tv MSNBC Live MSNBC July 22, 2020 11:00am-12:00pm PDT
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for a second coronavirus task force briefing led by the president. like the one yesterday, this, too, will be held in the 5:00 hour. this one set to begin at 5:30, a reminder before reviving those briefings, the administration had gone nearly a week without a presidential event even focused on the virus. >> on capitol hill, negotiatation continue to be focused on the coronavirus, and even a deadline for the package dominated discussions between the president and republicans. it's interesting, we did learn in the last hour mitch mcconnell is thinking of a temporary extension of unemployment benefits while they negotiate everything else. on friday, a federal moratorium on evictions will expire. when and if it does, 12 million americans across the country unable to pay their rent will be at risk for homelessness. let me bring in my coanchor for the hour, katy tur. congress is not going to meet these deadlines, they're just not. i'm curious of how we're going
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to handle this sort of uneasy no man's land people are going to fall into due to uncertainty on unemployment benefits, the eviction holds and things like that. >> and voters are going to have a chance to decide whether or not they find that acceptable, chuck, in just a matter of six weeks. for a lauz of those lawmakers and for the president, because in just six weeks, voters in key battleground states are going to begin casting their votes for president. starting on september 4th, absentee votes will sent out for voters in north carolina. voters in pennsylvania will access their votes on september 14th. amid had pandemic, more people are expected to vote early and by mail. that early vote is not good news necessarily for president trump, with the window of opportunity between now and when voters cast their first ballots closing, it means there is little time left to reverse course. so let us begin at the white
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house, where we have learned the president will host another coronavirus briefing at 5:30 p.m. tonight. we do not know if any of the medical experts of the white house task force are going to join him, but joining me now from the white house is nbc news correspondent carol lee. so carol, yesterday, i guess you could say he mostly stayed on script, regardless, he did still find room to wish well ghislaine maxwell. what is the expectation for tonight? >> well, i think the challenge for the president is going to be to explain what he meant when he said that he was developing a very powerful strategy for responding to the coronavirus pandemic, because obviously, we're months into this. and we heard a little bit from kellyanne conway, counselor to the president, a little while ago here at the white house, who has said he meant that he was -- it was about vaccines and therapeutics and the strategy for getting that moving along,
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and also how they deal with nursing homes. there is a broader question about what specifically the president plans to do, you know, when he is saying that things are going to get worse before they get better. so that's, and what actually that means, what does that look like? because since the last coronavirus briefing, the president held in april, until the one he held yesterday, deaths more than doubled. number of cases more than tripled. so what is he trying to prepare the country for? we really haven't heard that. then the other issue, we know the president juan to focus on, which is this long lag time between testing and results. that's something that the white house is trying to deal with. kellyanne conway, again, focused on that. she said the president has been briefed on this and they're looking into it and going to figure out sort of how they can deal with that. >> carol, on that question, the white house in this new stimulus package that congress is putting
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together, the white house has requested less funding for testing or no funding for testing in this bill. so how is the administration squaring that move and then also seeming to acknowledge that there is a problem with testing? >> yeah, it's a great question because yesterday you heard the president leave some wiggle room there. he was asked about this funding for additional funding for testing, and the white house's argument has been there's already funding allocated for this that hasn't been used so they don't need additional funding. now what you're hearing is, well, we want it to be used strategically, so the president said yesterday that he was going to be receiving some sort of presentation from his aides about this specific issue, additional funding for testing. and that then he would make some decisions about that, but he said, you know, if the professionals and the doctors think this is needed, then i'm okay with it. a little bit of a shift there, katy. >> carol lee, thank you so much. and chuck, they're all over the map on this. it was just sunday that the president said that there are only cases in this country because we're doing testing. so very confusing.
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obviously, not sending out a coherent message on that, even though he might have stayed on script last night. >> that's right. i mean, i do think that he is in some ways benefitting from a bar that is so low, i don't think it's ever been lifted off the ground. so i do think that that is something that we have to get -- at the end of the day, okay, he went out there. it was a political event. we knew what he was up to, trying to prove he is on top of this. well, today is really going to be -- this is when he has to fill in the gaps. okay, you came out yesterday and said you want to get your arms around this. let's see if you have some details. let's see if you have a testing strategy, but ultimately, our testing strategy is the big failure. right now, we're tracking the race on capitol hill at getting new coronavirus relief bill passed by august. today, a feud erupted on the senate floor as mitch mcconnell failed to mention the negotiations and it prompted backlash from the democratic leader, chuck schumer.
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it comes as members of the republican party remain at a crossroads over how much this package should cost with unemployment ending for millions of americans in nine days. joining us from capitol hill is msnbc correspondent garrett haake. and garrett, we heard last hour that obviously, negotiations are going so poorly that mitch mcconnell is floating a temporary, you know, sort of like when we hear about the continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown, it feels like continuing unemployment for another month is like this version of avoiding the government shutdown. are things that bad that they're going to have to try these temporary measures? >> well, the problem with temporary measures is it removes the pressure on lawmakers to get something done in short order. there's a certain element that does want a temporary measure. they want the focus to be sharp so they can keep working on this. you describe this as a race to come up with some kind of deal on a coronavirus relief package. it doesn't look like anyone is
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running. that's kind of the problem here. senate republicans are moving ahead with their plan. they're going to brief the legislative director, the top legislative staffers in each office this afternoon on the top lines of what's going to be in this bill. we don't even know when we might see the text on it, and right now, democrats are just lashing republicans for what they perceive to be a lack of urgency and focus on this. here was chuck schumer on the floor just this morning. >> it's in the middle of the week. and the republican party is so disorganized, chaotic, and unprepared that they can barely cobble together a partisan bill in their own conference. congress needs to act quickly. senate republicans in the white house need to get on the same page, produce a proposal, not just drop it on the floor, but start negotiations. >> still a republican only exercise at this point. they're talking to each other, but i think there's movement towards this idea there's
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expanded unemployment benefits up to $600 a week right now aren't just going to go away. republicans want to find some way to step those down. they don't want people being paid more to stay home than to go to work. but there does seem to be among the senators and aides i have been talking to an acknowledgment they have to find some way to keep the money flowing. it's just too important to cut it off, even if many of them want to. >> well, we're going to learn a lot about the senate negotiations this hour. i have a couple senators coming up for katy and i to talk to. hopefully we can put more meat on these bones. garrett haake with the action on capitol hill. garrett, thank you. katy, over to you. first up, let's find out what's going on in california where confirmed coronavirus cases have topped 409,000. with that number, california is set to pass new york for the most total cases in the entire nation. it is a depressing reversal for the first state to issue a stay-at-home order. california is now seeing some 9,000 new cases every single day. with the majority of people
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testing positive under the age of 49. governor gavin newsom is expected to issue new guidance to get those numbers back under control in about an hour. let's go to nbc news correspondent steve patterson, outside of providence, st. joseph's hospital in burbank, california. when the numbers were skyrocketing like this here in new york, the governor issued a pretty strict stay-at-home order. california has been issuing patchwork orders to try to get people to stay home. are we going to see something from the governor that is the entire state, that is more strict in order to not just flatten this curve but to bring it down? >> that's the question, i think, on the lips of everybody in this state and everybody will be watching in about an hour, is will there be more serious rollbacks, if not a complete reversal into another stay-at-home order here in california? there certainly has been
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signaling both by the state government and by local governments as one of the ambulances is driving behind me, that's the noise you hear. but however, the governor wants to take his time to look at the rollbacks that were just included about a week and a half ago. as you mentioned, quite a patchwork depending on where you live, but pretty extensive throughout the state. i meanwhile, we're talking about bars, indoor restaurants, indoor dining. then depending on where you live, which is about 80% of the state, that also includes gyms, it includes religious spaces, office spaces. things of that nature. so the question is, will there be more? what does more even look like? with such an extensive order in place already. well, it could mean hiking trails and parks and beaches, which may not seem like such a big deal depending on where you are in the country, but for california, i mean, this is literally the reason why people choose to live here, to pay taxes here. it's part of the life blood of the tourism economy as well. a big deal there, but more in tune with the possibility that
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the psychology may change again in people. you know, back when this crisis first started, california was lauded, as you mentioned, as this place, a beacon in which it was an example for the rest of the country. this is how you stay at home, this is how you social distance. i think the governor wants us to get back to that state. however, it's going to take a hard look at the data, more contact tracing, more testing, and then a hard look at the hospital capacity that's in place here in california. but everybody is expecting the answer or at least the governor to touch on that question in about an hour. katy. >> steve patterson in burbank for us, thank you very much. chuck. thank you, katy. the cdc says the infection rate across the country is likely ten times higher than we think. it's something director redfield has been saying some time. an expert joins us to explain why that is and why it proves a vast majority of the public still remains vulnerable to the
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virus. >> as cases rise and hospitals across the south and west near breaking points, two senators are on a mission to force the president to use the defense production act. senators tammy murbaldwin and cs murphy are here next. win and chi murphy are here next to build unlimited right. you start with america's most awarded network, the one with unbeatable reliability 13 times in a row. this network is one less thing i have to worry about. (vo) then you give people more plans to mix and match so you only pay for what you need verizon unlimited plan is so reasonable, they can stay on for the rest of their lives. awww...
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u.s. capitol lawn. each pair representing a colleague who died while treating covid-19 patients. the union hopes it will urge the president to employ the defense production act. later today, democratic senators tammy baldwin of wisconsin and chris murphy of connecticut will lead their colleagues in a push of their own for ppe and critical medical equipment. both senators baldwin and murphy join us now. thank you for being here. the defense production act, i'll start with you, senator baldwin, what difference will that make? >> well -- senator baldwin, we're having trouble with your audio, so while we try to work on that, i'll pose the same question to your colleague. lucky that we have two people with us today. senator murphy, what will the dpa do? >> redundancy is really important these days. listen, the dpa has put into
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statute after world war ii to compensate for the fact that democracies are often not terribly efficient when faces with crises like a pandemic or a war. and so we give the president emergency powers. one of them is to take control of the supply chain when we need to produce a whole lot of one thing in a short period of time. right now, this country cannot beat coronavirus without more ppe. we had a shortage. we were able to address that shortage, and now as the virus spreads, you have new reports of nurses sometimes wearing the same mask for 15 days. we also need to power up the manufacture of testing. we're waiting 7 to 10 to 14 days for tests to return. you can't beat the virus that way either. the only way to produce more ppe and tests is for the president to take control of the supply chain and coordinate it all, command manufacturers to make more of all of that equipment. and he has the power to do it under the defense production act. he has refused thus, senator
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baldwin and i believe that congress has to pass legislation before we leave to require the executive branch to start using the defense production act to mandate enough production of testing equipment and ppe. >> we are still working on senator baldwin's audio here. so senator murphy, let me follow with this. i'm glad you brought up the testing issue, because you know, the issue of reagents, what it takes to actually complete the testing process, seems to be also something that needs to be part of the production act, but let me ask this. i think a lot of us are scratching our heads. i imagine you are, too. have you gotten a good explanation of why the president and the task force seem so hesitant to invoke this on such narrow grounds? what kind of lobbying effort is going on behind the scenes by some of these companies asking for it not to be invoked?
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it seems to be the only logical explanation is that there's campaign to stop it from being invoked. this president is someone that's usually not afraid of using a strong power like this. >> yeah, the president is not afraid of using the power of the executive branch when he wants to beat the hell out of protesters in portland. he seems really impotent when faced with a shortage of masks in houston or hartford. i think there's two explanations, chuck. one of them is, yes, the industry is making gobs of money. prices for masks and gowns and gloves have skyrocketed, so these companies, of course, don't want the federal government to come in because what the federal government would do is not only require the manufacture but set the prices temporarily. but second, this is an administration populated by bureaucrats that do not believe in government. the people who are running hhs, the people who are staffing this issue at the white house, they're people who have spent their entire political careers trying to destroy government, trying to argue it is illegitimate as a mechanism to
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solve any problem in this country, so they simply don't have the vision nor do they have the will to actually use the mechanisms given to them by the congress to fix this problem. it's about profit for the private sector, beutit's also about an ideology that served as a barrier to imagining these kind of big solutions. >> so in lieu to the dpa, and we got senator baldwin's audio back, which is good news, both you and senator murphy are advancing the medical supply transparency and delivery act or introducing it. we're going put on the screen what exactly is in it. what is the likelihood you'll be able to get some republican support for this? >> well, it's such an essential plan. we have a situation where we've seen record high numbers of cases both nationally and yesterday in wisconsin, we reached our all-time high reporting of new cases. and the president has no plan
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for testing, no plan for ppe, and we have people on the front lines, labs on the front lines, that have maybe a seven-day supply of swabs and reagents. how anyone in our position could turn the other way and say that's acceptable i don't know. that's why senator murphy and i are going to take to the floor momentarily to try to advance this measure. but there's no reason why these things shouldn't be manufactured in the usa and fix this chaotic supply chain that has led to price gouging and scams, frankly, that have been faced by hospitals and cities and others who need this equipment and protective gear. >> senator baldwin, in some ways, this doesn't feel like an
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other than looking like you're upset at the trump administration, this doesn't feel like an idealogical type of fight. i guess i'm mildly surprised you don't have at least the republican senators who are concerned about re-election onboard with this legislation. do you anticipate some bipartisan cosponsors? >> well, if leader mcconnell were to bring this up for an up or down vote, i suspect people would be hard pressed to figure out why they couldn't support it. this is something that would create jobs. idle plants could be put back in operation. but it seems that this president, when he's five months into the pandemic, it's getting worse and worse, he has no plans. it's an utter failure of leadership, he wants to leave this to the governors, leave this to hospital administrators and procurement folks. leave it to cities and schools. and walk away from any blame for
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not having a plan, not having a strategy, and not fully unlocking the defense production act. >> senators tammy baldwin and chris murphy, i want to leave it there. senator murphy, you're right. redundancy is always good. glad we made this interview with both of you work. shout out to our tech folks and your tech folks, senator baldwin. >> thanks. >> welcome to television in the pandemic. thank you both. and katy, over to you. >> thank you. a poll dropped just moments ago that shows texans believe 2-1 the outbreak in the state is out of control, and as hospitals fight to find the space and tools to treat their patients, schools are now entering the fight. they need safety equipment, and more for the fall semester. we are in austin, austin, texas, after the break.
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television for less than $2. i won these bluetooth headphones for $20. i got these three suitcases for less than $40. and shipping is always free. go to dealdash.com right now and see how much you can save. we're following the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic here at msnbc. the facts as we know them this hour. the city of miami has upgraded penalties for anyone failing to cover their face while in public. the fine for the first offense is $50, $100 for the second, $500 for the third, any additional offenses could result in arrest. miami, the largest city in dade county, they have their own ordinances. >> over 100 new confirmed cases in ohio, governor mike dewine is expected to announce more health
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orders that could include a state-wide mask mandate which has so far been administered at a county level only. he told me on sunday he was considering expanding the number of kunt counties with mandatory mask ordinances. >> 40 million children have missed early childhood education. this according to a new report published by unicef, and 509 women have tested positive for covid-19 at a texas prison. it's now one of the largest confirmed outbreaks at any federal facility. the same prison reported only three confirmed cases just three weeks ago. >> you know, katy, it's interesting that none of this is on its own timeline. right? the prison outbreaks didn't happen earlier in texas when everything else happened. you know, these things, it is all within the same community as it's moving around a community, it will find that nursing home, it will find that prison, it will find that meat packing
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plant. >> 300 to 500 in three weeks. that documents how quickly the spread is. elsewhere in texas, chuck, cases are continuing to rise. the state reported nearly 10,000 new cases in the last day, bringing the state total to over 355,000. this as state officials and educators work at how and if schools can welcome students back this fall. let us bring in nbc news reporter priscilla thompson at the austin independent school district where plans are being made to offer both remote and in-person learning this fall. i'm wondering, priscilla, if behavior is changing, if opinions are changing. we just got this poll out that shows a majority of texas voters say that the spread of coronavirus is out of control in texas. are you seeing those numbers translate into a different set of opinions, a difference in behavior on the ground there? >> well, katy, certainly seeing more mask wearing here since the governor implemented that manda
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mandate, but one of the interesting things about that poll is the approval rating for president trump's handling of this virus largely hasn't changed from where it was in june here in texas. however, so many people i have spoken to on the ground have talked about a sense of confusion when it comes to sort of who they should be listening to on this, and when you look at those numbers and the polls, it appears that confusion is being blamed on governor abbott. him seeing a 21-point swing in his approval and disapproval from where it was in june to now. and so you know, that is sort of what people are thinking about as they're working through questions around, for example, how to reopen schools here. here in austin isd, they're planning to do virtual learning for the first three weeks and then shift to that in-person learning model, so they have been steadily stockpiling since april ppe, the face masks, the face shields, in order to prepare for that. and you know, the texas education agency late last week saying that they would now allow
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schools up to eight weeks to go virtual before coming back in person. so possibly changing some of these austin plans, but the folks here at the operation center tell me they are preparing for anything. take a listen. >> so our cfo, nicole, she kept in close contact with us after viewing the media and keeping up with it on what was going on around the world, and she says we need to start ordering, stockpiling inventory for our students and staff on hand sanitizer, face masks, face shields. she wanted to make sure we had disinfectant wipes and all the other ppe necessary to get school started. >> and you hear there how schools are preparing for whatever may come next. but the other big headline out of that quinnipiac poll i want to point out is the biden/trump head-to-head matchup showing them neck and neck with each other. biden about one point ahead of president trump, so it's, you know, setting up to be quite a race here in texas in terms of the election in november.
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katy. >> even ted cruz has conceded that. when you look at all those boxes piled up behind you, priscilla, and the video we just had of all the boxes for that school district, it shows you how much money is needed in order to make sure that these schools can reopen safely. look at that. all of the supplies they need in order to keep kids, teachers, and staffers at schools safe. priscilla thompson in texas, thank you very much. chuck, over to you. we told you earlier about this new study from the cdc which is revealing the total number of positive cases in the united states is likely much higher than reported. so something we have known almost since the start of the pandemic when we fell so far behind on testing. the total number of confirmed positive cases in the united states sits around 4 million, but the cdc estimates the total number of infections is likely 2 to 13 times higher than current reported cases. let's say 40 million. that's based in agency-led study
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of antibodies which reveals past carriers of the virus. joining us to discuss this is a doctor. and doctor, let me ask this question with a bit of skepticism, because what antibody test seems to work, and i say this with a little -- you know, there's a lot of technology here that hasn't worked for others that we're assuming is working perfectly well with the cdc. the cdc's credibility on its first test, obviously, they took a hit on there. what is our confidence level about these antibody tests that should make us feel confident that this study from the cdc is accurate? >> well, i think you bring up a good point, that we have a variety of different antibody tests, and the question is interpreting what they mean, but what is not really in doubt is that there are people who have
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coronavirus infection who don't have symptoms. we don't have a systematic testing strategy across the country. we are probably undertesting in some communities because we only test based on symptoms. and so it is very likely and reasonable to assume just based on what we know about the virus that we are not diagnosing everybody who is affected. >> there have been questions about how long the antibodies last for those who are able to get them and whether they last longer in others. there are also questions about what t-cells, what role t-cells play in combatting this virus. what can you tell us about that? >> yeah, so we are -- you know, this is a new virus, and we're still in the early stages of really understanding everything about this. and there were studies that have come out recently that show that the antibody response wanes over time, that there is variable antibody response to different
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individuals based on their degree of infection, as well as there are those antibody responses appear to go down over a period of time. it turns out the body's immune system is quite complex. and so our ability to generate longer term immunity to a virus relies on our t-cells, so while there is variability in the immediate antibody response, that shouldn't lead us to believe that the body doesn't have an ability to develop true immunity or that we shouldn't have hope in a vaccination, for example. it does mean we have to be cautious at interpreting the immediate antibody tests that many are using right now. >> does blood type matter -- >> i'm sorry. go ahead, chuck. >> sorry, katy. i didn't hear our direction on that one, so that's on me, i think. have we learned whether blood
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type is an indication of how severe one might be -- how severe a susceptibility you have to the virus? >> i think there were some suggestions that there were certain blood types. i don't know that that's been consistently shown in the type of work done. we need many more studies of this type to really understand what this is, and those are currently under way. but i think as we learn more, it changes how we address and refine our health response, but it doesn't change the fundamental thing that the basic public health measures we need to have in place in order to get transmission under control are still going to need to be our main frontline strategy at this moment, particularly as you're showing, we have so many states where cases are on the rise. >> katy, i know you had one more
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question. sorry. >> i'm sorry. you know, with this social distancing of our studios, it makes it hard sometimes to line up the delays. let's apologize for all of that. i was going to say i didn't expect to be talking about t-cells as a 36-year-old journalist talking about day of air news, so that was interesting. my question, though, dr dr. domingo, what is your best advice for parents right now who are considered whether or not they should send their kids back to schools, if they reopen, and how much of that is going to have to do with where you are? >> i think that's exactly right. our first strategy with schools has got to be to get the transmission down in the communities where those schools are located. so everybody's strategy this summer is to figure out how we can do the basic strategies of masking, distancing, and hygiene in order to get community spread under control. the second strategy really has
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to be to resource the schools for what they needed, like you showed in your prior segment in terms of the masking. i would really love to see more testing be available so that the schools can really tackle this. i think we are learning about schools. the good news is for younger children, there doesn't seem to be much of a risk of severe disease. it's very rare. it does happen but it's rare. i think the bigger challenge is for our older children because that is where schools seem to themselves be sources of outbreaks when we watch in other countries. and i wished we as a country had planned for the opening of schools and driven everything towards making sure we could open our schools safely, but that really requires resources for the schools, testing more widespread, as well as community transmission under control. and unfortunately, in many parts of the country, that's not the case right now. >> dr. domingo, you're correct
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on that, and i might add one more thing, sort of an acknowledgment of some long-term planning here, even if it was three or four months. we did have some time. now we're running out of it. doctor, thank you. katy, over to you. and officers in riot gear shut down the month-long demonstration calling to defund the police outside of new york city hall. details on what happened here in just a minute. st a minute. my grandmother my brothers and sisters my friends for going back to school the bbq the lake the beach my place for my neighbors my community my people my country my home for him for her for them for you. ♪
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learn more about why you should choose an aarp medicare supplement plan. call today for a free guide. rudy got older and suddenly stopped eating...t, then we found freshpet. now rudy's 13, and going on 3. ♪ early this morning, officers in riot gear cleared out dozens of people from new york city's occupy city hall encampment, shutting down the month-long demonstration that was calling to defund the police. mayor bill de blasio has previously resisted plans to clear the protest zone. however, at a news conference today, he said there were growing concerns over health and safety and denied it had anything to do with president trump's threat to send federal agents to new york and other
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cities. >> was the choice to clear the plaza now prompted by concerns federal agents might come in and do it for you? >> no, this is something that's been discussed over several weeks. really looking at how this gathering had gotten really small. i think it was about 50 people at the time it was cleared. again, growing concerns about health and safety. we were waiting to really understand the facts and the specifics and came to the conclusion this was the right time. >> mayor bill de blasio said he would take the trump administration to court if it does send federal agents to new york city, and chuck, that encampment wasn't just outside city hall. it was also right across the street from one police plaza, the headquarters for the nypd. >> also fairly close enough to a federal facility that there was some chatter -- >> a block away. one block away from a federal courthouse. >> exactly.
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and i think that was the concern there. for the first time ever, twitter has taken widespread action against a conspiracy theory mega giant known as qanon. while it's blocked thousands of accounts from spreading misinformation on its platform, is that enough, and of course, what about facebook, which has got qanon all over it? we'll ask none other than kara swisher.
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of a pandemic this next sentence would not have been all that significant, but for the first time this election cycle, joe biden and barack obama were in the same room. the former running mates reunited earlier this month mon record a socially distant conversation, where they discussed president trump's leadership and in a teaser release this morning, here's what they said. >> can you imagine standing up when you're a president saying it's not my responsibility? i take no responsibility. i mean, literally and those words didn't come out of our mouths while we were in office. >> i don't understand his inability to get a sense of what people are going through. he just can't -- he can't relate in any way. >> the full video, the full conversation will be released tomorrow. chuck, again, i mean, if were weren't in middle of a pandemic saying barack obama and joe biden are in same room together
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campaigning would not be a big deal, but because of this, this is first time and we're well into july. >> i have to say, so far, the biden campaign has had more clever pandemic-inspired e.s so far than i have seen out of the trump campaign, they're trying with their tele-town halls and things like that, it's interesting so far you got to say and you could argue the biden campaign has been -- has been embracing it more than the trump campaign, maybe the trump campaign will start embracing it but this looks like a pretty clever little thing that will certainly have a lot of supporters clicking and watching. our final segment today, twitter is now cracking down on the conspiracy theory group qanon, banning at least 7,000 accounts. part of a new effort -- with now
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us the host of pivot podcast. kara, let's talk about twitter doing this, facebook not. i have to tell you, an armed gunman came into a pizza place in washington, d.c., based on this qanon garbage four years ago, what took so long? >> i don't know, chuck. i mean, we've been talking about it a lot and of course, these have become sort of morn pits for conspiracy theories. they haven't cleaned them up or put them off to the side. in fact, it's sort of degrading all of online culture, all of social media sites, but it's expensive to deal with, they're making their free speech arguments they tend to make, although i don't think this is speech, it's hate speech.
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you know, i still don't understand -- many years from now we'll figure it out, what took so long to deal with a group like this, similar thing happened with alex jones, apple was the first to move on that one and everybody followed. but twitter's really pushing up front, you'll see a lot more from twitter, only their differentiating from facebook and other social media sites, probably good for the branded a good for them. >> you know, i wonder how many of donald trump supporters you see at rallies would be wearing qanon gear and spouting conspiracy theories had this happened further, you see that at every event related to the president, twitter has take on the lead on this, they have taken down some of the president's tweets in violation of copyright or their own rules. what's going on with facebook
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and mark zuckerberg -- >> let me correct you. they didn't take down the tweets, they covered them up. they put warnings on them on twitter. >> good correction. >> facebook has a rule of taking things down when they do, which is rare occurrence for them. facebook has been moving slowly that way and now, you know, a story in the wall street journal yesterday they're going to study racial problems on the platform, which would be nice, they recnnly had another study they commissioned themselves that totally impugned them and said they did a very bad job on favoring voices on civil rights. lot of the stuff is being governed by the public policy people in d.c., especially joel kaplan, exercising a lot of
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control over product. >> in some ways this misinformation dove tails with election security and the problems of social media. we were talking about it a little bit earlier with some lawmakers, what can you tell us about how seriously the social media companies are taking it this time around? >> the government isn't taking it seriously, lot of the election security bills have sat and sat and sat for years, you know, within a couple of months of the election, this is a critical issue that the companies have to work together with government to push back, you know it's not just russia, iran, china is doing stuff around the virus, it goes on and on and on. i think it's really important that the government become involve with and work with social media company, they're fighting nation states.
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the companies need a lot of help from the government which has not been forthcoming. >> everybody's got to take it as seriously as they can for everybody to get on the same page, it can't be one arm doing one thing as the other arm doing another. thank you for joining us. >> thanks a lot. chuck, over to you. >> all right, guys, katy, that's it for us today. thank you for, the viewers, for tuning in. nicolle wallace and brian williams will pick things up after this quick break. break $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.
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good day, brian williams with you for the hour. our friend nicolle wallace will be along with us later this afternoon. we're expecting president trump and attorney general barr to announce this hour the deployment of more of those federal law enforcement officers like the ones we have seen on the streets of portland, oregon, clashing with protesters, they'll be expanded apparently into other cities across our country, according to the ap, chicago among the cities the president will be deploying them to, in what the ap says is an effort to combat rising crime, chicago was the scene of a terrible shooting just last night, the chicago mayor has said repeatedly the feds are not welcome in her city, we'll have much more on this as
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