rally in tulsa, oklahoma. this is his first rally since march, really something he is thinking of as the kick-off to his campaign. he's been dying to get out there. this is the bank of oklahoma arena in tulsa, oklahoma. the arena holds 19,000 people and it is nowhere close to being full. despite the fact that there's lots of space in that arena as you can see, lots of seats available. there is no social distancing taking place in any meaningful way. there are very few masks in the room. outside there are marches under way, a protest under way by supporters of black lives matter. the trump campaign has said that they canceled the outside event because their attendees were being intimidated by protesters and media though i'll talk to our reporter about that in a second. not quite sure whether that is true. this is where the event was to take place. they are starting to dismantle it. 8:00 p.m. this is when the president is

supposed to be speaking. there does not seem to be an overflow crowd on the outside. six members of donald trump's staff have been taken ill or tested positive for coronavirus including two members of the secret service. according to nbc reporting they have been on the ground in oklahoma for a few days not social distancing and not wearing masks. i want to go to cal perry real quickly outside the bok arena to give me a sense of what is happening there. >> reporter: so we moved into the street, the one we were next to. on this end you have a very small contingent of black lives matter protesters along with the trump supporters who chose not to go into the arena. on the other side you now have a very large crowd of trump supporters waiting to get into the arena. they have shut the gate because we believe the president is arriving. that is standard procedure at these rallies. when the president arrives, they shut that gate. what happened a couple hours ago? there was a small contingent of black lives matter protesters who occupied this space right here where i am.

they managed to get this sort of fence and again this is one of three entrance ways to the arena, they managed because they were here occupying the space to get the police to shut it for a very short period of time. the police moved their way slowly to this point right here and they were able to reopen the gates. as people came down this road to get into the arena police were saying, come to this side and we will filter you through. this was live on our air, ali, sometime in the 4:00 p.m. local hour, 5:00 p.m. eastern. police were creating a buffer zone between trump supporters waiting to get into the arena and the protesters. i would say at no point were the trump supporters overwhelmed or even out numbered by the protesters. in fact, the protesters were out numbered 10-1 by trump supporters. they were certainly getting their message out there. they were getting the black lives matter message out there. they were getting the message out there about police violence. but i did not see any intimidation. i did not see the media intimidating or stopping anyone from getting in. there was a large number of i would say unaffiliated media

bloggers but as you can see now, we're pretty much the only media on this street, ali. so this talk about media stopping people from getting in just isn't true. and the numbers, 100,000, i've only been at this one entrance. i can only speak to this one entrance but at this one entrance maybe 10,000, maybe 15,000 people. that is at the largest estimate i could give were able to sort of filter through. >> the trump campaign's press release says radical protesters coupled with the relentless onslaught from the media attempted to frighten off the president's supporters. so we'd love to see evidence of where that happened. we got a couple cameras around and no one has seen that instance. cal, we'll keep coming back to you. thank you very much. right now on the left is the main hall in the bank of oklahoma auditorium. again, not full. on the right you have a focus on the stage. we are expecting we think the president might be there or showing up very shortly.

joining me now is the reverend al sharpton host of msnbc's "politics nation" and also the president and founder of the national action network. lawrence o'donnell is the host of msnbc's "the last word" and joy reid is the host of "a.m. joy." i said i was getting joy back and i have her back. she is back with me. thank you to the three of you for being here. reverend, let me start with you. you were in tulsa for juneteenth and to a lot of americans the connection is not as clear as it should be. tulsa was the home of something called black wall street. it was the greenwood neighborhood. it was a very rich and prosperous african-american neighborhood until 99 years ago in 1921 during a massacre from which they still have not recovered all of the bodies. juneteenth is relevant but tulsa is also an important place for african americans in a moment when the focus is on inequality

in america. >> yes. the fact is that black wall street, ironically, ali, represents all the conservatives claim they want black americans to do -- lift themselves up by their boot straps, economic independence. that is what black wall street had done in the early part of the 20th century. then this massacre happened that wiped out hundreds of lives of black citizens and wiped out their businesses. so when they had the juneteenth rally yesterday, that i keynoted there in tulsa, it was also to talk about regenerating and rebuilding those businesses. it was first said that president trump was going to have his rally yesterday. he then claimed he didn't know it was juneteenth day, though if he was that ill informed, one would have to ask where he's been for his 74 years. he grew up in new york. clearly, it was something people knew about. and if it was not that, he moved

to today. i think what is really striking about tonight as you and lawrence and joy know, in my civil rights experience i also was very close with the godfather of soul james brown. i'd go to shows and sometimes on the road with him. in the show business terms, he has a flop tonight to project 100,000 people and you can't fill up a 19,000 seat arena, you would tell artists like james brown stay in the dressing room. you are about to be embarrassed. so no matter what he does tonight this has been a major flop. he is going against the clear increase of and clear i would emphasize increase of covid virus people in the state of oklahoma and in tulsa in particular. they did not defy it. they did not come out and rally around this president. if this is his opening of his campaign, being reinvigorated, it flopped big time. and i think that whatever he

says tonight will be on the point of hysteria because he is embarrassed and as someone that has dealt with him and fought with him for 35 years, embarrassment is not something he handles well. >> he doesn't. lawrence, he does not like this. he does not like when the crowds are not big. he tends to blame his staff for that. but, boy. that is a safe place for him to go. to have gone to tulsa, safe, red tulsa for this kick-off where he, you know, they put on a press release about how joe biden, sleepy joe biden is in his basement in delaware. sleepy joe biden's eight to ten points, 12 points ahead of him including in a fox news poll, and the president is going to walk out to this. this is symbolic of the week he has had. >> yeah, it is, ali. but donald trump has a solution for it. he is going to lie about it. he is going to walk out there and he is going to lie about it and tell you that every seat was full and it doesn't matter what the cameras show. but the reason this location was chosen is because they believed they could get a turnout.

at the time they chose it they believed it was a low infection rate area and pure republican area and so of course it will be easy to fill this thing up. donald trump of course is the one who says we are supposed to judge public political events by the turnout. that is his measure. he doesn't say, you should judge it by the quality of the rhetoric. he says you should judge it by the turnout. so he has brought on this judgment on himself and when you have the empty seats up there, you know, that is the problem donald trump has created for himself. >> empty seats up there, empty seats close to where the camera is. there's an entire outside that was supposed to have a second event he should have been speaking at right now that's canceled. they already started to pull that down. they issued a statement blaming protesters and the media. cal perry and five other guys are out there. if that was what was intimidating a hundred thousand

protesters something else is wrong with that. joy, i am puzzled by the idea that donald trump has not made any attempt to capitalize on the zeitgeist of the moment, the idea that there is to some degree bipartisan agreement that we have to do something about policing in this nation as a symbol of what inequity looks like, and donald trump cannot find himself even close to being on the right side of that part of history. >> yeah, i mean, the amazing thing about donald trump is that probably there are very few republican presidents who could have had resonance with the democratic party, with the democratic base. i say this because number one he is a celebrity. he is somebody who seemed nonthreatening because he was on the apprentice. i know a lot of black people, i was probably the only black person i know that didn't watch "the apprentice" because i lived through the central park five. i couldn't stand him. a lot of my friends watched it. he was inculcated into the hip hop world. he was quoted about 65 times i

think with his name used in hip hop. so he had an opportunity. he was also a fan of bill clinton. he knows how bill clinton was able to appeal across racial lines and even he had sort of a popular cultural milieu so it is shocking what donald trump chose to do was to go all the way to the far right and want to appeal more to people who would march with tiki torches in charlottesville than with main stream americans. he has given up on the main stream. and i was just -- when you came to me, to us i was furiously texting with republican sources and everyone is shocked. donald trump, ali, won oklahoma 65.3% to 28.9% to hillary clinton. this was a gimme. this was an even set up for the campaign team. they completely messed it up.

brad parscal is furiously trying to tweet excuses on twitter to try to save himself, save his job, because he looks like a complete failure. that room is not full. that arena is not full. the outside empty. they couldn't even get 19,000 people there and they had bragged there were going to be a million. there is a lot of twitter traffic that says he was played by young people and k-pop fans who ordered tickets with no intention of going. steve schmidt is saying his own daughter did it. people were mass ordering tickets. they played them. they got played by teenagers. this is humiliating for a sitting president of the united states to not be able to fill a 19,000 seat facility in a ruby red state? my god. this is embarrassing. >> he's coming out now. he's coming out now. it is just not the crowd that -- this is the thing he has been thinking about. our reporters have been saying this is what he's wanted to do.

coronavirus has kept him from his crowds and his rallies and this is the thing he wanted. he wanted to come out to something big and there was nothing safer than to go as reverend al said to a place like tulsa, oklahoma, reliably republican with a big turnout. they've already put out their first press conference blaming media and protesters for presenting -- allowing people in. the evidence we have from our reporters outside is that is not actually the case, that is not what happened, that the people just weren't there. there are lots of empty spots inside the auditorium right now. lots of empty seats. continue to be no -- you see a few masks i think one every 15 or 20 people i see has a mask but generally speaking there are no masks. we've seen the senators from oklahoma in the room there. we've seen jim jordan from ohio, who is there. we're watching the president walking around here. this is not the energized president. this is not the president who is walking into what he believed would be the thing, lawrence, that distinguishes him from joe

biden, right? this is supposed to be the high energy guy. he is calling joe biden the low energy guy. this is not -- he needed a different picture tonight. >> and by the way, the reason he is coming out on time is because he is so disspirited about this he wants to get it over with. he normally makes those people wait and have the tension build and doesn't come out on the stage on time. today, there is always the question in trump world what are they trying to take your attention away from? it is fascinating that the attorney general tried to dump a u.s. attorney last night who is investigating this president and then they finally managed to get his resignation today but only once the u.s. attorney secured his own successor, his deputy, who will continue those investigations. but this was a planned attack by the attorney general and the president. one can wonder whether this rally was timed to overwhelm the news that they have created in

the last 24 hours about trying to cut that prosecutor. >> we're not going to carry this whole thing but let's just see how he starts it off and i'll come back to the three of you in just a second. >> thank you. thank you. thank you. so we begin. oklahoma, we begin. thank you, oklahoma, and thank you to vice president mike pence. we begin. we begin our campaign. [cheers and applause] >> we begin our campaign. i just want to thank all of you. you are warriors. i've been watching. i've been watching the fake news for weeks now, and everything is

negative. don't go. don't come. don't do anything today. it was like i've never seen anything like it. i've never seen anything like it. you are warriors. thank you. we had some very bad people outside. we had some very bad people outside. they were doing bad things. but i really do appreciate it. we have just a tremendous group of people in oklahoma. >> okay. just want to get a flavor for how he was going to start this off. telling everybody they're warriors, telling everybody how fake news has been negative. to lawrence's point, probably going to tell you the hall is full of 19,000 people and there may be a hundred thousand outside. part of the issue, rev, is that there are lay-ups here. there are things that the president can do that are pretty easy. he didn't make those choices in charlottesville and didn't make them again. so as confederate statutes are coming down, every night we are seeing more and more come down.

as there is a move to rename confederate bases and he talks about what an important part of american heritage they are we get pointed to the 1861 cornerstone speech by the vice president of the confederacy alexander stevens who reminded everyone in 1861 at the beginning of the civil war what that civil war was about. what the confederacy was about. the confederacy was a nation founded on the moral principles of slavery. slavery. and donald trump can't even get that part right. >> he refuses to move an inch toward a level of trying to deal with the systemic racism that permeates through american history and that he as president at this moment could say let us move forward and put these things in place to deal with the legacy of racism and to try and move the ball. he could make a statesman like

standing but he is not a statesman. he is already thanking oklahomans for showing up when they didn't show up. it is going to be delusion with steroids just like it was about his inauguration crowd where he ha luce nated and tried to sell the public that don't believe your lying eyes. we have more people here than president obama did at his inauguration. i think it is sad. it is no longer cute. it is no longer funny, mr. president. people can see what they see and see what is not there. if he is saying this is his launch it is a launch that totally failed. he talks about mr. biden in the basement. he better find a basement if this is the best he can roll out. >> yeah, joe biden is doing all right hanging around in the basement 12 points ahead of donald trump. lawrence, the thing i -- the reason i wanted to hear the beginning is i wanted to hear whether he framed it as the

beginning of the campaign and he did say this is the beginning. this is the launch. that doesn't bode well. this might have been one to say this is just for fun. i just wanted to be somewhere on a saturday night. if this is the launch of the campaign it is not ideal for him. >> no, and you know, this is a guy trailing in the polls, trailing joe biden badly and so the way you have to watch these events if you do choose to watch them is you have to listen for where in this event, where in this speech does donald trump turn a vote in his favor? i have to say i've never heard donald trump attempt to turn a vote in his favor that he did not already have. that is true of every day of his presidency. every other president when they win that first election night they win beginning in their victory speech that night they start talking to the voters who did not vote for them and try to start inching them over in their direction that many of them do a great job of it.

richard nixon won by less than 1% of the vote in 1978. he was working on the other side. not all of the other side but desperately trying to pick up five, six percent more votes than before. that is what an elected president's job is. this guy has never once spoken to the other side and now with him down on the polls if you don't hear him speak to the other side you don't hear him go up in the polls. >> no. his problem is that the answer to so many of his questions is the economy and the judges and neither have performed very well for him in the last couple of weeks. thanks to the three of you for joining me. reverend al sharpton the host of "politics nation" and the president of the national action network. joy reid is the host of "a.m. joy." who won't be in attendance tonight? six members of president trump's campaign who tested positive for the coronavirus. tonight's rally in tulsa has been heavily criticized for

holding this event in spite of public health concerns especially in an enclosed arena meant to seat nearly 20,000 people. trump brushed it off as a nonissue. his campaign did require attendees to sign a waiver agreeing not to sue the campaign or trump himself if they contract the coronavirus at the event. joining me now is jonathan allen senior analyst for msnbc and an msnbc medical contributor and infectious disease physician and medical director of the special pathogens unit at the boston medical center. there is nobody who said this was a good idea. trump's own people didn't. the coronavirus task force didn't. dr. fauci didn't. dr. birx didn't. the oklahoma people didn't. there was nobody who thought what a great idea. stick tens of thousands of people into a stadium together. >> that's right. and the biggest pandemic of the century, the sitting president of the united states, set up the conditions that would serve as an incubator to basically

propagate this virus even further at a time where the w.h.o. is saying the pandemic is accelerating at a time where the seven-day rolling average of cases in the united states are actually now going up again. and so, you know, to me when i see fewer people in the auditorium the president's campaign said people should make their general decision, risk assessment. to me when i see fewer people that is a win that we are not putting people at risk. people took that assessment and they said, you know, this is potentially too risky for me to take this step. the thing that kind of sticks with me, though, by the president holding this rally, he is basically saying that this pandemic is not real. it's not as big a concern. and at this time, the damage that just holding the rally will do on just a perception of the pandemic at a time where people are not taking their personal risk as seriously as they should to reduce the transmission of this disease it is the wrong step. that damage is already done. >> we've got a picture here in

which we have four people with masks but i can't generally get to even it being of 10% of people in there. this seems to be one group because they all have a very similar group. earlier, saying this has become the new megahat. the idea i'm just not going to wear a mask. i'll show you and your damn infection what my beliefs are. >> well, i think that is true of a lot of the people in the crowd as a percentage but of course that crowd is very small. you can get high school football crowds in tulsa that are much larger than that and the silent majority that the president keeps talking about looks like an absent majority. the issue with that for him is twofold. number one the people in there with is masks on and the people who chose not to go are suggesting they are not sure what the president is telling them is right. here is a committed base worried they might get the disease if they show up even though the president has down played the risk and the other part that is

dangerous is the political piece which is he came to tulsa for the very specific reason of energizing himself at a time not just his campaign or the people he twoonts vote for him but himself at a time when he has been taking a beating from all sides for his coronavirus response, his response to the unrest over the police involved killings. this was a time when the president is looking to get himself going and now he looks out at a sparse crowd some of them wearing masks. >> doctor, i want to go over the numbers again. 8.7 million global infections. 461,000 people in the world dead from coronavirus. 2.25 million infections in the united states. one-quarter of all infections in the united states. 120,000 deaths. we are still on the upswing in several states. i think there are three or four states that have set new records in the last few days. this administration is behaving like this is the past.

that there is nothing more to do. they don't have the briefings anymore. the president said when asked about whether he would wear a mask or advise people to he said people can do whatever they want. they have lost their will to fight this and we are very much in the middle of it. >> that's right, ali. if this stadium were the microcosm of this response, think about the things that could have been done to mitigate the risk of all these people together. if the administration had supported and promoted the use of masks, physical distancing, of taking the pandemic seriously, then people would have taken those measures. and we are seeing the same thing in all of america. if the administration had continued to keep that amount of stress on, you know, and telling people the importance of this pandemic, hey. we reopened because we can't stay indoors, we didn't choose this pandemic. you know, history chose us to be the generation that goes through this. and this is the time we have to

put in that effort and inconvenience we are facing so more of us can survive to the next new year and that is really the most unfortunate part of the strategy is that we have missed the advantages we had of geography. we missed the advantages of the forewarning we had about where the pandemic started to the point where we got our first case and we are still missing those opportunities at every step. >> thank you. jonathan is a senior political analyst for nbc news digital and up next we'll hear from a teacher who was arrested by police in tulsa today after she protested outside president trump's rally even though she says she had a ticket. do these moves look familiar? then you might have a condition called dry mouth. biotène is clinically proven to soothe and moisturize a dry mouth. plus, it freshens breath. biotène. immediate and long lasting dry mouth symptom relief.

it'scan it helpumberwest prickeep me asleep?n on absolutely, it senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. it's our weekend special, save 50% on sleep number 360 limited edition smart bed. ends monday. to learn more, go to sleepnumber.com sprinting past every leak in our softest, smoothest fabric. she's confident, protected, her strength respected. depend. the only thing stronger than us, is you.

with spray mopping to lock away debris and absorb wet messes, all in one disposable pad. just vacuum, spray mop, and toss. the shark vacmop, a complete clean all in one pad.

guys! guys! safe drivers save 40%!!! safe drivers save 40%! safe drivers save 40%!!! that's safe drivers save 40%. it is, that's safe drivers save 40%. - he's right there. - it's him! safe drivers do save 40%. click or call for a quote today. iredefined the wordng th'school' this year. safe drivers do save 40%. it's why, at xfinity, we're committed to helping kids keep learning through the summer. and help college students studying at home stay connected through our university program. we're providing affordable internet access to low income families through our internet essentials program. and this summer, xfinity is creating a virtual summer camp for kids at home- all on xfinity x1. we're committed to helping all families stay connected. learn more at xfinity.com/education.

guys, times are tough, and it's easy to feel tired, down, and out. but this is no time to be soft - we've gotta man up, america! powerful test x180 supplements from force factor work to ramp up total testosterone, helping you build lean muscle, fuel desire, and improve performance. that's why force factor is the #1 fastest growing men's health brand at walmart. don't settle for less - maximize your masculinity with test x180's total testosterone boost. rush to walmart today and score test x180. very heavily infected but all people from china in late

january, which is months earlier than other people would have done it if they would have done it at all. i saved hundreds of thousands of lives. we don't ever get even a mention. >> that's the set up for the overflow crowd outside the b.o.k. stadium. there is no overflow crowd outside the b.o.k. stadium because the stadium itself isn't full. in fact, there is a lot of empty space inside. donald trump is there delivering his speech as promised. over the last four years we have a nation that have seen our republican leaders shirk their duties in favor of political ek paid yennsy and turned a blind eye to his lewd behavior and tendency to lie about basic facts and in doing so ignored the real issues plaguing our country like gun violence, racism, and now coronavirus. the absence of leadership coming from the gop has not only led to legislative stalemates but a lack of true governance. a new book by political writer

steve bennon touches on these issues. he writes quote the electorate has long had reason to assume both major parties were mature and responsible policy making entities. their philosophical differences not with standing the actions of the republican party over the last decade made it clear it is time to re-evaluate that assumption. the current iteration of the gop is indifferent to the substance of governing. it is disdainful of expertise and analysis. it is hostile toward evidence and arithmetic. it is tethered to few if any meaningful policy preferences. it does not know and does not care about how competing proposals should be crafted, scrutinized, or implemented. the modern republican party has become a post policy party. end quote. joining me now is the producer on the rachel maddow show and the author of the maddow blog and the new book "the imposters how republicans quit governing and seized american politics." steve, good to see you and thank

you for joining us tonight. here's my question to you, steve. for the average american, we have the vote. we have the right to make a choice between competing candidates. but the behavior of the republicans in recent years has caused that choice to disappear because they have become an ideologically bound party without policy priorities, meaning that you can't really go to an all candidates meeting and listen to both candidates and think, i might just vote for that one because they're the better candidate. it is a checklist party now of beliefs that you hold. >> i agree entirely. i think that as republicans have moved away from their traditional governing party roots and become what i call a post policy party, what we see is a party that has abandoned the pretense governing is important. when voters have to make a decision between the parties and candidates it is hard to make any kind of sound judgment because ultimately the parties aren't just offering different answers. they're asking different kinds of questions.

that leads to an asymmetry that i argue in the book leads to political breakdown. >> so part of the problem, though, steve, is it doesn't matter where you are in the political spectrum. there is no example in history of countries that work well with one political party or one dominant political party. in other words if you are a dyed in the wool democrat it would serve you to have a reasonable, republican party that could engage in reasonable debate about policy issues that you're discussing. is that possible? is that republican party still around somewhere in a trunk? >> it's hiding well. i think your larger point is exactly right. in a madisonian model of government we need two competing governing parties. they need to push and challenge each other, test each other's questions and answers. i think that is the hall mark of a healthy democracy. a vibrant political system. right now we don't have that. >> hold that thought for a

second, steve. donald trump is talking about confederate statutes. i'll come back to you. let's just listen in. >> i've used the word on occasion ombre. very tough ombre is breaking into the window of a young woman whose husband is away as a traveling salesman or whatever he may do. and you call 911 and they say i'm sorry. this number is no longer working. by the way, you have many cases like that. many, many, whether a young woman, an old woman, a young man or an old man and you're sleeping. so what are you going to do, right? so they want to defund -- this is a serious movement -- in minneapolis the council has already passed it. in seattle you see what is going on there. it is even worse. these people are stone cold

crazy. >> all right. obviously he had gotten off the conversation about confederate statutes. he has said that is a deep and important part of american heritage. now he is on to ombres breaking in windows and there not being any police. we won't deal with that right now. what is the solution? there are lots of people who have called themselves never trumpers. there was bill weld the former governor of massachusetts who ran against donald trump. i think he got one delegate before having to bow out. is there a solution here that exists for a republican party to come back and make itself relevant and important to a conversation that can sharpen everybody's skills and make us better at our political discourse? >> i think so. i hope so. in the last chapter of my book i have a handful of ways i think the system can be improved upon. i'll just share one key element with you and your viewers and that is, parties change when voters tell them that they have to change. once they have an incentive, once republicans have an

incentive to break from the post policy pattern and start taking government seriously again they will. so long as they win elections they have no incentive to change because they are being rewarded. i argue in the book the moment voters turn on this approach and attitude and tell them they have to start taking governing seriously again and policy making that is when republicans will change. we will see in november. >> thank you for writing the book and joining us tonight. steve bannon is a producer for the rachel maddow show and the author of a new and important book "the imposters how republicans quit governing and seized american politics." we learned of one woman who was protesting the event inside of the barricaded area at the b.o.k. center. apparently she had a ticket. she was arrested by the police at the direction of the trump campaign despite saying she had a ticket to the event.

i want to get more into the story. here with me is that woman the teacher sheila buck. thank you for joining us. >> you're welcome. thank you. >> sheila, tell me a bit about what happened. where were you and how did you find yourself there? >> i literally left my house. i live on main street two blocks from the b.o.k. i heard protesters out in the street cheering for trump and i wanted to see what was happening at the b.o.k. >> were you supposed to be attending the event? >> i have a ticket, yes. i have a ticket. i had two tickets. >> so what caused them to get you out of the line or take you out? >> i would see them and i would pray and i got down on my knees and i prayed. and i just happened to walk

inside the arena. they let me in past the barricade and they told me i couldn't go any further and i said, i have a ticket. they said, you're not welcome. we don't want you here. but i said, i have a ticket. >> i mean, it's my house. i live here. and they said, i'm like, i'm a tulsan, an oklahoman, an american citizen, and i was doing nothing wrong. i had a black mask on. >> we are running the video of them arresting you and taking you away and you are wearing an i can't breathe shirt. what did they do with you afterward? >> oh, they arrested -- they put

me into the hospital. and i'm supposed to see my doctor on probably next week. but my blood pressure was running high and i just didn't think this would happen to me. i had a ticket. i just wanted to hear what was going to be said. i wasn't doing anything except pray. i'm a school teacher. >> so you were removed because of a protest? in other words, they deemed what you were wearing, what you were doing to be a protest and as such the fact that you had a ticket there qualified you to be arrested. >> they said yes. they said that i was trespassing. i was at a party and i had been asked to leave.

they told me it would be like if i told someone to leave my house. and they wouldn't -- i wouldn't leave. and i said, this is my country. this is my city. i have a right to be here. and they arrested me. >> did they charge you with anything? >> i believe i've been charged with -- >> she's been charged with obstruction of justice, obstruction of a police officer. >> yes, and i have bruises on my arm, which i didn't realize. i was handcuffed the whole time. my hands were handcuffed behind me. and then they placed them in the front any time they needed me to sign something. i've never been arrested before. i'm a school teacher. >> from our viewpoint it is absolutely a civil rights violation. she is there. she has a first amendment right to her speech.

she is educated, she has educated african-american children in tulsa for decades. she has seen the discrimination and disparity and the way it has affected african-american children in the tulsa community. and she felt like as a catholic kindergarten art teacher, 62 years old, she had an american right to wear a t-shirt she felt like captured her viewpoint in an event she had been invited to attend. and she was arrested for it. she did nothing but pray. she got on her knees. and she prayed and was taken to jail for it. >> yes, i was. i was nothing but peaceful. >> this is the america we are in right now. >> yes, it is. >> sheila buck, we have the video of you being nothing but peaceful. we see you sitting down. we see them arresting you and taking you away. thank you for the time you've taken to be with us.

understand that we do have the video of this, so i hope that helps your blood pressure a little bit because we want you to be okay. but make sure you go see your doctor. sheila buck is a teacher. she was removed from the trump rally despite having a ticket to be there because she was wearing a shirt that said i can't breathe and she sat down in protest while praying. coming up, public stand-off. the united states attorney geoffrey berman formally fired by bill barr after refusing to resign. than rheumatoid arthritis. when considering another treatment, ask about xeljanz a pill for adults with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis when methotrexate has not helped enough. xeljanz can reduce pain, swelling, and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections. before and during treatment, your doctor should check for infections like tb and do blood tests. tell your doctor if you've had hepatitis b or c, have flu-like symptoms,

or are prone to infections. serious, sometimes fatal infections, cancers including lymphoma, and blood clots have happened. taking a higher than recommended dose of xeljanz for ra may increase risk of death. tears in the stomach or intestines and serious allergic reactions have happened. don't let another morning go by without asking your doctor about the pill first prescribed for ra more than seven years ago. xeljanz. and ask your doctor about biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in certain adults. it's not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to and stay undetectable. that's when the amount of virus is so low it cannot be measured by a lab test. research shows people who take h-i-v treatment every day and get to and stay undetectable can no longer transmit h-i-v through sex. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure.

rare, life-threatening side effects include a buildup of lactic acid and liver problems. do not take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or rifampin. tell your doctor about all the medicines and supplements you take, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or if you have kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis. if you have hepatitis b, do not stop taking biktarvy without talking to your doctor. common side effects were diarrhea, nausea, and headache. if you're living with hiv, keep loving who you are. and ask your doctor if biktarvy is right for you. hi. uh, can you tell me how to get to i-70, please? o-okay, are you -- ah, yes. thank you. switch to progressive and you can save hundreds. you know, like the sign says.

okay. after lots of back and forth the attorney general william barr announced the formal firing of the new york u.s. attorney geoffrey berman after he refused to resign on barr's notice last night. in a statement released this afternoon barr claimed berman had chosen public spectacle over public service and said he had asked the president to remove him from his post immediately since he had no intention of leaving voluntarily. shortly after the announce the

president had this to say about berman's supposed ousting. >> why did you fire geoffrey berman, mr. president? >> that is all up to the attorney general barr who is working on that. that is his department not mine. but we have a very capable attorney general so that is really up to him. i'm not involved. >> if you'll recall the president has referred to the justice department as his justice department in the past. i guess whatever is convenient in the moment. joining me now is former assistant u.s. attorney in the southern district of new york nick ackerman. this has been a fast moving story. last night while rachel was on the air we first heard word that this had happened. he was being replaced by jay clayton who heads the securities and exchange commission and that would make jay clayton if he was confirmed the first person to run the southern district of new york who has no prosecutorial experience whatsoever. then we got a statement from geoffrey berman to say he didn't step down and he has no plans to step down until he has a senate approved replacement.

then barr said he is fired. then trump says he has nothing to do with it. finally, berman puts out a statement saying that he is stepping aside. what sense do you make of all of this? >> i think the sense i make of it, it is really a repeat of history. the same thing happened with richard nixon in 1969. robert morganthal was in the u.s. ---was then the u.s. attorney in the southern district of new york. that dispute went on for four months while morganthal tried to press nixon and his attorney general john mitchell to put somebody in that office who was independent and nonpolitical. that was the issue. the same exact same thing happened here. by the way, john mitchell was later convicted of obstruction of justice and other crimes. the same thing has happened here. trump and barr got together to obstruct justice. they wanted to reach into the southern district and squelch the investigations that were

going on relating to rudy guiliani and relating to the inauguration committee and probably other matters that we don't even know about. geoff berman did just as he should do. he stood up for the independence of the southern district of new york, insisted on staying there until they finally relented, and let his deputy audrey straus now be the acting u.s. attorney. audrey, who i know -- >> i want to just read the statement. let me tell you, because he said in the new statement, berman put out a statement last night to say i didn't resign and then a new one in which he says, audrey straus will become the acting u.s. attorney. i'll be leaving the u.s. attorney's office effective immediately but i could leave the district in no better hands than audrey's. she is the smartest, most principled and effective lawyer with whom i have ever had the privilege of working and i know under her leadership this office is unparalleled and ausa's

investigators, paralegals, and staff will continue to safeguard the southern district's enduring tradition of integrity and independence. i want to know who audrey is and what does it mean about jay clayton who was supposed to take the job? >> the whole point about jay clayton who has zero experience as a prosecutor wouldn't even know his way into a courtroom, wouldn't know the first thing about criminal prosecution, i mean, he would have had to take all of his cues from bill barr. this was barr's puppet in order to get done what he and trump wanted to have done in the southern district. geoffrey berman called him on it. audrey strauss is an excellent lawyer. she is ethical. she knows what she is doing. she will follow the facts. she'll follow the evidence. she is not one to be bullied. the trump administration, donald trump and bill barr, lost big time today. because audrey strauss is not a person that they think they can roll over on. no way will she not stand up to bill barr and donald trump.

i have total confidence geoffrey berman was a hundred percent right. the southern district is in good hands with audrey strauss. >> it has been quite a 24 hours. it's not yet fully 24 hours since this first developed, and there have been so many developments. nick, thanks very much. you always make things clearer to us. nick akerman is a former u.s. attorney with the southern district of new york. he was also a former watergate prosecutor. president trump just moments ago during his speech at a rally in tulsa saying that the confederate statues being torn down is a desecration of our beautiful monuments. >> the unhinged left-wing mob is trying to vandalize our history, desecrate our monuments, our beautiful monuments, tear down our statues, and punish, cancel, and persecute anyone who does not conform to their demands for

absolute and total control. we're not conforming. that's why we're here actually. [ cheers and applause ] this cruel campaign of censorship and exclusion violates everything we hold dear as americans. they want to demolish our heritage so they can impose their new oppressive regime in its place. they want to defund and dissolve our police departments. think of that. >> word is that they -- they had a hall there for 19,000 people, and janell ross is there for us. the world from the campaign was they had a million requests for tickets, so rough math, and i don't know if we've got estimates yet, is of the million, 990,000 didn't show up.

>> that sou >> reporter: that sounds about right. i think the crowd is substantially smaller than was expected and certainly far, far short of a million people. i would be shocked if there are more than 7,000 people, and that's a very, very rough estimate. but i think that there are, in addition to the size of the crowd, there are intriguing things about what the president has said to those who did show up. there's a lot of really interesting commentary. i can hear it over my shoulder here. the president is speaking, and it is being broadcast outside or aired outside on these massive screens. and the president has had a lot to say about sort of left-wing activists and sort of an attack on american values and sort of generalized idea that everyone who is not a trump supporter is,

in essence, an enemy of the country and an enemy of continued law and order. he's just described efforts to defund and attack, in his words, our police. so it is an interesting direction but clearly a pretty intentional one and definitely not in keeping with anything that people who were wondering if the president might have something to say about, say, systemic racism might have hoped for. >> no, we're not going to get to systemic racism in this conversation with donald trump, janell. the president continues to talk about our rich heritage when talking about confederate generals and confederate bases, ignoring evidence out there including the cornerstone speech from 1861 by alexander stevens, the vice president of the confederacy, that the confederacy is based on the subjugation and slavery of black people. he hasn't sort of come to terms with what was going on between

1861 and 1865. i don't think he's going to get there. but there is continuing protest in the area that you're in. there are black lives protesters there still, right? >> reporter: there are. there are some. i think, again, the volume of both protesters and supporters are perhaps not what was anticipated, but there are protesters here. there have been some small-level sort of verbal confrontations and clashes between supporters and black lives matter protesters as well as some other groups. >> it continues to be an interesting evening, and it's not over yet because that speech, as we can see over your shoulder and we see in the corner of the tv, is still going on. janell, thank you for your reporting. you started very early for us this morning. janell ross in tulsa, oklahoma. we will continue to cover the developments tonight in tulsa, oklahoma. there are a couple of things going on. that speech continues. you can see that occasionally at the bottom of the screen somewhere. we're going to pop in just to

monitor what the president is saying given the week that he has had, the fact that he has had setbacks on the supreme court, with the john bolton book and this matter under way with the southern district of new york. meanwhile, there are, as you can see only the right side of your screen, protesters. we will continue our coverage of this. that does it for me tonight. you can catch me back here tomorrow morning from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m. eastern on my program, velshi. coming up, my colleague nicolle wallace continues the coverage here on msnbc. good night. es just because of an accident. cut! is that good? no you were talking about allstate and... i just... when i... accident forgiveness from allstate. click or call for a quote today.

accident forgiveness [shouting]tate. [clapping and shouting] [cymbals clanging] [knocking] room for seven. and much, much more. the first-ever glb. get 0% apr financing up to 36 months on most models, and 90-day first-payment deferral on any model. no uh uh, no way come on, no no n-n-n-no-no

only discover has no annual fee on any card. [♪] when you have diabetes, managing your blood sugar is crucial. n-n-n-no-no try boost glucose control. the patented blend is clinically shown to help manage blood sugar levels. it provides 60% more protein than the leading diabetes nutrition shake. try boost glucose control. that's a zzzquil pure zzzs sleep. our gummies contain a unique botanical blend, while an optimal melatonin level means no next-day grogginess. zzzquil pure zzzs. naturally superior sleep. did you know that 70% is located in your gut? so, by keeping your gut healthy, you keep your immune system healthy. try align daily immune support to help naturally support your gut health and boost your immune system, formulated with a quality probiotic strain, align helps power your health from the inside. it adds more good bacteria to your gut, which works naturally with your body to help strengthen your immunity. for a daily boost for your health, take align every day, with a money back guarantee.

also try align gummies to help support gut health and a strong immune system.

hi, everyone. it's 9:00 in the east, 8:00 p.m. in tulsa, oklahoma, where at this hour an attempt to play to donald trump's vanity and his desperate need for public validation at a politically perilous moment in his presidency just might be falling flat. at donald trump's first maga rally since the coronavirus pandemic began, crowds are falling far short of the 100,000 supporters and counting that trump and his campaign predicted earlier this week. this video from the moments before donald trump entered the arena shows seats still empty in the upper deck. the campaign canceled an overflow rally earlier today when there was no overflow. not enough people showed up. a potential confidence blow to a president who stakes his political fortunes and bragging rights on the size of his crowds. but even a smaller than expected crowd, most of them without

masks, standing shoulder to shoulder despite there being more than enough room to spread out, is worrying at the height of oklahoma's coronavirus outbreak. none of the social distancing measures recommended by donald trump's cdc are being enforced there tonight despite warnings from trump's own health advisers that the event if carried out this way would put the lives of his own supporters at risk. that's the spectacle playing out publicly at this hour on what has become another split-screen day of breaking news in the trump presidency. as his supporters were gathering at their own risk throughout the day and overnight, behind the scenes a standoff was brewing at the justice department that today culminated in the firing without explanation of geoffrey berman. berman is the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, whose office, as "the new york times" writes, quote, pursued one case after another that has rankled