this sunday another political crisis in a year of crisis the death of justice ruth bader ginsburg >> i have said many times that i will do this job as long as i can do it full steam and the epic supreme court fight ahead. >> i will be puttinghe nominee next week. it will be a woman president trump says he wants to replace ginsburg without delay. >> he's going to nominate one of those justices and i'm going to vote for their confirmation. but democrats insist the senate should wait

>> voters should pick the president and the president should pick the justice. president trump hopes this will upend a race he is losing but is there any evidence it will i'll talk to nominhillary clintn the third ranking republican in the senate john. plus, an administration at war with itself. covi deaths hit 200,000 and president trump finding his own experts on vaccines and on face masks. >> this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against covid than when i take the covid vaccine. >> it is not more effective than any vaccine and i called him about that >> i'll talk to health and human services secretary alex azar. how it is impacting president trump's reelection chances. covid, leadership and where the

presidential race stands with six weeks to go. welcome to sunday and a special edition of "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington this is a special edition of "meet the press" with chuck todd >> good sunday morning and a happy ru happy. the death of supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg could only add to a year of turmoil. ginsburg the second woman ever on the court and an unlikely cultural icon died friday night. days before her death, she dictated a statement to her granddaughter. my most fervent wish is that i will not be replaced until a new president is installed she may not get that wish. faced with a challenging political environment, both president trump and senate majority leader mitch mcconnell seized the moment. the president seized to replace

ginsburg immediately promising to nominate a woman this week. taken after scalia died in february that any nominee named during a presidential campaign should await the results of the election putting out a statement saying president trump's nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the united states senate chuck schumer put out his own statement that was word for word what mcconnell said in 2016. this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president. there is so much at stake. will this upend a presidential election where nothing yet has moved the numbers? what effect could this have on close senate races particularly in republican-leaning states and do senate republicans even have the votes to confirm a nominee immediately? >> i'll be talking to hillary clinton in just a few minutes, but we're going to begin with nbc justice correspondent pete williams pete, justice ginsburg passed away less than 48 hours ago, but it seems as if this is moving

very fast and we could have a nominee very soon. what could you tell us >> well, i think that's right and remember the supreme court term is going to start in just two weeks and the week after the election in november, the court will hear one of the most important cases of the term, the big showdown on obama care, which the supreme court has twice before rescued now led by a coalition of red states there's a new challenge to it. couple of thoughts about that, chuck. number one with her death it leaves the court with just eight justices, which raises the possibility of tie votes if the supreme court were to tie on the obama care case, it would leave the lower court ruling in tact, which went against obamacare. whether there will be a tie or not, i don't know. the big question in that case would be does the whole law have to fall if one part isn't firm the second question how soon can the senate act on a nominee? normally the time from a president's nomination of a candidate all the way to confirmation is 70 days. we're, what?

44 days until the election that could mean a senate vote if they fall oetollow the normal s after the election it's possible we don't even know the the president is going to be if there's contentious fights which could end up before the supreme court, chuck >> pete, there seems to be two names we're hearing the most about. one a judge named amy coney barrett and another a judge named barbara lagoa. what can you tell us about these two women? >> well, amy coney barrett would, of course, any person the president nominates is more conservative than justice ginsburg was but in some ways she would be the polar opposite of ruth bader ginsburg because she's a pretty clear opponent of abortion and that may be a key point for the president. he'll want to nominate somebody who is determined to overturn roe v. wade. remember, chuck, we'll have five conservatives now if the

president gets another nominee six conservatives so the court would be solidly conservative for decades to come. >> pete williams at the supreme court this morning, pete williams, thank you. now joining me now is nbc news capitol hill correspondent casey hunt what is realistic here you heard pete williams say the average time is over, we're 44 days from the election ironically the last time somebody got nominated and confirmed in less than 44 days was ruth bader ginsburg, it happened in 42 days. what is realistic timeline on capitol hill >> the person you want to watch in this is mitch mcconnell the republican leader and while there are practical questions about the timing, there are also political questions and i think that is going to drive every conversation and every decision about this there are two things mitch mcconnell cares about. maintaining the republican control of the senate, which, of course, is on the line coming up

on election day. and getting a conservative supreme court. so, if you thing about it in those terms, there are some political arguments for waiting until after the election to have a vote on the floor of the senate there are also political reasons to try and have confirmation hearing before election day that would keep this in the news on the front burner it's something that traditional republicans, perhaps republicans who have problems with president trump but supported the party for a long time. it's something that matters to them quite a bit and many of these republican senate candidates have been running a couple points in polls behind where president trump is against joe biden. and republicans see this issue as something that could help them there but, of course, the outcome of the election could then also drive this because the next question is, does mitch mcconnell have the votes and there is a certain element of risk in waiting until after election day because if joe biden were to win in a landslide and many of the republicans were to lose their seats, that may

take mcconnell's two goals out of tension and he would not have to worry about maintaining the senate majority but the republicans who lost would have a different calculation on how to handle this chuck? >> kasie hunt, you laid it out there very well. the timeline that we're headed for is hearings first and then we'll see what happens on election day kasie hunt, thank you.lun democratic senator amy klobuchar of minnesota who sits on senate judiciary committee. senator klobuchar, welcome back to "meet the press." first off, my condolences. to meet the press. >> thanks, chuck. >> my could ndolences to you. what do you think is her most important legacy that she'll be remembered for? >> she was a hero, icon, a woman way ahead of her time. you know, people told her oh, you can't even go to law school, she showed them and graduates number one in her class.

she made landmark decisions, chuck, on equal rights for women when people said, no, you should have a man argue that case. and then she ends up on the very court that she argued in front of. and, again, became really an international rock star in her 80s. that is not easy to do with a name notorious rbg. my daughter, like so many young people worshipped her. we had photos taken together. she said to me, mom, i hope you don't mind i'm going to cut you out of this photo. i just want the picture to be me and the notorious rbg. we must continue her fight. that's what this is about for me. >> all right. let's talk about the current politics of this moment. besides campaigning, besides political pressure, is there a mechanical way that senate democrats, something in the senate rules could somehow prevent this nomination from

going forward? >> i'm not even getting to the senate rules right now, chuck, for very important reason. i'm not going to concede that when you already have several of my colleagues saying that this should -- the way this happened so close to the election, that the next president should be able to make the decision. the people pick the president. and the president picks the justice. that is how this works. look at what abraham lincoln did the last time someone died this close to the election. the he waited. he waited until after the election. to me, the fact that you got people voting right now including in my state, everything is on the line here. health care is on the line. there is on the affordable care act. i think my republican colleagues have to decide based on what they said before, they set this new precedent in the last -- in

2016. this he have to follow their own words. fwhut yo but in your mind, which precedent is wrong? >> for me, whatever happened before ancient rules, whatever it is, what matters right now is that they just made these statements. they're not beholden to mitch mcconnell. they're beholden to the people that voted for them in their own state. and as people, genuinely this -- literally, these hearts broken by justice ginsburg's deng showideath showing up at the courthouse. people were voting in record numbers. they were doing this before they died. we know this. we know how many people asking for mail in ballots. we know the numbers. we know joe biden is leading in states because people didn't think he could win because people have had it. they had with a president that

divides people. they had it with 200 th,000 dea with this pandemic, if my colleagues want to say what is the press decedent i set, what d i follow, they have to make an individual decision. for me, that's what this is about. it's about justice. it's about moving forward as a senate and democracy. >> all right. let me ask you this, senator schumer said nothing is off the table. what does that mean to you? what is nothing off the table? is this getting rid of the filibuster? is this d.c. statehood? what is nothing off the table? what does that define? >> i think he's talking about the fact that there is reforms that we've all looked at. that you could consider. you and i have talked about this before on the show. i'm not going to concede this. this is the position of a woman who never gave up, right?

when people told her she couldn't do things, she kept going. i'm not going to give up that my colleagues, when we have three of them having said that they believe that the next president, whoever wins the election, they're not saying who that's going to be. whoever wins the election, they can pick the justice. what this matters right now is what matters three days ago. and that is that people have to vote. and they vote. and they have to vote as michelle obama said like their life depends on it. >> well, i think you think they're going to do that. as you know, trying to get folks to stick by their word is something that is very hard these days. assuming you don't get that, there's going to be confirmation hearings before election day. do you think can you stop a confirmation vote before election day? >> again, as senator schumer says, there is a lot of things we can try to do. but in the end, i'm not going to concede any of that.

my colleagues and -- i do have facts on many i sued here. you have a number what they haven't said what they're going to do. you have a number that said the next president should make the decision. you have the precedent of the only time a justice died this close to an election. he made a decision to wait until after the election. and you have the fact that people are vote right now. and i think that creates pressure on my colleagues. that's what a democracy is about. they don't want to have the affordable care act thrown out when you have hundreds of millions of americans with pre-existing conditions. are you kidding me? that's in front of us. they don't want to money thrown into our electionors while the fires are blazing on the west coast they don't want to have other justices so conservative that they literally have agencies can't make decisions to regulate air and water. they want to have an america that reflects them.

>> senator klobuchar, democrat from minnesota on the committee, so if there are hearings, we'll be seeing a lot of you. thank you for coming on and sharing your perspective. >> look forward to seeing you again, chuck, thank you. four years ago when scalia's death nine months before the presidential election left a vi vi vick an i is at the court, they made it clears they had to wait for a president to vote for the next president. >> the campaign is already under way. >> voters get to weigh in. >> it's about the principle. >> you don't do this in an election year. >> the mesh people will choose. >> let the american people consider it as part of deciding who to support in november. >> that was when democrat barack obama was in the white house. now manufactu now many of the same senators are saying don't wait. trump should get to pick the successor. that includes my next guest,

john baraso of wyoming. welcome back to "meet the press." i want to give you awe chance, what do you think her legacy? >> a great figure. this is a huge loss for our country. we think of her as a trailblazer in so many ways. she had the western spirit of gr grit and endurance and determination. she was a role model for many. for young women on my staff who went into the law, she was an n inspiration for many of them. she'll be long remembered for the trail she blazed. >> senator, i want to get into the politics. to you are years ago you were emphatic on various ways. you would add on a different times. i want to get the american people a voice in this. why don't you want to give the

american people a voice this time? >> let's be clear. if the shoe were on the white house and senate this he would right now be trying to con firearm another member of the supreme court. it was completely xunt with the precedent. let's go back. we were following the joe biden rule. joe biden was clearly -- is clear when he was trarm of the judiciary committee. he said when there is a senate of one party and white house of others, he said this to george herbert walker bush, he said if there is a vacancy in the final year, we'll not confirm. 29 times there have been vacancy an czys s in the year of an election. fch both the house and senate are of the same parti, they go forward with the confirmation.

>> so, you know, i scoured all of the 2016 notes looking for the footnotes added now. you have this new explanation. never once on the senate floor when an election is months away you said people should be allowed to consider possible supreme court nominees. this shouldn't be controversial. you said this is not about the person, it's about the principle involved. i want to give the american people a voice in this. republicans said there should not be a bitter political fight. we called on the president o to spa spare the country this fight. senator, these are your words. not once did you say it depends on what party the senate holds versus the party the president. this sounds like a power grab. >> this is the biden rule. you haven't had since 1888 when a party of the senate and the house -- and the white house were of different parties than

anyone was confirmed and that was the situation. chuck schumer said the same thing at the end of george w. bush's term that if the vacancy occurred with the president bush a republican in the white house and democrats under harry reid and chuck schumer in charge of the senate that they would not confirm. now when you have both parties and the white house and the senate historically the confirmation goes forward. and that's what's going to happen here. >> look, senator, i want -- >> the senate will make a nomination this week i believe. >> i get that. senator, nobody, nobody in the senate republican conference was arguing these fine footnote points that you and your other colleagues argue now. i want to play a clip for from you 2018 from lindsey graham. take a listen. >> if an opening comes in the last year of president trump's term, and the primary process

started, we'll wait until the next election. i have a pretty good chance being -- >> you're on the record. >> all right. >> hold the tape. >> senator, i guess the question is should viewers -- when should -- should viewers just not believe anything you're saying today because whatever you're saying today will change depending on the politics at the moment? >> i can tell what you is going to happen. for viewers watching, the president will make a nomination. i believe it will be this week. lindsey graham, chairman of the judiciary committee, we'll hold hearings and there will be a vote on the floor of the united states senate this year. president has a list of 20 potential nominees. he mentioned several of them last night at his -- i think -- i really do think that the president really wanted to make a powerful, positive statement by coming forth with a woman nominee. there are many qualified women on his list. somebody who could then be a role model for future attorneys,

young women and young men looking into the law. i think that will be the right move for this president soon. >> senator, i want to just quote you back to yourself one more time. we have called on the president to spare the country the fight. the best way to avoid this fight to agree to let the people decide. give the people a voice. why is it that this principle only matters when a democrat is in the white house? >> it's not that at all, chuck. if we did something different now, we would be breaking with the president that has long been established. if the president and senate are of the same paerd, yrty, move a with confirmation. you brought this up with amy. chuck schumer is very clear, the democrats have been very clear. if they win the white house and the senate, all bets are off. they're going to blow up the filibuster. they are going to use the nuclear option. they are going to stack the supreme court.

they talked about raising the number of those on the supreme court even though she says it's a bad idea. she said it would politicize the court. and she said nine is the right number. you asked me if i believe it. the democrats and schumer have a war room. they have been at this for a long time. these are the promises that they have made including stacking the senate by making the district of colombia -- you asked the question. >> yeah. but you have no regrets that senate republicans are going to look like hypocrite 44 days before the election for just a complete flip-flop to the average american? i mean, i know you're trying to come up with the caveats. nothing about it makes any sort of sense to the average person. >> this is the consistent principle and policies that have been followed through the history of the united states when 29 vacancies occurred in years of presidential elections. the we're going to be consistent with all of. that but you're right, there is an election coming up. every senate candidate and every senator speaks for himself or

herself as chairman of the conference. i have great respect for them. each one is going to be called upon to make a decision and in their role as advise and consent, the president is going to nominate and we'll vote this year, chuck. >> senator, republican from wyoming, number three in the senate, i appreciate you coming on and sharing your perspective with us. thank you, sir. >> thanks, chuck. when we come back, i'll talk to the person who suggested bill clinton name rouge bader ginsburg to the supreme court. it is former first 20 years ago, i was an hourly associate cart pusher. the different positions i've had taught me how to be there for others. ♪ i started out as a cashier. i mean, the sky's the limit with walmart. it's all up to you. ♪ ♪

i'm a verizon engineer. and i'm part of the team building... ...a powerful 5g experience for america. it's 5g ultra wideband, and it's already available in parts of select cities. like los angeles. and in new york city. and it's rolling out in cities around the country. with massive capacity. it's like an eight-lane highway compared to a two-lane dirt road. 25x faster than today's 4g networks. in fact, it's the fastest 5g in the world. from the network more people rely on. this is 5g built right. only on verizon. welcome back. as you probably know by now, it was president bill clinton who introduced ruth bader ginsburg to the general public and named her to the supreme court. do you know who introduced bill clinton to ruth bader ginsburg.

it was hillary clinton who thought she would make a fine supreme court justice and the former secretary of state, senator clinton, welcome back to "meet the press." take us back to those conversations you were having with president clinton at that time and just what made you advocate for ruth bader ginsburg? >> ,chuck, i had known ruth bader ginsburg for a number of years, and i had followed her work. i was a great admirer of her groundbreaking litigation both as a lawyer and a law professor, and i knew that she had served on the court of appeals appointed by president carter with great distinction not only because of her razor-sharp intellect and her ability to frame arguments to make them

effective, but how well she got along with her colleagues including fore he was elevated o the suprem to have all the attributes that bill was looking for, someone who could get to work right away, someone who could work with the other justices, someone who could really break ground as a supreme court justice. so you're right. i recommended in addition to the long list of names that he was being presented with, he talk a very hard look at judge ginsburg, and i want to add that probably her most effective advocate was her husband marty. a lot has been written and said in the last days about justice ginsburg's stellar record as a lawyer, but her love affair, her

long marriage with her partner marty and he was -- he was in her cor he met her at cornell to the very end. >> yeah. >> and i was delighted when bill said, well, i'd like to meet her and sit and talk with her, and so we arranged for her to come in very carefully under the radar on a sunday, and they had the best conversation. it was like a master class in constitutional analysis, and at the end he told me, wow. she really is the real deal. >> let me go to the politics of the court, but i don't want to do it through the last four years. i want to go back to one title i didn't use was former senator. you were there for eight years of these judicial wars which now seem so -- they look like little skirmishes to where we are today.

how broken is this process? >> oh, absolutely broken, chuck, and i was able to watch your previous interviews with senators klobuchar and barrasso, and senator barrasso is doing an epic job trying to defend the indefensible. the system has been broken for quite a while, but clearly the decision that mitch mcconnell made back in 2016 in the midst of that presidential election, but at a much earlier time when justice scalia unexpectedly passed away should be the bout we had other standards before, well, they made a new precedent and the new presidential which they defended incredibly passionately was to wait for the next president,

whoever that is, to make the nomination, but as you clearly heard, that is not what they are intending and it's another blow to our institutions. you know, what's happening in our country is incredibly dangerous. our institutions are being basically undermined by the lust for power, power for personal gain in the case of the president or power for institutional gain in the case of mitch mcconnell at the cost of ensuring that our institutions withstand whatever the political wins might be, but they made this decision ifcurioe ever get to a point when there will be a detente in this? you heard senator barrasso's rationale. he's predicting future behavior. it reminded me of the movie "minority report" and that's a scary process, if we start

anticipating future behavior that leads us into a horrible direction, how do you ever get a detente in these political wars? >> chuck, i think we are in a very dangerous point in american history, and there's been a concerted effort, as you well know, going back decades now, to turn the clock back on progress that has open doors to people otherwise left out and marginalized, women, minorities and women obviously, there has been an effort led by groups of the federalist society and others to use the courts to undo going back to the board of education, the brown v. board of education decision. if you listened carefully and of course, was there so much going on people didn't necessarily pay attention to a lot of the hearings of the nominees for

district and circuit court judge ships, it was shocking. not only did an unfortunate number of them have absolutely no experience that would qualify them for the federal bench, but a number of them would not even say they agreed with brown v. board of education or with other precedents, and it's not just a question of choice. it's a question of whether we're going to continue the move toward progress by which we mean a more perfect union that everyone has a place in and the rights to participate or not, and i think people need to understand that this court decision is critical to that future. >> yeah. >> secretary clinton, i appreciate you coming on and sharing your own personal memories of justice ginsburg and your perspective in all of this. thank you very much. >> thank you. and when we come back, two women who knew justice ginsburg as well as they know washington and who have some thoughts about wha (stasha vo) i really don't remember not being able to braid. [laughs.]

(stasha vo) i used to braid my brother's hair, my sister's hair, neighbor's hair. (stasha vo) when everything shut down, i thought, "you know what? people have been asking for online classes for the longest." it was amazing. business kept growing and growing and growing. (stasha vo) i feel blessed that i can still connect with others. support others. and i am still going. ♪ eve♪ going faster than a closerollercoaster ♪ ♪ love like yours will surely come my way ♪ ♪ a-hey, a-hey-hey

[music playing] ♪ love like yours will surely come my way ♪ when he was diagnosed my son bewith leukemia.years old he would get sick. aubrey would take him to the bathroom and she would rub his back. our family is fighting this every single day. if donald trump gets rid of our health care law, my son won't be protected. we would have to be making some tough decisions about what medications we can afford. we need a president who will protect our health care and that's joe biden. i'm joe biden and i approve this message. (vo) while you may not be running an architectural firm, s honeybees, and mentoring a teenager -your life is just as unique. a raymond james financial advisor gets to know you,

your passions, and the way you help others. so you can live your life. that's life well planned. [ aevery box has a mission: to protect everything inside from everything outside. when what's inside matters, count on boxes. [ doorbell rings ] paper and packaging. how life unfolds. welcome back. i'm joined right now by two people who knew ruth bader ginsburg very well and have a

pretty good idea of how washington works too. nina totenberg is legal correspondent for national public radio and leading expert on the supreme court and was a very close friend of ginsburg and of course, andrea mitchell, chief correspondent for nbc news and she was also good friends with ginsburg. welcome to both of you. nina, first, i'm sorry. i know this has been hard on you. you were with her last week delivering food. just tell us something about these last few weeks that justice ginsburg was fighting here? >> well, she was very weak in the last few weeks. suddenly she really seemed to deteriorate, and -- but i did have dinner with her not two weeks ago. we brought dinner over to the apartment, and she was still very much herself. you know, in the last days when she knew she was -- the end was near she dictated this statement to her granddaughter and there were other non-familial

witnesses in the room so this isn't just her granddaughter's view, but her granddaughter clara took it down and it said my most fervent wish is that i not be replaced until after the election and the installation of a new president meaning whoever that is from the election, and it was -- i think she was really worried about what's happening now, about the maelstrom, the election maelstrom that puts the court in the things and that is what i think scared her. >> andrea mitchell, you said this could be -- i think we were quoting you earlier, basically the most ferocious political fight in the history of washington. explain. >> and picking up on what nina said this is exactly what she had hoped to avoid. this is what she was trying to

outlive, frankly, and she loved collegiality. she said, memorably, in a 2016 op ed for "the new york times "qwest th"times" "that collegiality was central to the court and that was with her relationship with justice scalia and other justices. note the statements they all issued yesterday were so personal. these were not pro forma. clarence thomas and his wife, all of them on opposite intellectual poles and political poles and this was a very close relationship and i think she would just hate this, but this fight, when you have the hypocrisy with the democrats pointing out and you were saying barrasso and lindsay graham and look at everything they said there is no precedent going back to abraham lincoln of anything happening this quickly. >> nina, i want to talk about what a 4-4 court for the short

term here, particularly post-election in the health care lawsuit. i'm curious, does this make john roberts even more powerful? a chief justice is already pretty powerful, but considering he seems to be the only one that might swing on anything? >> well, a 4-4 court would include him to uphold the affordable care act, but he's powerful in the sense that he could, i suppose, suggest to the court and i think they might likely go along with it, that they would wait until the next -- the next person is installed, the next justice is installed and that -- in that case in all likelihood, although nothing is certain, that individual would be the deciding vote. there have been -- this is essentially the third major challenge to the affordable care act in every other one. roberts wasn't the only one. roberts was in the first case upheld the mandate, not the

mandate, but the mandate as a tax, and then in the second case it was 6-3 with justice kennedy joining roberts, but justice kennedy has retired. now the court, if roberts stuck to it would be 4-4. as pete said earlier the lower court decision would stick, but that wouldn't necessarily mean anything. it might not stick for long. a lot depends on who gets elected, whether there is a new law. republicans have not proposed a new law -- i mean, where would we be without those assurances in the law? >> andrea mitchell, conventional wisdom is big court fights help republicans because it fires up their base. hours democratic campaigns of all sorts by act blue, i think they raised some $91 million in 28 hours. is that conventional wisdom going to be flipped on its head?

>> it could well be. look at the thousands who have been turning out on the supreme court steps and it became a national movement last night, the prayers, the songs, the flowers. the young people. this could galvanize young women. look at the celebrity notorious rbg, and you know, i'm also -- when i think about her, i think so much about marty ginsburg. i think about when he meant to her and what she said early -- earlier in her life is that he was the first boy who ever cared about the fact that she had a brain. that is so central to who she was, the discrimination she faced and the discrimination she shared with sandra day o'connor for her loneliness as the only woman on the court. this could be what donald trump really needs. >> i appreciate you coming on here. i apologize, nina, i'm tight for time. one thing you convinced me, i

wish more elected officials acted like members of the supreme court. they clearly are a bit more collegial than the rest of our politics. thank you both. when we come back we will change gears a little bit. i'll talk to hhs secretary alex azhar about the coronavirus hitting the u.s. and present hitting the u.s. and present tr that's what happens in golf nothiand in life.ily. i'm very fortunate i can lean on people, and that for me is what teamwork is all about. you can't do everything yourself. you need someone to guide you and help you make those tough decisions, that's morgan stanley. they're industry leaders, but the most important thing is they want to do it the right way. i'm really excited to be part of the morgan stanley team. i'm justin rose. we are morgan stanley. ...i was just fighting an uphill battle in my career. so when i heard about the applied digital skills courses,

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we have a brand-new nbc news/wall street journal poll out this week just six weeks before election day. joe biden is leading among voters over president trump. while that's down slightly from july it's still outside the margin of error. 57-40 voters disapprove of president trump's handling or mishandling of the coronavirus. our poll shows the highest level of interest ever, though, for a presidential election campaign. ever. 80% and just 11% say their vote is still up for grabs and that has left the three upcoming debateds wi debates in helping them announce

their vote. how resistant it is to events. joe biden's lead has held steady most of the year and here's why. nothing has moved president trump's approval rating. not his citing in helsinki, not impeachment, not the growing toll of deaths of the coronavirus and not the economy whether it was booming or collapsing. through it all president trump's approval rating has sat consistently for two or three years between 43 and 46% which may suggest that no matter how ferocious the fight over justice ginsburg's seat may get, it may have very little impact on the voting which by the way, has already begun. when we come back, 200,000 americans are dead from covid-19, and the trump administration is still this is decision tech. find a stock based on your interests or what's trending. get real-time insights in your customized view of the market. it's smarter trading technology for smarter trading decisions. fidelity.

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welcome back. lost in all the news about justice ginsburg was the fact that confirmed deaths from the united states from the coronavirus sadly hit 200,000 officially yesterday and with roughly 40,000 new cases a day the administration still seems to be arguing with itself. last week president trump contradicted his own cdc director on the time line of the vaccine and the value of face masks and the white house scuttled a plane to deliver 650 million face masks to hard-hit

areas in the spring because at the time they thought it was going to create panic and looser guidelines for testing that were written by health and human service officials over the cdc scientists and they were reversed on friday after a couple of those officials were dismissed. joining me is hhs secretary alex azar. i really appreciate you being here this morning. >> thank you. >> want to start with something you said to me the last time you were on on june 28th, take a listen. >> the window is closing. we have to act and people as individuals have to act responsibly. we need to social distance. we need to wear our face coverings if we're in settings where we can't social distance particularly in these hot zones. >> so you said that on june 28th. we were at approximately 121,000 deaths then and we've had 80,000 more since.

is the wind oow closed? >> absolutely not. they practiced the three ws of wash your hands, watch your distance, wear your face coverings. we've seen an almost 50% decline in cases and 50% declines in hospitalizations and an even greater decline in fatalities since the high point. so the american people have stepped up to the plate any responded to president trump's and my call to action to individual responsibility and that's what's bridging us to now the real promise that we have of next generation therapeutics and fda gold standard vaccines in the months ahead. >> it sounds like you consider the death toll which sits at 200,000 and looks like, you know, i'm curious what you believe will be at the end of the year, is that a sign of a successful strategy by this administration? do you believe that that is a sign of a successful pandemic response? >> chuck, those are your words.

i mourn the death of any american from this unprecedented pandemic. i remember dr. birx and dr. fauci said if theasany as 2 mil. so we don't want anyone to die in this country from this disease, but the aggressive actions, closing our borders and shutting down our economy and controlling most of the global supply of remdesivir, bringing convalescent plasma, people 70 and 80, down to 9% and this should bring changes to the future as we look to antibodies. >> i want you to clear something up, was there a report due to a freedom of information act, we got a cope of the press release that the united states postal service was going to be sending out in april, in conjunction

with hhs, was there going to be up to 650 million reusable masks sent to the hardest-hit areas and then the implication was the white house decided against this. you eventually the masks were sent to various organizations and the white house decided to nix the idea of mailing masks essentially to the american people. was that a mistake? >> chuck, i'm actually glad you asked about that, thanks to the incredible foresight of dr. rob cadlech, in the early days of the pandemic, we worked with hanes and other clothing manufacturers to retool their equipment and start p out these reusable cloth face masks and we distributed 650 million of those to the hardest-hit areas. at one point we thought about shipping them to every american through the postal service and the decision was task force was send them where they can be used most to the hottest, most active wears and we got 650 million

masks and it was through a different mechanism and getting them where they were needed most and we got 60 million face coverings and these cloth face coverings and a smaller size out to kids especially in schools in underserved areas. >> one of the assets of sending masks to everybody would have been it would have sent the message that masks are important, at a time when the president was disputing whether he should be wearing a mask. >> well, chuck, we got 650 million masks out where they're needed most. i think that's what matters. get them to the hot spots and get them where they can add the most value, and we've been calling for the use of face coverings since the middle of april when the president put out his guidelines for reopening america. we've been emphatic about the three ws, wash your hands, wear your face coverings and watch your distance. >> secretary azar, you have done that, but i want to play a quick exchange here between dr. redfield and president trump. take a listen. >> i might even go so far as to

say that this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against covid than when i take a covid vaccine. if i don't get an immune response the vaccine will not protect me. this face mask will. >> no, i think he made a mistake when he said that. it's just incorrect information and i called him, and he didn't tell me that and i think he got the message maybe confused. >> who should the american public listen to when it comes to masks? you and dr. redfield or the president? >> dr. redfield i think has made clear that he really believes in the value of a vaccine that's safe and effective, that masks are not the equivalent. masks are important and they're an important part of the strategy especially dealing with asymptomatic disease. i think the point the president was making is there's not an equivalence between masks and vaccines and we use masks to bridge to the day of those vaccines and the vaccines are still the endgame that we are headed towards and we have just

made absolutely historic progress towards getting these vaccines. you know, if we had said back in january that by the end of this year, you'd have 100 million doses likely of fda gold standard vaccine in the united states, people would have laughed at that, and yet we have mobilized the entire government and the public and private sector and this is a realistic possibility for this country now and we should be celebrating that we are on the cusp of that level of hope and achievement for this country. >> very quickly, secretary azar, michael caputo who the the agency spokesperson over there, his background, he had no background in public health and no scientific background, was that your decisions to hire him or did the white house make you hire him? >> i'm not going to get into personalel matters and mr. caputo is on leave for a medical condition and our thoughts and prayers are with michael and he added val with you our covid response and we have a great

team with the public affairs group and we will charge forward with providing fair, balanced and accurate information to the american people about the coronavirus response and preparedness activities. >> secretary azar, i really appreciate you coming on. it's been a busy day. a busy weekend and i appreciate you spending time with us. thank you, sir. >> thank you, chuck. that's all we have for today. as we said it's been a busy one. thank you for watching and thank you for trusting us. we'll be back next week because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." ♪ ♪

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