thank you so much. you can sign up for the newsletter at signup.axios.com. that does it for me on this wednesday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. biden can wear a mask but he was standing outside with his wife, perfect conditions, perfect weather. they're inside they don't wear masks. i thought it was unusual he had one on. >> he's a fool. an absolute fool to talk that way. i mean, every leading doc in the world is saying we should wear a mask when you're in a crowd. >> president trump and joe biden yesterday on the issue of masks. >> well, and, you know, it wasn't just that clip, that back and forth. donald trump yesterday, willie, actually mocked a reporter -- >> yeah. >> -- for wearing a mask and accused him -- i can't even believe this. well, i can believe it, of course. i can believe a lot of things.

accused him of being, quote, politically correct for doing what his administration, his whitehouse, his doctors said was the responsible thing to do. again, not just to protect yourself, but to protect others. so now wearing a mask doing something that slows down the spread of the coronavirus by 80%, 85% perhaps, is politically correct? doing something that helps businesses open and stay open is politically correct? that's extraordinarily reckless. of course, he's reckless every day in a lot of ways, but this is the way he's being reckless that endangers lives. >> yeah. he said jeff mason was being politically correct by asking his question through a mask as all the reporters were wearing masks. we'll have jeff mason on the show a little bit later on. but what's interesting is we've seen quietly over the last couple days the surgeon general,

president trump's surgeon general, he's would call him, putting out videos imploring people to wear masks. the surgeon general, the doctors, the cdc guidelines, we know all of these things. and also pretty extraordinarily last night sean hannity who rarely is at odds with president trump gave a little speech to the kids in the pool of the lake of the ozarks the other day about wearing masks. president of the united states as we've said a few times recently on this show is almost out on an island on this idea of not wearing a mask because it's, quote, politically correct. there's a small sliver of americans who say in polls that they never wear a mask, but even sean hannity now, we know the president listens to sean hannity and watches sean hannity, is speaking through his television program to the president saying, wear a mask. >> yeah. in the past 24 hours, the president has revealed himself in many ways. it's just worse than we thought. the u.s. will likely hit another striking measure of the pandemic

by the time the sun sets today. 100,000 deaths from the coronavirus. it is a staggering number reached at a shocking pace from one death to 100,000 in just three months. usa today is out with a new cover featuring the stories of many of the victims. special feature comes with an essay calling the virus the, quote, fastest killer in u.s. history. we are also long past the president's predictions. of course he first asserted it would all quickly go away. when it began to get bad, he estimated 50,000 to 70,000 deaths. that was supposed to be good news when he said it. when we passed that park, he predicted 80,000 or 90,000 deaths. yet even yesterday the president only wanted to proclaim what a good job he has done tweeting out, quote, i just keep rolling along. if i hadn't done my job well, up

to 2 million people would be dead and that he had acted quickly and made the right decisions. here's what he's saying now that the u.s., under his leadership, is approaching 100,000 deaths. >> we closed the border to china, meaning, we put on the ban, people coming in from china. that was a very big moment as dr. fauci said, we saved thousands and thousands of lives when we did that. and that's true, but i think we would have had anywhere from 10 to 20 or 25 times the number of deaths if we didn't act the way we did and also if we didn't act swiftly. we're very proud of our team and our task force and mike. great job. >> it ask staggering. first of all, you just have to say wer say, willie, when he talks about china, he allowed 430,000 people

to come to the united states since the beginning of this pandemic, and 40,000 came in even after that toothless ban from china at the same time, of course, he didn't implement a ban from europe when his health and human services team was begging him to do that because he didn't want to upset stock market. that delay in over a month cost countless people's lives, health care officials suggest. but it's interesting, he's talking about what a great job they have done now that 100,000 americans are dead. the fastest killer as usa today says in the history of this country. now we're get together point where almost twice as many people are going to die from this coronavirus than died in the vietnam war. and, yet, all he does, says the same thing over and over again. back in january when he said it's just one person coming in

from china. we've got it completely under control. we've done a good job. at the end of the february he said it's 15 people coming in, soon it will be down to zero. zero. and he said, so we've done a really good job. in march, he talked about how they did a really good job. when, again, donald trump missed all the signs that were given to him from the very beginning. >> so botched. >> given to him in january from warnings from the state department, he was warned in january by the pentagon, his own pentagon. he was warned by health and human services in january. he ignored those warnings. he was warned by the fda. he ignored those warnings. he was warned by hinz tes intel briefings in early january. he ignored those warnings. i could go down just so many

cabinet agencies. he was warned at the end of the january from his trade representative peter navarro. and navarro said 500,000 americans, 500,000 souls could be lost. and that was about the same time that donald trump saying we have everything under control in the is going well. >> this is going to have a. >> he ending for us. >> a very good ending. the same time, you know, that joe biden was saying -- at the same exact time at the end of the january that navarro was warning about 500,000 deaths, he said donald trump has made it so we are not ready for the coming pandemic. he should let doctors and nurses run this. he should let them talk. but he never did. he just kept engaging and

wishful thinking. and the consequences on the american people, especially on senior citizens, willie, the consequences on senior citizens, on veterans of world war ii, veterans of korea, veterans of vietnam, veterans that gave their best for us. as "the new york times" wrote over memorial day weekend, told stories of bhmen who survived t worse of world war ii who died over the past three months. fastest killer in u.s. history, a pandemic that the president told crowds and his tv propagandists told their audiences was being whipped up as a hoax by the media. whipped up as a hoax by the media, said the president of the united states, when he was saying 15 people, going to be

zero. and now we're crossing, willie, 100,000 americans dead. and the sad thing is, we don't know where this is going to end because the president is lying to the american people when he says this is not going to come back in the fall. the president has been lying in the past about hydroxychloroquine. even last week he said he was taking he this drug that his own administration said was dangerous and caused deaths. and, yet, he's pushing it. he was taking it, willie. and now is he mocking reporters who are wearing masks. so, sadly, we've crossed the 100,000 threshold, but even 100,000 americans dead doesn't even wake this president up, willie, to follow -- all we've

asked from the beginning, follow your doctor's advice. follow your doctor's advice. that's all we've asked on this show. and he just can't do it. >> yeah. we are well, well beyond mission accomplished at this point. imagine looking at 100,000 deaths and trying to spin that as a victory and saying we're getting great reviews, we've done a great job. jared kushner saying this is a great success story, the government's handling of this crisis. the president saying we have prevailed on testing, we did it, we won. the bat is won. the president cannot wish away those numbers that we will see later today likely of 100,000 deaths. jonathan lemire, he would like to, and it's worth remembering that he would have liked this all to be over back on easter. that was the first deadline he set to reopen the country and declare victory over coronavirus. through his rhetoric, his actions, through his barking at a reporter yesterday for being, quote, politically correct by

doing what every doctor at the cdc and his own surgeon general is wearing is to wear a mask so keep people safe so that businesses can open, the president continues to wish this away and to declare victory on a day when 100,000 americans will have died. >> that's right, willie. there's been very little efforts from this president to be that consoler and chief, to provide the sort of leadership that this nation needs during one of the greatest crises in its history. this is a president who has been from the very beginning of this crisis has been frustrated and angry this has happened to him and ill prepared. he was going into this year expecting to run for re-election on the back of a strong economy against what he thought would be a weak democratic foe. and that all went away. the campaign -- >> jonathan -- >> america's daily -- >> jonathan, also there were reports over the weekend that the president is going around

inside the white house whining about himself being treated badly during this pandemic, that he feels like he's the victim of the pandemic. can you give us those reports? >> sure. there has been that for a while now, joe, sort of this frustration from the president for exactly that reason. that he felt like he was on the glide path to re-election. we can debate whether that was true or not, but that was his perception. he was ahead. >> he wasn't. >> the economy was strong, and that he felt that he was in strong position -- this is back to january or so, february, that to win another four years. there is an anger there that he's been deprived of that. that's partially why we're seeing its campaign flailing as much as it is, trying to revive the playbook that he had planned to use all along. hearing about hunter biden, hearing about joe biden's washington ties, revisiting the russia probe with the obama-gate montha ker n

moniker now. those are the things he hoped to use to revive the strategy that he did in 2016. most of that now americans don't care about at this moment. they care about the pandemic. they care about their jobs lost. they care about the health and save the of their loved ones, including themselves. that's their focus. and the president has not been able to adapt. what he's done is worked against himself. if some of these guidelines have had been stricter earlier, then the country would be in better shape. if he were wearing masks, he would be setting a better example alogue loug businesses to open safely. he's worked against his best interest time and time again out of the frustration that this is the situation he's in. >> again, you go step by step, january, february, march, april, may. >> yeah. >> we could go through the list. time and again, mika, he works against himself. time and again did he things that prolonged the outbreak. time and again he tried to push people to go out before they were ready to go out.

again, that whole easter deadline trying to do -- and they he moved it back up. and now americans are starting to go out and, as we've said, that's a good thing, they need to good out safely, they need to go out following guidelines. but here we are at a time for them to go out and for our friends who have small businesses, to be able to keep those businesses open through the summer and into the fall, it's going to require americans continue to be smart. a big part of that is wearing masks. >> right. >> when you're around other people, when you're in group settings. and there you have donald trump mocking a reporter for -- told him, actually told him to take off his mask to ask the question. >> which is dangerous. i mean, it's just -- it's hard teechb imagi to even imagine, but that happened. a lot has happened lately that brings home this president's inadequacies. when you talk about him missing -- missing all of these warnings, it's not just missing, joe, it's botching. it's missing and then botching

the moment. there are a lot of people who believe had he used the defense production act way at the beginning of this and tried to work toward nationalized testing, that we would be closer to having it today. we're not even close. that would help us reopen by the way. >> you know who shares a lot of those concerns are? >> who. >> republicans who understand that senior citizens have had a disproportionate impact of this, senior citizens are the ones who have suffered the most. senior citizens are the ones who have died. >> exactly. >> senior citizens are the ones who have paid the highest cost every sickle dngle day. they've their lives have been turnedup si upside down for a president to take this pandemic seriously when everybody around him in the white house was telling him to take the pandemic seriously. and he didn't. and now, there are 100,000 people dead. >> yeah. >> and senior citizens, of

course, are the ones who have -- have suffered the most and will continue suffering. >> exactly. >> you can't put those deaths at the feet of anybody, it's a lot of different people. but there is no doubt if donald trump had responded earlier, then a hell of a lot of senior citizens' lives would be much better today than they are. this country would be better than it was. the economy would be better. >> yeah. >> than it was right now if he had started preparing when peter navarro, when the warnings were coming in from the state department in january, when the warnings were coming over from the pentagon in january, when the warnings were coming from the national security council in january, when the warnings were coming from the cdc in january, when the warnings were coming from the fda in january, if he had listened to any of them, this would have been so much different. you know who knows that? republicans on capitol hill.

>> well, and seniors see it. senior citizens go to the doctor a lot and they see everybody wearing masks. even before the pandemic. they see his stupidity about masks. they see him, the only one on the presidential podium, the only one on stage, the only one in the entire room or in the rose garden not wearing a mask. other than stooges or people who have to -- who have to do it because they're afraid they're going to get fired. but seniors see this visual of him flouting what could make people safer. they see his cruelty to a family asking for mercy and begging for grace and pushing a conspiracy theory even when they ask him to stop. they see his obvious lack of compassion for this pandemic compared to his rifle, joe biden, also a senior who warned america about this in a column in january warning the president and america this was coming. spelling out his inadequacies over the past 24 hours in such a

deep way people see it, but seniors especially see it. gene robinson made the point in his column and on the show yesterday, this makes him irrelevant because people realize they can't trust him. they know he has let them down. and -- >> you look at the polls, nobody trusts what he says. >> they can't. it's obvious. >> willie, what are the numbers for americans who -- i can't remember, by it was i think in the 30s. yeah, only like 35%, 36% of people even believe what he's saying when he talks about the coronavirus, right? >> yeah. well, you can't afford to at this point when he's recommending drugs that the cdc and others are saying are not safe for you, that studies are saying are not safe for you. it was interesting to watch yesterday where his focus was as well. he gave that briefing, but if you look at his twitter feed, there was almost nothing about coronavirus. he's talking about president obama. he's talking about the "new york times."

he's talking about the atlantic celebrating the firing of 20 % of its staff, the outstanding magazine jeff lirey goldberg le that operation. his head is not in the game front and center. and that's why you see in the polls that americans aren't listening to what he's saying. they may still like him but people who support him in polling say i don't trust his information, i don't trust his focus when it comes to coronavirus, and for good reason. >> it doesn't bheert ymatter wh like when your life is at stake. and donald trump has people choosing between whether or not they like his kind of abrasive behavior and his kind of i'm against the establishment and the status quo, and their very health and life. and that's a choice no one is going to make in favor of you. he's pushed the envelope too far. he has projected too many times

that he is more about him than he is about them and he's made them choose between themselves and him. and seniors did not get to be seniors by being silly, stupid, and not mindful of what's best for them. that's why they lived as long as they did. and he's giving them the choice and i think they're going to choose against him, and he's set himself up for that choice. >> kasie hunt, i can't imagine there are republicans confidently standing by this president as they watch him sort of take this country into some sort of free fall against this pandemic. instead of driving forward and trying to get the problem solved. >> well, mika, one thing i can tell you is that even republicans who are back at work on capitol hill have been wearing masks, by and large in the senate. there has been an acknowledgement that that is something that, you know, we all do to protect each other.

and certainly reporters on the hill are also expected to wear masks, to wear face coverings, and people are doing that, you know. and i think this idea about who to trust, who do you look to, i mean, this is where, you know, if you've got kids who are watching tv who don't fully understand what's going on and they're concerned for themselves or concerned about their own family, you know, the president of the united states at the office is supposed to carry a certain weight, a certain height, a certain -- you're supposed to be able to look up to that office to do simple things. joe biden was asked about this, you showed a little bit of it, by also used the word leadership in the context of this. that's the contrast that's being set up between these two candidates. and as reverend al pointed out, from young to our oldest americans, americans of who been around the block, who have seen a thing or two, who have lived through many different presidencies and who now vote in higher numbers than any other

group, essentially, you know, they're watching this and they're making those decisions about what do in november. and as much as the president would like to use the platform he has to try to shift the media narrative, as he has successfully done in a series of other issues, this one is too big for that. people are living this every day. >> and it is foreiimportant to understand obviously he's been tweeting in a frantic nature about a lot of different people, including me. and what i -- what i tell people when they call is first of all, pray for his family, but second of all, don't get distracted. because they're like why is he acting this way? this is -- he wants to distract you. he wants to distract the press. he wants to distract everybody from the fact that the united

states of america is moving up to 100,000 dead americans from a pandemic that he said was hyped up as a hoax by the media to bring him down. and predicted time and again that nobody would die. that it was 15 cases would be down zero. that was at the end of the february. in march he was telling his own republican senators relax, don't worry about it, everything will be fine. he told a group of african-american leaders in late february that this was going to, quote, magically go away. reverend sharpton, talk about how magically this has gone away in african-american communities. it has just absolute gutted black communities across this country. and here he's talking to african-american leaders saying it's going to majally gogically. he doesn't want anyone to

remember what he's said. so his charges become for vile, for cruel, and callous. and he only once one thing to happen, he wants you to take your eye off the ball. and it's the responsibility of all americans to stay focused, to understand where we are in the middle of this pandemic, and to act responsibly and not listen to the president but listen to the president's doctors. listen to the president's health officials. listen to dr. fauci. listen to dr. birx. wear masks, take care of senior citizens, take care of people with underlying conditions, and be responsible. follow science, not hate. >> you know, the reality of him standing in front of african americans saying this will go away by some magic when they end up being the ones that are from a community that disproportionately suffered from

this shows how egregious his behavior is. he's telling them about magic and they come from the communities that have disproportionately died, dispropors natedispr disproportionately been found to be with coronavirus, disproportionately were denied a lot of the stimulus that was needed. and it is he standing there telling them it will be magic. and now he tries to distract us by playing all kinds of games of conspiracy theories and untruths and things that i believe in my soul that he knows better than what he's saying, including his trying to distract us with nonsense about you, joe, because he knows he cannot face the truth. and the truth is, that if he had acted when fauci and others had warned this country and warned him in january, we wouldn't be sitting here looking at almost 100,000 lives lost and more to come. and is he trying everywhere he

can to make us look at shiny objects somewhere else so we will not focus on him. >> that is it. >> so let me -- >> that's true. >> let me, again, i reminded people, i had a lot of good friends call me yesterday, a lot of colleagues tell me. and i kept reminding them, and i want to remind you this morning, that americans are so good, most americans don't live in the gutters of twitter. most americans don't live posting hateful things about people on facebook. they talk about their loved ones. they talk about their faith in god. they talk about their children, their grandchildren. we have him outnumbered. that old paul mccartney quote that he probably doesn't remember saying, but it stuck with me 30 years ago when they asked paul why he was such an optimist. he sed sayays, you know what? i think we've got them outnumbered.

everywhere i go i look around and see good people. that's what i see in this pandemic. i see good americans who want to take care of their families. who want to act responsibly. who shelter in place even when politicians were bumbling around make political calculations. mika just showed me this letter that a man who worked for dr. brew zin skdr. dr. brew zin ski, on the anniversary of his pass requiring want to pass along my most sincere wishes and let you know i'm thinking about you all. i'm only one of the hundreds of people who was shaped business i had life and i'm grateful for your entire family. as luck or fate would have it, i am volunteering as a paramedic for fairfax county fire and rescue department tonight. and i have been temporarily posted at the station that would have responded to him.

it's a fit regular minder that no matter where i go, his people e memo memory lives on. he talks about him being the highlight of his life. here's a man first of all, reaching out to people, to thank people, because i think that -- i know that's what i'm doing this pandemic, so many of my friends are doing the same thing because we're slowing down. as peggy noonan wrote about. but he's volunteering. >> on the front lines. >> in the middle of a pandemic. why? because he's a good american. >> my dad would be so proud. >> that's the thick that ng tha always have to remember. there's a lot of noise coming ow of the white house. there's a lot of nurse turning

arounded on twitt around on twitter. but that's the small minority. and we being democrats, republicans, independents, we have them outnumbered. let's keep being responsible. let's keep loving others, loving our neighbors as our self. let's keep -- if it's wearing a mask in public to protect yourself and to protect others as all medical people tell you you should do, then that's just a small way that we can love others as we love ourselves. and to volunteer like this, paul, thank you so much, first of all, for that wonderful note on the anniversary of his passing. but more importantly, thank you for volunteering. you and so many millions of others like you are the best of what this country has to offer and we're really proud of everybody who's stepping out and

doing the right thing. >> still ahead on "morning joe," president trump ramps up his criticism of north carolina. and now other states are jockeying to hold this year's republican national convention. plus, in the words of the "wall street journal" editorial board, quote, mr. trump is debasing his office and he's hurting the country in doing so. that's ahead on "morning joe." do you think wearing a mask projects strengths or weakness? >> leadership. what it projects is leadership. presidents are supposed to lead, not engage in folly and be falsely masculine -- ss. and its mission is to give you truly transformative sleep. so, no more tossing and turning... or trouble falling asleep. because only tempur-pedic uses proprietary tempur® material... that continuously adapts and responds to your body, to relieve pressure... so you get deep, uninterrupted sleep. all night. every night. the tempur-pedic summer of sleep starts now,

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now to the latest developments in a deadly demention minneapolis. four police officers have been fired and investigations are under way. following the death of george floyd, a black man who died in

police custody monday night. video of his detain meant shows floyd being pinned to the ground by a white officer kneeling on his neck for about eight minutes. in a video, floyd could be heard begging for help saying i cannot breathe. we have a warning now for you. this video that you're about to see is very disturbing. >> i can't breathe. please, i can't breathe. >> get up and get in the car, man. >> i will. >> get up and get in the car. >> i can't move. >> a bystander can be hear saying his nose is bleeding. after several minutes floyd stopped moving. he was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. police initially said they had arrived at the scene for a reported forgery in progress and that floyd had physically resisted officers. less than 24 hours after the incident, the minneapolis mayor tweeted that the firing of the officers was, quote, the right

call. the lawyer representing the floyd family said he and his team will seek justice for floyd's death. the death of floyd sparked violent protests across minneapolis yesterday. demonstrators were met with officers and riot gear and teargas was used to disperse the crowds. protesters are demanding that the officers be arrested and the case is drawing comparisons to the 2014 death of eric garner. my god. >> willie, i was just saying this reminds me so much of eric gardner where he was selling cigarettes. here a suspected forgery and they kill a black man by kneeling on his throat? >> nobody says stop, ease up? >> for eight minutes? all those cops just standing around staring at him? i mean, beyond egregious. yes, they should be fired and they should be arrested. >> it's physically sickening and

it makes you furious watching that. you cannot believes that man lies with a knee on his neck still calling the officer sir, by the way, as he pleads for him to get off his neck because he can't breathe, watching him die. america is watching an african american man die in this video. that's very difficult to watch, but that we ought to watch. reverend sharpton, his crime allegedly passing a kourncounte $20 bill at a restaurant. the clerk called the officer because he believed there was counterfeit money. he lost his life way knee on his neck as other officers stood by with their backs to it. they heard the cries too, and yet they did nothing. there is no universe whatever mr. floyd did, there is no universe where that action was justified. >> they, the police, heard the cries because people passing by

heard the cries and begged for mercy. they did not interfere and stop the officer who had the knee on his neck and say, wait a minute, you can't do that or you should stop or even the moral plea of he could lose his life. and when i started getting the calls yesterday and i spent all day yesterday into the night talking to attorney ben crump who's going to represent the family here, it was so reminiscent of the 2014 case of eric gardner, a case we still involved with that family in national action network. i can't breathe and the policeman choked him until he died. i agree wholeheartedly these policemen should have been fired. good. but they should be arrested and charged. at what point when you are holding a man down, knee in his neck, causing him to not breathe and him pleading for his life,

at what time does that turn into intent? even if you may argue, and i don't know if i accept it, but if you may argue that was not his intent when they grabbed him down, it became intent at some point. and that gives you enough of a probable cause to arrest them officers today because at some point he intended not to stop inflicting that deadly pain on this gentleman. and at some point those officers standing around intended not to interfere and enforce the law. and intent and probable cause is the basis of an arrest. >> and, so, what's going to happen to -- what can happen to make sure that charges are brought, reverend? to make sure that this zndedoes end up like the eric gardner case? >> i think what has to happen now that the fbi is involved and an independent investigation is

done and we look at the state attorney general there in minnesota who does have a record of being fair from his congressional days, i think unlike new york, we may because of the state attorney general and because of the fbi, see a different outcome. but we are going to support that family. we are going to support those local activists. we want them to be nonviolent, but we don't want them to have a two or three-day kind of fuhrer not follow up and demand justice. this will not stop until bad police. i'm not saying all police are bad or even most are, but until bad police know they will go to jail if they break the law like any other lawbreaker in this country. they will feel they can get away with it. this time they must be prosecuted. coming up, twitter fact checks the president. yet, he still promotes conspiracy theories no matter who he hurts. we'll have more on that straight ahead. incomplete job from anyone else.

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twitter took a new step late yesterday after a letter "the new york times" obtained and published by the widow of the late and it became a flash point that the social media giant should held the president accountable for violating its terms of service. twitter for the first time yesterday added a fact check label to a pair of president trump's tweets, though not the tweets about her.

the tweets in which trump rails against mail jib voti-in voting coronavirus now read get the facts about mail-in ballots pinned to the bottom of his tweet. that direct users to an article titled trump makes unsubstantiated claim that mail-in ballots will lead to voter fraud, along with a what you need to know section and aggregated tweets about president trump's unfounded claims. a twitter spokesperson tells nbc news the tweets, quote, contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots. president trump lashed out at the company in a pair of tweets, ironically, yesterday, accusing twitter of interfering in the 2020 presidential election and stifling free speech while vowing not to allow it to happen. and yesterday trump campaign manager brad parse scal said we always new silicon valley would pull out all the stops to

obstruct and interfere with president trump getting his message through to voters. part nergs with biased fake news media fact checkers is only a smaek smoke screen twitter suesing to try to lend their obvious political tactics some false credibility. what are you linking to prove that the president's information is bad, and bigger question, which tweets is twitter going to choose to fact check in? he left a lot of them out yesterday while choosing this one about mail-in ballots. >> you're right, willie in the does scheme like a good first step, but there are many steps to go and there are lots of questions about how this is actually going to be muput in place going forward. what articles will be decided or proved to fact check that the president tweets? there were some on the right wondering who's going to fact check those pieces? this is going to lead to more

disputes. the president tweets misinformation and outright lies all the time. why are these only the first tweets to get these flags from twitter. certainly, the right to vote is incredibly important, it's one that's going to be watched so very carefully in this election year, particularly with an emphasis on these mail-in ballots. during a pandemic, the president has time and again falsely suggested there was voter fraud, widespread voter fraud could be produced by these mail-in ballots. he also, let's recall, claimed there was widespread voter fraud back in 2016 and there's zero evidence that that occurred. but we'll have to see what the president does next. he's certainly, this is a safe bet, not going to stop tweeting. it is his best, he believes, most effective means of communication. he reaches americans across the nation. he knows his tweets are amplified on news everywhere. it seems unlikely that he's willing to give that up. but there's an anger there certainly from the white house and the campaign last night that

this happened. they're going to allege bias and so on. but we're also seeing the president really flailing here. this is yet another way he feels persecuted, under attack. i talked to a senior adviser last night who suggested that the president right now feels cornered. feels cornered by the pandemic, the bad economy. he knows right now he's losing in this re-election. he knows if re-election day was today he couwould lose to joe biden. we're seeing him churn things on twitter including the conspiracy theory about joe scarborough borrow. >> twitter has policies that they enforce and that they have been enforcing for years. roger stone tweeted terrible things about don lemon and bill kristol's weight. he talked about anna navarro and jake tapper and his account was suspended for abuse of behavior. they have policies. kristine pelosi tweeted that

rand paul -- was right. her account was locked out for violating twitter rules against glorification of violence. and the leader of brazil was pushing hydroxychloroquine and be they've got new rules about misinformation about the coronavirus and they took care of that. and michael rapaport was -- his account was suspended for seven days after offensive and vulgar video rant about laura ingram. so there are policies in place. and, yet, they're just labeling now? >> well, there's no doubt, though, that it was -- if you look at all the news reports, the labeling yesterday was connected to the letter from t.j. -- >> oh, it's the start. >> it was the start, and as they also, as we saw in the cara swisher column yesterday and the consistenting by consistent

reporting by kara, they're moving in this direction. as they said to the family for the pain that the president's tweets were causing also said they're moving forward and looking for a way to address this situation, to address situations like this. and they're moving, i think, in an excited bhanemanner. >> the second problem is the chief law enforcement officer of the united states of america is calling for an investigation into a critic and asking that he be investigated for murder. >> a media critic. >> and then defaming a woman's good name in the process. hello. like this is -- there's two huge problems here. one with twitter, not able to enforce their policies. and the second with the president abusing his power none believable ways. there are some great op-eds about this the 'we'll have those coming up. still ahead, we'll be joined by reuter's white house

correspondent jeff mason who isn't afraid to wear a face mask even when the president appears to mock him for it. "morning joe" will be right back.

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continuing now, a new editorial, the "wall street journal" editorial board writes in part, donald trump sometimes traffics in conspiracy theories, recall his innuendo in 2016 about ted cruz' father and the jfk assassination. but his latest accusation against msnbc host joe scarborough is ugly even for him. mr. trump always hits back at critics and mr. scarborough has called the president mentally ill among other things. but suggesting that the talk show host is implicated in the woman's death isn't political hardball, it's a smear. mr. trump rightly denounces the lies spread about him in the steele dossier, yet here he is trafficking in the same sort of

trash. we don't write this with any expectation that mr. trump will stop. perhaps he even thinks this helps him politically, though we can't imagine how. but mr. trump debasing his office and he's hurting the country in doing so. pete writes for the atlantic entitled in his piece the malignant cruelty of donald trump, quote, conspiracy theories have long been evidence of trump's twisted psychology. he has always traveled quite easily from the real world to the twilight zone depending on which reality suits his needs at the moment. and when someone holds him accountable, when someone calls him out for his incompetence and ethical wrongdoing, conspiracy theories often become his weapon of choice. donald trump doesn't merely want to criticize his poenlts opponen opponents, he takes a depraved

delight in inflecting pain on others. even if there's collateral damage in the process are the as is the case with the klausutis family. there's something quite sick about it all. will these people defend their need as the perfect embodiment of the testament ethic, the credico of jesus, the message from the sermon on the mount? blessed are the brutal for they shall inherit the earth. there's a wickedness that long ago kruccorrupted him. it's krup it's corrupted his party. he's a crimson stain on american decency and he needs to go. >> yesterday they begged the president to stop through his letter to twitter trafficking in lies and smears and vile

accusations that he said defamed his wife who died 19 years ago. and said that the president of the united states is taking something that does not belong to him, the memory of my wife. he continued yesterday. it really did -- i'm not talking about for myself, i'm talking about for it. j. and h t.j. and the memory of this woman, if it's possible the years in my office, people calling calling calling me and saying i can't believe i'm saying it, but he's reached a new low. >> i was struck by something that kara swisher said in the column that she wrote that she shared this letter from the family with the world, which was that, you know, president trump's famous, he's been famous for his whole life. you know, you have this show,

but this family, they didn't sign up for any of this. they are not a player in this arena. they are and have become collateral damage in a way that is, i think, for anyone who has ever lost someone tragically, you can relate to what that feels like, especially if there are questions or things that, you know, turn something that should be a deeply personal tragedy that should be mourned out of the public eye into something that's become what this is. and, you know, i -- it's almost impossible to comprehend that this was something that could even -- that a president of the united states could ultimately engage in the kind of thing that causes so much pain and harm to, you know, people that he's supposed to be representing. it's -- it's just impossible to wrap your head around.

>> yeah. reverend sharpton, when you think about this on a human level, strip away your politics and how you may feel about president trump, but if a family had pleaded for mercy to please stop and stop our pain, can you imagine hearing that and then going back in for another bite at the apple? can you imagine hearing that and twisting the knife rather than stepping back and saying, you know what? i see your pain, i recognize your pain, i'll grant you that mercy. the president did that. he effectively twisted the knife on twitter again yesterday when asked about it yesterday. he said, well, i'm not first person who's had this idea, i'm just asking questions. it will be up to law enforcement. and then when republicans were asked by "the new york times" to comment, florida republicans, talking about senators, the governor there, they didn't get back to the "new york times." they didn't have anything to say about it. can you imagine an easier question to answer if you weren't lost in the politics and lost in your allegiance to

donald trump then, do you believe a person should be making political hay about the tragic death of a young woman. i don't know many people that would have trouble answering that question. >> there's an aspect of this that we miss. that is i don't believe that president trump for one minute believes what he's saying, which makes it even more cynical. the fact of the matter have all my life i've been an advocate and i've fought people and accused people of doing things that i believe were wrong politically or racially. but i didn't run behind them, socialize with them, invite me to their house. joe scarborough had to literally run from donald trump. donald trump would invite him to everything on the phone. he had to duck calls. no one that believes someone was engaged in someone's life being taken would have chased behind them the way donald trump chased

behind joe scarborough like a hungry dog behind a bone. he doesn't believe it. what makes it even worse, that he would use the death of this young lady and her family as props because he wants to get back at a political critic that he wanonce ran behind, sucked uo and do everything he could to befriend. and when that person stood up and did their job and that is a journalist and called it like they see if, he's going to imply that they had something to do with something criminal? i think that that shows a cynical, ruthless side of this man that many of us that have been critical of him didn't even expect he would be that ruthless. >> all right. reverend al, thank you very much. kacey, thank you so much. it's been a, let's say, curious past few days for reuters white

house correspondent jeff mason as the press secretary questions his faith. and then the president mocks his following the white house health guidelines. >> what's the guidelines? >> the provision of federal law allows the president to overwrooid rioverride a governor's -- >> boy, it's interesting to be in a room that wants to see these churches and houses of worship stay closed. >> the president said that he -- >> i object to that. i go to church. i'm dying to go back to church. the question that we're asking you and would like to have asked the president and dr. burks irxs it safe? if it's not safe is the president going to encourage that or is the president going to agree with dr. birx that people should weight? >> i couldn't hear you. >> i'll speak louder. >> you want to be politically correct. >> no, sir, i just want to wear the mask. >> go ahead. >> jeff joins us now with former

u.s. senator and now nbc news and msnbc analyst claire mccaskill. and jonathan lemire is with us, white house reporter for "the associated press." >> jeff, let me first, again, i don't know how stupid certain people in the white house think everybody is, but, hey, obviously to think that they're extraordinarily stupid to suggest because you're asking a question about the safety of going to churches and whether the president actually has the legal authority to issue an order, which he doesn't, that somehow you -- you didn't want to go to church and didn't want americans to go to church and you took umbrage with that. and then yesterday the president calling you politically correct for wearing a mask, for doing exactly what his surgeon general and his doctors have been telling americans to do every day. what's going on in the white

house right now? why is the president seemingly more unmoored than ever before? >> well, i don't have an answer to what's going on. i think, joe, specifically on the issue of the mask his comment there is just sort of representative of his overall feeling about wearing masks, which seems to be that he doesn't think it's masculine. joe biden referred to that in his comments in his interview yesterday. it doesn't seem like something that he -- he certainly wants to do for himself and he does rib other people for having them on. it's certainly not political or politically correct to wear a mask. i mean, in yesterday's press conference where i had mine on and where all the other journalists had theirs on as well, even the cdc guidelines say you should wear a mask particularly if you can't social distance. the reporters were not necessarily six feet away from each other. you sort of vf to get clohave to

get up to that microphone. that's why i had a mask on. it's certainly not about being politically correct. >> president trump is apparently losing ground with older voters in pennsylvania. trump narrowly won pennsylvania by one point in 2016, thanks in part to his support among the state seniors, which he won by ten points. but the philadelphia inquirer reports that trump is now losing support among that age group in that state. the latest fox news poll shows the president trailing joe biden by seven points among pennsylvania's baby boomers. biden is polling better among seniors in the state than hillary clinton did in 2016. trump's slide in the polls could be due to his response to the coronavirus pandemic which has disproportionately impacted older americans. voters 65 and older in a recent morning consult poll said that defeating the pandemic is more important than fixing the economic downturn. a spokesperson for trump's

campaign defended the president telling the inquirer that senior citizens appreciate trump's coronavirus leadership. trump made this appeal to older voters yesterday. >> we slashed obamacare's crippling requirements and opened up competition like they've never seen before. they've never seen competition like this between transparency and all of the other things we're doing, nobody's ever had a competitive -- competitive situation created like we've done it. and the prices you will see, very soon, are going to come tumbling down. then woe we brouge brought all to the table, insurers, manufacturers, and other key players and reached an agreement to deliver insulin at stable and drastically lower out of pocket costs for our seniors. i hope the seniors are going to remember it, because biden is the one that put us into the jam because they didn't know what they were doing. they were incompetent.

>> and -- and that, willie, is his reaction to, first of all, proposing possible medicare and medicaid cuts, musing about it. his administration actually looking at cuts in social security to offset some spending during a pandemic. and, of course, again, acting recklessly towards senior citizens from the beginning of this pandemic. and we've seen it in florida, he's lost a lot of ground with seniors in florida. he's lost a lot of ground with seniors in pennsylvania. he's going to be losing ground -- you look at another sunbelt state like florida, you look at arizona, another real challenge for him. this seniors question is one of -- one of the biggest questions hanging over his entire campaign. and while he is in the mode that he is currently in where he doesn't follow science and he doesn't follow doctors and in the middle of a pandemic that is going to have killed 100,000

americans most likely by the end of the today, seniors are going to keep listening to their doctor's advice and keep tuning donald trump out to his political detriment. >> yeah, 20% of the voters in 2016 in florida were senior citizens. he won those voters, he won that state. if he loses those voters and loses that state, it becomes very, very difficult for him to get re-elect. you'd think he'd recognize that. he also mused, by the way, yesterday in one of his riffs, should i try insurance anyone have i think we have that clip. confused most people watching. let's listen. >> one in every three seniors on medicare has diabetes and over 3.3 million beneficiaries use at least one type of insulin. over the past ten years, these seniors have seen their out of pocket cost for this life-saving treatment almost double. i don't use insulin. should i be?

uh? i never thought about it. but i know a lot of people are very -- very badly affected, right? unbelievable. >> willie, again, willie, the -- the attempt by his supporters to point joe biden as detached from reality, i've been trying to say it for months. it doesn't work. and here's yet another clip that i'm sure we're going to see on the daily show. just a collection, a mash up of just one astounding comment after another and stumbling through words. again, we bring this up because he's actually attacking joe biden for this. and there are more clips of showing donald trump stumbling through words and sentences and

saying truly bizarre things than even joe biden. they're going to have to come one a better line of attack against biden. i'm just saying that politically. i'd say that if i'm talking about a race for dogcatcher. this, as we say in the south, that dog won't hunt. >> well, i mean, imagine that thought crossing your brain, number one. and number two, then expression it to the american public at a news briefing from the white house. should i try insulin in i don't kn know, do you have diabetes? i don't know what he was talking about when he goes down these trails. claire, to the larger question, he's not suddenly going to do i good job handling coronavirus. that ship has sailed, he's three months behind that and that's why he's not doing well with seniors and why he's falling behind in swing states and some states that weren't believed to be swing states until recently. so he doesn't have an economy to lean on either.

he what banked on that being his saviour to get him to re-election. he did have a strong economy a couple months ago. sadly, nearly 40 million people in this country have lost their jobs in the last couple of months. he doesn't have a lot to go on, and that's why he does go down these rabbit holes about president obama, about michael flynn, and all the places he would rather go and the topics he would like to address rather than the one that is front and center in the lives of every american. >> yeah. and he's going to continue to suffer, willie, because he believes the economy is the stock market. he believes that if the stock market is down, then that's a really bad thing for him. and if it's up, then everything is rosy. and what he doesn't understand is that the stimulus that was done in washington, it was chicken soup for the stock market. but it didn't do much for the bread lines and it didn't do much for unemployment yet. we may see the unemployment

numbers begin to tick down, but right now we have a crisis of child hunger in this country. we have a crisis of a failure to prioritize leadership around the elderly and their risks. i mean, a real president would have immediately tasked someone of getting a testing protocol and ppe into nursing homes. not only did he wait to help the whole country, he waited even longer to realize how dangerous it was, particularly for our veterans in veterans homes and our elderly in nursing homes. and what you're seeing in this polling is you're seeing the elderly people realize, you know, they see themselves maybe going to a nursing home at some time in the not too distant future. and they are freaking out that there doesn't seem to be a prioritization of the health care of seniors. you know, him saying he should take insulin yesterday is not going to make them feel better. it's just going to freak them out even more.

>> it's come together core of people's fears, they don't feel safe. president trump doesn't make them feel safe. and now, he's pushes to reopen more and more of the country, president trump said once again yesterday that he can, quote, absolutely overrule state governors on the question of reopening churches and other places of worship. >> on friday you announced that you wanted goch novernors to re churches and synagogues and mosques. you said you would overrule them if they declined do so. can you explain what authority you had in mind who you said you would do that? >> i can absolutely do it if i wanted to. i don't think i'm going to have to because it's starting to open up. we need our churches, synagogues, mosques, we want them open. churches, synagogues, mosques, and other, we want them open and we want them open as soon as possible. now, i can tell you, i know a lot of pastors and rabbis, they

want to take care of their people. they want to take care. they don't want anyone getting hurt or sick. and they're going to take care of their people. we need -- we need these people. we need -- we need people that are going to be leading us in faith. and we're opening them up. and if i have to, i will override any governor that wants to play games. it if they want to play games, that's okay, we will win. i have many different ways i can override them. and if i have to, i'll do that. >> no, i don't think you do. jeff, we've heard this before, his claim of total authority. does he have ways of overriding this? >> not in the constitution. i mean, it's -- you'll notice he didn't answer the question. i mean, and that's the same issue that we had with the white house press secretary last week that led to that clip that you played earlier about religion. she wouldn't answer it, the

president wouldn't answer it. it's part of a pattern with this president particularly on the issue related to the pandemic of sort of a back and forth over who has the most power to implement lockdown techniques or procedures as well as lift them. and he's gone back and forth on whether he has more power than the governors or whether the governors have more power. and right now, with this particular issue, it seems clear that he was wanting to relate to or handsome sort of a political gift to evangelicals and others in his base who really care about getting churches, synagogues, mosques open. the truth is, it's not just them who want it, but the crux of the question is is it safe? and the suggestion that he can override governors for it without saying or explaining how he's going to do it, it's just not based in fact. >> jonathan lemire, the president this morning is tweeting again about something he's been focused on for the last couple of weeks, that is mail-in voting.

he said it will be right this morning for forgery, for theft of ballots which will be news to the many states who have had mail-in voting for many years now. he seems to be saying as he did yesterday that this election could be rigged, to use his term, and appears to be softening the ground for a situation where if he loses the election, he will have an explanation or he will have a protest about the outcome of that explanation because of mail-in voting which, again, has been used for generations in states, including red states, by the way, in elections. this is an issue he is zeroing in on, mail-in voting, because he believes it will be an explanation he can use if, in fact, he loses in november. >> it does seem that way, willie. it's sort of a nonsensical argument. the president himself will be voting mail-in in florida. republicans just won a house seat in california that was largely conducked

largely conducted by mail-in voting. this seems like this is one of his newest conspiracy theories in an attempt to latch on to potentially soften the ground or trying to telegraph attempts to crack down on the practice by november which will alarm a lot of good government groups, not just democrats, people who want to have our most sacred right, which is the right to ballot. claire mccaskill, let me go to you on another tweet that just came across. jeff was talking about the dispute over power, whether he has power or governors have power. he is now saying about twitter and the fact checking, he is complaining that social media platforms totally silence conservative voices and he says, we will strongly regulate or close them down before we can ever allow this to happen. claire, what sort of bat doll you see brewing on this front going forward? >> well, you know, first of all, if it is silencing conservative

voices, then call me nuts, but it seems like, to me, that's where trump's gotten his mega phone. and so many of his followers on the fringe, particularly, they don't call them keyboard warriors for anything. any of us who have felt the pleasure of the hate from some of these folks that hang around twitter and facebook and instagram and all the other platforms, we know that there is not a silencing of their messaging. it is getting through. sometimes unfortunately because a lot of it's just simply not true. to shut them down, that would be a dictator. that would be -- that would be a putin move. that would be, frankly, a china move. and, you know, i don't think there would ever be enough support over on the hill in

congress to, quote unquote, shut them down. now, all of these companies legitimately have to be looked at for antitrust issues. we do need to have diversity in social media like we have diversity in other forms of media. but that is a far cry taking a look at consolidation in any industry is a far cry from the president saying if you don't do what i want you to do i'm going shut you down. that is not america, you guys. that is not what our founding fathers envisioned. and the deafening silence from the republican senators on capitol hill, the deaf evening silence fr deafening silence from mitch mcconnell, i believe that will cost them the majority of the united states senate this fall. >> it's curious that they can't -- >> i think -- it's curious. >> -- step up for basic moral decisions. they can't make decisions about things that are basic.

>> you saw "the wall street journal," which is usually supportive of donald trump editorialli editoralize about this. you've seen national review editorializing about the president's hateful screeds. you've seen other conservative outlets do the same. tweets from rich lowery and jay caruso and others that saw "washington examiner" column yesterday. but it is remarkable. >> yeah. >> that only one republican has spoken out in defense of a widower. a florida widower, by the way, florida senators, florida governor, a florida widower who, by the way, has faithfully served his country for 32 years.

not one florida representative spoke out in defense of this florida widower. >> it's your constituent. >> yeah, who's -- >> you represent. >> -- begging twitter and the president of the united states through the letter to do that. and, claire, i -- if i'm not mistaken, i think adam kenzinger is the only man who has spoken out for many this man who worked for the united states air force for 32 years. this great american who has worked, devoted his entire adult life to making the united states and the united states military

stronger, i think the only republican representative maybe that spoken out is adam kinzinger. i know the family is grateful for that, but there are so many other republicans who have remained silent through this despicable episode, not even co coming to the defense of it. t.j., but he says the president of the united states has taken something that belonged to him, the memory of my dead wife. how -- what are they afraid of? and i am here as living evidence, claire, that you can survive some pretty bad tweets. i've had quite a few against me. and you too. it's funny, claire, i always said if you can't handle a negative tweet from the president or from a critic, then

you're not tough enough to have a voting card in congress. so, i would certainly hope at least the florida representatives will speak out stro strongly in defense of this american and his family and the memory of a good woman. they haven't yet. it's shocking. >> and, joe, here's the real head scratcher. people ask me all the time what i miss about washington. there's very little i miss. but what i do miss is my staff. i miss the amazing young people who take a little pay, frankly most of the people who work on capitol hill kwo macould make a more money going to some other private sector job. but they come to capitol hill because they want to be part of something that is grand and glorious democracy of the united states of america. and if you don't have a special place in your heart for your staff, you're not going to do good work.

i would just urge the members of congress to look their staff in the eye today and think about how they would feel if one of them suffered a tragic death due to a health condition and an accident and how they would feel if the president was tearing their family apart for no good reason other than to distract the american people from his incompetence. that is what is startling to me. i would stand in front of a train for my staff. i know you felt the same way. they were amazing. they were not only my coworkers, they had special places in my heart. and the notion that everyone is looking the other way and not facing that reality, those united states senators, those particularly that think that hiding on this issue is going to politically benefit them, shame on them. shame on them. because it won't. >> i can tell you 20 years later i still think of them as members

of my family. and, you know, you brought up something that i think americans should know about -- about all of this. i didn't know lori well. she worked in an annex office n and i met her a couple of times at a couple of events. but after she passed away, t.j. told me that she was working at a bank. and i hope i have all these details right, because it's been several years since we talked about this. but she was working at a bank and she decided that she wanted -- she was a lifelong republican, faithful catholic. she decided she wanted to work in something, like you said, that's bigger than herself. so she decided that she wanted to go work in our office, and

t.j. said she wanted to do it because she wanted to give back to the country that she loved. and i've thought about that through these years, that a good woman, a young woman's desire to do something good for the country that she has loved has led first to people on the far left of the internet sullying her name and then a republican senatorial candidate years later sullying her name, and then people on the far left later sullying her name, and now the president of the united states sullying this good woman's name. and accusing her 19 years later

when she can't defend herself of things that i'm sure would so horrify her. but, again, all because she wanted to contribute to our country country, to give back to her country. it is heartbreaking. the cruelty is unspeakable. and, yeah, you know what? it's not just donald trump. yeah. it's been happening for 19 years. donald trump is right, it wasn't his original scummy thought. other vile people driven by hatred and petty politics thinking that they were going to hurt me. i'm here. i'm going to be here. you keep trying to hurt me.

and, instead, your attacks pass through me and they terrorize a family that has not been able to let their loved one rest in peace. i think if kara swisher's final line yesterday where she talked about how twitter should respect the wishes of t.j. and how they should allow a good woman to left in piece. because, again, my kids understand what's going on here. my family understands what's going on here. our thoughts and our prayers are

with t.j., her parents, and the entire family. enough. just enough. let this poor woman west in peace and let her family finally be able to move on with their lives 19 years later. we'll be right back. vo: we are ready to serve on the front lines... to fight an invisible enemy with courage and compassion... to comfort and to care, to hope, to press on, to do whatever it takes to beat the odds. we are the men and women of america's hospitals and health systems. and we're here to care for you in every way every day.

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president trump continued his attacks against congressman conor lamb again yesterday sending a tweet in which he called the pennsylvania congressman an american fraud and falsely saying that lamb voted for nancy pelosi for speaker of the house. congressman lamb was one of 15 democrats who did not vote for pelosi in 2019, the tweet which this time corrects the mispelling of his last name is a dent cal to his tweet on memorial day when he criticized

the pennsylvania congressman and marine reserve officer while endorsing his republican challenger army combat veteran sean parnell. and congretman conor lamb of pennsylvania joins us now. he's mice chair of the house committee on veterans affairs and a former federal prosecutor and u.s. marine corps veteran. thanks for being with us this morning. i'll let you state for the record, did you vote for nancy pelosi to be speaker of the house? >> no, i voted for my good friend joe kennedy. but that isn't what this is about. you know, that's just a -- i think that's the latest effort to distract from what the real issues are in parts of country like mine. >> and let me ask you about your military service. he called you an american fraud. when you graduated from the university of pennsylvania school of law, you probably could have done anything. why did you go to officer candidate school the united states marine corps? >> you know, we were a country at war at the time, still are, obviously, and i had a lot of

friends that served. so i thought i could do my part and, you know, joining the marines, it seemed like the toughest test and the chance to serve with the best. so, yeah, really fortunate to have gotten to serve with those guys and, you know, the marines know what service is and it's not about attention ore recognition. although did i serve as a marine under this president and i'm proud of that service too. >> and sean parnell served honorably with the united states army in afghanistan. i want to ask you, congressman lamb, about what's going won vetera on with veterans. we've talked about long-term care facilities in places like new jersey and holy oak massachusetts and the state of pennsylvania as well, veterans not being looked after the way they should be and the way they were promised to be after their service, especially among our

older veterans. how can we do better as a country and how specifically can governments do better to step in and protect veterans? >> yeah, i mean, i think what you're seeing is in a lot of the state-run veteran homes there were some outbreaks early on that have just been very difficult to control. and that's the same with a lot of senior care facilities around here. and so what we have to be doing is really going into these places and taking charge, putting new people in charge if that's what it takes, extra resources, you know, deploying the national guard. this is an area where i would commend the federal secretary of veterans affairs. he's been on the spot with this. he's been offering teams from the national va to go into these places and help the states that run these homes. you know, but you notice over time that there's a lack of urgency and attention from the people at the highest levels to really go in and take charge of these places and do what needs to be done. there seems to be a constant shifting of blame from the federal government to the

states. and that starts at the top and the white house, and that's something that needs to change. we're all seeing the consequences now of people that didn't take the right actions early on. >> congressman, this is claire mccaskill. i know in some ways pennsylvania has some things in common with missouri. you have pockets of blue. you have a lot of red out in the hither lands, and some purple areas that have gone back and forth. talk about western pennsylvania right now. what is the situation in western pennsylvania? how are people feeling about the economy? about the coronavirus? about the leadership of this president? and the impact this president has had on the agricultural economy. >> yeah, i think the important thing about voters in this area, senator, like yours is they're open minded. they listen to both candidates. it's not -- you kind of referred to red or blue areas, but that's really hard to separate out

here. emare willi people are willing to cross back and forth. that's what brought any into office. sometimes i get the question from people how are we ever going to convince these folks in 2016? enough of them were open enough to support me in 2018. these people will give you a fair shot. issue is there were a lot of commitments made here in western pennsylvania in 2016, commitments on drug prices, on building infrastructure, on protecting social security and medicare at all costs. people are now starting to turn around and say, you know, what happens to all that? i thought the president said he was going to fix these things? and so those accounts are coming due and i think he's going to have a difficult time matching up against someone like the vice president who literally has a lifetime of public service committed to the middle class and who has always fought for these folks and their issues. you know, maybe that's why you're seeing some of these tweets and attacks, because it's distraction from that, what the

issues really are out here. but people are asking about unemployment. they're asking about jobs. they're asking about how we're going to protect seniors in this nursing home. they're not asking about the president. he's not the issue here, and that might be something difficult for them to handle. >> jonathan lemire. >> congressman, first of all, i'm sorry john is not on the show this morning so you could bond over the wu tang clan. i see the logo over your shoulder. he never leaves home without his either. but let me ask you instead about developments on capitol hill. what's the latest from speaker pelosi in terms of what is needed now for the next economic bailout stimulus, relief package, whatever you want to call is it it? and wh do you make of the republican-led senate to bail out some of the state and municipal governments who are struggling and who may be forced to have widespread layoffs of municipal workers? >> yeah, i don't understand

where some of these guys are from or who they're talking to because, you know whether you're at home and looking realtime at the consequences of a failed testing tragic and talking to hospital workers that don't have enough ppe and firefighters that have never had enough ppe, you can't take all the responsibility from the federal government, shift it on the state and local governments and say but you're on your own when it comes to the money. those two things don't wash and people understand that. and so i don't think that's going to last, this whole attitude of wait and see on the republican side. you know, that being said, you know, i think we got some pushback on the speaker's approach of going with this really large $3 trillion version when not all the first wave of money had been spent yet. it seems like where the discussion is head at least around here is, guys, keep your focus. work on funding for state and local governments. maybe fill up the small business accounts again, let's get another round of stimulus to

people because that was the only thing that didn't really get hung up in the bureaucracy. unemployment and some of these other things have still been so slow. so people around here are pretty practical and common sense and, above all, they have no tolerance for us refusing to work together. they want to see people on both sides work together. i think if we don't there's going to be consequences for everybody. >> congressman conor lamb, thank you very much for being on the show this morning. and coming up, more on the lop si lopsided effects of this pandemic. can we have a guest that explain his plan to ensure that the communities hit heardest by the virus are not overlooked. plus, he gives his take on the horrendous killing of george employed by a minneapolis police officer. "morning joe" is coming right back. tremfya® helps adults

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being brack blalack in amer should not be a death sentence. for five minutes we watched as a white officer pressed his knee into the neck of a black man. for five minutes. when you hear someone calling for help, you are supposed to help! this officer failed in the most basic human sense.

>> that was mayor jacob frey of minneapolis speaking about the brutal death of george floyd, a black man who died in police custody on monday night. four police officers have now been fired and an fbi and state investigations are under way. video of floyd's detainment shows floyd being pinned to the ground by a white officer kneeling on his neck for about eight minutes. in the video, floyd could be he heard begging for help saying i could not breathe. here's the video. a warning, it's extremely disturbing to watch. >> i can't breathe. please, the knee in my neck, i can't zbleeth get breathe. >> get up and get in the car, man. >> i will. >> get up and get in the car. >> i can't move. >> a bystander can be heard saying his nose is breathing. after five minutes employed stopped moving. he was later pronounced dead at

a hospital. police had initially said they arrived at the scene for a forthly forthly in progress and floyd resisted officers. less than 24 hours after the incident, the moyer tweeted the fiefrg of t firing of the officer was the right call. the death of floyd sparked protest across minneapolis at times violent yesterday. demonstrators were met with officers in riot gear and teargas was used to disperse the crowds. they demanding that the officers be arrested and the case did is looking like the case of 2014 eric gardner. mark, looking at this video and this story brings back memories of that other case which was so horrific.

is there anything we know as we look into this as to the events that be led up -- how can this behavior be explained? >> well, one thing the videotape shows, mika ha, is not only dide officer have his knee on mr. floyd's neck, he taunted mr. floyd and said get up. it's an outrageous act of police violence and misconduct. and while the firing is an important step, these officers must be arrested immediately, fully prosecuted, and brought to justice. and in the eric gardner case there are was no justice. the justice system failed eric gardner. the officers were never prosecuted. there was five years of delay. we cannot and we will not allow that to repeat itself in this instance. this is shocking. yesterday as i watched the video, my heart was in my mouth. and what made it so egregious is

that you had citizens taping the incident and saying that he vio. and this is an indication of why police culture in many, many law enforcement agencies is absolutely broken. it's infected with this idea that you have got to protect each other at all costs. i know this well from my work cleaning up the new orleans police department over 20 years ago. and you have got to strike right at the culture and officers must pay consequences in the criminal system when they violate the rights so egregiously. a black man is dead and he has lost his life because of a forgery. my god. is this 21st century america? those officers must be brought to justice. and i think people of goodwill

across the nation should express outrage on social media, leadership put out statements. we are watching to see what elected leaders do. this is in the just a minneapolis issue, not just a minnesota issue. this is now an issue of national importance because it strikes right at the heart of what we have to do in this country if trust between communities and law enforcement will be restored. these types of things have to stop. >> yeah. claire mccaskill, jump in. >> mark. >> hi, clare. >> what's interesting to me is the number of police officers that stood around and watched. >> yeah. >> five minutes is a long time to not get out handcuffs. that is a really long time. and most police officers know, i mean most police officers are good people. they are people that clearly have issues and power issues and

act inappropriately and time will tell whether or not a jury figures out that this was criminal. but what you talked about is police culture, and sometimes that also invades prosecutors' offices. has there been any comment from the local d.a., from the elected prosecutor who will have jurisdiction here? it's not the attorney general's job. it's a local district attorney. have they yet said they are taking this to a grand jury or indicated whether or not they are going to be filing criminal charges? >> i have not heard, and of course i am not watching the minneapolis media, but that prosecutor who i believe is the hennepin county prosecutor. >> right. that's what they need -- >> amy klobuchar's old job. >> yeah. >> that prosecutor should step in immediately, order these officers arrested, and dispense,

if possible, under minnesota law with the necessity of a grand jury and file a bill of information against these officers charging them with murder. look, the culpability of those who watched, you see, this is the problem. the idea that i am not going to snitch, i am not going to rat, i am going to protect wrongdoing, that is the essence of an infected, corrupt culture, that people are not only corrupt, but that quote/unquote what we may say good officers will basically seal their lips and not say anything. so this incident combined with the arbery incident, combined with the incident that took place in central park, it's just an indication that the issue of race is so central to american life. and i think what we have to do is people have to express their

outrage. people have to express their outrage in forceful terms on a consistent basis, and with policing, i say to every mayor, every police chief, every single councilman in every community across the nation, you could be next. pay attention and your job is to, yes, support law enforcement, but hold them accountable. >> mark, it's willie geist. great to see you this morning. i want to point out that mr. floyd's sister bridget was on "the today show" just moments ago calling for murder charges to be brought against those police officers. as you mentioned, you were mayor for eight years of a major american city in new orleans. so if you are the mayor of minneapolis this morning, what's the first thing you are doing? because there will be more protests today, as there rightly should be, about what happened. we saw tear gas in the streets

against some protesters last night in minneapolis. how do you handle this situation and how do you make your police department better? >> you want to make sure that those who protest have the opportunity and the space to do it in a peaceful way. i think that's very important. and that your officers are not going to overreact to the protests and use violence unnecessarily against protesters, which can simply escalate the situation even further. secondly, the mayor has a responsibility now to put pressure on the district attorney and on the justice system and on the fbi and the justice department to swiftly and expeditiously arrest and bring charges against these two officers. i think the mayor has to lead on this and can in fact lead on this. look, willie knowles, there are two new orleans police officers from my era who are on death

row. i had a no-nonsense and a no-tolerance policy against police corruption, against police brutality, against police misconduct, and i think that the tone has to be set that standards, high standards are what we're going to have when it comes to law enforcement. so the mayor has to continue to not only express outrage, but put the pressure on the justice system. the justice system is now, if you will, i hate to put it this way, but i will, the justice system is on trial. will the justice system, is the justice system there in minnesota capable of bringing justice to this situation? capable of bringing justice for the family of mr. floyd. >> mark, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> i hope that question gets the right answer. we want to mention mark's new book entitled "the gumbo coalition" ten leadership lessons that help, inspire,

unite and achieve. and still ahead, one of our next guests says reopening the country shouldn't mean mass get-togethers like this one that we saw in missouri over the weekend. we'll talk about ways to substantially reduce risk as more and more states loosen restrictions. "morning joe" will be right back. it's best we stay apart for a bit, but that doesn't mean you're in this alone. we're automatically refunding our customers a portion of their personal auto premiums. we're also offering flexible payment options for those who've been financially

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biden can wear a mask, but he was standing outside with his wife perfect conditions, perfect

weather. they are inside, they don't wear masks. so i thought it was very unusual that he had one on. >> he is a fool. a fool to talk that way. i mean, every leading doc in the world is saying we should wear a mask when you are in a crowd. >> president trump and joe biden yesterday on the issue of masks. >> and, you know, it wasn't just that clip, that back and forth. donald trump yesterday, willie, actually mocked a reporter for wearing a mask. >> yeah. >> and accused him -- i can't even believe this. well, i can believe it. i can believe a lot of things. accused him of being, quote, politically correct for doing what his administration, his white house, his doctors said was the responsible thing to do. again not just to protect yourself, but to protect others.

so now wearing a mask, doing something that slows down the spread of the coronavirus by 80%, 85% perhaps, is politically correct? doing something that helps businesses open and stay open is politically correct? that's extraordinarily reckless. of course, he is reckless every day in a lot of ways, this is a way he is being reckless that endangers lives. >> yeah, he said jeff mason was being politically correct by asking his question through a mask as all the reporters were wearing masks. we have seen quietly the last couple of days, the surgeon general, president trump's surgeon general, as he would call him, putting out videos imploring people to wear masks. the surgege general, the doctors, the cdc guidelines, we know these things. and also pretty extraordinarily last night sean hannity, who rarely is at odds with president trump, gave a little speech to the kids in the pool in the lake

of the ozarks the other day about wearing masks. so the president of the united states, as we have said a few times recently on the show, is almost out on an island on this idea of not wearing a mask because it's, quote, politically correct. there is a small sliver of americans who say in polls they never wear a mask. sean hannity, we know the president listens to sean hannity and watches sean hannity, is speaking to his television program to the president saying wear a mask. >> yeah, in the past 24 hours the president has revealed himself in many ways. it's just worse than we thought. the u.s. will likely hit another striking measure of the pandemic by the time the sun sets today. 100,000 deaths from the coronavirus. it is a staggering number reached at a shocking pace from one death to 100,000 in just three months. u.s.a. today is out with a cover

featuring stories of many of the victims. the special feature comes with an essay calling the virus the, quote, fastest killer in u.s. history. we are also long past the president's predictions. of course, he first asserted it would quickly go away. when it began to get bad, he estimated 50,000 to 70,000 deaths. that was supposed to be good news when he said it. when we passed that mark he predicted 80,000 or 90,000 deaths. yet even yesterday the president only wanted to proclaim what a good job he has done, tweeting out, quote, i just keep rolling along. if i hadn't done my job well up to 2 million people would be dead and that he had acted quickly and made the right decisions. here is what he is saying now, that the u.s., under his leadership, is approaching 100,000 deaths. >> we closed the border to china, meaning we put on the ban. people coming in from china.

that was a very big moment as dr. fauci said, we saved thousands and thousands of lives when we did that. and that's true. but i think we would have had anywhere from 10 to 20 or 25 times the number of deaths if we didn't act the way we did, and also if we didn't act swiftly. so we're very proud of our team and our task force and mike, great job. >> it is staggering. first of all, you just have to say willie, when he talks about china, again here is a guy who under his presidency allowed 430,000 people to come to the united states since the beginning of this pandemic, and 40,000 came in even after that toothless ban from china. at the same time, of course, he didn't implement a ban from europe when his health and human services team was begging him to do that because he didn't want to upset the stock market.

that delay in over a month cost countless people's lives, health care officials suggest. but it's interesting. he is talking about what a great job they have done. now that 100,000 americans are dead, the fastest killer as "usa today" says in the history of this country. now we're getting to the point where almost twice as many people are going to die from this coronavirus than died in the vietnam war, and yet all he does, says the same thing over and over again. back in january, when he said it's just one person coming in from china, we've got it completely under control, we have done a good job. the end of february he said, oh, it's 15 people coming in. soon it will be down to zero. zero. and he said, so we've done a really good job. in march, he talked about how

they did a really good job, when again donald trump missed all the signs that were given to him from the very beginning. >> yes. >> given to him in january from, warnings from the state department. he was warned in january by the pentagon, his own pentagon. he was warned by health and human services in january. he ignored those warnings. he was warned by the fda. he ignored those warnings. he was warned by his intel agencies and daily briefings in january, early january. he ignored those warnings. he was -- i mean, i could go down just so many cabinet agencies. he was warned at the end of january from his trade representative, peter navarro, and navarro said 500,000 americans, 500,000 souls could be lost. and that was about the same time

that donald trump is saying we have everything under control. this is going well. >> this is going to have a very good ending for us. >> a very good ending. at the same time, you know, that joe biden was saying the same exact time the end of january that navarro was warning about 500,000 deaths, he said, donald trump has made it so we are not ready for the coming pandemic. he should let doctors and nurses run this. he should let them talk. but he never did. he just kept engaging in wishful thinking, and the consequences on the american people -- and especially on senior citizens, willie. the consequences on senior citizens, on veterans of world war ii, veterans of korea, veterans of vietnam, veterans that gave their best for us.

as "the new york times" wrote over memorial day weekend, told stories of men who survived the worst of world war ii who died over the past three months. the fastest killer in u.s. history. a pandemic that the president told crowds and his tv propagandists told their audiences was being whipped up as a hoax by the media. whipped up as a hoax by the media, said the president of the united states when he was saying 15 people are going to be zero and we are now we are crossing, willie, 100,000 americans dead. the sad thing is we don't know where this is going to end because the president is lying to the american people when he says this is not going to come back in the fall. the president has been lying in

the past about h hydroxychloroquine, even last week i think it was claiming that he was taking this drug that his own administration said was dangerous and caused deaths. and yet he is pushing it. he was taking it, willie, and now he is mocking reporters who are wearing masks. so, sadly, we've crossed the 100,000 threshold, but even 100,000 americans dead doesn't even wake this president up, willie. all we have asked from the beginning, follow your doctors' advice. follow your doctors' advice. that's all we've asked on this show, and he just can't do it. >> yeah, we are well, well beyond mission accomplished at this point. imagine looking at 100,000

deaths and trying to spin that as a victory and saying we are getting great reviews. we have done a great job. jared kushner saying this is a great success story, the government's handling of this crisis. the president saying we have prevailed on testing. we did it. we won. the battle is won. the president cannot wish away those numbers that we will see later today likely of 100,000 deaths. jonathan lemire, though he would like to, he would have liked this to have been over on easter. that was the first deadline he set to reopen the country and declare victory, effectively, over coronavirus. through his rhetoric, through his actions, for his barking at a reporter yesterday for being politically correct for doing what every doctor at the cdc and his own surgeon general is doing to wear a mask to keep people safe so businesses can reopen, the president continues to wish this away and declare victory on a day when 100,000 americans will have died.

>> that's right,ly. there has been very little effort from this president to provide the sort of leadership that this nation needs during one of the greatest crises in its history. this is a president who has been, from the very beginning of this crisis, has been frustrated and angry this has happened to him and ill prepared. he was going into this year expecting to run for re-election on the back of a strong economy against what he thought would be a weak democratic foe, and that went away. the campaign -- >> jonathan -- >> and america's -- >> jonathan, also there were reports over the weekend that the president is going around inside the white house whining about himself being treated badly during this pandemic, that he feels like he's the victim of the pandemic. can you give us those reports? >> sure. there has been that for a while now, joe. this frustration from the president for exactly that

reason, that he felt like he was on the glide path to re-election. we can debate whether that was true or not, but that was his perception. >> he wasn't. >> he was ahead, the economy was strong and he felt he was in strong position -- this is back to january or so, february, that to win another four years. there is an anger there that he has been deprived of that. that's partially why we are seeing his campaign flailing trying to revive the playbook he planned to use all along, hearing about hunter biden, joe biden's washington ties, revisiting the russia probe with the obama gate moniker now because what he wanted to -- those are the things he had open hoped to use to revive the same strategy he did in 2016. most of that now, americans don't hear about, at least at this moment, because what they care about is the pandemic, they care about their jobs lost. they care about the health and safety of their loved ones, including themselves. that's their focus. and the president has not been able to adapt. what he has also down is

counterintuitively worked against himself. if some of these guidelines had worked earlier, the country would be in better shape. if he would be wearing masks, he would be setting an example. he worked against his best interests time and time again out of this anger and frustration that this is the situation that he is in. >> i mean, again, you go step by step. january, february, march, april, may, we could go through the list. time and again he works against himself. time and again he did things that prolonged the outbreak. time and again he tried to push people to go out before they were ready to go out. again that whole easter deadline, trying to do -- and then he moved it back up. now americans are starting to go out. as we've said, that's a good thing. they need to go out safely, following glooins. but here we are at a time when, for them to go out and for our friends who have small businesses to be able to keep

those businesses open through the summer and into the fall is going to require americans continuing to be smart. and a part of that is wearing masks when you are around other people, when you are in group settings, and there you have donald trump mocking a reporter for -- actually told him to take off his mask to ask the question. >> which is dangerous. i mean, it's just hard to even imagine, but that happened. a lot has happened lately that really sort of brings home this president's inadequacies. and when you talk about him missing all these warnings, it's not just missing, joe. it's botching. it's botching the moment. there are a lot of people believe had he used the defense production act way at the beginning of this and tried to work towards nationalized testing, we would be closer to having it today. we are not even close. >> by the way -- >> that would help us reopen. >> you know who shares a lot of

those concerns? >> who? >> republicans. they understand that senior citizens -- >> that's my point. >> had a disproportionate impact. senior citizens suffered the most. senior citizens are the ones who have died, paid the highest cost every single day. their lives have been completely turned upside down because of failure out of washington. >> president trump. >> failure out of the white house for a president to take this pandemic seriously when everybody around him in the white house was telling him to take the pandemic seriously, and he didn't. and now there are 100,000 people dead. >> yeah. >> and senior zitens, of course, are the ones who have suffered the most and will continue suffering. of course, you can't put those deaths at the feet of anybody. it's a lot of different people. but there is no doubt, if donald trump had responded earlier,

then a hell of a lot of senior citizens' lives would be much better today than they were. this country would be better. the economy would be better than it is right now if he had started preparing when peter navarro, when the warnings were coming in from the state department in january, when the warnings were coming from the pentagon in january, when the warnings were coming from the national security council in january, when the warnings were coming from his intel community in january, when the warnings were coming from cdc in january, when the warnings were coming from the fda in january. if he had listened to any of them, this would have been so much different. you know who knows that? republicans on capitol hill. >> still ahead, president trump has asked black americans, what do you have to lose? as this pandemic has shown, the answer is a lot. reverend sharpton weighs in on that next on "morning joe." the first and only full prescription strength non-steroidal anti-inflammatory gel available over-the-counter.

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i can't imagine there are republicans confidently standing by this president as they watch him sort of take this country into some sort of freefall against this pandemic. instead of driving forward and trying to get the problem solved. >> well, mika, one thing i can tell you is that even republicans back at work on capitol hill have been wearing masks by and large in the senate. there has been an acknowledgment that that is something that we all do to protect each other, and certainly reporters on the hill are also expected to wear masks, to wear face coverings, and people are doing that. and i think this idea about who to trust, who do you look to, i mean, this is where if you have got kids who are watching tv, who don't fully understand what's going on and they are concerned for themselves or concerned about their own family, you know, the president of the united states, the office is supposed to carry a certain weight, a certain height, a

certain -- you are supposed to be able to look up to that office to do simple things. joe biden was asked about this. you showed a little bit of it. he used the word leadership in the context of this. that is the contrast that's being set up between these two candidates. as reverend al pointed out, from young to our oldest americans, americans who have been around the block, who have seen a thing or two, who have lived through many different presidencies and who now vote in higher numbers than any other group, essentially, they are watching this and they are making those decisions about what to do in november. as much as the president would like to use the platform he has to try to shift the media narrative, as he has successfully done in a series of other issues, this one is just too big for that. people are living it this every day. >> and it is important to understand. obviously, he's been tweeting in a frantic nature about a lot of

different people, including me, and what i tell people when they call is, first of all, pray for lori's family. secondly, don't get distracted. why is he acting this way? this is horrible. he wants to distract you. he wants to distract the press. he wants to distract everybody from the fact that the united states of america is moving up to 100,000 dead americans from a pandemic that he said was hyped up as a hoax by the media to bring him down and predicted time and again that nobody would die, that it was 15 cases, it would be down to zero. that was the end of february. in march he was telling his own republican senators, relax, don't worry about it, everything

will be fine. he told a group of african-american leaders in late february this was going to, quote, magically go away. reverend sharpton, talk about how magically this has gone away in african-american communities. it is just absolutely gutted black communities across this country. here he is talking to african-american leaders saying it's going to magically go away. he doesn't want anybody to remember what he said. so his charges become more outrageous. they become more vial. they become more cruel. they become more callous. he only wants one thing to happen. he wants you to take your eye off the ball. and it's the responsibility of all americans to stay focused, to understand where we are in the middle of this pandemic, and to act responsibly and not listen to the president, but listen to the president's doctors. listen to the president's health

officials. listen to dr. fauci. listen to dr. birx. wear masks. take care of senior citizens. take care of people with underlying conditions and be responsible. follow science, not hate. >> you know the reality of him standing in front of african-americans saying this will go away by some magic when they end of up being the ones that are from a community that disproportionately suffered from this shows how egregious his behavior is. he is telling them about magic and they come from the communities that have disproportionately died, disproportionately found to be positive with coronavirus, disproportionately were denied a lot of the stimulus that was needed. and it is he standing there telling them it will be magic, and now he tries to distract us by playing all kinds of games of

conspiracy theories and untruths and things that i believe in my soul that he knows better than what he is saying, including his trying to distract us with nonsense about you, joe, because he knows he cannot face the truth, and the truth is that if he had acted when fauci and others had warned this country and warned him in january, we wouldn't be sitting here looking at almost 100,000 lives lost and more to come. and he is trying every way he can to make us look at shiny objects somewhere else so we will not focus on him. >> coming up, i cannot breathe. those words are at the center of a shocking video involving a deadly arrest in minnesota. that's next on "morning joe."

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developments in a deadly detention in minneapolis. four police officers have been fired and an fbi and state investigation are underway. following the death of george floyd, a black man who died in police custody on monday night. video of his detainment shows floyd being pinned to the ground by a white officer kneeling on his neck for about eight minutes. in the video floyd could be heard begging for help saying, "i cannot breathe." we have a warning for you. this video that you are about to see is very disturbing.

>> a bystander can be heard saying his nose is bleeding after several minutes floyd stopped moving. i was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. police initially said they had arrived at the scene for a reported fortunateliry in frog dwres and floyd had physically resisted officers. less than 24 hours after the incident, the minneapolis mayor tweeted that the firing of the officers was, quote, the right call. the lawyer representing the floyd family said he and his team will seek justice for floyd's death. the death of floyd sparked violent protests across minneapolis yesterday. demonstrators were met with officers in riot gear and tear gas was used to disperse the crowds.

protesters are demanding that the officers be arrested and the case is drawing comparisons to the 2014 death of eric garner. >> willie, i was just saying this reminds me so much this eric garner where he was selling cigarettes. here a suspected forgery and they kill a black man by kneeling on his throat. >> nobody said, stop, ease up. >> and all those cops just standing around staring at him. i mean, beyond egregious, yes. they should be fired and they should be arrested. >> it's physically sickening and it makes you furious watching that. you cannot believe as this man lies with a knee on his neck still calling the officer sir, by the way, as he pleads for him to get off his neck because he can't breathe. watching him die. america is watching an african-american man die in this

video that's very difficult to watch, but that we ought to watch. reverend sharpton, his crime allegedly passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a food shop, a restaurant. the owner of that store called police as is protocol because he believed there was counterfeit money. so far passing a counterfeit $20 bill, that's the allegation, he lost his life with a knee on his neck as other officers stood by with their backs to it. they heard the cries, too, and yet they did nothing. there is no universe whatever mr. floyd did, there is no universe where that action was justified. >> they, the police, heard the cries because people passing by heard the cries and begged for mercy. they did not interfere and stop the officer who had the knee on his neck and say, wait a minute, you can't do that or you should stop or even the moral plea of he could lose his life. and when i started getting the

calls yesterday, and i spent all day yesterday into the night talking to attorney ben crump, who is going to represent the family here, it was so reminiscent of the 2014 case of eric garner, a case we still are involved with that family in national action network. i can't breathe, and the policeman choked him until he died. i agree wholeheartedly, these policemen should have been fired. good. but they should be arrested and charged. at what point when you are holding a man down, knee in his neck, causing him to not breathe and him pleading for his life, at what time does that turn into intent? even if you may argue, and i don't know if i accept it, but if you argue that was not his intent when they grabbed him down, it became intent at some point. and that gives you enough of a probable cause to arrest them officers today because at some

point he intended not to stop inflicting that deadly pain on this gentleman, and at some point those officers standing around intended not to interfere and enforce the law. and intent and probable cause is the basis of an arrest. >> right. and so what is going to happen? what can happen to make sure that charges are brought, reverend, to make sure that this doesn't end up like the eric garner case? >> i think now that the fbi is involved and an independent investigation is done and we look at the state attorney general there in minnesota, who does have a record of being fair from his congressional days, i think unlike new york we may, because of the state attorney general and because of the fbi p see a different outcome. but we are going to support that family. we are going to support those

local activists. we want them to be non-violent, but we don't want them to have a two or three-day kind of pufuro and not follow up and demand justice. this will not stop until bad policing -- and i am not saying all police are bad, or even most are, but until they know they will go to jail if they break the law like any other law-breaker in this country, they will feel they can get way with it. this time they must be prosecuted. >> coming up, as the country begins to reopen, how should americans assess their own personal risk? our next guest outlines four key things to consider, and that conversation is straight ahead on "morning joe." it's best we stay apart for a bit,

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especially in times like these, strong public schools make a better california for all of us. number of hospitalizations down. great news. rolling average down, number of intubations down, number of new covid cases down to the lowest levels since this ever started, just about 200. amen. number of lives lost 73. that's the lowest level that we

have seen since this started. so, again, in this absurd new reality, that is good news. any other time and place when we lose 73 new yorkers, it's tragic. it's tragic now, but relative to where we've been, we're on the other side of the curve and that is the lowest number that we have had. >> that is new york governor andrew cuomo announcing yesterday that the number of daily new coronavirus cases and deaths reported in new york was the lowest since the state started its lockdown in march. new york was able to bend its curve thanks to social distancing and the use of face covering, masks. president trump, however, told reporters yesterday that he thought it was unusual to see joe biden wearing one during a memorial day ceremony this week. >> joe biden can wear a mask, but he was standing outside with his wife, perfect conditions,

perfect weather. they are inside, they don't wear masks. so i thought it was very unusual that he had one on. but i thought that was fine. i wasn't criticizing him at all. why would i ever do a thing like that? >> the president also re-tweeted a post by fox news commentator brit hume criticizing biden for wearing a mask. meanwhile, joe biden took on president trump for his refusal to wear a mask and make people safer while in public. in his first in-person interview since the pandemic took him off the campaign trail in mid-march, biden called trump an absolute fool for mocking the use of masks. >> the president is supposed to lead by example. i watched the president yesterday wearing no mask, you know, and making fun of the fact that i wore a mask. the truth of the matter is i think he is supposed to lead by example.

>> if president trump went to a memorial day service, he did not wear a mask. some people making fun of you, he did. he did on twitter. he re-tweeted a photo of you wearing it. he is trying to belittle you for wearing a mask, making it seem like it's a sign of weakness. is it? >> he is a fool. a fool to talk that way. i mean, every leading doc in the world is saying we should wear a mask when you are in a crowd. it's just absolutely -- this macho stuff, for a guy -- i shouldn't get going, but it just is, it's cost people's lives. it's costing people's lives. like i said, we are almost 100,000 dead today. 100,000 people. columbia study showing we could have, if you started a week earlier, would have saved thousands of lives. i mean, these are -- this is a tragedy. >> do you think wearing a mask

projects strength or weakness? >> leadership. it presents and projects leadership. presidents are supposed to lead, not engage in folly, and be falsely masculine. >> biden also changed his profile picture on twitter to one of him wearing the mask that he donned on memorial day. not that hard. let's bring in emergency physician and public health professor at george washington university dr. lena nguyen. she previously served as baltimore's commissioner. also chief medical correspondent dr. dave campbell. dr. nguyen, i'll start with you. is the president endangering others by not wearing a mask when he is working with them? we know there are the daily tests at the white house, but those have proved at times to not be conclusive. the point of wearing a mask is to save other people from your droplets, your germs, correct?

is the president endangering people's lives? >> yeah, what you said is exactly right, mika, that what we should be doing now is to heed public health guidance. the science and the evidence is now clear about this. it wasn't at the beginning of this pandemic because we just didn't know about asymptomatic transmission, but now that we know about it we also have multiple studies coming out that show wearing a mask can reduce the rate of transmission of covid-19 by up to 90%. that's something we should all be doing, starting with the president. but really involving all of us because wearing a mask is a sign that we care about one another, that we respect one another, we want to protect each other. frankly, it's a pretty small thing we can do in order to reopen our economy safely. why shouldn't he all be doing this? >> dr. dave, you are taking a look at brazil. number two in coronavirus cases. we're number one.

that's where we're winning. but the president keeps saying we are doing so much better, we are doing so much better. in brazil the president, the leader of brazil also pushed hydroxychloroquine. he did it on twitter and twitter actually took the tweet down. but you are looking at what's happening in that country, and how does it compare to what's happening here? what are we learning about what's happening in brazil? >> brazil, a large country in south america, is increasing dramatically the number of cases and the number of deaths. in fact, they are now over 1,000 deaths per day just as the u.s. is under 1,000 deaths per day. we need to learn from that south american country that this pandemic is not over and that as the summer comes, ads dr. we nsaid, we need to respect each other by wearing face coverings,

facemasks, and i would offer another alternative that we haven't heard much of yet, mika. it's been four months since this virus came to the united states, and health care providers wear n95 masks, face shields, gloves, and outer protective covering. we have had four months to ramp up n95 facemask protection. so in addition to protecting others, which is respect and courtesy, we may be to a point where we should be asking for better facemask protection, so if we are out in an area or we're in a room where there are others who insist on not wearing a mask and you cannot control the behaviors of others, we would love to see a ramping up of the production of n95 masks and face shields and eye coverings. i have heard nothing about this

yet, mika, and i just worry that those that are going to be courteous to others and respectful of others' safety and health is exceedingly important. but what about protecting ourselves, our family members when we go home? dr. wen and i, when we go to a hospital, everyone in the hospital has a face covering. if there is any procedure being done, they have a face shield, protective equipment, gloves, gowns. i wonder whether we could increase the number of the n95 masks what are produced. they are little cloth things made in a factory, and make those available in an increasing fashion not just for health care providers. that's critically important, but for anyone else that wants to protect themselves. therefore, their family members when they go home, mika. >> we are certainly going to need them if people are going back out in public and reopen businesses. we are going to need more masks.

dr. wen, i talked to some public health officials who are concerned going back the way we are beginning to now this summer, which will work, and governors have cleared and goin limited way to the businesses and beaches, and places that we go in the summer time, could sort of lull us into a sense of security heading into the fall, you know what? we have sort of lived through the summer, things seem to be okay, put everybody babb into schools and go about the way we live, but those of you with public health have the specter of the coronavirus coming back in the fall. how do you see this playing out, where we have a good summer, and prepare for the fall, which could be coming in the fall? >> there's so much about this virus that we just don't know about yes. it's entirely possible that we could see a quiet period over

the summer, as you were saying, willie, maybe because of the nature of this virus, we could see a declined over the summer that could give everybody a false sense of security. people could start saying, oh, it wasn't that much of a problem to begin with, but this virus could come with a vengeance in the fall that coincides with flu season, and we could see the double whammy. i fear we're not preparing adequately for the potential surge in the fall or even soon. he in the summer we could well see multiple peaks in the summer, too, but we should be doing everything we can to prepare. hospitals should be getting ready for the surge. with the state's support, getting all those masks and protective equipment, ramping up testing and capacity that we

have not seen. address individuals should not be taking it lightly, either. this virus is still out there, and we will still spread it even now. all right. dr. leana wen and dr. dave campbell, thank you very much. as the u.s. nears 100,000 deaths, about a third of americans show signs of clinical anxiety or depression, according to the census bureau. the psychological toll on the frontline medical staff is especially dire. last month a top manhattan e.r. doctor who treated covid-19 patients committed suicide. with the economic downturn, mental health experts are worried about the road ahead as new research shows that rising unemployment could lead to more sue sides. joining of is ronni frank, owner

the talkspace. thanks for joining us. giving us a sense of how these sessions are taking place and some of the new people that might be seeking help? >> hi. thank you for having me. just worrying about the bigger picture of mental health in america, even before the pandemic, the mental health system in america was in crisis. just to give you the numbers. before the pandemic, people are diagnosed with depression or anxiety. however, 70% of them have no access to mental health services due to costs, lack of access or stigma. every year about 50,000 americans are dying about suicide. since the pandemic started s. anxiety and depression have

heightened dramatically, and the economic crisis we are facing, and on top of it isolation and and uncertainty, we are facing an unprecedented mental health epidemic in this country. >> willie? >> yes, good to have you on this morning. we know that already was a big problem in our country, one that's not talked about enough. it's only been amplified and made worse. i'm curious about kids, too. sometimes they don't express themselves when they can talk about their feeling and their mental health. they're not seeing their friends, not playing little league, being in all those groups that help them grow. i think that comes out in kids once in a while, that they're emotional about what's appearing over the last three months. what can you say about mental health in children and what parents can be looking for there? >> young children, of course,

are dealing with a lot of anxiety and frustration. the loss of graduation, the loss of summer vacation, loss of camp, they really miss school. i want to to be more populations that are vulnerable to mental health issues, it's very interesting that the changes over time. in the beginning of covid, we saw a lot of people with they or their loved ones who suffered from underlying issues cause you to be more uss september independent to the virus. that led to a lot of anxiety and panic. over time we started to see other population, for example, people who live alone, quarantined and social distancing, working from home, all of this is very isolating, and that led to depression. then we started seeing a lot

of -- on the platform, relationships -- did a stressor as well. many couples are really struggling now. they're fighting more, and at the same time they are dealing with their kids and with the frustration of the kids, and with online school, and it takes a toll on their relationship and -- >> all right. dr. roni frank, thank you very much for joining us. we want to take the final moments this morning, jonathan la mear, donald trump has tweeted against about this conspiracy theory with joe, showing an unbelievable lack of humanity in light of the letter obtained by cara swisher and printed in "new york times" from her widower, the woman who died, from her widower, really begging twitter to delete the tweets.

please delete the tweets is what timothy said. the president, of course, is trying to drum up some sort of investigation, accusing joe of murder. he also said in this tweet that psycho joe is rattled. donald, you're projecting again. the only one who is rattled is you, and you keep showing that to the american people. jonathan, his press briefing where he talked about this but also talked about taking insulin. he was slurring his words a lot. he seemed very distracted. it seems like he's a dog with a bone, he can't let go of this, though there are those who are begging that he have more grace. >> mika, today the nation will likely go over 100,000 victims of covid-19, and the president wants to talk about anything but. he's going to florida today as part of his effort to slow that the company is reopening again.

he's not talking about that, either. instead he's dealing with conspiracy theories, hurting a family who has pleaded with him to stop. he is someone who has abdicated, it would appear, the moral leadership role of the office, and instead dealing in conspiracy theories that only hurt people. >> and rattled by this. instead of focusing all the people who are losing their loves. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage after a final break. sensitivity & gum gives us the dual action effect that really takes care of both our teeth sensitivity as well as our gum issues. there's no question it's something that i would recommend. they're going to be paying for this for a long time. they will, but with accident forgiveness allstate won't raise your rates just because of an accident, even if it's your fault. cut! sonny. was that good? line! the desert never lies. isn't that what i said? no you were talking about allstate and insurance.

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