made and your wife flown around the world on the taxpayer dollar, some potential for policy transgressions, the sale of arms to the saudis without congressional approval and then lying in front of the world about your knowledge of the investigation into you? >> good afternoon, nicolle. we use the power that the people gave us in 2018 of the purse, a majority in congress, to have chairman engel and the foreign affairs committee continue to investigate because we've gone from, but her emails, the secretary of state for president obama to, but the dinner parties, but the arms deals. of course, but the dog walking. these folks think they're above the law. they're above transparency and above any investigation. i just happen to think when you're in a position of power like that, when there's any question about what you're doing, you cooperate, and the fact that this inspector general

was fired, and he's not even denying that the person was fired, but saying he should have been fired earlier, that to me suggests a malicious intent. >> congressman, every friday night there's a 50/50 chance that donald trump will fire another government watch dog. he's fired four inspectors general during the coronavirus lockdowns, i think about every other friday night. is there more that you can do in any of the committees on which you serve or in the house to protect this community of government watchdogs from this administration that they're supposed to sit inside those agencies and protect the taxpayers from? >> yes, nicolle. we have to have an ankle monitor on this president. this is the worst possible time for a serial offender like him to be running around unsupervised. so we just last week, in

addition to passing the heroes act in congress, relief for our front line workers, also gave congress a remote functioning capability. we'll start holding hearings. we expect any subpoena to a regular in person hearing would be honored for virtual hearings. we're not helpless, as i said. that's why it's more important as we go into november. we're only one-third up the mountain right now with the house majority. they have the senate and the white house to win the senate and the white house. otherwise we're going to continue to see these abuses. >> congressman, let me double down on nicolle's question and ask about consequences. we all watched as impeachment came and went, and we're living in the went period now. if we can all agree that this is a period when more and more people view government work not as a service but as a trough. for your constituents watching, for everybody watching, what can

you promise or predict as to real consequences from the misbehavior. it reminds me of the old phrase "who do we see about this?" >> well, it reminds me of what leaders in both parties did after watergate, the era of reformation, not just the chfrp committee to reform the intelligence abuses, but also campaign finance abuses that were realized and fixed. a credit to chairman schiff on the intelligence committee. he's been working with chairman nadler on the judiciary committee to look at all the vulnerabilities exposed by this administration, realizing we probably won't have that reckoning now, but if we put the legislation forward, win the senate, we have the white house, there will be an era of reformation to make sure you can't have your children on the payroll, you can't receive gifts from foreign governments. you're not immune from the statute of limitations running

out just because you're in office and your department of justice saysout can't be prosecuted and you can't out a whistle-blower. we're looking at making fixes for all of these. >> do you think ethics in government is like the limb of a star fish? does it grow back in, quote, unquote, normal times? >> yes, but it takes people to really care about it growing back. again, i think that is what was signaled by the 2018 midterm elections. people do care. brian, what we're up against in november is this gauntlet of disinformation, voter suppression and welcoming foreign interference. i think on balance the democrats can win this november on restoring trust and competency in government, but we just have to get through that gauntlet that we're going to be up against. >> congressman eric swalwell, thank you for answering our questions and spending some time with us. stay safe. >> my pleasure. thank you both.

>> brian this is the point in the hour when you leave us, but i'm glad you made it today. usually it's me with the technical challenges. i was surprised and i checked all of my equipment when i heard yours wasn't working. >> thank you very much for having me, as i like to say every day, i literally have a dog to walk. i'll be watching you for the rest of the way until 5:00 p.m. thank you. >> we'll be watching you. thank you, brian. when we return, cautious optimism in new york where the virus has peaked, at least for now. we'll talk to our friends, mara gay from "the new york times" about her experience with covid-19. that's next. that's next. but what we can do it be a partner that never quits. verizon is the most reliable network in america. built for interoperability and puts first responders first,

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and let the experts help you repair it. woman: they were able to restore my good name. vo: visit reputationdefender.com or call 1-877-866-8555. new york city has suffered through more cases of coronavirus than anywhere in this country, but now the virus seems to be past its peak levels and the horrific scenes that have symbolized the magnitude of this deadly pandemic may finally be starting to change. as the daily death toll and number of new patients continue to fall in new york, the city's hospitals are getting much-needed relief. today "the new york times" quotes one doctor saying, quote, it's like someone turned off the hose. "the times" reports that hospital executives and doctors wary about what comes next are asking whether this is a lull before a new wave of cases or a

less chaotic slog. "new york times" editorial mara gay is recovering from her own battle with the virus and says she now worries for americans elsewhere cities that are reopening. she writes, quote, when i see photographs of crowds packing into a newly reopened big box store in cashing saw or scores of people jammed into a colorado restaurant without masks, it's clear too many americans don't grasp the power of this disease. mara gay is a member of "the new york times" editorial board and continues to recover from coronavirus. mara, first of all, i read about your sickness and everything you've written and everything you said just hit me like a ton of bricks about being -- you are the classic new yorker who embraced the lockdowns, wore your masks, went outside for exercise, but otherwise stayed inside. do you have a theory on how you got it?

>> thanks for having me, nicolle. it's actually a total mystery. nobody i know who i've come into any contact with, even from six feet away, has tested positive or showed any signs which just goes to show you how incredibly contagious this virus really is. >> tell me what it was like. you wrote so personally about your experience. tell our viewers about it. >> i have been sick since april 17th, so almost five weeks now. i am 33 years old, healthy, a runner, don't have any pre-existing conditions, never smoked a cigarette before. but over a month later, i still get short of breath after a short time walking. i'm using two inhalers twice a day, still sleeping on my stomach on my couch.

for me the symptom was the scary symptom of waking up and feeling like an elephant was sitting on my chest. day two i woke up and i couldn't get a deep breath unless i was on all fours. about an hour after that, i ended up at the emergency room to get checked out. thank god in my case my oxygen was high enough that they were able to release me and i was able to manage at home and i never crashed. so now i'm recovering from covid pneumonia which is fairly common. >> mara, i had dr. fair on this week. for the two of you, two familiar faces to our viewers, you are a colleague and a friend, to have had this, it is clear it's a virus that doesn't care what political party you're in, doesn't care about your age or your fitness. just talk about what you thought before and how getting it

changed what you think now. are you more cautious? are you more concerned? i see those pictures of people without masks on or i go to the grocery store and i will not walk down an aisle if there's someone with a mask on. my 8-year-old puts a mask on in the car. it's so disheartening the things that will keep us safe have become ladened with politics in some places. >> i think we're learning more about the virus, obviously, day by day. the reason i felt so strongly about writing about my experience is i think there's a sense among americans who are healthy or who are not in high risk categories that, well, it's a very tiny number of people who end up in the er on investigates. only 1% of people will actually die which, by the way, is a lot of americans. let's not discount that.

there's been a lot of focus on that small percentage in the hospital and understandably and rightly so. they think, if they're not in that category, they're guaranteed to have a mild course of this, they think they'll have a fever for a couple days, maybe a cough and move on. i think actually, when i'm doing my reporting and talking to doctors and in my personal experience, there are a lot of us -- the number of people with, quote, unquote, moderate covid symptoms which is to say, not so sick you're in the icu but you might still have pneumonia or other ailments for weeks at a time or even months, is actually much larger than the number of people in the icu. in addition to this, it shows you how dangerous the virus can be, and i think you can -- even if you have an extremely mild course, you can give it to someone who won't. >> mara, you wrote a beautiful tweet. it made me cry when i read it. you said how do you thank the people that get you through something like this, the friends

that bring you soup, the nurses. i think people are starved for those connections. we're all missing our connections and our friends. when you were sick, it sounds like you were deservedly taken care of and felt held by all your friends and the people that cared about you. just talk about that. >> you know, i live in a fifth floor walkup on my own in brooklyn, and there was not a day that went by where one of my friends wasn't dropping off food or some home made soup or a prescription. i had other friends who are medical professionals who were calling me on their bikes on their way to the hospital where they were treating covid patients, checking in with me. i'm overwhelmed with gratitude and love for them, but i'm also i think heartbroken because, as i was laying there at night kind of trying to catch my breath, i would hear the sirens from the

ambulances coming for my neighbors and just the knowledge that so many americans and so many new yorkers, especially people who look like me who are black or brown just didn't have that support they needed, many ed cal or otherwise, has been very difficult for me emotionally. i have some guilt about that. but it's just gratitude. even yesterday i received in the mail from someone i met on the campaign trail a couple months ago who lives in tennessee, home made mask that she sewed me with michigan colors, because i went to the university of michigan, and an elvis mask because she's from tennessee. someone else sent me a breathing machine to exercise my lungs, people i've never met. it's pretty overwhelming. i'm pretty grateful. >> you deserve it, my friend. i'm so glad you're on the mend. you gave me some health advice, too. what did you tell me to buy?

an oxy meter? >> an oximeter. oximeter is a magical device you put on your fingertip, get it for under $60. it will measure your pulse or blood oxygen. if you get sick and it goes beneath 95 and you're having chest symptoms, you need to go to the er. don't just stay home. >> mara gay, we're so glad you're feeling better. we appreciate you telling your story. thank you so much for spending some time with us today. coming up, as donald trump pushes to reopen schools, a plurality of americans say they're not ready to send their kids back to the classroom. when we return, we'll talk about what it will take for that to change.

. . the months ahead hold plenty of uncertainty for the country's millions of students and their families.

new polling showed the report to push open schools isn't landing well with many voters. according to a poll, 41% of americans think it's a bad idea to reopen schools. that said, new york university announced yesterday it will resume in-person classes this fall, even as other schools in lesser hit cities like harvard and california state university are going to open completely remotely. cambridge university has canceled all face to face lectures until 2021. randy, you have been a voice of optimism in terms of where this is heading. we haven't spoken, i don't think since news of this syndrome in kids, i think, struck new terror and i know it's rare, something

we're still learning about. two-part question -- where are we in the conversation about schools and how does that impact the conversations that your having in the debate among households and families? >> so, first off, thank you as always for having me on. and second, i'm still optimistic butless every time donald trump opens his month, he actually hurts the ability to get back to school in the fall. because what he does is, he makes this false choice of like it's lockdown or flipping a switch. and i, you know, watched your last section with mara, and what's happened is so many people are asymptomatic. you don't know where the disease lurks. we think it's actually much more reduced in places like new york and, you know, the other coast,

but this is really the issue and the question and i want to get to the kawasaki disease in a minute we're not going to have a vaccine for months. in the absence of a vaccine, and in the absence of everyone getting tested like mike pence and donald trump get every single day so they basically know they're negative and they know the people around them are negative. we have to make sure that there's little disease in a community as possible. that's why the tracing, the testing, the isolation is so important. and then when you get to either schools, or colleges, you have to go through the exercise of how you reduce as much transmission as practical of the disease in schools. so that's why the issue really becomes how do you build the models that first and foremost have the physical distancing,

whether it's staggered classes, whether it's -- how you do all the things that so kids are six or five feet away from each other and are not breathing on each other and teachers and kids aren't breathing on each other. it could be masks, staggered classes, it could be cleaning every single day. it must be washing hands. all of that has to be put in place and parents and teachers have to be engaged in that process, but the last thing i'll say, nicolle, all of this cost money. our back of the envelope thinking is it's going to cost 20% more to do all of these things. i'll give you one example -- think about, like your son, say, your son is in the a group, i'm in the b group. your son goes to school monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday and friday in the morning.

i go to school monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday in the afternoon. you have to have double bus routes, double cleanings what happens in the off-days? you can figure these things out if there's off-time. the parent says i'm not into this, we do remote. if a teacher is over 65 and says i have pre-existing, say that teacher is part of five teachers of second grade, that teacher does the remote. but it's matter of planning but we need the money from washington to actually have the funds to do this work. >> randi, let me ask you about inequality, another piece of it is the partnership. if you're a parent and you also think, i'm going to take my kid's temperature every day, it's up, i'm going to stay home or have a family member come stay home with my kid, not

everybody has that luxury -- how do we bridge the inequality and make it so that only people with the luxury of being able to work from home are able to keep their kids home from school? it seems it could set off another cycle of infection. >> i know i showed you our little study from, you know, a few weeks ago, but we -- we think that you have to have some isolation rooms in schools, staffed by nurses. so what happens if a parent dropped off a kid and the parent is at work, you can't reach the parent and the parent has to -- what are we going to do in terms of the youngster? all of these things have to be thought through, but, you know, what's going to happen is, and look, i'm a big believer that we have to reopen safely and

carefully because all the things we need to do not only for the economy but for parents and kids' sanity and for bringing kids together and for dealing with instructional loss and all of the inequities. if we don't this safely and carefully, it's going to be a huge mess. >> randi, we need more time. we need to make a date to spend more than one block. so we'll put it on the calendar hopefully for next week. this is on the mind of moms and dads and employers got to know if their work force is going to be able to come back, too. >> kawasaki disease, there are doctors, like my sister, who's an icu doctor who are watching this very carefully and talking to the other pediatricians about what this means and all of this, the scientists and healthcare

workers are heroic now that the federal government and the cdc should be doing now. >> thank you so much. coming up for us -- donald trump doing everything he can to shore-up his own political weakness heading into november. "deadline: white house" begins next. our homes. overnight, they became our offices, schools and playgrounds. all those places out there are now in here. that's why we're still offering fast, free two day shipping on thousands of items. even the big stuff.

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political failty, his party now left grappling with the reality of the trump bubble could pop so spectacularly in november as to cause republicans their senate majority, everything donald trump does clearly done otherwise to shore-up his political weakness ahead of november. nbc news reports on the president's trip to capitol hill yesterday, which was not about his administration's plan to combat coronavirus, as all states move to reopen without adequate support from feds. quote, the president's latest campaign strategy involves pushing investigations into the obamaed a min straegs's treatment of mike flynn. as the president is six months away from facing bide in the general election and with the senate now in play, there's a very real possibility that democrats could control all the elected levers in power for the

first time since the republicans won back the house in 2010, that's the backdrop to phase two of donald trump's war on science. his political allies lining up doctors to prescribe reopenings that contradict the guidance of trump's own government. trump's incompetence on science and public health that give joe biden his greatest political advantage yet. maybe you inject clorox into your blood it may cure you. what in god's name is he doing? the word of the president matters. this is absolutely inresponsible. there's no serious medical personnel out there saying to use that drug, it's counterproductive, it's not going to help, but the president, he decided that's answer so what do you think

people are going to be doing? you think they're not going to use it? look at the studies that have been done, it does much more harm than good. this is totally irresponsible. totally irresponsible. >> the president is a hazard to our health as well as to his own political survival is where we start today. ron klain, an adviser to joe biden is back. dr. kavita patel, worked on the h1n1 and peter baker is here. peter, to hear an incumbent president to outsource medical advice, his campaign has a statement out today, robert costa was on the last hour describing the campaign effort, to counter the doctors that work for the cdc and the fda and the

president's own government, to hear the challenger in this case former vice president joe biden, quoting the doctors who work for donald trump, the fda and cdc and the executive branch leaders in science and health that work for trump, it just feels like the world is upside-down. >> well, look, this goes to the heart of president trump's view of his government generally since the day he took office, whether it be the career intelligence officials, career law enforcement officials, whether it be the meteorologists at the national weather service who said there was no hurricane in alabama, time and time again, what we have seen a president at war with his own government, disbelieving the advice he's getting from the professionals, seeing them as enemies, members of the deep state, who are out to get him. just yesterday when he was explaining why he thought it was okay to take hydroxychloroquine, he said the only negative was done by the v.a., done by

trump's enemies. why are they trump's enemies? other than contradictory evidence. we haven't seen it as exaggerated and extraordinary as we have seen it with this president. it's now coming to fruition at a time of national health crisis. >> peter, don't we have enough information, though, to that trump was lying in the intelligence community as come confirmed in senate intelligence assessment that russia sought to aid trump. your news organizations and other newspapers znoaa, we know those were lies.

the government experts are telling the truth. >> look, he has shown from the beginning that he creates his own reality to some extent. he's asked, how do you know this? i have a lot of phone calls. we asked him what metrics when deciding to reopen the government? he's said i know more about war than the generals. i know more about anything than the experts. it was with him at the cdc in early march was this starting to come down the path in a big way, he talked about how he had a special gift for science because his uncle was a for fes so at m.i.t. he sees them as looking for ways to bring him down, not to -- not as actors who are providing fair-minded, good-faith advice, but people who have political

agen agendas. >> dr. patel, let's stick with the theme of the president and his lies. nbc news has done a fact check on donald trump's claim that frontline workers are taking hiydroxychloroquine to prevent. reporting this, they don't have any evidence to back up prevent cov covid-19. any evidence in the medical work, anecdotal or imper call, that donald trump taking hydroxychloroqui hydroxychloroquine. >> number one, it's absolutely not proven to be effective in that scenario. trust me, if there's anybody who

would want to try to do something to prevent getting an infection, remember, healthcare workers are also thought to potentially be spreading this when we're not protected. if anybody would be interested, it would be healthcare workers. it's true that there are clinical trials still looking at whether or not there'shydroxych. so far it can show it has an excess of negative consequences. unfortunately w the president kind of stating misinformation it's obscuring the ability for science to actually find the real information. >> dr. patel, the voice of yours and others seems to be connecting with the american public. 83% of all americans are concerned that lifting restrictions will lead to an increase in infections and only 16% are not concerned. does that at some level, you

know, maybe reassure people -- i know you watch donald trump with a combination of shock and concern. >> it does reassure me that i think americans are listening to experts, i think they're also honestly they're facing their own mortality because the truth is, this virus knows no boundaries. in fact, we have seen very healthy people of all ages but especially young healthy people are succumbing to this virus. it gives me comfort, what we need to do now move to a place where we can get action able data, everybody's accepted we need to figure out how to reopen schools the economy, workplaces, but instead of offering that federal guidance, with that leadership, we're displacing that responsibility to local employees who don't have this knowledge and resources to local schools who have been

underresourced and parents like you and me and others who are struggling to understand fact from fiction. but i'm hoping the facts went out. so your numbers do comfort me. >> ron klain, you're hearing wearing both hats, as an adviser to joe biden. coordinated the federal government's response to the deadly ebola outbreak. let me show the president responding to a question about reopening the economy. his top priority. he didn't want to answer questions about it. >> mr. president, why haven't you announced a plan to get 36 million unemployed americans back to work? you're overseeing historic economic despair. >> i think we've announced a plan, we're opening up our country. just a rude person you are. we're opening up our country. we're opening it up very fast. the plan is that each state is

opening and it's opening up very effectively. and when you see the numbers i think -- even you will be impressed, which is pretty hard to impress you. go ahead, please. >> that's enough of you. >> just an unbelievable display of rudeness and unpresidential conduct to a journalist. we both worked for presidents who didn't always like, in my case who often didn't like what was written about him. your thoughts on the conduct and the substance of his response there. >> the conduct is certainly no surprise at this stage in the game, nicolle, what we have seen in three years, that's not going change. it's never going to change. the substance is interesting, because i think the president is making a big gamble, i mean, what he's saying, basically, i have a one-point plan to fix economy, we're going to hang up we're open signs, that's it,

judge me on that. i think the problem with that, nicolle, trump can't deny the reality here. by the end of this month 100,000 americans will be dead from this virus, that's reality, in no small part of his. some of the jobs will come back as the states reopen. i think president trump will have to answer for the fact that he has no plan to fix the handling of the virus, no plan to bring back jobs, and has to be judged by the results of his leadership. and it's a failure on the health front, and i think it's going to be a failure on the economic front, too. >> ron, president obama got a lot of attention for his comments in the first of his two commencement addresses given on saturday for calling out leadership in washington without saying donald trump's name.

is that the sort of framework for how -- people alot of peopl former president obama's comments as fair game, it's now been proven, investigative report by "the new york times," there was this lost six to eight weeks, where the government was warned about the pandemic, they were warned about how lethal it was, they did nothing. e-mails came out within the executive branch they were warning people at the highest level of the executive branch. what's joe biden's plan to talk about the pandemic heading into the general election? >> well, i mean, i think it's a very strong contrast, in january, biden posted an op-ed, he said we need to get ready. donald trump was saying it's not a problem at all, i got it under

control. in february the vice president spoke out and say, we need to get facts from china about what's going on there, donald trump was praising president xi for his handling of this virus. vice president laid out in mid-march, you can go to joebiden.com/covid and read his comprehensive plan to handle this pandemic. while donald trump abdicates responsibility. i think there's a stark, complete contrast between the leadership of the vice president and what president has done. and you know, nicolle, it's just not backward looking, still to this day, the president can provide leadership. you talked to randi in the last hour, she's begging for leadership and help from washington, schools and teachers want it. all the president does is, sit

there and says, put up the we're open sign. i think voters are going to recognize that. >> peter, a new poll out today shows that joe biden's at 50%. donald trump at 39% nationally. you and your colleagues have done some great reporting on some of the places where the trump campaign had hoped to plus up their coalition, all those efforts seriously undermine by the president's pandemic response. i played that sound of trump, i'm pretty judicious what i amplify by the president because of his penchant for lying. i thought it was interesting, at this point, he's abdicating every aspect of his job including restarting the economy.

is there any front on which they feel they're on the offense? >> well, obviously on the offense in going after vice president biden, they're on the offense of going after china, world health organization, looking at others to say, here's how these people -- this person didn't do well in that instance. but you're right, i think they're looking at an electoral map that has gotten more complicated. it would be interesting he would choose today by attacking michigan for sending out mail-in ballots. of course republican-led states are doing very similar things. michigan, pennsylvania, arizona, the states where he's worried.

they tried to turn on the offense making it about vice president biden and how everybody else handled the coronavirus rather than how the president handled it. >> the only wrinkle there, he's the only one in charge. thanks to all three of you for starting us off. when we come back -- mike pompeo defends the firing of the state department's inspector general. all the latest reporting coming up. plus, trump threatening to deny the state of michigan lawfully appropriated funds well, because the state wants its citizens to have a safer way to vote this fall. and nancy pelosi calling out the president. all those stories coming up.

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two new reports about secretary of state mike pompeo leave questions still about the firing of his department's watchdog. the first, a stunningly detailed piece of reporting by nbc news of the secretary's hosting of, quote, madison dinners, unpublicized events that pompeo and his wife started hosting in 2018 and held regularly on the government's dime. from that report, quote state department officials involved in the dinner said they had revealed concerns internal inte. -- complete with ex's theive contact information that gets sent back to susan pompeo's personal e-mail address. "the new york times" report found pompeo declined an interviewy from the state

department's inspector general who was investigating the legality of the weapons sales to saudi arabia last year. pompeo chose to answer written questions, signalling he was aware of the ig's investigation. he said the opposite earlier today. >> i recommended it to the president that steve linick be terminated. frankly should have done it some time ago. let's be clear, that this was in some retaliation, is patently false. i have no sense of what was taking place inside the inspector general's office. i have seen the various stories that someone was walking my dog to sell arms, to my dry cleaning. it's all crazy stuff. >> let's not what any of the stories said. and i'm sure he knows that. peter baker with "the new york

times" is back. "the new york times" david singer, the byline on the reporting, bombshell reporting when you have secretary of state brazenly saying, he had no idea what was being investigated. he answered questions from the ig? >> exactly. he knew exactly what was being investigated at least in this one area, whether or not the state department illegally bypassed congressional restrictions on arms sales to the saudi arabia and uae. he turned down an opportunity to be interviewed in that investigation and provided those written answers anyway. you know, it's has to put in a larger context, the larger context is, inspectors general across this administration are being terminated at a time when this president is obviously making a play to enforce loyalty

within his administration even among the people whose jobs it is to scrutinize what happens in the administration and provide an independent voice. >> a scoop from your colleagues weeks ago that the trump administration told us they were going to do this, a purge list in lretribution of the impeachment. they were to set about seeking retribution and it included the icig in some regards they're doing what they told us they were going to do. >> well, that's right. it goes back to what we were talking about in the previous segment. the president doesn't trust the government around him. who doesn't want voices in that government with who he perceives to be disloyal to him, contrary to direction he's setting. when he sees an ig perform an

audit or an investigation of department's mishandling of some affairs, he esees someone who's challengi challenging him. someone who can provide information by the way to the secretary of state to make fixes when necessary. this is a concept that president trump doesn't accept the idea there will be internal critics in effect and in keeping with his view of oversight generally, he wouldn't let dr. fauci testify before the democratic house, he wouldn't provide information to the house during the impeachment inquiries and he's in court right now fighting against releasing information to other watchdog or investigatory.

>> recommending the firing of an ig investigating something very serious, he wants to diminish arms sales, potentially illegal arms sales and smash it together with what's highly problematic, the corrupt personal practices of having federal employees to walk your dog is very serious. talk a little bit about mike pompeo's role as an ideological soulmate. based on the times reporting the ig, was investigating personal conduct that's not in line with the laws and ethics at the state department or any government employee is allowed to do.

just talk about the picture of what mike pompeo is alleged to have done in terms of the misconduct that was under investigation. >> yeah, he laughs it off as somebody walking his dog and selling arms to his dry clean. a pattern of instances here that raises concerns, held against other officials who have done it. these dinners are fascinating. he was calling them the madison dinners. if you look at the guest list that nbc came up, only a small handful are actually foreign officials, many more of them are corporate executive or political figures, fox news media personalities and every single member of congress who's been

invited to these is republican. that suggests more partisan flavor to these events. as you pointed out, those names are passed along to his wife to the appropriate protocol or to some official government agency. >> it's an unbelievable state of affairs for the country's secretary of state. peter baker thank you for sticking around for us today. after the break, donald trump threatening to withhold federal funding from two states today. their big crime in his view -- attempting toic ma it easier and safer to vote during a pandemic. that story, next. since my dvt blood clot

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threatened to withhold federal funding to two states as part of a bogus accusation about mail-in voting. on twitter he inaccurately

accused officials in michigan of illegal sending out mail-in ballots. later correcting it to mail-in applications. and nevada was trying to cheat the election by disseminating mail-in ballots for its upcoming primary. he's called the process illegal before and has insisted without evidence that it holds a bias toward democratic candidates. joining us is matt miller and mike steele. michael, give us some facts. i know you're involved in this effort. >> real quick, the president himself received his sta stay-at-home vote by mail ballot about a month ago from the state of florida, all of that criminality and corruption clearly was not enough to stop

him from doing that. that's fact number one. number two, look, this process right now takes into account a truth -- and that's not everyone even with a lessening of coronavirus, in the fall, is going to be in a position to engage in voting just on their own. i mean, there's still going to be a lot of stay-at-home -- not stay at home, social distancing measures will be in place, so there are a lot of variables what we're asking the congress to do, please take these into account now, understanding where we are now with voting now, give americans access to the ballot box they need. $400 million appropriated in the stimulus 3 package was a good start. projected number is closer to $4 billion for all 50 states and territories to provide an appropriate, adequate access to the ballot box so states can put

in place the personal, the mechanisms, they can put in place the training and they most importantly better coordinate with the u.s. postal system and other agencies to make sure that when you go to vote and when your viewers go to vote, they have a means to click a button, request a ballot sent to their home and send it back. >> matt miller, i spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about how donald trump gets in the political arena and then slings mud and use his kids to fight the most ugly and nasty way that any sort of political campaign can be waged, but this is an example of how he also seeks to blow up the actual arena, he's not just trying to diminish his opponent he's trying to kind of decimate the game, talk about the threat to the actual election, to have a president who will be one of the

choices in november attacking the process. >> look, i think this tweet today was in some ways the modern gop in the nutshell, you have trump taking what has been really a modern republican party's orthodoxy about voting. withhold funds from states trying to make it easier for people to vote in the middle of an public health and economic crises. making it harder to vote by restricting polling hours and voter i.d., i think you'll see an effort from the president on down, especially if the prospects start to look worse and worse for them, if the president is still trailing joe biden in the fall the way he is now, republican senators i think the republican control of the senate is in doubt, you're going

on see further attacks on the right to vote and look, vote by mail is not just happening in michigan, it's happening in states controlled by republican secretary of states. an absolute threat to democracy in this country and to your point, i think very worrisome when you see the person at the head of government who's supposed to be charged with faithfully executing all the duties he swore to uphold in the constitution trying to undermine the most sacred right in a democracy, it's a concern. one of the greatest concerns you could have. >> and so what do we do, michael steele? i think we're all in agreement and i guess my question is, do mike dewine, republican governor of ohio, do larry hogan, republican governor of maryland, does it take a fight among

republicans to get on the right side of this, it becomes partisan. >> you're right, the unfortunate part of this it's partisan. there have been efforts in the past, in certain states, to abrej access to the ballot box, make it more difficult for folks to reach the polls, to move a polling place where grandma used to be able to walk down the street and now she has to catch three buses, grandma is going to stay at home. what i try to emphasize to my conservative republican friend, that's our voter, grandma is our voter. so, if there's concern in the family about grandma going to the polls in november, regardless of where we are with coronavirus, then what happens is, you immediately cut the opportunity for your voter to get to the ballot box, why not provide that access for her. what we're encouraging people to

push the pressure where it belongs, on the members of congress, everyone who wants to vote this november, to express at the ballot box who they want to be the next president of the united states should be on the phone, should be writing, should be calling their members and letting them know we need you to get in front of this issue now, you can't wait until late august and early september, to go, gee, we may have a problem with voting in november, let's do something about it. now's the time to do it. citizens, this is your opportunity where you step up and you tell your elected representatives, oh, just remember you're on the ballot in november and we'll remember whether or not you actually allowed us access to that ballot. >> i think we need to come back and talk about what that looks like and how people do that. because i think there's a feeling of, okay, we'll call our member of congress and then what? at least on the republican side,

they all seem to march in lock step. neither of you are going anywhere. i think on another day, we should talk about what that looks like. as i said, matt and michael steele are staying place. nancy pelosi going after once again donald trump. her unique relationship with the president and her communications strategy. that's next. (soft music)

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the president, i gave him a dose of his own medicine. he's called women one thing or another over time. i was only quoting what doctors had said about him, it was being factual and very sympathetic way. it's like a child who comes with mud on their pants or something, that's the way it is. they're outside playing. he comes with doggy doo on his shoes and everybody who works with him has that on their shoes, too, for a very long time to come. >> speaker nancy pelosi defending comments she made earlier this week about the president's weight and signaling when it comes to the attacks she's not afraid to go toe to toe with donald trump. matle miller and michael steele are back. she was on our show yesterday, matt miller, and she's absolutely right. he called me a dog. he called a former miss usa miss

piggy. said horrible things about carly fiorina. he goes after people. as soon as you point out that's on a white house document that says he's morbidly obese, he goes berserk. >> my first thought when i heard nancy pelosi's comment was the pressure on the doctor to put out a document that he weighs 195. i think she plays a valuable role over the next six months, joe biden i think has the ability to campaign on the issues and to be above the fray a little bit and has a real street fighter in the speaker of the house who's not afraid to punch below the belt a little

bit in the same way that the president does. >> michael steele, it's undenibble that she's hitting him where it hurts. >> yeah, she rolls like that. don't want to mess with nancy. i don't think donald trump wants any of that. at the end of the day, given -- given how he has reacted to powerful women in the past, and how they seemingly make him so uncomfortable, i just don't think going into a battle like he's going to have to this november, fighting on two or three fronts, one of whom may be with nancy pelosi doesn't make the kind of sense that political strategists would allow you to engage in, so there's that. but the side of donald trump where he wants to be the guy who

pushes back, he wants to be in play, the role of bully, he thinks by his very presence and whatever he thinks goes into it, he can intimidate, that's lost on someone like nancy pelosi who from the very beginning of her term as speaker has made it very clear, little boy, i got you. i know you. that example in the clip you just played stands out, where she refers to him like a little child coming in with poop on his shoes. >> i mean, matt miller, her attacks have the added benefit of being provable. he does play gutter ball, he seems people with the ugliest, most personal insults, he's on the ram page against our colleague joe scarborough, .

but donald trump plays this game of the lowest -- not even common denominator, below the belt ugliness. nancy pelosi with all of her elegance just quoting facts, just quoting the last health report we got, even with their all spin describes him as morbidly obese, he doesn't seem to have any down side. do you see any risk to it? >> no, and you're right, the thing about a fight with donald trump is, donald trump has to lie about his political opponents in order to be successful and the democrats either in congress or, you know, joe biden and others who are campaigning against him, just have to tell the truth, about his policies, about the way he runs the government, it's true about his personal style and you know, to fall back on the point i was making a second ago, if you look at the way republicans are going to use their senate

majority, to try to smear joe biden, to gin up false attacks against him and come up with sham investigations just to give fox something to talk about and democrats need to be just as bold, they don't need to be shameless, they don't need to lie, to make things up the way republicans do, the truth is enough for them but they have to be bold and speaker pelosi has shown that she's not going to shy away from taking the fight away from donald trump. it's an important for the country and for the biden campaign. >> michael steele, matt miller just eluded to the trump presidency. the weakness of that strategy seems because of impeachment, the whole country knows about what donald trump and rudy giuliani were alleging and anyone who was going to

persuaded, have done that. not the desired fact of bringing the middle along. the mission of the president if he wants to win re-election is re-election is to stop juicing the base, right? i mean, at some point it's to turn toward the swing voter, the married women, the people that put him over the edge, and attacking joe and hunter biden does not begin to speak to the kind of voters that he needs to convince again. >> i think that's true, but i think you have to contextualize what we're talking about here. everything you just said is not about that independent voter, those suburban women, et cetera. that's about his base. that element of the campaign is about how i'm going to keep my base erin gauged and angry. the flip side of that, the other strategy is the economy.

which is why you have such a rush to open it up. because that was the piece that brought the softer, more center-right, center-left independent voter to the table. and i think that's going to be a bifurcated strategy you'll see. one for the base and the economic piece that's still in play that he wants to make at least for those independent suburban voters. >> i love getting into the political weeds with you two, two of the smartest minds. michael steele and matt miller, thank you so much for spending some time with us. after the break a hospital hero, a veteran, and the owner of a restaurant in queens celebrating three lives well lived. rating three lives well lived o give you truly transformative sleep. so, no more tossing and turning... or trouble falling asleep. because only tempur-pedic uses proprietary tempur® material... that continuously adapts and responds to your body, to relieve pressure... so you get deep, uninterrupted sleep. all night. every night. the tempur-pedic summer of sleep starts now, with all tempur-pedic mattresses on sale,

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in the wake of hurricane sandy. so when the coronavirus arrived in new york city, there was no question. "the new york times" reports this. family, friends, and colleagues begged him to retire. he was 62 after all. so it was about that time anyway. but dr. mahoney had a job to do. so he did day shifts at one hospital, night shifts at another. going from one critical patient to the next. but then he got sick. the virus killed him late last month. remembered as supremely kind and uncommonly approachable for such a senior-level doctor, dr. mahoney, a father of three, had heart. his hospital was chronically underfunded. so christmas bonuses came oust his own pocket. he was a hero. alan twofoot of merrimack, new hampshire was something of a hero himself. 28 distinguished years in the army. a bronze star for his service in iraq. and the honorable order of st. barber, awarded to those who

show integrity and moral character in the artillery branch. his family of course will remember him differently. they say he made an impact on everyone he met. a father of three, a grandfather of two. alan's daughter spoke to wmur after he died of coronavirus and put things into perspective. "okay, so you can't go shopping," she said. "you can't get your hair bleached. did you you didn't lose a parent." one more parent to tell you about before we go. kathleen mcnulty. when her son posted on facebook that she'd passed from the virus, the response was overwhelming. 60 years ago after they immigrated here from ireland kathleen and her late husband opened a pub in queens. the irish cottage restaurant. so the announcement of her death turned into an outpouring of sympathy and kind words from the community. and people who had known her. to make matters worse the irish cottage is shutting down for good. but in making that nuancement kathleen's son wrote, "my mom would say there's no use crying in your beer."

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because they never quit. welcome to wednesday. it is "meet the press daily." i'm chuck todd continuing msnbc's coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. mark today on your calendars. every single state in the country is now officially easing restrictions. this will be a line of demarcation. as you can see, over the past month there has been a slow but steady trickle of states starting to open the valve by letting stay-at-home orders expire and allowing some businesses and facilities attempt to reopen. some states have opened their valves more than others. but here we are on a day that will be viewed as a major milestone in this