one battlefield remains quiet amidst a growing culture war. i'm michael smerconish in philadelphia, reminders of the confederacy have been toppling across the country. following the death of george floyd, many monuments to confederate soldiers and slave h holders have been taken down. the president has sieged responsible statues as one of the wedge issues to shore up his base. yesterday he tweet i'd just had the privilege of assigning a very executive order law with monuments, memorials and statues and contributing recent crime violence. long police terms for these lawless acts against our great country. if i told you there's one

location that is home to not just one but 40 monuments but not only that, it's north of the mason/dixon line. and as the nation debates what should be done with statues, this area remains quiet. i speak of gettysburg, pennsylvania which i visited yesterday. 1863, 160,000 fought there. robert e. lee led his groups back to a tortuous trip back. 3 1/2 laters president abraham lincoln would deliver the g gettiesburg agress. notwithstanding that several of

the statues were erected not in close time to the era but amidst a more modern debate over civil rights in the 1960s and 1970s. for perspective, i spoke to scott hancock professor of history and jason marks acting officer for the gettysburg park. professor thank you for being here. we've agreeded to social distance and drop our masks for this statue. tell me about the statue. >> this is the mississippi state monument. erected in 1953. it's one of 12 state monuments that goes up during the civil rights era, immediately thereafter. and there are other monuments in the confederacy and most of them are residential markers. what's different about this, it's a state monument like

virginia and the others. so it has a more political message because of when it went up and some of the things that it has on it. the inscription says that these brave fighters fought for the right of cause. >> which is what? >> well, i would argue, any historian would argue that the cause was slavery. but when this monument went up they're saying it's much more about instruct to individual rights. and when speaking saying it was to protect the constitution rights of the south which everybody knew what he was talking about resisting federal orders that they had to desegregate. and it was maintaining that hierarchy in the south. >> what communication do you think was communicated with the erection of this statue? >> i think it's very much about protecting and communicating this identity of how some white southerners, certainly not all,

wanted to see their path. and that was a path that didn't have anything to do with slavery. didn't have anything to do with black people. and the several thousand slaves here in the battlefield. and they actually started talking about erecting this monument in 1962. so it's taken a while to get it in place. and when they wanted to put that encryption upon, actually the superintendent of the national park at the time said you can't put that on there. the mississippi committee got a state supreme court judge to weigh in. it went back and forth for a while. the superintendent left -- not over this, i don't think. the new superintendent that came in was from mississippi, a white man, and he okayed it. >> we all learned back in the day that you and i are standing at the seminal battle of the civil war. the greatest bloodshed of any americans on any battlefield in the united states. does the context matter to you? and what i'm asking is, do you apply the same frame of reference to what's behind you that you would to a statue of a

confederate soldier in a town square? >> i think the context matters tremendously. so, those statues in town squares that aren't situated on a battlefield and are not situated because of the consensus of people in those towns because it's not like they're talking to the black folks in those towns. for me, i'm all in favor of those coming down. for me, because it has an educational value i think are a bit different -- well, significantly different. it is about pointing to the battle. that's what the statue is, taking charge. but what i would love to see the park service do is not let that statue communicate a one-way message. and that one-way message was, their cause was to maintain the institution of slavery. so what's good for me, it's not so much about taking the statue down. it's educating visitor wise that

statue went up. >> if i go to the visitors center i'm told that story. >> yeah, yeah. >> you think there needs to be a different telling on the battlefield? >> yeah, so the visitors center does a great job with this. the national parks service is aware that the battlefield communicates a different message than a visitors center. the battlefield, there's no reference to slavery. there's only a couple references to any black presence on the battlefield. there's no reference that the army kidnapped freed black people when they came here. if you went to the visitors center you have no idea that the reason there's a battle here in the first place is because of slavery. because of enslaved black men and women. i think they need to make the battlefield line up with what the visitors center does. >> i'm curious as the nation is embroiled in what to do with icons of the confederacy, has

there been controversy here at gettysburg? >> there has not. >> blwhat do you think we're seeing play all over? >> what you're see here at gettysburg is a time capsule, a window to the past. 165,000 soldiers fought each other on these surrounding grounds for three full days in 1863. they were here. the men from mississippi were here. the men from louisiana were here, so forth, all across the battlefield. so the tangible connection to the place and the men who fought here is unlike anywhere else. >> but what about the issue of some of them having been erected post civil rights era, almost sending -- maybe not even almost, sending a message? >> sure. thatless is a window for us as national parks service employees

to be able to educate the public, not just about those three days in july of 1863, but until various eras and decades throughout the history of the united states that led to some of these monuments being placed here in the first place. so some of these monuments have a lot to them. but that's endemic to when they would have been placed here throughout the 1900s. >> that, therefore, grounds to have them removed? >> we don't think so. in fact, all of these monuments here on the battlefield fall into one of two categories. they were either congressionally mandated so it was like a congressional mandate to remove them. or they fall under a length of the history that they've been here together, they are an intrinsic fabric of the battlefield as much as the battlefield is. so removing them isn't necessarily an option. they are here in perpetuity. so it's our job, at that point, to educate the public about when

those monuments would have been placed, at least those that certainly have an offensive view to them. >> for what it's worth, i came away from gettysburg thinking the statues should remain. robert e. lee depicted in a statue adjacent to a battlefield where his troops perished. to me is not the same as a lee that's erected thousands of miles away in front of a building where decisions are made. battlefield statuary doesn't honor but recognizes history. and i'm inclined to agree with her. telling that history needs to include an explanation as to why some statues were built amidst a temporary debate. i like professor hancock's

belief to add more markers. if the statue is to remain, i think it should, visitors should know it was not put up until 1963 and among the dedication speakers was george wallace. here's something we should all agree. visiting a national treasure like gettysburg was a must. i'm embarrassed, i hadn't been there since i was a kid. i want to know what you think. go to my websit website @smerconish.com. please answer get, should confederate battlefield monuments be left in place? what are your thoughts? tweet me p. go to my website. what do we have, kathryn. from facebook, no, and i am a direct relative of many confederates, put them in a museum of the history of civil war. brooke, i think your no, you meant yes in response to the way we worded it. make sure you look at the question the way we worded it on

the website. i get what you're saying, i want them down. in the context of gettysburg, i disagree, looking at robert e. lee, if there's anyplace it's appropriate, it's that place. i guess your argument is there's no place. still to come, starting next month, baseball and basketball are finally coming back for covid-shortened seasons. without any fans in the stands. i want to ask bob costas if we'll watch if there's no fans in the stands. plus, did you know that the meddling in the latest election was years in both countries. plus, i spoke with susan rice, one of the women on joe biden vp list. and the need for national service. and politico dubbed him the biden whispering.

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i moderated an online gathering of the national commission on military national and public service this week. congress created the commission under the direction of former congressman joe heck to review the selective service process and increase participation in military, national and public service. the online event marked the release of their final report titled "inspired to serve." my role included interviewing ambassador susan rice who surprised me with a bold suggestion. >> i wish we could have mandatory national civilian service in this country so that every kid, between the ages of

18 and 21, spent six or 12 months in national service, whether it's laying broadband or building infrastructure, or r rehabilitating innercity schools and library. the reason i think service is so important, not only is it creating economic opportunity and training and skills for those who may not otherwise have them, but most importantly, it's teaching to us understand and to know each other as americans, across different geographic, racial, socioeconomic lines, as part of one nation. and one community. >> ambassador rice is not the only one thinking the time is right for a new national service initiative, be it mandatory or voluntary. a week ago senator chris coons introduced bipartisan legislation to expand national service programs. joining me now is the democratic

senator from former vice president joe biden's home state of delaware. senator chris coons who this week was dubbed by politico as the biden whisperer. saying that senator coons is positioned to play a political role in biden's agenda if trump is defeated. you're trying to get cory booker and trump on the same page. what are you do? >> susan rice is exactly right. we have 14 republicans and democrats led by roger wicker of mississippi including john cornyn of texas and so many others on both sides of the aisleal agreeing that double the size of americorps would give us a chance to have 150,000 younger americans fighting hunger, helping teachers and students, addressing some of our critical public health issues. we're going to have to vaccinate 300 million people in this

country later this year and early next year, when and if we get a vaccine. as susan was just saying, the conversation you that facilitated, michael, focused on, national service a great way to bring americans together, create opportunity and to give people a chance to give back to our nation. >> you and i have sons who are contemporaries. my heart breaks for the class of 2020, be they high school or college because so much of their future planning has now been disrupted. and i regard them, and the reason i wanted to call attention to this as this great untapped natural resource. if we can get them in the game, it's a perfect marriage. >> that's right. this is something that can help us meet a number of our current urgent crises. we've got, as you know, a pandemic that hasn't gone away that continues to threaten and to impact families and communities all over america. we have a significant recession and a lot of job loss as a result. and we have the unaddressed

challenges of racial inequalities in america. and if properly focused, locally led and prioritized, americorps could create avenues for addressing all three of those challenges at the same time. >> let's talk about your fellow delawarean, is he laying low more out of consideration for public health issues? or because he wants to follow the first rule of politics which is do no harm? you know, the president is saying he's staying sheltered so as not to make an addition aal gaffe? >> i disagree that he's laying low, he was out in lancaster near gettysburg and gave a rip-roaring speech. it was powerful. and it's pretty instructive at the time when president trump used tear gas and rubber bullets to clear peaceful protesters and

march across lafayette square to wave a bible in front of st. john's episcopal, former vice president biden was invited to a church in wilmington, bethal ame, where he worry a mask and listened and prayed with community leaders. joe's been to a number of roundtables with small business owners in the philadelphia area. he went to visit with the family of george employed befofloyd be laid to rest. and i would agree that president trump has hurt his own standing nationally and internationally in the ways he's both missed this moment. said that protesters are terrorists who deserve retribution. failed to speak to the pandemic in any meaningful way now in weeks. in fact, threatened to cut off funding for testing that caused the two republican senators of texas to say that would be a terrible mistake, as the numbers spike in texas. and hasn't called for a clear

plan for how we get out of this recession, it's amazing to me that the senate still has not taken up the heroes act passed by the house, now more than ten days ago, that would provide another critically needed round of stimulus for our country. >> i know the danger of living in front of a live microphone. i do it 16 hours a week. i'm not running for anything. but, you know, they're hanging on his every word. this is this week's example. roll the tape. >> a lot of people, you have unnecessarily, now we have over 120 million dead from covid. >> and the president then immediately, senator, tweeted about this saying how is the media letting him get away with it, so on and so forth? is this not a sign of what's to come in the fall as we re-emerge, we hope wee re-emerge, where the president will attempt to portray him as not being grounded? >> well, michael, he may attempt

to. the reality is all of us elected know as you just referenced if you're in front of a mic, 10, 12, 15 hours a day, frankly with cell phones on tv being recorded all the time you make mine missteps and gaffes. everybody knows that joe biden didn't think 120 million people died he just misspoke. in the age of trump, where president trump chooses to tweet out intentionally, 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. rants that are not just factual, but error filled hateful comments for our country. for the minor missteps with facts and details that happen to all of us elected indicates that joe biden is less worthy of the service of the presidency when he is when trump is intentionally and repeatedly choosing to send out tweets as his official statements that are filled with errors and typos and

that, frankly, show a heart that in too many ways and too many times seeks to divide us. and doesn't actually connect with and emphasize with the challenges that our nation faces. >> if that's whispering, what's shouting? >> well, i enjoyed being an advocate for joe biden. >> thank you, senator. appreciate you being here. >> thank you, michael. from facebook, what do we have? hit me with it. come out of the closet, joe. you know what's interesting, robert, a week ago, a week ago, tulsa was a week ago tonight. tulsa was a week ago tonight. and the trump campaign, i think the president desperately wanted the split screen, right? he wanted himself surroundedly throngs of supporters in tulsa, maskless, we beat covid-19. look at joe, he's wearing a

mask. yada, yada. i refer to the "times" sienna college poll. it seems it's joe that has struck the right tone, you can say get out of the basement and so forth, but that's where the public seems to be right now. i want to know what you think. go to my questi question @smerconish.com. should confederate battlefield monuments be left in place? up ahead, yes, russians meddled in the election. what if i told you that meddling goes back 100 years on both sides. and will we ever again hear this rendition at sporting events at the 2018 baseball all-star game, not just because of the controversy over taking a knee, but because there will be no fans in the stands when major league baseball and the nba reboot their seasons in july. i've got the dean of american sports bob costas coming pum. up.

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many of us were shocked by russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. but perhaps we would not have been, were we aware of the history contained in a brand-new book "rigged:america, russia and 100 years of covert electoral interference." reveals that 2016 was the first time one country sought to influence another's election and sometimes the actor was the united states. the author is pursuing a doctorate at the university of oxford as a marshall scholar and he joins me now. david, you argue that, quote, american operations to interfere in elections are comparable but not identical to russian efforts to do the same. so what's the difference. >> right, so -- and thank you

for having me. but in seeking to make that comparison, what i do in this book is restore history, as you said, to the subject of covert electoral interference. as it turned out, putin's operation was just the latest episode isn't a very old story. part of that story, michael is russian and soviet operations to interfere in elections all over the world. but another part of that story is cia, american operations to interfere in elections around the world, particularly in competition with the kgb. and as you said there is a difference in that their systemic objectives were to build up democracy, but the idea and tactics behind the operations are similar. and my argument is we should be learning from that to understand how to defend ourselves today. >> your examples include the united states' actions in italy.

' '9 '48. chile in the '80s. i remember being at a cpac conference in the '80s and we applauded when recognized fighters were in the room. i think they ended up being the taliban. the point is the united states has a long record of trying to influence the outcome of foreign elections. >> sure. and i think the historical record plays that out. i think the best way to think about this, operations to influence voters, the cia has done that historically. russia and the soviet union has done that historically. putin achieved new things in 2016 and we should recognize what those were. however there is a history here and it reveals lessons that are essential to ounces wunderstand we're exposed today and how we can defend our democracy. >> wherein lies the line

historically speaking for american actions? >> historically speaking what typically motivated those to interfere in u.s. elections is when they felt like there are unlike candidates applying for the ballot box. to me, the cia should no longer be interfering with elections, it's at a moment when we stand for fair voting overseas. >> there's an intriguing quote from the book. i want to put it up from page 121. either the agency no longer seeks to influence election outcomes as morell and brennan asserted and when with milosevic a tyrant can be ousted by

ballot. the exact truth is unknown. and interfering in elections of many, many countries in mod turn times the costs of such operations have come to outway the benefits. the exact truth is unknown. >> what do you think we should do today? >> i ended up interviewing, 148 people. kgb and we did interfere in the election in 2000 in order to undermine and defeat molisevic because of the nature of the regime and by and large america has moved away from the practice while russia has doubled down on it. and it's important because this is a complete history. we have to look at both russian and american policymaking in order to understand how to adjust our own posture moving

forward. >> president clint hoon you interviewed for the book said milosevic was a stone cold killer. i hope those watching this have not red the book i hope they will, "rigged" saying you're trying to draw a moral equivalence between the united states and what the russians have been up to. will you address that? >> i'm not doing that at all. what i'm seeking to do is gather facts to collect information to discover information about the truths about the past to have a more informed path to the plight. i'm not interested in justifying what happened in the past. i'm interested in helping people understand what happened in the past so that way they can interpret what's happening today in a much more informed and comprehensive way. >> i should say there's been a lot of advance praise for the book. i find that the reviews were all focused on that which i didn't bring up which is the second half of the book where you

analyze 2016, just speaking personally, i was intrigued because i wanted to know what's the record in terms whereof the united states has been for the last 100 years. so thank you for enlightening me. >> of course. thank you so much for having me and reading the book. up next, i'll talk to bob costas about the attempts by the nc nba and major league baseball to play covid-shortened seasons and why controversy over the national anthem means s it won' be played anymore. or polar ice cap air-conditioner mode. because the tempur-pedic breeze° delivers superior cooling from cover to core. helping you sleep cool, all night long. during the tempur-pedic summer of sleep, save $500 on all tempur-breeze mattresses... and experience your coolest sleep this summer, on our best breeze savings of the year. to give you the protein you need with less of the sugar you don't.

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the nba and major league baseball finally announced start dates next month in the covid-shortened seasons. there will be no fans in the stands and i've got a lot of questions. for instance, will the national anthem go the way of confederate statues. i of course, wanted to discuss with mlb network announcer and sportscasting legend bob costas, winner of 28 emmys. we spoke earlier. will we watch on television sports that are being played in empty arenas and stadiums?

>> yes, i think a lot of people will watch. i think the numbers will be high at the outset. if only out of curiosity. and then we'll see how long it sustains. i think that people are willing to grant that these are unique one-off circumstances. and if this is the best that the various leagues can do, at least they'll have some live sports and there have been some degree of interest in it, but also some concern as to whether they can get all the way from one side to the other without the coronavirus derailing them. >> i've heard some of regard this as a return to normalcy. is that how you see it? >> you can look at it that way. current sports, instead of archival stuff that we've had to content ourselves with over the last few months, that seems like a return to normal. on the other hand, everything about it will shout abnormal. no one in the stands. you're watching a baseball game. the manager has to come out with

a mac if he wants to talk to the pitcher. if the ball goes around the horn, they will have to throw the ball out of play. there will be inevitably be reports of some players testing positive and having to be sidelined. in a certain sense it's going to be a reminder of how abnormal these things are. >> does it put the onus on the broadcaster that you may not physically be there, but the broadcasters will be. >> and the broadcasters may not be physically there. in many places they may be doing it from a monitor or in their homes or apartments. and it cannot be a play-by-play detail. i won't bore you with the details, michael, you're a sports fan. you're looking at it, moving your head side to side, trying to take it all in. it's not going to be possible

for a broadcaster. also, the absence of crowd sound, you just intuitively raise your voice when the crowd reacts. when you're talking television instead of radio, you ought to lay out for a few seconds. five, six seconds of dead air, we'll have people reaching for the remote, wait a minute, where's the volume. oh, yeah, there is no crowd sound. it's going to be a work in progress, i think. none of us have experienced it before. we'll have to figure it out as we go. >> i think i'm accurate in remembering part of ronald reagan's lure was he called baseball games that he wasn't physically watching? >> yes, in wmho in des moines, he wasn't the only one to have done it, but perhaps the most famous to have done it. all of those recreation sound effects, knock on a piece of wood for a crack of the bat.

and then going, popcorn, get your scorecard, the waving and cheering mixed in. that sort of thing. it's famous for reagan and others if the ticker-tape broke down they'd have a foul off 15 pitches in a row. or if it was a sunny day, all of a sudden, clouds would roll in and begin to rain. it's part of broadcasting lure. >> i'm eager to watch the first playing of the national anthem. i don't know if it's going to be an mlb game or an nba game. i'm not sure what that's going to look like, bob. >> nor am i. but i imagine we will see players kneeling, especially in the nba and in the nfl, if in fact the nfl is able to start a season. >> but if you had a player of color take a knee previously and a white teammate lay a hand on his shoulder, that was enough. i don't know if that's enough going forward. >> yeah. there will be some pressure. people will do it differently,

at the extremes, i don't think agreement of mutual support is enough for some people. you can be indicted for insufficient affirmation in this atmosphere. so, everyone will just have to play it according to their own best sense of things and their own conscience. >> finally, the nba has a plan, the mlb has a plan. what about the nfl, what do you anticipate there? all i know is tom brady keeps working out and people keeps criticizing him for doing so. >> nfl i think faces the most challenge, the size of the rosters, the nature of the game, contact, a lot of it on every play. and they play in the fall and winter when the best educated guess is there there might be a coronavirus surge. i think they face a difficult task. every one of these leagues have

an abundance of medical advice. with abundance of caution. they have 100-page protocols. it's hard to believe that everyone will be able to adhere to those protocols 100% of the time. even with best practices and best intentions there are a whole lot of needles to thread here. and just a fingers crossed situation that they can -- if i can use another metaphor -- to complete this type of walk and make it from one end of the ravine to the other. >> bob costas, thank you as always. >> thank you, michael. you're welcome. >> let's check in on your tweets and facebook comments from the world of twitter. what do we have? smerconish, the national anthem should be played at every sporting event whether there's fans in the stands or not. and players should be able to take a knee if they like. both remind us of what make americas great regardless of what our leaders say and do. why sports? you go to a movie theater, you don't hearsay national anthem,

although historically you might have. it's just a curiosity to american sports this is the way we're going to do it. i don't know what the outcome may be. i didn't mean to say that the anthem should play if there's a kraut or not a crowd. there's now a challenge to francis scott key. i wonder if that's, too, is about to be questioned. still to come, an update on the american couple i spoke to a couple weeks ago, you remember trapped in ghana with their newborn daughter. as always the facebook and twitter comments plus the results to the survey question @smerconish.com. have you voted yet? should confederate battlefield monuments be left in place? obligated to put clients first. so, what do you provide? cookie cutter portfolios? nope. we tailor portfolios to our client's needs. but you do sell investments that earn you high commissions, right? we don't have those.

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now for an update on the story that i did here a few weeks ago on the two americans stuck in zban that trying to bring their surrogate daughter back home. steve and zara wilcox. they went there in february to welcome vernice via a surrogate using invitro fertilization of steven's sperm. they have not been able to leave for three months because obtaining a visa. well, on thursday, steve wilcox

emailed us this happy news. we finally got a passport this morning and are booked on a monday night. i don't think it was a coincidence after we had been struggling with them for months the embassy suddenly called us back shortly after your segment aired. thanks for the help. happy ending. time to see how you responded to the survey question at smerconish.com. should confederate battlefield monuments be left in place? survey says -- this will be interesting. they're always interesting. 59% left in place, 60/40 spread with let's call it 16,000 having voted. i thought it would have been more than 60%. as i said at the outset, if you missed the program, please find a way to watch it. i went to gettiesberg yesterday. having seen the context, i'm of the opinion they should remain right where they are but with some additional explanation. you know, the idea that certain statuary went up in the midst of

the civil rights movement, '60s and the '70s that's unsettling and that needs to be explained. ever a place where this sort of thing is appropriate, it's looking out over a battlefield where a lot of americans lost their lives. what else, katherine, do we have from this hour? smerconish, should not see monuments be standing around germany or other european countries absolutely not. you know, jacqulynn, you remind me that ronald reagan went to bitberg and quite a controversy over him saying all i'm doing is here to pay my respects to individuals who died. what else came in? the very word confederate reminds of slavery and is humiliating atrocities to black people. place statues in a designated civil war museum or park. garth, i agree with you. and guess what, that's exactly what gettiesberg is. 40 confederate monuments but not in town squares, all adjacent to a battlefield where there were 50,000 casualties, 23,000

members of the confederacy paid with their lives. one more if we have time for it. real quick. here we go. remove the national anthem from all sports. let sports be focussed on sports. i think if you look at the history as to why it was done, it was to gin up enthusiasm and patriotism in the name of selling seats. nothing i guess new about that form of ingenuity. hey, gang, we're off next week for the 4th of july. have a wonderful week, and see you back here in two weeks on july 11th. ♪ for action. that's why usaa is giving payment relief options to eligible members so they can pay for things like groceries before they worry about their insurance or credit card bills. discover all the ways we're helping members today. i've seen a huge change in my skin. my forehead wrinkles are less noticeable, and my skin is plumped and youthful! yeah. these forehead wrinkles are not fun. revitalift. hyaluronic acid serum from l'oréal paris.

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♪ good morning. you are now in the cnn "newsroom." i'm victor black well. >> i'm bianna golodryga in for christi paul. there are new stark warning signs that the u.s. responds to the coronavirus pandemic just is not working. in more than 30 states the number of new cases, they're rising, mainly in the south and west. health officials in los angeles county, california, warn that health care systems there could be overwhelmed without immediate action. >> the u.s. is now averaging more new daily cases than at any point in this pandemic. five states broke single-day records just yesterday. and among them,