>> sure will. my mom says a friend in need is a friend indeed. we need the ppe, we need the testing, we need the support with contact tracing. we're grateful for that support. >> mayor keisha lance bottoms of atlanta, i hope you and your family feel well. continue to recover. thank you for spending some time with us. >> thank you for having me. when we come back -- new developments in the death of george floyd. we're getting our first look at video from one of arresting officers' body caption as the floyd family files a civil lawsuit against the city of minneapolis. that story is next. minneapolis. that story is next

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new civil lawsuit against the city of minneapolis and the police officers involved in george's death. shaq, did we learn new details or does it affirm some of our understanding of the horrors of that day? >> reporter: a little bit of both, nicolle, each body camera video was about 30 minutes long and what you see it helps fill out that picture of the interactions between george floyd and the four officers on that day. the officer who was holding george floyd's leg, one of first responding officers to the scene. responding to the report of a fake $20 bill and being directed by someone in store to george floyd's car and something that you see in the video and remember we saw a transcript from just last week, the officer

taps the window. george floyd seems to be startled by it. sorry, mr. officer, he opens the door, he's only showing one hand at that time and that's when you see officer lane draw his weapon and you hear the desperation in george floyd's voice. he said that he's scared, openly admits he has anxiety and you see the situation really unfold as the officers then to try to move him from his car to the wall as they investigate and ask him a couple of questions and as they tried to put him in the back of the officer's car that's when things really unfold. one thing new that i saw, we were able to view this, looking at the times that we have marked down, it appears that officer chauvi chauvin, he had the knee on

george floyd for 9:30. from what i saw that knee was on mr. floyd's neck for about 9:30. this comes as the family of george floyd is filing that federal wrongful death lawsuit against the minneapolis police department saying this is a big pattern of what's going on and hoping this lawsuit would help stop other police deaths. listen to the family attorney. >> the city of minneapolis has a history of policies and procedures and deliberate indifference when it comes to the treatment of arrestees, especially black men, that cries out for training and discipline. >> reporter: and going back to that video, nicolle, i heard george floyd said he can't

breathe or some various of that, i heard him say that at least 28 times. nicolle? >> i am -- had taken the same count last week. our colleague lawrence read those transcripts. 28 times he said he can't breathe. it's heartbreaking. it's an incredible story. thank you, shaq brewster, in minneapolis. we return -- the report on the federal stockpile running dangerous low again, the story and the real impact on doctors and nurses who rely on it to do their jobs safely. that story is next. i'm greg, i'm 68 years old.

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personal protective equipment is running dangerously low. that means the government may not be able to supply a proper defense for those who need it the most. it's alarming news for frontline medical workers and their families. joining us now one of the reporters, byline on that exclusive story, jonathan allen. also with us is dr. vin gupta. he's the a medical contributor and global health policy expert here at nbc news. jonathan, we were too rushed yesterday so you're back by popular demand. take me through the reporting. >> nicolle, basically what we got was documents from inside folks working on the coronavirus task force at the health and human services department and the fema and what it shows how often the federal government's

been able to fulfill orders from the states and local governments for various types of personal protective equipment for gloves, for masks and even body bags and in addition to that, the stockpile, it sthoes very often the federal government hasn't been able to fulfill those requests. 30% of theeqr gloves. and then we you look at what's in the stock pile, only 900,000 gloves and right now, the demands for those gloves is huge. the federal government's ordered another 4.5 billion of those gloves, to give you an idea of the demand is out there. right now the states are struggling. quarter of states don't have more than a 30-day supply. what we're hearing from nursing homes, some of those are considered secondary to hospitals.

some say they don't more than a week or two of supplies. >> dr. gupta, how we are the country that doesn't have enough body bags and asking hospitals to bypass the cdc with their patient information on the coronavirus so the white house can do fill in the blank with it. >> nicolle, these are decisions and these are consequences of decisions made in 2018 when no one heard of covid-19. when the president said he was going to essential eliminate preparement for pandemics. this is what happens. when you don't invest in preparedness you're going rue the consequences and that's what's going to happen now. a few of the excellent reporting items from jonathan's piece, number one, jonathan references kn95 masks, these are masks that

approximaproximate in the u.s., they're scaled in china. we've seen a lot of companies out of china, the fda actually recalling approval of kn95 masks in the united states. while after my colleagues had been using them in real times. number one, there's a presums in health systems across the united states because there's ppe shortage we're going to recycle and reutilize masks that are meant for one-time use. you know what happens in kn95 masks? >> what we know is, the effectiveness by 50% when you sterilize it for re-use. there's gross inadequacies here. in terms of how we're speaking object re-utilizing these ppe. people are asking questions, should i have an kn95 mask?

big questions here. >> what's the answer? >> here's what we know, the answer here is that we think -- an n95 mask is deployed to protect you from small droplets, so-called airborne droplets, we think covid-19 now has that capability to be transmitted many a small droplet fashion. in theory, in theory, it's not unreasonable for the american public to say, why don't i have access to that n59 mask. a surgical mask in most settings actually protect healthcare workers in most cases of covid-19. if people practice social distancing, if they don't go into bars, people focus on mitigation, it should be efficient. but we need high-quality masks.

ideally surgical masks for everybody. do we have that capability? no. >> jonathan allen, because i have you and a quinnipiac poll just dropped, joe biden widening his lead over donald trump to i think -- i do believe this is a lead -- is i think this might be bigger and i don't have my political encyclopedia brain on, 52% to 37%. it's a national poll. that's a sizable lead in the general election that we have seen in decades. >> i mean, you're absolutely right, nicolle, it's a snapshot but the kind of snapshot that bob dole was looking at in 1996. you know, donald trump may be looking at it and thinking to himself, boy, i'm going to be able to scream and yell what i

comeback i had in january 2021 but a lot of people around him are thinking what kind of jobs they're going to have that are not in the white house in january of 2021. >> i have been hearing for longer than i have been hearing about the white house people looking for jobs, i've been hearing about the senate republican majority being in grave peril, what's your sense on that? >> it's absolutely in peril. the playing field has expanded tremendously. you can only name one democratic senator who's really in trouble. that's doug jones in alabama whereas tremendous number of the republicans who thought to be safe heading into this re-election campaign are now potentially in jeopardy and that map keeps getting broader it's not just martha mcsally in arizona or susan collins in maine. you're talking about democrats having a chance in north

carolina. looking at kentucky and so what you're talking about is republicans having to defend races that they weren't thinking they would have to defend before. certainly a possibility for turnover there particularly if joe biden to win the presidency. >> maybe some of those republicans should have thought twice about looking the other way with the plague-spreading racist in the oval office. thank you both for spending some time with us today. when we come back, the back-to-school experiment that's already underway in the state seeing an uptick in coronavirus cases. we'll check on that, after this. . - [narrator] the shark vacmop combines powerful suction

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it is one of the most difficult decisions officials and families are facing right now. when to reopen schools and bring kids back to class and when that happens, where to send them. in kansas city, two suburban elementary schools are reopening with in-person learning this week. and as you might expect, there's mixed reaction from parents. nbc news correspondent, the intrepid cal perry has been traveling the country on his road to recovery tour and joins us now from kansas city. cal, how's that going there in kansas city? >> hey, nicole. for the parent who keeping their kids at home, they feel like the school did not consult them enough. for the parents who dropped their kids off, i think there's

relief that they're back at school. on the bus, there'll be a wellnessarrive. no more playing outside in big groups, no more eating in the cafeteria and masks for everybody. the masks don't seem to be a problem. listen to two parents about balancing that at-home learning kpra compared to learning at school. >> we did online learning, but there wasn't a solid planning. for me, it was really hard, having five kids in four different grades, trying to -- i've got two that can't read, and i've got one in middle school honors math. i can't do that. >> they've given parents the option that if they want to keep their kids at home, there'll be an online e-learning option for their students, or if they're safe sending their school, they're open and ready to have them. >> reporter: you have to declare whether or not you're going to drop your child off at school by the end of the month or whether or not you'll continue with that in-home learning.

the 25-page guidance that the district sent out was based on the cdc regulation. for all the political noise that's happening in washington, d.c., at least this district is basing their guidance within the cdc guidelines. nicole? >> cal perry, stay on that for us. i'm really curious how this works out, how the community kind of comes together and respects each -- i feel that mom with the kids, some has math she couldn't do it. i only had one and it's a really important issue to a whole lot of people. so please stay on that for us and keep bringing us their stories and their experiences. thank you for spend somg time with us. coming up, new questions about donald trump's grasp on the facts, all of them, as the pandemic spirals out of control. "deadline white house" is next. . "deadline white house" is next last night's sleep, interrupted by pain?

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hi, everyone. it's 4:00 in the east. as donald trump seeks to seize control of the facts about the coronavirus pandemic in the united states by redirecting patient records from hospitals away from the cdc, which he's at war with publicly, there are new questions about the president's grasp on the facts, after a bizarre and startling performance in the rose garden yesterday. on the data seizure, "the new york times" reports this. the move has alarmed health experts who fear the data will be politicized or withheld from the public. and on the president's rose garden appearance, it was notable for both his personal

delivery, which was halting and incomprehensible at times, as well as the very use of the white house rose garden for the airing of political attacks and grievances that would barely be considered passable for an inebriated right wing radio talk show host. in the wake of donald trump's exposure last week on sean hannity's program that he'd undergone cognitive testing, we start with this passage by peter baker in today's "new york times." quote, he weighed in on china and the coronavirus and the paris climate change accord and crumbling highways, period. and then china again. and military spending. and then china again. and then the coronavirus again, period. new sentence. and the economy and energy taxes and trade with europe and illegal immigration and his friendship with mexico's president. and the coronavirus again. and then immigration again. and crime in chicago. and the death penalty, and back to climate change and education

and historical statues. and more. quote, we could go on for days, he said at one point, and it sounded plausible. at times, it was hard to understand what he meant. that was printed in today's "new york times." maggie haberman, also of "the times," live tweeted the event and as she watched it, tweeted this. quote, the president seems surprised by some of what he's reading from his own notes. talks through a few lines and then says them again, end quote. the president's loosening grasp on even his own reality comes as the predictions for the toll the pandemic is expected to take on our country go from dire to catastrophic. new modeling from researchers at the university of washington now predicts that more than 224,000 americans could lose their lives by november. there's a glimmer of hope in a new vaccine, but most doctors warn that it's still very early. those developments come as new reporting in "the washington post" underscores and details

donald trump's abdication of leadership, as the pandemic emergency intensifies. they write this, quote. there is no cohesive national strategy, apart from unenforced federal health guidelines. instead, the administration is offering a patchwork of solutions, often in reaction to outbreaks after they occur. although trump and his team declare sweeping objectives, such as reopening schools, they have largely shirked responsibility for developing and executing plans to achieve them, putting the onus, instead, on state and local authorities. the pandemic and the president are where we start today with some of our favorite reporters and friends. politics editor for the daily beast, sam stein is here. also joining us, associate editor for real clear politics, ab stoddard, and infectious disease expert and director of the texas children's hospital center for vaccine development, our friend, dr. peter hotez is back. sam stein, i have to start with you. i was stopped in my tracks when i read those paragraphs in "the new york times" and read them

aloud to anybody who would listen to me last night. it is jarring, no matter what you think of donald trump, to read the coverage of him that sounds like that. >> yeah, i mean, it was jarring to watch it in realtime, honestly. i took, you know, a tab at it and he uttered 8,300 words before taking his first question. it was rambling. there was no cohesion to it. difficult to follow the actual point, other than sort of inferring that he's really desperate to hold campaign events, can hold campaign events, and so turned the rose garden into a campaign event. so there were times where you sort of -- >> can i stop you right there, can i stop you right there? >> sure. yeah, yeah, yeah. >> i worked on campaigns. that wasn't -- if that was a campaign event, it was a crumby one. i mean, that was neither a presidential address, worthy of the rose garden, nor an effective political message. and i worry that in 10, 20 years, they're going to look

back and say, why wasn't the media allowed to say what they saw? what everyone saw. there's something clearly wrong with his ability to process what the country is going through. i thought what was on display and what "the times" tried to reporter and what maggie seemed to live tweet in realtime is that he was surprised by his own attack lines? is he being sent out there? i mean, what is your theory on what that was, sam? >> well, it's a theory based on some reporting, which is that he's pent up, he's angry, he feels isolated. he misses adoring crowds. he also continues to have a great sense of self-worth about his own messaging capacity. and his ability to turn around his political fortunes. and so he goes out there and he wants to riff. he wants to act like this is 2016 all over again and have those packed stadiums of people chanting make america great again. in reality, he's the president. and the job comes with vastly different tasks and

responsibilities. you know, we do need to step back and actually say what's really going on. and it's sort of a remarkable breakdown of some capacity that's happening. at one point during yesterday's speech, he sort of casually suggested that democratic mayors wouldn't mind if jihadists came to their city and blew them up. if you think about that, that's just insane. and it just kind of passed by, because that's just trump being trump at this point. but it's legitimately insane. and this was done in the rose garden, which is what made it entirely different. but what also is happening is it's taking place with the backdrop of an incredibly deadly pandemic that it's very evident that the federal government has no control over and doesn't really have much of a plan to get control over. >> i think all of that is true. and another person who underscores what sam is saying, ab, is donald trump's own niece.

listen to this clip of her with george stephanopoulos. >> boil it down. what's the single most important thing that you think the country needs to know about your uncle. >> he's utterly incapable of leading this country. and it's dangerous to allow him to do so. >> based on what you see now or what you saw then? >> based on what i've seen my entire adult life. >> ab stoddard? >> look, the amazing thing about the show that sam was describing in the rose garden, it doesn't matter what the coverage was. if you just watch it yourself as an american, it would disturb you if we weren't in a pandemic. but there's no one around donald trump who can go to him and say, that was really bizarre and it unnerved people and you were at times incoherent. he was beyond disjointed, at best. because he's a showman and he thinks that he puts on a great

show. and he thinks the job of the presidency is a show. in many ways, throughout his life and mary trump and other relatives and close associates of his know, he has thrown lies and money at every problem he's ever stumbled into it. and it's largely been very effective. he believed that the pandemic was something like stormy daniels or another controversy that he could just throw another controversy out to bury and time would drift this away and he could create his own reality. it's worked for him so well for so long, that that's what you saw in the rose garden. it's what you see when he's talking to interviewers about white grievance and about how testing for covid is a trap. he's completely out of it, because he just wants to shape a new show and people are asking to be empathetic and scale up a national testing regimen and confront all of these people's lives being lost and other lives being destroyed. he will not do it.

we've known donald trump since 2015, at least. we know he won't do it. some people call that unfit for this crisis, even as supporters know he's not up to this moment. and i think that, you know, we all have different ways of putting it, but he believes in the power of the trump show and he's shown us he doesn't intend to change and confront this virus the way it needs to be confronted. >> dr. hotez, i spoke today to a former senior intelligence official that said, if we become the country that reroutes patient information from hospitals treating covid patients away from the cdc, it fundamentally changes how we're viewed around the world in instances like this. someone is asked to take a post at the u.n., they're gong to think twice about whether they'll get true information about covid rates in the united states of america. if someone is asked to come to washington or send their child to an american university, if we become the country that corrupts even health statistics about

covid patients at hospitals that are supposed to be housed at the cdc, so they can share that data and share that science with their peers around the world, it fundamentally changes the kind of country we are. do you agree with that? >> yeah, i mean, let's summarize where we're at. our nation is now face iing may the gravest public health crisis we've ever faced, at least for the last 100 years, since in 1918 flu pandemic. and as we've pointed out, we have no national response. and i've been talking about that for quite a bit lately. and what's happened over the last few months is pretty interesting, in that there's been sort of a shadow response or shadow information flow among the academic community, so we don't have to rely on the federal government. so, you know, when i wake up in the morning now, i look at the models coming out of the university of pennsylvania, the university of washington, university of texas, coming out of the kaiser family foundation and johns hopkins to piece

together what's happening in the country. i don't go to the cdc website. so this is kind of a continuation of what's already been going on. this complete absence of federal leadership and response. and what's essentially happening is they're asking the state to take the lead to make the hard decisions. the u.s. government will provide backup fema support and ppe and supply chain management and things of that support. but no strategy, no leadership. and if you haven't figured out now for the last six months it's not working, i don't know when you're going to figure out. we, right now, nicole, 25% of the world's cases of covid-19 are in the southern part of the united states. so of the 200,000 new cases per day, around 45,000 are occurring in the southern part of the united states. this is a disaster and people are piling into icus.

they're piling into hospital beds. they're having long-term complications. we're now seeing the deaths start to scale up. and no willingness on the part of the federal government to even acknowledge that there's a problem. the president mentioned covid twice. i think last night he talked about the, this is a chinese conspiracy and a world health organization conspiracy. he's unable to engage, unable to lead, and doesn't seem to want to let others lead at the federal level, either. >> dr. hotez, people are looking to people like you and still hold medical experts and doctors and scientists in high regard. so use that platform and tell us, when you look at those models, which ones do you believe? what do you project for our future on this current path? >> right now, the projections -- the projections are extremely bleak. we are seeing the steep acceleration, there's really nothing to hold it back. so we were at 40,000 new cases a

day two weeks ago, then 50,000, now over 60,000. we'll easily be over 70,000 new cases next week. and then we'll move up to dr. fauci's apocalyptic prediction of 100,000 new cases per day. and with it that steep increase in deaths. unless we actually can get our arms around this and say, this -- we now have to create a national plan to bring us back down as a whole nation, close to containment. and for some states such as maine and vermont or new hampshire, we may already be there. they're doing pretty well. but going from coast to coast, from florida to california, we were free fall. and that has to be brought down to containment mode. and again, this idea we're going to open schools. it's ridiculous. we cannot open schools in the south or at least most of the big metropolitan areas. it's too dangerous. teachers are going to start getting sick and bus drivers and cafeteria workers and parents. and the opening schools is going

to last two weeks. and that's about it. and again it's unfair to the governors who are buffeted by political forces. they need the federal government and the full force of the cdc to give directives to the governor, say, this is what you need to do, so the governors can then, when they're buffeted by these forces say, look, the cdc is tell me, if i don't do "x," "y," "z," this many people will die. the government doesn't have that cover, so they're juggling political decisions with limited epidemiological information. and every time it's a disastrous decision, as we've seen. >> ab stoddard, what dr. hotez is describing is happening in realtime. mike pence yesterday said we don't want the cdc to be a reason you don't reopen schools. they are undermining and undercutting the very agency in charge of protecting the lives. and in this case, it's the lives of our babies, of our kids, of

their teachers, of their families, of their grandparents. i mean, where is the alarm to even pull at this point? or is it just abundantly clear that nobody is coming? >> right, well, we're dependent on dr. hotez and others to be frank about this and dr. fauci, god love him and he is an international treasure, as you said, but he is still speaking very diplomatically about this, that we need to up our game. we're in quicksand. dr. hotez makes that clear. the models do. in hot spots, we are out of body bags, morgue space, icu space, swabs, reagent, you name it. everything but ventilators. the idea that we were supposed to buy the time in lockdown to save the economy, save people's jobs and prepare for opening the schools safely, to learn that not only was that time squandered, but learning that the federal government is

kneecapping the kcdc, stealing all the records, making sure that we know that the cdc guidelines are, quote, an impediment. meanwhile, they don't have a plan to make the schools safe beyond the public health experts that they're denigrating. they never had a plan to use that time, as i said, to build up a stockpile, to make sure that we had a national test, trace, and isolate regimen. we don't have a federal response. the response has just been an acceptable level of infection and death. and if it were not for experts like dr. hotez, we would be in far worse trouble than we're in. i am fascinated to see federal reserve board members, senator lindsey graham, brian kilmeade on "fox & friends" and others starting to sound the alarm about the fact that we're in a huge testing backlog. and that means they're desperate to get through to the president. >> this is one of those days where we can't let anyone go

anywhere just yet. everyone stays put, and when we come back, more on donald trump's war on science. the fact that it's both dangerous to the public's health and it turns out based on the most recent polls, it's stupid politics. so why, oh, why, is donald trump doubling down on it as cases surge. and the president's intervention is the latest not-s not-so-veiled dog whistle. and brand-new rust belt polling that puts joe biden way ahead of donald trump in must-win territory for the incumbent. all of those stories, coming up. e incumbent. all of those stories, coming up. when you shop with wayfair, you spend less

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i cannot figure out in my wildest dreams why they would want to do that, but i think they realize now that that was not a prudent thing to do, because it's only reflecting negatively on them. so rather than figuring out, you know, who was wrong, who did anything wrong, that's what i meant when i said a couple of minutes ago, we've got to almost reset this and say, okay, let's stop this nonsense and figure out how can we get our control over this now. so rather than these games people are playing, let's focus on that. >> dr. fauci saying it like it is. focus on the virus, not political games. this after becoming the target of a white house smear campaign over the last few days that burst into public view. the most recent coming in very public form by peter navarro who writes about fauci, he has been wrong about everything i have

interacted with him. despite the piece coming from a high-level official very close to donald trump and following a pattern of efforts to undermine the country's top infectious disease fighter, the white house today said it had nothing to do with it. hah! even mitch mcconnell imploring people to listen to the experts, saying he has total confidence in dr. fauci. meanwhile, one trump-friendly governor who has been against the mandating of mask wearing, and still is, today kevin stid of oklahoma who attended trump's rally last month has announced that he has tested positive for covid-19. sam, ab, and dr. hotez is with me. it's my friend, rachel, who has been saying for three and a half years, follow what they do, not what they say. the truth is what they are doing is publicly and privately undermining dr. fauci, trying to cut out the cdc. and as we've been talking about, abdicating any role in trying to seriously defeat the virus. >> yeah, completely. the idea that this wasn't --

that it wasn't sanctioned by the white house press shop is almost irrelevant. they've been trying to undermine dr. fauci for weeks, if not months now, and scapegoat him for being part of the problem for not having predictive capabilities about the virus, when, in fact, basically, the president himself and the vice president and all the people around him were terribly wrong and underestimated the virus and acted as if it would go by the way away on its own. but we're at a point where that's irrelevant and we need to focus on what we do going forward. and herein lies the problem. there's no long-term strategic planning from the president on this stuff. i think realistically, the doctor could tell me if i'm wrong, and now we would be having some serious conversations about going back into lockdown, with some of the hot spots, having two to three-month planning out, devotidevote ing resources to schools so they could staff up and get ready for the inflix of children. we're doing none of this.

we're operating on a 24-hour news cycle in which the president is trying desperately to cast blame away from him and take credit for things that he can't take credit. whether it's he's going to cascade china or blame dr. fauci, it's really just a 24-hour news operation for him in which he wants to get through the day. and that's horrible way to move through any policy issue, let alone a global pandemic that's causing the deaths of 130,000 plus americans. >> dr. hotez, a doctor call has been made by sam stein and we'll let you pick up on that, where he left off. >> the other thing i've done other than being a vaccine scientist, i have a daughter with autism and i have been going up against this terrible anti-vaccine movement for years, this anti-science movement. so one of the things i've learned over the years doing that is i know what a disinformation campaign looks like, because that's what the anti-vaccine lobby does. and this has all of the elements

of it. so it's -- you know, i agree, there's a lot of transactional stuff going on, getting through your day, but there's also something bigger, i think, i'm seeing, which is more of a coordinated disinformation effort. you've got the white house press briefings, mr. navarro, you have secretary of state pompeo, you know, trying to shut down links with the world health organization. peter navarro is out there with these very odd chinese communist party conspiracy theories. and then the denial. first saying it's 99% of a harmless virus, saying that the list goes on, that it's the sniffles, that you have the white house press secretary saying that these are -- this massive resurgence across the southern part of the united states are embers. extraordinary language they used, that there's no deaths. that all the hospital admissions are catching up with elective

surgery. this is a disinformation campaign. and i think they are hoping that enough americans buy it that, you know, i don't know what the real motivation -- i would assume it's because they want to win the election. and it's happening at the expense of what we now estimate, by the end of october will be 224,000 american lives. and at that rate, we'll be look at 300,000 american lives by the end of the year. the 1918 flu pandemic caused around 600,000 lives lost, over a couple of year period. so we're looking at something at that scale. and you know, my question for, you know, people on this panel is, if we don't have a federal government government, if we don't have the white house or the executive branch of the government engaged in doing this, do we have other options? are there levers congress can push? and i know you don't have to answer that now, but i think we have to start looking at this, because we will not solve this problem by just the states alone. we already know that.

and even if there's regime change on january 20th, we won't have a country by january 20th. we really need to look at this very closely. >> you've taken my breath away. i'm going to let a.b. try to respond. >> well, i'm -- again, i'm thankful for dr. hotez and everything he does to keep messaging to the public about how frightening this reality is. the virus is a tragedy, but the federal government's response and subsequent denigrating of public health and disinformation campaign are an outrage beyond description. what's so interesting is how -- i do believe that congress should have not just been looking at the economic piece of this all along, to try to help displaced people who were fired or furloughed, but to also try to look at some kind of intervention, because of the failure, the lack of the response from the federal government, from the executive branch. but what's so interesting is

that, a secluhrewd politician, donald trump could have turned his entire fortunes around by gluing himself to dr. fauci from day one, leading a battle against covid-19, exercising his awesome powers to use the defense production act to give us everything we needed to start people on masks, to not destroy the economy, to gain credibility he didn't previously have and convince latin americans who didn't think he could lead us through a crisis he could, and he could have sailed to re-election. it's just astonishing to see in the greatest country on earth, not only what's happened, but that they still think that bagging on dr. fauci in an op-ed today on july 15th is somehow going to save them? it's beyond belief. >> a.b. stoddard, sam stein, dr. peter hotez, let me say something to the three of you. you have informed me, you have moved me, you have pushed me on this story in a way that nobody else has? can we make a regular thing? i would love to have all three of you back for more time next time.

>> i would love that. >> i'd be honored. >> thank you all. thank you so much, all of you. wow. before we break, though. we have an update on supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg. news just in that she has been released from the hospital after being treated for a possible infection. court says the 87-year-old is home and doing well. ginsburg was evaluated monday night after experiencing fever, chills, and she underwent a follow-up procedure to an earlier surgery. after the break, in 2016, it was the wall. in 2018, it was the caravan. now in 2020, donald trump is once again trying to convince americans that there are people out to get them. that campaign strategy is one we'll share with you, next. stra we'll share with y, ounext how about no no uh uh, no way come on, no no n-n-n-no-no only discover has no annual fee on any card.

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i hope so. this is my passion. if i can take of everyone who is sick out there, i would do it in a heartbeat.

and when you look at st. louis with two people that came out. they were going to be beat up badly, if they were lucky, okay? if they were lucky. they were going to be beat up badly and the house was going to be totally ransacked and probably burned down, like they tried to burn down churches. and these people were standing there, they ever used it, and they were legal, the weapons. and now i understand somebody local, they want to prosecute these people. it's a disgrace. >> if it wasn't so tragic, it might rise to the level of parody. it might not come as a surprise to you what donald trump just described was not what happened in st. louis a few weeks ago. as our friend from "the new york times," peter baker reports, quote, video of the episode which became a flash point in the national debate over racial

inequality shows that the protesters at no point physically threatened the couple. that small little detail, though, of no consequence to trump. the republican governor of missouri yesterday said he spoke to trump about the issue on the phone. quote, the president said that he would do everything he could within his powers to help with this situation and he would be taking action to do that, end quote. joining our conversation, our friend jason johnson, a professor of journalism and politics at morgan state university is back, plus editor at large, charlie sykes is here. lucky for us, msnbc contributors. jason, let me welcome you back to this program. we have missed you, my friend. take this flash point, take trump talking about it, in an interview with cbs news, and try to make sense of it for us. >> first off, when i saw the video, it made me think of like the snells, because i watched "ozark" during the pandemic,

this midwestern couple that wanted to take out their anger on everyone who's different. this is trump's modern southern strategy. his entire strategy going forward is there's an "us" versus "them," and the "them" is anybody black, anybody brown, anybody yeaqueer, anybody poor, anybody who doesn't worship at the almighty temple of trump, and he's going to try to justify overt actions of violence as being politically necessary. i always put this in context. you had an entire bipartisan house of congress declare the president was a racist last year. so we shouldn't be surprised that this is a strategy he's using moving forward. i just don't know if it's going to be effective anymore. >> well, and charlie sykes, to jason's point, it is turning out not to be effective in the polls, unless trump's conduct has driven even his own supporters deep underground and as as a watcher of politics, i suppose that's always possible. but the latest quinnipiac poll has joe biden opening a 13-point

lead. i think those are numbers that jonathan allen said in the last hour, we haven't seen since bob dole. >> no, they're absolutely stunning numbers, but it's another indication of how, i think, the president has lost the script, he's lost touch with reality. this whole scene out of st. louis seems like something out of a trump world porn hub episode. you know, the white brooks brother-wearing couple with their guns and the black protester. the only thing missing was if you could just put them in a boat with a trump flag, you have the perfect trump fantasy of how he's going to turn this election around, when, in fact, i think most of the country is going, that's just ridiculous. but jason is absolutely right. this is not just a dog whistle. this is the president who has one playbook, which is that he's going to play that law and order card, he's going to say that the real threat to america are the other americans. and you know, we have to have, you know, white -- they're not suburbani

suburbanites, but white suburbanites with guns protecting us against the caravans and the whatever. but it's not working. that quinnipiac poll against the battleground polls that we've been seeing over the last 24 hours would indicate that the president instincts are betraying him. this was his big play and it is not working. >> and jason johnson, i guess that says something good about who we are in this hour. at this point, joe biden in national polls -- they're not worthless, they illustrate trends. they're not predictive of election nights, but joe biden opening a 15-point lead over donald trump illustrates it's this toxic braid of his efforts to restore the glory of the confederacy, his clearing of peaceful protesters in lafayette square, his incompetent failure on coronavirus, which is resulting in economic devastation that is moving this country toward terrain we haven't seen in a very long time. it has the political impact of

polling terribly for him. >> yeah, and nicole, this is one key thing that i pay attention with any of the sort of swing state polls. usually, if they have the combined swing state poll, i always say, there's no such thing as north floridazona, right? you can't combine them all. you have to look at these states individually. and trump's failures in every one of these states is manifesting itself in different ways. in pennsylvania, it's economic. in florida, it's coronavirus. he has several different areas where he has failed to deliver. and his failure and the reason he's doing so badly in the polls. look, trump was never going to do well with young people, never going to do well with black folks, never going to do well with latinos, but he's losing the white vote. and if joe biden only gets 40% of the white vote, he doesn't even have to hit obama numbers, trump will get wiped out in all of the states he barely won in 2016. >> charlie sykes, i'm going to ask you a question i have been asking everybody, on and off tv,

because i am burning with curiosity about whether the republican senate majority is in as much danger as donald trump's prospects for a second term? >> oh, i absolutely think that it is. you ran through the four states that are the most vulnerable, whether you're talking about colorado, arizona, you know, colorado, arizona, maine, even north carolina and you add the second tier. i have to take a look at my notes here, but you're talking about georgia and iowa and working down to the possibility -- is it possible that they could flip, you know, kansas and texas? who knows? if this is the kind of, you know, antitrump tsunami that looks like it's building right now, republicans all up and down the ballot have to be terrified. and by the way, that weird mad king press conference yesterday did not help. can you imagine being cory gardner or martha mcsally and watching that bleep show from the rose garden and realizing

that my political future is tied to this guy? yes, i think it's very much in danger. >> all right. that was quite a tease. as a punishment, you both have to stay so i can ask you about it. after the break, more on just how far donald trump as fallen. how far donald trump as fallen i like liberty mutual. they get that no two people are alike and customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. what do you think? i don't see it. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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as we've been discussing, the latest quinnipiac poll out today shows that joe biden has opened up a 15-point lead over

donald trump nationally. this is his widest lead in quinnipiac to date. along with a significant drop in the president's approval rating, which is down six points in just the last month, and it shows 36% of americans approve of his job in office, while 60% do not. that's the highest disapproval of this presidency. and as charlie was referencing in critical battleground states, biden is also coming on strong. a survey among registered voters in pennsylvania finds him 13 points ahead of this president. jason and charlie are back. jason, i want to give you a chance to sort of widen the lens. it was my sense or belief when i worked in politics that the voters don't hold outside events against you, necessarily, but they are judging how you respond to them. and if you look at the tragic murder of george floyd and how the president has somehow decided to respond by restoring the confederacy, i guess, as an answer or intermittently tweeting about law and order, you have the pandemic which is

raging like a wildfire, the president's response, to try to cut the cdc out of the hospital reporting data about patients. it has his response that has him in that position and i'm pretty sure his belief is that it's the events themselves. what's your take? >> well, yeah, nicole, on the one hand, it's the president's failure to respond, but the other hand is, he doesn't have a good target. donald trump is great with coming up with nicknames and attacking people. and he has mostly spent his life by being -- by mistreating women and mistreating black people. that's how he got ahead in politics. now he's got a white guy in his 60s who doesn't like joe biden. so trump doesn't have anyone to distract people with. he can't say, look over here at the brown person. look at the woman. look at this person who can't handle it as well as i can as a straight white man in office. and that is making it more difficult to distract people from his sheer and utter

magnificent incompetence. here's the problem going forward. there's no way out of this. there's no way. he tried, he got himself impeached. there's no way to say that joe biden will handle this worse. because hellop because the economy is going into gutter. and the republicans are circling in and all he's got to do is walk into the white house. >> you know, if charlie sykes, i think democrats are justified in sort of their polling ptsd from '16, and i think it's the right advice that most democrats are sort of cautioning against reading too much, especially into the national polls. but you can tell by two things, one is where the biden ads are up, and they're up in all states that trump won, and two, by the message. joe biden has turned the economy

now. he is going -- he obviously, bested donald trump on any questions of everyoneunderstand fear of a health crisis. joe biden has lived that of loss. joe biden's life story is the story of overcoming grief and loss. but now donald trump is turning to what he thinks is his strength, the economy. i think that speech yesterday was what you accurately described as yesterday's bleep show. >> and i want to follow up on something that jason said. in 2016, trump matched the moment, of people wanting to burn it down, he's clearly the wrong man for this particular moment, because his playbook and his appeal is anger and chaos. that's what he sells. and i think what america needs right now is empathy and competence. and a country that is exhausted and looking for someone to lead someone who actually seems to have normal human emotions is something that he can't change.

he can't change that dynamic. so this is turning into a referendum on donald trump and what you saw yesterday was a man without a plan, didn't seem to care, didn't seem very connected to reality. and no sense of empathy whatsoever. and i keep repeating that, because i do think that is going to be the mood in november. and so these numbers are bad. and i would caution against complacency, but i would also agree, it's hard to imagine a massive shift in voting, because we've been watching this show for four years. donald trump has showed us who he is over and over again, and folks get it. >> well, i guess, jason, the only thing scarier than donald trump continuing to show us who he is is asking the question, what will he do if he's facing a defeat. what is sort of in your bucket of worries about the desperate measures he'll turn to ahead of november? >> well, so, you know, he's already made it clear he's stoking racial violence. and i remember back in the 2016

democratic convention, when all the people got on stage, most of us were probably there and they were singing, you know, "what the world needs now is love, sweet love," and i thought it was corny at the full-titime, b it makes sense. and the president's only way of combatting that is by saying, look, vigilantes, attack the governor of michigan. refuse to wear a mask. and if he ends up losing, and i am convinced right now, if we look at the numbers, we look at the economic data, look at the demographic data, the only way that donald trump can win this fall is if he chaeeats and chea at a massive level. and if he does not win. it looks like a week out he's still losing pennsylvania by double digits and losing michigan and losing florida and losing north carolina and having to spend money in arizona, i have long believed that donald trump will not leave office. and we have to remember, the fear that i have is not just that he won't leave, but remember, because so many of these ballots are going to be coming in by mail, we're not going to have a new president on

election night. it's going to take weeks. you'll have militia showing up at vote counting places threatening people. we are in for a very, very difficult couple of months. we have to remember that we have a president that is a proto dictator and are do anything in his power to stay out, regardless of what the numbers say. >> charlie sykes, same to you. >> i don't want to go to defcon one, or is it defcon five, i'm not sure, because i think donald trump is looking forward to a certain extent to his post-presidency, since he's clearly interenot interested in job of being a presidency. but he will not hesitate to shatter any sort of norms. richard nixon in 1960 and al gore in 2000 were patriots who could have litigated the election, fought the result, but decided they did not want to put the country through it.

donald trump does not have that instinct. and i think that you saw his willingness to throw out the commutation, you know, to commute the sentence of roger stone, you know, 100 days before the election, 115 days before the election. there are no limits to what he will do and what bill barr will do and what he will ask a lame-duck senate to do. >> charlie sykes and jason johnson, two of my favorite people to talk to on any news day, especially this one. jason, we're very glad you're back. keep that studio fired up. we're going to be calling on you early and often. after the break, ending our program with a celebration of lives well lived. lives well livd we've always put safety first. ♪ ♪ and we always will. ♪ ♪ for people. ♪ ♪ for the future. ♪ ♪ and there has never been a summer when it's mattered more. wherever you go, summer safely. get zero percent apr financing

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asked to describe her mom, kathy simms' daughter used an old line from f. scott fitzgerald. it goes like this. the finest, loveliest, tenderest and most beautiful person i have ever known. and even that is an underestimate, she said. that was mom. for 30 years, simms worked as a nurse in south carolina. like so many other brave health care heroes across the nation, when the pandemic hit, there was a job to do. even if she was a little bit worried, there was never any question. she was laser focused on helping others. and then kathy got sick. according to abc 15 in south carolina, she wanted to get better by the fourth of july. there was family to entertain after all.

but two and a half weeks after she first tested positive, kathy died of the coronavirus at the young age of 62. her fellow nurses who cared for her in her final days said it was an honor, just as it's our honor to share her story and her life with you. and then there's tatiana moore, a 22-year-old who did things with her whole heart. her fight was a tough one. she was first diagnosed with the disease back in april. as recently as last week, she was awaiting a double lung transplant at the cleveland clinic. her family was from buffalo and her mother dropped everything to be there for her daughter in cleveland wherever she recovered, but she never did. tatiana died a week ago today, and it's our loss collectively. she had everything in front of her. according to the buffalo news, she was 22 years old, a big sister and a mentor. she directed an after-school program for young people and she wanted to be a social worker.

we're just thankful that when she passed, she did so with her family around her. we're thinking about them and their loss especially this afternoon. thank you so much for letting us into your homes during these extraordinary times. put your mask on for those two. put it on, leave it on, wear it. our coverage continues after a quick break with chuck todd. coa quick break with chuck todd. come on, no no n-n-n-no-no only discover has no annual fee on any card.

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welcome to wednesday. it's "meet the press daily." i'm chuck todd and we have a jam-packed hour of breaking news, as the outbreak in america continues to wreak havoc on so many communities in this country. but we begin with just how dire of a political situation this president faces. we have new results, hot off the presses right now, from what is the god father, the gold standard, whatever you want to