hey there, i'm joshua johnson in for ali velshi on this independence day weekend. good to be with you today. saturday was full of the fireworks and celebrations and family and friends that we're used to on the fourth of july even during a medical crisis. states continue to break records, including those once believed to have things under control. texas reported more than 8,200 cases in one day. hospitalizations also continue to rise with nearly 8,000 people admitted there. face masks are now mandatory in texas. but not in florida. it also continues to reach new highs in coronavirus cases. the state has 11,458 confirmed

cases. that is a hairs breadth from new york's high in april, what had been the height of the pandemic. overall, over 2.8 million people have been infected across the country. at least 30,000 americans have died. the president spoke at the white house for independence day, saying this about our fight against the virus. >> we've made a lot of progress. our strategy is moving along well. it goes out in one area and rears back its ugly face in another area. but we've learned a lot. we've learned how to put out the flame. >> lets head now to nbc's jay gray who joins us live from dallas. jay, what more do we know about who is being hospitalized as more of the hospitals reach their capacity? >> reporter: yeah, joshua, that's a problem across the state right now. and patients are much younger across the country. here we are seeing patients

within the 20 to 40-year-old range who are contracting the virus at just an astounding rate. let's talk first about texas. yesterday more than 8,000 new cases, that of course a record in this state. and in dallas, more than 1,100 in one day. just for some perspective on that, joshua, it took dallas 116 days when the pandemic began to get to 1,100 illnesses. they did that in one day yesterday. this weekend, they have done more than 2,100 new infections in the dallas area. it is, as you talk about, filling up hospitals. county hospitals here, parkland where we were reporting from yesterday, adding a fourth unit now to deal with the number of covid patients they are seeing. and then you've got hospitals in the houston area that are at capacity, especially when it comes to icu beds. and down in the rio grande valley, in the southern tip of texas, they are saying point

blank, we have zero hospitals rooms left, please, they are urging residents there, stay inside, ride this thing out. >> yeah, you had one of the i think most legendary live shots i've ever seen when you were driving down the road showing the line of people waiting in that incredible drive-through line to get testing and it just went on and on and on. so i can understand how the backlog is so intense. you are standing in front of a church this sunday morning. masks are mandatory in texas, but worship services are one of the exceptions to that, right? >> reporter: you're absolutely right. and this is the cathedral guadalupe, a church in down, a beautiful facility. two people walked into the facility with masks this morning. the dallas diocese is requiring all parishioners to wear masks. they're leaving the decision on whether to hold services up to

individual pastors. they cover a nine-county area. there are some rural areas where it may not affect churches like it does here in the dallas area. i know to the north, in a community, richardson, there's one catholic church that's decided to have their mass outdoors. so they're having outdoor masses to try and combat the virus. but you've got another church just down the street from where we are, first baptist, where the vice president spoke last week, where they're not requiring masks as a part of their worship service. it's a mixed bag as far as churches are concerned. again, the diocese is saying that especially here at guadalupe, they haven't seen large crowds of parishioners, they're limiting the number that can come in. as i said, we only saw two this morning. >> first baptist is one of the largest churches in the country with thousands and thousands of people who attend on a weekly basis. thank you, nbc's jay gray joining us from dallas, texas. texas and florida are not

the only cases seeing increases, of course. cases in arizona are also spiking, as are hospitalizations. arizona's republican governor doug ducey has yet to shut down any businesses or issue a mandatory mask order. joining us to discuss all of this is will humble, executive director of arizona's public health association. also dr. vin gupta, pulmonologist at the university of washington medical center and an msnbc contributor. good to have you with us. will, arizona arizona, like som states across the south, seemed to have the virus under control while america was under stay-at-home orders. what happened? were the orders lifted too soon? was there not enough guidance given on how to reopen properly? what happened? >> yeah, well, good question. in a nutshell, as you mentioned, we had a very successful stay-at-home order, really flattened the curve, gave us important planning time.

the critical control point for us was may 15 when the stay-at-home order ended and we came out with essentially the honor system. people, businesses, et cetera, were encouraged to follow cdc measures but there were no compliance expectations and no enforcement. as a result, by and large business behavior and also individual behavior became pre-pandemic again, resulting in what you see now, just record cases and we're in what's called crisis standards of care in our hospital systems, meaning it's pretty grim, a triage system that's happening here and i hope it doesn't happen in other states. >> dr. gupta, washington was the first state to see a case in the u.s., it had sporadic outbreaks, but it had not seen a huge spike like other states have. why is that? >> seattle hasn't, but i would say that -- and since i'm active

clinically right now, i'll say that eastern washington, pockets in central washington, yakima, are actively seeing outbreaks. we're getting life flights from that part of the state all the time. what i'll say, what i'm noticing here in seattle relative to what i'm hearing from other parts of the state is similar to what will just mentioned. there is greater adoption of masks, there's greater adoption of just public guidance in king county here on the western side of the state. in yakima, where there is a massive outbreak especially among native american tribes, you're not seeing compliance. bars are open, restaurants, indoor dining, things that we should be able to get in the lead on. i wish we had local leadership echoing what governor murphy and

bill de blasio are doing on the east coast. we're not seeing that here and that's why we have these outbreaks. >> in arizona, what would you recommend, more mask wearing, shutting businesses down? what would you recommend? >> mandatory mask-wearing statewide. at least local jurisdictions are now allowed to put in mask ordinances, that's one thing. we need better infection control in our nursing facilities. our contract tracing needs to ramp up some. one of the problems we have is the contract tracing capacity was built for, say, 500 to 1,000 cases a day, and we're at like 4,500 cases a day sometimes. we're just being overwhelmed in that regard. on the testing front, you've heard this across the whole country, the importance of increased testing, we need that badly here. more than that, we need more prompt testing. the turnaround time in our state

between a sample being collected and returned from the lab is between six and eight days. that kind of turnaround time makes contact tracing ineffective because that patient, that person, has been out into the community and affecting their family members and co-workers by then. so lot of things that need to happen in arizona. and you're showing something from prescott where i'm coming to you from right now, that's exactly what was going on yesterday. >> let me not be presumptuous, will. what is your sense of how much if at all arizonans are adhering to these basic guidelines? we already know what it takes to slow the spread of covid-19. social distancing, face covering. the cdc has been saying it. dr. fauci has been saying it. everybody has been saying it. what's going on in arizona where everybody isn't just doing what we already know works? >> so, you know, it's spotty. there are people that are doing the right thing. i mean, there are lots of people that are legitimately following

the recommendation and guidelines. it's just that we don't have enough people that are following those recommendations, as you just saw at the county courthouse yesterday in prescott this weekend, people have a cavalier attitude, some don't believe this is a legitimate public health emergency. some i think haven't had something personal happen to them within their friend network or family members, so that they take it seriously. and then for some people, yoei z don't understand it, but for people it has become a political calling card, especially wearing a cloth face covering which is, by the way, the number one return on investment intervention that we will have until we get the vaccine. so i just don't understand that part of it. but those are the factors. >> dr. gupta, let me get your take on the white house's new approach to this virus, that we need to learn to live with it. now, it seems like a lot of americans have already made that decision based on their actions. that kind of describes what will

was getting at. what do you make of this idea that we have to kind of learn to live with coronavirus? >> i'm not surprised at their messaging on this, joshua, not at all. it's part of this distorted, g, july 4th d vision of freedom onwards, this notion that to be free is to act whatever way you like even if it's completely the antithesis of what myself and will are suggesting which is to adhere to the basic guidelines we've been hammering home for the last five months. this terminology, this mixed messaging from the very top is harming individuals. goff for desantis, governor noem, actually taking some degree of -- they're thumbing

their nose at us. >> you're referring to kristi noem in south dakota and ron desantis in florida. >> absolutely. they're not doing the things they need to be doing right now. and part of reason why is we have individuals in the highest levels of leadership, at the federal level, at the state level, who have never touched a patient, who have never cared for someone with covid-19. that's why you're not seeing them build up capacity, you're seeing them talk about freedom in the most distorted way possible. >> dr. vin gupta and will humble, we appreciate your making time this morning, thanks very much. we'll have more on coronavirus later in the hour. the mayor of san antonio will join us to talk about how his hospitals are overflowing with patients and how he is running his city with cases surging in texas, that's ahead. also ahead, presidential choices on this independence day could scarcely feel different. the stark contrasts, next.

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you know, sometime in politics you have to parse the smallest details to find little differences between presidential candidates even across party lines. that ain't the case this year. we got more proof that have with president trump and joe biden's vastly different messages on the fourth of july. >> our nation is witnessing a

merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children. >> there's been a constant push and pull between two parts of our character. the idea that all men and women, all people are created equal, and the racism. >> 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. >> we have a chance now to give the marginized, the demonized, the isolated, the oppressed, a full share of the american dream. >> make no mistake, this left wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the american revolution. >> we have a chance to rip the roots of systemic racism out of this country. we have a chance to live up to the words that have founded this nation. >> we will not allow our country

and all of its values, history, and culture, to be taken from them. >> this independence day let's not just celebrate the words. let's celebrate that promise. >> against every law of society and nature, our children are taught in school to hate their own country. >> meanwhile, mr. trump's rhetoric and actions may be catching up to him. a number of national polls show mr. biden with a significant lead. in some cases by double digits. joining us now is robert costa, national political reporter for "the washington post." he's also moderator and managing editor of "washington week" on pbs and an nbc news political analyst. his latest piece in "the washington post" is called "trump's push to amplify racism unnerves republicans who have long enabled him." also with us is christie greer from fordham university, co-host

of the podcast "faq nyc" and the author of "black ethnics." good to see you both this morning. robert, let me start with you. what is your sense of how republicans are feeling about how they will be perceived this november and perhaps beyond as president trump digs deeper into this culture war? >> working with my colleague phil rucker over the last few days, it's evident that republicans, particularly in the u.s. senate, are concerned that their hold on power could be slipping away because in states like maine where susan collins is up for reelection or colorado with cory gardner, even texas with senator john cornyn, a red state, republicans are on edge because the culture war in their view is not enough to hold on to that coalition of suburban voters and independent voters and women voters that you need to win in a tough political year. and president trump, this is where he keeps going to

politically, stoking these tensions on race, on culture, and someone like scott reed at the chamber of commerce told us that candidates are trying to keep their distance. >> professor greer, yesterday ali velshi discussed how july 4th, independence day, does not feel the same for everyone. colin kaepernick tweeted something much to the same effect. with regards to these two different sets of remarks, joe biden's remarks seem to be reaching out to everyone. president trump is remaining tight with his base. i know the president's rhetoric has rubbed a lot of people wrong but in a way, this is kind of what we examined from him, right? >> yes, but i mean, joe biden is trying to create a message of unity as he campaigns for the presidency. and president trump is doubling down on white nationalist rhetoric. it was very clear even in his inauguration speech, that he saw two americas, one that voted for him, one that was against him.

he has a distinct us versus them ideology in this country. as it callous nicifies, he sees political winds changing. my colleague laurie frasier wrote about more people of color being pushed out of cities. when we say "suburban," he's going after white voters. he's going after white older americans hoping they will be scared enough to vote for him. so these polls, i don't really worry about them, because it's the summer. i'm more concerned about october when people start to pay attention to elections and really think about how they're going to make a voting plan in the midst of a global pandemic that the president has failed to control or even accept. >> yeah, i would say amen to keeping the polls at arm's length for now. as we get closer to the election, that's when i will want to know more about not only what they say but parsing the numbers and who specifically

we're talking about. robert, let's say the president last night and at mt. rushmore on friday. it seems he may be kind of disconnected from the reality across the country when it comes to covid, when it comes to race, but that's the way it might seem. it also seems like he knows what the strategy was that worked for him in 2016 and thinks that regardless of what his critics might say, it may work for him in 2020, so double down. >> as a political reporter i never try to guess what's in someone's head or what's in someone's heart. i look at their actions. if you think back and step back, there was a week ago today, the president of the united states retweeted a video that included a racist chant from one of his supporters. he later deleted the tweet but did not disavow it. he spent the week attacking the black lives matter movement. he has been defending confederate statues being held in place.

he has clashed with his own party on whether to rename military bases that have the names of confederate soldiers in their name. then he finished the week defending american history and heritage at mt. rushmore friday night. this is a president who is not always directly saying "i'm putting race at the center of my campaign," but his actions and statements show he is bringing race and culture forefront over and over. and it's going right up against this national reckoning on race that has led to so many racial injustice protests national wide in the wake of the death of george floyd. >> professor greer, what do you make of joe biden's response to this, his strategy of saying mostly online, doing a few public events, few interviews, not having nearly as high a social profile as president trump does right now. what do you make of that strategy? >> right now trump has the bully pulpit because he is the sitting

president. so joe biden is essentially letting the president run around the nation, and i wouldn't say racially tinged, i would say with a racial message that he came down the gold escalator with in 2015 and 2016. so joe biden right now is letting the president continue to speak specifically just to his base. and we're seeing the president on the defensive. ref rampant unemployment, a global pandemic, the international community literally turning their backs on us, and he doesn't have a plan for a second term. he's a few months away from just screaming "white power." so he continues with more white nationalist, more white supremacist messages day by day. >> since you brought up that phrase, it's worth noting that tweet that the president posted or rather retweeted and deleted

was of somebody in the villages, which is a massive retirement community in florida, on a golf cart, at a kind of trump protest/counterprotest and one of the people in the golf carts yelled "white power, white power" to somebody standing by had the the. the president's campaign later said the president hasn't heard it when he posted it. robert costa and christina greer, much appreciate it, thank you both. coming up, we heard very little about colorado's primary election, the reason being it went fine, thanks in part to mail-in voting. we'll speak with colorado's secretary of state.

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there's a lot for you to keep track of right now. a pandemic, a recession, an historic push for racial justice. remember when the only big thing on our minds was the 2020 election? new jersey's primary is this tuesday. our nbc station in philadelphia reports that it is shaping up to be a test of new jersey's ability to run a drama-free election. that's despite president trump's tweets and a push by republicans for federal election monitors. the article is referencing tweets like this one from thursday where the president claims that mail-in ballots will lead to massive electoral fraud and a rigged 2020 election. contrast that with what happened in colorado. it had a record-breaking primary this week thanks in part to its universal system of voting by mail. coloradoans cast more than 1.6 million ballots. voter turnout was roughly 46%. and 99.3% of those ballots,

basically all of them, were returned via mail or ballot drop-box. joining us now is jenna griswold, colorado's secretary of state. she, like other secretaries of state, oversees her state's elections. secretary griswold, good morning. >> good morning. >> let's start with the president's voter fraud claims. you fact checked him on twitter, noting that 99.59% of republican voters voted by mail in the primary last week. why do you think the president is so vocally critical about mail-in voting? >> well, he has clearly told us that he thinks mail ballots will allow democrats to win more elections than republicans. but that's just factually correcti incorrect. study after study shows mail ballots don't benefit one party over the other. and colorado, where so many

republicans cast mail ballots, more than even democrats, should serve as proof that mail ballots help voters, not political parties. >> why was colorado's primary so smooth this time around? your universal system of voting by mail is not new. >> it is not new. we love mail ballots here in colorado. and we really push them. i launched a television and digital voter engagement to really encourage coloradoans to use their mail ballots to help stop the spread of covid-19. we also recruited judges and issued a series of emergency rules to make sure that in-person voting was as smooth as possible also. we did have approximately 10,000 people vote in person. and that in-person access is still very important. about 40% of all in-person voters were under the age of 34. so we want to make sure that people who are registering for the first time or voting for the first time also have that

access. >> i want to make sure i heard that statistic correctly, you said 40%, four zero percent, of walk-in voters were 34 or younger? >> no, i said about 40% of in-person voting. >> gotcha. >> consisted of people who were 34 years of age or younger. >> gotcha. that's why i asked, to make sure i got it right, because i didn't. there was a case of voter fraud and ballot stuffing that happened in paterson, new jersey, in may. that's been investigated. the vote totals, the results, are apparently certified now, they're fine now that those ballots have been dealt with. is there room to improve how we deal with or prevent voter fraud even though instances like this are rare? >> colorado really serves as an example of clean elections. we have safeguards in place including limits on the number of ballots that can be collected

and signature verification, to make sure that any attempts of double voting are caught. and i do think other states can do the same. but overall, the rate of double voting is extremely low. and we catch it. and we can look towards new jersey as an example of how to catch potential voter fraud. it is very hard to pull off. but what is easy to pull off is voter suppression. you just have to look at wisconsin or georgia to see that voter suppression is alive and well and we cannot allow the president to use the pandemic as a tool of voter suppression. we know how to run elections during a pandemic and even increase turnout. and that's the adoption of universal mail ballots. >> is this whole controversy kind of much ado about nothing? "the washington post" compiled a list of 15 trump officials that voted by mail recently. they include the president, the first lady, ivanka trump, the

attorney general bill barr. what does that tell you, is this kind of an tempest in a teapot? >> it tells us there's political motivation. i think it's reprehensible that the president, who uses a mail ballot, would want to force americans to risk their health to cast a ballot. the much ado is that this is an active attempt of further voter suppression. we have to understand that using the pandemic is not standing alone. we've seen voter suppression alive and well, unfortunately, in this country over the past decade. and only increasing. so i do think it's very telling that the president is so focused on mail ballots and spreading these false narratives. i think he is incorrect. using mail ballots won't help democrats over republicans. as our elections showed, republicans like to use mail ballots. but that's what the president

believes, to his detriment. what mail ballots do is help voters. and we need to have that access. every state in the nation, if they want their voters to vote during a pandemic, will adopt mail ballots as quickly as possible. >> before i let you go, for states that still have primaries yet to come, what would your advice be to them in terms of how they deal with their mail-in ballots? >> well, they can give us a call. we're here to help. we've used mail ballots for several years now, and we really want to see all americans have the same type of access that coloradoans have. and by the way, the president also should give me a call. he seems to be very confused about mail ballots, even though he uses them. and we're happy to explain to him and his administration about how our democracy can work during the pandemic. >> he tweeted recently that he felt that absentee ballots were fine but that mail-in ballots were rife with voter fraud,

absentee ballots and mail-in ballots are the same thing, so yeah. that's worth a little bit of clarification. by the way, if you are a mail voter and are concerned about fraud, you can always take your ballot to the elections office. you don't have to drop it in the mailbox. there are ways to drop it off physically. jenna griswold, colorado's secretary of state, secretary griswold, thanks very much. >> thank you. coronavirus has set a new daily record in texas yesterday. one city hit especially hard is san antonio. its mayor tells us how he is coping with the pandemic. needles.

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their part to help to slow the spread. now, i know that wearing a face covering is not the convenient thing to do. but i also know that wearing a face covering will help us to keep texas open for business. and it will help texans earn the paycheck they need. >> that's texas governor greg abbott. he issued that executive order on thursday. the mask mandate comes as texas keeps breaking its own records pretty much every day. according to "the austin statesman," yesterday the state saw more than 8,200 new confirmed cases of covid-19 and 238 more hospitalizations. those are the highest numbers reported so far in each category. joining uswgwgwgwgr now is ro r nearenberg, the mayor of san antonio. good to have you with us. your response to the governor's mask mandate was, simply put, "it's about time."

i've heard so many people say, well, that's just texas, they just do what they want to do. that's why it took them so long. is that a fair criticism or is there more to it than outright stubbornness? >> there's certainly more to it, josh. thanks for having me on this morning. the face mask mandate that is now statewide was, as a matter of fact, for all the cities in texas listening to our public health official. we had a mask mandate in place in april, knowing this was a sure way to stop the spread of the virus. those were stripped away by the state's own orders. and we've been left without any kind of enforcement of masks up until now. so we know we lost a lot of times. but, you know, again, glad for the step forward. we need to make sure we're working together. one concern that i have is that within this mask mandate is also an opt-out for counties.

and i know that at least 40 counties already in texas have opted out of the state mandate which is only going to put everyone else in jeopardy should this transmission continue to take hold in our state. >> now, hospital leaders have pleaded for san antonio residents to be careful on this fourth of july holiday weekend. emergency rooms are overflowing. icus are overflowing. mayor, what's your sense of whether san antonians are listening? >> you know, i think our community has benefitted from the fact that we have had a very strong medical community and emergency response disaster preparedness team in place for a long time. we've had our medical experts out in front since very early on when we were working with the evacuee missions. the problem is you've heard a lot of mixed messaging from state and federal leaders about the efficacy of things like face mask wearing and so it became

very politicized. but these numbers, which we've been very clear about, we're going to put the good, the bad, and the ugly about this pandemic out so people can m decisions. as these numbers have risen, you've seen people get on high alert again. i'm hoping in the next couple of weeks we'll see a turn in the numbers and we can start getting this virus back in containment, which we were doing from the very start. >> hindsight is 2020, and i'm not sure if this is a job you would want, but if you were the governor, what if anything would you have done differently? >> you know, a couple of things. one is, we started opening up texas without the benefit of having passed through those gating criteria of ensuring testing, tracing capacity, et cetera. we need to make sure we accomplish those things before we begin to open up. second thing is, as we do begin to open up, you've got to slow down the phases so you can see

the data and the effects of the decisions to open up in each phase. the third thing is making sure there are strong mandates in place with regard to physical distancing and mask mandates. these are critically important. we all want to get back to an open economy, we all want to enjoy life again. but we've got to make sure people are mindful of the public health guidance and don't politicize it especially as we're opening up. there's not going to be a vaccine or very effective therapeutics widespread for a long time. so we have to work together to slow the spread of this virus. a cloth in front of your face that traps the virus droplets from going from one person's mouth to another is all we have to do to control this infection. >> governor abbott announced that 12 hospitals in an antonio will get 63 cases of the drug remdesivir in hopes of helping texans recover from covid-19. remdesivir is being used to

treat severe cases. what's at the top of your list in terms of what san antonio needs right now either from the state or from the federal government? >> we need clear messaging. and of course absolutely, we need the therapeutics. remdesivir has been successfully used in san antonio for a while now, so those supplies are very important. we're also asking for additional support in testing and getting those sites out into communities that have lower access to health care. so those are very helpful. and we'll be working together to ensure that. what we need from the national level to the state level is ensuring we send a clear message. this is not a virus to fool around with. we can work together to slow the spread. all it takes is for us to listen to the medical experts. physical distancing, wearing face coverings, that's all

that's really needed in addition to hand sanitizers and hygiene, all we have to do is those simple things and we can really begin to control this virus again. we've got to put politics aside, especially when people are dismissing the highes03;? docto in the land such as dr. fauci. our lieutenant governor said people shouldn't pay attention to the highest doctor in this nation with regard to this pandemic. and that's ridiculous. we've got to work together and make sure we're continuing our efforts to contain this virus. >> ron nearenberg is the mayor of san antonio, texas. we appreciate your time, sir, thank you very much. still ahead, professional sports are changing with the times. a ban on confederate flags, changing the names of teams. will they make a difference? robinhood believes now is the time to do money.

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- he's right there. - it's him! he's here. he's right here. - hi! - hi. hey! - that's totally him. - it's him! that's totally the guy. safe drivers do save 40%. click or call for a quote today. the move toward change can be slow but it's movement nonetheless. after decades of public opposition, washington, d.c.'s football team says it is considering abandoning its nearly 90-year-old name which has long been viewed as a slur against native americans, after recent pressure from the team's business partners like fedex and nike. other sports organizations are reconsidering their names too. meanwhile the nba and its

players' union agree that social justice messages can be displayed above players' numbers on their jersey. the nba is set to get back to play on july 30th. and nascar has banned the confederate flag from all of its races. joining us to talk more about these changes is the sports editor at "the nation." dave, let's start with washington's football team. its owner, dan snyder, has been openly stubborn about never changing the name, no matter what, not ever, and now it's under review. is this just because the people who put massive amounts of money into the team have made him make this change? or is there more to it? >> no, there's more to it than that. it's because we've had a 50-state national uprising against racism and white supremacy which i think has changed the dynamics of all kinds of discussions across the country, throughout the world of sports and throughout our society. and washington football is not

immune from that discussion. so there's been tremendous pressure placed on these corporations to act and that pressure has now in turn fallen on the shoulders of dan snyder. but as you said in the introductions, we cannot forget the fact that people, particularly the native american community, has been fighting on this issue for decades, dating back to the american indian movement in the late '60s, people like amanda blackhorse, the national congress of the american indians. the pressure has been building for decades. but it's been this national uprising since the murder of george floyd that has changed all of the dynamics around this country. >> what do you make of the process that the teams in washington and cleveland will undergo in considering their new names? >> the process is going to be very interesting because there are people who want the new names to hew as closely as possible to the tradition of the team, like maybe call them

washington arrows, and keep the burgundy and gold colors. it will be interesting to see how these decisions are being made because this kind of branding is very important, it's how a city defines itself, it's how a city understands i was s. it's the closest thing to a unified conversation we have in our divided society, how the local sports team is doing. it has repercussions. the american psychiatric associates has said that native american branding and mascoting harms kids. so they'll have to choose carefully in terms of the names and colors they choose going forward so they do the least possible harm. >> this has been a perennial parlor game in d.c. for a while. what do you think washington should call its team? any ideas? >> i love washington, d.c., it's where i call home. our greatest resident in my opinion is the legendary duke ellington, you can do a lot worse than the washington dukes.

>> the washington dukes, that's not bad. i'm seeing so many different sight gags for the washington dukes, i'll let all of those go and say, dave, thank you very much for making time for us. thank you also for making time. ali velshi is back next saturday and sunday. i'm back this afternoon at 3:00 and 6:00 p.m. eastern. so until we meet again, i'm joshua johnson. stick around, "a.m. joy" is next on msnbc. the campsite. and anything else we set our sights on. miles that take us back to the places we want to go. and to the people who count on us. so, let's roll up our sleeves. because we've got miles to make up.

we are grateful to our armed services. we are grateful to our military families. we are greatful to our veterans. without you, we could not enjoy the incredible blessings that we do in this greatest country on earth. >> good morning and welcome to "a.m. joy." i'm tiffany cross back in for joy reid. it's hard not to feel