good evening. tonight on the eve of memorial day, we are approaching a devasting milestone. 100,000 americans dead from the coronavirus pandemic. this will be a memorial day unlike any we've ever seen in this country. with more americans now dead

from this disease than all those who died at war in the last half century. they were husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters. as "the new york times" put it on their remarkable front page today, "they were us." the times gave us this striking image. just 1% of the dead printed in small type. just a few words about each person, but those words are enough to remind us that these death tallies, these numbers being recited every day, they aren't just numbers. each is a full rich american life. this hits especially hard coming as our country pauses to reflect on memorial day when we honor the thousands of americans who made the ultimate sacrifice. why did they make that sacrifice? it was so america could remain a beacon of freedom for the entire

world, so that all of us could live our lives as we saw fit. and now nearly 100,000 people -- people they died to protect -- have perished in the pandemic. like earvin herman whose name is listed in the times, army man, modest about his service in the pacific. he lived through the war and died at home of coronavirus. this makes me so angry. it wasn't supposed to happen this way. the america that i grew up in was supposed to do better. we are supposed to be the leader of the free world, not the leader in illness, in death, but the leader in competence, setting the standard. we're supposed to do it so well that we can lift the rest of the world up along with us. but now our nation, our

government has failed the americans who gave their lives fighting our nation's wars. they protected us. they gave everything for us. only to have our leaders fail us now. we as people are not living up to their example if we aren't wearing masks to protect others or if we're packing bars this weekend because we're tired of being cooped up. but our elected leaders are dramatically failing to live up to our veterans' example. what were they elected for, if not to make sure that america was the best prepared nation on the face of the earth to beat back a deadly disease and protect her people? they have failed us, and we fleneed to demand better. i'm kasie hunt. this is "kasie d.c." joining us is action political correspondent jonathan swan, from the washington post ann

gare n and yamiche alcindor. ann and yamiche are msnbc political contributors. thank you for being here tonight. ann garren, i want to start with you because you have a new story in the washington post that walks through what we're grappling with here, we grappled with the incredibly grim milestones. and you point out some of the things that president trump has been doing through this memorial day weekend. i think we have an excerpt from your story we can put up on the screen. but could you just walk us through for contrast what this president has been doing over this weekend? >> sure. well, kasie, i think what we were trying to do here is just point out that the president has made choices this weekend about the use of his time which really is the president's most precious resource, and what he chose to do really had very little to do, if anything to do, with memorial day. and also not a lot to do with

the pandemic that is affecting so, so many americans. he played golf two days in a row which is the first time he has played golf since the beginning of this pandemic, and it was a very symbolic choice he made to do so. not only because it shows him out doing something that is purely a recreational choice. until now he has left the white house except for going to camp david in one case for a working meeting. he's only left the white house for work-related trips or at least things that the white house described as such. on saturday and sunday he left the white house to play golf, which is clearly a recreational activity, and one that deborah birx, the white house coronavirus task force coordinator on friday, has specifically said was okay to do as long as people were taking social distance precautions. and it's notable as well that the president played golf today,

sunday, after making a point on friday of calling on americans to return to in-person church services this weekend. i will note that there aren't that many in-person church services in washington and in suburbs because washington remains a coronavirus hot spot, but there were some. in sterling, virginia, where his golf club is where he played today, he could, had he chosen, go to a drive-in service or one of the services, held in churches where they were observing social distance restrictions where they really only had ten people in the church at a time. he didn't choose to do that. he chose to play golf. >> yamiche alcindor, he went golfing in sterling, virginia. the governor of virginia, ralph northam, while some in his state have met the metrics for opening back up under the state

guidelines, northern virginia has been exempt from that because of the fact it is still a hot spot. and, in fact, northam suggested he hoped people in this region were staying at home this weekend because traveling outside of a hot spot puts other people at risk. and it seems the president did just that, no? >> well, the president is someone who understands very, very clearly optics. he understands the idea of what he does is really modelling the behavior that he wants other americans to show and to do. so he was very methodical in the idea that he wanted to make sure americans, in his mind, felt okay to go out and do recreational sports including golf. it is true that dr. birx said that she was encouraging people to do recreational things like go for a hike or go golfing, but she said they needed to stay 6 feet apart. she also said they were still concerned, white house officials, health officials, were concerned with several cities where people were staying inside and cases not going down. one of those places is

washington, d.c. and washington, d.c. area. in washington, d.c. where you live and i live, cases are still stubbornly high. the white house is still trying to figure out what's going on with that. as the president is wanting people to go back, push aside the idea people need to reopen, the issue of where he actually lives is still a hot spot. the other thing to note is the president, as he was spending his time playing golf, he was tweeting information. he was tweeting cases are going down all over the country and that's just not true, kasie. again, we know in washington, d.c., we know in chicago there are cases that are not going down. the president not only is he playing golf and being recreational, he's also spreading misleading information, in some cases trafficking in conspiracy theories. >> jonathan swan, yamiche mentioned the president is aware of optics and we talked to others on this network. you've been doing reporting and

talking to sources about what the next months are going to look like, particularly for the trump campaign. they clearly want to send a different message as we are still fighting with and grappling with this virus. what can we expect, what message is the president going to be trying to send? >> they're trying to set up a visual contrast with joe biden. they're trying to position donald trump as the candidate of reopening the economy. so expect to see much more film of him and television appearances where he's out in public, mixing with people, no mask. and joe biden, obviously in delaware abiding by the stay-at-home order at home, doing his media hits from the house. they're also talking about at this point trying to set up a really stark contrast between the two conventions.

and two sources close to the president told me that they are hoping to have a really boisterous live in-person national republican convention, setting a contrast between that and the democratic convention which is likely to have significant virtual elements. they're obviously looking at how they can do that with social distancing, et cetera, but the reality is when you know a whole bunch of people pile into an area, it's very difficult to maintain that, particularly when the president himself is -- >> jonathan -- >> yes? >> yeah, how do you create a visual contrast in that case if the visual is one that is specifically of a bunch of people back together having a party? how on earth can you do that safely? >> well -- and i should say "the wall street journal" did some great reporting on this, michael bender and ken thomas. look, they're making a bet and it's a risky bet, and the bet is

that the current psychology in public opinion is not going to hold till november. right now if you look at polling, people, majority of people are concerned and cautious about reopening too quickly. they're making a bet, the trump campaign is, that by late summer/fall, that is going to turn and that there will be a huge pent-up energy and momentum towards the idea of getting open, and that they're going to try and position trump as the person who is going to bring the economy roaring back. now, of course, if there is a very severe second wave and if this experiment of reopening fails, i mean, there you go. you're not going to have your ny nice economy and you're going to have a terrible death count. it is not a strategy without risk, but it is a strategy. >> it is certainly not simply a political calculation with the stakes of winning or losing an

election at the end, although that, of course, is part of it. this is real stakes for real people. to that point, we want to send our condolences tonight to robert draper who is a longtime journalist who i've known many years. he tweeted, quote, my mother died this morning. i wasn't able to be by her bedside at her memory care facility in houston. i ask you to consult what is left of your humanity. our condolences are with robert and his family tonight. yamiche, i think the fact robert draper felt that he had to say that out loud reflects the terrible divisions in our politics that are making people -- it really makes me question how people are approaching all of this. and i know you have been on the receiving end of a lot of vitriol as a reporter yourself.

>> i think what reporters are trying to explain to people, apart, of course, from the fact and what the scientists are saying, it's also that we're human beings behind these stories. on friday, there was a good example where the white house press secretary was essentially saying, reporters don't want people to be able to pray and that's why everyone is pushing this idea that you should remain closed, when jeff mason pushed back, a reporter pushed back and said, actually reporters go -- we go to pray, we go to churches. i've had friends unfortunately i've lost during this time. i think the thing "the new york times" does well, it encapsulates the fact the nation is reporting. tmg it's not about a democrat or republican, a reporter. you're grieving something if it's your grandmother or dear friend in my case. what people need to understand, it's something we're trying to explain to people, is that when

we report these facts when we talk about people, what we're talking about is the fact that this is humanity and we're all having to deal with the fact everyone is a little tired of staying in. everyone misses everyone. there is also the facts. facts are not something you can see. what president trump is trying to do essentially what a lot of white house aides are trying to do on tv is reporters going after president trump and trying to attack him. when in fact we as the rest of americans are having to deal with the consequence of the pandemic. >> and i think, you know, the times put it best as they talk about these 100,000 almost americans who have died. they were us. ann, thanks for your time. appreciate having you on the show. still to come, david ignatius is going to join me to talk about a head-on collision between the u.s. and china, huge part of the story. president trump invokes the ghost of roger ailes as he shows the fox trail showing him joe biden. james carville joins me next as the former vice-president faces

troubles of his own after an interview started this way and ended very differently. >> i'm winning in all the states. i'm ahead in all the national polls. and the more he talks, the better off i am. to help you through the current health situation cvs pharmacy is now offering free one to two-day delivery of prescriptions and everyday essentials. visit cvs.com/delivery or call your local pharmacy to learn more. free prescription delivery from cvs.

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every so often a politician says something so existential threatening to their political

career that they have to do something unusual. >> i've never said i'm a perfect person, nor pretended to be someone that i'm not. i've said and done things i regret, and the words released today on this more than a decade old video are one of them. anyone who knows me knows these words don't reflect who i am. i said it, i was wrong, and i apologize. >> that is, yes, then candidate trump apologizing after the release of the "access hollywood" tape. the fear was that it would cost him white women voters. in the end, it didn't. and out of public view on a conference call on friday afternoon, vice-president biden apologized after saying african-american voters, quote, ain't black if they support the president's reelection. joining me now is long time democratic strategist and msnbc analyst james carville and yamiche alcindor is still with

us as well. james, it's great to have you on the program. go tigers. >> thank you. >> let's talk about what's going on with the biden campaign right now. this obviously a mistake that hits at the core of his support. did he do the right thing in apologizing? did he go far enough? is it a problem? what is your advice to the campaign going forward? >> well, first of all with regard to his mother, a dear friend of mine, my condolences to him and his staff. the second thing is the "access hollywood" tape and this little thing biden made, they're not even remotely comparable. they're not the same solar system. and i just hope we don't go back to this, but what about the emails. i mean, biden made an error. he apologized for it. and move on.

we can obsess on this, but this is -- in the scheme of things, this is not going to amount to diddley squat come the election in november and i really believe that. we have to be careful not to -- >> there you have it. >> -- put on one hand on the other hand. this is on 100 hands and on one finger. >> fair enough. so, i want to play for you a little bit of what donald trump had to say over the weekend in an interview about the former vice-president, his opponent, in the election. and he seems to get right at the heart of the real argument they're going to try to use to go afternoon him in november. let's watch and then i'd like to get your response to it. >> what do you think is joe biden's strongest feature as a competitor in politics? >> well, i would have said experience, but he doesn't really have experience because i don't think he remembers what he did yesterday. so how is that experience?

he's not mentally sharp enough to be president. biden doesn't know -- i mean, he doesn't know he's alive. >> so, james, i mean, this is something that, you know, in plenty of campaigns past this has been an unspoken attack that some -- that one candidate has leveled at another, somebody was in poor health or was too old. the president in this campaign are putting it out there in this incredibly direct way. is it going to work? >> the clorox kid. anybody can make a gaff, make a word come out the wrong way. nobody ever stood in front of the whole united states and told them to drink clorox, right? we have to quit chasing this stupidity around. he is getting beat and he's getting beat bad. he's getting beat in the fox poll, the quinnipiac poll, the nbc poll. and he's going to lose bad. and jonathan swain is right. they're going to try anything they can to try to change the

conversation. they're not going to be successful. and we don't need to be helping him be successful. he doesn't know where he is right now. you can look the american people are turning on him by the day. joe biden is fine. joe biden performed i thought superbly in a lot of the debates. yeah, he said some things sometimes that came out the wrong way. go look at trump gaffs. look at the things that he has said and the words he's mispronounced. i mean they're just silly. we don't need to follow this kind of silliness that he puts out. and the idea he's going to go play golf and that's going to turn this election around for him, that's his only hope, play golf, man, can't lose doing that. at least you're not talking to the public. [ laughter ] >> yamiche alcindor, let me get you to weigh in on your reporting on how both sides, the trump campaign and the biden campaign are thinking through what joe biden said.

and obviously you've also covered the african-american community many years in political context. do you agree with james carville based on your reporting that this is not something that's going to move a lot of votes? >> based on my conversations with african-american voters, african-american democratic donors, there isn't going to be a big change in the support joe biden has based on the remarks he made on friday. i will say there was a selective gap at the idea joe biden had the hubris to say african americans aren't black enough and he would be the person as a white man to tell african americans how to be african-american. that was definitely seen as not okay. and his apology was needed based on the reporting that i have. but that apology was given swiftly. he was saying, i'm sorry, i was being cavalier, i apologize. president trump is someone who has said all sorts of things, of course, like in december when he said that jews weren't loyal if they voted for democrats and

they lacked knowledge. the president hasn't apologized from that. that's his style. a few times he's apologize, we've seen joe biden apologize. the president says i'm going to double down on everything. i'm going to make myself the reopening candidate and i'll see where the chips may lie. joe biden, at least based on my reporting, feels very confident as james carville just said, he's going to be able to beat president trump even if he doesn't leave his home, even if what he has to do is explain he's the best president from his porch or basement or living room. he feels confident going forward. president trump saying joe biden isn't mentally fit. the president still has a lot of support and people who like his style. it's going to come down to which person is seen as the best candidate when it comes to dealing with this crisis which is what the election is going to be about, black voters, white voters, asian voters, everyone is wondering who is the person i want to lead amme through the

pandemic. president trump knows he has an issue and they're trying to make him the candidate. >> james carville -- >> excuse me, go ahead. >> is there anything that you think joe biden could do to lose this election based on what you just said? you seem to think trump has basically already lost. >> well, i'm sure he could do something. i've tried not to think about that. there's a lot of things he could do to win this election. but i think the country has been pretty clear that they don't want trump. he got 46.1 in 2016. they got 44.8 in 2018. he's literally lost 80% of the special elections. he's behind in every poll. it is abundantly clear that the country does not want him back. it is abundantly clear that his campaign knows that the country does not want him back. it is abundantly clear that they're going to try every

desperation move that they can come up with to try to get him back. in my opinion, none of it is going to work. this is going to be a big democratic year. >> fair enough. >> that's just my opinion. it's been my opinion for a long time. until something comes along to change it, i'm going to continue to have it. >> so, quickly, james, before i let you go, who do you think biden should choose to be his vice-presidential nominee? >> if he picks sarah palin, i will say it's the greatest history in vice-presidential picks. anybody that he picks i'm going to be fine with. we just got to win, baby. i mean, win. you know, as i said on this network before, remember, remember, it's all about november. it's not about some stupid thing somebody said in may. it's all about november. and i'm sure he'll still pick somebody the party can all rally a around and we can be excited about. i trust joe biden 100% that

he'll make a wise choice and somebody we can all feel good about. if he picks sarah palin, i'm going to be for it. >> all right, james carville, thank you as always, my friend, for sharing. >> thank you, appreciate you. hang in there, we love you, we're pulling for you. >> cheers. yeah, we are. thank you for those words. dave and yamiche will join me next as the pivot to china for years got a lot more dramatic this weeks. 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. ♪

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it chooses to -- once upon a time the answer was -- the task force into the taiwan strait. that is basically an impossibility. the stakes of the game are different. i think there is a growing realization among analysts in the trump administration and outside among democrats as well as republicans that this military balance has gotten out of whack and it's something everybody needs to take more seriously. >> jonathan swan, how does this all fit into the coronavirus

issues and theto change in poste from the administration around that? i mean, this president has been smith barney who p in the past s praised xi jinping, really did early on seemed to wish him well in the coronavirus pandemic. how has the shift in that rhetoric altered all of this policy landscape?ed >> i think it's worth just taking a moment to help your viewers understand how trump thinks about this now, the white house thinks about this. something that i've covered the whole time i've covered trump, and it's a really interesting area. so, there's two things going on. number one, trump has for the longest time tried to preserve this personal relationship with xi jinping, even while his own administration is doing things like imposing tariffs and other administrationhe officials like vice-president pence and the secretary of state pompeo haveh been using very, very hot

rhetoric about china. theet second thing is human rigs in general are not close to president trump's heart. heo doesn't -- he doesn't put human rights at thesn center of his foreign policy. far from it. he puts it at the very periphery. others in thee administration e passionate about it. he's not. he sees it as something that's extraneous, that interferes with commerce. two things have happened, two things have happened. number one, the coronavirus, and the fact that xi jinping -- there was really egregious cover up at the start, detaining doctors, censoring chinese social media, putting out information misleading about human tosl human transmission. trump is furious about that. the second is politics. you have national security hawks inside the trumpl administrati who always felt they need to take awa hard line against chin butli what you've had is the political team now has merged with the national security team

because they are looking at polling which shows thatri thiss one of the most potent election year issues for donald trump. so he now is being faced with not only the usual suspects, matt pottinger in the nsc and mike pompeo, but when the campaign manager and pollster are coming in to see him they're showing charts of how effective it is to beat up on china. that's why david ignatius is 100% correct that we're heading towards a confrontation of some description because all the incentives are aligned in that direction. >> a remarkable shift. david ignatius, jonathan swan, yamiche alcindor, thank you very much for coming on the show tonight. i appreciate your insites. we're back after this. challenging it is right now.

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mail-in ballots because it's going to lead to total election fraud. so we don't want them to do mail-in ballots. we don't want anyone to do mail-in ballots. >> voting is an honor. it shouldn't be something where they send you a pile of stuff and you send it back. >> the president is also threatening to withhold funding from the battle ground states of nevada and michigan after she sent out absentee ballot applications statewide. join being me now is michigan's lieutenant governor garland gilchrist. lieutenant governor, thanks very much for being on the program tonight. i'd like so start just by fact checking the president there to point out that mail-in voting does not equal voter fraud and, in fact, instances of reported voter fraud are extraordinarily low. but why don't you walk us through what your state -- i know that the law was recently changed and this was actually applications for mail-in ballots that went out that generated some of the response from the president. what did your state actually do?

>> well, kasie, first of all, thank you for having me on the program tonight. and the people of the state of michigan voted in overwhelming fashion to make it easier for more people to vote by not having to have an excuse to vote absentee, so people could request the absentee ballot application and they could get an absentee ballot in mail and vote by mail. it's safe, it's convenient, it's effective. and the president is dead wrong when it comes to saying that, one, that is illegal because that is not what the people of michigan voter for. and two, that it causes fraud. the truth is people are killed by deer more in a year than by voter fraud. that shows how he is out of touch with the people of the state of michigan. it is no surprise vice-president biden is up in the polls in our state and across the country. >> so, obviously michigan is critical part of the potential, any potential trump reelection

map, critical to the map for joe biden. it was such an incredibly narrow margin in 2016. why do you think the president is so focused on kind of framing this debate this way? is it that obvious explanation, or do you think it may have something to do with the state's democratic governor who i know you work with closely? >> i think it has everything to do with the fact that donald trump won michigan by 10,704 votes in 2016 and gretchen whitmer, our governor and myself, we won michigan by ten points in 2018. it also has everything to do with the fact that the lack of a national strategy on the coronavirus response -- and when you see that placed and compared with how we responded in michigan and how governors across the state have responded, the president's insecure about his prospects in the state of michigan and this president has shown that when he gets insecure, he chooses to attack instead of getting to work. that's not how we treat any kind of situation, whether it's a

pandemic, whether it's a once in a 500-year flood, or whether it's getting more people to the polls or more people to vote safely here in the state of michigan. we roll up our sleeves and get to work. >> one of my former colleagues at politico, tim alberta now living and working in michigan where he's originally from, and he wrote a piece that stood out to me about this very question and the president's tweets about voting in michigan. and he kind of underscored that what the president says tends to come right back out from voters' mouths on the ground in ways that he described as concerning, particularly raising doubts about the legitimacy of an election. do you feel like that's the goal here that the president is ultimately trying to sow seeds that will suggest that the results of a michigan election come november aren't legitimate? >> president trump has proven that he is very comfortable

trafficking misinformation and not telling people the truth. it's unfortunate because so many people in america and people in the state of michigan have so much respect for the office of the presidency we pay attention to what happens. i think the president wants to set us up so that there can be a conversation about legitimacy in an election he is looking to lose. and that is really unfortunate thing. that is not how we do democracy here in the united states. and we need to be ready to respond to that forcefully. any strategy that any politician wants to use to approach an election that makes it more difficult and this pandemic less safe for people to vote, people need to question the motives of that politician. that's what people in michigan and across the country will do in analyzing the president's response here, instead they're going to look to joe biden and democrats all the way up and down the ticket who are ready to step up because we want more people to vote, we want more people to exercise their rights and have the opportunity to treat this election what it is, a referendum on the perform tanzania of this president and

why we need to go in a different direction. >> all right, lieutenant governor gilchrist, thank you for your time tonight. i know you made a mention of those floods. our thoughts and prayers are with the people of midland, michigan, are all the people affected by that terrible disaster. our hearts are with you. thank you. it is a club made up of only five members, and one of them has attacked the other four repeatedly. would you let him in? we're going to talk about that rare club of presidents coming up next with kate andersen brower and her new book team of five, and where president trump fits into that. it means helpine who serve stay connected to their families. and now verizon wants to give them something back... our best pricing ever. $30 per line for all nurses, teachers, first responders, military, and their families. not for a few months, but for as long as they need. plus, up to $900 off the motorola edge+.

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. when all the living former presidents are together, it's also a special day for our democracy. we have been called the world's most exclusive club and we do have a pretty nice clubhouse, but the truth is, our club's more like a support group. >> that was president obama at the dedication of president bush's presidential library. but this club might have a hard time accepting its newest member. earlier this week nbc's carol lee reported president trump likely won't take part in obama's port trail unveiling. that's a break from tradition and it's hardly a surprise, the president has hardly been deferential to his predecessors.

>> i get elected and i beat the bush dynasty. okay. and we boo et the clinton dynasty. right? and then we beat barack hussein obama and whatever the hell dynasty that is. >> kate anderson brouwer writes in her new book, "team of five," president's club in the age of trump. trump is proud of his os tracism from the club and his contempt is obvious. the course he has chosen made it impossible to maintain any friendships or civility with the men who once occupied the oval office. kate anderson brouwer joins me now. it's great to have you back on the show. congratulations on the new book. i cannot wait to read it in full. you sat down with president trump in the context of your work or researching and writing this book and i found the

details that you included about this particular encounter fascinating right from the beginning where you misinterpreted what you were there to talk to him about. can you walk us through what unfolded when you went to the white house for that? >> well, it's interesting. as you know, getting an interview with the president is usually a difficult thing. in this case it was the easiest interview i've gone. i think that's probably because he can't wait to talk about these men and talk about how he's done such a better job in his eyes than they have. you know, he, kellyanne conway was in the room with us sitting on the sofa in the oval office and chimed in once or twice and then in the interview, he say, he mentions, what is the book about again? because i've written about first ladies. so i think he was a little confused about that. it was fascinating to me that he doesn't have the layers of aides around him protecting him. actually, i gave him a copy of

my book "the residents." he says i love the black and gold. he's all about appearances. i think we know this now. i think what i'm trying to do in the book is show the stark contrast between president trump and the four living president ed says o, who really do treat each other with a level of respect you can't imagine trump doing. you really can't imagine him sitting in. he, himself, doesn't imagine sitting in. >> yes, wouldn't you think that country is losing in that? because i mean, this is an incredibly lonely job and you know having read some of the literature previously that's been written by our esteemed colleagues about this president's club. they all talk about how being a lonely decision maker is a lonely place to be. it seems clear president trump rejected whatever wisdom he could glean from them completely out of hand. >> i talked to a former trump official who said, you know, it's amazing he feels more

comfortable picking up the phone and calling putin and erdogan or bill clinton or even george w. bush. he was sitting behind the resolute desk that famous desk that kennedy sat behind and every modern president in the oval office with the affections. i said sitting at this desk, doesn't it give you more of a sense of emparty? he quickly said, not at all. in the book i get into these stories that i find very touching and i think are important for us to remember about barack obama and george h.w. bush, for instance. the former presidents to see george h.w. bush before he passed away was barack obama. i assumed it was george w. bush seeing his father. but it was actually someone who was completely separated by political party, generation, everything you could think of but these two men, you know, forged a relationship and that is gone and i think that trump,

if anything, has unified the four living former presidents. >> it's fascinating. and you had some reporting as well on the decision making between why they ultimately invited president trump to 41's funeral? >> right. i think that from my reporting, it was a decision that they made because of, first of all, bush 41 was someone who had a huge amount of respect for the presidency. it would be a huge story if some president you know didn't invite the sitting president to a funeral, because these lists are prepared years in advance. because they looked at john mccain's funeral and the people who work in bush's office said you know we don't want, his funeral to become about donald trump and in many ways, john mccain's funeral became about donald trump. you see george w. bush being very gracious, shaking trump and the first laid's hands.

i think for the bushes, the politics is not a blood sport in the way it is for donald trump. >> yeah. fair enough. a lot of gracefulness and graciousness as a very critical value for the bush family. the book is "team of five." thank you so much. i hope home schooling is going okay. coming up, jon meacham is in his own words on the end of an era of the consoleer in chief. you really don't want to miss it. plus, former congressman carlos cabell lo as the president pedals conspiracy theories and undermines elections. and i will talk to senator gary peters as he faces a difficult re-election. we are back after this. ces a difficult re-election. we are back after this at's why i've got the power of 1,2,3 medicines with trelegy. the only fda-approved, once-daily 3 in 1 copd treatment. ♪

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president george w. bush said he stopped playing golf in 2003 out of respect for the gold star families who lost loved ones in iraq. he said, quote, i don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander-in-chief playing golf. in just a little bit, historian jon meacham is going to join us to talk about the end of the line of the consolers in chief. first, president trump is heavily targeting democratic-run states, in particular, over their attempts to expand mail-in voting during the coronavirus pandemic. today he tweeted accusing states of quote trying to use covid for this scam. by the way, here's what in-person voting looks like in the age of coronavirus. lines outside polling locations in wisconsin that stretched for blocks and voters wearing masks as they try to maintain social distance. but none of this, of course, particularly surprising, coming from a president with a history of questioning the legitimacy of

elections. just this past week, florida's law agency held a death blow to widespread voter fraud in the state's 2018 races for senate and governor. then, there is president trump's fixation on the results of the 2016 presidential election. in late november, 2016, he tweeted without any evidence, quote, in addition to winning the electoral college in a landslide, i won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally. he repeated that debunked claim during his first congressional meeting with leaders months later. imagine him saying things like this after an election he lost as opposed to an election that he won. >> a lot of times it doesn't matter because in many places like california, they like to say, oh, that's a conspiracy theory.

it's very hard because they don't want to see the records, they don't want to see. >> and with that, i would like to bring in two former republican congressmen who represent a district in florida with david jolly and carlos curbelo. it's great to see both of you. congressman, for starters, do you still consider yourself a member of the republican party of this president? i realize mr. jolly's circumstances have been adjusted a little bit. but it's been a while since we spoke up front. >> i am a registered republican. i will not succumb to his party. there will be a republican party after donald trump. i hope to be a part of that. >> so let's start with these claims then and the focus that this president has on mail-in balancing. many states are looking at this because of the coronavirus pandemic. people are concerned about voting, particularly older americans in a state like florida and we've seen those

seniors kind of break away from this president. do you think it's responsible of president trump to be making these claims about mail-in voting, congressman curbelo, we'll start with you? >> of course, it isn't responsible, kasie, but this is nothing knew. this is exactly what the president did in 2016. he's hedging. he thought in 2016 he was going to lose the election. he was seeking to delegitimize the result before the election. this [ inaudible ] he may not win and he's hedging right now. hess hedge of what could be the results in november. the irony is mail voting, especially in a state like florida was made popular by republicans. it's republicans who years ago, 20 years ago in florida started encouraging their supporters to vote by mail. in california, the party was way ahead of the mail-in voting.

it's not just that mail voting is safe, it's something that republican versus exploited and i don't say that in a nefarious way. they've taken advantage of it in a smart way for years so it's irresponsible both what the president is doing, is what he is usually doing. which is looking out for himself. >> so congressman, to that point, i mean, is the president, in fact, risking losing out on some votes by making this his messaging? i mean, i think what congressman curbelo says makes a lot of sense, especially if are you a senior citizen who perhaps has voted republican for most of your life and you don't necessarily want to go to the polls amid coronavirus? >> yeah. interestingly, kasie, the data shows that it is not, fraud is not prevalent in mail voting. nor does the data indicate there was a dramatic swing towards one party or the other. perhaps the president is. you nope, his current attack on

mail voting is laced with irony and subtext. one is republicans, generally, particularly mitch mcconnell's narrative nationalizing election procedures, i think it's a state's prerogative to determine vote by mail. second is donald trump is worried about vote by mail in the states in which he is trending poorly. third is the irony that donald trump, himself, voted by mail. where republicans are making a calculated error, is that the american people know that voting should be as easy and accessible as it can be secure and while republicans are simply saying they don't want it to be easy and accessible, what they should be doing is leading on the security of voting by mail of remote voting. we transact trillions of dollars in currency a day electronically. we have immerse on our foevenlts we transfer electronic medical records. we can accomplish secure remote

voting. a party should lead on that right now democrats are trying. republicans a simply standing in the way of greater accessibility at the ballot box. it's a losing transition for trump and republicans. >> so, given all of that i think you make a great set of points there, let's broaden this conversation out a little bit because, you know, if we're talking about florida, congressman curbelo, then this president has already lost this election. do you think your home state of florida is legitimately in play on the math considering how this president has responded to the coronavirus pandemic? >> kasie, i think it's too early to count the president out. i know of people who are out there working hard and make sure if he loses may be frustrated to hear that. this is someone who was obviously counted out in 2016. he was losing by double digits a few weeks before the election. and florida is going to be a

close state. here in south florida, there is a hispanic community where many people support the president. we know he is struggling in other parts of the state. stwi the i-4 corridor, which is pivotal where david lives. i think it's too early to say that either candidate has a stronghol here in florida. this has been the perennial swing state for over two decades now. and i think that will continue being the case this year. >> fair enough. i want to actually go back to what we were talking about a second ago. we had a little breaking news here. the republican chair woman rodney mcdaniel of the rnc tweeted the rnc and the california republican party are suing governor gavin newsom over what she calls an illegal election power grab. this is of course his plan to have an all male election.

congressman jolly, we just had a republican win a mail-in largely mail-in congressional election just a week or so ago. i mean, what itself the value in doing this? >> there is none. look, republicans are standing in between voters and their right to vote is what they are doing with this lawsuit. it is a very audacious move by republicans. one would come to expect. though the data shows voting by mail and expanding the voter universe does not statistically trend one way or another in this moment. what we do know is the more people who vote coming over the next decade, it is trend ache way from republicans. the trend is not the republican's friend. so those who take advantage of greater vote by home or perhaps remote voting, if we are able to ever do it electronically, constituencies that would trend democratics. instead of republicans reflect the more diverse priorities of a nation trending demographically

away from them, they've decided to double down on the base they currently have and obstruct the opportunity to vote by those who they are afraid might not support the republican platform. it is a shameful move by the republican party, but we've come to expect shameless behavior from them. it's not surprising what they are doing in california. >> all right. former congressman david jolly and congressman curbelo, thank you very much. i love having your sharp insight so thank you. president trump has mostly taken aim at democratic-leaning states that are trying to expand mail-in voting. what about states like arizona that elected trump in 2016 with the help of early voters who used mail-in ballots? nbc news political reporter vaughan hilliard spent some time in arizona looking into that very question. watch. >> kasie, the president of the united states went on the attack against mail-in voting this week calling it corrupt to note without evidence. we're here in arizona right now,

there may be no better state than to look at mail-in voting than here. the state expanded maim-in voting to all arizonans in the essential 90s. like a look at the numbers that voted since then. there is everyday that democratic counties and republican counties like to vote my mail. maricopa gave trump a 3-point edge over clinton while 78% of those votes were cast early. democratic pinal county gave him a 13 pin 6 advantage and they voted early. rural arizona, we visited the rural conservative community of williams. the zip code covers 1,400 square miles. that's just about four people every mile. take a listen to the local post-master. >> there are a lot of people in this community with that vote by

mail. that's becoming more popular every year. i'm seeing more and more ballots come through our post office. the simplicity and the ease of it, like i said, you don't have to come down and stand in line. when i first moved here, there was no vote by mail. and i remember times i'd stand in line for two hours to get into the polls just to cast a vote. >> in some of the most trump friendly counties in the state, more than two-thirds cast mail ballots. they voted for trump by 32%. its voters are increasingly turning to vote by mail. early voters jumped by 6 percentage points. this is where things get interesting. in 2018, republican martha mcsally nearly lost to democrat kyrsten sinema in a senate race and she did better than at a polling place on election day. but there is no evidence to suggest that those voters who voted early for sinema would

have showed up on election day and republican governor doug ducey won his race by 14 points in the same election and don't forget republicans hold the voter registration edge. the evidence that does exist here, arizonans have increasingly turned to mail-in voting at a time that president trump all but needs to win this state to win he re-election. >> vaughan hilliard, thank you for that joining me is senator gary peters of michigan. he is the ranking member on the homeland security committee. it's great to have you on kasie d.c. tonight. let's start with juan in arizona, with congressman out of florida. of course, michigan has really been the center of this. this is where the president tweeted threatening to withhold funds, which, of course, he's not able to do legally over the mail-in ballot question.

what do you say? what is your response to the president when you see him tweet something like that? >> well, it's just outrageous. there is no other way to respond, to think that you would withhold funding from a state that has been hit so hard by the covid-19 crisis and to make a statement that he would withhold funding because people in michigan want to be able to exercise their fundamental right to vote and to do it by mail, which is easier. it's secure. i think it's important to realize that in 2018, we actually had a ballot proposal that asked whether or not folks wanted to have no reason absentee voting. before you needed to be a senior or have a reason. now anybody can request a ballot. they can get it at their home. they can take the time to go through it. you will have more informed voters, because folks will have an opportunity to research issues maybe on the ballot that

they weren't aware of before they walked into a polling both so this is going to be without question a better way for countless michlders to vote and yet have you the president of the united states saying he will withhold funding if that goes forward. i just think in terms of hypocrisy. we know president trump all the times that he had voted himself, he has voted by mail. apparently it is fine for him to do that. but he doesn't want voters in michigan to do it and if we expand the ability to vote from the convenience of your home and in a secure fashion, he wants to withhold money. it is absolutely unacceptable. >> senator, let me ask you, you mentioned that your state has, of course, been incredibly hard hit by this coronavirus pandemic and it does happen that it coincides with the state's decision by its voters to vote by mail. how would you grade overall your

governor's response to this crisis? do you think that she properly calibrated the state's stay-at-home orders? >> well, she has. she has leaned in very aggressively early, which was very, very important. we certainly had a spike in cases, she intervened to make sure that we were able to bring down the spread of that virus as quickly as possible. and the one thing that we've certainly seen in this country, but really from countries all across the globe is that when you are actively engaging in trying to suppress the virus as soon as possible, that actually leaves huge dividends in your about the to later open up an economy. so it was important to act aggressively. it was important to be tough and certainly governor whitmer has done all of those things. i think it's appropriate. >> you are, of course, up for re-election, yourself, to your

senate seat and already china has become a political campaign issue. not just in your senate race. we've seen it a i cross the country. i want to -- across the country. i want to show our viewers ads runing in areas. let's watch. >> i learned the day i entered the military never trust a communist. china is to blame for this pandemic and the death of thousands of americans. >> it also means being honest about china. i've always been tough on the chinese government. supporting the china travel ban, demanding the truth of the spread of covid-19 and i'm fighting to take back production of life saving drugs and medical supplies from carolina so we'll never be held hostage. >> so of course, martha mcsally one of your colleagues in the senate. that was her ad followed by yours. are you running for re-election as a democrat. my question to you, do you think that democrats in congress are being tough enough on china in the wake of this pandemic?

>> well, i absolutely think so. and we need to call out the chinese for actions they've taken. as a ranking member of homeland security committee, i have been particularly outspoken and have been going after the chinese with their attacks that we've seen, cyber attacks against some of our medical facilities. some of our research institutions that are involved in vaccine development. this is certainly unacceptable behavior by the chinese. it's also reckless. whenever you have a hacker that gets into those systems, they can corrupt data and can actually slow down the development of the vaccine. this is something we can't tolerate. we have to call it out and be aggressive in pushing back on that. the other thing in that ad i truly believe we have to take back production of life saving medical supplies and drugs from china. they need to be made in the united states. i actually put out a report last year through the homeland

security committee, which said we are overly dependent on foreign sources for critical medical supplies and in that report i put out last year, i said that when there is a pandemic, when, when there is a pandemic in this country, it's going to put us in a very precarious situation. little did i know that would happen a few months after the report. it's very clear we have to be thinking about the supply chain and making sure american workers and companies are making those critical supplies here in our country. >> do you think president trump has been tough on china? >> well, certainly he was not tough in the beginning. we have all of the comments that he made praising the chinese and i think, you know, that's something we have to step back. certainly, i think the chinese were wrong in trying to cover up this virus in the early phases. they were slow to really come forward to the world community and let under the circumstances know what was happening. i was particularly displaced that they didn't allow experts from the united states from the

cdc to go into clone to help them. that should have been happening. but then when we did start getting a fuller picture of what was happening, we had a president that delayed who thought the virus would miraculously go away or we had complete control. clearly, we didn't. in fact, i was clear in my statements back as early as january that this is a public health crisis and a threat to the national security of our country that we need to prepare for it. we needed to prepare immediately. yet, we saw this president delay. i believe that delay has cost us dearly. >> senator, before i let you go, you, obviously, have been grappling with some seriously awful flooding in mid-lands, michigan, after the failure of two dams. and i know you were touring that damage today. do you think it's realistic that congress could actually patent. i think it underscores for all of us how important and dated some of our infrastructure is across this country that

something like this could happen, do you think that's a realistic possibility? >> it has to happen as i toured the flood site and saw the damage, with eflew over it. but what was really stuck with me in the town of sanford, which is a small town near the dam and walking through those streets and to see just the utter devastation of a wall of water that simply rushed through the town and to have people's lives basically change dramatically in an instant as a result of this flood and to think of the crisis that they're going through right now and how their world has been put upsidedown in a dramatic way, while at the same time we're dealing with a pandemic. and all of the challenges related to that, it is a horrible situation for those folks. and we have to do everything we can to help them get through this. but are you right, it certainly highlights the fact that we have infrastructure that is old. it's not being maintained. and as the climate continues to

change, we know that we're going to have more severe storms and those storms are going to be of greater magnitude and will be increasingly severe. we have to build infrastructure that isry sellient. it has to be resilient to protect people's lives. it has to be resilient so we are not rebuilding continuously infrastructure that is wiped out as a result of severe storms events. by investing money today, we're able to save money in the long run, by making sure our infrastructure is up to the standards necessary to handle what will be increasingly severe storms in the years ahead and as a country, we have to make that commitment. we can't be living on the investments that our parents and grandparents made. it's incumbent on us to step up and make investments and make sure the next generation has a resilient infrastructure that can provide for them for years to come. >> all right, senator gary peters. thank you have much for your time tonight. i really appreciate it. still to come, i will talk

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welcome back. joining me now former u.s. surgeon general now a distinguished professor at the university of arizona dr. richard carmoda. welcome back to the program. thank you for being here tonight. i'd like to start with you know sometimes there are so many controversies in every given week. by the time we get to sunday we have problems sorting through which a most top of mind.

we have to dig in so we don't forget about the critical things we have learned in a given week. one of the things that i want to make sure that we don't lose sight of is hydroxychloroquine and the president's continued insistence on pushing it as something that you know he said he, himself, is taking. but that we've also you know learned more about in the course of the week as we have gotten more information about the fact that it does, in fact, seem to lead to actually worse outcomes, according to some of the data that we finally have. can you just walk us through where we stand on that right now? >> yes, of course, and good evening, into is to see you again, kasie, thank you for the opportunity to be with you. hydroxychloroquine as you know is an anti-malarial drug that has been used for a long time and what i would recommend really is that nobody take that drug unless their physician specifically prescribes it for them. this is a drug that does require a prescription. there are certain hazards, as

with any drug. but the evidence, thus far, indicates that it is not successful in its use as a drug to deal with covid-19. >> i'm glad that we sort of are underscoring that again. you know with the messages sometimes coming out of the white house, i think it's important for people to make sure that they get the actual facts from professionals and we've heard less and less from doctors birx and fauci as this has gone on. let's talk about the phase that we are entering in now. i know you do a lot of work with the university of arizona and they're trying to figure out right now how to reopen in a safe way thousands of students, thousands of faculty. what are some of the things that you are grappling with and what do you think americans should be thinking about as they try i to decide whether to return to schools in the fall, whether to you know pay tuition, if the school is not going to do in-person classes and all of the questions on students' and parents' minds headed into the

fall? >> right. well, kasie, i think you framed the problem very well. president robbins, our university president has been struggling with this for a while. he put together a team of very, very competent professors there, the provost who led a team to study all of these elements and accumulated a lot of data. the president then asked me to be involved. because he recognized that they had a lot of information but it wasn't being operationalized. part of my background as being a surgeon general, also a trauma surgeon and these are things that i do on a regular basis and i have been a faculty member there for 35 years. so using all of that data, we put together a team in what's called an incident command system. it's an organizational structure that the federal government uses to handle any and all hazards that would affect the nation or a small community. it's an infrastructure, a way to aggregate a lot of data quickly and operationalize it when time

is of the essence, so this national response framework, which is what we use here in an incident commandsome that allows us to take aumt all the great work the provost have done, the faculty have done with a team of leaders that know how toic cute quickly. these are people that deal with small incidents, as well as large incidents. fires, at a local level, international incidents. sometimes some of our members on our incident command team are deployed internationally and nationally and complex incidents. so what we are doing is taking best practices that are available in the united states and in a unique way applying them to a university setting, where president rob benefits believes this is the best way to move forward with all of the great information that he has already been able to get from his faculty as to answering many of the questions that you have just addressed. >> i mean, i think one thing too, that people are trying to think about more broadly is what to do if their own leaves and one thing our political leaders

are grappling with, and i am sure are you as a part of that task force is whether to mandate whether people wear face coverings. the governor of north dakota got attention for talking about what it means, wearing a mask or not. let's watch na and we will talk about it. >> if someone is wearing a mask, they're not dock it to represent what political party or what candidates they support. they might be doing it because they have a 5-year-old child who has been going through cancer treatments. they might have vulnerable adults in their life who are currently have covid and they're fighting. so again i would love to see our state as part of being north dakota smart also be north dakota kind, north dakota empathetic. north dakota understanding to do this thing. because if somebody wants to wear a mask, there should be no mask shaming.

>> visibly emotional there. your response. >>iev. my response, i know the governor, he's a great leader in north dakota. i was with him not too long ago. i fully support what he said. there should be no shaming and the fact is we are in a new world with threats that are invisible. we have take every precaution that's absolutely available to us. and wearing a mask in certain situations is very important, especially when you're not able to ensure that you have the appropriate space between you and others when you are shopping, when you are out in the street and so on. so i think the governor is spot on with what he has said. >> all right, thank you very much, sir, for coming on the program today and offering your expertise. i really appreciate it. coming up after the break, another great challenge in these times is voter outreach. i will be joined by congresswoman cherri bustos as

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welcome back. joining me now is congresswoman cheri bustos of illinois. they have launched a digital mobilization effort to launch 30 house campaigns across the country. always great to have you on the program. let's start with this great challenge that you now have as chair woman of the dccc figuring

out how to get people safely to the polls amid a pandemic. what are you doing from a digital perspective? how are you trying to change your tactics to fit this terrible moment when find ourselves in? >> well, thank you, kasie, happy birthday. i want to mention that first. >> thank you. >> second of all, right before i get into politics hear, i think it's important to note that tomorrow is memorial day and i hope everyone watching takes time to reflect on who it means to give the ultimate sacrifice to our nation and keeping our fallen members in our thoughts and what is a personal day of remembrance for them. on to politics. look. >> thank you. >> this is unchartered territory. and we know that, first of all, if you want to look at having the resources to get done what we need to get done, we are doing everything right in preparing for november of 2020. second of all, we develop from

the ground up from scratch, something we are calling our virtual actions center. what that is, we have literally, you can from the comfort of your own living room, you can sign on to be a volunteer to contribute to have an event, a virtual event. we have had thousands of people do this i got to give a plug to a volunteer that dcccc.org. and anybody in the nation in all 50 states can get involved by going to that site. >> so, how confident are you that the house map this time around is going to hold for you? i mean, one of the statistics that stuck out to me is that there are more women even than in 2018 who have filed to run in the house and senate races across the country. that tells me that there is still, you know, women are still being very animated to participate in a way that they

weren't previously. but that said, you know, the results from the latest special election in california did not brake your way. do you think you stand to lose a few seats? do you see any opportunity to expand the house majority? what is the key factor driving that tha at this point? >> i think we will hang on to our majority. i think we have every opportunity to grow that majority. here's why i said it. i said at the start, kasie, we've got a cash on hand advantage, meaning money in the bank of $40 million as we are sitting here having this over the national republican congressional committee. we have outraised them 15 of the last 17 months. we don't like to focus on money. it is what you need to be able to win in these races. our top members of congress right now. we have 42 what we call front liners. that means these are the democrats serving in congress who are the toughest districts in the country.

40 of them flipped seats last cycle. they all have more than a million dollars in the bank cash on hand. dave wasserman. i want to do a shout out to him from the politico report. my favorite tweet of the season is when he pointed out that republican itself started this election cycle thinking that they were going to be very confident and they named 55 democrats that they were going to aggressively go avenue. well, as dave wasserman pointed out, we have a 6-to-1 cash on hand advantage. we have enthusiasm. there is something called again eric democrat when you poll, you say, a non-named democrat versus a republican in these districts all over the country w. reup by 8 points in that generic ballot right now. last cycle at the same time, we were only at by about six and that was the psych that we flipped 40 seats, so, kasie, my answer to you is yes we can hang

onto the majority. yes, i think we can grow the majority. >> some of your front line members, particularly some of your freshmen from swing districts voted against the speaker's package, coronavirus, relief package, the latest one that obviously was dead on arrival in the senate. but i think that shows that there was some tension there and potentially some concern about how much money was being spent. do you see any risk for democrats in pushing ahead with another major coronavirus relief package? >> you know, i think as a member of congress, i'm in my fourth term now. it's not like i have been out there for 20 years or anything else, but the way i look at politics, good policy is good politics. and for the handful of democrats who voted against this, they were doing what they felt was the right thing. certainly i don't hold that against them. speaker pelosi doesn't hold that against them. those of white house supported

it, we heard from our state leaders. in my case, governor pritzker. we heard from our mayors out of rockford, illinois. in the 150 towns that i have in the congressional district i serve, they said they needed our help so we delivered with this what we call the heroes package and in the meantime, you've got mitch mcconnell during a world wide pandemic. we're in the middle of it. and with the state and local governments saying they desperately desperately need our help. he is slow walking this and saying there is no rush. he's slow walking this and in not moving and i think you know keep an eye on corey gardner and senator who's are in these swing states and start seeing what they're going to say. there is a rush to do this. but there is a rush to do it right and i believe that we did it right. it was a big bill. it has real meat to it. it will help a lot of states and local governments and people.

go i certainly take your point about corey gardner. congress mon cheri bustos. thank you for your time. all of you at home, don't go to bed before jon meacham has the last word at the end of a long line of consolers in chief. f a g line of consolers in chief uh uh, no way come on, no no n-n-n-no-no only discover has no annual fee on any card. are your asthma treatments just not enough? then see what could open up for you with fasenra. it is not a steroid or inhaler. it is not a rescue medicine or for other eosinophilic conditions. it's an add-on injection for people 12 and up with asthma driven by eosinophils. nearly 7 out of 10 adults with asthma may have elevated eosinophils. fasenra is designed to target and remove eosinophils,

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barbecue instead of attending in person will now be able to experience one from home. in a tame when everything is virtual, while we are all apart, nothing should make us more united as a country than remembers those who gave everything for all of us. joan meacham is next. us joan meacham is next so you only pay for what you need! [squawks] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ (vo) ♪love. it's what we've always said makes subaru, subaru. and right now, love is more important than ever. in response to covid-19, subaru and our retailers are donating fifty million meals to feeding america, to help feed those who now need our help. its all part of our commitment to our communities through subaru loves to help. love, it's what makes subaru, subaru.

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welcome back. one of the most sacred duties of presidents in the modern era has been as consoler in chieftion. that is a role that's been of less interest to president trump who has, instead, declared himself a war-time president against an invisible enemy. here's historian john meacham in his own words. >> the president, woodrow wilson, once wrote is that liberty both and law and conscience to be as big a man as he can. john f. kennedy said, man can be as big as he wants. or as small. we're living with an american president who bullies, hectors and preens who is more interested in self justification than in the health of the nation and its people. it's easy, then, to be cynical about the whole business of politics. but this is memorial day.

the occasion of which we commemorate the lives of those who have given what lincoln called the last full measure of devotion to the country. and it's worth remembering that even in our recent past we have had presidents whoa haven't catered to our worst instinked, but rather called on our better angels. none of these men was without fault. but however imperfect they were, they left us a more perfect union. like his hero f.d.r., ronald reagan, the former sportscaster and movie star, had a gift for communicating fundamental truths about america. in his farewell address in january 1989, president reagan addressed himself to american possibility, evoking, as he often had, john winthrop's city upon a hill. >> in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rock stronger than oceans, windswept, god blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace. and she's still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have

freedom. for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness toward home. >> a few short years later in 1995, anti-government extremists bombed the federal building in oklahoma city. 168 people were killed, including 19 children. president bill clinton, whose party had been crushed in the recent midterms, rose to the occasion. the first baby boomer president became an accomplished consoler in chief. >> let us let our own children know that we will stand against the forces of fear, when there is talk of hatred, let us stand up and talk against it. when there is talk of violence, let us stand up and talk against it. b in the face of death, let us honor life. as st. paul admonished us, let us not be overcome by evil but

overcome evil with good. >> reading a national rifle association fund-raising letter that referred to federal agents as jack booted thugs, formatter president george herbert walker bush, a life member, resigned from the group after oklahoma city. bu >> bush wrote the nra, your broadside offends my decency of honor and concept of honor to country. >> the 41st president asked his name be permanently removed from the rolls of the nra. and six years after that, in the wake of tuesday, september 11, 2001, george w. bush took pains to say that the nation's enemy was terror, not all of islam. with clarity and conviction, bush spoke of america's commitment to bringing justice to those terrorists who had massacred thousands of innocents, speaking in washington's national cathedral, bush also deployed the vernacular of love to assuage

unspeakable sorrow. >> this world he created is of moral design. grief and tragedy and hatred are only for a time. goodness, remembrance and love have no end. and the lord of life holds all who die and all who mourn. >> mourning was on president obama's mind when he flew to charleston, south carolina in 2015. an armed white supremacist wielding a .45 caliber glock killed nine during a domestic terror attack on a bible study group at the emanuel a.m.e. church. >> god has visited grace upon us. >> amen. >> for he has allowed us to see where we've been blind. [ applause ] >> action had to follow words. >> perhaps this tragedy causes us to ask some tough questions

about how we can permit so many of our children to languish in poverty. [ applause ] or attend dilapidated schools or grow up without prospects for a job or a career. perhaps it causes us to examine what we're doing to cause some of our children to hate. >> suddenly obama began to sing. ♪ amazing grace, how sweet the sound ♪ ♪ that saved a wretch like me >> many americans on this memorial day are grieving. many more yearn to see a

different day. and we need a president who lifts our souls. we had such presidents once, and god and the voters willing, we will again. >> that was john meacham in his own words. that is going to do it for us tonight. i'm "kasie d.c." we'll be back with you 7:00 to 9:00 eastern. joshua johnson continues. that's it from me. god bless america and good night from washington. neutralize harmful plaque bacteria and help reverse early gum damage. gum detoxify, from crest. you ever wish you weren't a motaur? sure. sometimes i wish i had legs like you. yeah, like a regular person. no. still half bike/half man, just the opposite.

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