i geh. common bird.e. ooh look! over here! something much better. there it is. peacock, included with xfinity x1. remarkable. fascinating. -very. it streams tons of your favorite shows and movies, plus the latest in sports news and... huh - run! the newest streaming app has landed on xfinity x1. now that's... simple. easy. awesome. xfinity x1 just got even better with peacock premium included at no additional cost. no strings attached. just say "peacock" into your voice remote to start watching today. good afternoon. i'm chuck todd. here are the facts as we know them this hour. in any moment now, we are expecting a briefing from president trump himself at the

white house. not quite sure what the topic is. wouldn't be surprised if it is hong kong related. the executive director of the world health organization warned today that south africa is shaping up to be the new epicenter of the covid-19 outbreak. brazil is currently third in the world for number of confirmed cases. universal orlando has proposed a plan to reopen to the pub lilic in a few weeks. the florida theme park, owned by our parent company, comcast, wants to start accepting visitors as early as june 5th. the prime minister of new zealand is floating the idea of instituting a four-day work week in order to promote domestic tourism as her country opens back up. while the decision would be left to individual businesses, the government would encourage them to cooperate. joining me now is my co-anchor for the next two hours, katy tur. i know we are tap dancing with the white house. we think it is hong kong related. we'll see. we may learn some news from him on the pandemic, as well. >> quite a few things going on that i'm sure he's going to want

to seize on. let's get to the numbers real fast. they shine a light on the scope of the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. unemployment is up in all 50 states and washington, d.c., according to the bureau of labor statistics. 20 states saw at least a 10% increase in joblessness from march to april. a few saw significantly more than that in one month. unemployment rates went up 18% in michigan, about 20% in hawaii, and more than 20% in nevada, which owns the highest unemployment rate at 28.2%. chuck, these numbers are not great. they continue to get worse. they make the likelihood of a v-shaped recovery, which is what the administration had been promoting, increasingly not likely in the time before the election comes. >> look, it's hard because the v-shape recovery would come with an economy opening up at full

capacity. we just talked about, our colleagues in another department here in the world of comcast, universal orlando, they're not -- even if they open up, they're not opening up at 100% capacity. restaurants are opening at 100% capacity. there's no way you get a v in that way. that's the real concern, is how many of these temporary jobs become permanent? then, of course, the other concern is this idea that, actually, it turns into a little bit of a "w," right? maybe there is a small uptick the end of this calendar year, and then all the structural reorganizations take place. that leads to another spike in unemployment. >> or potentially maybe another spike in the virus and another series of lockdowns in some states at the very least. what that might mean for the economy coming up in the fall. i know the president is going to come out. let's get in as much news as we possibly can, right, chuck? >> you got it.

we're going to do our best. president trump has said his rememb regimen of hydroxychloroquine ends today. a study on six continents linked the drug to an increased risk of irregular heart rhythm, which led to death in some coronavirus patients. this as the president is pushing ahead with reopening, no matter, in his mind, what happens next. >> are you concerned about a potential second wave of this virus? >> people say that's a very distinct possibility. it's standard. we're going to put out the fires. we're not going to close the country. we're going to put out the fires. whether it is an ember or a flame, we're going to put it out. but we're not closing our country. >> joining us now is our colleague and nbc news' carol lee from the white house. we got a little heads up. what we heard from other members of the administration, reacting to the news in hong kong, are we

expecting to hear that from the president today? >> reporter: well, it might be among the questions that he gets today, chuck. i just heard from a white house official who said he is actually coming out to speak about new guidelines for places of worship. this is something that he hinted at earlier he wanted to release today. we have a little detail from white house official about what those guidelines entail. it includes things like recommending face coverings, basic hygiene, like hand washing, and also avoid sharing. the basic overtones of this is the white house doesn't want to be too prescriptive. that's what the official was stressing when i talked to them earlier. they want it to be something that is really left up to individual religious leaders. they don't -- that was the problem they had with the cdc's guidelines. while this may be a cdc document after this back and forth has

been over, it is really a white house document. >> i was just going to say, carol, it's actually quite striking, that the only guidelines the president wants to personally unveil himself are that. i mean, there's obviously a lot of political overtones in that decision, as well, no? >> reporter: absolutely. this is something that the president's key constituency, evangelical voters, are really keen on. he met with pastors -- or had a conference call with over 1,000 pastors yesterday. he's really been engaged in this, and he's tried to cast this as a wedge issue, saying that democrats are -- some democratic governors, specifically pointing at governor of california, are saying that churches should maintain, you know, virtual way of doing business as opposed to things like restaurants and other things. you know, he really wants it. he is hitting this hard, and i think he's going to continue to do that. he really wants to own this. we just got a note that they're

putting up slides in the briefing room for his press conference. he is really going to make a show of it. >> carol lee starting us off at the white house. carol, thanks very much. katy, you're about to move on to a new headline. i'll be curious to see how aggressively political the president gets in presenting these guidelines. does he ak tictively want to pi fight with democratic governors, or does he present the guide lines and complain on twitter? we'll see. >> you know, i think it depends on the questioning he gets and whether he feels pressed. he tends to lash out more when reporters end up pressing him on things. we'll see what happens. we're keeping an eye on that blue sliding door, and we'll go to him when he comes out. let's get to this other story, which the trump campaign has been seizing on. former vice president joe biden's campaign is responding to criticism over his telling the black host of a syndicated radio show, quote, you ain't black if you vote for president trump instead of him.

here is that exchange between the presumptive democratic nominee and "the breakfast club host." >> you have to see us when you come to new york. >> i will. >> it is a long way to november. we have more questions. >> if you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or trump, and you ain't black. >> the biden campaign is responding in a series of tweets. symone sanders said the comments made were in jest, but let's be clear about what the vp was saying. he was making the distinction that he would put his record with the african-american community up against trump's any day. period. joining us now is msnbc correspondent tremaine lee. now, the vice president is being accused of treating the black vote as if it is a monolith, tremaine. >> you ain't black. the level of hubris it takes for

an old man, any white man, to say he can determine who is black and who isn't, is clearly outlandish. but even in jest, these are kind of the comments that could be problematic. he clearly knows his audience on there, playing it loose and fast with "the breck taak fsfast clu" this week on my podcast, we talked about biden's prospects. it'll take more than off the cuff, insensitive remarks to knock that support. if tara reade allegations aren't going to block it, it'll take more than this. these are unforced errors. he's feeling comfortable. we saw this in the past with bill clinton. people referred to him as the first black president, which people took offense to. others said it was his persona. joe biden feels comfortable, he

has the proximity with president obama. but this is unnecessary, unneeded, and problematic. >> his support among older black voters is pretty strong, but when you get to black voters that are under the age of 30, bernie sanders made a lot of in roads. talk to me about the breakdown between the age groups. >> well, there is a really live, in that the root of that is a lot of younger, black voters who come of age during black lives matter, so on and so on, engage with social media and information in a different way are much more progressive and radical. many of them see joe biden's status quo, center lane politics as not just offp-putting, but quite frankly, dangerous. older voters have been around the corn and ablock and are thi pragmatically. they see people across the spectrum going up against donald trump. the divide is real. the question is, were the

younger voters reliable voters anyway? we saw the turnout barack obama got and the coalition coming out in support of him. young folks, old folks, in the middle. it is unclear whether they're reliable or not. they can play loose with it. >> they didn't show up for hillary clinton. tremaine lee, thank you very much. listen to the latest edition of his podcast, "into america." he takes a closer look at women voters and biden's 2020 bid. chuck, over to you. all of this comes as president trump is struggling in recent polls. joining us now is our nbc news national political correspondent steve kornacki. steve, look, it's not been new that the president is trailing, but he's starting to get into dangerous territory historically. boy, when you look at the inside of that fox poll, as bad as an eigh eight-point deficit it is for the president, you realize it was their least democratic poll they'd had in a while.

tells you a lot. >> also an issue where trump is expected to have an advantage on the economy. i'll show a couple stats on that and how it ties in here. from the fox poll, this is no surprise, but the last poll they took before the pandemic took hold, a majority of americans said the economy was in good shape, good or excellent shape, 55%. now, the number, again, not surprising, but it is down to 20%, in terms of how bad americans perceive the economic calamity right now. is it the worst since the depression? majority, 54%, say yes, this is the worst it's been since the depression. now, that's bad, although, keep in mind, during the start of the great recession, 2009, that number was higher, about 11 points higher, at 65%. it's not quite as widespread in terms of folks saying this is the worst since the depression, but it is still pretty bad. the economy is going sharply in the wrong direction. who do voters think is better equipped to handle it? again, though, interestingly, this is where trump maintains a slight but still maintains a

45%/42% edge over biden. here's the thing, ask about not the economy but the coronavirus itself. it turns around there. there's trump in the 30s. there's biden at 46% on that issue. again, that seems to be carrying the day here. you mentioned the eight-point lead. there it is, o evverall, eight-point lead for biden over trump, despite trump having a small advantage on the question of who is better equipped to handle an economy in free fall. the broader issue of trump's leadership seems to be driving this right now. >> not on that, kornacki, did you see the 65 plus numbers in the general election matchup? >> yup. >> that tells you virus over economy. >> there it is. >> yeah. steve kornacki, as always, sir, thank you. dr. anthony fauci, the country's top disease expertised the public that we'll be seeing more of him during his first national television appearance

in weeks. >> i think you're probably going to be seeing a little bit more of me and my colleagues. there was a period of time there was a little bit of a lull in our being out there with the press. i believe that's going to change. we've been talking with the communications people, and they realize we need to get some of these information out, particularly some of the scientific issues, for which i'm predominantly responsible for. hopefully, we'll be seeing more of us. we'll get the opportunity to talk to you and listeners, the way we're doing tonight. >> joining us now is msnbc's senior medical contributor, dr. zeke emanuel. zeke, react to that. i thought it was interesting, that dr. fauci addressed the absence, and him accepting the premise that, yeah, the public health officials in general have been absent. obviously, to me, he was trying to send the message that he thinks that's now a mistake going forward.

>> well, there's been a shift over the last few weeks to the coronavirus becoming more of a political issue, opening up the economy issue, people thinking that maybe it's less of a health issue. i think there is a widespread recognition that's wrong. public health is intimately related to how well -- how easily you can open up the economy. i think there's also this understanding that with the coming on of vaccines and looking at the vaccines, we need to educate people and put the success that has been announced this week into some context, so people don't get overly -- have much higher ek pe eer expectati there might be a vaccine by september or sooner, because that's not going to happen. so i think there is recognition, we still need a lot more education of the public. there is also this education that, you know, even if we're going to open up, you still need to physically distance, wear

face masks. a recognition that if the opening is going to be successful, it's got to happen in a context of adhering to the public health measures. >> looking at 96,000 patients, covid patients, and the treatment of hydroxychloroquine, sometimes combined with, i think, azithromycin. it didn't come out well, for those who are taking the drugs. they had an increased risk of dying. can you walk us through that? >> yeah. so this study involvedcontinent. as you say, almost 100,000 patients now. it wasn't a randomized trial. it was a trial that looked at patients who got control of then the, i think, 18,000 patients who ended up with some form of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine with an antibiotic. in the control patients, had a

mortality rate of 0.3%. the patients who took hydroxychloroquine, in some combination, had a much higher mortality rate, 6% in some cases. now, you might say that there are differences between these patients. they did control for many things, like age and gender, but it does suggest that hydroxychloroquine may cause harm. the patients who got the hydroxychloroquine may have been sicker. it may have been a last-ditch effort in the patients. may be differences because it is not a randomized trial. what you can clearly see here, this is no cure, probably dangerous, and we should probably stay away from it until the randomized trials due to report in june report out in june. i think most doctors -- >> the president -- >> -- looking at the study said we're not trying patients on that. >> the president is taking his

last dose, reportedly, today of hydroxychloroquine. h as a preventative measure. again, there is no information out there that suggests it can prevent you from getting covid-19. given this new study, 96,000 patients, and the results of it, in the past, the president claimed these studies that don't line up with his thinking are anti-trump. this is a study of patients around the world. what would you hope to hear from the president of the united states on this, as a message to the american public about this drug, that people are looking to as a cure or a treatment for this disease? >> he should probably acknowledge that he was wrong. you're not going to hear that from him. the fact that he's not stopped taking it is good evidence that he does believe it is wrong. it is not going to be effective. look at his actions, not his words in this case. i don't think he'll acknowledge it was a mistake. but there's really -- first of

all, there is no evidence that it works when you're sick, and there is no evidence that it works as a preventive. when you use it as a preventative, since you're healthy and not infected, the bar for safety has to go way up. there's, again, no evidence it works as a preventive. and given the serious risks, it was dangerous. we wrote an op-ed in the "washington post" a couple days ago, criticizing him for this, precisely because there's no evidence about the preventative. >> zeke, i actually want to talk about your writings very quick. you just recently made the case for camps. i'm curious, with the risk, the more we're learning that it, perhaps, asymptomatic children who get covid suddenly become at risk for triggering the kawasaki disease, what do you tell parents that are nervous about that if their camp opens up? that is the scariest part. talk about your hidden enemy.

asymptomatic child, and all of a sudden, what am i dealing with here? >> look, chuck, i think we say clearly in our article in the "atlantic" that this isn't risk free. we even say it is inevitable, some children will get covid. but we need to put the risks of covid in context. let me add to context. we have no national data for how many kids have actually died, but we do have some data that suggests about 3% of all covid cases are in children under 18. more importantly, hardly any deaths. in new york, there were 16,000 deaths. ten in kids under 18. ten. >> right. >> yes, this new mis-c disease is a worrisome disease, but there are about 200 cases in the whole country among 75 million children. so let's look at what the other risk kids take.

unintentional injuries every year kill about 12,000 children. every day, five children die from domestic abuse. we've got to put it in context. it's not going to be risk free. it is not going to be risk free to open up camps. on the other hand, what's the alternative? they're going to spend time at home with no structure in their day, no peers. >> in a different risk. >> it's a problem. >> right, different risk there. zeke emanuel, really appreciate you coming on, sharing your expertise with our viewers today. always a pleasure, sir. thank you. we are awaiting a news conference from president trump at the white house. he is going to be unveiling the guidelines for places of worship. we'll bring you that live as soon as it starts. soon as it starts. i got an oriole here.

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we're awaiting a press conference from president trump, due to start any minute now. we're told the lead item will be the guidelines from the white house for places of worship. we also expect to finally hear from the president on hong kong, which is where he may make the most news. katy, we have some more news we'd like to get through before we hear from the president. >> we do, indeed. most of indiana is in phase three of the reopening plan. most counties can open restaurants and retail stores with capacity restrictions. social gatherings up to 100 people are permitted. recreational facilities, like community pools, can open in time for the summer kick-off.

raceways return but without spectators in the stands. nbc news's cal perry is near plymouth speedway as part of his road to recovery with more. >> reporter: hey, katy. phase three or five here in indiana. all counties except for three going through the reopening stage here. here at the speedway, it's going to reopen tomorrow night, as you said, without fans. this will be the first without fans. they've been shut down. we've been here talking to fans about what it means to get reopened. hear what the president of the marshal county commissioners had to say. >> i think the governor has -- govern governor has done a good time of opening this up in stages. some point in time, we have to get back to doing business as normal. >> reporter: what will it mean tomorrow night when the cars are back on that track? >> probably be you forioeuphori

only here but across the country. we'll be the focal point of racing here in plymouth, indiana, and marshall county. i think it is going to send a message that needs to be sent, that we're back open. >> reporter: now, the trick here, as it is around the country, is trying to get these places reopened up to a certain capacity and keeping people, of course, at a social distance. here when they open in a few weeks, hopefully, for stands, they'll tape off at least every fourth chair. they said they'll have the family units together, 6 feet of distance before the next family unit. just getting this back up and running, getting the drivers out tonight, getting the staff here in the racetrack back to work, that's what people are excited about here, katy. >> lots of knock-on effects when you talk about closing things. the raceway is one of those with a lot of them. caliper perry, thank you very . over to you, chuck. we are still awaiting the --

what was an unplanned news conference from president trump at the white house. it is now planned and late. we will bring it to you i've as soon as it begins. you're watching msnbc. wayfair has way more ways to renovate your home, from inspiration to installation. like way more vanities perfect for you. nice. way more unique fixtures and tiles. pairing. ♪ nice. way more top brands in sinks and faucets.

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we...will...never...quit. because they never quit. we are awaiting a news conference from the president at any minute, where he is expected the address churches we op es r across the country. the archdiocese of st. paul and

minneapolis plans to resume services next tuesday, despite a statewide ban on gatherings of ten people. the archbishop talked about how they'll keep parishioners safe. >> they'll be coming forward wearing a mask. as the only time they'd be bringing down the mask is when they're going to receive communion. then they would sanitize, as well. if there is any risk of any kind of touching, the priest or the decon would hako deacon would have to stop and sanitize again. we're hoping that will work. >> chuck, over to you. now for an update on the deadly shooting of a young black man in georgia. william roddie bryan, the man who recorded the fatal shooting of ahmaud arbery, the video that got circulated widely, has been arrested and charged with felony murder and attempted false

imprisonment. bryan is the third person to be arrested in this case. an attorney for bryan says he was just a witness to the shooting. joining us now is nbc news correspondent blayne alexander. where do we go from here? >> reporter: well, chuck, in a lot of ways, you know, william bryan has been a central figure in this entire case from the very beginning. it was his video, as you mentioned, that really ignited the protests that you saw across the country and ultimately led to the arrest of gregory and travis mcmichael. as for the role bryan flplayed, there are differing accounts. his attorney said he was at his house when he saw the pursuit in front of him. he pulled out the camera and started recording, saying he was a bystander. but in the arrest warrant, and even in the police report, he plays a much more specific role. the arrest warrants say that he was in his truck and blocked the path of arbery, blocked his educati escape path several times.

that's why he is charged with murder and criminal attempt imp. we spoke to bryan's attorney, who said he was just a bystander. listen to the gbi director from earlier today. >> he's done everything that he could. he's always been led to believe he was a witness. >> and not speak on the facts. they'll come out in a court of law. i can tell you that if we believed he was a witness, we wouldn't have arrested him. >> reporter: so there you heard from the director of the georgia bureau of investigation. of course, that's the body leading this investigation. you know, i asked him today whether he anticipates any more arrests in this case. he says he does not anticipate but, of course, that can always change. he said he's close to wrapping up the investigation and turning this over to the da. chuck, we will mention that bryan's attorney is speaking right now in kind of an impromptu news conference in

brunswick, georgia. he is going to try to get his client out on bond. >> quickly, do we know if the mcmichaels are cooperating with gbi? i say that because it certainly leads you to believe, observing, that perhaps in interviews with the father and son, it led them to make this arrest decision. >> reporter: that would be a good question. what we know right now about the mcmichaels is very little. we've heard from legal teams from both of them. we know they're still in jail right now. both of them charged with murder and aggravated assault. their respective legal teams have not said much about the defense. the only thing they've said repeatedly is that there is more to know about this case. there's more video out there. that's what a lot of people have said. there's more than just the 38 seconds or so we've seen. they're expecting all of those details to come out in court. chuck? >> blayne alexander for us on the ground there in georgia. thank you very much. katy, over to you. chuck, we are still awaiting that white house news conference. in the meantime, coming up,

senator bob casey is pushing president trump and congress to provide more help to nursing homes and long-term care facilities, which is ground zero for the coronavirus. he joins us right after this very quick break. (♪) i came across sofi and it was the best decision of my life. we're getting a super competitive interest rate on our money. we're able to invest through the same exact platform. i got approved for a loan and it was a game-changer.

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we are still waiting for that white house press briefing to begin. it is an unplanned news conference. it is set to start any moment now. now, let's turn to our most

vulnerable population. a new rule says that nursing homes are not required to report deaths or infections from coronavirus that took place before early may to the cdc. it is part of a federal effort to collect data on how covid-19 has affected the facilities. critics worry the full picture won't be accurate. the "wall street journal" first reported the new rule. joining us is senator bob casey from pennsylvania. he is the ranking member of the senate special committee on aging. senator, thanks for being here with us. this is so confusing. if you want to get a good idea of how this disease is ravaging our senior citizens that are living in homes, or those that are living in long-term care facilities, why would you not want the full picture of what this disease is doing from every month that it was harming people? >> yeah, katy, it doesn't make sense. senator widen and i in early

april sent a letter to the administration, to verma, asking her to begin to require that nursing homes provide that data on the number of cases in a nursing home, and the number of deaths, and other information. because it's important, obviously, to the residents and their families, as well as to the workers in the community. it doesn't make any sense that all these weeks later, after promising that they would have that information available, made available, they still have not delivered. they said by the end of may, and here we are. >> what would be the motivation for not wanting to include those numbers? >> i don't know. there seems to be a widespread belief in the administration that the more you have information about new cases, the more information you have, somehow, it makes them look bad. look, if we're going to try to stop the spread of the virus in the most urgent of circumstances, meaning, in a

nursing home, where the most vulnerable are, we need information. one of the -- i think one of the solutions, really, is what i proposed in a new piece of legislation. a $20 billion investment so that we can provide the resources that nursing home s need, to be able to separate a resident with covid-19 from a resident who doesn't have it. the so-called cohorting, or separating the ultimate social distancing is going to cost some money. they may have to retrofit the facility. they need money for personal protective equipment or testing. so the solution here is to help nursing homes right now, so that you don't have more deaths. now, they're almost a third of overall deaths in the nation. >> senator, big picture now, and i'll just be honest, you look at this, and you have to start asking yourselves, and i'm sure you've been asking yourself this question, as a society, we're living longer.

there's going to be more senior facilities in 20 years than we have today. there will be more senior facilities in 30 years than we have today. are we doing this right? are we seg raregulating this ri? is this one of the things that we need to catch up on, that we didn't, you know -- because senior facilities were a much smaller thing, say 30 years ago, when we weren't living as long? i mean, it seems as if the way the architecture works, is it the safest environment for seniors as it stands? >> chuck, i think you're raising a very important point about demographics. those numbers are going to grow. so we have to be able to be prepared, i think, in at least two settings. one is the long-term care setting. nursing homes and other long-term care settings. secondly, and this is increasing -- the good news is that it is increasing, but not enough -- is the home-based and community services.

that needs more funding to make it an alternative. you have skilled care but not in a residential setting or in a so-called congregant setting, where, in this case, the virus spread exponentially. i think we have an obligation to do everything we can to make sure that the nursing home long-term care setting is of the highest quality possible. second, to begin to elevate and fund, better fund the community and home-based services. it is another thing i'm asking for in the next bill, but it requires an increase in medicaid dollars. republicans are hostile to those kinds of requests for funding. >> senatseator casey, i'm a lit confused, especially those of us with family members in long-term care facilities, where covid patients have been kept there or discharged from the hospital and brought back to those facilities. why in the world, if somebody is testing positive with one of those facilities, where we know the spread is so quick, why

would that person not be moved to a hospital and kept in a place where they can adequately be, one, cared for, and, two, quarantined off from the rest of the population? why has that not -- why wasn't that begun to begin with, and why is that still not happening now? >> first of all, i think we need federal leadership on this. the federal government provides the funding. the federal government does all the oversight. i think we need a national approach to this. my bill, adding $20 billion, would allow, as i said before that cohorting, separating. there's no question that there is an argument, i think, to have had, about what happens if someone is in a nursing home, and they have covid-19, or for other reasons, some believe they should be moved out of the nursing home, there's a debate about that. other smarter minds than i know more about the public health or health care implications of it.

moving someone can sometimes be the worst thing for that individual. i think the answer has to be within the setting itself. keep people separate. also, and our bill would pay for this, to have a surge of medical personnel or personal protective equipment, whatever you need in a crisis. sometimes, when we have these early outbreaks, if we had a surge of help for that one facility, and, unfortunately, there were many, and more dollars to do cohorting, we probably could have headed this off. what i'm concerned about is that, yao knoou know, it is onl and concerns we have about testing, or lack thereof, personal protective equipment, we're still hearing across the board that a lot of places don't have enough personal protective equipment. >> senator -- >> senator -- >> sorry. we stepped on each other in that one. >> go ahead, chuck.

>> after you. >> i was -- i just think that given how far we are into this crisis, and the way that it has ravaged, as i said before, our long-term care facilities, waiting for another bill to inject money into these facilities, then asking them to restructure those places, i mean, that just seems like it is a far way off. in the meantime, people are dying. people are dying. bodies are piling up in these facilities. they can't handle them. it just seems like the urgency is not there. >> there's no question about that. i would agree, that the administration -- look, i think the administration has presided over several failures. one was just a failure to communicate accurate information and rely upon the public health expertise, rather than some imperative. but the two big failures, of course, were personal protective equipment and testing.

in the long-term care setting, there should have been a strategy early on to surge resources to those facilities, and to better support state governments who are wrestling with it. we didn't see that. i still don't see much of a strategy. we can't even, as i said, get the basic information, the basic transparency for families, about how many cases and whether or not there is an outbreak that is so severe that it is causing a lot of deaths. so when you add it up, the lack of a strategy is still hurting. i don't think the administration should wait for any bill to pass. i think they should be using whatever resources they have to provide a strategy. i think there's a lot of us in congress who would work with them. >> senator bob casey, appreciate it. thank you very much. chuck, i see the president has now taken the podium. >> -- issuing guidance for communities of faith.

awa i want to thank dr. redfield and the cdc on this matter, and all the work they've been doing over the past, what seems now, like a long period of time. today, i'm identifying houses of worship, churches, synagogue, and mosques, as essential places that provide essential services. some governors have deemed liquor stores and abortion clinics as essential but have left out churches and other houses of worship. it's not right. so i'm correcting this injustice and calling houses of worship essential. i call upon governors to allow our churches and places of worship to open right now. if there's any question, they're going to have to call me, but they're not going to be successful in that call. these are places that hold our society together and keep our people united.

the people are demanding to go to church and synagogue, go to their mosque. many millions of americans embrace worship as an essential part of life. the ministers, leaders will make sure that their congregations are safe as they gather and pray. i know them well. they love their congregations. they love their people. they don't want anything bad to happen to them or anybody else. the governors need to do the right thing and allow these very important essential places of faith to open right now. for this weekend. if they don't do it, i will override the governors. in america, we need more prayer, no the less. thank you very much. thank you. >> will you be going to church?

>> all right, everyone. it's a pleasure to join you today. >> well, katy that was, perhaps, the most unusual presentation we've seen from the president. not because it's short. he's been short before. but he's short on a topic that i think we both would have assumed he kind of wanted to bask in, right? kind of wanted to show politically whose side he was on. you heard it in the remarks. he doesn't want to take questions on other topics. that's the best explanation we can get on how quickly he turned on that. you would, again, you would assume he would have wanted to at least make a -- have a second bite at this and flex his muscles more with a constituency that is of great importance to him particularly in

evangelicals. >> he won white evangelicals by such a large margin in 2016. they were so integral to his win. it's a constituency he needs to maintain if there is any hope of winning re-election in november. your right, chuck. so confusing he would come out and make that statement and then just walk off. i guess it is an indication of, i don't know, maybe it's an indication that there is real concern over what the president says in public now. maybe wanting to keep him a little tighter and more controlled. given all the gaffes and the bizarre recommendations that he's made. i'm not sure he has the constitutional authority to do

that. you know, governors have the authority to close what they want. also, when he talks about essential businesses, yes, exactly. he talked about essential businesses like liquor stores, yeah. some liquor stores remained open. but you can't go into a liquor store and linger there and mingle with the crowd and sit next to people. you're going in and out. and same with supermarkets, et cetera. places of worship and there are a lot of people throughout who would find great comfort in going to their place of worship. so i'm not trying to cast a paul on that. but when you do go to a church or a mosque or temple -- i hear your dogs there, chuck. >> sorry. it's rainy day here. >> you're in a close space for a long time. and that does heighten the risk. even with precautions taken. kit heighten the risk if this is an airborne disease if you're in a room for a long period of time with a lot of other people. >> no, i mean, look, i think it

does feel as if, i think, politically they're almost hoping for a conflict in some form or another in order to create this sort of political divide that i think the president believes when it comes to religion is something that benefits him more so than other democrats. but i think people need to be aware that there are important very religious minded voters on the left as well as there are religious minded voters on the right. this is not always as right leaning as sometimes it's portrayed. >> not at all. all right. so coming up in our next hour, senior adviser to joe biden simone sanders joins us following biden's controversial comments to a radio host. stay with us. you're watching msnbc. host stay with us you're watching msnbc. cleaning power of liquid.

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happy friday, everyone. i'm chuck todd. it is 11:00 a.m. out west, 2:00 p.m. here in the east. we'll go back to the white house now where dr. deborah birx is addressing the room. >> people that love sports have been able to adjust to social distancing. you can see the top three states are maryland, the district, and virginia. and so there is still significant virus circulating here. that is followed by nebraska, illinois because of chicago, and what we've talked about before about minnesota. so those are our top states as

far as still having high number of test positives. when i say high number of test positives, they're all under 20%. if i had shown you this slide four weeks ago, half of the country would have been over 20%. so this also shows progress but also very clearly about the region we're living in right now with disease. next slide. now i want you to see this as a metro. that's at a state level. we look at this in multiple different ways. the number one metro with the highest positivity rate is the district of colombia which includes northern virginia and maryland, montgomery county and pg county. that is followed by baltimore, chicago, and minneapolis. and so these are the places where we have seen really a stalling or an increase of cases as in minneapolis. you can see all the other metros. all the other metros are almost

all exclusively below 10%. we see this as great progress across the board in the metro areas. next slide. so we also look at daily cases. the daily case numbers. i know that you all know that that's a very erratic and it dpekdz depends on how the cases were reported. you often have to look over a three or seven day period. this is looking at daily cases on a seven-day rolling average. you can see the number one, the top peek that is now come down dramatically, is the new york metro area. under that, you can see our concerns about chicago and our concern in the yellow line of the washington, d.c., area. these are two areas that went through their log rhythmic phase and are now at a high plateau. there is an unchanging number of cases day over day. that is the orange line and the

yellow line. can you see case numbers for 100,000 are below the yellow line and the orange line. and that's new york, boston, and many of the others. providence is also up as a per 100,000. and that's the way to look at it. the other groups that have very low levels that once had a peak, this is detroit. very low level now. this is boston in the gray. it has come down also. you can see down here is atlanta and miami. next slide. now sometimes, i think recently there are publications about where the world was before we started the stop the spread and before many states shut down.

on march 14th gr th before stop spread, i didn't put new york in there because then they had less than 50 cases reported. chicago had less than 10. washington had less than 10. l.a. had less than 20. the large state at that time had a significant number of cases was the washington state which had 100 cases. on march 14th, we had had about 500 cases distributed around the united states, note in any dramatic hot spot per se. but the majority of those cases was washington state. this is how the new york metro area that includes northern new jersey, northern parts of pennsylvania, parts of kentucky and rhode island, and the dramatic decline that they've had in the number of cases. i know you know that also mortality has started to decrease in that northern new

jersey and new york area. next slide. i wanted you to see how we bring all this information together. the red line in this graphic are the emergency room visits. so those are the visits i discussed with you at the beginning. the blue line is the test positive. and, again, it's erratic because of the reporting when cases from the entire weekend are added on a monday morning. and then you can see the actual case numbers in the black bars. so that's how we bring everything together. what we want to see is all the items trending down. we want to seat number of positives that you find because we really have states now looking asymptomatic cases. we want to make sure that asymptomatic cases, symptomatic cases are declining in the blue line and the actual case numbers are declining together. and, of course, then there is

mortality behind that in the green lines -- green bars that are hard to see. next slide? but this is the washington area. and so that's why i want you to see that contrast. you can see there is not been that dramatic decline in the blue line. there is not that dramatic decline in the black bars of cases. and there's not been a dramatic decline in the emergency room visits with covid-19 like i w l illnesses. even though washington is closed, l.a. is closed, chicago remain closed, we still see the on going cases. and i've asked the cdc and the cdc is working with the local areas in chicago and this area and l.a. to really understand where these new cases coming from? and what do we need to do to prevent them in the future? next slide. this is chicago. again, just to show you going up into this high plateau that has been fairly persistent. next slide. and this is los angeles. so you can get a flavor of where

we have concerns of where cities have remained closed and metros that have remained closed but have still persistent high number of cases. next slide. i want to talk to you about outbreaks. throughout this all, there's been a large part of america that has been in many states that have been really finding their outbreaks, containing the outbreaks by testing everyone and doing contact tracing. and then stopping them and stopping those breaks in their tracks. what we've been talking about everybody being able to do across the united states. and so this illustrates the counties that had 100% increase in new cases over the last few -- over the last three days. now the reason i wanted to show this because i see more and more graphics out there that talk about cases going up versus cases going down. just to give you an example of wyoming. i think many of the great -- the groups now have wyoming as a red

state of cases going up. wyoming three days ago had five cases confirmed. and today had -- yesterday had nine. so they qualify almost and show up as this large increase. it's a good alert for us. we immediately look and look and see what exactly is happening at the state web side. the but you can see when you have very low number of cases, you can have a doubling from 5 to 10 number of cases and show up as 100% increase. and so each of these have to be investigated separately to really understand what this is. it is the way we find outbreaks in prisons, it's the way we've been finding outbreaks in nursing homes. and we have this graphic that goes through all of the counties as well as, next slide, so this is one state's analysis. and what they have shown and they have been able to find each of their outbreaks, contain

every one of the outbreaks, close the outbreaks and call them closed cases. in this case, the dark blue is community spread. the rest of it, 50% of their cases have been coming from outbreaks that they've been able to contain. the largest group in this is meat packing plants. and what they've been doing is going in and testing 100% of the individuals in the meat packing plant and also finding 100% of the individuals that are associated with those individuals in in the meat packing plant. they've been able to go into group housing, social gatherings. so just as a -- as we discussed all of this and when you go out for this weekend and memorial day and you want to do some kind of social gathering, it's very important to maintain that six feet distance and very important to have your mask with you in case that six feet distance cannot be maintained. but it also talks about long term care facilities. now interestingly enough, 50% of their total cases since they've

been tracking came from these outbreaks almost 70%. 76 of all the mortality though came from the outbreaks. and this is why we have been really pushing both in the original opening up america again and the testing blueprint we talk about pro active surveillance. pro active monitoring and testing in areas that you know are particularly susceptible to outbreaks. every state has this knowledge now and this type of analysis. and so when they have this kind of analysis, what we're asking them to do is pro actively go and test everyone in meat packing plants. to proactively go and test 100% of the residents and workers and a follow up the workers in every single long term care facility. this is to find the asymptomatic cases. i know cdc yesterday released, they thought 35%, we started with understanding that we

thought it was around 11% to 15% based on the experience with oneone of the princesses. now it's 35%. it may be greater than that. it may sob age dependent that there are a lot of people under 30 that have the virus and shedding the virus and aren't aware they have the virus. so pro active monitoring, proactive testing will will become absolutely critical to find the asymptomatic cases. next slide. so this is my last slide. this is just to show you what an outbreak looks like. so if you look at this axis, it is normalized to 100,000 population. but you can see this is what we want to see. we want to see very low case numbers. we want to see that they've identified and outbreak, they've tested 100%. they contained 100% and then they don't find any more cases. so this is what's happening

across the country, county by county. this is a county map. to really show you the work that's going on. and since the last two months we've gone from i think less than 4,000 contact tracers to nearly 50,000 contact tracers. this is what's been happening behind the scenes. but i really want to applaud the governors in state and health and local, the health commissioners and the local health departments who really been working quietly in an unassuming way to really find these cases, track these cases, isolate these cases and ensure there's no additional spread. you can see in many of these instances they've gone more than two weeks without any additional spread. and so this is what we're hoping goes across the united states. we all have toed admit it's going to going to be much more difficult in the metros.

where are the asymptomatic cases and ho do y and how do you find them? there's a lot of resources going into the clinics to proactively be able to test for this virus and find asymptomatic individuals. when someone gets sick with covid-19, excuse me, when someone gets sick with covid-19, you heard the cases. some of them have very high fevers. and so they're not out walking around. so they may have been shedding virus for one or two days before they got significantly ill and they had to be in bed because they felt so terrible. now think of that, they were maybe out two days. and so if they're 50% of the cases, they're only out for two of the days they may be spreading virus. and asymptomatic individual that doesn't know they have covid-19, they may be spreading and shedding the entire time that they're in the community. so instead of two days, it may

be six days. or it may be seven days. and so when we talk about proportions, 35% that are asymptomatic out in the community is very -- much more opportunity for transmission than someone who is getting sick and is only out in the community for two days. and so we know we have to find both. and we've been working with states about what proactive surveillance would look like in this case. but it's also why we continue to recommend to the public very clearly that you can't tell who's infected. so that's why you have to continue to social distance. that's why you need to continue to maintain six feet apart. i remember in the early days of hiv people told me all the time that they could -- they knew who was infected. i was saying, you don't know who's infected. i could be infected. you're just saying you don't think i'm infected because i

look healthy. there's a lot of healthy people out there with covid-19 that look healthy. and so we're asking continuously for you all to be outside, to enjoy your memorial day weekend, to play golf, to hike as doctor fauci said, to play tennis with marked balls and to be out with your families that you have been in the household with. and to even consider sharing social distance space as long as you have utensils that are -- that belong to individuals and that may be can be thrown out immediately. there is a lot of things to think through. i know you can do this. i know the american people can do it. please, as you go out this weekend, understand you can go out. can y ook you can be outside. you can play tennis with marked balls, can you you can go to th beaches. but that's your space and you need to make sure you protect and social distance from others.

thank you. >> i want to start by -- dr. birx, if i can have you stay here for a moment or. two you e-mailed me a question about nursing homes and such. i'll have them answer. >> dr. birx, two weeks ago you and vice president went 100% of nursing homes and staff tested within two weeks. most states and two weeks later they tried that. are you disappointed and what are the consequences of that? >> i know many of you don't know me. i'm a very aspirational and hopeful person that likes to put out challenges because i think that's what needs to be done. you know we've had it in the open up america guidance where we ask them to test all the nursing homes, nursing home residents and workers. we know that that group is very susceptible and has significant mortality. and so we continue to ask the

states. we always look at the side of the ones who haven't been able to get it done. there are some that are getting it done. and i think what we will learn is from those that are able to get it done. we can't continuously test the workers in the homes to prevent any asymptomatic spread. we only have a million nursing home residents. we're testing way over a million people per week. so over the four million per two weeks, i was hoping that a million of those could be our nursing home residents. i think week over week as we see testing expand, it's not going to just be and it's why i keep coming back to this. it's not the number of people you have tested.

we see this all the time with other diseases. we have a lot of worried wealth that will come back frequently to get tested. we want to test and test in states where there is higher vulnerability to susceptible to worse outcomes like our nursing homes. areas where we know there had been outbreaks such as prisons and meat packing plants, particularly areas where people are transported to plants together or live together in a single residence or multiple residence. but there is multiple group home housing situations. and among our inner cities, we know people may have as not as many access to testing, it's why money has gone to the federal clinics for testing. it's working with others have really really improved testing through the pharmacies and insuring more accessibility. i know it's a long answer. we should never be discouraged by those that can't get it done.

we should be encouraged by those that have shown us it can be done. then on the governor's calls, we have the governors present to the other governors how they did it. >> following the president's announcement regarding places of worship, what guidelines do you have for pastors, rabbis as they prepare to reopen? what precautions do they need to follow if they reopen houses of worship? >> so we and i've checked all 50 states found a website what the new cases were over the last 24, 48 hours. we're trying to get every state to do that by community, by zip code. so because i really firmly believe a knowledgeable community can really make judgements for themselves. i think each one of the leaders in the faith community should be in touch with their local health departments so that they can communicate to their

congregates. certainly people that have significant morbidity, we want them protected. i know the houses of worship want to protect them. so really ensuring that maybe items -- maybe they can't go if there is a high number of covid-19 cases. there is a way to social distance like you are here in places of worship. i think what we're trying to say with the cdc guidance is there's a way for us to work together, to have social distancing and safety for people so that we decrease the amount of exposure that anyone would have to an asymptomatic. i say it that way, i know all of you and all of americans, if they didn't feel well, they wouldn't go to church that day. >> dr. birx, one more. john? >> dr. birx, can you comment on the latest study on

hydroxychloroquine? there is a study that suggests, again, that the drug could cause heart problems and even increased mortality? the president said that he's been taking it. what is your recommendation? what is your recommendation on using that drug as a deterrent? >> first, i think the fda is very clear on their website about their concerns about hydroxychloroquine particularly when it's combined with another drug. i think you see that in the study. i think the study, although it is open label, it is -- i'll tell you what i take home from the study. i hope everyone here does in addition to what you just commented on. it clearly shows the co-morbidity that puts people at more risk. i think it's one of our clearest studies because there is so many thousands -- tens of thousands of individuals involved that the doctors clearly annotated who had heart disease and who had

obesity and you can see dramatically the increased risk for that. there is still control trials going on. there is also controlled trials, looking at in a hospital setting how these drugs do. i think those are still pending. but i hope everyone looks at those co-morbidities and for all of the millennials out there, they get data like this look at that. go through and see if your parents or your grandparents have any of those things and make sure you're helping protect them. i'm really worried about people in my generation because we're very social at time. and we have a habit of forgetting social distancing or forgetting that glasses and when you're eating, you can't eat in a mask. so even if you're far enough apart, you have to watch every utensil, everything you touch. i'm really asking our great generation of millennials to get youtube videos about how to do

picnics outside with your friends and still protect everyone and still ensure that there's no co-contamination of food and utensils. the i think there's a way to do it. i want to explain it in a youtube video. >> thank you very much, dr. birx. i know you need to get back to work. so thank you very much. can you do you can do a follow up with me. >> well, we just heard -- it's been quite some time since we've gotten a briefing that has been as extensive as that one was by dr. deborah birx there today. you know, katy tur, i thought what was interesting there was, you know, she's very diplomatic -- the difference is she softens it that pleases the president more than than how fauci does it. so, for instance, she made it clear we're not doing enough testing particularly in senior centers. but she couched it in such a way

to say i'm just hopeful we're going to get it done and governors are doing it right are doing that. it's just -- it was just -- it is always interesting to watch how she tries to walk those lines. you can tell there is some sensitivity there tonally how she expresses things when there is an audience of one keeping track. >> same thing about churches saying that churches, she knows if you don't feel well won't go to a church or churches should look at the outbreak levels in their community and then decide for themselves. she's walking a tight rope. this is a president who has made it very clear that he doesn't like to be criticized. he doesn't like to be contradicted. and here's the thing with this pandemic. the science speaks very clearly. and the science and the health experts around him have spoken with a pretty clear voice saying that, you know, if we reopen too soon and we reopen irresponsibly, we're putting lives on the line.

they've come out with some clear guidelines on when they think it is safer to reopen. there are a lot of states out there not within those guidelines and yet are still reopening. what we're seeing right now, chuck, and deborah birx laid it out there as well, we're seeing an increase in cases among trump counties, or trump parts of the country, place that's voted for trump over hillary clinton where we're seeing an increase in the number of cases because of the reopening, because of the relaxed rules surrounding what you can and cannot do. let's go to kara lee who joins us from the white house. so carol, it was a quick little brief appearance by the president a little earlier. he did not take questions. he did not touch the subject of hong kong which chuck brought up at the beginning of the show. and he left before dr. deborah

birx took the podium. what can you tell us? >> they were eager chat with reporters earlier in an vent. he was very brief. he wanted to come out and own the guidelines that the cdc is going to post for places of worship. what is very interesting about it is he said he was deeming these places as essential. we're not clear what exactly that means or what the effectiveness of that is. he also said that he was encouraging governors, calling on governors to allow churches to open and then yet said he would override governors if that didn't take place. you know, that's a contradictory to everything that the white house has been saying recently which is that they're leaving this all up to governors. also contradictory is that this is a white house that doesn't want to embrace and the cdc released guidelines for schools and restaurants and other different venues. they didn't have any fanfare

for. and so the president chose to come out and make a statement about this. and one that it's not clear he has the authority to actually back up, katy. >> yeah. i think it's another example of the president looking toward a very important voting block and saying to them, look at me. i'm fighting for you. i'm your champion even if you doesn't have the authority to do so. the message at least that he's trying to convey, even if there isn't a lot of weight behind his ability to do so. carol lee, thank you very much. chuck, over to you. >> joining us no you is dr. vin gupta from the university of washington medical center and also a msnbc medical contributor. i want to talk about memorial day weekend. this is going to be the first -- we're fully reopen, all 50 states have something that reopened. we're not fully reopened. what is your concern about this weekend? and, you know, are we looking at

father's day time wise to know how the country did? we'll know -- is that when we'll get the report card of how we did this weekend? >> you know, chuck, my concern is rooted on the findings of the columbia study that was just released yesterday. and work out of the university of kentucky that shows that social distancing has been really effective. extremely effective. the delays by the president to initiate social distancing cost tens of thousands of american lives. and the colombia study actually said if we're going to -- let's say imagine a world in which we reimplemented the guidelines in a few weeks because icus are getting overloaded with patients, how many -- if there was a one week lag in reimplementation of social distancing from two to three weeks, we lose an additional 30,000 lives. that's the probe here. we don't have -- there's not

clear guide licenlines from the president. infection control is not top of mind. we don't have mandatory masks. the cdc decided to say hey, we don't have to clean the workplace with lysol anymore. it just doesn't make any sense. yeah, i'm very worried. >> very quickly. one question that dr. birx was not asked that i was hoping she would be was this information we learned yesterday. all of the models could be off. essentially we're many mixing two types of tests, diagnostic tests and antibodies test. the university of washington model is not your model. but you're very familiar with it. how does this change how we look at the models considering -- and should we be concerned that we're even more in the dark than we realize? >> oh, absolutely. i think we don't actually know what the true caseload is. you and i talked about this for how long? testing still is very narrow.

dr. birx is trying to use gymnastics to suggest that we're really ramping it up. we're still very much flying in the dark. the models are only as good as the data inputs. they remain limited in quality. >> all right. dr. gupta, we went a little long with that briefing. we have to cut things short. the i appreciate you coming on and sharing your views and if can you take brake this weekend, i hope you get it. stay safe and healthy. >> thank you. former vice president joe biden's campaign is on the defensive today after he told the african-american host of a syndicated radio show you ain't black if you vote for president trump instead of joe biden. here's the exchange between one of the co-hosts of "the breakfast club" and the democratic nominee. >> it's a long way until november. we got more questions. >> you got more questions. i'll tell you, if you have a

problem figuring out whether you're for me or trump, then you ain't black. >> it has nothing to do with trump. it has to do with the fact that i want something for my community. i would love to see -- >> take a look at my record, man. i extended the voting rights 20 years. i have a record second to none. the naacp has endorsed me every time i've run. i mean, come on. take a look at the record. >> and joining us now is our reporter with biden. the biden campaign on the defensive. for those that covered him for decades, it rang very familiar. he'll say something and you're like, ugh. you can't say. that the clean and articulate comment about barack obama in '08 is just among the more recent ones. so this is not the first time he has basically shown how insensitive he can be when i comes to language with race.

>> yeah, chuck. i feel like the word of the primary when you were talking with sources on other campaigns were them reminding of joe biden's propensity towards gaffes, towards misspeaking. largely throughout the primary he managed not to have too many of those moments. but at the same time, this is a moment that reminds that he does still have that propensity towards misspeaking. that clip you played was a really tone deaf moment, controversial one that now republicans made quick hay of and so clearly this is one of those moments that republicans hope more of happen as we get even more towards the general. of course, if you listen to that whole 18-minute interview, the tone does change throughout. at the top and throughout most of the interview, it was a pretty tense back and forth with biden being pressed on various points of his record on criminal justice reform, for example. once you got to the end, you could tell the tone shifted to a lighter place. that's when biden made that comment. that's when one of simone

sanders is pointing to. i know she's coming on next with you guys. but at the same time, the campaign has also been dealing with this allegation of sexual assault by a former biden staffer named tara reade. you remember she says biden sexually assaulted her in the spring of 1993. that is something that biden has denied. but today a new update in this. the lawyer who was representing tara reade now says just two weeks after announcing he was representing her, that he's no longer representing her. i want to read you a piece of the statement there. he said, our decision made on may 20th, so two days ago, is by no means a reflection on whether then senator biden sexually assaulted miss reade. so no longer representing her but trying to make it clear that it doesn't mean that he doesn't believe the story that miss reade has come forward with. and the parting of the ways comes after a -- [ inaudible ] there were stories came out

casting doubt on her personal credibility that over the course of the most recent dates. chuck? >> thank you very much. if you're in virginia beach, i presume you're going to get a lot of that overhead jet noise. and as she just teased, joining us now is simone sanders, senior adviser to joe biden's campaign. simone, always good to see you. it's been a while. i know you said that -- >> katy, i think the last time we talked we were in south carolina. so, yes. always good to see you. >> i think we were back, you know, back in the normal times. the before times. i know you called what the bidens -- what the vice president said a joke. let me just read you what they gave a statement he gave to media. i want to get you to respond. been loyal to democrats for a long time. black people invested a lot into that party and the return on investment has not been great,

he wrote. of as biden said in our brief interview when i asked if dems owe the black community, absolutely was his answer. so let's see what you got. votes are quid pro quo. you can't possibly want me to fear trump more than i want something for my people." >> katy, let me just be really clear. in the tweet that i put out, i said that the vice president's comments at the end of that interview which she definitely eluded to and noted the tone of the interview at the end said in jest. vice preside vice president biden is saying he'll put his record up with the african-american community and in the african-american community up against donald trump any single day. period. there is no comparison. but he makes an important point. and i encourage folks to go and look at the entire ti ty of the

entire interview. they engage in a very interesting conversation. biden talks about the need to make sure we're investing in the african-american community. he talks about tenants of his biden plan for black america. they talk about criminal justice reform. it's very wide-ranging. and as he talks about in his own statement, he asked vice president biden about the commitment that african-american voters have to the democratic party. and they engaged in that conversation. so the reality is if the question people have is does vice president biden believe that he has to earn the votes of black voters, of latino voters, of young people, of progressives, of women, of working class folks, of blue collar voters in this country? absolutely. he earned the votes of folks in the primary and the democratic primary. black voters especially. he expects and will do the same thing he expect of the campaign to do in the general election. we're not taking anything for granted. >> he hasn't earned the vote for some younger black voters, under

30 black voters. not all, but some. a good portion of them want to go for bernie sanders instead of him. people that thought there needed to be more fundamental change in this country and maybe felt a little bit like he did which is that democrats haven't really stood up for black voters as much as they had promised in the past and wanted somebody to they thought could effect that change with bernie sanders. how do you target those voters? how do you say you may not have voted for me in the primary, but i'm the presumptive democratic nominee. here's what i'm going to do for you. here's how i'm going to fix the wrongs and the ills that you see in society. here's how i will effect that systematic, that fundamental change that younger black voters are craving. >> i'm smiling because those are things that vice president biden has actually said. look, we believe in the primary and the general. you have to meet people where

they are and speak directly to what folks are experiencing. especially right now with coronavirus. black people, younger voters, older black people are the hardest hit by this virus in terms of the economy. in terms of the loss that they have seen from family members, friends, and co-workers, who lost their lives to the virus. but also folks' livelihood. these are the things that vice president biden is just not talking about. frankly, he is making commitments about. laying a foundation for what he would be doing as president. and, frankly, it stands in stark contrast to what we've seen from this white house from this president and donald trump. look, donald trump was in detroit just yesterday promising to build a historically black college and university. i don't know how you build a historically black college and university. it's antithesis and it is pandering. so what we have done, vice president biden came out a couple weeks ago with a plan for black america that speaks directly to a plan for housing. so a plan for health care,

addressing the health inequities in our society. a plan for small business. a plan for making sure that black business owners and minority owned businesses are moved to the front of the line for the release that they need and given the coronavirus. a plan for environmental justice that we're going to expand on. a plan to address criminal justice. gun violence in our community, not just mass shootings that we see on the news but the every day gun violence that happens across the country. a plan to address what's happening in prosecutors' offices. his criminal justice reform plan calls for a task force to address prosecutoral discretion. the list goes on. no one is saying we -- folks should blindly give their vote. i wrote ab article in "essence magazine" a year and a half ago that said folks should not do just that. so politicians and individuals have to do the work to earn the vote. and vice president buys enis doing the work. we're going to continue to do the work. that's what this is about, katy. we have put our plans on the table. we have laid a foundation.

we challenge donald trump to do the same. >> simone, i want to play for you, you know, you heard there's been criticism from republican senator tim scott. perhaps you're not surprised by. that i want you to listen to what patrick gaspar said who was barack obama's political director in the first term. take a listen to what he said on the comments. >> he should be able to point to an astounding record as vice president which saw black unemployment reach the lowest levels. and black wealth reached the highest level under the obama-biden administration. however, vice president biden is in no position to determine who is black and who is not. >> and simone, let me put the question to you this way. i know you have joe biden's record. and you have a long list of when he goes off the cuff he seems to speak with sort of an older generation stereotype at times in some of this stuff. when you've been around him, what would be your explanation

to someone who might -- >> chuck, i'm not going to do this: >> why is this happening? >> i'm not going to do this. i'm not going to do this. let me be really clear. vice president biden absolutely has a respect level for all people around him for voters across this country. young people. voters of color, black people, latino voters, indigenous, asian-american pacific islander. i'm not going to even traffic in any hypothetical conversation about if he is sensitive enough. look, there are real issues that we have to address in this country. and vice president biden has been speaking directly to the voters before the coronavirus crisis. he is going to meet people where they are. the fact that we can even talk about an interview on the breakfast club is because vice president biden went there to have that conversation. if you watch the interview, they talk about the fact that they need to talk some more. he says he should come to new york. and so this isn't a question

about whether -- this isn't a question about whether vice president biden has the sensitivity. this is truly a question about in this race what we have is a question about leadership, about who is ready to lead and able to lead for all americans. but who also has a plan for those folks. who can put their money where their mouth is. put their plans where their mouth is and not just offer lip service to a community. and vice president biden's record speaks to that. he's not offering lip service. he's offering results. that stands in stark contrast. they talk about the criminal justice reform efforts. they have yet to allocate one penny from the budget. let's put our money where our mouth is. let's not talk about platitude. let's talk about the plans we have and how we turn the plans into actionable items. joe biden led when it comes to a recovery foreamericans. the take back to the recovery act. he'll do so in the biden recovery. that is a recovery that will

specifically speak directly to the african community. >> simone sanders with the biden campaign. it's been a while. good to see you. >> always good to see you all. >> be back soon. >> thank you. you got it. katy, over to you. >> chuck, coming up, memorial day weekend kicks off, uncertain summer for businesses. we have reporters on both coasts for the next 15 weeks are crucial for a lot of economies, especially for those mom and pop shops. that is next. mom and pop shops. atth is next when you shop for your home at wayfair you get way more than free shipping. you get thousands of items you need to your door fast the way it works best for you. even the big stuff. you get a delivery experience you can always count on. you get your perfect find at a price to match on your schedule. you get free two day shipping on things that make

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and it could save you hundreds. xfinity mobile. today the world health organization director general asked for global cooperation on immunization efforts warning that the domino effect coronavirus has on preventable diseases could be devastated among the world's most vulnerable. the coronavirus outbreak infected more than five million

people worldwide. the new number of cases with more than 100,000 new cases in a single day. the majority of new cases were reported in just four countries. the u.s., rush yashsia, brazil e united kingdom. katy? >> chuck, meanwhile, millions of americans are expected to hit the beaches this memorial day weekend. but there is no question this year's holiday will feel very different thanks to covid-19 and all of those restrictions. and because of that, communities who rely on the bustling business of the summer months are now worried about an upcoming tourism season that is looking rather bleak. we have a team of reporters covering the openings. let's go to belmar, new jersey. we find nbc's ron allen. ron? >> katy, people here like up and down the east coast are hopeful, being optimistic and hoping this all works out. they have 15 weeks in many cases to make a year's living.

here in belmar, that i gone to great lengths to plan and try to organize their beach. they're going to limit the number going on to the beach. they're going to use drones to fly over and keep track of that. they've also set up a group of volunteers, hundreds of volunteers that are going to go out and try to encourage people to social distance. and, of course that, is the big thing, are social distancing. restaurants here up and down the coast are going to do takeout only. one other thing i want to point out in this town, we look around, there are not many people wearing masks. it's a big issue in new jersey. the governor said that he is encouraging everyone to wear masks and they should be and in his words but here people feel like well, i'm outside. i don't need to wear a mask. there is a political's in that these are people that do not support the administration and over the years in some cases. the in any event, my colleague is in los angeles beach out in los angeles. >> thanks, ron. here in manhattan beach, they're

getting ready for the holiday weekend. that includes an act of defiance. this week the city council voted unanimously to reopen all retail within the city in defiance of california governor gavin newsom's order allowing curb side pickup only. now the shops are open. you can see that includes a gift shop i was speaking to the owner a short while ago. she insists she can reopen safely. take a listen. you are concerned about potential reprecushions for defying this order? >> you know what? we're going to operate as safely as the big box retailers have been allowed to be open all of this time. the costco, targets, the grocery stores. we're operating under the same rules and guidelines that they are. and yet, we feel like we can actually monitor it even closer because we're a small business. we know our customers. we know our team and we know how to do that.

>> governor newsom has yet to respond. but authorities here are very worried about people following the rules this weekend. chuck? >> thank you. big thanks to both ron and erin with the latest from both coasts on that front. all right. katy, you driving anywhere this weekend? more than 100 miles? i don't know if i am. >> no. i'm working on monday. so i will be home. as i always am. home, home, home. stuck here forever. >> exactly. >> pitty us. we're fine. we hear it over and over. wear mask when you leave your house. when you're around other people. but why is it so important? we're going to look at the science next. nt importa we're going to look at the science next them have teeth sensitivity as well as gum issues. does it worry me? absolutely. new sensodyne sensitivity & gum gives us the dual action effect that really takes care of both our teeth sensitivity as well as our gum issues. there's no question it's something that i would recommend.

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early voting began in georgia this week on a focus of keeping voters and poll workers safe. a georgia-baseded medical company teamed up with the georgia's secretary of state office to provide free face masks for in-person early voting. . another local company is providing hand sanitizes are. but there's a reason they've needed to do this -- election officials have one big hurdle in all of this -- they're struggling to recruit poll workers. >> getting poll workers right now has been a little bit more difficult. right now, we're still short about 130. so, yeah, that's been the

biggest hardship is poll workers. >> most of them is saying they don't want to work now even though they were committed to before because they're worried about contracting the virus. >> says a lot. you know, i get it. poll workers, a lot of times are usually seniors, lot of people, retirees looking for extra money and, you know, i get it. i'm sure there's some seniors going, i'm going to sit this one out. >> yeah, and i know a lot of the same people that work at food banks which is why food banks have had such a hard time distributing a lot of the foods and goods to the people who need it. let's talk about masks, chuck, you can see those poll places are going to rely on masks and as many businesses reopen nationwide, they're requiring customers and employees to wear masks and it turns out most people -- most people agree

wearing one is a good idea. a new fox news poll found that 72% of registered voters say they wear a mask all/most of time and only 14% say they don't. the poll also found majorities on both sides of the aisle do wear mask. 84% of democrats and 60% of republicans. joining us is professor of epidemiology, anna moin. i had a conversation earlier this week about masks, and he was pushing back on the data to support that everyone wearing a mask is all that safe, he was saying that the virus if you cough or sneeze, even talk, is going to come out of the sides of these cloth masks, if they're not an n95 they're really not protecting people and give people a false sense of security, what do you say?

>> katy, i think this is the issue we can't let great be the enemy of good. we have here a situation where we don't have the kind of testte able to control the virus. what we need to do is reduce spread. now, masks may not be perfect and we do have a shortage of n59s and masks that would filter the virus extremely well. but anything that's reducing droplet spread is going to reduce transmission of this virus. in particular as the country is reopening right now, we can reduce spread. every bit counts. i think that the issue that we worry about, i'm wearing a mask and then i don't have to wash my hands and i don't have to be careful about social distancing

and if i don't have to do those things, then, you know, things kind of fall apart. but the truth of the matter is, masks will reduce spread, countries that have used masks have shown that transmission has been reduced. and there's -- there are many studies that are coming out that will be supporting this, whether or not they can reduce something completely is really not the issue at hand here. listen, a flu vaccine doesn't provide perfect protection against infection but it definitely reduces it. but that's what we're looking for here and where masking can be critical in keeping people safe, but that's in addition to social distancing, hand hygiene and everybody doing their part. 12k3w4r let me ask you this, i've wondered this, if someone is running by me and they're sweating and breathe heavily on a run, they might be wearing a mask and i'm wearing mask am i at risk of the droplets coming

off of them if i'm walking behind them or they run right past me? >> here's a perfect example, i've seen the models you've probably seen demonstrating what droplet spread could look like in that scenario. you know, i don't think there's any scenario where there's zero risk, that's where we're all having a hard time. people want to say, what i can do to have zero risk? you stay in your house and you don't go anywhere and that might not be realistic for most people in the world. so, you know, everything has risk associated. and that's the bottom line here, masks will help, they're not the cure-all. >> every little bit helps is the point we'll take away from this. chuck, i know that polling we just showed, there's a bit of a partisan divide.

84% of democrats wear masks, 60% of republicans. we're talking about a partisan divide on this. but that partisan divide might not be as large as some might make it out. >> just one other reminder on mask, if you have a mommade one, don't forget to clean it. think about it when you put on your mask as well. that's it for us. i will see you on sunday on "meet the press." couple of great guests lined up already. we appreciate you watching. thank you for trusting us. we'll see you next week. have a safe memorial day weekend. brian williams and nicolle wallace pick it up after this quick break. ick break. ♪

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good day. brian williams here with you on friday. 3:00 p.m. here in the east. 12:00 noon on the west coast. nicolle wallace will be with us momentarily. first, headlines and facts at this hour as we know them. nearly 96,000 americans have now died from this coronavirus, over 1400 more than at this hour yesterday. the president has ordered flags at all u.s. government buildings to fly at half-staff through the memorial day weekend in memory of those who have died from the

virus the decision comes after democratic leaders in congress sent a letter to the president requesting that he do this. the president made a short appearance in the white house briefing room this afternoon where he declared churches, synagogues and other houses of worship to be essential and he ordered them to be open this weekend. >> some governors have deemed liquor stores and abortion clinics a essential but have left out churches and other houses of worships. it's not right. i'm correcting this injustice and calling houses of worship essential. >> more on that just a moment. dr. anthony fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert says it's conceivable the u.s. could be rolling out a coronavirus vaccine in december. during an interview with npr, he cautioned there could be obstacles to throw off the drug's development and any time

line is never a promise. at long last we're joined by my friend and colleague nicolle wallace, host of "deadline: white house." nicolle, before we bring you in, more of what the president had to say at the podium, i guess, within the last hour. we'll talk about it on the other side. >> the ministers, pastors, rabbis and other faith leaders will make sure their congregations are safe as they gather and pray. i know them well. they love their congregations. they love their people. they don't want anything bad to happen to them or anyone else. the governors need to do the right thing allowing these essential places of faith open right now. for this weekend. if they don't do it i'll override the governors. >> so, nicolle, so much to

discuss, so little time, i'll just set it up before i take my leave before the next two guests. constitutional lawyer sent scrambling figure how he can override state governors. this isn't ike or jfk nationalizing the guard to enforce integration in the south. the other development in the briefing room, dr. birx who cast her lot and appeared to show up in a supporting role to the president including her medical guidelines for this coming weekend. so, with that, welcome to you. >> what a friday. i'm thinking of two pieces of fantastic reporting. when i watched that clip. one was ashley parker posted a story early this morning on both

of our programs about the battle lines for 2020 being what we just saw. donald trump is going all-out with reopenings that defy the recommendations of scientists and based on that brand-new announcement that defy governors still waiting for their states the meet cdc guidelines. the second piece of reporting is around when bill barr came out several weeks ago, feels like several months ago, but it was probably in real time, probably only about two weeks ago and seemed to mock people who were adhering to stay-at-home orders. i have more questions about what the penalty's saying. he was going to bring action against any governors who didn't throw open houses of worship, start suing states, i don't know how that would work.

it's explained by our friend ashley parker, this is to him about how he wins, to get on the bullish side of reopening and defiance in of science and public health people. joining us now is dr. william shaftner from vanderbilter university. we're also joined by our friend jim vander. doctor, tell us whether throwing open without any order or any evaluation whether the standards were met in specific states is the smart thing to do? >> well, nicolle, we know that virus loves to be transmitted through close personal contact and when you go to a congregation, you congregate, you bring people together closely, people who have known each other for a long time, they've been separate, they want to see each other, they will get

close, they will try to hug. they will sit closely together. so if these houses of worship, god bless them, wish to open soon, please do it carefully. urge people to wear masks. spread people apart. have hand hygiene materials readily available and keep the services as brief as possible. ask people not to linger and to be reverent by themselves at home. that's what i would advise. if we're going to do this, do it with great care. the virus is not religious. it won't respond to prayer, i'm afraid. it loves congregations. that's been demonstrated both here and abroad. these religious gatherings have been sources, sights, where this virus has been transmitted

widely. >> jim, some of that news conference that jumped out at me and it was the president invoking abortion clinics and liquor stores, making abundantly clear that this is not just about what he says it about, which it never is with donald trump, talk about this, what the walk on the post reports this morning, the battle lines of which his re-election will be waged. public health warnings from his own cdc and his own advisers and on the other side, democrats who have hitched their fortunes to science and data. >> he's trying to adopt a bullish stance of getting americans back to work. this idea i deem all churches open, it's not how it works. each state is going to do it

state by state. cities are going to do it. churches are going to it individually. the danger is, i go to church, i go home, i go to church here in virginia, i go to church when i'm up in maine, what's true of all three different churches, sadly you tend to have a lot more older people who go to church. what we know definitively, if you're over 60, 65, if you have pre-existing conditions, if you pack in tight, you're at much higher risk. most people know that. one thing to pay close attention to -- the fox poll that came out yesterday or today, other polls have shown that suddenly the president's numbers have gone way down with voters over the age of 65, that was a voting group that really went for him and republicans in general in off-year elections. why is that? one of the reasons is, a lot of these people are sitting at home being super careful, doing the

right thing, and they're watching tv, wait a second, i'm quarantined, i'm worried about my own health, i don't want to be exposed to this virus and president is taking some goofy medications that won't work. so, i'd keep an eye on that. >> jim, a question because we've all been around a while about those with expertise, signing over their skills and opinions to the executive, it's one to see the kind of longization of the president that also means casting asize his usual kus todayal rule during a pandemic. . the experts who go by three initials, doj, dni, cdc, we've seen this over and over again i'm afraid dr. birx's briefing in the briefing room unsettled a

lot of people today when they kind of looked at each other and thought, is it her too? has she gone over to a supporting role of the president? >> yeah, something's happening. one of the big stories over the next couple of weeks is going to starting to see a group of people across businesses, elon musk, donald trump doing this, basically saying, listen, maybe we were totally wrong about our reaction, maybe we overreacted, if you break down and look at the numbers, only certain people are really at risk. if you look at the numbers, we do know who's at risk. older, pre-existing conditions, this is a very dangerous virus. it's also true that if you're healthy and you're not going to go expose yourself to other people who exposed someone and get them sick, you're no more likely to die from this than the

flu. there's definitely a big debate happening on the right. not just donald trump. i'm hearing this a lot from business leaders. we heard it from elon musk, who took a stand against the state of california. owe rogan. saying we overreacted. that's the big debate. what donald trump is saying, he's jumping right in, i'm going to be leader of we overreacted. if you take him based on his own word, he overreacted. he ordered people to shut down. now he's saying everybody get back to work. unfortunately i think we're heading towards this of a red versus blue topic. a very, very political issue. if you hook at the counties the last week, the data, who's

starting to get sick? people in republican counties places that tend to be rural, outside of the big cities, because we knew cities were going to get hit first, people packed in tight, lot-global travelers, and now it's spreading. when your trying to get those communities to stay home and do the right thing, a lot harder when it becomes this politicized. >> dr. schafner, we saw a rise in cases of 23 of 50 states. while we try to keep you away from politics, to jim's point, is it possible that the president is underestimating the degree to which people are staying indoors just because they feel any sense of order or obligation, because they simply don't want to get this thing. >> oh, brian, that's right. jim's right on the mark.

people are staying home because they have heard the very good public health advice and they are conforming. they're protecting themselves and their families. and jim's also right, people who are older, who have underlying conditions, those are the ones i'd be most cautious about going out to large group gatherings, such as houses of worship. we can be reverent at home and protect ourselves at the same time. i think it's very, very important. and it's true, now we see the virus having left the cities is now snaking its way out into the countryside. it won't spread there as rapidly but it will continue to spread in those circumstances. >> an important point to make, look at the polls and look at the behavior, most people are doing the right thing. we get tied up about weird

things that are said in politics. most people when they poll them, yes, i should wear a mask, yes, i should be careful and what your family and friends are doing, most people are making smart decisions. for the most part, most people have behaved pretty responsibly. they're getting antsy. i don't want to be sitting in this house any longer. some people are getting antsy, we want to find justification to get the hell out of our houses. and that will happen in due time. >> indeed. i think we can all sign on to that opinion and agree with that. i was just thinking our two terrific guests for starting our coverage off. coming up after our first break, navajo nation, hit hard by this coronavirus, has the

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continues to disproportionately impact communities of color in our country and the navajo nation continues to suffer. on thursday the navajo department of health reported 181 new cases of coronavirus, that brings the total at over 4400 and while that seems smaller than some of the numbers we've been tossing around and dealing with from different cities and states, forbes points out that navajo nation now has the most coronavirus infections per capita in our country. topping both new york and new jersey in that way. officials say the increase in new cases is partially due to widespread testing, but the surge in cases has put a significant strain on the surrounding health care system, the associated press details the dire situation at one rural hospital in new mexico which only has eight intensive care beds, all of which currently

full. the article goes on to read, of 500 support staff, at least 32 hospital workers have become infected and doctors and nurses say they all live with the fear of spreading the virus to their colleagues and relatives. we're pleased to be joined at this house by jonathan ness, the president of the navajo nation. please update us on the current situation and also by the way, by doing that, please remind our viewers the restrictions on navajo nation, your inability to assess and raise tax money, for example, the fact income sources for navajo nation have all mostly dried up. >> thank you, brian. thank you for having us on msnbc live this afternoon. just to give you an update, we have tested 27,932 people here

on the navajo nation, positive cases -- 4,434. we're also tracking the recovery, the recovery numbers are at 1,195, 147 deaths. now, let me also mention, brian, that, yes, per capita, we're ahead of new york and new jersey, but let me also add that we are also ahead of any other state here in the united states in terms of testing our population, we are over 13% of our total population that has been tested here, more than any other state in the country. of course, if you have more testing you're going to get more positive and negative results. and this weekend we are going on our seventh -- 57-hour curfew. it's memorial day weekend.

lots of the states around us are opening up their businesses, so it's a little bit concerning for us that national parks, grand canyon national park will be opened this weekend but we also said to the department of interior, secretary burn hart, we'll like to close the road from the grand canyon that goes into the navajo nation, because we're in a shelter in place order, a stay-at-home order and we have do curfews. so over the weekend, if you're on the navajo nation you're traveling, you'll get stopped and you may get a traffic ticket and those traffic tickets are as high as $1,000 for disobeying the curfew. we're going to extreme measures here because we want to flatten the curve here on navajo nation. we want our residents to stay

safe and that's the reason we're utilizing our sovereign ability to protect the health and well-being of our navajo citizens here on our sovereign lands. we appreciate doctors without border coming here to help us. university of california-san francisco, sending their doctors and nurses. we're beginning to see an influx in hospital visits, shifting from the western part of the navajo nation, we're giving food and supplies to our navajo citizens so they can hunker down for this 57-hour curfew this weekend, lot of our people are fearful to go to these 11 supermarkets. there are only 11 supermarkets, brian, here on the navajo nation. you know, we don't want large

gatherings and we're doing our very best to get food and supplies to our citizens so they can be safe. the safest place to be right now is at home so we can lessen the cases here on the navajo nation. >> well, on behalf all of us here, our thanks to jonathan nez, president of nav navajo nation. thank you very much for being with us. still ahead for us -- the holiday weekend in the age of coronavirus. we're off to an indiana speedway that's opening tomorrow night -- but without fans. everyone living in your home

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states and cities across our country are reopening their economies ahead of this holiday weekend. there are people starting to gather on the beach at the jersey shore, where beaches are finally open, though they've got a night and a morning of rain to get through sunday and monday look good, however, this morning governor phil murphy said he would sign an executive order that lifts the number of outdoor gatherings from 10 people and moves it to 25 people as people look ahead to barbecues and camping trips and indoor gatherings remain limited to 10 people. they're hoping as all states are, common sense rules the day.

officials say they still expect residents to adhere to social distancing may shurs. another sign of leaders across the country trying to ease restrictions as we kick off a more cautious summer season while remembering cases are up in 23 out of our 50 states. we're so happy to be joined by nbc's kyle perry. he happens to be at a dandy one-third mile dirt speedway, plymouth speedway in indiana. normally packed with fans on memorial day weekend. this year, plymouth speedway is going to hold its first race of the season tomorrow with no spectators in the stands. kyle, i envy you just being there. >> it's a fantastic track, i've never been to one of these tracks. we got more track in indiana

than anywhere else in the country. they're getting ready. tomorrow, cars will be whipping around. people here are happy because they're taking it as a stage of recovery. again, without fans. it's the other businesses that are affected when this speedway isn't open. >> we didn't even -- we didn't get the unemployment yet, didn't have any money for food. we turned around and taking it out of our pockets handing them money to buy money. >> how many folks in. >> 1340. it's -- all three of us who own it, how are we going to do this? what are we going to do? it's