good afternoon, this is a very busy wednesday. today an emotional hearing on capitol hill as george floyd's brother testifies on police brutality before the house judiciary committee. more on that in a moment. first the minneapolis police chief says he is withdrawing from contracts with the police union today. he also unveiled new strategies for spotting problem officers

this week. amc announced this week they're reopening nearly all locations in britain. theaters in 90% of overseas markets will be running by mid july. george floyd's brother will be testifying on capitol hill today. here is the his testimony about watching his brother, on videotape, die. >> i can't tell you the kind of pain you feel when you watch something that. you watch your big brother die like that, die begging for his mom. i'm tired. i'm tired of pain. the pain you feel when you watch something like that. when you watch your big brother, who you looked up to for your

whole life, die, die begging for his mom. i'm here to ask you to make it stop. george was not hurting anyone that day. he didn't deserve to die over $20. i'm asking you is that what a black man is worth? $20? this is 2020. enough is enough. >> joining me now, nbc news kacie hunt joining me. something happens, there is a hearing, and that's all it is, a hearing. you have watched so many, does this feel like more of the same? where partisan divides can co-op the conversation or did this seem different to you somehow. >> i think what we're experiencing is clearly a ground swell, a dramatic shift in

public machiopinion. in feelings across the country, and that what happened is not okay and what happened and continues to go on is not okay. and i do think it is a valid question to ask. whether or not that means there is will be action here on capitol hill. as you know there has been many incredible news events that we thought something had to change. newtown was an example of that. people from both sides of the aisle tried to make a change. we will have to pay attention to that day in and day out. as we continue forward. if the protests wane in the streets, there still needs to be pressure in advocates and people that believe something needs to be different think that will happen. democrats put out a plan, announcing it earlier in the

week, that they have to try to address some of the issues. banning choke holds, making it easier to prosecute a cop involved in something like this. right now they're protected by qualified immunity. on the other side of the aisle you're talking to republicans to feel very emotionally about this they feel they need the political rhetoric on this. can they get to a place on these policy proposals where democrats and, you know, advocates feel as though they're going far enough. it will be awhile before we answer these questions. today is an emotional beginning to that process, right? >> we shad see. i can't tell you how many people

have said that to me. tomorrow president trump is set to address some issues in dallas. that is according to a senior administration official. meanwhile a group of republicans are planning to open their new legislation. carol lee is live at the white house with more for us. do we know about what the president intends to propose and when we might see legislation. >> we know that they're going to meet with officials and african-american faith leaders, and he could announce measures to address policing, particularly when it comes to executive action.

he was expected to potentially announce a broader plan proposal for legislation, things the white house could get behind. but that is unlikely to happen tomorrow. it could happen later this week according to a white house official. broadly speaking the white house is still in discussions with lawmakers on capitol hill. they want to get on the same page with republicans. ultimately they need a bill that the president can sign and the president has not signalled what exactly that will look like. but generally peaking this is really an acknowledgment from the white house that the law and order message is just not enough. that he needs another test.

and what we're hearing now and what we're seeing in the white house is that he is reaching out to various meetings and stakeholders and that is designed to get him to put something forward that so far he has not addressed. >>. >> in the days since george floyd's death, some of them are months old and only released now. as a result there have been more questions. kob 4 got video from a traffic stop. it shows a deadly encounter between a police officer and a man named antonio valensuala.

we should warn you though, first, that the video may be different to watch. >> it all started with a traffic stop. in the back of the blue pickup truck is antonio valensuela. >> they used tasers twice to try to stop him, but it didn't work. >> give us your hands. the struggle on the ground lasts for more than four minutes. you can hear him gasping for air. he later died on scene. the officer used a lateral vascular neck restraint, a maneuver with a controversial history nationwide. he has since been charged with involuntary manslaughter and the

police chief issued this statement. words are insufficient to bring comfort to antonio valenzuela's family but i extend my sincere condolences if their loss. they say hi was actively resisting, had a weapon, and fought off officers. they didn't say what kind of weapon he had, but it was in a pocket that he reaching for. he said he was going to use the neck restraint as a last resort. joe biden is out with a op-ed today for what he calls fundamental changes. it reads in part "federal dollars should not go to departments that violate people's rights or turn to

violence as a further resort but i do not support defunding police." the idea of defunding police is a call for local police departmenting. biden's plan calls for policing reforms. banning chokeholds, appointing independent prosecutors for police-involved killings, and using the department of justice. there should also be "serious investments in mental health services, drug stream, and having social service providers respond to calls with police officers. in south carolina yesterday, lindsey graham defeated three gop leaders.

this morning harrison travelled graham to four debates between now and election day and asked that a historically black college host at least one of those debates. joining me now is jamie harrison. i thank you so much for being with us. let's start with the good news, okay? for you, you broke statewide funding records, showing you can absolutely compete. you are still listed as likely to win. why are you confident that the state is ready for change? i have been all over the state of north carolina, but i went to republican parts of the state where donald trump won over

whemingly and we have had so much support. folks that were formally in the corner of lindsey gram that are now jumping other and coming to our campaign. folksly the he like michelin, m. and in there he said that i'm the future of south carolina. and with lindsey graham, a man that did not even defend his best friend, john mccain. >> and yet he does, as you know -- and yet he does, as you know, most often, defend the president of the united states who remains very popular in your state. what is this very specific

argument that you're making saying it is not the right time. what do you say is your strongest argument? >> lindsey graham, when you look at capitol hill, lindsey graham is a show horse. he doesn't do the work for the people of south carolina. in this state almost a third of south carolina does not have access to broad band. so think about that. we're in the age of the coronavirus. you have to work from home, but one-third of the people can't even get on to the interment. in this state two years ago, there was 14 counties where there was no obgyn. four rural hospitals closed. a number of people in the state

don't have health care. there is issue after issue after issue. and instead of lindsey graham focusing on the issues we're dealing with here, he is busy talking about china causing the coronavirus. folks in south carolina don't care about that if they don't have a job where they can take care of their family. >> i want to talk to you about an issue that everyone is talking about right now. it is police reform. he said that they are considering a proposal to increase training to focus on deescalation tactics, but he was clear that his gop was not key

on key provisions in the bill that the democrats unveiled on monday. so when they consider who to vote for where do you stand on these issues? >> this is a think that everyone should understand. they have been suffering for this historic pain for generatio generations. if you watch that video, you must understand the pain that black folks have been going through in this country. we have to take discrimination out of it and we focus on rebuilding the trust between all of our communities and the

police force. they are there to protect and serve, not to be what the army is or the marines are. and so there is massive change that needs to happen. there is no reason for you to do a choke hold on someone. we saw that police officers knee was on the neck, on the throat, or george floyd. we don't need those type of tactics. we can do better and we will, but we need our politicians not to just give lip service to things. not to just do things to get through the moment. these communities are hungry for change. we have been in pain for generations. it is time for that pain to end and it will change when we have different leaders in washington dc. >> we should say we also

extended an invitation to senator graham to appear and we hope he will take us up on it some time soon. coming up, unacceptable. how george's secretary of state described the long lines and shortage of ballots in minority communities. it was not just georgia, we saw long lines in las vegas as nevada went to the poles. what role the pandemic played and what it all means for november. you're watching msnbc. atching m. i wanted to help protect myself. my doctor recommended eliquis. eliquis is proven to treat and help prevent another dvt or pe blood clot. almost 98 percent of patients on eliquis didn't experience another. -and eliquis has significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. eliquis is fda-approved and has both. don't stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding.

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the election is now 146 days away. voters were encouraged to cast their vote by mail, but problems with lost ballots led a lot of people to the polls. more from ksnv in las vegas. >> simple, right? >> do you like property access? >> no, i don't like it. i think it is better to vote in person. >> aside from the ice cream man, very few seemed to favor the new system. >> i could not believe how many people were in line. there is a line to pull into the parking lot.

>> the number of people that showed up without a ballot was a problem. they didn't get it in the mail or they lost it. they would just have to wait and wait. >> you think you have another hour to go or so? >> we probably have another three. >> quick and easy it was not. and let's not forget why this process was chosen in the first place. to prevent close contact with clouds in this covid era. >> it didn't work for me. i just moved so i didn't get my ballot. >> voters in georgia waited for hours, too. these problems are raising red

flags for a state that may be in play. >> in georgia, primary day stretched well into the night. this is the scene, dozens of voters, at midnight to cast their vote. >> i'll be waiting and this is a test for know be better prepared in november. >> many precincts open past the norm 7:00 p.m. cut offline. it comes off a day long election melt down across the state. some voters standing in the rain forced to wait hours. >> i've been here three hours and i'm not leaving until i'm done. >> why? >> it is important for me and my son. >> the times is a perfect storm. several of the machines were broken, it seemed like half of them were down. >> it was a disappointment.

it was something that should have been checked yesterday. >> the biggest problems in metro atlanta. the mayor saying is it happening across the county or just on the south end. nba star lebron james weighing in. georgia's secretary of state who overseas the election is overseeing the elections. >> the employees didn't understand the system so what were they doing. >> one county official is firing back at the secretary of state saying if there was a failure of leadership that starts on the top. >> we just learned that senate majority leader mitch mcconnell

met with them today. let's bring in steve kor knanac. let's talk about the results from last night. what do we need to know? >> it is interesting in georgia there is two senate races this year. what happened last night is this is the democratic primary for one of the senate races. this is to pick the democratic nominee that will run against david purdue in necessary. some of the issues you just discussed there, but john, if you remember his name, ran in that special congressional election, he has an overwhelming lead here in terms of what is coming, so it looks likely that he would be the nominee. one of those senate races, the second playing out here, this is a special election, and what is

different about this is there will be a two party primary where all of the candidates are going to run on a ballot in november. the top two will be in a run off after that. there is two senate elections on two different time tables here and the backdrop is changing political demographics in georgia. here are the presidential elections for the state. since then republicans have won the state, you go back to too and 2004. there was over wheling victories. trump only carried the state by five points, so they're saying is there an opportunity in a senate race, why is georgia changing? democrats have a big deal with it. it was down to 60% basically two

days later. it is becoming more diverse. and we can also just show you two major counties. 20 years ago they flipped the democratic side, they look at that and they say we can drive up even bigger numbers there, maybe for the senate seats -- steve, as always, fascinating stuff. thank you. >> we have a shocking video and the troubles news now that one of the men in it worked for the state's department of directions, but first, imans of hope inspired by the washington dc black lives matter street mural. home at wayfair today.

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of. in a philadelphia suburb in georgia, one one of them was a corrections officer. >> at 3:00, a crowd of 60 to.

>> it was in spite of what occurred. >> what happened next was there. people were protesting on private property and they were antagonizing protestors. it's not clear why. they shouted that george floyd should have complied with police. >> i thought about the young children that were marching behind me, my son, and how horrible and despicable that is to act in that way. >> they're cowards, they're louisianae

laosers -- loosers. if they don't think i have the right to breath, then i challenge their right. >> new jersey's department of corrections says they have suspended and is investigating a group that is among those that taunting the protestors. they say he is a senior corrections officer. another protest is planned for this saturday. in the meantime, the city police chief announced his police department will immediately withdrawn from -- withdrawal from contract negotiations. >> new systems that use research on police behavior to connect officer performance data so department leaders can identify early warning signs of misconduct and provide proven strategies to intervene.

we are the visible says. swrep to do that, we must do better. >> joining me now, former law clerk. so glad to have you here. something that he said, a phrase he used really struck me. this is the first step toward transformational reform. it is what we have seen them proposing. this is federal and things happening on state levels. >> we see the crimes to defund the police. it is from abolishing the police

units. so i think the question when we talk about defunding is about what do we actually mean. it is a transformational reform that is necessary in this moment. thinking about how we qualify for immunity. i also think it is worthying about how we can limit police contact. it was forging a $20 bill, why is that an arrestable offense. we can think about the range of contact of what has been arrestable. you can issue a summons and not require to the police to arrest

someone. we can think about deescalation ek neeks and think about training for a lot of officers that had serious interventions in their time on the force and may need psychological training and help in dealing with that information. >>. >> we just looked and that and i think mocking a death by kneeling on a man's neck is disgusting. a suspension or firing of someone like this is an infringsment on -- infringement. and in fact, they are not high value and incredibly discriminatory. the idea is that he has a right as a private person to speak his mind, but does he have.

he can actually have a real exact on those lives, i think that is a delicate balance that you're asked to threat here. i think we should resist the temptation to weaponize what is low value and what is highly discriminatory. >> there are many people looking for ways to make their voices heard and we have seen it in the tens of thousands of people day after day after day that are protesting. i want to point out something that is happening in philadelphia where the city approved the painting of an "end racism now" sign on the streets. i find it interesting that the minister that or niganized it, many people working on that, addressed a group of men that last week armed with baseball bats were walking through the streets claiming they were protecting the neighborhood. and he was asked about this being a message. he said that i don't want to get

rid of them, meaning the men that walked through with baseball bats, he said let's change their hearts. how much of what we're seeing here with and how much of these acts of support, how relevant can they be as opposed to the very serious things that we're talking about, the debates about change on the local level. when you see something like that what goes through your mind. >> i don't want to minimize those individual acts that are highly symbolic in the moment and they can be really buoying in the moment. i think we really need institutional change, it's not for a company to decide. i think they need to look inwardly. who are the people in leadership, if they don't have black and brown voices if they are not represented that is

something that needs to be thought about going forward. we each need to look at what voices are excluded. >>. >> thank you, it is always good to have you on the program. we have new news. first reports that star bucks will close up to 400 locations in the next 18 months and expand their curb side pick up and mobile only pick up locationloc. it is driven by consumer behaviors. more on the next step in this pandemic. you're watching msnbc. pandemic you're watching msnbc. this moment.

this moment right now... this is our commencement. no, we'll not get a diploma or a degree of any kind. but we are entering a new chapter in our lives. our confidence is shaken; our hearts cracked. the kind of a crack that comes from the loss of a job; from life plans falling apart. we didn't ask for it... but we are rising to meet it. and how far we've come isn't even close to how far we can go. we just have to remember how patient we were... how strong we can be. (how strong you can be.) and remember this; there's a crack in everything for a reason. how else can the light get in? ♪ tomorrow starts today.

[ scoffs ] the weirdest. are you a weirdo? you make everyone around you crazy. people are normal then they hang out with you and then they're jack nicholson in "the shining". i'm gonna tell my mom you tried to drown me. it's an above ground pool! you're like eight feet tall! in his latest controversial tweet, president trump is claiming that the protestor injured last wiek could be linked to antifa. on top of it npr reviewed documents that showed 51 people facing federal charges as of tuesday, none, none of these cases, have a connection to that group. >> today white house press secretary told fox news that when the president posted that tweet he was raising questions about a report he saw, questions

that needed to be asked. the president's allies on capitol hill are avoiding questions about the president's statement. lisa murkowski a real exception. here is more of her reaction. >> it makes no sense that we're fanning the flames at this time. not good. >> i'm joined by monica alba. anything more from republicans or the campaign regarding the president's tweet? >> no, chris, and i think that is what is most striking here is the silence. often when you have the patrick swayze putting something out like that on twitter, you have a chorus of police. you have the campaign going out and doing calls on that.

that was not the case at all. when i reached out to campaign officials about whether or not they endorsed this and concerned about whether or not this was a set up, they could not answer me, address. or identify any evidence though support this completely unfounded conspiracy theory. she will probably be taking more questions on this but you see the way that the president framed this tweet as a question. a couple weeks ago we were debating what twitter would be doing in terms of fact checking his tweets. the way he set it up seems to suggest it is also part of the strategy but there is no gie guidance from the republican national committee to they support the president in this way. >> we're also seeing the campaign move on beyond the coronavirus. the trump campaign's principal

deputy communications director. the president said if i can't have a big convention and people inside want room we're going to leave north carolina, what's the latest on that? >> exactly you see the president riching ri itching to get back on the trail. he wants the image of thousands of supporters shoulder to shoulder in an arena. we're told the leading contenter for the celebratory portion is jacksonville florida. it co charlotte was the original location for the convention and that was years in the making, and now they nom naded that portion. the president will take place likely in jacksonville. you had a lot of governors

saying we're happy to host your convention. it is unclear how that will happen. >> up next, growing concern that coronavirus cases are spiking in some of the very states lifting lock down restrictions. you're watching msnbc. strictions you're watching msnbc. when managing diabetes you can't always stop for a fingerstick. with the freestyle libre 14 day system,

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coronavirus cases are now rising in 20 states and puerto rico, according to data compiled by "the new york times." check out the southwest. arizona, utah, new mexico, all had a 40% increase or higher in covid cases last week compared to the prior seven days, according to a reuters analysis. the largest health care system in arizona, arizona allowing businesses to reopen businesses in mid-may, they report the

number of covid patients on ventilators has quadrupled since may 15th. vaughn hillyard joins me from phoenix, arizona. what's going on there? are hospitals ready to cope with this? >> chris, you have seen over just the last six days more than 7,000 new covid cases. 25 new deaths reported in just the last 24 hours. across the state, 11 different hospitals have already reached icu bed capacity. more than 500 individuals have had to be transferred to other hospitals as the state's largest hospital systems warn they are at near capacity. i want to let you hear directly from the president of the hospital and health care association here, ann marie. take a listen. >> the urgency can't be overstated. we have seen an increasing trend in june in the wrong direction. and we have a bit of delay, incubation is about ten days.

people need to act today. they need to act swiftly. they need to act decisively to really protect their own health. and it means wearing these masks, and it means socially distancing and staying home. all of those really hard things that we did back in march, april, and may, we need to continue. and we need to be vigilant. because our health care system, our communities, your friends and family, their lives depend on it. >> masks and social distancing, chris, have all gone out the door here in arizona. may 15th when the governor lifts the stay-at-home order. in the three weeks since, that's when you have seen the spike. i asked the governor directly about this, and essentially, they say they're proceeding with caution in the way that the governor's office tells me that, essentially, they're willing to make concessions for an increase in cases as long as the hospital system is not overwhelmed, chris. >> wow, that graph really tells the story. vaughn hillyard, thank you for that.

the total number of coronavirus cases in the u.s. is nearing 2 million. dr. anthony fauci spoke at a biotech virtual conference tuesday with a stark reminder about the pandemic. >> now we have something that indeed turned out to be my worst nightmare. something that's highly transmissible in a period, if you just think about it, in a period of four months, it has devastated the world. deaths and millions and millions of infections worldwide. and it isn't over yet. >> joining us now is andy slavitt, former acting administrator for the centers for medicare and medicaid services during the obama administration. i want to get your reaction to what anthony fauci said, and in this context, if i can, which is i think there is a sense in a lot of states where they're loosening restrictions that the worst is over. what would you tell those folks? >> so look, first of all, it's really important that everybody

understands that the reason that this is happening is because this is how viruses behave. so if our first reaction is this is happening because some people protested or some people enjoyed themselves on memorial day, or what have you, that's not the case. the virus hasn't gone anywhere. the virus looks for open spots, and it will travel there. that never changed. we all need to remember that. we can't choose to end the virus. what we can choose is how we respond and lead our way out of it. we can choose if we're a governor in the state of arizona, governor deucy had an opportunity because there's going to be about three weeks of case growth after the day he decides to send messages to dial things back. and so every day he waits is another three more weeks in the future. so in the meantime, if you're living in arizona, you should take stock of what people are telling you. >> so look, i think we went through a period early on where

there was an awful lot of confusion, a lot of statements that were contradictory. then, people seemed to sort of settle into understanding about social distancing and about masks. and then i think there's a couple things that i want you to clarify for us. one is we know that it's less likely there will be transmission outdoors, but how much safety is there being outdoors, and what about this confusion created by the w.h.o. about asymptomatic cases, andy? >> let's talk about those two things, and there's a third thing which is the political will or the political denial. of whether or not this is happening. because it's inconvenient. so it is safer outdoors. it's safer outdoors if we're socially distanced. there's not a lot of experience with transmission outdoors, we don't know everything yet, but we're pretty sure of that. with regard to the w.h.o., thankfully for the second day in a row, they have clarified and walked back their statement and

said there is asymptomatic transmission, but more importantly, if there is only some asymptomatic transmission, you will never know the difference between someone who is asymptomatic or presymptomatic or lightly symptomatic. wearing a mask, taking all those precautions is still very important. it's a messy process through science, but fortunately, w.h.o., while they did confuse things trying to clarify things. just as dangerously is the attitude that says, as we head towards the election, let's focus only on the economy, and if we focus only on the economy, we are not going to take public health measures that protect people's lives. sometimes there's very little we can do about that, but that means our leaders are now rising to the moment, and that means we as individuals need to, a, get better leaders in place, and b, more importantly, take protection and take care of ourselves. >> andy slavitt, always so good with your expertise and your

straightforward answers. i really appreciate that. thank you so much for being with us today. that's going to wrap up this hour for me. i'm chris jansing. my colleague katy tur will pick up our coverage right after this quick break. quick break. your mission: stand up to moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. and take. it. on... ...with rinvoq. rinvoq a once-daily pill... ...can dramatically improve symptoms... rinvoq helps tame pain, stiffness, swelling. and for some-rinvoq can even significantly reduce ra fatigue. that's rinvoq relief. with ra, your overactive immune system... ...attacks your joints. rinvoq regulates it to help stop the attack.

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good afternoon. i'm katy tur. it's 11:00 a.m. out west and 2:00 p.m. in the east. on capitol hill this morning, floyd delivered emotional testimony about the death of his brother george floyd at the hands of police. he echoed the calls for policing reforms across the country. >> i couldn't take care of george that day he was killed, but maybe by speaking with you today i can make sure that his death will not be in vain. to make sure that he is more than another face on a t-shirt, more than another name on a list that won't stop growing.

>> meanwhile, in minneapolis, police chief arredondo spoke publicly for the first time since the city council announced its contention to disband the police force entirely. >> as chief, i'm obligated to insuring the public safety of our 400,000 plus residents. i will not abandon that. our elected officials certainly can engage in those conversations. but until there is a robust plan that reassures the safety of our residents, i will not leave them. i will not leave them behind. >> let's start in washington, with nbc news capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt. george floyd's brother this morning was emotional, and i don't think it's quite fair to say he echoed the calls for change. he was pleading with congressmen and women to make the changes necessary so there isn't another george floyd, so another brother doesn't have to watch his

brother or sister die underneath the knee of a cop while it is filmed. what was the reaction from lawmakers, kasie? >> well, katy, i agree with you. it was extraordinarily emotional, and he was emotional, but he was also remarkably forceful for someone who has been through so much, who had just laid his brother to rest just earlier this week, yesterday. and you know, i think for lawmakers, you know, for those that were in the room, there were a handful in the room, some are still remote because of coronavirus. this is the kind of moment that underscores just how important the work that they are potentially doing is. i want to show everybody a little bit more of the statement that george floyd's brother made earlier today. let's watch. >> i'm here to ask you to make it stop. stop the pain.

stop us from being tired. george called for help, and he was ignored. please listen to the calls i'm making to you now. to the calls of our family and the calls ringing out in the streets across the world. people of all backgrounds, genders, and races have come together to demand change. honor them. honor george, and make the necessary changes that make law enforcement the solution. and not the problem. >> so of course, the question now, katy, is congress going to answer that call? and how might that unfold. democrats released a pretty sweeping proposal earlier in the week that would make some significant changes to the way the federal government deals with policing in this country, including making it easier to prosecute police officers who are personally involved, banning choke holds or at least removing federal money from any department that still allows

choke holds to be used. creating a database of police misconduct, but of course, the big question is, can republicans and democrats come together on some sort of policing bill? there's been a flurry of activity among republicans led on the senate side by senator tim scott of south carolina, but the white house has also been involved. and i think the question is going to be, does that mean that there is actually going to be meaningful reform? clearly, the politics of this have shifted so dramatically in the last couple weeks that republicans feel the need to make sure that they're seen to be working on this issue in good faith. it's not clear, though, that the policy prescriptions are going to go far enough for democrats to say okay, we think this amounts to real change, katy. >> you know, and the point that you made earlier today, and you have been making all day, is that we have even though we're in this moment, where it seems like the ground is shifting beneath us, and that the lawmakers in our country would have to make a move, we have

been in moments like these before, after sandy hook, after what happened down in florida, that other shooting, and it seems like congress, both republicans and democrats, would come together and pass something, but in the past, it just hasn't happened. so let's see if this time is different, if they can put their words into action. kasie hunt, thank you very much. with me is georgia democratic congressman hank johnson who is a member of the judiciary committee. congressman, thank you very much. let's start there. we have been in these ground-shifting moments before, where we have seen the nation cry out in pain, maybe not to the degree of this, but the nation cry out in pain, and lawmakers promise action and it hasn't happened. is this time going to be different? >> we have seen a similar situation take place in terms of gun violence in the country. and there have been many

instances where we thought that we were on the precipice of legislation that would get at the issue of too many weapons in too many hands in america, and it hasn't happened yet. here we are at a new moment that appears to be one where the american people understand the threat that black lives live under in america, and it's something that only black people have been able to relate to until the nation and the world saw the shocking demise of george floyd under the knee of a police officer for eight minutes and 46 seconds. then things sunk in. a new moment now in america, and america and its legislature may be ready to pass some very commonsense legislation that represents a paradigm shift in

police accountability in america. >> let's put on the screen some of what the house bill has. there's local police providing data and tracking information on use of force, funding to investigate local departments. bans on choke holds and carotid holds. bans on no-knock warrants. a national database of police misconduct. an effort to limit qualified immunity. republicans have said from the limited amount of information we have gotten that some of those things would not fly. the president has said that he wasn't on board with the house legislation. where do you have or what things are you willing to compromise on in order to be able to work with republicans to get something passed? >> well, i mean, you can't compromise your values. this bill, the justice in policing act, is a reflection of

the values of america. and if republicans are so out of touch that they can't get with these very commonsense reforms, then we probably are not going to get very much done because this legislation, as it is currently crafted, is very -- is very moderate. it's not earth shattering, but it's very practical. things like reform to section 18-242, use of the civil rights laws to prosecute police officers to lower the burden somewhat, still a very high burden, but to lower that burden in such a way that it would enable more prosecutions to be successful. more reasonable standard of proof in those cases. 1983 actions, civil liability for police officers, some minor

tweaks that would open the door for more of those cases to be prosecuted successfully by citizens when injured by police officers or killed by police officers. and so these are just some very small and to collectidate data, to forward data to the department of justice on killings of african-americans. and even on other police data in terms of interactions with african-americans and other people in this country. these are just commonsense reforms. and if my friends on the other side of the aisle don't want to get with it, they just don't want to do police reform. >> well, let's connect some dots here because the way the american public can hold their lawmakers accountable is by voting them out of office. yesterday, we saw a primary in your home state of georgia. and there were massive problems in certain counties for voting

machines that were broken, for ballots that weren't available. long lines, people waiting for hours to cast a ballot. do you consider what happened in georgia yesterday to be voter suppression? >> well, i think that very suspicious activity occurred, which seemed to be confined to areas where minorities, including african-americans, predominantly live. that's rather surprising, but then again, when you look at georgia's history of voter suppression, it's not really surprising. but i'll tell you what yesterday illustrated is that you can't get away from a pencil and a pen with a paper ballot, with fill in the bubbles, scanning the results into a scan machine and then counting the results of the election in that old fashioned

way. when we go to the electronic voting machines like georgia just spent $110 million to purchase last year from a favorite vendor who has political leanings, and you spend that money, but you can't train the people on how to use the machines, and then the machines are perhaps not as foolproof as once thought, there were some malfunctions yesterday in the operations of the machines. it was just a complete debacle. an embarrassment. another embarrassment to the state of georgia. and we need to go back to the old fashioned way of voting where we have a paper ballot that provides for a way of conducting a meaningful recount. >> yeah. a scantron. congressman hank johnson, we'll get more into the story later and what might be done to protect the vote in november in your state. thank you for joining us today.

we appreciate your time. >> thank you, katy. >> now we want to go to minneapolis where today we heard from the police chief about his calls to dismantle his department and the future of law enforcement in that community. with us from minneapolis is nbc news reporter shaquille brewster. shaq, the police chief coming out today and saying a number of things including that he is going to separate himself, pull himself out of negotiations with the labor union right now, the police labor union. tell me what that means, the significance of it, and what is happening in minneapolis around disbanding the department? >> well, what you saw today was a police chief not only open to reforms but a police chief who wanted to lead the reforms with the minneapolis police department. the minneapolis police department has been under significant pressure lately, not only is it under investigation by the state, looking back ten years at patterns and practices to see if there was systemic

discrimination, but you have a majority of city council members now calling for the police department to be disbanded. so earlier today, you had the first african-american police chief of this department saying that he is not going to abandon his department. instead, he says he wants to lead a transformational path forward, and that he wants to set up a new paradigm of policing. listen to just a little bit of his comments from earlier. >> we must do better. we have to do better. and so we have an opportunity not only to change how we do business in terms of being peace keepers in minneapolis, but across this nation. we know that the time is now. and it would be the greatest disservice in policing if we did not use the will and the energy and the inspiration to make some significant changes nationwide as it relates to race and policing. >> so the two specific measures that he announced today. number one, pulling out of negotiations with the police

federation right now. he says he wants to be able to review how he can update the contract to hold police officers more accountable. looking at the disciplinary processes when there is misconduct. number two, he says he wants to better use data. data that is already available that tracks police officers to see if there are warning signals that they can find if a police officer is engaging in misconduct, if there are those complaints stacked up against officers, he wants to be able to track those more in real time as he leads to these reforms. i spoke to the councilwoman who represents the area where george floyd was killed. she said that that first step of pulling out of negotiations with the police federation, she supported that. she said that's a big move. she said it's the police union holding up some of those proposed reforms. katy. >> shaquille brewster in minneapolis, shaquille in front of the police department with cinder blocks and barbed wire protecting it, thank you very much for joining us. and joining me now is the president of the national action network, reverend al sharpton.

rev, it's good to see you. yesterday, i was listening to your eulogy, and it was powerful. and as i was listening to it, i was with a black business owner. she said that sounds great, and all of this looks great. but i have been in this position before. and there's no follow-through. can you assure people that this time there is going to be a follow-through? are you confident in that? >> i'm not only confident, i'm determined. i think that business person and others ought to help with that follow-through. we were able after certain cases like in new york, for example, to follow through and give stop and frisk disbanded. in other areas, we were able to do other things. now, i think it's a time where it is pregnant with the possibility for national federal response, which we started under

barack obama, was aborted under donald trump because we have started getting consent decrees in various cities that had a pattern and practice of police abuse, in baltimore, in chicago. all of that went out with trump. so we need to pick up where we left off with that, because of the political nature of changing administrations, and move forward. that's one of the reasons we have the national march on august 28th, and that's one of the reasons we're mobilizing. i think you see the imagery out there, katy, and it's across generations and racial lines we have not seen, and to have the brother of floyd in washington before the congress, the house committee today, which is why we have been having calls with senator schumer and others. we are not going to follow it up. we are already following it up, and we're in motion.

>> does the change need to happen on the federal level? or is the change better served -- is the change better used if it's on the local level and the state level? if it's local politicians looking into their police departments, potentially defunding them and redirecting the funds to their communities. is it what minneapolis is doing by disbanding the police department and reimagining what policing can look like, much like what we have seen in camden years ago where they disbanded their police department, and now their crime rates are down significantly. they're going about it in a whole new way. where is the change going to be most effective? >> i think that we're making a false choice. we don't need one or the other. we need both. we need the local reimagining what policing is going to be, like camden did. and we need federal laws that in many ways supersede the local

states that certain laws, if you violate them, no matter how you reimagine them, it is deemed criminal. because you can have some places in this country that can reimagine the local police, and based on who runs those departments and the majority of the people in those cities, they can reimagine things that are worse. so we need to make sure there are federal laws that protect citizens against things like choke holds, against things like residency outside of your neighborhood. that is against things like you cannot make a policeman's background to be off limits for the public to know. because i could be in some deep southern state or midwestern state in a small town and reimagine things that would give police worse power. so i think you need federal laws to guide us. and you must have local governments and local

participation to deal with their precinct by precinct, police station by police station. you don't need one or the other. you need both and. >> let me ask you this, and the second part of it is going to be a slightly truncated timeline, but bear with me here. the last time we saw this level of social unrest, this level of a demand for change, you could say was back in the 1960s. there was the voting rights act, the fair housing act. school desegregation, the civil rights act of '64 and '68, but as people got more uncomfortable, white people got more uncomfortable with the changes, we also saw gerrymandering, red lining, school redistricting, and an overall failure to enforce those laws that were passed. what we saw last night in georgia was people having a very hard time voting. and i know i'm trun kcating the timeline because i don't think you can say what happened with

the protests happened with what we saw in georgia because you would have to have a month's buildup for the voting machines to not work, but what do you say to the people who looked at what happened in georgia and say they're going to try to stop us from exercising our right to vote, and exercising our ability to change the lawmakers who are not following through on their lofty rhetoric? >> i would say that that is why the question that i just answered for you before is why you need both federal and local. the voting rights act, if we could have kept it in, where they did not take out section 5, georgia would have had to go by the federal guidelines, because it was one of the states deemed in the voting rights bill that was passed and that the supreme court then took out when it became more conservative, i believe it was 2013, took out the map so georgia didn't have

preclearance, which is why you are able to see a secretary of state in my judgment disenfranchise voters in the last gubernatorial race against stacey abrams where he ran, he became governor, and it happened in other states. why? because the federal oversight was taken out when they took the map out of the voting rights act. that's why i'm saying you must have both and. and why didn't we have these kind of situations in certain cases before? because you could deal with the voting rights act, which was there federally. in terms of federal enforcement. that is why when the trump administration came in, they canceled consent decrees. they stopped having to deal with things like voting rights enforcement. they canceled eric holder's lawsuits about voting rights in certain states like north carolina and texas. that is evidence of exactly what i'm saying. you can't have one size fits

all. you need federal and local. otherwise, you're going into a state-by-state, city-by-city process which you go back into almost a states' rights model. that's dangerous in and of itself. we need to reimagine law enforcement from the bottom up, but we need top oversight so that there are established rights that no matter what you do on the bottom, you cannot violate people, like with choke holds or putting knees on people's necks. >> reverend al sharpton, rev, thank you very much for joining us, giving us your time today. we do appreciate it. >> thank you. always good to be with you, katy. and coming up next, the latest from georgia where there's now an investigation into yesterday's primary. which has been described as a catastrophe. and everyone involved is pointing fingers. the chief executive officer of dekalb county will join me next. d and ten dollars and thirty-one cents.

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primary day in the state of georgia did not go well. the president of a prominent civil rights group called it a catastrophe. the head of the new georgia project of voter registration organization founded by stacey abrams called it a hot flaming something i can't say on television mess. as state representative said his county was in complete meltdown. some polls failed to open on time. some didn't open at all. with fewer precincts available, people waited for hours. and when they finally got inside, they found malfunctioning machines and a lack of available ballots. most troubling is that these problems seemed to mostly impact majority minority counties. and if you're feeling a bit of deja vu, like i am, because i covered this in 2018, it's because a similar scene played out in 2016. back then, stacey abrams narrowly lost to now republican governor brian kemp who at the time was georgia's secretary of

state in charge of elections. after widespread accusations of voter suppression. they purged people from the rolls. blayne alexander, who lives in georgia, waited over two hours to cast her own vote last night, and she has more from atlanta. >> there's certainly no question, you ask democrats, republicans, pretty much everybody who was paying attention to georgia's elections yesterday and they will tell you it was a complete debacle, certainly a mess. as for what went wrong and who's at fault, that really depends on who you ask. that's why the day after the primaries, we're seeing this blame game back and forth between georgia's secretary of state, the republican secretary of state, who runs the election state-wide, and county officials. specifically in fulton and dekalb counties, the metro atlanta area. that's where the majority of the problems happened. the secretary of state said, look, this was a county official problem, saying they only saw the widespread issues in those two counties, and he's pointing

at county officials saying they didn't properly train their employees on how to use these machines. but as you might imagine, county officials, at least one in particular, is firing back, saying look, the buck stops with the secretary of state, so he needs to answer for exactly what happened, and he's saying that what happened yesterday essentially amounts to disenfranchisement. in terms of what we saw in terms of the issues, it really was the perfect storm. georgia rolling out these new machines right in the midst of a pandemic. you had some polls opening late, some understaffed, also technological issues. confusion over how to use the machines, a number of issues spiraled on top of each other, but the secretary of state says he's going to get to the bottom of this, investigate, sae certa before the general election in november where nearly double the amount of people are expected to report to the polls. >> let's dig into that.

and joining me now is dekalb county ceo michael thurman. i believe blaine didn't name check you but something you said, the buck stops at the top with the secretary of state's office. i want to get to what's going to happen in november, but first, the secretary of state's office is blaming local officials for not knowing how to use the machines. what is your response to that? >> it's ridiculous. first of all, the secretary of state purchased the machines. they employed what we all are very familiar with, which is train the trainer. so the county can't train themselves until they are first trained by the secretary of state's office. so there is blame to go around. it's including all 159 counties, but the ultimate administration is will of the secretary of state. >> why did it impact majority minority communities more than

white communities? >> well, as blayne pointed out, it was the perfect storm. the impact of covid-19, we know that african-americans are disproportionately impacted by this deadly disease. we also know that senior citizens have a high rate of infection, as well as fatalities among senior citizens. so many of our african-american seniors that are poll workers decided, rightfully so, not to work. we had newer poll workers, less experienced, and consequently, less trained, and we had an electronic system that did not work properly. our election officials here in dekalb county raised concerns before the election that these new machines were not working properly, there were glitches, and quite frankly, they were not taken care of before election day. >> how do you make sure that you're not going to see problems like this in november? >> well, first of all, the

secretary of state has to work with county officials to address these problems. you can't predetermine where the issues are until you do the allowance. the speaker of the house said we're going to have a top down investigation that includes the secretary of state's office. by doing that, we can identify the problems, more importantly, we can develop solutions. you can't resolve these issues solely at the county or the state. and we have to restore trust. there's a great deal of distrust and mistrust, will election administration in georgia, that has to be rebuilt, and every citizen has to feel comfortable regardless of their race or where they live, they'll have fair access to the polling place. >> has the secretary of state said he will work with local officials to make sure this is not a problem in november? >> not yet, but i'm reaching out to the secretary of state this afternoon. and quite frankly, this is not

about black and white. this is about all americans having access to the polls. and one other thing that really frustrated me, we need to celebrate the poll workers who were there yesterday, who literally put their lives on the line. we have overlooked the fact that poll workers became the front line workers on election day. we should celebrate them and thank them and not point fingers at them for doing the job that few people would want or would execute in this environment. >> dekalb county ceo michael thurman, let's hope we don't see this in november again. we appreciate your time, sir. >> thank you so much. and coming up next, jacob soboroff is here with an nbc exclusive about migrants detained in arizona who claim they are being forced to clean a covid-infi covid-infected facility. covid-infected facility. techno logies advisor. me too. me too. me too.

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exclusively by nbc news, detained migrants say they're forced to clean a covid-infected detention center. that letter saying migrants forced to clean without adequate protective equipment and forced to line up at times with no measures for social distancing. so far, 78 detainees have tested positive for covid-19 at the lupalma facility in arizona. joining me is jacob soboroff. what's going on? >> katy, if you thought the spread of coronavirus was waning, all you have to do is look inside the immigration detention centers throughout the country. i.c.e. puts out data on a regular basis, but what we detained from the letters, asylum seekers that committed no other crime than the come to the country seeking for asylum say they're, quote, begging for

their lives and being forced to clean areas of this center that have been infected with coronavirus. one detainee said in the letter that he was forced to clean the fesacy of another detainee without masks or gloves. guards are coming in and out of the detention areas without properly ppe, and the lawyers are terrified for their lives and asking for their release. >> jacob soboroff with that exclusive reporting, thank you. you're also the author of a new book which comes out soon "separated inside, an american tragedy." hopefully we can put the cover up. congratulations on writing that. join us again soon. >> a spike in new cases across the u.s. may be related to states reopening. 21 states that began phased or partial reopenings in may and june are seeing a rise in infections. among them, california, texas, florida, and arizona. joining me now is jeremy conan

dike, senior policy fellow at the center for global development. this was predicted, jeremy. what can states do now in order to make sure that our hospital systems are not overwhelmed? >> well, yeah, it was -- this has been feared for a while, once they started reopening, the earliest started reopening at the end of april. we spent the month of may wondering how that was going to play out. we didn't initially see a big rise in cases, but what we have seen particularly in the last week is a sharp spike in quite a few states. arizona seeing a sharp spike upwards, california is seeing a more gradual upward trend but still moving in the wrong direction. i think now, going back to the kind of lockdown that the country has been in for the last few months is, you know, probably not tenable or advisable for a variety of reasons, but it's really important to continue pushing hard on testing and tracing because you have to know where these cases are coming from.

you have to know who you need to quarantine. and if you're not locked down and not quarantining people that way, not doing enough testing and tracing, you're not quarantining people that way, and cases will keep spreading. >> some of the images, we saw people wearing masks. in other images, some were wearing masks and others were not. vaughn hillyard is in arizona and she says masks and social distancing there seemed to have completely go out the window. you can see these images. of what a mask does for the person who is wearing it and the people around that person who are wearing a mask? >> absolutely. you know, the total data on masks is still a little bit -- it's still coming in, but the best indications we have are is does have a real impact. the idea with the mask is that, you know, it doesn't protect you unless it's a medical grade

mask, but what it does is prevents you from infecting others or at least it reduces the chance if you have the disease, you might infect others. what we have come to learn over the past couple months about this is that the highest risk is from respiratory droplets that are being transmitted through the air. and so the more volume of exposure you have to someone's respiratory droplets over time, your greatest chance of exposure. if you wear a risk, you significantly reduce the amount of droplets in the air and thus the ability to infect others. >> how much protection should we expect to get by being outside? >> you know, it is still not totally clear. i think what is apparent is it really significantly reduces the risk. how much it reduces the risk is still hard to quantify, but you know, you think about this intuitively. if what you need to be worried about are respiratory droplets that can linger in the air, in some cases for 10 to 15 minutes,

if those are lingering in the air in a closed room, they're going to be floating around for a lot longer and the more time you spend in the room with the droplets, the more chance of exposure you have. if you're outdoors, they go faster, and you can understand why, like breathing a breath of smoke in a room versus blowing it out outside. it also is believes sunlight degrades the virus. >> jeremy, thank you very much for joining us today. we appreciate your time. >> coming up, new reporting on when we may hear the president speak publicly about calls to reform america's policing. and what that might sound like. >> also, europe is taking a hard look at its own history with racism, with countries debating whether some statues should stay and whether some statues should go. go

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president trump will address police reforms while speaking in dallas tomorrow. nbc news learned the president may address some changes he can make unilaterally, but a larger legislative plan will likely not come from the white house until next week. joining me is nbc news correspondent carol lee. what does this potential executive order look like? >> well, what we know is that the president is considering, according to white house officials here, a number of

different options. on the executive front, it's likely to come in the form of recommendations or broader sort of guidelines, because there's frankly just not that much that the president can do on the executive side of things. it's really the legislation that's the big, where the big changes are going to be made. but what we're told is that tomorrow, while the president is in dallas, where he's going to hold a fund-raiser, he will meet with law enforcement officials and members of african-american faith leaders to discuss policing reforms, so we'll hear from him publicly on this issue, and he could announce some measures that he can take on his own while the other broader package of things you can get behind legislatively is expected to move to later this week or early next week. now, this is frankly, katy, just broadly speaking, an acknowledgment by the white house that the president's law and order message, which we have

heard for the last few weeks, is not enough. that he needs to have a counterpart to that. that he needs to really address the concerns that the protesters that we have seen in the streets across the country and so tomorrow, it sounds like he will start to do that, and then will follow up with whatever he can frankly get to agree with in terms of republicans in congress and really democrats because there are some things that they're close together on and some they're pretty far apart on. >> carol lee at the white house, carol, thank you very much for all that reporting. >> and calls to action are sweeping europe, sparked by the killing of george floyd, as the black lives matter movement continues to grow overseas. thousands marched against racist police brutality earlier today in amsterdam's nelson mandela park. organizers there say the park could reach capacity with some 18,000 people by the end of the people. the groundswell in europe is triggering a larger debate about the continent's ties to

colonialism and slavery and the monuments that perpetuate both. joining us is nbc news global correspondent helena humphrey. what's happening? >> hi there, katy. great to be with you. as you mentioned, thousands turning out in amsterdam in nelson mandela park. marching in solidarity with protesters in the united states and also calling for a frank conversation about dutch colonial history and relations with the police there as well. now, similarly, in london, where i am right now, a multicultural neighborhood, hundreds of people are packed out in this square. they took the knee with organizers calling for that protest to now become a weekly occurrence. certainly, it's statues in europe which are becoming the flashpoint of anger from protesters. for example, take a look at those scenes from the city of bristol over the weekend. two hours west of here in london. there, protesters toppled the statue of the 17th century slave

trader, edward colston, and they rolled that then into the harbor there. similarly, in london, the statue to the prime minister during the war time period, winston churchill, was defaced with the words, winston churchill was a racist, taking aim at his racist remarks and his staunch defense of the british empire. as you takeantwerp, a city in belgium, there yesterday, authorities removed a statue of king leapold ii, someone who had a reign of terror in the 1800th. a professor who is a historian has questioned whether statues are the best way to faithfully record history. take a listen. >> the problem is simple. the statue says this man was a hero and that's the end of it. they can't debate. there's no nuance. no flexibility. that's why they're not an

effective mechanism for telling us our history. >> and of course, this just reflecting that long-standing debate in the united states with regards to confederate era monuments there as well, and mo. katy. >> what does it feel like there, are you feeling the same groundswell, the same unity in london as we're feeling here in the states? >> reporter: i think it definitely is a sense of unity, katy, and it's more than that -- it's unity for what's happening in the united states, calls for justice, which are reaching across the atlantic, but it's also calls for some interspex as well for the unit kingdom, for countries in europe to get to grips with colonial-era past to talk about it in schools, to make sure it's on the school programs and to deal with police brutality as well, accusations

very much centered here in europe. >> helena, thank you very much for joining us. up next, some democrats say joe biden should meet this moment by picking a woman. this moment right now... this is our commencement. no, we'll not get a diploma or a degree of any kind. but we are entering a new chapter in our lives. our confidence is shaken; our hearts cracked. the kind of a crack that comes from the loss of a job; from life plans falling apart. we didn't ask for it... but we are rising to meet it. and how far we've come isn't even close to how far we can go. we just have to remember how patient we were... how strong we can be. (how strong you can be.)

and remember this; there's a crack in everything for a reason. how else can the light get in? ♪ tomorrow starts today.

a day after making a video appearance at george floyd's funeral, presummit tif democratic nominee joe biden is out with an usa today outlining an agenda addressing racial inequalitie inequalities, among the ideas is $300 million in more funding for police departments a i cross the country to reinvigorate community policing, he also advocates for body camera and the recruitment of more diverse police officers. with race and policing sparking a national conversation, there are a whole lot of progressive democrats who want to see him do

more than introduce a policy proposal. they want to see biden who has committed to selecting a female vice president, pick an african-american woman as his running mate. mike, what's the campaign hearing and are they leaning in a direction? >> well, katy, joe biden has been pretty consistent in terms of what he said publicly about what he's looking for in a running mate, primarily somebody who can help him govern next year and the campaign has always said he's receptive and soliciting input from a wide range of democrats that ultimately he'll make the decision that's best for him. but we have also seen, democrats broadly are viewing the prospect of who joe biden picks with much more intrigue, in part because they see the vice presidential candidate who not only help biden win and govern, he also potentially picking the next democratic nominee in 2024, lot

of democrats thinking because of his age he might not necessarily serve another term. that made the outside events, the pandemic and the economic crisis, more recently the fallout from george floyd and these protests around the country really influenced this process and i take cues from two people who have largely given biden space on this, jim clyburn saying it's a plus if he picks a woman. it needs to be biden's decision, it would match the moment for him to choose a woman of color, biden, though zas recently as just the other day in an interview with cbs, none of this has changed the way he's looking at this process, katy. >> mike, thank you very much for joining us today. as you might have noticed chuck todd is not with me today, he's

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good day. brian williams here with you. 3:00 p.m. in the east, 12 noon out west. first, we begin with growing calls for police reform in the wake of george floyd's death at the hands of a white minneapolis police officer. 16 days ago now. right now, the house judiciary committee holding a hearing on police brutality. this comes days after house democrats introduced that bill which would ban chokeholds and certain no-knock warrants and establish a national database to track police misconduct. a headline witness at today's hearing, george floyd's younger brother, philonise, he made an

emotional appeal for lawmakers to act so no other family would have to experience their pain. >> i can't tell you the kind of pain you feel when you watch something like that. when you watch your big brother, who you looked up to your whole entire life die, die begging for his mom -- i'm tired. i'm tired of pain. pain you feel when you watch something like that. the people elected you to speak for them, to make positive change, george's name means something, you had the opportunity here today to make your names mean something, too. if his death ends up changing the world for the better, and i think it will, then he died as he lived. it's on you to make sure that his death is not in vain.

i didn't get the chance to say good-bye, i was robbed of that. but i know he's looking down at us now. big brother, you changed the world. >> it was tough to watch and as that hearing took place on capitol hill, a senior administration official toeld nbc news the president is expected to address police reform during a visit to dallas, texas, tomorrow. one day after his chief of staff mark meadows and senior adviser jared kushner met with south carolina republican senator tim scott who's leading gop efforts on the issue. and back in minneapolis, where

george floyd's death sparked protests that led to a massive shift in public opinion and got the attention of the world, that city's police chief announced plans to reform his department and that he was withdrawing from contract negotiations with the local police union. >> now, this is not about employees' benefits or wages or salaries, but this is further examining the significant matters that touch on such things as critical incident protocol, our use of force, the significant role that supervisors play in this department and also the discipline process. to include both grievances and arbitration. >> as always at this hour, i'm joined by my friend and colleague, nicolle wallace, the host of "deadline: white house," because of times and schedules and live programming, the first i've been able to see you this week but this is the world we're living in this week as of today

and there's at will of change afoot. >> that's right, and one thing that always stops me in my tracks is watching george floyd's family speak with the eyes of the whole world on them, as they're grieving this enormous personal loss, not getting to say good-bye to a big brother, a pain that you can only imagine. and still leading this movement, still pushing for change. as a human being, in a moment of grief, leading a long overdue movement for police reform is not something that very many people could have -- just can't imagine -- i can't imagine where that strength comes from, the grace comes from. i'm riveted every time by this family and the way they're using

their voice and the way they're using george floyd's memory and what he sparked. it's amazing. but people will be more eloquent on this are joining our conversation now, phil rucker, white house bureau chief for the washington post, out with some stunning reporting today. eddie glaude is back, professor of african-american studies at princeton university. phil, i have read your story three times today. another turn or another revelation that makes me smack my head. >> it feels like a familiar story over these last three years, but our piece, is the republican party in crisis over the president's incendiary handling of another crisis, the

protest in the country over the racial injustice, as well as the pandemic? the president's management of both of those crises has been rough to say the least. he's tumbling in the polls and it's creating a lot of alarm in republican circles especially among those strategists who are trying to help preserve the gop majority in the senate and my colleague bob costa and i reported that there's a growing resignation that this is the reality, the dynamic that the republican party is going to have to deal with heading into the november elections of a president who's profoundly weakened in his political standing, creating a new controversy of his own doing, like yesterday's tweet about the 75-year-old protesters in buffalo and the strategy is, basically, for these senators to say nothing and focus on issues at home and survive to live another day. one strategist told bob costa they've been advising senators to avoid kacie hunt on this

network, because she's been the one asking these questions. >> i want to get both of you on the record, why the president stands apart zombielike trance since donald trump's rise to power. looked the way after good people on both sides of charlottesville. looked the other way after mika. but donald trump, again, in the last 15 minutes, has found himself at odds with david petrae petraeus, who suggested renaming army bases named after confederate fighters. donald trump tweeting, it's been suggested that we should rename as many as ten of our legendary military bases -- he basically

comes down and says, my administration will not everybody consider the renaming of these magnificent fabled military installations. . the problem there is, donald trump's own army secretary has said he's open to it. not only is he at odds with public sentiment where you've got upwards of 75% of americans who want to see us try to turn the page, it would appear slamming the door on an army secretary who said he was very open to this and david petraeus who's also a pretty well-respected former general. phil and then eddie. >> yeah, nicolle, this is a new -- a new front for trump in the cultural wars that he's pushing and he's trying to bring a spotlight to, the white house is holding a briefing right now and minutes before the press secretary came out, the president issued that tweet, then the staff distributed printouts of the tweet to

reporters in the room, and in her defense of this argue from the president is look, all of these soldiers who have gone off to war some of them haven't returned to home, they lost their lives in battle and the last place in america they were at were the forts. it's clearly trump taking a stand that puts him at odds with so much of the popular sentiment out on the streets right now, again w the black lives matter movement and at odds with some in the military. i suspect that the president's going to get his way as far as it relates to this government, it's unlikely those names will be changed without the commander in chief's approval. >> you know, nicolle, this is like groundhog's day, the only

thing that's different, presidential election is on the horizon. we have heard a lot of, you know, phil's reporting is amazing as usual. lot of this is so familiar to us. the only thing that changed in the ecosystem, he's trying to win a second term. as for the tweet, we know that donald trump resists any idea of re-imagining america. his idea of american heritage, the idea of who we are is rooted in i think a very racialized understanding of america and all of us who are not white are kind of recipients of charity and in some ways, his charity. and so the idea of protesters trying to get us to change the built-in environment, right, that we are as we move about, nicolle, as we move ability the u.s. we see all of these monuments and tributes to

traitors, people who defended slavery, people who rebelled against the union, and so when there's a fundamental transformation and transition in how a society can sees itself, it changes in the built-in environment. monuments begin to fall. sign age changes. with trump, he resisted because he's committed to that old world and we need to understand that for what it is. >> eddie, a word that appears in the president's tweet, the "h" word, heritage, and tell our viewers a little bit about how it's been used to defend any number of things but a lot of monuments and a lot of cases where people want to keep the stars and bars on the flag pole. >> right, so let's focus our attention on confederate monuments around the country. most of them were built in a

context in which jim crow, where racial segregation was beginning to become the law of the land. in fact the monuments aren't monuments to those who died for the confederacy, they're really monuments to a ideology of white supremacy, when we see these statues came out, they were built and placed in particular moments, as an ideology of anglo-saxonism was taking place. one of our central exports has been that ideology, we understand that this is not about just simply heritage. it's the lost cause. we know that the lost cause, all of this was a lie. the facts are clear. and what we need to do, once we tell the truth is understand what this interpretation of these facts, what it's trying to

do. once we understand that, then we can begin to ask ourselves the more fundamental question -- what is this history telling us, who are we inspiring to be when we invoke this as heritage, when we invoke as central to ourselves' understanding? that's part of the work, the hard work, brian, of really re-imagining a new america in my view. >> phil rucker, back to your reporting for a bit. it's one thing to avoid kasey hunt, it's quite another to avoid constituents, all of these republican senators who have made a deal in some form or fashion, think of portman of ohio, think of blunt of missouri, guys who were patently one thing a few years back and have just quietly become something else now, though not

up they've all got to answer to the folks back home. >> they do, brian, and we're now 3 1/2 years into the presidency and the calculation they've made is as if they were turn on trump at this point it would look craven, it would look political, it wouldn't win them much of anything, among those constituents opposed to the president are not likely to, you know, suddenly change their opinion of these republican senators and support them, that's according to what a lot of the strategists and operatives there in. they're almost like prisoners on the runaway train and they can't get off. that's the calculation they're making, they're just trying to navigate as best they can. it's worth pointing out, some of the senators up for re-election

are polling worst than president trump in their states, in arizona, senator mcsally is behind democrat mark kelly by double-digits. so there are real challenges for these republicans and one of the reasons why those around the leadership of the senate republicans are so concerned about possibly losing their majority. >> we leave the imagery of prisoners on a runaway train with ours viewers at this hour. a break in our coverage and when we return the emotional plea by the brother of george floyd as new details emerge about another african-american man who died in police custody saying the same words we heard from george floyd and later, the nation's top infectious disease expert calls it his worst nightmare and when tony fauci

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this morning on capitol hill, we witnessed that powerful testimony from philonise floyd,

brother of george floyd one day after his brother was laid to rest. mr. floyd asked lawmakers to listen to the calls for widespread police reform. >> i couldn't take care of george that day he was killed, but maybe by speaking with you today i can make sure that his death will not be in vain. to make sure that he's more than another face on a t-shirt, more than another name on a list that won't stop growing. >> and just today, another story is gathering currency, there's video of yet another death that has been slowly rising to public consciousness of an african-american man in police custody, this happened in austin, texas, our affiliate kxan has obtained the body

camera footage from march 2019, 15 months ago, deputies were being followed by the popular television show on the a and e show "live pd" said ambler didn't dim his headlights for oncoming traffic and when they tried to pull him over he took off. we want to warn that the video we're about to show you is disturbing to watch. >> both hands behind your back, give me your hand or i'm going to tase you again. give your hand. >> i have congestive heart failure. i have congestive heart failure. >> other hand now. other hand. other hand. give me your hand. >> flat on your stomach. flat on your stomach.

flat on your stomach. flat on your stomach. >> you heard him there say, he couldn't breathe. they used a taser after he apparently turned his car door and resisted. an autopsy report showed that he died of congestive heart failure in combination of forcible restraint. manner of death was ruled homicide. the d.a. office has accused the sheriff's office of not cooperating with its investigation into this incident. this statement, the sheriff's department wrote the following the williamson county sheriff's department remains ready and willing to participate in the investigation being conducted by the travis county d.a.'s office. we have slowed or otherwise impeded the investigation is absolutely false. let's talk about this case and

we're joined to do that by mark claxton, 20 years as a detective and investigator with the nypd. also with us, nyu law professor melissa murray who clerked for justi justice sonia sotomayor. welcome to you both. mark claxton, i'd like to begin with you. how do we make failure to lower your high beams is not a defacto death sentence in this country? >> when you get to point where we no longer accept and we're prepared to penalize police officers who engage in conduct that is either criminal or unjustifiable and i think as painful and difficult as this particular video is to watch,

it's just as familiar unfortunately. the use, the disregard of the use of force -- the chart that shows you how much force to use in situations as police officers, it's a disregard of that. the continuation of the abuse that black and the brown communities are talking about and demanding reform from. >> and professor, this is really an intersection of law and local procedure, remember when tasers first started to be a thing, they were sold to the public as a nonlethal alternative to subduing someone, presumably a violent criminal, and now we see the role that tasers play in modern american life. the probable cause standard can

be such a fluid thing and so much is done under that banner, this is a huge area and i suppose it's going to pretty quickly have to become a huge area of reform. >> that's exactly right, brian. this is not solely the, two of the police. lot of this has to do with supreme court jurisprudence, the threshold for pretextural shock is low. that's as a result of supreme court doctrines. they can have these perhaps unintended consequences. we're seeing this scourge, but some of the eground work has ben

laid before. >> melissa, i watched the video and i feel just the horror that i think anybody feels when they see any of that and i wonder if you think that there's a piece of the president's current position that really requires one to disbelieve what they see with their own eyes. i imagine sadly in the near term, we're going to see more wrenching incidents like this and this one as brian said this was from 2019, do you think the public opinion behind the release of this video changes what happens after it's seen by so many people? >> i certainly hope it's the case that being able to see this in such visceral terms changes

people's minds about whether or not this is a public crisis, but i will note, this is not the first time we have seen video footage of an unarmed african-american man that he can't breathe. the police not doing anything about it. we saw this with eric garner, we saw it with george floyd and we're seeing it again with javier ambler. are we now stirred to take actions? >> mark, do you see people from inside law enforcement at a local level or at any level j p jumping into these conversations in a way that gives you hope that something better is on the other side? >> yes, i do. i do, nicolle. as a matter of fact, the conversations that i've had over the past several weeks with a wide range of individuals within the law enforcement community, many of whom run agencies, there's a clear shift in the

desires of the men and women who operate -- i think they recognize in large part that there's no getting around it. reform is in the air. there will be changes. you can come willingly and accept reform and accept it as additional resources or resist it and be fade out. we're getting to a point there has to be a realization either you accept it or you're done. the actual men and women who do the job on the street are clear about the willingness to reform and the unions are totally different in regards to that. they're concerned about the -- >> melissa, just as a viewers' guide, if folks have watched any

of the show live pd at all, if they lived their lives in america they know that having a license plate, light bulb out, having a taillight out, will get you pulled over in many cases, what else does that give license to police to do? >> any of those minor infractions offers an opportunity for police to pull you over, initiating a point of contact between the individual and the police officer, which at any point could escalate if the police officer believes that he or she is being threatened, believes that the individual has contraband on them, initiate further searches. this is within the constitutional law surrounding criminal procedures. that initial point of contact, can escalate and lead to further

searches and further opportunities for the police to interact with the individual and perhaps even escalate it to the point of death. >> again, our thanks to two terrific guests on what continues to be such a tough topic but it blends nicely with our national conversation. our thanks for being with us once again. another break in our coverage. when we come back -- the minneapolis police department, where it all started, taking its first steps toward reform 16 days now after the death of george floyd.