good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington, continuing our breaking news coverage of the frustration and the fear fueling protests. many marred by violence, challenging dozens of cities from coast to coast. for the last three nights, the predominantly peaceful but angry out pouring of grief and rage over george floyd's killing just the latest in a new series of brutal police actions against african-americans, sparking nationwide demonstrations. what is notably different this time, though, the inhumanity caught on video, the pent-up fear. historic unemployment caused by the pandemic and its disproportionate impact on minority communities and the lack of a healing presence from the president of the united states. the images and the fallout have been staggering -- hundreds of arrests after widespread nighttime looting in manhattan, minneapolis, and washington, and

in broad daylight along santa monica street in los angeles. the national guard has been activated in dozens of states and the district of columbia for the first time as mayors search for ways to calm their communities. president trump is holding a conference call with governors and leading law enforcement officials today after days spent lashing out on twitter against protesters throughout the country. and at his doorstep, unwilling to address the nation or make an attempt to advocate for peaceful solutions to short-term or systemic problems. and there is another deadly concern associated with these mass protests. the public health officials warning that for tens of thousands of americans who have been protesting shoulder to shoulder will lead to another wave of covid-19 outbreaks in the weeks to come. joining me now, nbc's gabe gutierrez in minneapolis, nbc's kathy park in new york, and "today" show co-anchor craig melvin right here in washington. craig, let me start with you. you were out all day, all night overnight and again today.

you've talked to the mayor. what can be done to coordinate quelling the violence, bringing out enough force, if there are curfews to sweep the streets and get control and deal with the outside agitators, or the other violent minorities who are marring this protest, and arguably, marring the mourning, the grief over the memory of george floyd? >> reporter: andrea, i'm glad you did point out that a majority of these protests have been peaceful, and that's what we saw here in washington on sunday, up until about the time that the sun went down, and that's when things really took a turn here and we saw a number of these demonstrators hurling objects, usually water bottles, at park police right behind me here in lafayette square, just a few hundred feet from the white house. and then you would see the law enforcement advance. and this went on for several

hours. rubber bullets, at one point tear gas used as well. dozens of arrests have been made. d.c. mayor muriel bowser appears to have decided that if they move their curfew up, if they sort of narrow the window a bit, that could help. so, tonight the curfew in d.c., 7:00 p.m. that's the case for tomorrow night as well. what will be interesting is to see whether at 7:01 you start to see mpd, metropolitan police department, will they start to sweep the streets and force folks to adhere to that curfew? that's what we'll be looking out for. meanwhile, andrea, one of the most beloved churches here in washington, d.c., st. john's. of course, it's known as a church of the presidents, because with the exception of just one president, all have worshipped there at some point during their presidency. since this church was respected in the early 1800s, this church,

vandalized last night, graffiti sprayed on the outside, a fire set in the basement. the nursing of the church. i talked to the reverend. i talked to reverend rob, if you will, the rector here, about precisely what went down and why he wasn't all that surprised about it. >> we're really grateful. you have people broke in under ground, sort of below the main entrance area, and that's where our nursery is. and they actually burned the nursery, and we were so thankful that a fire didn't really go beyond the nursery. our mission right now, what we're about, really doesn't change. it just is more important. the message right now is that we have to value all lives, and especially lives that right now are not being valued, which is obviously black lives. >> reverend robert fisher there with quite the enlightened view,

andrea. what has been heartening, though, is the speed by which they have erased the graffiti from that church. atf now in the basement investigating, because obviously, the likely cause is arson. >> and craig, let me just say about st. john's. you know, i have had the privilege of speaking to that congregation at the invitation on sunday, after sunday services. and we've seen over decades that that church not only is the place where presidents are let go in the morning, the morning they are going to be sworn into office, but it is also a place that has had latin american rector. it's been a haven for the immigrant community here in d.c. and all kinds of social service. so, it's not only a remnant of the 18th century and an historic place, but it's a place of great service to this community. and so, that's contributing to the sadness that many of us feel

as our communities and the communities across the country are being so heavily damaged by, as you say, a minority of the people who are vandalizing. craig, thanks so much for all of your reporting. we really are grateful to you for being there for us today as well. and gabe gutierrez, of course, is where it all started with the horrendous killing that was witnessed on video around the world or around the country, of course, gabe. but you're reporting a change in tone, if you will, as the community comes to grips with this and as more force was finally deployed in the last 48 hours. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, andrea. certainly a calmer situation here in minneapolis over the last two days. today marks one week since the death of george floyd. look at the scene, a growing scene, a moving tribute to his life. you can see down here, #ican'tbreathe, flowers, notes, black lives matter. and over there is a cup foods.

that is where this happened, andrea. this is a place that has now drawn a very diverse crowd here. you know, mothers, fathers with children, white, black, all ages here. as you look around, you can see people gathering here. they have been for pretty much the entire weekend, peaceful gatherings here at this site. and people from the community have really come out and tried to clean up this neighborhood and really view this as a sort of sacred space. it's incredible to see. now, andreandrea, there is news. we can tell you that later this afternoon, the family of george floyd, the attorney plans to release an independent autopsy conducted by former chief medical examiner from new york, michael baden, involved in many high-profile cases. he testified in the o.j. simpson trial decades ago. he also was involved in the michael brown case in ferguson and even conducted an independent autopsy of jeffrey epstein. so, certainly, a high-profile investigator there. the family releasing that independent autopsy this

afternoon. we don't know what it will say. also, andrea, there is news in regards to the number of arrests that were conducted yesterday. authorities say they arrested 276 people in minneapolis. that is significantly higher than what we saw several days ago. andrea, you'll remember, there was about 40 people arrested several days ago in both minneapolis and st. paul, the twin cities. and they have questions from some members of the community why that number wasn't higher in order to keep the peace. we saw that increased violence several days ago. however, yesterday, police employed a new tactic. they encircled some of the protesters. they went off peacefully. they conducted a mass arrest, and those protesters, certainly, they wanted to make a point by staying outside of the curfew, but thankfully, there was no violence or no major reports of violence. and overall, this community stayed quiet. so, again, andrea, as we take a look at this one more time, you can see all these people here gathering for peaceful protests. we expect the family of mr. floyd to release that

independent autopsy a little later on this afternoon. andrea, back to you. >> and thanks, gabe. thanks so much to you for everything you've been doing over the last few days. and we should point out that the reverend al sharpton will be giving one of the eulogies, the first eulogy in minnesota, which will then be followed, he said today, in the last hour, with north carolina and houston, and that's going to start on thursday. and robert smith, the african-american philanthropist, and tyler perry, have both been in touch with the family to cover the costs of the appropriate funeral and of transportation and the like for the families as well. now to kathy park in new york, where, certainly in brooklyn and in soho and in union square, there's been so much overnight activity for the last few days and a lot of police incidents that mayor de blasio is being questioned about today and governor cuomo as well has been

appointed the attorney general of the state, an elected attorney general, to look in and oversee whatever new york investigation, new york city investigation takes place into the police response. kathy? >> reporter: well, andrea, that's right. we heard from the mayor and the police commissioner just a short time ago, and they updated the numbers as far as the arrests go. they're saying it was close to 400 from overnight. however, they did say that there was no loss of life to protesters or police. however, there are a lot of questions about the arrest of mayor bill de blasio's daughter. and she was arrested over the weekend. he said that she was protesting peacefully, and he said that he will leave it up to her to kind of explain exactly what happened, but said that she did nothing wrong. but i do want to point out just the damage behind me here. we are in the soho neighborhood. and as you mentioned, a lot of the destruction, the damage was centered in brooklyn as well as manhattan, but here in soho, if you've been here, you know there are a lot of luxury stores. this is a big shopping area. but looters were able to bust

through these storefronts. you can see there the smashed glass. they ransacked this store, essentially, and basically pulled the merchandise out. but this is something that we are seeing block after block here in soho. and andrea, also, there were questions about whether the mayor will be issuing any sort of curfew. he said that is still under consideration for today. andrea? >> kathy park, thank you so much. let's bring in our panel, "washington post" columnist eugene robinson, former chair of the new york city police civilian complaint review board maya wiley, and national urban league president and former mayor of new orleans, marc morial. first to you, marc morial, as a national leader, a national leader of a civil rights organization. the president was supposedly meeting and listening to civil rights leaders and governors as well. we don't have names of people, but i was wondering whether there has been any outreach by the white house, by the president, to you? >> none that i'm aware of.

and you know, this right now is not about listening sessions. it's about the action needed to reform policing in america, the action needed to reform criminal justice in america, the action needed to present a message of togetherness and healing in a time that we're dealing with two viruses, the covid virus, and now we see the virus of racism expressing itself in the rawest way with the death of mr. floyd, the death of brionna taylor, the death of ahmaud arbery. this is a seminole moment in american history. and what leaders should do is act on the issue, the issue that has brought us here is the palpable, understandable anger that the criminal justice system in america, police-community relations have severely broken, and enough is enough.

>> and maya wiley, i wanted to raise some concerns. we've got new reporting that i want to get to right away, because the president on this call has apparently criticized governors, said that the governors were too weak, according to our teams at the white house, who had been reporting on this call. that has not been covered by the press. the president said, according to one source, that the minnesota governor, who we're going to hear from at 12:30, when they have scheduled a news conference from governor tim walz, was weak and pathetic and that the governors, he said, most of you are weak. that was reported by us, our white house team and by the "associated press." the president said, "you have to dominate. if you don't dominate, you're wasting time." he's expressed annoyance with the response to the protests and the unrest that is raging across the country. maya, your response to that? >> well, first response is the

incredible hypocrisy of a president who used segregation-era language from a white police chief to demand that a governor, you know, go after quote/unquote thugs and suggests shooting. and then just yesterday suggests that maga supporters show up in d.c., almost inviting a confrontation that could become violent between his supporters and protesters. this has been a president who has chosen not to soothe, not to attempt to calm the nation, not to do exactly what marc so rightly called for, the statement of not just concern, but the statement of solution, the leadership of addressing what dr. martin luther king would call the consistent condition of social injustice in

communities of color in the united states that are producing these levels of largely peaceful protests. in fact, the only thing we've seen is a call from bill barr to essentially make more partisan what should be a non-partisan issue by suggesting that there should be an investigation of antifa, you know, the far left, without any statement of what evidence would support that and without any acknowledgment of the incredible racism and injustice that have been suffered in the black community, both in not just mr. floyd's video, but in videos we've been looking at for years. and not once has donald trump suggested any major leadership initiative that would address injustice. in fact, he's only fanned the flames of hate. >> let me just report from our own reporting, from our investigative unit, that since

2015, maya, officers from the minneapolis police department have rendered people unconscious with neck restraints 44 times, police using neck restraints at least 237 times during that span. in 16% of the incidents, the suspects and other individuals lost consciousness. the department's own use-of-force records show. maya, first to you. i know your past service, as i've pointed out on the voluntary advisory police civilian review board in new york, and then i want to ask you, gene, to weigh in as well. >> yeah, i think this is both a staggering and not surprising number in a police jurisdiction where it is legal. you know, one of the things that happened after eric garner's homicide -- and i use that word because that's what the new york city medical examiner called it -- after eric garner's homicide, that, you know there was this discussion about whether or not -- reverend al sharpton was part of that leadership -- choke holds should

be banned by law. you know, the knee on the neck and what we call approximal asphyxiation, having someone on their back while handcuffed for a prolonged period of time. these are all things that we already know have a heightened degree of death. you know, and let me say one other statistic that's related to this that is so important that we shouldn't miss. you know, there is research that shows a black man, young and old black men, 1 in 1,000 will be killed in encounters with police. that compares to 39 white men and boys out of 100,000. in this pandemic, this corona pandemic, we're talking about 32 in 100,000 dying. so, 1 out of 1,000 black men and boys? that's a pandemic. and we're not addressing it with the aggressiveness of the

pandemic that we're in. it's a public health crisis and we have to treat it as one, and that includes police discipline, it includes oversight and it includes a public health response. >> and eugene, your reflections on this as someone who is the father of a young black man and has lived this life and has lived for generations, whose background is in south carolina. >> right. and i'm also someone who's had this conversation with you, andrea, on the air time and time again when these highly publicized incidents have taken place. this feels different to me, and i think what's different about the death of george floyd is that a week later, the anger is still there.

and not only that, but the protests have been so widespread. and so, it's not just about the way black lives were devalued in minneapolis. it's about louisville. it's about los angeles. it's about new york. it's about -- there have been protests in more than 70 cities, i believe. and i think this is significant. i think this could actually be an inflection point. we have no unifying presidential leadership that could lead us through this. we will have to, at least for now, make our way through it ourselves. but i think a statement is being made that this is unacceptable, that it must no longer be the

case that a man can be killed the way george floyd was. and we have to start from that premise. and then, i believe in cities, in jurisdictions around the country, we're going to work through it. it would be great if there were presidential leadership that could not just set a tone but set an agenda. this president will not do that. this president is not capable of that, so we will have to do it on our own. >> eugene, so true. and president obama -- marc morial g i want to come to you on that. i want to read briefly from what president obama sent today as a message and then get your response to that as well, marc. he wrote in part, "i recognize that these past few months have been hard and dispiriting, that the fear, sorrow, uncertainty

and hardship of a pandemic have been compounded by tragic reminders that prejudice and inequality still shape so much of american life, but watching the heightened activism of young people in recent weeks of every race and every station, makes me hopeful." marc, your thoughts. >> one thing the president points out is what also makes this different, is that the protesters are of all races. i've been struck by the number of white protesters. on the west coast, you see many asian and latino protesters. this justice movement is about the black community, it's about the treatment of black people in america, but it is now being embraced by a wide swath of people across this nation. and that not only makes me hopeful, i think that is the future of america, the generation we see, and they're putting a mark down, saying, the america we want does not have

two justice systems. it has one justice system. the america we want has an economy that doesn't just work for some, it works for all. this has been building up, i think, since trayvon martin. it's built up over time, and it's been built up as people have watched the president time and time again insult people individually, insult communities in an unnecessary way. the tradition of the presidency in this nation is to try in times of difficulty to bind, to heal, to bring people together, not to deal with it in a political way. all of the rhetoric about being tough, that's not how you're tough. tough is when you deal with tough issues in a responsible and in an intelligent way. we need the justice department to initiate a pattern and practice investigation of the

minneapolis police department because of the facts that we've talked about already today, the choke holds that have been used over time. we need a concerted effort, not only at the national level, but every mayor, every county executive, every governor has within their power to fix policing in their jurisdiction, to fix policing and the criminal justice system in their state. this is not an issue that's just a washington issue. this is an issue that affects every jurisdiction across the nation. and it affects jurisdictions that people might consider progressive, jurisdictions that people might consider conservative. this issue of a broken system of policing and criminal justice requires the active work of people at every level. it needs to be fixed. and what the protesters are saying is enough is indeed enough, america. it's time to turn the page.

>> marc morial and maya wiley and eugene robinson, thank you all so much. and as we continue, as the nation has exploded in anger and sporadic violence over the brutal death of george floyd, there has been an unprecedented lack of presidential leadership. we've touched on that. and now, let's drill deeper into it, because in fact, a few republican allies of the president's have joined critics in suggesting that president trump's tweets and his failure to appeal for unity have exacerbated the crisis. on friday night, as hundreds of protesters outside the gates of the white house were then joined by others after nightfall, throwing bricks and bottles, the secret service took the unusual step of rushing the president to an underground bunker, a bunker previously used for vice president cheney on 9/11. we are told that president trump was returned to the residence within an hour. joining me now are peter baker, chief white house correspondent for "the new york times," and

yamiche alcindor, white house correspondent for pbs news hour. thank you to you both. peter, you and "the new york times" were first to report about the move to the bunker, and you've also been writing eloquently from your years covering different presidents about the extraordinary lack of leadership, of eloquence, and in particular what was pointed out just by our previous guests about what i would call the politicization of intelligence. our own frank figliuzzi, our contributor who was at the fbi for years and now is one of our counterterror and justice contributors, pointing out that from his sources, it's not just antifa -- and in fact, there is more white supremacist outside agitation involved -- but what william barr has chosen to pinpoint is antifa, the extreme-hard left, the anarchy on the left. >> yeah, look, this is a challenging situation. it would be challenging for any president. it was challenging for lbj in

1968. president bush in 1991 with rodney king. even president obama, who is as articulate and eloquent a speaker on issues of race and injustice in this country, you know, struggled to find ways to address it during his presidency. and yet, you have here a president who is singularly uninterested, frankly, in the kind of messaging of calm and, you know, reconciliation that other presidents had, at least try. he's been talked to, some of his campaign advisers would like him to do an address to the nation. he and the rest of his advisers inside the white house have kind of, like, put that to the side at this moment, partly because they felt burned by the march 11th oval office address he made on coronavirus that didn't go so well. partly because he doesn't really have a message to deliver that would necessarily make a difference. at this thi point, what would president trump say that would actually calm the situation down? it's hard to know. but he's clearly decided to throw himself in on the side of taking a hard-line approach, the

law-and-order approach, the richard nixon 1968 approach, rather than the other side. and he's making it partisan by, of course, going after, quote, radical-left mayors and governors, democrats. you never hear presidents in these kinds of moments make it a partisan thing where they talk about the opposition party, even if they might think that in the privacy of their own moments. and you've got a president who's rattled, i think. he's rattled inside that white house. i was down there last night and saturday night. these crowds are surging toward the white house. you've got long lines of riot police and national guards troops. and inside the white house you've got a president who's never seen anything like this in his life, not a politician by career, and he, as you say, he was rushed to the bunker on friday night, which added i think to the unease for him and his whole family. so, they're trying to figure out a way forward, but you know, in the balance between being tough on, you know, violence and expressing empathy for those who

are protesting injustice, he's decided to throw himself, at least for the moment, on one side. >> by the way, they've just also done a readout from the white house, as you know, peter, that he's spoken to vladimir putin and has, apparently, invited him to the g7, the g7 that has now been postponed until the fall after angela merkel said she wouldn't attend one in june because of the pandemic. so, a lot of other things roiling around, but clearly not the top focus is a response to this and is a response to reaching out, yamiche, to, empathetically, to people of color who have been so aggrieved by the death of george floyd. >> that's right. and president trump has really signaled in and focused in on this idea that it's antifa. it's this professionally organized crowd that we're now looking at domestic terrorism. of course, there are aggressors. there are looters. there are people who are rioting. but there are also overwhelmingly peaceful people.

i was out over the weekend on the white house lawn, just steps away from the president's residence. and i talked to so many people who said they were there to send a message to the government that black people and white people should be treated equally in this country and that police should not be able to kill people in the way that they saw george floyd being killed when that officer kneeled on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. i'm thinking today of a young boy, 18 years old, named jaden, who told me he was 8 years old when trayvon martin was killed and that he realized then as a young kid in an elementary school that racism could literally kill him. so, when the president talks about antifa and all these things, he's literally ignoring the people who are on his front lawn. all he has to do is walk down and see, right in front of the white house, that there are americans, everyday americans, asking for change. so, it's very interesting to see the president kind of lean back on his political instincts, lash out at democrats. i'm having sources telling me, much like you said nbc news is hearing, that the president had this call with governors where he, quote, went off the rails,

one source says, and that he was telling governors that they were going to be overrun and that they needed to dominate their states. when in reality, what people need a lot of times and what they told me on the white house lawn is that they want someone who's empathetic, who understands that americans are crying out, saying they're fed up and they want leadership in this moment. >> and i should just point out that former vice president joe biden has emerged for the first time in public. previously, he had gone to a wreath-laying, but now he's at an a.m.e. church, speaking there today. it's an african-american church in wilmington, and he's done it mostly with the mask up, until he began speaking. so, that is certainly in contrast to what we're seeing from the white house. yamiche and peter, thanks so much. we're turning now to california, where looters emptied stores and smashed windows in santa monica and long beach on sunday in southern california, at times clashing with peaceful protesters. nbc's gadi schwartz is in santa monica. gadi?

>> reporter: yeah, very different picture today, a very sad picture that people woke up to. then they started grabbing brooms, they started, just neighbors, complete strangers. in fact, we've got people -- hi, guys! mind if we ask a couple questions? >> not at all. >> reporter: we see the brooms here. what brought you out here? >> well, we are teachers at the middle school in santa monica. we are not -- we don't live in santa monica, but we felt like we had the need to give back, because the district has given us so much. >> reporter: and what are you doing here? >> well, i'm just here giving people hope. >> reporter: so you want to give people hope by helping clean up. >> yeah. >> reporter: when you saw what happened yesterday, did you see that as the same thing as a protest, or -- >> no. >> reporter: what went through your mind? >> i felt like here we had people that were here originally for a good cause. they were trying to speak out on what's going on. and then we had a bunch of people coming in and just ruining it.

the message got lost. >> reporter: thank you guys so much. yeah, it wasn't just a looting of the things in these stores. as people were saying, it was the message that was also stolen from this movement. i'm just going to take you down the street here because things are starting to get cleaned up a little bit. but yesterday we saw people looting in this particular area with impunity, while across the promenade, there was that peaceful, beautiful protest, people demonstrating peacefully for hours, while on this side of santa monica, absolute pandemonium. in fact, let's take a look here. this is jack's jeweler. we spoke to the owner, and i'll just show you the damage inside. they said that they had this -- it's a locally owned business -- they've had this for 38 years they've been here in santa monica. this was their entire life. they poured everything they could into this business. and at this point, it is completely destroyed. in fact, they were told that it looks like the roof is going to

collapse down on this at some point in the next few days. back to you, andrea. >> gadi schwartz, thank you so much. and democratic congresswoman karen bass of california chairs the congressional black caucus and her district borders the santa monica area and joins me now. congresswoman, thank you very much. obviously, our thoughts are with all of the constituents in your area and those who have suffered from vandalism and those who are protesting against this horrendous killing that we've seen in minnesota. we're going to be hearing from the minnesota governor shortly. tell me about the black caucus. you've been in touch with your colleagues. you're going to have a virtual meeting later in the day. what legislatively can be done? what can you as a leader be doing? what are your colleagues saying? >> so, absolutely. we're having an emergency meeting of the congressional black caucus in the next couple hours to lay out our strategy. it will be a three-fold strategy. one, it's very important that we

are visible, that the communities understand that the congressional black caucus is fighting on their behalf. many members of the caucus have been fighting on this issue for so long. we are going to have a legislative agenda. and then we're also going to have an agenda of collaboration. we want to build the broadest support possible across the country to ensure passage of transformative legislation. what needs to happen is very clear -- there needs to be a way to hold police officers and police departments accountable. for example, in many states, a police officer only has to say that they were in fear of their life, and that's why they shot and killed someone. you know we have seen it on videotape where officers have fired at people who were running away and shot and killed them in their back, and because they were able to say they were afraid, they got off. so, there is police unions around the country and conservative organizations have passed legislation that makes it virtually impossible to hold the police accountable. structurally, we have issues such as the district attorney in

a locality is the one that would bring charges against the police. but at the same time, the d.a.'s the department that work hand in hand with the police, and so it's almost a structural conflict of interest. so we need to look at the root causes. we need to look at transformative, bold legislation right now, and the congressional black caucus will be doing that, and i'm very happy to say that the speaker, the majority leader, the majority whip are all in support of this. our caucus will be united in pushing for transformation. >> what concerns do you have, though, that this will be symbolic, just as the most-recent pandemic legislation has been, with the senate resisting any kind of reform? >> well, i think, first of all, i know that there are a number of senators, and i also believe they're bipartisan senators. you know, we have two members of the congressional black caucus who are in the senate, and they are working it on behalf of the senate and do have bipartisan support. i'm just hoping that my

colleagues on either side of the aisle understand the significance of this moment in our nation's history. how many times do we have to watch people murdered, executed on video? how many times does that have to happen? i will tell you that i have been inspired by the protests, but i've also been very saddened, and frankly, angry at the violence that the protests -- that some protesters have had. i will question whether they were really protesters or whether they were there for another agenda. i have seen videotape of people spray-painting "black lives matter" and african-americans coming to those people, telling them, why are you doing this? you're not african-american. you are not doing it on our behalf. so, i suspect that we need to look at the violence that is happening, but that has nothing to do with our need to hold police officers and police departments accountable.

>> congresswoman karen bass, the chair of the black caucus. thank you so much. and now we go to st. paul, minnesota, where the governor of minnesota, tim walz, former congressmember, is speaking now. let's listen. >> we witnessed on several days earlier in the week, those that are bent on wanting destruction of the very communities that are most pained. i think as citizens, as residents of minnesota, we can continue to maintain that, and this gives us a space now for a time of unprecedented opportunity to address things that have been around in many cases decades or since the founding or prior to that. so, in moving forward and in that light, i want to talk a little bit about the posture we're in, in terms of law enforcement out on the streets. i signed an executive order in consultation and leadership with the mayors of minneapolis and st. paul. we will be extending the curfew for days, but the times will change. it will go from 10:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. and one of the reasons in this

is, is minnesotans have taken charge of this. the only way these things work is what we've seen the last two nights, the vast majority of people abide by this. those that not are able to address this. i do want to mention something. some of you witnessed this on many of your stations and live tv. there were protesters that stayed out past the curfew. i think in some cases because of the tragic near miss with the truck. it disrupted some of their schedules. some of them i think were very intent on going home and doing that, because it was very clear, they were articulating very clearly peaceful right to demonstrate, but they also understood, wuonce they got out past that time, the interaction with the police that some of you witnessed, and it was gratifying, i think to see how citizens approached it and how our law enforcement approached it. the very humanized way, the very orderly way that people were processed and treated and some of the interactions between the two to understand each other was

for me the way that i think people expect this to happen. so, that curfew will go in place. we'll also think about the strategic levels of what we have. general jensen will be speaking about a transition to our national guard troops back to their homes and their jobs, because that's what they are. they take time out of their jobs, and many of them will be going back, some of them working as news reporters, some of them working as camera operators, some of them working as teachers. that will begin to happen, and that will be done, as general jensen will talk about, in a very orderly and organized way. our strategy, we need to continue to keep in place. the multiagency command center that was stood up will stay in place, because we are managing communications. i think some of you now have witnessed the complexity of something like this. it doesn't look like the movies. you have to get everybody on the same frequencies. you have to have communications to move people. and when you see an operation move in unison like you've seen the last few days, with no prior

training together, that's a testament to the leadership of all of these different agencies, and that is the mack. they will continue to operate until the time comes when we transition back out of that. i do think it is worth noting that this week there will be, at least as we understand right now, a significant event with the funeral memorial of george floyd. i believe it is scheduled for thursday. it will be an important event, both for the city of minneapolis, for minnesota, and for the nation, to watch that process of celebrating a life that was taken in front of us, an opportunity for leadership -- and when i say leadership, what we're seeing now is where there are voids of leadership at certain levels, you're certainly seeing leaders in communities that have always been there put their voices forward. so, that will be in conjunction of making sure, as we said yesterday, the idea of protecting peaceful protesters. and that brings me to yesterday, and you'll hear a little more

detail on this, the incident with the truck that i think will live for many of us forever. i was watching that on the mindot cameras in the state emergency operations center in live time when it happened. and i was breathless as i watched it, because i thought i was going to witness dozens or hundreds killed in the immediate crash, and then my fear was the intentional thought of detonating that truck. as it turned out, and i don't want to speak ahead of this, but the political with the interviews with the driver was frustrated. thechz talk about how you close in sections and he got ahead of that and why they were exiting people, and i'll let him talk about the details of that. but from the driver's perspective, he went around it, saw the crowd, went around the other cars. he did brake, ayou can see. but i think what the amazing thing is first of all that no one was hurt. the crowd then responding, in many cases, just of sheer adrenaline and fear and everything else that was happening. but the driver noted afterwards, after he was told it didn't kill

anybody, he noted that the crowd, the vast majority were protecting him. the protesters were protecting the driver, who they had just seen appear to run into the crowd, because they realized how dangerous the situation was. and for those of you who are old enough to remember that horrific scene on that los angeles road during the rodney king events where the driver was pulled from the vehicle and severely injured, peaceful protesters in minneapolis and st. paul protected this person, even after what we saw was, appeared at the time to be an attempt to kill them. i think that speaks volumes again. and i'm just, i'm grateful to be able to tell that, because i still am in shock of what i thought we might have to be talking about. i will note that that event did have some disruptive impact on movement of folks last night, but it still worked out, i think, again. an amazing thing, of no deaths, no injuries, and last night,

report of one fire that is still under investigation, so it can't be confirmed it was by this, and it was immediately extinguished. so, we've got an opportunity -- >> governor tim walz. and we will continue to monitor it, but he has announced that they have changed the timing of the curfew, 10:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. in minnesota, in minneapolis, and also, of course, we're counting the extraordinary facts of that tractor-trailer that ran into protesters but that the protesters who were peaceful protesters, then protecting the driver. we'll keep monitoring that for you for any new developments. meanwhile, while most of the protests around the country, as we've we have been pointing out, have been peaceful, some did erupt in violent clashes and looting. and state officials are pointing to outside agitators, looking to stir tensions. on "meet the press" sunday, atlanta mayor keisha lance bottoms was asked about what she was seeing in her city.

>> this protest, even just from a physical standpoint, didn't look like our normal protest. many of our organizers in this city who often don't agree with me, have shared that these were people from the outside. they did not know them and had no idea where they came from. >> nbc news correspondent blayne alexander in atlanta has been covering this from the beginning and joins us now. things were a lot calmer today, but what do we know about the agitators, the impact they have had in atlanta? of course, in a counterpoint to the white house claims that it's all one-sided, intelligence, police intelligence around the country are trying to figure out exactly who these people are, and our reporting has been that it is not just the hard left. it is a mix of agitators and others trying to foment chaos, further chaos.

>> reporter: absolutely, andrea. you know, i've spent four hours now, throughout the weekend, speaking to people who have been out on the streets, raising their voices, talking about why they're out here and gotten a sense of who's among this crowd. but i want to say first that it was a vastly different picture last night on the streets of atlanta than what we saw at the beginning of the weekend. you had national guard troops lining these streets, a different approach and a different outcome. but we certainly saw an escalation on friday night. i want to show you. this over here was one the first places to be hit. we watched this happen as a crowd descended upon this restaurant, adjacent to the cnn center. people took heavy objects, threw through the windows, spray-painted. that happened for several blocks here through downtown atlanta. as for who was causing the issues, you heard from atlanta's mayor. also the police chief says she believes it was people not only from outside of atlanta, but had no familiarity with atlanta. she talks about the fact that during the march they actually

got lost on their way to the state capital. it's less than a mile from here, so she said they have no familiarity with the city. now, the people that i've talked to, andrea, say they're frustrated with the conversation around this and the destruction, because they say they don't want their message to get lost in all of this, which is the reason that they're out here in the first place, so that they hopefully don't have to protest like this again, andrea. >> blayne alexander in atlanta. meanwhile, president trump, as i was suggesting, and the attorney general, bill barr, are blaming antifa for the violence that has erupted over the last four days and nights, despite reporting from a former counterintelligence official that, in fact, there are more indications of more right-wing, white supremacist groups or activists present among the outside agitators. the president says he will designate antifa a terrorist organization. antifa has no known headquarters or central organization. there is no legal procedure for such a designation against a domestic group.

nbc news investigative reporter tom winter joins me now. tom, i know you've spent days, the weekend, going into not only antifa and what the indications are in this situation, but the president and the attorney general maybe cherry-picking the intelligence to go after the president's own political enemies. what have you discovered? >> well, sure, i think as always, it's more complicated than just it's one specific group or one specific entity, which is what the president appeared to be pointing towards on twitter over the weekend. i think the nypd and their intelligence and counterterrorism unit headed by john miller, has taken a really deep look into this and you're seeing some of the results of what happened last night here in new york city, particularly in soho. and this is one of the things that they've keyed in on, is that they're not naming specific groups. antifa is a part of this. but they're not naming specific groups here. what they're kind of saying is, look, we're looking at anarchist groups, we're looking at

disparate groups, essentially, splinter factions, andreandrea, represent all sorts of viewpoints, but are really, the main goal here, according to police officials here in new york and other police officials across the country that we've spoken to, is to create chaos among protests that are going on. police officials here have used the word hijack. they're trying to hijack what would be normally peaceful protests by people who are out protesting what happened in minneapolis, what we've seen there with the minneapolis police department, as well as just broader issues and socioeconomic issues between minority communities and the rest of this country. so, i think that's what they are seeing here. and i think it's a little bit more of a nuanced picture than the one that's being presented at times out of washington. >> and tom, very briefly, what do you think the impact is of governor cuomo naming the attorney general to review what's happened with the nypd? >> right, well, this is something that's been set up under the cuomo administration to take a look into all police-involved shootings. now this is going to be extended

to some of the actions that have taken place here. police officials here in new york have been quick to point out, and i think a bit of this criticism is probably fair that there's been other videos that have been shared of police vehicles that have come under ambush and attack that have driven away from incidents that haven't been as widely shared on our air and on anybody's air. and i think that that's fair. on the other hand, there is some incidents that occurred over the weekend that certainly deserve investigations, scrutiny. officials here have promised that. it's unsurprising that andrew cuomo has tasked his attorney general to take a look into this. >> thanks very much, tom. thanks for all your reporting. and coming up next, public health experts warning today that the mass protests across the country are likely to set off a new spike in covid-19 cases. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us on msnbc. ing "andrl reports. stay with us on msnbc. saturdays happen. pain happens. aleve it. aleve is proven stronger and longer on pain than tylenol.

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health experts are warning the wave of protests facially will lead to more coronavirus infections with potentially deadly consequences. atlanta's mayor gave this advice to protesters sunday. >> if you were out protesting last night, you probably need to get a covid test this week because there's still a pandemic in america that is killing black and brown people at higher numbers. >> joining me now, dr. vin gupta from washington's department of health metric sness. dr. gupta, thank you very much for being with us. the pandemic, of course, is the back drop against all of this. not only the way it was digs proportionately hurt african-americans and other people of color, but people of lower income, people who are suffering from unemployment and now have to deal with these protests and maybe those who are

most hurt by a spike. what are your concerns? >> thanks, andrea. securing the public's trust is the only way to combat this crisis. you need trusted. you need people that are protesting for very, very good reasons to say i'm going to still wash my hands or purel them or wear a mask. we didn't see 100% compliance with that. so we are worried about a second wave. it doesn't matter if you're protesting or you're celebrating, there will be a resurgence. and yes, get a test if you're out there protesting. how do you ensure that? there is no mechanism by which if you're protesting you can stop by and get a test beforehand. we need to make sure we have

operations in place to actually test people. right now, we just don't have that. >> and dr. gupta, the concern, of course, is that we are not over this pandemic. in many places, we are seeing spikes for other reasons. >> to your point, it's people of color that have been hurt the most. they've been chronically underserved by decades of leadership. >> get a test if you're out there protesting, but you still need access to health care to get that test. >> dr. gupta, we're going to leave it there for now.

thank you so much. and i want to close with something that kareem abdul gentleman par wrote in the "l.a. times." in part, he wrote, yes, protests are often used as an excuse for some to take advantage. i don't want to see stores looted or even buildings burned, he wrote. but african-americans have been living in a burning building for many years, choking on the smoke as the flames burn closer and closer. racism in america is like dust in the air. it seems invisible even if you're choking on it until you let the sun in. thanks so much for being with us. it's been a difficult time for everyone. we know our responsibility to report accurately and effectively and comprehensively. that does it for today. ari and katie pick up our coverage after a break. katie pi coverage after a break a unique tri-layer supplement that calms you, helps you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer

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hello. i'm ari melbourne. we have fallout and the developments from the george floyd case. we've just heard here in our coverage from the governor of minnesota confirming this curfew will be in effect again tonight. overnight, there were many peaceful and political protests that