what was it all about, really? why? >> greed. plain and simple. it just came down to greed. it was all about money. this sunday, the surging covid crisis. >> i've never seen anything like this in my 30-plus years in medicine. >> the u.s. averaging roughly 65,000 new cases a day. >> this is really an apocalyptic time for us. >> 25 states in the so-called red zone. amid the growing crisis, president trump re-tweets discredited advice. >> you don't need mask. there is a cure. it's called hydroxychloroquine. >> this morning i'll talk to admiral giroir of the task force and boston university. >> plus, trailing in the polls. the president floats delaying the election blaming without evidence increased mail-in voting. >> these elections will be fraudulent.

they'll be fixed. they'll be rigged. >> many republicans push back. >> we'll cope with whatever the situation is and have the election on november 3rd as already scheduled. >> why even mr. trump's allies say this time he's going too far. also while honoring john lewis, president obama takes on president trump. >> george wallace may be gone, government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators. and who will joe biden choose as his running mate? >> i am going to do everything i can to make sure that he gets elected and once elected make sure that he's a successful president. >> i'll talk to a rising contender. congresswoman karen bass of california. joining me for insight and analysis for nbc news chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell. journalist and author robert draper. and heather mcghee, civil rights

advocate group, color of change. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history. this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. good sunday morning. so much for that new tone. this past week, president trump retweeted a video of a doctor who said masks were unnecessary. hydroxychloroquine is a cure for covid-19 and diseases are caused by dreams of sex with demons. meanwhile, the number of deaths from covid-19 passed 150,000. nine states set one-day records for covid cases while 11 set single-day records for deaths. among those deaths was former republican presidential candidate herman cain. economic output fell since records have been kept at an annualized rate of 32.9%, and

that was even before benefits ran out for millions of americans on friday. president trump made the most un-american and un-democratic of suggestions, proposing to delay the election, insisting again, without evidence that mail-in voting will result in a fraudulent outcome. and remember all of this was just this past week. mr. trump's delay the election game from the terrible economic news, a president whose desperation makes him even more unpredictable. in short, a president who expects to lose. ultimately mr. trump increasingly looks like a man who looks like the more the virus is out of control, the more his presidency does too. >> this is going to be the greatest election disaster in history. >> president trump casting doubt on the integrity of the november election which polls currently suggest he is losing. >> do i want to see a day change, no, but i don't want to see a crooked election.

this election will be the most rigged election in history. >> renewing his attacks on mail-in voting despite no evidence it leads to voter fraud and suggesting a delay, which he has no constitutional thought to enact. >> this is n shi the president can do. >> republicans race to distance themselves. >> never in the history of the country through wars, depresagons d n this november 3 >> never in the history of the federalctns have we ever not held an election, and we should go forward with the election. >> it's the latest attempt for the president to sow seeds of doubt. with the coronavirus surging and death tolls up 30% in 30 states over the past two weeks, the cdc is projecting the u.s. death toll could hit 182,000 in just three more weeks. and the president's testing czar is conceding a national lag in testing. >> would it be possible for our nation to have results for all covid tests completed and returned within 48 and 72 hours.

it is not a possible benchmark we can achieve today given the demand in the supply. it is absolutely a benchmark we can achieve moving forward.it i it within a 24 to 48-hour period. >> in florida, which marked its fourth straight day of record deaths on friday, the president simply ignored the facts. >> i think we're doing a fantastic job. >> instead trying to create fear of a democratic precedence. >> if joe biden is elected president the chaos and bloodshed will spread to every community in our land. >> some top trump advisors believe the president's playbook isn't working and are finding it hard to keep him on message. earlier this week he re-tweeted this video featuring doctors insists masks don't work, but hydroxychloroquine does. >> you don't need mask. there is a cure. >> they're very respected doctors. there was a woman who was spectacular.

>> hydroxychloroquine is not effective in the treatment of coronavirus vaccine or covid-19. >> the president continues to reshare misinformation, tweeting again on friday, if we had no testing or bad testing, we would show very few cases. >> if you do more testing, you will see more cases, but the increases that we're seeing are real increasing in cases as also reflected by increasing in hospitalization and increasing in deaths. >> and joining me now is the a assistant secretary of health, admiral brett giroir. he is also a member of the white house coronavirus task force. since the start of the pandemic, i've had quite a few members of the coronavirus task force on, and i've asked where are we on testing, and i want to play a sample of answers dating back through tril.

take a listen. >> we will continue to partner to increase the supply to make sure they have the reagents and the test kits necessary to perform those tests. >> my job is to make sure people of america have enough of what they need going forward. >> so we'll get this virus under control. >> what we're doing now is we've got to test entire communities and find all positive cases because this is a very different virus with this asymptomatic spreading and get every positive case and get those people isolated. >> that last comment was at the end of june. we are now at the beginning of august. we still seem to have the same testing issues and in this case, it's the supply issues and all of that and the lag issue which you testified to on friday. four months now. are we ever going to be able to get this testing strategy right? >> so, thank you, and it's good to be on again. i do want to put some things in perspective. of course, we've increased our testing by 32,000%. we're completing over 80% of our

tests within three days, over 90% within five days. of course, we're continuing to improve that. by september we'll have 32 million point of care tests so we are improving that, but i do want to get the opportunity to put testing in context, and i think that's very important how we use it, how we rely on it and how we fix the outbreak right now by using testing selectively the way we're doing it in all of the southern states. >> i'm curious with this selective testing. is this because we just don't have the capacity to do these quick? i mean, for instance, the abbott tests, why is that not something the dpa could have been used for to make this available across the country faster? to speed up manufacturing? it seems as if we've let these private labs dictate the speed with which we get the equipment necessary to complete the tests. >> so that's really absolutely not true. we look every day for

opportunities to use the dpa and other in vestments, and when it's possible do that, we do that. we make two large investments into swab production. last week you saw an investigation into veritor by the defense department and quidel by the national institutes of health and that's why in september we'll have 32 million point of care tests. it can't create something out of nothing. it can be used as an effective tool and that's the way we're doing it. let me talk about the testing and this has been misconstrued a lot. obviously, we want to increase testing. we've done that and i've told you how we've done that and testing is a part of the strategy. we don't test our way out of this and we do small policies with testing as an adjunct. that's why states like arizona have gone from over 5,000 cases a day to in the hundreds of cases a day. florida, south carolina, louisiana, texas, are all on a downward trajectory because they've instituted small

policies, and you know where that is. wear a mask and avoid crowded indoor places and avoid crowds, and if we do those things, that will reduce the overall outbreak to levels that will go down significantly, and that's what we're seeing across the south. >> let me ask this, though. it does seem as though we've got two different challenges in front of us, right which is this latest outbreak. it seems like it's too big to get our testing around. there are some that are advocating partial shutdowns in some of these worst communities. is that something the task force is recommending in these sort of red zone states? >> so both for the red zone states and in the emerging yellow states we have really good data now both theoretical and data like arizona, texas and florida that if you do simple measures like avoid the indoor crowded places and a lot of times they're indoor bars and you can't have a hundred people at your house either do less indoor dining because that's

another place, wearing a mask is incredibly important, but we have to have 85 or 90% of individuals wearing a mask and avoiding crowds. that essentially gives you the same outcome as a shutdown. look at arizona. look at florida, texas, louisiana. these measures are being implemented, and that changes it. and the key is and that's why we're going to all of the states and we're on local radio. we give specific instructions to every governor by county and what to do when those counties start tipping yellow, you have to stamp it down. you've got to institute these measures because the virus will keep doing what the virus does unless we make an affirmative change. >> it sounds like you made the case for a national mask mandate. if we need an 85% to 90%

compliance, it sounds like a mask mandate is needed. is that a recommendation that's been made by the task force to the president? >> our public health recommendations are across the board particularly in red or yellow counties that you need to have mask wearing in a high degree. there is a debate whether a mandate does an affirmative thing or whether people will rebel against that, but it really has to be voluntary by the american people, whether it's mandated by a city like in phoenix or certain states, but the public health message is if you have mask wearing, you have to reduce the r level 1 just with these simple measures, and we can stamp this outbreak out. if we don't do that and if we don't limit the indoor, crowded spaces the virus will continue to run, and if you don't mind, let me just make -- we are very concerned and this is a very serious point and deaths will continue to increase for the next few weeks because it's lagging, but we have decreased the amount of infects over the last two weeks. the hospitalizations have gone down. unfortunately, mortality lags by a couple of weeks. so these measures do work, but they've got to be implemented rigorously.

one thing that seems to be scattershot is the issue of contact tracing. it may take us back to our testing conversation that we may go back to, and i don't want to get caught in that loop again, but it does look like the contact tracing, is this outbreak too big now for contact tracing to be effective especially since we don't have the contact tracing army? >> so there's no black or white answer here, but in the very early parts of an outbreak or in the very late waning parts are in selective times like in meat packing, contact tracing can be very effective. when you have a widespread multifocal outbreak where many people are asymptomatic, testing and testing are of limited outfit with public health policy measures like mask wearing and closing indoor crowded spaces. yes, contact tracing is

important, but it's must less important right now than the public policy mitigation measures. once the virus gets down to very low levels again, then testing and contact tracing become much more important. where we are right now with the widespread multifocal, just like many other countries, the issue is mitigation steps and not the contact tracing. >> look, i know you're not a political person, but the president continues to advocate for hydroxychloroquine. is that a danger to public health? >> so from a public health standpoint, at first hydroxychloroquine looked very promising. there were not the definitive studies. at this point in time there have been five randomized placebo-controlled trials that do not show any benefit to hydroxychloroquine. so at this point in time, we don't recommend that as a treatment, and there's no

evidence to show that it is. on the other hand, we have remdesivir and steroids which reduces mortality by 30%. we still don't know about immune plasma and a vaccine looks promising. we have many things that do work. right now, hydroxychloroquine, i can't wreck and then that. >> i was going to say, are you concerned that because of this mixed messaging, it's going to continue to sort of create this fog, if you will, about treatment and misuse of this drug? >> so hydroxychloroquine needs to be prescribed by a physician. there may be circumstances and i don't know where they are where a physician may prescribe it for an individual, but i think most physicians and prescribers are evidence-based, and they're not influenced by twitter or

anything else, and the evidence doesn't show that hydroxychloroquine is effective right now, and it is effective both from a public standpoint and i told you the masks and the crowds and wash your hands and avoid indoor spaces and for treatments. we know if you get covid your chances of dying are incredibly less than they were in april because our health care providers know how to treat it better and we have remdesivir and steroids and promising plasma, and a vaccine is really on the horizon. >> admiral giroir, i appreciate you coming on and sharing the perspective of the task force. stay healthy and safe yourself. >> appreciate that. thank you. >> you got it. joining me now is dr. nahid bhadelia from the boston school of medicine, and she's an expert contributor to this program. doctor, it's good to see you. let me get you to react to the testing conversation that you

heard from admiral giroir there. from your perspective, what should our testing strategy be right now? >> chuck, thanks so much for having me. i will agree with admiral giroir that testing is part of a national public health response strategy to this coronavirus and pandemic. the trouble, though, is that there's so much disease activity in our community is that the -- just setting an absolute limit or number of tests that we need doesn't work because that's a moving target. we continue to need more tests as our outbreak grows bigger and the quickest way to how we grow bigger with the level of activity that we have is in the u.s. every time we test about 12 people, the 13th person may turn out to be positive. in uk, it takes them 235 people to find a positive person. in germany, it's a little over 150 before they find a positive person, just telling you how much disease we have in this country and not only that, but we are about 4% of the world population and we account for about 23% of the coronavirus

-- cumulative coronavirus deaths so far in this pandemic. the trouble is that testing -- our testing strategy and public health strategy needs to sort of link with the lifestyle that we want to pursue in the middle of this pandemic. if we are looking to only test people who are sick, then we have to roll back reopenings and not, you know, create an environment in which asymptomatic cases continue to track the disease and move it behind. if we need to contact trace we need to increase the number of tests and bring down the activity as you and the admiral talked about to be able to accomplish that. but here's what we want to do. we want to come back to some amount of normalcy. if you want to visit your grandmother, we need a test that comes back sooner than later. if you reopen schools and universities, you need not only more tests, but you actually

need tests that are closer to the consumer. maybe rapid tests that people can do at multiple levels and may not be as accurate, but immediately give you a sense. the trouble is our aspirations of the type of lifestyle that we want to lead do not match with our current resources. >> i'm curious, do you concur with the admiral that if we had 90% to 95% compliance on mask wearing nationwide, we'd get control of this virus? >> slug, absolutely. in conjunction with avoiding crowded indoor spaces and activity in the community we could bring this, you know, this pandemic under control. the other things that might help are these rapid diagnostics and we have some sort of big breakthrough in medical countermeasures or treatments that might decrease the mortality and that will go a long way in helping us control this pandemic before the vaccine is available. >> dr. bhadelia, i'm going to have to leave it there. it feels like we're on a hamster

wheel with this virus, and it doesn't seem like anything will change until there is a vaccine. is that fair to say at this point? >> well, i think if we have more rapid tests as i mentioned and the countermeasures it will help, but we're in an inflexion point. we are at a point where we'll look at this moment the way we look at memorial day where we have a decision in front of us whether or not we lock down partially or completely with by all evidence so far means that will lead to more cases. i do think that's a decision we need to make more quickly than we are currently. >> i'm going to leave it there. dr. bhadelia, as always, thank you for your expertise for our viewers. up next, joe biden seems ready to pick his running mate this week or next. i'll talk to a fast-rising contender, congresswoman karen bass when we come back. congresn bass when we come back

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welcome back. it's a quadrennial political parlor game guessing who might

welcome back. it's a quadrennial political parlor game guessing who might share the ticket with the party's presidential nominee. joe biden has pledged to pick a woman and he's considered more than a dozen. three names stand out right now as likely finalists. senator kamala harris of california, former national security adviser ambassador susan rice, and congresswoman karen bass of california. bass is the chairwoman of the congressional black caucus and has been a leading voice on police reform. she's also unknown nationally, but she's now seen as among -- as a finalist among finalist, if you will, in the so-called vp race, and karen bass joins me now. congresswoman bass, welcome back to "meet the press." >> thanks. thanks for having me on, chuck. >> let me ask this, i know nobody runs for the vice presidency and that people shy away from that, but let me ask you a question this way. why did you decide go through this vetting process? >> well, mainly because i am so concerned with where we are in our country right now. 154,000 dead americans from

covid virus, our country ripped apart because of race, the policing issues, the economic devastation that we're facing, all of these issues is the reason why i submitted myself to a very interesting process. a trip down memory lane. >> is there something about the post itself that is appealing to you if you did end up as vice president of the united states? >> well, you know, to me being a partner with somebody who i have deep respect for, with somebody with who i believe is authentic, is genuine, who has the capacity to have the empathy and has tremendous experience and working alongside of him, aside from being considered is a tremendous honor, but all of that is the reason why i would want to go forward with this. >> you've not been somebody who, at least we in political circles have known, with presidential ambitions. >> exactly. >> let me ask you this, why haven't you considered running for president before and by agreeing to this, i know it doesn't many you want to run for president in the future.

>> right. >> but a lot of people certainly think you will. exactly. you know what, chuck, in my life i have always been focused on the work and you can look through my past and it's pretty clear i have not set out in my life to run for president. i have focused on doing the work in a lot of different ways. my focus has been trying to do everything i could to make our nation a more perfect union especially for those people who are the most marginal, those people who are often not included in our country. that has been what i have done for almost 50 years of my life. >> what do you believe makes you prepared for the vice presidency basically on day one? >> sure. having served as speaker of the house in california. as you know, california is the world's fifth largest economy, the largest state in the union. i led at a time when we went through the worst economic crisis since the great depression. i led in a very bipartisan manner. i worked with governor schwarzenegger and worked well with my republican colleagues. my background in health care. i've been in the emergency room.

i've been in life and death-situations. my experience in foreign policy. and over the years what i am the most proud of is my ability to bring people together because i think that our country needs healing. i do believe that president biden will be a healer in chief, and we certainly need that now, and i believe i have played that role too. i've worked across racial lines, i've worked across political lines, and i've focused on really my goal, which is to get work done on behalf of the american people which is why you find people like paul ryan or kevin mccarthy who have worked with me and worked with me well. >> let me turn to the issue of cuba. a lot of people have turned to this issue with you as they've dug in. you spent time there in the '70s as a young activist working with

a group called the saramos brigade, building houses in cuba. you have rejected the idea that you have celebrated the castro regime. >> right. >> do you look back on that and think that you were a bit naive. >> as any 19-year-old would be, sure. in my early 20s i went to cuba to help the cuban people to build houses, but over the last 20 years, chuck, i have been working -- one, i have always believed in bridging the divide between our two countries. cuba is 90 miles away. for the last two ways, we've built relations issues. i've been recruiting those doctors to work in the inner city because they come in tuition-free. the cubans also have two medicines, one for diabetes for which my mother died for and i'd like to have those tested in the united states. that doesn't excuse the fact i know the castro regime has been a brutal regime to its people.

i know there's not freedom of the press, free doff of association. and interestingly, when i went in my late teens and early 20s, one of the reasons was to build relations with the americans because there were over 100 young people that were there and all of us worked on different issues. well, what's interesting is we had the ability to come home any protest against our own government, but the cuban people most certainly cannot do that, they couldn't do it then and they can't do it now. >> congresswoman, i have to say you sound a lot tougher on castro now than when you described him as commandante and jefe when he died, and you said something i found interesting.

you didn't quite realize how sensitive folks were in south florida about this still. >> no. go ahead. >> so i'm just curious, that you thought, well californians wouldn't mind that description, but it might offend floridians. forget that a minute. it still seemed as if you had a soft view of castro, if you will. >> yeah. and let me explain, too, because i think the use of the term commandante and jefe in florida that was a term endearing that way. i was expressing condolences to the cuban people, to the people in cuba, not cubans around the world. i don't think that's a toxic expression in california, but let me just say, chuck, lesson learned. wouldn't do that again. talked immediately to my colleagues from florida and realized that that was something that just shouldn't have been said. >> you said you were expressing condolences to the cuban people. there's many people who believe that the castro regime in general was keeping them confined, was stifling their freedom, that actually getting rid of castro might have been a celebration to some. >> yeah.

maybe. on the island, i think it's slightly different because, you know, they certainly didn't have the freedom and wouldn't have the freedom to celebrate that. so i think that it is just very important the way the obama administration had opened up relations with cuba, i think the best way to bring about change on the island is for us to have closer relations with the country that is 90 miles away. >> just very quickly, i'm curious of your reaction. you were called communist karen yesterday by the trump campaign, and senator marco rubio essentially implied there was nobody that was ever considered for the vice presidency that was seen as so much of a castro sympathizer. how do you react? >> well, one, i don't consider myself a castro sympathizer. number two, my position on cuba is really no different than the position of the obama administration. as a matter of fact, i was honored to go to cuba with president obama. i went to cuba with secretary kerry when we raised the flag. so there really isn't anything different, and frankly, i believe the republicans have

decided to brand the entire democratic party as socialist and communist. so i'm not surprised by rubio's characterization of me or of a role i would play if i were on the ticket. >> congresswoman karen bass, democrat from california, what do you think of all of the extra scrutiny you're getting, all of the extra attention. good or bad? >> well, you know what? i mean, it's okay because really my focus is about what this country is going through. i don't want to see another 154,000 americans dead, and the reason for that is because the lack of leadership we have in the white house, we are 90-plus days away from an election, and i'm looking forward to watching president bind raise his hand and being sworn in. if i'm on the ticket or not, i will work just as hard to get him elected because i believe he has the leadership to get us out of this crisis that we're in right now. >> congresswoman karen bass, i appreciate you coming on and sharing your perspective with us. most importantly, stay safe and healthy. >> thank you.

you too. >> you got it. when we come back, president trump says the election will be fraudulent. it will be fixed. it will be rigged. does that sound like someone who expects to win said election? the panel is next. next.

welcome back. the panel is joining us from their remote locations. nbc news correspondent welcome back. the panel is joining us from their remote locations. nbc news correspondent andrea mitchell.

journalist robert draper author of the new book "to start a war." how the bush administration took america into iraq and heather mcghee from color of change. andrea, i want to start things off with this from alex burns in "the new york times" essentially about the president's behavior, essentially referring to the president as a heckler in his own administration. let me read the quote up here if we can bring it up and you look here, far from a strongman, mr. trump has lately become a heckler in his own party, playing no constructive role in the management of the coronavirus pandemic or an economic rescue plan in congress and complaining about the unfairness of it all. it seems like the president has given up on doing the job of being president. >> exactly. he's at the golf course for the second day in a row as the negotiators from his own administration are struggling with the hill in a divided republican senate.

so it's a four-way conversation now, but he's not part of it and so the benefits have run out. he's not contributing. he's not only heckling from the side, but he's creating misinformation, retweeting that viral video of suspicious doctor and her miracle cures which went around the world, if not, all over the united states. so there's no message in the campaign. and they talk about after suspending, getting back on the air, but he keeps undermining the message, which he briefly tried to get back on track, and you can't cure the economy unless you cure the pandemic, and if you can't cure the pandemic if the president is sending bad messages and masks and undermining the efforts and attacking dr. fauci and all of the experts. >> heather mcghee, it's funny, andrea brings up this messaging

issue. let me play this clip of the president. he went to florida on friday. he didn't really talk about the crisis that's in florida right now with the virus, but instead he read the following remarks trying to scare folks about a joe biden presidency. take a listen. >> in joe biden's america, you and your family will never be safe. rioters and criminals will be totally protected, law-abiding citizens will be totally disarmed, and american families will be at the mercy of the violent left wing mob that you've been watching on television. >> there's both the reality -- the picture he's painting and the reality don't match, but also what is he talking about there when he's not talking about the virus or the economic pain we're in? >> this is his playbook, but when we know now is that it's not working, and, in fact, it's backfiring. because of his hand-fisted and the demonizing in the country with the black lives matter

movement, which seems to be the largest protest movement in american history, it looks like donald trump is on track to do something with white voters that hasn't been done since lyndon johnson signed the civil rights act and republicans started their racialized strategy, which is actually lose the white vote. joe biden is now leading with white voters, and why is that? it's not in spite of the black lives matter movement. it's because of it. because it's enormously popular and it's made a moral awakening in this country and he's losing the suburbs because of it. he's losing the suburbs because he's trying to race bait and divide us at a time where you've got big suburban houses with lawn signs that say black lives matter. >> you know, robert, when going through your book and thinking about having you on this week and i'm glad you stuck with the iraq theme and you stuck with what you've been working on for

years in covering the bush administration, i'm old enough to remember when bush was the stubborn one, when bush wasn't hearing what the public was hearing, and compare the two in crisis here. what do you see versus what you've covered with iraq? >> sure, chuck. i think that what the two have in common is that both presidents were telling a story to the american public that was not grounded in the facts. back in 2002 and 2003 what president bush was saying was saddam hussein was dangerous just like the people when attacked us on 9/11, and because he is evil like the people who attacked us on 9/11, these evildoers will attack us, and almost anything i said there didn't have any basis in fact and that, in a way, we are now in a kind of perverse evolution

we are now with a president who said we've got it under control. certainly more under control than other countries do. we're the envy of the world, in fact. now we need to reopen and the democrats don't want to reopen because they hate america. the crucial difference between these two is that back then president bush had the trust of the american people. this president has forfeited that trust. >> yeah. andrea, it is that trust issue where you -- and i think it's leading a lot of people to wonder what's left. i think the fact that he's not involved on capitol hill, the fact that senate republicans have 20 different ideas of what to do, it seems as if elected republicans are losing faith in president trump right now. >> well, they certainly pushed back immediately on his suggestion about delaying the election, but i haven't seen them stand up against him on a lot of these other issues. yes, the payroll tax cut looks like they don't want it. he still does. and maybe they're narrowing their differences as we speak, we hope, on capitol hill, but i don't think that elected republicans are yet running away from him because they're so embedded with him.

they really have no choice except to hope that he can discredit and undermine this election results and push down and suppress the minority vote, and that's the hope in many of these places. >> heather, i know you wanted to jump in before we go. >> that's exactly right. mcconnell pushed back against this delay in the election, but he's doing nothing to protect the postal service which is what is actually going to sabotage from within from the mega donor is what's going to create delays and a risk and chaos in our election. they need to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. >> and you just bring up a point. as we erode institutions, the -- we are now going to erode trust in the delivery mechanisms of the united states postal service too? anyway, let me pause it here. we're going to do some veep station conversation when we come back. we'll talk about the suburbs. it used to be the home office of the republican party and they're

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♪ welcome back. "data download" time. president trump used an old scare tactic telling people he alone is standing between them and the american neighborhoods. it felt mid-20th century because the suburb, they are a-changing.

we have reporters in two of the largely suburban county communities that we are watching through election day. maricopa county, arizona, and kent county, michigan. let's start in maricopa, where the percentage of non-hispanic rates has dropped while the percentage of black and hispanics has grown. my colleague vaughn hillyard is in surprise, arizona. vaughn, what are you seeing there? >> reporter: chuck, these changing suburbs of maricopa county could change the election, and now joe biden owns a 15-point edge and just take this city of surprise as an example. since 2000, the population has grown by more than 100,000 people. voters here largely aren't buying into this idea that, quote, chaos and bloodshed is going to overtake their cities as donald trump has suggested.

take randy winner. he's a 2016 trump voter. a maintenance worker at a school district down the road whose republican has dated back to ronald reagan. he said, i don't see that happening here. he is mulling voting for joe biden and all of this is reflective in our polling. right now joe biden is leading among arizona sub ber voters, 62% to 37%. chuck? >> vaughn, a 25-point swing in the suburbs in just that county would be astronomical for biden's chances. now to kent county, michigan, home to grand rapids. it's seeing the same changes since 2000. the white, non-hispanic population in kent has declined seven points as the percentage of black and hispanic residents grows. my colleague dasha burns is in east grand rapids. and, dasha, what are you seeing there? >> good morning. president trump won the state by less than 1% in the last election.

now he's campaigning on a law and order message in these suburbs, but the numbers and what i'm hearing from the community here suggest it's not resonating. in fact, it's turning some voters off completely. according to the latest fox news poll, biden leads trump 50 to 41% among suburban voters in michigan and one 2016 trump voter here that i've been following since last november, a mom of two named katie morris says trump is using scare tactics and she's offended by that messaging. she was still open for trump again and now she says that door is closed and she's going for biden. chuck? >> vaughn hillyard and dasha burns, both on the ground in those two key suburban counties we will be tracking through november. when we come back, what former president obama had to say about his successor without ever saying his name. s successo ever saying his name the sleep number 360 smart bed is on sale now.

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will connor may be today we witness with our own eyes police officers kneeling on the necks of black americans. george wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators. >> context is everything. president obama eulogizing john lewis. it happened to take place on the morning of that infamous president trump tweet of

delaying the election. heather mcghee, you know, one of the themes in 2017, 2018, 2019 circles are, hey, how come president obama doesn't speak out against president trump? i noticed there wasn't any of those comments after those comments this week. >> that's right. there was some pushback from the right wing, but i will say that president obama was doing what any patriot would do in the face of these unprecedented threats, which is the stand up for his country and to stand up for democracy. what he did in that speech eulogizing what i think is a future founding father of a new america, john lewis, what he did in that speech was not say it's about donald trump right now. it's also about the fact that our democracy has been unrepresented and unfair for too long. he called for automatic voter registration, making election day a holiday, giving statehood to our citizens in puerto rico and washington, d.c. republicans will have to recognize that if they can't

compete on an even playing field of a truly representative democracy without cheating they'll have to either get off the field and find a new strategy, and that's what he was calling out, and i think it's very important and powerful. >> robert draper, i know you covered a guy that was also there eulogizing john lewis, george w. bush. >> yeah. the point that i wanted to make, chuck, was i think the most poignant articulation that took place in the church, it was three former presidents, one republican as well as two democrats while the current president was not there. to me, more than anything else, that served to underscore yet again just how much of an outliar this president has become, how divisive a force he is. and, you know, at moments like this when the nation is expected to put things aside to come together and by moments like this, i also include john mccain's funeral, the president is once again, you know, a polarizing force. >> andrea mitchell, i want to make a harder turn here in our remaining minutes because we may

get the answer to the question of who does joe biden want as his running mate. our reporting indicates that if this is a short short list, it is kamala harris, susan rice, and karen bass. you're all over this reporting as well. right now i feel like everybody is focused on all their down sides. what are the upsides that the biden campaign is being looking at? >> there are a number of upsides, and i should point out that all of the women on this list are better qualified than some of the running mates that have been chosen in recent years, so let's pause at that. my sense is that history and where the country is now indicates that it is going to be a black woman. it just seems that this is an important choice, a choice that they've obviously been focused on and that's why we seem to be focusing on these three women as well. there is a lot of incoming right

now, and there's been a big jump on karen bass, and this cuba thing is clearly going to be an issue. florida is so important. i don't want to restress the importance of florida. marco rubio, as you pointed out hitting on that. i was on those trips with secretary kerry, president obama. those were huge congressional delegations, pat leahy, amy klobuchar. that was not the piece that they're really looking at. but when she said she was expressing condolences to the cuban people, that is more recent than the 1970s, and, as you said, that is going to be difficult in florida. the upsides. these are all to the definition of jim clyburn, these are passionate women. susan rice knows him best. has the most experience, maybe, ready on day one, but has never run for elected office. they would all be strong in debate. kamala harris, the only one as he said some weeks ago who has run a presidential campaign, not well, but run a campaign and been in debates and very tough on him. i think it is true that that is forgiven because they want to see that against donald trump

and karen bass, i should point out, really does work well with republicans in california and in the congress. >> right. heather, very quickly, when jim clyburn told me on friday what he loves about joe biden is his compassion, but he needs a running mate that brings out the passion, he wouldn't tell me who that was. who do you think that is? >> you know, if you look at the polls, the most -- the people who are the least enthusiastic lean biden folks want, new poll from avalanche, is elizabeth warren. she has young voters and sort of not so excited about joe biden. that's who they want. >> yeah. >> one quick point. >> finally before we go, we want to share -- >> the biden people are not sure -- >> yeah. i'm tight on time on this one. go quickly, andrea. >> you got it. these republican governors they don't trust that he would actually appoint a democrat. >> right to replace elizabeth.

>> before we go, i want to share with everybody this great "atlanta journal-constitution" cartoon by mike lucavic. this is the tribute he published for congressman john lewis showing lewis making one final walk on a bridge holding a sign that says simply "vote." with coronavirus on the rise, they want to see something. also, lawmakers are nowhere reaching an agreement on coronavirus relief measures. and a historic and successful splashdown off the coast of florida as the american astronauts onboard the spacex mission return to earth.