good afternoon in the east. good morning to our watchers out west. i'm chuck todd. there are more than 2.4 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the united states since the start of the pandemic. on nearly 123,000 americans have died. the u.s. reported an astonishing 45,000 new cases yesterday alone. it is our highest number yet, period. topping the previous high from back in april by over 9,000. however, the seven-day rolling average of deaths from covid-19 is at its lowest point since the

crisis back in march. let's hope it's not simply due to being a lagging indicator. maybe this is a positive trend. texas governor greg abbott announced his state will be pausing its reopening plan due to a recent spike in cases. he also asked texas residents to wear masks and practice social distancing. it's important not to lose track of the economic crisis unfolding alongside the pandemic. frankly due to the pandemic. the labor department says an additional 1.5 million americans filed for unemployment last week. feels like the third straight week when that's the number. joining me is my co-anchor katy tur. what else are we going to be looking at this hour? >> well, chuck, right now the house is debating its police reform bill. the george floyd justice in policing act. the house will vote on the bill this evening. exactly one month after floyd was killed by minneapolis police. the proposal would likely be a nonstarter in the republican-controlled senate but could offer a road map for

democrats looking to push the gop further. we're going to discuss that with house majority whip jim clyburn in just a moment. we're also looking at some new polling numbers in key battleground states. you mentioned one a moment ago. according to a "new york times" poll out today, joe biden leads president trump in six key states. a lot can happen, though, between now and election day. but if biden flips just those states from the final result in 2016, he would win the electoral college by a vote of 333, a tally 205. we'll break down which voters trump is currently losing and why. it's not the voters we saw at those rallies in 2016. that's an easy one, though. >> it is. it is. but there is something happening out there, and it is the older end of the electorate is what's shifting here. right now president trump is headed to one of those battleground states in the poll

you just mentioned, wisconsin. attendees at this town hall that he's taping will be required to wear a mask and this weekend when the president visits new jersey he'll not follow the mandatory quarantine announced for people that have visited high-risk states. president trump's trip to arizona this week means he would to have to self-isolate once he enters the garden state. the white house says that rule does not apply to the president because he's not a civilian. joining us now, political reporter monica alba. monica, what i'm really curious about, these swing state visits that the president is making, normally they make a lot of sense and one of the ways they'll say, oh, you know, even though it doesn't penetrate nationally, we get a lot of great local coverage. but i've noticed all these visits whether pence or trump, the local coverage is always about all of the virus restrictions they're avoiding. it's not about the substance of why they are visiting. i'm starting to wonder if they're effective.

>> normally those trips have been overshadowed by not just the preparations but then the president's own actions when he's on the ground going to places that have asked him to please wear a mask. for example, remember, this president has never worn a face covering publicly. he says once in michigan behind the scenes. he didn't want to put it on because he didn't want to give the press the pleasure of seeing him in one. he was touring a medical swab company that then had to throw away all of the sample swabs because the president refused to wear a face mask around them rendering them useless. this is something the white house has really dug in on. the president has said he doesn't plan to wear one. he doesn't care that his top health officials are saying this has nothing to do with what party you support. it's not political. everybody who is trying to prevent the spread should be wearing them. you mention that travel advisory in the tri-state area. the white house is saying the rules don't apply to the president because they tried to take so many precautions.

in arizona, they tested and screened anybody who came into contact with him. it's the same case today in wisconsin. but the messaging could not be more mixed. as you point out, all of the stories are normally around local officials. you also remember just back a few weeks ago you had mayors saying, please don't come to my city when the pandemic is still raging on because it takes away so many resources also from the people on the ground still trying to battle the virus, chuck. >> excellent point there on the local official angle, too. they don't think they get the same bang for these visits you normally would expect. monica alba getting us started at the white house. katy, i'm going to quote marco rubio. just wear the -- but i'm going to say dang. just wear the dang mask. >> yeah, just wear it. right now, chuck, the house is debating the george floyd justice in policing act. democratic reform bill would limit qualified immunity, ban chokeholds and no-knock warrants and establish a national database for police misconduct.

but where is it going to go in the senate? yesterday democrats in that chamber blocked the republicans' version of the bill, the justice act. now republicans are claiming the democrats don't actually want to pass a piece of legislation that would hand the president a win. democrats deny that. they say that bill wasn't nearly good enough. joining us is nbc's leigh ann caldwell on capitol hill. i understand you talked with nancy pelosi this morning. >> i did. i just spoke with speaker pelosi, katy. and democrats are united. they're not only united in their legislation. we just spoke with one of the three democrats who did not co-sponsor this house bill, anthony brindisi of new york. he's in a tough re-election race. he's going to vote for this house bill today. but democrats are also united in their strategy in blocking the senate republican bill. when i spoke to pelosi just moments ago, i asked her if

democrats made a mistake. that if they lost an opportunity there. she said absolutely not. she blamed the press for giving republicans too much credit for putting forward a bill that does nothing. she also said that senate democrats are absolutely right in what they did. so after this bill passes the house today, the question is where it goes in the senate. as you mentioned, it seems the only path forward is if bipartisan talks come to some sort of compromise bill to put that compromise bill on the floor. but i'm told from sources that those negotiations or talks have not even begun, katy. >> leigh ann caldwell on capitol hill for us. thank you very much. i know we have a guest coming in right now where we can -- who we can ask that question of. >> absolutely. joining us is democratic congressman majority whip jim clyburn of south carolina.

he's the chairman of the house select committee on the coronavirus crisis as well. congressman, appreciate you coming in. let me just start with -- >> thank you very much. >> let me start with what happened today. what you're doing today. and this bill is going to pass. do you think you could have given senate democrats more leverage had this bill -- had you guys been able to move your bill faster? because i have a feeling it would have had more republican support than you will today. >> i don't think so. i think that we did this with prior notice to everybody as to what we were working on. we reached out time and time again to republicans in the house to join in this. we saw polling taking place all over the country. and people were on board with us doing something to restructure our police activities here in the country.

and it took no expert to look at a man who is having the life snuffed out of him with a knee to the neck and not know that something needs to be done to respond to that. and when you look at the history of the gentleman who did the kneeing, he had at least two firearm violations before this. so we know that something needs to be done about the culture of policing in the country, and we asked them to join us in doing that. we know that everything we have in the bill will probably not come out the way we started with it. but that's why the senators have a companion to our legislation in the senate. cory booker, kamala harris, and i thought they would be sitting

down with tim scott and seeing if they could reconcile those differences there in the senate. so i think that we've got two opportunities to get this right. i would hope they would start in the senate. >> let me -- senator tim scott was -- expressed some frustration yesterday. i want to play that clip and get you to respond to it, sir. >> today we lost -- i lost a vote on a piece of legislation that would have led to systemic change in the relationship between the communities of color and the law enforcement community. it's not chokeholds. it's not the duty to intervene. it's not data collection. the actual problem is not what is being offered. it is who is offering it. >> congressman, do you accept that critique from him? >> no, i don't. the fact of the matter is, just read the legislation.

we are outlawing chokeholds in our bill. they are encouraging local law enforcement people to consider outlawing chokeholds. we are banning no-knock entrance in our bill. they seem to be encouraging these kinds of activities in their bill. the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and we don't plan to travel that road. >> congressman, what would you compromise on if a compromise happens? >> well, you know, i have been talking with karen bass about this legislation. we have talked extensively. she is the negotiator with the senate on this legislation. i have complete faith and confidence in her. she's keeping up with these things on a day-to-day basis,

and i'm not. so when she says to me that this is a good area for the compromise on, i'm going to listen to her because that's where my faith and confidence lie. >> so you are saying that there's room to compromise, and we can put the legislation back up on the screen, what the democrats are offering and what the republicans are offering. you guys are very far apart. banning chokeholds, you -- democrats say, yes. gop is talking about incentivizing police departments. change in qualified immunity. no-knock warrants, banning it in drug cases for the democrats. the republican side seems to be more about collecting and research and studying the issue. that's not what the democratic side is about. when you are so far apart, do you need to be more public about what you are willing to work with in order to get the republicans back to the table for -- or to get to any table,

frankly so, that there can be some legislation and that this just isn't stalled like so many other pieces of major legislation in the past few years? >> well, i do believe that everything that's on the table is negotiable. no question about that. the extent to which we have the negotiations depend upon whether or not the senate, the leadership, the republican leadership in the senate would be willing to sit down and negotiate. look, we believe very strongly in our legislation. we don't think we need to be studying it. we've been studying this issue now for more than a century. and so we don't need to come to the conclusion that there is something wrong with chokeholds. all the way back to eric garner, it's been very pronounced there's something dramatically wrong with chokeholds. and many police departments all over the country are outlawing

them. and so we believe strongly that we have enough empirical data on this to make decisions now. but if the senate has some other twist to this beyond encouragement, i think we'll talk about it. >> congressman, i would change subjects here to the virus. this our worst day yet. here we are. there's -- some of it feels like, what have we accomplished in the last four months, right? your home state is seeing a spike right now in south carolina. is there -- where is the urgency on the congressional level? is this one-sided urgency? it's just on one side of the aisle? >> no, this urgency is on both sides of the aisle. and i really believe that those who have the responsibility here

in the congress to try to work out whatever difference we have we ought to go forward with that. i chair the select committee on covid-19, and we have been given data from mayors all over the country, from nursing homes, and we ought to be able to move forward with some things right away. we see the report out just yesterday telling us what they've seen to be wrong. we've been crying out for efficiency, for effectiveness and equity in our administration of this legislation. and so we need to have testing. we need to have contact tracing. we need to have isolation, treatment, and we need to plus up this. instead, this administration is now withholding testing funds for, what, five or six states.

i don't quite understand that. i really believe that we need to be plussing up the testing. i don't think you'll have more of the virus because you test. what you're going to find out is where the virus is. and where we need to go in order to concentrate on eliminating it. you don't eliminate the virus by ignoring its existence. and that's what this administration seems to be wanting us to do. just pretend it ain't there. benign neglect. we've suffered too much in this country over benign neglect, and you'll not see the democrats on select committee buying into that procedure. >> congressman, indulge me on a question of 2020. this comes from something i read in a politico piece by tim alberta. he spoke to a number of black voters in detroit well-off black voters who were frustrated with the democratic party. one man, a 53-year-old real estate agent said democrat or republican, we're still in the same position.

no matter if it's a republican or a democrat sitting in the white house, we stay chasing that so-called american dream but we can't reach it because things aren't even. they never have been. they never will be. this whole piece is about disillusionment with black voters toward the democratic party. saying nothing really changes for them. doesn't matter who is in office. what is your response? >> my response to that would be, please. take a little time and study your history. don't tell me nothing ever changed. i am 79 years old. at least for another 30 days. and i know how much change has taken place in this country. for him to tell me there would be no difference if goldwater got elected rather than lyndon johnson? is he telling me the civil rights act of '64 did not make a difference? the voting rights act of '65 did not make a difference? elementary secondary education

act, medicare, medicaid? higher education act. all of these things came about as a result of lyndon johnson's great society program. he was a democrat. he beat a republican who thought otherwise. so i would say to that gentleman, just look around yourself and see where you were, where your family was in 1964 and where you are today. so don't tell me nothing ever changes. that kind of defeatism would have me still on -- in a cotton field. and i'm far from there. >> congressman, first of all, i hope i have half the energy you have at 79 years old, number one. obviously you have a birthday coming up soon. in february, you made it clear you thought the biden campaign had to make some changes. how do you think they're doing now. >> they are making some significant changes.

they are doing very well. but there's always room for improvement. i'm talking to them every day about the things i think they need to take a look at. i'm very pleased where they're going. i'm hopeful that the process, the vetting and the polling that's taking place on their choices for who should be the running mate. i hope it's going well. i think that we're poised to restore america's goodness. joe biden is a good guy. he has demonstrated that goodness time and time again. and i've been saying to people for a long time, america's greatness is under threat because we have been losing too much goodness. if he can restore the goodness of americans, we can restore our greatness. that's what it will take. we have a candidate that has demonstrated that time and time again, and i believe that the polling that you are seeing

today is demonstrative of the fact that the american people believe in joe biden as being a good guy for the future of this great country. >> congressman jim clyburn, democrat of south carolina, it's always a pleasure to get your perspective. thank you, sir. appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. katy, over to you. >> my thanks to the congressman as well. up next, an arizona councilman mocked the dying words of george floyd and eric garner saying, i can't breathe at an anti-mask rally. plus it has been 104 days since breonna taylor was shot in her home during a police raid. we'll go live to a rally where demonstrators are demanding justice. you're watching msnbc. ing msnbc. so, no more night sweats. no more nocturnal baking, or polar ice cap air-conditioner mode. because the tempur-pedic breeze°

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♪ in scottsdale, arizona, a member of the city council says he is sorry for mocking george floyd and eric garner's dying last words. guy phillips was at a rally against being required to wear a mask when he said this. >> i can't breathe! i can't breathe! >> arizona's republican governor doug ducey called on phillips to

resign saying in part, despicable doesn't go far enough. the final words of george floyd should never be invoked like this. anyone who mocks the murder of a fellow human has no place in public office, period. phillips is now hoping his apology will help. he told nbc affiliate 12 news, quote, it was a stupid and insensitive comment that i shouldn't have made and i had no intention of disrespecting anybody while making that comment. i don't know what to say, chuck. i can't breathe. it's pretty ubiquitous right now. >> it is amazing to me the amount of -- we were just discussing this off air. the amount of tone deafness there is now. i don't know if this is some sort of side effect from social media creating this illusion that anything goes and anything can be said. it's astonishing to me how poorly many public servants are

these days at picking their words and really missing the moment. part of it is they live in their own bubbles. that's the issue. they all live in their own little ideological or social media bubbles. right now a rally is being held in kentucky calling for justice for breonna taylor. protesters are demanding that the attorney general arrest the three officers involved in her death. taylor was killed when the officers ended the 26-year-old emt's apartment in a no-knock warrant. taylor was shot eight times. taylor's boyfriend said he fired first because he thought the police were simply intruders. one of the officers has been fired by the louisville metro police department. the mother of ahmaud arbery is expected to be there by the way in support. the three white men accused of killing arbery were indicted inside by a georgia grand jury. their lawyers say what their clients did was not criminal. joining us from outside the kentucky statehouse in frankfurt

is nick picket from our nbc affiliate. what are you seeing there? what are you hearing from the crowd and the speakers? >> chuck, for about an hour and a half, it's been very loud. it's been very passionate. you can see there are thousands of people on the steps of the kentucky capitol chanting and screaming the name breonna taylor. it's been more than 100 days since taylor was killed by louisville metro police department. since those days, people have been chanting. they have been making their voices toward throughout the state of kentucky in louisville, in lexington and now they are on the steps of the capitol demanding answers from the kentucky attorney general daniel cameron, asking him to arrest and charge the officers involved in that incident. on the steps chanting her name, they've been doing it for more than 100 days. and her mother tamika palmer said the more people say her

daughter's name, the more likely they are to get justice. >> now saying the name breonna taylor all over the world. it's not just in the united states. it's not just in the state of kentucky. it is all over the world. what would be most helpful to you at this time? >> to continue to say her name. we're still just in the beginning. there's still so much work to be done. so just please continue to say her name. please continue to march and demand justice. >> that's the message she's been echoing since her daughter was killed. if i step aside one more time, you can see rap icon common talking to the crowd now at the podium demanding justice. giving words of encouragement to this crowd. this program is scheduled to run until 2:00, but people in the crowd have told me all afternoon long, we're not going anywhere until cameron hears us. live in frankfurt.

chuck, back to you. >> much appreciated, nick, from our louisville affiliate. just at an interesting location in d.c., i was driving yesterday evening. an unfurled handwritten banner, breonna taylor's name written on a -- an overhead crosswalk that goes across. so you're starting to see this in many cities, including this one here in washington. >> you know, we've been seeing it in new york city for weeks. half the marches, half the time, it's george floyd then it's say her name breonna taylor. there are still signs all over the city calling for those officers to be charged in her death. let's turn now to another part of this city over on the -- on fifth avenue where mayor bill de blasio's office tells the new york daily news there are plans to install a massive black lives matter mural right outside of trump tower. the bright yellow statement is expected to be painted some time

before july 4th. along fifth avenue between 56th and 57th streets. a place that i know well, obviously. that's trump tower. the mayor's spokesperson says president trump can't run or deny the reality we are facing. and any time he wants to set foot in the place he claims is his hometown, he should be reminded black lives matter. washington, d.c.'s mayor had the phrase painted on the street leading to the white house earlier this month. and it is still there so the president will see it in washington and new york when he comes back here. you're watching msnbc. is boost high protein... and now, there's boost mobility... ...with key nutrients to help support... joints, muscles, and bones. try boost mobility, with added collagen. 'remember when any footlong was five dollars?' hit it, charlie. ♪ oh, you're five, ♪ five. ♪ five-dollar, ♪ five dollar ♪ five-dollar footlong. ♪ it's freshly made ♪ with veggies. ♪ it's back.

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rhetorically do something here. meanwhile, disneyland in california announces it's pushing back its reopening date over coronavirus safety concerns. they were scheduled to welcome back visitors on july 17th. believe it or not, supposedly, all things -- all systems go for an opening in july for disney world. we'll see if those plans change. in tulsa, oklahoma, 36 firefighters are now in quarantine after a co-worker started showing symptoms of covid-19. officials there believe the firefighters started showing symptoms after attending a wedding. and aaa estimates that summer travel will be down nearly 15% compared to last july through september. it will be the first decline in summer travel since 2009. katy, i'm getting nervous about a road trip. there's rumors, according to my kids, that there's no place to use a restroom as you go down the interstate. we'll find that out ourselves, i

think, coming soon. >> i was worried about that when i was considering what we were going to do for the summer. obviously, we're not getting on a plane. this is the longest i haven't been on a plane in i can't tell you how long. let's talk to a senior scholar at john hopkins center for health security. doctor, thanks for being with us today. we are seeing just terrible numbers on the pandemic and the number of confirmed cases. i think we broke a record yesterday. where do you see this going, and what can we do? >> i think that we're going to see certain states really go to a level that they had never seen before with this virus, and it's really underscoring the need to have case contact investigation be very robust. because as people open up, as they start socially interacting they're going to spread this virus. and the key will be keeping that pace of viral spread to a level that's manageable by hospitals.

you can clearly see they are unable to do that. i think that really shows that when we bought this time with these economic shutdowns we had to get ready to deal with this virus because it wasn't going anywhere. this is what we're going to see be the new normal since this pandemic. >> so what -- how should public policy match the new normal now? >> i think it really is going to come down to the fact that health departments need to be empowered to be able to do case contact tracing. we have to keep a very close eye at hospital capacity and trying to make sure that hospitals are adequately resourced for icu beds, personal protective equipment and we have to continue to message to the public this virus is still here. that you still have to take precautions. even if a stay-at-home order has been lifted that there are going to be opportunities for this virus to infect you. you cannot act as if this pandemic is over because it will not be over until there's a vaccine and we need to be mindful about our contacts. i don't think we're going to get

to full stay-at-home orders again. it will be much more targeted and much more surgical based on what's causing the spread in given areas. i don't think anybody is in favor of what happened with those blanket lockdowns which were kind of a last resort. but i think we'll see more of this and it's going to be something we'll have to contend with for the foreseeable future. >> texas is one of those states that's seeing a dramatic rise. they are worried about the number of icu beds in that state. the governor now is talking about putting a pause on any further reopening but he's not talking about rolling back and going to an earlier phase of reopening. is it enough to put a pause on things and just to ask people to not go outside unless they have to? >> it's going to be a challenge to get control in places like texas where we're seeing hospitals inundated and the percentage of tests is rising. it will probably cause less impact from the virus than if

the reopening went on as scheduled. i think there's going to be some danger with the whole canceling of elective surgeries ark gay i. you run that balance that's hard to keep with normal medical care and covid care and strike that balance. but i do think there's lots of -- not a lot of political will to go backwards. and i think that's going to be something you'll not find people complying with anymore just because the perception in the community in the public has changed. and i don't think that you'll find people complying with stay-at-home orders or any kind of rollback. and i think politicians will be sensitive to that going forward. however, that really puts the burden on us as public health officials to talk about how important it is to actually do this. even if you have a green light in your state to do things you really need to take precautions.

>> doctor thank you for joining us. we appreciate it. over to you. >> i'll just repeat. pretty much every time we go to break, just wear the dang mask. as the white house struggles with the economic fallout of the pandemic, two of the top economic advisers are leaving their post. is this the time for that? new data shows the u.s. saw another week of more than a million americans file first-time unemployment claims. you're watching msnbc. fight modo severe rheumatoid arthritis. proof i can fight psoriatic arthritis... ...with humira. proof of less joint pain... ...and clearer skin in psa. humira targets and blocks a source of inflammation that contributes to joint pain and irreversible damage. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor if you've been to areas

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house judiciary chair jerry nadler says he's now open to impeaching attorney general bill barr. nadler changed his position after two justice department officials testified before his committee on political meddling in criminal cases. >> you said on sunday that impeaching bill barr would be a waste of time. is that still your position on whether the house should pursue impeachment? >> we're looking into that. we may very well. >> and why is that? new allegations or what prompted you guys to actually go forward with that? >> no, i think the weight of the -- the weight of the evidence and what's happened leads to that conclusion. >> "the washington post" summed up some of barr's recent controversial actions. since february, barr has intervened in two criminal cases to benefit trump advisers. removed a u.s. attorney investigating trump's personal lawyer and implemented a forceful crackdown on

demonstrators protesting police violence to make way for a presidential photo op. attorney general bill barr is set to testify before the house judiciary committee next month. chuck, that will be a hearing that i am going to want to see. i want to know what bill barr is going to say. i want to know what questions will be posed to him. i'm curious about his body language, quite frankly. >> let's see if it happens. let's see if it happens. it's been over -- it's been -- he hasn't done it yet in front of the house judiciary committee. and there's been yet another abrupt departure from the white house economic team. thomas phillipson, the acting chair of the white house council of economic advisers, is leaving his post at the end of the month. the announcement comes just days after senior white house economic adviser kevin hassett said he would be leaving as well for a second time. the departures are coming amid an economic crisis caused by this pandemic. questions of who is running economic policy now? joining us from the white house is nbc's geoff bennett. i guess this means it's steve

mnuchin and larry kudlow's show? >> it looks that way. look, a white house official declined to elaborate on mr. phillipon's departure. he says he's returning to academic life. he is described as someone who didn't have significant pull within the white house, wasn't really substantially involved in the negotiations around economic relief between congress and this white house. he's actually viewed widely among officials with the council of economic advisers as a partisan. philipson attacked folks on twitter in much the same way his boss, the president does, and that was seen as being out of step with the cba which has a mandate to provide sober analysis. has departure comes after kevin hassett, the old council of economics adviser, who returned for a three-month stint to help advise this white house through the perils of the pandemic related economic issues.

so now there's this question about the void that's left on president trump's economic policy team, chuck. >> well, kevin hassett, you know, he was brought in specifically on this. we are now at a peak again, and we're about to come up with the biggest question, i think, in the next round of relief is, does the extended unemployment get extended? the extra unemployment, does it get extended? there's more and more data from some exists that indicate if you take that away, the bottom could fall out. who is going to make that argument inside the white house. >> you're right about that. so far, republicans on the other side of pennsylvania avenue, on capitol hill, haven't shown a real willingness to do that. so far, this white house, this congress, has doled out some $3 trillion in economic relief. the trump administration has really been on a footing to sort of project this return to normalcy, but you've seen coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, spike across the country. there was more bad jobs data out this morning.

so, yeah, it's an open question about where this white house goes next. and who, frankly, is advising them on what decisions to make, chuck. >> geoff bennett at the white house for us on this topic, thank you. katy, over to you. >> let's stay on the economy. despite some businesses reopening, many americans are still out of work. another 1.5 million people applied for first-time unemployment benefits last week. more than 47 million americans have filed for unemployment since the start of the pandemic. let's bring in nbc news jo ling kent with more details. we were just talking about unemployment insurance and extending that extra money that the federal government is handing out. it still sounds like there are a lot of people who could use, frankly, need, that cash. >> absolutely. the number of people currently collecting unemployment right now that ongoing collection number out of the labor department report is over 19 million. so the pain is still very much

there. the good news is the 1.5 million number we got for last week continues to be a bit of a drop. but we're still sitting at this million-something figure, right? and that continues to be unprecedented for what we've seen prior to this. 19 million people collecting unemployment right now. compare that to pre-covid levels. just about 2 million in february. the other number that really matters and should matter to policymakers right now is that 970,000 people are collecting pandemic unemployment assistance. if you look at all the people collecting that right now, that's about 11 million people. so all of these numbers add up to the fact it's going to be a very slow recovery but there are mixed signals right now twhen comes to the economy. we've got durable goods coming in for may. and it showed that people are feeling bullish about spending a little bit of money on cars and washers and dryers. that came in better than expected, but at the same time, you also have big brands like

apple reclosing their stores as they say covid-19 is hitting them hard again, and they just want to be careful, katy. >> people not wanting to buy anything that isn't essential, it sounds like. jo ling kent, thank you very much. chuck, when you talk about that unemployment insurance, if you take it away from people, that extra cash, think about the ripple effect. people who can't pay rent or mortgage or maybe pay their car loan and just bring that up to the chain and what that means for the wider economy. >> well, and just to put it in crass political terms. the timing would be devastating for the president. if he's worried about this economy, this is no way to ensure that it improves. and certainly in the short term. up next, joe biden builds his lead in six battleground states key to trump's win in 2016. steve kornacki breaks down the numbers after this quick break. you're watching msnbc.

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the democratic national committee is telling delegates to stay home instead of heading to wisconsin. the dnc says they'll use live broadcasts and online streaming for a convention across america. and while former vice president joe biden still plans to accept the presidential nomination with a speech in milwaukee, it is unclear how large the in-person audience will be. that is in contrast to the republican national convention, which expects thousands of people in jacksonville, florida, later in august. officials say they plan to have sanitizing stations and to check temperatures and implement social distancing. i don't know how the president is going to like that, but a new poll from the university of north florida finds local residents do not want them there. 58% strongly or somewhat oppose jacksonville hosting the rnc. 42% support it. also, among the opposition, there are 19% or there is 19% of republicans.

chuck, this is a state where coronavirus is on the rise. and this is polling that is in line with all of this polling that you're about to look at right now, which shows that the president is out of step with the electorate on coronavirus. >> well, look, not to get into the weeds in florida politics quickly, but duval county, which encompasses jacksonville, is a swing county. it's been one of these counties that recently started to become more and more competitive. it's hard to get the republican, any republican to victory if you're losing duval and i-4 corridor and south florida. trump pulled it off, but he did well in northeast florida. so there's some risk here, a little bit. >> right now, mike pence is speaking in the potential in the one-time battleground state of ohio. maybe it will be back in the battleground again, at the youngstown police department. president trump is expected to

arrive at another truly battleground state, wisconsin. let's bring in steve ckornacki, and steve, we're just drowning in state poll data. and you know, it didn't have a great track record in 2016, but it does seem to comport with our national numbers. >> yeah, that's the interesting thing. we were here yesterday talking about 14-point lead nationally for joe biden. "new york times" and sienna, they went through six of these battlegrounds. i'm going to show you, this was the 2016 result in pennsylvania. remember, trump narrowly won it. what does the nigh poll show? completely different. biden up by ten in this pennsylvania poll. michigan, another one, three tenths of a point trump won the state by in 2016. first republican since '88 there. now, look at that, an 11-point deficit. trump sitting at just 36% in michigan. wisconsin, narrow in '16 for trump, now big for biden in this poll. 11 points. those, of course, the three battlegrounds we talk about most. the three surprise switches in 2016. how about florida? trump won this by two points in

'16. here's the polling. biden up six in florida. biden doing better, for instance, among senior citizens now, than hillary clinton did four years ago. arizona, trump won this by three in 2016. democrats have been bullish on this. their poll tells them they're smart to be. seven points advantage for biden. and north carolina, trump won this with a pad in 2016 by four points. now the polling shows biden ahead by nine here in north carolina. and just we can illustrate, we'll use this a lot this year. the electoral map. this is what it looked like in the trump victory. if you plug these results into here, pennsylvania, michigan, give wisconsin to the democrats, then go to arizona, florida, and north carolina, look at that. look how dramatically that changes the electoral college. and of course, if you're getting a national result like and state poll results like this, you mentioned t you have to start talking about states like ohio and iowa and maybe others as well. at least when the race looks like it does right now.

>> there's a few other states that suddenly slip into the competitive column, i'm looking at you, south carolina or kansas, believe it or not. in addition, perhaps. we'll see. but perhaps. anyway, steve kornacki t is early, and we'll have more state polls, where hai have no doubt. katy, over to you. >> coming up in our next hour, a look at the change in one month since george floyd's death. you're watching msnbc. copd makes it hard to breathe. so to breathe better, i started once-daily anoro.

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well, good afternoon. i'm chuck todd. it is 2:00 p.m. in the east, 1:00 p.m. in wisconsin where we expect the president to touch down at any minute. in fact, he did just touch down. traffic control just tells me. the administration calls this an official white house visit, not a campaign stop. but it is wisconsin, it comes as donald trump trails in the polls there. he'll be doing a town hall with his favorite anchor over at fox. >> and as wisconsin's health

department has increased its rating of coronavirus activity to high, wisconsin is not alone. on wednesday, the u.s. saw a record number of coronavirus infections. more than 45,000 in a single day. today, the governor of texas announced a pause on that state's reopening. experts warn at the current pace, houston could soon be the hardest hit city in the country. >> meanwhile, on capitol hill today, the house is poised to vote on police reform one month after george floyd's death and the bill is expected to pass along mostly partly lines. curious to see if or how many republicans do support this democratic bill. my coanchor katy tur has a look at what we're also watching this hour. >> chuck, i hear the white house is whipping votes against that bill, which is interesting. in moments, we'll see presumptive democratic nominee joe biden in pennsylvania. he's in lancaster where he'll meet with families who have benefitted from the affordable care act.

today's in-person event is part of a push by the biden campaign to amplify the importance of obamacare, and here is biden right now in lancaster. you can see, he is wearing a mask and social distancing is being practiced. he's amplifying obamacare because, one, it was the signature legislation of the obama administration, and it was especially beneficial for black and brown communities. pennsylvania is also a key state in the 2020 election. a "new york times"/sienna college poll shows the former vice president leading by a ten-point margin there. a nationwide surge in coronavirus cases is being driven by ballooning infections across the south and the west. arizona is rapidly -- is a rapidly growing hot spot with more than 3,000 new cases reported today. one doctor described the situation this way. each day, i have been going into work over the last month is

worse. joining us now from scottsdale, arizona, is nbc news correspondent joe fryer. joe, here in new york city, things got so bad so quickly that people here took it very seriously. they didn't leave their houses. they did not go to work. when they did venture outside, they did wear masks. and they stayed away from people. you're still seeing a lot of that here today, even though we're in phase two. now that things are getting bad in arizona, how is the population reacting? >> i think it is starting to sink in for some people here, but it is very slow and gradual. you have to keep in mind, arizona, like most of the country, is sort of moving in the opposite direction. instead of closing down, things have been reopening for the past several weeks, which means people are out and about. we're on a busy stretch here in scottsdale, many small businesses here, restaurants. we do see people out. they are wearing masks for the most part because they have to in this county and the phoenix area, but the concern is

definitely growing. we spoke with a 30-year-old young man who says when things started to reopen a few weeks back, he was out affbars, out at restaurants. earlier this month, after going to the bar with some friends, he says he came down with covid-19. it was so bad, jimmy flores says, he had to go to the hospital. take a listen to how he describes what happened. >> i'm the guy that didn't take it seriously. i was not social distancing, not wearing a mask, and kind of just felt invincible, right? i got my results back on thursday. positive for covid. i knew that existed, i mean, i was worried about my grandparents and the older population, right? but for me, i didn't take it seriously for myself, which was a very terrible mistake. >> flores is out of the hospital now, which is good news. he's trying to sort of spread his message to other young people because he did see so many young people who weren't wearing masks, who weren't

social distancing. here where i am in maricopa county, they have seen more than a third of their total coronavirus cases in this pandemic in just the past week. and about half of those cases are people under the age of 45. that makes sense. they're the ones who are out and about, the ones most likely to be in restaurants and bars. the question is, is this going to sink in for them? are they going to show more caution and follow masks, do a better job of social distancing as they're out and about? because things are not closing down here anytime soon. katy. >> i know the statistics say that young people don't die from this, but going to a hospital, whether or not you die from it, is still a really big deal. it's still tough to be in there. it still takes up an icu bed, and frankly, when you leave, you're still saddled with crazy medical bills, as we have seen people report all across the country. joe fryer, thank you very much. and chuck, i know the president is there in wisconsin. i'm going to bet that unlike joe fryer and folks in arizona, he

is not wearing a mask. >> i tell you, i think we should have a psa of people who regret that they didn't take it seriously. that might be very impactful on people having a series of people of just regular, instead of worrying about celebrities, we were talking about that with jim mattis, maybe everyday people who wish they could go back in time and take it seriously and wear the mask. i thought that was a powerful statement from that gentleman. moments ago, as you noted, president trump stepped off of air force one in wisconsin. his first stop, a ship yard that was recently awarded a multi-million dollar contract, and later, the president will be in green bay to tape a town hall with fox news. it's his second trip to a battleground state this week alone. he was in arizona earlier this week. it comes as a new poll there shows him losing ground in wisconsin. biden's lead is 11 points in "the new york times"/sienna college poll. it was a marquette poll, which is a well respected one there, is also in the high single

digits. not quite as high as the times poll, but pretty close. joining us from green bay, wisconsin, a fine, fine nfl city, it's called title town for those of you who do not know it, nbc news political reporter, josh letterman. how political is this trip? is this official trip for the white house? >> well, it's an official trip, meaning it's not supposed to be a campaign stop, chuck, but as we know, the president has been using official visits to do what looks like campaigning. particularly in light of that rally in oklahoma that went so poorly with such a disappointment for the president. we saw just a couple days ago, he was in arizona for what on the books wasn't an official event, but sure looked like a rally. there's are echoes of that in wisconsin at the shipyard behind me where the president will be speaking. he's trying to tout a positive economic message on manufacturing that he thinks hopefully will transcend even the negative economic news about

unemployment and coronavirus. also, doing this fox news town hall over in green bay just before he comes over here. clearly another tempt to speak directly to his base, as we know, tends to watch a lot of sean hannity. >> well, and if everybody in that crowd is wearing a mask, how do we think the president will react to that? >> yeah, that's a good question. we know that at that town hall, participants and attendees will be required to wear masks. they'll also have their temperatures taken as they go in. we don't expect the president himself to be wearing a mask. he's shown so much reluctance to do that in public in the past. that, again, according to his critics, exacerbating this division between the official public health guidance as the spikes in coronavirus cases are going up, that people need to wear masks, need to social distancing, and what we're seeing put into practice by the president that seems to suggest that it's not absolutely necessary to be doing that at

this point in time. >> josh letterman on the ground with the president in wisconsin. josh, thank you. katdee, over to you. >> and chuck, joining us now is the lieutenant governor of wisconsin, mandela barnes. mr. lieutenant governor, thank you for joining us. how do you feel about the president showing up today in the middle of a pandemic not wearing a mask? >> yeah, thank you so much for having me. the president is clearly in desperation mode right now. we see that he's unwilling to wear a mask. but that just speaks to the larger problem of him ignoring the coronavirus pandemic altogether. people continue to lose their lives. people continue to become infected with covid-19. so we don't expect the president to change course. he's going to continue his same stubborn route, and he's going to travel to states like wisconsin because this is where he's losing ground. he's down eight points to joe biden. and it is because of his failed leadership. and his failed leadership could not be more clearly exhibited in

the fact he's unwilling to wear a mask. >> how do you feel about what the dnc just announced, that they're not going to be holding a largely in-person convention, asking delegates to stay home. i know they're doing it for safety reasons, but there is an economic side of this, and the city of milwaukee is going to end up losing a lot of money. >> there is certainly an economic impact. i look forward to inviting tens of thousands of my closest friends to the state and city i call home, and that won't be the case, so it's unfortunate in that regard alone, but we have to do -- we have to go with the safest option. you see donald trump, who pulled out of the state of north carolina, because they wouldn't let him have the rally or the convention that he wanted to have for the rnc. we saw how reckless it was when he went to oklahoma, even though his own campaign staffers tested positive for covid-19. we're not going that same route. we're leading with science. and we're leading with the best medical advice. in order to keep people safe,

and to save lives, because that's what this is all about. and you know, i'm obviously disappointed, but we can't control these sort of things. >> lieutenant governor, i'm curious, how important do you think it would be for joe biden if tammy baldwin were his running mate to carrying wisconsin? is it important to you, important to see a fellow wisconsinite on the ticket, or what advice would you be giving the former vice president if he asked you about the running mate choice? >> tammy baldwin is a close friend of mine. if she were on the ticket, i would be overjoyed because wisconsin is a critical state. but, you know, i think that tammy can obviously win wisconsin. she's demonstrated as much. she won with 54% of the vote just two years ago. and even if she's not on the ticket, i think there is some wisdom in following her path to

victory. leading with values, leading with a vision, and leading with courage. being bold in a time where people are calling for bold leadership. i think about her first election to the u.s. senate in 2012. this is a time where a lot of people were running away from obamacare. she talked about how obamacare didn't go far enough. so we need that. we need that sort of leadership with whoever is on the ticket. >> lieutenant governor, i want to ask you about what happened on wednesday night. governor evers had to activate the national guard after bystanders were injured and there was damage to state property during a protest. can you tell me what happened there? >> yeah, there were some unfortunate events, and people got hurt during some of the demonstrations. i'm not sure who was responsible for it. but it's not what we have been seeing for the last couple weeks of people peacefully demonstrating, saying their demands, and you know, when that sort of thing happens, it's so,

you know, it creates a contrast between actual peaceful demonstrations and nonviolent demonstrations that we had been seeing, but when innocent people start getting hurt, that is a problem because that's not what we're out in the streets demanding. we're protesting against violence, and i stand firmly in my position being against violence, against innocent people in any form. however it may rear itself. and given some damage that happened to the state capital the next day, we had -- or there were public hearings. i believe the assembly committee on education was scheduled to meet, so the capitol staffers, precautions were taken to make sure people working in the building would be safe going to work the next day, especially as we have lawmakers and legislative staff who are trying to do the right thing, who actually are listening to the demands of protesters and want to implement the policy that is going to increase quality of

life for all people in wisconsin. >> wisconsin lieutenant governor mandela barnes, really appreciate you coming on and sharing your perspective with us, sir. we hope to talk to you again. >> thank you for having me. right now, joe biden, by the way, is wearing a mask, as he speaked to a roundtable of health care -- a roundtable on health care in the state of pennsylvania. moments ago, we saw this footage of mike pence. mike pence also wearing a mask after his event in ohio. so katy, one former vice president, one current vice president. both wearing a mask. >> isn't it remarkable, chuck, that this isn't just a given, that we have to comment on which political leaders have decided to wear masks in public, even though all of our health officials say you should wear a mask. it shouldn't even be news that we have to say joe biden is wearing a mask. or vice president pence is wearing a mask. and donald trump is not wearing a mask. we are living in highly crazy times, it seems.

and we have been for quite a while now. >> still ahead, as cases of coronavirus spike in texas, the state's governor has paused new plans to reopen. will other states be forced to do the same? but first, we're going to take you to capitol hill. the house is now debating its own police reform package, as an overhaul remains stalled in the senate. you're watching msnbc. forcefule the nerves in your colon. miralax works with the water in your body to unblock your system naturally. and it doesn't cause bloating, cramping, gas, or sudden urgency. miralax. look for the pink cap. no uh uh, no way come on, no no n-n-n-no-no only discover has no annual fee on any card.

like real bad. we can't wait to get you back so we've added temp checks, face coverings, social distancing and extra sanitizing to get the good times going again. we're finally back... and can't wait until you are too. on capitol hill, right now, the house is debating the george floyd justice in policing act. this is the democratic police reform bill on the house side. lawmakers are poised to vote on the bill this evening, which is expected to pass. even if it does, the senate seems very unlikely to take it up now. legislation in that chamber remains stalled, blocked by a proceeding yesterday by the senate democrats. joining us now, nbc congressional correspondent, kasie hunt. and kasie, you know, i would

love to go back into time and see the house police reform bill voted on before we saw the senate debacle yesterday. and i say that because i notice now the white house is whipping against this vote. you know, without attempts to keep republicans in line in the house, what could this bill have gotten? >> i think that's a very good question, chuck. and you know, i think that's why you saw it play out in the senate the way it did. the political imperatives here are very intense. republicans feel pressure to do something, or at least to get credit for doing something. and the calculation for democrats was that the measures that they were willing to take simply didn't go far enough. and they didn't want them to get credit for those measures. that's what house speaker nancy pelosi essentially told my colleague leann caldwell earlier today when she was asked about it. speaker pelosi said the media gave them way too much credit for trying, essentially. that was basically the frame

that democrats were taking on this. and you know, i do think the feelings on this, how this has all played out, have been very intensely hurt, especially among those who felt they were trying to make a good-faith effort on the republican side in the senate, namely senator tim scott. i think we also saw some flashes of frustration from senator mitt romney, who as we know walked out into the protest, came out and said black lives matter. and then thought that he was working on a bill that could potentially get some bipartisan compromise. but again, you know, for democrats, they make the point that the bill that republicans pulled together mostly put tools into place to research and report on many of these issues as opposed to actually making concrete changes like banning choke holds outright and banning no-knock warrants. they were pretty far apart in the policy here, chuck.

>> they were. that's for sure, and that's why you wonder if strategically things could have changed had the order of these votes changed. but you know, perhaps that's what mitch mcconnell had up his sleeve when he suddenly reversed course and fast tracked an attempt, perhaps to jam the house. as we know, that's what the two sides usually like to do to each other, is jam each other with legislation. kasie hunt on capitol hill for us. thank you. and katy, over to you. >> and chuck, it has been one month since george floyd died in the custody of four minneapolis police officers. since then, thousands of protesters have marched in the streets, both here in the united states and around the world. floyd's death has forced a reckoning on race, on policing, and on the symbols of our past. nbc correspondent morgan radford has a look at just how much has changed. >> i can't breathe, officer. >> it's the moment --

>> i can't breathe! >> -- that launched a movement. nearly eight minutes of video that shocked the nation, showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of a black man named george floyd. protests in hundreds of cities across all 50 states. more than 17,000 national guard troops deployed. over 9,000 civilians arrested. a national reckoning that has brought both chaos and change. >> breaking news, an arrest has been made in the death of george floyd. >> all four officers now charged in george floyd's death. in atlanta, one officer fired and two facing charges after the shooting death of rayshard brooks. and after months of protests in louisville, one of the three police officers involved in the killing of breonna taylor now fired. the country also grappling with its past. already more than 67 statues

have been removed from coast to coast. either by choice or by force. >> we all need to be in solidarity together. >> the calls for justice echoing in unexpected ways too. in the corporate world, companies like quaker oats changing their branding. and their messaging. even nascar shifting gears, banning the confederate flag at events for the first time in its history, leading to a powerful moment of solidarity with the circuit's only black driver. but as the fires died down, and the glass is swept up, more lasting signs of change have emerged. the city of minneapolis now banning choke holds and neck restraints. a majority of the city council promising to disband the police department and rebuild it entirely. in los angeles, over $100 million now pledged toward health and education in black communities. money previously allocated for police. but many activists say this is

just the start. >> what does this movement look like a month from now? what does it look like in a year, five years, tern years? >> i do think this movement will shift. i think we'll continue to see kind of an evolution in interest and in tactics being used, with, you know, with folks beginning to kind of embraceolutely see t mobilization continuing through the end of the year. >> what do we want? >> justice. >> a change that can only happen in the months and years to come. >> that was morgan radford reporting. a lot has happened in just 30 days, chuck. >> you know, we're about to come up on the end of the first six months of the year. it's stunning what's happened in a month. just in response to george floyd. wait until you see a timeline we're putting together for first read tomorrow morning for what's happened the first six months of this year.

it will make your head spin, and billy joel will need to update his song. >> up next, we head to arkansas where coronavirus cases are on the rise, particularly in northwest arkansas, where polltry farming is a way of life. life

developments in the coronavirus pandemic. here are the facts as we know them this hour. today, the director of the cdc revealed that the number of americans who have been infected by covid-19 may be ten times higher than what's been reported. according to their estimates, it could top 20 million. currently, there are 2.3 million confirmed cases. the cdc's new estimates is based on a nationwide look at the results from antibody testing, and basically, the head of the cdc says it appears to be ten times. the spread is ten times what's been reported. >> in south carolina, the charleston city council will hold an emergency meeting tonight to consider an ordinance that would require residents to mare masks in public places.

if it passes, it would go into effect at noon tomorrow. >> the kentucky derby which was postponed in may, has been rescheduled for september 5th. labor day saturday, and fans will be allowed in the stands for the 146th running at churchill downs but there will be a reduced capacity. >> and if you refuse to wear a mask on a delta flight, the airline may simply ban you. the ceo announced the penalty today, and revealed the airline has already banned some passengers. >> you know, katy, sometimes you learn this as a parent, particularly when they become teenagers. suggestions don't work sometimes. >> no, just wear a mask. it is a piece of fabric over your face. i see 4-year-olds and 6-year-olds wearing masks, as they're riding they scooters all around brooklyn. you as an adult can wear a mask. it's not that hard. >> arkansas is seeing a large spike in cases of coronavirus.

hospitalization rates in the state are at their highest point since the start of the pandemic. northwest arkansas has been hit especially hard, and in particular, its poultry industry. one tyson foods facility reported 13% of its employees had tested positive for the coronavirus. of those, 95% were asymptomatic. nbc news correspondent elson barber joins us from springdale, arkansas, where tyson food has its headquarters. what can you tell us? >> spring dale, where we are, it's actually part of two counties. washington and benton counties. together, those two counties currently have over 1700 active cases of covid-19. tyson's food as far as we know, so there are kind of three big companies that operate the different poultry plants in northwest arkansas. as far as we know, tyson foods

is the only company of those three to do any sort of large-scale on-site covid testing of their employees. and the employees we have spoken to, say they that testing they had go across ten facilities in nerk arkansas, it's the first time they have been tested by their place of work since the pandemic began. as you said, 95% of the cases tyson found were asymptomatic. because of that, workers we have spoken to say they do not feel safe going into work right now. they want the plants to temporarily close and go through some sort of extended sanitation process before they're brought back to work. the governor of arkansas said he does not feel that is necessary. he thinks these plants are safe. he told us yesterday that they play a vital role, not only in getting food to everyone in arkansas but across the country. we had to hide the identity of the two tyson workers we spoke to because they're afraid by speaking to us, they could lose their jobs, but they gave us a little insight into what it's

been like for them working at these processing poultry plants. >> because i don't know if i'm infected. >> since the pandemic started, well, we have had one or two saturdays off. but for the most part, we worked every saturday. every saturday, every saturday. >> and a spokesperson who we exchanged emails with, with tyson foods, told us they have met and exceeded all the cdc as well as osha guidelines as it pertained to covid-19. as far as working extra days on saturday, that's common in the meat industry. the problem, the workers we have spoken to, they say if they don't accept and work that saturday extra shift, they might not have a job come monday. katy. >> ellison, thank you very much. today, texas governor greg abbott said he's pausing that state's reopening.

he also suspected elective surgeries in four hard-hit counties. the state has seen a sharp rise in covid cases in recent weeks, now reporting more than 131,000 infections. in houston, health officials warn that the city is on pace to become the hardest hit in the country. nbc news correspondent sam brock spoke with a doctor in houston. >> really, in a matter of a few weeks, with the opening of society, we started to see the numbers rise. first, there was just a trickle. and then over the last 14 days, things have shot up exponentially. >> joining me now is the founding dean of the national school of tropical medicine at baylor college of medicine. doctor, thanks for being with us. are the steps that texas is taking enough to mitigate what's happening, mitigate the number of hospitalizations? >> well, it's better than nothing, and it's a good first

couple of steps, both the mandatory wearing of masks and putting a pause on the opening. look, here's what we're seeing. we're in the middle of what's called an exponential rise. by that, i mean it goes flat and then practically vertical, and so we're seeing a very steep acceleration in the number of cases in houston and harris county. we're also seeing it in the other metro areas of texas. this is being accompanied by a sharp increase in the number of hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions. and the reason i add that part is because there are some who allege, oh, this is just an artifact of increased testing. it's clearly not the case. this is -- we are in this deep exponential acceleration of our epidemic. and we also now have some new predictable models and some of them are looking apocalyptic, by july 4th, potentially, 4,000 new cases every day. that would be three or four times the current rate.

and that's why i have made some statements, and others have as well, that houston could become the hardest hit city in this 2020 epidemic, maybe even eclipsing new york. so we have to be very mindful of next steps. so what the governor has done is he's appropriately demanded, and the county executive and the mayor that we wear masks. that's great, and also putting a pause on the reopening. but that kind of just keeps the status quo going. i'm not sure that's really going to make a big impact on the rise. and therefore, i see practically that it's inevitable that we're going to have to take steps to dial this back. i don't think those steps alone will be adequate to bring this back down. >> well, let's focus on this for a minute, because you're talking about houston being potentially the hottest spot in the country, like new york was. in new york, we had a pretty

strict lockdown. people were not supposed to leave their houses unless they had to go to the grocery store, unless they were an essential worker. everything was shut down in the city, and we went through it for many months. we're only now starting to reopen. it doesn't sound like there are other states out there that are willing to take those sorts of steps. the governor of texas has said he doesn't want to go into a lockdown again. he's just putting a pause on things. how can they expect or can they expect to really tamp down on the rise of infections, get a handle on this, if they don't take extreme measures? >> yeah, i know you bring up a great point. look, we went through a very aggressive social distancing exercise beginning in march, and throughout the month of april. and we did everything right. we saw what was happening in new york, we didn't want to reproduce that here. we probably wound up shutting things down much earlier than what happened in new york, where they probably had six weeks of

transmission that was probably half that in texas. so we never saw a steep rise in cases or in the icus. that was great. but the epidemiologists told us we need to do -- keep that going all the way through the month of may and we would get to containment mode, meaning one new case per million residents per day. they weren't prepared to do that, so they opened up earlier, and we didn't have all the belts and suspenders for public health to do that safely, and now we're in this current situation. >> you know, it is just remarkable considering that you're seeing a rise there, looking at the images of people in gyms, people getting hair cuts, things that are unimaginable here in new york city even though we're still on a decline, at least with the gyms. doctor, thank you very much for joining us. chuck. and coming up, more than two dozen members of congress are demanding that the doj release an fbi report on efforts by white supremacists to infiltrate police departments across the united states. california congresswoman norma

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the police chief in wilmington, north carolina, fired three police officers yesterday after a supervisor found a string of racist rants on video recorded while they were on duty in the last few weeks, believe it or not. unlike so many police discipline stories, the wilmington pd said

it came internal as a review of footage. an onboard camera captured one of the officers saying the country needs a civil war to, quote, wipe black people off the map. another was heard referring to a black woman with a racial slur. the wilmington police department accuses the men of violating standards of conduct. here's wilmington police chief donnie williams. >> when i first learned of these conversations, i was shocked, saddened, and disgusted. there is no place for this behavior in our agency or our city, and it will not be tolerated. >> when you see the full stuff, trust me, it is awful, awful stuff to be hearing from a police officer. in the nation's capital today, 28 house lawmakers are calling on the justice department to release the full fbi intelligence assessment of what are efforts by white spremtists to infiltrate police departments. it claims infiltration could

potentially, quote, lead to investigative breaches and could jeopardize law enforcement sources or personnel. joining us is democratic congresswoman from california, norma torres, who is leading this charge. congresswoman, here you are, talking about this, and we see this incident just now in wilmington, north carolina, just sort of underscore this concern. let me ask you this. why do you think this has been so difficult to surface publicly? >> good afternoon, chuck. thank you for the opportunity. it's unconscionable that here we are in 2020, and these comments are still surfacing. and this report that was drafted back in 2006, so nearly 14 years later, congress still has not been able to view, to fully view an unredacted report. it's time that we address this long overdue issue. by the way, in 2015, department of homeland security did another assessment, and then it found

out also that there was a lot of infiltration happening, not only within local police departments but also state police departments and federal agencies. so this sounds an alarm, should dou sound an alarm to every taxpayer. we're funding these police departments and we want them to abide by the same laws that every citizen has to abide. and certainly follow our constitution. being a bigot with a bad and a gun is not acceptable. >> so you write in your letter that the doj and fbi have not taken sufficient actions to prevent white supremacists from entering the ranks of law enforcement. why do you think they haven't taken it seriously enough? >> you know, it's one agency being, you know, covering up for the other. it's the brotherhood. it's the problem that we are

seeing why problem officers continue to get hired by agencies. they move from one place to another to another. to try to give them a second chance. you know who doesn't get a second chance? black americans and brown americans do not get a second chance. when we heard those words, that one word "mama" coming out of mr. floyd's mouth, it activated every single mother in the u.s. and across the world. we want action. we want our police department to be upstanding citizens of this country. >> congresswoman, the dhs sat on one of these reports early on. they had done a lot of just the overall threat of sort of the use of white supremacy ideology motivating terrorist attacks. and i believe even the state department is concerned about

this now. >> absolutely. we have been addressing this. by the way, i served in the homeland security committee between 2015 and 2016 when dhs first looked at this. at the request of then ranking member bennie thompson. he has been on this issue, democrats have been on this issue demanding more oversight and demanding more action, but it has simply fallen on deaf ears. and we cannot continue this way. >> there is some sort of allergy when you say the word white nationalist, white supremacy, there seems to be an allergy about tackling this as head-on as you think folks would want to do. normally torres, thank you for coming on and sharing your perspective. >> thank you. and coming up, joe biden is on the campaign trail.

that's a look at the podium right now. his remarks have been put out. he's expected to speak at any moment in pennsylvania. the battleground state, and -- one of them, and he's about to pick up a bunch of new endorsements from high ranking officials and the leader of the new endorsement effort will join us with that exclusive. actually, we're going to stay right here because as you can see, joe biden is about to speak in pennsylvania. let us listen in. >> worst global health crisis in living memory. and donald trump will file in the supreme court today an attempt to strip away health care coverage from tens of millions of families in the united states. strip away their peace of mind away from more than 100 million people with pre-existing conditions. if he succeeds, more than 23 million americans will lose their coverage overnight. including nearly a million pennsylvanians.

insurance could once again discriminate or deny services or drop coverage for people living with pre-existing conditions like asthma, diabetes, cancer, and so much more. perhaps most cruelly of all, if donald trump has his way, those who have complications from covid-19 could become the new pre-existing conditions. some survivors will experience lasting health impacts like lung scarring and heart damage. and if donald trump prevails in court, insurers would be allowed once again to strip away coverage, jack up premiums, simply because of the battle they survived fighting coronavirus. those survivors, having struggled and won the fight of their lives, would have their peace of mind stolen at that moment they needed it most. they would live their lives caught in a vice between donald trump's twin legacies, his

failure to protect the american people from the coronavirus and his heartless crusade to take health care protections away from american families. you know, i have called on donald trump many times to withdraw his lawsuit. today, i'm renewing that call. mr. president, drop the lawsuit. stop trying to get rid of the affordable care act. stop taking away people's health care and their peace of mind. now more than ever, stop trying to steal their peace of mind. i cannot comprehend the cruelty that's driving him to inflict this pain on the very people he is supposed to serve. you know, one of the families the affordable care act has delivered peace of mind to is the ritters, who live not far

from here in manheim, pennsylvania. jan and madeleine ritter were just 4 years old when their mom stacey heard some of the most devastating words a parnent can ever hear. ever hear. both of her twins had been diagnosed with leukemia. i promise you that news is news that literally stops your heart. it wrenches your entire world off its axis. and the very last thing on your mind, the very last thing that should be on your mind, is whether you can afford the treatment for your children. when stacy's twins got sick, there was no affordable care act. so after draining days and endless nights, harrowing stem

cell transplants and the fickle waves of hope and fear as th, t ritters still faced a future where their twins could be denied coverage for the rest of their lives because they had a pre-existing condition. the affordable care act was created to put a stop to that in humanity, to ensure that people like stacy thrust into the worst nightmare of their lives could focus on the fight that matters to save their children. stacy's twins won their fight. they beat cancer. now they're 22 years of age. january is studying early education at elizabethtown college. because of the law, the aca, insurance companies can no longer deny them coverage because they're survivors of

cancer, a pre-existing condition. i'm proud of the affordable care act. in addition to helping people with pre-existing conditions, this is a law that delivered vital coverage for 20 million americans who did not have health insurance. a law that bars insurance companies from capping american benefits and from charging women more for insurance simply because they are a woman. it's a law that reduced prescription drug costs by nearly -- for nearly 12 million seniors. they had seen their costs spike because the medicare donut hole would have suddenly re-opened and their costs would have gone up precipitously. it's a law that saves lives.

now in the middle of the worst public health care crisis in modern history, at least since the pandemic of 1918, donald trump is suing to take the ritters and millions of more americans back to the way things were. i think it's cruel. it's heartless. it's callus and it's all because he can't abide the thought of letting stand one of president obama's greatest achievements, the affordable care act. you know, we've seen that same callusne callusness in his handling of the coronavirus. as most americans are coming to risk with this unprecedented scale of danger in this pandemic, president trump publicly claimed that -- i quote -- anybody that wants a

test, anybody, can get it. it's simply not true. he knew it. then five days ago in his campaign in tulsa, oklahoma he admitted telling people -- i quote -- we have to slow the testing down. slow it down, please. he actually said it. in his hour and 50 minute speech, slow the testing down, please. at first his spokespeople tried to say he was joking. then trump himself said he wasn't joking. he called testing, quote, a double-edged sword. testing is a double-edged sword. that's the quote. let's be crystal clear what he means by that.

testing unequivocally saves lives. widespread testing is the key to opening our economy again. that's one edge of the sword. the other edge he thinks that finding out that more americans are sick will make him look bad. that's what he's worried about. he's worried about looking bad. well, donald trump needs to stop caring about how he looks and start caring about what americans -- what's happening in the rest of america. the number of cases is increasing in 29 states. we're going to be dealing with this for a long time. trump can't wish it away. he can't bend it to meet his political wishes. there are no miracles coming. we're not going to have to wait

for this miracle. none is coming. we're going to have to step up as americans, all of us, and do the simple things and the hard things to keep our families safe, to re-open our economy, to eventually put this pandemic behind us. sadly we're going to have to do it without responsible leadership coming out of the white house. so it's up to us, all of us. we're going to have to wear masks. i have mine off because we're socially distant and i'm inside of a microphone. i wear it wherever i go when i step outside my house. i know as americans it's not something we're used to, but it matters. all the evidence from all over the world tells us it might be the single most effective thing we can do. we're going to have to socially distance like we are here today.

it's not easy. it seems so strange to us. not as americans, but as human beings. we're built to talk, to laugh, to hug to gather with other people. i know i am. i know you are. for now we have to socially distance. it matters. we're going to have to find a way to keep our economy running as we bring the number of cases down. the president wants us to believe there's a choice between the economy and public health. amazingly he's still not -- hasn't grasped the most basic fact of this crisis. to fix the economy we have to get control over the virus. say it again. to fix the economy we have to get control over the virus. he's like a child who can't believe this has happened to him. all his whining and self-pity,

this pandemic didn't happen to him. it happened to all of us. his job isn't to whine about it. his job is to do something about it. to lead. if i have the honor of being president, i promise you i will lead. i will do everything i can to take responsibility and ease this burden on you and your families. i'll put your family first. that will begin with a dramatic expansion of health coverage and bold steps to lower health care costs. we need a public option now more than ever, especially even more when 20 million people are unemployed. that public option will allow every american regardless of their employment status the choice to get a medicare like plan. it will force private insurers to keep claims low, offer better

coverage because for the first time they'll have to compete for your business against a public insurer that doesn't have to make a profit. we'll lower premiums for people buying coverage on their own by guaranteeing that no american will spend more than 8.9% of their income on health care coverage. all this plan will be laid out during the next few weeks. we'll further reduce costs to give americans the choice to choose plans for lower deductibles, for lower prescription drug prices, for ending the practice of surprise billings which can leave you with unexpectedly high bills after you leave the hospital. here's the bottom line -- my plan lowers health care costs, gets universal coverage quickly

when americans desperately need it now. families are reeling right now. enduring illness, forced into risky choices, losing their employer's plans in droves as their employers go out of business or have to suspend business. they need life lines now. now. that's what the families here today deserve. that's what the families across this nation deserve. they don't need a president to go into court to deny them the health care they now have. we need a president who will go into the white house and will fight like hell to make sure they get the health care they need. if donald trump refuses to end this endless crusade against health coverage, i look forward

to ending it for him and working quickly with congress to ramp up protection it is to get americans universal coverage as soon as humanly possible. this is my promise to you -- when i'm president, i'll take care of your health care coverage and your family the same way i would my own. this is personal to me and to my wife jill. when i was sworn into the united states senate, next to a hospital bed, my wife and daughter had just been killed in a car crash and lying in that bed were my two young boys, surviving boys. i couldn't have imagined what it would have been like if we hadn't had health care, health care we needed and needed immediately. 40 years later one of those little boys, my grown son beau

biden, after having been the attorney general and coming back from iraq for a year, had contracted a fatal cancer. the question wasn't whether or not he could survive it. the question was how long he would have to live, how many months. i remember sitting in that hospital at walter reed with my two other children hunter and ashley and jill, and his wife and his two children holding his hands. i remember thinking -- i give you my word to this -- what in the hell would i do if the insurance company was allowed to do what they could have done before the affordable health care act. come in and say you've run out of time. you've run out of coverage.

suffer the last two, three, four, five painful months dying on your own. suffer in peace. i can't fathom -- i cannot fathom a parent having to go through that, which is exactly happened to many families before the affordable care act. so, amy, i understand when i say i'll take care of your health care coverage the same way i take care of my family. there's nothing i take more seriously. that's my promise to stacy and victoria and amy and to every american. that's what the presidency is. the presidency is a duty to care, a duty to care for

everyone, not just who voted for you, but to care for everyone, for all of us. no trust is more sacred. no responsibility more solemn. no purpose more fundamental than for a president to do absolutely everything he or she can do to protect american lives. i want every single american to know, if you're sick, if you're struggling, if you're worrying about how you're going to get through the day, i will not abandon you. i will not leave you to face these challenges alone. we'll get through this together. we're going to build a health care system. we're going to build on it. we're going to build our economy, our country back to better than it was before this god awful crisis. that i promise you.

let me end by thanking the families for being so public and willing to come here. there's so many families like yours all across america. when they heard you today, they said that's me. i get it. there's real solidarity. we're going to get this done. i promise you. god bless you all. may god protect our troops. thank you. >> a delayed start for us. brian williams here with you on a thursday afternoon. 3:05 p.m. here in the east, 12:05 out west. nicolle wallace is back today. she'll be along in the next interview featuring her interview with joe biden.

we've been listening to joe biden -- her interview with john bolton. forgive me. we've been listening to joe biden in lancaster, pa. mike lemly is covering. this is his fourth visit to pennsylvania in the last couple weeks. >> it's a neighboring stating to his home state of delaware and pennsylvania is his home state. it's sacred ground to him and the democratic party. >> reporter: that's right, brian, as well as being close to home it allows him to continue to campaign, but campaign safely in a way his campaign is concerned about. we haven't seen him on a plane other than to go to houston to meet with the family of george floyd. if you're going to pick one state to visit often, pennsylvania is a good one. if joe biden wins every state that hillary clinton and flips pennsylvania, he's 18 votes away

from the magic number. that's ohio, or florida. there are many states from which to choose. in terms of his message today, before joe biden ran for president in 2019 he was one of the most active surrogates for democratic candidates in the midterm. what was the message that proved effective to help democrats win back control of the house? it was about pre-existing conditions and preserving the affordable care act. joe biden and his team wanted to take that 2018 strategy and expand it. that's why you see joe biden marrying what has been the core message of his campaign, which is hammering president trump over his handling of the coronavirus. with that strategy focusing on the legal threat to the affordable care act. biden saying president trump is

callus in seeking to overturn this law in the supreme court. that was the focus you heard from the former vice president today saying we need to do the difficult things and the easy things. one of the easy things is wearing a mask. biden noting he has done that other than when he's standing behind the podium. in terms of the setting, this is the first of the trips to pennsylvania for the former vice president that has left safely democratic terrain as he had been in the philadelphia area. here in lancaster county, a county president trump carried in 2016. it's a more republican leaning county. the biden camp feels it's consolidating that conservative support and push them into the biden column.

>> mike lemly in lancaster, pa. we turn to the coronavirus and the headlines and the facts as we know them. the number of coronavirus cases has passed 2.4 million thanks to a spike mostly in the south and west. cdc director robert red field said the actually number could be ten times higher than that or over 20 million. the death toll stands at roughly 123,000 is thankfully not rising as fast because younger people make up many of the new cases. this comes one day after the u.s. reported over 45,000 cases, the highest number in a single day since april and those numbers are expected to grow. data from children's hospital in philadelphia shows parts of

arizo arizona, texas, florida could see higher number than reported. in new york city during the height of the pandemic. the spike in texas has prompted the governor to pause the re-opening process and ban elective surgeries in hospitals. scott gobly talked about what states need to do. >> they need to figure out where the spread is occurring, what the settings are where the spread is occurring and target interventions towards those venues. if it's spreading in bars, they might have to shut down bars. in some parts of these states, they'll press up against the hospital capacity. it's not what's happening today. it's what's happening two or three weeks out. you have to believe there's a lot of community spread in these states. >> there is positive news in new york. once as we said the epicenter of

the pandemic, governor cuomo says the state reported 17 deaths from covid yesterday. imagine that being a marker of progress, but it is. hospitalizations fell below 1,000 for the first time since mid march. vice president mike pence who leads the white house coronavirus task force which these days is operating completely outside of public view tried to project an optimistic tone as he met with republican senators yesterday. told them only 12 states are seeing an increase. in reality half of all states have seen an increase. the president said the economy contracted by 5% this year. the economic toll continues. under 1.5 million americans filed employment claims last week. more than 47 million people have

filed for unemployment since the middle of march. despite all this national economic counselor larry kudlow says things are moving in the right direction. >> well, there are spikes in hot spots. not doubt about that. there will be some shut downs in individual places. we are keeping a very close eye on this and let me say that basically the lineup is still so positive, even with these hot spots. >> larry kudlow was the man early on who assured the country coronavirus had been contained. a congressional watchdog agency said the irs sent $1.5 million to recipients who had died. this comes as democrats a, alon

with the president, are pushing for another round of payments. let's get to the latest from some of the biggest coronavirus hot spots. we begin with sam brock in houston. >> reporter: brian, good afternoon. the covid-19 crisis in houston and in the state of texas is deepening right now. we know there's been a flurry of activity from the governor of the state to try to combat this. two specific measures today. one of them pausing re-openings in the state which is interesting because we've seen bars, restaurants and amusiemen parks re-open. it's not clear how much of an impact that measure would have at this point. governor abbott coming out and announcing that elective surgeries will be temporarily suspended in four counties. with that as a back drop i'm at the texas medical center right now. this is a facility serving the

houston area. it's the largest medical center in the world. despite that issues when it comes to capacity and icu bed hospitalization rates. what we're seeing is reports of 97% of the icu beds filled. 27% of them with covid-19 patients. in a bizarre twist today ceos from four of the largest hospitals in the houston area held a zoom and said we're okay on capacity. let's not ring the alarm bells. the texas children's ceo talked about the fact there were 40 plus icu beds available in his hospital and they have been transferring adult patients to children's. that's a complete reversal of what we heard a week ago from these leaders. we are seeing a spike in cases. among young people it's particularly high. talked to doctors here and asked their biggest concern. they said right now the

positivity rates. for the community as a whole it's 10%. in houston methodist the head of the emergency department is saying he's seeing a 37% positivity rate. he believes there are concerns people aren't paying attention to wearing masks, social distancing, hand hygiene and the business re-openings. all those measures creating a perfect storm which the state and city is trying to deal with. that's the latest from houston. brian, back to you. >> sam brock, thanks very much. another big hot spot is the state of arizona. that's where we find joe fryer from scottsdale outside of phoenix. hey, joe. >> reporter: hey, brian. the newest numbers that came out in arizona 3,000 new cases here.

that's not a record, but it's above 3,000, not too far off the record set a couple days ago. in maricopa county they say they've seen over a third of their coronavirus cases in just the past week. now about half of those cases are people under the age of 45. continuing this trend we're seeing younger people get sick. in some ways that's good news because they're less likely to be hospitalized. at the same time we know younger people are going to be out and about. jimmy flores said he was out with friends and he wasn't wearing a mask and wasn't social distancing. a few days later he got covid-19. it was so bad he was in the hospital. he's better now, but he's trying

to send a message it can still be bad for younger people. take a listen. >> if you don't have a personal experience and you see the news, it's so unbelievable that this sickness can really be detrimental to your health. people aren't going to believe it until they experience it. that's what i experienced myself. that's what i've seen in others. when i went public, i had to be clear and adamant on not just, hey, i'm sick, but this is why i'm sick. >> reporter: right now here in arizona they say icu beds statewide are about 88% full. there is still some room. the fear is that number will go up. we've spoken with some experts who say the top priority is making sure hospitals in the area are staffed up. brian? >> joe fryer in scottsdale,

thank you for that report. we're happy to have dr. irwin redliner. he's at the columbia university in new york. he has an expertise in pandemics. doctor, have you learned anything new about the behavior or characteristics of this virus, how predatory it is or is this the same customer that came along at the start of 2020? are we dealing with the same predatory illness? >> it's the same predatory illness, brian. it's very concerning. we keep learning more and more information that people need to know about. just because you're young doesn't mean that you're invincible. furthermore, we're seeing a lot of cases in young people who get sick and recover, but not fully. we're seeing young people end up needing lung transplants or

having other complications in the aftermath of covid. even if the death rates are not yet where we might be anticipating in the coming weeks and months, we have a lot of illness caused by this dangerous virus. >> there's a quote from dr. redfield floating around today. on rare occasions when members of the coronavirus task force speak publicly, usually on a conference call with reporters, anthony fauci on a radio interview, lord knows we haven't seen a public cdc briefing, they make news. usually the headline gets our attention. where are these public officials? >> yes, so, you know, we should be experiencing these press conferences -- they were called.

what we need are really serious leaders and experts in the field to give us daily updates. that would be fauci, redfield. that's what we need because we're not getting the truth from the white house. we have this toxic brew of not doing testing and now the misinformation and the polarization of this issue. we watch these rallies where trump says what he thinks and it is encouraging people not to wear masks and making people feel comfortable without the distancing. it's become almost a political symbol and support of the president to not wear a mask. i don't know how we got here. it's going to be a situation

that's not easy to control as we run up to the november elections. >> it's been a problem in governing. the state governors who have been all in with trump and very much cheer leaders for the re-opening of the government campaign have operated under the motto let the good times rule or live and let live. some will now have to back announce their intention to have all their people wear masks in public. people who were thinking clearly we're exempt in this state. >> yeah. we'll pay a very steep price for this terrible messaging around the control of the covid-19. you know, people have responsibility for making this happen. we were warning people many, many weeks ago in april that it was too soon to re-open. by the way, the other thing -- i know we discussed this, brian.

if you make announcement that we're re-opening, even in phases, people are taking that to mean we're getting back to normal. let's go to the beach. let let's go to the bar. let's not wear a mask. that was a failure of communication. it's going to be hard to put that back in the bottle, brian, because people have created a different mindset as a result of terrible leadership from a lot of governors and the president himself, brian. >> final question. this estimate from cdc director robert redfield, looking at blood samples across the country for the presence of antibodies. he feels the true number of americans infected may be over 20 million. does that sound about right to you? >> no. it's a total underestimate. we knew from the beginning that we should expect at least 50% of americans to get infected with

the virus. many, many -- the vast majority of those will not have symptoms and be fine. a certain number will continue to get sick and very sick and fatally sick. i wouldn't be surprised if we ended up with 250,000 fatalities by the end of 2020 unfortunately. >> our thanks to dr. irwin redliner for coming on. when we return we're learning more about the price of the president's rally specifically this -- dozens of secret service personnel have been told to self-isolate after attending that trump rally last weekend in tulsa. today the president on the round in a battle ground state where the voters are increasingly rejecting his handling of this pandemic. thousands of women with metastatic breast cancer, which is breast cancer that has spread

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the explosive surge of new coronavirus cases nationwide has not stopped the president from holding two campaign rallies in the past week alone. the campaign's decision to hold these events despite public health warnings from their own experts has directly put the president's traveling staff at risk. dozens of members of the traveling secret service detail who were with the president over the weekend for his tulsa rally are now reportedly under quarantine. this comes after two of their

colleagues tested positive for coronavirus. sparking fresh criticism over how the president has handled the pandemic in the whole. now the president makes a stop in the battle ground state of wisconsin. democratic mayor of green bay is speaking out. he says the city will not tolerate what he called, quote, bigoted rhetoric. in an open letter to the president the mayor wrote the challenges we face as a community state and country are immense. they have grown more immediate with the spread of the coronavirus. this moment calls for courageous leadership. i ask you to exemplify these qualities tomorrow and in the days ahead. we're happy to be joined by two friends. robert costa, a reporter for the "washington post." mara gay editorial board member from the "new york times."

both are msnbc contributors. robert costa, will anything compel the president to speak or speak differently about this coronavirus pandemic? it has been a tough and fraught topic for him in the past. you don't have to be a shrink to realize he would just like to declare it over and move on. >> well, the white house and the president they see the polls, brian. the president pays close attention to the erosion of his support in the suburbs and he's also watching vice president biden giving a speech today calling the twin legacies of president trump, the lack of preparation for the pandemic, but also the case of the gop dismantling the affordable care act. policy now at the front and

center of this campaign. the president's allies say he'll continue to stoke his base, but he can't ignore if he wants to win a state like pennsylvania, he has to come back to health care. >> mara gay, he continues to go deep on law and order sometimes tweeting that at random hours of the day and night. he's going big now on statue preservation quoted a leader of black lives leader on twitter today, someone who was quoted saying let's burn it all down. he tweeted out treason, insurrection. we're guessing this will be the theme at least for now. >> yeah, you know, it's interesting because this playbook of race baiting, it's as old as the country itself. it's really what helped elect donald trump in 2016.