Skip to main content

tv   MTP Daily  MSNBC  May 26, 2020 2:00pm-3:00pm PDT

2:00 pm
welcome to tuesday.
2:01 pm
it is "mpt daily." i'm chuck todd, continuing msnbc coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. from friday morning until tuesday morning, basically the length of this holiday weekend, more americans died than the number killed in the 9/11 attacks. we're about to hit a record high deaths, due to insufficient testing, as we hit that a while ago. the president is feuding with governors, democrats, members of the press, eager for confrontations of the religious institutions, republican convention, mail-in ballots, use of masks, legitimacy of the 2020 election. you name it. why? it's not hard to understand. it's what the president often does when facing a crisis, seemingly no matter the magnitude. but this is a history level of crisis. books will be written about this. as you can see the number of confirmed vie confirmed virus cases is not consistently declining outside the northeast. some states are will be to
quote
2:02 pm
reopen. some more quickly than others. the president's no looking back approach reopening is embraced, there are questions raised about what might happen to the curve. look what is happening to the case curves in the states that opened more quickly to reopen a few weeks ago. all of them are starting to tick up. in addition to picking fights, the president is trying to spin all of this is somehow a mission accomplishment. the series of tweets you can see in full on your screen said, if i hadn't done my job well and early, we would have lost 1.5 million to 2 million people. you should note those figures are based on projections if we did absolutely nothing, zero, zilch, nadia. shut down entry from china very early. i acted very quickly and made the right decisions. he made most governors look very good. stock market is up big. states should open asap.
2:03 pm
transmission to greatness started. in the midst of that is this line. one person lost to this invisible virus is too much. so we're lived with big interconnective questions, how much worse will this get from a public health standpoint? and will the president's playbook work from a political standpoint? we will start with the politics. joining us from the white house is hans nichols and also with us politico's marc caputo, and an msnbc contributor and mike 58 beschloss, nbc news presidential historian here. hans, let me start with you. we just heard from the president a little bit ago. maybe you can give us a little rundown. it seems as if the theme of the day, which is drive forward, find a political wedge and let's have a fight continued. >> yes, chuck, he's moved to health care. he's criticized from the rose garden obama care on several occasions. lashed out at joe biden. called him sleepy joe. what the president is promoting
2:04 pm
is changes to part d of medicare and really a way to lower prescription drug costs specifically with insulin. this is something you can do from the white house. you can try to tinker with something things to drive messages. the message today, especially to seniors, this government will lower your insulin cost. and at one point somebody mused maybe he should be taking insulin. he didn't know. maybe consult your doctor before. but the example right now is the white house right now is trying a targeted approach is something they may or may not have a mark on as well. you can talk about maybe the senior polling come out of the state of florida. it's an interesting use for the president. on the flip side we have mike pence doing most of the talking on coronavirus. pence is talking about how the total number of deaths yesterday was around the 500 mark and so far, the president we suspect will take questions free throw president, right now the questions about medicare and the coronavirus is being left to
2:05 pm
pence. chuck? >> ann guerin, it struck us that the president is attempting to pick fights that actually go in the face arguably of keeping numbers low. he's pushing for churches to hurry and reopen, which, of course, can cause a spike in cases. he's calling for the rnc at full capacity,ing could cause a hot spot in charlotte. he doesn't want mail-in voting. voting in person could cause an expansion of the virus. obviously perpetuating a culture war on masks, a political divide that may not be as big as it appears, all of this is rhetorical. and we know this is not new from him but he's really ramped up the need to find new fights to have to avoid this virus. >> yeah, chuck, it's clear that the president is using a couple of pages from a well-known playbook, destruction, burn things down. have a big fight.
2:06 pm
make a very big explosion somewhere so that he creates a distraction. both of those things are happening. and there's another thing happening as well, which is the president is making a pretty grim bet here, which is the fight and the politically charged culture fights that he's having right now are a right now thing and that any consequences in a rise in cases or deaths are a later thing that he can find a way to distract from or minimize should they happen. i think one of the best examples of that is making a -- in-person call on friday for americans to return to their places of worship this holiday weekend that has just passed. sort of abandon the torpedoes. americans want to worship so they should be able to, so go out and do it. a few days from now we will see if there were spikes in cases in
2:07 pm
the number of cases where people did indeed return to worship. a lot of churches chose not to reopen, even though he said so. >> and that has been another aspect of this. just because things reopened, doesn't mean people could come back. marc caputo, i actually want to -- i know you've been doing some reporting about whether there is serious efforts to move the republican convention or not. florida wants to be a host. it's interesting, we have a letter that north carolina -- the state of north carolina released they sent to the president of the rnc where they're basically saying, we're a little bit confused by the president's tweets. we thought we had an understanding of how this process was going to move forward here. what is your sense, is this real or is this the president just looking for another wedge issue? >> you all i can say is when the president says he's going to do something, sometimes he does it and sometimes he doesn't. what happened is about a month ago he complained to "the washington examiner" that north
2:08 pm
carolina was flipping things on him, was making it more difficult for the convention to happen. one of his favorite congressman, who happens to be from florida, reyn mike waltz called him and spoke to him just on this sunday and said, hey, mr. president, if north carolina is giving you a problem, come on down. and the president kind of liked what he heard and mike waltz, the congressman, with ron desantis, the governor and the mayor from jacksonville and they're all singing from the same hymnal. will it happen? some say it's for pressure of the waltz said he didn't talk about leverage and they're serious about doing it. i did ask, aren't you worried about infection? he said look, this can be done responsibly. the question is, will the message at the republican national convention to do it responsibly include wearing masks being somewhat socially distanced? if so, will that conflict with what the president or some of his supporters are saying about the need to wear masks or how close we can get to each other.
2:09 pm
>> michael beschloss, what's unusual for this, look, you walked us through this t what was herbert hoover doing right now in made and june of 1932 as i assume things were not looking good for him? they realized the situation they were facing. we talked about woodrow wilson. it is -- i'm trying to think, jimmy carter wasn't looking for different ways to deflect. walk us through these comparisons if any of them are relevant. >> basically we're talking about herbert hoover and jimmy carter. hoover had an idea that the government should not be very much involved in the economy, although there was a great depression with big double-digit unemployment at the same time. mov hoover essentially said i don't want to get the government involves in lives so if we have to get slower on the depression
2:10 pm
or i lose the election, so be it. jimmy carter did all sorts of things to bring the iranian hostages, things he thought were on the verge of poking a war with iran, even do it. to this day he thinks if he was able to do some kind of attack with any of the hostages in tehran before the election, woe have won. but what you don't see that here is that donald trump has the choice of improving the economy again or defending us. he's looking at that almost as it seems either/or. those are both fundamental to his job. >> hans nichols, don't you have a little bit more? the president with masks. i hate to tell you, let me just be honest with you, i feel like the president is trying to have us corner the mask debate at a political debate. it doesn't seem to actually exist other than he wants to make this so. >> and you heard republican governors talk about it, the governor of north dakota saying
2:11 pm
please don't turn this into a political debate on whether or not you're for mask wearing or not. the president, during the q&a portion of the day, the president was asked about whether or not he felt like he was criticizing the former vice president for wearing a mask when he visited that war memorial. the president is claiming, even though he retweeted something that appeared to be taking issue with the vice president wearing a mask, the president is claiming wasn't doing that and also pointing out, look, joe biden was outside wearing a mask. i was just pointing that all out. this, chuck, is an indication that the president -- and i don't think it surprises anyone on the panel -- he wants to have a discussion about masks. i have no idea whether or not how it's going to cut in november. it's a discussion the president wants to have and he wants to highlight differences in approaches. the i suspect we will see the president highlight those differences more and whether or not he owns up to mocking the former vice president for wearing a mask, he seems to be drawing the conversation in that direction. >> anne gearan, is this not
2:12 pm
acknowledgment they really don't have a re-election message they can fall back on, in fact they're staring at what they're staring at and they seem to be going all right, there's a hole in the boat. that hole today is the senior issue. let's try to have a senior event. there's a hole in the boat. is this part of why the president seems to be flailing around for any other way to talk about anything other than the virus itself? >> there's certainly a lack of moral aspects to the way the campaign looks right now, but the president's re-election strategy is a good economy. it's almost full stop there. yes, check the box for things he says he's done that were campaign promises from the last election. he likes to point to things like the travel ban, the china travel ban. he used to like to point to the china trade deal. a few other things he's done that are iconoclastic. but at the bottom line what he's
2:13 pm
betting this re-election on is there will be a good economy. americans will feel good about the country and the direction it's going in. right now even with a stock market that is up and some short of green shoots of good news economically, every single one of those things can be answered by, yeah, we have a giant pandemic that is killing people. so all of the whack-a-mole they play isn't going to change that. >> marc caputo, i want to focus a bit on you in the state of florida and this seniors event. what have you heard from florida republicans. how concerned are they about what appears to be at least in particular senior women that appear to be fleeing the president? >> well, florida republicans are nail-biters and so are florida democrats. the ones i talk to are putting
2:14 pm
on a good show saying we've been here mr. to see donald trump flail by two, three points in florida and win. this looks a lot like 2016. that having been said, if you lose florida seniors as a republican, you lose florida. whether they're being honest with me or not, the fact of the matter is when you look at the polling and you look at the cross-tabs and you look at them not only in florida but across the nation, there's a red signal going on here. there's an alarm where the president is going to need to do something about this. and it is states as elderly as florida where people are more concerned about the coronavirus, at least an individual, not the government level, this is a serious problem. >> also speaking of aa florida specific problem, the record trashing absentee ballot voting and mail-in voting, that's a huge republican problem in florida, no? >> in 1988 florida republicans won a senate seat with connie
2:15 pm
mack because of absentee ballots. florida governors mastered absentee ballots. they do it really well. hey, isn't this terrible here and my we're so good at it game going on here. that having been said, i think there will be more republicans who will show up at the polls to make a political statement rather than cast an absentee ballot, however, i don't think it is going to be a significant number. >> michael beschloss, there are some people that are concerned with what the president is doing is setting up a built-in excuse to claim the election wasn't fair, whatever happens. >> well, i think that's not without foundation. as you remember, chuck, in 2016 the weeks before the election he raised the same concern and aroused people to think perhaps he would not accept the results of the election if hillary clinton won. so we've been seeing a lot of that right now. i think what's going to happen
2:16 pm
this fall is going to depend very much on one basic question and that is whatever the economy is doing, americans are going to say did this president do everything it could to anticipate the coronavirus and make sure the casualties were as low as possible? that's going to have a lot to do with the election result. i think it is something almost unprecedented in american history when you have someone who is a major party candidate for president and this was true in 2016 suggesting a very serious way that he may not accept the results unless it's extremely close or there's something like an automatic recount in certain states if there was in florida in 2000. >> and this, of course, should be where there's bipartisan concern about this rhetoric becoming perception turning into reality or perceived reality for folks. and yet the sounds of silence. hans nichols, marc caputo, michael beschloss, anne gearan, thank you for getting us started. america reopened. it's raising fears with more
2:17 pm
spread of the virus and look at growing health concerns next. and later, four officers have just been fired in minneapolis. a man died in police custody after being held on the ground after a police officer's knee on his neck. get the latest on the identification. tion wherever you go when we're all free to roam, midas can help get you there. through july 4th celebrate your freedom with our $17.76 oil change... that includes a tire rotation. when you're ready, your car should be too. midas.
2:18 pm
a lot goes through your mind. with fidelity wealth management, your dedicated adviser can give you straightforward advice and tailored recommendations. that's the clarity you get with fidelity wealth management. when taking a break from everyday life is critical to everyone's health, there is one thing we can all do together: complete the 2020 census. your responses are critical to plan for the next 10 years of health care, infrastructure, and education. let's make a difference, together, by taking a few minutes to go online to 2020census.gov. it's for the well-being of your community and will help shape america's future. ♪ and will help shape ait's just that it's... lavender, yes it is. old spice, it's for men. but i like the smell of it. [music playing]
2:19 pm
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.
2:20 pm
welcome back. as we asked at the top of the show today how much worse will this get from a public health standpoint? that's the question on a lot of minds after this weekend's memorial day celebration. missouri health officials have issued a travel advisory after crowds of unmasked people were seen in the lake of the ozarks. the advisory warns people who did not follow social distancing guidelines to self-quarantine 14 days or get a negative test. joining me now, nbc news medical dr. bhadelia. i hope you don't mind it, i sort of look at this as an ask the doctor segment. how concerned are you after seeing this weekend about where
2:21 pm
the country is going to be say father's day weekend, where our hospitalizations are going to be? how concerned are we going to be at an elevated level in three weeks? >> chuck, one thing that i saw tom dr. friedman treat today, the director for the cdc, was it's all about how we prevent the next 100,000 cases, 100,000 deaths. events like the lake of the ozark gathering that you saw, really they can serve as the stem off which the next 10,000 cases arise from. you might have a portion of the people present in that gathering this week that may have had the disease that were asymptomatic or didn't have many symptoms who thought they were sick who could have spread it to people who could have then taken it into another city and spread it to others. what that basically ends up being is an entire public health system is now engaged, chasing down hundreds of people to make sure that when they develop symptoms and become infectious,
2:22 pm
they're not passing it to other people. that's effort we can expend in trying to add potentially the case of other areas or efforts in trying to get this testing more ramped up. every action that we as the population is not just the doctors, not just the nurses, not just the state governments, we as individuals, all actions that we take, now have a consequence. and the consequence is now we can be the source from which future infections can rise. so i'm definitely worried. i'm worried because when you see these gatherings, what it tells me is that we haven't gotten the message to people or haven't stressed the importance of basically following the social distancing, physical distancing and basic measure that's we need to take to ebb this outbreak. >> i'm curious given it looks like we're going to have uneven public health official advisories, the politics of this, frankly, is in an election
2:23 pm
year. i'm just not optimistic you're going to see any pullbacks or anything like this because of the fear of the politics of this. so let's set that aside. give advice to everyday americans on how they should protect themselves if they don't, no matter what their local jurisdictions or doing or not doing, would you go outside with a mask? >> yeah, so part of this is there are so many nuances things about how states capacity on the health care level and capacity to trace and test, but principles how we protect ourselves are actually very solid. those are, the longer you spend time in closer proximity to something whose infectious status you don't know, the greater your risk of getting that infection. if you're indoors with that person, the greater your risk of getting it versus outside. and the more people you meet who you it don't know their infectious status, people
2:24 pm
outside of your household, the greater your chances of getting this infection. that's it. start with that. beyond that it's paying attention to the fact in common spaces, people may leave the infection behind. maybe we're not transmitting the virus with the same level of efficiency when we're face to face with each other but just being aware from common surfaces, we can potentially still transfer that virus if it's area of high frequency when people are touching and constantly taking the virus back to themselves. that's it. if you start from that, you can see why gatherings like the lake of the ozarks pool party or unfortunately in our houses of worship, people sitting close together, people singing, something we've now discovered may project a lot of virus into the environment and make a lot more people sick than we thought it would, those actions are going to have consequences. those are not to say we stop doing all of the things all together. it's how do we mate gate
2:25 pm
thattist a mitigate and create that physical distance? it's wearing a mask,ing it's washing our hands. >> let me ask you a question for families, considering how many facilities were just ravaged during this first wave, in preparation for what may be a rough fall, what would you tell families or seniors that are living in these centers, should they be reassured maybe herd immunity's been achieved or is there a new set of precautions? or would you -- would you advise people moving out of certain of these places? >> so i can start with the easy one. it doesn't look like we're anywhere near herd immunity. to get there without a vaccine would require hundreds of thousands of people getting sick and dyeing and that -- >> what about within senior facilities, i guess, could we see pockets of herd immunity?
2:26 pm
>> we have seen that there are rates of greater infection as well as people who had the infection. we now know if you had the infection, you are potentially immune to it, at least in the short term. that's what we learned from new studies that came out and vaccines may help to achieve that. the guidance is, it depends on your local environment. if the antibody studies tell you how many people who were sick has given signals there are a ton of people who have gotten sick, that should be a signal the inferks control and testing and managing sick people away from well people hasn't gone well at that facility. and i wouldn't take that as a thing we're now safe in this environment. to me it says that's a facility that needs to work better at keeping people safe. i would say that we should look at each of these health care facilities same as we do hospitals. the job is there. we need to keep people safe, which is through testing,
2:27 pm
keeping employees safe, their environment safe and people who are sick getting them to the hospital and separating them. >> one thing i took away is get to know your -- if you have a family member in a facility, get to know that facility and find out as many facts as you can. some facilities are not relicing all of this data, which i know is something many families would like to have. dr. bhadelia, thank you so much for providing the expertise today. very much appreciate it. up ahead -- coronavirus cases are soaring inside america's meat processing plants. we're heading to the heartland to understand what's happening to the workers and the entire industry. ur-pedic adapts and responds to your body... ...so you get deep, uninterrupted sleep. during the tempur-pedic summer of sleep, all tempur-pedic mattresses are on sale!
2:28 pm
2:29 pm
during the tempur-pedic summer of sleep, 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. truly sofi, thank you for helping me prepare for whatever the future has in store. (♪) yoo-hoo, progressive shoppers. we laughed with you.
2:30 pm
sprinkles are for winners. we surprised you. on occasion, we've probably even annoyed you. we've done this all with one thing in mind. to help protect the things you love. and if we can't offer you the best price we'll help you find a better one. it's not always the lowest! even if it's not with us. that's how we've done it for the past 80 years. not just today, or this month, but always.
2:31 pm
welcome back. since the beginning of this pandemic, meat processing plants is one of the places we're watching most closely. tight working conditions make the virus very vulnerable to outbreaks. but keeping the plants open is essential to keeping the country supplied with meat. they were ordered open and in the meantime the number of cases inside plants skyrocketed. the number of infections tied to three of the country's biggest meat processor has gone from 3,000 to 11,000. in iowa 18% of the state's coronavirus are linked to the meat processing plants and south carolina 29%. all cases are linked to meat processing facilities. with me now is our friends chris
2:32 pm
clayton, agriculture policy editor for dtn, progressive farmer. he is, of course, based in iowa. chris, one of my producers noted you have a great pinned tweet about suddenly how a lot of people are discovering a couple of things about our food supply, particularly when it comes to meats. number one, there's been a whole heck of a lot of consolidation. number two, this is a very, very labor-intensive process, not easy to social distance on. chris, talk to us about the trickledown effect on the supply chain not just -- not just on the plants but hitting the farmers. >> well, you know, the industry is very efficient at processing particularly take hogs, for instance, as soon as a hog hits market weight at just under 300 pounds, they're ready to go to the processing plant.
2:33 pm
and you'll have a farm that may have 3,000 of these animals and they're ready to go and they're ready to bring in a whole other set of pigs right behind them. when the packing plants shut down and suddenly you have hundreds of hog producers who no longer have a place to take their animals, they have had to try to figure out how to slow down feed, how to try to man the animals in the barns for longer period. the hogs actually become too heavy for the packing plants then. we had euthanasia going widespread in the midwest for these farmers. >> are we going to have to pay some of these folks essentially to destroy their -- destroy some of their livestock? >> well, the usda just actually put out a program this past week that will pay farmers for their losses, but not for indemnifying
2:34 pm
farmers for actual having to destroy herds. that has not happened yet, but i do think when congress comes around to the next package, he will see that actually happen. there will be a push from midwest senators and congressmen to try to find a way to pay farmers for these euthanizing these animals. >> another thing, as you pointed out in your pinned tweet that we're learning is how consolidated this industry is. how concerned should consumers be that 85% of essentially the nation's meat supply is controlled by four companies? >> well, it's a big issue. actually, two of those packing plants are companies are foreign owned, either out of brazil or in the case of smithfield foods, out of china. so it is a big concern. it's been a huge issue within the livestock industry for 10 to
2:35 pm
15 years now. you've just seen this consolidation continue to increase. it really affects the ability of an independent pork producer or independent cattle producer to find a way to market their animals without having to be really tied directly to one of these packing plants. one of these companies. so within the industry, within the livestock industry, this has been a big issue for quite some time. it's just now rising to the attention of your average con assumer. >> let's talk quickly about the protection of these workers. i feel like there's some folks who are saying, boy, the entire way the meat processing works makes it impossible -- that no matter what protections had been put in, these outbreaks would have happened. as you point out, it took the cdc weeks to put out guidelines. i guess it's hard to sit here and backtrack, but if the
2:36 pm
guidelines had been out sooner, would we be in a better place? >> well, agriculture and food processing were defined as essential industries in mid-march but the osha, occupational safety and health administration, didn't put out any rules, any guidance until april 26th. that was weeks after several of these packing plants had already been forced to shut down by state or local health officials. smithfield foods, the big one in south dakota. >> yep. >> that plan shut down on easter. it took two more weeks for the cdc and osha to bring down some guidance on worker safety. by that point, the packing plants themselves were already making some of these kind of adjustments. >> chris clayton, dtn, it's been a while since we've seen you in person, but we're all having to socially distance a bit. good to see you virtually, sir.
2:37 pm
hope you're staying well. >> you too. >> got it. up next -- beef steaks. steve kornacki's at the big board to run down why some potential candidates are not at the top of the list and it's not for any fault other than the state they happen to live in. [woman] what is that?
2:38 pm
2:39 pm
[man] uh, mine. why? it's just that it's... lavender, yes it is. old spice, it's for men. but i like the smell of it. [music playing]
2:40 pm
former vice president biden's short list for his vice president is taking shape but the list may be getting shorter today after a report from the detroit news. according to the paper, the owner of a boat dock company said while governor whitmer was urging people to stay home over memorial day and not travel to their favorite places in the northern part of the state, husband mark mallory was pushing to get his boat in the water. according to the company, mallory tried to namedrop the governor to get it done. in a statement governor whitmer's office did not deny or confirm the story saying, quote, we're not going to make it a practice of addressing every rumor that is spread online.
2:41 pm
for more on obstacles of other names on the vp short list, let's head to our own steve bernanke at the big board. like i said, some people have a negative on their list and they didn't do anything wrong. it has nothing to do with them. it has to do with who serves in other offices. take it away, steve. >> you're talking about governor whitmer but let's talk about u.s. senators who biden may be considering for this. you put a senator on the ticket and then you get elected, what happens to the senate seat? we heard elizabeth warren from massachusetts, of course, senator there. what would happen if warren were added to the ticket and the biden/warren ticket won? the governor of massachusetts now is a republican. charlie baker is the republican governor and there is a gubernatorial appointment in massachusetts. the way it works here is a little complicated. the government charlie baker would make an interim senate appointment, somebody who would serve for a few months while a special election some time in the early months of 2021 is playing out.
2:42 pm
very complicated there. the other thing to keep in mind too, charlie baker is a republican. he's an anti-trump republican. would that complicate the kind of pick he might make? but bottom line if warren were to be vice presidented, a governor would pick at least for a couple of months in a blue state. although republican did win a special election in massachusetts. and maggie in until netflix, supported by governor biden. he would serve until the next election. democratic governor here but keep in mind maggie hasan the chair of the dscc. do you pull somebody out of that job and put them on a ticket? does that complicate things? quickly going through klobuchar, minnesota, democratic governor would serve until 2022 midterm. kamala harris same situation there. less risk from democrats from that standpoint. duckworth from illinois.
2:43 pm
one more bold one in wisconsin, they go straight to a special election, chuck, in wisconsin. >> so if you're a political junky, kornacki, what you're saying is the junkies would want massachusetts or wisconsin because you get a special election quickly. every other you probably wait until the next two-year november election? >> you get like a ten-year anniversary of scott brown. you get to do it all over again. >> i'm sure that's what the world would love to have. thanks. it's a long way away but it is an important factor, sherrod brown might have been on hillary clinton's ticket had there not been a republican governor in 2016. up next -- four police officers fired just houfrz after disturbing video surfaces after an arrest turns fatal.
2:44 pm
2:45 pm
2:46 pm
2:47 pm
welcome back. let's turn now to the breaking news out of minneapolis. i want to warn you, the video of this incident is quite disturbing. four minneapolis police officers were fired this afternoon. fbi investigators from the minnesota criminal unit apprehension is investigating the death of a black man while he was restrained by a white police officer. video of his death, filmed by a witness, was also released last night. in the video, the man whose name is george floyd was pinned and held on the ground with a police officer's knee on his neck. the video then shows floyd repeatedly telling the officer that he can't breathe, but the officer remains with his knee on floyd's neck for around seven
2:48 pm
minutes. we're going to play one of those instances for you now. >> floyd became unresponsive and was taken to a hospital, where he died. nbc's kevin tibbles has the latest on this story. kevin, i have to say, the firing this quickly of the officers, you've covered a lot of chicago incidents. we've covered new york. we never see firings this quickly here. and they've not released the body camera footage to the public yet. that was an eyewitness account. what have we learned that they had learned that made them so comfortable firing this quickly? >> and incidents in minneapolis as well leading up to this one. it just appears mayor jacob frey
2:49 pm
there, he broke down a couple of times in his news conference before these firings were announced. the keith nelsson, the attorney general there, also very upset about it saying we needed to clean the room. that is how he referred to what took place last night. and that is how he described what they were doing with these four officers being fired. not just the officer who you can see with his knee on the neck of this man on the ground, but i guess the other officers involved, you can see officers around. can you see an officer holding people back. you can hear the people on the street, among those people taking cell phone video. and you can hear them saying, hey, you know, he's asking for help. you're supposed to be helping. to serve and protect. although we know that mr. floyd was being arrested for forgery
2:50 pm
at the time they pulled him out of his car. but many people are asking why did it go on so long? and many people noticed mr. floyd did not seem to be responsive by the time the by people arrived on the team. but a loft questions, as you say. this has happened many times in the past, and perhaps that could be one of the reasons why the authorities in minneapolis acted so quickly. >> acting this quickly, kevin, is there -- you -- if you're having a fire, everybody that responded to this, that implies this is a systemic problem or a problem of training. is this a police department approved tactic, putting a knee on somebody like this? >> no, it's not. as a matter of fact, the union that represents police officers is also said that this is not a tactic that they are using or
2:51 pm
are supposed to use, and the fbi is now involved as well, as you mentioned earlier. i'm sure that they're going to be looking into whether or not this man's civil rights have been violated here, whether or not a federal crime has taken place. and i'm sure that -- i'm sure that this investigation as of now is probably going to be a very public thing that takes place in the twin cities. chuck? >> i think you're right. i think you get the sense that the mayor wants it to be public because this is at a minimum, they've got to restore some credibility there for that police force. kevin tibbles, thank you. let me bring in kevin butler. his expertise is in race relations law. so paul butler, good to have you on. i'm sorry it's under these circumstances. i have to say the most stunning thing to me about this entire
2:52 pm
incidence is how fast the city fired these police officers. we've not seen speed like this before. >> and still not quick enough, chuck. this officer had been involved in at least three police-related shootings. why was he still on the force? he clearly is at minimum a loose cannon, and worse, he is a murderer. we have to remember that even firing these four officers is just the first step. there should be a state criminal investigation for homicide charges, and there should also be civil rights interventions by the department of justice looking at both civil rights criminal charges against the officers involved and clearly, this police department needs some kind of pattern and practice, investigation by the u.s. department of justice so that they can patrol their communities in a way that makes everybody feel safe and not scared of the police.
2:53 pm
>> how do you expect this -- how can this investigation play out in a way that it doesn't explode into another part of our culture wars? >> so we need transparency and accountability from the police, not just in minnesota, but all over the country. in the past week, we have seen vigilantes gun down a jogger in georgia. we've seen an emt officer get shot in her own bed by the police. can a black man jog, can a black woman sleep in her own bed? can a black man breathe is the question what's got to be asked now. this is like eric garner in staten island. so as a practical matter, the police should not be allowed to make arrests for minor
2:54 pm
misdemeanors. mr. floyd was accused of using a fake $20 bill. that shouldn't subject anybody to the death penalty which is what we saw. we saw a slow motion execution. and all of the officers have to be held accountable. >> in some ways there is no way of you answering this question or any of us. we went through a very painful i thought sort of public reckoning of sorts, at least we started to have a public reckoning about this in 2013, 2014, 2015, and we had a lot of well meaning mayors and police chiefs, and we were going to body camera everywhere. there were body cameras here, and that's going help with the investigation. but it certainly look likes it was a lot more lip service paid over the last few years, considering at least what we're seeing over the last couple of months. >> and those last few years would coincide with the trump
2:55 pm
administration and the barr now department of justice. we see how he act, how he responds when he feels that his cronies or trump's cronies are victims of unfairness in the legal process. will he have the same response when african american women and men, when latin people, when poor people are subject to violent police action? we know from what he's done and said that the answer is likely to be no. attorney general barr thinks that there's too much scrutiny of police. and so what he did was to dramatically ratchet down the level of investigation of police departments that occurred under the obama administration. and here we see the ravages of that. this thick blue wall of silence that police used to cover up and protect their own, that's got to come down. >> paul butler, as always, sir, one of our legal analyst, particularly on these issues. good to hear your perspective on this. i much appreciate it for you coming on today as well. thank you, sir.
2:56 pm
and we'll be right back. in this time of social distancing, there is one thing we can all do together: complete the 2020 census. your responses are critical to plan for the next 10 years of health care, education, and more. go online to 2020census.gov and help shape america's future.
2:57 pm
that liberty mutual customizes your insurance, i just love hitting the open road and telling people go online to 2020census.gov so you only pay for what you need! [squawks] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ truly transformative sleep. so, no more tossing and turning. because only tempur-pedic adapts and responds to your body... ...so you get deep, uninterrupted sleep. during the tempur-pedic summer of sleep, all tempur-pedic mattresses are on sale!
2:58 pm
during thsawithout evenon summeyoleaving your house. just keep your phone and switch to xfinity mobile. you can get it by ordering a free sim card online. once you activate, you'll only have to pay for the data you need- starting at just $15 a month. there are no term contracts, no activation fees, and no credit check on the first two lines. get a $50 prepaid card when you switch. it's the most reliable wireless network. and it could save you hundreds. xfinity mobile.
2:59 pm
welcome back. if you're getting tired of watching old sporting events on tv to get your sports fix, or watching tom brady play golf, we've got good news for you and bad news for you. here is the good news. the nhl just laid out its plan to return. the bad news, there is no guarantee the season will resume. and even if it does resume, games won't likely start until july at the earliest. the multiphase plan scraps the rest of the regular season. the now top 24 teams will go right into the play-offs. so you know how it works. so basically they're taking seeds nine through 12 in both conferences. two cities would host as hubs. one for teams in the east, the other for teams in the west. nhl will consult with doctors and health officials before deciding when and if games can resume. and oh, by the way, they have not yet decided where the two hub cities will be. that is all for tonight.
3:00 pm
we'll be back tomorrow with more "meet the press daily." "the beat with ari melber" starts right now. good evening. >> yep. >> all right. thank you very much. hey, thanks, chuck. appreciate it. welcome to "the beat." i am ari melber. we have a big show for you tonight. trump administration guidance does recommend a mask when you are near people in public. but donald trump picking a fight with joe biden over that very issue. later, three-time pulitzer prize winner tom friedman joins "the beat." he says trump is picking the wrong fight on the virus. and a new video shows a police officer pinning a black man who cries out he can't breathe. we've been covering throughout the day on msnbc. now there are reports of a new fbi investigation. we have that story later for you in tonight's show. as americans lean into a summer that is obviously, you know, this we all know this, it's unlike any in recent memory, we are seeing people's individual choices become a touchstone for intense debates, debates that could be with us for a long time ahead. now let me be

170 Views

info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on