when "all in" starts right now. good evening, from new york. i'm chris hayes. of all the crazy things happening right now, and there are a lot. the craziest might be something that is not happening. there is no one on the floor of the united states senate. there's no one in their offices. they're not on capitol hill. they have all gone home for the weekend. in fact, they went home yesterday. congress is in recess right now. on the very day that $600 a week of unemployment insurance bonuses for tens of millions of people has expired. it's done, as of today. it's a shocking and disgusting slap in the face from the republican senate leadership to struggling americans. the democratic house has already passed a bill to reup it. but also, think about how insane this is, politically. there is an election less than 100 days, you might have

noticed. the republican party currently has a majority in the senate. it's defending a bunch of intensely contested seats. there is a sitting republican president. probably, heard about that, too. he is up for re-election. the country is in a once-in-a-century catastrophe. just look at that chart. that's where we are. there are tens of millions of people unemployed. more than 153,000 americans are dead from a pandemic that is raging across the country. and the cdc is now forecasting the total american death toll could hit 182,000 by august 22nd, in about three weeks. schools are not opening for in-person instruction, up and down the country. restaurants are going out of business, right and left. baseball can barely function. all of american life has torn us under. we are drowning here, folks. and senate republicans are just like, peace, summer fridays. you know how we do. that reveals a deep truth about

the republican party right now. at a governing level, they have no answers for the catastrophe. and on a political level, they are acting like a party that understands they are about to get creamed. it's not an accident that half the senate republican caucus is rebelling against doing anything. some of those prominent opponents are clearly people who have eyes on the future. like senators ben sasse, josh hallie, and ted cruz. pitting to be the -- after their own party, basically, destroyed the country. you have the co-founder of the conservative federalist society. the group that has essentially handpicked the president's two supreme court nominees and all his appellate nominees and all the judges he's confirmed. a man, who rose to the defense of trump amidst the mueller investigation, calling trump's latest outrageous tweet about postponing the election fascistic. his words. and impeachable. now, maybe he was just really

offended by that tweet, by what it meant. or maybe he is cashing in his chips, having already won the conservative judges that he wanted. peggy noonan writing the republican party has to be rebuilt. you have mitch mcconnell basically knifing each other today. i don't know if people realize this. but mcconnell has said, from the beginning, and this is, itself, nuts. amidst the pandemic that's now killing an american every minute is to make sure bosses make you go back to work and then, you can't sue them. so liability protection. that's what mitch mcconnell cares ant. and donald trump, who actually has a far better sense than mitch mcconnell. basically, his spokesperson say we don't care about, we just want to get the election out the door. republicans are losing in the generic ballot by eight points. trump approval rating is at 40%. he is losing in head to heads

with joe biden by eight points. right now, he is losing all the swing states. they are behind in senate races according to the poll in maine, in colorado. way behind in arizona. they are competitive in a bunch of states they should not be. like north carolina and iowa. those are real races. politic political porch republicans are worried about losing more seats in the house because they're basically down to bare minimum after 2018. the one thing the republican party could do to turn it all around would be to competently govern the country and get a handle on the pandemic but they cannot do that. so, at this point, donald trump is just getting up and knocking over the chess board. do you know his campaign suspended their ad spending less than 100 days before the election? they slowed down their august ad buy with a record amount of money sitting in the bank, which they refer to as the death star. the reason, i think, is right now, the new plan basically

happening right in front of our eyes is to undermine the election, itself. increasingly, it's clear, that that's going to be the sum total of trump's campaign. to use the tools of the federal government to sabotage and disrupt the administration of free and fair elections. to send federal forces into swing states to create viral content. to slow down the mail from the post office when people are afraid to vote in person. and then, to undermine legitimacy of mail-in ballots. now, all the president's mail-in ballot focus and it's not just the president. it's rnc, it's stephen miller, it's people coming to his defense, it's people on trump tv. it's not a temper tantrum. it's a concerted strategy. they want to make it harder to vote in the midst of a pandemic. they want it to be the case that their people vote in person, and the other people vote by mail. and then, they can just kind of try to get rid of the mail-in ballots. it's pretty clear, one way to do that is to slow down the mail, in general, which is what they are already doing, right in front of our eyes. here's a headline.

"washington post." postal service backlog sparks worries that ballot delivery could be delayed in november. we have been covering this story, night after night, squan have been getting dozens of e-mails from people who worked in the post office, customers. about being told to leave mail. and as "the washington post" greg sergeant reported today, florida, arizona, wisconsin, pennsylvania, and georgia, it is not a question of when you mail your ballot, right? the postmark. it's a question of when it's received. if the mail is too slow, so it doesn't get there by election day, well, out of luck. too bad. that's the point we're at. donald trump is not really running a re-election campaign. he's trying to tear the whole thing down. for more on the president's crusade against voting by mail, i am joined by michigan's secretary of state, joslin

bensen. and secretary, you and i have spoken before on this. the president has attacked you, personally, for mailing absentee ballots to everyone in your state. what does it do to watch the president continue, and not just the president, the rnc, his allies, all sorts of republican figures, attack the legitimacy of mail-in voting? >> well, just two things. one, it increases the need for us, as voters, as citizens, as secretaries of state, to continue to educate voters, proactively, of all backgrounds of exactly what we are doing to ensure their votes are safe and secure and that our elections will happen on schedule. but, of course, the other impact of that rhetoric is that it begins to plant and sow seeds of doubt among our voters and among the citizenry. that the -- putting them, -- t elections in doubt and causing them to doubt the integrity of the process. which is very concerning but from my standpoint, our goal is to build a process that can

withstand that information and also educate voters, proactively, so that they're informed, empowered, and can be aware of their choices at voting and exactly how to ensure their votes, as cast, are counted. >> so -- so one of the things, the logistical issue here. the logistical challenge, itself, is enormous. even if you took away donald trump. you took away all the nonsense and the sort of anti-democratic sabotage coming from his rhetoric. just logistically, people have been modeling what they anticipate's going to happen this election. michigan, for instance, had about 25% of people voting absentee in 2015. the models predict somewhere around 70%, 71%, likely to vote by mail. that's an enormous change. are you ready to process that? >> yes. michigan is actually in a really good position because voters enacted, for themselves, in 2018, the ability to vote by mail. they amended our state constitution by overwhelming support. and put that into our law. so there's already an awareness that you can vote by mail. that was underscored by the

mailing we were able to do earlier this year, encouraging people and educating them on how, exactly, to vote by mail. and then, on top of that, we have other states, as well, where you see they are going from 4% to 70%. we're just going from 25 to 70%, which actually puts us in a much better position to ensure our voters know what their choices are. we have also had two elections already this year. we're about to have a third on tuesday. so voters in michigan are becoming more familiar with the process. and that's evidence by the fact that 2 million people, twice as normal in a -- in a august primary are going to be voting by mail in michigan on tuesday. that number's only going to increase by november. so really, our challenge is just making sure the infrastructure is in place to withstand that influx in balance, and make sure voters know exactly how to track their ballot and put procedures in place so that the elections are secure. the good news is, though, none of this is rocket science and none of this is re-creating the

wheel. there are states that have been voting by mail, almost entirely, for decades. so what we've done and many other states have done is simply learn from their successes, import their best practices to our state and that's why we are able to go from 25% to 70% voting by mail in less than one cycle. >> let me ask you about this. the x factor, in terms of mail delivery. michigan is a state, and i believe there was a sort of court case that contested this. the michigan state supreme court declined to take. in which it is -- the ballot has to arrive. right? it's not the postmark. and i guess the question for you is, how -- how worried are you about that? how much is an x factor of the swift delivery of the mail, itself, in an election? >> it's one of the two things that keeps me up at night, apart from my 4-year-old. the idea that we could have thousands of votes that are balloted and should be counted, arriving after election day even though they were mailed in prior to election day, some cases, perhaps even a week before election day.

that's why we have put guarded drop boxes all around our state in every jurisdiction so as you get closer to the november election, if you don't want to return your ballot by mail, you can just walk to your local drop box and put it there. and as long as it's received there by 8:00 p.m. on election day, it will count. so we're working to, essentially, adjust and adapt to all of these changes that the pandemic and other political realities have put on us. and i'm very confident that we are doing absolutely everything we can to guard the process and ensure our elections are successful. and again, that leads me to the second thing that keeps me up at night. which is that the narrative that is -- that is slowly being built from the white house and other sources that the election's not secure and with all this false information about voting. that really sets the stage to contest what are otherwise accurate results and an accurate reflection of the people come november. >> that is a great point. i just want to just highlight before i let you go. the drop boxes are a safety valve for mail being overwhelmed. in pennsylvania, the trump campaign is suing that state to

get rid of the drop boxes. you have not faced a lawsuit, i understand, on that, yet. but i would prepare. >> fingers crossed. no, i mean -- i'm confident that we're permitted to do drop boxes, under the law. and it's, really, what the law requires us to do right now when we're in the midst of a pandemic. we have, you know, challenges with the post office. and so, it's our job to really provide other opportunities for people to return their ballots on time. and then, educate voters about how to do so. >> yeah. keep your eyes on that. michigan secretary of state jocelyn benson, thanks for speaking to us tonight. >> thanks for having me. >> for more on where the republican party stands, i am joined by cornell belcher and tim moore, former communications director for jeb bush's political campaign. now, for republican voters against trump. tim, let me start with you. you know, two stipulations here. one, is that lord knows what could happen in the next few months.

we -- we have learned our lesson that fate can intervene. and number two, there's a certain kind of regression towards the tightening that you see in elections as they go down the stretch. and i would anticipate something similar here. but it does seem to me, the republican party, en masse, is increasingly acting like a party expecting to lose. is that a fair assessment? >> oh, they're expecting to lose. and you know, i wrote about this for "rolling stone." where i talked to a lot of my old republican consultant buddies and they said as much. they're worried about jon cornyn losing texas. forget some of those states you mentioned. your first caveat is really important. with republican voters against trump, we were polling last week. and, you know, some of these swing states, particularly if you are looking at wisconsin, arizona, north carolina, are still pretty tight. and that tightening coming back in the fall, if something intervenes externally, is very real. so we certainly shouldn't be doing any victory dances here. >> yeah.

i don't think it's -- to me, it's less a question of victory and less about the actual outcome, and more about the mode that the party is in. and morely, tru importantly, tr in. cornell, in some ways, i think the president's, you know, his narcissism, for a long time, refused to let him believe the polls or that he was behind. and in some ways, i think that it getting through to him that he is, is more dangerous because of what that then incentivizes him to do. >> well, a couple things. one, i'm going to -- i'm going to kind of disagree with both of you. on -- on -- i think -- i think we're at a different time. but -- but, two, is this is the difficulty with what we are seeing happening here. i mean, they paused their advertising spending. my head wants to explode, chris. when in -- in -- in -- in all history has a presidential -- at this point, said you know what? let's just pause all our

advertising. but part and parcel of it is part from the advertising. people know about -- but that wasn wasn't different from, you know, a '96 bill clinton, america back where bill clinton talked about how america was stronger, safer, more prosperous now because of what he -- what he's done. and george bush, you know, safer and stronger. where he talked about, again, america was better off and safer and stronger because of what he's done and we were really turning a corner. and same thing with barack obama. you know, trump has basically said, you know, kicked off this campaign saying that america's on fire and those people are coming to burn and destroy the suburbs. that's not exactly persuasion advertising for someone who is sitting incumbent. so i think that's been really problematic. but the other point of this is i think we're at a different time. usually, i would agree with both of you. yes, it's going to tighten. it's going to go back to sort of what the mean typically is.

but, chris, we have had, now, a democrat, for several months now, holding a 10 to 15-point lead. structurally and historically, chris, you know that does not happen. since lbj signed civil rights legislation, democrats have a real hard time getting a four, five-point lead on the republicans. so structurally, it's been really difficult. there is something different happening in our electorate right now. particularly, when you look at college-educated, white women, and the way they continue to break hard away from the republican party. and the way donald trump continues to double down on many of the things that are making them break away from the party. so i think it may tighten but i don't think it's going to tighten like you saw in 2008 or 2012 or -- or 2004. i think -- i think we're in a different place. >> cornell, it's so funny you said that when you say you're going to disagree with me because we have these occasional chats and i usually play optimist. and you play pessimist. switched roles here. when you said you were going to

disagree, i was like, wait, what's he going to say? but your point about the structural nature of this. i mean, again, it's one of these strange things, tim. you know, i have -- i have been doing some writing on this recently. and sort of trying to express that it is -- it's hard -- the -- the surreal day-to-day reality of living through a once in a century catastrophe, which is what we are, right? like, you -- you -- there's certain parts of your life that are normal like normal, your kids, your wife, your car's still there maybe if it hasn't been repossessed. but then there's people suffering, people out of work, businesses closing. 34% of people approve of trump's handling of coronavirus. to me, that's the number. like, that's -- that's basically -- 34% is basically, i think, the hardest concrete floor for him. like that's -- those are the people who are like, you know, willing to jump off -- jump into the river for him.

>> under coronavirus there. yeah, look. here's the thing that leans me toward maybe cornell being right. we're doing focus groups and our focus groups are just with soft trump voters. people that voted for him last time that aren't sure about his performance. these people thought he was going to be a businessman who, during times of crisis, was going to do the art of the deal. and break up, you know, the washington misfunction. they bought that bs. and so, when we're in focus groups now, they're blindsided by like thwho is this weak, sad whiny toddler just tweeting? i know most of your viewers probably see him like that but that's not how his voters saw him. and so, i mean, these are people that he could win back, potentially, like you said, with good governance. but right now, if nothing changes, he's lost these folks. >> yeah. well i mean, if the test is good governance, i think we know the answer. cornell belcher and tim miller,

thank you. thank you, both, so much, gentlemen. >> see ya, chris. >> next, republicans aren't letting the suffering of millions americans get in the way of a summer friday. i will talk to senator sherrod brown with the senate adjourning for the weekend as unemployment benefits expire, after this. d a benefits expire, after this. as a caricature artist, 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. ♪

for bathroom odors that linger try febreze small spaces. just press firmly and it continuously eliminates odors in the air and on soft surfaces. for 45 days. ♪ and ask your doctor about biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in certain adults. it's not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v

to help you get to and stay undetectable. that's when the amount of virus is so low it cannot be measured by a lab test. research shows people who take h-i-v treatment every day and get to and stay undetectable can no longer transmit h-i-v through sex. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure. rare, life-threatening side effects include a buildup of lactic acid and liver problems. do not take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or rifampin. tell your doctor about all the medicines and supplements you take, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or if you have kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis. if you have hepatitis b, do not stop taking biktarvy without talking to your doctor. common side effects were diarrhea, nausea, and headache. if you're living with hiv, keep loving who you are. and ask your doctor if biktarvy is right for you. if you're living with hiv, keep loving who you are. simon pagenaud takes the lead at the indy 500! coming to the green flag, racing at daytona. they're off... in the kentucky derby.

rory mcllroy is a two time champion at east lake. he scores! stanley cup champions! touchdown! only mahomes. the big events are back and xfinity is your home for the return of live sports.

all right. my favorite, little factoid i learned today. if you had to guess, okay. if americans' personal income went up or down in the second quarter of this year, in the thick of the pandemic, what would you guess? well, it turns out it went up. way up. disposable personal income increased by about $1.5 trillion in the second quarter, or about 42%. and this really counterintuitive

finding is evidence that the thrust of the previous, big coronavirus rescue package, particularly the additional $600 a week for people who found themselves unemployed, was actually a very big success. i mean, for all its flaws, for all its shortcomings, for all the pain, the core part of the package gave people a real lifeline. which makes it even more sadistic malpractice for senate republicans to just get out of town without passing a new rescue package, as that extra $600 benefit expires today. and because state unemployment systems are now completely overwhelmed, it will likely take them weeks to program in any new benefit, should senate republicans decide to do anything. which means, if anything passes, it will take longer to get money into the hands of people who desperately need it. >> the path that they have taken us down with their delay, their denial, and their distortions have caused death.

speaking illiteratively. has caused deaths, unnecessarily. >> here to speak with me, senator sherrod brown, democrat of ohio. senator, how did we get here? >> nancy pelosi is right, pure and simple. so, go ahead. >> well, no, i mean, how did we -- i am -- i am somewhat shocked, right? like, i have covered a lot of legislative dysfunction. i have covered a lot of things that republicans have done, that seem massively unpopular. and yet, they go ahead and do it, anyway. they took two runs at the affordable care act and couldn't get it done. but this tops it all. like, this is as bad as it gets. americans dying every minute. tens of millions unemployed. gdp declined by 10%. pandemic's raging. a third of restaurants have closed. and they're just -- they're not doing any -- like, how did we get here?

>> it's really, pretty inexplicable. i guess, i start back with the only vote that mcconnell allowed on the senate floor, the only amendment, as we passed the cares act, unanimously, the only amendment was to eliminate the $600 a month unemployment insurance. they fundamentally hate the idea of social insurance, whether it's medicare, social security, or unemployment insurance. it's still pretty inexplicable because we are now, pardon the cliche, i am marry todied to a journalist -- but part of the cliche. i mean, this is the perfect storm. people that are getting $600 a week, who are laid off and really need it, are losing it. the moratorium on evictions is coming off. the moritoria all over the country on water and electric shut offs. most of those moratoria are coming off.

eviction courts held in an arena. what's that going to mean? it's going to mean a whole lot of people will have to go to overcrowded shelters, i'm not alarmist about it. there's nothing good that comes of this. i don't -- and then, i hear senators making $175,000 a year, complaining that these lazy workers are getting so much money. they're getting $600 a week. how can we let that go on? like you point out, poverty, people haven't sunk into poverty, in significant numbers, at all during this pandemic because of the $600 a week. it's one of the best things congress has done, clearly. >> i got to say. in -- in -- in an adult career spent covering democratic policymaking, the $600 a week unemployment benefit top off, which is clear, universal, everyone gets the same amount. you just give it to people, across the board, and has proven

successful. is one of the most successful piece of democratic policymaking that i have seen in my life. i really mean that. and republicans hated it. as soon as they found it in the bill, they almost walked and tried to scotch the whole thing. they hated it from the beginning. >> yeah. they hated it from the beginning. it's inexplicable in this way, too. that i have been on the phone, as all of us are. my favorite abraham lincoln quote is i got to go out and get my public-opinion bath. and that means listening to people. and pretty clear, mcconnell and, in all, his spineless people on his side of the aisle aren't going out and listening to people, remotely or physically or personally. but one of the most important things, i have been talking with teachers, parents, school administrators, school board members. they're all trying to figure out. they -- they -- they lost -- they've got less money from the state. that's everywhere in the country. they -- their own tax revenues

are down. that's everywhere in the country. so they are making decisions, now. they have to make their schools safe. they have to. they need a lot of money to clean the schools. to -- to redesign classrooms. what they do with buses. how they keep the cafeteria workers and the teachers and the kids safe. they need money to do that. they are planning right now, they are selling off everything they can. one superintendent in ohio told me she's had to -- they're cancelling all these book orders. these new textbook orders because they've got to find every penny they can. yet, they look to washington and mcconnell's doing nothing about this? i mean, they need tens and tens and tens of billions of dollars right now. trump says open the schools. no, we say open the schools, safely. i can't imagine we're going to send kids into this and expect teachers to come back. and expect the cafeteria workers and the janitors in schools to come back. and to this, if we're not going to invest and spend money to home these schools make the schools safe.

>> the -- the -- the -- the balance here is that the urgency for this is to intense, for all the reasons you -- you said. they have the wrong side of the politics. it's just a question of how quickly this can get done because it, absolutely, has to get done. eventually, it's going to be passed i i this with a majority of democrats in both houses. god, i hope that happens sooner rather than later. sherrod brown, of the great state of ohio. thank you so much for being here tonight. coming up. the stunning, new report. the white house abandoned their own national testing plan, in part, because they thought the virus would mostly impact blue states. the reporter on that incredible piece joins me, ahead. ♪ we see you. doing your part by looking out...for all of us. and though you may have lost sight of your own well-being, aetna never did. by setting up virtual monitoring for chronic patients, 24-hour telemedicine visits, and mental health resources for everyone. we're always here to help you focus on your health.

because it's always, time for care. ♪ 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. no uh uh, no way come on, no no n-n-n-no-no only discover has no annual fee on any card. n-n-n-no-no a lotta folks are asking me lately how to get their dishes as clean as possible. i tell them, you should try cascade platinum plus the power of oxi.

cascade platinum + oxi penetrates and breaks down food soils some detergents can leave behind, washing away even the smallest food residue, so it doesn't redeposit on your dishes. and oxi is cascade's most powerful clean, formulated without any chlorine bleach, for a deep hygienic clean you can see and feel. cascade + the power of oxi. the #1 recommended brand in north america.

this country passed 154,000 today. unfathomable ocean of suffering, the water still rising. we have been regularly taking time to remember some of those we have lost like phoenix

postmaster umberto trajillo. he died at the age of 61. he grew up in the phoenix housing projects. raised by a single mother, for over 30 years, he worked his way up on the postal service. finally, becoming postmaster in 2015. his daughter said he was always willing to take on a challenge, and taught them to believe they could be anything they wanted to be. when trajillo was late to rest tuesday this week, mail trucks lined the city of phoenix in a procession to honor the city's postmaster. dr. antonio guzman died this week at age 54. dr. guzman grew up in texas. dr. guzman became director of corpus christi medical center's internal medicine residency

program. friends and colleagues described him as a skilled physician and compassionate provider. >> joseph costa died last saturday. he was at emergency medical center in baltimore, where he took care of coronavirus patients and he did that, despite the fact that he suffered from an autoimmune disorder. fluent, in both german and italian. his husband david said he loved his job, more than anything else in the word. dr. costa died in the intensive care unit where he worked, in his husband's arms, surrounded by his colleagues. aliyah marsh was just 25 when she died in spokane, washington. she was planning their wedding for next summer. she was a prolific writer filli filling journals with stories and song lyrics. the family plans to hold a viewing after isolation so they can see her in her wedding dress.

ruth glosser died from the late effectsf coronavirus. she lived a full, astounding life as scholar, social worker, and teacher. her passion was documenting her family's history and flight from persecution in what is now belarus. her son david describes glosser as an ardent of education and civil rights. immigrants. people who immigranted here from all over the world. she leaves behind two children and seven grandchildren, one of whom is white house senior adviser stephen miller. adviser r

♪ thousands of women with metastatic breast cancer, which is breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, are living in the moment and taking ibrance. ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for postmenopausal women or for men with hr+/her2- metastatic breast cancer, as the first hormonal based therapy. ibrance plus letrozole significantly delayed

disease progression versus letrozole, and shrank tumors in over half of patients. patients taking ibrance can develop low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infections that can lead to death. ibrance may cause severe inflammation of the lungs that can lead to death. tell your doctor right away if you have new or worsening symptoms, including trouble breathing, shortness of breath, cough, or chest pain. before taking ibrance, tell your doctor if you have fever, chills, or other signs of infection, liver or kidney problems, are pregnant, breastfeeding, or plan to become pregnant. common side effects include low red blood cell and low platelet counts, infections, tiredness, nausea, sore mouth, abnormalities in liver blood tests, diarrhea, hair thinning or loss, vomiting, rash, and loss of appetite. be in your moment. ask your doctor about ibrance. be in your moment. walk to end alzheimer's alzheis everywhere.tion all of us are raising funds for one goal: a world without alzheimer's and all other dementia. because this disease isn't waiting, neither are you.

go to alz dot org slash walk. (dad vo) life doesn't give you many secobut a subaru can. (dad) you guys ok? (vo) eyesight with pre-collision braking. standard on the subaru ascent. the three-row subaru ascent. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. get 0% apr financing for 63 months on select models during the subaru a lot to love event. sprinting past every leak in our softest, smoothest fabric. she's confident, protected, her strength respected. depend. the only thing stronger than us, is you. she's confident, protected, her strength respected. for bathroom odors that linger try febreze small spaces. just press firmly and it continuously eliminates odors in the air and on soft surfaces. for 45 days.

for spending a perfectly reasonable amount of time on the couch with tacos from grubhub? grubhub's gonna reward you for that with a $5 off perk. (doorbell rings) - [crowd] grubhub! (fireworks exploding) pondered over the last few months. is it possible part of the reason for the horrendous response of the to the coronavirus by the trump administration, with over 154,000 dead, was a misguided belief the virus would only sicken and kill people in blue states.

you know, not their people. and so, therefore, coordinating a national plan was not necessary. well, that's the strong suggestion in this gob-smacking article in vanity fair. quoting a public expert in frequent contact with the white house. political folks believe that because it was going to be relegated to democratic states, they could blame those governors and that would be an effective political strategy. white house, not surprisingly, denied this report. although, take that for what it's worth. joining me now, investigative journalist and vanity fair contributor. katherine, this is a great piece of reporting. and i think i will start on that note. this notion that there were a bunch of different discussions happening in the white house about a need for national strategy. and we will get into the task force. but some sense, pilly, tholitic that like if it stays to democratic states, we'll just blame the democratic governors and that will be good enough. >> yeah. i mean, standing up a national

plan was vital to our recovery. they didn't really want to do it. it was going to be a huge amount of work. there was a belief, as of about april, taking hold in the white house that the virus was on its way out. and so, at that point, it was pretty much just in the blue states. and so, there was political thinking around this, according to my sources. that, you know, if they needed a political response to this, they could just blame those governors and that would be an effective political response. >> i mean, i'm not going to ask you to editorialize. you're a reporter. but that is just unfathomably horrible malpractice and immoral. i mean, like the idea that you think -- and -- and the president's been very clear about this. i mean, he talks about the country as being the president of the republican party. building the president of red america. being the president of maga america and not really being

president of places like baltimore or chicago or whatever. this would be like the fullest of what the president says all the time. >> yeah. i mean, they didn't -- throughout this response, they have not wanted a national program of anything. now, in the beginning of this, you know, according to my sources, they drafted a very detailed national plan. and every country that has effectively combatted this virus has a plan, like the one they drafted. you know, it's not rocket science. this is like -- as -- as one person i interviewed said -- this is like, you know, re-creating ups for the diagnostic-testi diagnostic-testing industry. you know, you need a national, logistical response to this challenge. they drafted that plan. and then, they didn't want to implement it.

>> so, there's two big sort of revelations. there's that, right? they draft the plan, and then walk away from it. and one of your source suggests it's because of politics. and then, the other is jared's task force. first of all, it's like the president's son-in-law, who has no independent qualifications to work in the white house, or really to do anything, whatsoever, related to the worst pandemic in 100 years. he's put together a task force that's like jared's bros, like a summer college roommate. and they are all doing this on a whatsapp group and not interacting at all with like the reams of experts who spent their life thinking and working on this, in the actual federal government. is that right? >> that's right. you know, one of -- one of our sources was a participant who worked on the plan. who said that it just appears to be operating in a bubble, and it was not interacting with the other bubbles of the people who were working on diagnostic testing in the agencies.

the problem with that is if you're going to implement anything, it has to be implemented through the agencies. you know, you can't implement a plan through the white house. but the plan didn't get down to the agencies before it was taken off the table and killed. and that was shortly before it was supposed to be announced, according to our sources. >> and your sources don't -- aren't definitive about why it was killed. but there were some things they were able to do. you start with an incredible anecdote in the lead, which is, 3 -- 3.5 million covid tests deposited, paid for, $52 million. the client name signed is w.h. for white house. which apparently, going around all procurement procedure, whatsoever, which is real serious stuff in the federal government. people like lose their jobs. they can face criminal sanction. the jared task force just, like, ordered 3.5 million tests, and

then none of them worked? >> that's what it appears to be. they -- they put in this order, through this abu dhabi-based company. which then ships, you know, 3.5 million tests. first, 1 million. and then, 2.5. these are tested in a government lab, and they don't work at all. then, the company says, well, wait a second. you have to pay us. so, hhs lawyers have to scramble and find out, well, wait a second. there's no dually contracted -- there's no officer of the u.s. government who's actually procured these properly and there's no contract, and so, we can't pay you. and that was cabled to the embassy of the united arab emirates where these supplies were deposited. >> just such in a window.

i mean, when you look at the stats every day, when you look at the american life, the president's son-in-law ordering bad tests that they can't pay for because -- it's just a perfect explanation of where we are. katherine, did some amazing report on this. definitely check out the piece in "vanity fair." thank you for making time tonight. >> thank you you for having me on. >> ahead, dr. anthony fauci essentially comes clean on the failed federal response to coronavirus. jamie raskin on the hearing and what needs to happen next. n the what needs to happen next. ta-da! 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. ♪

for bathroom odors that linger try febreze small spaces. just press firmly and it continuously eliminates odors in the air and on soft surfaces. for 45 days. ♪

and ask your doctor about biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in certain adults. it's not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to and stay undetectable. that's when the amount of virus is so low it cannot be measured by a lab test. research shows people who take h-i-v treatment every day and get to and stay undetectable can no longer transmit h-i-v through sex. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure. rare, life-threatening side effects include a buildup of lactic acid and liver problems. do not take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or rifampin. tell your doctor about all the medicines and supplements you take, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or if you have kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis. if you have hepatitis b, do not stop taking biktarvy without talking to your doctor. common side effects were diarrhea, nausea, and headache. if you're living with hiv, keep loving who you are. and ask your doctor if biktarvy is right for you.

does wearing a mask give people covid-19? >> does wearing a mask give it? no. not to my knowledge. >> okay. all right. is covid-19 a hoax? >> no. >> can people cure themselves of covid-19, by injecting themselves with disinfectant? or bleach? i'm sorry? >> no. >> dr. anthony fauci, the

nation's top infectious disease expert was on the hill today and house democrats made sure to afford him the national platform the president has, essentially, taken away. in a hearing, he told the house coronavirus subcommittee that he does not believe a highly-transmissible virus like coronavirus will disappear, despite the president's assertions. response to the pandemic, which i think is fair to say the worst on planet earth, other than brazil, here is how dr. fauci responded. >> so what is the difference? why are all of the other countries defeating the disease, and we're not? why do we not have a plan, a strategy, for victory to win, to beat covid-19? >> well, i believe i address that in, not only my opening statement but, also, in response to the question of one the congressman. and that is that, when you look at the comparison between asia and europe, as it shown by the

chairman's poster up there, that when they shut down, they shut down to the tune of about 95%. getting their baseline down to tens or hundreds of cases per day. whereas, when we did it, we got it down, but unfortunately, our baseline was 20,000 a day. >> all right. so we're getting somewhere. but would you agree with me that the critical difference is either the presence or the absence of social cohesion and political leadership two actual to actually develop a plan, execute it, and stick to it? >> i think there was such a diversity of response in this country from different states that we really did not have a unified bringing everything down. >> there you go. you got him to say it. joining me now is that member, congressman jamie raskin, democrat of maryland, member of the subcommittee on the coronavirus. congressman, i thought the exchanges you had with dr. fauci and also some things dr. redfield said today were interesting. what did you learn from today's hearing? >> well, i think that we're in

remedial covid-19 salvage mode, at this point. i mean, we have to try to get whatever money into the system, that we can, for further testing and contact tracing. but it's hopeless, with this administration, and specifically this president, in charge. we will not have a coordinated, comprehensive plan to defeat the disease. and that agonizes me. i think you could go back and look at your own tapes. and you would see -- and i knew nothing about epidemiology and disease and so on. but when this started, i started talking to everybody. and i ended up connecting with donna shalala and we introduced a bill called the reopen america act. and it was all based on massive, nationwide shutdown. and then, states beginning to try to reopen by petitioning the secretary of hhs saying we want to reopen. here is our plan. a national scientific advisory panel to go over the plan. to help people come up with the best solution for them, locally.

and then, for the federal government to pay for it and the federal government to coordinate the logistics, instead of setting states against each other in this ruthless, dog-eat-dog competition that you recall, you know, from the ventilators and the ppe and so on. so it's been a nightmare, from the beginning. and it was clear to me, from today, that they still have no plan. and their plan was, as they demonstrated at the beginning of the hearing, is to blame china. which is not only absurd but ineeffe ineffectual. and i have submitted all the documents that trump is their biggest defender. but obviously, blaming other governments, blaming china is not a plan. and so, i think we should try again. we should at least demand and insist upon this money that we have got in the heroes act to get through. it's just a matter of common decency now because we're

talking about losing our own people. but republicans double down. one of our colleagues fell ill this week. he says, the problem is i think i wore a mask the last couple days. he was trying to blame it on the fact that we were insisting people wear masks. herman cain died after going to the tulsa, oklahoma, rally with donald trump. and he died and none of the republicans mentioned it today. it took democrats to mention it. i think it was maxine waters who brought it up first at the coronavirus committee hearing. that they are just letting these people go. it's like a policy of mass human sacrifice. >> the -- one of the -- one of the issues that came up today, that i have been focused on. and i don't know what to make of it is -- is this data question. it may seem esoteric. it may seem weedsy. but it's important. there is three kinds of data we have. we have cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. along with positivity rate. and of those three,

hospitalizations are the most concrete data that we have, right? because we know that we're missing a lot of fatalities from covid. we see that in the excess death day data. we know cases are a product of testing. we might be missing cases but you should know, more or less, who is in the hospital for code vid anywhere. and it's a really important metric. and the white house has moved that data from the cdc, which has kept and collated that data for decades, over to hhs with a new contract. and it seems like it's kind of been a disaster. what is going on there? >> well, the -- it's very simple. when donald trump sees bad news and facts, contrary to his world view, they don't try to change their world view or incorporate the new facts. they try to extinguish the facts. i mean, if mary trump, you know, his niece's writing a book to tell a story about how he ended up the most dangerous and pathological man on earth, go

and sue. you know, throw michael cohen in prison again to stop him from writing his book. and if they don't like the fact that hospitalizations are out of control in florida and texas. and, here, i pause to take on my friend jim jordan again. he kept saying the real test is whether the hospitals are overrun and the hospitals are fine. this was his big refrain two months ago. the hospitals are overrun again. the icus are packed to the gills. now, he doesn't mention that. now, he is off talking about protests but i digress because he is getting under my skin, chris. but, you know, in any event, they are just trying to jut out the news. that's why they are saying we don't want hospitalizations being reported by the states anymore to the centers for disease control. report them to us, at hhs, we think we have got a little more control over that situation and we'll be able to translate it. look what governor ron desantis did in florida, he fired the woman who wanted to do honest accounting and reporting of the cases and hospitalizations there. so it's a whole gop strategy.

it's not one person anymore. >> congressman jamie raskin on that special subcommittee of coronavirus oversight represents district of maryland. thank you very much. >> thank you, chris. >> that does it for all in. you can catch us every all in. you can catch us every week at 8:00 right here on msnbc. i'm craig melvin. and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is dateline. >> how am i doing right now? if i had to put it into one word numb would be the closest. >> she was a young actress starring in the role of a lifetime, a mystery. >> you never heard a gunshot? >> no. >> one of her friends was dead. >> there's been a body discovered in sam's apartment. >> it's so hard. she was 23. >> another friend was missing and wanted. >> you've got a dead woman in his apartment.