good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington, where almost six months after the covid crisis hit the u.s., president trump pivoted on the pandemic at his press conference held without coronavirus task force members, his first coronavirus briefing in three months. the country is approaching 4 million confirmed covid-19 cases and surpassing 143,000 deaths. and new reported deaths in a single day topped 1,000 nationally. roughly a half of those new deaths are in the four states with persistent spread. arizona, california, texas, and florida. the florida residents suffering through their worst seven-day death toll since the pandemic

began. as the president's polls take a hit, largely because of his handling of the pandemic, he endorsed the use of face masks for the first time and acknowledged the reality on the ground with this sobering assessment. >> some areas of our country are doing very well. others are doing less well. it will probably, unfortunately, get worse before it gets better. something i don't like saying about things, but that's the way it is. >> and our white house team is reporting the president will be back in front of the cameras for another briefing this afternoon. so far no guidance on whether he will be alone or joined by health experts. this hour, we go live to tennessee for a report that every parent will want to check. students today walking back into classrooms even as the head of the cdc gave this bold endorsement of in-school learning. >> would you be comfortable with your school-aged grandchildren going back to school in the fall? >> absolutely. absolutely. the only one that there may be some reservation is my grandson

with cystic fibrosis. my other ten grandchildren, of those, eight of them are school change. i'm 100% that they can get back to school. >> joining me now, nbc news white house correspondent and "weekend today" co-host kristen welker. "washington post" bureau chief phil rucker. msnbc's garrett haake on capitol hill. and nbc's mike memoli covering the biden campaign. kristen, we expect to see another briefing, it's not a white house coronavirus task force briefing, the task force was not there, it was the president soloing, but he certainly did change his tone. >> andrea, that's right, you heard the president give that very sober assessment, essentially preparing americans for what he said is the reality that this situation and crisis will likely get worse before it gets better. i thought it was notable, he talked about the fact that he wanted to see testing improved

in various parts of the country, that people should be getting their results more quickly. the question is how is that going to happen, what's the plan to do that. we are trying to get those answers. i was able to follow up with one of his top advisers, kellyanne conway, today to ask if those sorts of conversations are going on behind the scenes. she says they are. so the question is will we get more details about that specifically in today's briefing. but look, white house officials who i've been speaking with say they feel as though yesterday went well, that for the most part the president stayed on topic, largely stayed on target. it was a half hour, it was concise, not what we saw several months ago when the briefings could extend to an hour and a half if not longer. the president was asked about ghislaine maxwell and that did overshadow the briefing to some extent when he said "i wish her well." but again, white house officials feel as though the president did a good job of basically saying he is working on this crisis. and that had been the real

criticism, because remember, andrea, last week he didn't hold an event focused on covid and there was a sense from some of his top advisers and closest aides that he wasn't out front on this crisis. so they're trying to turn the page on that in part because of the poll numbers which we have discussed, the fact that he's trailing joe biden in some polls by double digits now, andrea. >> and phil, what about the politics of all this? clearly there is concern among his advisers that he is losing this campaign partly because he's not seemed to be leading on covid, and because what he's saying doesn't match what people are seeing and experiencing around them in their own lives. >> andrea, the last few months, what we've seen from president trump is an effort to try to turn the page on the coronavirus and focus on other issues including the economy but also a range of off-topic like confederate memorials and so forth. it's created an impression, according to polling, among many

voters that the president has given up leadership, that he's abandoned leadership on the pandemic. so that's why he's out front this week, as kristen was just detailing, trying to convince the american public that he's engaged and committed to leading in this coronavirus. and yet it's really a public relations effort with these briefings, and what's lacking is substantive planning and strategy. there does not, still, exist a national strategy that we're aware of to solve the testing problems, to deal with contact tracing, and to solve some of the other issues that so many of the health experts say are critical to be addressed by washington. >> and garrett, speaking of not having a plan, the republicans are divided among themselves, according to your reporting out of the senate caucus meeting yesterday, the republican leadership meeting with the senate. >> reporter: that's right, yesterday we had this gathering of senate republicans and

members of the administration trying to come up with where republicans stand, where the senate will make its opening offer in this month of negotiations essentially over the next relief bill. we heard from a lot of republicans leaving that meeting, they were angry about what was being proposed, that it was too big, too expensive, or doesn't directly addressed what republicans would like to see focus on, essentially reopening the economy. now, we might get a text that have bill today, it might not be until tomorrow. again, republicans are having this struggle to negotiate a plan amongst themselves, much less negotiating with democrats who of course control the house and will have a major say in what happens. i think some of the major sticking points still remain this liability protection for businesses and what to do about stepped-up unemployment insurance which is set to expire at the end of the month. that's the first major deadline for trying to get this done. yesterday, while the white house was saying they thought they could finish this bill by the end of july, both speaker pell

owes s osi scoffed at the idea that they could get a bill that quickly. we're looking at some legislative horse trading here over the next few weeks. >> and we all know what that looks like, the sausage being made indeed. mike memoli, we got a glimpse of a teased video from the biden campaign of joe biden and barack obama for the first time that we know of, talking face-to-face, though distanced. the rest of the video conversation is going to be put out by the campaign tomorrow. but this is what they showed us so far. >> can you imagine standing up when you were president saying, it's not my responsibility, i take no responsibility? i mean, literally. >> those words didn't come out of our mouths while we were in office. >> no. >> it all starts with being able to relate. if you can sit down with a family and see your own family in them and the struggles that you've gone through or your

parents went through or your kids are going through, if you can connect those struggles to somebody else's struggles, then you're going to work hard for them. >> mike, we know that the vice president does not come out very often and here he's coming out and coming to the washington office, apparently, of barack obama. tell us about this. >> yeah, that's right, andrea. this was recorded, i'm told, earlier this month on a weekend, the former vice president making that trip down from delaware to meet face-to-face with his former running mate for the first time. and andrea, there are so many policy contrasts between president trump and joe biden, but when you talk to biden advisers, they say that empathy is joe biden's superpower, and that one single quality they think offers the biggest contrast for voters between the republican and the democratic candidate this fall. and so what do we see here? we see the biden campaign's most powerful surrogate amplifying that exact argument, saying that

it is joe biden's ability to relate to americans which makes him so the right choice this november. we saw this yesterday when joe biden was presenting his care-giving plan to the country. when is the last time if ever a major party nominee was able to draw from their experience as a single parent, as joe biden was for a brief time after the death of his wife and daughter, raising his two boys, and relating to the challenges so many americans face? one other thing, andrea, that this video i think tells us, it gives us a little bit of a sneak preview of what the democratic convention looks like. we're not going to see a full convention hall with speeches from a podium all hour of ts of night, every night. as joe biden said in an interview last night, we'll see a largely virtual convention with a lot of preproduced videos like this one and a lot of speeches by surrogates not just in milwaukee but around the

country. >> a very different convention indeed. first he has to choose his running mate, i know you're all over that as well. phil, we want to bring you back to new details we've been reporting and others are reporting, it was first "the new york times" reporting on ambassador woody johnson, ambassador to the court of st. james, according to our reports, pushing or at least floating the idea to the british government that the president's -- that the british open should be played on his course in scotland, and that he raised it twice with his deputy and his deputy ambassador said don't do it, it would not be ethical, but he proceeded to float it to the brits and there was no chance of it happening because the british golf association had already decided that there was no way that they were going to have any golf tournament on a trump property in the uk, because of the politics of it, and the possible

security implications. >> yeah, andrea, that was really important reporting by our friends at "the new york times." and, you know, just so our viewers understand, i know you know this, the ambassadors that serve our country are serving the u.s. government and representing the united states abroad. they're not there as the president's personal or political envoys or to represent the president's business interests as it pertains to the trump golf course there. so woody johnson clearly crossed a line with regard to proper protocol and behavior by diplomatic officials in the u.s. i imagine this is something that will get some scrutiny on capitol hill in the weeks to come. we're not quite sure yet. and i'm not sure if we've heard from ambassador johnson yet about the matter. but the reporting, assuming that it's true, is troubling in that it breaks that protocol for diplomats. >> and we have reached out to him and have not heard back from

him. the brits said that there was no request. but that suggests a formal request, that's not the question, it was definitely floated, because i've talked to people with knowledge of the immediate situation. the other piece of this is that the inspector general's office did look into the british embassy, there were there for routine visit last fall. there is a report, according to their own ig website, but it's not been made public, into the ambassador and other issues involving comments that he had made, allegations that have been made that have been reported by others to be of a sexist or racist nature. again, we have not heard back from him. but that ig report has not been made public. and of course the inspector general was fired, that is steve lini linick. so this is already being looked into, those aspects of his firing are being looked into by congress. thanks very much to phil rucker, garrett haake, of course kristen welker and mike memoli.

school is in session, one of the first schools in the country that is opening its doors for in-person learning. we look at what they're doing to keep students safe, that's in tennessee. and next, coronavirus daily deaths surpass 1,000. a former surgeon general weighing in on the disturbing trend. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. is is "andreal reports" on msnbc. $9.95? $9.95. what's with all the $9.95 notes? i thought you'd never ask. it's about a life insurance plan with options starting at $9.95 a month. been seeing it on tv. we talked about getting more life insurance. remember how much your brother's funeral cost? yeah, his funeral expenses were a real eye-opener. -north of $8,500. -exactly. (man) what do you like about this insurance? the $9.95 price, and best of all, it'll never go up. (man) but we could get it at our age with my medical history?

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the u.s. death toll from covid-19 surpassed the 1,000 mark for the third time this month on tuesday. over 143,000 people have now died from the virus in this country. and we have yet to hear a national response plan from president trump. >> we are, uh, in the process of developing a strategy that's going to be very, very powerful. we have a relentless focus and it's been that way from the beginning. >> joining me now is former u.s. surgeon general dr. vivek murthy. dr. murthy, thank you very much for being with us. the president says they've been working on this, they have a

plan, since the beginning. have you seen a plan? >> andrea, i think many of us are still waiting to see what this strategy and what this plan is. we are many months into this pandemic. and frankly, we should have had a national plan and national leadership that was clear, that was bold, and that was results-oriented, many months ago. and the fact that we still don't have that now is why you are seeing worsening cases, worsening deaths, worsening hospitalizations across the country. >> and we've seen a lot of complaints about the lag time on getting test results which makes the tests useless if it goes four or five days, seven days, two weeks in some instances. two major labs now are sounding the alarms on testing. labcorp's ceo says the virus is spreading faster than testing capacity can be expanded.

and quest says meeting test demand will be impossible during the flu season. right now, the congress is stalemated over whether to put money into the compromise legislation which has been in the house bill now for six weeks. >> andrea, you're absolutely right to spotlight testing because this has become, once again, a profound problem. we're hearing stories of people waiting hours and hours in line to get tested. i'm speaking to you from miami, florida, where many people that i know here have gone to get testing and have actually been turned away because there is insufficient supply or they themselves have gone home because they couldn't wait any longer. there is a point at which we will see the amount of testing available even limit the number of positive tests that we see. and so when the numbers plateau, we've got to ask why is that, is that because they're actually plateauing, is it because we're just not testing enough so we're not seeing an actual rise that's

taking place? the truth is we've known how to fix this problem with testing for many months now. we know the government needs to take over the process of producing these tests and their requisite parts that go along with it. we know the federal government has to play a much more forceful role in allocating these resources so they get to those parts of the country where they're most in need. right now you cannot figure out what the wait times are in a standardized way across states. that's unbelievable. how can you improve a process if you don't have the data that tells you whether you're doing a good job or not? finally, we've got to make sure that we are managing the test results themselves, getting people the help they need when they have a positive test, that we have contact tracers in place to understand where that infection is spreading, and to quarantine people thereafter. we still don't have enough contact tracers. so we know how to do this.

we're just not putting our resources and our focus where they need to be to get the job done. >> given the lack of a national plan, and you've listed all the things we don't have, there's an open letter now that you're fami familiar with, of course, by more than 150 health professionals calling for another shutdown, saying the u.s. should start over and even bar international travel. do you agree that such drastic measures are now needed? >> i think this is unfortunately the circumstance we find ourselves in, where we're having to contemplate shutting down again because things got so bad. there are parts of the country where the infection rate is extremely high, where the test positivity rate has skyrocketed, where shutting down again would make sense. i also think we need to make sure we have mandatory mask orders in place across the country. we need to make sure that we are closing down bars and indoor dining, because we know that's a

perfect setup for spread. yesterday the president restarted these white house briefings. and i want to say a word about this, because i do think that communication in the midst of a pandemic is extremely important. and my hope is that in these hearings, that we will hear more from scientists and public health experts, that we'll hear more facts and less spin. and that we'll hear concrete plans. and the reason this is so important at this point, andrea, is because in the last several months, public confidence in the response effort has been shredded. and one of the most important assets you have in a pandemic response is in fact public trust. and if you don't cultivate it, if you don't preserve it, then even when you're giving people guidance that they should follow, they won't listen to you. the classic case in point is around vaccines. our surveys now are showing us up to half of people surveyed are saying they either won't take the vaccine or are uncertain about it even if it was available today. that means we've got a serious credibility gap and an information gap to fill. the government can't do that

effectively unless it reestablishes its credibility and it's got to start doing that right away. >> dr. murthy, thank you very much, thanks against for being with us. and a terrifying scene in chicago overnight. a brazen drive-by shooting as the president is preparing to deploy federal agents to the city. we're live in chicago next. plus federal officers already on the streets in portland facing a legal challenge today as local officials say they are making the situation worse. our report from the courthouse, just ahead. this is "andrea mitchell reports." you're watching msnbc. s. you're watching msnbc. ♪we ain't stoppin' believe me♪ ♪go straight till the morning look like we♪ ♪won't wait♪ ♪we're taking everything we wanted♪ ♪we can do it ♪all strength, no sweat [♪] when you have diabetes, managing your blood sugar is crucial. try boost glucose control. the patented blend is clinically shown to help manage blood sugar levels. it provides 60% more protein

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a frightening night in chicago where police say at least 15 people were wounded when a car drove past a funeral home and opened fire. authorities have recovered 60 shell casings at the scene. this as president trump is preparing to send federal agents into the city to crack down on the recent surge in violence, over the mayor's objections. in portland, oregon, at this hour a federal hearing is under way. the state attorney general is asking a judge to remove a large federal force deployed by the white house to quell protests that had turned violent there. the mayor and governor both say the protests had been limited to a few hundred people in a small downtown area but that the tactics used by the federal forces sparked a much wider outbreak. we have it all covered, shall

eke bru shaquille brewer is in poured land. shaq, what is happening and what does the mayor have to say about it? >> reporter: andrea, the mayor is pleading for people in the community who know anything about the shooters involved in this incident that led to 15 people being wounded to turn in the information. ten of the wounded were women, five were men. if you listen to what the superintendent and mayor said earlier today, they said this is part of the siebcycle of violen connected to the most common source of violence in the city, that is gang violence, which is tearing the city apart. listen to what the mayor said this morning. >> we all had restless nights last night, me included. i woke up this morning even more resolved to do everything that we can to stop this violence. violence is a symptom, a symptom of communities that are crying out.

>> reporter: now, most of the victims are expected to survive. but last night's violence really highlights the awkward position that chicago is in as we hear the trump administration announcing that they're sending in federal agents to the city. on the one hand, and you heard it from mayor lightfoot, we welcomes a partnership with federal agents to help solve this problem but on the other hand she doesn't want a repeat of those scenes you saw in portland to happen here on the streets of chicago. so it's somewhat of a balancing act that officials are having to deal with, trying to solve the violence that's here and take whatever help they can get but also not try to have a repeat of those scenes that we're seeing across the country, andrea. >> indeed. and the mayor's objections reflect the fact that the president has been threatening to send troops to philadelphia, detroit, chicago, a lot of what he calls democratically-led cities, and erin mclaughlin, you know what's happening there in portland, where it has gotten out of control, but the

officials there are arguing in court today that it got a lot worse after those federal forces in camouflage here from homeland security were deployed. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, andrea. and that hearing is now under way here at the federal courthouse in portland. i'm just outside, let me just let the camera pan over to show you what's happening here right now. this has been the flashpoint in this confrontation between federal agents and protesters. you can see they are now in the process of setting up a steel barrier around the courthouse. protesters have managed to breach that barrier on two occasions, now they're setting it up once again, bracing for the possibility of more violence. inside that same courthouse is where this hearing is now under way. the department of justice giving its arguments. we've already heard from oregon's attorney general, saying that, in her brief,

anyway, she said that essentially what's happening here is a violation of first and fourth amendment rights of these protesters by these federal agents, she wants the unlawful arrests to stop. the department of justice is making the argument that they're here to protect this courthouse and other federal properties. we expect a decision potentially today, maybe later in the week, andrea. >> thanks so much to you, erin, and to shaq in chicago. joining us now is the editor of "the new yorker" who has a special issue coming out next week called "voices of american dissent," looking at protests in america's past and future. david, thank you very much. tell me about the genesis of this and how you've assembled your writing about what's happening now as well as past writing from "new yorker" issues about the role of protest as part of the american story. >> thank you, andrea. it's good to be with you. i think it's axiomatic that in

the history of the united states, protest and dissent have been a force for american progress. we look at the recent passing of john lewis, who at the age of 23, 25, was at the center of american protests in the civil rights movement. and what did that lead to? it led to the enactment of the voting rights act in 1965, among other things. but we also see backward movement in american history. what are we talking about all the time now? we're talking about voter suppression, despite the fact that we have a voting rights act. and i think in addition to police brutality and other issues, voting is at the center of the black lives matter movement or at least it's one important component of it. so we live in a country that is marked both by forward progress, as we saw, whether it's in the 19th indust thchlth century or

dissent plays an important role in pushing us forward and pushing government forward and putting pressure on government. that's an essential dynamic of any promise in american life. so the issue is about that, whether it's about the civil rights movement in the '60s or black lives matter now or women's rights, we're about to celebrate the sevcentenary of t women's suffrage movement. >> the president seems to be focusing on this, it reminds me of 1968 and of the nixon campaign, again, using the law and order issue to try to hammer democratic mayors to raise issues in cities that aren't even experiencing violence at this stage, as well as -- >> i think, andrea -- >> -- camouflage-clad forces.

>> look at what happened in lafayette park. was that a necessary action by donald trump? look at what's happening on the streets of portland, what's possibly about to happen in the streets of chicago, detroit, philadelphia, all the places your excellent correspondents have pointed out. what we're seeing is an attempt to revive the reelection campaign of the president of the united states, a man who is willing to do almost anything, legal or illegal, to enhance his chances. he sees himself in a bad position, the polls are showing him behind joe biden rather decisively, and almost like a slightly diabolical television producer, he wants to produce images of maximum divisiveness. so he's going to go into cities that he's obviously written off in terms of supporting him, but to show them as the bad cities and where federal troops can go in and we'll quiet it down and suppress it. it is an extremely troubling thing. and we have the specter of the

former head of the department of homeland security, a former republican governor, tom ridge, essentially saying in "the new york times" today that the federal government is not there to be the president's personal militia. and to see that tom ridge is saying this, pointing out that the president of the united states is trying to create imagery of divisiveness, of, quote unquote, bad democratic cities, centers of dissent, by the way, peaceful dissent, or to exploit the crime problem that you see in the streets of chicago as a reelection imagery, and then pour money into ads about such issues on facebook or on television, this goes well beyond the nixon campaign of 1968. >> and in fact we are in complete sync here, because let me play some of the audio of tom ridge, former governor of

pennsylvania, house member, and homeland security, the first homeland security seating, speaking about this to michael smerconish. >> the department was established to protect america from the ever-present threat of global terrorism. it wasn't not established to be the president's personal militia. had i been governor even now, i would welcome the opportunity to work with any federal agency to reduce crime or lawlessness in any of the cities, but i would tell you, michael, it would be a cold day in hell before i would consent to a unilateral uninvited intervention into one of my cities. >> and that is the issue that is right now in front of a federal judge in portland, oregon. >> look, you have to ask yourself, andrea, what is it that this president will not do? every day brings a fresh outrage. we just had a report about the

president of the united states has now seen yet again a thousand deaths a day, and not least because of his own complacency and mismanagement. what is he thinking about? he's thinking about getting the british open put on a trump golf course in scotland. who could imagine such a thing? who could think that this is possible, this thought process, if you want to call it that, coming from a president of the united states, such selfishness, self-involvement, heedlessness. we've been living in a kind of time release tragedy from the day he was inaugurated. and it's hard to deny that. and so when questions are raised about what he might do if he loses in november, would he leave the white house, unfortunately these are serious questions that have to be posed. >> which he in fact did not put to rest in the interview with chris wallace, he only made it

more ambiguous. thank you very much, david remnick, it's always good to hear your views on this. we'll look forward to the issue coming out next week. we'll be right back. we'll b.

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(vo) audi e-tron. the next frontier of electric. get audi at your door remote services through participating dealers. as schools across the country are grappling with the safest way to reopen, it's the first day of class for students in alcoa, tennessee today with safety measures like temperature checks and staggered attendance and students coming to class just one day a week. earlier we heard from the intermediate school principal and a parent. >> we have a supportive community and we have people who really want their kids to be back in school, so we're going to do it. >> we want them to not be scared. like, we want to keep them as normal as we can. >> nbc news correspondent blayne alexander joins us now from alcoa, tennessee. blayne, there were more than

2,000 new cases in tennessee on tuesday. how do the schools there decide to reopen and can they do it safely? >> reporter: sure. so that's exactly what i asked the principal here at alcoa elementary school, andrea. across the state, let's kind of look at those covid numbers. about 82,000 cases or so across the state of tennessee. when you look at alcoa, a small community just outside of knoxville, fewer than 300 of those cases are here in this city. that's why they say after a lot of conversations, a lot of tears, a lot of prayers, and of course talking with health officials, they decided that putting a number of measures into place would make them safe enough to go ahead and reopen. a couple of caveats, andrea, this is a very small district. it only has 2,000 students or so. but today, on the first day of school, only about a fifth of those students are reporting. that's because students are only coming to school one day a week. the other four days of the week, they're going to be doing virtual learning. so the classes are very small, no more than ten students

together at one time. that includes two teachers as well. a couple of other things to mention, for parents who don't quite feel comfortable, they can opt for all virtual learning. there are a handful of parents, we understand, who chose that method. andrea, this is in place only through labor day. they say at that point they're going to take a look and reevaluate and say, if it turns out that cases went up or there are any sort of issues, they're going to change and see if there are any changes that need to be made. so when i spoke with the principal here, she talked about the fact that, yes, it's difficult to get elementary cool students to sit down and do what you say, but certainly when it comes to putting on a mask or staying away from each other, she said they're approaching it as a teaching game, they're doing this every single day, teaching them different things and said their parents have been practicing with them at home as well, andrea. >> thanks so much, blayne alexander. meanwhile, tensions are reaching a boiling point between china and the u.s. as the trump administration has ordered the

chinese consulate in houston closed as of friday. there's video showing consulate employees possibly burning documents overnight after the announcement was made, we'll have that for you in a moment. they have until friday to clear out. joining me now is senator tim kaine who serves on the foreign relations and armed services committees. senator, this is all following the indictment of two chinese nationals yesterday, the administration says they were connected to the government for attempting to hack vaccine companies, not only here but around the world, part of years of chinese hacking. what's your reaction? closing an embassy, a consulate, rather, is a really dramatic step, it hasn't been done against china before. they've done it against russia in the past. china has said they're going to retaliate. >> it is a big step, and naturally that will be the next step, china will likely close u.s. consulates in china. so this is very troubling. we have a foreign relations

committee hearing this afternoon on china with ambassador steve bieg biegun. i expect the closure of the consulate will be very much the focus. i think what we're concerned about at the senate, and i think this is a bipartisan concern, president trump takes action against china but we are always looking for what's the strategy. i mean, we're engaged in a back and forth with china over tariffs and trade sanctions that is still unresolved and that in virginia, my farmers and others are begging for relief from that. we're backing and forthing over hong kong, the uighurs in northwest china, the back and forth over the coronavirus, and now this. there's a lot of churn and turmoil, but what we don't see is a strategy. we'll ask about these

particulars today with ambassador biegun, but i think what we really want to see is, how does the trump administration see this very important and challenging relationship right now, and what's the strategy that links together all the actions that the trump administration is taking. >> and you've got the deputy secretary of state, steve biegun, who has been ambassador and has handled china and north korea and south korea relations. at this stage, do you suspect there is a political motive? we're sorry to say, but in this context, the president keeps talking about the china virus, albeit china did mishandle their original reporting on the covid-19. >> they certainly did. >> but do you think this is partly to find a scapegoat? >> yes. the president is, i believe, trying to deflect attention. china made some huge mistakes up front. but why were nations like south korea and vietnam that are right

near china able to so much better deal with the virus than the united states? if china made mistakes, they need to be called out for them. but the president is trying to deflect attention from his mistakes in the united states that have led us to have the highest death toll in the world. and as we see right now, both the death toll, the daily case level and the economic carnage resulting from that are really hammering our country. and so the president -- and look, you have earlier reported this, that there is a gop memo going around a few weeks ago saying to senate republicans, they need to try to make this election about blaming the democrats for being too pro-china. well, president trump himself has a long track record of praising china, praising the leadership of china, et cetera. i do view this as, you know, probably motivated by electoral politics. of course we do have major, major challenges with china. and we're deeply concerned about their human rights record and about theft of intellectual

property, about a whole series of issues. so the instinct to do something is not a bad instinct. but from the very beginning of the administration, the president has decided to try to go it alone rather than gathering our allies together who have the same issues with china to try to confront them. >> we're going to have to leave it there. let me just quickly ask you, is there any breakthrough on the talks about the funding for relief, covid relief? >> andrea, it's a challenge. the democrats put the proposal on the table, the heroes act, now nine weeks ago. and we've been waiting for a republican proposal. we were told we were going to see it tuesday of this week. it looks like the internal battles within the gop, in the senate and the white house, are such that they haven't been able to put a proposal on the table. i do believe we will get a bill within the next three weeks, because we need one. and the white house seems to recognize that. but the tensions within the senate gop now have meant that they haven't even put a proposal on the table, when people are

going to start losing benefits dramatically at the end of the month. >> senator tim kaine, thank you very much. we'll be looking at that foreign relations hearing on china this afternoon. and joining us now on the phone is new york governor andrew cuomo. thank you very much, governor. i know you're you're concerned the lag in testing which make tests, the number of tests really useless given this lag. and also the president's reversal on masks now. what your seeing from the white house now right now after the president' comments last night? >> well, andrea, thank you for having me. i think it's a good sign. the president had a much different tone yesterday just the fact he was doing the coronavirus briefing in and of itself was a different signal. we need that. we need the federal government to step up, acknowledge the problem. i think there's been too much denial for too long and we need the commitment at the federal government. i welcome the president's po

posture. i welcome what he said about masks, urging americans to wear masks. i would like him to take the next step which is a federal executive order on masks. experts have said 40,000 more americans will die because we don't have a mask policy. i mean, it's incredible as that is. you can sign a piece of paper that will save the life of 40,000 americans why wouldn't you do that? on testing, there is now a significant delay in many states on testing results. that means testing numbers you get today, the results you get today are not really results from yesterday. they could be eight days ago, ten days ago. so they could actually be misleading. we don't have that issue in new york but i've been working with a number of local governments and i'm seeing that issue across the country. >> now, you've talked to the

president, i believe, yesterday. did you suggest that he sign the defense production act and authorize more labs to be involved in processing, more equipment, swabs, anything else that is need in order to reduce that lag time? >> yeah. i spoke to the president yesterday. i didn't talk about the defense production act yesterday. i had previously made many statements about the defense production act and needing to get more companies in the testing, not testing, but the supply chain, the re-agents that's problem. we need them desperately. we my this was going to happen. it was just a matter of time. now it's happening. but when you say you don't get test results for eight days the ten days, 12 days, that's a serious problem because the data then is not correct, there's a significant lag.

and a person who is positive was out there for eight days spreading the virus by the time you find out. so, eight day testing, you wonder what the validity of it is at the end of the day. >> when you talked to him yesterday, did you sense a change in his attitude because there was a big change as you noted in his recommendation to wear masks. is he taking this more seriously? it is three months since his last health briefing. he didn't have his health advisors around him. and 85,000 people have died since that last health briefing to americans. >> the conversation with the president yesterday, for me, was about a more parochial issue, making no federal troops going into new york city, which the president had been talking about, the rise in crime in cities across the country and his intention to send in federal troops. i don't think that would be a good idea in new york city and we talked about that.

>> can i just ask, did he commit to not sending the troops in because they are apparently poised to go into chicago and i know they are important. >> i said to the president that i understand the issues in new york city and there are issues in new york city as there are in many cities across the country. and if there was a need, state would step in which is the normal protocol, governmental protocol. and i was ready, willing and able to step in. i think the federal involvement there's no justification for it and would be counter productive and the president said we would talk if -- we would talk before he did anything. so that was a very good conversation. but, look, the president is concerned about new york city were well founded. there are issues in new york city. you put covid on top of the unrest after the george floyd murder, et cetera, there's been an increase in crime. so i get the concerns, but i don't believe federal troops are

the answer. >> and, in terms of what he might do about testing, to try to shorten the lag time by dealing with the supply chain, did you get any positive answers from your perspective on that? >> i can tell you i've met with the white house on testing. they are aware of the supply chain issues. they have been working on the supply chain issues. and this is an issue, andrea, where there's no one solution. the states have to be responsible for the on the ground testing. the states have to organize the labs in their state, they have to set up testing sites. we have 750 testing sites in new york now. we have 250 labs in new york that are doing tests. that's the state responsibility. the federal government has to work on the supply chain issues so these national labs can actually process tests.

so it's not that clean. but the federal government gets that they have to work on the supply chain and that has to work in tandem with the state effort that has testing sites opened, that has the labs coordinated, so it's going to take both. this is a new system that was never set up before. you know, this covid has put a test on government that never existed. and we're now seeing the results. the shame is we had four, five months to get ready. and that we are still talking about these basic operations. that's a shame. and that's what the history books are going to fault us for. >> 150 public health experts have written an open letter saying that the country needs to shutdown and reset now and actually prevent people from going from state to state, from hot spots to state.

you already imposed some quarantines of people coming in to new york. do you think another shutdown is now needed? >> i think the shutdown in certain states, yes, because they are right. look at how bizarre the circumstance. new york state had the worst infection rate because the cases came from europe, and we did not know at the time. everybody was still talking about china. the virus left china, went to europe and everybody missed it and it came to the united states from europe. so we had a quick spike. we had the worst infection rate in the country. we had the worse infection rate per capita than any country on the globe. we now have the lowest infection rates. our problem now is people coming from other states into new york. we've done a quarantine against the 21 highest states in terms of a rate of infection. but, i don't have really the enforcement mechanism for a

quarantine. we're doing everything we can. it's imperfect. you'll see this virus ricocheting across the country. one state gets it under control but then people from another state will come in. so unless you solve this every where, you don't solve it anywhere. and now people coming from florida, from texas, from arizona, that's our issue. and i suspect our infection rate is going to go back up because of people coming into new york, which is so ironic because it went up in the first case because of people coming from europe. you know. that's why it had to be fed and h national. if you don't solve it across the country you don't solve it anywhere, andrea. >> do you think, by the way, just to return for a moment very briefly before we have to let you go, do you think that

there's ever a situation where you would want federal forces to come in to help in new york city? >> no. no. i do not believe in this political environment i believe federal forces would be incendiary. if there's a reason, a justification, the state can handle it. a city is a creature of state law. the state government created cities in the this state. if new york city has a problem, the state will address it. in this political environment, to send in federal troops would be pouring gasoline on a fire. >> well, we want to thank you for taking the time, governor cuomo. i know that you've got a lot on your plate as do all the governors and you were just down in georgia trying to help out down there as well. so thanks very much for joining

us today. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports". chuck todd and katie tur continue our report now. >> big thank you there to andrea. nice way to end your hour with that interview with governor cuomo. good afternoon, i'm chuck todd. the white house has just confirmed. president trump will, indeed, hold another coronavirus briefing this evening. we don't know a lot of details, including whether or not the president will appear alone again. the take a look at this. there's been nearly 15 million confirmed covid-19 cases worldwide. hit that number today and one half of the world's covid-19 cases are simply in the americas alone. that's right. the americas plural make up 12% of the world's population. plus the united states has ordered the closure of the histic