good afternoon. i am chuck todd. here's what we're following right now. the white house is set to have its own press briefing in the next hour as western security officials warn that russian cyberactors are now attacking organizations involved in coronavirus vaccine development. whether that is to stop a vaccine or steal a vaccine is unclear. we'll have more on that in a moment. we're also anticipating president trump's reaction to high-profile criticism from his own party about his handling of the pandemic. larry hogan upped the criticism a bit and said trump made mistakes by not listening to the experts and by, quote,

threatening people. meanwhile, a political feud under way in georgia. brian kemp suspended all local government mask mandates. we expect to hear from the mayor of atlanta, keisha lance bottoms who still argues her city's mask requirement remains in effect. and 1.3 million people filed first-time unemployment claims last week suggesting the new wave of coronavirus spikes across 40 states is continuing to hinder the u.s. economy as well. let's begin with that breaking cyberattack news. three western countries including the united states, canada and the united kingdom, say russia's intelligence services tried to steal coronavirus vaccine research through hacking. let's check in with matt bradley, nbc news foreign correspondent, who has been tracking this story here. matt, how long has russia been at it, and how much success in their hacking have they had?

>> we haven't really seen those exact details coming out of this report that came out of here and london. it's not entirely clear who they targeted, how much success they had, whether they've managed to steal anything because you mentioned that earlier, chuck, whether or not they're trying to sabotage or steal. british authorities say they're just trying to steal. and this goes to show, chuck, as far as russian cyberwarriors are concerned, that this global effort to try to find a cure for covid-19, even that is not off limits when it comes to cyberattacks. when it comes to something like espionage. i spoke with some experts on the russian effort to do labor sabotage and it could just be worth it for the russians to say we came up with this vaccine. we invented this. a lot of this is about russian prestige. it's not so much about a quest for power. it's about bringing russia to the fore, positioning russia,

se self-stylizing as a global power rather than a regional power. it's something that they are very sensitive about within the russian leadership. especially those connected to vladimir putin. it's a really strong sense of nationalism. so even something as united and as inherent to the human global project as finding a vaccine for this covid-19 virus, even that isn't off limits. chuck? >> hey, matt, very quickly, what kind of security procedures, obviously, to go public like this is also a warning to all of these pharmaceutical companies that are involved in this vaccine research, is the government now helping them with security or are they on their own? >> well, here in britain, they definitely are. actually earlier this year, british authorities increased security protections for as many as a dozen -- around a dozen different institutions looking for a vaccine. they already got wind the russians were trying to sabotage or steal research from these

institutions including oxford university. oxford, of course, for a while, they've been partnered with astrazeneca, which is a u.s. pharmaceutical firm. and so they were considered a target. this isn't just britain. this is britain, the u.s. and canada. so the russians, they are casting quite a wide net, chuck. >> they are. of course, those three companies uniquely pretty advanced when it comes to pharmaceutical research. a lot of companies with -- not surprising those three targets in that respect. matt bradley on the forefront of this story. thanks for getting us started. three new numbers that should trouble the white house. the u.s. now has more than 3.5 million coronavirus cases. more than 138,000 people have died. and now 50% of all registered voters say there's zero chance they'll support the president in 2020. that's according to our new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll. only 37% said there was no chance they'd support joe biden.

the president is shaking up his campaign ahead of the election, replacing, demoting, not firing, brad parscale with bill stepien. joining me now is nbc news white house correspondent kelly o'donnell. this has been telegraphed for weeks now. but you do this publicly sometimes to send a message to allies to send a message that, hey, okay, we actually know we have a problem. why did they feel they had to send such a public message to admit they had a problem? >> well, chuck, you're right. sometimes these moves are about trying to settle nerves within the party. the donor class and to give a narrative that there has been message received and action taken. even though this is more like shifting the chairs around in the office than it is a big wholesale change. if we were in the rally season, you'd notice a change because brad parscale has been one of those figures who has a huge

personality and would often talk to the crowds on stage beforehand. that's not the style of bill stepien who is much more of a numbers, traditional republican political field director type personality. not so much the showman side where brad parscale has more of that. this is a critical time where rallies have not gone as expected. aren't really doable in light of coronavirus and not only the conditions but a recognition now that even among supporters, there is hesitation to be in large gatherings. so this is a way to reset. four years ago when the president was candidate trump, insurgent trump, he also did some shuffling prior to the convention season in his campaign. in some ways, this feels like a sequel. brad parscale has had a big imprint on the social media and technology side of the campaign but has never run a campaign before. bill stepien is much more traditional in his understanding of how campaigns operate, where

the voters are or may not be. tough environment for all of them given the polling. >> kelly, do we really expect brad parscale to stay, and i only say that, we know the president, despite his public reality show reputation, he doesn't like to fire people. he demotes them but eventually they just leave. corey lewandowski, they were set aside and then left. do we expect parscale is really staying and they've kept him on, or is this just sort of a typical way that trump pushes people out? >> well, sometimes you're right. it's more of a drift away than an abrupt firing like those board room scenes from his prior life. in this case, brad parscale has ownership of some of the technology and social media content. so that's part of when you hear the president being critical of him making a lot of money, he had a way, not on a salary basis, but as a piece of the

media play which is a big part of how political consultants can get wealthy. it may be a drift. today there was a handover. our colleague monica alba reporting there was in the offices in virginia the sort of passing of the microphone, the baton between parscale and stepien. advisers are saying they'll have different roles and both will continue on. we'll have to check back in and see how that actually plays out. certainly the president's fury has been aimed a bit more at parsca parscale. the next head that bobs up is bill stepien's. we'll see how that goes with what is sure to be a rough fall based on the polling that you just outlined. >> right. well, you make an important point. there's financial incentives probably of mr. parscale to say. and those may be the same incentives for somebody to push him. kelly o'donnell at the white house, thank you. there's division across the country over whether schools should reopen this fall or remain virtual. los angeles is keeping students online as it sees the highest

covid-19 hospitalization rates since the pandemic began. in neighboring orange county, the board of education vote 4 to 1 to allow students back in the classroom without requiring masks or social distancing. some schools in the county will not follow that recommendation. joining me from coasta mesa, erin mclaughlin. and i have to tell you, being an east coaster and a floridian, it was interesting to me that one county's decision didn't have the same type of authoritative decision over the schools the way other counties. this is a very super local control that communities in orange county have. >> yeah, that's rirkght, chuck. it's in line with governor gavin newsom's strategy when it comes to school openings in california. he's pursuing a bottoms-up approach allowing districts to make decisions for themselves. take a listen.

>> each district is unique and distin distinctive. over 1,000-plus districts in the state of california. the way we've designed our system of education here k through 12 education in the state of california. that is a bottom-up approach. >> and that has led to some confusion here in orange county compounding the situation, the board of education voting to allow schools to reopen and not only reopen but actually say they shouldn't be social distancing. they shouldn't be wearing masks, despite a positivity rate of 14% which is twice the positivity rate here in the state of california. now that's just a recommendation. the districts get to make decisions for themselves. i was speaking to the superintendent for orange county schools. the department of education. he was saying it amounts to malpractice and he acknowledged

the confusion in the situation. take a listen. if you are a parent right now within your county, who should you listen to? >> you should listen to the orange county department of education. we've created a document that's called oc together, a guide for reopening our schools. >> he also acknowledged that politics are getting in the way of the situation. not only here in orange county but i'm also hearing that from officials i've been speaking to in l.a. county as well. they are saying the science really needs to be guiding these decisions and that is not always the case. and when there's politics, there's division and in order to beat this virus in the words of one l.a. emergency official, we all need to be holding hands. he's not seeing that in the state of california right now. >> erin mclaughlin in the heart of orange county, costa mesa, california, for us. thank you. are the trump administration and senate republicans planning to push schools to reopen by

adding incentives to the next coronavirus relief bill? we're live on capitol hill after the break. that mandate may be going away. plus, georgia's governor is butting heads with some of his own mayors, forbidding them from enforcing mandatory face mask orders. you're watching msnbc. you get used to pet odors in your car. you think it smells fine, but your passengers smell this. eliminate odors you've gone noseblind to for up to 30 days with the febreze car vent clip. wow, it smells good in here. so you and your passengers can breathe happy. it's basically i free money.n, it's an easy way to earn cashback on the stuff i'm already buying. when you have a child and they're constantly growing out of clothing, earning cashback from rakuten just makes everything easier. sometimes it's 3% sometimes it's 8% but you're always getting cashback.

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we have new weekly jobless claims information today. if it is thursday, that's what you get on thursdays these days. 1.3 million people filed unemployment claims last week for the very first time. this is the 17th week in a row where more than a million folks have filed first-time unemployment claims. the data comes as 40 states are seeing spikes in coronavirus cases, making nationwide reopening a lot more challenging. some businesses will never reopen. according according to yelp's local economic impact report. as the united states grapples with how to send

students back to school in the fall, senate republicans are planning to unveil the next round of coronavirus relief. it's likely to i have a focus on reopening schools. nancy pelosi pushed passing the house democrats' heroes bill at a press briefing earlier. she's been doing that for about a month. that includes nearly $100 billion in federal aid for schools. >> because across the country, the angst that people are reporting to us about the anxiety they have about their children -- the decision to -- as to whether to send their children to school. what does the president do? run negative. we're not going to give you money unless you open up. no, you give people -- schools money to open up. and that is precisely what we do in the heroes act. >> nbc's leigh ann caldwell joins me now from capitol hill. thursdays on capitol hill are usually leadership press conference days, right? we get an idea of where things

are headed before this day began, there was this idea that senate republicans were going to incentivize schools to reopen by basically trying to say you'll get the money if you commit to reopening. is that still the senate republican line, or are they starting to loosen on that? >> well, chuck, this bill is being written in majority leader mcconnell's office with the input of the administration. and some of his republican colleagues as well. we're told it's going to top as much as $1 trillion. on this issue of schools, there seems to be broad acknowledgment on capitol hill that more money is definitely needed for schools if they want to reopen in the fall. here's what mcconnell said recently in kentucky. >> you can't have a normal country if kids are still at home in the fall. my view is the next package that we develop ought to be geared toward doing everything we possibly can to make it possible for the kids to be back in

school. >> so mcconnell didn't necessarily address if they'll tie funding to the reopening of schools. it's something that republicans i'm told are still discussing. they haven't come up with a final decision yet. so they're not super hard on this issue. especially since the administration, the ent, has been really pushing that narrative. but the reality up here is, while this bill is not going to get 100 votes because it's going to be much more contentious, they need democrats in order to get 60 votes in order to pass. and timed reopening of schools doesn't seem like something that democrats are going to support. mcconnell has to take that into consideration on how he structures this. >> leigh ann, i'm curious. i grew up in the day and age of learning how a bill became a law through animation.

and i'm curious, speaker pelosi continues to tout the heroes act. she'll show up and be interviewed by almost everybody on many networks these days, to tout the heroes act. does that mean she expects the senate bill to have to be reconciled with the heroes act, period, or is she at all ready to entertain the idea she may have to go back for another vote in the house? >> yeah, it's a really interesting question and it's a strategy that democrats are trying to figure out because mcconnell seems like he's going to move forward with whatever bill he comes up with. so democrats have a choice here. do they block the legislation and try to force mcconnell to the table to come up with some compromise bill? or do they let mcconnell's bill pass and then they negotiate in conference the old school way to try to come up with some sort of compromise. pelosi mentioned yesterday when she was promoting and touting the heroes act. i asked her if she was open to

any sort of compromise on the unemployment insurance? and she did seem to say that there was some indication, some opening that she could work with republicans on that. but how they get to that compromise and what the strategy is versus -- it's still unclear. >> yeah, you paint a picture, and i think you are seeing this, too. this is going to be a very, very contentious battle, this next round of funding. it will come, but how long it takes to get the funding i think is going to be ugly. leigh ann caldwell on capitol hill on this thursday. thank you. as more governors impose mask mandates in their states, there's one governor that seems to be going the other direction. it's the governor of georgia. he is somehow prohibiting local municipalities from implementing their own mask requirement. it's a move not sitting well with a number of georgia mayors. in any minute we expect to hear from atlanta's mayor keisha lance bottoms on this specific topic. last night's sleep, interrupted by pain?

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begin requiring customers to wear a mask while in their stores nationwide. cvs' policy goes in effect in a week and target's in two weeks. they'll even provide disposable masks for those who don't have them. they join walmart who made that decision earlier this week. nascar hosted the largest sporting event in the country since winter. up to 30,000 fans were allowed at bristol motor speedway in tennessee last night. but only about 20,000 attended. if anybody knows bristol, they can get over 100 in that place. so 20,000 and you can socially distance in that setting. and the green bay packers will not allow fans to attend their preseason training camp at lambeau field or any preseason home games. the organization is still working on a policy for the regular season. nfl franchise owners reportedly meet tomorrow on this topic. the bummer for packers fans is the training camp bicycle rides where the kid comes and give the players their bikes to ride to

training camp, that's a big moment lost as well. in any amendment, atlanta's mayor, keisha lance bottoms, will hold a hearing over a statewide feud over face masks. she's expected to address governor kemp's order preventing cities in the state from implementing their own mask orders. the mayor's order remains in effect. in savannah, georgia, the mayor van johnson also responded to the governor saying, quote, governor kemp does not give a damn about us, unquote. with more from atlanta, i'm joined by blayne alexander. i was talking with a longtime georgia observer a few days ago. we've had plenty of republican governors and democratic mayors of atlanta and they've always figured out a way to get along. this is getting really bad between the governor and the mayor, is it not? >> it absolutely is, chuck. really what these actions over the past 24 hours have done,

they've only intensified this growing conflict between the governor and local leaders here in the state of georgia. the reaction you're seeing, especially from those local leaders who had already put these measures in place, is defiance. that's it. you mentioned we're going to hear from atlanta mayor keisha lance bottoms who is battling covid-19 herself. but when i spoke with her office earlier today, they said they're going to continue to let science and data drive the decisions made here in the city. so that's what we're seeing. this really is a battle that dates back to mid to late april when we saw georgia become the first state to reopen its economy, to take the most aggressive reopening steps in the country. one of the most aggressive steps, despite protests from some of these local leaders. and it really should be noted that this is along the lines of what governor kemp said all along, saying that local leaders cannot enforce restrictions that are stronger than what he's putting in place statewide. what his executive order signed yesterday, what that effectively does is for the first time it

puts it in writing as regards to masks. it should be mentioned that governor kemp has actually been encouraging mask wearing. he put that in the executive order saying that wearing masks are encouraged. yesterday when he met president trump on the tarmac, he was wearing a mask himself. and he kind of embarked on this statewide tour all around georgia taking pictures in masks, posting them on social media accounts. when it comes to enforcement, to requiring them, he says that's a step too far and he doesn't believe it's enforceable, chuck. >> well, but the pressure i'm guessing only intensified when a fellow conservative governor of a neighboring state in alabama made the decision to issue the mask mandate. and she noted how difficult it is to enforce and how uncomfortable she was mandating it, but at the end of the day, the numbers drove her decision there. blayne alexander, thank you. i'll be speaking with savannah, georgia, mayor, on "meet the

press daily. skw ." 47% of americans are telling us they always wear a mask when they go out or to someone's home. for what it's worth, it's an 11-point increase from this time last month. so some good news there. again, maybe they are telling us they should be wearing a mask. that doesn't mean 75% of the country is wearing a mask. joining me is the former assistant secretary of health under president obama. howard, good to see you. let me start with this mask mandate. you know, we're sitting here and in some ways, i empathize with both the governor of georgia and mayor of atlanta because ultimately, we've had 50 different -- governors have been forced into 50 different strategies because there hasn't been a unified message from the federal government. in some ways, is it inevitable we're seeing this local government breakdown on this

stuff because of the lack of federal guidance? >> chuck, let's take a step back and remember where we are. we are six months and counting in the face of a pandemic. that's the worst one our country has faced in a century. and so many other countries around the world have gotten to the other side of this by maximizing public health and maximizing the power of prevention. data is mounting that the use of masks can prevent infection and there has been one very important study suggesting that 45,000 deaths could be averted by november 1st. universal mask coverage was the norm across the country. so that's why in this sort of moment where cases and deaths are rising, not falling, we are in the public health fight of our lives. we have to use every public health and prevention tool possible starting with masks. we mentioned the governor of alabama has now issued that requirement for her state. we saw in the last week the governor of texas and montana

announcing that as well. it would be great as you noted if we had a universal, national effort here, but we don't have that one yet. so we had to do the state-by-state by now. we need to get to the point where everybody is wearing a mask to optimize the power of prevention going forward. >> i want you to put on your old hhs hat. this is the week we found out they now want states and hospitals to send their data to bypass the cdc and send all their coronavirus data directly to hhs. in your experience, who is better equipped to handle all this data? is it the cdc, or is the current hhs regime right that the cdc's collection strategy is outdated? >> well, the cdc remains one of the great public health agencies in the world. and seeing that proud agency being sidelined right now is not

good for our country. so this is yet another dramatic and unexpected development. it's very important to try to maximize data collection and streamlining, especially at the time of a pandemic. so that's very important. but to take this away from cdc right now is very disturbing to so many of us. what hhs needs to do now is ensure transparency and accountability and accessibility and using that data to leverage the best strategies possible to help people in need. if this is a crisis of our lives and we have to use this moment to maximize prevention going forward. i should mention, chuck, with the fall coming, seasonal flu on the horizon, this need is more important than ever. >> and speaking of that, whose job is it now in the federal government to start preparing for the following two things? we've got the vaccine issue that's coming. but are we prepared as a country for the coming demand of flu

shots that's going to be inevitable in the next two months? >> that's a great question, chuck. and so when i was assistant secretary in 2009, h1n1 was on the horizon. and people may remember that we used that opportunity to develop an h1n1 flu vaccine. we had two simultaneous flu vaccinations going on. h1n1 and seasonal flu. that was not easy but millions worked together to promote public health, and we had a one government approach then. federal, state and local. so this fall represents yet another challenge. we need to maximize that coordination now and even though we don't have a vaccine for covid yet, we have to make sure that everybody gets the flu vaccine and keep those levels high. >> well, here's hoping someone is thinking about this going forward inside hhs or the coronavirus task force. dr. howard ko, a veteran of the hhs administration back under the obama years, thank you for

sharing your perspective. as the president drops his campaign manager, we're going to speak with barack obama's one-time campaign manager, david plouffe, and the accounts of many high-profile twitter users were hacked as part of a bitcoin scam. what red flags does this raise as we get closer to election day? seems to be a pretty big problem for twitter. you're watching msnbc. c. given my unique lifestyle, that'd be perfect! let me grab a pen and some paper. know what? i'm gonna switch now. just need my desk... my chair... and my phone. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ from grills to play setsutdoor and more one of a kind finds.

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the trump campaign is hitting the refresh button, installing a new campaign manager, bill stepien. according to a new poll, 42% of voters approve of president trump's overall job performance. it is basically one of the five lowest ratings we have ever recorded for him on job approval. to top it all off today, a member of his own party, larry hogan, who really has taken pains, nobody expects him to be a big trump fan but he held off on criticizing the president until earlier today.

>> the biggest mistakes that the president made throughout this pandemic, and that was not following the advice of the experts. i think, you know, sometimes the president was ignoring the advice of his own people. the pinball of, we get the good advice from the experts and then hear something different from the president. that was the most recent case of it. we had a great meeting of all the governors with the vice president, with robert redfield. they came up with a good report from the cdc and the president steps all over the message and started threatening people. >> joining me is the former campaign manager and white house senior adviser to president barack obama. david plouffe's most recent book is "a citizen's guide to beating donald trump." i was thinking about your first book, because you -- it's an anecdote that i'm guessing bill stepien and brad parscale, that

would probably wish that they had a candidate react the way your candidate. and it was a point where you had a showdown with then-candidate barack obama about who was going to be the political director. who was going to run the campaign. finish the story. >> well, yeah, i think there was times when he thought he could do it better than all of us. maybe he could. what's the role of a candidate? what's the role of a campaign staff? it gets particularly complicated when you're an incumbent. trump should have a country to run. they've shifted the deck chairs. probably something they have to do. but at the end of the day, if donald trump doesn't change, and what does that mean, chuck? it means being more disciplined, waking every waking hour focused on the pandemic which is probably going to determineas re-election or his loss. he's struggling with a message to get hired by the american people and against joe biden. this is true for george bush, ronald reagan.

they understand their role which was policy, message, hire good people and trust those people. >> right. in this case, it's not only that we're talking about a changeover of the campaign team. but they also are in the midst of a -- still dealing with a new chief of staff. my guess, i don't know if mark meadows i.d. is still temporary or if he's gotten his permanent i.d. at this point. if he has his permanent -- in an election year, can you imagine, you know, i know you guys studied the w model of '94 and you guys really liked, if i'm not mistaken, what bush and reagan dirksd rigd, right? you had a campaign manager, chief of staff and political chief strategist working in sync. i don't think we see that here in trumpland. >> no, but, chuck, we don't. normally, and you are a student of presidential campaigns. so donald trump is the only person to win the presidency with instability.

he had that back in '16. went through three campaign managers. another reason that was a black swan event. but this is very unusual. that was unusual. but this is different. he's an incumbent now. he's got a very challenging economic situation, a pandemic, approval ratings you just mentioned. it doesn't seem like the white house and the campaign are working well together. trump is not playing the role of candidate. he's probably playing the role of campaign manager. i doubt much is going to change. jared kushner is playing the role with some differences i had, that karl rove had, jim baker had, harold dickey had back in the clinton years. so far it doesn't seem to be going particularly well. >> let's look at the other side of the ledger here on the democratic side. the pressure joe biden is going to start to get, and i hear it -- he should be out there more. i know it's working. but, you know, he's got to deal with this group or that group. to me, it's going to take a lot of discipline to say, no.

but no is probably the right answer, but that's a difficult answer to give. how do you keep walking that line if you are the democratic campaign right now? >> well, i think they've had a good couple of weeks laying out his economic plan, buy american, climate change plan, you know, creating a lot of content his supporters can share. putting advertising dollars behind that. particularly given the argument that trump is making against biden, which is basically, he's senile, he's not up to this job, the debate is the biggest moment. that first debate is like 90% of the rest of the campaign, i think. i would really make sure you're ready for that. because if biden goes out there and executes -- he doesn't have to be perfect. but, you know, given the low bar trump set, it's very dangerous. so, you know, the convention is a big moment. the announcement of the vp candidate is a big moment and three debates, which i assume is the number we'll have. i wouldn't worry too much. i think he's got -- where are we in the race? let's nerd out a little.

there's not much room for biden to grow with swing voters. i am concerned, and i think a lot of democrats have spoken about voter registration, turnout. we've never done this in a pandemic. the organizational complexity here is really high. so a lot of that is in joe biden. he should be in videos and he should be doing ways to reach those voters. but a lot of that is campaign machinery. for him, i think it's, how do i fill in the blanks on health care, on the economy. i would like to see them put more pressure on trump. one of the reasons trump had such an off the wall rose garden was he was responding to biden and all the coverage he got. finding ways to get trump to respond to you is smart for the biden campaign. >> right. david plouffe, i have to leave it there. we could definitely nerd out on this stuff for some time. here's a nugget to digest. it's been over a week. the new jersey primary. we're still at only 60% of the vote in. good luck in election -- good luck in november. that's for sure. david plouffe, thank you.

i want to move to the twitter hacking story. two major cyberhacks we're following this afternoon. the first, officials in the u.s., uk and canada say hackers from russia's intelligence services have been trying to steal coronavirus vaccine research from the west. the second is this bitcoin scam that breached high-profile twitter accounts including president obama, joe biden, amazon ceo jeff bezos and others. they did not hack the account of president trump. senior u.s. intelligence official says trump's account is under a special lock and key after past incidents. for more on this, we have nbc news social media reporter dylan byrs. i want to get into the lock and key thing but fear that's a rabbit hole. twitter has a major problem on their hands. do they understand how catastrophic this may be? >> oh, yeah, and no doubt. look, this is the kind of breach, this is the breach i think you lose sleep over

worrying this sort of breach might happen some day. as you and i have discussed, the one point of solace you take is some guys ran up a bitcoin scam and made money off of it and didn't wreak havoc to our knowledge so far. the fact that the accounts of the presumptive democratic presidential nominee, the former president of the united states, business leaders like elon musk who, by the way, when they tweet, they move markets. the fact that that is so vulnerable is a real source of concern for twitter. and i think this, you know, my understanding based off the conversations i've had with sources there is this is all hands on deck. this is the only priority now is figuring out what happened and how to make sure it doesn't happen again. >> i'm curious, dylan, who is leading this investigation? is it the fbi? or is it twitter internally? >> you know, so far, it's

twitter. and what twitter said is it's conducting this investigation. but senators have called on twitter to bring in the fbi, to bring in the federal government to help them with this given the stakes at play right now. and my guess is we'll see twitter open up to that. >> i have to say, dylan, i'm shocked the fbi is not yet involved. i'm guessing in some sort of advisory. if i were twitter right now, i'd be wanting other people in there, asap. dylan byers, there's a lot to cover on this story. appreciate it. we'll check in later. no matter how look at it, the latest round of polling does not look very good for president trump. it's going to take more than just a new campaign manager. i'm going to break down some new numbers with steve kornacki. helps you redefine what's possible... now. from the hospital shifting to remote patient care in just 48 hours...

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amid president trump's campaign shake-up and his latest dismal polling, let's take a look at where his approval rating stands. let's check in with national political correspondent steve kornacki with the latest, and that's where you really see the president's issues here, literally, is his handling of some specific issues. >> yeah, and it's interesting, when you think back to the start of the year, the president and his team believed it was all going to be about the economy, and that was going to be the issue that put him over the top for a second term. take a look at this here. compare him on a couple issues. let me see if the second time is the charm on this.

okay, here it comes. on the economic right now, the president's approval rater in our poll, 54%. 42% disapprove. at the start of the year, in our poll, his approval on the economy was 53%. so he's actually -- the number is one up from where it was at the start of the year. that's not the problem. the problem is the coronavirus, taking hold, the most important thing in the country. the president way upside down, nearly 60% disapproval. in the last two months, the issue of race relations has taken center stage. the president, 33% approve. nearly two to one disapprove of trump's performance there. these two issues which weren't really on the radar to the extent they are now at the start of the year, have emerged. the reviews from the voters about the president's conduct on them are terrible, and it really seems to be dwarfing any benefit he was going to get out of the economy, and one other thing we can show you, we pulled these out, too. these are the comparable nbc/"wall street journal" polls for july of a president's re-election year. you can see where the president

is right now in our poll, down 11. look, the last three, obama, w., clinton, they all won reelection, and at this point in our poll, to some degree, they were leading. this is measurably different, what we're seeing now with trump. >> it's worth reminding, we have never done as a country, steve, we have never re-elected four straight presidents. and what we did last time was we just only the second time in our history that we re-elected three straight presidents. so sometimes there's headwinds you can't measure. >> you know, it's true. we think back, it's been so long, 28 years since an ink incumbent president was denied re-election. we didn't have a poll from this same point in '92, but we found another one. this was third week of july, '92, this is what it looked like. 55/37. clint had just had the convention. perot dropped out, and clinton led the rest of the way. this is more lopsided, but that

looks closer to right now than any of the other ones. >> yeah. then, of course, you know what somebody will do. they'll go to four years earlier and show you the 17-point lead michael dukakis had after the atlanta convention and how long that lasts. great stuff as always, sir. thank you. so with tourism severely limited this summer, a new ad campaign from iceland is asking you to visit virtually. by sharing your screens. [ screaming ] >> you know, there's a lot of fun ad campaigns trying to get at life in a virtual zone, things like that. that's a good one. kudos, iceland.

you're not just a place to go to be a set for game of thrones these days. anyway, looks like you need iceland.com, and they promise to pump up your screens into their stunning wilderness. that wraps it up for me. i'll see you back here at 5:00 p.m. eastern for "meet the press" daily, my friend chris jansing pings up the coverage after this quick break. ter thisk frustrated that clean clothes you want to wear always seem to need an iron? try bounce wrinkle guard dryer sheets. the bounce wrinkle guard shorts have fewer wrinkles and static, and more softness. it's the world's first mega sheet that does the job of three dryer sheets! bounce out wrinkles.

good afternoon. i'm chris jansing. it's 11:00 a.m. out west and

2:00 p.m. here in the east, and nbc news has just learned after weeks of radio silence, president trump spoke to dr. anthony fauci yesterday. that's just about a day after an anti-fauci op-ed by one of trump's top advisers sparked widespread criticism. white house press secretary kayleigh mcenany will hold a press briefing any minute now. we'll bring you any news from that as it happens. in the meantime, confirmed cases of covid-19 have now topped 3.5 million in the united states. cases are on the rise in a vast majority of states, 41 of them. that means this crisis is going to get much worse before it gets any better. the governor of georgia, brian kemp, is raising eyebrows for his decision to overturn the mandatory mask orders that were imposed by some cities in his state. public health officials say universal mask wearing is currently our only hope for containing this virus. we'll have more on that in just a moment. and it's official. previously public covid-19 data

is no longer