welcome to monday. it is "meet the press" daily. i'm katy tur in for chuck todd continuing msnbc's special coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. moments ago, the president spoke with reporters at the white house and made a stunning and confound i confoundi confounding set of comments. he told reporters he is currently on hydroxychloroquine, the unproven treatment that he touted for coronavirus, even though he says he does not have the virus. >> doid tid the white house doc recommend that you take it? >> yeah, the white house doctor. no, he didn't -- i said i'd like to take it, a lot of people are taking it, frontline workers are taking hydroxychloroquine. i don't take it because -- hey,

people say maybe he owns the company. i don't own the company. you know what? i want the people of this nation to feel good. i don't want them being sick and there's a very good chance that this has an impact, especially early on, but you look at frontline workers, you look at doctors and nurses, a lot of them are taking it as a preventative. and they're taking totally unrelated -- >> he discounted studies from inside his administration warning of the potential dangers of taking this drug. he suggested the experts who conducted the study weren't trump fans, and here's more from the president. >> yeah, i've taken it for about a week and a half now, and i'm still here. imstill here. >> can you explain, so what is the evidence that it has a preventative effect? >> hear you go. you ready? here's my evidence. i get a lot of positive calls about it.

the only negative e heard was the study where they give it, was the va where people that aren't big trump fans. i get a lot of tremendously positive news on the hydroxy, and i say, hey, you know the expression i've used, john? what do you have to lose? okay? what do you have to lose? so i have been taking it for about a week and a half. >> every day? >> every day. i take a pill every day. at some point i'll stop. what i'd like to do is have the cure and/or the vaccine. >> well, you've got some serious cardiac issues to lose. we'll head to the white house for more on that in just a moment. also at this impromptu press conference, the president made comments suggesting that he's lobbied to fire every inspector general, not just the ones -- i'm sorry, every inspector general, not appointed by him. >> i have the right to terminate the inspector generals. i would have suggested it. i did suggest in pretty much all

cases you get rid of the attorney generals because it happens to be very political whether you like it or not. and many of these people were obama appointments, and so i just got rid of them. >> you heard him say attorney generals there, but it seemed like he meant to say inspectors general. that comes after the president fired the state department inspector general on friday night. we'll have more on that story coming up. and this very recent set of developments comes as more than 90,000 americans have now died and the federal government is being highly scrutinized for its response. so joining us now to break things down from the white house is my nbc news colleague kara lee. also with us is annie carnie, white house correspondent for "the new york times" and msnbc contributor, and dr. william shaftner, an immunization policy

expert. so this was an impromptu moment where he mentioned to reporters that he is now currently taking hydroxychloroquine. he says he doesn't believe he's been exposed and he doesn't have the virus from what i can tell from what he was saying, but he's been taking it for a week and a half. it was a week and a half ago, right, that katie miller, the vice president's press secretary, tested positive for coronavirus. right? >> reporter: it was about a week ago, yeah, katy. >> so what more can you tell us about that news conference and the president's taking of this medicine? >> reporter: well, look, i think you have a president who doesn't want to wear a mask, which is recommended by his cdc and is taking hydroxychloroquine. that kind of sums up how he views the pandemic at this point. he's really ready to move forward, to move on, to find a cure, to find some way to get through this and quickly. it was stunning to reporters in the room because -- and he said

he was looking forward to seeing the looks on their faces because he's -- and he was hoping that somebody would ask him. but he said the fda has cautioned as recently as april 24th on using this, particularly noting that it can cause heart problems, that it should be used in a hospital setting. now, the president obviously has a doctor who is on site and he's monitored essentially 24/7. the white house seemed a little caught off guard by this, that he was revealing this publicly and we're expecting a statement sometime soon. but the president said a number of things about this that are likely to get a lot of scrutiny. he said you're not going to get sick or die if it doesn't work. he said, imnot going 'm not goi hurt by it. there are a lot of doctors that would argue there is a reason to be concerned and people could get hurt by this. but clearly, this is something that the president said he talked to his doctor about.

he had said in the past, we should shoate, kanote, katy, he interested in taking this drug and would talk to his doctor about it. he said that on april 4th. clearly he did that and decided this is what he wants to do and he says he's been taking a pill a day for a week and a half. >> let's talk to a doctor about it. dr. schaffner, the president was asked this, is there any reason to believe that it has preventative effects? he kept mentioning that frontline workers were taking this pill. i certainly haven't heard of that. let me know if you've heard differently. >> well, katy, i was baffled as you were. i know of no evidence base to suggest that hydroxychloroquine would be good for the prevention of covid virus infection. and i would be very cautious. i am surprised that a doctor wrote that prescription because as i say, i'm not aware of an evidence base that would indicate that it's effective for this indication.

there are as you say side effects, heart-related side effects. people take this drug but they take it carefully. and i'm not aware of anyone else who's taking the drug in order to prevent covid infection, at least not in this neck of the woods. >> so when this has been used, and the fahd has cautioned against it, especially if you're not in a hospital setting, but doctor, when this has been used despite those fda warnings, it's been used in hospital settings for those who have already contracted the virus, right? >> well, in the context of treating covid, for sure, it's used in a hospital context. very sick people who can be monitored very, very carefully. obviously, hydroxychloroquine is also used to treat several rheumatic diseases, and there are patients who take this drug constantly for long period of

time, but their doctors select them very carefully and watch them very carefully over time to make sure that they are at low risk of getting these heart complications. >> annie carney, when asked why he believes in this drug over the recommendations of his health experts, he went back to something he often relies on, which is this thing many people are saying, he's saying people have written him letters, called him and told him great things about this drug. >> he's going on an ek decdotal evidence and going against the recommendations of his own government. the fda on april 24th warned against taking this, warned of heart problems that it could cause. he's trusting his own gut over the advice the government is giving to americans.

it's also notable after this stunning amount he made at the tail end of a roundtable of restaurant owners, even fox news pundits were noting that this is really dangerous and telling their viewers do not follow the president's lead here. this could -- trump said what do you have to lose? neil cavuto and others on fox news were even saying potentially your life. so it was seen as a stunning development. also notable it's been a few weeks since trump has promoted hydroxychloroquine from the white house. he kind of stopped talking about it for a while. but he dropped this kind of as a bombshell. he knew it was going to dominate the airwaves right at the end of a really long press conference. >> carol, do we know if anyone else at the white house might be taking this drug? after all, katie waldman or katie miller had been in touch with a lot of people and i'm not saying this is what prompted the president, i'm just looking at the time line, that he's presenting on when he started taking it, is there any reason to believe that anyone else in

the white house might be on this drug? >> reporter: it's a great question, katy, and one that we have asked the white house. i spoke with a white house official before i came out here. they seem to be gathering that information right now. like i said, they seemed to be a little surprised that the president publicly disclosed this when he did. that is a question that we have, is anyone else taking this. the other thing that is worth mentioning here is this comes at a time when we still don't have the full picture of the president's physical, his annual physical. as you'll recall, there was a few months ago a time when he was taken to walter reed medical facility and for what he said was the first phase of his physical -- we never got the second phase of that physical, and typically you get that every year from the president. so there are some details we don't have. and, you know, but i will say that he is, you know, monitored by a doctor basically all the time and that i know that the white house staff here is getting to that doctor to figure

out what exactly is going on and what exactly they can tell us. >> do we know what kind of test he is currently taking? is it only the abbott test, the quick test that according to recent reporting isn't that reliable or potentially not that reliable? or is he taking the more invasive nasal swab test that's more reliable? >> reporter: i don't know specifically which test. i crow know that tknow that the stuck with the abbott test, but he and the vice president get tested very regularly and in fact they've started testing the pool reporters every day who are going to be in and around the president like those who were there for his comments about -- that he was taking hydroxychloroquine. >> dr. schaffner, if you were treating the president, i know this is a big if, and you were going to prescribe something like this, does it stand to merit that that person would have been exposed in order to

get a prescription like this? >> well, katy, as i understand it, the prescription, the hydroxychloroquine is being taken in order to prevent the occurrence of infection around to snuff it out if you do get exposed very, very quickly. but i don't see an evidence base for that, and i'm surprised a physician would write a prescription for a medication for a use that has not got the evidence behind it. you don't want to expose any patient to potential adverse effects without any benefit. and the way to prevent this infection, of course, is to stick with the six-foot rule, lots of good hand hygiene, and use that mask. >> all right. annie, let's go on to the other news of the day, which is the inspector general. the president said it was completely within his power to remove that inspector general.

he did it, according to the president and now mike pompeo, who's confirmed it, on the prompting of mike pompeo. what else do we know about the circumstances of the firing of the state department inspector general? >> well, the president made it very clear what his motivation was, which is anyone who's an obama appointee is not trusted by him and is someone who should have been removed a long time ago. he's happy to do it. he doesn't want to ask any other questions about why. he kind of sloughed off any questions about mike pompeo being under investigation. he down played this idea that he was using government appointees to do personal chores like walk his dog, saying, big deal, he has an important job, he doesn't have time to walk his dog, which would be a perfectly acceptable answer if he hired someone out of his own pocket to walk his dog for him. but so the president made it very clear he's not interested in anything that pompeo might have done that would be a

scandal and he is only interested in seeing everything as a crusade against obama. this kind of fits in with his recent comments about obamagate, his response to president obama's commencement address, and i expect that we will see this only ramping up as obama becomes more prominent as a surrogate for joe biden in the coming months. >> he also suggested at one point that the aide was doing his dishes for him maybe because his wife, pompeo's wife or kids weren't home, which was a head scratcher. carol lee, nbc news has reported on what the inspector general was looking into beyond the errand running. can you give us a brief run done of what he was questioning, what the president's response was to that? >> reporter: well, basically, he just was dismissive of it. he didn't see any problems. it was the issue of the inspector general looking into pompeo having a political aide

walk his dog and run other errands for him. there was also this issue of the way that the administration went around congress to green light these arms deals to saudi arabia. and again, the president said he didn't have a problem with that. he said, in fact, i didn't know, i don't know the inspector general, i didn't know about the investigation, and he didn't much care. i will say i spoke with a white house official this morning who said that they would like the state department to own this a little bit more. they feel that the white house and the president is really taking the heat for this and that it was pompeo who wanted to do that and so he should step out and speak more about it. >> carol lee, dr. william schaffner, and annie karni, who is sticking around. thank you, guys. ahead, the late-night firing of the state department inspector general. democrats are demanding answers about how it happened and why it happened. i'll talk with senator chris coombs. and after president obama's thinly veiled criticism of the current administration, president trump comes out

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i said who appointed him and they said president obama, i said, look, i'll terminate him. i don't know what's going on other than that, but you'd have to ask mike pompeo. i have the right to terminate the inspector generals. that was president trump earlier today talking about inspectors general after the firing of steve linick. we now know that when linick was fired on friday night he wasn't just looking into whether secretary of state mike pompeo had a political appointee running his personal errands. nbc news is now reporting that linick was also looking into secretary pompeo's decision to green light arms sales to saudi arabia against the will of congress. and now president trump has confirmed that secretary pompeo recommended that linick be

fired. in an interview with "the washington post" today, secretary pompeo denied any knowledge of these investigations, adding, quote, it's simply not possible for this to be an act of retaliation. end of story. steve linick is the fourth inspector general to be removed from his position or her position since april. joining me is senator chris coombs, a member of the foreign relations committee that will investigate steve linick's firing. welcome to "meet the press daily," senator coombs. the spt said it's his absolute authority. what say you? >> as you pointed out, this is the latest in a troubling series of firings of inspectors general. atkinson from the intelligence committee, grim and fein, who were supposed to be overseeing hhs and department of defense and now linick from the state

department. let me remind our viewers the whole point of having independent inspectors general is to provide transparency and oversight for every federal agency. i don't think there's ever been a string of firings this significant and this close together where one could argue that there was some mixture of either retribution for their role in the impeachment trial of president trump or an effort to prevent transparency and oversight of ongoing federal government activity. in either case, this is not business as usual, and this is something that both republicans and democrats are going to have to stand up to. i was encouraged to see that senator menendez, the ranking member of the foreign relations committee, and chairman engel from the house, are working closely together to demand answers but also that republican senator chuck grassley of iowa has sent a letter to the president demanding more answers. but it's frankly going to take more than that if we're going to protect inspectors general as a key institution that keeps the federal government, its

executive branch in particular, accountable to the people. >> let me read you what secretary pompeo told "the washington post." he said, i went to the president and made clear to him that inspector general linick wasn't performing a function in a way that we had tried to get him to. that was additive for the state department, very consistent with what the statute says he's supposed to be doing, he said. the kinds of activities he's supposed to undertake to make us better, to improve us. the paper says secretary pompeo didn't go into any detail about what any of that meant. what is your reaction? >> well, my concern is that every department has some tension with their inspector general. that's often the mark of a good inspector general. as a member of the appropriations committee, when we do our an jewel oversight hearings for different agencies, we often invite the inspector general to come and give us input on how they think programs are being managed, where they think money is being spent

wisely or unwisely, and that often causes bristling on the part of the administration leader who is responsible for the department. this is true with both republican and democratic administrations. and the fact that president trump is being allowed to wipe away this long-standing and critical protection should be gravely concerning to your viewers and to my colleagues here in the senate. >> can we dig in a lit only the saudi arabia aspect of this? according to nbc news reporting, linick was looking into pompeo green lighting the arms sale to saudi arabia over the will of congress. what exactly was congress worried about? >> as you know, there was a great degree of concern here in congress in particular in the senate over the murder, the dismembering of a u.s. resident journalist jamal khashoggi, in a turkish consulate and the direct role that senior leaders within the saudi kingdom were reported

at the time to have had in ordering that execution, that assassination of a journalist. there were other very difficult developments in the war in yemen and the role that the saudis played. that in combination led to bipartisan opposition to another round of arms sales by the trump administration to the saudi kingdom without more transparency and without engagement and support from the senate. this is a key part of the senate foreign relations committee's role is to be engaged in and providing either approval or disapproval for critical arms sales and the fact that an arms sale went around that approval would be a completely appropriate thing for the inspector general at the state department to be look into and reviewing. >> so the legislation that senator menendez is putting forward to give congress a chance to stop the firing of i.g.s, i know some republicans have expressed shock over this firing. i know senator grassley wants more information on it. this sort of legislation that

gives congress an emergency break for this sort of thing, does it have any chance of even being brought up by the senate majority leader? and if so, could it pass? >> well, katy, that's going to be a test of the will of senator grassley and a few others who have expressed grave concern. we're going to need more than handwringing and expressions of concern from our republican partners here if this legislation is going to move anywhere. to your point, majority leader mcconnell has shown over and over that he thinks his key role is not protecting the independence of the senate and the separation of powers but advancing the goals of the trump administration. so i'm skeptical that we'll be able to get a hearing let alone move this legislation. that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. >> do you believe that this is sending a message to other inspector generals and other agencies, this now being the fourth inspector general to be

ousted by this president? >> it does. and frankly, the president's comment that when i was told he was hired by obama, that was enough. we should just get rid of him. i'm paraphrasing, obviously. it's meant to send a signal that president trump continues to indulge himself in this theory that there is some deep state loyalty to his predecessor that has caused some of the challenges he and his administration have had. instead, he should embrace this as part of the long-standing structure of how accountability and transparency has long been a part of the executive branch. i'll remind you that the two justices nominated to the supreme court by president trump are justices whose theory of executive power, their view of the president's ability to fire at will anyone in the executive branch, regardless of the long-standing traditions or requirements of their being independent, whether in the fbi, the department of justice or inspectors general, makes me gravely concerned that the trump administration and its advocates both in the administration and

on the supreme court may be steadily moving in the direction of concentrating more and more power in the hands of the president. >> you're close to vice president biden. people out there have been wondering, even though he does these virtual town halls, if he's out there enough. i know the campaign says they're abide big the health regulations and recommendations of the state of delaware. do you want to see him out there more? do you want to see him engaging in, i don't know, visiting a ventilator plant like the president's about to, visiting a mask plant, being more combative potentially with the president when he says things like obamagate in caps letters on twitter? >> oh, katy, obamagate, which none of us can identify exactly what it is, it is just another twitter tantrum, just another smear by president trump on his predecessor where there is no

specific charge being alleged here. it's you an attempt by president trump to do to former vice president joe biden and former president obama what he did to hillary clinton, which is to throw enough sand in the air that it creates doubts and concerns on the part of the american voter. do i wish that joe biden were doing the same thing? no, i don't. i'm frankly proud of the fact that joe biden is focused on this pandemic and the ways in which it's impacting our families, our health, our safety, and workers across our country. rather than going to a mask factory and not wearing a mask, rather than talking about how he's taking hydroxychloroquine despite the warnings by the fda, as president trump is, former vice president biden is engaging in a wide range of -- he's getting advice and input from public health and safety experts, from folks who are giving him input and ideas about how he can strengthen our economy for america's workers, and he's doing lots and lots of

virtual town halls. he's putting in calls to nurses and doctors, frontline health care workers who are finishing their shifts to express his appreciation and concern, and he's connecting with families that have lost loved ones in this pandemic. i think he's doing exactly what he should be, which is acting presidentially, something i wish our current president were doing. >> senator chris coons, senator, thank you very much for joining us. we appreciate your time. >> thank you, katy. ahead, fresh off their virtual commencements, colleges and universities are facing a big challenge. what are they going to do about the fall? i'll talk with the chancellor of a major university system that was the first to announce a dramatic change. you turn 40 and everything goes. tell me about it. you know, it's made me think, i'm closer to my retirement days than i am my college days. hm. i'm thinking... will i have enough? should i change something? well, you're asking the right questions. i just want to know, am i gonna be okay? i know people who specialize in "am i going to be okay."

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welcome back. in today's "open questions" series we're taking a look at the future of higher education. officials at colleges and yufr s universities across can country are talking about the new normal. small living quarter, crowded classrooms, and students coming together from all over the country. the california state university system, cal state, the country's largest four-year university system, has canceled most in-person classes this fall, instead choosing to hold the semester mostly online. timothy white is the chancellor

of the state system which has 23 campuses and more than 480,000 students. he joins us now. timothy, it's great to see you. mr. chancellor, i should say. can you tell me what led you to this very difficult, i assume, decision? >> well, katy, it's nice to join you as well. it is a difficult decision, but at the end of the day it was the health and well-being not only of our students but our faculty and staff and the communities where our 23 campuses are integrated into. you know, the california state university, i view it as an 800-mile-long university from san diego state in the southern part of the state all the way up to humboldt state in arcata. the regions of the state vary. in terms of the disease progressi progression. we decided the best thing to do was to plan for a virtual fall. >> if you had more testing available to you, would that mean that you would be able to safely open up classes for fall? was that part of the issue?

>> well, we will have access to testing, but the issue really is -- is in your lead-in. we had 530,000 people, students and faculty and staff, and to bring them together in a small close quarters, interacting as you do at a university on a daily basis, sadly, it's just not in the cards. so we thought the way to have the most options for the most number of students for the fall, because we want them to continue their education or start their education if they're first-year students, is to create a virtual delivery, equally as vibrant as we can do in the virtual space as we do in the physical space. but the safety is at the top of your list. >> but there will still be some students on campus, correct me if i'm wrong, but for those, what is the college experience going to look like and feel like? is it social distancing, masking? >> it will be different for those who are on campus, and we will have courses that you simply cannot do virtually such

as our nursing students. we produce over half the nurses in the state of california, so they'll have a chance to work under simulators and mannequins, but instead of 15 or 20 people in a laboratory there will be five, and they will be masked and the appropriate ppe and the mannequins will be cleaned in between each use, things of that nature. but i will say this, the college experience feel yes, will be interrupted far year or a semester, but that's only 20% of a student's typical matriculation. so don't let the fact that one year may be different get in the way of actually attending and learning in your majors. >> are you sure that you're going to be able to reopen for the spring semester or is that still up in the air? >> that will be decided when we get to the fall. you know, we are anticipating another bump in the pandemic expression in california in the summer, a little one.

but then there's a fairly significant one forecast in the november time, which coupled with influenza could create a very serious health challenge for the university and for the state. and then we're expecting another bump in 2021. so this is not a four-month or a six-month planning. we're planning out for a couple of years. we can't change the biology of the disease, but we can change our behaviors and still deliver first-rate, high quality education. >> so if students are taking classes online, should they still be paying full college tuition? >> yes. the tuition and mandatory fees must remain. they only pay a small portion of the overall cost of delivery of our instruction. the state of california pays the other part. and yet we're going to continue to employ our faculty and our academic support staff and our financial aid staff and everybody that's delivering this protukt in the virtual space instead of the physical space.

so we need those resources to meet our end of the bargain, which is delivering the academic programs. the other -- >> i'm sorry. there has been talk that sports might still go on, there might still be a football season. >> there's a lot of discussions and moving parts about intercollegiate athletics. there are contractual obligations. there's conference rules. there's ncaa rules. we have not committed to intercollegiate athletics at all at this point, and we are, by the way, refunding fees for things that services students can't get. if they're not in a residence hall, they don't pay. if they toer not parking a car, they don't pay. if they're not using a meal service, they're not paying. we've refunded fees where the service isn't provided, but we're keeping it for tuition in order to have our faculty and staff employed. >> have you had any discussions with your counterparts in the uc system?

>> yes. we talk all the time. and they are also planning a variety of -- >> and is the idea -- >> they're going to be announcing their decision probably the next two to three weeks as i understand it from president napolitano. but i suspect it will have a strong bias to the planning for virtual and every place you can do that, yes. >> that would be the majority, the vast majority of college students up and down california. that is a whole lot of students between cal state and the uc system. just wow. timothy white, do you have a journalism background? you knew our jargon with lead-in. >> no. i didn't take any journalism, but i have had a chance to visit with media, so. i appreciate being called an expert when i'm not. >> chancellor timothy white, thank you for joining us and helping us understand what is i

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welcome back. as so many people shelter in place to stay safe from coronavirus, it's important to remember that for some people home is not always a safe place. in this difficult time, many areas are seeing escalating numbers of domestic violence reports. and for some of the people who are seeking to leave or report domestic violence situations, the virus has only compounded a complicated and risky process. morgan radford is here to share her reporting on the rising rates of domestic violence amid the coronavirus. morgan?

>> reporter: that's right, katy. i mean, the question essentially becomes how do you shelter in place if your shelter suspect safe? we know that these shelter in place orders were designed to protect people from the virus, but the devastating and the unintended consequences is that it's actually trapping people who were there, who are stuck inside with their abuser. so you have this mix of dangerous factors. you have abusers who are oftentimes not working now and then those victims simply do not have reprieve, do not have solace. they cannot get away. so we've seen the numbers skyrocket in terms of calls going to domestic violence hotlines and going to police departments all across the country. for example, in new york city alone, we've seen a 53% increase in calls between february and april since that pandemic began. houston saw a 20% increase in calls in february. chicago, seattle, also seeing calls in the drimouble digits. now you have nithese advocacy

groups trying to protect abused people and trying to create interesting workarounds. they've created a code word in new york where any abused person can walk into a pharmacy, provide a code word, and receive safety. counselors are training people in grocery stores to spot signs. they're meeting people in grocery stores because they're having to meet people in places that still essentially remain open. and also now there's a text feature for those domestic violence hotlines, katy, and here in new york, that text message, they've seen 300 text mess amgs just since it opened within the past month. now you're finding these creative ways to make sure that people in this city and all across the country are safe as we're seeing these numbers continue to rise. katy? >> what is local law enforcement doing? what are local officials doing? because people saw this coming. i mean, i was having a conversation with a police officer here in new york i think on the first day of the shutdown asking them what sort of crime they were reporting of seeing.

they said almost no crime. their calls wur down significantly, but they were worried about the rise, the incoming rise, which they expected, in domestic violence cases because everybody is, as you were saying, stuck at home and it can inflame tensions. so have local law enforcement -- have local law enforcement and local officials put things in place in order to help people who might be in these situations? >> reporter: they have, katy, but, i mean, you really nailed it because that's frankly been one of the biggest criticisms. a lot of people who have dealt with domestic violence said they could see this coming from a mile away. people of course are worried about the economy, of course worried about their health, but this was a big problem that they should have -- a lot of critics felt like they should have foreseen. right now you're seeing this scramble on the back end where law enforcement agencies across the country are having to figure out how to put things in place that are coronavirus specific. so it's not just your typical resources, right, because now you're in a completely new

normal. you can't actually go and do these home visits anymore. now you have to find virtual ways to do it. a lot of these local governments are partnering with those advocacy groups, and what they're trying to do is utilize essential businesses, so, again, those are your pharmacies, those are your grocery stores, and utilizing those places that are still open to create a safe haven. katy? >> morgan radford, such important reporting. thank you so much for bringing it to us today. we appreciate it. and if you need help or no one who does, here's the number for the national domestic violence hotline. it's 1-800-799-7233. it is staffed 24 hours a day seven days a week and it is completely confidential. help is also available at thehotline.org. if you need help, go there. we'll be right back.

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trump administration's handling of the situation right now. >> 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're doing. a lot of them respect even pretending to be in charge. if the world's going to get better, it's going to be up to you. >> president trump responded by tweeting yesterday that the obama administration is turning out to be one of the most corrupt and incompetent in u.s. history. with me now is mike. it's very clear that the trump campaign is trying to do what they did in 2016 with hillary clinton, just cast aspersions, cast a shadow of doubt, do anything they can to tear down the past administration in order to tear down joe biden in this campaign. what is the biden team's strategy to combat it?

>> reporter: well, katie, we heard from the biden campaign on this question on friday when they held their first really wide-ranging strategy briefing. their take on this is what we're seeing from team trump here is a lot of projection and a lot of destruction. this is a president who has very high negatives, who is now dealing with the coronavirus pandemic in a way that has not inspired confidence among the american people, and so he has no alternative but to try to throw the kitchen sink at joe biden. they've been prepared for this all along. joe biden said before he launched he knew that running against donald trump would be especially brutal on his family. that everything would be thrown at him. but they view this really as a failing desperate attempt on the part of the trump campaign at this point. i think the cautionary note for team biden is this, one of the things they say that trump was already going after him in the

primary and especially the whole ukraine impeachment saga was an indication of the length to which president trump would try to go to undercut joe biden, but you do have now instead of a democratic primary electorate, which still nominated joe biden and has always had very positive views of joe biden, you're moving into a general election electorate where frankly even though he was vice president for eight years and a senator for 36, there still are a lot of people being introduced to joe biden in a different way. so i think as the campaign put it, they have a job to do when these attacks are launched. but joe biden, they want him to be focused on the larger message, which is making an argument for a government that can work and for his vision for the country, which is further to the left than what he ran on in the primary, but still a center left view of government. >> well, let me ask you this, is the strategy to lay low and let the president say things on

television, like maybe you should consider injecting bleach or shine a very bright light onto the body or tell people that he's taking hydroxychloroquine against the recommendation of his own government, is the strategy just to let president trump be out there doing his thing and joe biden not making negative headlines himself? >> reporter: biden was asked this question last week by a local reporter in las vegas. he said yes, in a perverse way, the more the country is seeing of president trump, the better it is for him. the biden campaign sees there hasn't been, despite all the commentary among elite democrats in "the new york times" and the other venues questioning the strategy here, there's no evidence that what joe biden has been doing has been hurting him. this idea that he's hiding in his basement they view as not true by the way. but also that there's no evidence of him being out more would change the trajectory of this race at this point. i think it's worth noting, and i

ran the numbers on this this morning, on the 18th of may, since may 1st, joe biden has done 25 events in some form this month. six were fund-raisers. but he's still averaging more than one public event a day. the question is, is he breaking through? we're not showing a lot of these. but, again, it's not hurting him at this point. >> it's hard to get attention in this time with the pandemic. also curious what his vp, who his vp might be, if he's going a little more progressive on health care, what does that mean? mike, thank you very much. that's all for tonight. chuck will be back tomorrow with more "meet the press daily" also with me at 1:00 and 2:00 p.m. tomorrow. "the beat with ari melber" starts after this short break. alright so...oh.

i'll start... oh, do you want to go first? no, no i don't...you go. i was just going to say on slide 7, talking about bundling and saving...umm... jamie, you're cutting out. sorry i'm late! hey, whoever's doing that, can you go on mute? oh, my bad! i was just saying there's a typo on slide 7. bundle home & auto for big discosnouts. i think that's supposed to say discounts.

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peacock premium included at no additional cost. no strings attached. just say "peacock" into your voice remote to start watching today. welcome to "the beat." i'm ari melber. in the middle of this pandemic, with many people focused on other things, you need to know that president trump is trying to bury another controversial

firing. this began friday