., as it is all over the rest of the country, and it ultimately has gotten into the president's orbit as we're seeing, and we should point out, the chief of staff at the white house, mark meadows told reporters yesterday that they are bracing for many more positive cases to come in the days to come as the virus spreads and symptoms become more clear. >> so phil, we've talked for three and a half years about whether certain events will cause a sea change in the president's behavior, and generally speaking most people think that's an exercise in folly. however, there are americans who are wondering and maybe hoping. we're right on track for the numbers that the university of washington predicted for the number of americans who will be dead before the election. we're at 210,000 almost right now. they were saying about 225 by the election, and that's probably going to happen. here's the question, will anything that has happened in the last seven days result in a policy stance change about social distancing and masks and i want to read an article, a line from your article in which you write the white house is handling the period between the first known symptoms, those of hicks on wednesday and the president's infection, which was confirmed at about 1:00 a.m. friday is what experts considered a case study in irresponsibility and mismanagement. your article suggests the answer to my question is no. >> i think we already know, ali, that the answer is no. for instance, you would think with the infection spreading inside the white house and among trump staff that there would have been some sort of emergency rule until that building that all employees are to wear masks, that people are to work at home and socially distance as best they can. and yet those things all remain optional in this white house because the president continues to believe there should not be a mandate on masks. >> phil, good to see you as always thank you for your great reporting. the author of a very stable genius. former assistant secretary for health and human services, dr. howard ko. a professor of practice and public health leader at the harvard kennedy school, former commissioner of the fda, dr. margaret hamberg, the foreign secretary for the national academy of medicine. dr. hamberg, i want you to give us the early evaluation of what you have seen unfold this week starting with the diagnosis of hope hicks to the president to the various people in the president's orbit. things have become very real for the administration in the last three days. >> well, it's certainly been a very dramatic picture unfolding with cases spreading. we don't know the source. my guess based on the time lines is that hope hicks and the president might have been exposed actually at the same time, but we don't know the source, but certainly it reminds us that this is a serious disease that can spread. it reminds us about the importance of those public health measures that we talk about a lot that the president has not modeled and his staff have not adopted masks, social distancing, and of course also, you know, hygiene, washing hands, et cetera, and it's worrisome. the president is in a high risk group. he is, i guess 74. he is markedly overweight, in fact, i think he's technically obese, and he's male. males actually have a two times higher risk of death from this disease. so he has three reasons for serious concern about his risk factors. we know he'll get the best of care, and we all wish him well, but this is a dramatic moment for our country and hopefully it will be a teaching moment for all of those about the importance of taking this disease very, very seriously. >> dr. ko, let's just talk about this from a policy perspective. the president is better tracked probably than any american in existence, and yet we aren't sure where ronna mcdaniel got covid from. we're not sure where hope hicks got it from, we're not sure whether hope hicks gave it to the president or who got it from whom. contact tracing, mask wearing skprgs social distanci and social distancing are things this administration has not taken seriously obviously only a personal level or on a policy level. does any of that change now? >> we certainly hope so because what's happening at the white house in the last few days is a microcosm of what's been happening in the country for the last eight months and counting. right now in the white house it's critically important to pursue aggressive contact tracing, identify, isolate, care, and treat those who are infected ask also find out who have been exposed and make sure they are quarantined and tested, and those are some of the key measures for prevention right now. as phil rucker said, there should be a mask requirement for everybody in the white house and anybody coming in contact with the president and other high ranking officials. but that's a lesson that should be applied to the whole country right now. we have not had a united effort for the united states up until now, and we still have some 40, 45,000 cases a day. this is as we're heading into a potentially difficult flu season and a second wave of covid coming on. so we need to elevate the importance of prevention, mask wearing, social distancing, hand washing, i'll tell you, ali, one thing i learned from my patients is that when a loved one dies, that's a tragedy, but when a loved one dies and that death could have been prevented, that's a tragedy that haunts you forever. that's why prevention is so critically important right now. >> how many of the 210,000 americans who have already died were preventable, in some cases by policy? dr. hamberg, the organization that you head, the head of the fda and cdc both have been politicized and diminished as a result of this president who has largely sent the message out that don't take them as seriously as you take me. in this very moment when all of a sudden you realize the president who, for very obvious reasons, could have been prevented from getting coronavirus by practicing some of the same things that he wouldn't practice now has that, what does this do to the trust in institutions? because we are always looking at both the fda for medical approvals and the cdc for public health guidance on how to deal with these things. this president himself has diminished those two organizations. >> well, it's been a terrible thing to watch. in fact, the centers for disease control, the cdc and the food and drug administration, fda, are considered the gold standards around the world. they have a depth and breadth of expertise and experience, and the president, for whatever reasons has chosen to discount their expertise, to devalue the role of science and evidence, and has looked to others without the expertise of his own employees within these federal public health agencies for advice that is not accurate and has been misleading and has undermined the ability to really do the kinds of critical public health programs that we've within talkibeen talking about this morning and have been part of so many of the efforts to control this virus, but as howard ko noted, our efforts have been fragmented. we haven't had a national plan with a clearly delineated strategy. we haven't had the kind of clear, consistent messaging from the top down about what people need to do and why, and we haven't had the commitment to public health, the testing, the contact tracing, and the other behaviors that are so crucial. and the countries that have been more successful than the united states in controlling this disease clearly did those things, and we should learn those lessons and, you know, we are entering a very fraught period now as we move indoors, as people go back to school and to work as the virus continues to circulate, and also as we have the threat of seasonal flu as well. >> dr. hamberg, you know, the three of us are all on the same page on had this thing, but what the hell are we doing talking about learning lessons with 210,000 people dying? it is just ridiculous that this is what it might even take, and i think to dr. ko's point, i don't think it's going to do it. i don't think the president's going to sit around and say hey, everybody should social distance and wear masks. he couldn't bring himself to say it on tuesday on the debate stage. he mocked joe biden for wearing the biggest mask in the world when he's 200 feet away from you. i hope we learn lessons, but i'm not holding my breath for it. thank you to both of you for the work that you've done and for the guidance that you are giving us. dr. howard ko, the former assistant secretary for health and human services, dr. margaret hamberg, the foreign secretary of the national academy of medicine. two public health experts who know of what they speak. joining me now democratic congresswoman johannah hayes of connecticut, a member of the congressional black caucus, also a former teacher. she was awarded the highly prestigious national teacher of the year award in 2016 and like the more than 7 million americans we're talking about, congresswoman hayes was diagnosed with covid-19 getting the positive test result around two weeks ago. congresswoman, how are you and how are you feeling? >> sorry. good morning, i feel much better. >> oh, good morning, there you go. we didn't get your audio for a second. we've got you now. >> i said good morning, i feel much better. i have some shortness of breath and fatigue, but definitely progressing. >> thank you, well, i'm glad that you are feeling better. what do you make of what's going on right now within the context of putting aside for the moment that the president himself has coronavirus only because that may make him take it more seriously, but you passed a bill in congress, the heroes act, the $2.2 trillion bill which you and congress have been trying to get passed for a long time. it appears to be dead on arrival because the president's not interested and republicans in the senate are not interested. >> well, not only did we -- first of all, i want to say that i hope that the president and his family and the people around him get healthy much quicker. i wouldn't wish this virus on anyone. not only did we pass the heroes act, just this week we passed an updated version of the heroes act which took into account all of the perspectives of all of the people that we heard from that were impacted. this idea that we can address one thing now, the testing now but we'll deal with food security and housing later is just not reasonable. people are hurting now, and they need these things to happen now. it's unfortunate that the senate failed to bring these things up before, but i was listening to the last segment, maybe now people will take this more seriously. >> what do you -- what do you think can be achieved? because i know that democrats want certain things in this bill. republicans are largely responding with some version of it's too much, the debt's too high. we don't actually need it, and in some cases it's a disincentive to work. we have seen tens of thousands of layoffs this week in the airline industry, at disney and other companies. what is the space in which you think you and the senate can find common ground? >> well, i don't know who these senators are speaking to, but when i talk to the people in my district, i know that everything that we've included in this bill is exactly what people need. house democrats have already come down, but this idea that it is a disincentive to work, people want to get back to work. they want to get back to normal, but we cannot do that until our country is healthy, and that doesn't happen because, again, we haven't had a national strategy. we haven't gotten this virus under control, but we need to make sure that we are supporting the economy and helping people until we can fully reopen and they're healthy again. i've seen in some of this legislation where the senate is calling for all of these giveaways if you will to large corporations, but when it comes to the american people, when it comes to helping regular everyday families, there's this increased scrutiny and you hear rhetoric like it's a disincentive to work. >> congresswoman, johannah hayes, we wish you a speedy recovery as you have wished and we all wish the president and first lady and all those in his circle who have contracted this disease a speedy recovery. thank you so much for being with us. i'd love to talk to you next time about schools and what's going on with the return of students to schools given your expertise in public education. as of now, the vice presidential debate between mike pence and senator kamala harris is still set for this wednesday. it's the only time they'll face off before election day. watch our coverage with brian williams, rachel maddow, joy reid, nicolle wallace. all of that wednesday. president trump and several members of his inner circle as we've been describing now join the more than 7 million americans who have contracted covid-19. we're going to get an update from wisconsin, the latest epicenter of the pandemic. the antes been upped. to lead the charge... good had to be amazing... and amazing had to become the expectation. the drivers feel it 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[makes playful sound] i take care of my skin. not this skin. that skin. and when you've got incontinence, you sure need to. tena intimates pads lock liquid in, and are now 100% breathable to care for your intimate skin. are you still here? kind to skin. protects like tena. donald and melania trump are just two of the roughly 7.4 million people in the united states who have contracted the coronavirus in the last seven months. as we enter october, we're seeing yet another resurgence of covid across the country. right now more than 25 states are seeing upticks in cases, and 55,000 americans were confirmed positive just yesterday. every day close to 1,000 americans are dying of the virus adding to the roughly 210,000 who have died so far. we are very much still in the middle of this pandemic. for months, experts have warned of a twindemic, the mix of a deadly seasonal flu that could hit at the same time as another wave of covid, and as we enter flu season, a gentle reminder to viewers that one of these two viruses has a vaccine that can be taken right now. and now some northeastern states that successfully warded off their first covid wave are showing signs that a resurgence may be underway. new york city is seeing its first increase in positivity rates since june, but nowhere in the country is the virus as bad as it is in the midwest. wisconsin is increasingly being seen as the country's new hot spot as its infection rates have skyrocketed. yesterday clocking in 2,700 new cases and 17,000 new cases just this week creating chaos in hospitals and disturbing its health systems. concern is growing as some wisconsin hospitals in hard hit areas have been forced to turn patients away or put them on a wait list for hospital beds. this sounds like what we were talking about in march and june. you'd think that this concern would make leaders take precautions like mask wearing, even more importantly, but just yesterday the republican leaders of both the state legislative bodies in wisconsin filed a brief in state court to try to overturn the governor's mandatory mask mandate in the middle of this massive health crisis. green bay is seeing the largest increase in cases. doctors in the area signed a letter to elected officials yesterday urging them to enforce social distancing and mask wearing writing plainly that, quote, we are overwhelmed as hospitalizations for covid-19 in green bay, hospitals tripled last month. green bay is also where we find my friend nbc's cal perry. what's the situation there? >> listen, doctors in that letter -- and it's the front story here on the papers -- have said the communities acting with reckless disregard. they want more masks to be worn. you can still find businesses in the states that put up signs that say no mask required, come on in. this is a state that has tripled its case in just a month. when you look at the per capita numbers in urban areas it has three of the four worst urban areas here in northern wisconsin. doctors are dealing with a four hospital system. they're trying to balance out and be creative about how they treat patients to keep room on those coronavirus floors. they don't want to go to capacity. we've been told they are near capacity. when you talk to those doctor, they'll tell you, ali, we live in a different world than the one we did when this virus started six months ago. take a listen. >> we really -- to defeat this -- >> there are sister hospitals in downtown green bay, i interviewed two doctors in the span of 30 minutes, i asked them both should this city consider a lockdown, they both said yes green bay should consider locking down as the cases continue to spike. ali. >> thanks very much, stay safe out there, cal perry in green bay, wisconsin, for us. as we get closer to the election, disinformation is spreading like an infectious disease itself. i've seen it myself when i speak to voters across the country. conspiracy theories are dominating the mainstream. coming up next, how the latest viral myth is a debate lie pushed by donald trump. taking california for a ride. companies like uber, lyft, doordash. breaking state employment laws for years. now these multi-billion-dollar companies wrote deceptive prop 22 to buy themselves a new law. to deny drivers the rights they deserve. no sick leave. no workers' comp. no unemployment benefits. vote no on the deceptive uber, lyft, doordash prop 22. one ride california doesn't want to take. i got this mountain bike for only $11. dealdash.com, the fair and honest bidding site. an ipad worth $505, was sold for less than $24; a playstation 4 for less than $16; and a schultz 4k television for less than $2. i won these bluetooth headphones for $20. i got these three suitcases for less than $40. and shipping is always free. go to dealdash.com right now and see how much you can save. i want to quickly just go to walter reed and show you a picture of what's going on outside there. this is the military hospital at which president trump is being treated right now. there's some people out there with flags, pro-trump demonstrators giving him some encouragement as we all are. it doesn't matter where you stand politically, we wish all our fellow countrymen who have been felled by coronavirus, who are suffering through it, the best and of course our wishes go out to the families of those 210,000 americans who have died of this disease. as you know, i've been traveling around the country every week, and as i travel around on my tour across america, i've had conversations with voters about a lot of topics, including some that are quite far removed from reality. certain conspiracies have made their way from the darkest parts of the web and into the mainstream by a string of online disinformation. now these theories, they're not just false. they are dangerous, and they're a fundamental problem that's got the potential to upend the presidential race. i'm joined now by brandy sa droz any to debunk some of them. the people i talk to, i don't think they know qanon, i don't think they go to qanon sites or the dark web. somehow this stuff makes it into mainstream, and these theories are getting out there. one of the most prevalent pieces of misinformation that we've come across is that joe biden was wearing an ear piece. i'm wearing one right now, an ear piece during the debate. this is how my producers communicate with me. they tell me things like shut up, you're talking too much. there was a picture, here it is on tv. it looks like airpods. clearly joe biden wasn't wearing airpods during the debate. so this is faked. what's going on with this? >> it's absolutely faked, and that came from the trump campaign. it's a really good example of the sort of cycle of disinformation that we see. so for months the trump campaign and sort of the online community that calls themselves his digital soldiers has been pushing this disinformation that biden is somehow mentally instable, he has dementia, things like that. that's where this fits. people were showing the rosary on his arm that he wears for his son beau who died and saying that it was some sort of microphone apparatus. all of this is sort of to explain away him doing a decent job and saying he can't possibly do that. and when we see with our own eyes that he seems to be all there. he seems just fine mentally, they point to that he must have had help. that also shows that to them that he's cheating and since april, we know that donald trump and his allies have been pushing this idea that the election is somehow rigged against him in all sorts of ways, so he -- you know, the stuff bubbling up from the internet and then promoted by the trump campaign and the cycle is really complete. >> brandy, one of the other ones that came up while i was in kenosha, and these are good honest people, when i ask people what the biggest issue is to them during the campaign, child sex trafficking came up. now, there are a couple of issues with this. first of all, nobody who's running for president is in favor of child sex trafficking, but this felt like a handover from the last election where a guy went and shot up a pizza parlor because he thought hillary clinton and her group were running a fepedophilia rin. this is still alive. why? >> because it's a way that qanon has rebranded itself. qanon is this ridiculous conspiracy theory that was born in racist and child pornography website actually, and it's this theory that somehow donald trump is saving everyone from a cabal of democrats and hollywood elites who are running this child sex ring. it's ludicrous, of course, and so finally the platforms have started clamping down on it. they've taken away qanon groups. they've restricted qanon links from twitter, all of these sorts of measures to do it. the qanon community has said, eke, we need to rebrand. they've whitewashed their message and now they're all sort of hanging out under this save the children banner. they're whitewashing the message so well that they're getting moms in kenosha, wisconsin, who want to do something good, especially during a pandemic, they're at their homes, what can they do? oh, ri can help this effort to save the children, but it's actually hurting real child trafficking, real human trafficking organizations by tieing up resources with ridiculous conspiracy theorieth. >> brandy, thank you for the work that you do on this. i will encourage my viewers to follow brandy on twitter and also to follow her work because she does bust a lot of these myths that, you know, free you up to think about other things if you're not thinking about conspiracy theories. good to see you as always, my friend. at least seven people who attended last week's mostly maskless white house ceremony to nominate amy coney barrett to the supreme court have tested positive for the coronavirus. coming up next, how these developments could disrupt the confirmation process. new vicks immunity zzzs gummies are fortified with zinc and elderberry to sustain a healthy immune system plus melatonin for restorative sleep because being run down, is not an option. recharge your nights to take on your days with new vicks immunity zzzs. still a father. but now a friend. still an electric car. just more electrifying. still a night out. but everything fits in. still hard work. just a little easier. still a legend. just more legendary. chevrolet. making life's journey, just better. fine, no one leaves the tablefine, we'll sleep here. ♪ it's the easiest because it's the cheesiest. kraft. for the win win. 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(burke) get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. they should really turn this ride off. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ (burke vo) start with a quote at 1-800-farmers now we gather in the rose garden to continue our never ending task of ensuring equal justice and preserving the impartial rule of law. i want to thank the members of the senate. we have so many of them here today. but i want to thank you for your commitment and to providing a fair and timely hearing. i know it will be that. >> the controversial event, the rose garden ceremony where president trump announced his nomination of amy coney barrett to the supreme court is now being considered as a potential super spreader of the coronavirus. now that was saturday. so far at least seven people from the event have tested positive, including two members of the senate judiciary committee who met with nominee amoa amy coney barrett. we do know that barrett had coronavirus in the summer and has since recovered. senate judiciary chairman lindsey graham and senate majority leader mitch mcconnell announced their plan to still hold the confirmation hearing. in this photo labeled by "politico," you can see four other republican senators that sit on the judiciary committee near tillis and lee. they are senators marsha blackburn and mike crapo and senators josh holly and ben sasse sit between them. the cdc recommends quarantining for 14 days. today is october 3rd, october 12th is nine days away. republican leaders are said to fear losing their majority in the senate in november, but if they hold these hearings in person and on schedule, they risk spreading coronavirus. people's lives could be at risk, but so far they say they're going through with it anyway. there are 12 republicans on the committee, but now half of them have been exposed simply by attending the supreme court nomination ceremony at the white house including two who have already tested positive. and on thursday, the committee held a hearing with nine republicans and democrats including senator ted cruz who sat just feet from a maskless and at times shouting senator mike lee. every member of the committee who attended thursday's hearing will need to be tested twice during the week to confirm they are not infected and with six republicans from the committee at monday's event, most unmasked, the risk of them not being able to attend raises new questions about how this confirmation process is going to move forward. we will be watching this story as it unfolds. senator chris van hollen joins me next to talk about the covid reli relief bill. we spoke with voters about the president's coronavirus diagnosis. >> hopefully he's well because you don't wish ill-will to everyone. they haven't been transparent thus far with everything else, what makes us think they're going to be transparent now. >> i hope it serves as a teachable moment to the whole nation that masks are effectivement of just the other day at the debate, trump did kind of mock joe biden for wearing a mask, and i think now we know science does know. and it's made for her she's serving now we made it for all branches and all ranks whether they served one tour or made a career of it. we also made usaa for military spouses and their kids usaa is easy to work with and can save you money on auto, home and renters insurance. become a member today. get an insurance quote at usaa.com/quote usaa. what you're made of we're made for ♪ i try so hard, i can't rise above it ♪ ♪ don't know what it is ♪ ♪ get a dozen double crunch shrimp for one dollar with any steak entrée. only at applebee's. amidst all of the news you may have missed the fact that on friday it was jobs day. it's the first friday of the month. this week's jobs report fell well short of expectations. the economy may be hitting an unemployment rate of 7.9% and 12 million americans jobless and mass job cuts still on the horizon. the airline industry this week cutting 35,000 jobs. on top of that, disney laying off 28,000 employees. the insurer, all-state, cutting 4,000 jobs. it seems the dream of a bipartisan solution to the covid relief bill is far away. house democrats and white house have not been able to come to an agreement. the house went ahead and passed a $2 trillion package. but without the buy in from the white house, this bill is most likely to stall in the senate. meanwhile, members of the house are adjourning for their october recess leaving this vitally important issue on the table. house speaker nancy pelosi and treasury secretary mnuchin are expected to continue talks, however. senator, good to see you. thank you for being with us. tell me how this all works. the house has passed another bill the heros act $2.2 billion. the president is disinterested in this whole thing. mitch mcconnell says he's got members of his conference who say they don't want to run the debt any higher, which is sort of laughable when you think about where the debt came from in the first place. they're just not that interested. this is not a priority for republicans in your chamber. >> well, ali, it's good to be with you. as you said, tens of millions of americans are still hurting very badly from the economic impact here. you also mentioned the house passed the original heros act almost five months ago and now heroes 2.0. the fundamental problem here is mitch mcconnell and senate republicans because they constrain the negotiating room that even secretary steve mnuchin has because whatever he negotiates with the house and speaker pelosi, of course they need to get votes in the senate. they could do it if they were willing to have a vote in the senate with democrats supporting it and maybe a few republicans, but mitch mcconnell wants to have a good part of his republican senators onboard, so he's decided that he's going to look out for his own politics in the senate before the american people and has refused to take up a vote on these measures. >> this is an important point you make. all democrats or most democrats in the senate would support this bill. so you actually only need a handful of republicans. mitch mcconnell could go to his closest friends or people not endangered in districts or states and get them to support this but instead he's pandering to 20 plus senators who don't want to run up the budget or think it's a giveaway to people who rather actually sit home and collect unemployment. >> that's exactly right. we actually only need three senate republicans to pass this if we have all of the democrats, which i think we would. and i'm sure that some of those republican senators who are in swing states who are up in tough elections would like to be able to tell their constituents that they supported emergency relief. this is simply because mitch mcconnell doesn't want to put something on the floor that doesn't have strong support from his colleagues on the republican side and many of them have taken a position they don't want to do anything. zero. look, the problem is they're looking at the stock market and a lot of their supporters are just doing fine these days. they've got all these big investments. they're not listening to working people who are hurting badly and that is the crux of the problem here at this moment. >> stock market works on profitability. profitability comes to selling things to people. people who buy things have more money than those who don't. members of your senate are popping up with coronavirus. some were at the announcement last saturday and who are on the judiciary committee. what impact does this have on the hearings for the appointment to the supreme court? >> sure. there's the hearings and then there's the vote on the floor of the senate. in the hearings it can be very disruptive. to date they wanted to make sure that judges for the circuit court are there in person because the committee on a bipartisan basis has thought that that person should be there subject to questioning. of course, now all of that is up in the air. the best course of action, safest course of action, of course, is to postpone them. as you know many of us believe we shouldn't even be embarked on this nomination right now under mcconnell's own precedent, but lindsey graham is still saying that they're going to move forward. it's not clear what will happen because they have to have the vote in committee eventually and, you know, i think with two senators gone, they can only afford one more and then of course there's the floor vote later on. so all of this is up in the air. we have been saying for a long time that this whole thing, of course, should be put off until after the inauguration day under mcconnell's own rule but now we have the safety issue. we hope that they will pay attention to it. >> senator, good to see you again. thank you for joining us. coming up in the next hour, i'll speak with the governor of washington about the impact the pandemic has had on the 2020 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