well, we're approaching the top of the hour. i'm alison morrison. it's time for my colleague, kendis gibson, to keep our coverage going. good morning, kendis. >> good morning. so good to see you in person. >> you, too, hi! >> hi. enjoy the rest of your sunday as we say good morning. i'm kendis gibson in new york at msnbc world headquarters. it is 7:00 on the east coast, 4:00 on the west coast. here's what's happening right now. a new poll, a new shift. what fresh numbers say about the top democratic front-runners. plus, the busy day ahead for the contenders. his final days.

new details on how jeffrey epstein reportedly tried to buy safety while behind bars. and tens of thousands in the rain. a major rally after ten weeks of protests in hong kong. it's happening right now. plus, wall street jitters. a look at where the economy is heading into the new week after the latest wild ride. but happening today, democratic presidential hopefuls on the campaign trail with candidates making their pitch in two crucial states, new hampshire and south carolina. also happening in just a matter of hours, day two of gun control rallies as activists demand action from congress and the president. so, yesterday, demonstrators rallied in cities across the country. look at them all. meanwhile, 2020 democrats took on gun violence themselves. >> what do we teach our children? we can't protect you, so we're going to send you to school and teach you drills about how to hide and shelter in place. >> it truly feels like this time

is different. we've got to make sure that it really turns out to be different, and that means ensuring there is a political penalty for anybody who blocks common sense gun reform demanded by a vast majority of the american people. >> the way i was talking about the president's racism repeatedly, the way i was talking about this attack on hispanics and immigrants, i needed to sound the alarm much more loudly than i did. i will not make that mistake again. >> beto o'rourke had visited a gun show, actually, yesterday. senators elizabeth warren and bernie sanders spoke to young, black voters in atlanta about the impact of gun violence on communities of color. >> if people are looking to their future, whether they're black or white, whoever, with hope and optimism, if they have education, they have decent jobs, they're not going to turn to drugs. they're going to turn to a better way of life, and that is the root cause of addressing violence and guns that we see in the country. >> gun violence is occurring every day on our sidewalks, in

parks, in streets, and particularly in communities of color, and it doesn't get a headline, but it matters, and it should matter to every one of us. [ gunfire ] and in portland, oregon, a showdown between the far right and the far left. more than a dozen people were arrested yesterday after nearly 1,200 demonstrators took to the streets of downtown. the president chiming in early, saying he was giving major consideration to naming the self-described antifascist group, antifa, an organization of terror. nbc news was in portland and spoke with protesters from both sides. >> they're targeting us because it's a liberal city with progressive values, and they know they'll get a rise out of us. then they vilify us on the internet and make us look like we're the terrorists. >> there's no two sides! there's nazi and not nazi. >> look at it. we came in, just did a march

peacefully. we went in, planted our flag, came back out and they're chasing us right now. it kind of shows you who's the thug and who isn't. >> it was relatively peaceful. allen smith is a political reporter with nbc and julia manchester, reporter for "the hill." welcome and good morning to you guys. thank you for being here on a sunday. allen, let me start with you, because you saw those pictures, those images right there from portland. how does what's happening right there in portland, oregon, kind of resonate with the rest of the country? >> well, it sort of demonstrates some of the stronger emotions that are going on right now. but again, i mean, there are a lot of people in this country who don't identify with either the far right or far left activists who are clashing right there, so to many people, it seems like something that's very far off. they might not understand why it's getting quite as much attention as it has been getting, but we see with the president seeking to possibly identify antifa as a terrorist organization, that it's something that's going to be staying in the news for a while.

but again, it's something that especially on the west coast happening on a weekend, you know, it's something that's not going to be in many americans' minds, unless some particularly notable event like what happened last time, where the conservative journalist ended up getting beat up a little bit by protesters over there, that it's going to be something that will really register in the national conscience. >> but you do get a sense of it is something that will come to a head at some point, while it was peaceful, relatively, yesterday. julia, i do want to ask you, picking up on what allan said, what are the implications of the president possibly designating antifa a terrorist organization? also, on what grounds? >> yeah, i mean, i think the president getting involved in this kind of only if he tweets or sends out some sort of inflammatory statement, i think it only adds more fuel to this fire. i mean, normally, the commander in chief in this type of situation would want to unify the country and try to call for peace on both sides of this issue. however, we've seen that the president has repeatedly only

really targeted antifa when it comes to these rallies. and while antifa has definitely committed acts of violence, he doesn't seem to be, you know, speaking out as vigorously, if you will, against, you know, these more so far right groups, so -- >> yeah, he didn't say anything about the far right groups or possibly designating them as a domestic terrorist. >> no, no, he doesn't, and i think that kind of gives license to them. i think these groups kind of look at that and say, okay, we're going to keep on, you know, pushing and keep on holding these rallies. and obviously, everyone has a right to free speech, but we've seen this really get on the brink of violence and break out in violence over the past two years. so, i don't think the president has really done much to bring a sense of unity. and i think this is how it's playing out as a result of that. >> all right, folks, let's talk 2020 for a moment here. because as it stands right now, allan, what would you say is the state of the democratic presidential race? >> well, first off, if you look at former vice president joe biden's poll numbers, he stayed

fairly steady since entering the race, and i think he might be a little undercounted for a presidential front-runner right now. but the person who's really building a lot of momentum is elizabeth warren. we've seen in recent polling, she's sort of jumped into that number two spot. there was a poll from last week showing voters are considering her to be someone who also has a very substantial chance to beat president trump next fall, and that's sort of joe biden's biggest card, is that voters see him as someone who, no matter if they agree or disagree with him, is the nominee, someone who they think can beat president trump. and now elizabeth warren, with some of the momentum she's building in the campaign, democratic voters seem to think that she also is someone who has a strong chance to beat the incumbe incumbent. >> much to the detriment of bernie sanders, no doubt, right? >> oh, certainly. bernie sanders has trailed off just a little bit. he's recovered a bit in recent polling and has sort of staked out that solid number three spot, but if you combine his numbers with elizabeth warren's, it shows that the really

progressive candidates are sort of outdoing some of the more establishment candidates that are running. but again, elizabeth warren seems to have outflanked him a bit on the progressive side, just slightly. they're very close in the polls right now, but it does indicate that she's beginning to break away just slightly. >> and to be clear, we're about 160 days out from the iowa caucuses, more than 400 days out from the general election itself. but julia, let's take a look at these polls right now. and this is probably troubling for joe biden. look at where elizabeth warren is. that's within the margin of error. this is one particular poll this week showing senator warren catching up to him with just one point. what exactly is she doing right, and perhaps what is he doing wrong? >> you know, i think elizabeth warren has an excellent ground game in a lot of these early states, such as new hampshire and iowa. she has continuously held these town halls ever since the launch of her campaign earlier this year, and she has laid out these very detailed plans, very

in-depth plans. i mean, just last friday, she announced a plan on how to aid native american communities, and it was extremely detailed, in depth, and it really -- >> and extremely ironic. >> it's a little ironic, absolutely, and it comes, actually, right before she's set to address a major native american conference in iowa next week, something that vice president biden will not be at, but she'll be joining some other presidential candidates. but yes, it's very ironic, given her past statements claiming to have native american heritage and then apologizing after that. but i think it just -- that polling, going back to that, just shows how much she's resonating on the ground of these early states. and i think vice president biden -- you know, i think voters knew already very much who he was. he was the vice president for eight years and he was already very familiar. but now they're getting familiarized with other candidates like elizabeth warren, and i think the biden camp probably expected this to happen at some point. i don't think anyone thought it

would necessarily be a cake walk, but i don't know if everyone was expecting it would be elizabeth warren, because going back to the native american issue, you know, after that, i guess controversy or misstep that she took, a lot of people wrote her off in the presidential race, but she has very much rebounded from that, and very skillfully at that. >> including president trump, who mentioned it at his rally in new hampshire on thursday, saying we thought we were done with her, we might have to bring it back. so she'll be there at that native american presidential forum, a first of its kind. gee joe biden is sitting that one out. there was a big, black millennial event yesterday. joe biden once again sat that one out. all allan, as you know, we have the 2020 candidates have less than two weeks to qualify for the next democratic debate. take a look. so far, these nine candidates will be on stage in september. who else do you think will possibly make the cut? >> well, one person who's come on really late and looks like they're going to make the cut is

tom steyer. i think a lot of people didn't give that much credence when he got into the presidential race just last month, but he's managed to already cross the donor threshold and he's only a poll away from qualifying, which again, if you told this to someone a month ago, it'd seem absolutely ridiculous. this debate is going to half the democratic field. you'll look at kirsten gillibrand and others who are very prominent, and are they going to keep -- are they going to stay in the presidential race if they're not making this third debate stage? i think this will do a bit to thin out the primary field. and then, of course, it will allow room for some of these candidates to get a lot more speaking time in the next debate. i'm not quite sure if it's going to be split into two nights or if they're going to try to fit everyone into one night, but either way, you figure that some of the candidates who make the stage are going to be getting a lot more attention this time and it would be very helpful for their campaigns. >> yeah. a lot of people are hoping it will be limited to one night and limited to a number of people there in houston when abc airs that debate. allan smith and julia

manchester, thank you guys. >> thank you. >> appreciate it. something else we're watching right now. take a look. these are live pictures at the pro-democracy protests that are taking place in the city of hong kong. thousands of people are currently overrunning the streets. it is early evening there, just about 7:00 p.m., as you can see. they're trying to challenge a now-suspended extradition bill. nbc's janice mackey fraher is joining us from hong kong, another part of the city. janice, this has been ongoing now for 11 weeks. we saw some conflict earlier in the week where the mainland chinese government said that these are terrorists. how are they reacting to this now? >> reporter: well, the rally today was being seen as a measure of broader-base support across hong kong for the protest movement, which started out of opposition to the extradition bill that has now grown into

this campaign against a host of concerns about hong kong's autonomy and what appears to be the tightening grip of chinese rule here. there was the sense that both sides, police and protesters, were taking a step back after the violence earlier this week at hong kong airport. it was jarring for some people. and so, today was being seen as a measure. and if what we've seen is any indication, the protest movement continues to hold support. it's been people as far as the eye can see for the better part of four hours now, that people just keep coming. police do have a presence in the streets. they said they have their equipment standing by, but they did go into this saying that they wanted it to be peaceful and nonviolent. meanwhile, the message from mainland china is still one that is strong, still one suggesting that these protests will come to an end. there was the video that has

been playing on state media along with the strident language of the paramilitary forces training in schengen, less than 20 miles away from here, showing how it was that chinese forces, police, riot squads with dogs would take down protesters, a scene like this. so, there is the sense that beijing is telegraphing that they want these protests to end and that of all the options they are telegraphing, compromise does not seem to be one of them. kendis? >> yeah, but it does seem as if they're just waiting it out, at least at this point. nbc's janis mackey frayer in hong kong for us, our thanks to you. staying in asia and the breaking news out of afghanistan. the islamic state's affiliate in afghanistan claiming responsibility for a deadly suicide bombing in kabul. the overnight attack at a crowded wedding party killing at least 63 people and injuring at least 182 others. about 1,200 people were

attending the event at the time. the taliban condemned the attack as forbidden and unyufab ableun and denied involvement. kabul has been under heavier security ahead of afghanistan's 100th independence day celebration, which takes place tomorrow. the blast was the deadliest attack in afghanistan's capital this year. of course, you know that the american authorities have been negotiating with the taliban to try to come up with some sort of peace agreement ahead of a possible withdrawal of u.s. troops, 14,000 u.s. troops there in that country. now to the final days of jeffrey epstein. a new report details how he used his money to buy safety. we'll go into that. buy safety. we'lgol into that woman 1: this... woman 2: ...this... man 1: ...this is my body of proof. man 2: proof of less joint pain... woman 3: ...and clearer skin. man 3: proof that i can fight psoriatic arthritis... woman 4: ...with humira. woman 5: humira targets and blocks a specific source of inflammation that contributes to both joint and skin symptoms. it's proven to help relieve pain,

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we are back now with the new revelations coming from "the new york times" about accused sex trafficker jeffrey epstein's final days in a manhattan prison, where a medical examiner has concluded epstein hanged himself. now, the "times" says that epstein paid numerous lawyers to visit the jail for about 12 hours a day. it was all in an effort to escape a cell wing that was, quote, infested with rodents, cockroaches, standing water, including spilled urine. joining me now is criminal defense attorney ashleigh merchant. ashleigh, thanks for being here. >> thank you. >> okay, so, 12 hours a day with his lawyers. that's also reportedly how he spent his final day. you're a criminal defense attorney. is that a normal tactic with

wealthy inmates, i guess? >> you know, it's not abnormal, but 12 hours a day, that's abnormal. >> okay. >> i can tell you that a lot of times, defendants don't want to go back to their cells because they're nasty, they're alone, they don't have anything to do, don't have anybody to talk to. so it's not abnormal for me as a criminal defense attorney to have clients who really just want to keep talking and keep having a conversation. they regularly want to see you very often because you're really the link to the outside world. but he was taking it a little bit far here. he was using it to get out of his cell. he was using it as a method to try and get better treatment, and it's unfortunate, because that really takes a toll on an understaffed prison system, an understaffed prison system that couldn't even keep up with him because, see what happened with the suicide watch, you know. they weren't monitoring him enough. i think it's got to be frustrating for his lawyers, but he had the ability to pay them hourly, so they sat there for 12 hours and listened to him. >> but what do you know of this particular facility in manhattan itself? just about two years ago, "the

new york times" described it as a gulag, saying it was worse than guantanamo bay for many prisoners. it is famous. it has a number of famous inmates over the years. >> it has a really bad reputation, but what's interesting is it's run by the federal government, and that's different. most of the state facilities are a lot worse than the federal facilities. the federal government facilities are usually superior to the state ones. the fact that there's rodents, that there's spiders, that there's standing feces, standing urine, that's actually not uncommon. that's pretty common in local jails. so, jails are where you are held pretrial, pretrial detention, and those conditions are usually very, very dismal. the psychological effects on inmates are very profound. so i don't think that this was abnormal, but i do think it took a toll on him, obviously. >> wow. it's not necessarily five-star housing there in lower manhattan. >> no. >> el chapo has also been held there in the past. epstein's legal team, by the way, is doubting the medical examiner's conclusion, saying

they plan on actually opening their own independent investigation into the incident, including, they say, legal action to view pivotal videos. does -- go ahead. >> yeah, i would want to do that as well. i mean, they've got video footage of the cells. they don't actually video inside the cells, but they've got it of all the different areas, the different corridors in the jail. and so, i would want to see that. i would want to see who rounded on him, who had access to him. i would want to review the autopsy photos. i would want to view the report. i would want to have my own independent examiner look at it because it's a very fine line with asphyxiation death. it's a very fine line between strangulation and hanging. so i would want to look at key factors and not just take the summary report. i would want to look further. i also think it was very interesting that his lawyers had seen him hours before and they were surprised by this, because i've had a number of clients who have taken their lives, and there are certain signs that you see. and fact that the lawyers were shocked, that's very telling to me, and that makes me think that

they would want more investigation into this. >> yeah, as a lawyer, a criminal defense attorney, you could kind of get a sense, i assume, of somebody who may be penchant to do something like this, correct? >> definitely. i have had the jail put my client on suicide watch a number of times. i have visited clients, and when i have that feeling that they might need to be on suicide watch, i have regularly sent letters to jails and told them, you need to put my client on suicide watch. and if these lawyers had had any hint of that, i think they would have done that. they would have put him on suicide watch, because you just know from the conversation and the sort of intimate relationship you have with your client, they're able to tell you things they're not able to tell other people. you can tell. and i think if they had had any indication, they would have told the jail to put him back on suicide watch, whether -- >> some are saying his lawyers are the ones that said to take him off suicide watch. perhaps he asked them to. it's a tricky, sticky situation right there, because you can't

decide, do you listen to your client or what's best for them? >> right, it's very difficult. i can tell you clients don't want to be on suicide watch because it's pretty miserable. the lights are on 24/7. they never have any time without lights on. they can't even go to the bathroom without someone watching them. so, they do like to be off of it, but as their attorney, you have a duty to them. and if you think that they're in danger, you've got to let the guards know. so, i think these lawyers would have still let them know if they actually thought there was a danger. >> no matter what happened last week, i spoke with a lawmaker who said the whole situation stinks and i believe a lot of people still feel that way. thanks to ashleigh merchant. thanks so much. >> thank you. the pulse of wall street ahead of a new trading week. how to move ahead as the economic picture gets even more blurry. onecomic picture gets even more blurry

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we're back now with the morning headlines and some incredible, new video that is just in to our showing dale earnhardt jr. and his family escaping from that burning plane crash. on the lower right of the screen, you can actually see a man get out first. he's handed a small child. two pilots, earnhardt, his wife, and 1-year-old daughter, plus the family dog, were all on

board that small plane. no one was injured in thursday's accident that took place in northeast tennessee. there is still one person missing this morning in an unusual plane crash that took place in dutchess county, new york. a new york state home reduced to ashes when a small aircraft plunged into a home there on saturday. three people were inside the home at the time. three were also on board that airplane. at least one person, a passenger, is dead. aviation authorities are trying to figure out what took place there. a health scare this morning that has the cdc investigating 94 cases across some 14 states. doctors are linking e-cigarettes and vaping to dozens of young people sick with potentially dangerous lung illnesses. patients are experiencing pneumonialike symptoms. >> we don't yet fully understand the impact on the body, either short term or long term. >> the american vaping

association insists vaping is safe and that illnesses are related to amateur-made products. all right, so, new this morning, economists are expecting more volatility on wall street this next week. recession fears among investors were fueled last week by weakened german economy and a lack of trade deal with china. in the meantime, the financial world is waiting for a signal from the federal reserve chairman, jerome powell. when he speaks this week. and president trump has pressured powell to more aggressively cut interest rates. joining me now is courtney brown, markets reporter with axios. courtney, thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> so, investors weren't the only ones who were a little bit spooked, let's say, last week. we also found out that consumers are showing less confidence, you might say, in the markets and the economy. what effect could that actually have on the overall picture? >> well, as many as there have been, you know, kind of dark spots and pessimism about the

u.s. economy, the consumer has really been the bright spot. you know, we did get some upbeat retail sales data and the consumers spent more money at restaurants and malls than economists had been expecting. and so, throughout this stretch of pessimism, we really have seen a consumer, you know, be the standout of this economic expansion. and so, any signs of that faltering would not be great for the u.s. economy. but with the unemployment rate near a 50-year low, you know, people having jobs, people spending money, that should remain relatively steady. >> yeah, many economists are saying that the next big thing to look forward to, not only to what powell says this week, but also to see what the august job numbers are like in the first week of september. but bottom line this for me. in picking up on the jobs report, should americans be worried about mass layoffs and other hardships that could come with a recession? >> i think what we really do

need to worry about right now is the uncertainty that businesses are facing because of the trade war, because of the darkening economic picture around the globe. i mean, businesses right now are holding back on spending. they are not building that factory that maybe they had planned to build. perhaps they may see, you know, we don't need to hire large swaths of people because we're not sure what the economic outlook is going to be three, six, nine months down the line. but right now we're not seeing any signs of that. right now we're seeing businesses continue to hire in the face of all this uncertainty, but the question is whether or not that will change in coming months. >> okay. well, that is the good news. history being sort of our guide here. september and october are traditionally the two most volatile months for stocks, although this august has been a roller coaster so far. and the president, as you know, likes to point to the stock market as a symbol of his

economic success. but could actually too much attention to the stock volatility kind of also fuel a recession? >> yeah, that's a really important point. so, i mean, you know, the saying goes, the only thing to fear is fear itself, right? just the fact that businesses are pulling back and saying we don't want to make too many moves, we don't want to do the things that drive economic growth because we're not sure what's going to happen in the future, you know. and the consumer's saying maybe i shouldn't buy this car right now, maybe i shouldn't buy this house right now, we're not so sure what the economic picture's going to be like in the next few months, i mean, that in and of itself, the fear that a recession's coming and the moves that people make along with that fear, that's as much as anything else a potential driver of an economic recession as well. >> yeah, and what are your sources saying right now? i know it's hard to read these sort of tea leaves, but what are your sources expecting from the fed chairman this coming week? does he actually listen to this sort of pressure and the criticism that the president puts out there? >> yeah, i mean, this is a

really, really important week for fed chairman powell. i mean, the two stories for the stock market this year have been china and the trade wars, various trade wars around the world and the fed. and so far, the market has been, you know, relatively okay with the trade war ramping up because they are like, oh, well, you know, the fed will cut rates if the tensions around the globe get to be too much. and so, we haven't heard from powell yet since the trade war has been ratcheted up. so this will be the first time thap we'll be hearing from him. and as far as what economists are saying about whether or not chairman powell is wearing earmuffs or not when it comes to what president trump is saying, i mean, president trump's policies have impacted what the fed is going to do, you know. for the first time at the last fed meeting when they cut interest rates for the first time in ten years, one of the core reasons and one of the key things that they're watching is the trade war, and this is a trade war that president trump initiated. so, in a way, his policies are certainly impacting the fed.

now, whether or not it's politically motivated, i would say no, and you know, the fed chairman has himself said, no, we're not listening, we are not politically motivated at all. but they're watching this trade war very closely. >> yeah, the trade war is ongoing and will have an impact on the ongoing economy. courtenay brown from axios, our thanks to you. >> thank you. disturbing, new information about detained migrants in this country. an nbc news exclusive investigation, next. untry. an nbc news exclusive instveigation, next. -guys, i want you to meet someone. this is jamie. you're going to be seeing a lot more of him now. -i'm not calling him "dad." -oh, n-no. -look, [sighs] i get it. some new guy comes in helping your mom bundle and save with progressive, but hey, we're all in this together. right, champ? -i'm getting more nuggets. -how about some carrots? you don't want to ruin your dinner. -you're not my dad! -that's fair. overstepped.

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[ crowd chanting ] >> not one more! americans across the country making an urgent plea, calling on lawmakers to take action and put an end to gun violence yesterday. every town for gun safety and moms demand action organizing recess rallies, as they call it, across all 50 states and the district of columbia. this weekend in the wake of several high-profile mass shootings that turned on the to be deadly. today, more rallies are expected in cities like new york, chicago, and houston. should point out, congressman elijah cummings spoke at baltimore's rally, talking about how his family has been personally impacted by gun violence. >> when my nephew was killed as a 20-year-old student at old

dominion, i can tell you, and i know that there are a lot of people here who can relate to this, but there's nothing like seeing the brains, the brain matter of a young, aspiring, student. you sent him there to get an education and he comes back in a coffin. >> well, the gun control groups are spending nearly $1 million on digital and tv ads focusing on key republican senators. we move on, though, to the aftermath of i.c.e. raids in mississippi. ankle monitor tracking enabled i.c.e. to arrest nearly 700 immigrants earlier this month. as communities deal with that, there's another story that's happening in the deep south that's been taking place nearly entirely out of sight. nbc news reports exclusively that more than 8,000 migrants are now detained in the states of louisiana, mississippi, nearly four times the number held there last year.

nbc's morgan radford has more. >> reporter: along the winding roads of the american deep south, the immigration battle has a new front line. so, this is the facility where he is staying. >> this is the sign, yeah. >> reporter: this is adams county correctional center in mississippi, a private prison now contracted to immigration and customs enforcement. we are outside of one of the detention centers here in mississippi. the men behind me are shouting in spanish. it's one of more than a dozen such facilities in louisiana and mississippi, now holding more than 8,000 i.c.e. detainees. according to new data shared by i.c.e. with nbc news. that number has almost quadrupled in just over a year, making it the largest population of i.c.e. detainees now outside of texas. emily trosel is one of just eight attorneys in louisiana who are able to represent adult detainees for free in immigration court. there are none in mississippi. that's why she's driving across state lines to visit her client,

detained just behind these walls. so, how long does it take you to go see your client? >> this is going to take us about an hour and a half. >> reporter: an hour and a half each way. she and other lawyers have referred to the facilities as black holes, where they say detainees can be unreachable for days and detained for months, a claim that i.c.e. disputes, saying in a statement to nbc news -- "any claim that i.c.e. denies individuals access to legal counsel is false," adding "i.c.e. began using new facilities in louisiana and mississippi this year to house the increased number of persons encountered at the southern border." [ speaking foreign language ] >> reporter: for family members, the wait is unbearable. [ speaking foreign language ] >> reporter: it's like you entered a cemetery, like you died in there. her brother is emily's client. once a doctor in cuba, her brother says he pled political persecution and presented himself at the border in texas last year. with no warning, he was moved to

louisiana and then mississippi. he's been locked up for ten months while appealing for asylum after i.c.e. denied him parole. [ speaking foreign language ] what would you say if you could speak to a government official? [ speaking foreign language ] >> reporter: they need to check out these government centers, these i.c.e. centers, especially louisiana. you came looking for liberty, because supposedly, this is supposed to be the country of freedom. if you had a message for your brother, what would it be? that you're fighting for him. and you're going to keep fighting for him until he's able to stay here. a fight that's playing out by the thousands across the country. hundreds of miles away from the border. >> it's quite a report right there from morgan radford. and we note that nbc news has reached out to the private prison companies that run 11 of these 13 facilities.

they say they are complying with national detention standards and treating their prisoners fairly. okay, so, we're just getting started, but there's much more ahead this morning on msnbc. at the top of the hour, "up with david gura." and david is joining me now with a preview. >> hey, kendis. we have the latest poll from nbc news and the "wall street journal" on 2020, how americans feel about gun policy and trade policy as well. but this is what i am most excited about this morning. there is a special edition of "the new york times" magazine out today that is pegged to the 400th anniversary of the beginning of american slavery. it's this incredible piece of cultural history with essays by lynn nodich and rita dove. it is the brainchild of nicole hannah jones who's won the polk award, the national magazine award and the carter genius grant. she is going to join us this morning to talk about the issue and this subject as well, kendis. >> and i'm very glad to see your sneaker game. >> it's back. >> it's fairly strong. what do we have today?

>> some green vans. can i do it? i'll kick. there you go. green vans. >> green vans, nice. vans to make her dance. >> there you go. thank you, kendis. >> thank you. we'll see you at the top of the hour. as she climbs in the polls, is there a real shot that elizabeth warren jumps over joe biden? the fight for front-runner status, next. den? e thfight for front-runner status, next this was me six years ago... and this is me now! i got liberty mutual. they customized my car insurance, so i only pay for what i need. then i won the lottery, got hair plugs, and started working out. and so can you! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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plus no payments for up to 90 days. only at your lincoln dealer. we're back now with a look at the race for 2020. elizabeth warren has been seeing a consistent rise in the polls recently, surging to second place in several of them. and now, a new economist/ugov poll has her just one point behind front-runner joe biden, trailing 21% with 20%. joining me now is bishop garrison, co-founder and president of the raney center for public policy. and brian darling, former staffer for senator rand paul and founder of liberty government affairs. gentlemen, welcome. bishop, start with you. is there a real possibility that elizabeth warren jumps over biden to earn the front-runner status fairly soon? >> yeah, there's an absolute possibility of that. i think that elizabeth warren has continued to show american voters, to show the democratic

base that she is really interested in policy matters, that she's really interested in demonstrating that she is a true leader and that she has what it takes to help this country move forward. i think it's an possibility, yes. >> so this is interesting to me because, as you know, the number one selling point from joe biden ever since he jumped in the race in may is that he sells himself as a candidate that can best beat trump, and in that same poll, 65% of democrats say he would probably beat the president but the number of democrats saying the same thing about warren now jumping to 57%. you had the recent fox poll that showed that kamala harris would also beat president trump, as well as bernie sanders. so, should the president be worried about who's rising in the poll at this point? >> if that's for me -- >> yeah. >> how about i jump in and i'll let brian take it after that.

one point i want to make is that you're seeing a lot of voters looking to vote more about values and more about ethics and they do want someone who has the ability to beat the president but it's not simply about that. it's really about showing the world, showing the country as well, look, this is what our value proposition is. this is what we're really all about and they're going to vote that way. it's not simply about voting for who can necessarily varvara lepchenko the biggest victory or have the victory. it's a little bit more holistic than that. >> brian, pick it up right there on those numbers. >> well, as a republican, i look at what's going on right now and see that joe biden has a built-in advantage with all the candidates running, but if i'm donald trump i want elizabeth warren. i think that she's got a lot of problems. she's inauthentic with her claim of native american heritage. if people look at her record, she didn't even register to be a democrat until she was 47 years

old. >> bernie sanders has been doing great in the poll and still not a registered democrat. >> yeah, she's a socialist. >> he's an independent is what he is. >> one of the biggest problems with elizabeth warren, i think she's inauthentic in the sense that look at all the proposals she rolls out on a daily basis, new idea after new idea, but as a senator she didn't accomplish anything. she didn't push the ball down the field all that much. so i think donald trump really wants elizabeth warren. >> how is having new ideas some type of terrible thing? the fact that she -- i get what you're saying in terms of maybe not having as much action as a senator in congress, but listen, this is a congress that has been hyper partisan more so than we've ever seen in the history of or country arguably, at least in the modern day i should say. i don't see her having new policy ideas that she's looking to implement being a bad thing. >> brian, i'm curious about this because elizabeth warren has put

out quite a bit of proposals. her latest one about native americans is the longest one yet, several pages, nearly 1,000 pages. but president trump or candidate president trump when he was running didn't have that many proposals at all. are you saying that basically that's the winning formula, like just talk about mexico will build a wall and pay for it and then that's it? >> i'll push back a little bit. >> okay, push. >> president trump, when he ran, he did put out a very significant tax reform bill that ended up becoming law. he did roll out a long list of candidates he said he would nominate to be on the supreme court and he used that list. so he did have ideas, and yeah, he was pushing for the wall but i think with elizabeth warren, my knock is she didn't do anything as a senator. she was kind of an empty pants suit over there and i don't think she put on points on the board when she was in the

senate. >> i don't believe you using tax cuts for the rich is a victory for the president. >> huge victory. it helped the economy. >> it did not. we just saw wall street have one of the biggest losses in modern day history this past week. on two separate occasions it dumped almost 1,000 points and it's directly because of the president's policy around this trade war with china and around the tax cut. we're looking down the barrel of a recession. >> i guess you give him some credit for the economic boom we've been having, the fact that unemployment rates are -- >> he inherited that from obama, brian. >> oh, everything was inherited from obama. >> not everything. >> when it's bad it's all donald trump. >> i should also point out, earlier this week we learned that the budget deficit might end up being a trillion dollars for the first time in this fiscal year. we're well ahead and it seems as if that tax cut is not necessarily paying for itself. "the new york times" is

reporting, gentlemen, that former president barack obama has now taken an active interest behind the scenes in joe biden's campaign. take a look. the paper says that obama is now hammering away at the need for biden's campaign to expand his aging inner circle, urging him actually to include more younger aides. bishop, are biden's closest advisers too old and a little out of touch with the current political climate, quickly here? >> sorry, i'll try to keep it quick. i know a few of them behind the scenes and i would say no. you have a lot of distinguished individuals that are working very closely with him, a lot of individuals that want to see the country move forward. he should be leaning on their experience while taking the opportunity to provide new pathways for some of these younger policy professionals to step in and step up. i think you can have balance here. >> all right, we'll leave it there. bishop, brian, thank you guys.

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♪ this is "up." this morning as the battle over immigration continues to escalate there were two huge stories this morning about how stephen miller continues to shape president trump's policies. >> infestations which is what we call cockroaches, that's what the president of the united states used to describe human beings. >> a city of roses this morning, the morning after. how police responded to clashes between white supremacists and antifa protestors in portland, oregon. >> there's no two sides. there's nazi and not nazi. >> they're targeting us because it's a liberal city with progressive values and they know they'll get a rise out of us. >> a new report says workers at a plant in pennsylvania were paid overtime to attend a speech the president gave there. this week we learned his obsession with crowd size has not subsided. >> that was some -- we had twice the