democratic front-runner. but joe biden is still on top along with his wife jill's blunt assessment of the horse race. >> he's leading all the other candidates. so yes, you know, i -- you know, your candidate might be better on i don't know health care than joe is, but you have to look at whose going to win this election. fired up. after russian cheating, the u.s. tests a cruise missile banned for decades under a cold war treaty signed by ronald reagan and mikhail gorbachev. is this the start of a nuclear arms race? >> i don't see an arms race happening. it was the russians who forcedous out of oit and we remained compliant up until the final day. and planned parenthood gives up federal funding after refusing to comply with a gag order against abortion counseling. >> by imposing this on the providers by saying they have to

withhold information about abortion care they put us in the untenable situation and we refused to be bullied into providing substandard care. and good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. joe biden is solidifying his role as the front-runner. after a week off the trail he's going to be in iowa today. rolling out his first big ad buy across the first caucus state. the former vice president is up seven points to 29% in the new cnn national poll out today. in second place, bernie sanders and elizabeth warren in a virtual tie. but the biggest change is a 12 point drop in this poll for kamala harris. she's been struggling with her campaign fund-raising. meanwhile, jill biden had a blunt assessment of the choices this year, telling new hampshire voters they may have to swallow a little bit to vote for her husband, even if their preferred candidate might be better on critical policy issues like

health care. joining me now is msnbc contributor yamiche alcindor from pbs news hour. and capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt, and bill kristol from defending democracy together. and an nbc correspondent mike memoli covering the biden campaign. mike, we'll start with you today. these polls are -- take them with a grain of salt but joe biden week after week in a variety of polls still is out front for all of the criticism of his gaffes, of his uneven debate performances. he's hanging in there. >> yeah, i mean, the inertia of this race keeps bringing it back to biden. i said it before i'll say it again. the biggest strength he has in this race is his perceived strength. you see his campaign playing to that advantage with the new television ad, making the electability hear dr. biden

yesterday in candid and stark terms, telling us what the voters tell us, they may like one of the other candidates but the urgency of this race is they can't take a chance. they believe he's the one who has to do it. we see the sugar high moments for the other candidates. kamala harris had that, she saw her numbers spike but hasn't been able to sustain that. one of things we're looking forward to, i asked the vice president about that last week, that match-up them with elizabeth warren. that's what i'm looking forward to the most. >> september 12th in houston. kasie d.c. -- >> i love it. >> very good branding there. >> kasie, let's talk about the internals here among liberal voters. joe biden doing well, doing better than what might expect, given he's been dismissed by

many pundits as being the moderate and generationally old against elizabeth warren and bernie sanders. both his peers in age. but more progressive. he's not the change agent but he seems to have the support among the liberals. >> he has strength across the board. i think his durability wouldn't be what it is if that wasn't the case. i mean, he does have some strengths across all of the different critical constituencies and particularly of course we talked so much about this, african american voters. many of whom identify on the liberal side, although, you know, may not describe all of those voters as progressive necessarily. but you know, i think the question is, you know, whether anybody can bring together a coalition that looks like the one that obama built when they first won. and biden is clearly counting on being able to do a version of that and so far, no one else has proved that they're capable of it.

>> and the jill biden factor, joe biden has been, you know, a very popular second lady, if you will. she was very popular with her book. there's a lot of sympathy for the family for everything they went through. but here she comes out in manchester, new hampshire, and says that, you know, you may prefer other candidates, bill kristol, for their issue, position on health care, but joe can win. joe's more electable. and it was a very blunt assessment. but it calls to mind what she wrote in her he more, as mike memoli pointed out to us, i was never a natural as a political spouse. as an introvert i prefer to stay in the background. events that we attended together unfolded like the first picnic. he talked to everyone he could, listening to stories and he was witty and gregarious, i was much quieter and more reticent to engage. you got the feel from her performance yesterday. >> she might have been more candid than the campaign wanted her to be, but look it's an important argument.

people don't mind a little candor. i spoke to someone who went to the biden fund-raiser, and this was in mclean, who was at his chief of staff's house when he was vice president and it was a young woman actually. not one of those 65 and older biden voters and she was -- i have been personally i feel like underestimating this aspect of biden's appeal. she was moved by biden's speech. i mean, he gave a very kind of we need to pull this country together. we need to -- i'm not going to spend a lot of time attacking every republican under the sun. we need to govern this country in a responsible way and get beyond what trump is doing for us. she found it sort of genuinely appealing. not gee, i like biden better than the others. that's the good news for biden. but the bad news is i know she has been involved in republican politics for 15 years. this was the first democratic event she has been to. she survived it. she called me after and said i made it through the democratic event. >> a swing voter. >> a classic swing voter in the

general election. maybe in virginia in the primary, you can ask for the ballot from either party. the good news, this young woman who are attracted to his message, not sort of he can beat trump. >> it seems to be joe biden's point. >> but i'm not sure this is your typical democratic voter. >> yamiche, you have been talking to them and you have seen them interacting. this is what we picked up in the nbc news/"wall street journal" poll this past weekend. the sort of there for normalcy. >> joe biden was articulating the thesis of joe biden's campaign which is i can win, i can beat this man in the white house. count on me to bring back some of the democratic voters that we all long -- to leave their houses and turn out in large numbers that's the argument she is making. and that's the exact opposite argument that elizabeth warren is making. in the last debate, she said we can't choose somebody pause

we're afraid, we have to choose somebody because we were in their ideas. you might think i'm someone who has big ideas and all of the policies and it makes people nervous but i'm telling you i can win the hearts and minds of people across this country and motivate them to vote. the president has been making the argument that democrats are going to destroy the way of life of his supporters. his argument is all about emotion, not being pragmatic but really feeling his campaign and feeling like the president is the only person who will ensure that your way of life is the way to go forward. and joe biden while he's making a pragmatic argument, i think what's going to -- what a lot of democrats tell me is they also want someone who they like and who will inspire people to turn out in big numbers which is what democrats need. >> and elizabeth warren who is doing so well, this has really been a very strong summer for her, she was in iowa yesterday. appearing at a native american event. she was apologizing for that misstep, the dna issue and the whole -- you know, pocahontas

slam in the president. let's watch. >> like anyone who's being honest with themselves, i know that i have made mistakes. i am sorry for harm i have caused. i have listened and i have learned a lot. i'm grateful for the many conversations that we have had together. >> so yamiche, that's an interesting contrast to a president who never apologizes for anything. >> it's also interesting decision on her part because the president has honed in on this idea of calling her pocahontas and the idea she is running toward this, i have been talking to some elizabeth warren campaign aides and she wants to show she's not afraid to admit when she's made a mistake. she's not afraid to still talk about native american issues and that she wants to be able to set forth ideas to show that she an

wants to hear from that community. i think that people hear her and say, you know what, if this is the biggest mistake she's made, if you compare that to president trump then she's still in good standing. of course the issue is that president trump has been able to weather so many scandals and hone in on calling her pocahontas it makes people nervous. but that said, i think the president will look at this and say, oh, this is someone who is admitting mistakes. that's not something i'll ever do and the president hasn't been someone to want to apologize and it's worked for him and his supporters. her campaign aides say they understand she has to continue to deal with this over and over again. but that she's up for the task of doing that. >> and mike memoli, she had an enormous rally in minnesota last night. some 12,000 people. you can see the pictures a heck of a good turnout in the early primary season. >> this is the argument about why a joe biden electability and a elizabeth warren argument is

clear. the argument from the biden campaign of course will be donald trump will get our voters out to the poll, it's very clear. but the risk of the electability argument it puts that much more of a focus on yourjoe biden is . there is perhaps more of a tolerance for gaffes, for the missteps. that's part of the joe biden appeal. >> then that's the debate statement which is the next big test for all of them on september 12th. all of them who qualify. castro has met the mark. >> and we may be down to one stage which makes all the difference. you know, castro's presence is an interesting one because he's shown he can take advantage of the moments. how, i'm most interested in seeing warren and biden on the same stage for the exact same reason that mike points out.

a great argument because, you know, i can't help but think back to -- and andrea, i know you were on the trail so much in 2016 with hillary clinton, i remember thinking at the end of that campaign when you went to events that she held that it didn't feel like a winning campaign in the last weeks. it just didn't. and, you know, i think the question here is, you know s that something that potentially plays out again if there isn't enough excitement around joe biden himself? you know, that question about whether it is just enough to run against donald trump or if these crowds of elizabeth warren is seeing are something that we should be paying attention to in the way that we frankly kind of missed what happened with donald trump early on. >> kasie, great to see you. and bill kristol and yamiche alcindor and mike, thanks to all. president trump is now waffling on background checks. congressman escobar representing el paso, texas, is joining me next. stay with us. el paso, texas, is next stay with us

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in the two weeks since the mass shootings in el paso and dayton, president trump seems to be backing way from the comments favoring expanded background checks after seeming to support them on the way to el paso just days after the attacks. >> there's a very strong appetite for background checks and i think we can bring up background checks like we never had before. >> that was then. this is now.

this week the president seems to be yielding to the influence of the nra and the gun manufacturers. >> also very, very concerned with the second amendment. more so than most presidents would be. people don't realize, we have very strong background checks right now. you go in to buy a gun you have to sign up. there are a lot of background checks that have been approved over the years. >> well, texas democratic congresswoman veronica escobar is joining me right now. first of all, i want to ask you how you and your district are doing. you spent a lot of time with the community these last two weeks. >> thank you for having me, andrea. the community is incredible. just full of love and kindness and generosity but we are still a community in pain. trying to make sense of what is a very senseless act. trying to understand how we can best create change so that no other community has to go through what we have endured.

>> now, you wrote an op-ed in today's "new york times" and said including this quote, this moment in american history must be our turning point on hate, on racism, on guns and violence. this must mean something us to. our values must be worth fighting for or else what do we have left? how do you feel ago the signals in the white house that the president is softening on the background checks? >> andrea, it was no surprise to me. he's done this before where he's talked tough on something that is important to the american people. something as important as our safety. and ultimately, acquiesced and backed down. we know that the vast majority of americans want to see schools and churches and stores that are safe. they want to live without fear that when their family members walk out the door to run a

simple errand they don't have to be afraid that they'll never come back. and so with the incredible ground swell of support that exists for gun safety laws for gun violence prevention laws we have a president ultimately that is only concerned about one group. and that is the nra when it comes to this issue. he himself also, you know, had an opportunity to really seize on the moment the fact that we were massacred, people in our community were massacred by a terrorist who was fueled by hate and racism. he had an opportunity to really assume the leadership role that he has the privilege of having received from the american public and said that he would never again utter racist words he didn't do that either so it's no surprise that there's a lack of leadership from the white house. indeed, there is a crisis of leadership that we're facing

from the white house. >> even the house hasn't passed the assault weapon ban and the house judiciary is coming back a week later. what are your priorities? the latest poll had 55% saying they're worried that the u.s. will experience another mass shooting or attack by white nationalists. >> right. well chairman nadler is bringing us back on september 4th so we can consider a markup on three different bills. i think it's very important for the american public to watch that hearing. and to get a good understanding of where the various members of the judiciary committee stand on safety. and on protecting americans because i think there will be a very stark line that people will see and the hearings are important. because they tell the american public where their representatives stand on these critical issues. i'm a strong supporter also of the assault weapon ban. the weapon that the terrorist walked in to walmart with is a weapon of war. no one should have access to

that. and i'll tell you, andrea, even members of the community who own guns and who own assault weaponens have come up to me to say this is it. i like my assault weapon, but this has to be a turning point for us. our community understands that. our community is going to lead the way on making sure that we keep others safe. we need the rest of the congress, we need the senate and we need mitch mcconnell to have the courage that it takes to have the debate that the american public desperately wants and that polls show that they demand. >> veronica escobar, democrat from el paso, texas, thank you very much. thanks for being with us today. >> thank you. and coming up, relaunching the arms race? russia accuses the u.s. of stoking military tensions after a california test of a ground launched cruise missile.

what about russia's secret nuclear accident? we'll have a report on all of that. stay with us right here on "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. on "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. and we have zero account fees for brokerage accounts. at fidelity those zeros really add up. ♪ maybe i'll win ♪ saved by zero you get more than yourfree shipping.ir, you get everything you need for your home at a great price, the way it works best for you, i'll take that. wait honey, no. when you want it. you get a delivery experience you can always count on. you get your perfect find at a price to match, on your own schedule. you get fast and free shipping on the things that make your home feel like you.

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for the first time in decades, since the cold war, the u.s. military has tested an intermediate range cruise missile off the coast of california. the pentagon says the modified navy tomahawk cruise missile flew 300 miles to hit the target. this would have been banned under the imf treaty signed by ronald reagan and gorbachev. but the u.s. backed out saying i want wants a new treaty including china. no evidence that is happen anything time soon and the russians said we won't allow ourselves to get drawn into the costly arms race. joining me is a supreme allied commander and chief international diplomacy analyst. and peter baker from "the new york times" and msnbc political analyst. admiral, first of all, what concerns if any do you have about the u.s. test and whether or not this combined with this very mysterious test that the

russians did recently which resulted in a nuclear accident apparently, whether we're getting into an unwieldy? >> two different things here. the russian weapon is an extremely long range nuclear powered -- in other words it has a nuclear propulsion system and it evidently blew up, a lot of dirty radiation. but it is tied to the american tomahawk launch as follows. you see both nations, russia and the united states, testing and pushing new variants, longer range. potentially nuclear tipped. in other words, not nuclear propulsion, but a nuclear weapon on the end of the weapon system. it really is going to be put us in a pattern of escalation. we do need to draw a line under the fact that russia created this situation by cheating on the treaty. regardless, we have to play the ball from where it is on the field. we ought to be working very hard

to get back into the regime of arms control. and to pull china into it. part of the problem is that china has been deploying these weapons for decades. they are dangerous and destabilizing. we need to control them with the arms control regime. >> but now of course there are even hints -- statements from jocently that in fact they're not going to renew the new s.t.a.r.t. treaty and the long range missiles as well so we're getting into the dangerous cycle. as well the russians have been doing some mysterious things. michael gordon, our colleague at "the wall street journal" reported that four russian nuclear monitoring stations have gone dark after that nuclear accident. we don't know what's going on there. >> no, we don't know what's going on there. what's worrisome of course is that it's reminiscent of the chernobyl accident back in the '80s when the russians tried to clamp down on information, prevent anybody from

understanding how bad the situation was. we don't know if that's the case here. but the suckspases are being -- and the russians have given conflicting information all along. they said there was no radiation, another point they needed to evacuate a village nearby. a local town, the radiation monitor showing a spike in radiation. it's a very troublesome situation and one that re-emphasizes why there are arms control agreements to begin with. the monitoring is part of what arms control is all about. so the new s.t.a.r.t. treaty that you mentioned that john bolton may let lapse because he's not all that fond of it, he thinks it's a flawed treaty, one thing it brings along with it in addition to limits on weapons, an inspection regime and monitoring of the two sides. that's -- these instances i think reinforce why that has been the case for the last couple decades. >> and then we have the disturbing -- the horrible

terror incident in kabul. the wedding. so many people killed and injured. isis claiming responsibility. this resurgence of isis and the president's determination to withdraw from afghanistan, admiral, by the end of the first term as he's put it to mike pompeo and pompeo has said, you know, that he's determined to do that, talking about drawing down 9,000 to 15,000 troops. first of all, we don't have a deal yet with the taliban. second of all, isis did this attack apparently against a shiite wedding and on top of that, there's the concern about syria. a pentagon ig report two weeks saying that isis is resurging in both syria and iraq as a result of the u.s. drawdawn. what is your take on this by the urgency of the president to get troops back, admittedly after

the longest war. but are we doing it intelligently? >> it is incredibly important in geopolitics we not let the electoral calendar drive decisions that have enormous impact and frankly, the resurgence of isis was entirely predictable. think about it like a forest fire in california which was burning instead in syria and in iraq. we saw isis tanks headed toward baghdad. they were controlling huge swathes of territory. we managed to push them off that territory, but like a forest fire there were still embers burning on the ground there. when you walk away from embers on the floor of a forest, it's going to resurge. that's what's happened not only in syria, iraq, in that terribly conflicted border region, but also in afghanistan, where this latest event has occurred. we have to remember, by the way,

as recently as easter in sri lanka we saw the islamic state kill 250 at nine christian churches and injure about 1,000 people. so they're very much in the game. we need to be forward to deal with that. a premature pullout in order to facilitate 2020 election campaign slogan'reing is not good geopolitics or good for american security. >> and peter, this is part of a longer conversation to come. but there's no one around the president saying no. there's no one left in the national security team. there's a brilliant piece by susan glasser at the new yorker about mike pompeo becoming a yes man instead of a secretary of state, willing to stand up to the president. full disclosure, of course, you're married to susan glasser. >> we are, yes. it was a great piece. >> it's a great piece. >> it should be read. one of the thing that's really

interesting the last time he had to make a big decision on afghanistan early in his tenure, he said i wanted to get out. that's what he had run on. he had told the american people we had enough of the foreign wars they're not helping our national interests and people agreed with that, on the left and the right. one of the interesting issues compared to others but he was talked out of withdrawing in the instance because he had people like h.r. mcmasters who said, there's a value to keep them there as a destabilizing influence. and don't do the same thing that barack obama did after he pulled out of iraq and had to turn around because of isis. and that's the choice he faces again. >> you know, the departure of jim mattis as well. >> andrea, one last point, just we already have withdrawn 90% of the troops that were there at one time. i commanded that mission as supreme allied commander of nato

i had 150,000 troops. we are now down to 15,000 troops and that stabilizing force needs to stay at least for the foreseeable future. >> thanks for your expertise. those scrambling to get on the debate stage, including bill de blasio juggling his campaign and his day job. we'll talk about both coming up. stay with us. we'll talk about both coming up. stay with us but what i do count on... is boost® delicious boost® high protein nutritional drink has 20 grams of protein, along with 26 essential vitamins and minerals. boost® high protein. be up for life. announcer: fidelity is redefining value

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this mayor needs to be removed. the police commissioner needs to know he's lost his police department. our police officers are in distress. not because they have a difficult job. not because they put themselves in danger. but because they realize they're abandoned. the captain has jumped ship. the mayor told him to do it and the streets are falling into chaos. >> the leader of the new york city police union denouncing nypd commissioner o'neill's decision to fire officer daniel pantaleo for what he described as reckless use of a chokehold leading to the death of eric garner five years ago. the commissioner denied he had faced any pressure from mayor de blasio before reaching that decision and now the mayor is

joining me now. i know you have been busy on the campaign but this is a front and center issue. i want to ask you about whether or not there was any pressure and your response to the police union. >> andrea, what i just saw was absolutely a misrepresentation of what's happening in this city and it's really sad, andrea, that, you know, a police union leader who could talk about healing and moving forward in this city and the relationship between police and community he's only seeking to divide us for his own political purposes. the 36,000 men and women of the nypd in uniform are proud professionals. they have driven down crime six years in a row i have been mayor crime has gone down. we're the safest big city in america. here is a situation where something happened, an awful thing happened. there had to be accountability. there was a full trial and, andrea, an nypd trial. this really speaks to how this department has changed and how much reform has happened. the first place the garner family got justice.

it wasn't the u.s. justice department, but the nypd itself having a full public trial and nypd officials saying in fact this chokehold was against our rules. it was wrong. someone died that shouldn't have died and the officer must be terminated. that is actual accountability. that's justice and people in this city see that and actually it's going to help us bring police and community together. this is how we make change that we are focused on never letting a tragedy like that happen again. because now every officer in this city has a body camera every officer is given implicit bias training. that's what we ought to be talking about. how do we make this the last tragedy but unfortunately -- very few people want in the police union leadership want to take us backwards. >> the family is asking for

action against the other police in the incident. is this case closed? >> there's one more trial. it will be held by the nypd for one of the sergeants involved. that will be concluded this year. that will end all of the disciplinary issues being handled by the nypd. as you know, andrea, the u.s. department of justice walked away five years and held everything up, did nothing. we'll put this very, very painful episode behind us. but with people seeing that the nypd actually created a system for real accountability i think that's important not just for new york city but the whole country to see that the premiere police force is making real changes and reforms. and i think all over this country, andrea, we need every police officer to be taught to de-escalate conflict. every police officer to get implicit bias training. every officer to be wearing a body camera. we need to leave a troubled past behind us because then we can get to the important work of making us all safer as we have

done here by bringing police and community together with mutual trust, mutual accountability and respect. that's the future for this country. >> now, where do you stand on the debate stage? you have not been able to hit 1% in the latest cnn poll. after three months on the trail, if you don't make this debate and the next debates, how long can you stay in the race? >> well, andrea, i'll tell you this, when i have been on that debate stage i have gotten a tremendous amount of feedback that i'm standing up for working people and labor unions and i'm saying bluntly we cannot depend on the private insurance companies to give people the kind of health care they deserve. people are struggling with health care plans that don't work for their families. i'm going to keep getting the messages out there and i'll tell you i hear from a lot of people. there's a lot of people tuning in on sunday at 7:00, cnn is giving me a televised town hall. people are telling me to keep getting the message out so if

it's not for this next september debate there's another bite at the apple for the october debate. anyone who wants to keep a cl r clear, pro working people message out there, please go to bill de blasio.com and i can stay on that stage and get the message out. >> mayor, thank you so much. thanks for being with us today. and coming up, sacred space. how the i.c.e. raids in mississippi are challenging local churches. immigration advocate jeff merkley is joining me next. stay tuned to "andrea mitchell reports." e next stay tuned to "andrea mitchell reports. ounts. at fidelity those zeros really add up. ♪ maybe i'll win ♪ saved by zero he borrowed billions donald trump failed as a businessman. and left a trail of bankruptcy and broken promises. he hasn't changed. i started a tiny investment business, and over 27 years, grew it successfully to 36 billion dollars. i'm tom steyer and i approve this message.

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those i.c.e. raids earlier this month at seven food processing plants in mississippi have hit one community especially hard. father roberto in forest, mississippi, telling the "l.a. times" he lost about 150 members of his congregation in those raids. his church has become a makeshift emergency center for families impacted by the roundups. joining me now is jeff merkley. his new book "america is better than this, trump's war against migrant families." senator, good to see you again. you have been an advocate, you

have been down to the border and written this book. what's your reaction to the mississippi raids and going after them so aggressively, the largest statewide yet but not a single arrest of the employers. >> you know, i think about one father who was holding his little girl who had been breast-feeding with the mother and the mother was swept away. the child is an american citizen. this is why we need comprehensive immigration reform. we passed it in the senate in 2013. the republicans refused to take it up in the house of representatives. maintaining a broken immigration system that we now see the devastating effects of. >> what about the change in law in practice -- i should say or the regulations by stephen miller where legal migrants are not going to be able to get -- legal immigrants cannot get green cards if they're judged to be dependent on u.s. aid or welfare or health systems.

>> well, this is folks who are here legally in the country who have had a set of rules they have been living by and the administration is changing those rules overnight in a way that could have devastating effects on children. repeatedly the philosophy of the administration has been let's inflict as much pain on immigrants, legal and those who are undocumented, as possible. to deter immigration. this is not the way to solve the problem. in fact, treating immigrant children -- refugee children, leaving them stranded in mexico or returning them to mexico under the return policy, leaving them without friends or family or funds on the border in dangerous cities like tijuana, they're at great risk. we saw that with the devastating photo of the father oscar and his daughter who died trying to swim the river after they were turned away at a port of entry. in other words, the president

says come to the port of entry and present yourself if you're a refugee. they did so, they were turned back and the result was that they had a very, very dangerous set of circumstances in safest thing was for them to try to cross the river. this process of inflicting deliberate trauma on immigrant children has to end. this is not america. treat refugees with respect and decency as they await their adjudication of their asylum status. >> you've got an end to cruelty to migrant children act cosponsored with chuck schumer. do you have any republican support, any hope when congress returns that you can get anything done in either house on this issue? >> the senate is deeply divided on this. my republican colleagues have said they are very, very concerned about this situation. they don't like it. they're also afraid to take on the president. so let me contrast it this way. there was a bill that senator tillis had that had 40 sponsors

that would allow migrant children and their parents to be locked up indefinitely as they go through the adjudication process, so internment camps for thousands and thousands. we already have, well as of last december, 15,000 children locked up in detention centers and prisons across america. they want to do far more. that has 40 republican sponsors in the previous congress, not a single democrat. my bill has 40 democratic sponsors and not a single republican. all i'm saying is treat peemt with decency and respect. don't leave people stranded in mexico. don't put them in cold holding cells that are referred to as these ice lockers by immigrants. don't leave the lights on all night. don't take away food and hygiene and liquids. don't have massive for profit prisons like the one that existed in florida where they were being paid $750 a day to lock up migrant children, had no incentive to get them in responsors' homes. treat people with respect and

decency. that is the america, the spirit, not this deliberate infliction of trauma on children. >> well, the book is "america is better than this, trump's war against migrant families." senator jeff merkley, thank you very much for being with us. >> thank you so much. coming up, gag order. planned parenthood giving up all federal funding to avoid obeying a gag order against abortion counseling for low income women. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. volunteerism. fundraising. giving back. subaru and our retailers have given over one hundred and sixty-five million dollars to charity. we call it our love promise. and it's why you don't even have to own a subaru to love a subaru retailer. subaru. more than a car company.

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in a major setback for advocates of women's reproductive rights planned parenthood is withdrawing from title x the federally funded program that helps largely under served women get birth control, cancer, and std screenings along with many other critical health services. it is all because of a gag order imposed by the trump administration banning clinics that get federal money from providing abortion counseling. this is separate from the federal law that for decades has prohibited clinics from using federal money for abortion procedures. this new rule prohibits clinics from even referring patients to another facility for abortion. joining me now is joyce vance former u.s. attorney and msnbc contributor. joyce, this is pretty dramatic and drastic because it affects the people least able to get other healthcare services. those who are served by planned

parenthood. >> that is exactly what it does. it cuts off not just abortion services but cuts off the sort of typical reproductive care and birth control services from the most low income people in our communities, forcing planned parenthood and other providers who want to be able to continue to mention, even make mention of abortion services, to replace about $60 million worth of federal funding from private donations. >> joyce, they have the option of appealing in court. what do you think about their decision to halt their services and stop using the federal money completely to avoid even temporarily while it goes through the courts obeying this gag order? >> it is a difficult position to be in. the ninth circuit court of appeals, which is the nine western most states, has traditionally been a very liberal circuit so it was a surprise to many observers when

they did not halt the regulations from going into force. it looks like this might be the future, andrea. these regulations may well stand up. >> in terms of the legal options, you're facing increasingly conservative, more than a hundred very conservative judges have already been confirmed by this senate in the last two years. mitch mcconnell is very proud of that achievement and also a much more conservative appeals court and supreme court. lfrj >> this is one of the lasting impacts of the trump election. during the last two years of the obama administration the republicans and the senate were successful in holding open about a hundred judicial seats. when barack obama became president, he had about 50 empty judicial seats to fill. when president trump came onboard he had closer to a hundred. he has now filled over 100 seats in his two and a half years in office on a record trend pace to

fill those seats. >> what are the options now going to be, to raise money privately, to try to fill the gap for all of this federal money from title x? >> i think that's the answer. they will no longer be able to go to the courts and ask them to protect women's reproductive rights. the answers will largely be some combination of looking to people on capitol hill and hoping that they can get some sort of legislative fix to these administrative regulations and then relying on private donors to fill in that $60 million gap from the title x funding. >> elections have consequences. >> absolutely. >> joyce vance. thank you very much. good to see you. and coming up right here on msnbc alexis mcgill johnson the acting head of planned parenthood joins "velshi and ruhle" up next. that does it for us for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow the show online at facebook and

twitter @mitchellreports. >> thank you. have a great afternoon. hi everybody. it's tuesday, august 20th. coming up this hour on "velshi and ruhle" -- >> i think it should be velshi and stephanie ruhle. andrea said it first. we'll go with that. >> deal. presidential hopeful joe biden is growing his lead over the democratic field in brand new polling while one candidate is suffering a crushing drop. we've got the numbers. >> plus, boosting the economy with signs of a slowdown ahead what the trump administration is reportedly doing to try to ease concerns about another downturn. an msnbc exclusive the biggest known spender of pro trump ads on facebook other than the trump campaign itself is linked to a group the chinese government calls a cult. we are now just 23 days out from the next democratic presidential debate. today all eyes are on former vice president joe biden, who has the clear lead across national polls going into