♪ this sunday, another police shooting. the fatal shooting of an this sunday, another police shooting. leading to angry protests and the immediate resignation of the police chief. we'll have the latest from atlanta. >> we're talking about engaging a plan to create a public safety program that works for everyone. >> we won't be disbanding the

police. >> i'll talk to senator tim scott, and a former defense secretary, bob gates. plus, the coronavirus spike. half of the u.s. is now seeing a post-memorial day surge. >> we saw more acceleration. >> why has the coronavirus task force been silent for nearly 50 days? and primary chaos. >> it was a disappointment. >> missing ballots, confused poll workers, long lines. why this is a big, flashing warning sign for november. joining me, kasie hunt. helene cooper. and tim alberta. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >> from nbc news in washington,

the longest running show in television history, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >> another fatal shooting of an african-american man at the hands of police, this time in atlanta, has led to new protests, and the resignation of a police chief, after police shot and killed rayshard brooks after he was running away with one of the officers' taser guns. atlanta's mayor moved quickly, firing the police officer and announcing the police chief was stepping down. >> i do not believe this was a justified use of deadly force, and have called for the immediate termination of the officer. >> the second officer involved has been placed on

administrative duty. blaine alexander, there was quite a bit of time when things were sort of routine, until they weren't. >> absolutely. it was a very sharp escalation we saw on the video. up until just about ten minutes ago, parts of this wendy's were actually still smoldering. and through our masks we can smell the scent of smoke in the air. that's really just a tangible reminder of all of the unrest filling the streets in atlanta overnight and well into the morning. and first of all, the fact that there are six different angles, at least, of video that show exactly what unfolded in this wendy's parking lot friday night. one of them, eyewitness video released by the georgia bureau of investigation. and four different angles of body camera and dash camera from

the police officers. so you see the final moments of rayshard brooks' life before he was shot in the parking lot. we know this was taken on surveillance video. officers were called to the scene because he had fallen asleep in his car. he was blocking the drive-through, that's why they were called. but when you look at the police body camera video, two things stood out. one, the fact that you see on the video officers searching brooks and find no weapons on him. but the second, as you mentioned before, it was 43 minutes into the video before things escalated. for the better part of the video, you see him sitting in his car, officers asking him how much have you had to drink? what were you doing, where were you coming from? he takes a field sobriety test, which he's said to have failed, and then officers try to place him under arrest. that's when things begin to

quicklyes k quickly escalate. leading to the gunshot that took his life. and three different investigations

are there more disputes on implementation than the larger goal? >> the house bill reduces money or takes money away from states on the choke hold issue.

we take it from the department. department by department. on the qualified immunity, i would be interested in decertification of officers. that's a union issue hard to get at. qualify td immunity is an issue most republicans don't like at all to include myself. the question is there a path forward to look at the necessity of eliminating bad behavior within law enforcement. i think we'll find the path forward. it seems like it won't be decertification. there thereby information provided to the public to make concrete decisions. if we're that close on making progress i hope partisan ship doesn't get in the way. >> let me ask you about the president and the role he plays. he called demonstrators thugs. uncomfortable with talked about the things he doesn't want to

see. they call getting rid of qualified immunity a non-starter and his history. when it comes to race. that is to some people remarkably consistent and not in a good way. can he play a role here that gets this across the finish line without sort of apologizing for his views on race over the years? >> i think we can -- the answer is yes. i think he is engaging now in a way that is constructive and helpful. see the executive order that will come out on tuesday. really does reference a national data base strengthening a national data base. police misconduct and talks about the importance of coresponders sfr a mental health perspective. that law enforcement and communities like that approach. he's weighing in at the right time in a constructive manner.

i'll look at yesterday's speech in west points. the powerful institutions of authority in the country and eliminated deseg grags. and the civil war. it was constructive and is important all three branchs of government work together to solve the original sin of the country. if we do that, the american people will celebrate. neither party but the fact we worked together as a country. >> senator scott, considering the trump campaign ended up planning a reallily in tulsa on juneteenth. since moved it. i'm curious if juneteenth were a federal holiday already. marked in a way one of the ways we use federal holidays is remembrance and education. for things like that. a mistake like that wouldn't have happened?

>> i doi think the more information -- obviously if there was a national hl day we would all know about it. and have an opportunity to celebrate it. and one of the aspects of the legislation frankly is resources in a similar fashion as it's done in the holocaust museum. we want to do something at the african-american museum to celebrate juneteenth and the tulsa oklahoma race riot, 100 years ago next year. we think the more education and information we provide, the better people behave in all corridors and specifically within the law enforcement community and we have the opportunity to do that. we provide the resources for the historical perspective in understand -- >> what about a federal holiday? >> listen, i'm open to it and i've been talking to my friends throughout the country including at the white house. i think that's a brilliant idea and the conservatives in the

house seem to be interested in that so you never know what may happen. >> senator tim scott, the republican from south carolina, we look forward, i guess you'll unveil more of this. thanks for coming in and sharing your perspective. >> thanks, chuck. the clearing of protesters from lafayette square nearly two weeks ago by president trump led to condemnation by military leaders and one publicly regretted taking part in the incident. >> i should not have been there. my presence in that moment and that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics. >> joining me now is robert gates, who served as secretary of defense for president george w. bush and barack obama. he is also the author of a new book, "exercise of power." secretary gates, welcome back to "meet the press."

general millie's speech late this week after a number of attempts to put some distance between what happened, your reaction, was it appropriate and did he do it soon enough? >> i think he really wrestled, chuck, with how to respond when he realized how the appearances of him being present for that photo-op seemed to the rest of the country. i think -- i've known mark millie for a long time and he's a man of great integrity and takes his responsibilities as an apolitical military officer very seriously. i think the important thing was that he made the statement and made it with all sincerity and frankly, and i think that, plus his statement, the written statement to senior commanders around the world about the apolitical nature of the american military sent a powerful signal and

re-emphasized the importance of the military staying out of politics and, frankly, not getting used. all of the presidents i worked for like to use the military as a prop. i think this president's probably taken that to a new level, but the military has to be very sensitive about being exploited in that way. >> you know, another aspect that's come under scrutiny with the military, on one hand as an institution, it's perhaps more integrated than any other major institution in this country and yet this week we had the first-ever military chief to be confirmed as the head of the military branches be an african-american. so how far behind do you think the military has been at least on its upper levels, and why is that? you've seen it. what do you think that is? is that a systemic racism issue? >> i don't know if it's systemic racism in the military. the military for a long time was

out in front of the rest of the country when it came to integration and offering opportunities for african-americans and other minorities, but i think one of the points that general millie has made this week is that the military is going to have to pay more attention to how it moves officers and minority officers into the most senior positions. there have always been successful individuals, colin powell, and the commander in iraq during the period when i was secretary, so there have been a number of african-americans, but as you point out this was the first african-american service chief. in all honesty, the first four-star woman was appointed while i was secretary and that was pretty far into the process, as well. so i think the military is really focused now on how more regularly minorities and particularly african-americans are moved into the most senior positions in the military.

>> i'm curious of your take on changing the names of the southern institutions and the banning of confederate paraphernalia in the marines. are all of these things you think whose time has come? >> i think that opportunities are presented by events, and i think we now have the opportunity, particularly to change the names of our military facilities. i've always puzzled over the fact that we don't have a ft. george washington or a ft. ulysses s. grant. so i think the time has come, and i think there is the opportunity not only to name some of these places for some of our great generals of the 20th century but also individuals such as african-american and other minority medal of honor recipients and so on. we've done that in naming ships. we just haven't done it with our facilities. >> you've had some tough words on both of the two potential men

who are meeting in the next presidential election. here's what you wrote about joe biden in 2014. joe is a man of integrity and incapable of hiding what he really thinks and one of those people you know you can turn to in crisis, still, i think he is wrong in on every policy issue over the last four decades. does that make it hard for you to support him for president? >> well, i think the important thing is the quality of his character, that's important. and i have a lot of policy disagreements with the former vice president, but i think one of the things that people will be weighing this fall is probably the character of the two contestants. >> well, let me put up what you said about president trump in 2016. you were pretty tough on him, as well. let me read this quote.

you said, he is stubbornly uninformed about the way he views the world and temperamentally unsuited to lead the men and women in uniform and unfit to be commander in chief. has that changed? >> i will say this. unlike his three predecessors, at least he hasn't started any new wars. and he has robustly funded the military. i supported his outreach to north korea. it hasn't come to anything, but i thought that was a bold move and everything else had failed in the previous 25 years. i thought his challenging china was about time, but there's the other side of the coin. in terms of some of the things he says, his treatment and words about military people and military heroes like john mccain

that i admire a lot that are really troublesome. >> is this the case where character trumps policy for you? >> well, i think that will be up to the voters of the country. >> secretary gates, i'm going to leave it there. i'm glad you brought up north korea. if i had more time i was going to ask you about an interesting comment from your book about north korea and about whether it's time for us to accept them as a nuclear power, among the many interesting things you write about, i encourage folks to pick it up. secretary gates, thanks for coming on and sharing your perspectives, sir. >> thank you, chuck. coming up, a surge in coronavirus cases in half of the state. what can we expect the summer to bring? i'll talk to two infectious disease experts when we come back.

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surprise me. just ask "what can i say?" to find more of what you love with the xfinity voice remote. welcome back. the cdc and white house coronavirus task force aren't talking about it much, but the united states is in the midst of

another surge of coronavirus cases. 25 states and puerto rico have seen spikes 10% over the last two weeks. overall we've seen 2 million confirmed cases in the united states and 116,000 people have died since february. what does this all mean for the hopes of getting back to something approaching normal in the near future? joining me now, our virologist joseph baird who recently recovered from covid-19 himself, and dr. bedalia. welcome back to "meet the press" for both of you. dr. baird, let me start with you because i would like you to share a little bit about your recovery from covid-19. what should americans take away from your experience? >> first of all, i did not have any underlying conditions and i'm not a triathlete or anything like that, but i was generally very healthy and could run and exercise four or five times a week. that being said, i did not expect that i would get that ill because i didn't have any of those underlying conditions and i'm 42 years old so you would not think that i would be one of

those people would get so very ill. the seven days prior to hospitalizing myself, when i was doing the self-treatment. that was the worst i've ever felt. i probably spent 23 out of 24 hours in bed and obviously, i developed the secondary pneumonia and at the end and the struggle with breathing and everything else. i was shocked at how severe my illness got without having those underlying conditions that we have discussed so many times and so what i would take from that is everyone that's younger and everyone that is going out without masks now and being cavalier with that and ignoring this ongoing pandemic and we used the analogy and the band played on with hiv and its response from the early days and that's really the analogy that we should be using with coronavirus now, to a much greater extent. those people that are young and invincible don't think that it will affect them that greatly even if they do get it. i can say that my own experience was the complete opposite. i can't say that i had a brush with death, but it was enough to put me in the icu for four days and in the hospital for six

days. >> for both of you and dr. bedalia, first to you. we're seeing spikes across the country and we've broken it up by region and you can see the by region and you can see, the northeast and the midwest, those are going down and when you break it up in the south and the west, both of those curves are going up. what does this tell you, dr. bedalia, about what the rest of the summer's going to look like? >> some of the benefits the states in the south had, we all locked down around the same time. so the lack of movement protected them from that influx and new cases coming in. and the evidence to me in the south and some of the other places is that we opened too early in those states, that we didn't have the ability to basically trace down those chains of transmission and stop them once people started

mingling again. and hospitalizations are going up. we talked about arizona and they're at 84% inpatient bed use. in north carolina, they're inching at 80% or 79%. so it's not just the cases, it's the fact that at this point hospitals are at risk of getting overwhelmed and that is signaling to me that the states are already behind and they should consider potentially whether they should be rolling back, at least not progressing with further reopening, but should they be rolling back reopening and considering lockdowns in certain counties when there are a lot of disease activity. >> doctor, there is quarantine fatigue and you have state officials who politically don't want to have to pull back or are tired of doing this. had we at the beginning had more aggressive testing and contact tracing, could we we have been able to sort of have regional shutdowns at the beginning of

this so then there would be more comfort today, for instance, protect us from the shutdown because they didn't shut down before? does this go back to our initial blindness to where this virus was three months ago? >> absolutely. i can say one of the things that you and i spoke about very early on was the need for a nationwide shutdown and i explained at the time that unless we all do it it's really moot to do it in one place and not another with the united states and the porous borders, and i think having not done that early on, we missed a huge opportunity to contain and even potentially eradicate this virus. we're always going have travel in and out of the united states and vice versa, but that being said we could have truly mitigated its effects and we missed that opportunity so now we have so many cases that as i said earlier this week, we

risk the virus becoming endemic in the united states and that will have derivative effects to it such as countries banning citizens from traveling to it because we're a covid-19 hot spot. >> i was going to say you used this word endemic the other day, dr. fair, meaning we're not going to have second waves. no, we're not, it will be one long, continuous, until we get the vaccine at this point. is that your assessment? >> i just think that at this point in time we have so many people that have this virus. we are not only not putting down the stricter measures, we are loosening the measures we had in place. so those will continue to rise and once you get past a certain number with a virus like this which is seasonal and we don't see it yet being seasonal, but once it gets so ingrained in the population there's not a point that we can come back from that other than getting a vaccine in place. that just means we'll have it in the country until a vaccine is here. >> dr. bhadalia, it is clear

that we'll see political rallies in indoor facilities whether public officials think it will be a good idea or not. if you were to go into a room with 15,000 people, how would you do it to protect yourself, or would you even bother? >> i guess i would start i would not personally take that risk and it's a risk assessment that everyone would make for themselves and it's a bad idea for states that are already seeing increases in cases to then have this large, this perfect storm setup. the idea of tons of people where one sick person can have an impact of generating secondary cases on this immense level where it's indoors and there is no ventilation, and so, if you had to have it i would move it to the outdoors and i would introduce the number of people, introduce physical distancing and i would require everybody to wear a mask, and actually stay home if you're sick and once you've attended a rally, get tested.

>> dr. joseph fair and dr. nahid bhadalia, thank you. always a pleasure to have you on. >> thank you, chuck. when we come back, as confederate symbols around the country start to come down, president trump has become a lonely voice in the national culture wars. ♪ limu emu & doug [ siren ] give me your hand! i can save you... lots of money with liberty mutual! we customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need! only pay for what you need.

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welcome back. panelists are joining us from remote locations.

kasie hunt, and helene cooper, pentagon correspondent for "the new york times," welcome. i want to read this excerpt. the largest sustained protest in 50 years is also, i think, turning the voting public decidedly against the president. the killing of george floyd, the racially disparate impact of the pandemic and the violent police rioting has shown what the future may hold if we continue along this path of inequality, exclusion, and authoritarianism. kasie hunt, are you seeing -- are the actions we're watching on capitol hill sort of in some ways proof that jamal's right about this? >> chuck, i think what you heard from tim scott at the beginning of the broadcast says everything you need to know about this. even at the beginning of this past week there was a sense that

republicans weren't going to make significant policy moves beyond the data collection and tim scott spoke to ways in which data collection is important and he also in the interview suggested that they'll go beyond that in this and you would not be seeing that reflected in what they are actually doing if they weren't seeing the exact kind of political movement that you just described here. i mean, the shift on this has been fast and deep and, you know, if the lawmakers are seeing it this quickly that tells you how significant it is. and i will also just say i think republicans are pretty lucky that they have a leader in tim scott who brings so much credibility to this issue and his measured approach, i think, has gone quite -- it's gone quite a long way in convincing his colleagues to start to make these changes. >> tim alberta, you wrote about the phrase law and order and how it doesn't have the same meaning politically anymore on the right.

>> you know, chuck, it doesn't. and obviously, post-2012, republicans began to have this conversation about how do we soften the image of the party and how do we expand our appeal into these nontraditional communities and they talked about immigration reform and other issues, but they didn't talk at all about this issue of systemic injustice and institutional racism and police disproportionately targeting and brutalizing the african-american community and that is now taking place inside the republican party in a way that was unimaginable just a few years ago. and so i think regardless of the outcome this november, the writing is clearly on the wall for a lot of these republicans now. the polling is just remarkable. frank lund spoke to it earlier this week. he said i've been doing this for 30 years and i've never seen public opinion move so quickly,

karl rove spoke to it. there is a clear line of delineation that the spring of 2020 represents, and they recognize that regardless of what the president is saying or doing that they need to address this issue in order to be competitive and move through the door within these communities. >> and the question is whether the president can play a role that is constructive. i want to play two excerpts from the president and one just this week to fox news about abe lincoln. take a listen. >> i think i've done more for the black community than any other president and let's take a pass on abraham lincoln because he did good, although it's always questionable. in other words, the end result -- >> we are free, mr. president. >> you understand what i mean. i'm going to take a pass on abe, honest abe, as we call him. >> before you respond, i want to

also play -- one of the challenges for this president is that this has been a long history of having one view about race. listen to this quote from 1989. >> a well-educated black has a tremendous advantage over a well-educated white in terms of the job market. if i was starting off today, i would love to be a well-educated black because i believe they do have an actual advantage today. >> it's sort of the a similar question i had to tim scott. can the president, because of his history, even his recent instincts here, can he play a constructive role without sort of acknowledging views that he had in the past that no longer seem to be mainstream? >> i have an easy answer for that. no. i don't see how president trump can play any kind of constructive role in what's going on right now in this movement for change because of who he is. i wish you had the face palm emoji for when you were playing

that tape of him on fox news talking about abe lincoln and that's very trump, talking about how much he's done for the black community and you can see from his actions and the actions of the administration, that's patently untrue. and there's nobody that can make that defense or that case for president trump and when you look at what he did, i've been so focused this past week on the military and what's been going on between president trump and the military, but when you look at what he did on confederate bases when he immediately slammed down pentagon efforts and they didn't say they would absolutely do it, they started in such an anemic way, starting a bipartisan commission to talk and trump shut that down immediately and he infuriated his senior military officials who were just ready to throw their hands up in the air. so the idea that this guy will play a constructive role in this

movement for change in the united states, i think, is preposterous. >> tim alberta, is the president misreading his own base? i think he instinctively assumes his base is going to rise up on this confederate name change thing. i don't fully see it that way, do you? >> no. it's at the margins, chuck, as with everything else the president does. i think he has such a myopic focus on his base that he doesn't recognize that politics is a coalition business and that a lot of the votes that help get him across the finish line in 2016 were coming from wealthy, affluent, two-car garage suburbs where voters are not only turned off by his rhetoric around race, but specifically, when he gets to issues of the confederate flag or the protests in nfl stadiums, these are voters who culturally have drifted further and further from these traditional republican positions of orthodoxy and now the president has a choice to make

heading toward november. do you begin to soften ever so slightly? do you modulate some positions, or do you continue to take these hardline positions believing that they're behind you? obviously the math will be very difficult for him if he does not do something. >> speaking of math, we're about to put up a math problem for president trump in our next segment. when we come back, the changes in our political culture and political parties that could play a big role in november. stick around. (burke) at farmers, we know a thing or two because

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♪ welcome back. data download time. we've said it before, donald trump is making a mark on the republican party, and it may be that he's reshaping the democratic party, as well. changing those who self-identify as members of either major political party. data from the pugh research center shows notable shifts in the make up of both parties since 2015, just before mr. trump entered the race five years ago tomorrow. let's start with the ever-widening political divide among men and women. in 2015 there was a gender gap. republicans had an eight-point edge with men and they leaned democratic by 12. combine that with data from 2018

and 2019, by then the gop was holding steady with men and 18% with women. in 2015, republicans only held an edge among white voters and as much as 71 points among black voters. that advantage among whites is slipping, down to only plus-11 and look at the right in the huge jump in asian-americans identifying as democrats in just four years. dramatic. then there's the other great divide in this country, geography. five years ago, democrats held a big edge in the urban areas. republican was the party of choice in the suburbs and with rural voters and in the 2018 and 2019 numbers, democrats gained in urban areas and were almost even in the suburbs and republicans made big gains with rural americans. and the republican party who was once the bastion of wealthy, white, establishment voters is looking more like the home of working class and rural white voters. that's a shrinking demographic.

it was enough for president trump to eke out an electoral college but it could be a real problem for the party as the country continues to change. when we come back, is joe biden closer to choosing a running mate? ♪ you should be mad they gave this guy a promotion. you should be mad at forced camaraderie. and you should be mad at tech that makes things worse. but you're not mad, because you have e*trade, who's tech makes life easier by automatically adding

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surprise me. just ask "what can i say?" to find more of what you love with the xfinity voice remote. welcome back. the panel is with us again, and i guess since we're a day closer to the democratic convention, we're a day closer to -- we can say vice president biden is one day closer to picking his running mate because at some point he has to pick one. i want to put up nine candidates

that we think are on some form of the shortlist. and the first screen of six candidates appears to be almost the consensus top six in various reporting outlets are the times a.p., val demings, kamala harris, keisha lance bottoms, and new mexico's governor susan rice, and elizabeth warren. the next page here, there are various reports, tammy duckworth, tammy baldwin, and amy klobuchar that they're also being vetted in some form or another. kasie hunt, i think what's notable is if you take a look at the consensus top six, four of the six are african-americans and five of the six are women of color. >> that's right, chuck, and i think it's very clear that that is a significant consideration in this moment. he certainly is under a lot of pressure to choose a woman of color, although i would note that jim clyburn, who has been someone that's had the vice president's ear on this says it's not necessarily a requirement that they do that. i do think also the thing that

is probably weighing the most heavily is that there is a very real sense that they need to make sure that they are choosing someone who voters, and particularly independent voters, feel confident could step in to the top job were that necessary and that set of quantifications is particularly important in this instance. they don't want to repeat a mistake that john mccain made when he selected sarah palin, and it raised questions about his judgment in her ability to take over. >> you know, helene cooper, i think about some of the top candidates here. you've got val demings, who has not run for statewide office before and susan rice, who has not run for office before but has a ton of national security credentials. and val demings, a lot of credibility on law enforcement issues being a former police chief and kamala harris, who has run a national campaign. there are different ways of looking at this. which way do you think biden is

more concerned about what, at this point? >> i think in the moment that we're in right now, obviously the push for an african-american woman is probably something that vice president biden has been focusing on a lot, but let's assume that this moment sort of eases at some point and then you get to the whole -- both the electability issue and also the issue of who can step in once -- if given his age, if he actually wins. so he's got to balance who can help him beat trump and who looks like they are going to be qualified enough to step in on day one because of his age and that's where you start leaning and seeing him lean more towards maybe the senators and maybe the kamala harris or maybe elizabeth warren. it's such a tricky row to hoe for him. you know, val demings looks fantastic right now when you look at her on paper, she did a really good job during the impeachment trial in the eyes of

many people but there's still a lot to consider and i still think that he might take some time, a little bit more time on this because we are in the middle of such a huge moment, it seems that making this kind of a decision right now, it may be a good idea to wait a little bit. >> tim alberta, i'm reminded by a longtime friend of mine, the greatest vp disparity of all time was 1988, lloyd benson, dan quayle, and the polls all said how much more qualified benson was and it didn't seem to have any impact. and are we doing it again or could we be overhyping the importance of this? >> it's possible, chuck. historically, the vice presidential selection has not had a huge impact and in many cases it has no impact at all although we only have to go back four years to see how donald trump's selection of mike pence along with his unveiling of the potential list of supreme court

justices. those two things in tandem really mattered as far as assuring the republican evangelical base that was very nervous about donald trump and mike pence provided them a familiar face in the sense of, this guy will govern in a way that that will be consistent with our values. >> well, you make an important point and the trump worrying about a base constituency group that could be what biden has to be concerned about as well. "meet the press" is working with the american film institute, the afi docs institute is going virtual, obviously, featuring more than 50 documentaries. it runs from wednesday to sundays. we love our partnership with them and i'm looking forward to this, i hope you will, too. that's all we have for today. thank you for watching. thank you for trusting us and

stay safe and healthy on this flag day. we'll be back next sunday, because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." good evening, and welcome to our special, american crisis: poverty and the pandemic. at this moment, we are a nation in turmoil with protests against police violence sweeping across major cities and a rising death toll due to covid-19. we'll focus on another element of this turmoil. the pandemic's devastating impact on americans in poverty. 38 million people lived below the poverty line in 2018. a number that has surely grown with unemployment skyrocketing to almost 15%.