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 others remain in lockdown.

some officials at the highest level of government are choosing to wear protective masks while others are not. and president trump continues to contradict experts on just about everything, including the time line for a vaccine. >> we are looking to guilty it before the end of the year if we can. >> i still think 12 to 18 months is an aggressive schedule. i think it is going to take longer than that to do so. >> it will go away. it may flare up, may not flare up. we will to see what happens. >> he talks about whether this virus will disappear. as i have said many times that is simply not going to happen. >> we have got to get this reopen. >> the idea of having a vaccine or a treatment to facilitate the entry of students into the fall term would be a bit of a bridge too far. >> i was surprised by his answer, actually, because, you know, it's just -- to me, it's

not an acceptable answer, especially when it comes to schools. >> in th-- this crisis continue and that disconnect intensifies. the president has tried to shift the focus to his predecessor, spending his weekend at camp david promoting a conspiracy theory about the obama administration that even he can't seem to explain. setting up an ominous dynamic in november, president versus president. >> more than anything, 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. if the world is going to get better, it is going to be up to you. >> look, he was an incompetent president, that's all i can say. grossly incompetent te. >> with that i welcome in john man lemere, eugene robinson, and

catty kay. they are all msnbc political analysts. it is great great to have you all on board tonight. eugene robinson, i would actually like to start with you to weigh in on what we heard from president obama this weekend. this is really his first, you know, public foray this way. although remarks that he made in private on that phone call with obama alumni of course also jabbed at president trump. but the president has basically spent the last week stoking this theory that even he can't really explain or, you know, point to. and you know, the former president of the united states, barack obama, in fact breaking with the tradition that you normally don't criticize the sitting president once you are out of office. but at the same time, he's doing it in, you know, circumstances that, you know, certainly i don't think any of us could have imagined could happen. and that are certainly historic. >> right. well, you know, presidents who

are in office don't usually spend all of their time sort of dumping on the prior administration and the previous president the way president trump has done with the obama administration. >> also true. >> and president obama. and -- right. and that has sort of built and built. and meanwhile, president obama has always made it clear, i think that when it was time for campaign season he was going to be campaigning for joe biden. he's going to be campaigning for the democratic nominee, custwhi happens to be his vice president. so i think, you know, we started to hear his voice. he's doing it in these forums where -- you know, the speech he gave was a graduation speech. so he's not exactly having at t, but this is what we're going to continue to hear. i don't think democrats are

going to be frightened of a trump versus obama contest if that's what trump wants to make it into. >> jonathan lemire, what is your reporting at this stage says about how the president's reelection campaign is kind of putting this in context and thinking about it as we go forward? i mean, we saw some pretty stunning comments from erik trump, from donald trump, jr., and i know you've been kind of looking at how the campaign is also focusing in on the russia investigation and republicans are trying to undermine that as well. i mean, what have you seen over the course of the past week that helps explain what we're going to see for the next six months? >> kasie, first i can say what i've seen in the last 30 seconds because president trump just tweeted about the obama administration, calling it the most incompetent and corrupt in u.s. history, without providing any evidence he to any evidence to support that.

the team around him, there is some concern about where things stand right now less than six months until election day. we know that he has received a number of briefings from his campaign staff. most famously a few weeks ago what led him to explode at his campaign manager brad. they said he would lose. they've seen positive signs since then. they feel they've closed the gap on vice-president biden in a number of places. they were encouraged by a cnn swing state poll this week that had him up cumulatively in the battle grounds that will dictate this election. but it's a very, very close race. certainly the president right now is trying to change the subject. he doesn't want the focus to be on his handling of this pandemic, the 90,000 americans dead, the record unemployment numbers, the really deeply depressing job statistics. and where he's chosen, he and his team at least for the moment, is to attack his predecessor and to try to, once

again, undermine the russia investigation, to try to link what is a relatively routine intelligence procedure of unmasking, in this case of general flynn, suggesting that it was improper and nefarious, linking vice-president biden to it. and suggesting that the biden and the obama administration tried to start the trump presidency before it began, trying to sabotage it during the transition and, therefore, which ended up fueling the russia probe that dominated, of course, the first couple years. but it's a sense right now they're sort of grasping at straws. they're trying to find attacks that work on joe biden, this or china because they're not seeing the ability to move up the positive numbers. they're trying to drive down joe biden's negatives. >> katty kay, this, of course, comes as we are grappling with the problems with testing and all of the other issues that the president earlier today called into a charity golf event.

and this is how he answered a question from a sports host about whether he missed playing golf amid the pandemic. let's listen. >> all of the death and all of the destruction you've seen caused so needlessly, came out of a location we should have known, we should have been told. maybe it could have been stopped, but we weren't told, so it's really a sad thing. >> so, the obvious fact check there, the idea that we weren't told, i mean, we've been learning all week about the series of briefings and we've heard in-depth about how over and over again this president was warned and repeatedly dismissed what was going on here. but still trying to frame this in a way where, you know, he comes out as, you know, the innocent bystander basically. >> yeah, confusing campaign

messages from the president over the weekend. you had that. you also had him tweeting about how he made everybody look good apart from himself. i'm not quite sure how he sees that as a political attribute, even if it were the case that he was making everybody else look good apart from himself. and then these continued attacks against president obama without any specificity to them. i think it gets to what jonathan is talking about. the campaign at the moment, and this very much is the 2020 campaign might have been put on pause at the beginning of this pandemic, make no mistake it's in kind of full thread as we go into this week, this coming week. with attacks from both sides, that's only going to intensify. but they're targeting everything. they're polling everything. they're trying to figure out what sticks. the president is trying to find every way possible of getting out of this. and whether it was the revival of this idea from erik trump this was somehow a hoax again, we're back into hoax territory, or president trump suggesting, again, it was all of china's

fault. there was no way he could have known about it. that's the strategy going forward. him trying to deny as much responsibility as possible for where the country is right now and go on any attack he can against joe biden and barack obama, you know, as eugene says. any fight between barack obama and president trump, i think that's one the democrats will be happy to have. >> yeah, and you know, i was reading -- our friends of the show, phil rucker and ashley parker have a long piece in the washington post about the state of play. at the end of the piece they quote a source, the best politics here is to do the job. do the job as president. and that struck me as i was reading this piece, catty, in the financial times where they step back and take this global perspective. they were the u.s. is renowned for helping others in an emergency. history will mark covid-19 as the first time that ceased to be true. u.s. airlifts have been missing in action.

america cannot even supply itself. i couldn't help but be struck, and frankly saddened. you know, this is not what i grew up with. i mean, this was not the world that we thought we lived in where americans were always leading the charge, leading the humanitarian effort. they were the ones backstopping other countries who maybe didn't have the resources, and that's the backdrop that this president is going to be running for reelection with on a slogan that, you know, last time was make america great. this time is keep america great. it all feels very diss onent. >> yeah, look, it's really been striking, the degree to which america has been absent on the world stage in this one, including this very big conference of nearly all the countries in the world last week in which they were discussing how to get to a vaccine. and america wasn't even there. they didn't even send a representative virtually, of course, to this conference.

it's hard to see how washington, the white house thinks that that's a benefit to america. why wouldn't you want to be at least at the table discussing things in order to be able to have some kind of influence? and i think that's what's missing for the u.s., is that you can learn from other people's experiences in this crisis. but if you're not going to give something, you're not going to get much back either. your learning capacity is limited if your attitude is we're only going to look after ourselves, we do it best, we have nothing to learn, which seems to be at the moment the attitude from this white house, which is a real shame because other countries have data, have experiences that could be beneficial to the united states as we start this very complicated, quite tricky and potentially dangerous opening up stage. >> yeah. jonathan lemire, is the white house thinking about this from that kind of global perspective at all or not? >> only to a degree. this is certainly a major test of america first, which, of course, was the president's sort of slogan, his world view of

foreign policy. and, you know, his allies say america first doesn't necessarily mean america alone. they suggest when it matters, the u.s. will certainly -- is looking out for its own interests, whether it's trade deals or so on. we've heard the president more than once be -- express a lot of anger at nato, which is arguably the united states's most important alliance and threatened at times to withdraw from that. and now we see tensions soaring with china. the president, they've made a calculation here that after weeks of the president's really downplaying the responsibility that china may have for the spread of this virus, he spoke very warmly about xi jinping, not wanting to upset him as the countries continue to hammer out a new sweeping trade deal. and then, of course, he has done a 180 on that and has been very aggressive in his attacks and blaming beijing for what happened here, which sets up -- going forward, it can be very

challenging. not only in the short term as china, of course, is a major producer of medical supplies, medical research that could slow the development of a vaccine or reaching the united states. and, of course, it also sends potentially a template for the years forward where there may be a really, almost cold war between these two countries if things continue to go down this path. so, no, right now the united states has made it clear. they're looking to put their own interests first. the president said, yes, of course, he hopes other countries develop a vaccine quickly, too. right now his focus and his administration's focus is its own shores. >> jonathan lemire and katty kay, thank you very much for being with us tonight. eugene is going to stick with us. we'll come back to you a bit later in the show. one month ago axios warned the president was about to fire a lot of inspectors general. and friday night when few were watching, the state department's i.g. became the latest to get

the axe. the latest nbc reporting, he was looking into whether or not mike pompeo made a staffer walk his dog, pick up his dry cleaning and make dinner reservations. i'm going to talk to senator chris coons whose committee plans to investigate. and omnivore's dilemma. w why what we think about food and those who serve it might never be the same again. flexible payment options for those who've been financially affected by the crisis. we look forward to returning to something that feels a little closer to life as we knew it, but until then you can see how we're here to help at libertymutual.com/covid-19. [ piano playing ]

and ask your doctor about biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in certain adults. it's not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to and stay undetectable. that's when the amount of virus is so low it cannot be measured by a lab test. research shows people who take h-i-v treatment every day and get to and stay undetectable can no longer transmit h-i-v through sex. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure. rare, life-threatening side effects

include a buildup of lactic acid and liver problems. do not take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or rifampin. tell your doctor about all the medicines and supplements you take, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or if you have kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis. if you have hepatitis b, do not stop taking biktarvy without talking to your doctor. common side effects were diarrhea, nausea, and headache. if you're living with hiv, keep loving who you are. and ask your doctor if biktarvy is right for you.

this seems to be a ritual on friday evenings that the president does this to inspector generals. and this particular one has been a tough inspector general. he was confirmed when i was 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. >> that was ranking member of the senate foreign relations committee bob menendez on the president's firing of yet another inspector general. nbc news has learned that the president fired steve lennick after it was recommended by the secretary of state. and now two congressional officials tell nbc that lennick was looking into whether mike pompeo made a staffer pickup his dog, do dry cleaning and other errands. the firing has spurred bipartisan outrage. chuck grassley, the cochair of the whistleblower protection

caucus wrote, crucial in correcting government failures adding that, congress needs a more thorough explanation for why lennick was fired. chris coons is a member of the investigations committee to investigate the firing. senator coons, it's always great to have you on the program. thank you for being here tonight. >> great to be on with you, kasie. senator menendez said it all. this is deserving of an investigation led by senator menendez in the senate and chair elliott ingles in the house. this is the fourth inspector jenna abruptly fired by the trump administration, atkinson, fine, grim, and now lennick are four inspectors general. every one of them had something to do either with the impeachment investigation or with providing thorough oversight for the remarkable amount of money that is now being spent by a variety of federal agencies. so inspectors general, and there's one for every federal agency, play a critical role in

transparency and accountability. it is an appropriate moment for all of us in congress, democrats and republicans, to be asking what is it that is causing president trump to fire so many inspectors general, and will we stand up on a bipartisan basis to protect them. if not, we're going to have to say good-bye to real transparency and accountability of the presidency. >> i was going to say, i mean, do you think that your republican colleagues are serious about doing this? i mean, they have banded together, written a letter, this is not the first time senator grassley has complained about the trump administration doing this. but, you know, i think a lot of people have watched a lot of complaints about the trump administration from senate republicans and then felt like there wasn't a lot of follow through. >> that's right, kasie. one of my concerns is that there will be some hand wringing, some expressions of disapproval, but there won't be any substantive action. we in the minority, the senate democrats, can call for

information, can demand hearings, but we don't have subpoena power and, frankly, so far this administration has demonstrated a disregard for congressional oversight. they've disregarded even congressional subpoenas when delivered. so if we're going to protect the role of the inspector general, the central role of accountability and transparency, we're going to have to work harder and frankly, republican senators are going to have to step up and show that they understand the significance for separation of powers of congress conducting real and meaningful oversight. >> while i have you, sir, we earlier in the show were talking about how the 2020 campaign has really exploded in the last week and is set to continue on that course coming up next week with this kind of titanic clash between president trump and barack obama as joe biden is the democratic nominee. you obviously are very close with the former vice-president. his strategy has seemed to be to try and not have these fights on

the president's terms. obviously there's been a lot of stuff that's been down in the mud comments from the president's family, insinuations as well as what we've seen more overtly in the senate as republicans have tried to undermine the origins of the russia probe, et cetera. do you think that the campaign has the right strategy of just trying to set their own terms for arguing with this president, or do you think that they need to be more combative in their approach? >> kasie, i think if we know one thing about president donald trump, it's that he's a spectacular bully. he is very good at pulling people down to his level at temper tantrums and taunts objeon twitter, making up mock nicknames. dragging other serious leaders of his own party in the mud wrestling pit with him. that's the story of the 2016 republican primary. so i think joe biden's strategy, which is to focus on the things that matter to americans most, moving forward, addressing this pandemic in a responsible way,

coming up with a clear and coherent plan for how he would both engage with the world so that we could be part of response and recovery from this pandemic, part of the global efforts to develop an effective vaccine, and then rebuild our economy on a basis that works for everyone. i think that's the right response because the more that joe biden allows donald trump to drag him into daily fights on his terms about distractions, allegations, misrepresentations, and twitter tantrums, the more we get off what really matters. the average american wants us to not just get back to normal, but to respond to and recover from this pandemic. and the ways in which the trump administration has demonstrably failed to do its job in terms of testing and tracing, resources and response, i think speaks for itself, speaks volumes. and the vice-president who's got a great deal of experience, former vice-president joe biden, in responding to a deep recession because he led that response for the obama/biden

administration, and in handling global pandemics, he and ron klain one of his senior advisors played a successful response to the ebola pandemic. the former vice-president has exactly the characters, stills and strength we need at this moment and he should be addressing the problems americans see, like opportunities to serve our nation, something i have been working hard on in the senate, to try and create a new generation that makes possible service opportunities former president a new generation interested in helping our country move forward rather than re-litigating the partisan battles of the past. >> and, senator, i want to ask you exactly that, about this effort that you're leading to expand government outreach programs like americore during this pandemic. you brought with you tonight someone who is a great example of how important that work is. i want to add to our conversation here james wynfield, he's a member development specialist with civic works in baltimore which

has 200 americore members delivering meals to those in need. mr. wynfield, thanks so much for being on the program. and as we continue our coverage of this pandemic, the work that people like you are doing has been so critical for so many people who were already struggling in their own lives. talk to us a little bit about what you're seeing every day as you try to continue this work under much more difficult conditions than anyone ever expected. >> well, yeah, this pandemic has exacerbated all of the other things that have been going on in the community that we've been trying to address through our programs. one of the key carriers we've been focusing on is food insecurity. as you all know, as we know, the elderly population is the most at risk during this pandemic and they're also the most at risk in terms of not being able to travel about and get out and

access the resources that are available. so we've been able to pivot our operations because we already had the infrastructure in place and focus on addressing one of the most glaring needs in the community. >> so, senator coons, i know you have legislation, this has been something we've spoken about this, your efforts on this show, before. and obviously there are so many young people who are either graduating from high school or graduating from college. they don't know what they're going to do in this kind of economy. how would your efforts, if you could be successful in them, help give them a potentially a path to service as we all try to recover in this pandemic era? >> well, the bill that a group of us have been championing in congress, bipartisan group in the house and large group in the senate, would essentially give james wynfield and civic works more resources. more americore members to do more service to help combat

hunger and food insecurity, to help support senior citizens, to help with things like testing and tracing and other public health responses. and to address education shortfalls that are happening because we've got a lost semester, perhaps an entire lost year for america's public schools. so we would double the number of americore members from 75,000 to 150,000 in the first year and then double it again the next year. year in and year out, there have been five to ten times as many people applying to serve in americore programs like civic works that james wynfield is associated with, as we've had slots, this is a great opportunity to let young people earn a college opportunity, be a part of a broad and diverse coalition of people responding to needs in their communities, and to create opportunity for a younger generation, to participate in national service and response to this pandemic. >> all right. we're going to have to leave this there.

senator coons and james wynfield, thank you so much for your time tonight. mr. wynfield, thank you so much for the efforts -- your efforts on behalf of the citizens of baltimore. we appreciate t. >> thank you. >> when we continue, the senate mat gets more difficult for republicans as sitting senators face tough questions about their stock trades. next. >> i want to ask you about the election. you called it a challenging environment. on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the most confident, where do you think republicans are holding the senate? >> i'm never totally confident in any race. this was a challenging cycle from the beginning to the middle to now. and i think the majority in the senate is very much in question as it has been for a year and a half. (j.k. vo) if you're off the roads for all of us, farmers is here for you.

and if you're on the roads for us, well, we're here for you, too. sprinting past every leak in our softest, smoothest fabric. she's confident, protected, her strength respected. depend. the only thing stronger than us, is you. and life's been put on hold, hwhat do you do?stopped at mercedes-benz, we got to work. mercedes-benz usa and its dealers have quickly mobilized to help our local heroes. by giving front liners a lift, contributing to relief efforts, making vehicles safer for first responders and customers, and sometimes simply serving up a hot meal. coming together to lend a hand is what this country's always been about. americans have never wavered in crisis nor hid from responsibility.

and this time was no different. this was our calling. mercedes-benz usa is proud to be a part of this great american fabric and take inspiration in seeing the best emerge in all of us. america never rests until the job is done... and the race is won. and until then... we won't either. we're finally back out in our yard, but so are they. scotts turf builder triple action. it kills weeds, prevents crabgrass and feeds so grass can thrive, guaranteed. our backyard is back. this is a scotts yard. subut when we realized she wasn hebattling sensitive skin,

we switched to new tide plus downy free. it's gentle on her skin, and dermatologist recommended. new tide pods plus downy free. safe for sensitive skin with eczema and psoriasis. special delivery ♪

this virus is testing all of us. and it's testing the people on the front lines of this fight most of all. so abbott is getting new tests into their hands, delivering the critical results they need. and until this fight is over, we...will...never...quit. because they never quit. senator richard burr's political career is hanging in the balance as the fbi investigates stock sales he made just before the coronavirus decimated the economy. pro publica reported back in march that burr sold off between $628,000 and $1.7 million in stocks. burr has temporarily stepped down as chairman of the senate

intelligence committee, a move that shocked his colleagues on capitol hill. also under scrutiny, senators dianne feinstein of california and kelly loeffler of georgia. aides for both of them acknowledged they are in contact with law enforcement regarding their stock sales. joining me is ken dilanian and money in politics reporter for pro publica who broke the story on burr we just mentioned. eugene robinson is back with us as well. robert, let me start with you since you first alerted the world to this story. of course, burr's actions particularly notable for a couple of reasons. one, it was such a significant portion of his net worth. and two, he has a relatively privileged position. i say that as an understatement, as the now i suppose currently not the chairman of the intelligence committee, but of course he was at the time these transactions were made. walk us through kind of what you think the important elements are

here going forward. if you're the fbi, what are you particularly looking for as you scroll through senator burr's cell phone? >> sure. so, one of the immediate questions that i thought that they could get answered was about a week before the fdic's story, we broke a story on the same day senator burr unloaded stocks. so did his brother-in-law, who is an appointee on the federal mediations board. his brother-in-law also sold off a significant amount of stocks. so a question i had for his brother-in-law, i called him on his cell phone, the person who picked up hung up when i asked if they had coordinated their sales. i'm curious if there was any communication between the two of them before the purchases were made. that's one question. another would be whether he was communicating with any of his

relatives, any friends about information he had learned as a senator. i've asked senator burr's office, and his lawyer, whether he has discussed any of that information with relatives, and that's not an answer they have provided. >> ken dilanian, there's been a discussion of the political implications of this because senator burr has not necessarily always toed the administration line on the russia probe, on subpoenaing members of the president's family. i realize that, you know, we have to be kind of careful how we look at this, but it's certainly something when i talk to republicans and democrats that they tend to underscore and highlight. how would you kind of frame that line of thinking based on what we know right now? >> i would say, kasie, that democrats -- and you and i both talk to them -- are very suspicious about this line of inquiry. given what's been happening at the justice department, given who is in charge, william barr,

to the extent he's carried water for the president, there is a suspicion because the democrats know what briefings were given. and my sources are telling me there was nothing in any of those brieferings, even the classified ones, even the gang of 8 ones, that would lead somebody to walk out of there and go, i need to dump all my stocks. they just weren't there yet late january, early february in terms of the coronavirus. don't forget the first recorded death was at the end of february. we now know a death happened earlier. the public wasn't there. the intelligence community wasn't there. so there is some worry because you're absolutely right. burr has not toed the trump line in terms of particularly the russia intelligence assessment. and his last act as chairman of the intelligence committee was, in fact, to request the declassification of the final report by the senate intelligence committee into the whole russia, it's sensitive. a particularly interesting one, 1,000 pages on the intelligence

implications. they went so far as to create what they deem an unclassified administration. if the trump administration holds it up there is a potential they can go to the floor and release it. that's why people are suspicious. look, the fbi had to convince a judge to get that warrant to seize his cell phone that there was probable cause to believe there was a crime was committed. that's a high hurdle and they met that, kasie. >> it's important to underscore that. gene robinson, undermining the russia investigation, the muell mueller version of it, what the senate has done the trump campaign, but this comes as mitch mcconnell is struggling to hold onto the senate. you know, it's not necessarily ease toy do th easy to do that when you have burr under that. kelly loeffler, they're trying to get her through a primary in georgia. when the whole thing stinks in a way that makes it much harder for people who have to answer questions about this. >> it sure does. i mean, if you look at the

current state of play and the current state of polling, republicans could lose a seat in montana. they could lose a seat in colorado. lose a seat in arizona. they might lose the other seat in north carolina. they could lose a seat in maine. and now they're even worried pending the republican primary process. they even have to worry a bit about kansas, of all places. so politically, the last thing it would seem to me that mitch mcconnell needs is or wants is a shadow over the other republican senator from north carolina. worst case scenario for mitch, if burr were to have to resign, if there were to be a special election or something like that in north carolina, you would have yet another seat that he can't really count on. so i don't think the majority leader can be happy about this. but as ken said, all this had to be presented to a judge who

decided that there was enough evidence to seize that phone. so this could be serious. >> yeah, and i have had sources tell me that the 2020 map and the difficulty for his colleagues in answering questions about this is part of why burr may have made this decision to step aside as chairman. ken dilanian, robert, eugene robinson, thank you all very much for your reporting tonight. when we return, with the postal service's future in doubt, vaughn hillyard brings us dispatch where it is a political foot ball. it's a lifeline to millions of americans. ng for your family at home or those at work, principal is by your side. we're working hard to answer your questions. like helping you understand what the recently passed economic package can mean for you. we're more than a financial company. we're a "together we can get through anything" company. now, more than ever.

no uh uh, no way come on, no no n-n-n-no-no only discover has no annual fee on any card. when taking a break from everyday life is critical to everyone's health, there is one thing we can all do together: complete the 2020 census. your responses are critical to plan for the next 10 years of health care, infrastructure, and education. let's make a difference, together, by taking a few minutes to go online to 2020census.gov. it's for the well-being of your community and will help shape america's future. ♪

and will help shape america's future. puberty means personal space. so sports clothes sit around growing odors. that's why we graduated to tide pods sport. finally something more powerful than the funk. tide sport removes even week-old sweat odor. it's got to be tide. -excuse me. uh... do you mind...being a mo-tour? -what could be better than being a mo-tour? the real question is... do you mind not being a mo-tour? -i do. for those who were born to ride, there's progressive. right now, there are over a million walmart associates doing their best to keep our nation going. because despite everything that's changed,

one thing hasn't and that's our devotion to you and our communities. our priority will always be to keep you and our associates safe, while making sure you can still get the essentials you need. ♪ it's just that it's... lavender, yes it is. old spice, it's for men. but i like the smell of it. [music playing] the postal service could look very different soon. the agency is struggling to stay afloat as republican donor and white house ally louis prepares to take over as postmaster general next month. letter carriers has only risen with so many people staying home

especially in small towns that got america. nbc news political reporter vaughn hillyard visited williams, arizona, to see what the postal service means to them. >> how are you? >> reporter: much of america went quiet this spring. the little williams, arizona, post office, one of 30,000 across the country, did not. >> a daily routine for me to come into the post office. we're a small community, 3100 people. the post office is right up there with number one or two for kind much a place where you run into everybody you know. >> reporter: as it became more difficult, this constable kept on. >> for somebody who depends on the post office like i do, send bills through the mail. >> reporter: she's been delivering in her jeep this vast region for three years. >> i'm a mail gal. i can't imagine doing anything else. i'm eligible to retire, but that

word isn't in my vocabulary. >> reporter: why do you keep doing it? >> i just have good customers and i just love my job. >> reporter: you go 80 miles round trip? >> a lot of it highway miles. >> which may not be the brains or the heart of the community, but we're definitely the lifeblood of the community. >> i have people that wait for me every day. they marek my day a lot. this is how great my customers are to me. homemade salsa today. so, yummy. >> reporter: for so many in williams, it isn't just about what ends up in their mailbox, but who makes sure it gets there. how long have you worked for the williams post office? >> 40 years, going on 41. >> reporter: describe robin to me. >> she is kind of like our mother figure. she is a friend to everyone in the community pretty much. >> don't be a coward over there. [ laughter ] >> she knows everybody by name. >> here comes ted. >> reporter: ted, what are you coming in for today?

>> my mail. >> what would we do without a post office? we have to have one. >> reporter: what do you think about the folks inside that work here? >> they're awesome. they're really awesome. they're very helpful and they're also aware of what's going on. >> reporter: they're members of this community? >> very. >> reporter: they know what's happening? >> yes. >> we need these people as much as they need us. >> we need them for medicine. >> we get dog medicine, horse medicine, birds in, chickens. >> it's necessary for everyday essentials. >> reporter: essential this fall, it's the november election. >> a lot of people in this community vote by mail. it's becoming more popular every year. i'm seeing more and more ballots. >> reporter: about three quarters of voters in this county in 2018 cast their vote by mail. >> it makes it a lot simpler for them to vote from their home, put it in the mailbox, put the flag up, have the carrier come by and pick it up. >> reporter: what should washington understand about the postal service? >> what management has missed is

the need. >> we're over 200 years old. we are a part of the nation, an integral part of the nation, and we are essential, especially to the rural outlying areas. >> reporter: at a time of unknowns for american towns, the folks of williams have at least one known for tomorrow. they will be en route not long after sun advise. vaughn hillyard, williams, arizona. >> vaughn hillyard out talking to the good folk of williams, arizona. thank you, my friend, for your good reporting. just ahead one of the most popular sports of the country is back. with the rohr of their engines, but without the roar of the crowd. dale jarrett and kyle petty join me next.

when managing diabetes you can't always stop for a fingerstick. with the freestyle libre 14 day system, a continuous glucose monitor, you don't have to. with a painless, one-second scan you can check your glucose with a smart phone or reader so you can stay in the moment. no matter where you are or what you're doing. ask your doctor for a prescription for the freestyle libre 14 day system. you can do it without fingersticks. learn more at freestylelibre.us. we're returning $2 billion dollars

to our auto policyholders through may 31st. because now, more than ever, being a good neighbor means everything. like a good neighbor, state farm is there. being a good neighbor means everything. yeah. this moving thing never gets any easier. well, xfinity makes moving super easy. i can transfer my internet and tv service in about a minute. wow, that is easy. almost as easy as having those guys help you move. we are those guys. that's you? the truck adds 10 pounds. in the arms. -okay... transfer your service online in a few easy steps. now that's simple, easy, awesome. transfer your service in minutes, making moving with xfinity a breeze. visit xfinity.com/moving today.

he is about to become the 14th driver in nascar cup history to reach 50 career victories breaking a tie with tony stewart from 14. harvick wins nas car's return to action at darlington. >> thank you, guy, awesome job. awesome, awesome, awesome. >> kevin harvick took checkered flag today in nascar's first week back after a ten-week hiatus. it was the first sporting event in this country since the coronavirus began. the 47,000 seat darlington raceway in south carolina was

practically empty except for drivers and successful conpit crews. all of the drivers were screened before and after the race. joining me now are two nascar legends, darryl jarrett and kyle petty they are now sports analyst was. thank you so much for taking the time. i mostly just am interested in yourreflexions having been at so many races, this one, unlike any of us have ever seen. kyle, let me start with you. what was going through your head watching the race today? >> there was no fans there. you know, this is a sport for fans. everything that we have done, the sport of nascar is built on fans. the guys that pulled for the brands. the guys that pulled for drivers, the fans that set in the stand and filled the place. today they weren't there. i think the race was a typical nascar race. it was a good race. you had good guys up front. you had guys coming and going.

but the absence of fans changes a sport. kevin harvick even spoke of it when he got out of the car. you know, the excitement he felt inside the car. then you get out and there is not that energy. so, it's good to be back. we're glad to be and proud to be the first four back in this country. and you know i think that's a huge step. but i think the lack of fans there was huge for the participants if you listen to them. >> you know -- >> the -- >> yeah, i mean, what's it like when you are in the car racing and you know you end up with are victory, you step out, are you feeding off the energy of the crowd. what did that mean to you when you experienced that? and can you imagine having to go through this without that crowd there? >> yeah, you know, the sport of nascar racing, unlike other sports, where, while are you competing, you can kind of feed off of that energy that the crowd s. you know, they're

having a great time pulling for their favorite driver. they're making passes. a lot of excitement there. you don't hear that or see much of it while you are competing. nascar you kind of do this. but as a driver, you feed off of that energy before the race. you go through driver introduction. you see the stands filled and certainly once the race is over and are you the driver that has won, as kevin harvick pointed out, it was very strange to see that, him there, to start the finish line at the end getting out of the cars, the winner of the race no, one there to cheer about his accomplishment there. but the racing was what we've always seen at darlington, as kyle said, drivers coming and going. i think experience played a big factor into this, having to take care of your tires, doing all of those things. but it was a very strange setting. but it's a very strange time in our world right now, too. >> yeah. came to pick up on what you were saying about nascar being the first sport out of the gate what kind of pressure was there on

the sport to make sure that they get it right so that, you know, major league baseball and college fumble and the nfl can, you know, hopefully, maybe play? >> listen, i think the weight of the world was on their shoulders. i think everyone at nascar and daytona, every team, every driver, every owner, they stepped up. they rose to the occasion. i think the pressure to go out and get it right. because people are going to be looking for the weak points what did you do wrong? how could we do it better? this is where you guys made a mistake. it's we, nascar, meaning the sport of nascar, has made a huge misstep today a huge error, then that may set back whether it be golf, football, basketball, baseball, may set back other sports for weeks or months to come. i think this opens that door and says this is how it can be done. look at what we did. yes, there probably can be some improvements all the way through, no matter what you do. but the first time, first rattle

out of the box i think nascar is to be commended and all the drivers, all the teams, all the owners, the sponsors that stuck it out and said let's go do this, i think they're all to be commended. >> yeah. dale, real quickly, i want to touch on what would have been probably been the lead story out of this race or any race, ryan newman returning to the track after that awful accident at the daytona 500. that was back in february. obviously, a lot has happened since then. a pretty turning moment for him? >> oh. absolutely. i mean, when he left daytona that day, when the tvs were turned off, we didn't know what to expect from ryan newman, would he ever be back in a car again? he was able to do that and outstanding job at a very, very difficult racetrack today not having any time in a race car since that terrible accident he had. ryan newman did a great job, finished 15th. another driver came back too

matt kenseth, he hasn't been in a car in a year-and-a-half. he got a top ten finish. it shows you what experience and a great amount of talent can do. it was great to see ryan newman competing again. >> i hope all of us are hoping we can get back to sports in america. i know i certainly miss it. when we continue, influential food author michael pollan, joins the conversation. first, president trump makes it clear what he wants to focus on from joe biden's time as vice president. here's a hint, it's not healthcare. another hour of kasie d.c. back after this.

this is hal. this is hal's heart. it's been broken. and put back together. this is also hal's heart. and his relief, knowing he's covered by blue cross blue shield. and this is our promise, with over 80 years of healthcare expertise: to be here for you now. and always. this is medicare from blue cross blue shield. this is the benefit of blue.

this is medicare from blue cross blue shield. we're finally back out in our yard, but so are they. scotts turf builder triple action. it kills weeds, prevents crabgrass and feeds so grass can thrive, guaranteed. our backyard is back. this is a scotts yard. and ask your doctor about biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in certain adults. it's not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to and stay undetectable. that's when the amount of virus is so low it cannot be measured by a lab test. research shows people who take h-i-v treatment every day and get to and stay undetectable can no longer transmit h-i-v through sex. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure. rare, life-threatening side effects include a buildup of lactic acid and liver problems. do not take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or rifampin.

tell your doctor about all the medicines and supplements you take, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or if you have kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis. if you have hepatitis b, do not stop taking biktarvy without talking to your doctor. common side effects were diarrhea, nausea, and headache. if you're living with hiv, keep loving who you are. and ask your doctor if biktarvy is right for you. if you're living with hiv, keep loving who you are. unlike ordinary wmemory supplementsr? neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. try neuriva for 30 days and see the difference. we hope you find our digital solutions helpful to bank safely from home. deposit a check with your phone or tablet. check balances, pay bills, transfer money and more. send money to people you know and trust with zelle. stay safe. stay home.

together, we'll get through this. pnc bank welcome back. it was always going to be a remarkable presidential race. that was true before joe biden's stunning comeback in south carolina. before the onset of a sickness that will leave more than 100,000 americans dead and before the worst economy since the great depression. yes, of course, before accusations of sexual assault dating back more than two decade against the democratic nominee. >> i think they should vote their heart and if they believe tara reade they shouldn't vote for me. i wouldn't vote for me if i believed tara reade. i tell you it never happened. she should be thoroughly vetted. follow the story line and determine if there is any truth

to it. there is no truth to it. i promise you. >> with joe biden stuck as you can see there, in a delaware basement, the moment has filled editorial pages with playbooks written by strategies terrifying of blowing the opportunity of a lifetime. they're running against an unpopular president with anemic approval ratings and a terrible economy. as democrats debate how to beat trump, there is little question about the plan for scorched earth on which the president wants to fight. number one, china. and number two, watch. >> obama-gate. it's been going on for a long time. it's been going on from before i even got elected and it's a disgrace that it happened f. you look at what's gone on and if you look at now all this information that's being released and from what i understand, that's only the beginning. >> what is the crime exactly that you are accusing him of? >> you know what the crime is, the crime is very obvious to anybody, all you have to do is read the newspapers. >> that was a friend of the show

phil rutger asking the president what the crime was exactly. the "washington post" reports with trump suffering political damage of his management of the coronavirus pandemic less than six months before the election. the president's government appointees and allies in congress are using their powers to generate a political storm aimed at engulfing biden and obama. who polls show the nation's most popular political figure. making him a potent threat to trump as a biden surrogate. joining me to talk about all this carol lee, chief public affairs officer for move on.org and nbc news correspondent mike memely. it's great to have all you on board tonight. carol, i would like to start with you. as we have seen there with phil rutger questioning the president in the rose garden, he was reluctant or really provided no answer at all when phil pressed him on what is the crime at hand

here? can you walk us through the -- he's referred to it as obama-gate. he tweeted that out, one word the other day. president obama, you know, tweeting back, one word, vote. what exactly does this mean? and are they simply trying to run the same kind of playbook they did against hillary clinton? >> well, if you look at what they're actually saying, what obamagate-to-so far, it's two accusations trump and his allies are making, one that president obama and biden knew they were going to interview michael flynn and the other is that this unmasking issue that joe biden made a request which is routine and in an intelligence report, an american name was redacted. he did not know in advance it was michael flynn. trump and his allies are saying

this is somehow nefarious. we looked into this and the documents that they point to we talked to obama administration officials, it doesn't add up. but you know broadly speaking what obamagate and the scorched earth approach is to flip the script on the russia investigation, so to say that the russia investigation wasn't about any wrongdoing by trump and his ally, it was about trump and his allies being wronged and, two, to tarnish obama and biden. if you look at the way that trump campaigned in 2016, any time there was an accusation against him about possible corruption and his business, accusations of sexual assault from various women, he always pivoted and turned to hillary clinton's e-mails and accusations from women against bill clinton. here you can see them trying to build that case against joe biden. the question is, is this going to work? american versus seen this movie before. donald trump started it in 2016. and we're in the middle of a pandemic where the economy is

tanking so it's not clear that that playbook, which is very familiar to everybody who followed the 2016 campaign is now going to work in 2020. >> mike, let me get you to weighing in on that. what is the biden campaign thinking about how to deal with this? obviously, hillary clinton succumbed to it. joe wide isn't the a very different political character than she was, has a different history in the country. what is their take on whether they think this is going to work and how best to fight back against it? >> well, the biden campaign sees this as a lot of projection and a lot of distraction and when i spoke with one senator biden official about this on friday, he actually called it desperation in addition to all of that. what's been interesting to me as we have now seen this campaign really start to kick into higher gear is that joe biden actually had more time to regroup after the primary than you typically would see. the playbook for any incumbent president is that the moment

that your opponent becomes clear and we saw this in 2012 when mitt romney began to really have a firm grasp on the republican nomination. it was at that moment that the obama campaign launched a full fledged assault on him. you haven't seen that yet until more recently of the trump campaign going after joe biden. they promised a death star. we have begun to see that just this past week. the biden campaign, obviously, there is a lot of democrats who see a lot of reasons for what the 2012 obama campaign called bedwetting. but they look at this as the while trump may have been successful in previous elections in changing the narrative and throwing up these kind of smoke screens, that the american public is not going to be moved by this right now. that their overriding concern in this election is the safety of themselves, their families and their economic situation. and at any time trump tries to change the subject to an area where he struggles to establish what that narrative is. the voters will reject that.

that's perhaps an optimistic view from the biden campaign, this is also a team that has had a somewhat of a chip on their shoulders about all the doubters from day one of their candidacy. he wasn't going to draw the same kind of crowd, he had too long of a record here. he won the nomination all apparently close to officially doing so. and they see him inf every ol in a strong position against donald trump, even though most men are campaigning from home, for the most part. >> they did show the doubters up in that regard. i would just point out, i realize others have pointed this out as well, the death star wreaked havoc, damaged destruction ultimately blew up. corinne, i'm happy to play that role for whoever in america is willing to let me do it, mike. corinne, you have a lot invested in this, obviously, a lot on the line here. what is your take as somebody who has you know had a lot of

conversations, made a lot of decision about how to hand him these kind of things, thousand biden campaign is navigating what has developed last weekend i'm sure into next weekend and beyond into this terribly scorched earth campaign? >> yeah, that's right. it's terrible scorched earth campaign. i just want to say this so your viewers understand obamagate is 100% wrong. it's a lie. and it is not true. and it's just like the lie that -- donald trump led with birther-ism. it's the same thing when he lied about obama wiretapping the trump towers. it goes on and on and on. and this is the playbook that he is doing. it's an old playbook as mike just mentioned. we've seen it. we saw it in 2016. now he's trying it again. it's the kind of same plays. it's lies, it's deflect. it's distract. it's blame obama. that is all that he is bringing in. the reason he is bringing this is because they see that they

are losing. they're losing in this race right now in this moment as are you looking at polls. and now he's talking about how obama is corrupt. now, this is being lobbied by or lobbed by donald trump, who was impeached by the house. this is just ridiculous. it goes on and on and on. joe biden needs to do exactly what he is doing. he needs to stay focused to continue dock these virtual town halls. he needs to be reaching out as much as he can in this moment in this crisis from where he is in the basement of his home in delaware. he needs to not go down this rabbit hole of conspiracy theories. that's what donald trump wants. help wants to be followed down this hole and we can't let that happen or biden cannot let that happen. because donald trump doesn't want to talk about the virus. he doesn't want to talk about the 90,000 people who are dead, sadly. this is where we are. he wants to avoid talking about

the crisis. he just wants to focus on the politics at hand. >> yeah. we want to understand. we crossed that grim milestone of 90,000 americans dead today. and as that milestone is being crossed, we've heard from two members of the trump family. first, i'm going to show what you eric trump had to say last night with judge janine and then we'll talk about what donald trump, jr., posted open social media. let's start with eric trump. watch. >> they think they're taking away donald trump's greatest tool, which is being able to go into an arena and film it with 50,000 people every single time. right. so they will. you watch, they'll milk it every single day between now and november 3rd. guess what after november 3rd, coronavirus will magically all of a sudden go away, disappear and everybody will be able to reopen there so, just to fact check that in real time, this is a virus. the coronavirus is not going to magically disappear at any point for those people who are

concerned about what to do for their own physical health and safety. we would direct to you health officials. but, obviously, those comments made in a political context, our friend jonathan martin over at the "new york times" also points out and wrote a story about donald trump, jr., eric trump's brother. he writes, quote, president trump's eldest son on saturday posted a social media message suggest joseph r. biden, jr., was a pedophile, incendiary baseless charge that illustrates the tactics the president is turning to as he attempts to erase mr. biden's advantage in key state polls. i don't want to engage with this, the so-called substance here that the president's son has thrown out there. but i mean, it's may and we're already at this? >> yeah. i mean, this gets into the territory of what the biden campaign sees as projection, right? that the trump campaign is fully

aware of the vulnerabilities and liabilities that trump has headed into this election. they're trying to you know share the slime a little bit and throw it on to joe biden as well. and their view at this point, though, i think one of the reasons a lot of democrats are concerned. they see this. a lot is in trump friendly media or it's in a lot of the trump media, themself himself. they have their own sort of ecosystem through the nightly live streams that they're doing. it's not yet clear how much that's breaking out beyond that but it certainly is invisible enough to a lot of democrats that they're concerned about this. but the biden campaign thinks this is not going to work. they're going to do as one strategist said on friday, they have a job to do as a campaign which is to be ready to respond to this quickly, forcefully and point out the nonsense that they view a lot of this as doing. it's up to joe biden to not be able to avoid being drawn into the muck. it's also, though, worth noting, that we're not going to see joe biden on the campaign trail at

least another few weeks, on friday, he is abiding by the delaware state-at-home guidance, which is through early june. they will do eng as a campaign to build out. they said they will have 600 organizers on the ground in key states by june. but they're not going to do anything to put either the vice president, himself, or their campaign team at risk. that's their posture at the moment. >> now, and carol lee, very quickly, before we go, lindsey graham at the judiciary committee floated obama should be dragged before the senate to testify. graham basically saying, well, it might be good television but it would be really bad for the country. senate republican versus to decide which side of this line they want to walk on. >> they r. you haven't seen them as fully as republicans you know and president trump go, they have distanced themselves from this current obamagate line and lindsey graham said as you mentioned, he's not going to do that he also said birx careful

what you wish for. but at the same time they are willing to, as you all know, hold some hearings to, you know, look into whether it's joe biden and his, and ukraine or other things and come up with some sort of and the russia origins of the russia investigation and try to come up with something to please the president before october p.. >> all right. carol lee, corinne jean-pierre, thank you for kicking it up a off. at this hour. when we return, hazard pay comes to an end for kroger, amazon target and starbucks. meanwhile in washington state, they're literally giving away hundreds of thousands of pounds of potatoes because of problems with the supply chain. i will talk to a landmark author. first, disagreements among democrats about how best to fund the next relief bill. no uh uh, no way

come on, no no n-n-n-no-no only discover has no annual fee on any card. and people you can rely on. i'm a dell technologies advisor. me too. me too. me too. and if you're a small business, we're with you. we are with you. we're with you. we want to help. so we'll be right here. at home. answering your calls. providing support. and standing by you every step of the way. bye bye. and concert hall. and cvs is helping, with free prescription delivery

and telehealth from aetna to help you stay in and well. home is where the heart is with cvs health. wayfair has way more ways anto renovate your home,a to helpfrom inspiration well. to installation. like way more vanities perfect for you. nice. way more unique fixtures and tiles. pairing. ♪ nice. way more top brands in sinks and faucets. way more ways to rule your renovation. nice! on any budget, with free shipping. wayfair. way more than furniture.

"the retur"drafting"ing" "the return of the slide job" "ripping the wall" "gas-n-go" "bump-n-run" "the return of loud" "nascar is back, and xfinity is bringing you the best seat in the house."

voting, congress must act now and states need to do whatever it takes to happen. welcome back to kasie d.c. joining me now is democratic senator mazie hirono of hawaii. senator, it's great to have you on the program tonight. >> good evening, good to be here. >> i hope your family is doing all right through all this. >> thank you. >> let's start with the bill nancy pelosi the house speaker pushed through late last week the heroes act, the next kind of wave of funding that congress is trying to get out the door. this was a party line vote.

the republicans on the senate side, mitch mcconnell has already derided it as being packed with democratic prioriti priorities. he has not been clear at all about a time line for another bill coming out of the senate. although, after the federal reserve chairman jerome powell suggested that the economy was really at the mercy of what you all are going to do next, he seemed to change his tune a little bit. what do you think is the level of urgency that the senate should be acting with right now? >> i'm glad you used the word urgency, clearly the house feels a sense of urgency and the democrats and the senate feel a sense of urgency. but you have a presidentt who is very busy deflecting his responsibility on how this administration is handling the pandemic. and so with over 30 million people unemployed and more every day, we're reaching the terrible proportions in terms of the pain that people are suffering from.

and of 10,000. i think we're averaging, sadly, about 10,000 deaths in our country every week and we have been having that at least for the month of may and before. and so, yes, there is a sense of urgency for mitch mcconnell to say we should take a pause, for the president to say we should take a pause is not only totally tone deaf to what the people are having to undergo in our country, but they show their callousness towards this pandemic and their lack of any sense of responsibility. >> mitch mcconnell has drawn a line around this question of liability protection. so the idea that a company should potentially be protected from getting sued in something happens because of coronavirus. do you think that that the a general idea that democrats would be willing to support in exchange for additional funding or other democratic priorities? or do you think that's a

non-starter? >> it's pretty much a non-starter. in fact, lindsey graham had a hearing on the issue of liability protections and a part of that hearing was that we should have some very clear guidelines as to what companies should do so that when workers come back, they have ppes and they are sick and also the consumers, because the whole point of the liability protections is to protect the businesses from consumer lawsuits. if an employee wants to sue an employer, we have workers comp that pretty much says you have to go through that process. so why do we want to create a situation where the businesses are going to not even be held responsible if they are negligent? or, you know, totally -- it didn't make a lot of sense at the hearing and i would say that the people who testified on the panel selected by the republicans as well as a

democratic panelists agreed that that's not where we should go. we should not be creating an environment where consumers are not going to be safe. >> i want to talk to you for a second about the political campaign that has been evolving around or in the course of this pandemic and the way that this president has been framing his back and forth with president obama. he was tweeting today, calling the obama administration corrupt, suggesting that it was obama that gave the world trump in a way that i don't fully understand why that was kind of the way he wanted to frame that. but so be it. what's your response to the quote/unquote obamagate claims that president trump is making in his attacks on president obama? >> the president will attack everybody and anybody including former president obama and the whole point of whatever the president does. this is something i said long ago that all the president cares about is himself in protecting

himself and he will lash out at anyone who comes, gets in the way of that. and that's why he fires the inspector generals. he does all kind of things that will protect himself and so there is this thing called projection and when he calls president obama the most corrupt, that is definitely projecting, because trump is a president who believes that he can do anything he wants and the rule of law is out the window and aided and abetted by his attorney general. he's not our attorney general. he's attorney general barr who says, trump, every time, all the time, that's exactly how trump feels. it's himself, all the time, every time. when he lashes out and continues to lie to the american people, i hope that they say that you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time that better come strue in this election. because people are dieing in this pandemic and for the president to say this is all going to go away or i should

say, his surro fat son to say this is not going to go away because it's all a politically made-up pandemic is just, it just shows how basically how idiotic and crazy these kind of comments are coming from the trump administration and his surrogates. >> senator hirono, thank you very much for your time tonight. i appreciate your backdrop. it's nice to have a little hawaiian cheer here on the show this evening. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. >> aloha. >> aloha. thank you again. >> the way we think about restaurants and food may change permanently as some states allow them to reopen with patio seating or 50% capacity. the little inn in washington is working in mannequins to make distancing feel more normal. meanwhile, in montgomery county, maryland, one of the most wealthiest counties, lines

went on and on at a food bank, supplies were exhausted in 35 minutes. michael pollan joins me next to talk about an inflexion point in america.

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. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened,- -, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor... ...if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections... ...or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. be there for you, and them.

ask your doctor about humira. with humira, remission is possible. if you can't afford your medicine, abbvie may be able to help. right now, there are over a million walmart associates doing their best to keep our nation going. because despite everything that's changed, one thing hasn't and that's our devotion to you and our communities. our priority will always be to keep you and our associates safe, while making sure you can still get the essentials you need. ♪

this virus is testing all of us. and it's testing the people on the front lines of this fight most of all. so abbott is getting new tests into their hands, delivering the critical results they need. and until this fight is over, we...will...never...quit. because they never quit.

. the idea that you would need to tell people where their food came from is a sign -- it seems to me we are entitled to know about our food. who owns it. how are they making it? can i have a look into the kitchen? >> that was a clip of michael pollan in the documentary food inc. a decade later the coronavirus pandemic pushed the same questions pollan was asking then. meat and poultry has become a hot spot and 20 employees have died. at the same time, the president signed an executive order under the defense production act ordering meat processing plants to remain opened during this pandemic. pollan recently wrote this in the sickness in our food supplies quote, only when the tide goes out, warren buffet

observed do you discover who's been swimming faked. for our society, the covid-19 pandemic represents an ebb tide of the historic proportions one that is laying bare. no more is this more evident than in the american food system. michael pollan joins me and is the author of "the omnivore's dilemma." i appreciate you being here. let's start with how we got here the structural systems that set it up so that if a single processing plant across our country suddenly has to close because of this kind of emergency or another, it represents a major threat to our entire food supply. how did that happen? >> concentration, basically. over the last -- since the reagan administration, we essentially allowed meat companies to american in the name of efficiency. we found that bigger meat

companies could slaughter more animals and produce meat more cheaply. and that seemed like a good thing for consumers. it was devastating for pigers, ranchers and pick farmers. as the market consolidated, you got to this point where only four companies now slaughter 80% of the beef and another four companies slaughter 57% of the pigs. so you get to this situation where a single pig processing plant closes down, all the pigs destined for that plant have nowhere to go. the meat supply shrinks and you have farmers at the same time having to euthanize their pigs. so it's really a tale of efficiency gone mad. >> it strikes me that this may be, i mean, we're seeing all the different ways in which the global supply chain and globalization generally is potentially breaking down and the ways in which we have to

rethink how we have been doing business in a whole host of ways. but this seems like one of the most immediate to me. certainly even in our family, you know, we look around and we say, okay, if this is something we can't find on the grocery store she was, who can we look to who is local. is there a farmer in virginia selling here, are there farmer's markets still in operation? how do you think that this is going to cause people to rethink that system and are we capable of doing it? >> well, i think that's a really good question. we've built a system that has many blessings to it. it makes food very cheap. everybody can eat huge amounts of meat. we eat 9 ounces of meat per person per day. no civilization has eaten that much meat. and we spend less of our income on food than anyone else in the world. less than 10% of our income on food. but the tradeoff with the efficiency is always resilience. a highly efficient system is so

brittle that when you have a disruption such as a pandemic, it starts breaking down and that's what gives you the these images of long lines at food banks at the same time farmers are destroying perfectly good food so, i think we need to move, as consumers, but also as policy makers in a direction that would privilege resilience in the system so that we don't have so much power in the hand of these four corporations, with essentially now can order the president to force their workers back on the line when their workers are afraid to go there because they're sick and dying. no company should have that kind of power to do that to our political system. but you are right. what's happening at the local level is very encouraging. smaller farmers have done a better job of adapting to this system. farmers that were, i'm buying now a weekly csa box from farmers that used to supply a

restaurant in my neighborhood and they've pivoted and made their food available to me and another 200 people in my community, who, by the way, are now cooking at home a lot more because they can't go out. so i think that it's a very powerful argument for the resilience and importance of decentralizing the food system so that no one element of it can affect all of us. i mean, think if we still had thousands with small slaughterhouses, which tens of thousands of farmers were bringing their food to, when one of them had to be closed down because of the pandemic, it wouldn't make the news. it would just be trivial. now it's big news and it affects everybody. there is not enough hamburger at wendy's apparently. so i think the pivot to more regional food systems is happening. and i think that that's a very encouraging thing. but i think we also have to take take a really hard look at anti-trust policies that made this possible. these four companies shouldn't

have the kind of power that i do. >> you mentioned the idea that we eat so much, you know, 9 ounces of meat per day on average partly because it is so cheap to get for many americans and that obviously wasn't always the case. can you talk a little bit about you know why that reality is actually contributed to the fact that coronavirus has been so devastating here in the united states because we have so many people who have these co-morbidities that have made this disease so much more ugly? >> you know, the food system is unsustainable in many ways. the supply chain is amess as we are seeing. but the diet at the end of that food chain is a problem, too. we eat this what's called this western diet with large amounts of meat, lots of processed food. and by the way, the processed food is still coming without interruption, because the corn and soy from which it's made can be grown with very little labor. one farmer can farm 1,500 acres

of corn and soy. so don't worry about the soda and the high fructose corn syrup products. but this diet as it turns out is precisely what is making us more vulnerable to covid-19. according to cdc about half of the serious cases of covid-19 are people who have obesity and high blood pressure and another 30 or 40% have type ii diabetes. guess what, these three problems are all directly the result of the way we eat, this western diet. so we're also eating in a way that, you know, kills us slowly but surely, most of the time. but very swiftly at times like this. >> well, i certainly try as best i can in my life to follow your advice to eat food, not too much, mostly plants. i can't say i always succeed.

i do very much appreciate you being here to share your wisdom on this topic. michael pollan, thank you so much for your time. i hope you and your family stay safe throughout all this. when we continue, will students be allowed back in classrooms this fall? if not what does that mean for the economy? former education secretary ernie duncan joins me up next. my age-related macular degeneration could lead to vision loss. so today i made a plan with my doctor, which includes preservision... because he said a multi- vitamin alone may not be enough. and it's my vision, my morning walk, my sunday drive, my grandson's beautiful face. only preservision areds2 contains the exact nutrient formula recommended by the national eye institute to help reduce the risk of moderate to advanced amd progression.

it's how i see my life. because it's my vision... preservision. you ever wish you weren't a motaur? sure. sometimes i wish i had legs like you. yeah, like a regular person. no. still half bike/half man, just the opposite. oh, so the legs on the bottom and motorcycle on the top? yeah. yeah, i could see that. for those who were born to ride, there's progressive. we hope you find our digital solutions helpful to bank safely from home. deposit a check with your phone or tablet. check balances, pay bills, transfer money and more. send money to people you know and trust with zelle. stay safe. stay home.

together, we'll get through this. pnc bank alice loves the scent of gain so much, she wished there was a way to make it last longer. say hello to your fairy godmother alice. and long-lasting gain scent beads. part of the irresistible scent collection from gain!

it was initially believed that the coronavirus had little

impact on children. but we've learned now that that might not be the case. multi-system inflammatory syndrome or miss c has been reported in nearly half of the country. it's believed to be linked to the cdc. they released information earlier this week after more than 110 children were diagnosed with it. this alert comes amid, obviously, increasing questions here about how we are going to reopen the country if our kid cannot go back to school. joining me now is the former education secretary under president obama arnie duncan and the director of policy studies at stanford university and a fellow at hoover institution lonnie chen. it's great to have you. secretary duncan, let me start with you. you wrote a tweet in response to the president. you may have to clarify which particular thing it was the president said that prompted your tweet.

there are many options over the course of the last week. but you wrote, quote, do not listen to trump to open schools, all five things must be in place. the decrease in cases, accurate testing, contact tracing, social isolation and a plan about how and when to close, if necessary. and i want to pick up on that last point you make. because this is what other moms i am talking to. this is a conversation that we're having over zoom calls or socially distanced glasses of wine, which is do you send your kids back to school in the fall if you are not sure how long they're going to be there for? are they going to open and shut again the uncertainty level is so hard for parents to dpraple with right now? >> yeah. i think we have to take the conversation from being you know open and shut versus sort of this very gradual movement maybe in and out. so if it is safe to go back to school and that's a big if, schools going to look very, very different. some children may be there on mondays and wednesdays. others might be there tuesdays

and thursdays. the time of children eating in the cafeteria, that might be over. how we make hallways safe. how we have good passing times. how we clean bathrooms, that will be very, very different so i think schools will do the best they can to open up and open up to as many children as they can only if it's safe where i can guarantees that we have to make sure that children continue to learn. we have to assume everyone will be spending some time, if not full time, learning virtually and we have to make sure our children, their families and staff feel comfortable and say if we do something in a physical building. >> lonnie chen, this has obviously become such a political faultline this question of reopening. but this school issue is just so emotional and fraught for so many people because if their kids aren't going to school, they're not going to work. their family is suffering. you know, if that piece doesn't come back together, it's almost impossible to see how an economy

does recover. at the same time we have learned there is this increased risk we weren't awash of before that seems to be particularly affecting school age children more than infants and toddlers. so from a policy perspective, how do we thread this needle? >> well, kasie, there is a few things. are you absolutely right getting the school reopening well and done properly is going to be the key to really getting the economy back up and running. i think it can't be an all or nothing proposition. look, i've heard some, mostly on the right arguing, look, just open up the schools, open them all up in the fall. kids will be fine. i've heard some progressives take a very different tack on that. this really shouldn't be divided by politics. unfortunately, it seems to have been. what we have to do is combine some element of in-person learning with some element of distance learning. i think that will be the status quo for at least several months, if not academic terms before we are able get to a point where

comfortable bringing school back to close to what it was before this entire pandemic hit. so we have to be smart about combining a lot of different factors here. whether it's online learning, in-person learning, cohorting students secretary duncan mentioned, that will be important as well. figuring out how schools can figure out who in the social body will be sick. social distancing will be hard. you try to get a bunch of 7-year-olds to social distance. >> it's impossible. >> we have to be smart about putting these factors together. >> that's a very good point. i have to stop for a second. i appreciate somebody who's worked for a republican and democrats actually agreeing and on the same page. are you both saying some very similar ideas and themes here, which i feel like has been pretty rare. secretary duncan, one other question i have for you. i mean, you have also run a school system. where is the best guidance for schools that are trying to

figure out how to make decisions about all these questions that you both are raising? i mean is the cdc guidance good enough? we know there have been good questions how that came out of the trump administration? >> let me first say there is nothing political about keeping kids safe, adults safe, the teachers, the counsellors, the social workers and prince billions and keeping kids learning. we have to do those things simultaneously. one thing i'd like to put out there we should have a massive tutoring program for students that may have fallen behind or are falling behind over the summer. recent college grads, retirees, college students could help those younger kids catch up. that's so important we continue to learn, accelerate that. unfortunately to answer your question directly the guidance, my opinion coming out of the cdc was weak, anemic, vague, was not helpful. i'm talking to superintendents every week. we had a good call on friday and superintendents along with local

mayors with their local medical doctors and scientists are now figuring this out together and the lack of leadership in my opinion coming out of d.c. right now is very, very disappointing. >> yeah. certainly seems as though people are having to rely on their state and local governments or authorities as they try to figure this out. of course, hard to get around that when there are different hot spots across the country. arnie duncan, lahne chen, thank you for being here. i appreciate it. earlier tonight we reported on the return of nascar and the major league baseball draft proposal obtained by espn and "the last lettic" reveals if and when the game returns, coaches and umpires will be required, social distancing will be enforced even in the dugout and spitting would be strictly prohibited. nbc sport jimmy roberts in his own words on sports and social distancing coming up next. i just love hitting the open road and telling people that liberty mutual customizes your insurance,

so you only pay for what you need! [squawks] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ and ask your doctor about biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in certain adults. it's not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to and stay undetectable. that's when the amount of virus is so low it cannot be measured by a lab test. research shows people who take h-i-v treatment every day and get to and stay undetectable can no longer transmit h-i-v through sex. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure. rare, life-threatening side effects include a buildup of lactic acid and liver problems. do not take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or rifampin. tell your doctor about all the medicines and supplements you take, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or if you have kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis. if you have hepatitis b, do not stop taking biktarvy

without talking to your doctor. common side effects were diarrhea, nausea, and headache. if you're living with hiv, keep loving who you are. and ask your doctor if biktarvy is right for you. because i trust their quality

they were the first to have a vitamin verified by usp... ...an independent organization that sets strict quality and purity standards nature made, the #1 pharmacist recommended vitamin and supplement brand we're returning $2 billion dollars to our auto policyholders through may 31st. because now, more than ever, being a good neighbor means everything. like a good neighbor, state farm is there.

if you really, really want to watch baseball, you can join the diehards who stay up for 1:00 a.m. first pitch in korea. if not, you are going to have to wait with the rest of us,

wondering when the nba is going to finish its season, when the wnba will tip off, or if the nfl will start as scheduled. here is nbc sports jimmy roberts in his own words. >> so, here's where we are. we're fighting over which is more important, our physical health or our fiscal health. our physical health or our mental health. the world is upside down. the nfl commissioner announced draft picks from his basement. the supreme court is hearing cases over the phone. everything is different. or it's about to be. sports with no spectators. what would this have been like against a silent backdrop? or this? would these have been the reactions we got with no one there? these are uncertain times, but i do know this. the last time i cared about testing this much was in college. i missed my 18 holes, but the

19th hole, too. i know my atm card is somewhere. i just can't tell you the last time i used it. i know that the sports section shrinks while the obit section grows. streets and shelves are empty. championships have gone unclaimed. proms and graduations, those things with which we've always marked our joy, have simply disappeared like somebody hit delete before they had a chance to hit save. i know there can't possibly be a bride anywhere who thought this would be the picture she would have to cherish forever. but the most terrifying thing might be all that i don't know. the things that trespass on my sanity or wake me from my sleep. maybe the things that don't allow me to get there in the first place. but take someone i love? will it come back? will it take me? i don't understand why it ravages some and barely touches others. i don't know if a lifetime of faltered savings will have time

to recover. but even the little things are troubling. i don't know if when this all comes to an end that we'll remember to appreciate the dignity of those who served us. sure, the first responders, but the super market clerks and the delivery folks just as much. i don't know when i'll next wear a tie or if i'll ever binge watch something again and think of it as a guilty pleasure rather than a grim reminder. we are trapped between the things we know and the things we don't, and neither boundary is very comforting. i don't think i'll ever think of anything the same way again. but we've said that before. it was after a cloudless and beautiful september tuesday 19 years ago. that day changed life. these days will, too. i didn't think i'd ever be happy again, but i was. and just like we all remarkably came through that, we will come through this. and while there's so much i

don't know, i do know that. >> a nice little reminder there that we are still all in this together, as difficult as it still continues to be. and we, of course, are very grateful that we have some good news to close us out tonight. dr. joseph fair, who so many of you have seen on msnbc, is on the way home from the hospital after six days battling coronavirus. he says he used maximum precautions and still managed to contract the virus. he sends his thanks for all the prayers and messages that he's received, and i can state to him on behalf of all of us here at "kasie d.c." and msnbc, we are so glad that you are on the mend and feeling a little bit better. that's going to do it for us tonight. thank you so much for watching. we're going to be back with you next week from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. eastern. joshua johnson picks up coverage after a short break. for now from me, good night from washington.

adversity came to town and said, "show me what you're made of." so we showed it our people, sourcing and distributing more fresh food than anyone... we showed it our drivers helping grocers restock their shelves. we showed it how we're donating millions of meals to those in need. we showed it how we helped thousands of restaurants convert to takeout and pop up markets.

and how we're encouraging all americans to take out to give back. adversity came to town. so we looked it right in the eye. and it won't be us... ...that blinks first.

roundup for lawns is here to put unwelcome lawn weeds to rest. so, draw the line. roundup for lawns is formulated to kill lawn weeds to the root without harming your grass. roundup brand. trusted for over 40 years. me too. me too. and if you're a small business, we're with you. standing by you every step of the way. bye bye.

hey there, i'm joshua johnson. good to be with you tonight from nbc news in new york. it's getting more and more likely that tomorrow will be your first day back at work since the coronavirus closures began. but the pandemic is far from over. by our count, the known death toll from covid-19 just passed 90,000 people. nearly every state has partially reopened. this week some states will ease restrictions further.