good evening. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. we open tonight with a grim milestone as we come on the air. the united states has now passed 90,000 deaths in the coronavirus pandemic. and while we are crossing that threshold, the president was calling into a golf broadcast here on nbc to go beyond promising just a vaccine to come. >> ultimately, i believe we will end up with a career and or a vaccine, probably both. and i think that's not going to be in the very distant future. but even before that, i think we will be back to normal. >> meanwhile, the white house out in force today. early today defending the president's focus on reopening the economy while he is still

sidelining his own medical advisers. two of the president's most loyal economic officials apparently singing from the same hymn book this sunday, the hhs secretary and the top trade adviser both saying stay-at-home orders can also be deadly, even saying more deadly than the virus that has now killed 90,000 americans in less than three weeks. >> reduction in cancer screenings, pediatric vaccinations. there is a real, a real health consequence to these shutdowns. >> as we basically locked down our hospitals for everything but covid, women haven't been getting mammograms or cervical examinations for cancer. we haven't been able to do other procedures for the heart or the kidneys. and that's going to kill people as well. so if you contrast like this complete lockdown where some of the people in the medical community want to just run and ride until the virus is

extinguished, that's not only going to take a huge toll on the american economy, i going to kill many more people than the virus, the china virus, ever would. >> trade adviser peter navarro on that meet the press interview. also refusing to acknowledge early missteps by the administration that could have avoided the pandemic's spread by saying he doesn't want to look in the rearview mirror when it comes the their initial months. but after months of complaining president obama didn'tly them with a pandemic plan, the former president took a swipe at the current administration's handling of covid-19 at a commencement speech. >> this pandemic has fully finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they are doing. a lot of them aren't even pretending to be in charge. >> nbc's monica alba is at the white house for us tonight with

president trump's response to that when he was on his way back from camp david. what did he have to say, monica? >> exactly, andrea. those were striking words from the former president who while delivering those subtle messages, it was unmistakable who he was talking about when the president -- the current occupant of the white house was asked about this hours ago he claimed to have not known what his predecessor said about him asking reporters to inform them. and then when he was told he took a swipe at barack obama. listen to exactly what he said about his predecessor and his administration. >> look, he was an incompetent president of that's all i can say. guessly incompetent. thank you. >> short and succinct from president trump on his way back from camp david echl has been pressed during the last week or so when he alleged that his predecessor committed a crime.

when pressed to elucidate exactly what that is he hasn't pinpointed it. he and his campaign have a message going into dove. they are trying to hit the former president because of course his vice president, joe biden is now his opponent in the general election. the president continued the attacks on twitter comparing both the obama/biden ticket and trying to bring it into 2020. we are seeing some of the 2016 playbook returning as we are only about five months and change away from the general election. andrea, the white house has forcefully pushed back on the predecessors comments. it is worth noting that this president's club that at times has come together during national crises is not come together during the coronavirus pandemic. >> it can hardly be a president's club when you have for the first time in most historians' recollection in modern history a current

president suggesting his predecessor should be criminally charged or questioned by joint committee of congress and the like accusing him of all kinds of nefarious things that are completely untrue. also i want to ask you about the firing of yet another inspector general, the state department inspector general. do we know anything about that and the decision behind it. >> we have seen that pattern emerge in the last couple of months. listenic one of a few who have been removed from their federal watchdog posts. most sig significantly, he was an obama-era appointee, which is why the president decided to out him. when asked why it happened now, the white house told us it was secretary mike pompa's idea to remove listenic and that the president agreed with him. it is notable given that listenic can reportedly opened an investigation into secretary pompeo and his wife purportedly

using a government employee to run personal errands. if that came at the time that listenic opened this investigation, if the white house learned that he was going to be moved there will be many questions going forward. democrats on the hill said they will launch a probe why this occurred. it is worth also pointing out that the president does have the right and the authority to remove these inspectors general. what's at issue here is why he did exactly this, if he was looking into a close ally who we should also mention has been replaced now by a close ally of current vice president mike pence. >> monica alba setting it all up for us. thank you so much. let's bring in the new mexico senator, bob men ends, the ranking member on the foreign relation's committee who along with congressman engel on the house is calling on the senate and house to jointly investigate just why the smpt inspector general was required? have you learned anything so far, senator?

thank you for joining us today. what are you looking at right now in this investigation, as you start? >> andrea, look, this is another assault on democracy. it is another assault on the checks and balances in our government. this seems to be a ritual on friday eveningings that the president does this to inspector generals. and this particular one has been a top inspector general. he was confirmed when i was the chairman of the foreign relations committee back in 2013. he did tough investigations during the obama administration which they didn't care for, but he wasn't ousted. and he has done some tough investigations now. and the fact that it appears that he was kkt conducting an investigation about improper use of state department personnel for personal purposes of the secretary of state and that the secretary of state recommended to the president that he be let go three and a half years into this administration's time, well, that speaks volumes in my

mind of an obstruction of what would have been an investigation that we would want to see. so, you know, i am looking forward to joining chairman engel in the house foreign relations committee in an investigation he's going to pursue. we will call upon the chairman of the senator foreign relations committee to do the same. and i think we are going to have to look at changes in the law as it relates to inspector generals. because just saying you have lost confidence should not be enough. >> senator menendez, josh lederman and i are reporting details tonight that some of the specifics he was looking into are a call that came to the ig's hotline from other state department employees in a there was requests or orders to walk the dog, the pompeos' dog, to pick up dry cleaning torque make dinner reservations for the secretary and his wife. would that be inappropriate?

>> well, we have to see the totality of everything that person was asked to to for personal purposes. and what position they had that they were in the mid-st of. but it must have been inappropriate enough to the secretary of state felt compelled to ask the president to invoke his power to get rid of the inspector general. because if in fact there was nothing there and if it was not inappropriate then it would have been unnecessary to ask the president to have the secretary of state ask the president to get rid of the inspector general. so i have got presume the mere fact that you used the extraordinary effort of reaching out to the president to get rid the inspector general who was investigating you must say you don't care for what was headed your way. >> i also was told by a number of people that members of congress asked quite some time ago maybe as early as last year

for the ig to investigate the emergency justification, the emergency declaration that was used last may, a year ago may, may 2019 for the arms sale to the saudis. do you know whether or not the inspector general was looking into that? because no report has been issued. >> i believe he was. he was also looking into two political retribution cases that i specifically sent to the inspector general. and i believe that his report was just issued or is coming. and so the bottom line is is that there are a series of things that are problematic at the state department. and, you know, the president would rather ultimately at the end of the day get rid of an inspector general if they are basically could go their job instead of having transparency. i am glad to see some of my republican colleagues are

finally speaking up because whether it is this administration or a future one, you want the inspector general ultimately to have the independence so that they are doing the people -- they are doing the people's bidding. and you know, if we constantly have inspector generals massacred on friday night, then there will be no independence, there will be no check and balances and the american people will be ill-served. >> you referenced a couple of your republicans. until now they have been pretty much silent. senator grassley, though, has argued that this whistle -- rather the inspector general law needs to be followed, whether or not he is going to look into it is another issue. mitt romney, no favorite of the president's of course, being the only republican to vote to convict on impeachment said doing so without good cause chills the independence essential to their purpose. it is a threat to accountable democracy and a fissure in the constitutional balance of power.

should point out there has been a downgrading of the hhs inspector general, who is a career person dating back to the clinton years, through the bush years and was highly regarded. she was layered. and also the ouster of the d.o.d. inspector general. this has become a pattern. this is fourth time i believe, this has happened. one other thing about steve listenic, the ig, you indicated he was tough on people during the obama years. i recall he was very tough on hillary clinton's emails. he sided with the intelligence community in retroactively classifying some of these emails from her private server at the height of the 2016 campaign. he was an call opportunity offender in terms of being a tough ig. >> oh, absolutely. he was tough on former secretary clinton and on other issues at the time. he has been tough in this

administration. that's what inspector generals are supposed to be. they are supposed to be straight shooters who do the investigation, call it as they see and it hold the agencies accountable. that's why you have anment inner general in the first place. but the president is sending the message, you can be the inspector general for as long as you don't do your job, cone investigate, for so long as you don't embarrass me or members of my cabinet. that's not what a inspector general is all about. that's not check and balances, and that's certainly not transparency. >> there are 28 days before he can be forced out. is there anything you can do in these 28 days? what if you don't get any response from a white house that doesn't answer letters from democrats on the hill that often and certainly does not respond to subpoenas? >> well, i think that chairman engel clearly has the power to

bring former inspector general -- well, he's still the inspector general during this period of time. he can call him to appear before the committee. i would not think that the inspector general would deny a request to come before the committee and if necessary a subpoena to come before the committee and to testify in open hearings as to what he was doing, what he was pursuing, and why he believes he was fired. so that doesn't require responses to letters that requires a response to a hearing. i would hope that chairman risch would do exactly the same in the senate. that should be the first order of business as we return next week. because then there is memorial day recess. we shouldn't let this lag. it should be brought before the committee and members should be able to fully ask questions and get to the heart of what transpired here. not only the inspector general, but other members of his staff. and base upon what we hear,

others at the state department who can shed light on what the inspector general was pursuing and why these actions were taken by the president at the request of the secretary of state. >> senator bob menendez from the foreign relations committee thank you so much. thanks for being with us on a sunday night. you could be forgiven for thinking this week that the 2020 presidential campaign was between donald trump and barack obama. the president makes his election strategy clear this week as his predecessor punches back. that is coming up. stay with us. you are watching msnbc. ilies. and now verizon wants to give them something back. our best pricing ever. $30 per line for all nurses, teachers, first responders, military, and their families. not for a few months, but for as long as they need. plus, up to $700 off the oneplus 8. because the people we rely on deserve a network they can rely on.

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after years of ignoring president trump's continued attacks against him, former president barack obama is speaking out about the president's response to the coronavirus, the former president using two opportunities this weekend in commencement mess ams to high school and college graduates to take swipes at the current administration without naming

donald trump directly. >> do what you think is right. doing what feels good, what's convenient, what's easy, that's how little kids think. unfortunately, a lot of so-called grownups, including some with fancy titles and important jobs still think that way, which is why things are so screwed up. i hope that instead, you decide to ground yourself in values that last. >> perhaps it's not a coincidence that obama's criticism comes after a week of president trump's baseless conspiracy theory that he has been trying to brand as obamagate about the russia probe and michael flynn's guilty pleas. the "washington post's" phil rucker tried to pin the president down when he first was talking about this in the rose garden, what has been widely viewed as a smear. >> what crime exactly are you accusing president obama of committing? and do you believe the justice department should prosecute him? >> obamagate. it has been going on for a long time. it has been going on from before

i even got elected. >> what is the crime exactly that you are accusing him of? >> you know what the crime is. the crime is very obvious to everybody. >> obvious to who? phil rucker, white house bureau chief with the "washington post" joins us now along with the former republican national chairman, michael steele, the former republican governor in maryland. phil, we always get criticism when we talk about sbts like this, that we are amp flying the president's lies. but when you don't push back on the truth it goes unchallenged and becomes part of the commonly held wisdom and it is not. we have done a lot of fact checking. you asked that question, what is he talking about here, what is that crime. he said of course you know what it is. but we don't know what it is. and in fact, there is no there there. >> that's right, andrea. it has now been almost a week and president trump has yet to

really explain what he means by obamagate. i mean, it pertains to the initial origins of the fbi's russia investigation and the interview with michael flynn when he was national security adviser in the early weeks in the white house. but some of the messages cast flynn as a martyr and rewriting history. flynn pleaded guilty guys for lie informing the fbi. he was fired by president trump for lying to the fbi and for lying to vice president pence. but they are trying to create a new narrative here heading into the election that would somehow tarnish obama and also bring down biden and campaign officials -- trump campaign officials that is are very aware that obama is the most potent surrogate and supporter for biden because he is so much more popular than president trump and has sew such a broad reach on social media and really around the world.

>> i wanted to read from one of your "washington post" -- you and your colleagues' dissection of this whole issue. the accusation is that there was an unmasking of michael flynn, who was heard on what had been a routine intercept, an understood intercept of the russian ambassador. he would always be someone they would be listening in on. and he was talking to michael flynn. so there were a number of officials, including president obama and the vice president who at this time during the transition were -- needed to know who was it who was talking in various intelligence reports, whose name was blotted out with the the russian ambassador. as you point out in your piece, that this whole issue of unmasking is a commonplace issue. it is a practice that happens thousands of time -- in fact it has happened many more thousands of times under this

administration than in past years for we don't know what reasons. but these are requests that happen 10,000 times a year, 17,000 times in the last year. and it is just to find out what it was who was involved in this intercept. from our reporting, from all the documentation, there was a meeting on january 5th, 2017, and the people in the room did include james comey, the fbi director at the time, and the president, the vice president, joe biden, and sally yates, the deputy a.g., and sue sass rice the national security adviser ask. according to our reporting, phil, let me ask you this first. and then i will get of course to michael steele on the political aspects of it. but the president was asking -- i am not asking you about a law enforcement issue, i just want to know, is there some reason why susan -- susan rice should not be briefing the incoming national security adviser during this transition on russia? is there some reason we should

hold anything back? we don't know exactly what the answer was, but what followed was that she spent 12 hours one on one with him and passed 100 different reports from the nsc over to michael flynn. apparently, they were not told that he was under any kind of investigation. >> yeah, andrea, this was a really sensitive time in the run up to trump taking over in the presidency in january. that was the day before the intelligence official went to trump tower to brief the president-elect and his team, including michael flynn on the russia investigation, on the allegations in that so-called dossier, that meeting with comey and trump that has now become famous. so this is one of the pieces there. and you mentioned that word, unmasking, which to a lot of viewers would sound like a really scary thing, even maybe a criminal act. but it is such a common procedure in the government.

it effectively means that if a senior official, say in this case, the vice president, but there were dozens of other officials who saw the same thing, saw in an intelligence report an individual who was anonymous in the report in order to protect the person's identity they could ask the find out who that person was in order to better analyze the conversation that they are being asked to am eyes. that's what happened in the, quote, unquote, unmasking of michael flynn. >> we also know that michael flynn pleaded guilty twice. he was also looked at for not reporting his having been a paid -- undeclared lobbyist for turkey, there were a number of issues for michael flynn that justified them looking into him from a counter-intelligence perspective. michael steele, what about the political damage, though? has this repeated amplification of these unfounded charges

damaged either president obama or joe biden? is it politically powerful because of the megaphone that the president has, and of course his social media presence? >> well, you can't discount the megaphone, andrea. i mean the presidential persona is big even without a trump character in the office. so he's got that advantage. but here i don't think -- because barack obama despite what some republicans and certainly what the trump administration have been saying about him left office in very good stead with the american people, the american people did not appreciate the whole, you know, birther thing. and they don't appreciate right now and in fact have respect for the restraint that the president -- former president has exhibited given the onslaught of attacks by the current president. so i think politically, while it may rev up the base and gets

folks excited that already are not predisposed towards barack obama, i think by and large most americans kind of shrug at it and go, there you go again, and are largely discounting it. what i think does work against -- potentially work against trump is barack obama sort of starting to engage. i don't think that's something trump really wants to do long term. because there is no up side for him on this. barack will give better than he gets, i think, in many respects, having seen him in the past. so i think this is one of those be careful what you think -- you know, you wish for moments. but trump is that kind of guy who will go head long hoping that the calvary meaning his base and others will rally around his rhetoric. i just don't know whether that will be enough overall with the american people. >> phil, what about the politics

of this? the former president obama is now criticizing the president for the trump administration's handling of the coronavirus. is that good politics? >> well, it's hard to say, andrea. president obama has had views on the coronavirus pandemic management over the last several months and he has kept them largely to himself. he used this occasion this weekend at these two commencement traceys that were broadcast effectively all around the country to make some comments. but he has not been that pointed, as michael steele was just pointing out in attacking trump. and that is set to change. remember, the democratic national convention is going to be later this summer. we anticipate obama will be a prominent campaign trail surrogate for biden, whether it is on the actual campaign trial for from his living room there through a live stream. we do anticipate hearing from

obama regularly and hearing him make the argument for why his former vice president would be a better commander in chief, a better president at this time of national crisis than donald trump. so i would only anticipate that obama's contrasts are going to go up as time goes on. >> michael steele, the democratic convention, they have voted to permit the delegates to participate remotely. it has already been moved to august from july. but republicans said they are going to be at their convention. they are planning to go ahead with it in person. how realistic is it, and does that give them a big advantage in terms of the show of a real convention going on, and a live convention rather than a virtual one over the democrats? >> yeah, i don't know how that's going to play out. i think a lot of americans, particularly, if we still see any form of coronavirus in august, you know, impacting the country as we see right now that

folks are going to look at the two conventions and give the republicans you know, an attaboy if there are still concerns about social distancing, et cetera. i think the democrats are being appropriately cautious. i think the republicans are largely lock stepping with trump even though some of the republicans i have talked to who, you know, either plan to attend or are somehow involved in this are skeptical about having 50,000 people crowded into this space. so this is a narrative that's going to continue to play itself out on the republican side with i think potential mixed results. >> michael steele, phil rucker, thank you both so much for being with us tonight. meanwhile, democrats passed a $3 trillion new stimulus bill, but it appears to be going nowhere fast in the senate. what is their next move?

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the next coronavirus relief bill faces an up hill battle in the senate. the $3 trillion so-called heroes act passed by house democrats late friday night includes trillion for state and local governments, hazard pay for state and local workers. another round of stimulus for americans. the house speaker nancy pelosi today insists there is room for negotiation even though the senate has announced it dead on arrival. >> no bill that is proffered will not become law without negotiation. >> to get what you want, what will you give. >> we have no red lines but the fact is our best protection for the workers and for their employers is to follow very good osha mandatory guidelines and we

have that in our bill. >> joining me now the democratic congressman john sarbanes of maryland. thank you very much, congressman, thanks for being with us. well, where do you see room for negotiation here? will the democrats think about the liability protection? will they -- what will they give up in terms of getting a bill that the senate and the white house can accept. >> well, andrea, there is a lot of moving parts in the heroes act. of course we understand that. that's going to be subject to a lot of negotiation. but i think as the speaker just indicated, the best way that you protect the workplace is you make sure that there is hazard play. you make sure there is an osha standard. we have a workers' compensation system that is designed to help employers respond to issues in the workplace. so we will see where that particular issue ends up. but i think we are in a very strong position with the

measures we brought forward. if you look at them, continuing to help small businesses, payments to families and individuals, unemployment insurance benefits being extended. obviously, trying to help state and local governments who, by the way, were the first to respond to the outbreak and are going to have to lead the way for the country in terms of any reopening that we do. so they have to be strong in this moment. these are all things the public is clamoring for. and by the way, republican and democratic governors and mayors across the country are saying we need this relief. so i think the public is on our side. and i think senators are going the feel that pressure as we move forward in the negotiations. >> now, you were one of the people questioning dr. bryce, the whistle-blower who has been forced from his job in the vaccine research agency.

you were questioning him and wh said what can we do now that we have wasted so much time. his response was to listen to the scientists. the scientists have been all but silences. the economic advisers were out there ted. and they were saying thing like the elective normal kinds of medical treatments that people get like mammograms haven't been possible for three months and that this lockdown is going to prove more deadly than the virus itself. this is on a day when we have now passed 90,000 people -- 90,000 americans have died as of today. >> the -- the economists that i am paying attention to are the ones who understand that we have to listen to the scientists. if we are actually going to reopen our economy and be able to keep it open instead of a

sort of sort-stop situation, we have got to have rules and precautions and guidelines that are in pleas that are informed by science and by reason. so the best way you get the economy moving, the best way you handle this reopening is you keep the scientists on your team. you don't sideline them which is what happened to rick bryce. we need his inpuchltd we need his experience. he is an epidemiologist of the first order. he's the kind of person you want to have on the team so you can do the right things for the economy as we are moving forward. those things are linked together. but only if we have all of the right folks involved. >> thanks so much, congressman john sarbanes from maryland. thank you very much. and coming up next, the race to find a vaccine. president trump says it can be done by the end of the year. experts tell nbc news that would be a miracle. my next guest is going to help

us understand just what is possible. technologies advisor.

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the president announced operation warp speed this week, setting a very rappid time line for a vaccine by the end of the year. i am joined by a doctor, the medical director of special pathogen's unit at boston medical center. good to see you. is it realistic? the medical experts we interviewed over the past week tell us this is not a realistic goal, not even a realistic aspiration to have something that has been properly tested on humans and that can be manufactured by the end of the year. >> that's right, andrea. i think that there are big scientific strides that have been done which allowed us to take a bunch of vaccine candidates that looked promising into human studies so far in phase one. but biggest delay is actually testing them as you said for efficacy and safety.

we have prior data in the fact that when we deploy a vaccine the two things we look for is look to make sure that the patients that we give the vaccine to actually have lesser chances of getting the infection compared to those who get nothing. the other thing we look for is to make sure the vaccine itself doesn't make the disease worse. that's why the time line is so long. as dr. fauci said we do expect a couple of the candidates to show promise by the ends of fall, beginning of winter but then there is logistics, manufacturing and distribution that's going to take much longer to get billions of doses where they need to go. >> one of the things that the president did say in bringing in this former formceutical ceo and lass four-star general to run this operation is that they are going to take a bet on 14 of the 100 vaccines that are being tested and start producing while they are still in the testing stage so that they are ready to go. that's very expensive, but does that make sense.

>> i think it does. one example i will use that's fresh in all of our minds is look at the amount of new tests we put out for covid-19. when you put them out, you put them out in numbers. we were hoping it could help get us a handled on the scope of the pandemic. and some of them ended up not going as effective. in some ways it makes sense to go for the moon shots. but there are certain things we can't do shortcuts on. safety is one of them. the other is if one or two end up being the most promising, it is getting all of those in a timely manner to all the populations that need them that's really going to be the delay. it is a good strategy. some of the things that the group is going to be working on is pinch points, availability of the vials, medical glass, ability of prefilled syringes, so they don't get in the way of basically limiting that delivery.

which is great. >> thank you very much for your expertise. really appreciate it. thank you for joining us, doctor. coming up next, the return of sports? at least some of them? nascar and pga golf are the first major american sports the return this weekend. but without fans. what will the world of sports look like amid the coronavirus pandemic? i will ask famed columnist mike loupic coming up about that. chicago! "ok, so, magnificent mile for me!" i thought i was managing... ...my moderate to severe crohn's disease. yes! until i realized something was missing... ...me. you ok, sis? my symptoms kept me- -from being there for my sisters. "...flight boarding for flight 2007 to chicago..." so i talked to my doctor and learned- ...humira is for people who still have symptoms of crohn's disease after trying other medications. and the majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief... -and many achieved remission in as little as 4 weeks.

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joining us to talk about all of this is msnbc.com climist in and author of the group match, mike lupica. congratulations on the new book. i can't wait to read it. meanwhile, sports. i mean n this house hold, we are just dying for baseball. and somehow korean baseball isn't quite fitting -- filling the bill. we are still watching reruns of the world series with the nats. but nascar was there today. that went off.

and golf as well. what does it mean for the rest of the sports teams? can we get baseball back? can there be an nfl season? how is it going to work? >> well, first of all, i am not a big nascar guy, but i kept checking in on that today and watching the golfers carry their own bags and walk around in shorts, which was kind of great. i was thinking -- the great dan jenkins said the worst mexican food he ever had was great. the worst sports right now would be great. >> agreed. >> i remain cautiously optimistic about baseball. but thing about baseball is if they do start -- i believe they are going to start, i want them to finish if you have been reading all of the protocols that have been put in place it is a brilliant document. they seem to have thought of anything except they are dealing

with a mercurial virus. so there is just no way of knowing how well they can control it. i think, unfortunately, at a time when so many people, andrea n this country are out of work, and so many people are being furloughed, this thing may come down to money. and what the players will accept to come back and play this year, because they are the ones who are taking on all the risk. the owners are taking on financial risk. the players are taking on physical risk. and you know, this is going to be a major sticking point. and even if there are places where the players are going to be right about what they should be paid, they have to know they are going to look bad in the eyes of the public if they get dug in on how much of their salary they should receive because n the best case scenario, baseball without fans would lose between 2 and $3

billion this year because they generate $10 billion just on ticket receipts every year. so this -- this thing is far from settled between the owners and the players. and how do you equalize the teams, say the yankees, that have huge television contracts. >> right. >> and those who rely on tickets at the turnstyles? they will have to come up with some formula to even things out. >> the reality is there are probably teams in baseball who think they will lose less money if they don't open the doors this year. okay? that they will lose less money if they do that. the yankees, the dodgers, the cubs, teams like that are different from teams like the kansas city royals for example. even the cardinals. they rely way more -- it is one of the great baseball cities, st. louis, they rely way more on

ticket receipts than a lot of other teams do. and so these algorithms are going to be extremely complicated in the next month or so because they would really like to get spring training -- spraing spring training in june started up and start the season around july 4th. >> dr. fauci, you recall, was saying the other day on a podcast that, you know, what do you do if four -- if the nfl starts and on a saturday night four guys turn up and test positive? you have to cancel the game. >> right. >> who is going to take that kind of risk? and that's of course the ultimate sport. although baseball is also a contact sport. it is hard to figure out. then there is always tennis. what is june and july without wimbledon and all the rest. we are all hurting for a lack of sports. but we did have nascar. we did have golf and mike lupica we have got you and your new

book. congratulations on that. thanks for being with us, great talking to you. >> andrea, it is always great to talk to you. >> thank you so much for that. well, that wraps things up for me ending the week -- or beginning the week with mike lupica is great. thanks for being with us tonight on msnbc. i am andrea mitchell. thanks for watching i will see you back here tomorrow at noon eastern on andrea mitchell reports, and after the break, "kasie d.c." means putting people first... and understanding their needs? if that's your business. 365 days of every year, then business as usual is precisely what these times require. which is why your lexus dealer will do what we've always done. put you first. find out how we can service your individual needs at lexus.com/peoplefirst.

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welcome to "kasie d.c." tonight, the nation reopens unevenly as the president opens a new and dramatic line of attack in his re-election. plus, just in, nbc news reporting an inspector general removed from his job was looking into weather the secretary of state made a staffer walk his dog and pick up his dry cleaning. senator chris coons joins me live as his committee looks into that firing. and later, the roar of the engines, but no roar of the crowd. the first major sporting event since the pandemic is a lot different without 50,000 fans. i am joined by two nascar legends. but first, as the death toll here in the united states eclipses 90,000, we seem to be living in a split screen reality. some states have opened back up for business while oth