i'm andrea mitchell in washington with breaking news of a major abortion issue handed down by the supreme court today. chief justice roberts joining the four liberal members of the court to overturn louisiana's tough restriction, a ruling it violates the cons statiotitutio. requires abortion providers prohibited at a hospital within 30 miles. joining us, pete williams and nbc news contributor claire mccaskill. pete, it's a big deal decided on

relatively narrow grounds with the chief justice joining the liberal majority. please, explain. >> reporter: right. narrow grounds of these, andrea. four years ago, 2016, supreme court strum down an identical law passed by texas. the bra houhaha over the passagf that law you may remember. today would have done the same thing. we said that law was unconstitutional and said this was, too. chief roberts says i disagreed four years ago, binding and for that reason i join the spooem court saying that law in texas just like the law in louisiana would be an undue burden on a woman's right to choose. a victory in that way. the second way it's a victory is this -- by the way, women's groups said if this law had gone into effect it would have left a single doctor to provide abortions services for all of louisiana. there was a second issue lurking

in this case. louisiana said, you know what? abortion is a woman's right, and the challengers to the louisiana law, doctors and clinics, can not assert that right. therefore, throw out the lawsuit. they don't have the right, legal standing to bring it and the court rejected that finding agency well. the liberals said today, you know, those groups should not be able to challenge these laws. striking language from some of the desceissenters today, strik language from them as alito said it bulldozes the president's decision on abortion. justice thomas believes the supreme court has long gone down the wrong path on it but it is a big victory today and certainly means states can't do anything like this, and the question i think now is, when other restrictions on abortion come up, what's the supreme court going to do? i think the signal todf justice is not interested in any ruling that completely eviscerates roe v. wade.

>> that is the really interesting takeaway indeed. claire, does this make abortion rights more of a campaign issue for both sides? >> well, it's going to be difficult for the -- those republican senators who believe in a woman's reproductive freedoms to justify votes for kavanaugh. because basically kavanaugh did, in this decision, is say, i don't care about precedent. if you notice, andrea, and think people back me up here. people love precedent, until they don't. and today was a day where chief roberts, justice roberts said, i'm going to respect steerese disea decisis, the real term for respecting this. kavanaugh didn't. the question, will new restrictions bring roberts back, coming from the court, bring roberts back to the position he had in the case, the decision

that he respected today even though he disagreed with it. politically, this is difficult for donald trump, though. we've now had gay rights. we now have abortion rights. all the things he wants to brag about, about how he's made the court so conservative clearly, they have not followed that political lead that donald trump is trying to campaign on. >> and i think i mostly am taking from you, when you talk about republican senators it might make it more difficult for susan collins, already in a tough race? >> yeah. i think you know, susan -- there was a lot of discussion during the kavanaugh hearings, and he tiptoed around this issue in the hearings. if you go back and look what he said, he talked about how much respect for roe v. wade but other thing s he's written, supportive of states putting restrictions on a woman's right to choose an abortion under some circumstances. so this will be one that her

opponent will say, see? we told you. he won't respect the president. on the other hand, susan will be able to say, right. this wasn't roe v. wade. >> one other thing about kavanaugh, andrea, he tries to put himself in the middle. he's not at hard over on this question as, say, thomas and alito are. he says in his opinion is, i don't think we know fully how this law would have worked. and i would have sent it back to the lower courts to chew on it more and to get more information about the experience of how it actually would have worked in louisiana. he does not completely cast his lot with the more conservative members of the court here. >> and briefly, i know there's a different schedule, because of the pandemics, than we've ever experienced before. what is left we expect, the big cases, pete? >> two big challenges to getting trump's financial records from congress and from the new york district attorney. also waiting for a decision,

important religious freedom case, andrea, on state aid to schools. religious schools. then this question of whether lectors, people who cast their vote in the electoral college can be free agents. nor decisions tomorrow and more into the week as the court term goes longer. >> pete williams, thank you so much. claire mccaskill, always great to see you. thanks for jumping in there. turning to the pandemic crisis. health and human services secretary alex azar warning the window is closing for the u.s. to get the virus under control. the facts this hour -- the u.s. now surpassed 2.5 million cases of covid-19 with more than 125,000 deaths. arizona, florida and texas now the epicenters for the virus, as georgia, south carolina and nevada are on the rides hitting record highs for those states in daily cases. in texas yesterday vice president mike pence reversing course for the first time publicly urging people to wear a face mask, and wearing one himself in contrast, of course,

to president trump. but a large choir singing for pence in a baptist church in texas, not wearing face coverings. this as republican governors in texas and florida who had followed the president's lead to reopen their states before leaving the cdc guidelines now forced to backtrack. texas governor greg abbott warning of a very dangerous turn as he shut bars back down in the last few days and in florida, governor ron desantis blaming younger floridians for the spread as mayors in three cities including miami closing beaches for the upcoming fourth of july wrnd after cases increased fivefold over the past two weeks. joining me now, nbc news correspondent joe fryer in houston. nbc news white house correspondent kristen welker, and dr. peggy hamburg, former fda commissioner and former health commissioner for new york city. welcome all. joe, first to you. talk about the hospitalizations, the use rising in texas. governor abbott now

changingening course. testing lines, awaiting in galveston as well as the deadline in two days ending the testing subsidy? >> reporter: so the governor clearly has been alarmed. you've seen them in the decisions he's made over the last few days. case numbers are up. hospitalizations kept going on 16 days in a row. record for hospitalizations broken, inial finally yesterday just a slight tick downward. still about 5,500 patients in hospitals here in texas which is an alarming number. the fear that is going to continue to go up. dr. birx was here yesterday and mentioned seeing an alarming increase in people between the ages of 20 and 40. young adults with underlying conditions who are also ending up in hospitals and in icus. it's so alarming we saw last week the governor first pausing the reopening plans here's in texas. then on friday deciding to close all the bars in this state, which had just reopened weeks earlier today restaurant capacity moved down to 50%. down from 75%.

so these are changes that the governor is hoping will make a difference. time will tell, though, if that's going to be enough at this point. the other major concern here, as you mentioned, andrea, is testing. several citieses, not just across texas, across the sun belt as well. seeing long lines, whether people standing in line. sometimes not social distancing. waiting for hours trying to get in to a place to get a test, or whether we see long lines of cars lined up at various drive-through clinics, hard to get an appointment as places where they want you to make an appointment. the clinics you just show up, people sometimes wait for hours, sometimes are turned away and sometimes getting results with all the backlogs at labs across country can take even longer. several derricks sometime as week or longer as well depending where you are. heard that a lot in arizona last week. it's so bad the mayor here in austin, texas, is now saying you can only get a test if you have symptoms. not testing people who don't have symptoms. andrea?

>> joe fryer, and kristen welker, that completely conflicts with the reassurances, the assurances from the president and the vice president that tests are available and people can get tested and that we test more here than anyplace else? >> reporter: absolutely does. they have been insisting tests are widespread and anyone who wants one can get one and clearly based on that reporting not the case. it's a part of the mixed messaging we have seen from this administration, and as you laid out at the top, andrea, we've seen this from the vice president who over the weekend visited texas. he was wearing a mask. he urged other people who are in hot zones to wearing a masks, and that was a shift in tone from what we've heard from this vice president and certainly it's not consistent with what we've seen from the president himself. who has only been pictured once wearing a mask, and, of course, the president had that big rally in tulsa, arizona. not wearing a mask. not following social distancing guidelines laid out by his own administration.

packing in supporters, thousands of them, despite warnings by dr. an her to fauci and other members of his task force that people should not be holding large gatherings right now. it also comes as the "washington post" is reporting on, according to sources there and according to video obtained by the "post," we haven't obtained the same video showing trump campaign staffers removing signs urging folks to adhere to social distancing guidelines. wee reached out to the campaign, the campaign manager, rally in compliance with local requirements. the vice president and the president coming under scrutiny and questions about whether they're essentially sending the message, do as we say, not as we do. the vice president was pressed on that during that briefing he held on friday, andrea, and he said bottom line is everyone has a first amendment right to make these types of decisions for themselves, but, of course, his administration continuing to come under this scrutiny and they are facing a tough

re-election battle, andrea. >> and dr. hamburg, texas, florida, arizona, new epicenters. these are states that reopened before they'd even met the cdc guidelines for having enough tests, enough contact tracing. people seem to be ignoring the so-called gateways that dr. birx and dr. fauci had previously announced. dr. fauci now is raising alarms that we are unlikely to develop herd immunity due to a likely combination of partially affective vaccines and people who refuse the take the vaccines because of conspiracy theories and fears against vaccines? >> well, we are in a situation that is much worse than we had to be in, and it's very sad, and when you look at the curves comparing how the u.s. has managed this covid-19 crisis within our borders to europe, china, south korea, other countries, we can see that we

haven't done the job that we need to do. we have to press forward with serious public health measures to control and contain and break the chains of transmission of this virus while we wait advances in therapeutics, drugs, that will help reduce the seriousness of the disease, and the lethality of the disease and, of course, a vaccine. but there are many americans who remain at risk and as we see cases actually going up, we know that there is significant ongoing transmission in communities that before felt they weren't really affected, and time is running out to really get our arms around this and not lose the grounds that we had achieved with our earlier efforts at social distancing, and sanitation and hygiene, mask-wearing, et cetera. so this is a time when people

really do have to take this seriously from political leaders, from the top down, to the local level, and all of the public. >> dr. hamburg, let me ask you about the lethality. death rates seem to be going down. is that because we found putting people on ventilators may not be a good idea, that decembremdesie better? >> we're learning a lot more about the virus and the disease it causes and as a result are better able to medically manage it, but i think that there are some people who are saying, well, even though the cases nowish going up, we're not seeing the death rates going concom ne p kocom nently

concominently. we know deaths lag behind the cases. and we're seeing cases in younger people and those people may not be as asymptomatic though we're seeing more serious disease in those younger people as well, including hospitalizations as we just heard. but the young people not at symptomatic can still spread. so while we're seeing new cases, even if we're not seeing more deaths at the moment, we need to understand that they will sadly come, and that we cannot let down our guard. in fact, we have to redouble our efforts and we have to be able to put in place the kinds of programs and policies that can make a difference, and we need a national plan. we need more leadership, consistent messages, and guidelines, and we need to make sure that there's greater understanding and alignment

between our political leaders, public health leaders and top scientific advisers. >> former fundamentada commissiy hamburg, thanks to you, kristen kel wuhrer as well reporter fryer. and what do we know about russians killing u.s. soldiers in afghanistan? what did the president know and when did he know it? that's ahead on "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. n msnbc. nice. way more unique fixtures and tiles. pairing. ♪ nice. way more top brands in sinks and faucets. way more ways to rule your renovation. nice! on any budget, with free shipping. wayfair. way more than furniture.

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a select group of congress members are going to be briefed at the white house today, we are told. after multiple reports since last thursday night that russia offered bounties to taliban militants to kill u.s. troops in afghanistan. the "washington post" and "new york times" now reporting that u.s. intelligence believes the bounties offered to taliban militants may have resulted in fact in the deaths of several u.s. service members answers an interagency group met on this at the white house back in nar. a spokesman for the security council said this continues to be evaluated, not dismissing him, but no one denying they were assessing the intelligence. the intelligence on them had been included in the president's daily briefing book, according to the "times." president trump denies ever learning of the bounties before this weekend tweeting, "nobody briefed me or told me." overnight he tweeted "intel just

reported to me they did not find this info credible and, therefore did not report it to me or to the vice president." possibly another fabricated russia hoax, he tweeted. over the weekend top republicans in the house and senate raised the issue on twitter demanding briefings and reports the british were briefed also who have forces in afghanistan. russia flatly denied it. joining me, john brennan, former u.s. ambassador to russia michael mcfaul and democratic congressman max rose who served as an active duty officer in afghanistan earning a bronze star and purple heart. first to you, john brennan. this is confusing and disturbing, but you have the nsc confirming they are assessing, not final, but reports it was in the president's daily brief. why did the president not know about it? and why having worked on the nsc, why would they not have briefed him on this as it was being assessed?

isn't this important enough given our relationship with russia and the fact he is advocating for putin to be readmitted to the g7 to have told him about it? >> andrea, the facts are still a bit murky at this point, but i think it is clear that there was some intelligence gathered earlier this year indicating that the russians were providing some time of support to those taliban elements, to carry out attacks. now, the role of the intelligence community was to assess the credibility of those reports, and to see corroboration, and if krauberrated, credible, would freed to be brought to the highest levels of the u.s. government up to and include be mr. trump. certainly the security adviser needs to be apprised of this. it's not surprising to me the russians are trying to stymie u.s. oels objepolicy objectives afghanistan. it was in february when the u.s. initiated a process with the taliban whereby the taliban would not carry out attacks

against u.s. soldiers if there was going to be a u.s. withdrawal of forces from afghanistan. so with the russians doing this to undercut and undermine the u.s. initiative, very possibly, but i still think it's important to get to the actual facts and i'm glad congress is looking into this right now. >> the congress is looking into it, but the congress has not been briefed at any level, and we don't know of any democrats from intelligence committees that are being invited, not the speaker, not senator warner, not, of course, not congressman schiff being invited to the white house. max rose, let me ask you. your reaction? you served in afghanistan. we know the ratiussians are bad actors and the gru may have have been doing this, but for the u.s. to not take it more seriously? and for the president not to have read this intelligence. does it raise questions, you know, on your radar? >> well, it raises questions,

and i find it, quite frankly, disgusting and reprehensible. look, it wasn't too long ago i was a troop platoon leader in afghanistan and i can tell you this -- it's hard enough, our soldiers have to deal with enough to say nothing of russian bounties. but there's a larger issue here. and that is when our soldiers sign up for the military, we also make a pledge to them that we are going to be there for them. that we're not going to play politics with national security. and right now it appears that either this president ignored this intelligence, his administration ignored it, and now my colleagues across the aisle and those also running for office, many of them, refused to criticize this administration. i had no problem standing up when this president killed soleimani saying he did the right thing. it is possible to rise above the partisan fray, but, again, and look, they're not involving

democrats in this meeting today. again, they are making this into a hyperpartisan issue, calling it a hoax. our soldiers, our young men and women are still out there. that's what's so disgusting about this. >> and let me play something that john bolton said, of course, he's got his new book and he was on with chuck todd on "meet the press" and chuck asked him about it. this was john bolton's reaction as a form 0er national security adviser. >> and you say briefed, does that mean he's never been told of anything about it? we don't know the quality of the intelligence or the ex-tentent it. if it goes back to march it raising other questions. the key point, accuracy to it, the russians actually paying to see americans killed that is a very, very serious matter. >> so mike mcfaul, obviously, vladimir putin has a great interest in interfering with u.s. policy around the world and

afghanistan would be a chief place, especially as the peace agreement and potential u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan was being considered, but wouldn't this have been done on the ground level by the gru without putin's knowledge? what is your assessment of that? >> well, it's possible, but i think it's highly unlikely. whenever you're taking an action like this, and if the intelligence is true, i just want to underscore how outrageous this is. we need better -- we need to get better fidelity on the intelligence but nobody brought up claims to the controversy of what's been reported. i would like to remind viewers, remember what it takes for somebody from the intelligence community to leak this information? that's against the law. and that they have chosen to do it, i think underscores they thought there was gravity here. i don't believe -- you know, putin always denies he doesn't know anything. he didn't know about the 2016

interventions in our elections either. right? he didn't know about the assassination attempt of mr. scr screwpraul in the united kingdom. i don't believe that. i believe it's empowering to him when we don't push back on these belligerent behaviors and the president of the united states has never once pushed back on vladimir putin. >> i wanted to share also you've got republicans, like lindsey graham, who say, golf with the president, before he went out on the golf course he tweeted, it's imperative congress get to the bottom 67 recent media reports that russian gru, the military intel unit, in afghanistan offered to pay the taliban to kill american soldiers with the goal of pushing america out of the region. and you've got congresswoman liz cheney, third ranking republican on the house side tweeting if reporting an russian bounties is true the white house must explain, one, why weren't the president or vice president briefed?

was the info in the pdb, the president's daily brief? two, who did know and when? three what has been done in response to protect our forces and hold putin accountable? so -- also you have congressman dan crenshaw, republican as well from colorado and a veteran retweeting liz cheney's tweet adding, this is exactly right. we need answers. so this is not a partisan issue. this is a bipartisan concern among leading members of congress. john brennan, you know the wayn. you've been a consumer as well as, you know, assessor of intel. how could it be that nobody would tell the national security adviser, the national security adviser, robert o'brien works not feel it important to say, hey, wee assessing this. this does involve the russians, and the taliban agreement, that you're talking about doing, we should talk about this. they held a meeting, interagency

in march. how could the president not know? >> yes. we know that donald trump is know tore ou notoriously dismissive of the intelligence work and does not really read the president's daily brief. it really is the responsibility of robert o'brien, national security adviser, to be sure these things are brought to the attention of donald trump. whether or not he wants to listen to it, he has to do it. the intelligence community, that information they bring forward, if, in fact, it was a march nsc meeting, inside the nsc to discuss it and look at the options, robert o'brien had that responsibility to bring that to trump's attention, and so i don't buy that this was not something that was discussed at the highest levels of the white house. i think unfortunately just like we can't believe what vladimir putin says we can't believe what donald trump says or what his spokesmen say. this is why i think we really need to get to the bottom of this because lives of our soldiers are really on the line here. >> and we should point out

during this period joe maguire was gone from dni, where he was acting dni. you had a combination of rick g grenell and john ratcliffe and know threat assessment at the annual mid-february threat assessment, not since senator coates, dni coates was dismisses and poresed out last fall has there been that kind of report to congress, to the committees, private or public. john brennan? >> well, yes. that's why i think having individuals like grenell and radcliffe, clearly just loyalists to mr. trump, does a disservice to the men and women of the intelligence community who need to be able to bring to bear the intelligence so that our national security decisions can be as strongly based as possible. and so i just don't have the any confidence right now that the senior most levels of the dni, the national security council,

are really taking their role seriously, and they are just, seem to be very intimidated by mr. trump's aversion to hearing information is counter to his druthers as well as inconsistent with what his policy options and choices might be. so this is something that, again, i think needs to be further investigated by the congress, and i'm glad, quite frankly, that the president is, jumped on to this issue. >> and congressman, do you expect that congress will be briefed? >> certainly. i expect that congress will be briefed. but what i don't expect necessarily, or what i can't assume is that they are going to be truthful. over and over and over again, we have seen a failure of this administration to actually cooperate with congress in any meaningful and substantive way. but there's also deeper problem here. the question of, why are we playing geopolitical footsie

with russia? why, point after point, when they do something wrong, when they attack our soldiers, when they invade crimea, when they interfere with our elections, why do we then try to give them things? we have got to completely re-align our nation's stance towards russia, and this should be the breaking point. they are not our friends, and we need to engage in strong multilateral action to stop them from doing things like this. >> congressman, thank you. thanks for being with us, ambassador mcfaul and of course formers d formers did kr john brennan. amp 4,000 new covid cases were reported sunday we talk to the mayor of tucson ahead. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. ching "andrel reports" on msnbc.

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as covid-19 continues to rise across the country, particularly in the south and the southwest, arizona is particularly hard-hit. over the weekend state officials reported a new single-day record of more than 3,800 new coronavirus cases. the state-wide death toll stands at 1,600. the rate of infection rising substantially faster among latinos who account for nearly 40% of cases requiring hospitalization across the state. joining me the mayor of tucson, arizona. mayor, thank you very much. how are your concerns about what the state has not done, because you and county leaders there have mandated face covering, and the governor has not, as i understand it? >> no, andrea. thank you for having me. and really putting a light on this crisis in arizona. the governor has refused to call a state-wide mandatory mask.

he had preempted cities, towns and counties from doing it and most recently, about a week ago, he reversed on that particular piece. heempted players across arizona to taking steps to prevent coronavirus that he has not. and so we're very, very concerned that he is -- reopened the state very, very quickly, and when he reopened the state, we had 24, 25, 30 cases per per day. just yesterday we saw 400 cases here in pima county and a record 3,800 cases state-wide, we are very concerned and i am personally asking the governor to reverse some of the steps he took to reopen the state.

>> you have your hands full, i know, in the midst of this crisis, of course, you've had a terrible situation with the death in custody back in april of carlos lopez and the fact that it was only disclosed just last week. three tucson police officers resigned last week after initially being cleared. what more are you doing now, and what questions need to be answered by the police over how this happened? >> we our community including myself are outraged, mad that this particular incident happened here in tucson, arizona, where we have had a chief that has moved progressive policies in our police department. the family of carlos asked me and the city manager not to accept the resignation of chief magnus, because they want to see

reform and transformation and answers for carlos and the ingram lopez family. so what i have pushed and i talked about it on wednesday when the family saw the video and when, when p.d. made this public, was that any public death has to be reported wirth the first 24 hours, even if it's incomplete information. i also want to start a pilot of community, a community safety pilot program that works interagency, outside of the police department, to look at offering public safety to our community in a different way. and then, of course, institute a community engagement opportunity for the community to be able to participate in an independent audit board. an independent auditor that we already have, really reimagine

how we do everything. so that we have as much protection as we possibly can to try and avoid this situation from happening to any one person or any family member, or any family in tucson ever. >> thank you so much. and, please, do keep us, keep us informed as you update yourself on what happens in this terrible case. thank you very much for joining us, mayor regina romero from tucson. and voting to remove confederate symbols from the louisiana flag. the latest confederate symbol toppled in the weeks of nation-wide protests over racial injustice. done partly under pressure from the all-powerful s.e.c. they would not hold athletic events in the state if that flag was still going to be used. coming up, swing shift. why president trump might be

losing ground with voters in one pennsylvania county that he won big in 2016. and a little later, senator and purple heart recipient danny duckworth on the calls to investigate whether russia paid the taliban to kill u.s. forces. stay with us. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. liquid to gel and lock it inside. for protection i barely feel. new always discreet.

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considered safe territory for donald trump. the president's response to the pandemic has resinated as well as the economic shutdown and the black lives matter protests around the country making an impression are voters, some who voted for the president in 2016. back in beaver county in southwestern pennsylvania, as part of our ongoing county-to-county series, beaver county voted for the president by 19 points in 2016. overwhelmingly white, includes steel and coal country. northwestern pittsburgh what do you hear from people you've spoke ton there as they look ahead to election day? >> reporter: andrea, talk about safe territories. trump cleaned up here in 2016. there's been a lot of speculation about whether the pandemic might change people's minds about the president and we were here about six weeks ache haache -- ago having that conversation. the people were happy with the

president, more frustrated with their democratic governor keeping businesses shut down too long. now that conversation has shifted. it's not because of the coronavirus. it is because of the issue of race. that is surprising, because beaver is more than 90% white. only 6% black. i was here over the weekend when the community held a unity march against police brute al, against racial inequality and saw a big crowd of mostly white people show up to that. that's where i met a woman named lori martin who voted for donald trump in 2016. considers herself a conservative a woman of faith and told me she recently starts adjourny to educate herself about issues of race and having conversations she's nerve her before and it's impacts her personally and politically. take a listen to what she told me. >> looking to the number right now, are you as confident about a vote for donald trump as you were in 2016?

>> i am not as confident. but i am also not at all confident in other candidates either. i haven't been honestly as focused only that. i know it's the election, but i've been focused on this personal journey with, with all of these issues that are happening. i need to take that and then translate it to a vote. >> reporter: andrea, the people i'm talking to here it's not like they woke up buy blue fever and are suddenly joe biden fans. it's much more complicated than that. bet think are asking new questions and weighing priorities and where that lands them come november, have to make a few more trips to beaver to find out, andrea. >> in one of our counties to watch. thank you so much out there in beaver county, pa. more breaking news this hour. keir simmons joins me, nbc news,

just spoke ton vladimir putin spokesperson, the russians denying that report that we've been tracking for four days now. keir 0, let's hear what peskov has to say. >> reporter: andrea, that's right. just wrapped up an interview with dmitry peskov, one of patriot's right-hand men, if you like. conducted that here in london, and i asked him directly, andrea, about this allegation that the russians have been offering bounties to the taliban to kill u.s. servicemen and women in afghanistan. i asked him directly about whether or not the gru, russian military intelligence, was involved. he denied it, and again, whether or not you believe the russians, andrea, clearly today they are determined to stick to their message as forcefully as possible. our exchange, you're about to hear, begins with my question. take a listen. >> if russia was paying money to

reward members of the taliban for the killing of american soldiers, would you consider that to be an act of aggression by russia? would you see that as serious as that? >> i wouldn't -- i don't think that this situation is possible ever. so -- so this is really ridiculous. this is really ridiculous to, to spread this kind of information. >> you don't think that -- well, if it did happen, do you believe it would -- >> you know, maybe i can sound a little bit fooled, but this is 100% bull [ bleep ]. it's not a diplomatic thing but it's a bull [ bleep ]. >> hmm. that's strong, mr. peskov. >> as simple as that. >> reporter: so very undiplomatic language there, andrea, and a couple of other key moments to note in that interview. he refers to president trump's

tweets raising questions about the intelligence and kind of uses that to say, well, clearly, therefore, it is not true, and i asked him also, andrea, specifically, whether he knows of any moment whered russian government was -- whether this was raised by the u.s. government, with the russian government. he says he does not believe it has been raised by the russian government at any stage, andrea. >> keir simmons, thank you so much. so, there we have the russian spokesperson, putin's spokesperson, using the president's tweet as evidence that it didn't happen. democratic senator tammy duckworth who serves on the armed services committee is demanding a hearing on the issue. she has a purple heart recipient for her combat tours in iraq. joining me now, senator, i don't know what to say. joining you for your reaction on that. >> well, i'm disgusted,

flabbergasted, the president's use of i didn't know is basically a confession of incompetence on his part. we now have evidence of several different outlets that say he was briefed on this months ago. and he continues to do nothing about it. our troopers need their commander in chief to defend them, and in fact, he's done nothing of the sort. claims that he does not know. either they briefed him and he says he doesn't remember which means he's incompetent. or his own intelligence sources had this information and didn't breach him. in which case, he better be fire something people with the department of defense. in other cases he continues to put russia's well-being over the well-being of american troops that is not acceptable. >> and isn't it the case that russia has a different interest than we, that the u.s. have, about the negotiations with the taliban? i mean, there are a number of

reasons why they may not have pursued this aggressive intel of the president or talked about responses to russia. one of which is to try to preserve the very fragile taliban peace negotiations with the afghan government in kabul. another is the president's relationship with vladimir putin. i mean, there are a number of scenarios here. >> there are a number of scenarios here. remember, this is the same president who called for the russians to interfere with our elections, and they did. pay bipartisan panel found that the russians did interfere in the 2016 election after the president called on hem to d ee so. we have seen that with roger stone with the democracy. and now he's putting russia's interests, putin's interests, over that of the american troops. he was briefed on this months

ago, he asked for the g7 meeting to be delayed so that russia can be readmitted into the g7, after they were expelled for annexing ukraine. so there's all sorts of problems here. not the least of which that the commander in chief of the united states military is listening to the president, the head of a foreign adversary and putting their interests above those of america. >> there are congressional briefings, apparently, but i presume not by intel officials because they have yet to brief the gang of eight, the people they're supposed to be briefing, if this really is an assessment in progress. but so far, the democrats have not been invited to any of these briefings that we know of. >> well, i've certainly not been invited to any of the briefings. i will tell you that i've called for both the house armed services committee which i sit on, to hold a hearing on this, as well as a classified briefing for all of the members of the

armed services committee. and everything is above board. if this didn't happen and all of that, what's wrong with letting everybody on the committee who is on the comphood to smittee t. in fact, we should be looking at this arm the serviced committee and the intelligence agencies telling us that this has happened. american, we have american troops in harm's way right now and we lost four americans earlier this year. so, we cannot afford to have a vacuum where the commander in chief of our military is continuing to listen and take the word of vladimir putin at the exact same time that he's being told that the russians are putting a bounty on the heads of american service men and women. we need to be looking out for our service men and women and making sure we don't put them in harm's way, especially when it comes from some place where there's a bounty on their head from a supposed fan that president trump has called

mr. putin. this is not acceptable, and i'm going to get to the bottom of this. >> and vote vets has a new video out, calling on you, to be the choice for joe biden. we understand you are on the list, being vetted. frank bruni has written a column in "the new york times" titled biden's best veep pick is obvious. writing he should pick you to be the vice presidential choice. are you ready to serve if that does happen. >> i am currently serving my country, i'm always ready to serve my country. right now, my focus, as we've seen in the last 48 hours, we need to get vice president biden into the white house. we need a new administration. one that will not keep the interests of putin and russians above those of american troops. that's what i'm goi ing to be focused on. that vice presidential process, they have the right process, they'll make the right choice themselves. what i want to make sure to get

joe biden until offiin office t this disastrous course which this president has taken, whether it's failure to respond to covid-19. whether the american resources, driving our economy into the ground. there's a lot that needs to be done. >> you are answering questions, you're answering questions for the vetters? >> i mean, i answer questions all the time. at this point, the vetters, you know, they've got their whole process at the biden camp. i'm not going to interfere with that. i'm, again, focused on getting joe biden elected. if that means that, you know, if i get today, tammy, the best thing you can do is to keep america strong is to sweep the floors at one of our military bases, then i will sweep the floors at our military bases. it is that important for our nation to get joe biden into office. we now have an independent man in the white house who listens to russia. but russia's interests, a known adversary, put russia's interests above those of the american troops.

that is obscene. >> i'm going have to leave it there. thank you, senator duckworth. that does it for us. ari melber picks up our coverage on msnbc after a break. on msnbc after a break that's why there's otezla. otezla is not a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea or vomiting. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines, and if you're pregnant or planning to be. otezla. show more of you.

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