just a little while. you can sign up at axios.signup.com. i'm alex witt, you can catch me at noon eastern on saturday. stay tuned "morning joe" starts now. there are those in power doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting. >> these elections will be fraudulently lent, they'll be fixed. >> targeting minorities and students with restrictive id laws. >> so we want to have an election. i'd love to see voter id. >> attacking our voting rights with surgical precision, even undermining the postal service in a runoff to the election that's going to be dependent on mail-in ballots. >> i also don't want to have to wait for three months and find out the ballots are all missing and the election doesn't mean anything.

>> we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons. >> we're telling them right now that we're coming in very soon, the national guard, a lot of people, a lot of very tough people. >> that's where real courage comes from. not from turning on each other, but by turning towards one another. not by sowing hatred and division, but by spreading love and truth. >> and we're telling right now these protesters, and many should be arrested because these are professional agitators, professional anarchists, these are people that hate our country. >> so there's a tell of the tape between the 45th president of the united states and the 44th president of the united states. you know, there were some sad, pathetic tools of donald trump who still shamelessly defend

absolutely everything he does and think if they're over the top and bombastic in the attacks against people that tell the truth to you that somehow that will discourage others from telling the truth about donald trump and what's going on in this country. let me just say, knowing john lewis the way i did, and i knew him pretty damn well, barack obama did exactly what john lewis would have wanted him to do in that funeral yesterday. >> good trouble. >> so if anybody decides that they're going to attack barack obama or anybody else for speaking the way they did at john lewis' funeral, they knew what was going to happen. and if somehow it's sleazy to talk about the right of black

and white, his panpanic, asian-american voters to get out and express their choice on election day, if that's sleazy, then you have a different view of john lewis and the overwhelming majority of americans have. willie, i thought -- i mean, we have so much to get to. >> yeah, it's a big day. >> i thought president obama's words and so many others that were spoken in the memory of john lewis and fighting about voters' rights, what john lewis dedicated his entire adult life to, i thought that was extraordinarily appropriate and moving. >> it was on a day when the sitting president of the united states floated the idea of delaying the election because things aren't going well for him personally. you had three united states presidents, barack obama, bill

clinton and george w. bush gathered to honor john lewis and you couldn't help but be moved as you look at john lewis in the coffin and above him an african-american president. when he crossed that bridge in selma, he wanted the opportunity to sit at a lunch counter with white people, vote like white people and now he saw an african-american president of the united states. if you weren't moved by what you saw yesterday in that church, there might be something wrong with you. >> as if president obama's address yesterday wasn't enough to put president trump on edge, there's also this. he was rebuked by senate republicans by suggesting that election day. the michael flynn decision was voided. the doj dropped conditions that tried to stop michael cohen's

book. and republican led committee slaps down a pentagon nominee. that and most importantly, 153,000 americans are dead on the president's watch over just the past few months. the number is staggering, just 1000 a day and keeps going. we have former chairman of the republican national committee michael steele, politics editor for the daily beast, sam stein. and nbc news contributor, shana thomas. the tweet came out yesterday after the show, moments after the government detailed the biggest collapse on record, president trump suggesting a possible delay of the election. top republicans are flatout rejecting the idea. >> never in the history of the country, through wars,

depressions, and the civil war have we ever not had a federally scheduled election on time. and we'll find a way to do that again this november 3rd. >> never in the history of the federal elections have we ever not held an election and we should go forward with our election. >> we're in the going to delay the election we'll have the voting completed by election day. >> i don't think the federal government can block it -- i don't know. >> the election is going to happen in november, period. >> speaking to reporters yesterday, the president appeared to walk back the idea of moving the election, but at the same time in his usual style continued his attack on mail-in voting. >> he really knows he's going to lose this fall. he's sending the message to republican senators i'm going to

lose. after this happened yesterday, we'll get to this in a minute. after this happened yesterday, republican senators were aghast this was in effect, donald trump throwing in the towel, making excuses already for his loss for an election that's, what, 97, 98 days away, and he's already throwing in the towel? so he's -- he's already talking about doubting the validity of november's elections because he knows he's going to lose. watch this. >> you know, so many years i've been watching elections. and they say the projected winner or the winner of the election, i don't want to see that take place in a week after november 3rd or a month or, frankly, with litigation and everything else that can happen, years, years or you never even know who won the election. i want to have the result of the

election. i don't want to be waiting around for weeks and months and literally, potentially, if you really did it right, years because you'll never know. these ballots are missing. i don't want a delay. i want to have the election. but i also don't want to have to wait for three months and then find out that the ballots are all missing and the election doesn't mean anything. that's what's going to happen, steve. that's common sense. we want to have an election where people actually go and what's your name, my name is so and so, you sign the book. do i want to see a day change, no. but i don't want to see a crooked election. >> how sad. >> wow. >> how sad. and by the way, republican senators don't agree with him, and a lot of media outlets that have defended him time and time again are actually calling him out for that sad, pathetic

display. his staff members just beyond themselves yesterday in the white house because donald trump had already asked them, can we delay the election? no. no, mr. president, it's constitutional lyset constitutionally set, no you can't. the editors of the national review, the editors, entitled "delaying the election would be grotesque and un-american". they write this, president trump outdid himself with a tweet floating the idea of delaying the election. obviously this is an incendiary and absurd idea unworthy of being spoken or even thought by a president of the united states. this is the national review. it is a tribute to our commitment to self-government that elections have occurred as scheduled on this day during the worst crises of american history when american troops were in the field against rebel troops who sought to doe troy the nation

when the unemployment rate was 25%, when the u.s. forces were engaged in the struggle to save the west from germany and japan. trump doesn't understand this, or doesn't care. it's another indication of how little he's let the institution of the presidency shape him and how selfishly he approaches his duties. again, the "national review". and this line from "the washington journal" editorial board. this is not to suggest that the november election will be rigged as mr. trump asserts. if he believes that, he should reconsider his participation and let someone run who isn't looking for an excuse to blame for defeat. willie, these are from two publications who have defended

him time and time again over the past several years, even though at times both have been critical as well. yet both come out with screaming 99 miles an hour fastballs right down the middle of the plate, telling donald trump what you're doing is un-american and if you're going to keep claiming the election is rigged, then quit right now and let a republican run that's not already looking for an excuse to lose. >> it was the rare day yesterday, joe where among republicans and conservative media, the president found very, very few defenders on this idea. he painted himself in a corner where fox news is no longer with him, he'll attack "the washington journal" today i'm sure. mitch mcconnell and republicans said across the board we're not changing the date of the election it will be on november 3rd. there may be still an outlet

defending him on this -- >> sinclaire. >> perhaps. but when you look at the reality of what he's talking about, delaying is one thing, but mail-in ballot fraud -- we'll say it again, is rare -- it's been going on for generations. there's going to be a lot of mail-in voting this time. it's important for people watching this morning to know what the president is saying about fraud isn't true. there are a handful of cases every election cycle but it is not widespread or rampant as he claims. >> willie, i cannot emphasize enough what you just said. between now and over the next 97, 96, 95 days of this election, we have to -- we have to continue to insist to the american people that they understand that fact that mail-in balloting, mail-in voting is legitimate, it is done

in at least five states. every state has some form of it, you know it as absentee ball balloting. i love yesterday the president i love this absentee ballot, but this mail-in voting -- mr. president, they're the same thing. so you understand an absentee ballot is the same as a mail-in ballot. it's the same thing. this is why we got to keep pushing our narrative, which is a constitutional narrative. the one that's been set by the government, set by the american people. we know what the process is, all we're looking for now, and this is where mitch mcconnell and the leaders on the hill can step up their game is to put the other $3.6 billion that the states requested so that they could

execute the ballot box the correct way so voters have the access, the votes can get counted. we already know you're in the going to have a declared winner necessarily on election night. but we don't need to play into the president's scenario, his setup, this is his setup that we're not going to be knowing who it is in three months or even years, that's baloney. but you can control the process to the extent you put in place the infrastructure to get the votes counted. so we're clear, america, absentee ballot, vote by mail, same thing. >> it was painful to watch the secretary of state, shana thomas, yesterday allowing this, when he was asked by senator tim kaine about this. we can show it later. it's nauseating actually. but a lot of republicans did step up and i think this is a big moment for republicans, to

have a sitting president using the podium of the presidency, the power of the presidency, a sitting american president sowing doubt in the sanctity of the election coming up in november. is there any parallel we can think of that comes close -- i have to add this, in this country? is there any parallel to this? >> i don't see a parallel. i think that's why you also saw the reaction that we saw on the hill, that we saw amongst lots of conservative leaders about this. i think one thing that really struck me yesterday was the juxta position between trump's tweet and what he said at the podium at the white house and the funeral service. there's lots of things we can talk about with that and barack obama's speech and everything, but just this idea that there were three presidents there,

clinton, bush and obama, it was this idea -- this very american idea with all three of them there of a peaceful transfer of power, that we have elections for years, that in the end we still can come together like they did yesterday and honor someone like representative john lewis. juxtaposed with someone who is trying to screw up one of those very american ideals that we've been able to do, even during world wars and during other huge economic upsets. that juxtaposition was so stark to me and it put president trump on this island that these other three presidents are never going to be on. he's going to be by himself. then we saw republican leaders make him more by himself. this president has given a lot of people in this country a lot of reasons not to vote for him.

a lot of black people, hispanic people, but there are a lot of conservatives than in his economic ideals. a lot of conservatives that believe in pro life and abortion shouldn't be in this country. he found something yesterday to get a lot of conservatives to get off the island with him as well. in some ways that's impressive he found some way to break those chains, but overall, i think just that idea of three presidents versus this one sticks out in my head. >> it does. >> it really does. sam, this goes back to really what we've been talking about for a while on this show about donald trump oddly enough taking the 20% in 80/20 issues. of course, when i was in congress people would come and go this is an easy one, this is

an 80/20 issue. what side do you want to be on? you want to be on the 80% side. great. so yif you look over the past sx months, coronavirus, that's an 80/20 issue. donald trump has been on the wrong side of almost everything, masks, 80% of americans do masks. rushing back by easter, most americans didn't want to do that. you can talk about rushing back to school, he was talking about that back in the spring. overwhelming number of parents didn't want to do that. now george floyd, racial reconciliation and the john lewis funerals, those were 75/25, even after the marches and some of the violent outbreaks on the edges of those marches, an overwhelming majority of americans still spo supporting that as well. and he just -- yesterday he's tweeting about pizza and pizza

shops and rigged elections while the three presidents are saying good-bye to john lewis, an american legend. again, that's an 80/20 issue, that's for damn sure at least. look at this poll out of pennsylvania. a poll that has come out -- that's in line with a lot of polls that show donald trump getting absolutely hammered in the keystone state and if you look at the philly suburbs, if you look how biden is outperforming in scranton, if if you look at philadelphia william barr all of these states, i will say, i expect arizona and florida to remain close, but i really don't know how donald trump gets close in a state like pennsylvania considering he's completely offended the philly suburbs. >> yeah.

you know, it's two things here. one is, there's always this contention that donald trump is playing some sort of three dimensional chess. in reality i think we have evidence now there's no chess match happening here. this is plain guttural politics that he resorts to time and time again, even returning to the coronavirus briefing our reporting showed that he wanted to do it. he felt like him not being out there was hurting him politically. whenever data point shows the briefings were a lam us the to him. often time his gut brings him to the 30% range or that 20% range on issues, driven on the belief that there's a silent majority out there that he can tap. and certainly affirmed by the fact he won the 2016 election. he wants to do a replay of that election cycle. in this case, you're absolutely right.

it doesn't make sense, electorally, it's hampered him. but also step back, everything comes back to his inability to be an effective head of government. he would be in a better situation if he had just handled the coronavirus epidemic from the get go our economy would be better off, electorally he would be better off he wouldn't have to divert attention to rigged elections and mail-in ballot frauds and things like that. this is a referendum on his governance and until he recogniz recognizes it's his own actions and inability to contain the spread of the coronavirus, he will not fix his electoral prospects at all. >> still ahead on "morning joe," more from -- i'm sorry, go ahead, willie. >> i was going to say to michael steele's point about the

difference without a distinction there between mail-in voting and absentee voting there isn't one. the reason the president is making that distinction, he voted absentee and did in 2018. so he wants you to believe what that was good for him in 2018, is somehow different than mail-in voting. absentee voting is mail-in voting. you vote. it is going to take a while to count the votes this time. tom ridge the former homeland security secretary and former governor of pennsylvania said we should be thinking of election week because of mail-in votes this time and they take longer to count. so that part is true, but that does not mean there is widespread fraud in that process and that an election day should be delayed. >> and that's why it's so important for mitch mcconnell to not block the funding that

supervisor of electors across america are asking for and that they need. we're in the middle of a pandemic and mitch mcconnell understands that. he understands that people can't amass around polling places in kentucky, and if they do, then they'll die because of it. he certainly understands that. i think most understand that, so they need that funding. but mika, you look at these numbers, i showed the pennsylvania numbers. word is that the trump campaign understands, and we've been talking about this for a little while, that michigan is falling out of reach. >> new hampshire, here's new hampshire, joe biden up 13 points in new hampshire, a state that was close four years ago, a state that donald trump was going to have a rally at a few weeks ago but had to cancel according to state party officials talk lg to reporters

because of a lack of interest. they couldn't get people to his rally there, so they blamed it on weather, despite the fact it was sunny that day. and again, this is not complicated, republicans -- >> no. >> -- you have a president on the wrong side of every issue on the coronavirus. you have a president -- and i know some of you still keep defending him, i don't know why. you have a president who's on the wrong side of race. look at the polls, don't listen to me, don't believe me just because i've been a conservative about 25 years longer than donald trump has been in the republican party. you look at issues where he's talking about moving the election and rigged elections. again, that's for, you know, the conspiracy theorists on facebook. this guy is leading you to ruin. i've been saying it for four years, four and a half years, february of 2016 i wrote an

op-ed in "the washington post," one of many op-eds, saying that donald trump is going to lead your party to ruin. you don't have to listen to me. if you want to be led to ruin, that's totally fine. but right now you look at the poll numbers in pennsylvania, look at the poll numbers in michigan, you look how republican senators are doing in maine, you look at how republican senators are doing in arizona, how they're doing in colorado, how they're doing in north carolina. how they're doing in traditionally red states. how's donald trump doing in texas? ted cruz even is admitting that texas is up for grandparenbs an good reason. the last four or five polls show in texas it's tied. there's a dallas morning news poll that shows joe biden up by five points. but republicans, this is your guy that you've been embracing

if for the past four, four and a half years. >> enabling, better word. >> this is your guy that you're still making apologies for despite the fact that his own intel agencies and staff told him back in march we have to do something about vladimir putin putting bounties on the heads of young american troops in afghanistan, and he's done nothing. you've said nothing. are you surprised he's losing by 13 points in new hampshire with that record. are you surprised in pennsylvania? are you surprised that florida is slipping away because 150,000 americans are dead and donald trump is still talking about hydroxychloroquine because he's still retweeting conspiracy theories and people that talk about demon dna, mocking masks?

i know you're not surprised, so what are you going to do? you really want this guy at the top of your ticket in november? i know you don't. so what are you going to do? barry goldwater, in 1974, got off his ass, went to the other side of pennsylvania avenue, and told richard nixon it was time to go. do you have the courage to do that? last four years suggest that you don't. but i will just say, at the end of july, 2020, the same thing i warned you about in february of 2016, before super tuesday, that donald trump will lead to the end of the party of abraham lincoln. maybe not this week, maybe not

this month, maybe not even this election, but it's coming. and your window is closing. i'll end by saying this, we had epidemiologists on this show, we had doctors on the show, we had health experts on the show back in march, they kept saying the same thing, we have to act now on the coronavirus or the window is closing. we could have 50,000 deaths in america. we could have 75,000, 100,000, 150,000 -- the window is closing. we kept saying it, the epidemiologists kept saying it, doctors kept saying it, doctors kept saying it, donald trump kept ignoring it, you kept quiet and here we are at 150,000 we don't know how high that number is going to go now. maybe you didn't care about that, maybe you didn't care about a pandemic sweeping across america, but you care about your

own political career, your own political party. understand the window is closing. the time is drawing near when you go past the point of no return. are you going to walk down to the white house? are you going to get in your car, go to the white house, and tell donald trump that it's time for him to go? it's your choice. if you don't, let me tell you what's going to happen. you're going to lose the election, lose the senate, lose the house and you're going to have to complain about democrats running this country the rest of your life. but it's your call. maybe it's worth blindly falling a democrat who contributed to hillary clinton, seven, eight times, who contributed to anthony weiner, to elliott spencer, who contributed to

kamala harris. isn't this exciting if joe biden picks kamala harris. you will have donald trump running against a vice president that he contributed to in 2014. 2014. not like 1998, 1999 when he was hanging out with jeffrey epstein, with a bunch of women -- >> young girls. >> i'm sorry, yeah, young girls. >> yeah. >> not, not back then when he was hanging out with jeffrey epstein and partying with jeffrey epstein in florida. no, this was like 2014 he gave money to kamala harris. that's who you are going to turn your political future over to? your choice. let me tell you, if you don't speak up and speak out now, take it from a conservative to a

former conservative, your future doesn't look bright. >> all right. still ahead on "morning joe," more from the president's briefing where he tried to paint a positive picture of the coronavirus crisis. even as some states hit record numbers of infections or fatalities plus the department of homeland security has reportedly created intelligence reports on journalists covering the protests in portland. one of those reporters was apparently benjamin wittes. he joins us next. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. g "morning." we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ the open road is open again. and wherever you're headed, choice hotels is there. book direct at choicehotels.com. ♪ when you have depression, at choicehotels.com. it can plunge you into deep, dark lows. and, can leave you feeling extremely sad and disinterested. overwhelmed by bipolar depression? ask about vraylar. not all types of depression should be treated the same. vraylar effectively helps relieve all symptoms

of bipolar depression... with just one pill, once a day. elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis have an increased risk of death or stroke. call your doctor about unusual changes in behavior or suicidal thoughts. antidepressants can increase these in children and young adults. report fever, stiff muscles or confusion, which may mean a life-threatening reaction, or uncontrollable muscle movements, which may be permanent. side effects may not appear for several weeks. metabolic changes may occur. nausea, restlessness and movement dysfunction are common side effects. when bipolar depression overwhelms, ask how vraylar can help. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. i wish i could shake your hand. granted. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

welcome to camp tonsafun on xfinity! it's summer camp, but in your living room. learn how to draw with a minions expert... how to build an indoor obstacle course! plus... whatever she's doing. and me, jade catta-preta. the host of e's the soup! camp tonsafun. it's like summer camp, but minus the poison ivy. unless you own poison ivy. in which case, why? just say "summer camp" into your xfinity voice remote to join.

others see cracked concrete, instrundown courts.ere. i see a way to bring pride back to communities. that's why i made project backboard and a site with godaddy. how will you make your mark? make the world you want. the department of homeland security has gathered intelligence reports on two american journalists who published leaked documents while covering protests in portland, oregon. "the washington post" reports. three open source reports sent

to federal law enforcement agencies, mike baker and editor and chief of the blog law fair, benjamin wittes. notice both published leaked documents. some of the dhs documents revealed flaws in the department's understanding of the nature of the protests in portland, as well as the techniques that intelligence analysts have used. one of the internal documents posted included a july 24th memo admonishing officials to not give information to reporters. it was written in response to reporting in law fair and "the washington post" days earlier about the new guidance to collect information on people who threaten memorials and statues defended the department's use of authority. the dhs condemned the actions of

its intelligence distinguish saying acting secretary chad wolf directed the office to immediately discontinue collecting information involving journalists, and also ordered an inquiry according to a spokesperson. and ben wittes joins us now. you told the post it's not the sharing of your tweet that you find disturbing but rather using it as intelligence on an american person. tell us about that. >> i would not be surprised at all or disturbed had i learned there was some email or memo saying whoever is sending this material to wittes, cut it out and included the tweet. people sending out news clippings and tweets count as that. i wouldn't be troubled by that

at all. and i wouldn't have been troubled if there was a memo to the inspector general saying somebody is leaking stuff, please look into this, and included the tweet. so the trouble is not that they shared my tweet. the trouble is they framed it as a matter of intelligence. and, you know, we don't do intelligence collection and reporting on u.s. citizens in the absence -- or people in the united states in the absence of some connection to a foreign intelligence or a domestic intelligence threat. and the homeland security department has a number of missions that it's allowed to collect and report on. after that it's supposed to leave people alone. so this was core first amendment protected activity reporting on government, the material in question was all unclassified,

so there's no question of classified leaks. and i have no idea what business they have creating intelligence work product about me or mike baker from the "new york times" or any other u.s. person not suspected of posing a threat. and i note that apparently the acting secretary seems to be agree with me. >> ben, it's willie. you started to answer my question because these are unclassified documents, it's important to underline that, that you published in a tweet. what's the complaint against you by dhs? chad wolf said we don't condone these tactics we'll stop collecting the intelligence but what's the complaint against you? >> it's unclear to me, actually. so dhs as we reported a couple of weeks ago now in lawfare has

been given the task of intelligence protection in protection of monuments, statues, federal buildings, et cetera. it's very hard for me to understand how my tweet about their intelligence activities poses a threat to any confederate statue. i suppose the issue could be leak investigation but that doesn't seem to have any any relationship to any homeland security mission i can discern. so it's unclear to me what the basis for this sort of reporting is. >> ben wittes, thank you very much. still ahead, with unemployment claims on the rise, lawmakers on capitol hill appear far from striking any new deal on coronavirus relief measures.

that means extra jobless benefits could expire today. >> oh my gosh. >> "morning joe" is back in a moment. >> "morning joe" is back in a moment the coronavirus is wrecking state and local budgets. if the senate doesn't act, it will mean painful cuts to essential public services across america. fewer teachers and nurses, longer response times, dirtier streets. but some say our states should just go bankrupt. text fund to 237-263 to tell congress to fund our essential public services.

afscme is responsible for the content of this ad. can it help keep me asleep? smart bed is on sale now. absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. save up to $500 on select sleep number 360 smart beds. plus no interest until january 2023 & free delivery on most beds when you add a base. ends monday i do motivational speakingld. in addition to the substitute teaching. i honestly feel that that's my calling-- to give back to younger people. i think most adults will start realizing that they don't recall things as quickly as they used to or they don't remember things as vividly as they once did. i've been taking prevagen for about three years now. people say to me periodically, "man, you've got a memory like an elephant." it's really, really helped me tremendously. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. no matter where you live, where you live has never mattered more. for over 100 years, realtors® have brought local knowledge and deep expertise

to helping people find new places to dream and thrive. the next great place you'll call home. so, whether you're upsizing downsizing or just ready to make a change. look for the r.

everyone wants to save on but are you saving the most? check out rxsaver by retailmenot - a free coupon app and website where you can see prices and save up to 85% on your prescriptions. it could even beat your insurance copay. just visit rxsaver.com, type in your meds, select your pharmacy and show the coupon when you pay. now you're an rxsaver! remember: you haven't saved...until you're an rxsaver! to my retirement days than i'i am my college days. i just want to know, am i gonna be okay? i know people who specialize in "am i going to be okay." you may need glasses though.

guidance to help you stay on track. ♪ for every person with the virus we're seeing an average of less than one additional person infected and the numbers are coming down and coming down very substantially. they're starting to come down in florida. arizona is really leading away. i was in texas yesterday and they're starting to come down significantly we believe in texas. need another few days to figure that one out, but it look like they're coming down very significantly. we added a record 7 million jobs in the two months past alone to ensure this comeback continues, which we think it will, we had great foundation to build on.

we were the strongest country in the world, nobody close. >> president trump made those claims just yesterday in the white house briefing room about coronavirus and the economy. the numbers, of course, tell a different story. florida reached a new record high in daily deaths for the third consecutive day. arizona also reported a record increase in fatalities. and california broke its record for the number of deaths in a single day for the fourth time this month. meanwhile, the united states epicenter is showing signs of shifting to the midwest. as for the economy gdp fell for the second quarter. and more than a million jobless claims have been filed each week for 19 consecutive weeks. joining us former treasury official and economic analyst steve ratner. and president and ceo of the national urban league mark

murio. steve, we had 24 hours to absorb these employment numbers and the devastating gdp number. i'm reminded an early look of your charts of april 29th when jared kushner said on fox news by july the country will be rocking again. what do the numbers tell you right now? >> well, the country is rocking but perhaps not in the direction that jared kushner expected it to be. let's take a deeper dive and the numbers released yesterday starting with the gdp number. obviously as the president indicated, the economy was gradually recovering throughout the -- the 2010 and it reached a peak in the spring and then it went off this cliff we had the drop yesterday which amounted to

a 9.5% drop for that quarter. it hits bottom, brings the economy back to the same levels of the fourth quarter of 2014. now the president is talking about this quick rebound. you see the dotted blue line and the red dot that represents a consensus of what the numbers will be, the ones reported five days before election day. even if we make it to the red dot we will still have regained only about 45% of what we lost in the drop. the president will be touting a strong increase in one quarter against the backdrop of an economy that's still weaker. you can see on the right the economy continues to recover but it does not get back to the levels it was at before this crisis until at least 2022. not the happiest economic picture for the president. we'll see how he spins it. let's turn to the jobless

numbers released yesterday and try to give you color on how those look. on the left side we have the initial claims new people applying each week for unemployment, that number is running above 1.4 million, increased the last two weeks, that is extraordinary, unexpected and not good news. we expected a continuation in the improvement of the jobless numbers. this is we believe tied to the infection rates. the more we reopen, the more infections we get. and then on the right side it's scarier to me in -- i'm sorry? >> go ahead. >> i'm sorry. and then on the right side, you can see what are called continuing claims for unemployment. they also -- these are people who are on week after week, that was also declining. it had its first increase last week. that data is put together with a week delay, so we don't have

last week's. but this is worrisome, it means there's more people on unemployment than before. so we're losing these jobs, thought we were gaining these jobs and now it's turning the otheway, probably not in time for the july numbers. let's look at the impact of this on the real economy because there are people out there spending money and so forth. this is a proxy to show you close to real time what consumers are doing. you can see the drop on the left from precrisis levels, see how we climbed back we got to within 10% of where we were before this started. since june 21st, when this number peaked, it's been drifting downwards and we're now 58% below normal levels. if you look in terms of consumer spending on credit cards we're a

bit behind our high point. and there's data around how people are moving around small business sales. all of which confirms a picture of an economy that's starting to, if not, flat line, certainly a slower recovery than we expected for the obvious reason when you have states reopened too early and have to shut down again because of the coronavirus, this is the consequence. >> shana thompson has a question. >> i skipped most of my economic classes in college, which shouldn't have done because college was super expensive. is there anything to be done other than an infusion of cash by the federal government into the system? what are the other choices? are there any other choices? >> shawna, the first and most important choice was probably implicit in your question is to

fix the virus. if you fix the virus that will go a massive distance towards fixing the economy. other than that, the federal government is the player here. this is why we have government, frankly, not to be overly simplistic. there are times you have public health problems other problems so significant like the financial crisis where only government can fix it, and the question is how do you fix it? at the moment they're fixing it badly. the house passed a bill a couple months ago, the republicans just put together a house a couple days ago, they're nowhere. the unemployment payments have now stopped to people who are unemployed, the extra $600 a week. other provisions have also started to expire. so this is government that tried really well in the spring and now seems to be trying as badly as you can try. >> sam? >> this is sam stein here, i

want to add one thing, you look around, this is a question for mark, who was the president of the u.s. conference, so he can speak with authority about this. but it's tough to see an even near or long-term future for cities here, when steve was referencing consumer spendsing you look at restaurants and retail and it's difficult to see people getting to a comfort level where they go out to restaurants and feel comfortable going out at night. i think you're starting to see a lot of owners of those establishments come to the recognition that their future is bleak. as someone who's worked in urban politics, led the u.s. conference of mayors, give us your sense of the next half year, year for mayors and sticis and what they can do to stop the

bleeding, if possible? >> it's important that the federal government step in and provide funds for cities and states so they don't have to add to the unemployment levels by laying off city and state workers. it's essential, we're in the trump depression now. secondly, absent extension of unemployment benefits and more fiscal stimulus from the federal government, this situation is going to get worse. we have to stabilize things. we have to put people first until we get the virus under control. this is a virus induced depression. and the depression has been induced by mishandling of the virus. so for cities, for cities, cities need sustainability funds, states need sustainability funds people need an expansion and extension of the enhanced unemployment

benefits and other dollars. we have to recognize the historic nature of this crisis and people, here we are, and we don't even know if schools can safely open in america, and that means children and their families at risk. so we've got to elevate the historic nature, the depth of this crisis. mayors have been on the front lines. governors in many instances having on the front lines. it's hypocritical to say we can bail out hotels and airlines but we can't help police officers, firefighters, teachers, public works and social workers who work for cities. higher ed who work for states. this is what we have to do right now. it's absolutely essential. and steve's numbers show that we're in a funky situation. the numbers are not improving. they, at best, it'll flat line.

in reality, the problem will get worse before it gets better. >> michael steele, somebody that's obviously practiced politics, run one of the two major political parties. what are you looking at on capitol hill today? when you have actually unemployment rate and gdp plum meting. with the benefits running out today, do you think a deal gets done? >> i think that's the scramble. what you're going to see if not an outright deal because the democrats and republicans are so far apart, $2 trillion is not a chasm you can easily cross. i think they'll settle on an extension of current levels of funding for 30 days or maybe two weeks, somewhere in that time frame to create a little bit

more runway, joe, so they can come to some resolution. republicans cannot break for the summer. they cannot break at all at this point with this hanging over their head. when you have kodak seeing a 1700% increase in the stock to the $200 million benefit of the ceo and you're cutting benefits, that is a hard pill to take back home and swallow. so i see something there. for the mayor, with that as a backdrop on the economic piece, you also have this social disruption where the president is now deciding that urban centers need his engagement. he needs to send federal troops in. it is surprising to me that the mayor of chicago accepted that offer, for the president to send federal troops there to deal with local, domestic policing issues. how do mayors balance this new reality with the president

pushing this law and order agenda in their faces when they're trying to deal with covid-19 financing and infrastructure issues, as well as the ongoing daily policing of their cities? >> i mean, i think that the president's efforts to send in troops are going to backfire on him. it creates more tension in these cities. it's beyond what is constitutionally acceptable. historically what you have had is the federal government, atf, dea, fbi, would send people into assist on the investigation side of things like terrorism or gangs or drug dealings but to send in armed officers, people on the street in military fatigues is nothing but a provocative political act. and mayors should absolutely

resist this because it's not going to be well received in communities, it will not have a positive effect. and it smacks of totalitarian m totalitarianism, police state tactics. it smacks of things that are not american, that are not democratic and are not in the best interests of the safety of american cities. so it should absolutely be resisted. what it will do is bring out more protesters. >> mr. mayor, you're concerned right now with the census and how it's being conducted. what are you looking at specifically? >> so we're concerned, joe, i'm glad you asked about the census. we're very concerned that the information coming out of the census now is that they're going to cut the time for the door knocker program. early on, due to covid, the census paused its actions and delayed the beginning of the door knocker program, which is the last mile of the census.

right now we have approximately a 62% national response rate. that means there's 70 million american households that have not been counted. if census cuts off the door knocker program, which hasn't been done, then the american people are going to be cheated out of a fair census. initially they said it would run from august to october, now they're saying they want to cut it off. here's the fix. the fix is in the congress. for the congress to do as the house did, and that is to extend the date by which the senate has to deliver a census information in a certified fashion to april 30th instead of december 31st. to give more time. we need the additional time because of covid, because of delays occasioned by covid. without that, politics is being injected into the census.

i can say without fear of contradiction that the front line, if you will, experts in the census bureau, career officials, believe the extension is necessary and they cannot complete an accurate census if the time period is cut off. >> all right. thank you very much, mark. and steve thank you as well. it is just past the top of the hour now and along with me, joe and willy, we have analyst eugene robinson. donny deutsch is with us on this friday wearing sleeves. and analyst susan dell pierce owe. we reset, it was an incredible day yesterday. the tweet came out at the end of our show yesterday, the tweet from president trump, moments after the government detailed

the most devastating economic collapse on record, trump suggested a possible delay of the november election. top republicans spent the day flatout rejecting the idea. but speaking to reporters later in the day, though the president appeared to walk back the idea of moving the election, at the same time he continued his attack on mail-in voting. talked about whether or not it would happen on time. tried to sow doubt -- a sitting american president tried to sow doubt about the validity of november's results. >> you know, so many years i've been watching elections and they say the projected winner or the winner of the election, i don't want to see that take place in a week after november 3rd, or a month or, frankly, with litigation and everything else that can happen, years, years, or you never even know who won the election. i want to have the result of the

election. i don't want to be waiting around for weeks and months and literally, potentially, if you really did it right, years because you'll never know. these ballots are missing. i don't want a delay. i want to have the election. but i also don't want to have to wait for three months and then find out that the ballots are all missing and the election doesn't mean anything. that's what's going to happen, steve. that's common sense. we want to have an election where people actually go, what's your name? my name is so and so, sign the book, like i've been doing for years. do i want to see a day change? no. but i don't want to see a crooked election. >> crooked election. and the president says, sowing doubt he said this this election will not mean anything. that's going to happen. that is what autocrats do. republicans called him out on that yesterday. democrats called him out on that

yesterday. the national review called him out, the editors of the national review as did the editors of "the washington journal." who told donald trump if you are already making excuses for your losing this election, why don't you just quit and let somebody else run who's not already trying to figure out how to work on the excuse on why you lost the election. donny, there are other people, john harris, talking about the fact that maybe donald trump just walks away like lbj. this is what "the washington journal" wrote, this is not to suggest that the november election will be rigged as mr. trump asserts. if he believes that he should reconsider his participation and let someone run who isn't looking for an excuse to blame for defeat. and donny, this president is surrounded, texas a state he shouldn't be having to spend a dime in is a toss-up state.

all the polls are showing it's a toss-up state. the dallas morning news showed biden ahead by five points a couple weeks ago. they thought they had arizona in the bag. arizona now leaning comfortably to biden. michigan, they thought they had a great chance in michigan. the trump team has been saying for weeks they may abandon michigan. things aren't going great in had wisconsin. look at the pennsylvania poll out yesterday. i think a lot of states are going to be close, i suspect, wisconsin, arizona, georgia, texas, florida, going to be close. looking at the numbers in pennsylvania and the philly suburbs that trump is going to get blown out in, philadelphia proper that trump is going to get blown out in. biden will get the scranton wilkes-barre area.

this number where donald trump is losing in pennsylvania by 9 points sounds about right. a 9 point lead in florida i don't believe it. a 9 point lead in pennsylvania, michigan, i do believe it. and then you go to a state that's a swing state one of those states that helped george w. bush get elected, new hampshire. a state that was very close last time. donald trump had just a huge crowd there. every time he's gone up there, he's had huge crowds. they had to cancel the portsmouth event a few weeks ago because he couldn't get enough people there. here in this poll of likely new hampshire voters from the university of new hampshire, joe biden beating donald trump by 13 points there. politically it does seem the walls are closing in many on donald trump and he knows it, donny. >> joe, donald trump's brand has

always stood for two things, strength or at least perceived strength we know how weak he is, and winning. and what did donald trump show yesterday? he looks like a loser and looks weak. he's basically telegraphing he's going to lose. joe you said it a few weeks ago and i agree with you the more i think about it, there's a real distinct chance that we quits. i'll tell you why, that's what's best for him. if he goes down as an epic loser, this will happen. mark july 30th the same as june 1st as tantamount days for this presidency, if he says i'm going to step aside, i had an amazing three years, he has more power -- politico pointed it out yesterday -- as an outsider with his new trump network than he

does as an ex-tremendous loser president. two tells in the last week, he did a sports interview where he talked about how great his life was before the presidency. and a couple weeks back, they had tele rallies. because he's going to go into telerallies after this. we know the best thing for donald trump is to step aside. you said it a few weeks ago and i've been jumping on it and people are saying no, you're crazy. i think it's a possibility. because for his brand, for the next ten and 20 years it's the best thing for him. that's the best advice i give him. >> i'm sure he'll take your advice and mine, donny. but you are right for his brand that's the best thing to do instead of getting blown out in an election and being remembered

as herbert hoover for the rest of his life where he could be remembered as lbj, harry truman, both of those gentlemen decided not to seek re-election. they both won, like donald trump, a shocking electoral victory four years prior and decided to leave, take the high road out. nobody has ever accused donald trump of doing that but you're right it would be the best interest of his brand and the best interest of republicans to not lose as badly as many republicans now believe he's going to lose. gene robinson, a lot of things going on around donald trump right now, you have not only republican senators who were speaking out against him yesterday but the national review wrote a blistering and much needed editorial from its editorial board.

the wall street journal saying if you're going to talk about rigged elections just quick. walk away from it. we need a president not making excuses. i've talked to foreign policy people saying by this point the foreign policy apparatus around donald trump are working as hard as they can to keep him out of every decision that's made, trying to basically govern by just blocking him out because he's become so erratic. staffers say he's in the darkest mood of his presidency, even darker than during impeachment and during the mueller probe. and again, he is an extraordinarily isolated figure that staff members are just trying to work around. where does that put us? what dangers are there?

what do you -- this is -- this really is sort of uncharted w t waters for this country. >> it absolutely is, joe. it doesn't put us in a good position at all. right now he's like salting the earth, you know, in anticipation of what he must fear and know is a coming defeat. you know, i'm not convinced that he can bring himself to quit, because he will be seen as a quitter. and yes, it would be better for his brand, you know, in marketing terms, i think it would -- his brand would have more value if he went out without having suffered a massive defeat. but i -- you know, maybe he's on the way there, but i don't see it yet.

what i see is a guy who's increasingly desperate. i think some of that desperation has to do with with the southern district of new york and statues of limitations on various things that could be running. i think he worries about legal jeopardy when he leaves office, and i think his fragile ego is probably torn. you and donny are right, but, you know, getting out would be better in the long run for his brand but will his ego let him do that? i'm not seeing that. i haven't seen anything from him that makes me think he will make that rational decision because he's not making rational decisions anymore. and he's talking crazy talk all the time. so why is he going to make that rational calculation? i'm not seeing it.

>> i'm just listening to the analysis over the past week, the president seems decembsperate, s thrown off, he seems this, he seems that. that's not enough. he also will do anything i think is what we have to understand. the crazy pronouncements that he's made in the past he's serious about. this is a man who has botched a pandemic so badly we have 150,000 people dead and most scientists will tell you that didn't need to happen had we led better and guided people through mitigation better we would have less deaths from this pandemic. the rallies he held which were irresponsible and put people's lives in danger -- the president does not care about his followers, he does not care about the united states. he doesn't care. he's not working in america's

best interest. now we have a sitting president, yes, he might seem a little desperate. i don't think that matters. i think the bigger worry is that he will do anything. we have a sitting president of the united states of america undermining the november election, his election. the upcoming election. sowing doubt in it, trying to cancel it, trying to delay it. this is huge. whether it's desperate or not, i don't care. it shows how far he will go, and i warn anyone who will listen, he will go farther. and the president also continues to make a false distinction between mail-in ballots and absentee ballots. take a listen. >> absentee is different. absentee absentee you have to work and send in for applications. i'm an absentee voter because i can't be in florida because i'm in washington, at the white house. i'll be an absentee voter we

have a lot of absentee voters. it works. we're in favor of absentee. but it's different than millions of people -- >> michael steele, fact check, however you want to say it? your response? >> mr. president, how do you get your absentee ballot? they mail it to you. and what do you do with it when you're done? you mail it back. >> it would be funny if it wasn't so disturbing. >> the idea that absentee ballot voting is somehow different than vote by mail, it's -- well, it's the way trump looks at it, but the reality is, america, they're the same thing. so the sense that the president wants to promote one while somehow saying the other is fraudulent is incohernt as most of what the president said around the voting issue. people need to work with their

states to understand what the process is and get their ball s ballots. voting starts for the november elections in september. early voting. those processes where people -- those ballots will be available to voters as early as september in some states. so this is something the president is concerned about because of covid-19 primarily a lot of americans are now accessing this form of voting. states are having to reconfigure their processes. i want to re-emphasize what was said in the last hour that joe and i pushed, the $3.6 billion that's still sitting on the table, mitch mcconnell, senate leadership, house leadership, pass that funding. put that money in the states so we can be better prepared to deal with the anticipated increase in the number of voters, joe, who are going to turn out to vote by mail or absentee ballot vote.

>> and, willie, most republican senators understand that you don't want millions of americans congregating across the country, jammed into schools, jammed in the post offices, jammed into community centers. jammed into retirement homes lining up voting. you want to make it as easy for people in kentucky or in new york or in if arizona or florida -- you want to make it as easy and as safe as you can to have people vote in the middle of a pandemic that's killed 150,000 people already. >> yeah, there's so much to say about this. there's so many layers to it but yes, republicans understand that and understand the politics of it, which is that mail-in voting

has been good to republicans over the year. they're saying let's pump the brakes on the attacks on mail-in voting, we'll need them on election day. susan, i don't think any of us would be naive enough to say is this the moment they turn on donald trump, because they haven't yet turned on donald trump. but yesterday we heard, of course, we're not moving the date of the election and even from some of them that mail-in voting is important and there's not much of an distinct between mail-in voting and absentee voting. what does this mean for donald trump? what is he saying when he stands there and says we have to watch mail-in voting this election is going to be fraudulent and then republicans saying, i haven't disagreed with him much but on this point he's wrong. >> they're fighting for survival right now, they want to hold

onto their seats. in order to do it they rely on absentee ballots. the president to, quote, his former secretary of state is basically a moron. let's face it, there's no difference between an absentee ballot and mail-in ballot. this is the difference, republicans a lot of times in in the campaigns that are successful send out absentee ballot applications. it's up to the voter to fill it out and get a ballot back from the state of elections. what states are seeking to do is to do the same thing. they want to send out absentee ballot applications that's all that's happening there and then let the voters apply or do it online. there are kinks to work out, for example, when it comes to postmarks if there's a postage paid envelope from the board of elections, the post office typically does not recognize that and put a receive dated on

the envelope, doesn't postmark it. okay. but the republicans now -- i don't think it's -- i wouldn't call it push back for -- against the president. i'd say they're trying to fight for their own survival. and they realize this president is taking him down and there's only so much they can take. >> susan, i want to talk to you and talk to you michael steele, the three of us have been involved in republican politics for a good part of our lives. and this is what is so incredible to me -- and i was talking to nancy pelosi about this. i'm sure you all have the same experience that i had. every campaign i ever had halfway through the night, the first question i -- you know, the question i ask, are the absentees in?

why? because i did better with absentees. why? because republicans did better with absentee ballots. helping a friend with his or her election people would say the early returns are looking bad. i would say, has the supervisor of election counted the absentee ballots yet? if they said, yes, i'd say this is a long night. if they said no, relax. that is the sheer, utter, stupidity of this argument. donald trump is claiming an election can be rigged by a process that has always helped republicans. and that's why some republicans are trying to get him to shut up on this point, because we republicans always did well on ballots that were mailed in and counted on election day. >> joe, you are so incredibly

right there. it is the corner stone of our get out the vote strategy to work those absentee ballots. those vote by mail. you know where it started ironically enough, the overseas vote, military and overseas balloting wi ball balloting, back in the 1990s it formed the get out the vote strategy over a period of weeks to get that vote turned out. it wasn't just getting people to show up on election day, it was the strategy you had on the ground to get the ballot in the hands of voters who otherwise couldn't get there. who were they? you know this running in your great races. it was senior citizens. it was largely senior citizens who could not get out to the ballot box but yet they had a

ballot, whether it was at the nursing home, their family home, wherever it was, they had access to that ballot. >> susan, i didn't have to dial for dollars. very lucky, i ran pretty much grass roots campaign my first time got elected by big margins and never had to go to the nrcc and dial all day. you know how i spent my time doing political things? i got on the phone and i called people who had absentee ballots that we sent overseas like people in the military and their families. and i'd call senior citizens around northwest florida say, hey, just wanted to let you know, i'm joe you got an absentee ballot coming your way. do you have any questions for me? because that was how important mail-in votes, absentee votes were to me and to republicans. and it has always been that way.

so it doesn't surprise me that donald trump, lifetime democrat, who's contributed to hillary clinton seven or eight times and anthony weiner. >> kamala harris. >> elliott spencer, kamala harris. i can understand why the democrat in him is freaked out about this. but for republicans, susan, mail-in ballots and absentee ballots have always been how we win the close races. >> that's right because joe traditionally democrats are better going out and knocking on doors and getting the troops out and getting that grass root operation, shaking hands and getting people to the polls. republicans rely on absentee ballots more, we do more idding, making sure they fill them out, like you said. there was an aclu review of the 2018 election in florida. and what they found -- this is what i hope democrats are paying

attention to, is that younger people and minorities are more likely to have their absentee ballot application disqualified. why? because they're not used to filling it out, not the same process republicans are used to doing. when they reached out to again make a correction, they typically don't do it. that's where it's important for democrats to realize, they have to make -- do a better voter education program on absentee ballots. republicans are hoping they don't do that because again that's been their bread and butter. >> still ahead on "morning joe," with under 100 days until the election, polls show joe biden with a sizable lead over president trump in key states. and democrats have their eye on several gop held seats. chair of the day caccc sherrche

joins us to discuss the plan come november. to discuss the pn come november. tate won't raise your rates just because of an accident. cut! is that good? no you were talking about allstate and... i just... when i... accident forgiveness from allstate. click or call for a quote today. we live in the mountains so i like to walk. accident forgiveness from allstate. i'm really busy in my life; i'm always doing something. i'm not a person that's going to sit too long. in the morning, i wake up and the first thing i do is go to my art studio. a couple came up and handed me a brochure on prevagen. i've been taking prevagen for about four years. i feel a little bit brighter and my mind just feels sharper. i would recommend it to anyone. it absolutely works. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. proof i can fight moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. proof i can fight psoriatic arthritis...

...with humira. proof of less joint pain... ...and clearer skin in psa. humira targets and blocks a source of inflammation that contributes to joint pain and irreversible damage. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. humira is proven to help stop further joint damage. want more proof? ask your rheumatologist about humira citrate-free. if you can't afford your medicine, abbvie may be able to help.

if you can't afford your medicine, we have to meet itg aas one country.. numbers don't lie. infection rates are now going up in more states than they are going down. we've got to fight this together. wear a mask, keep your distance, limit the size of crowds. it may be inconvenient and may be uncomfortable, but it's the right thing to do as an american. we need a president who will level with the american people, a president who will tell us the unvarnished truth, a president who will take responsibility instead of always blaming others, a president who will listen to the experts, follow the science, allow them to speak, a president who will lead and be an example for the nation. we have to do all we can to keep our fellow americans safe and healthy.

i'm joe biden and i approve this message.

the trump campaign has halted spending on television advertisements for a strategy review with less than 100 days until the election according to data from advertising analytics. the trump campaign essentially spent nothing on wednesday and thursday, with no ads booked through august. while the biden campaign has spent 3.9 million. the trump campaign will be back on the airwaves soon with an official saying quote with a leadership change in the campaign there's a review and fine tuning of the company strategy. we'll be back on the air, more forcefully exposing joe biden as

a puppet of the radical left wing. the biden campaign has turned their attention to the battleground state of ohio releasing a new ad that will run throughout august, it's in tandem with the campaign's new $14.5 million ad buy in the six core battleground states and nevada touting biden's economic plan. it's not just in the presidential campaign where the democrats are eyeing an expanded map. it's also in the races. joining us is cherri bustos. where are you hoping to flip districts and make way for democrats? >> we have a very aggressive strategy that, believe it or not, mika, started way back in

early 2019. so just for a little perspective, we flipped 40 seats in the 2018 election cycle. so we had a very successful election cycle. we started the cycle going into 2020 thinking we're mostly going to have to be on defense to make sure the 40 seats we flipped from republican to democrat we can hang onto that. but as time as evolved, we have every opportunity to make sure we hold those 40 seats we flipped last election cycle but now we have 30 red-to-blue candidates, meaning they're republican held seats we hope to flip in 2020. so we're looking at 72 seats right now where we are playing. >> wow. where are some of the areas -- what are some of the districts that you think are actually possible to flip at this point,

that are looking really good? >> so who would have thought, again, going into this election cycle that we would be able to play in places like montana? kathleen williams is an at-large candidate running for congress in m month she has tontana she s to get her messaging out, what she's about, she fits that district, state like a glove. who would have thought in alaska we would be able to play. elise galvin is outraising the longest sitting member in the house. she's running a great campaign has resources. when you look at campaigns, mika, so much of it is about money, messaging, and mobilization. do you have money, meaning do you have the resources to let

people know who you are? do you have the right beliefs, the right values? and then the mobilization, are you going to have the people to help you get out the vote and make sure that on election day -- you know, now it might be post-election day by the time the ballots are counted, but are we going to have the numbers in the end to flip the seats and grow our majority. >> it's willie geist, thanks for being here this morning. obviously the results of the election rely on how people look at their own lives right now and for many people in your district and across the country it doesn't look so good. at midnight tonight 30 million people will lose a $600 a week check they've been getting that's been floating through these difficult times. you passed a bill in the house in may it's sitting on the desk of the united states senate and the majority leader there -- are

those benefits. ing -- those benefits going to expire? if so, what do you say to the people who are doing to lose the checks? >> it's been 77 days, literally, we passed this ten plus weeks ago, and it's got all the tools in there to help the economy keep going to help our families, to help our first responders, meaning the nurses, the doctors, the nursing home workers, police, firefighters, all of that, get the job done that is ahead of us. and if you remember, mitch mcconnell said he was going to slow walk this. he was going to take it easy. that there was no sense of urgency. well, now they come back with some half baked proposal that would strip away $400 per week for those who have filed for unemployment insurance at a time when people can't afford this.

we, i can tell you, i'll be on the phone later today with the mayor out of pioria, i'm on the phone with the mayor of rockford, a couple of towns in my district, who are desperate to pay their bills, pay their people, pick up garbage and make sure when 911 is called somebody can respond to that. not to mention the families who absolutely need that extra $600 per week that we added to the unemployment insurance to help families get through this. i think it's unconscionable that mitch mcconnell has not moved on this and now all of a sudden has this little piecemeal proposal that won't begin to help our families throughout this country. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. ahead we'll ask house majority leader steny hoyer about the latest in the

investigations. there's also a development with michael cohen. we'll ask donny deutsch about that. "morning joe" is back in a moment. out that "morning joe" is back in a moment migraine medicine. it's called ubrelvy. the migraine medicine for anytime, anywhere migraine strikes without worrying if it's too late or where you happen to be. one dose of ubrelvy can quickly stop a migraine in its tracks within two hours. many had pain relief in one hour. do not take with strong cyp3a4 inhibitors. few people had side effects, most common were nausea and tiredness. ask about ubrelvy. the anytime, anywhere migraine medicine.

♪ ♪ ♪ the open road is open again. and wherever you're headed, choice hotels is there. book direct at choicehotels.com. ♪ introducing the new sleep number 360 smart bed... at choicehotels.com. now temperature balancing, so you can sleep better together. can it help keep me asleep? absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both effortlessly comfortable. can it help with snoring? i've never heard snoring. exactly. no problem. ...and done. will it help me keep up with mom? you've got this. so you can really promise better sleep? not promise... prove. and now, no interest until january 2023 on all smart beds. only for a limited time.

is now a good time enough, crohn's. for adults with moderate to severe crohn's or ulcerative colitis, stelara® can provide relief, and is the only approved medication to reduce inflammation on and below the surface of the intestine in uc. you, getting on that flight? back off, uc. stelara® may increase your risk of infections, some serious, and cancer. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, sores, new skin growths, have had cancer, or if you need a vaccine. rpls, a rare, potentially fatal brain condition, may be possible. some serious allergic reactions and lung inflammation can occur. lasting remission can start with stelara®. if you've been financially impacted by covid-19, janssen may be able to help.

the president's former fixer, michael cohen, will have no media restrictions in home confinement as he serves out his sentence for multiple financial crimes. according to an agreement filed in federal court yesterday cohen, who was released on medical furlough in may is free to speak to the media, and write a tell-all book about the president. the deal comes after district judge alvin hellerstein ruled last week that the bureau of prisons took cohen back into custody to retaliate for his challenge to a ban on writing a book. cohen was scheduled to be released from home confinement

next year. donny deutsch, does he know to stay home -- i ask that in all honesty. but in terms of the retaliation, was it directly down from trump? what does he think? >> he thinks it is. i spoke to michael a few days ago, actually was texting with him this morning, he thinks from michael's point of view he has so much to say in the book is f. the book will be out before november. i would still tell michael to lay low, he won't listen to me, michael is michael, but clearly the court sided with him. it was absurd in the first place. and he was going to detail what it was like in solitary in an 8 by 10 cell. he literally, there was no daylight, 24 hours a day, once every three days was able to shower. i face timed him last week, he was gaunt, he had a beard.

he was put through torture and that last round was absurd. it never should have happened. michael is coming out with a book, he thinks it's going to make a big difference we'll see. he's thrilled to be home with his family. we're living in a strange world. this is not the country where he's thrown in jail because he's going to write a book. that's not what's supposed to happen in this country. >> and put into solitary, it's incredible. >> torcherous. >> i was confused why he left his apartment and exposed himself to potentially being punished for breaking home confinement. we'll follow this, see what he has to say, see what he writes in his book. top republicans are breaking with the president over his idea to delay the november election.

presidential historian, michael beschloss joins us to discuss the president's suggestion. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. g "morning." we'll be right back. no matter where you live, where you live has never mattered more. for over 100 years, realtors® have brought local knowledge and deep expertise to helping people find new places to dream and thrive. the next great place you'll call home. so, whether you're upsizing downsizing

or just ready to make a change. look for the r. and get way more.ith wso you can bring yours vision to life and save in more ways than one. for small prices, you can build big dreams.

spend less, get way more. shop everything home at wayfair today. the coronavirus is wrecking stif the senate doesn't act, it will mean painful cuts to essential public services across america. fewer teachers and nurses, longer response times, dirtier streets. but some say our states should just go bankrupt. text fund to 237-263 to tell congress to fund our essential public services. afscme is responsible for the content of this ad.

welcome back to "morning joe." negotiations on capitol hill over what to include in the next coronavirus relief bill remains at an impasse as the $600 unemployment benefits are set to expire today. the extra cash tens of millions of americans have counted on for months now is a contention among democrats who want to maintain it and republicans who want to slash it to $200 a week. white house negotiators offered a week long extension of the unemployment checks during a late-night two hour meeting with democrats. house speaker nancy pelosi and senate minority leader chuck

schumer rejected that saying it would be a short-term fix. joining us is steny hoyer of maryland. good to see you this morning. >> hi, willie. >> help us understand this. as i understand, republicans left on recess, most of them are out of town at this point is it now inevitable the $600 checks are going to run out and the tens of millions of unemployed in this country will no longer receive a benefit? >> i think that's tragically possible, willie. we are facing a divided and dysfunctional republican party, which is not new. they shutdown everything when they were in charge of everything. and they continue to make a pattern that let the people be on their own, don't take action, pause, see what happens. they saw what happened. as a result of the lack of confidence that we were going to

move forward, this economy is one of the deepest troughs it's ever been in. it's because of republican failure to act, the senate's failure to act. but more specifically, senator mcconnell's failure to act and and his republicans which we now see can't even 80 days after we passed an alternative come up with an alternative of their own. they've come up with a she short fix which will continue to have great angst among our families and our people, inadequate to the challenge that confronts us both on the health side and the economic side. it is a tragedy for the american people that neither the president nor the republicans can come to an agreement to try to stabilize this hemorrhaging economy and this terrible

pandemic. >> so you've said $600 is the number we would like, but we're willing to negotiate. republicans in the senate came back with $200 which you all have said is still not enough. are there negotiations going on behind the scenes or, as i said, is this a done deal? >> we're going to be negotiating every minute that is possible. just because the senate -- we're going to finish our business today. by the way, let me point out, willie, in the last 15 days while the senate has been twiddling its thumbs and doing nothing and pausing, we passed a justice and policing bill, the d.c. statehood bill, strengthening the affordable care act and bringing costs down for the people. we passed a major piece of rent and mortgage relief for people who are renting and buying their homes and we passed a major infrastructure bill. and this week we will be sending the 10th appropriation bill.

that is what we've done in the last 15 days. and in 80 days, the senate and the president have done nothing to meet this crisis. this is why it has inflamed and gotten worse. the president said this was a hoax. when we passed this bill may 15th, we don't have to worry about it, we'll pause. that's why we are where we are. and it is tragic. nancy pelosi, steny hoyer and the democrat leadership, we're here. we're on the phone. we will be negotiating with those who want to get to a reasonable place. the $600 you mentioned, we cannot go cold turkey. there can be discussion as to what the proper level is down the road, but mark said yesterday maybe we can do a four-month extension on the 600. why did he say that?

because the economic advisers are saying, have you seen what's happened to the economy? if we don't help prop it up, people will be in deep distress. but this is a crisis. this administration thrives on chaos, confrontation and crisis and it is undermining the strongest, best country on earth. and it's an irresponsible leadership that we're confronting and it's sad for the american people. >> congressman -- >> other than that, i don't have any strong feelings. >> i'd like to know what you really think, congressman. good to talk to you. listen, so tell me more about the mark meadows and as the president's representative whose name at least is on the book as author of the art of the deal. are they dealing? is meadows playing a constructive role on behalf of

the president? this is a situation 2346r7 a president would normally call you guys in and mcconnell and his people in and knock heads and get it done because it has to get done and really should get done today. that is not happening. what is the white house role? >> the white house role is not constructive. it has not been constructive. gene, i've met with the president on a number of different occasions, in groups in the white house, around the cabinet room. the president says oh, yes, we'll solve this. oh, yes, we'll solve that. 24 hours later, two hours later, 24 seconds later, he changes his mind. it is very, very difficult to negotiate with this white house. and mark meadows, you must remember, a pleasant fellow, but he was head of the tea party. he was aligned with mick mulvaney. they were anti-government, anti-spending, anti-intervention to help the american people.

they fought with their own leadership. the tea party, mick mulvaney, mark meadows fought a daily basis with john boehner, paul ryan, and they couldn't get things done. that is why i say they were dysfunctional. i don't know what their thinking is. we acted on may 15th to address that crisis. for 80 days, they had they have twidelled their thumbs. the cities, the states, the counties are on the front line of meeting this crisis, and mcconnell's response was let them go bankrupt. this proposal is a let them go bankrupt proposal that they have made. dealing with a very, very important we need to pass this bill, but if we just pass this bill and then go home and go

away and pretend, oh, the problem is solved, we will be dead flat wrong to the detriment of our country and to the detriment of our people. >> house majority leader steny hoyer -- >> i think mark meadows is not particularly helpful in this. ma mnuchin tries to be helpful because he's a bottom line guy, but the republicans in the senate don't trust ma mnuchin. and he's the administration's representative. so you have no synergy between the republican president and the republican senate and they are locked into indecision. >> steny, thank you very much for coming on the show this morning. and you gene robinson, thank you, as well. we'll be reading your new piece in "the washington post" entitled "trump again uses housing as a racial wedge." and still ahead, barack obama eulogyizing john lewis,

his life's work and the effort by this president and some republicans to slash voting rights and undermine the integrity of the u.s. election. "morning joe" is coming right back. tion "morning joe" is coming right back today, we're facing a serious threat. we have to meet it as one country. numbers don't lie. infection rates are now going up in more states than they are going down. we've got to fight this together. wear a mask, keep your distance, limit the size of crowds. it may be inconvenient and may be uncomfortable, but it's the right thing to do as an american. we need a president who will level with the american people, a president who will tell us the unvarnished truth, a president who will take responsibility instead of always blaming others, a president who will listen to the experts, follow the science, allow them to speak, a president who will lead and be an example for the nation.

we have to do all we can to keep our fellow americans safe and healthy. i'm joe biden and i approve this message. the freestyle libre 14 managday system...etes can be hard. - a continuous glucose monitor - ...makes it easy. easy to check your glucose without fingersticks, and easy to share your data with your doctor. and for those who qualify, the freestyle libre 14 day system,

is also covered by medicare. ask your doctor for a prescription. you can do it without fingersticks. learn more at freestylelibre.us and look, it feels like i'm just wasting time. that's why td ameritrade designed a first-of-its-kind, personalized education center. oh. their award-winning content is tailored to fit your investing goals and interests. and it learns with you, so as you become smarter, so do its recommendations. so it's like my streaming service. well except now you're binge learning. see how you can become a smarter investor with a personalized education from td ameritrade. visit tdameritrade.com/learn ♪ right now, there are over a million walmart associates doing their best to keep our nation going. because despite everything that's changed, one thing hasn't and that's our devotion to you and our communities. our priority will always be to keep you

and our associates safe, while making sure you can still get the essentials you need. ♪ are doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting. >> these elections will be fraudulent. they'll be fixed.

they'll be rigged. >> closing polling locations and targeting minorities and students with restrictive i.d. laws. >> so we want to have an election. united states love to see voter i.d. >> attacking our voting rights with surgical precision, even undermining the postal service in the run up to an election that's going to be dependent on mail-in ballots. >> but i also don't want to have to wait for three months and then finds out that the ballots are all missing and the election doesn't mean anything. >> we can witness our federal government sending agents to use teargas and batons. >> we're telling them right now that we're coming in very soon, the national guard. a lot of people, a lot of very tough people. >> that's where real courage comes from, notice from turning on each other, but by turninging towards one another.

not by sowing hatred and division, but by spreading love towards one another. not by sowing hatred and division, but by spreading love towards one another. not by sowing hatred and division, but by spreading love towards one another. not by sowing hatred and division, but by spreading love. and truth. >> many should be arrested. these are professional agitators, these are professional anarchists. these are people that hate our country. >> so there is the tale of the tape between the 45th president of the united states and the 44th president of the united states. you know, there were some sad and pathetic tools of donald trump who still shamelessly defend absolutely everything he does and think if they're over the top and bombastic in their attacks against people who tell the truth to you that somehow that will discourage others from telling the truth about donald trump and what is going on in this country. but let me just say, knowing john lewis the way i did, and i

knew him pretty -- well, barack obama did exactly what john lewis would have wanted him to do in that funeral yesterday. so if anybody decides that they're going to attack barack obama or anybody else for speaking the way they did at john lewis's funeral, they knew what was going to happen. and if somehow it's sleazy to talk about the right of black and white, hispanic, asian american voters to be able to get out and profess their democratic choice on election day, if that is somehow sleazy, well, then you have a different view of america than john lewis and the overwhelming majority of americans have.

willie, i thought -- i mean, we have so much to get to, but i thought that president trump's words and so many others that were spoke in the memory of john lewis and fighting about voters rights, what john lewis dedicated his entire adult life to, i thought that was extraordinarily appropriate and moving. >> it was and on a day when the sitting president of the united states floated the idea of delaying the election because things aren't going well for him personally. you had three united states presidents, barack obama, bill clinton and george w. bush gathered to honor a great american, john lewis, and you couldn't help but be moved as you watched that, john lewis draped in the coffin and just above him was what he fought for an an african-american president. in fact, he said he couldn't have dreamed of an african-american president when he crossed that bridge in selma. he just wanted the right to share a bathroom with white people and vote the way white

people did. and now he saw in his lifetime an african-american president of the united states take politics out of it. if you weren't moved by what you saw yesterday in that church, then there's something wrong with you. >> as if president obama's address wasn't enough to put donald trump on edge, there's also this. he was rebuked by senate republicans for suggesting that election delay. the michael flint decision was voided. the doj dropped conditions that tried to stop michael cohen's book and republican-led senate committees slapped down a pentagon nominee. that and most importantly, 153,000 americans are dead on the president's watch over just the past few months. the numbers staggering. it's a thousand a day and it keeps going. along with joe, willie and me, we have msnbc political analyst and former chairman of the

republican national committee, michael steele. politics editor for "the daily beast" sam stein, and nbc news and msnbc contributor shanna thomas. so the tweet came out at the understand of our show yesterday moments after the government detailed the most devastating collapse on record, president trump suggesting a possible delay of the november election. top republicans are flat out rejecting the idea. >> never in the history of the country, through wars, depressions, and the civil war, have we ever not had a federally scheduled election on time and we'll find a way to do that again this november the 3rd. >> but never in the history of the federal elections have we ever not held an election and we should go forward with our election. we're not going to delay the election, stewart. we're going to have the election, completed and voting completed by election day. >> i don't think the federal government can -- well, i don't

know. i think it's constitutionally set. >> delaying the election is not the right answer. >> the election is going to happen in november, period. >> speaking to reporters yesterday, the president appeared to walk back the idea of moving the election. but at the same time in his usual style continued his attack on mail-in voting. >> boy, he really knows he's going to lose this fall. i mean, he's sending the message to republican senators, i'm going to lose. i mean, after this happened yesterday, and we'll get to this in a minute, but after this happened yesterday, republican senators were aghast that this was donald trump throwing in the towel, making excuses already for his loss for an election that is, what, 97, 98 days away? and he's already throwing in the

towel. so he's already talking about doubting the validity of november's elections because he knows he's going to lose. watch this. >> you know, so many years i've been watching elections. and they say the projected winner or the winner of the election. i don't want to see that take place in a week after november 3rd or a month or, frankly, with litigation and everything else that can happen, years. years. i want to have the result of the election. i don't want to be waiting around for weeks and months and literally potentially, if you really did it right, years because you'll never know. these ballots are missing. i don't want a delay. i want tv the election. but i also doebn't want to haveo wait three months and find out the ballots are all missing and the election doesn't mean anything. this is going to happen.

that's common sense. we want to have an election where people actually go in and what's your name? my name is so on and boom, you sign the book. do i want to say a day change? no. but i don't want to see a crooked election. >> how sad. and by the way, republican senators don't agree with him. and a lot of media outlets that have defend him time and time again are calling him out for that sad display. the editors of "the national review" put out a piece, the editors. that was entitled delaying the election would be grotesque and un-american and they write in part this, president trump outdid himself with a tweet

floatling the idea of delaying the election. obviously, this is an incendiary and absurd idea unworthy of being spoken or even thought by a president of the united states. this st the "national review." it is a commitment to self-government that the elections have occurred as scheduled on this day during the worst crises in american history. when federal troops were in the field against rebel troops who sought to destroy the nation, when the unemployment rate was 25%. when u.s. forces were engaged in an epic struggle to save the west from the degradations of nazi germany and imperial japan. the national review goes on, trump doesn't understand this or doesn't care. it is another indication of how little he's let the institution of the presidency shape him and how selfishly he approaches his

duties. again, the "national review." and this line from the "wall street journal" editorialal board. this is not to suggest that the november election will be rigged as mr. trump asserts. if he believes that, he should reconsider his participation and let someone run who isn't looking for an excuse to blame for defeat. willie, these are from two publications who have defended him time and time again over the past several years, even though at times both have been critical, as well. they have come out telling donald trump what you're doing is un-american. if you're going to keep claiming the election is rigged, quit right now and let a republican

run that is not already looking for an excuse to lose. >> yeah. it was a rare day yesterday, joe, where among republicans and conservative media the president found very, very few defenders on this idea. he's painted himself into a corner where he says fox news is no longer with him. i'm sure he'll attack "the wall street journal" today. senate republicans, mitch mcconnell across the board said of course we're not changing the date of the election. it will be on november 3rd as planned. so what's left? i guess oan or one of those networks or outlets may still be defending him on this. but when you look at the reality of what he's talking about, delaying the election is one question. but mail-in ballot fraud, and we'll just say it again, is incredibly, incredibly rare. it's been going on for generations. it's the only way they vote in five states in this country. there's going to be a lot of mail-in voting this time. and it's important for people who are watching this morning to know that what the president is

saying about fraud simply isn't true. there are a handful of cases every election cycle, but it is not widespread or rampant as he claims. >> willie, i cannot emphasize enough what you just said. and between now or the next 97, 96, 95 days of this election, we have to continue to insist to the american people that they understand that fact, that mail-in balloting, mail-in voting, is legitimate, it is done in at least five states. every state has some form of it. you understand it as absentee balloting. and i loved yesterday the president was like, well, i love absentee balloting. it's just this mail by vote thing i'm not -- mr. president, they're the same thing, okay? just so you understand, an absentee ballot is the same as a mail-in ballot. they're the same thing.

so, you know, this -- we got -- this is why we've got to keep pushing our narrative, which is a constitutional narrative. it's the one that's been set by the government. it has been set by the american people. we know what the process is. all we're looking for now, and this is where mitch mcconnell and the leaders on the hill can step up their game is to put the other $3.6 billion that the states requested so that they can execute the ballot box the correct way so voters have that access, those votes can get counted. we already know, willie, we already know you're not going to have a declared winner necessarily on election night. but we don't need to play into the president's scenario, his setup, that we're going to be, you know, not knowing who this is in three months or even

years. that's bologna. but you can put in place the infrastructure to help those states get those votes counted. but just so we're clear, america, absentee ballot, vote by mail, same thing. still ahead, from gun safety to plaque lives matter to the coronavirus, how president trump finds himself, again, at odds with so many americans. this time when it comes to voting. sam stein tackles that next on "morning joe." ein tackles that n "morning joe." did you know liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need? 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. ♪

little things can become your big moment. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea or vomiting. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines, and if you're pregnant or planning to be. otezla. show more of you.

♪ ♪ ♪ the open road is open again. and wherever you're headed, choice hotels is there. book direct at choicehotels.com. ♪

sam, this goes back to really what we've been talking about for a while on this show about donald trump oddly enough taking the 20% in 80/20 issues. when those in congress, you know, people come to you and you go, oh, this is an easy one. this is an 80/20 issue. what side do i want to be on? you want to be on the 80% side.

okay, great. if you look over the past six months, let's talk about coronavirus. that's an 80/20 issue. donald trump has been on the wrong side of almost everything. he's been on the wrong side of masks. when almost 80% of americans say, yeah, let's do masks, rushing back by easter, 80% of americans, most americans didn't want to do that. you could talk about rushing back to school. he was talking about that back in the spring. an overwhelming number of parents didn't want to do that. now george floyd, racial reconciliation, the john lewis funeral, you look at those numbers, those were 75/25s, even in the margins, even after some of the violent outbreaks on the edges of those margins, an overwhelming majority of americans still supported that, as well. and he just -- and yesterday, you know, he's tweeting about pizza and pizza shops and rigged elections. although the three presidents

are saying good-bye to john lewis, an american legend and, again, that's an 80/20 issue. that's for sure, as least. and he -- i mean, look at this poll out of pennsylvania. there's a poll that has come out that's in line with a lot of polls that show donald trump getting absolutely hammered in the keystone state. and if you look at the philly suburbs, if you look how biden is outperforming in scranton, if you look at philadelphia, if you look at all of these states, i will say i expect arizona and florida to remain close, but i really don't know how donald trump gets close in a state like pennsylvania, considering that he's completely offended the philly suburbs. >> yeah. you know, two things here. one is there's always this contention that donald trump is

playing some sort of three dimensional chess. in reality, i think we have enough evidence now that there is no chas match happening here. this is plain guttural politics that he resorts to time and time again, even returning to the coronavirus briefings. our reporting shows that he wanted to do it. he felt like him not being out there was hurting him politically. when every data point shows that those briefings have been calamitous for him politically. oftentimes his gut brings him to that 20% range on issues driven under the belief that there is a silent majority out there and affirmed by the fact that he won the 2016 election. he wants to do a replay of that election cycle. in this case, you're absolute lit right. it doesn't make sense electorally. but step back, everything comes

back to his inability to be an effective head of government. you know, he would be in such a better situation if he had just handled the coronavirus epidemic from the get-go. our economy would be better off. electorally, he would be better off. he wouldn't have to be diverting attention to mail-in voter fraud. this is, in the ends, a referendum on his governance. and until he recognizes that the primary misstep was not some me ferrous actor trying to rig an election, but his own actions and his own inability to contain the spread of coronavirus, he will not win the elections at all. a coming up, to all those defending demagoguery, we'll read his new column in "the washington post" next. his new washington post" next. a lot of healthy foods are very acidic

and they're actually pulling out the minerals from the enamel. i like to recommend pronamel to my patients. pronamel will help push the minerals back into the enamel, to keep the enamel strong. i know it works. and i hear nothing but great things from my patients that have switched to it. i know it works. and i hear nothing but great things try wayf♪ r. you got this! ♪ perfect. -you're welcome. i love it. how'd you do all this? told ya! wayfair. let's talk dining tables. yes! blow it up. ♪ wayfair you've got just what i need ♪ proof i can fight moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. proof i can fight psoriatic arthritis... ...with humira.

proof of less joint pain... ...and clearer skin in psa. humira targets and blocks a source of inflammation that contributes to joint pain and irreversible damage. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. humira is proven to help stop further joint damage. want more proof? ask your rheumatologist about humira citrate-free. if you can't afford your medicine, abbvie may be able to help. in a highly capable lexus suv at the golden opportunity sales event. lease the 2020 nx 300 for $339 a month for 36 months.

experience amazing at your lexus dealer. sixty-two thousand seven hundred and ten dollars and thirty-one cents. sofi allowed me to refinance all of my loans to one low interest rate and an affordable monthly payment. and i just feel like there's an end in sight now and that my debt doesn't define me anymore. ♪ sofi is helping me get my money right. ♪ this is xfi this complete from xfinity.ade. get my money right. you'll get the xfi gateway with advanced security, so your connected devices are also protected. and stay out! plus with unlimited data, you can stream and scroll more than ever. and we'll ensure that you get the most wifi coverage throughout your home. this is xfi complete. simple, easy, awesome. get the security, unlimited daa and wifi coverage you need. plus, xfi customers can add xfi complete for $11 a month.

click, call or visit a store today. in his new washington post column, joe is taking on those who are still loyal to president trump in spite of all that has happened over the past 3 year years. it's entitled you have echoed lies and defended demagoguery. it must sting to still be defending trump. and joe writes this.

what a tremendous burden it must be for you to still be defending president trump. you have called yourself a constitutional conservative for decades, but now you sit silently as the president pushes to move this year's election because he might lose. even some republican senators are speaking up. why aren't you? trump remembers how you ran interference for him when he claimed unlimited powers under article 2 of the constitution, so he thinks you'll stay quiet. remember your silence after charlottesville? you eventually mustered the nerve to claim trump never preached moral equivalence between torch carrying nazis and protesters. huh unthoughtful it was of david duke to expose you by praising the president's putrid performance and thanking trump for his honesty and courage to tell the truth. the former ku klux klan grand

whiz bragged to reporters that charlottesville represented a turning point for white nationalism. we're going to fulfill the promises of donald trump, duke proclaimed. that is why we voted for him. ouch, that one had to sting, but you kept defending donald. if you had a mill soul after that shameful stunt, the cold warrior in you would have been sickened by trump's retreat from germany as u.s. strategies were over his cedeing of syria to putin handing moscow a -- in the middle east for the first time. no nation is more critical to europe's future now than a unified germany.

undermining the u.s.-german alliance because of an ignorant misunderstanding of nato's dues, there you are. silently supporting a demagog who sitsz by as intelligence suggests russia's leaders put bounties on the heads of young american troops. trumpdy clarifies the united states equally dplt. well, we supplied weapons, too. did any part of you cringe when trump leaned once again on the crutch of moral equivalency, ignoring the glaring fact that the ussr was america's sworn enemy during our twilight struggle against communism? maybe not.

maybe trump has you figured out and knows what a frightened political soul you are. and remembers that you remained mute when he defended putin's killing of journalists and political rivals almost five years ago. our country does plenty of killing, also, trump said. he wouldn't then when the victims were russian reporters and he won't now when the targets are young american heros in uniform. i know trump's devocation to putin deeply disturbs you, but somehow you swallow that bile and keep running cover for them both. how hard it must be to keep all that down when trump's personal lawyer, political consultant, attorney general were all busted for lying to federal

investigators or congress about their contacts with russians. but you still kept your head down and marched in single formation behind trump. when it was revealed that russia's interference in the 2016 campaign was sweeping and systemic, you shrugged your shoulders. you later learned russian nationals with connections to the kremlin promised trump's family dirt on hillary clinton. and that they were excited to learn it was part of russia and its government's support for mr. trump. you remained motionless. russia, if you're listening, i hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that were missing. remember that?

by this time, you began mindlessly regurgitating the former reality tv host propaganda about the russian hoax and hoped americans would be stupid enough to ignore the mountains of damning evidence against trump. and you believed then and now that christopher steele's fantastical claims could erase a multitude of trump's sins. he repiece heed the lies of attorney general barr and lindsey graham when they falsely claimed the fbi's investigation began with steele's dossier. and you kept repeating this idiotic defense even after it became painfully evident that the trump's team welcomed russia's interference in american democracy and then tried to cover it up. you still refused to criticize

the trump team's use of materials stolen by russia during the last month of the campaign, just like you and your president continue turning a blind eye to any russian bounties. none dare call it treason, but perhaps one day they will. we'll be right back. perhaps one day they will. we'll be right back. as a dependent! because it's inanimate! people ask me what sort of a person should become a celebrity accountant. and, i tell them, "nobody should." hey, buddy. what's the damage?

i bought it! the waterfall? nope! a new volkswagen. a volkswagen? i think we're having a breakthrough here! welcome to caesar's palace. thank you. ubrelvy it's the 11:05 endless-orders migraine medicine for anytime, anywhere migraine strikes without worrying if it's too late or where you happen to be. one dose of ubrelvy can quickly stop a migraine in its tracks within two hours. unlike older medicines, ubrelvy is a pill that directly blocks cgrp protein believed to be a cause of migraine. do not take with strong cyp3a4 inhibitors. few people had side effects, most common were nausea and tiredness. ask about ubrelvy, the anytime, anywhere migraine medicine. right now, there are over a million walmart associates doing their best to keep our nation going. because despite everything that's changed,

one thing hasn't and that's our devotion to you and our communities. our priority will always be to keep you and our associates safe, while making sure you can still get the essentials you need. ♪ verizon knows how to build unlimited right. you start with the network j.d. power has named the most awarded for network quality 25 times in a row. this network is one less thing i have to worry about. then, give people more plans to mix and match, so you only pay for what you need. that is so cool! include the best in entertainment, and offer it all starting at $35. with the iphone everyone wants. iphone 11 pro on us, when you buy one. because everyone deserves the best. this is unlimited built right. only on verizon. i appreciate what makes each person unique. that's why i like liberty mutual. they get that no two people are alike and customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need.

almost done. what do you think? i don't see it. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

can a president delay the november presidential election, mr. secretary? >> senators, i'm not going to enter a legal judgment on that this morning. >> you have one of the most highly trained and accomplished lawyers who are part of this administration. can a president delay a presidential election? senator, the department of justice will make that determination. we all should want database i

know you do, too, but want to make sure we have an election that everyone is confident in. >> secretary of state mike pompeo speaking yesterday with senator tim cane of virginia. joining us now, federal election commissioner ellen winetraub. welcome to you both. commissioner, i'll begin with you. let me try the question to you. can a president change the date of a presidential election? >> no, willie, he can't. >> and why is that someone. >> it's set by statute. it would require an act of congress to change that date. the president does not have the authority to do that union hat rally. >> and the president says he's concerned about mail-in voting. that is part of the reason he suggests perhaps he wondered yet in a tweet if that date should be delayed, if the election

should be delayed. from your experience, is there widespread fraud in mail-in voting as the president says there is? >> no. and many people have studied this. over decades of voting with billions of votes cast, it does not happen except in a small number of cases. this is not going on corrupt the election. what where he need to worry about is making sure everyone can vote safely and for a lot of people, that will mean voting by mail. >> the president has tried to make a distinction between absentee voting, which he did in 2018, and mail-in voting. is there a difference to you in those or is there even a

distinct between mail-in voting and absentee voting? >> no, there really is. that is how absentee voting happens. you can in some jurisdictions physically d physically drop off your mail-in vote in a drop box. but basically it is the same thing. >> michael beshlauf, a u.s. president sowing doubt in the upcoming election, sowing doubt in mail-in ballots, saying it may take months, even years to know the results. and if not in the united states of america, how about around the world? you were right a few minutes ago saying this guy would do anything in that category and guess who is trying to postpone

an election right now? the chinese communist party in hong kong because postponing election sess what through history dictators and facists do if they have the power. that happening god, as ellen says, he does not are have the power. and for anyone who is nervous about donald trump at this moment, you're absolute lit right. he'll try anything. but remember two things. number one, in is a guy when has an attention span of about ten minutes. he's rattled. he does these tweets not because they're going to help him in a disciplined campaign to get re-elected, but because it gives him psychiatric relief for a little while. that is not what an effective candidate does, as you all know. if he's going to try to overturn the results of this election or drag it out, as he said, for years, which is ridiculous, he's going to need a lot of people to help him. might be the supreme court, leaders in congress, the military.

i'm not sure at this moment how many of those people are willing to get into some kind of effort with donald trump who is going down. >> there was a lot of shock over what he said yesterday. and a lot of people felt their analysis was he's desperate, he's in a corner, he's really down. and while that may be enjoyable to those people, i would suggest that there are those, including me, who have a lot of knowledge of donald trump, it makes him dangerous. >> it does. >> and i think every single day we need to be watching to be ready to react and to look as this as a democracy in peril. am i overstating it? >> no, you're not overstating

it. and i totally agree with you. what that means is everyone who is working around donald trump in the white house, they have to ask themselves, do they want to abet this? do they want to be in a position next year having to explain what they were doing to help donald trump do things that may be extra legal? i don't think so. and that is true of other people who might help him in other ways. there was a poll taken of americans, who did you vote for in the 1970 election. and in that poll, a vast landslide said that they voted for mcgovern. people were ashamed and embarrassed to think that they had abandon richard nixon who had committed the watergate scandal and driven from office. there is a very good chance a

year or two from now there will be an awful lot of americans who may be ashamed and embarrassed that they put on the maga hat, went tho to those rallies, helped this leadership happen that led to this catastrophic pandemic that's now killed 150,000 plus americans and an economy that yesterday we heard about which is the worst plunge in our modern history. >> commissioner, we have a bit of an audio synch issue with you right now, but what we have to say is so important we're going to roll with it. it's like a 1978s badly dubbed movie, but we're going for it. so let me hear from you directly about what you see as some of the challenges around election day. we've already heard and we're preparing americans for what the election night and election week as some people are calling it might look like. which is to say that if you don't have a winner called at 11:00 on november 3rd, that doesn't mean that there's chaos

behind the scenes. it doesn't mean that there's fraud. it means people are counting and certifying mail-in votes. so what to you will this process look like this year? >> well, i think you are absolutely right. we should not unfortunately count on knowing on election night what the results are going to be. and that's okay. it's happened, as michael can tell you, it has happened before that we didn't know on election night what the results would be. maybe for the presidency, maybe for some senate races, maybe for some other races. but what is more important is that we get it right, that we have the opportunity to count the votes accurately. there are many jurisdictions where they can't even start the count until the polls have closed. obviously, if they are sitting on millions of absentee ballots that have been mailed in and they can't open them until the polls close, they're not going to happen at the moment the polls close what is inside all of those ballots. what i think is critical right now is congress and the president have to work together

to get more money to the states so that they will have the funds to deal with this extraordinary election year. where not only are they going to need the supplies to completely ramp up their mail-in voting operations, but there are about five states who have been doing it safely and securely and accurately for years that way. but for a lot of states, they're really going to have to do a big push in order to be prepared for election night with all of those and in the run up to the election with all of those absentee votes and this can't be done at the last minute. you can't turn on a dime the week before the election and suddenly start buying your supplies. so they're going to have to do that. but there will be many people who will want to vote in person. they're going to need to rent big spaces or to find big spaces. they're going to perhaps have to expand their early voting per periods. congress needs to allocate that

money. they should have done it already, but they need to do it now, as soon as possible in order for this election to go off correctly. there are many people throughout the country trying to do this and they will do their best for the american people. you can help them out. if you are young and healthy and you can volunteer to be a poll worker, they need poll workers because a lot of the standard, the usual poll workers are retirees, they're older, they don't feel safe in this health environment coming in to man the polling stations. you can request your ballots, if you're in a state that requires you to request your mail-in ballots, do that early. make sure you get reliable information from the office to find out how to fill out your ballot correctly and mail it back early. we are going to see a huge

influx in absentee ballots and we need to make sure those ballots get in on time so they can all be counted. >> ellen winetraub and michael beschlaus, thank you very much for being on the show this morning. up next, throughout the coronavirus pandemic, president trump has repeatedly touted his administration's supply of ventilators, but new reporting suggests the administration botched a key contract for the life-saving machines back in april. heidi przybyla will join us next -- oh, right now. okay, okay, i'll get it right. nbc news correspondent heidi brings bella joins us now with the details. what can you tell us about these ventilators? >> this is internal correspondence between the trump administration and philips which has one of the largest contracts for ventilators with the administration. it's a 40-page report given

first to nbc. and what it shows is the trump administration paid almost $500 million more than it should have for 40,000 ventilators. that is more than any other sin ventilator. it's five times what the obama administration paid for instance for similar ventilators back in 2014. secondly, the correspondence shows there was really a lack of urgency. this was all happening back in january when phillips reached out and said, looks like you've got a problem here. maybe we should expedite production of these ventilators. well, that contract didn't get executed until about april. take a listen here to representative raj raja krishnamorthi who is the committee chair who led up this investigation. >> i think the american taxpayers got ripped off and donald trump got taken to the cleaners by a european company selling ventilators. you know, he likes to talk about the art of the deal, but here,

one could say that the company practiced the art of the steal. and the american taxpayers paid for it. in fact, they paid five times what they had originally contracted for, for an equivalent ventilator. and secondly, they didn't have the ventilators when they needed them, when there was a dramatic shortage in the beginning of the pandemic. >> so the trump administration, overall, has spent about $3 billion, mika, on ventilators, and the congressman told me this raises a lot of questions, frankly, about all of those purchases. phillips was one of the biggest but there's many other deals this administration had cut. the internal correspondence shows this was all led by peter navarro. the final deal was formalized by a kushner roommate and a majority of the correspondence was from an aide who is a 2019 college graduate working for peter navarro. they never tried to negotiate this price. just paid that price of $15,000

per ventilator. and now this committee, the democrats in the committee, are calling for this money to be given back, clawed back, whatever needs to be done for what they call here a fleecing of the american taxpayer. mika? >> heidi przybyla, thank you very much. joining us now, the chair of the department of social and behavioral sciences at the harvard th chan school of health and trustee. great to have you on the show again. tell us first of all where we stand with this virus, especially in hot spots. florida still hitting records. >> yes, i would say when we look at where we are with the virus, we are standing on the precipice. and the american people need honesty and leadership and courage from our leaders. we cannot do nothing. we have to take the virus seriously. the steps that we have to take

are very clear. americans need to wear masks. they need to avoid crowds. they need to avoid bars. they need to wash their hands frequently. and if we take these tests, we can make success until we get a vaccine. but we cannot do nothing. >> dr. williams, it's willie geist. i suspect if we had you on five months ago even you'd be saying many of the same things you're having to say now as we turn to august tomorrow. how frustrating is it to you as a public health expert to watch the lack of progress, to watch the lack of leadership, to watch the lack of a plan to attack something that should have been attacked many months ago? >> i mean, it is tragic. it's a sad commentary on our times when we are so politically divided that we are not taking the objective, scientific evidence seriously. and what is also important that we cannot miss as we think of the impact of the pandemic on

our populations is the disproportionate negative impact on the most vulnerable in our society. the poor, the elderly, populations of color, african-americans, latinos, native americans, pacific islanders are among those populations that have been hardest hit. and all of this is avoidable if we take steps now to reduce the risk and i think it's really important that we look to the future and think of what we can do now. what investments we need to make so that when the next pandemic comes, we are in a much better position to deal with it. >> doctor, i'm curious about the effectiveness of masks. we all know they absolutely help protect spreading your droplets to other people, protect other people from you. can they actually prevent the spread of the coronavirus, and then i'll add to the question, i'm thinking about kids going back to school.

if they are wearing masks, how safe is that? >> so you are absolutely correct that the primary benefit of wearing masks is that it protects me if i have the virus but don't know i have it, which a lot of people who have it are asymptomatic. they are effective at spreading it, but they're not mean, they're not doing it deliberately. they don't know. so when i take -- when i wear a mask as i do, when i go outside, i am taking steps to protect my neighbors, to protect everyone i come in contact with. and that is an important piece of reducing the risk and reducing the spread. so there's no question the science is clear that we need to wear masks to reduce the chances that we will infect others. in terms of children and students going back to school, i think it -- wearing a mask is a

good thing. we know that children in general are at lower risk, but there's no such thing as no risk. there are children who have died in this country from covid-19 so that i think the proportions and the steps that cdc has given clearly in the first report would be important to follow in schools as schools reopen. >> dr. david williams, thank you very, very much. and that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage after this quick final break. no uh uh, no way come on, no no n-n-n-no-no only discover has no annual fee on any card. you turn 40 and everything goes. tell me about it. you know, it's made me think, i'm closer to my retirement days than i am my college days. hm.

i'm thinking... will i have enough? should i change something? well, you're asking the right questions. i just want to know, am i gonna be okay? i know people who specialize in "am i going to be okay." i like that. you may need glasses though. yeah. guidance to help you stay on track, no matter what comes next. ♪ in a highly-connected lexus vehicle at the golden opportunity sales event. lease the 2020 es 350 for $359 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. little things can become your big moment. that's why there's otezla.

otezla is not a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea or vomiting. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines, and if you're pregnant or planning to be. otezla. show more of you. ♪ ♪ ♪ the open road is open again. and wherever you're headed, choice hotels is there. book direct

at choicehotels.com. ♪ i've been involved in. communications in the media at choicehotels.com. for 45 years. i've been taking prevagen on a regular basis for at least eight years. for me, the greatest benefit over the years has been that prevagen seems to help me recall things and also think more clearly. and i enthusiastically recommend prevagen. it has helped me an awful lot. prevagen. healthier brain. better life.

hi there. i'm stephanie ruhle. it's friday, july 31st. here's what's happening now. any minute now, three of the nation's top public health officials will testify before the house select committee on the coronavirus. dr. anthony fauci, cdc director robert redfield and the administration's point person on testing, admiral bret giroir. they're expected to be grilled about the lack of a national strategy to combat the virus. we'll take you there once it begins. they'll be answering questions on the backdrop of sobering, crushing new numbers. the united states has now hit more than 4.5 million cases, and the virus has taken more than 153,000 american lives with over 1400 americans dying yesterday alone. florida and arizona breaking their single