three days straight. we're breaking records we don't want to break. >> what concerns me the most is the percentage of positives that we're getting out of our tests. a 7$740 billion defense bil, a house panel approved it, trump threatened to veto it. the reason may surprise you. >> he's going to have to decide once again will he put our nation's defense and the troops first or put his base politics first? and it's the fourth of july. we'll talk about what independence means for everyone. velshi begins now. good morning. it is saturday, july 4th, independence day. i'm ali velshi. the covid-19 pandemic continues

to surge across the country. the ongoing movement for racial equity and political reform and president trump began his weekend early yesterday by once again hitting the links. if it sounds like every week you tune in i tell you that trump is playing golf, it's because he is. so far as president trump has spent 256 days at one of his golf courses. that's 8 1/2 months, more than 20% of his time in office, at a cost to taxpayers estimated to be over 1$138 million. so there's that. after his latest golf outing, trump traveled to mr. rushmore from what was billed as an official white house event but was a thinly veiled campaign stop. his divisive message was front and center and filled with apocalyptic rhetoric.

>> our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, to defame our heroes, erase our values, and n indoctrinate our children. angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our founders, deface our most sacred memorials and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities. they think the american people are weak and soft and s submissive. no, the american people are strong and proud and they will not allow our country and all of its values, history and culture to be taken from them. >> it's clear that the president is not even pretending to care about uniting the country. instead literally saying out loud that only his followers are

american while framing those against him as outside forces literally not from the united states. but trump got darker and more disconnected from reality. >> make no mistake, this left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the american revolution. the violent mayhem we have seen in the streets and cities that are run by liberal democrats in every case is the predictable result of years of extreme indoctrination and bias in education, journalism and other cultural institutions against every law of society and nature. our children are taught in school to hate their own country. >> now, while those remarks may sound like something out of soviet era russia, what a soviet

nationalist might have said about the united states, remember, this is the president of the united states talking at an event billed as an official white house event. speaking of russia in a soviet way, trump announced during his remarks another executive order. this one establishing in trum's wo trump's words a vast outdoor park to feature the statues of the greatest americans to ever live. here's trump again. >> one of their political weapons is cancel culture, driving people from their jobs, shaming dissenters, and demanding total submission from anyone who disagrees. this is the very definition of totalitarianism and it has no place in the united states of america.

>> that, of course, is not the definition of totalitarianism, but hold on this is a moment. for once, i agree with president trump. this has no place in the united states, which is why donald trump shouldn't be the president. let's bring in kyle perry in keystone, south dakota. a few miles from mr. rushmore. that was some dark stuff that the president talked about last night. >> yeah. i think the word you used, disconnected, is the appropriate word. what we've seen in the past few months in america is nothing short of historic and remarkable. not since the '60s and the vietnam war have we seen the next generation of americans trying to take control and change the country in a way they want and make social change. the speech didn't reflect that. it reflected the opposite. when you look at those clips you played, there were things that just were sort of out of left field. this outdoor park of monuments. i don't think that's anything that people were sort of itching

for right now. there was a lot of talk about the arrests that were made, almost an update on the arrest situation. there was discussions about how folks would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law for the rioting. it didn't really reflect what america was going through. at the top of the speech, there was a brief thank you to the first responders, nurses and doctors, but not a lot about the coronavirus. if you travel anywhere in this country, even the most remote parts of the country, people are worried about the coronavirus. they're worried about their jobs. they're worried about their houses and how they'll pay rent. none of that was in the speech. he's not playing to the masses, which is strange four months out to an election. this is very similar to the messages we saw four years ago. the message is of those thousands of people that you saw in that small arena, how representative of that is it for his base as we head into this election? i think as you sort of laid out, that disconnected term, that's what people will be talking about on the other side of this

speech. >> cal, you were tweeting while you and i were talking last night. one thing you said is with zero sense of irony, the president will stand here in the black hills of south dakota and speak about the need to protect american history. what did you mean by that? >> so, this is native american land as decided by the u.s. government in 1868, and that treaty was dismissed as americans searched for gold. people were fighting for their land yesterday and clashing with trump supporters. i didn't expect president trump to say the great andrew jackson. president andrew jackson is responsible for ethnic cleansing of thousands of native americans. he said that without a sense of irony in a place that is spiritually important to native americans in this country. it's worth pointing out this is

not the first time we've seen this from this president. you can remember the keystone pipeline protests in north dakota. he sort of sent out the national guard and those protests were at times violently put down. i think the native american community here wasn't surprised, but i was still shocked about the andrew jackson comment. >> cal, thank you for your strong reporting last night and in the last several months. for mr. on this, i want to bring in the chair of the african-american studies department at princeton university, he's also an msnbc contributor and author of a new book "begin again." congratulations on that. i want to talk to you about the book. first i want to talk to you about last night. there's something that feels monumental, of the moment that that was essentially a campaign event for the president, despite the fact it was billed as a white house official event. it was the outline of what he is

going for over the course of the next 120 or so days, for reelection. it's painting dissenting forces as dangerous, as harmful, as destructive of our heritage in america. he's not broadening his base but he's strengthening his position with his existing base. >> absolutely. we need to identify what we're hearing and seeing. this is the lonl cagical extensf what southern strategy exactly was, and that is a white nationalist strategy. that strategy involves three elements. o one, an invocation of heritage. heritage is code word for whiteness in some ways. another is emphasizing law and order. you have been watching things about depund tfund the police, e last is voter suppression, we'll see what we saw in georgia across the country. what donald trump is doing clearly is appearing to white

fears, white resentment, white grievance, and in some ways he's doubling down on the lie as i write in my book. we need to see what this is. we need to see this for what it is. it's blatant, crude, crass white nationalism. we need to not call it culture wars. we need to call it what it is. >> you wrote in your book white america would never elect such a person to the highest office in the land. i was wrong, given my life long reading of baldwin it was an egrooee egregious mistake. >> i thought we had an opening. when i wrote in my last book that we had an opportunity for african-american communities to push the democratic party to address substantively our condition of living because the republican party was in some ways falling apart. i didn't think that the country

would, in fact, double down on someone who was so blatantly unqualified for office. and then i realized -- you know, and baldwin went through this as he was trying to decide whether or not to vote for jimmy carter in 1979. baldwin said that black folk, we know that oftentimes we don't have anything to vote for. but oftentimes we vote just to buy ourselves some time. i should have known that we were in a moment of transition, that the darkest elements of america were gathering or had gathered, and that donald trump would be its representative, it's avatar. i honestly believe donald trump represents as i write in the book the lie, and remember i say the lie forms events to fit the story when america's innocence is threatened by reality. so now we have a stark choice and we have to make it. >> there's an interesting thing happening now, a lot of people who are allies to african-americans and indigenous

people and black and brown people are trying to learn more and part of that is reading more. james baldwin's readings show up on peoples list of things to do. you write about baldwin's view of white liberals. i will quote from your book. despite their claims, meaning white liberals claims of commitment to racial justice, baldwin saw them in their actions as co-conspirators in maintaining the belief that white people mattered more than others. white people weren't loud racists, they were simply racial philanthropists. this was written some time ago. we have a whole bunch of people who are white liberals who want to be allies now. how do you reconcile those two things? >> listen, i think alleyship falls apart when we view rarnl ju racial justice as a

philanthropic enterprise. jimmy was skeptical of anybody who wanted to do something for me or for us as opposed to with us. we don't need to engage in charity when it comes to racial justice but build a more just society. that's what we need. so we have to break the frame. i don't want you to invite me to the table. i want you to understand i build the table. i don't want you to invite me to a table that's already been set. i want to engage in a broad conversation about reenvisioning what a just america looks like. we have to do that in this time when we have forces like donald trump and those who embrace his ideology, who want to say that imagining a more just america is actually a totalitarian gesture. >> what an important book. thank you for writing it and for

your support here. eddie gloud, author of "begin again." we need to live with it. that's the new message from the white house on coronavirus. up next, i will talk to a doctor who testified on capitol hill about the dangers of becoming complacent with this disease. h e new tide power pods one up the cleaning power of liquid.

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surging and as a nation we're setting new global records. the united states is now consistently reporting more than 50,000 new cases of coronavirus each day. multiple states including alabama, alaska, idaho, mississippi, kansas, tennessee, north carolina and south carolina reportedly all set single-day new infection records on friday. much of the world appears to be far along the downward trend, new coronavirus cases in the united states increased in a shocking 90% in the last two weeks. all of these states had more than 100% increases in new cases over the last two weeks. all these ones you're looking at with florida over 200%. montana and idaho nearing 300%. the virgin islands has had a 700% increase in 14 days. things are about to get much worse as dr. jerome adams warned yesterday saying we know deaths

lag at least two weeks and can lag more. or you can just listen to trump who said three days ago he thinks covid-19 will sort of disappear. asked about that claim, white house press secretary keyleigh mcenany says the president is confident in his theory. this is a ridiculous thing to say, yet it's something that trump continues to say publicly going back months. >> looks like by april, you know, in theory, when it gets warmer. it miraculously goes away. >> it will disappear. one day it's like a miracle. >> it will go away, just stay calm. >> it's going to go away. hopefully at the end of the month. if not, hopefully soon after that. >> it will go. it will leave. >> this will go away without a vaccine. >> i always say even without it, it goes away. >> i think that at some point that's going to sort of just disappear, i hope. >> keep saying that.

meanwhile, kimberly guilfoyle, a top campaign official and donald trump jr.'s girlfriend has tested positive for covid-19. trump jr. has tested negative. hours before the new messaging went out. "we need to live with it." that squares perfectly with what the white house senior adviser, peter navarro, told me yesterday. >> there was a study yesterday that came out on hydroxychloroquine, the first early treatment study of hydroxychloroquine which shows there's a 51% reduction in mortality rate without any adverse effects. it came out from the detroit opt system. it's a beautifulfully executed study. >> yeah. i've seen the study. i guess i just -- >> as these cases do accelerate, as you point out, we also have to think our strategy about therapeutics. let's talk about dr. fauci as to

why he shouldn't be viewed as the oracle on this. dr. birx, she's my heroinheroin. >> the disagreement now is what we learned from the initial lockdown is that will kill probably more people locking them down through alcoholism, depression, and the kind of economic fallout that we get than opening up. >> joining me now is caitlin rivers, a senior scholar at the johns hopkins center for health and security and at the bloomberg school of public health. back in early may she testified on capitol hill about complacency as covid-19 spreads. >> it's clear to me we're in a critical moment of this fight. we risk complacency in preventing 200,000 deaths, we

risk complacency in recognizing that without continued vigilance we will create conditions that made us the most infected country in the world. >> let me warn you out there, don't google caitlin rivers qualifications, it will be your week's reading. good to see you. thank you for being with us. in fact, the messaging from the white house, we have to learn to live with it, is the exact opposite of what you warned about in your testimony. we have to not be complacent is the opposite of we have to learn to live with it >> that's right. we're facing a serious crisis right now. we registered over 50,000 new cases in the united states yesterday. that's only a small fraction of the virus circulating in our communities. this is not the time to let our guard down. we all need to continue to be vi vigilant about slowing transmission. we need to turn the corner of this virus. >> in fact, that was -- i was having trouble getting peter

navarro to acknowledge that, the entire rest of the world that's confronting this has understood that for the moment without drugs and a virus slowing transmission, which we know how to do, is what we should be doing. instead he started talking about a study out of a hospital in detroit, which doesn't generally meet most standards of people like you, it wasn't double blind or randomized that goes back to hydroxychloroquine, because in his mind the government has stockpiled 63 billion or million pills of this stuff and wants to distribute them. >> that's right. right now the best tools in our toolkit are all of the activities we can take as individuals to slow the transmission. we added more tools in our toolkit when they get sick enough to meet hospital care, but that's not our goal. our goal is to prevent people from getting sick in the first place. as we have all learned over the last few months that continues to be physical distancing, hand

hygiene, staying at home more, wearing those fabric face masks in the community. >> i guess the terminology is rock. how we deal with this over the long-term in a way that is not complacent, the messaging from the white house seems to say hope and think it will go away or we'll deal with it. we have systems in arizona now and houston which is the biggest hospital system in the entire country, and they're being stretched to their limits. they're at near 100% capacity. which is where we were in the northeast 2 1/2 months ago. how are we still here? >> that's an important question. that's something that we should all be thinking about. the same tools and approaches that we should and could have taken in march and april are still open to us. that's what we should be thinking about doing now. not only should individuals be taking actions to slow transmission, we need to scale up diagnostic testing, contact tracing, quarantine of people

who have been exposed and isolation of those infected. those are tools that will allow us to break the transmission. those opportunities are still available to us. that's where i would like to see our national energy and our number one priority be, scaling up those capabilities. >> i don't know what your politics are at all. is it interesting to you that people who are specialists like you are have become part of a political discussion and the concept of public health advice like wearing masks, washing hands, social distancing has become politicized? >> husbapublic health in the cr we're dealing with now, of course it exists in a political environment. that's always the case. by role and the role of other scientists who are trying to support the response is provide the best available evidence and provide evidence-based guidance to political leaders. that's the role i play now and

that i will continue to try to play. >> we thank you for doing that. k caitlin rivers, thank you for joining us. president trump is slipping in nearly every 2020 poll. but americans do trust the president over joe biden when it comes to one campaign issue. i'll tell you what on the other side. you what on the other side

it's no secret that donald trump is a man who likes to project a sense of power and he'll do just about anything to make sure he gets it. he touts random made-up stats about his support including his support in the republican party. he has high ratings within the gop, we all know this. he doesn't have to embellish this, yet he does. as much as he tries to discredit actual poll numbers, the fact is they're not lying, they match each other. here is how trump stacks up to

joe biden in the november election. in the last week along, the former vice president opened up near double digit lead over president trump in four polls, but the president refuses to pivot and appeal to a smaller gro group of voters. instead he digs in like he did last night. beth joins us now. here's the thing. we are four months out from an election, some people say wow, others say it's four months. what do you see when you see these numbers with joe biden better than 10 points ahead in most cases and leading in every swing state? >> these numbers are troubling for president trump, ali. there's no question about it. if you dig deeper into the polling, i know you have, you see these demographic groups that president trump ought to be appealing to falling away from him dramatically. he's basically lost suburban women. we saw that in 2018. suburban women drove that major push to the democrats in those

midterm elections. the democrats picking up 40 house see thes that year. that same group of suburban women, they're not coming back to president trump. we're seeing a tip among white men. a dip among his staunchiest supporters, his evangelical base. senior citizens are also falling away because that's the group most susceptible to the covid virus and they're worried about their safety and they're concerned he's downplaying the plague, as he calls it. he's hanging ontor dear li for o that base that we saw show up last night, but that's not enough to bring him across the line in november. >> he's vacillating on two non-strategies on coronavirus, the "we have to learn to live with it" which peter navarro

seemed to share that view, or "it's going to go away." in both cases a determined president could make some efforts to unite the country and lead us out of this. the president has ample examples of how other countries dealt with vircoronavirus, but he's dealing with things as hoaxes. is there a sense he will turn this around? >> there's one bit of good news for the p the resident in this polling. the fact that joe biden is leading the president on issues of empathy, how to handle the pandemic, racial justice, the one golden moment for trump is his handling of the economy. americans think he's a good steward of the economy. they were happy with the economy pre-pandemic and polling shows they leave he's the best candidate to bring america out

of the situation we're in now. that's why he came out friday when the good job numbers came in from june showing 4.8 million jobs created. he went to the white house briefing room, touted that, saying america is back. america is on its way to greatness again. that v-shaped curve that his advisers have described. here's the problem with this, we know the economy will slow down again because of those numbers on the pandemic are getting so bad. all these retailers, other you restaurants are closing up. johns will go away again. the only way that president trump can get himself out of this is to show himself a strong sue ward of getting out of the pandemic. that's the one issue that has dominated all else. the economy cannot come back in the way he's hoping until the pandemic is under control. for some reason president trump refuses to accept that. >> beth, one thing that might be joe biden's ace in the hole,

because people are worried how do you maintain a lead four months ahead, these are great numbers for him to have in late october, but it's early july. one thing he still hasn't done yet which could create some excitement, momentum and energy is his vice president pick. i've been dying to talk to you about this, what you think, how you think this will go down. >> so, i mean, our reporting has been that he's obviously chosen -- it going to choose a woman. he made that public. a number of women are under consideration. many of whom we know, perhaps some others that we don't. he let on a couple of times who some of those names are, including kamala harris, including val demings, the congresswoman from florida, elizabeth warren, but there are others on the list that they are sbe interviewing who we may not know about. we know a couple things for sure. we know that the person he wants to bring on as his number two is somebody who could assume the duties of the presidency

immediately. joe biden's 77 years old. he described himself as a transitional figure who will hand off the baton to the next generation and he wants somebody he can work with harmoniously in the white house. he wants that good working relationship with the person he chooses. >> beth g , good to see you as always. >> you, too. if you listened to president trump this week, you would think america erased all the economic damage done by the coronavirus. >> our economy is roaring back. it's coming back extremely strong. >> but there's something hidden in this week's jobs report. we'll go behind the numbers when we come back. wanted♪ ♪we can do it ♪all strength, no sweat

as we were just discussing,

president trump is touting the june jobs report as a major win for the u.s. economy, a closer look at those numbers does show major underlying problems. at face value, the u.s. economy re-added 4.8 million jobs last month, which is better than the number expected. the unemployment rate did fall from 13% to 11%. another 1.4 million americans filed for first-time unemployment claims last week, that's the 15th straight week that the number remained above 1 million. those numbers don't factor in the surge in coronavirus cases over the southern and western united states. the spike is pausing reopeningereopening efforts in many states forcing restaurants and businesses to shut down again. that fact is something seemingly lost on trump as he continues to preach from his perch and focusing on any positive statistics he can get his hands on. listen to this. >> there's not been anything like this, record setting, shattering allexpectations.

our economy is it roaring back. >> strong numbers. >> an all-time high. >> that's the largest increase in the history of our country. >> a tremendous number. >> a phenomenal number. >> these are numbers not numbers that other presidents would have. >> this has been a tremendous success. >> coming back faster, bigger, better than we ever thought possible. these are the numbers. these are not numbers made up by me. these are numbers. >> we have done an incredible job. >> we have done a historic thing. >> african-american workers happily for me made historic gains with 404,000 jobs added last month alone, and that's a recor record. >> sort of misses the point there. the addition of nearly 5 million jobs last month is news we'll take, but there are deeply troubling figures in and out of the report that paint a much more dire picture for america's

work force especially when it comes to black and hispanic workers. nbc news reporting that while black unemployment fell to just 15.4% in june, down from a high of 16.8% in may, it remains the highest among all minority bee the latest jobs numbers. what stands out when you break down those numbers? >> you can't argue with the fact that we had a record amount of jobs added last month. we're coming off steep losses. we had those jobs added. we saw the unemployment rate go down to 11%. we saw that half of those jobs were temporary layoffs. that's good to see. when you get inside the numbers, you see that 7.5 million people were laid off. it was that push/pull of economies reopening and people getting hired back into the work force and people getting fired or laid off again as economies

in florida and texas and other places had to shut down and restaurants had to shut down. you had the hiring but also the recent firing. that surge is not what we need. we need job gains every few months and fewer job losses. 9 million people part-time now that want to be full time. we're seeing rawages decline. after two years of wage increases, wages are declining. we saw 1.48 million new claims for first-time unemployment in the last week. that shows you the layoffs have not stopped. and that is troubling. when you look inside the sectors of the economy where the hiring and the job losses were stiffest, the leisure and hospitality industry added 1.2 million jobs. that's 5 million people that work in that industry, only 42% of those jobs were recovered. we have a lot of people out there. retail added 745,000, only a 46%

recovery. education and health services added 475,000 jobs. and transportation 99,000. these are the areas where black and hispanic workers are most concentrated. those unemployment numbers are up. it took ten years to work down unemployment from 16.8% in 2008 and 2009 to today. >> not something to c editor-in investopedia. now i'm joined by andre perry, fellow at the brookings institute. author of the book "know your price: valuing back lives and property in america's black cities." thank you for joining me. here's the issue, in the end we're talking about wages, percentages and things like that. but the net effect here of inequality with african-americans and hispanics is wealth.

over time the additive effect of unemployment results in wealth. in the black community we have substantially -- one-tenth the wealth you have in the white community in america. >> business owners all across the country scream for support after three weeks of social distancing, three months of social distancing. but black communities have been socially distanced for generations. so the loss of wealth over time erodes the protection people need during times like this. as was mentioned, blacks are concentrated in the jobs that are temporary, that will likely be in and out because of the nature of the work, restaurants, the health industry. we are in industries that will push and pull along with the virus.

so, we don't have the protection of wealth, and we're in jobs that will be in and out of work over the next year or so. so it really spells not for a good economy for black americans moving forward. >> i want to put up a chart of average family liquid retirement savings. sometimes that's where the rubber hits the road. a lot of peoples wealth is in their home. that's not a liquid retirement saving, liquid, things you can cash out. look at this. 1989 to 2016. on the left, white liquid wealth, on the right, hispanic and black. the average black family has $25,000 of liquid retirement savings, which means you don't need to use it for anything other than retirement. look at that difference there. >> yeah. what's interesting, a study came out this week that shows plaques

are paying 13% more in property taxes. as you know, my research shows that black property is the valu valued, o. prir priced lower. we pay more in taxes, the black tax that people paid -- or the penalty that people pay for living in a black neighborhood. so we're -- we discretionary income that was created by policy. the home owners loan corporation drew red lines around black neighborhoods in the 30s, and deeming those communities too risky to invest in. that's not only in a material sense carrying throughout generations, but it carried through in terms of perspective. black communities, black people are devalued and it's literally like robbing us of the wealth that is needed to withstand crisis like these.

>> andre, good to talk to you as always. andre perry of the brookings institute. "author of know your price." confederate symbols have become a flash point over the past few weeks, for one group of americans the debate is personal. up next, i will talk to the great, great, great grand nephew of robert e. lee on why he believes these remnants of the confederacy have to go. acy haver daily digestive health using a special plant-based fiber called psyllium. psyllium works by forming a gel in your digestive system to trap and remove the waste that weighs you down. metamucil's gelling action also helps to lower cholesterol and slows sugar absorption to promote healthy blood sugar levels. so, start feeling lighter and more energetic... by taking metamucil every day.

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. it seems as if trump is trying to stand in the way of this country's trend toward racial progress at every time. he threatened to veto this year aries massive defense authorization bill because of a bipartisan amendment seeking to rename military bases that bear the names of confederate leaders. yet another instance of trump appealing to his fringe and ever shrinking base. even the republican-led senate is on board with the amendment to rename these insulations. top military officials are too. and now a group of americans wants these trip bubutes to the confederacy to end. this weekend, a handful of relatives came out in support of not only renaping the dozen military bases, but the removal of confederate statues across the nation. a descendent of robert e. lee writes in the "washington post" that fears of removing statues are a loss of a certain understanding and that, quote, the news cause of this country

is about justice, equality, peace, and concord. joining me now is the author of that op-ed, the reverend robert w. lee, iv. he's the great, great grand any of view of robert e. lee and the author of a book "a sin by any other name, reckoning with the heritages of the south ". thank you for joining me today. >> thank you for having me. >> i want to ask you on a very personal level. you bear the name of robert lee and as such, clearly someone in your family thought that was worth celebrating. how do you on a personal level struggle with this? >> well, personally, you know, i go to a store and there will be -- you know, i'll hand my card over to a person and they'll look at my card and they'll see robert lee and they'll look at me in the south and they'll say the south will rise again. as if they've met a compatriot in this conversation. so i bear this every day. that being said, it pales in

comparison to the white people in our country who are attacked for simply who they are. i want to be clear that while this is a pain for me and something that i bear, it's knot nothing compared to what other people are dealing with right now. >> i appreciate the distinction. and i appreciate that you said that. but i just -- i think people are curious to how you go through life with that name. one of the things you've said in terms of symbolism, you've written this in your article in "the washington post," i'm fully aware that the broken racist system that we have built on the lost cause is far larger than a single statue. but the statue of my an sefrt has stood for years. it's the reminder of oppression against black people. taking it down will provide new opportunities for conversations, relationships, and policy change. i think that last sentence argues the why, because i don't

think there are a lot of african americans going around this country thinking that their lives are somehow necessarily improved by the removal of symbols or names on bases, but it is this. it's the idea that we are discussing it that i think leads to the greatest success. >> i think what's ultimately going to have to be examined is what dr. william barber said, it's also about statutes as well as statues. so we have to have this conversation in a sense as certainly this is the first domino to fall. but we're going to have to have a wired policy discussion this about this about health care systems that disproportionately disadvantage black and brown people. about school systems that are again disproforcing nateportion affecting people by this statute. i'm clear that these statues have to come down. but -- >> what is your response to

people who want to engage you in this conversation about the civil war and the lost cause and the discussion that president trump use dollars about heritage and the idea that your great, great grand uncle was a soldier fighting for his stake? >> well, two things, i think it's important to remember. the first is that, you know, this is -- i've never gone to a monument to learn about history. i've gone to learn about what we value. and i think it says a lot about what the president and his base and countless others value when they're trying to protect these statues that have been built on a heritage -- and let's be clear, it's a heritage of hate. secondly, i think it's important to remember that we finish that sentence. we have to remember that in the enslavement of people, these men made their money, valor, they made everything. and it's important to contextualize that and remember that in this conversation.

>> reverend robert w. lee who's a descendent of the confederate general robert e. lee. he's also the author of this book. coming up, the president's speech last night at mount rushmore and comedian and actor hugly on his book, surrender, white people. velshi continues on msnbc. peop velshi continues on msnbc. kraft. for the win win.

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good morning on this july