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your wallet safe? picking the best running mate. the political world waiting on joe biden's decision. so what's it like to go through that gut-wrenching process? i'm going to ask someone who was on hillary clinton's short list. we begin with hurricane isaias. now barreling toward florida's east coast and gaining strength. the category-one storm's maximum sustained winds increased to 85 miles per hour this morning. and it's expected to arrive at florida's treasure coast by this evening. joining me with the latest, nbc news reporter chris pollone and nbc news meteorologist janessa webb. chris, we'll start with you. how are people preparing amidst a pandemic? >> reporter: yeah, hi there. i'll show you ohio they're preparing here at -- how they're preparing here at daytona beach. look at what they call the world's most famous beach. as you can see, people who live in this area are certainly taking this in stride. this is just like pretty much any other august day here in daytona beach, any other august

saturday. some locals told me that the crowd does seem to be a little smaller than normal, that might be because of covid-19. that might be because of the impending hurricane. truthfully, many of the people i've talked to today don't really seem to be that aware about the hurricane or that concerned. i've been driving around, up and down highway a1a, and businesses that would normally be boarded up for a major hurricane are not boarded up. now, with that being said, we probably still have about 24 hours at least before we really start to get seeing some of that type of stuff in this part of the state. so there is still time for some of these folks to prepare if they're going to do that. but at this point right now, there are no shelters open here in volusia county. most of the coastal counties in florida with the exception of palm beach county do not have shelters open. governor desantis said that if people need to be ordered to evacuate and that shelters need

to be open, they will open those. and they will do it in a responsible way here with the coronavirus because this state is so hard hit that counties that do have to open shelters will open more shelters so they can accommodate fewer people, keep them socially distanced. and people who are infected with covid-19 will go to special shelters just for them. lindsey? >> thank you so much. and janessa, as we're looking at people on that beach and seeing the track right now, do you expect these beach scenes to look different come this evening? >> yeah, it's going to be a different story overnight, tomorrow morning. right now they're seeing very good conditions. i know people focus on the category of the storm system. i know it's only rated as a cat one. but we have tropical storms that provide a surge across the florida coastline that has done major damage. let's look at hurricane isaias now. it's very disnorthized. that is -- disorganized. that is the good news. after it made its way across the

bahamas, it has shredded apart a little bit, and the current track has shifted just a little bit more to the east. i think the big update is going to happen at 5:00 p.m. when the national hurricane center comes out with it. right now you can see the latest track. it's still well to the east and potentially from daytona beach to jacksonville. we're going to see the center of that storm come very close to this area. it's the tropical storm force of-force winds that do extend about 30 to 35 miles. you could still see 80 mile-per-hour winds, gusts could be even higher. the track continues all the way into the carolinas. we're going to watch wilmington, cape hatteras, another landfall. then it just won't die. it could bounce back to sea, gain a little bit mother nature ste -- more steam and makes its way to the southeast. hurricane isaias has slowed dramatically because it's a very dig organized storm system now. we are really going to be

feeling the effects for the northeast going to midweek. now that beach scene we just saw, as i said, the category does not matter. tropical storm-force winds and the flooding going to be a threat across east florida. linds? -- linds? >> thank you. to washington now where talks about the coronavirus relief bill have wrapped up for the day. after millions of americans lost their enhanced unemployment benefits and could face eviction when the bill expired at midnight. democratic congressional leaders and trump administration officials spent the morning meeting to try to break through the stalemate. >> we saw yesterday the numbers that talked about the impacts on the gdp, and what we are doing is not only trying to arrest the virus but to invest in the economy as we help america's

working families. so today was productive in terms of moving us forward. >> nbc's josh letterman is at the white house. josh, was this meeting underwhelming? were we expecting a decision to come out of it? >> reporter: it's never a good sign when negotiators emerge from a session saying that they made progress but unable to really tell you what they've made progress on. that was the situation today. both the democratic congressional leaders and the white house negotiators saying that they moved the ball down the field today. but that there's quite a long way from that ultimate goal with democrats really holding firm on what had been some key priorities from them, key among them not reducing these unemployment benefits below the $600 federal benefit that has been provided for the last several months as so many americans have been thrown out of their jobs due to the covid-19 epidemic. the other factor here, very important, to democrats is they don't seem to be budging on the

idea that they want a long-term extension of this. they want a broad deal instead of a one-week fix, a band-aid that the white house has been suggested would tide them over until they could get a broader deal. if there's anything that both sides did seem to agree on today, it's the urgency of the situation as the clock is ticking with these benefits having expired as so many americans head into the workweek this coming week. take a listen to what chief of staff mark meadows had to say about the urgency of those negotiations. >> it's time to make a deal. and if we're going to be able to succeed in this, it's taking what started as probably the first day of a good foundation, of productive discussions, and building upon those until we reach an agreement, hopefully in the next couple of days. >> reporter: now we're in a holding pattern essentially.

there won't be any more of these negotiations among the congressional leaders and mnuchin and meadows tomorrow. they will have a staff-level meeting to go over some of the more granular details with the principal negotiators set to pick up their talks on monday. >> all right. and josh, you were on air force one last night when the president made news saying he wants to ban tiktok. what can you tell us about that? >> reporter: well, the president has long been talking about some of the national security concerns about tiktok being owned by a company that is a chinese company. there's laws in china that would require potentially data that's collected about its users to be turned over to the chinese government if beijing were to insist upon it. the president came back on this flight last night and told us he'd made a decision that he planned to ban tiktok here in the u.s. we're still awaiting details from the white house about what exactly that's going to look like or whether there's any possibility that the president would still be open to another

idea that's been floated which is for tiktok to sell basically its u.s. operations to an american company so that it wouldn't have the u.s. component of it be owned by beijing. in additional to the national concerns, tiktok has for a while been a source of embarrassment for the president. the host -- the site that's been used by a lot of comedians including sarah cooper to do videos mocking the president. there were also the tiktok teens who claimed credit for driving up in an artificial way the enrollment numbers for the president's tulsa rally and then leading to an underwhelming attendance showing for the president's rally. so we know this has been on his mind for quite a while. >> all right, josh letterman, thank you. california is reporting alarming new numbers in its ongoing fight against coronavirus. the state is now the first to report more than half a million cases of covid-19. capping off a month of

sky-rocketing case numbers that state officials have struggled to control. california initially enjoyed successes in tamping down its outbreaks, but the state has since reversed court and become overwhelmed. despite recent efforts from the governor to halt infections. joining us to discuss is nbc news' scott cohn live in san jose, california. and scott, what are you hearing from people there? >> reporter: well, one of the big issues here in california as it is across the country is testing. and this is a case in point. this is what they're calling a popup testing center at oak grove high school in san jose. and the idea was that he'll could come here this morning -- people could come here this morning, just walk in, get a wristband, get a test, and learn a little bit more about where we stand in terms of the disease. well, people did line up early here, again with the idea they'd pick up a wristband for an appointment later. they were out of wristbands within about an hour.

clearly there's a great deal of interest in testing for all kind of people. but there becomes the issue of turning those tests around. in santa clara counties where i am, they're saying that they're averaging about four days to get tests back. not bad. one of the leading test manufacturers, quest diagnostics, is saying on average it is taking for most people seven days to get a test result back. that's people other than those who are hospitalized or health care workers who are showing symptoms. and some experts are saying that that delay in the testing time is yet another serious choke point. >> you need competent leadership and coordination. the president gave this to jared kushner and admiral girard in mid-march. we are now nearly five months later, we still don't have adequate testing. that is incompetencincompetence. you need a supply chain. you also need to tell the testing companies that they need

to beef up their activities. they wanted these tests, they're getting paid for handsomely, $100 a test. if they can't give results in 48 hours, maybe we shouldn't pay for them. >> reporter: admiral girard, the assistants hhs secretary, leader of the administration's testing efforts. he tweeted yesterday that the nation is testing about 820,000 people per day. but again, the issue is not so much the testing, although that's very important, but also getting those results turned around. and that's yet another among all of these serious problems, including that grim milestone here in california of half a million cases. lindsey? >> yeah. seven-day turnaround is not hopeful. nbc's scott cohn in san jose, thank you so much. in the face of a crippled economy and poor polling, president trump floats the idea of a later election. after the break, a federal elections commissioner joins me to explain why the president

can't do that and what he should be doing to make elections safe for everyone. afe for everyone verizon knows how to build unlimited right. start with america's most awarded network. offer it at a price built for everyone with the most advanced iphone yet. iphone 11 pro on us when you buy one. because everyone deserves the best. this is unlimited built right.

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try to emulate other countries' best practices? are there things we've got wrong? i don't want to 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. i don't want to see a crooked election. this election will be the most rigged election in history if that happens. >> president trump once again pushing his narrative on the upcoming november elections and the prospects of mail-in voting. his comments come after a tweet he put out raising the idea of delaying the election, suggesting it will be rigged months before it's even occurred. it's a prospect my next guest quickly shut down, reminding the president he simply doesn't have the power to do so. joining me is federal election commissioner ellen weintraub. thank you so much for joining us. can you talk to us about why the president can't change the november election date?

>> well, baurecause under the constitution only congress can change the date, and they're not going to do that. we have been voting on the tuesday after the first monday in november since 1848. it would require an act of congress to change that, and this week we saw rare unanimity in washington where democrats and republicans, everybody was on the same page, and everybody agreed that no, the election date is not going to be changed. >> can you debunk claims that mail-in voting is rife with fraud? >> well, it's not me. many, many people have debunked those claims. there have been studies done of this, and indeed the -- the irony is that the people who are most interested in trying to prove that there is voter fraud have not been able to come up with the goods. they haven't been able to come up with the evidence over decades and billions of votes cast. they've only been able to come up with an infinitesimal number of votes that were affected by

fraud or even where there were allegations of fraud. this is really not something that we need to worry about. there are many steps in place, as you're showing the viewers right now, to ensure that the -- that mail-in voting will be safe. there are states where they have been doing this for years as a primary method of voting, and they have a very low rate of fraud. it's really not even cognizable. the military votes by military all the time and do it reliably. this something that a number of states are going to ramp up in their efforts because they are used to doing some vote by mail but not as much as what's going to happen this year. those who have done this the longest, they know fraud is not a problem in terms of vote by mail. there's nothing about vote by mail that is inherently liable to be fraudulent. and even this week this a hearing on capitol hill, somebody asked the attorney general whether he had any evidence at all that the election was going to be rigged,

and he admitted that he did not. >> thank you for broadening my vocabula vocabula vocabulary, throwing out cognizable. you said this may undermine the faith in democracy and the real fraud would be if u.s. citizens were deterred from voting. is that still your fear, and is that fare becoear becoming a re? >> i do worry about that. i want every eligible citizen to vote. i think that we will have a stronger democracy and a -- definitely a more representative democracy if more people vote. everyone should want to make their voice heard. ironically, now because of the president's tweets, it is republicans who are voting -- who are indicating less of an interest in voting by mail, and there are republican officials who are actually quite worried about this. evidence shows that there is no partisan imbalance in terms of who votes by mail. it's not going to advantage one party or another. everybody needs to be able to vote safely. this year that's going to be

more of a challenge than it has been before. really more of a challenge than at any time in my lifetime. so we're going to have to be creative and use techniques that maybe we haven't used before. not all of us -- in 2016 about one in four voters voted by mail. this year it's going to be much higher. we can -- >> what needs to be done considering there are those concerns. many people will be voting by mail. and there are reports that the postmaster general is trying to cut costs. a lot of post office workers, postal workers, they're concerned in their ability to give voters -- to deliver the ballots on time. what needs to be done by congress and the president? >> money. that is the number-one thing that congress and the president need to take care of right now. the elections are administered at the state and local level. state and local budgets are really hurting in this bad economy, just like the private sector. the public sector is hurting. and most states operate under a balanced budget restriction.

so they can't just print more money the way the federal government can. they can't incur more debt. they need the help from the federal government. and election administrators from across the country have been begging for this. the brennan center in new york has estimated that it will cost an extra $4 billion to run this election with the increase in vote by mail and all the extra procedures that will need to be taken in order to ensure that those people who want to vote in person can do so safely. and so far congress has appropriated only about $400 million of the $400 billion that is probably needed. this is something that is on the table right now as congress is debating this next coronavirus relief bill. and i would urge all of your viewers to contact your members of congress, particularly your senators, and urge them to fund this election, to get the money to the states, and also to fund the postal service because we are going to need to have a working post office in order to

have vote by mail. >> ellen, before you go, what's the number-one priority for your office right now? >> well, for me, i'm just worried about how this election is going to go. we don't administer the election at the federal level. as i said, that's state and local responsibility. but we need to -- for your viewers, to do something to help this democracy, if you're young and healthy, please volunteer to be a poll worker. there's a real shortage of poll workers this year. make sure that your voter registration is up to date and has your correct address on it. vote early, whether you're voting by mail or voting in person, please vote early because there will be delays. we've seen it in the primaries. and we want every vote to count. and do not expect that on election night you will necessarily know the answer. it is more important that we get the vote right and accurate than that we get it fast. >> okay, ellen. we may be returning to this interview when that happens, reminding people that you warned us. commissioner ellen weintraub, thank you so much for your time.

still ahead, after weeks of violent clashes with federal troops, protesters gather peacefully in portland. and as the oregon governor announces federal officers will be moving out, what the president is saying. plus, former secretary of housing and urban development, julian castro, joins me live to talk about the president's pitch to suburban voters. ban voters - hey, can i... - safe drivers save 40%!!! guys! guys! safe drivers save 40%!!! safe drivers save 40%! safe drivers save 40%!!! that's safe drivers save 40%. it is, that's safe drivers save 40%. - he's right there. - it's him! safe drivers do save 40%. click or call for a quote today.

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it is a bit of a perfect storm for tens of millions of americans. just as the coronavirus relief bill expired that gave the unemployed enhanced benefits, the moratorium on eviction has been lifted. this follows president trump vowing on wednesday to protect suburbites from low-income housing being built in their neighborhoods. so are we staring down the barrel of a housing crisis? i'm joined now by former housing and urban development secretary and 2020 presidential candidate julian castro. secretary castro, it's so good to have you this afternoon.

i want to talk about your reaction to this i know that you had a huge role in the fair housing act. one of the arguments was that it gives people a fighting chance to break the cycle of poverty. it feels like some of that is being reversed now. >> well, it absolutely is. you know, donald trump sees that he's losing the suburbs to joe biden. usually the republican candidate wins the suburbs. but during this trump era, the suburbs are moving away from donald trump. and what he's doing is trying to make an argument to them that he's going to repeal this affirmatively furthering fair housing rule which is meant to further create equal housing opportunities. it's a naked ploy to stir up racial resentment and white grievance and to pit people against each other. as you alluded to, lindsey, all of this is in the backdrop of an evictions crisis that we're facing. by one estimate, up to 28

million americans could face eviction through october. so on the one hand, he's cutting off opportunity for folks who have generally struggled to get it, stoking racial resentment. on the other hand, mitch mcconnell and his buddies and this administration are failing to extend an eviction moratorium and further help people with mortgages so that they can stay in their homes. i mean, really this is a president that is making all of the wrong moves at a time of crisis. >> secretary, i want to play for you something the president said in your home state of texas this week. let's listen. >> the suburbs, people fight all of their lives to get into the suburbs and have a beautiful home. there will be no more low-income housing forced into the suburbs. i abandoned and took away and just rescinded the rule. it's been going on for years. i've seen conflict for years. it's been hell for suburbia.

>> has it been hell for suburbia? is there any data to support that? >> absolutely not. in fact, there are a lot of suburbs out there that have diversified tremendously over the last few decades compared to where they were 40, 50 years ago that are stronger today because of that diversity. no, folks have to remember that donald trump got his start in housing development with his father. and they were sued by the federal government for racial discrimination, for keeping blacks out of their housing units. so this is the man that is now in charge of whether we're going to move forward with the fair housing act enforcement or not. it's not surprising that a few months before the election that he's further stoking this racial resentment. you know, time after time when we've seen in communities this desire to keep out people of color or keep out low-income individuals, when folks actually get to move in. there's this magic that happens

of folks recognizing that they're much more similar than they thought, and instead of the neighborhood going down, the neighborhoods get stronger. property values do not get -- the opposite is true. what this president is doing is throwing out the truth with the false narrative simply because he thinks it's going to juice just enough support out there in certain places to help him win a narrow electoral college victory the way that he did four years ago. >> secretary, i want to shift gears a little bit and talk about the other most-talked-about topic, the vp stakes. joe biden's impending announcement of a running mate. you were on hillary clinton's short list. we're looking at the field right now of contenders, can you share with us what the vetting process is like, how grueling it is, and when and how you heard that it was not going to be you?

>> look, joe biden has a fantastic array of individuals that he's considering. any one of them is prepared to govern, would be a good governing partner. i think in her own right, would add something to the ticket. i went through the process like several others did four years ago. it's a crazy process. we've got a survey of 129 questions to be filled out, the clinton team assembled vetting teams of lawyers to do two or three interviews that lasted collectively about six hours to go over, you know, your financial background, your personal background, your political background. it was a back and forth. and then of course, there's a sit down with the candidate. i understand that's about to happen, at least as far as i read, with vice president biden for those vp candidates. and unfortunately, you also see some of what you've seen in the last couple of days which is one of the reasons i think a lot of people don't like this process

is because the mud starts flying. you know, allies of one candidate say, you know, put opposition research out there, allies of another candidate do the same. folks that are -- were said to be allies of the vice president -- i'm sure this did not reflect his feelings -- but said something the other day about kamala harris being too ambitious, which i thought was completely tone deaf in the year 2020 or ever, because everybody who goes through the process is ambitious. and you have somebody in kamala harris who was the first woman attorney general of california. she's the second black woman ever to serve as united states senator. and also only the third black woman ever to run for president. whether it's senator harris or senator warren or any of the other women or the men who have been considered -- everybody's ambitious. i mean, joe biden -- this is his third time running for president.

so i don't think that ambition should be a bad thing. i think it's a good thing. >> julian castro, i have a million other questions for you about the process, but i'll have to leave it there for now. thank you so much for shedding light on that. officials in portland, oregon, last week negotiated the withdrawal of federal agents in the city after weeks of violent altercations between agents and protesters. the officers were deployed to portland by the federal government following weeks of demonstrations by people who the president called anarchists and agitators. contrary to the fears stoked by the white house, the departure of federal forces this weekend did not lead to further violence. nonetheless, the portland protests have become a fixture of president trump's re-election campaign. nbc reports. [ chants ] >> reporter: nightfall in portland has a new ritual. [ chants ] for two months, demonstrators have taken to the streets, and

nearly every night this eventually becomes this -- >> and if we didn't go there, i will tell you wouldn't have a courthouse, you'd have a billion dollar burned out building. >> the president of the united states is creating violence in the streets so he can run campaign ads to say that he'll stop the violence. feels like a greek tragedy. it feels like something that would never happen in america. >> reporter: president trump says he's looking to restore law and order to cities like portland by putting federal agencies on the ground, harnessing a new campaign issue. the first duty of government is to protect the safety of our citizens. the trump administration will not stand by and allow anational parky in our streets. law -- anarchy in our streets. law and order will prevail. i have a short video because i want it to be real, what is happening now in portland.

>> yes, there are some people throwing rocks and bricks and water bottles and fireworks. these are a handful of people among thousands. and you don't judge thousands of people based on the actions of a handful. >> i think that trump is using this as a political showpiece. i think things were dying down, it was relatively calm, getting better as far as that aspect of the protests. and i think he wanted to stir it up. that's what he did. >> reporter: here's how the trump administration frames it -- >> what we are seeing on the streets of our cities has nothing to do with justice or with peace. >> he's going to do whatever he can to stir up his base. when trump started deploying more federal agents, that is when i came out here because then it puts every black life at risk. this is serious, portland. we're talking about marshal law across the united states. >> reporter: some say it's a distraction. what do you make of the allegations the president is just doing this because we're in

an election year and he needs it politically? >> there's absolutely no question that the president's failure to lead a national response to this global pandemic, that the activities, the sending law enforcement officials on to the streets of portland is a distraction from his failure to lead. >> reporter: the governor here called the president's actions political theater. she points the appearance of the county justice center as an example where each day any graffiti is washed away. but just across the street on the federal courthouse, the graffiti has remained on the building for weeks. >> the president wants footage for his campaign ads, and you appear to be serving it up to him as ordered. >> reporter: in a last election, tanya cleven ge r voted for president trump and continued to back his presidency until now. she calls the administration's handling of protests in portland a tipping point. >> he's way out of line.

your duty is to protect and serve those of this country. i am no longer a trump supporter. this just goes against everything our constitution is about. and i will fight as he says to make america great again. let's do it the right way. >> reporter: despite the president's messaging, pastor reginald richardson jr. keeps showing up to the protests. the result of which he says could go two ways. >> the way that trump leads through violence, through anger, through treatment of others, or the way that jesus would lead, going through the community showing love and compassion and care for others. it's two ideals. one that always wins and one that will hopefully lose in november. >> and maura barrett joins us live from portland. i'm wondering, protesting is a core american value. is there any way that this message becoming such a key part of president trump's re-election campaign, is there any way it could backfire?

>> reporter: well, the violence that we're seeing depicted in some of those trump campaign ads could be something that alarms people because we -- we are used to seeing more peaceful protests or calmer gatherings. actually when nbc spoke with the director of the u.s. marshals service here at the federal courthouse, they said they want people to be protesting on their front steps. they want people to be speaking out for justice. they don't want to be seeing the conflict that has been happening. it's important to note that protests -- the violence had been de-escalating here prior to the federal agents' arrival. for that two-week period there was a lot of conflict between protesters and federal agents. so the trump campaign teasing new ads coming out on monday, it might be -- it could depict something that we're not seeing here on the ground now that oregon's state police has taken over. lindsey? >> nbc's maura barrett. thank you. still ahead, new evidence of iran's efforts to skirt sanctions imposed by the trump

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nbc news has uncovered new evidence that president trump is falling short on promises he made to crack down on the iranian government and impose crippling sanctions. you may remember that when the administration reimposed sanctions last year the president said his measures would drive iran's oil experts down to zero and cost the

government their billions in revenue. but new data shows iran is instead coming up with increasingly sophisticated ways of concealing their exports. more now from nbc's ralph sanchez in london. >> reporter: hey, great to be with you. iran makes no secret of its determination to get around u.s. sanctions and keep selling its oil, the life blood of its economy. what we haven't known is how it does it, the scale of operations, how it moves millions of barrels of oil per month without the world knowing. we've been given a new report by tanker trackers, a maritime research firm which uses satellite imagery to follow the movements of iran's oil tankers. they found what they describe as an intricate ballet on the high seas where iranian ships make covert meetings with vessels to skreltly transfer oil. according to tanker trackers, this shows one of the meetings. the iranian ships and the foreign vessels allegedly turn off their tracking devices or

manipulate their tracking data to hide where they were. these meetings known as ship-to-ship transfers are complicated and can be dangerous. you have two giant oil tankers pulling alongside each other to transfer up to a million barrels of oil at a time. the big picture here is iran may be secretly using these techniques to export far more oil than experts previously thought. the trump administration last year set a goal of driving iran's exports down to zero, to stop them exporting even a single barrel of oil. a recent congressional report found the administration wasn't meeting that goal, but it was close. it estimated iran's oil exports are down 90% in two years and are at around 200,000 barrels per day. tanker tracker says when you take into account these hidden transfers, the real figure is more than 600,000 barrels per day. mainly going to china. that's more than twice the congressional estimate. we put that 600,000 barrel

figure to the state department. in a statement, they didn't address that number directly, but they said that u.s. sanctions have cost iran $65 billion in two years. it's worth saying that iran is likely selling its oil at a discount. so even if it is exporting more, it's likely not reaping the full economic benefits of those exports. if these figures are true, they suggest that despite crippling u.s. sanctions, iran's oil is still flowing and is being secretly exported out into the world. >> nbc's raf sanchez, thank you. still ahead, an october surprise. the trump presidency has been full of twists and turns, but could his finale actually be to bow out? what's behind the theory president trump could quit the race. we'll explain. could quit the race we'll explain.

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the editor in chief of politico thinks he has the answer. a sudden, swift, earth shattering resignation from the president of the united states. in a column called why trump might quit, he makes the case a bombshell could be coming. welcome to the show. you have been calling for this outcome for years. we're within the 100 day mark. what is it about the current situation you think might prompt this to happen? >> i should say a couple of things. first, it is speculation. i will say the reason i think it is going to happen is i don't think president trump, psychology, the reason he got in politics in the first place could withstand the possibility that he might lose, and as he looks at current trends, he has to ask himself two questions, can i change these trends, and if i can't, we don't have much chance of doing that, what's my best way forward. if you think, and i happen to

think this, that his real interest is in being a disrupter in national politics for years to come, he might be better off bailing out early, but then not be branded a loser, and he can make mischief in the republican party and national politics basically for the balance of the decade. >> isn't that why he is calling into question mail-in voting, setting the stage for a possible loss? >> things that he actually has said about calling into question the legitimacy of mail in voting, he is trying to lay the foundation if he doesn't win, if the current trends which have him behind in numerous key swing states he won in 2016, if he can't change thoegse, he has to have something to say. i see it as he is laying the

foundation for what happens if he can't turn this around. >> in your article, you say there's precedent. can you remind the history and the comparisons between that time and now? >> if you look at president trump's career, he has had setbacks before, had business setbacks, declared bankruptcy. always what he looks to do is shed liabilities and ask himself how do i play again another day, how do i keep this brand alive, how do i protect what's important to me, my personal brand. so i think this would be the political equivalent of declaring bankruptcy. shed his liabilities, keep viability in the future. >> in your article, you say he could pull an lbj. talk about, compare and contrast that, the end of the vietnam war and now, how the two might be similar or completely different. >> really it is a good reminder. these times seem unprecedented, they are so troubling in many

ways, and it is worth being reminded our country faced adversity, division, anger of the sort we are experiencing in 2020 many times in the past. 1968 was one of those times and that was when a president that was beleaguered, i believe within his own party and by the opposition, he surprised everybody, lyndon johnson did, late march, 1968. said i am so focused on the vietnam war, i am not seeking re-election in 1968. huge bombshell. >> how did that change the party then and also how did that shape the election? >> well, it stunned everybody. it made it a wide open race. this is going way back. that was was between hubert humphrey, london johnson's vice president, against eugene mccarthy, anti-war candidate and

robert kennedy with only months to live before he was assassinated in the middle of that campaign. it was really one of the early events. >> thank you for reminding us, giving us a good history lesson today. thank you for your time. i will see you back here tomorrow, 2:00 p.m. eastern. the news continues with richard louie after the break on msnbc. c ♪ [ engines revving ] ♪ ♪ it's amazing to see them in the wild like th-- shhh. for those who were born to ride, there's progressive.

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a busy saturday in washington, d.c. millions of unemployed americans have their ears to the beltway ground. along with the coronavirus aid ending friday, they need more. republicans and democrats remain at a stalemate. administration and top democratic officials meeting today to strike a deal on what is or could be $600 of aid. department of homeland security announced they are removing an official who oversaw intelligence reports on journalists. and two jugger naunauts, isaias covid. what the lethal mix means for the country. and the president promised a comprehensive health care plan and immigration plan, though we have yet to see sign of progress on those, either. let's bring in the panel.