good afternoon. i'm katy tur. it is 11:00 a.m. out west and 2:00 p.m. in the east. president trump is still spreading misinformation about the covid-19 pandemic. he told fox news this morning that it is fine to reopen schools because the virus is simply going to go away. he also incorrectly claimed that kids are immune to the virus. the president made these claims on the same day the state of

florida crossed 500,000 cases. >> and we're learning more about the negotiations on the next virus relief package and where talks now stand on things like extending unemployment insurance. the latest on those negotiations in a moment. >> also in beirut, officials now say the explosion was fueled by more than 2,700 tons of ammonian nitrate that was being improperly stored at the port. port officials are now being held on home arrest. thousands are injured, and at least 100 people are dead. >> but let us begin at the white house. it has been more than six months since the first confirmed case of covid-19 here in the united states. nearly 160,000 americans have died. the virus is extraordinarily widespread, according to his own administration. and yet, the president is still telling national news audiences that it is going to magically

disappear. >> my view is the schools should open. this thing is going away. it will go away like things go away. and my view is that schools should be open. if you look at children, children are almost -- and i would almost say definitely, but almost immune from this disease. so few, they have stronger, hard to believe, i don't know how you feel about it, but they have much stronger immune systems than we do somehow for this, and they do it. they don't have a problem. they just don't have a problem. >> not one medical official on his own task force believes it's just going to go away. and the cdc now says in a new report that children of all ages are susceptible to the virus and that there is reason to believe they play a significant role in its transmission. joining me now is nbc news digital senior white house correspondent shannon pettypiece. shannon, the president was supposed to be taking this more seriously.

he's reverted back. is anybody at the white house surprised? >> well, for weeks now, they have been imploring him, hihis advisers, not just his health advisersering bill stepien has also been imploring people to take this seriously, to get them to wear masks, to socially distance, to follow all of the behaviors the health officials have been pushing, but the president and the white house haven't been following. so they have sent out these top officials to do hundreds of interviews. dr. birx, dr. fauci, bret giroir, the testing czar, blanketing the airwaves in these hot spot states. you have the president talking to governors behind the scenes trying to encourage them to put more masks in place, to close bars and restaurants, and then jow the president to does a fox news interview over the phone undercutting all these efforts. this continues, this trend continues. when i talk to white house officials about how do you feel about this, they are discourage

and they just continue doing the same thing, trying to encourage the president to stick to the facts and put out recommendations for people to follow, the same basic steps the white house has been recommending since april. we see him doing it in the briefings when he's reading from a script, but when he's doing one of these interviews like with fox news or axios, he diverges widely from that. >> you make a really good point. people talk about how his tone has changed. i would say as you just said, that he sounds one way when he's reading a piece of paper or a script that's been handed to him and much -- and he sounds much different when he's actually talking extemporaneously. what about the talk he's going to do the republican acceptance speech for the republican nomination at the white house? is that just something esaid and isn't going to happen, or are there plans under way to try to make that happen? and is he allowed to do that? >> well, our reporting indicates it is something they're

seriously looking at, though no final decisions have been made. the president also alluded he's thinking about it, but he hasn't officially settled on that. but you know, staffers are really looking into the details and nuts and bolts of this. for example, the campaign would have to reimburse the white house for things even like electricity if this type of political event was held at the white house, but it would certainly be unprecedented. and i know so much of this election season has been unprecedented, but to have a clear political event with the white house as a backdrop is really unlike anything we have ever seen. one source pointed out to me, there was a controversy about obama using a christmas card in ads and now we're going to have the president in front of the white house giving a convention speech potentially. >> shannon pettypiece, shannon, thank you very much. and at 3:00 p.m., nancy pelosi, chuck schumer -- and chuck schumer will sit back down with mark meadows and steve mnuchin to continue talks on the next round of pandemic relief. according to two democratic sources who spoke to our nbc

news hill team, they're currently considering a compromise that would lower the expanded unemployment benefit to $400 a week, but it would extend those benefits until december at least. it would also extend the eviction moratorium until december as well. but there is so far no agreement on the issue of how best to fund schools, nor is there a consensus on how much money to send the postal service ahead of november's election, and to that end, the post master general is expected to join in on at least the beginning of today's negotiations. with me now from capitol hill is nbc news correspondent garrett haake. so garrett, it sounds like they're making headway on the expanded unemployment benefits and a moratorium on evictions. but both schools and the election, these are two immediate issues. schools are reopening in i think a week in some places. or two weeks. and the november election is only a few months away now. >> yeah, i'll give you a third. the money for state and local

governments on which the two sides are several hundred billion dollars apart is another issue. you talk to mayors and governors talking about massive holes in their budgets, having to lay off workers at those levels. the negotiations have been moving forward over the last couple days. that's certain, after a couple days in which they basically got nowhere, this week, they're making some identifiable progress laid out in the compromise items you mentioned above. but the amount of work that remains in front of them is daunting. there's bib some discussion they want to get this done by the end of next week. you back time that and think they would have a physical bill, that would mean they would have to have something to put on the floors of both chambers by early next week. that means they really have to come up with a compromise that kind of hand shake deal by the end of this week, and katy, it's a tall order, but this is a fairly deadline oriented bill. so you hope that might finally spur them on toward more action.

>> garrett haake on capitol hill, garrett, we will see. and let's go overseas now. lebanese teams are still looking for survivors in the rubble of beirut. a little more than 24 hours after a series of massive explosions ripped through that capit capital, the shockwave radiated pummeling the city's densely populated residential neighborhoods and downtown shopping dwix. according to the prime minister, the blast was fueled by 2700 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a waterfront warehouse. at least 100 people are dead. more than 4,000 have been injured. and those numbers are expected to rise as civilians join rescue crews to dig through the damage. but among the devastation, survivors like this man right here, who was pulled from the rubble this morning. witnesses are calling it a miracle. with more from on the ground in

beirut, here is sky news special correspondent alex crawford. >> they are in complete shock. i mean, anyone who has survived, anyone who has returned this morning, who is lucky enough to be away at the time, anyone who went through this huge impactful explosion is really in many ways struggling to come to terms with it. look at the ferocity of it. look what happened. this is a huge big building, every one that you look at has holes punched into it, balconies brought down. if they were half being built, the scaffolding has crumbled. they had people living in them, and people are in there, trying to rescue their belongings or trying to save parts of whatever is left of their business. and this is a city which has suffered so much conflict, so much terror, so much devastation over the years. and yet, this reached really new

levels yesterday when the port exploded. i don't think they imagined in their wildest nightmares that things could get worse, but in a matter of minutes, this city was brought to its knees in a scene that many described as apocalyptic. >> alex crawford of sky news, thank you. and joining me now by phone is vivian ye, a "new york times" international correspondent based in beirut, and she survived yesterday's explosion. but was injured in the blast. vivian, thank you so much for calling in. you wreote an article about the hours, the moments after the blast, and the hours as you were trying to find safety, also trying to find medical treatment. first off, can you just tell us what it was like in the moment that it happened? >> thanks for having me, katy. the moment when it happened, it

just felt like i was caught in the middle of a tornado. there was flying glass everywhere, debris. i didn't have any sort of conscious thought for a few seconds as i was just struggling to comprehend what was happening. only a few seconds before, i had heard a huge sonic boom deeper than anything i had ever heard before, but then came this second boom, and then that's when the whole world just kind of spun on its axis, and i stood up and could barely see for the blood running down my face. and i think everyone's first thought had to be first of all, what is happening, and second of all, could another one be coming? because we really had no idea at that point. so we were all struggling to get out into the street and to find

some kind of safety. >> you talk about how your windows were blown out, the door to your apartment was launched onto your dining room table. what was it like when you got out on the street? >> my entire street is usually a busy place. people come to shop there. to go out to bars, to restaurants. it's sort of like the west village of beirut. and all of a sudden, it was carpeted in shards of glass, every window that i could see was just lying in the street in pieces. there were tree branches all over the street, cars had kind of just stopped wherever they had been moving. and the only way to get around was on foot or by motor bike.

and oddly, there was still this very golden, beautiful late afternoon light falling over everything, as people were just kind of wandering, staggering around, bloody, trying to think of what to do next. >> you talk about how the people in your community, the lebanese helped you, saw you bleeding and helped you and tried to get you to hospitals, but one hospital was overrun. and then to another hospital. we're so happy to hear that you are okay. i know you are a reporter, you're working out there. what can you tell us about where the investigation stands, and what do people know about why this happened? >> well, the lebanese government is blaming it on its own incompetence, in a way. they're saying that explosive

compounds were just sitting in a warehouse at the port for several years now. and i think we're chipping away at getting more details of what exactly might have happened there. but i think the really striking part is that very few lebanese are surprised that this could have happened, that all of this destruction and death and horror and the end of their lives as they knew it, that all of that could be the fault of their own government. and i think that speaks to the total lack of trust that people here have in their government. lebanon was already going through simultaneous political and financial and economic crises, not to mention the covid-19 pandemic. and people believe that the government kind of drove them into this abyss, and as if they

needed further proof, if what the government is saying about these explosives in the port is true, you know, here it is. here's the proof. >> astounding malfeasance. vivian yee, thank you so much for calling in and we're so happy to hear you're okay. stay safe. >> thanks, katy. and later this hour, the herculean effort of conducting a presidential election with an expected record number of mail-in ballots. and a president that claims it will all lead to voter fraud, incorrectly claims. are all 50 states and the postal service ready? former homeland security secretary michael chertoff who has called for more money to protect the vote, will be here. >> plus, we're in mississippi which has the highest coronavirus positivity rate in the country, yet the governor remains confident that returning to school will be safe. first up, though, senate

republicans ramp up their investigation of the investigation of the 2016 trump campaign. sally yates is on capitol hill. her testimony on what's known as cross fire hurricane, next. even though i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib... ...not caused by a heart valve problem. so if there's a better treatment than warfarin, i'm reaching for that. eliquis. eliquis is proven to reduce stroke risk better than warfarin. plus has significantly less major bleeding than warfarin. eliquis is fda-approved and has both. what's next? i'm on board. don't stop taking eliquis unless your doctor tells you to, as stopping increases your risk of having a stroke. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. while taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily- -and it may take longer than usual for any bleeding to stop. seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines.

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the one that put president trump's 2016 team under the fbi lens. yates appears remotely, defending the fines of operation crossfire hurricane, but lindsey graham says he wants to know what prompted the operation that led to michael flynn's indictment. graham accused yates' justice department of applying a 200-year-old law called the logan act for purely political purposes. in an exchange that drew in democratic senator patrick leahy. >> what was mentioned the logan act about, in what context? >> i'm not sure if he mentioned that in the oval office meeting or in the meeting -- >> what do you think about -- >> mr. chairman, let her answer the question. just because it's a woman testifying doesn't mean she has to be cut off. >> thanks a lot. senator. i really appreciate that. you're very constructive. >> let us bring in nbc news

justice correspondent julia ainsley. what happened today? >> well, it was a heated exchange, as there usually is over this topic of the russia investigation. we saw sally yates stay cool, calm, and collected, as she usually is. of course, she's the former acting attorney general and deputy attorney general under president obama, and she described the january 5th meeting in the oval office in 2017, just before the trump administration came in, where she learned that incoming national security adviser michael flynn had a conversation with russian ambassador sergei kislyak, the famous call that flynn then lied to incoming vice president mike pence about, saying he did not talk about sanctions. now, the key here is that the republicans keep going after this call and the reasons for the obama administration even knowing about that call. all hinging on the logan act, which is very rarely applied and basically keeps anyone doing the business of the u.s. government who is not themselves an elected

official, saying they were using this arbitrarily to try to get information on the incoming administration. but time and time again, and sally yates had to basically repeat this for hours on end, she said that it was not the logan act that brought flynn into the scrutiny of the justice department. it was the fact that there was already a counterintelligence investigation, and that was why they had a recording of that phone call, and she could not go into the reasons for that counterintelligence investigation, but she needed to put to rest that it was any idea that there was a corroboration, kind of a conspiracy between the obama white house and her justice department and the fbi to try to go after the incoming administration. but one thing she did say, katy, that stood out to me is that she agreed with a republican congressman who said that comey in effect went rogue by starting to probe flynn before first coming to her as acting attorney

general. >> interesting. julia ainsley, thank you very much. with me now is former u.s. attorney paul fishman. paul, i know you were watching this testimony as well. what stood out to you? >> well, so first of all, katy, sally yates is an incredally well respected prosecutor, very well liked by her colleagues. you could see why today. she's measured, she's thoughtful, she's poised, she's smart, and most important for today, totally apolitical. and so that's the first thing. she's there because as the senator in the briefing, he was trying to figure out why it was there was a meeting of the president and the vice president and susan rice in the oval office on january 5th of 2017 and didn't that suggest that the white house and the vice president and susan rice were all trying to get a political investigation into michael flynn, who as he said, they

hated his guts. i think what sally yates did was completely bury that theory. what was very clear is after months of the administration's learning that the russians were doing everything they could to try to tamper with our election, the fbi found out, as sally said she couldn't explain how they found out exactly, but i think senator whitehouse certainly talked about whether it was a wiretap, but they found out that michael flynn was basically telling the russians that even though you hacked in to the election, and even though the obama administration wants to sanction you, when i'm in the white house with the president, things are going to be different. and that was deeply concerning to the fbi because they knew about flynn's contacts with the russians. they knew the history of what the russians had done over the last several months, and that concerned them.

and so of course somebody told the president of the united states that. it was clear that it wasn't sally because she didn't know before that meeting that they intercepted those conversations. she was scheduled to find out that afternoon. but the president clearly knew, and the president probably found out not necessarily from jim comey but because he gets a daily intelligence briefing. this was of huge significance to the white house that his sanctions against the russians were being undermined by michael flynn, not just a policy disagreement, as senator graham tried to characterize it, but a serious undermining of a ret retribution against the russians that was unprecedented and unconscionable. >> paul, thank you so much for joining us today and laying all of that out. we appreciate your time, sir. >> thanks. nice to see you, katy. >> you, too. and mississippi has the highest covid positivity rate in the country. the governor still says schools can reopen, but can they do it safely? >> also later, is the country ready to hold a general election through the mail? nd your get-up.

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we are following the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic, and here are the facts as we know them this hour. arizona governor doug ducey will be at the white house at 3:00 p.m. to meet with president trump on his state's coronavirus response. last month, he reversed course on reopening, ordering bars and gyms to close again after infections in arizona surged. >> the governors of seven states are joining forces in the

bipartisan pact to combat a backlog in covid testing. it inclundz maryland, ohio, louisiana, michigan, virginia, massachusetts, and north carolina. the three republicans and four democrats will work together with u.s. manufacturers and the rockefeller foundation to buy more than 3 million rapid tests that deliver results within 20 minutes. and the university of connecticut is canceling its fall football season because of the pandemic. the huskies coach said he consulted his players before the university made its decision. it is the first team from the top level of college football to scrap its season. >> mississippi's governor said schools there can reopen, this despite the state having the highest positivity rate in the nation and despite a prediction that mississippi will soon lead the country in coronavirus cases per capita. governor tate reeves is mandating masks and also delayed school openings in eight hot

spot counties, but at that same press conference where he made those announcements, the governor's own top health expert ordered -- offered his thoughts about schools. >> as far as starting traditional school in the near future, i think it's nuts. we can't have unmitigated risk as far as the schools go. >> so the health commissioner does not agree. with me from mississippi, is nbc news correspondent ellison barber. what's happening down there? >> hey, katy. so the governor is now requiring all staff and students at school to wear face masks, but beyond that, he's letting the majority of school districts make their own decisions as it relates to reopening plans. he did delay the start date for some schools, grades 7 to 12 in eight counties with some of the highest numbers of cases.

beyond that, the other school districts are making their own plans. and their own decisions on when they start. where we are now, they were going to start school here on monday. last night, school officials decided to delay that start date by a week to august 17th. initially, what they were planning to do in terms of reopening in this county is give parents two options. they can pick what they called enhanced traditional learning. that's the in-person, in-classroom type setting or online virtual learning. now, they say when they do reopen on august 17th, they're going to start the enhanced traditional style in classroom learning as a hybrid model, having some students for in-person instruction on one day, having their peers at home, and then rotating them out. we spoke to one teacher who works at this high school. he said he feels like the school should have delayed their start date even further, given the number of cases in this entire area, and also all across the

state and the percent positives that we're seeing come back. he also talked about what he feels like is a nationwide dismissiveness of teachers and their opinions as it relates to schools reopening. he says he has a teacher not only wants to be back in the classroom, but he has been sitting at home hoping every day that he could. but he says now is not the time. listen here. >> teachers were called heroes in the spring because we switched to this virtual learning at the drop of a hat, and we were able to provide these experiences for our kids and try to, you know, hang on to some sense of normalcy, but now when we're saying it's not safe for us to go back, nobody knows how schools operate better than teachers. and we're sitting here saying it is not safe, and we're being called lazy. >> some school districts already reopened, in one city in mississippi, schools have been

open for about a week and a half, and already they had five students test positive for covid-19. >> ellison barber, thank you very much. and school districts in some of the country's largest cities are starting to announce what their fall classes are going to look like. today, chicago public schools said they would turn to teaching online only at least to begin the semester. the announcement was made after chicago teachers threatened to strike. that leaves dallas, boston, and new york city as the only major cities that have not ruled out in-person learning. new york is still planning for students to be in class two to three days a week. boston appears to be reconsidering its call for a mix of in-person and online classes. the district announced this week that it is weighing a remote only option, and in florida, a hearing began last hour in miami that could determine the fate of school reopenings in that state. today's emergency hearing was requested by florida's largest teachers union, which is suing governor ron desantis over his executive order that requires

schools to reopen for in-person learning. >> millions of people are expected to vote by mail this november. but does the postal service have the resources it needs? and what could be blocking those resources? former homeland security secretary michael chertoff who has called for more money to protect this fall's elections, joins me next. joins me next.

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there were a new president coming in. that's under the constitution. there's no such thing as a stay over president who hangs on after the term is up so we're going to have to apply the resources and the funding to count the ballots. if there are disputes, those will have to get resolved and may get resolved in the courts, like in the year 2000, but it's best to plan to have the

resources and people in place to make sure we get this done properly. >> the president has installed one of his inaugural donors as post master general. there's concerns that the post office is now being politicized. there are concerns about his ability to fund the post office or his motivations to fund the post office for this next election. do you harbor those same concerns? >> well, i know that for quite a while, you know, president trump has complained about the post office and the fact that, for example, they deliver packages for amazon, and he doesn't like jeff bezos because bezos owns "the washington post," which is critical of him. but look, i'll be honest. this is a concerning issue. what we have seen in various parts of the administration is using cronies of the president to politicize the process. now, most -- the vast majority of postal workers are civil servants doing their jobs, but if the idea is to starve them of funding in order to make it hard

to deliverma ballots, that woul really be a blow to our democracy. soou i think congress has to ma sure that the money is there and the oversight is there to make sure everybody gets the ballots they need in a timely way. >> and i think that also means sending back yourme ballot well before you need to, to make sure that they have enough time to get that ballot back to the secretary of state's office. michael chertoff, thank you so much for joining us today. we j really do appreciate your time. >> good to be on. and next up, we're going to learn more about this shocking video from aurora, colorado. it shows police detaining an entire family, adults and children, and even aurora's police chief is struggling to answer why.ef i hope my insurance pays for it. can you tell me how much this will be? - [cashier] 67.

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joining me now is nbc news correspondent joe fryer. they were looking for a stolen motorcycle, why did they pull over a car? >> let's just walk you through what happened. first of all, let's start what was going on. britney was trying to take her daughter, nieces, sisters, four girls to the nail salon, they were in a parking lot when witnesses say the police officers showed up guns drawn, had those four girls lay down, face down on the parking lot pavement, two of them were handcuffed, ages 6 to 17, they said they were responding to reports of a stolen vehicle after a license plate scanner had eidentified the vehicle. we now know that the stolen vehicle was a motorcycle with

the same license plate number from a different state, montana, not colorado the police chief is apologizing, saying mistakes were made. now, you also might be wondering why was there such a strong response, aurora police say when they are responding to a stolen vehicle, they treat it as high risk. the chief said they need to change their training now so officers can use more discretion especially in a situation like this. the family was obviously released. they're upset so are the witnesses that saw this. here's what they had to say. >> the next thing i know, police pull out silently behind him and had guns drawn on the children. >> i'm 14 years old. i get good grades. i'm a good student. i would never hurt nobody. or even draw a gun at children.

to see that police officers to protect and serve -- that's s k sickening. >> that's police brutality. >> brittany now does have an attorney, that attorney tells us he's requesting police reports and body cameras he said the family wants to see structural change happen. we should note all this week, aurora police did name a brand-new police chief, one of the first things that this new chief has had to deal with and she's promising changes. katy? >> hard to understand what could justify forcing a 6-year-old to lie down on pavement with a gun drawn. joe fryer, joe, thank you very much. that does it for me this hour. remember, if you're going outside wear a mask. in the meantime i'll see you at 5:00 p.m. for meet the press daily. and brian williams and nicolle

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good day. brian williams here with you on this busy wednesday afternoon. 3:00 p.m. here on the east coast and the storm battered new york region. 12:00 noon out west. nicolle wallace will be with us in just a moment. but we want to begin with the headlines at this hour -- florida is the second state behind california to report at least half a million cases of the coronavirus, as the number of confirmed infections in our