here with us. on behalf of my colleagues at the networks of msnbc news, good night. our live msnbc coverage continues next hour. remembering the life of george floyd, friends, family and hundreds of supporters gathered together for a memorial service featuring several powerful speeches. also, president trump goes after his former chief of staff, john kelly, after kelly suggested that trump forgot the circumstances around mattis' white house departure. and attorney general bill barr is defending the forceful removal of peaceful protesters ahead of the president's photo op in front of a church on monday. ♪ good friday morning, everybody, it is june 5th and i

am yasmin vossoughian. a lot to cover over the last day. it was a tenth night of mostly peaceful protests across the country yesterday. in fact, curfews have been lifted in several cities including washington, d.c., seattle and louisville. much. nation was also tuned into the memorial service for george floyd in minneapolis. marked with poignant moments like this one, the mayor of minneapolis kneeling and sobbing in front of floyd's casket. msnbc's own reverend al sharpton in his role as preacher and civil rights leader delivered a stirring eulogy. >> george floyd's story has been the story of black folks because ever since 401 years ago the reason we could never be who we wanted and dreamed to being is you kept your knee on our neck.

what happened to floyd happens every day in this country and education and health services and in every area of american life. it's time for us to stand up in george's name and say get your knee off our necks. the reason why we are marching all over the world is we were like george. we couldn't breathe, not because there was something wrong with our lungs but you wouldn't take your knee off our neck. we don't want no favors, just get up off of us and we can be and do whatever we can be. >> so the reverend also declared a new season for racial justice as he shared two stories to showcase the nation's transformation over the

generations. >> years ago i went to march. now, i remember young white lady looked me right in the face and said, [ bleep ], go home, but when i was here last thursday and i was heading back to the airport i stopped near the police station and as i was talking to a reporter a young white girl she didn't look no older than 11 years old, she tagged my suit jacket and i looked around and i braced myself and she looked at me and said, no justice, no peace. it's a different time. it's a different season. >> a memorial service will also be held tomorrow in north carolina where floyd was born and in houston on monday where he was raised. reverend sharpton also announced

plans to march in washington on august 28th, the anniversary of dr. king's march on washington. also president trump's former chief of staff john kelly is speaking out in support of former defense secretary jim mattis after jim mass criticized the president's handling of nationwide protests this week. in an interview with the "washington post" kelly dismissed trump's claim that he had fired mattis from his post in 2018. kelly told the paper this, quote, the president did not fire him. he did not ask for his resignation. the president has cleared forgotten how it actually happened or is confused. he went on to say the president tweeted a very positive tweet about jim until he started to see on fox news their interpretation of his letter, then he got nasty. jim mattis is an honorable man. so trump of course later hit back on twitter writing this, john kelly didn't know i was going to fire jim mattis, nor did he have any knowledge of my asking for a letter of

resignation. why would i tell him? he was not in my inner circle, was totally exhausted by the job, and in the end just slinked away into obscurity. they all want to come back for a piece of the limelight. this is what the president said. so republican senator lisa murkowski of alaska has also drawn the president's ire for coming out in support of mattis, speaking to reporters yesterday she praised mattis' comments and also made news for saying she is not sure she can support president trump's reelection bid. >> i thought general mattis' words were true and honest and necessary and overdue. when i saw general mattis' comments yesterday i felt like perhaps we are getting to the point where we can be more honest with the concerns that we

might hold internally and have the courage of our own convictions to speak up. >> can you still support president trump, then? is that something you're struggling with? >> i am struggling with it, i have struggled with it for a long time, i think you know that. >> this is certainly the time -- the first time that senator murkowski has been so frank about this. so the president later criticized murkowski of course tweeting this, few people know where they will be in two years from now, but i do, in the straight state of alaska which i love, campaigning against senator lisa murkowski. he added, get any candidate ready, good or bad, i don't care. i'm endorsing if you have a pulse, i am with you. joining me now msnbc news correspondent leigh ann caldwell. good morning to you. thank you for joining us to early on this. wow, pretty amazing to hear that

from senator lisa murkowski. we haven't heard a rebuke from her before or speaking so honestly about the fact she is reconsidering her support for the president. what do you make of it? >> it's really interesting, yasmin. i had been speaking with senator murkowski throughout this entire week and when i talked to her on tuesday, just the day after these peaceful protesters were violently moved out of the way out in front of the white house, she was really struggling with this. she said that she is looking to a leader to help guide her as herself being a leader to her voters and constituents at home. she didn't know what to do and what to say because she wasn't seeing that leadership, including from the president. so when she spoke yesterday she, in fact, said that the words of general mattis helped her to be the leader that she needs and she also referenced former president george bush as well. so she has been really struggling with how to respond

to the president, especially during these times. we know that senator murkowski is not someone who is afraid to cross the president. she voted against justice cavanaugh, she voted to uphold obamacare so she is really a person of conviction in most instances. while the president made those tweets last night saying that she's going to campaign against her, i'm not sure if he knows that she had lost a republican primary already in 2010 and then she came back to win her election, her reelection, as a write-in candidate so she's extremely popular in alaska. very independent-minded voters, yasmin. >> so senator murkowski mentioned that in internally she felt like this might be a moment where others might begin to come forward against the president as she in some way did yesterday. i know that you've been speaking to some other senators on this, along with their reactions to

jim mattis' comments and what he wrote. what are you hearing? >> we also heard from senator romney who was also a little bit critical. he called mattis' comments stunning and powerful, said that he was a wonderful, wonderful man, but romney and murkowski are really outliers here. we spoke to a lot of senate republicans and most of them said they didn't even read what general mattis said. watch this. >> can i ask you a couple questions? >> no. >> do you agree with mattis that the president is a threat? >> i have not heard that remark, i would have to take a look at it and see what the context is. >> can you comment as a member of a critical committee -- >> i actually haven't read it yet. >> i haven't -- i haven't seen that. >> i have a phone call i have to get to. >> leader mcconnell, could i ask you about your tweet about esper, how come you said that? are you worried that the president is going to fire esper?

last one, do you have comments about general mattis and the essay he wrote about trump? >> all week long senate republicans have been getting tough questions about how the president is handling the crisis impacting our country right now, especially with people on the streets, protests gripping the country, and they haven't had a lot to say. so even in times like this it is just completely evident still that republicans are extremely nervous to cross the president because they will get the same treatment that lisa murkowski got last night with a tweet from the president publicly shaming them and that has allow the sway with the republican base, yas n yasmin. >> just stunning their utter refusal to answer any of your questions. leanne ald well, thank you so much. say close, i will talk to you again in just a little bit. let's talk the economy.

there are more yet unemployment claims weighing over the economy even as the pace of those seeking assistance is continuing to slow. the labor department announcing yesterday that another 1.9 million americans applied for unemployment benefits last week bringing the 11-week total to nearly 43 million. that number is more than the 37 million claims made during a year and a half of the great depression. continuing claims which represents the actual amount of people currently receiving benefits was recorded at 21.5 million just for last week. these numbers are coming ahead of today's jobs report for the month of may later this morning where the unemployment rate could reach 20%. joining me now msnbc anchor and correspondent david gura. david, good morning to you. >> good to see you. >> let's look at the level of unemployment claims here. at this point is it worse or better than expected? and what do you make, david, of the continuing claims that we

are seeing at 21.5 million or so, that seems like it could feasibly be good news and that people applied for unemployment early on but didn't necessarily continue to claim unemployment. >> so let's take these two things in kind. this has been going on for about 11 weeks now you will remember, yasmin n early march we had that precipitous decline, more than 6 million people filing for unemployment for the first time. if there's any good news coming out of the data we've gotten in recent weeks is we've had nine straight weeks of declines in that number. we haven't seen anything close to 6 million in these recent weeks. that said you look at a number like the one we got yesterday and it is still so sizable. the tendency in economics is to look at the trend. yes, it's a downward trend, but, again, these are outlier numbers, numbers the likes of which we haven't seen in such a long time. it is something to hear people making this comparison to the great depression and there are plenty of economists who say it's not fair to say this is like the great depression, but the kind of job losses we are seeing are really extreme. now, to your question about these continuing claims, that's something that i think gives a

lot of economists a lot of pause, those who are optimistic or hopeful we're going to see a quick turnaround here in the economy. what those continuing claims tell us is that's how many people are still applying for those unemployment benefits week after week after week, having more than 20 million people do that is still wholly not a great thing, you know, we could see some diminishment over some time but it shows the fact that what economists had hoped for, what business leaders had hoped for, what the president had hoped for, that those who were laid off would have this tie to their now former employers that's going to bring them back into the fold, they will go from being unemployed to employed with those same employers is going to happen, yes, there are some people who believe that may be the case but we are not seeing it happen as fast as a lot of people would have wanted. >> so let's also just quickly talk here about today's jobs report that's coming out. how likely is it, david, and this is astounding to me, that we're going to see the unemployment rate possibly hit 20%? not a number necessarily associated with the u.s.

economy. >> no, it's astonishing and i think that it is likely. you look at what economists are saying, when you look at the surveys of economists that precede reports like this many say we're going to hit 19 or 20 percent and that might not even tell the whole story. that's an astounding number and it's one i think we are going to have to reckon with here for a long time. it's interesting what we're seeing here complements the protests, unrest we have seen this these recent weeks as well. there is unsecurity about the economy, i think fueling people. yes, there are a host of issues related to race that are bringing people out into the streets to protest, but there's great concern about where people stand in society today and a truly astonishing statistic and one i will pay closest attention to is what does black unemployment in this country look like in this report. we now now half of black people in this country are out of work. >> david gura, thanks so much for joining us so early. still ahead, everybody, the

trump administration is facing is new lawsuit from the aclu after protesters were forcefully cleared from a park so president trump could be photographed at a church this week. and later another military leader condemns president trump's threat to use the military against protesters. those stories and then of course a check on your weather with bill karins when we come back. rh bill karins when we come back. frustrated that clean clothes you want to wear always seem to need an iron? try bounce wrinkle guard dryer sheets. the bounce wrinkle guard shorts have fewer wrinkles and static, and more softness.

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welcome back, everybody. the american civil liberties union is suing the trump administration over civil rights violations of protesters in lafayette square who were forcefully removed before a presidential photo op. the suit is arguing that president trump and attorney general bill barr unlawfully conspired to violate the protesters' rights when firing smoke bombs and pepper balls into the crowd to disperse it. the suit was filed on behalf of individuals and the group black lives matter d.c. who were

protesting the killing of george floyd while in police custody. earlier in the week the aclu sued the city of minneapolis and leaders of its police department arguing police tactics were violating freedom of press. the suit was filed on behalf of the reporter who alleges he was intentionally targeted by police for violence and use of excessive force in retaliation for his coverage of the protests in minneapolis. joining me now msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos to talk about this. danny, it looks like from the videotape that we are seeing that we saw all the coverage of civil rights were clearly violated here when tear gas was used on protesters here, but it seems like the attorney general barr's explanation to this was that the crowd was throwing projectiles earlier when he went out to actually inspect the park because he did a tour of the park before the president went out for his photo op. this is incredibly confusing to me considering all the reporting that we have seen across the board, our own garrett haake was

on the ground and he said the protests were completely peaceful the entire time until the tear gas began. even with that is that enough of a defense for the violent removal that we saw take place? >> it could be because it's also very difficult for a plaintiff to meet their burden of proof under what's called a section 1983 case or anytime you try to sue the government for a violation of constitutional rights. in this case, for example, you're talking about the first amendment right to get out there and protest and then in one of the other counts in one of the complaints is the fourth amendment, the seizure of the person's body or preventing them from traveling and moving around. and the challenge for plaintiffs is that it's not enough to show that their speech was impeded or that their movement was impeded, they have to show that the government official clearly and knowingly violated their constitutional rights with no grounds whatsoever. so it's no surprise that you're going to see the government in

the form of bill barr start talking about the reasons why these folks were moved. if there was some kind of threat, something to be worried about, then that boosts their justification and makes this section 1983 action against government officials a lot harder to prove. >> i just want to reiterate our reporting indicated garrett haake on the ground indicated that the protests were completely peaceful ahead of that tear gas being used when they cleared it for the president to get that photo op. danny cevallos, thank you as always. still ahead, house speaker nancy pelosi makes a veiled swipe at the president as she issues new words of caution with more states opening up their economies. her new comments coming next. ir economs.ie her new comments coming next

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won't wear the mask, they feel that the mask is somehow unmanly or the mask has issues beyond just a psychological defeat, but it's been instrumental in getting places to open again. >> absolutely. real men wear masks and these masks are essentially important and if you decide not to wear a mask you're insulting anyone with whom you come in contact. if you decide not to wear a mask you could be bringing home something to your family that might not be a welcome guest. that would be a virus. so, again, it's such common sense, i didn't say some other things, but you're absolutely right and thank you for emphasizing it. >> of course. >> the mask is essential. is essential. >> so that was house speaker nancy pelosi pushing for sustained precautions such as wearing face coverings and masks as the u.s. is reopening businesses during the pandemic. also facing an uphill battle for

reelection in november, republican senator susan collins of maine says she will not travel with the president or attend any events during his visit to the state today. a spokeswoman for the senator is telling nbc news that collins will instead be in the capitol today, quote, and has several federal and nonfederal event on her schedule. asked whether the president is hurting her reelection chances collins said this, no, it's the barrage of unfounded falsehoods that have taken a toll. she also says she's been massively outspent. still ahead, everybody, new information about the future of defense secretary's mark esper's job after he tried to distance himself from the president's photo op this week. also a navy veteran detained in iran after two years is finally heading home to the united states. we will be right back. home to t united states. we will be right back. the 2:20 back-to-back calls migraine medicine it's called ubrelvy the migraine medicine for anytime, anywhere a migraine attacks without worrying if it's too late or where you happen to be.

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[ laughs ] ♪ welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian. we're going to begin this half hour with new criticism of the president's rhetoric on nationwide protests. retired general martin dempsey the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff with an interview with npr yesterday condemned the president's threat to use military force to suppress demonstrations in the interview airing today on npr's morning edition dempsey says the idea that the president would take charge of the situation using the military was troubling to me, adding this, the idea that the military would be called in to dominate and suppress what for the most part were peaceful protests admittedly where some are opportunistically turned them

violent and that the military would somehow come in and calm that situation was very dangerous to me. former defense secretary william perry also spoke out against the president's threat to deploy the military against american civilians, telling "politico" in a statement that the military, quote, was never intended to be used for partisan political purposes. perry criticized the current secretary of defense mark esper writing this, when i was secretary of defense i made it a priority to avoid any suggestion of support for partisan political actions and i assured that the president did not use any military facilities to support his political ends. but on monday secretary esper walked with the president to st. john's church in an implicit show of support after peaceful demonstrators in lafayette park had been forcibly subdued and dispersed with tear gas under the orders of attorney general bill barr. more now on the president's strained relationship with defense secretary mark esper.

nbc news reporting that the president continues to be angry with esper over his comments about the president's church photo op. esper had said he was not aware that he would be a part of that staged moment before the cameras, but president trump for now is sticking with esper even after the president told aides that he was considering firing the pentagon chief. a senior administration official telling nbc news that the view in the white house is against removing esper, saying it's, quote, not worth the shakeup five months away from an election. the official went on to say that the president expressed his anger to secretary esper at a meeting on wednesday. attorney general bill barr was also at that meeting. joining me once again, nbc news correspondent leigh ann caldwell. you have several top military leaders openly criticizing the president over his response to the nationwide protests and wanting to deploy troops possibly into the streets of this country to try to shut down

these protests. what does this reveal about what is going on behind the scenes in washington? >> well, there's a huge -- there's a lot of people who are extremely uncomfortable with what's happened. a lot of these military leaders, a lot of them are formers, but then you have esper who came out publicly, you know, saying that he didn't agree with the president, which is a stunning rebuke from the secretary of defense. these former officials saying this is unprecedented as well. now, when i was on capitol hill this week republicans didn't want to talk a lot, as we mentioned earlier, but one thing that they were insistent on is that the president not get rid of esper at this time. they said he's doing a fantastic job. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell randomly tweeted his

support for esper. when i asked mcconnell why he decided to do that the first time on camera he didn't answer me. i caught up with him in the hallway off camera later and he said that he did it just because esper is doing a great job. i asked if he's worried that the president is going to fire him, he just repeated that esper is doing a fantastic job and that he should stay in the position. so there is a lot of concern on capitol hill among republicans as well that he is going to get rid of him. that is five months before an election, this huge shakeup, and so, you knew, this is causing a lot of concern throughout washington, yasmin. >> so amidst all that has happened in this country over the last, let's say, three and a half months or so, we tend to forget about the fallout from the russia investigation. i know that you have recently written a piece on this.

talk us through the new subpoenas from senate republicans over the origins of the russia investigation. >> senate republicans have opened numerous investigations into a host of things regarding the obama administration, the origins of the mueller investigation in an attempt to, you know, rewrite the narrative of the mueller report and also discredit, you know -- to really shame what the obama administration has done. so what the homeland security committee yesterday did is they authorized the issuance of 35 subpoenas of top administration -- obama administration officials, including james clapper, john brennan, james baker, susan rice, samantha power, all these people at the top spheres of the obama administration. they haven't issued those subpoenas yet, but chairman johnson of wisconsin is able to

do so at any moment. so that vote along party lines democrats say that this is political in nature, that republicans are running a political errand for the president in an election year. you know, that's just one investigation. the senate judiciary committee was going to issue 50 subpoenas yesterday. they decided to hold off for another week. chairman johnson has opened another investigation into ukraine and joe and hunter biden. you know, so these are things that senate republicans are focusing on right now and democrats say they should be talking about covid, they should be talking about, you know, george floyd and police brutality and the economy with more than 40 million people unemployed, but they say instead they are focusing on these political investigations into -- to help the president, yasmin. >> all right. nbc's leigh ann caldwell for us. thank you so much. great talking to you this morning.

>> thank you. let's move overseas here. iran yesterday freeing michael white, a navy veteran who had spent nearly two years incarcerated in the country. president trump confirmed white's release yesterday tweeting that he's, quote, now in zurich and will be on a u.s. plane shortly. white's release comes a day after an iranian scientist who had been yelled by u.s. immigration authorities for months had arrived in iran. both men reportedly contracted the coronavirus while in custody. white was arrested in iran back in 2018 while visiting an iranian woman he had reportedly met online. he had been sentenced to ten years for privacy violations and insulting the ayatollah home knee. still ahead, two buffalo police officers have been suspended over their use of force against an elderly protester. we will show you the graphic video of the incident next. your "first look" at "morning joe" is back in a moment. xt your "first look" at "morning joe" is back in a moment 300 miles an hour,

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president trump threw support behind the use of a low flying military helicopter over d.c. during monday night's protests. the helicopters appeared to be using a counterinsurgent maneuver to disperse demonstrators. he tweeted, quote, the problem is not the very talented low flying helicopter pilots wanting to save our city, the problem is the arsonists, looters, criminals and anarchists wanting to destroy it and our country. according to the associated press two defense department officials said that the president ordered military aircraft to fly above the nation's capitol on monday night as a, quote, show of force against demonstrators protesting the death of george floyd. the commanding general of the district of columbia national guard has ordered an investigation into the use of helicopters flying low over protesters. two police officers in buffalo, new york, have been suspended without pay after a

75-year-old man was knocked to the ground during a protest causing him to slam his head into the pavement, blood could be seen pouring from his ears as he lay motionless. this video was recorded by buffalo public radio station wbfo. a warning, this video we are about to show you is disturbing. >> [ bleep ]. >> he's bleeding out of his ear. get a medic. >> what [ bleep ]. >> my god. so the buffalo police department responded to the report. initially telling wbfo, quote, during the skirmish involving protesters one person was injured when he tripped and fell. you saw the video, that didn't

happen. the buffalo mayor says he is deeply disturbed by the video and the that the suspensions came after the police commissioner issued an investigation into the incident. the man is in serious but stable condition at a local hospital. governor andrew cuomo responded tweeting this, this incident is wholly unjustified and utterly disgraceful. okay. let's switch gears and bring in nbc meteorologist bill karins. good morning to you, bill. good morning, yasmin. how does not one person bend down and help the guy after he fell even. unbelievable. >> unbelievable. >> let's get into what concerns we have -- yeah, i know. let's get into what concerns we have weatherwise and we will get into some of the covid numbers. we have our tropical depression over mexico and guatemala. it will be northward throughout the weekend and make landfall in the north coast. it's not that strong of a storm, has been over land for 24 hours, a i lot of dry air on the west

side of it, tropical air on the east side. if you are on the east side of this, that includes florida, mobile, through southern mississippi and all of louisiana, you are going to get the rainy side of this. i'm not too concerned with the winds, i don't think we will get a lot of damage. it's a very slim chance it becomes a hurricane, most likely just a tropical storm and it will rain itself out as we go into tuesday and even wednesday heading up into the midwest. as far as impacts go, i think storm surge will be minor, i think the wind gust damage will be minor, but the flooding concerns, we will have a lot of heavy rain in the next couple days, especially from areas from new orleans right along the gulf coast, that's where we could see as much as 10 inches of rainfall. small creeks and river flooding is a possibility. the rest of the forecast we had overnight storms in the mid-atlantic, we will get more storms this afternoon. very hot from phoenix all the way to dallas. as far as the weekend forecast goes, obviously we will have our tropical downpours from cristobal, but it looks like we will finally clear it out in the northeast as we go throughout saturday afternoon. sunday looks like a great day from ohio valley, great lakes to

the northeast and still watching that cristobal landfall down along the gulf coast. let me brief you on some of the latest covid numbers that we had. yesterday we had another 1,000 fatalities, we are now up to 110,000. four states had 100 plus, new york, illinois, pennsylvania and new jersey. as far as total cases, we had 22,000 additional yesterday. we should hit 2 million early next week and we have now had nine days in a row over 20,000. so we haven't exactly seen any huge decrease and yesterday leading the way was california, texas was number two and how about florida, number three on the list. and, yasmin, yesterday was the record for daily cases in florida, 1,419. beaches are open, the nba is planning on resuming their season in florida. i know the theme parks are planning on opening up and here is florida yesterday setting a new record for the most number of daily new cases. >> and this was the fear as states began to reopen was that states were going to begin to

see these spikes that we are seeing, especially in the southern part of the country. bill karins, thanks for joining us. appreciate t good seeing you this morning, my friend. still ahead, everybody, we will go live to cnbc for a preview of the jobs report that's out later this morning. also a look at how the coronavirus is affecting u.s. trade. the stories driving your business day coming up. e storier busine dssay coming up for bathroom odors that linger try febreze small spaces. just press firmly and it continuously eliminates odors in the air and on soft surfaces. for 45 days. i but what i do count on...ts anis boost high protein...rs, and now, there's boost mobility... ...with key nutrients to help support... joints, muscles, and bones. try boost mobility, with added collagen.

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welcome back, everybody. later this morning the may jobs report could post a 20% unemployment rate coming just one day after the weekly jobless claims reached nearly 43 million over an 11-week period. cnbc's julianna tatelbaum is joining us live from london for this. talk us through this. the fact that jobless claims have reached where they have and unemployment could be 20% is astounding as i spoke about with david gura earlier today. what about some other economic developments that you're covering this morning? >> well, today no doubt one of the key focal points for

investors will be the payrolls report. every month this is a crucial report for investors. economists are expecting employers to shed another 8.5 million jobs in the last month. that's on top of nearly that's on top of near lly 22 million in march and april. that would raise total job losses since the coronavirus really intensified to almost 30 million. that's more than three times the number of jobs that were lost during the 2008/2009 financial crisis. yesterday, we got the jobless claims report which painted a grim picture for jobless benefits. investors looking ahead, thinking the worst is behind us. no doubt, it is going to be a long road to recovery for the u.s. labor market. one of the companies that's in focus today, jcpenney. they said late yesterday they'll be closing 154 stores in the near future. this is part of jcpenney's store optimization strategy after they filed for bankruptcy protections

last month. the company said they are seeking to reduce their footprint and focus resources on the strongest stores, and also their powerful e-commerce flagship, jcp.com. then looking a little more broadly at the u.s. economy and its relationship with the rest of the world, we have some fresh data showing the u.s. trade gap widened in april. that masks declines in the export and import side of the ekwaug equati equation. the deficit widened to $49.4 billion in april. exports fell by declines in airport and autos. the trade gap with china, specifically, widened $9 billion to $26 billion in april. yasmin? >> cnbc's julianna tatelbaum, live from london. good to see you. coming up next, axios' one big thing. coming up on "morning joe," with all four former minneapolis

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welcome back, everybody. joining me with a look at axios am, national political reporter for axios, jonathan swan. jonathan, good morning to you. great to see you on this friday morning. >> you, too, yasmin. >> talk to us about axios' one big thing today. >> the republican national committee is planning site visits over the next ten days to more than half a dozen cities. this is across the south and into texas and arizona. it scrambles for a new convention host. people familiar with the internal discussions tell me. as we know, the rnc has already agreed that they're going to change their rules so they can keep the official business of the convention in charlotte, which will be really pared down, voting, et cetera. trump wants a big crowd. the governor of north carolina can't promise him that because

he doesn't know what the situation will be like with covid-19. you know, he wants to impose social distancing. a source who has heard the president discuss this said he doesn't want people 6 feet apart. he wants them all in their big, boisterous crowd, celebrating his re-nomination. so they're looking at cities including jacksonville in florida, phoenix, arizona, dallas, texas, very serious administration, nashville, tennessee, atlanta in georgia, which, you know, if that happens, it could be pretty tense, and possibly new orleans and savannah. people are going to make lots of speculation about the calculations, but this really doesn't have anything to do with swing states and polling. we're very close, and there are much more practical considerations at play. >> while this could be a major economic boom for any city to take on, it is also a major liability, considering the fact that we are in the midst of a

pandemic, with 50,000 plus people descending on that city in late august. i want to take a turn here, jonathan, while i have you, to talk about secretary esper. breaking from the president, essentially saying he doesn't necessarily believe in now using the insurrection act. he also said he didn't necessarily know where he was going when they dispersed protesters in lafayette park the other day, when the president wanted his photo-op in front of that church. the major question is here, as we have seen before, once you break from the president, you are then subsequently jobless. why does esper still have a job at this point? >> i'll just tell you from my reporting. so president trump was furious with mark esper, absolutely furious. he was talking to aides. he asked for names, for possible replacements. he was musing about whether he could still have him as his defense secretary. he thought that esper was

covering his butt. trump used a more vulgar term. thought he was trying to appease the media, because he wasn't happy with the coverage he was getting for walking across the park. trump was really, really angry. a number of his top advisers and some people, you know, including cabinet officials advised him it is not a good idea to fire your defense secretary during a period of civil unrest, during the period of a pandemic, shortly before an election, when there is no obvious replacement, and at a time when he really is at odds with the military establishment. i mean, you have his former defense secretary jim mattis saying that trump is incapable of unifying the country and is, in his lifetime, a unique threat to the constitution. probably not a great idea to then go ahead and fire your current defense secretary -- pardon me -- over a dispute over how you dispersed a crowd of

protesters in the park, so you could walk to a church for a photo-op. >> take a drink of water, jonathan. i know it's a lot to deal with, as we have in our lives and over the last few months. i can understand you getting caught there. i also don't necessarily know who would be in line to take the job. i think that is the honest answer, as well. what is your reporting showing about trump aides, seen as his best case scenario for re-election? when you look at polls across the board here, it is not looking good for the current president. >> they're pretty worried. they're really worried. look, there are differences of opinion. there is no uniformed opinion among aidineaides. there are some who, i would say, it's more of a hope than anything they're seeing in the data right now. they're hopeful a general desire for law and order will sort of rebound to trump's benefit.

there is no evidence of that so far in the polling. he's suffering terribly among independent voters. the internal polling is brutal. there have been kmecomments tha he's made in the last weeks that cut through and are damaging to him. probably above all else, his comment that, "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." that resonates and not in a good way. >> yeah. that was literally, i believe, day three of the protests. that has followed him throughout this entire time. thank you, as always, my friend, jonathan swan. i'll be reading "axios am." signup.axios.com. that does it for me on this friday morning. i'm yasmin vossoughian. "morning joe" starts right now. all options are on the table. >> we're not considering anything, but all options are on the table. >> not taking any option off the table right now. >> all options are on the table. >> okay.