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.

tomorrow minnesota will resume retail shopping with social distancing. in south florida, many businesses in miami dade and broward counties will begin reopening. in west virginia gyms will reopen. health officials continue to warn that this is all quite risky. the cdc's director dr. robert redfield says his agency is tracking 12 different forecast models for coronavirus deaths. as of last monday, all the models predict a rising death toll topping 100,000 by june. meanwhile, president trump faces more criticism for his handling of the pandemic. this time from his predecessor. former president obama slid a not-at-all thinly veiled critique into a virtual high school commencement speech that aired here last night. >> more than anything, this pandemic has fully finally torn back the can you remember ton on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they're doing. a lot of them aren't even

pretending to be in charge. all those adults, they used to think were in charge and knew what they were doing, turns out they don't have all the answers. a lot of them aren't even asking the right questions. >> president trump's response today was, succinct. >> he was an incompetent president, that is arnold palmer all i can say, grossly incompetent. >> later he tweeted the obama administration is turning out to be one of the most corrupt and incompetent in u.s. history. remember he and sleepy joe are the reasons i am in the white house. unquote. and last night, eric trump claimed democrats are criticizing his father over the coronavirus to hurt the reelection campaign. that includes the big acceptance speechd planned at the republican national convention. the gop says that event is still on with an expected crowd of 15,000 people. >> they think they're taking away donald trump's greatest tool, which is being able to go into an arena and fill it with

50,000 people every single time, right? so they will, and you watch, they'll milk it every single day between now and november 3rd and guess what, after november 3rd, coronavirus will magically all of a sudden go away and disappear and everybody will be able to reopen. they're trying to deprive him of his greatest asset, which is the fact that the american people love him. >> let's begin with nbc political reporter monica alba. monica, what's the latest in this? has there been any more back and forth? >> reporter: yeah, this is a significant ongoing conversation between the obama and trump campaigns. you've seen here the president go after his predecessor repeatedly in recent months, largely with barack obama not responding, not taking the bait, if you will. but in the last week we did see a shift with former president barack obama releasing privately in a conversation with alumni what he thought of the administration's handling of the

pandemic. and then yesterday very publicly coming out with that pointed criticism, though something that barack obama has continually done we know unmistakably what he's talking about, he doesn't directly mention donald trump by name. and that is something they will do. on the flip side, the trump campaign as they are now nearing 5 1/2 months away from the election in november, they are going full-out with this strategy. they have been amplifying it all over on tweets. and you can see that in all of their strategy. and what's unique here is that, of course, they are going after the obama administration as they face joe biden in that general election. the president, former president, vice-president, and now, of course, his opponent in that race. they are trying to frame this as really using the 2016 playbook to see if it will be effective for 2020. but eric trump, though, was echoing what so many of the president's supporters told me when i was out on the campaign trail a few months ago when those thousand-people rallies

were still being held, which is they didn't necessarily believe that this virus would come to the extent that it clearly has. now, the question now, will the president be returning to the campaign trail, and what will he be saying. we're told by advisors he will continue to amplify anything that attacks the obama administration and by extension biden, joshua. >> i'm guessing we're expecting, monica, that the tone of what we hear from president obama may evolve as we get closer to november. i mean, this was kind of a sideways reference to the president, though we knew exactly who he was talking about. a sideways reference during a commencement address that came as kind of a surprise. no one knew that he was going to mention donald trump at all, even obliquely during last night's program. is this strategy to kind of ramp up as we get closer to november? i mean, if he wanted to come out swinging, he could have just called me for an interview. by the way, my number is 212-sorry, go ahead. why do it this way? >> i'm sure he knows how to get

in touch with you for that, joshua. i think what's remarkable about the way president obama decided to deliver these remarks is it is absolutely calculated. but they also knew that an inspirational venue like a commencement special, they can have the young people who are watching maybe take away whatever message they want from that while also speaking to a larger audience and a larger public in a time when former president barack obama can't be on the campaign trail in the traditional sense. we have heard from the biden campaign that he will, of course, be out and stumping for his former vice-president when he can. we just don't know how close to november that will be, but he will continue to push that message and support for biden in whatever way he can, we're told, joshua. >> he can also dm me at nbc. that's monica alba for us with the latest. the window is closing to address this pandemic. that is a quote from dr. rick bright. he's a former leader in the

search for vaccine. he filed a whistleblower complaint after losing that job. dr. bright was shifted to another job last month. he testified thursday before a senate committee examining our response to covid-19. dr. bright said that we lacked a centralized coordinating plan to prevent this pandemic from getting worse. his dire predictions for the future raised some eyebrows. so did his testimony about federal officials ignoring the coronavirus threat, costing us time that might have saved lives. >> did you first have concerns about the potential impact of covid-19 on the united states? >> in early january. >> bright was answering questions from massachusetts congressman joe kennedy, and the congressman joins us now. congressman, what did you make of dr. bright testifying that he was concerned about coronavirus way back in early january? >> confirmation, joshua, of what we've heard now for weeks is that the devastation that this virus has caused across our

country -- well, perhaps it was always going to be difficult, did not need to be nearly as deadly or devastating to the degree it has been. this administration not only took steps before it arrived on our shores to minimize our preparedness and our ability to respond, but on multiple other occasions they were warned, they were told, and there are people out there screaming. and the trump administration didn't do anything about it. we are now well past the cumulative death toll of vietnam that we had about 3 1/2 months because of the virus. it's absolutely devastating. to see the clip that you showed earlier eric trump trying to say this is a mirage, this isn't a real thing, come to one of our hospitals here in massachusetts. talk to somebody who has seen a loved one on a ventilator for a month. talk to any one of those e.r. doctors, first responders giving

everything they've got. and to have somebody like that minimize the contribution they are making and the sacrifice they are putting out is insulting to the worst degree. >> let me play another clip from your questioning of dr. bright. you also asked whether the administration is prepared to administer a vaccine once we have it, presuming, of course, that the vaccine comes to be ready during this administration. here is how dr. bright answered that. >> can we possibly say that this administration has prepared our country for the moment that we are in and how we can possibly be prepared for the distribution, development, and administration of a vaccine to address 330 americans over the course of the months ahead? >> i think we have a lot of work to do to be prepared, sir. >> congressman, what do you think that work looks like? whether it's under this administration or if there is a new administration in 2021, how do we make that happen? >> i think this begins with -- in close coordination with the authorities we have in government, working with private sector, and it means starting to

scale-up a couple different options now. understanding that maybe some of these tracks we're pursuing with regards to the vaccine won't be successful. but, joshua, there is no way we are going to be able to manufacture hundreds of millions of doses and then try to distribute them in any way that is fast or equitable if we wait till the last second to see which one is successful. think about that. notice the encounters we've had with the distribution of p.p.e. across our country and around the world. manufacturing lines that existed are industries where they're cranking out mask ands gloves out beforehand. not so with this vaccine. we're going to need billions of doses on day one. we have to get ready for it now and the plan talking to dr. bright, it's one thing to play monday morning quarterback where the administration dropped the ball and there are a number of them. the lesson is we need to be prepared for what comes next.

he didn't give us any reassurance we're ready to do that. >> in terms of how we do get prepared, the house passed another coronavirus relief bill worth $3 trillion. senate republicans and the white house say they have zero intention of passing this, partly because they say it's tremendously expensive, partly because they argue it contains measures that seem unrelated to this core fight of saving lives. was that a smart move on the part of house democrats, passing a bill that you must have known senate republicans would reject out of hand? >> i would hope our colleagues would not reject it out of hand and i would hope they would actually look at the bill. is it expensive? of course it's expensive. the cost of not doing something at the moment is devastating. a trillion dollar in there for state and local aid. massachusetts alone is facing a deficit coming forward for not only our fiscal year in june, but for the next one, combined in the tens of billions of dollars. to say nothing of texas or florida or california.

that's health care. that's education. that's local law enforcement. that's parks. that's adoption services. these are critical services that our communities need. >> they are indeed. you have to work with the republicans to get something done, otherwise you're not passing a stimulus, you're passing a statement. >> true, joshua. the process by which we have been engaged here has been -- and look what happened in the last round of funding, that $2.3 trillion bill. mitch mcconnell came out and said, this is what we're going to do. no, this is what we're going to do. that back and forth is how that process has actually been -- we've been engaged in it over the course of the past several months now. we've come to a place where we largely agree. not everybody, but given how polarized washington is, the fact that you have had broad-based agreement spending $3 trillion i think is a testament to the moment that we're in. so when we start talking about things like -- excuse me, aid to

states and municipalities, when we talk about hazard pay for essential workers, when we start talking about funding for testing so we can be certain we can open up our economy, we start talking about things like p.p.e. for paramedics for first responders and firefighters, this stuff -- that part is not controversial. if there's parts in there they don't like, then engage us in conversation. look, the parts that i wish we did more on, but, you know, this was a bill i think is a critical first step and it's an opening bid for our senate colleagues. i sure hope that they understand -- you heard what mitch mcconnell said. he doesn't see the urgency to this moment. how many more people have to die before we see the urgency of this moment? >> right, right. congressman joe kennedy of massachusetts. congressman, we appreciate your time, sir. thanks very much. >> joshua, thank you. stay well. >> up next, the view from puerto rico. add to the natural disasters the island is still recovering from,

the mayor of san juan joins us just ahead. and later, why did senator richard burr temporarily step down as chairman of the senate intelligence committee? we may be a bit closer to the full answer. how about no no uh uh, no way come on, no no n-n-n-no-no only discover has no annual fee on any card.

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puerto rico keeps getting forgotten. the damage from hurricane maria is still not fully resolved. it's also rebuilding from two earthquakes this year, and now there's covid-19. this week puerto rico's governor wanda vazquez specified how the island would allocate more than $2.2 billion in federal relief. it's trying to catch up with demand for testing, and thousands of residents are still waiting for unemployment assistance two months into puerto rico's shutdown. that might explain why a controversial move is getting new life as a way of making puerto rico harder to forget. yesterday governor vasquez announced this november the island will hold another nonbinding referendum on

becoming a state. she and her party support state hood to give this territory more political power in washington. puerto rico has voted on this before, repeatedly. what will be different this time? joining us now is carmen cruz, the mayor of puerto rico's capital san juan. mayor cruz, good evening. >> thank you very much. >> how is san juan doing right now with everything going on? we often hear about the problems in puerto rico. are things getting better at all? >> well, things are not getting better. as you mentioned there's about 100,000 people that have not received any unemployment because of the inefficiency of the local government. it took the local government about almost a month to start handing out $1200 federal assistance. and now it's almost like deja vu all over again. there's not enough contact tracing for people. there is not enough testing. and municipalities had to pick up the slack.

in san juan we have the only continuous drive-thru testing system on molecular testing in all of puerto rico and we are getting closers to testing people from san juan and all of puerto rico area. the money doesn't come into people's hands and that is really devastating the economy at this point. >> i wanted to ask you about that very this can regarding that federal relief funding more than $2 billion worth. some of that will go to disaster clean-up. some of that will go to unemployment. what do you think both of the amount and of the spending plan? >> well, i think there's never enough money when you have to come up crisis after crisis. as you mentioned, we've had two hurricanes, category 4, two earthquakes this year, and then this devastation that occurred. it's like one crisis after the other. and the federal government and president trump continue to just not do what they're supposed to

do. surgeon general might as well sput out put out a warning, president trump and this administration are hazardous to your health. the money has too many restrictions, but that also has to do with what the current government of puerto rico has had, its own scandals and corruption. it is very difficult to deal with what we are having to deal with, but it is important to know that municipalities need more resources. one of the bad things, wanda vazquez, a republican governor, puerto rico is only given 100 million out of $2.2 billion. just 100 million to 78 municipalities. i'll give you an idea of what is happening in san juan. on a daily basis we are giving people about 5,000 people food, whether it's hot meals or whether it is meals -- that is

30,000 people receiving on a weekly basis, and we expect that to go do 50,000 people. six out of every ten children in san juan are underneath the poverty level, which is why it is so important. and we support hr 6648 from the virgin islands to allow territories and allow puerto rico to insert itself in the supply chain of medical manufacturing, which would be very important for the united states at this point, to be ready for the vaccine and to be ready to take on all of the risks that have to be taken on. >> i can't let you go without asking about the referendum on state hood. there have been other referenda on state hood. during the administration of the previous governor, there was referendum 2012, state hood was the alternative. referendum 17 where the pro

status quo party boycotted the referendum, unanimous support for state hood. to me as an outsider, there seems to be more heat than light. before i let you go, mayor cruz, is this referendum going to change anything? >> it's a waste of time. it is something that wanda vazquez is doing to try to get her party to go and vote. it is a waste of time. it is $3.5 million that we could use in order to get food, medication and aid to the people that really need it. >> carmen yulin cruz, the mayor of san juan. thank you for your time. very much appreciate it. >> thank you very much. >> still to come, an insider trading investigation has unseated the chair of the senate intelligence committee. he's not the only lawmaker under scrutiny. we'll have the latest just ahead. stay close. we hope you find our digital solutions helpful to bank safely from home.

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are you going to participate

in -- >> i have since the beginning. this is a distraction to the hard work of the committee and the members and i think the security of the country is too important to have a distraction. >> north carolina senator richard burr has resolved that distraction by temporarily stepping down as chairman of the senate intelligence committee. reason being, an fbi probe into possible insider trading. agents seized senator burr's cell phone as part of the investigation. he is one of four senators under scrutiny for selling stocks after a january briefing on covid-19. burr says he has asked the ethics committee to open a complete review of the matter. joining us now are "the new york times" justice department reporter katie better and msnbc contributor chuck rosenberg, a former u.s. attorney and senior fbi official. his podcast the oath begins its third seasons on june 3rd. thank you both for making time for us. katie, let me start with you. senator burr released a statement emphasizing the importance of the intel

committee. how will this investigation into him affect the committee's work? >> well, it's really interesting. taking a step back, keeping in mind the senate intelligence committee has put a lot of very credible reporting of its own on the rachid redouane investigation. it is basically verified what the intelligence community has been saying about russia's attempt to interfere in the election and burr has been a big part of that. it will be interesting to see who is chose tone lead that committee next going into the 2020 election during which these issues about russian election interference and election interference by many other countries is going to be front and center. >> chuck, i don't want you to have to stare into the crystal ball too much, but i wonder what your sense is of where this might be going. will stepping down from the committee be enough? is his senate seat on the line? will this just blow over? what are you keeping an eye out for? >> i believe he announced that he would retire, joshua, in 2022. but, you know, there is a really interesting thing that happened.

in order to get the contents of his cell phone, in order to get the contents of anyone's cell phone, the fbi needed to get a search warrant. and in order to get a search warrant they had to go to a federal judge and they had to demonstrate two things. that they had probable cause that a crime had been committed, and that they had probable cause that evidence of that crime would be found on that phone. and so while a federal prosecutor -- and i was one for many years -- can send out a grand jury subpoena really just on mere suspicion, to confirm nothing, in fact, bad happened, in order to get a search warrant you do need to show probable cause. that tells you, joshua, that this investigation is a bit more advanced, and that mr. burr, to answer your question, while he's not guilty of anything and he hasn't been charged with anything -- and we need to keep that in mind and be fair to him -- we need to keep in mind, too, that this is a serious matter at a more advanced stage now. >> and, richard -- chuck, you are correct. richard burr said in 2016 that he will not be running for

another term. so 2022 is when he will step down. katie, when senator burr stepped down from this committee, as you mentioned, he's requested that the committee declassify that report on russia's interference in the 2016 election. what's his rationale for that request? >> i think that right now the rationale behind any request for more transparency is just that. we need to know more information. what we're seeing is basically a battle happening right now between the justice department and the president on one side -- sorry, the leadership of the justice department and the president on one side and on the other side, former justice department officials and people who worked on the original investigation. basically arguing about whether or not the decision to investigate the trump campaign's ties to russia was valid at all. we're arguing about whether or not that investigation should have happened, we're arguing about whether or not russia wanted trump to succeed. a lot of things right now are in dispute in the court of public opinion as much as they are in dispute among the intelligence community, possibly more so. so the rationale of trying to

put out more information is let's give the american public what we have found, all of what we have found in order for them to make an informed decision on, again, an issue that has not gone away. it is very much a front and center issue for this election. >> chuck, how do you see that in terms of the impact of declassification on the upcoming election? i mean, we know everybody may not want to admit this, but we know that russia screwed with us last time. they've been screwing with us ever since and they're going to tighten the screws right up to election day. does releasing this report really make that much of a difference? do you get a sense that a significant number of the american people still don't believe that russia did this? >> well, you know, positions have hardened and they've been hardened for sometime now. but i do want to give mr. burr and the democratic leader on that committee mark warner of virginia some credit, because they have functioned through all of this in mostly a bipartisan, thoughtful manner. and will it really add anything

to the debate? i don't believe so. people who believe the russians have massively interfered in our election, and i'm one of them, will continue to believe that. and there is a think it's a hoax, president trump thinks it's a hoax, will continue to believe that. i'm glad at least one of the intelligence committees on capitol hill, in this case in the senate, is functioning well and professionally. but i don't think it's going to change very many minds, joshua. >> we should also just note, katie, before i come back to you, that if you watched the robert mueller hearing, the only time he perked up in that whole process was when he was being asked about russian interference, and he said, we need to spend more time talking about this. that was the one thing in the whole hearing that made him actually lean forward and kind of engage, like he really wanted to discuss that. katie, before i have to let you go, let's zoom out in the fbi probe beyond senator burr. georgia senator kelly loeffler also sold a lot of stock after

getti getting those classified briefings. she's turned over documents. her office said she followed the law. is she under scrutiny or is richard burr the only person here? >> the burr investigation is certainly the most advanced to chuck's point. they needed probable cause to get those warrants. and i'm told that they have not gotten such warrants on other senators. you know, certainly loeffler, senator feinstein, her husband, and senator inhoff are all people they are looking at, whose trades they are curious about. but the most advanced investigation, the focus of the investigation is senator burr. >> katie benner of the "the new york times," chuck rosenberg host of the podcast, the oath, thank you for talking to us. there are some disturbing krep sizz in the number of coronavirus tests administered across this country. that is next. sure. okay... okay! safe drivers save 40%!!! guys! guys! check it out.

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you've heard it from expert after expert after expert. testing is indispensable to fully confidently rekindle america's economy. but how many tests have we actually done? the answer may be complicated. last week the cdc launched a website to provide regular testing data. according to the atlantic, there are big discrepancies between what states and the federal government are reporting. the two data sets varied by more than 10% in more than half the country. in 13 states they varied by more than 25%.

now, these figures are inherently complex. some variance is probably inevitable, but why are the data sets so different? and how does that affect our fight to save lives? joining us now is alexis, a staff writer for the atlantic. alexis, why is there so much discrepancy in these data sets? >> i think there are a few known sources of discrepancy. states tend to report the number of people tested. the cndc reported the number of specimens tested. beyond that we're not sure. we've been collecting and compiling this data for weeks now. we expect when the cdc put out numbers, they'd actually be quite close to what the states had. and, in fact, they are not, and the discrepancies actually run in both directions. in some cases the federal government reports many more tests and in some case the states do. there is no simple way of explaining these discrepancies. >> is there any evidence that somebody is either messing up

their job, messing around with the numbers intentionally, playing fast and loose with the numbers? there's no evidence of some kind of intentional human neglect, is there? >> there isn't like an obvious political bias, for example, but we don't see that. maybe a tiny bit of a touch you see of republican governor numbers looking a little bit more like the federal government. but by and large, it doesn't look like a political thing. it looks more like a product of two different systems. we know that the federal government built quasi-independent system that takes data from the state, but also takes data from test providers. that was sort of initiated on march 29 by vice-president pence and the coronavirus task force. and what we see are a quasi-looking independent data set. it doesn't look like these numbers are fully confident. there is one type of problem that we really would like to

call attention to when you take a look at a state like florida where the federal government is reporting 200,000 more specimens tested than the state of florida itself. this is a real question because the state of florida issued an emergency order that required that all tests be reported to the state. so if for some reason the federal government and h.h.s. have 200,000 more tests, that really poses some problems. either some companies and hospitals are not reporting what they should be to the state of florida, or there's a problem with the federal data set. >> this morning we heard two conflicting accounts from administration officials about how well or poorly the cdc is doing. listen. >> early on in this crisis, the cdc which really had the most trusted brand around the world in this space, really let the country down with the testing. >> i don't believe the cdc let this country down.

i believe the cdc serves an important public health role. >> so, alexis, based on your reporting, who do you think is right? >> you know, both things can be right actually. i think the cdc does serve a very important public health role and we think it would be best for the country if the numbers that the cdc has became the standard data set for all of america. at the same time, the cdc clearly has had major problems. they have been de-funded over the years and there's a lot of questions about the leadership of the cdc. it makes for a very difficult situation because the truth is we need the cdc. we need the experts there. we need the people who have been dealing with outbreak after outbreak. we need their expertise. and they do need to be unleashed to do the very best job they can. the problem right now is we're not sure why that's not happening. you know, is it because of interference from the administration? is it because of problems in the leadership at the cdc? is it because they've been

gutted by successive rounds of budget cuts over the decades? it's hard to know, you know, why exactly this particular part of the cdc which deals with pandemics, deals with infectious disease does not appear to have shown up in the way that i think people around the world were expecting them to. >> today "the washington post" reported that at least a dozen states have more testing capacity than patients. new york's governor andrew cuomo got the nasal test that goes up your nose. didn't flinch, tough guy. i asked my doctor about getting the antibody test, not the nasal swab, the blood draw. i could hold off if the antibody test may not be accurate. do you think thei issue is we don't have enough tests or not enough people want to get tested? >> i think it's a combination here. that's a great question. the truth is the nation's

testing capacity has come up enormously. just today states reported over 400,000 tests completed. that's an enormous increase over a month ago. we know many states have more testing capacity than demand. the question is why is that? is the reason that we really don't need to test more people? or is it that we've told people that tests are painful, that they're difficult to get? right now we have somebody who wants to be tested in my own household and it's not as easy to get a test as it seems like it should be, given the sort of macro importance of testing as many people as we can. i think there are going to be a couple things that help with that. employers are going to come in and ask people to be tested. the nasal swabs will largely go away and you'll have people using saliva. there will be more group testing. there's a whole bunch of different things. the point is we need to make testing easier and cheaper and more people will do it. that's the basic of it. just about everybody i've talked to believes we need to increase

the amount of testing even from the much higher numbers we have now, a lot. and some of that is going to be making sure the tests are available. and the other part is going to be making sure that people want to get tested and they're supported after they've received their results, whether those are positive or negative. >> easier, cheaper, more accessible and accurate. reliable and accurate and precise. i think of all those things that are true, i definitely would have gotten the test by now. alexis of the atlantic, thanks for talking to us. >> thank you for your time. >> before we go, the president and the postal service. mr. trump is threatening to withhold funding in the next stimulus package. what will the post office do? and why is it in trouble anyway? are most uncertain,

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because of coronavirus. before the outbreak the usps already said it was in financial trouble. congress put money aside for it in the stimulus package. but last month president trump balked at helping the post office. he >> the postal service is a joke. because they're handing out packages for amazon and other internet companies, and every time they bring a package, they lose money on it. >> that same day, house speaker nancy pelosi fired back at the president. >> for them to be toying with this notion that they have, that they're going to privatize the post office, the postal system, is something the public should be aware of and should reject. >> joining us is dark diamondstein, president of the american postal workers union. good to have of you with us today. this afternoon the associated

press goat quoted you saying that union members fear the trump administration wants to destabilize the agency and then sell it off, unquote. but the president's argument in terms of the way that the post office does business, do you see any merit in that? i mean, is there any room for critiquing the way the usps manages its money these days? >> well, joshua, first, thanks so much for having me on. look, there's always room for improvement in any institution. we believe the post office could provide all sorts of expanded services, and that would bring in revenue as well. but overall, we do not think there'sing in to the president's argument. in fact what he's raise would go destabilize the postal service. he's calling for the raising of packaging four to five times. the postal service, right, goes to every address six days a week, sometimes seven, no matter

who we are, where we live. that's the universal serviceman date and standard that we all believe in. if package rates were artificially raised, one, it is the customer would be hurt. the post office would be hurt, because 30% of their revenue comes from packages and artificially raising rates would drive the postal service out of that business. but some people would be helped. a few private companies, a few mega donors would be helped along the way. so what's happening now, look, there are some long-run challenges. changing mail habits and so on and so forth. but the reality is, the crisis that the post office is facing now, the public post office, is really directly due to this covid pandemic. while essential workers are proud to the on the front lines, working under difficult circumstances, binding the country together, which is our

mission, the pandemic economically is having huge impact on all of us, the whole country, really on the world. but the post office is in dire straits specifically because of this pandemic. lot of listeners may not know that the post office does not receive taxpayer dollars to run. it runs off the service, postage, and postal services. that has to be there to enable the postal service to go to every address, every day. 160 million addresses a year. and right now there's a precipitous drop in mail, a precipitous drop therefore in revenue, due to covid. and congress needs to act with some real relief. when the president talks about raising prices in order to get relief, he didn't do that for $500 billion of grants and other kinds of relief for private corporations. >> let me ask you -- >> it's the post office he's going after. >> let me ask about the

public-private mandate. stacey abrams spoke to joy read about the postal office in rural areas. >> the postal service is a lifeline for communities. i grew up in mississippi. we have a lot of places that are urban but most of the state is rural. the same is true in georgia, between 24% and 40% of our people who do not have access to the internet. eliminating or limiting access to the postal service not only will justify the diminution of these communities, it will be used to not only block their votes now but harm their lives going forward. >> before i have to let you go, i hate to ask this. but wouldn't it be more efficient, more effective, to use more high-tech alternatives like wiring rural areas for broadband so they can use email and online services more easily? do we now in the year 2020 still actually need the post office in every corner of the country? >> well, i think that we absolutely need the post office.

think about the changing habits of the e-commerce revolution. that's not going to work either. if everybody's tied into broadba broadband, you still need a public infrastructure that on a uniform and low-cost, reasonable-cost basis, goes to every address in the country. medicines. 90% of va medicines to our veterans go through the post office. 1.2 billion packages of medicine a year. retirement checks. stimulus checks. census information. voting information. exchange of ideas. greeting cards. all those things, however people find that are needed and important to them, go through the post office. and that's why it's no joke for the customers of this country and the people of this country. so the more people tied into broadband, great. more people will use e-commerce. and if e-commerce is going to work for small business, for e-tailers, for people of this country, you have to have a vibrant public infrastructure.

and no one would ever want voting to be done by internet, that could be so easily hacked. but millions and millions of people who want to vote by mail have for generations voted by mail. with this pandemic, that obviously is becoming a huge issue in this upcoming -- in the whole primary season and then the november election coming up. >> mark diamondstein, president of the american postal workers union, thank you for making time for us. thank you for watching us on msnbc. let's meet back here this weekend. until next weekend, i'm joshua johnson. stay safe, stay sharp, we'll get through this, good night. -v, keep being you. 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.

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this sunday, the president and the pushback. on a vaccine. >> we'd love to see if we could do it prior to the end of the year. >> we can't count on it. we don't know if will be one year, two years, or many years. >> on restarting the economy. >> vaccine or no vaccine, we're back. >> i feel if that occurs, there is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you might not be able to control. >> on preparedness. >> without better planning, 2020 could be the darkest winter in modern history. >> he's nothing more than a really disgruntled, unhappy person. >> and now this from former president obama. >> this pandemic has fully finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so m