who, whether or not someone misspeaks or transposes words. you and i on cable television certainly know that can happen. but this is what the trump campaign wants it to be about. i don't think we're seeing a preview of biden trying to turn this into that as well. he was attacked. he responded. he was answering a question posed to him by i believe a fox news reporter on this. so, this is biden's way of trying to say, look, this is nonsense, i'm fine. and the test on all this is we all know the test is going to be in the debates. and typically, debates don't really move the needle in terms of a presidential election. they one might be different. and trump has finally agreed to doing three. biden himself over the last couple days is saying he really is looking forward to it. and as most americans will probably still be under some form of stay-at-home orders, or wherever we are, i suspect those will get blockbuster ratings, and that's one thing we know president donald trump likes. >> a lot of views, eyes on those

debates. hans nichols, great to see you. i will be reading axios in a little bit. you can sign up for the newsletter at signup.axios.com. that does it for me this morning. i'm yasmin vossoughian. "morning joe" starts right now. having the two men appear on camera worldwide to all of planet earth was a statement that will be understood very well by north korea. >> this president, i'll tell you, is the most informed person on planet earth when it comes to the threats that we face. >> on planet earth. okay. all right. good morning, and welcome to "morning joe." >> what's that about? >> i -- >> have they been -- >> it's a lot. it's about him. it's wednesday, july 1st! >> seen like "lost in space," willie? >> he needs to feel big. >> like warning, warning. what's going on? these people are weird. >> yeah. >> they're just strange people. >> along with joe, willie and me, we have -- >> they know they're -- i was

just going to say, they know what their job is. they know why they're sent out there, so they go to the most extreme statements they can possibly make. >> i know. >> in defense of the president. so, instead of saying, "yes, of course, he was briefed, of course he reads his pdb," they say, "he is the most informed person on planet earth." very odd. >> yes. she also said he takes everything in verbally, i think, which we know. we know. it's not -- reading's not a thing. along with joe, willie and me, we have white house reporter for the "associated press," jonathan lamire. >> best reporter, by the way, on planet earth. >> wow! >> yes, okay. >> good setup. >> nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of "kasie dc" on msnbc on sunday nights, kasie hunt is with us! and political reporter for the "washington post" and msnbc political analyst robert costa. he's the moderator of "washington week" on pbs. yesterday, u.s. coronavirus cases hit a new single-day record for the fourth time in

the past week. the press secretary says about trump not wearing a mask, "it's his decision." republicans on capitol hill increasingly saying out loud that he is setting a bad example. and joe biden steps up his criticism of trump's response to the virus, saying bluntly, "donald trump failed us." meanwhile, "the new york times" found the money trail linked to a suspected russian bounties plot targeting u.s. troops in afghanistan, really raising the question as to whether the president stands with our troops or with vladimir putin. >> you know, willie, somebody tweeted yesterday after the story came out, said, boy, charlie savage, i'm really hoping he can get a little more specific in the next reporting. we want the exact wiring numbers and instructions. it's remarkable, the work that he's done, and the fact that they have now found -- >> nailed this down. >> -- the transfers from the

russian gru to a taliban-backed group. this is getting more and more focused. and like we said from day one, they might as well not lie about it. the lies are going to be found out. >> yeah. >> but here you have, once again, whether you're talking about russia, whether you're talking about the coronavirus, whether you're talking about "the new york times" reporting this morning that donald trump insists on having his twitter feed look like a local crime blotter. just, again, donald trump wildly out of step with the american people. and willie, we're about to show a poll. it just keeps showing up and more and more republicans are expressing more and more concerns, saying, is this guy really going to be around? is he going to run for re-election, if he knows he's going to lose badly? >> and really, we'll talk much more about the russia story, but the more reporting that comes out, not just from charlie

savage and "the new york times," but nbc has new reporting this morning as well. there's nowhere for them to go at the white house, except for ignorance, that he wasn't told or that he doesn't read his pdb, because the facts are there. it's clear that the white house knew about this plot by the russians and has still to this day, hasn't done anything about it. we'll talk about that in just a minute, but as you mentioned, there are new polls showing joe biden up again by at least ten points over president trump nationally. the new pew research poll showing biden with a ten-point lead, 54% to president trump's 44%. more on that poll in just a moment. a suffolk university/"usa today" poll has biden up 12 points, 53%-41%. the partisan gap among americans' satisfaction with the way things in the country are going has narrowed. according to the latest pew research poll, only 12% of americans say they are satisfied with the direction of the country. that's down 19 points since april.

87% say they're dissatisfied. key here, as joe pointed out, among republicans, satisfaction has dropped 36 points among republicans since two months ago. until today, republican satisfaction had been above 50% for nearly all of trump's presidency. and 7% of democrats say they're satisfied. that's down a couple of points as well. also according to the suffolk university/"usa today" poll, 67% of americans now believe the country is on the wrong track, up 12 points since may. the country is headed in the right direction, only 20% say that. so, joe, just take the wrong track number in the country. 67%. two-thirds of americans believe we're on the wrong track. but you zeeroed in on that numbr in the pew poll that showed 19% of republicans, 19% of republicans say things are on the right track, down 36 points over the last two months. >> and the numbers have plummeted precipitously from, as you said, over 50% -- over 50%

of republicans throughout most of donald trump's presidency have said they're satisfied with where the country is, is a straight line down. we're looking at 19%. and yet, another poll, jonathan lamire, that shows donald trump losing by double digits to joe biden. you look at the "usa today" poll, suffolk poll, down 12 points there. that's in line with a lot of other polls. we've seen just an absolute deluge of polls over the past week or two that show that, whether you're looking at swing states or whether you're looking at the national election, things keep getting worse. and the president still, still has no answer to it. things just keep getting worse. and what is his state of mind right now inside the white house? >> well, joe, as we all know,

the national polls don't mean all that much, but they are a trend line, and they do seem to be getting worse. and we have seen in the last week or two the battleground polls also painting a very grim picture for president trump. and yes, it's still early, though not june anymore. it's july 1st. there's still time for him to correct things, but there doesn't seem to have been at this point any ability for the white house to reverse that slide. we've also seen, particularly in the last week or two, and i've been writing about this with my colleagues at the "associated press," willingness from more and more republicans to start distancing themselves from him. certainly, he received a lot of criticism for his handling of this russia matter and the bounties, but also, we saw yesterday, it felt like a tipping point in terms of the issues of masks, where it now seems like every major republican figure out there, from mitch mcconnell to a lot of state governors, nearly all are now endorsing the use of masks, saying, look, this is the number one thing you can do to keep you

and your family and your fellow citizens healthy during the time of the coronavirus pandemic. we even saw the vice president wear a mask over the weekend. donald trump is sort of almost alone on this on an island in terms of refusing to wear a mask in public, and i think there's going to be extremely -- there's real pressure on him from other republicans growing to change that. the sense in the white house and the trump re-election campaign is frustration. we saw a little bit of a shake-up last night. michael glassner, who's been there since the 2015-2016 campaign, he was one of those in charge of putting on the rall s rallies, he was basically demoted last night in the after math of the tulsa debacle, where they only drew 6,000 people after saying they got a million ticket requests. now, some in the campaign say he's been a fall guy here, that it wasn't totally his fault, but this was jared kushner's decision and glassner's been pushed out from that key role. they're trying to reimagine what rallies could look like. they underestimated how fearful

senior voters, particularly, are of going to a space, particularly an indoor space, in the time of the pandemic. and they're trying to grapple for a message here. the attacks on joe biden to this point haven't landed, whether it's about china or hunter biden. now it's about his mental acuity, and that doesn't seem, at least to this point, to be an issue that's gaining any traction either. they're still sort of scrambling here for a message. and there is, you're right, joe, there is growing chatter among republicans and political operatives -- it doesn't seem to be necessarily based on any inside information, but growing wonder if the president is going to stick with this, particularly if he can't reverse the slide in these poll numbers, can't find some sort of message. and the real number is the economy. if the economy continues to slide, that takes away what the trump campaign feels like its best and maybe only argument for re-election. if it continues to falter, you may see more and more republicans break from the president. >> you know, and just sort of a minor thing, joe, but not only is trump on the wrong side of

the mask issue -- and a lot of people on twitter or whatever are talking about, why? why can't he wear a mask? is it the makeup? what is it? why is he uncomfortable about it? and it's really poking into an area where it's getting into an area where he's uncomfortable. he doesn't want to be seen as weak or as, you know, looking strange or whatever. joe biden was ridiculed the first day he wore a mask by trump people. and you know what? it hasn't stuck. it's cool. he and his wife, when they have to go out, perhaps to do something, to recognize the troops, they're wearing black masks. and at this point, they found a way to weave it into their everyday life because it is a part of reality of staying safe. so, president trump's on the wrong side of the mask issue scientifically. he's also revealed himself to sort of be embarrassed in an area that i think bothers him more than anything else. >> yeah. there is a real weakness there. joe biden, it's interesting, joe biden came out at the end of

january and talked about how america wasn't ready for a pandemic, for the coming pandemic. that was in january, when donald trump was saying it was one person coming in from china, would be away soon, and said let the doctors and the scientists handle it. biden was right there. he was, you know. the next month, donald trump was still saying it was 15 people and was going to go away soon. and it's the same thing with masks. joe biden wore a mask when he went out. >> just wore it. >> mocked and ridiculed by a the on of trump people. you're now seeing a lot of people wearing masks. most republicans are wearing masks. liz cheney showing her father in a mask -- >> real men wear masks. >> real men wear masks. mitch mcconnell's office, by the way, sent us something because we were talking about people not wearing masks. mitch mcconnell sent us something. he's been since the end of april. >> actually -- yeah, early may, end of april, he's been pushing masks and wearing them. >> yeah. >> i mean, there are some republicans who have been standing with the president, but

not mitch mcconnell, in that area. i yesterday misspoke. >> so, very good for him doing that. but kasie, whether you talk about masks, whether you talk about the civil rights movement that is moving forward right now, instead of the president doing anything to become part of that very relevant dialogue. again, his twitter feed looks like a local crime blotter. he's got this obsession with statues. and jonathan said that, if the economy doesn't get better, things will get worse for donald trump, but i think the bigger problem for him -- and i think you're starting to see it on the hill, especially with how republicans are responding to the coronavirus -- is, this president knows. he's the guy who said it's one person coming in from china. he knows, as the numbers explode, as we keep breaking records every day for the

pandemic, he's the guy who not only said that back in january, february, and march, but also said in april and may that this was going away, we wouldn't have it in the fall, that it was going to go away magically. and donald trump is now looking at a fall election where every single day he's going to be seeing infection counts go up, he's going to see the death count going up, and that's just something that he's not going to be able to get around. we said it from the very beginning, don't run against a pandemic. the pandemic will always win. and that's what's happening right now when you look at those poll numbers. >> joe, as these cases have been spiking, and as republicans in the president's party have been watching this meltdown, the president has been focused on

almost anything but this. he has been tweeting. you know, he retweeted his supporters, one of which was yelling "white power." he went golfing on saturday and sunday. overnight, he threatened to veto the defense funding bill because it would rename some of these bases that are named after confederate figures. and senate republicans are looking around, and we have talked about this over and over and over again -- there never seems to be a breaking point. what was going to be the breaking point? this is the breaking point, because if the president continues on this track, the economy is not going to recover, because he is not solving the health care crisis, and republicans are going to lose, and it's the president's fault. that is just the simple reality that they are grappling with. the numbers are falling out from under them. you know, one source told me yesterday, if the president is airing his re-election ads in

georgia, which is, yes, potentially one day a swing state, but not essentially right now -- has been historically republican -- things are not fine. things are absolutely not fine. and that number that you underscored at the top of the show i think says everything. i mean, who in this country -- everyone is miserable right now. everyone is miserable for all -- their own personal reasons, and a lot of people have it a lot worse than others. people are angry, upset, they're scared, they're worried about their family members. and the president doesn't seem to have any answers. and any republican that is currently elected is having to answer for what the president is doing. they are trying to distance themselves now for basically the first time in the course of this administration. and you know, they're not going so far as to necessarily hit the president, but i think we can show you some of the comments about masks specifically, where i think this issue is standing out the most. we've mentioned a couple of them, but the tape i think is pretty clear. take a look. >> if you're pro trump, you

don't wear a mask, and if you're anti-trump, you're more likely to wear a mask. but that makes no sense! i mean, it actually would help restore the economy if we contain the disease. and the better the economy is, the better off the president is, i would think, running for re-election. so it makes no sense. so, i hope the president will help us just get rid of this mask politics. it hurts the country and it doesn't help him. >> what we're all trying to demonstrate for everybody in the country is the single most important thing you can do, not only to protect yourself but protect others, until we get a vaccine, put on a mask. it's not complicated. >> wearing the mask is the best opportunity for us to keep this economy open, keep us working, keep us safe, and help us as we build towards that vaccine where we're in a much stronger position than any other country before us. >> for the fourth of july, we could all show our patriotism

with a red, white, and blue mask going out there. >> my goodness, even mike kevin, even he's found religion on masks. but willie, we've been talking about this every day. this is another example of an 80/20 issue where the president continues to be on the side of the 20% and opposed to the 80% you look at, like for instance, vetoing a defense funding bill because he wants to defend the honor of really bad confederate generals who lost wars? like, if you're talking about bragg? i mean, the state of mississippi voted to take down the flag! and he's still fighting the lost cause? i mean, you talk about his magical thinking when you talk about the coronavirus!

we're coming up to 130,000 dead, will probably be at 150,000 dead americans by the time people go to vote. and his magical thinking continues. and he always talks about making america great again. he goes, by the way, i've got 99% of republicans supporting me, which is, of course, a total lie, whatever number he uses. this pew poll that shows less than one in five americans are satisfied with where america is. this is a guy that said, trust me, believe me, i can make america great again like nobody else. well, he's had his chance. and here we are, almost four years in, and only 12% of americans are satisfied with how things are going in the country, one in ten americans, basically. and that's why the republicans

are now starting to figure out the best way to find the exits and get out of this burning political building. >> yeah, i mean, this is a fundamental rule of politics and probably of life, too. these republicans are looking at these polls. they're looking at what's happening in their own states. they're looking at their seats being challenged by democrats, and they're saying, i don't want to be associated with this. i've hitched my wagon to him for four years now, and it hasn't gone well. we're losing right now, republicans say to themselves. the president is losing right now, and i don't want to be a part of this. so, that's why you see them drifting away. i will say, though, it's extraordinary that it's viewed as extraordinary that republicans are coming out in support of masks, because as you say, it is such an obvious issue to most americans. even among republicans, even among conservatives, it's not a partisan issue. they wear masks because they want this to be over. we all want this to be over. and part of the way we get there, say most public health

experts, and the officials that work for president trump, is to wear masks. so, bob costa, i ask you -- you can talk about this dynamic with republicans and the white house, but inside the white house, i know this has become sort of a moot question at this point, but is there anybody in there who's looking at the direction of his polls? is there anybody in there who's saying, wait a minute, wear the mask, do the right thing, it gets our businesses open again? our republicans are abandoning us. even republicans, 19% of republicans now like the direction the country is headed in. this clearly is not going well for us. if we want a shot at being re-elected, we've got to change course. is there any sense of crisis in the white house? >> there is alarm inside the white house about the president's poll numbers. you look at his numbers, not just among moderates or suburban women, but among seniors and white evangelicals. those numbers have been softening in poll after poll in

recent weeks, and there's another challenge for the white house as they try to fight this culture war and the president defends the statues of confederate generals and other figures that are part of our nation's racist past. you see the white house dealing with real concern about those evangelical voters because of what's happened at the supreme court in recent weeks, the rulings by chief justice john roberts on gay rights and transgender rights, on abortion rights with the louisiana decision on monday, and there is concern that now these conservatives who counted on president trump with the nominations of justice gorsuch and justice kavanaugh, sees roberts, who is a george w. bush nominee, but see gorsuch's ruling on different issues and roberts' rulings, and they see a court that is moving to the left on the issues that matter most to them. and so, look in the coming weeks. i have a story out in the "post" this morning on this. look in the coming weeks for the president and particularly vice president pence to try to shore

up that support with the base. this isn't an outreach white house at the moment, the shoring up the base operation. >> which, obviously, you can understand why they're doing that when everything's falling apart. but again, it's hard to shore up the base. it's hard to talk about, bob, a new list of supreme court justices that he's going to put out there when he did that last time and as far as what conservative catholics and evangelicals see when it comes to the culture wars, his first appointment was a guy who extended lgbtq rights in a way that they'd never been extended before. activists in that movement say it was the greatest advance in history because of neil gorsuch, because of his first selection. and this is an issue that, of course, matters greatly to culture warriors in the

evangelical movement and in the conservative catholic movement. and the impact has to be devastating there. but the question is, bob, with this behind the numbers and with the supreme court actually going the opposite direction on guns, going the opposite direction on gay rights, going the opposite direction on abortion, that donald trump promised they would go -- first of all, how does he nail down that base? and at the same time, start expanding his electorate to the suburbs, start expanding his reach and pulling some people back that he won in '16 but who left him years ago? >> well, to that point about nailing down the base first. joe, i have a little bit of new reporting. there are some people inside of the white house that are around this president who are hoping at this point, knowing that it may not happen, but they are hoping that there might be a supreme court vacancy. clarence thomas, the justice

since the early '90s, could decide to retire. and as this white house really looks to galvanize that base, they are quietly preparing for the possibility of a supreme court vacancy, looking like people, like the judge amutha parr, a favorite of majority leader mitch, amy coney barrett from indiana, another federal judge, and they're looking at the possibility of an opening. and they think that kind of opportunity for them politically, that kind of news flash would be a total culture war in the middle of a summer when they're trying to stoke that republican base. but in terms of the suburbs, joe, at this point, it's all a bet on reopening the economy and a lot of hope more than any kind of strategic outreach. >> all right. still ahead on "morning joe," president trump is facing growing pressure to respond to the firestorm over possible russian bounties on u.s. troops. the white house is denying trump was briefed as early as 2019.

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the president has been briefed on what is, unfortunately, in the public domain because of "the new york times" and the irresponsible leak. yes, he has been briefed, but that does not change the fact that there is no consensus on this intelligence that still has yet to be verified. >> i guess more broadly, you know, i would reask the question, whether it was in his material, but asking you to defend why the president isn't necessarily reading his pdb when there are these types of issues that -- >> the president does read and also consumes intelligence

verbally. this president, i will tell you, is the most informed person on planet earth when it comes to the threats that we face. he is constantly being informed and briefed on intelligence matters, but i'm not going to allow "the new york times" to dictate when we give top-secret information and don't give top-secret information. >> so, willie, the question is, where does she go after this? >> oh, my god. >> i mean, where, like, all these people, like, who hires steve miller? stephen miller? who hires her after she lies every day? and we all know -- like, for instance, "this is the most informed president ever," "he reads," blah, blah, blah. everybody, even his biggest defenders in the senate know that's a lie. we've talked to him. we've talked to people who work for donald trump who will say that he's ignorant, he doesn't know anything! he doesn't read anything. you can't give him information. if you give him information that he doesn't like, he gets angry!

they actually are trying to make us believe that perhaps he didn't get this early on because people are afraid to give him information that the intelligence community actually did conclude was serious enough that they had to come up with options in late march and notify the british government. she's lying! so, i really do. where do they think they're going to work when donald trump is out of the white house? i guess i'm asking this as somebody who's been in washington and been around washington for 25 years. nobody wants to hire somebody that is known, basically, for lying. and that's what so many people inside -- >> incredible. >> -- the trump administration are doing every single day. >> well, that's a ridiculous statement on its face, obviously, that the president's the most informed person on earth on these questions, but more specifically ridiculous

when the argument you're making is that the president was not informed about this very topic, that nobody told him or that he didn't read his brief, that he wasn't, quote, personally briefed about this, which gives them some wiggle room that maybe it was in the pdb as "the new york times" and others have reported and he just didn't get around to reading it. so, there's more information on this, even this morning. the money trail linked to a suspected russian bounties plot targeting u.s. troops in afghanistan. "the new york times" reporting that american officials intercepted electronic data showing large financial transfers from a bank account controlled by russia's military intelligence agency, the gru, to a taliban-linked account. that's according to three officials familiar with that intelligence. the time times also notes, investigators identified the names of a number of afghans in a network linked to the operation, including a man believed to have served as a immediatairy for the distribution of that money. afghan officials also confirmed over the past six months, they

have arrested several businessmen suspected of being part of a ring of middlemen who operated between the russian intelligence agency and taliban-linked militants. this all according to the "times." a white house spokesperson declined to comment on the paper's reporting, mika. >> meanwhile, nbc news has solidified a timeline of when the white house learned about the bombshell intelligence. a person with direct knowledge of the intelligence says that the white house and top national security council officials learned about the plot in early 2019, well over a year before trump claimed no one had briefed him about the matter. the "associated press" reports that trump's national security adviser at the time, john bolton, told colleagues he briefed the president about the intelligence in march of 2019. nbc news has not confirmed that reporting. the trump administration insists the president was never briefed on the matter. >> they're lying, of course.

that's the problem with them lying every day -- we know they're lying. >> this is about our troops. where does he stand? the source added that the information was, quote, out there at least a month before an april 2019 car bomb attack in afghanistan that killed three u.s. marines. nbc news has not confirmed a link between the bombing and any alleged offers on bounties by the russians. but joe, the investigating into this continues. and what we know so far is staggering. >> it is staggering. and the most staggering part of it is that the president was told about this in march of 2019 by john bolton, lied about it a year later, claiming no one had ever told him about it. of course, his press secretary and everybody around him lied about it. grinnell, of course, you know he would lie about it, so, of

course, he lied about it as well. and everybody's lying. but again -- you know, i hate to be a broken record. i said this was all going to come out. just like i said coronavirus -- stop running against the coronavirus, it's going to beat you. like, this is all really obvious stuff. and so, if we're wondering, if you're a trump supporter and you're wondering, does he have a shot at coming back and somehow winning, the reason he doesn't right now is because he keeps repeating the same mistakes. he keeps lying. and the most remarkable thing here is, through all the lies, we even now know about wiring, i mean, wiring between the gru and the taliban. and we're going to know more information. by the end of this, charlie's probably going to have the wiring numbers and instructions -- >> where's the shock for our troops? if you're the parent of a soldier, don't you want to hear from the president right now? and he's cowering behind "i

didn't know about it"? >> well, and that is the most stunning thing, that the president, even now, now that it's become public, that vladimir putin has put a bounty on the heads of young men and young women, the age of his children. donald trump's saying nothing. if you're a parent and your son or daughter is in afghanistan fighting, and you find out that taliban militants, islamic militants, will get paid money for shooting your son or daughter, and the commander in chief, because he cowers in front of vladimir putin every day, is saying nothing. and once again, he's pushing

russian propaganda instead of backing american intel agents. and we're showing these helsinki pictures, jonathan lamire, very appropriate. you were the one that asked the question, does donald trump believe vladimir putin, in effect, or the intel agencies? and he said he believed vladimir putin. and here we are, we thought that was a low point. now we find out that american lives are at risk because vladimir putin has put a bounty on their heads, and the commander in chief of the united states of america is saying nothing. nothing at all. where do we go from here? will the president continue to cower? and will he continue to refuse to condemn vladimir putin for trying to encourage people to kill young americans fighting in afghanistan? >> president trump has shown an

extraordinary deference to president putin, dating back to the 2016 campaign and throughout his time in office, most visibly, yes, in helsinki, but throughout his time. in the oval office. and you know, the reporting now by my colleagues at the ap, that this first came to light in march of 2019, it's truly remarkable. at the time, it should be said that the briefing then, according to our reporting, you know, was a little less specific, that it was seen as sort of the latest front in russia's attempt to muddle an afghanistan. it was deemed not necessarily actionable, but it was still there. it was still on the radar. and think of everything that's happened between the president and vladimir putin since then, you know, before this latest wave of reporting in the last couple months about these bounties. you know, he has tried to get russia invited back to the g7, the expanded g7, back to a g-8. he's talked about hosting vladimir putin at the white house, something that horrified

a number of his top national security officials. and there hasn't been any sense of a shift in messaging. there hasn't been any condemnation from the white house as to what happened in russia. there's a gang of eight briefing today. we've had democrat and republican lawmakers finally be read into this in the last couple of days. but the white house itself, even yesterday from what was a very quick press briefing, they have not delivered any of the anger at russia, but rather, at the media. i think there's an old cliche in washington, that if you're going after the leaks, if you're going after the leakers, you're losing the political fight, and that's what they're doing right now. they're spending time -- whether it's a statement from the dni director, a statement from national security adviser o'brien, then from the podium yesterday, the attacks about the media, the attacks about the leaks and their attempts to sort of defend the president and separate him from this intelligence, that seems to be their own play right now, despite the fact that even members of their own party are

criticizing how the white house has handled this and demanding some sort of retribution from russia. >> kasie, at this time yesterday morning, we had congresswoman elissa slotkin on the show, democrat, one of them who was headed to the white house to get this briefing about the russian intelligence. she was hopeful she'd learn more and get some answers. when she came out, she said she didn't talk to the right people, that the people who presented the intelligence were not those most familiar with it and she'd like to talk to somebody more senior, somebody who had hands on this intelligence or was in the middle of the process. she did come out saying that there might have been debate about this intelligence, but for someone who worked at the cia and the dni and nsc as she did, she finds it not credible that this information did not make its way to the president. so, how are democrats and also republicans on capitol hill reacting to this explosive story over the last couple of days? >> you're right, willie, that elissa slotkin in particular is somebody -- and there aren't a ton of them in congress -- she

has worked with intelligence products. if she sees the product in front of her, she has a much better sense than the rest of us in terms of what that means. and she, essentially, came out, as you point out, and said, you know, you don't just throw something into the presidential daily brief. it is not necessarily common, but it's also not uncommon to have divisions between agencies, among agencies about this kind of intelligence, but it doesn't just show up in the president's briefing book out of nowhere or without being discussed. so, i think that that underscores the seriousness. and her assessment of that is one that we should believe in, believe in and rely on. but the reality here is the way that the white house is handling speaking to members of congress about this is completely contrary to how all of these matters are usually handled. there have been political people in these rooms, some intelligence officials, yes, but that's not the primary way they've been doing this. they are not including democrats

and republicans together. they haven't yet. the plan seems to be to brief the gang of eight today. the logistics of that still being nailed down, but we did report that yesterday, that that sort of gang of the top congressional leaders are going to be in the room, we think together, but we don't know for sure yet that that's how it's going to play out. that's not how this works. usually, politics stops at the water's edge. and while there are always policy differences between the parties, learning about threats like this to the united states are something that does not break down by party. the white house has a duty to inform congress. the intelligence community has a duty to inform congress. members in both parties. and there's still a lot of skepticism even among republicans on this on the hill, willie. >> well, i mean, they're scrambling wildly, mika, to try to cover this up. they have -- obviously, the president knew about this. his national security council was begging the white house to

do something about this in march. they notified the british government of this. the information was out there in afghanistan. this is something they can't hide, but -- >> this matters, and -- >> they're still trying to cover it up, cover up the fact that the president knew about this, knew that vladimir putin wanted to kill americans and was going to pay islamic militants to kill americans. and donald trump, the commander in chief, did absolutely nothing about it, except brag, bob, about vladimir putin being his friend in may and tried to invite him over to the g7/g8. >> and joe, based on my conversations with some republicans and democrats in the last two days, it's clear that this republican argument about the intelligence is on thin ice moving forward, because anyone in the intelligence community on capitol hill knows that any time

russia operates in afghanistan or in a war zone, they're always working through an interlocketer. there's always plausible deniability in these kinds of operations, so it doesn't seem like a direct line from the gru and from russia directly into the hands of the taliban. but these bank transfers and this reporting from the "times" and others shows that russia's always been involved in these kinds of operations and has been for quite some time. so, the idea that the intelligence is somehow unclear -- it may not be direct, but there has been a history of intelligence about russia that republicans know who are deeply involved in these issues in congress, that this is a likely story, and the intelligence community would not bring it forward in this way unless they were convinced about its accuracy to a point where even if it's not direct, they feel confident about the information. >> all right. coming up, we're breaking down some primary election results that could have major

impact on several key senate races this november. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪

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facebook has taken its broadest action yet to fight hate crime on its site after yesterday it classified a large number of boogaloo movement accounts as dangerous and banned

them. facebook announced in a blog post that it has removed more than 300 boogaloo facebook and instagram accounts, 106 boogaloo groups, as well as 400 additional groups and 100 pages that host content supporting the movement. facebook said they made the decision because the group, quote, actively promotes violence against civilians, law enforcement, and government officials and institutions. >> well, didn't they already know -- did they just figure that out yesterday? >> yeah. "we are stepping up our efforts against this network and know there is still more to do." you know what, if i could just say, they keep saying that. >> yeah. >> we know we have more to do. >> it's half steps. >> we know. we know. we're going to get better. they've been saying for five years that they know they have more work to do. the blog post continues. "we know that our efforts will never completely eliminate the risk from this network or other dangerous organizations, but we will continue to remove content

and accounts that break our rules so we can keep people safe." >> so, why do they know that they can never stop violent people who are racist, who want to kill black people and kill jews and kill minorities? why is it that you can never stop that from being on your social network? >> hmm. >> i don't understand, because, hell, the "washington post," "the new york times," they don't let people that write racist things and call for the killing of police officers -- >> why are you different? >> yeah, why are you different? >> what makes you so special? >> oh, it's because you don't make enough money to police it. oh, wait a second -- >> you make so much money. >> you're worth $86 billion, mark. and you're saying that you know there will always be hate groups and racist groups and bigoted groups and dangerous groups? >> just can't do anything? >> and foreigners, people who are trying to interfere in our elections and you can't do anything, but here's a half measure? i don't get it.

and i've got to say to congress, i don't understand why congress continues to allow people like mark zuckerberg and sheryl sandberg and jack dorsey to make billions and billions of dollars personally while keeping hate groups on their sites. >> allowing them to fester. >> allowing them to fester and spread. they allow -- that man right there is responsible, more than anybody else in america, for the spread of hate speech and racism and misinformation about a pandemic that's killed 130,000 americans. and for disinformation that is trying to rig the election, to actually undermine the american democracy. and he's doing a half measure, saying oh, we can't do anything about it. >> let's bring in nbc news reporter ben collins, who has been following this story closely.

ben, facebook keeps releasing these statements, saying we know we need to get better. so, when? >> i don't know when they're going to take the full step that's necessary here. we knew about this for a month. we talked about this, what, two weeks ago? there was a terror attack that was planned on a federal agent on facebook in a boogaloo facebook group. that happened over a month ago. that happened a long time ago. that group got removed yesterday, but it does seem like facebook is sort of fighting the last war at all times, and they're not dealing with systemic issues on the platform, which is, you know -- i don't know if you've seen these ads for facebook groups. they're everywhere. if you watched that michael jordan documentary on espn, you saw, it was primarily sponsored by that. facebook groups are an enormous problem for public health, both for the coronavirus and for racism and things like that. basically, it drives people into these smaller groups and then there's this one upsmanship that goes on in these extremist groups where people may start joking about the civil war that

they want to start. but at the end of the day, they're taking it very seriously because the rhetoric always gets amplified and one-upped. and facebook is never really enforcing anything that would make it so they would know, even, if a terror attack was coming. >> hey, ben, it's willie. facebook says they have an algorithm that stamps out most of this hate speech. i think they say 90% of it before it even gets distributed widely. they say they do it better than twitter and other places, but they haven't done much until this ad boycott came out a couple of weeks ago, and they're losing advertisers who are putting, big companies, who are putting their advertising on pause. of course, advertising is the whole ball game for facebook. it's 98% of their revenue. so, how much of this early change now -- this is just the beginning, perhaps -- is coming from the pressure from advertisers? >> i would say all of it. i've been covering this stuff for a half decade or something, covering facebook specifically and how they deal with this stuff, and nothing has been a sea change like this has been,

and it's because money talks, right? this is billions of dollars. and they're really big-money advertisers, like unilever and starbucks, things like that. they are saying, look, we have to get a grip on this stuff. and this is the issue with the boogaloo stuff. it's a really good example of what's happening here. you can stomp out specific racial slurs. you can stomp out, you know, specific hate speech. but once you start to -- extremists have identified the way to get around that, and it's the talk about kutzie things, like calling it the boogaloo. it sounds like a joke. that makes it allowed on these platforms. if sounds like you're talking about movies or something. so, you need real enforcement. you need real actual, you know, police-style enforcement of this stuff, if you want to stomp it out. and i asked them yesterday. i was like, you know, if this group was called something like isis or something instead of the boogaloo, would this really -- would you really have waited a month after a terror attack to take these groups down? and the answer is not really, you know, they didn't really give a full-throated answer here

because they can't -- they don't really have one. they are right now finally starting to see the mounting pressure that will affect their business if they don't make a change. and i think if the pressure keeps mounting, i think they eventually will make a change. >> ben, thank you very much. willie mentioned the ad boycott, growing pressure for the social media giant to take down hate speech on its platform. with over 300 advertisers due to boycott facebook as part of the stop hate for profit campaign. and there are now plans for the boycott to go global. joining us, with the anti-defamation league and leading partner in the facebook boycott campaign, jonathan greenblatt. very good to have you on the show. major companies are taking part in this boycott, but some of them are just a month. is it going to take a lot more

ad dollars not coming their way for facebook to make changes because they've been promising to get better for a long time and haven't really come through. they never do it in a full-throated way. >> yeah, i think you're right, mika, and i would credit you and joe for a long time for trying to bring attention to this issue. for 15 years, facebook has built the largest platform in the history of business and have failed to keep their consumers safe. the idea was mentioned a moment ago that these boogaloo groups are now just coming off the platform is nuts. and no other business would tolerate this. so, when we started this campaign two weeks ago -- keep in mind, two weeks ago, adl, naacp, color of change, common sense media, we didn't have a single business with us, not one. two weeks to the day, there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of small to

medium-sized businesses, some of the most iconic american brands -- levi's, coca-cola, starbucks, hershey's, kind snacks, and a number of others -- and global businesses, as you just said, are coming on -- diageo, acura, vw, lego, s.a.p., unilever. and i will tell you, mika, literally, we cannot keep up with the incoming. our phones -- like, my phone has rung off the hook for a week. ceos, advertising agencies, firms, they are all frustrated. their ads for too long have subsidized this hate. i mean, that's what you have to keep in mind. boogaloo groups, holocaust denialism, racist content, white supremacist content, it's the ads from like verizon and salesforce and panera that have been subsidizing this content. it's absolutely outrageous. and everyone agrees, it's got to change.

>> hey, it's willie geist. you have facebook listening in a way they never have before because of this ad boycott. so now that you have facebook's attention, what exactly do you want them to do as a practical matter and what kind of response have you received specifically from facebook? >> well, it's a good question. i mean, the goal here was never -- we didn't imagine we would put a dent in their pml. it's a $70 billion machine. we thought we would make a point about their practices, because indeed, the things we're talking about here aren't intended to bankrupt the company or up-end the business model. take off the white supremacist, holocaust denialism and conspiracy content. there is no place for that on any mainstream media platform. they should be accountable for their advertisers. and if ads show up alongside this kind of content, they should refund the companies,

point blank. they should provide services. the adl studies hate, we monitor it. that's what we do. in our annual report on online harassment, some 28% of users report being severely harassed, but facebook is the place where it happens more often than any other platform. if you get harassed on facebook, the company should provide you some degree of service and support. that's just how every other business does it. and two other quick points. they should, simply put, remove the political exemption. there is no context whatsoever where it's reasonable for politicians to call for violence or for voter disinformation to be allowed, not just on election day, every day of the year. and finally, independent, third-party, regular, predictable audits, whose results are published. again, what we're talking about here is not all that hard. and in the last 48 hours, youtube has taken steps, reddit.

it's long overdue for facebook to do the same. >> and you're so right, jonathan. if you want just an example of how irresponsible facebook has been and how irresponsible they continue to be, look at the fact that a federal official, law enforcement officer, was assassinated by a boogaloo boy, and it's taken them a couple of weeks to actually clean up those sites. >> yeah. >> you have -- i remember getting texts from friends talking about this "plan denimic" movie that was clearly, clearly a conspiracy theory that was causing real health concerns for doctors who also talked to me about it, saying they are creating a conspiracy theory that are making people believe

this planned andemic is nothing than a george soros-backed conspiracy theory. and they kept it up for months. it got more views than taylor swift videos, than office reunions, but they kept it up. and even now, the president of the united states is generating lies. to try to undermine our election. we know that foreign countries use facebook first to interfere with american democracy and they do nothing about it! so, if you're coca-cola, like, why do you want to ever fund -- which, of course, they're not -- anti-semitism, racism against blacks? as you said, holocaust deniers, giving them a platform, boogaloo deniers, giving them a platform. and up to this election, giving

a platform to people trying to undermine the credibility of american democracy in this election. how could anybody go back to funding that until they clean up? >> yeah, i mean, there is simply put no business case for bigotry. there are -- you know what's hard? what's hard is reaching 2.6 billion consumers, generating $18.5 billion in profits. you know what's easy? removing white nationalists. you know what's easy? taking down people who want to commit violence against african-americans. that, i'm sorry, isn't hard. but joe, there is a silver lining and a piece of good news. on friday, as our campaign gained steam, facebook's stock plummeted 8.25% and shaved off $56 billion in market valuation. stop hate for profit is doing something that's never happened before, we are finally bringing facebook to the table, and we will press and we will push and we will not stop until they agree to stuff that i think all of us agree is simply common sense. >> all right.

thank you so much. ceo and national director of the anti-defamation league, jonathan greenblatt. great to have you on. i love watching you on reverend al's show also talking about anti-semitism. we greatly, greatly appreciate you getting that message out with anti-semitism as we know continuing to spread everywhere from brooklyn to europe, as it has, unfortunately, for too, too long. thank you for being with us. >> all right. we are just a few minutes past the top of the hour. joining us now, msnbc contributor mike barnicle, former u.s. senator, now an nbc news and msnbc political analyst, claire mccaskill. white house correspondent for pbs newshour, yamiche alcindor and senior reddit, politico and co-author of "the playbook," jake sherman, an msnbc political contributor. good to have you all. >> before we move any further, you know, willie, it's so interesting. jonathan's coming on. they're talking about this boycott to get holocaust deniers

and to get racist white supremacists, people who have gunned down federal officials, to get them off of the platform. and it's interesting that some people say oh, you're trying to censure facebook. this is not about censorship. this is about the free market, people having the right to advertise their money where they want to advertise their money. i know there have been right-wing -- not conservative, because conservatives wouldn't suggest this -- there have been some right-wing senators and some right-wing politicians that have talked about actually having the federal government go in and oversee this private business completely against that. now, if it needs to be broken up because there are some issues regarding monopolistic type practices, that's one thing. but the federal government shouldn't go in like these right-wingers are suggesting and

control content. but, they've been granted liability, absolute liability, and that has to be stripped. they have to be treated like car companies, like airlines, like small business owners, like people who grew up, if they make a mistake, they're liable. section 230 gives facebook and twitter and all of these odd social media outlets absolute immunity, absolute immunity! somebody could be shot on fifth avenue because of something that was promoted on facebook, and there's no immunity for facebook. it's just wrong and it's got to change. and they've got to be treated like every other company in this capitalistic society. they have to finally bear some personal responsibility for the

recklessness. they have made billions and billions of dollars pumping this sewage into america's political and social and cultural discourse, and they've paid no consequences to the damage they've done. it's about time that they do. >> well, you can see when a company makes $71 billion a year, why they might feel bulletproof. and there's long been a famous arrogance in silicon valley, that they're the new masters of the universe, and understandably so with the companies that they've built out there. but now for the first time, as jonathan was just laying out, they've been humbled a bit and at least brought to the table and made to reckon with what's happening on their sites, that mark zuckerberg cannot just wash his hands and say, listen, we're not a publisher, we're a platform. we just open the gates. people come in, they do what they want. we're not responsible for it. we can't control it. what people are asking now is that they do take some responsibility for what's happening on facebook, that twitter does take responsibility for what's happening on its

site. and there is some movement in that direction. but interesting that it's only come pressure from advertisers, again, for money. they're still going to make a bunch of money. these advertisers are just putting this on pause for now, but at least it has their attention and they've gone in and taken the boogaloo groups off the website, but there's a lot more work to do. and perhaps the best that can come out of this is that facebook and mark zuckerberg cannot sit back and say, look, this isn't our problem, we open the gates, people come in and they do what they're going to do. perhaps now they will begin to take some responsibility for the hate that does exist on their site. >> you know, there's no other company that is allowed to say that. hey, you know what i'm going to do, i'm going to buy some property in manhattan, and i'm just going to clear it out. i'm going to open up the gates and people can do whatever they want to do there, and i've got no responsibility! they're the ones that are doing it inside my gates. i just open up the gates and let them come. nobody does that. i can't say i'm going to buy 500 acres and i'm just going to open up the gates and let people do

whatever the hell they want to do inside those kbats. if people come and they dump toxic sewage, and it seeps into the water supply and i make $86 billion like mark zuckerberg, by allowing people to come in and just do whatever they're going to do on my 500 acres, i'd be held liable. >> right. >> if somebody goes into publix, if somebody goes into winn-dixie, if somebody goes into stop n shop and just a little bit of water is in the middle of an aisle and somebody steps on it and slips and falls, they're going to be liable. but for some reason, facebook is responsible for promoting groups like the boogaloo boys, and a federal official gets gunned down and killed, gets murdered, gets assassinated? and they're actually pushing

people to those sites, they're not held liable. think about all of the anti-semitism, all of the holocaust deniers, all that thrive on facebook. people get killed in synagogues, but facebook's not liable. even if you can trace these people back to their facebook pages. my god! congress has got to hold them personally responsible. and no, right-wingers, we don't want you as a centralized state to figure out how to censure a private company, okay? i know that you're stupid, because if you say that, you're an idiot and you know nothing about our country. we simply want you to lift the immunity and hold them to the same account that small business owners are held to, that car companies are held to, that

grocery stores are held to, that small restaurants are held to. there's no reason they should have that waiver. it's anti-american. it's hurting our politics. it's hurting our culture. and yes, it's going to harm our election process this fall if it's not cleaned up at once. >> it's also hurting our kids. just one final note. we've got to get to the news. but aside from the obvious egregious things that are happening on these platforms, the impact on the mental health of young people, this will be the next cigarettes in terms of the mental health on young people because of social media platforms because of facebook and instagram and everything, all ideas, disgusting images, disgusting behavior, everything runs rampant. there is no age limit. there are no rules. there's nothing. and it's hurting our children. we will find this out when everything comes to bear, but it

will take years and it will cause a lot of damage to our country. we have some new polls to show you in a moment, but first, we want to give you a backdrop of where things stand politically. u.s. coronavirus cases hit another new single-day record for the fourth time in the past week. nearly 48,000 new cases were reported yesterday alone. the most of any day since the beginning of the pandemic. texas, florida, california, and arizona continue to emerge as the country's latest epp centers as cases there continue to surge. texas reported more than 6,800 new cases yesterday, bringing the state's total to over 166,0 166,000. in florida, nearly 7,000 cases were reported. the state is one of several that have shut down bars to slow the spread of the virus as it has started to increasingly infect younger people. california reported more than 6,000 new cases yesterday and surpassed 6,000 deaths since the

pandemic began. arizona reported nearly 4,700 new cases. the state also reported a record for current covid-19 hospitalizations at nearly 3,000. meanwhile, former vice president joe biden, in a speech yesterday, ramped up his criticism of the trump administration's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. >> it didn't have to be this way. month after month, as other leaders in other countries took the necessary steps to get the virus under control, donald trump failed us. month after month, as many of us urged him to step up and do his job, he failed us. now it's almost july, and it seems like our wartime president surrendered, waved the white flag, the white flag that left the battlefield. today we are facing a serious threat, and we have to meet it. we have to meet it as one country. but the president gives no

direction and he pits us against one another. we can't continue like this. half recovery and half getting worse. we can't continue, half wearing mast and half rejecting science. we can't continue, half with a plan and half just hoping for the best. you call yourself a cheerleader. we don't need a cheerleader, mr. president. we need a president, mr. president. a president who will level with the american people, a president who will tell us the unvarnished truth, a president who will take responsibility instead of always blaming others, a president who will listen to the experts, follow the science, allow them to speak, a president who will lead and be an example for the nation. wear a mask. keep your distance.

limit the size of crowds. mr. president, this is not about you. it's about the health and well-being of the american public. >> and if you want to know why donald trump's numbers are as low as they are, just look at what joe biden said. that is what donald trump has needed to say since march, since february, since the end of january, is actually what we've been saying on this show, he should be saying. mike barnicle, joe biden said americans want a president who will take them the truth, that will tell them the unvarnished truth. americans want a president who will lead by example. americans want a president who will take responsibility. instead, we've had this president who's engaged in

magical thinking, who said it's only one person who's going away, it's only 15 people, it's going away, telling african-american leaders at the end of february there's nothing to worry about here, that it's going to magically go away, just like magic. then into spring, saying this is going away, it's going to just go away. you'll see, it will magically go away. when anthony fauci said it's coming back in the fall, donald trump said, no, it's not going to be coming back in the fall. so, again, when we look at these numbers and we say it's only may, it's only june, now we're going to be saying it's only july. that usually is applicable in presidential races, but in this case, if the dynamic doesn't change and the president doesn't dramatically change his approach to this pandemic and start doing everything that joe biden told him to do and everything that joe biden told him to do -- and

i believe it was a january 29th op ed in "usa today" -- then donald trump will still be running against the reality of a pandemic that will likely have killed 150,000 or more americans by the time people go and vote. and every time he holds a public event, he loses more seniors. every time he doesn't wear a mask, he loses more seniors. every time he says "don't worry, this will magically go away," he loses more seniors. if you are losing, you've got to change the dynamic, and the only dynamic that he has to change here first and foremost is acknowledging that this is a deadly pandemic that is going to be with us for a long time. wear a mask. totally distance. be responsible. >> joe, you can take everything that's happened in the trump administration thus far, and especially over the last six months, and neatly sum it up

with one phrase, i think -- dereliction of duty. when donald trump stood on the podium in front of the capitol on january 20th, 2017, he took an oath, and the oath was to protect and defend the constitution of the united states. he has done neither. he hasn't protected us, he hasn't defended us. i mean, we sit here today with, as mika just pointed out, several states on fire with the virus: california, texas, georgia, arizona, on fire with anthony fauci telling the senate yesterday that he is very concerned that the numbers could actually pop up to about 100,000 new infections. we have that. we have the state of the economy with over 40 million people collecting unemployment benefits. and now, now, we have the news

that president of the united states, his white house staff, the secretary of defense, the national security council had an inkling, had the knowledge of the fact that the russians were paying bounties to kill american soldiers and marines in afghanistan. i have three names for the president of the united states today, if he's watching -- corporal robert hendricks, sergeant benjamin heinz, sergeant christopher slutman. three members of the united states marine corps killed by a car bomb in afghanistan, apparently, allegedly linked to cash payments to the taliban. that's your president of the united states. that's what joe biden was explaining yesterday. that's what he was talking about. and that's what's on people's minds, a president who can either protect us or defend us. >> claire mccaskill, your former

colleagues in the senate and in the house on the republican side, what are the questions they should be asking today? >> well, i think one of the things they are doing today, especially in light of a congressional primary yesterday in colorado, is what have we done to our party. yesterday was remarkable. what started out as a slight tremor a few months ago, when a trump-endorsed candidate lost in a republican primary, has now become a trend. yesterday you saw the trump-endorsed candidate in colorado's third congressional district get beat by ten points by a woman who supports quenon and has a restaurant where everyone on the wait staff openly carries a firearm. this woman beat the incumbent, reasonable, smart congressman by

ten points in colorado yesterday. >> wow. >> so, all these republicans in the senate who have been scared to death of losing trump's endorsement, the irony is, his endorsement all of a sudden, whether it's north carolina or kentucky or colorado, he has moved the party to such a dark place that candidates that are more trumpian are winning against trump's endorsed candidates. so, he has now created a party, with his endorsement or without his endorsement, that has gone so far to the fringe that my friends that i served in the senate with are in a heap of trouble, and mitch mcconnell knows it. he knows it. that's why he's busy preaching the gospel of masks right now. >> and yamiche, if you look at the polling we're talking about, including from pew research, the wrong track numbers in the

country are terrible right now, including among republicans who say only 19% of them believe we're headed in the right direction. that's among republicans and a huge drop from just a couple of months ago. as mike pointed out, we are right in the middle of this coronavirus crisis right now. we have a record high in the country yesterday, record highs in eight states across the country, including california, arizona, texas, georgia. you move right across the country. the crisis is right in front of us, despite the fact that the president wanted to move on a month ago. remember he wanted to get back to business on easter, two months ago. here we are in the middle of a crisis and this morning he's tweeting about cable news ratings. he's calling the russia bounty story a hoax, which is interesting based on all of the specific reporting we have coming out right now. he says it's a made-up story by "the new york times." what is the state of mind of this president who seems to be living in a parallel universe from what's actually happening in the lives of the american people? >> well, that's quite a

question, willie. what's the state of mind of president trump? what i can say is based on my reporting is that the president is wanting to circle the wagons. he's wanting to try to defend himself and do what he does best, at least in his mind, which is really go after the jugular, which is really kind of go after the people that he sees as enemies because his world view is so focused on winners and losers. but the thing that i think continues to be obvious and continues to plague this president is that for a president who has really made his mark in trying to be the pulse of america, in trying to understand how people are feeling -- and he's done that successfully in 2015 when republican voters wanted a presidential candidate essentially who was not politically correct, who went after immigrants, who made race a central part of his campaign. this time around, americans are really scared. they are scared of a virus that is killing people, that's killed more than 120,000 people. and americans are also terrified of the idea that russia is paying the taliban to kill our soldiers or have bounties on our soldiers.

as someone who's covered the arlington cemetery in my past career, i can tell you that military families, they are people who really bear the burden of service for our country in a very invisible and quiet way. a lot of these families have lost their family members. they don't get fanfare. they don't get big stories on the funerals anymore. we're a nation who doesn't see our young people get buried as much as we did in the past. so what you see here are military families wondering, what is going on? and we want answers. and the president, instead of saying, let's get to the bottom of this, is now trying to say that this is all made up and that everyone, including his own intelligence community, don't know what they're talking about, which i think is the polar opposite of what americans want to hear and what they want from their president right now. >> yeah, and jake, you guys at politico, along with "morning consult" have a new right track/wrong track number out just this morning. it shows only one in four americans believe the country is on the right track. that's down four points since last week. 75% of americans say they believe the country is on the

wrong track. there's no mystery as to why. the country has cratered because of the coronavirus pandemic, and it doesn't look like the federal government is up to the task of improving things. >> that's right, willie. and something that's fascinating that hasn't been brought up, which i think is illustrative of the overall trend of this white house, is the president is now saying he is going to veto a bill, if congress tries to strip military bases of their confederate namesakes. >> right. >> this issue on capitol hill is just -- i mean, nobody is on donald trump's island here, maybe one or two people. and the white house staff, according to the people i've talked to, have tried desperately to get him back on a normal page, talking about normal things and saying normal things, and here he is a couple days before independence day defending the honor of confederate generals who nobody in the capitol, nobody in the government wants to defend. it's illustrative of a presidency that's out of step with not only the broad stroke

of the american people but even some of the most conservative members of congress. mitch mcconnell has indicated he would follow the will of congress on this, and the will of congress, clearly, is to not honor confederate generals. i mean, we've seen, as you noticed, our polling tracks at the pew poll that even people who supported the president in 2016 are not satisfied with the track that the country is on. and you could see from his public utterances and private reporting why, frankly. >> all right, we'll get back to politics in just a moment. but we wanted to mention this. television, broadway, and film comedy icon karl reiner passed away yesterday. he was 98 years old and died of natural causes at his home in beverly hills, california. reiner posted on twitter days before his death, writing, "nothing pleases me more than knowing that i have lived the

best life possible" by marrying his wife and raising his children. reiner was inducted into the emmys hall of fame in 1999 and over the course of his career won 11 emmys and one grammy. he is best known for his work on your show of shows and for creating "the dick van dyke show." widely regarded as one of the greatest sitcoms of all time. van dyke posted a tribute to the comedian on instagram yesterday, describing him as, quote, kind, gentle, compassionate, empathetic, and wise. "his scripts were never just funny. they always had something to say about us." legendary comedian mel brooks also posted a tribute to reiner on twitter, in which he said, "whether he wrote or performed or he was just your best friend, nobody could do it better. he'll be greatly missed." reiner and brooks together will be remembered for their iconic comedy routine, "the 2,000-year-old man."

here is part of that sketch on "the colgate comedy hour" from 1967. >> i've always been interested in origin of words. for instance a simple word like cheese. where did that come from? >> cheese is a lovely story, how we got the word cheese in our vernacular. in the year 28 dash, there was have an old farmer, and a gentleman came to his land and said, "i'm so thirsty, may i have a little dip of milk"? and he said, "certainly, go over to the barrel," he not knowing that the barrel of milk had soured, see? so, this poor beggar man came to the barrel and opened up from the top and looked in and looked down and went, "cheese"! cheese! that's the word. >> that's the word. >> that's how cheese came into being. >> carl reiner and mel brooks, just the best of the best. willie, this is not hyperbole.

comedy legend is grossly inaccurate when describing carl reiner. >> yeah, you can always tell how influential somebody was when they pass and you just see from every corner, not just of the comedy world, the entertainment world, the love, the admiration, the respect, the reverence that so many people have for carl reiner. and that's a generation of comedians. we saw mel brooks there. we saw carl reiner, sid cesar, dick van dyke, of course, as well, who just represent a style of comedy and a generational comedy that paved the way for a lot that came after it. and as we just saw there, he's timeless. i think a lot of people, mike barnicle, younger people, maybe, first experienced carl reiner in the "oceans 11" movies, but boy, did he have a career long before that, of course, where he established himself as not just one of the great straight men, as mel brooks said yesterday, but one of the great comedic minds of all time. and more than that, even, i

think, mike, when you read some of the tributes, a decent, wonderful, humble man who was good to everybody he met. >> yeah. what a life he had, willie. what a life he gave us. the entire country, the entire world. "the 2,000-year-old man" records that came out -- and they were called records then, in the late '50s, early '60s, largely unscripted, hilarious even today to listen to. and you're right about carl reiner. i was fortunate enough a couple of years ago in new york city to sit next to carl reiner at a dinner, and everything that you just described about him was accurate and even more so when you're with him personally -- warm, generous, kind, compassionate, and funny. he was a legend. and as you again indicated, i mean, the roots of what he and mel brooks and others did, creating "the dick van dyke show," i mean, that was a platform that has been built on by other people and tv series

today. the roots of it are with carl reiner. >> the words that we use to praise those that pass when it comes, especially to comedy here, mika, are inadequate for carl reiner. but again, the stories that came out yesterday about his kindness and his generosity just show what a wonderful, wonderful man he was. >> and his humor is saying so much about us, which shows the depth of it all and the humanity of it. still ahead on "morning joe," we'll be joined by former iraq war veteran and purple heart recipient, senator tammy duckworth, who's demanding a senate hearing into the russia bounty scandal which just moments ago the president called another hoax, made up by the fake news. you're watching "morning joe." >> so, that's how he does it. that's how he actually, he questions his intel, the american intel community and he attacks the media because he's

too scared to tell the world the truth about vladimir putin. we'll be right back. from prom dresses...

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to help the military community find out more at usaa.com my name is dan barkhuff, i'm a navy graduate, an ex-navy s.e.a.l., currently an emergency room physician and with veterans leadership. months ago, the president learned that the russians were paying bounties for dead american soldiers in afghanistan and chose to do nothing about it. any commander in chief with a spine would be stomping the living [ bleep ] out of some russians right now, diplomatically, economically, or if necessary, with the sort of asymmetric warfare they're using to send our kids home in body bags. mr. trump, you're either a coward who can't stand up to an ex-kgb goo or you're complicit. which is it? donald trump is unfit to be our commander in chief and that's

worse than useless. i'm a pro-life, gun-owning veteran and i can see trump for what he is, a coward. we need to send this draft dodger back to his golf courses. the lives of our troops depend on it. >> the lincoln project is responsible for the content of this advertising. >> all right. that new ad taking on president trump for his reported inaction after reports russia had offered bounties to encourage taliban-linked militants to kill american troops. joining us now, a member of the armed services committee, democratic senator tammy duckworth of illinois. she is a retired u.s. army lieutenant colonel who flew missions as a helicopter pilot in the iraq war. she is a recipient of the purple heart. it's very good to have you on the show. i'd like to start by asking you, senator, what questions do you still want answers to pertaining to the russian bounties, and

what are you hoping to hear from the president? >> well, mika, what i want to know is, when did we know about these bounties? from all of the reports that we're reading in the media, it seems that we have known about them as early as 2019 but that the president was receiving briefings on them in his daily presidential brief as recently as february. so, this president has known about these bounties. it has been corroborated through multiple intelligence sources, and he's done nothing. he's allowed the taliban to carry out the orders of the russian government to kill american servicemen and women, and that's not acceptable. and so, i'm actually headed to a briefing this morning in the secure briefing room in the senate to find out more. i'm just absolutely appalled that this is what's happening and that our president is missing in action. >> what's his duty at this point? he says he didn't know about it. >> that is a ridiculous

statement from mr. trump. i mean, if he didn't know about it, then there's only three things that could have happened. one, they told him about it and he doesn't remember. two, we know that it was in his presidential daily brief, and he doesn't know about it, it means that he didn't actually read his briefing, he didn't bother to do his homework. or three, the people around him know that he is so incompetent and unlikely to do anything or they're afraid that he is someone who will compromise our intelligence sources that they didn't tell him. what does that say about the president of the united states? so, none of those three options is an acceptable option. he needed to do something. and now that he knows about it, he still hasn't done anything! he hasn't spoken up. all he's done is deny and try to shift blame. we need a leader who's going to pull the country together, who's going to brush the russians back off, and who's going to lead a response. and he's done none of that. our troops in harm's way, mika, need to know that their

commander in chief will safeguard their well-being as they are out there facing the enemy to protect and defend the rest of us. and their commander in chief right now is hiding someplace, sulking in a corner, claiming that he didn't read his homework. this is absolutely unacceptable. the man is derelict in his duty. >> senator duck worth, it's willie geist. good to have you back on the show this morning. in my experience of my reporting over the last couple days, this is not a partisan issue. i'm hearing from republicans and conservatives who are appalled by this. obviously, military families who are appalled by this. you are more connected to the veterans' community and active duty, i suspect, than most people in the united states senate. what are you hearing from them about this story? >> well, willie, what i'm hearing from them is that they feel that they are not being protected by their commander in chief. i've reached out to my friends at the national guard, those who are on active duty, and you know, just chatting. i have a bunch of folks that i call my truth-tellers. these are my folks who generally vote republican, who are still

in the military, and i reach out to them and say, hey, what is going on, what's your feeling here? and they all say the same thing, that they cannot believe that the president would not be leading at this point. and they want to know, what do the russians have on him? you know, why is it that he is so unwilling to confront vladimir putin? why is he putting the interests of russia in front of the interests of our men and women who are wearing the uniform of this great nation? and frankly, there's just a lot of bewilderment and a real sense of absolutely being let down, you know, being betrayed by somebody who should be watching out for their best interests. and instead is just denying, denying, denying, and trying to shift blame. that's not what commanders do. >> claire mccaskill. >> good morning, tammy. i hope the girls are great. i miss seeing miley. let me ask you an important question about putin's wish list. and we know that getting the troops out of europe, american

troops out of europe, is very, very high on putin's wish list. the undermining of nato and getting our troops out of europe. trump has announced he's pulling thousands and thousands of american soldiers out of germany. what is the feeling among republicans in the senate? is there any will there to stop what he is trying to do in terms of giving putin even a broader ability to influence democracies across the globe, and particularly among our allies that are the european citizens? >> good morning, claire. it is good to see you. the girls are fine. thank you. i am not seeing the willingness of my republican colleagues to stand up to this president on this particular issue. in fact, they're avoiding any comments on it whatsoever. and to be honest, i -- i'm

disappointed in them. you would think members of the armed services committee on either side of the aisle would be supporting of our troops and supporting of the defense of our nation. america's presence in europe is absolutely critical to the alliance that is there. it is nato. it is an alliance. but we are at the linchpin of that alliance. we are the rebar and the concrete that holds that alliance together. and without us, it cannot withstand the russians. and this is exactly, as you said, russia's wish list, vladimir putin's wish list. you know, we did nothing when he annexed crimea. and in fact, president trump even said that maybe they should be allowed to keep crimea. and russia just continues to push forward and forward. and by leaving, we leave our allies in europe without the defense that they need. and that puts us, the united states, in greater danger than ever before. >> mike barnicle. >> senator, i have two quick questions for you. the first question you just

referenced. what in god's name is wrong with the republicans in the united states senate? this issue has less to do with politics than it has to do with the safety and security of american military personnel around the globe. that's question number one. question number two is, the presidential daily brief. if it's in the presidential daily brief, it's important, no matter what it is, and the pdb circulates to certain numbers of people within the white house and the national security chain of command. are you intending to call secretary of defense mark esper, for example, to testify about what he knew and when did he know it? those are the two questions. thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. i'm going to answer the second one first, which is i have already called for a hearing. i have asked chairman inhofe, the republican chairman of the armed services committee, to

call -- to hold a hearing and to not just concentrate esper, but also members of the intelligence community to come forward and brief us on what they knew, when they knew it, when they communicated this to the president. and in answer to your first question, whether or not the chairman actually calls for this hearing and holds this hearing, it's a good indication of where the republicans are willing to be on this. they have so far been unwilling to confront this president, and they've allowed him to deny his knowledge, they've allowed him to shift the blame. bottom line, if the problem needs an answer, if the problem is severe enough to make it to the presidential daily brief, the president needs to read his presidential daily brief. you know, the problems that go up to the presidential level are not the problems that people have already found solutions to. it's the problems that you can't find a solution to. you need real leadership. that's why you sit in the oval office behind the resolute desk. you are there to provide leadership and to be the commander in chief so that the

problems come to you. we have right now a president who doesn't get any of the problems because his subordinates around him know that, number one, he's incapable of coming up with any problems, and two, he's disinterested, and three, he's going to shift the blame on to someone else. so you actually have people keeping information from him because they're afraid that he's going to leak classified information out to the world. but in this case, they didn't keep the information from him. they provided him with information and he did not do his job of reviewing it. and he should have been brushing putin back from the very beginning. this morning we do have this classified briefing that i'm going to -- and i will be asking those very same questions. >> senator duckworth, before we let you go, i want to ask you about coronavirus as it affects veterans' communities. when we talk about long-term care facilities in the context of coronavirus, we're often referring to senior senators. and there is a big crisis with a huge percentage of the deaths in this country occurring there. but also, we should be talking

about veterans in those long-term care facilities and also va hospitals where we're seeing numbers climb, as they are in so many places across the country. how does this country, from the federal government down, do a better job taking care of its veterans who have coronavirus? >> well, we need a centralized response. we need a federal-level response to the coronavirus, which we do not have. the president has said each state has to do it on its own, from finding your own ppe to setting the standards on whether or not somebody wears a mask. our veterans homes that exist in this country are run by the states. they're not run by the federal va. they're run by the states. they're overseen by the federal va. and yet, because every veterans home is run in a different state and falls under a different set of guidelines, there is no consistency across the nation on what standards we should be adhering to. we need centralized response. again, we need leadership in the white house. we need a president that's going to unite our country in the effort to fight back against

this pandemic that's already killed 125,000 americans and could kill as many as 100,000 more. and yet, we have a president who's missing in action. and so, that goes for americans all across the country as well as our heroes in veterans homes and at the va facilities. but again, there is no centralized response coming out of the white house. and so, everybody's left to fepd for themselves, and that's what is happening in these veterans homes across the country. they are looking to their governors. and some of our governors are out there following right along with mr. trump in denying basic precautions like whether or not you should wear a face mask. >> senator tammy duckworth, thank you so much for coming on the show this morning. and coming up, he is the most vulnerable senate democrat seeking re-election this year. doug jones of alabama joins the conversation next on "morning joe." this is my new shaq-a-roni pizza. extra cheese, extra pepperoni right to the edge and the biggest slices

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download the xfinity stream app today to stream the entertainment you love. xfinity. the future of awesome. former governor john hickenlooper won yesterday's democratic primary in colorado and will face senator cory gardner, one of the incumbents this fall. the colorado senate race was the most significant contest on tuesday because the state is

essential for democrats' path back to the senate majority. one seat the democrats will be fighting to keep is doug jones in alabama. here is one of his latest re-election ads focusing on the coronavirus. >> the covid crisis has shown how our health depends on each other, on our neighbors, our loved ones, our coworkers. wearing masks and social distancing is about protecting each other, our parents and grandparents, the friend who has diabetes or a heart condition we didn't know about, the front line workers who put themselves at risk and so our small businesses open safely and get our economy moving. i'm senator doug jones and i approve this message because in alabama, we do this for each other. >> it's that simple. senator jones joins us now. great to have you on the show. appreciate your leadership on wearing masks. how is alabama faring in terms

of, and i believe tuscaloosa just said you have to wear masks everywhere, how is it faring in dealing with the coronavirus and getting your constituents to follow social distancing guidelines? >> it's not faring very well right now. we have had the highest 14-day count i think we've had in the last 14 days. 28% of all cases since march have occurred in the last 14 days, and that is not good. you can trace that back to the memorial day weekend, after our governor started lifting restrictions. i'm not critical of that. i thought she did it in the right way. unfortunately people just heard the message we're opening up and they didn't get the message that you still need to social distance, you still need to wear the mask. and i think what we're seeing right now is directly related back to what started to occur in -- on memorial day and i worry going into july 4th we'll see the same thing and we'll be in more trouble later in the

month or august as schools start to reopen. >> yeah, it does seem like there is a real inconsistency in the messaging from the very top of our government when it comes to how to reopen safely and how to behave in this new normal of having the pandemic among us without having a sack seen and without mass testing. is there a struggle to communicate to your constituents about this because of that? >> sure. i don't think there's any question about that. i think state officials have done a pretty good job, by and large. we have tried to get that message out consistently. our public health officials have gotten that message out. one thing i've told folks from the very beginning, don't listen to the politicians unless they're repeating what the health officials have said to you. unfortunately, when you've seen the messages coming out of washington, d.c., in a state where the president popular, then those messages get muddled

and they get messed up and people don't see it. and people watch -- and they go by examples. and i think it has been a serious problem. and we're a little bit late. that's why you're beginning to see more and more of my republican colleagues talking about wearing masks. even senator mcconnell was talking about it on the floor yesterday. but we're about a month late for that. they should have started that and should have been doing it since may or before. >>. >> good morning, senator. i have two quick questions. one is on the monuments and confederate statues. you said it should be left up to local authorities. can you tell me why you're taking that position instead of nationally the lawmakers should be having the discussion there? and when it comes to police reform, you're one of the two senates that moved to move forward, why take that position and do you think democrats are

being unreasonable in their demand for police reform? >> let's talk about the confederate monuments first. i was one of the armed service committee members that voted to require the department of defense to remove those confederate names and statues. identify always believed and this goes back to my campaign in 2017, the federal government should not be telling a local community and the state government should not be telling a local community. that was based in part on a law that alabama passed in which the legislators decided they know better than people in a community. when i say that, i don't mean necessarily that you should take a poll or take a vote. i think people have to be very, very sensitive to all folks in that community. and i think what you're seeing across alabama is in every community across the state. there are serious discussions about this and where we're going to move those monuments and move them to places of historical

significance. on the police bill, a lot of people say i voted for tim scott's bill. i did not do that. i just voted to have debate. i believe, and i came at it a little different way from my colleagues, i believe we ought to have that debate on the floor. a lot of people didn't believe senator mcconnell would put amendments and have a very transparent process, but i wanted to put it on the floor and force that issue. if he didn't have amendments and a real transparent process, then shame on him. but i think it's important we move forward. i want to see it. i'm a co-sponsor of the harris/book erbil. i believe that's the bill we need to have on the floor and we can work with folks. folks need to settle down, get out of their corners a little bit because there's no question in my mind that people across this country, and every state in the union, not just democratic states, want to see some change and they want to see some reforms made and they want to see them made very soon. >> senator jones, it's willie

geist. good to have you on the show. i want to ask you about this story, widespread reporting that comes from intelligence officers that say there was a bounty program from russia that paid taliban militants to kill american and coalition troops in afghanistan. the president this morning is calling that story fake. he's calling it a hoax. do you find it credible that the president of the united states, if this information was in his president's daily brief or something this significant was out there as a piece of intelligence, do you find it credible that the president did not know about it? >> no, i don't. if that's the case, as my colleague tammy duckworth said, members of the armed services are going over for a briefing soon, in a couple of hours, so we'll know more about that. but should that be credible -- should that be the case where he had that in his briefings, he should have done something. i think more importantly that folks need to remember, and this is something i heard in a question from a town hall in an

area last night, in an area of the state of alabama that would be one of -- i think one of president trump's stronger positions. that is people are worried about russia, and they don't think even if he didn't hear the brief, even if he didn't see it, even if it didn't make it to him, when this came out in the public, instead of calling this a hoax, you need to be saying, i'm going to get to the bottom of this, see if there's some truth to this because this is serious and we need to determine whether or not russians are trying to kill american troops. that goes beyond election interference. the report from the white house is more appalling than the news coming out. i hope we're going to get more information in a couple of hours. >> senator doug jones, we do, too. thank you very, very much for being on the show this morning. still ahead, dave wasserman of the cook political report pointed out this fact overnight. when president trump took office

in january 2017, there were 241 republicans in the house. since then 115, or 48%, have either retired, resigned, been defeated or are retiring in 2020. now amid a global pandemic we're seeing a growing number of gop lawmakers break with the president over the issue of face masks. we'll talk about what this all means for the virus and the 2020 election. we're back in one minute. ok everyone, our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy. whoo-hoo! great tasting ensure with 9 grams of protein, 27 vitamins and minerals, and nutrients to support immune health.

camera worldwide is a statement understood very well by north korea. >> this president is the most

important world when it comes to the threats we face. >> on planet earth, okay. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." >> what's that about? have they been -- >> it's a lot. it's about him. it's wednesday, july 1st. >> like lost in space, willie? warning, warning. what's going on? people are weird. they're just strange people. >> along with joe, willie and me, we have -- >> i was going to say, they know what their job is. they know why they're sent out there so they go to the most extreme statements they can make in defense of the president. instead of saying, of course he was briefed, of course he reads his pdb, he's the most informed person on planet earth. >> and she said he takes everything verbally, which we know. reading is not a thing.

along with joe, willie and me, we have white house reporter for the associated press, jonathan lemire. >> best reporter, by the way, on planet earth. >> yes, okay. wow. >> good setup. >> nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of "kasie d.c." on sunday nights, kasie hunt is with us, and political reporter for "the washington post" and nbc political analyst, robert costa, the moderator of "washington week" on pbs. yesterday u.s. coronavirus cases hit a new single day record for the fourth time in the past week. the press secretary says about trump not wearing a mask, quote, it's his decision. republicans on capitol hill increasingly saying out loud that he is setting a bad example. joe biden steps up his criticism of trump's response to the virus saying, bluntly, donald trump failed us. meanwhile, "the new york times" found the money trail linked to

a suspected russian bounty's plot targeting u.s. troops in afghanistan, really raising the question as to whether the president stands with our troops or with vladimir putin. >> willie, somebody tweeted yesterday after the story came out, charlie savage, i hope he can get more specific in the reporting. we want the exact wiring numbers and instructions. it's remarkable the work he's done and found the transfers from the russian gru to a taliban-backed group, this is getting more and more focused. like we said day one, they might as well not lie about it. the lies are going to be found out. but here you have, once again, whether you're talking about russia, whether you're talking about the coronavirus, whether you're talking about "new york times" reporting this morning

that donald trump insists on having his twitter feed look like a local crime blotter, donald trump wildly out of step with the american people. willie, we're about to show a poll. it keeps showing up and more and more republicans are expressing more and more concerns, saying, is this guy really going to be around? is he going to run for re-election if he knows he's going to lose badly? >> the more reporting that comes out, not just from charlie savage in "the new york times," but nbc has new reporting this morning as well. there's nowhere for them to go at the white house except for ignorance, that he wasn't told, that he doesn't read his pdb, because the facts are there. it's clear that the white house knew about this plot by the russians and has still to this day, hasn't done anything about it. as you mentioned, there are new polls showing joe biden up again by at least ten points over president trump nationally. the new pew research poll

showing joe biden 54% to president trump's 44%. a suffolk university/"usa today" poll has biden up 12 points, 53% to 41%. the partisan gap among americans' satisfaction with the way things in the country are going has narrowed. according to the latest pew research poll, only 12% of americans say they are satisfied with the direction of the country, down 19 points since april. 87% say they're dissatisfied. satisfaction has dropped 36 points among republicans since two months ago. until today, republican satisfaction had been above 50% for nearly all of trump's presidency and 7% of democrats say they're satisfied, that's down a couple of points as well. also according to the suffolk university/"usa today" poll, 67% of americans now believe the country is on the wrong track, up 12 points since may. the country is headed in the

right direction. only 20% say that. so, joe, just take the wrong track number in the country, 67%, two-thirds of americans believe we're on the wrong track. you zeroed in on that number in the pew poll that show 19% of republicans, 19% of republicans, say things are on the right track. that's down 36% over the last two months. >> and the numbers have plummeted precipitously, as you said, over 50%. over 50% of republicans throughout most of donald trump's presidency have said they're satisfied with where the country is a straight line down. we're looking at 19%. and yet another poll, jonathan lemire, shows donald trump losing by double digits to joe biden. you look at the "usa today" poll, the suffolk poll, down 12 points there. that's in line with a lot of other polls. we've seen just an absolute

deluge of polls over the past week or two that show that, whether you're looking at swing states or whether you're looking at the national election, things keep getting worse. and the election still, still has no answer to it. things keep getting worse. what is his state of mind right now inside the white house? >> joe, as we all know, the national polls don't mean all that much, but they are a trend line and they do seem to be getting worse. we have seen in the last week or two the battleground polls also painting a very grim picture for president trump. yes, it's still early, though. not june anymore. it's july 1st. there's still time for him to correct things but there doesn't seem to have been at this point any ability for the white house to reverse that slide. we've also seen, particularly in the last week or two, and i've been writing about this with my

colleagues at the associated press, for more republicans to start distancing themselves from him. certainly he received a lot of criticism for his handling of the -- of this russia matter and the bounties, but also we saw yesterday, it felt like a tipping point in terms of the issue of masks where now it seems every major republican figure out there, from mitch mcconnell to a lot of state governors, nearly all are now endorsing the use of masks saying, look, this is the number one thing you can do to keep you and your family and your fellow citizens healthy during the time of the coronavirus pandemic. we saw the vice president wear a mask over the weekend. donald trump is almost alone on this, on an island almost, refusing to wear a mask in public. there's real pressure on him from other republicans growing to change that. the sense in the white house and the trump re-election campaign is frustration. we saw a little bit of a shakeup last night. michael glasser in who's been there since the 2016 campaign.

he was one in charge of putting on the rallies. he was basically demoted last night in the aftermath of the tulsa debacle where they only drew 6,000 people after saying they got a million ticket requests. some say he was the fall guy, but this was jared kushner's decision and he was pushed out from that key role. they're trying to imagine what rallies could look like. they underestimated how fearful their senior voters, particularly, of going to an indoor space in the time of the pandemic. they're trying to grapple for a message here. the attacks on joe biden to this point haven't landed, whether it's china or hunter biden. and next it's about his mental acuity and that doesn't seem to be gaining any traction here either. they're scrambling for a message. there's growing chatter among republicans and political operatives. it doesn't seem to be based on

inside information. they wonder if the president will stick with this, particularly if he can't reverse the slide and poll numbers can't find some sort of message. the real number is the economy. if the economy continues to slide, that takes away what the trump campaign feels like is its best and only argument for the election. if it continues to falter, you may see more and more republicans break from the president. still ahead, we'll show you the social distancing republicans are doing when it comes to the president's position on face coverings, masks. that's next on "morning joe."

if you're pro trump, you don't wear a mask. if you're anti-trump, you're more likely to wear a mask. but that makes no sense. i mean, it actually no help restore the economy if we contain the disease. and the better the economy is,

the better off the president is, i would think, running for re-electi re-election, so it makes no sense. so, i hope the president will help us just get rid of this mask politics. it hurts the country. it doesn't help him. >> what we're all trying to demonstrate for everybody in the country is the single most important thing you can do, not only to protect yourself but protect others until we get a vaccine, but on the mask. it's not complicated. >> wearing the mask is the best opportunity for us to keep this economy open, keep us working, keep us safe, and help us as we build towards that vaccine where we're in a much stronger position than any country before. >> for the fourth of july we could all show our patriotism with a red, white and blue mask going out there. >> my goodness, even mike has found religion on masks.

we've been talking about this every day. this is another example of an 80/20 issue where the president continues to be on the side of the 20%, and opposed to the 80%. you look at, for instance, vetoing a defense funding bill because he wants to defend bad confederate generals who lost wars? like if you're talking about bragg. the state of mississippi voted to take down the flag and he's still fighting the lost cause. i mean, you talk about his magical thinking when you talk about the coronavirus. we're coming up to 130,000 dead, probably be at 150,000 dead americans by the time people go to vote and his magical thinking continues. and he always talks about making america great again. he says, by the way, i have 99%

of republicans supporting me, which is a total lie, whatever number he uses. this pew poll that shows less than 1 in 5 americans are satisfied with where america is. . this is a guy that said, trust me, believe me, i can make america great again like nobody else. he's had his chance. here we are, almost four years in and only 12% of americans are satisfied with how things are going in the country. 1 in 10 americans, basically. that's why the republicans are now starting to figure out the best way to find the exits and get out of this burning political building. >> yeah, i mean, this is a fundamental rule of politics and of life, too. these republicans are looking at these polls, looking at what's

happening in their own states, they're looking at their seats being challenged by democrats and they're saying, i don't want to be associated with this. i've hitched my wagon to him for four years now and it hasn't gone well. we're losing right now, republicans say to themselves. the president is losing right now and i don't want to be a part of this. that's why you see them drifting away. i will say, though, it's extraordinary that it's viewed as extraordinary that republicans are coming out in support of masks because as you say, it's such an obvious issue to most americans. even among republicans, even among conservatives. it's not a partisan issue. they wear masks because they want this to be over. we all want this to be over. and part of the way we get there, say most public health experts and the officials that work for president trump is to wear masks. bob costa, i ask you, you can talk about this dynamic with republicans and the white house. but inside the white house, i know this has become sort of a moot question at this point, but

is there anybody in there who's looking at the direction of his polls? is there anybody in there saying, hey, wait a minute, wear the mask, do the right thing, it gets our businesses open again, our republicans are abandoning us, even republicans, 19% of republicans now like the direction the country is headed in. this clearly is not going well for us. if we want a shot as being re-elected, we have to change course. is there any sense of crisis in the white house? >> there is alarm inside the white house about the president's poll numbers. you look at his numbers not just among moderates or suburban women but among seniors and white evangelicals. those numbers have been softening in poll after poll in recent weeks. there's another challenge for the white house as they try to fight this culture war and the president defends the statues of confederate generals and other figures that are part of our nation's racist past, you see

the white house dealing with real concern about those evangelical voters because of what happened at the supreme court in recent weeks, the rulings by chief justice john roberts, on gay rights, transgender rights, abortion rights, the louisiana decision on monday. there's concern that now these conservatives who counted on them who sees roberts and they see a court moving to the left on the issues that matter most to them. look in the coming weeks. i have a story in the post this morning about this. look in the coming weeks for the president, and particularly vice president pence, to try to shore up that support with the base. this isn't an outreach white house at the moment, shoring up the base operation. coming up, the governor of mississippi signs an historic bill to remove the confederate symbol from the state's flag. what it means for the national

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mississippi governor tate reeves signed a bill yesterday that will remove the state flag and ban future use of the confederate emblem. footage obtained by nbc news

shows the mississippi state flag being removed from the senate side of capitol hill and replaced with a temporary flag featuring the state seal. that's in washington there. adopted nearly three decades after the end of the civil war, mississippi state flag was the last that contained the confederate battle flag. signing it yesterday to take it down, governor reeves said this -- whether you're proud of this step or angry with us over the process, i want you to know that i love you. meanwhile, joe biden yesterday weighed in on the growing national movement to take down monuments and statues dedicated to historical figures. >> any institution that chose a name and now wants to jettison the name, that's the decision they made. the idea of comparing whether or not george washington owned slaves or thomas jefferson owns slaves and somebody who was in

rebellion committing treason, running, trying to take down a union to keep slavery, i think there's a distinction. for example, taking down -- toppling christopher columbus statue or george washington statue or, et cetera, that is something that is -- the government has an opportunity and responsibility to protect from happening. i think the elected officials where those statues are have a responsibility to move. put them in museums. get them down. but don't expect if you have sitting in front of you after all these years and we fim finally, finally are going through another phase of responding to this systemic racism in america and what we've seen happen. don't be surprised if someone pulls down the statue of jefferson davis. it's better that they do not. but it's fundamentally different than pulling down the statue or

going in the lincoln memorial and trying to pull -- not lincoln memorial. that's a bad example. the jefferson memorial and grabbing jefferson off his chair. >> we're joined now by professor of princeton university, our friend, eddie glaude jr., his title is out this weekend titled "begin again: james baldwin's lessons" and also for this conversation, senior news correspondent and nbc correspondent and kim kimberly adkins and david blythe author of "frederick douglass: profit of freedom." eddie, i want to start with you. i want to go back to mississippi, that's your home state. the signing by governor reeves, a long time in the making, 126 years, to be exact. what is the significance for

people that live outside the south and live outside the state of mississippi of that flag finally coming down? >> oh, my goodness. you know, mississippi has been described as a closed society as a metaphor for america. could you imagine those who grew up in mississippi who witnessed and experienced that brutality, seeing the symbol of the confederacy removed from the flag? think about marley evers, the wife of medgar evers, her seeing that symbol taken down. think of those who worked so hard to transform the society, willie, and what it meant for them. and think about all those bodies, all those bodies that

lay at the bottom of the mississippi river, who sacrificed their lives to try to change that country, what that meant. it's an extraordinary moment. not enough but it's an extraordinary moment. >> i want to read from ross yesterday, he actually talks about princeton and yale, woodrow wilson and yale. you get a sense he's not a big fan of either. but i want to read what ross said. ross starts out by saying what all conservatives say. wait, we're no fans of woodrow wilson here but let's talk through this. ross wrote this. thus when you enter their washington, d.c., memorials you'll see thomas jefferson honored as a man founding the highest ideals and president lincoln that made good on the promise. the first is a hypocrite slave

owner. they remain the authors of the declaration of independence and the savior of the union and you can't embrace either legacy, the union or we hold these truths without acknowledging these came down through them. to repudiate or dishonor memorials. in the case of the confederate monuments, that's exactly what we should want to do. just as jefferson's memorial wasn't built to honor his slave holding, the wilson school of economic affairs wasn't honoring him for being a segregationist, it was named for him because he created precisely the institution that the school exists to staff. our executive administrative state and global foreign policy apparatus. and because he was the presidential creator of the idealistic of interventionalist world view that has animated that foreign policy community ever since, which means, in turn, that school will remain

his school whatever name gets slapped on it. eddie, let me start with you. what's your response? >> well, i think ti think he hed that position prior to changing his mind. what he said was this, that we have a history in this country of disregarding the febts of racism, of how it continues to organize our society in very concrete, that's the first claim. and he said the way in which we told the story of woodrow wilson and his story at princeton has in some way been redacted. the insidious commitments he held with regard to race and that disregard echoed the broader disregard this country has engaged in over the course of its history. what president eisgruber argued

today is princeton holds a different set of values and what we aspire to be and the community princeton isn't in line with those obnoxious, racist commitments. it doesn't mean woodrow wilson will be removed from the history of princeton. that's silly. what is it to name a building after him to kind of promote the values that he represents and say that it's not in alignment with who we take ourselves to be today and who we aspire to be tomorrow. it's a different kind of orientation, joe. >> david, let me ask you a follow-up on that. if we're talking about lincoln, a pragmatist that was eventually dragged to the position he was dragged to, that saving the union could only happen if, in fact, slaves were free and also thomas jefferson, who actually, as ross wrote, brought us some of our most enduring founding principles. how do we approach those

memorials? >> first of all, we have to face the fact that we can't purify our memory. we can't purify the memory that happened, we can't purify the memory in the present. i want to go to what eddie just said. i don't speak officially for yale. i'm just one faculty member but hale yale might have had a hand in history. i doubt the doubt the name is changed on yale. but that is above my pay grade at the particular moment. what we have to do, though, is judge these matters, as eddie implied, our mission statement and values and beliefs of today. if we find that a name or a monument is such a contradiction to our current values and our

current mission that we simply can't live with it. if a politics emerges that we simply can't live with that name or that institution, then it is subject to possible change. but i would add just quickly that yale, like princeton, is not the yale it was in the 17th, 18th, 19th, and even the 20th century. we have in many ways created an international network of the study of slavery and abolition and its legacies. that's the new yale. that's the new yale now of two or three generations. again, we can't purify our memory and, therefore, purify our past. we have to face that past, understand it, know it and make decisions in the present.

every monument, every name placed on a building is about the present in which it was placed there and it's about the present in which we interpret. >> and, suggested that the emancipation statue with abraham lincoln should not be torn down. explain. >> well, that monument was put up in april of 1879, on the 11th anniversary of lincoln's assassination. it was paid for, $20,000 by african-americans. the first $5 given by a former slave woman named charlotte scott in missouri. the model for the kneeling slave, the offensive, now quite offensive image of that kneeling slave was a real person named archer alexander, who was the last person in missouri actually prosecuted under the fugitive slave act. he has a very interesting history himself. the whole unveiling of any that

statue was a black affair in washington, d.c. a huge parade. most importantly to me, frederick douglass all but made that ground sacred at the unveiling speech. that speech is the second greatest speech of douglass's life after his fourth of july speech, because in that speech he honestly, forthrightly declared that abraham lincoln had been the white man's president. that abraham lincoln had the assumptions and prejudices of white americans. he didn't just get up and make some ceremonial speech. he bluntly stated that. he said, my fellow white americans, you are abraham lincoln's children. i and my people are only his step children by adoption, by necessity, by circumstances. in the second part of the speech, classic move by douglass in his oratory, he shifted and

he said, under his rule and undue time, he used it three times as a refrain, he said the way we became free was by this cautious, methodical method that lincoln use federal power and use the armies to free african-americans. so, on the one hand, it was this bluntly honest statement of where lincoln had come from but then also about where lincoln had reached. the last point in that speech, douglass was telling the country, you're losing reconstruction right now in 1876 if you don't act fast, you will lose all the great results of the civil war. i prefer that we build a new emancipation memorial next to that monument. let's get some modern artists inspired by this story. let's build an emancipation memorial next to it, which is

actually what frederick douglass advocated five days after that speech. >> i, in fact, have that speech pinned on my twitter feed because it lines up -- if you read carl sandberg's biography of abraham lincoln, he was considered maddeningly cautious by abolitionists. he was considered maddeningly pragmatic. in fact, lincoln said at the beginning, wrote a letter to the nation saying if my goal is to save the union, if that means it's a union that's half free, half slave, that is my goal. if that means, it is completely free, that is my goal. i put saving the union above anything else. as you read sandberg' book, you understand that lincoln is just trying to drag, not the south, he's fighting the south, the north along in this project to

free the slaves and that douglass speech, excuse me for going on here, it is one of the most remarkable speeches i've ever heard in explaining abraham lincoln and the mission of abraham lincoln. kimberly, donald trump would like us to believe if wilson's name is taken off of princeton or if a founder of the klu klux klan statue is taken down, they're coming after the washington memorial next. what should the response to that be? >> the messaging by the president is serving a specific purpose. it's a call to the specific part of america that he believes is important to him, that he believes he needs to galvanize in order to win politically. the president is not speaking as an historian. he's not speaking about the

values of america as an institution. he's speaking about -- he's speaking to the people important to him in that sense. i think that's a very different discussion than the one that we are having here. i can speak for myself as a black american knowing many of these monuments were put up for the purpose of terrorism, for the purpose of terrorizing black americans long after the civil war was done speaks volumes about what they enshrine and what they mean. but i would love to ask eddie a question. as we stand now in what at some point will be called the civil rights era of the 2020s and how that will be memorialized. how should america think of that moving forward? how do we memorialize this moment what monuments should be made to this moment and how do you deal with the fa account that we live in a country where

our presidents -- where monuments were made to our president? so what will a monument to the 45th president of the united states look like, what should it look like? >> i'm not sure, kimberly, to be honest with you. as david blight, the historian, would say, we have to wait and see. he has a choice. it is a momentous choice. whether or not we're going to double down on our ugliness or imagine a new america. i was just thinking about that speech by frederick douglass, and kimberly and joe and david and willie and mika, i was thinking about that speech and drawing a straight line to jimmy baldwin. there's a line that jimmy uses where he says, people that imagine history flatters them are impaled on their history like a butterfly on a pin. we have to deal with the ugliness of who we are and what we've done in order to imagine ourselves otherwise. that's what it means to be creatures of history. that's what it means to carry history forward into the present

and as we try desperately to imagine a better future. >> eddie, well said. i was going to ask you to bring mr. baldwin back into the conversation around your book here and speak specifically about the monument question, you started to do it right there. you know, he was insistent that white americans have told themselves a version of history that puts them at the center of it, of course. and as you quoted there, flatters them. what does taking down a confederate statue, what does challenging some of the stories of history we've heard, what does that do for our new look at history, the way, perhaps, james baldwin would want us to look at it? >> i think the first thing, willie -- that's such a great question. the first thing it is, it is an explicit attempt to address the lie. the lost cause is a lie. the statues are memorials to that lie. outside of the fact that it actually happened in history,

but the story it tries to commend, the values those statues represent are values that run contrary to a robust understanding or robust view of multiracial democracy. so what baldwin constantly asked of us and what i'm asking of us in this moment is that we confront or history, we confront the stories we've told of ourselves, so that we can actually free ourselves into imagining america differently and to imagine our relationship to each other differently. and i think that's what baldwin meant when he said the great force of history is that we carry it forward in ourselves and it's with great pain and terror that we confront ourselves which means we confront that history. so, i understand what ross is talking about, what he's writing about. i understand the anxiety that some folk are having as we struggle with the meaning of jefferson and washington and the meaning of these monuments, but i do know be this, that if we don't struggle, we will be

permanently docked at the station. we will not change. and then the monuments that kim asked about will be monuments to ruins, not to a better america. >> mike barnicle has a question for david. mike? >> david, listening to this conversation this morning, this is what we do best. not just on this show, but television. this is what we do best. we don't do it often enough but it is really rewarding and enriching to listen to what's been going on here for the past several minutes. my question to you is, history was my favorite course in high school. i loved history. i still love history. but history is literally a study of the past. as we discuss what we're discussing today with all these kernels of information dropped out that many people have not heard of before, is it not an indictment of the way we have been teaching history to our children, the omission of all of

these vital facts about who we really are today? >> well, mike, thank you for that question. i'm afraid the answer is yes and no. historians for three generations have rewritten the history of this country, especially the history of slavery, race, the civil war, reconstruction, jim crow era, civil rights, but there is always a great distance between the scholarly history we write in the academy, even those who write for larger audiences, and the public memory. the task is to affect that public memory. and i would have -- by the way, a shout out to eddie's book. get the book, folks. take a walk with eddie, with james baldwin. it will be rewarding. now, last point, i love the fact that you all use those clips of vice president biden's speech yesterday because one of the best things the biden campaign could do right now, i think it would be very popular, is to announce they're going to get behind this.

not just taking down confederate monuments and having to, you know, cut that fine line between which slaveholder we take away and which slaveholder we don't, but why not get behind get behind the issue or the idea of building confederation memorials. let's replace it with serious, interesting, historically informinform ed emancipation memorials? start with one in lincoln park in washington, and have a commission that allows localities to do the same, every place that had a refugee camp for escaped slaves and let's move on to what was just suggested about this moment. how will we begin to think about commemorating this moment? we need a lot more time to do that. the biden administration should get behind that. i'm sorry -- >> thank you for your time this morning. we will continue our conversation around eddie's

excellent new book tomorrow. eddie, stay with us. "frederick douglass, prophet of freedom." last night, new york city officials agreed to an $88.1 billion proposed budget, which includes a $1 billion cut from the city's police department or reallocation of those funds. the mayor of new york city, bill diblasio. at a time when crime is going up, people say you're taking money away from the police department and others say you're just moving it around departments and putting that in other balance sheets. walk us through this new budget as it pertains to the nypd. >> it's a profound change and a moment when we need profound change in this city, in this country. we're taking $1 billion out of

the nypd. we're reducing overtime. we're removing some of the functions that nypd does now. they will be replaced by civilians handling those functions who can do them better, and we'll take that m money and put it into youth initiatives. we need to help young people particularly in this tough time in history. we're taking money from the police, putting it into youth initiatives. i think that will help us be a safer city in the future. we're taking rec centers, community centers for young people. these kind of investments and other reforms. we need to be in a constant place of reform. we're going to get rid of solitary confinement in our jails. we're going to take this moment in history and amplify it, by taking the black lives matter symbolism and putting it all over the city, including right in front of trump tower.

and then we're going to do something even bigger and have a commission on racial justice and reconciliation patterned on the truth and reconciliation commission in south africa, that will systematically officially identify where structural and institutional racism exists in new york city government and in our city in general, and then specifically define how we will end it, how we will tear it down, how we will transform and put real resources and policies in place to change it. so, this is going to be a constant moment of change and reform in new york city. >> i've got another question on budget. did you say officially you're going to paint black lives matter on fifth avenue in front of turump tower? >> yes, we are. yes, we are. it's an important message to the nation and we want the president to hear it. he has never shown respect for those three words. when he hears black lives matter, he presents a horrible, negative reality of something that doesn't exist and he misses the underlying meaning that

we're saying we have to honor the role of african-americans in our history and in our society, very much what you were talking about a few moments ago. we need to make it come alive today. we're going to make it very clear to the president. it will be right outside his doorstep. >> you've heard critics from your own police department, including the commissioner, saying there's a storm on the horizon. that's a quote from commissioner shay. he says we're just beginning to see the iceberg that's coming to new york city, that these cut also make worse the crime that's starting to go up and started well before the pandemic. do you worry about quality of life in new york city in terms of crime with these budget cuts? >> willie, we have to keep people safe. the way we engineered this budget is to make sure we keep our patrol strength consistent. we're going to save money in a lot of ways but still keep the number of officers that we need

on patrol in our communities. our biggest problem right now is that the pandemic has shut down the criminal justice system. so, our courts are not really operating. those who need to be off the streets are not at this point. that's a lot of what the commissioner is talking about. we need to fix that underlying problem. we need to see prosecutions of gun violence by our da's. a lot has to happen quickly. at the same time we have to recognize when we're investing in our young people, we are going at another one of the issues around crime. if we don't give positive alternatives to young people -- police have been saying this for generations. if you don't put out positive alternatives for young people, you're not going to be safer. >> mike banneracle has a question for you. mike? >> where you'll paint black lives matter on fifth avenue in

front of trump tower, he is basically running for re-election under the premise that he's trying to convince people, white people especially that he, and he alone, is the person standing between us, white people, and them. he has been doing it consistently throughout his entire career, but now he's doing it consistently as president of the united states. when he's doing that, does that not put enormous pressure on any police department, but in this case the new york city police department, enormous pressure on them? and how do you deal with the inequity of that pressure on one specific municipal unit, the new york police department? >> great, great question, mike. you're right, donald trump is following in the footsteps of strom thurman and george thomas saying to white people he will be our savior.

we're not looking for a savior. we're not looking for donald trump to keep a racist institute in place. if we don't transform america we're all going to be hurt. it can't be the america it was meant to be. and so i think when it comes back here, what it says to me is for our police, we've got to recognize -- by the way, we have a majority of color police force here in new york city. we have to honor and respect the crucial role our police play but also recognize there's been a long history of inequality and racist realities in police forces all over the country that we have to address it, cleanse it, change it. and that's actually the pathway forward to safety for everyone. when police and community can feel real, consistent, mutual respect is when officers are safe here and communities are sa safe. we've been doing that with the neighborhood policing strategy in this city.

we have seen the way it heals. we have to make more change now. if we don't deepen that reform, we will never be able to be as safe as we need to be. >> all right. mr. mayor, thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you. >> we greatly appreciate it. by the way, what's the timeframe? when are you going to be painting black lives matter on fifth avenue? >> that is going to be in a matter of days, joe. and, you know, i know you love florida. you come from florida, donald trump's new state. whenever he comes back to his old state, he will get a message that he still doesn't understand. maybe seeing it outside his doorstep will help him get the point. >> all right. thank you very much. mr. mayor, greatly appreciate it. eddie, final thoughts? >> you know, joe, this time of transition is going to be a messy one. it won't be a straight line. we're going to make some missteps. if we're all committed to building a more just world, we're willing to risk everything

for this moment. we can't turn our backs. and i think that's the lesson we must learn and that's how we must orient ourselves to the challenge in front of us. a new america is at stake, joe. >> kimberly, final thoughts? >> in reporting on this moment in real time, one thing that many of the organizers and the people pushing for change tell me is that while these discussions about monuments are important, that it should not overshadow what the real, actual work that needs to be done with changes in policies so that unarmed black people stop -- are no longer killed by police officers in this country. and so this is -- it's important to have both of these discussions, as we did just now, about what's happened in our past and what's happening in the now and not let one overshadow the other. >> willie? >> important stories right now, as we've been discussing, about racial justice and about this russian bounty that the

president this morning is calling a hoax. let us not forget that the country in certain areas are on fire with coronavirus, setting new records from california to texas, clear across to georgia, as fauci said yesterday, it's getting bad. >> all right. and, as always, we give the final word to mike bannrnicle tomorrow morning. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. >> thanks, joe. hi there. i'm stephanie ruhle. it's wednesday, july 1st. here are the facts this hour. with a new month comes a record high for cases of coronavirus in the united states. more than 48,000 cases were reported tuesday, topping the record set one week ago. we also saw nearly 1,500 new deaths, pushing the total to over 128,000. in all, there has been more than 2.6 million cases, and dr. anthony fauci said that number could get much, much