that does it for me. i will see you right back here tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. eastern and my dear friend, steve kornacki, is up next. and good evening. i'm steve kornacki in new york and america hit a grim new milestone over the weekend. reaching record levels of coronavirus cases and deaths across 20 states including and beyond the sun belt. states from virginia to alaska, all reported new records of infections over the past week. florida broke the national record of confirmed cases in a day. they reported 15,000 cases in a single day and according to reuters, if florida were a country, it would rank fourth in the world for the most new cases

a day behind the united states, brazil and india. meanwhile, in new york, where cases spiked in march and april, sunday marked the first day with no confirmed or probably coronavirus deaths. with the virus now hitting states in the south and the west in particular, arizona, california, florida, mississippi and texas, all have broken their records for average daily fatalities. president trump had this to say. >> we are, we test more than anybody by far and when you test, you create cases. so we've created cases. we're doing a great job. we're doing very well with vaccines and very, very well with therapeutics. they're always talk iing about cases. the number of cases. well, it is a big factor that we do have a lolt of cases because we have a lot of testing. had we not done what did, mike and i were talking about it before, 2 to 3 million lives lost, but we did that so we're at about 135,000 and we'll be at

somewhat higher than that by the time it ends. >> on the ground, doctors and nurses are painting an alarming picture. >> we're at over 100% capacity, if that's possible. but every place is a potential bed. we have a person. sometimes we're doubling up. and sometimes, we're putting people in hallways, unfortunately. we're trying to avoid and save hallways for people who don't have covid. >> numbers are on the rise and we have become one of the epicenters for this pandemic. here in tallahassee, we have lost members as well. in response to these increasing numbers, reopen their covid-19 unit. >> come to work and worry about the safety of my patients but i also worry about taking covid home to my family. >> nationally now, the virus has killed more than 136,000 people. both california governor gavin newsom and oregon governor kate

brown are now rolling back efforts they had begun to reopen their stat economies. they're shutting down bars and limbing indoor gatherings. earlier today, los angeles and san diego unified school districts, the two largest school districts in the state of california, they both announced that because of the spike in coronavirus cases, they would not resume in person classes as originally scheduled on august 18th. and for more, i am joined by tampa mayor, jane castor. ranks third in the cities of florida for its number of confirmed coronavirus cases. dr. ashby, a cardiologist in miami beach and an internal medicine physician. dr. roy, on the big picture, i'd like to know how you would characterize what we're seeing now because when i look at these numbers and the individual states here, i know we mentioned new york back in march and april.

new jersey, the detroit area. we had these hot spots a couple months ago a that now have seemed to have cooled off. florida, texas, california, a lot of places that weren't originally hit that hard now are getting it. is this sort of an extended period of the first wave? is that a fair way to look at what's happening right now? >> well, steve, what we're seeing is just widespread, widespread infection. the coronavirus does not respect borders. i think maybe many parts of the country thought that what was happening in new york, new jersey, maybe it was a northeast thing. but no, the virus, the virus will thrive in type of environment. any time people are in close contact, the virus will spread with respiratory droplets. in california, texas, florida, these are states where they did

not shut down, they did not make the tough decision that governor cuomo did in new york in terms of just shutting down businesses, mandating people stay at home. it was extremely difficult to make those decisions, but it was the right thing to do because it was based on data. it's, these are evidence based public health measures and this is what we need to have happen. now really around these states where there's just incredible numbers of cases, hospitalizations and sadly, soon deaths. >> so let's talk about that piece of it. dr. roy talks about new york, obviously, there were those steps that were taken, but the death toll in new york got severe. at their peak there in new york, i'm looking at it. there were 780 deaths a day. in new york. and i'm looking at florida. we have these surging case counts in florida. the death toll is rising. it's about 73 right now. so new york and florida, about

comparably sized states. i think the key question here now is that death toll in florida, that death rate in florida, how much higher is that likely to get do you think? is that going to get up near where new york is or is that going to fall short of that? >> so, a few things and thanks for having me, first of all. so, when it comes to the death rate, it's actually increasing. it's head nd the wrong direction and in terms of why it's this low, it's multifakih torl. one reason is because of the fact that the younger population being affected currently from the virus, but it's only a matter of time before it affect as our older communities who are staying home, they feel like they're in prison, but with the virus spread as wildly as it is in florida, it's only a matter of time for communities of collar, in particular, poorer communities, who have homes where multiple people live in the same unit, that it's inevitable that this is going to spread. i'm already seeing it in my practice, in my hospital, and so i can tell you for a fact that this is headed in the wrong

direction. i don't know if we'll reach numbers we have in new york because we've gotten a lot better at treating this virus. there's been a number of therapies that have come to the table that have been beneficial, but at the end of the day, this shouldn't have happened and this is where we're at. >> let me bring the mayor in on this. if you could talk about what this situation is like on the ground where you are, how would you assess it? would you say this is something still growing, growing rapidly, is it something you feel has stabilized? how would you assess the situation in tampa and hillsboro county, florida? >> well, steve, we did very well in the beginning. you know, as the doctors said, we put the safer at home order in place early on. we also just passed a mask order three weeks ago a. a little difficulty in getting that passed throughout the county, but we took all of those measures to you know, get a hold of this early on, but we have seen as you know, the numbers just explode recently.

but with the mask order in place, we're starting to see those numbers level out. and we are, this week will be the determining week for us to see if that has taken positive affect. but also the medical personnel have made great strides in treating the patients with this and so we aren't seeing an increase in the number of deaths, but you know, percentage wise, with the number of positive cases, those are a little bit lower, but u yes, we are nowhere near out of the woods yet. we're hoping the mask order, that the majority of our citizens have readily accepted and are adhering to, will have an effect on the spread of this virus. >> let me bring dr. ashby back in. you mentioned this and the mayor just mentioned this as well. strides that have been made, improvements that have been made. advances when it comes to

treating active cases. we've talked so much about vaccines, there's a little bit of news on that front, we'll get to it in a minute. but before you have a a vaccine, just treating people who have it. when you say there's been progress there, can you talk specifically, what would that look like? what have you figured out there on that front? >> so the question just to be clear, you're asking about how how vaccines impact the virus? >> the treatment right now of active cases. you were talking about how some progress had been made there that might be lowering the death rate so even if you're getting run away infeks, you may not get the death load as high as you got in new york. what are those advances that have been made? >> so, great question. first of all, you see that the medical establishment, we're doing our job, right? we're letting science dictate our policies, our treatment plans and it's having an impact on the death rate. so kudos to us. but unfortunately, our politicia politicians, leadership in the state, minus the mayor of tampa,

you're doing a a gate job, but leadership if general is not having our back and uchl, we're seeing a lot of people come to the hospital but they are responding to the treatment, so treatments such as remdesivir, convalescent plasma. all these treatments are being thrown at these patients and they're doing well. relatively welcol compared to early on in the pandemic. unfortunately, we just don't feel our leadership has our back. >> we said there is some news today when it comes to vaccines. there's this here, two potential coronavirus vaccines have received fast track designations from the food and drug administration if the ongoing studies are successful, the companies expect to manufacture up to 100 million doses of the vaccine by the end of the year and 1.2 billion doses by the end of 2021. dr. roy, we've been talking about vaccines here every time we get a positive development, that rare bit of good news. what does that mean, to have two

drugs getting fast tracked by the fda? what exactly does that mean? >> yes, steve, this is almost unheard of, right? vaccine development takes years. actually, decades, and the, remember, the fastest we've ever safely delivered a vaccine into a human being was four to five years so the fact this may happen within one to two years is quite remarkable and the studies, the articles show that they'll go into production soon, but that means it has to go through a late stage clinical trials and that's the great limiting step, steve. that's what's going to take a long time. making sure these vaccines are safe and effective, but this is what i got to be really real ibsic and make sure i don't give false hope to the viewers. so we don't really know how effective this vaccine is going to be. how long the immunity is going to last.

we're, there's just a lot of unknowns right now. we have to live with this new normal, steve. that's what we have to do for now. if and when there is a vaccine. >> also this tnews today. we're talking about florida, texas is another state where you've seen a lot of new cases. a lot of political leaders there trying to figure out how to deal with it. the mayor of houston in texas, he tweeted this. he called for a two week shutdown. he said at a minimum, two weeks, and i proposed this to the governor so we can help blunt covid-19 progression. if we can't have a shutdown, then step back to the state's phase one. this will allow us to reset and reassess. mayor castor, i know you're talk about the mask ordnance where you are being hopeful that the masking is going to be something that helps control this. i'm curious. if you get discouraging data, is the idea of a shutdown, is that something you think that could be on the table? is that something people would be willing to accept? >> well, i don't know how much

the public would be willing to accept that, but certainly on the table. i think that for us, here in our area, really it was the opening of the bars that you know, that set us back very, very quickly. literally, overnight. and the majority of our cases are the 25 to about 34. just spiked through the roof. and so, we can't afford, we just got back up on our feet economically and we can't afford to get knocked back down, but if we don't see substantial changes, then we're going to have to make those difficult decisions once again. >> by the way, on the issue of compliance with the mas a k ordnance, do you have numbers on that? what do you think the compliance rate is? how many folks do you think are wearing the masks when they're out there? >> it would have to be an eck doe tall. the majority of individuals that i see. but i did hear a statistic today when asked the majority of

citizens, the vast majority, over 70%, said they wore a mask at all times when they couldn't six foot distance and there were only i believe 9% that said they did not, they would not wear a ma mask. so i think that the compliance is pretty high. it's those indoor locations where people are in very close proximity without a mask. bars, those were, that really just set us so far back down here, but u we'll take whatever steps necessary to keep our community safe. >> all right. tampa mayor, jane castor, dr. ashby and dr. roy. appreciate that. >> thank you, steve. >> thank you. that come aation by the ott hf his long time friend and associate, roger stone. there are some republicans speaking out against it and there are reports that trump was advised against it and robert mueller is speaking out, too. plus, the white house take

ing aim at dr. fauci? president trump retweeting a supporter calling the cdc the media and most doctors, liars. much more to get to. stay with us. rs, liars. much me orto get to. stay with us usaa is made for what's next no matter what challenges life throws at you, we're always here to help with fast response and great service and it doesn't stop there we're also here to help look ahead that's why we're helping members catch up by spreading any missed usaa insurance payments over the next twelve months so you can keep more cash in your pockets for when it matters most and that's just one of the many ways we're here to help the military community find out more at usaa.com

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welcome back. the president's decision to commute the sentence of roger stone has sparked an outcry in washington. robert mueller broke his silence in an op-ed this weekend saying that stone was fair prosecuted and rightly convicted. quote, we made every decision in the case based on the facts in the law. claims to the contrary are false. nbc news reports that even some in trump's administration opposed the president's decision. according to pult principle source, quote, william barr recommended clemency not be offer offered, end quote. other officials including mark meadows also advised the president against it. their opposition was fuel bid

concerns that trump could face significant political blowback and could be seen as abusing his presidential power. minutes before on friday, journalists told howard fineman reresisted pressure by prosecutors. stone said of this, quote, he knows i was under enormous pressure to turn on him. i didn't. they wanted me to play judas. i refused. here's how adam schiff reacted this weekend. >> the jury of roger stone's peers found him guilty on every charge. and what the president is effectively doing is say iing is okay to lie to congress as long as you lie to protect me. let's not make any mistake about this. donald trump wants to keep roger stone silent. roger stone knows too much about donald trump. that's always the motivation with this president, which is to protect himself, to cover up for himself, nothing else matters. >> likewise chairman jerry nadler says that his committee

will investigate whether the comation was granted as a reward for stone's silence and i'm joined now by democratic congressman, ted lew, a member of the house judiciary committee and white house correspondent for pbs news hour. congressman, we just mentioned the committee you serve on, your chairman saying he wants to look into it. what is your committee planning to do here? >> thank you, steve, for your question. let me first say that just because the president has a power to commute a person's sentence does not mean that the president can use that power in any manner and some cases, it can be illegal. in fact, attorney general bill barr testified before congress that a president would have pardoned a person to prevent that person from incriminating the president, that would be a crime. so the house judiciary committee is going to investigate this to see if trump can get a come uation to roger stone and if he did, then the next attorney

general, if donald trump were to lose the election in november, could investigate donald trump for obstruction of justice or other crimes related to this. >> i just wanlt to ask, this may be a technical question, but pete williams pointed this out. just in terms of the right of congress to be looking into clemency, you're saying you think this can be improper. this is an oarticle two power o president, the right to make a pardon. pete williams noted in the decision case last week, the supreme court said congress' power to investigate is tied to its power to make laws because the constitution gives the president unlimited power to grant clemency for federal crimes. there's no legislative hook allowing congress to investigate. i know you have the power to investigate the power if you wanted to open an impeachment inquiry for high crimes and misdee mean ne nors, but -- >> absolutely. in fact, the argument that was just made was rejected by the

supreme court. clearance thomas said we could only investigate during impeachment. by the vote of 70-2, other supreme court justices rejected that and said congress has the power to investigate the president and a simple example. the president as commander in chief, has authority to order air strikes. if the president ordered an air strike on 5th avenue in new york, certainly congress can investigate that. so, it depends on how the president used the power. just the fact the president has a power doesn't mean he can use it in any manner he chooses to. >> let me bring you in here. we mentioned there's reporting from nbc news that some folks around the president, including his chief of staff, were advi advising him against this. what do you know about what trump was being told and what the reaction has been in the white house to everything that's played out publicly in the last few days? >> well, based on my moreports, what we saw was the chief of staff and attorney general cautioning president trump

against commuting the sentence of roger stone and now that he's done it, you see a circling of wagons at the white house where you have the white house press secretary saying that roger stone is really a victim of unfair treatment. so even though the people around the president were telling him not to do this, once he did it and made up his mind, they all fell in line, which is really a pattern in this white house, especially a pattern among people who want to remain in the white house. so barr and meadows, they're going to come out and publicly defy president because they would lose their jobs. this is a political calculation on the president's part. he's commuting the sentence of a friend of his. someone who's saying i don't want to turn on you and he's thinking in his mind he's not going to have to pay any political price or legal price for that. that being said, there are possibly some trump supporters who are out there in red states as this virus is raging, wondering why the president may be more concerned with commuting the sentence of a friend rather

than focusing on the deaths of their loved ones, grandparents and even young 20 and 30-year-olds now fill the hospitals. so in this case, the president and white house, they're now in some ways on the same page based on my reporting because people are circling the wagons and saying well, this is president's choice. this is his power. at the end of the day, the president wants to do and can do whatever he wants to do. >> that's my other question to you. we did see mitt romney, the only republican senator who had voted to convict the president in impeachment trial, he criticized this on saturday. also, pat toomey did as well. there are two prominent republicans who have taken issue, but your sense is otherwise, you're broadly going the see republicans in line with the president on this? >> yes, even when we look at attorney general bill barr himself, when he was asked in his confirmation hearing, is it illegal for a president to pardon someone in way that would make them not want to tell something that the president did

illegally. bill barr said that would be a crime. now that's not exactly, we don't know that the facts in this case are exact ly the same nair scenario, but we know that republicans have stuck with the president through all sorts of controversy, including the coronavirus response, killing of george floyd, his racist tweets. all sorts of things. so republicans have seen this and seen the president's base stick with this. so i think the republican, until you see mass amount of voters separating themselves from president trump, you're going to hear the kind of radio silence you hear on the republican side save for someone like mitt romney, who has obviously become someone in the republican party whato's not afraid of being ver kri cal of the president when needed. >> here's an argument from jonathan turley. you heard from him in the impeachment process. law professor at george washington university. he says the comation of stone barely stands out in white house pardons.

authority under article 2 is stated in absolute terms and some presidents have wielded with absolute abandonment. you had george h.p. bush in 1992 on his way out of office. he pardoned casper weinberger and a five others. said, hey, bush was going to testify, now he's goinot going have to. he did it to get out of testifying. you had some of these in the past that walked off to this line and over this line. there haven't been consequences like you're talking about here. what would make this one different? >> there are two differences. one is in this case, it appears that donald trump commuted roger stone's sentence to protect donald trump. that is very different than commuting someone's sentence to do that person a favor. and second, donald trump campaigned on draining the swamp. one reason over 60 million americans voted for him is because he promised he wasn't

going to be like other politicians. he wasn't going to go do whatever he could to enrich himself. that's exactly what he did in this case. he set up u two systems of justice. one for everybody and one for his friends and allies. that's exactly the kind of thing he said he was not going to do and unfortunately, we see donald trump just reverting back to what other politipoliticians ha. >> there was also this from vermont senator. he's calling for the department of justice to review this matter. wrote a letter to the the attorney general today saying that there appears to be a reasonable, factual indication that criminal activity has occurred. your duty requires you to conduct a thorough review. you're talking about barr perhaps privately not being supportive of this, but publicly, being in line with the administration. does this mean this letter is likely not to result in any action? >> i think it would be surprising of bill barr went

along with it and said yes, let's look at this because he made his case to the president directly and the president didn't listen to him. so what he's done time and time again has been having the president's back. has been really defending the president on all sorts of legal issues. the president as you can remember, really was looking for an attorney general who had his back and who would ride along with him, no matter what the decisions he made. that's why he was so mad at jeff sessions and remained so mad at jeff sessions. so i would be very, very surprised. but anything could happen at this point, but i just don't see it's likely that bill barr is going to take a public stance that's going to be against president trump. >> thank you both for joining us. appreciate that. up next, is joe biden going to go big or play it more conservatively when it comes to the electoral college? i'm going to head over to the big board. we are like going to look at the swing states. the potential swing states. the states that may end up swing

states that nobody's even talking about as swing states. we're going to break it all down right after this. we're going to break it all down right after this now is the time to support the places you love. spend 10 dollars or more at a participating small business and get 5 dollars back, up to 10 times with american express. enroll now at shopsmall.com.

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all right. this is a tale of two elections. this is the last one. this was the final result. at least in the popular vote. remember, hillary clinton won the popular vote over donald trump, 48-46. she did not win the electoral college. won it by two points in the popular vote. that wasn't quite enough to way the math worked out to get her an electoral college victory.

take a look at where this race currently stands. where clinton won by two in the popular vote, biden leads by nine in the national polling right now. this is the national polling average. this is change obviously, you get closer, we'll see. but right now, biden's up nine on average. clinton's mortgagargin was two. it raises a question for the biden campaign because this lead has been around for a while now. it raises a strategic question for the biden campaign. this was the electoral map from 2016. it was pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin. these three states for a combined margin of about 75,000 votes. that's what got donald trump. all those electoral votes. that's what allowed him to win in the electoral college even as he lost in the popular vote. so for democrats, the strategy people have been talking about for the past three and a half year, how do you win back pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin.

but if you're the biden campaign and you're seeing an eight, anyone, ten-point margin consistently in national polls, does that tempt you to start expanding it? we talked about arizona, florida, north carolina. i'm saying expanding beyond that. lee let's take a look a at four states here. we didn't think coming out of 2016 we'd be talking about in 2020. how about georgia. trump won by five points. one that's been republican since '92. bill clinton barely carried that year. trump leads in the polling on average by three. hasn't been a lot of polling there. looks like those senate races are going to be competitive. georgia can be a very competitive state. try on for size, ohio. here's one nobody's been talking about until recently because trump won this pretty decisively in 2016. he won the buckeye state by 20 points. bind leading by nine and that's what you get. the average of the poll ng ohio is a tie. trump won it by eight.

the polling on average is tied in ohio right now. of course this was a state barack obama was able to carry twice. it swung hard to donald trump in 2016. could the biden campaign go in there, could democrats go in there and swing that back? how about another one here? the state of iowa. this one swung even more fiercely than ohio did in 2016. trump won this by nine. even though obama had won it in 2012. now trump leads but by a very, very small margin and one democrats have been talking about for a long time. texas, trump by nine in 2016. tied in the polling right now. and wow, look at that. it has been 44 years since democrats won texas. that was jim my carter over gerald ford in '76. again, with biden leading big nationally, if that persists, raises the question, can you start competing in these states, maybe could you start competing in other states after that? do you want to or play it a little safer? so it's an interesting question

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the coronavirus continues to surge through much of the country and today, the president seemed to question public health expert's handling of the virus in the form of retweets. the president retweeted a claim from a game show host claiming that quote, everyone is lying about the coronavirus. including the centers for disease control and prevention, the media and democrats and most of our doctors. according to the tweet, the motive is to hurt trump politically. the retweet follows a weekend that saw multiple states shatter their own single day records for new cases confirmed and today, dr. anthony fauci said the

outbreak exploding across the country is because initial shutdowns weren't enough to blunt the spread of the virus. >> we did not shut down entirely. that's the reason why, we went up, we started to come down then we plateaued at a level that was really quite high. about 20,000 infections a day. then as we started to reopen, we're seeing the surges that we're seeing today as we speak. in california, your own state, in arizona, in texas. in florida. and in several other states. >> the white house has pushed back against that saszment and against dr. fauci himself. amid all this, there are signs that the failure to control the spread of the virus is cost iin the president politically. that's coming up next. the president politically. that's coming up next. i love rakuten,

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i'll let you in on a little secret. they don't. by empowering employees to manage their own tasks, paycom frees you to focus on the business of business. to learn more, visit paycom.com welcome back. amid an alarming rise in coronavirus cases across south and west, white house has made some moves to discredit dr. anthony fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert. a administration issued a prod side at dr. fauci with one official telling nbc news on sunday, quote, several white house officials are concerned about the number of times dr. fauci has been wrong on things. the official gave nbc news a list of nearly a dozen past comments by fauci that the official said had ultimately proven erroneous. "the washington post" was first to report on the oefrt noting quote, the white house has moved

to sideline fauci, scuttle some of his planned tv appearances and largely kept him out of the oval office for more than a month. today, the white house press secretary said the white house was replying to a direct question in saying fauci had been wrong. despite the reports, president trump today insisted he likes dr. fauci personally. >> i have a very good relationship with dr. fauci. for a listening time. i find him to be a very nice person. i don't always agree with him. i like him personally. >> meanwhile, fauci receives broad public support when it comes to who americans say they trust for information on the virus. new york ci"new york times" sie kuked last month found that more than two-thirds of americans trust dr. fauci to provide accurate information about the coronavirus compared to about one quarter who said the same of president trump. and for more, i'm joined by national political reporter for nbc, maria cuemar and noah

rothman from commentary magazine. thanks for being with us. sayah, i'm curious not just what you make of this, the white house apparently having some concerns there, erring off the record some concerns there privately, i should say, some concerns about dr. fauci. the president retweeting the tweet that says this is part of some big lie, some political strategy to stop him. are you seeing venting here? are you seeing the beginnings of a strategy that's going to get more aggressive? what do you think this is leading to? >> steve, i see a lot of concern. the president is worried that the coronavirus and the resulting economic devastation has taken away his main argument for re-election. he wants to tell the story of this great american comeback and that's why he's trying to strong arm political leaders into reopening the economy regardless of what health experts say. he is trying to strong arm local

leaders and into reopening schools and sending kids back to school regardless of what health experts say is safe. des he is desperate to have some argument to offer voters in terms of why he should be re-elected because if the situation is still looking like it is now, that really, you know, gets taken away from him. and the other thing is that the president generally does not like institutional constraints on his power. he has a problem with authority figures who go against things he likes to do that he believes are in his political interest and he has a tendency to criticize people strongly and say that arguments or even reporting if accurate, is fake. that's what i'm seeing from president trump. s >> the president, when he has an issue with somebody, usually lets everybody know and usually does it in a pretty memorable way, i guess you could say. when it comes to fauci, you've got the white house saying sort of you know, to folks a little

privately there, hey, look, wrong on this, wrong on that. the president publicly, the clip we just played, saying he likes him personally. so the president seems to be at least a little bit hesitant to engage, even if he perhaps has some instinct to? is that how you would read this? >> i think so. the president is usually conflict averse. his twitter habits are almost always regrettable. the white house projecting a war with its own members does not project confidence. so this is certainly a sloppy approach. but that, just because they made a sloppy argument doesn't mean they have no argument to make. dr. fauci himself said in may 22nd that prolonged lockdowns can cause ir repable damage. now he's saying we need more to avert this health crisis, which was not the original motive for a lockdown. it was to spare hospitals from catastrophic surge of patients. not to lockdown to a date uncertain to a date which we'll have a therapeutic or vaccine.

we don't expect health officials to manage these concerns and if health is the biggest concern, undiagnosed conditi ed cancers, and perhaps a lost decade of economic procurety and malaise, all these things our public officials should be focused on. health experts, not so much. so the white house has an argument to make. they did not in this case. >> maria, this is the line question here. the president's approval rating, when it comes to handling the coronavirus and you see there, it is 33%. 63 2/3 disapprove. i guess if we stipulate that, the coronavirus being what it is, it's highly unlike ly for a president to be re-elected if the numbers stay like that. i guess i'm curious, do you think the president can change in the time between tween now and the election, change the public's perception of this handling of the coronavirus?

>> i think one of his biggest challenge s is that fauci is a public health official and he's part of his administration and he doesn't have a a political bone to pick. he just wants to make sure the public is safe and if you look across the atlantic and numbers were surging here they were also surging in italy. and for more than anything, more or less, europe has had their pandemic under control. china has it under control. we do not have it under control. we are right now basically not only seeing a surge because it's never dipped. we're seeing a surge, but we're expecting another wave. president trump has been very clear with his public when he talks about his rallies. we recognize there are three things he's concerned with. he's concerned with the kids in cages. he's concerned with covid being pinned on him. and he's concerned with unemployment. the latter two will be very difficult for him to wipe out of the american memory because we are going into still one of the

highest unemployments coming into september. there is no way out of this unless he starts listening to public health officials. >> a judge has lifted that restraining order that had been on place on the president's niece, mary trump. she has that new scathing mémoire about the president. because this restraining order has been lifted, she can begin giving interviews tonight. there is nothing apparently scheduled yet. >> steve! >> yeah. there is an opening here, i suppose, if she wants to call in. the lines are open. but i'm curious. she's in this book in the excerpts that have been out there, she has some pretty harsh words for the president. does it move the needle in any way, do you think? >> i don't know, steve. i think president trump's personality and his behavior is so ubiquitous now, i think people know what they are getting when they look at him.

if you are not already convinced, you won't be by a book. i have to think her publisher is thrilled with the fact that the president is coming after her this way and trying to get her book, you know, prevent her book from being published. it only adds to the interest that people will have. i don't know why the white house doesn't understand this. the president doesn't. there is an effect where a lot more people will want to read this when the president tried to, you know, go after that in a similar way. >> i want to talk about the state of the presidential race here a little bit. we were just showing joe biden leading the president on average by nine points. you have had more and more indications that there are concerns in the president's world among republicans. there was this article. i thought this was interesting today in "the new york times" looking back at the 2016 campaign and sort of the legacy of the access hollywood tape. you remember a couple weeks before the election, middle of october 2016, that access hollywood tape came occupy.

publically and privately lawmakers were calling on him to step aside and allow mike pence to lead the ticket. party officials predicted devastation. others could not stomach associating with the nominee. it is interesting to look back at that right now because i remember that moment and i encourage people, so much as happened in the last three years, you think about the thought donald trump was in that moment and he did end up winning the election and did end up being president. you have got more and more republicans starting to sound the alarm about the state of his campaign in 2020. you have got these numbers with his approval rating on coronavirus. do you think that the memory of the access hollywood tape in 2016 and everyone telling him he was doomed and trump winning anyway, do you think that makes him immune to advice from political professionals now? >> it might. he appears to trust his own instincts more than he does anyone else's. the story of that moment was not

so much that everybody came to their senses as though republicans realized their fortunes were tethered to donald trump whether he was there or not. though, they were. james comey intervened in the election, and it reminded everybody in the investigation into hillary clinton. the trump campaign basically ceased to do a lot of media. they simply sat back and allowed that news cycle to play out. i don't suspect that a president can get away with that kind of thing. nor is joe biden likely vulnerable to it. so what we're probably seeing is recognition on the part of republicans that even if donald trump were to disappear tomorrow, their fortunes would be tied to his. the republican party is synonymous with donald trump's brand and voters will render a verdict on both in november. >> and maria teresa, if trump pulled a rabbit out of the hat in 2016 politically, do you think he could do it again? or do you think the circumstances are just different right now and that that ship has sailed? >> well, access hollywood, there

was still a projection of what kind of president he would be. if you recall, newt gingrich basically said he could be the apprentice president. now we see what it looks like under donald trump. he has absolutely failed under a pandemic. he's created the biggest economic depression that we have seen since the depression itself. and the list goes on. so unfortunately, we actually now have a record, and we have receipts as people like to say, on donald trump as the president. >> all right. maria, noah, thank you all for joining us. appreciate that. up next, an 84-year-old nfl franchise retires its name. stay with us.

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with the nfl preparing for its season this fall at least potentially, one franchise will not be returning, at least under its current name. washington d.c.'s football name announced it will be ditching its 84-year-old nickname. it will also retire its logo. the team has received criticism for decades, but its owner, daniel snyder, fought against making the changes in the past. now some supporters included snyder pointed to a 2016 washington post poll that showed that 9 in 10, 90% of native americans said they were not offended by the name. today's announcement does come amid a broader national shift on

the subject of race after the killing of george floyd, along with mounting pressure along with several corporate sponsors who threatened to pull their support of the team. the team says it is working to come up with a name that will, quote, inspire our sponsors, fans and community for the next 100 years. thank you for being with us. don't go anywhere. "all in" with chris hayes is up next. tonight on "all in" -- >> there is nobody count high enough for the president to actually pay attention to science. >> donald trump and betsy devos trying to force kids back into classrooms during a raging pandemic as atlanta and los angeles announced all virtual learning to start school and houston's mayor calls for a two week shut down. why the president is attacking dr. anthony fauci instead of the real problem. and a