that we're now up against the deadline on this. you know, heading into july of this expiration. we still basically have nothing from the white house or mitch mcconnell. medhi hassan, always great to talk to you, man. thank you very much. >> thanks. >> that is "all in" on this tuesday night. "the rachel maddow show" starts tonight with ali velshi in for racial. geevlg, ali. >> you know i always enjoy that conversation, chris. if you're in a country where you are getting more on emergency assistance than you got as a wage, that too is an issue we should probably be considering, right? are we just not paying people enough that the idea of being on unemployment is actually lucrative to some? which it isn't, but that's the whole point. chris, good to see you. thank you for having that cons. and thank to you at home for joining us off at this hour. rachel has the night off tonight. we've got a lot to get to this hour on what has bengal a very busy news day. just a short time ago we got some scary news that justice

ruth bader ginsburg has once again been hospitalized. quote, justice ginsberg was admitted to the john hopkins hospital in baltimore, maryland early this morning for treatment of a possible infection. she was initially evaluated at sibley memorial in washington, d.c. last night after experiencing fever and chills. she underwent an endscopic procedure at john hopkins this afternoon to clean out a bile duct stent that was placed last ago. the justify is resting comfortably and will stay in the hospital a few days to receive inter-veus antibiotic treatment end quote. nothing has gone according to plan, even if you're someone like vice president mike pence. this mortgage pence headed out to the great state of louisiana officials -- of course as soon as vice president pence was wheels up, we learned that one of the top republican official in louisiana would no longer be there on the

tarmac to meet him when he landed because that official had just tested positive for coronavirus. boy, that one way to stomp on a message. tough to argue that the virus is under control and that schools should be reopened when the very people you're meeting with about those issues are coming down with covid-19. of course none of the headlines right now are encouraging because this is a problem that seems to get worse by the day. florida, california, and texas are the three most populous states in the country. yesterday all three states alone logged nearly 30,000 new cases. that's nearly 20% of yesterday's worldwide total. the united states has 4.4% of the world's population, but yesterday we were 30% of all new cases in the world. here's a sewnering headline from "the texas tribune" today. texas hospitals are running out of drugs, beds, ventilators and even staff.

even though we've become accustomed to the dire local reporting, this one puts you on your back heels. quote, an coronavirus patient was flown to a hospital -- flown by helicopter to a hospital in el campo 120 miles away because closer facilities could not take him. ambulances are waiting up to ten hours to deliver patients to packed hidalgo county emergency rooms. and short staffed hospitals in midland and odessa have had to turn away ailing covid-19 patients from rural west texas facilities that cannot offer the care they need. quote, epidemiologists say the state's hospitals may be in for a longer, harder ride than places like new york where hospitals were stretched to capacity in the spring and some parked refrigerated trailers outside to store the bodies of people who died from covid-19. well, those stark images of makeshift morgues on the streets of manhattan are now being seen in texas cities.

one such trailer has already been put to use in houston. they're now being requested all across the state. in corpus christi, the morgue there is already full. the county judge that oversees the city has been urging residents to take the virus seriously, telling the local tv station, quote, i am now having to order additional body bags and morgue trailers. people have to understand how real it is. end quote. the military, meanwhile, has started sending medical personnel to help in the state's overwhelmed hospitals. in san antonio where medical facilities are being pushed to capacity, the military is sending dozens of nurses and respiratory specialists to hospitals across the city. another military team is headed to houston. others will be deployed in the coming days and weeks, depending on where the need is greatest. as texas tries to get a handle on this crisis, things are also getting worse in florida. today that state set a new record for new coronavirus deaths just days after setting a new record for the highest number of daily infections.

while all the metrics in the state keep ticking upward, the governor ron desantis seems to be in a bit of denial. the daily beast notes he's begun characterizing the surge of new covid-19 cases as a, quote, blip, even noting that florida has had a lot of different blips. that might help him sleep at night, but it definitely seems at odds with what medical staff in his own state are saying. nbc news was able to obtain footage at the icu at memorial west hospital near miami. as of this morning, that hospital had just two adult icu beds available. one nurse there told the daily beast that given the massive number of cases and the lack of space available in the emergency room, hospital staff have started treating people in the hallways. another icu nurse warned that things are only getting worse. >> we've definitely seen a surplus this month of patients coming in covid positive and critical care patients, unfortunately.

before, when this first began, we had increased numbers, but now it seems to be over capacity. and we're starting to get to a point where it's -- we see this much worse than when it first began. so with that said, i want to just put out a message to take this very seriously. don't take it as a joke. because one minute you could be coughing, the next minute, unfortunately, you could be admitted to the hospital. >> you could be coughing one minute and you could be admitted to the hospital. we're actually going to speak to that hospital's ceo in just a moment. that hospital is so busy that the ceo -- the ceo has actually been leaning on her training as a nurse. she started taking shifts in order to relieve the burden from some of the staff in the hospital. that's the state of where things are right now. given that cities and states all across the country are in crisis, now is the time that we should beery lying on science, and yet the trump administration doesn't seem to share that

sentiment. late this afternoon, "the new york times" broke a stunning bit of newsing about how the white house has further sidelined the cdc. quote, the trump administration has ordered hospitals to bypass the centers for disease control and prevention, and beginning on wednesday send all coronavirus patient information to a central database in washington. a move that has alarmed public health experts who fear that the data will be distorted for political gain. quote, from now on, the department of health and human services and not the cdc will collect daily reports about the patient that each hospital is treating, how many beds and ventilators are available, and other information vital to tracking the pandemic. the news is said to have come as a shock inside the cdc, but it's just the latest assault against an institution that the white house has been trying to neuter for months now. today four former cdc directors wrote an op-ed blasting the way the agency has been politicized under the trump administration. quote, the cdc is home to thousands of experts who have

for decades fought the deadly pathogens such as hiv, zika and ebola. despite the inevitable challenges of evolving science and the public's expectation of certainty, these are the best people to help our country emerge from this crisis as safely as possible. unfortunately, their sound science is being challenged with pot shots, sowing confusion and mistrust at a time the american people need leadership, expertise and clarity. it's not too late to give the cdc its proper role in guiding this response, but the clock is ticking. joining us now is dr. richard besser. he was one of the four former directors of the cdc who today published this op-ed in "the washington post" entitled, "we ran the cdc selena no president ever politicized its science the way trump had." dr. besser, good to see you again, and thank you for joining us. >> thanks, ali. nice to be here. >> you and your four colleagues who ran the cdc wrote in the op-ed in "the washington post,"

public health experts face two opponents, covid-19, but also political leaders and others attempting to undermine the centers for disease control and prevention. richard, i want to remind our viewers that a couple of months ago the cdc had prepared -- it had already been done -- a document that would allow churches, schools, workplaces, everybody to safely return to work and to reopen. and for some reason that document was shelved. it was kept from the public and nobody at the cdc could explain why the white house was hanging on to it either. we're trying to figure out what's behind the cdc's politicization of or marginalization of the cdc. >> you know, ali, i think one of the biggest challenges we face in this response is this division. this clash of messages between public health, which is all on the same page that this is a crisis. this is something that is in the early days, and what we do today will determine how many people die over the next months to face our nation. we have steps we can take as

individuals. and if we follow public health science, we will save lives. on the other hand, you're seeing politics being injected into this public health response and the dire consequences of that. you're seeing a lack of trust by the public in what scientists are say. a and you see a division of what people are doing based on politics and party. and that is dangerous for the entire nation. >> you and your colleagues who wrote this op-ed have worked at the cdc at different times and under different presidents and when we have faced public health threats. this is by far the most serious, but it's not the -- it's not the only public health that america's faced. you say you've never seen anything like this. have you seen anything sort of like it? i just didn't know the cdc -- i understand there are moments where people are interested in doing political bidding, but generally speaking, i've never seen it politicized by the administration this way. >> well, you know, i worked at the cdc for 13 years, and, you know, i've never been prouder of any aspect of my career.

it's full of incredibly dedicated civil servants. patriotic americans who are working to protect lives here and around the globe. i led emergency response for four years and led the agency during the h1n1 swine flu pandemic, during the beginning of that. and, you know, when you develop guidance, you do it based on the best science, and to goes through a clearance process. so different agencies can comment on it. the white house can comment on it. and it's important that policy is -- is part of that process and that conversation. but once a guidance is released, i've never seen an administration undercut the guidance of the cdc. the whole process is designed so when it comes forward politicians and scientists can unify behind that, and by doing so encourage the american public to take the actions to protect their health that the public health scientists say are warranted. >> let me ask you about this decision by the trump administration.

i'm just going to quote from "the new york times." ordering hospitals to bypass the centers for disease control and prevention and beginning on wednesday send all coronavirus patient information to a central database in washington. a move that has alarmed public health experts. not even sure what what do you -- what do you think it means? >> well, you know, over the course of its history, there have been struggles, power struggles between cdc, which is located in atlanta, and some of the -- the people who work at the department of health and human services in washington. and one of the great things about cdc being -- being located in atlanta is that it can step aside from a lot of the politics that you get with any agency that's based in washington. the decision to have hospitals directly report to washington rather than cdc makes no sense. cdc is the agency that needs to receive that data. needs to look at what's happening in states. if they're getting data on how many people are hospitalized and how many are in the icu, cdc needs to be able to look and see

how does that correlate with actions that states have taken? who's being affected? are they getting data that is broken down by race and ethnicity to ensure that everyone in every state and every county has -- has what they need to be -- be safe? you don't want that information going directly to washington where it can be influenced even more by ibs mr. politics. >> how does the cdc come up with things like guidelines? for instance, the cdc on the website on how to spread -- spread -- prevent the spread of covid-19 in children says limit time with other children. if children meet in groups, it can put everyone at risk. children can pass this illness on to others who have severe risk of covid-19. feels pretty benign. when guidelines are written at the cdc is there a thought to politicization, is there a thought to the idea that someone might not like the way that we're presenting this? how does it -- how does it come to be? >> yeah, it's a process of reviewing the literature. for something like this about spread between children, there's

a lot of data -- i'm a pediatrician and worked on infectious diseases at cdc for a long time. there's a lot of information out there about how children share viruses. about how flu spreads. and a lot of the guidance that's been developed around prevention of covid comes from the experience with influenza and the experience in previous pandemics of influenza. and it's really important that we learn from other nations to see, is the same thing happening here? or is it possible that children are less likely to spread it to each other with covid than they are with the flu? and if they are, are less likely, that could change how we approach this. so that scientific inquiry is such a critical part of cdc. and it's so important that the public is brought along with that so that when guidance changes, people understand why and they're willing to make the changes in their own behavior. if they're not hearing that process, they'll be very skeptical and you lack that trust, which is essential. >> dr. besser, good to see you, as always. thank you for joining us. dr. richard besser is the former

acting director of the cdc. he's currently the chief executive of the robert wood johnson foundation. as we mentioned earlier, florida recorded its highest single-day death toll of the coronavirus so far, and that's in addition to recording 29 -- some sorry, to recording 9,000 new -- new daily cases. that's shy of sunday's record of 15,000 cases, but it's more than enough to continue the already see veev stain -- strain on florida's hospitals particularly those in the southern part of the state. last week one local official began sounding the alarm about the impending shortage of beds and staffing at her miami area hospital. >> we've converted an entire central tower into negative pressure so that we can accommodate more covid patients. >> i'm busting at the seams inside the hospital. i'm busting at the seams in terms of the icu. >> she is lea carpenter. she is a nurse and she is also ceo of memorial west in pembroke

pines. >> my icu is beyond capacity. we're at 106% of capacity at this moment. >> that was lea carpenter, ceo of a hospital near miami on friday. by monday, carpenter was unable to do any further media interviews because she had to pitch in and help combat the patient overload. a hospital spokesperson told the daily beast, quote, while lea is a ceo at memorial hospital west, she's also a nurse and taking shifts during the surge, so she's unavailable to us for the time being. she had finally emerged, but only to warn while her hospital has the resources needs right now, quote, if the surge continues, i have significant concerns about a -- about whether or not we will have what we need. joining us now is lea carpenter, nurse and ceo of memorial hospital west in pembroke pines, florida, part of the memorial health care system. lea, thank you for being with us. i mean, it's a remarkable story that you've actually had to pitch in. you're obviously not doing it

for the photo op, so you actually have staffing problems. we've heard about personal protective equipment shortages. we've heard of convalescent plaza possible shortages. we still don't have adequate testing around this country, but you also on top of that have a staffing problem. >> that is correct. i can tell you we really started initially having space concerns, but with a little creativity and ingenuity of my construction teams, we've been able to expand and create additional spaces elsewhere in the hospital. we're staffing adequately at this time, but i can tell you that it's more related to nurses taking additional shifts and really just their commitment to making sure that our patients have everything that they need. so, many of my nurses are taking one to two additional 12-hour shifts a week. they do it with a smile on their face, but we're concerned. we're concerned about their well-being. >> yeah, i'm always fascinated when i'm in a hospital to see

nurses and doctors with a smile on their face. understanding that the turmoil and the trauma that goes along with that job. how is everybody holding out? because we have now -- we are now into our fifth month of medical professionals being on the front line of this devastating illness. >> so i think a lot of it has to do with leadership. it starts at the top with our board and our senior execs. we make every effort to make sure that our employees are well taken care of, not just from a financial standpoint, but making sure their mental, emotional, spiritual well-being is taken care of as well, and we give a great deal of focus on that, even while they're on their shifts, making sure they have the support that they need. you know, it the not just about the ventilators and all of the equipment that they need, but we need to make sure that their physical and emotional well-being is -- is healthy -- is healthy, too. >> tell me what you're seeing in

the hospital with respect to patients. for those in the country who still think this is a civil rights issue and they should be free to hang out with anyone they want and not wear masks and not social distance. what's the message that what you're seeing makes you want to deliver? >> so, my message would be that this is -- this is as real as it gets. and if we don't all come together in terms of masking, social distancing, and, frankly, keeping away from each other just for a little while, this is going to get worse. it's not a joke. the masks are absolutely needed. and i just can't stress enough that if we don't all do our part, you will absolutely overwhelm the hospitals and we won't be able to do what it is that we're -- we're destined to do. >> i want you to talk to me a little bit about what overwhelming the hospitals means. in broward and palm beach county, hospitals are at 83% and 73% of capacity. and all but a handful say their

intensive cares are at or near capacity. the reason i ask you to tell me what this means is because for people who think they're not going to get covid, emergency rooms and icu beds exist for everybody who gets sick in any way. in an accident. your appendix, something goes wrong with your appendix, you need emergency care. when these icus are full, they're full for everybody. >> that's absolutely right. it's so dire at this point where we've had to actually separate parts of our hospital. so we have two emergency rooms now. we have one for, as you said, appendicitis and all those other, you know, very, very critical issues that people come to an emergency room for, and then we have a separate emergency room strictly for covid so that we can isolate those patients and prevent the spread. right now my icu is at 187% capacity. and i'm able to do that by create additional spaces, but it is what it is. sooner or later we will run out of space.

so we've got to get control over this disease and we have got to stop the spread. you know, the good news is is that about 98% of the people who come to the hospital are discharged, but if you go into an icu, you have a 30% to 35% chance of never leaving. and so -- >> wow. >> -- it's very serious and we have to make sure that we're not just thinking about ourselves. you know, many of the young people have heard, oh, young people are not impacted by it, but, first of all, they are. we're starting to see younger people impacted and sick and in our icus, but more importantly, they're the ones who are spreading it to those who are most vulnerable. so there is no one who is immune from covid. it does not discriminate against anyone. >> let me ask you about the euphemisms that different medical systems use for describing triage. you as a nurse know that word well, right? you are endlessly evaluating what level of care a person needs.

when emergency rooms and icu beds become full, there are all sorts of things. in arizona they're using diversion. emergency rooms are saying we're not accepting hospital rooms or people are getting checked out, but it's all some version of triage. it's all some version of someone making a decision about your health care that's not you because the capacity -- there's no more capacity. >> so, the fact is is people can use the word version as often as they'd like to, but in florida, there really is no diversion. there is an expectation that patients are going to be taken to the closest facility for their well-being, so you're not exempt from that just because you're full. the triage happens -- >> wow. >> -- at that point. it also happens when they actually arrive to the hospital, at which point we determine where they are best fit. are they going to go into a covid tent? are they going to go into a covid icu or to a covid er or are they going to go into a general emergency room? so there's varying phases of where that triage can happen.

>> leah carpenter, we are grateful to you for the work that you're doing and for the work you're doing not just as the ceo of memorial hospital west in pembroke pines, but for the work that you're doing as a nurse when you are shorthanded. thank you for your time this evening and we wish you the best of luck. >> thank you so much. coming up next, we'll have the latest on the breaking news that supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg was hospitalized for a possible infection. plus, what treatment for the justice might look like in the midst of this ongoing pandemic. u pop the hood for us? there she is. -turbocharged, right? yes it is. jim, could you uh kick the tires? oh yes. can you change the color inside the car? oh sure. how about blue? that's more cyan but. jump in the back seat, jim. act like my kids. how much longer? -exactly how they sound. it's got massaging seats too, right? oh yeahhhhh. -oh yeahhhhh. visit the mercedes-benz summer event or shop online at participating dealers. get 0% apr financing up to 36 months on select new and certified pre-owned models.

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we are continuing to follow the breaking news tonight that supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg is hospitalized. as we noted at the top of the show, justice ginsburg is reported to be resting tonight at a baltimore hospital after being admitted for a possible infection. according to the court, the 87-year-old justice was initially evaluated at a d.c. hospital last night after

experiencing fever and chills before being moved to john hopkins this morning. a statement posted on thelkt website notes that ginsburg, quote, underwent an endoscopic procedure at john hopkins this afternoon to clean out a bile duct stent that was placed there last august. the justice is resting comfortably and will stay in the hospital for a few days to receive intravenous antibiotic treatment. all right, today's procedure is not the first health scare for ginsburg. two months ago she was treated at the same baltimore hospital for gal stones. before that, she underwent radiation treatment for a cancerous tumor in her pancreas. and underwent surgery for cancer. i wish her the best. i hope she's better. i think i speak for many when i say we are all breathing a sigh of relief knowing as of now justice ginsburg is described as resting comfortably at the

hospital, but it is nonetheless alarming news that she is there at all. joining us now is nbc news medical correspondent john torres. do we know anything about the sort of infection that she's suffering from? >> ali, we don't have a lot of details, and like you said, she initially went in for fever and chills, which as a doctor when they come into the emergency room, fever and chills, especially if it's issues with abdomen, abdominal pain type situations, we start thinking infections and you start looking back at the surgery she had and what kind of procedure she might have had before. back in august she underwent a procedure for the cancerous tumors in her pancreas that included putting the stent in her bile duct. that also goes through the pancreas. the concern is is there some issue causing that to clog off and cause the infectious process? now they cleaned it out. they're giving her the iv antibiotics. that should at least calm the infection down, but then they need to start looking at the source, what's causing this? as you mentioned, she had the

gall stones, hopefully this doesn't continue, but getting to the source is one of the important things that needs to be done here. >> i would imagine that her medical staff has a head start on it because they know the history that she's had. she's -- she actually keeps very healthy. she keeps very fit, but she's had this medical history over the last few years, so at least they've got a checklist to start their detective work from. >> and that's exactly right, and i think she can do more pushups than you and i probably could combined. she's an amazingly fit woman, but at the same time, we know that she's had those issues that area, so that gets to be the big concern. that's what they're going to focus on. first and foremost, getting the infection under control, making sure that's taken care of, making sure that stent is opened up and like they said cleaned out so it can be used again by the body, but then trying to find the source, find out why that's happening, why she has thosegall stones, and that common bile duct all in the same

area just to make sure something is not going on with the pancreatic cancerous tumors that she had removed, make sure that something hasn't come back or something behind that, ali. >>ion . >> anything to glean from the information we have about whether or not this could be related to covid? >> nothing to glean from the information about whether or not this is related to covid. and if i had to guess, if i brought my crystal ball out, i'd say more than likely not related to covid. although we know covid can cause some abdominal issues, particularly some diarrhea and abdominal pain, in this case, she has had issues in that area to begin with, so it's not uncommon for something like this to happen. once that bile duct guests clogged off and they end up having to clean that stent. the fact that they gave her antibiotics lieds me to believe it's an issue issue going on here ands in coronavirus itself.

>> right. john, it's always fascinating. we get you on tv on short notice and give you virtually no information and you create some context out of it. always appreciate that, my friend. dr. john torres, nbc news medical correspondent. thanks for joining us. >> you bet. the president moved the national convention from north carolina to florida to make sure he could still hold a big event, but the guess list seems to be dwindling. we're going to have the latest on that next. v at the golden opportunity sales event. lease the 2020 nx 300 for $339 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer.

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we've got breaking news just now on an important senate primary in the alabama republican primary for senate. the associated press reports that former auburn football coach tommy tubberville has beaten former senator jeff sessions. now, this is a run-off with sessions trying to regain the seat that he gave up to serve adds trump's first attorney general. coach tubberville will now face democratic incumbent senator doug jones for that alabama seat.

now, with politics moving into real stakes connection month, the republican party is supposed to be gathering in person to celebrate the renomination of their de facto leader president trump. and this has become kind of a loyalty test for republicans, to see whether their support for trump outweighs their regard for their own health and safety. last week "the rachel maddow show" started asking republican senators, particularly ones in their 80s, for whom there is presumably the most risk, whether they plan to attend the republican national convention. and the trms tally got up to six senators who said on the record that, no, they will not go. including 84-year-old kansas senator pat roberts, who told reporters, quote, well, i have some things to do in kansas that i've got to do, and, unfortunately, i didn't know that's what was cancelled and what was not or whatever, so i will probably not be going. the man has things to do. meanwhile, there is the leader of the senate republicans. this time last week senator mitch mcconnell seemed pretty

gung-ho, according to a spokesman, who said, quote, the leader has every intention of attending. but then a reporter for enquirer media got a different answer from the senator himself. >> well, i think the convention is a challenging situation. and a number of my colleagues have announced that they're not going to attend. we'll have to wait and see how things look in late august to determine whether or not you can safely convene that many people. >> hmm. some question about safety, is there? as of this morning, "the new york times" is reporting even more names who are saying no, including senator roy blunt of missouri and two florida congressmen, mario diaz-balart and frances rooney. "the times" notes some republicans who will not say yes for sure, including florida's own senior senator marco rubio and john thune of south dakota. best of all "the times" quotes one official as saying, everybody just assumes no one is

going. which leads to another scoop also from "the times" and now confirmed by nbc news. it looks like after a meeting trump had with political adviser the last night, the republican party may be moving on to a long-rumored plan "b," which is to hold the whole convention outside. and that sounds totally doable in florida in late august. good luck with nat. we'll be right back. don't just think about where you're headed this summer. think about how you'll get there. and now that you can lease or buy a new lincoln remotely or in person... discovering that feeling has never been more effortless. the lincoln summer invitation sales event is here. i but what i do count on...ts anis boost high protein...rs,

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you can count on us to help you get everywhere you want to go... again. whenever you're ready, we're ready for you. enterprise. in a week filled with head-spinning news, this one's got to be one of the fastest u-turns. just yesterday attorney generals from seven different states plus d.c. sued the trump administration over a new visa policy for international college students. the white house had announced it would revoke the visas of international students whose course work had moved entirely online because of the pandemic. the new policy would have the effect to blocking some of the brightest minds who could immigrate to this country.

the a.g.s went to court to ask a judge to stop the trump administration from doing that. as new york attorney general latisha james put it, quote, international students should never be used as political forrer to force colleges to reopen their doors. well, the pressure appears to have worked. the white house is backing down. the administration caved and reversed the policy today just minutes before the judge in boston was set to hear arguments in the case. so the administration is no longer threatening the education of international college students or the health of universities, at the moment. but when it comes to trump's handling of education during the pandemic, that move appears to close just one chapter in this saga. on the very next page is the president's push to send grade school kids across the country back into the classroom as quickly as possible. since last week trump has been pressuring governors to open their school doors again this fall, and in the process he's blasted the cdc for creating

school reopening guidelines that he calls, quote, tough and expensive. well, today he quadrupled down, this time targeting l.a. school system for delaying the reopening as cases reach new heights every day in california. next door in orange county, california, the school board voted for reopening without requiring masks or social distancing. you can find conflicting reopening k-12 schools everywhere across the country. in alabama, where cases have also spiked, the selma city school superintendent is calling for the city to start classes in the fall online only, while at the state level, educators say they're concerned about alabama's overall plan being dangerously vague. those fights are sure to peak next month when many schools actually begin their new school year, but in one city we're already getting a preview of what this fight's going to look like in the form of summer school. protesters in detroit, michigan have blocked buses from leaving to pick up summer school students. yesterday was the first day of the city's summer school program.

about 500 kids are signed up to take classes, but protesters say they're determined to shut down the city's summer school program. protesters and some parents say they're worried that the school system is not prepared to handle the threat of the virus. they say the school district is not following the cdc guidelines. nbc's heidi przybyla was at the protest today and she got a chance to talk to a concerned parent. >> in a city where most of the covid -- a lot of the covid cases, there are high percentage number office deaths. you have to ask 9 question why this would be the case when other places, you know, their students are behind, too, but they're doing virtual summer school classes. our kids are not guinea pillings. our children are not social experiments. their lives have value and so do the lives of their families. we all want our children to be educated. we all want them to be caught up. we all want them to be educated, but this is not the answer. >> all right.

this is summer school in detroit and they're already struggling to pick up the right answer to this high-stakes question. joining me now is elena brantley-phillips. she's a special education teacher for detroit public schools. ms. brantley-phillips, thank you for joining us tonight. tell me your take on this whole thing. you've got parents who want their kids to be educated, they want them to go back to school, they're worried that the school is not following cdc guidelines then they blocked the buses. where do you fall into all of this? >> well, i am a special ed teacher in detroit. i'm at durphy element dear middle school. my building holds about 400 students, approximately. this is very scary. i think for everyone. would i block buses? probably not. at the end of the day, i think that we all have to understand that people do things for themselves, for whatever their reasons are.

>> mm-hmm. >> i can't speak for them and i'm not going to try to speak for them. >> yep. >> because everybody has their own background. parents have to go to work. children need to go to school. and as a parent myself, if i decide that i want to send my child to school then that's -- that's what i choose to do. i don't think it's fair that someone steps in front of me and blocks me from doing what i have decided to do.yoare -- there are several constituencies here, but you're two of them, right? because you're a teacher and you're a parent. at this point -- >> yes. >> -- what do you think should be happening? do you think students should be going back to school online? should they be in class? should it be some mix of online and in class? what, do you, as an educator and a parent looks like success? >> i think that as a special education teacher, let me start with that. that our students pretty much

got the shaft. the student population that i teach, children with autism, they literally haven't had instruction since march. virtual does not work for them. they need to go back. and as a teacher, i realize that and i have that passion. i will go back with them. but what i think the problem is is that the pandemic has actually amplified everything that we had already going on. in our district, we've got issues. summer school started yesterday. tomorrow we're supposed to be getting temperatures upwards of 90 degrees. you want our students to sit in a classroom with a mask on in a building that may or may not have working air. you want them to sit in this classroom and they don't have proper -- the plumbing isn't

working properly because we don't have hot water to even water our hands. we already have -- had issues going on that were never addressed. >> yeah. >> so now you're adding in the issues or the component of the pandemic component of the pandemic, and it's really bad. >> so are you hoping that if there could be some solution, that the most vulnerable -- because look, kids are vulnerable in general. all of us think our own kids are vulnerable. but you teach a uniquely vulnerable subset of children. so should we concentrate on getting those students in-person education who need it and try to figure it out for everybody else? >> i think so. at this point, i felt like this population has been ignored. everything was centered around the other students, and i get that. but at the same time, they have

a need as well. and it's not being met. they do need to go back. but at the same time, the district has to take some responsibility for what is going on. plans are being made about us without our input. and that's not right. i think that the majority of our teachers and staff want to go back to work. but with us not having an input about what is needed, i think it's kind of getting lost and ignored in the process. >> it wouldn't be the first time in american history that the voice of either parents or teachers or special education teachers in this country is getting lost or ignored. but we thank you for bringing your choice to our show. she's been teaching for almost 30 years. the news these days continue

to be grim, but we have the best thing in the world, the best new thing in the world coming up right after this. in the world cp right after this

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we have a best new thing in the world, and it starts with the mountain. >> the next battle is the apex. the next battle is on the top of the mountain. how long until we reach the top to have mountain? we're still on our way up the mountain. we went up the mountain very quickly. there's no doubt that we're

coming down the mountain. we call that the battle of the mountain top. some are on their way up the mountain. at least i call it the battle of the mountain top. the shape of the mountain. the mountain. coming down the mountain. you see a curve, i see a mountain. >> you see a curve, i see a mountain. new york governor andrew cuomo was very fond of the mountain metaphor to describe new york's epic battle with the coronavirus. he even described a styrofoam model to one of his press conferences in case the comparison was not clear enough. he needed to do whatever he could to get the message through to new yorkers that whatever he could to make his point and get people's attention, this is what we have been up against, this is what just happened to us. now the governor has taken his passion for the coronavirus epidemic to truly a whole other level. behold, the coronavirus mountain poster. for reasons that are frankly

clear to no one as far as we can tell, the governor of new york unveiled this poster, which is kind of a 2-d monument to new york's pandemic experience. and yet it shows the mountain. but if you look up close, this whole thing is like an industrial-sized carton of easter eggs. you can see the little replica of the field hospital at the java center, the reminders to mask up and maintain social distance. a kind of surrealist portrait of a floating nose with a testing swab hanging out the nostril. there are personal homages to his press conferences, his daughters helping to pull down the curve. there he is in his car for some reason. and then there are these, shall we say, conceptual art pieces of this poster. here's president trump sitting on the moon. there are other forces of mother nature, which the governor is calling the winds of fear and the sea of division. did i mention the sea of division is a natural habitat

for squids. something interesting, it's called the boyfriend cliff, which seems to be the official name for a jagged edge of the mountain with a little man dangling off the side is. this supposed to be the daughter, his daughter's boyfriend, the one he mentioned at one of his press conferences? is this the governor of new york telling the world what he would like to do to his daughter's boyfriend? i'm not sure. he did not explain the meaning behind the boyfriend cliff. he did say he commissioned it because he loves history, and he loves poster art. as for me, i love all of it. the sea of change, the president's booster seat. it's a work of art if i've ever seen one for an era that is about to inspire many works of art. we're going to post a link tonight. just try to not get lost after the left turn off of boyfriend cliff. that is the best new thing in the world. and that does it for us tonight. we'll see you again tomorrow. now it's time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell."

good evening, lawrence. >> good evening, ali. so boyfriend cliff, that's the thing we want to avoid. >> avoid that. >> thank you. well, today, someone who knows president trump better than anyone working in the white house, better than any republican member of congress, and much, much better than any of the trump voters out there who love president trump so much that they risk their lives following his public health advice instead of dr. anthony fauci's. someone who knows president trump much, much better than any of those people do, said today that president trump is utterly incapable of leading this country and it's dangerous to allow him to do so. >> boil it down, what is the single most important thing you think the country needs to know about your uncle? >> he's utterly incapable of leading this country.