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

country stands at roughly 4.8 million now. the death toll approaching 159,000 with americans accounting for roughly a quarter of the 700,000 deaths worldwide. even though we're just 4% of the global population. as the virus continues to spread in many places in this country, the president went on fox and friends this morning still sounds unwilling to acknowledge the facts on the ground. >> the numbers are coming down very rapidly in florida. they're coming down in california. they're coming down in texas. they're coming down. those three places shot up and those numbers are coming down, so by the time we get there, we'll probably be in this very good shape. november 3rd is a long ways off, a lot of things are going to happen. >> we should note that the university of washington model that was once held out as the gold standard by the trump white house is now predicting nearly

231,000 americans will die from the virus by november 1st. chicago public school students will join their counter parts in other large districts by starting this new school year with remote learning, the city had planned to offer some sort of hybrid of in-person and remote learning, but officials said the worsening situation led them to change course. according to "the new york times" only 5 of the nation's 25 largest school districts is planning to offer some form of in-person learning this fall. concerns about the coronavirus also led the democratic national committee to announce that joe biden will not be traveling to milwaukee the week after next to accept his party's presidential nomination in person, instead he'll accept it remotely from his home state of delaware the party also says other speakers including biden's yet to be named running mate will remotely address what will

essentially now be a virtual gathering in the midst of a pandemic. at long last we're joined by my friend and colleague nicolle wallace, host of "deadline: white house." nicolle, as of our air time last night, we had between 28 and 32 of our states on the way up, meaning the virus was out of control, the chicago school system news is big and you have even dr. birx saying one thing on school safety that we're just not hearing publicly in the business of public health. >> yeah, one step further, i keep thinking of the old expressi expression, fool me once shame on you. fool me twice, shame on me. you have the science experts saying one thing that should determine school openings. it should be based on community spread. three dozen states are seeing

their cases rise, i read and consume all the news about schools and sometimes it's dangerous to cover something that you're living. you've got donald trump telling lies about the virus and children. so it's the same sort of play he tried to run with business reopenings several months ago, where you had dr. birx and dr. fauci saying any state wants to reopen they need to see a 14-day decline. president trump is tweeting liberate michigan, liberate virginia. and here we are. i think the school news out of chicago, people are waiting for more specifity and what will new york and new york city will do. >> as i keep saying, this is such an intensely personal decision for families who are lucky enough to have family members ready, willing and able

to go back to work and let's not forget the people watching who are generaluinely in economic trouble. you aurgency on the hill to fin the next pandemic relief bill by the end of this week. democratic leaders and their trump white house negotiators are scheduled to hold another round of talks later this hour as we learn more about what could be included in this. our correspondent garrett haake following all the latest. garrett, what do you have to report at this hour. >> reporter: brian, gnat republicans just finished one of their weekly lurjones, i can tell you no one coming out of that meeting that optimist that a bill could they're fully expecting to be back in d.c. waiting for an agreement another week. you were just talking about schools, one of the big unanswered questions still so

far even as we're starting to see the outlines, the contours of a compromise coming together, perhaps 40 $0 in federal unemployment benefits instead of $60. an eviction moratorium that could last through december. how to do the school funding is still a major piece of puzzle. what money for state and local governments zthe two sides will literally hundreds of billions dollars apart on that. speaker pelosi was on our air earlier this afternoon and she projected what sounded to me the first optimism about the possibility of a deal. take a listen. >> i'm confident that we'll have an agreement, the timing of it i can't say. because i don't know. if we don't do something significant we will not only be delinquent in our duties to fight this virus, which is the

way to open up the economy and schools safely for our children and grandchildren, but we'll also be increasing the damage to our economy. >> reporter: with so much people's lives and livelihoods on the line this might sound insidery. one of the challenges here republicans are so far from unified of what they want in this bill. there's a white house position and a wide variety of other positions. i talked to ted cruz he's proposing an entirely separate bill that would address this than the senate leadership bill would, there's still major disunity on that side and that's part of what made these negotiations so slow-move zblg unbelievable. >> nbc's garrett haake for us on capitol hill. joining our conversation two of our very good friends, kimberly atkins and dr. william

shaffer. doctor, i want to ask you to do for us what i think a lot of people that saw these different and divergent pieces of information shared in public today between donald trump and dr. deborah birx, the top doctor and scientist on the coronavirus task force, help us make us sense what's correct. here's president trump first. >> 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 -- i would almost say -- definitely, but almost immune from this disease. so few -- they've got stronger, hard to believe, i don't know how you feel about it, they have much stronger immune systems than we do.

they do it. they don't have a problem. they just don't have a problem. >> and here's dr. deborah birx on sunday about this vexing question about when and whether kids should go back to school. >> if you have high case load and active community spread just like we're asking people not to go to bars, not to have household parties, not to create large spreading events we're asking people to distant learn at this moment so we can get this epidemic under control. >> it can't be both. if it's to ask our kids to distance learn until we get the epidemic under control or send them back. >> i'm much more cautious, nicolle, i think we need to look at how widespread this virus is in communities. like yourself, our grandchildren are going back, one to college the other one to school. that school's already decided it's going to be virtual because

although nashville is doing pretty well, there's still too much virus spretding in the community. we need to be very, very cautious about this as schools open and be prepared to deal with outbreaks that occur in schools. this virus is out there still largely spreading unimpeded throughout much of this country. >> and i think if we are lucky enough to be at a school that hasn't made a decision yet we have some data from the schools that have already sent students back. nbc news is reporting that a second grade student has tested positive for coronavirus after the first day of school in georgia, after that child tested positive, the district asked 20 other students and a teacher to self-quarantine for two weeks. "the new york times" is reporting on an indiana school covid case, hours after the first day of classes on thursday, a call from the county health department notified

greenville central junior high in indiana, a student that had walked the halls had tested positive. so, we know that they're spreaders, is that enough to feel that a more prudent path would be to keep them home until a country sees a case load where dr. fauci would like to see a case load. >> our attitudes have changed over time. back a couple of months, i was optimistic about opening up schools. looking at this dissemination of this virus across this country i've become much more careful and cautious about opening up schools. so i think that we're going to see repeated episodes of children found to be positive, potential transmitters of this virus but also children and other people associated with the schools, older people, actually

ill with covid virus. i think we'll see a lot of changes going on. schools need to be flexible, so do parents. this is going to be a turbulent school season, i'm afraid. >> and kim, to the other conversation not the one we're having but the conversation going on in the west wing of the white house and on fox news, we just heard the president say, it's going away. it will go away. people would be forgiven to check for the date and the corner in the screen to see if this was mid-pandemic. we're back to the same talking points again. >> we are. and we're back to the president sort of reverting to his wishful thinking about the virus, because this is a problem that politically he would like to put behind him. it's also an issue that he has not been taking the lead in being engaged in his own white house, he's not regularly been a

part of pandemic briefings, even when he was a part within the last week, he is reportedly not engaged with it, really not interested in the data, just wants schools to reopen and just wants businesses to reopen and just wants the economy to reopen. children are not immune, they do get infected, they do cause schools to close. more disruptive for schools to open, parents to rely on that plan to start moving forward and then to have shut down again, boston ruled out a hybrid plan still haven't officially pulled the trirlg gger on it. they're trying to go by the data, they're trying to be safe and not have to revert.

but they're not getting the guidance and the clarity of -- of a plan from the federal government that they would need to be able to help -- to help make those decisions. >> also, kim, in what was compared to giving the red states permission to start wearing masks in a blast campaign e-mail, the president said more about masks with caveat, but still more forthrightly than he has publicly, arguably, again, late in the game in august of 2020. to be talking about masks and publicly wearing them and accepting them. >> yes, you know, it's sort of a drip of information when it comes to masks and this president, yes, he did come out at one event wearing mask and he called it patriotic to wear it and we saw him appear at several

events, including in texas where there are a lot of cases happening there. in florida, without wearing mask. he's been very inconsistent on that. even though doctors have nearly universally said that masks are important, masks not only we've suspected from the beginning protect other people from the virus but it may serve to protect the mask wearer, too, an essential part of any school reopening plan, any business reopening plan, and that they're going to be a part of our culture for some time, even after a vaccine is found while that vaccine is distributed and starts to take shape. it's such a small thing, it's hard for me to give much credit to the president on this. he seems very bent on this idea that it's just going to magically disappear even though all indicators and all facts indicate otherwise.

>> our thanks to our friends kimberly atkins and dr. william shafner. another break for us. when we return, president trump's allies in the senate once again looking to politicize law enforcement in this country as the former deputy attorney general sally yates pushes back against the republican narrative about the origins, remember that word, about the fbi's investigation into russia election interference. later, the death toll continues to climb in beirut as we learn more about what happened to trigger that massive, devastating explosion yesterday. our coverage continuing after a short break. n trust. >> tech: so if you have auto glass damage, stay safe with safelite. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪

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another attempt by senate republicans to politicize russia's election interference ran up against some major opposition today on capitol hill. former obama appointed acting

deputy u.s. attorney general sally yates testified voluntarily and virtually before a senate judiciary committee as part of its look into the origins of the russia investigation, trump and his allies on the hill have tried to insinuate without evidence that president obama and vice president biden were a driving force behind the fbi investigation into incoming trump administration officials. but yates who blew the whistle on trump's first national security adviser michael flynn pushed back against the narrative put forth by trump and his allies. >> during the meeting, the president, the vice president and the national security adviser did not in any way attempt to direct or influence any kind of investigation. something like that would have set off alarms for me and it would have stuck out both at

time and in memory. no such thing happened. >> joining us now former fbi director assistant director for counterintelligence our friend frank figliuzzi. and an nbc news contributor our good friend joyce vance. i want to jump right into what i think sally yates added to the fact pattern here, i think it's important to travel back in time and remind folks that she sought to collaborate, to protect the country's national security with the brand-new white house counsel don mcgahn, that who she's told when she thought flynn might be compromised. frank what do you make of what is a very clumsy effort to rewrite this country's national security history when it comes to russia?

>> yeah, i think the message here today to the senate republicans, be careful what you ask for you might get it, what they got today was an unvarnished explanation of a properly predicated russia counterintelligence investigation of absolutely no influence, instruction or guidance coming from either biden or obama about how to conduct the russian counterintelligence. with regard to michael flynn, we learned again that a properly predicated counterintelligence concern with plenty of warnings given to the white house was carried out in the interest of national security. this was a failure today for senate republicans and a win for anyone who cares about the intelligence community getting it right. >> on that topic, joyce, on the intelligence community getting it right. here again is sally yates trying to explain why it was a threat to u.s. national security that

even before mike flynn committed the crime of lying to the fbi he was lying to white house officials like the current vice president and the press secretary. here is sally yates with senator leahy. let's watch and talk about it on the other side. >> do you believe by encouraging russia to not react to u.s. sanctions would undercut our nation's response to russia's attack on our elections? >> i do. that's one of the concerns, senator. as i mentioned, the purpose of the sanctions was to both punish and deter and when general flynn was essentially saying, never mind on those sanctions, we're just going to move forward, that certainly doesn't send the message to the russians that we want them to stay out of our election. >> reporter: and it undercuts our efforts? >> it certainly does. >> joyce, i guess my question, if you take that analysis of the

impact of flynn lying about those conversations with the russians and you use that as one bookend, those events took place almost four years ago the other big donald trump's responses to jonathan swan about the nature of his conversations about vladimir putin, how about we're just russia. >> so, i think what these two events really bookend for us, nicolle, is that what's coming home to roost in 2020 election is trump administration's failure to hold russia accountable for interference in the 2016 election and sally yates says it very starkly, she makes it very clear that the problem they saw after that january 5 meeting at the white house was that russia didn't respond to president obama's sanctions that he improeszed against russia for election interference like they expected,

they thought that russia, too would turn around and expel diplomats, but russia didn't do anything. so president obama asked the intelligence community to figure out why isn't there any response from russia? and the answer to that question was general flynn's conversation with ambassador kisylak, when he was approached about the fbi to discuss that conversation he lied about it. if that doesn't set off alarms and flags flying in your head while frank can tell us, that's the kind of thing that the fbi is obligated to investigate and the president's failure to hold russia accountable and his willingness to undermine the sanctions by the prior administration which is why we head into 2020 with the same concerns about russia interference hanging over the election. >> joyce vance, speaking of alarms, what do you fear, what do you predict mr. durham the

u.s. attorney from connecticut, in an obedient role to mr. barr, what do you fear and/or predict he'll come out with by november 3rd? >> well, brian, you know, i've hung up my crystal ball because the last 3 1/2 years have been so unpredictable and so many homes in at the doj have been busted. we're now 90 days -- within 90 days of the election and that's the hands-off period from doj, no longer takes any steps that could impact an election. but the attorney general has explicitly disavowed his obligation to follow that policy, he's changed the policy and centralized control of actions in his office and he's repeatedly promised that there will be public revelations about the durham indictment. the best thing that we can do at

this point is inoculate the american public against bill barr's october surprise and point out how wrong it is for anyone at doj to take steps that could influence an election especially so close to an election that there can't be a response and a full review of the facts, we all know that it's easy to make allegations and announce investigations, it's important to know whether there's any substance to them and i think that's what we all fear may come out of the dur mam investigation. >> frank, is it a given that the russians already have their arms in our election and monkeying with this coming presidential election in ways we can't see? >> yes, we -- listen, all the sources i talk to and even open source, if you read the july 24th press release by the

national counterintelligence executive and you read that carefully, we are in an all-out war right now. covertly. behind the scenes. we're playing whack-a-mole with foreign intelligence services, hacking social media propaganda, planting false stories on everything from the virus to the election and it's like a 9/11 posture if you were counterintelligence and cybercounterintelligence right now and the hill is getting briefed on this. the senate. the house. the gang of eight. they're saying those briefings are chicago and you'll begin to see a weekly briefing rhythm begin as we learn from the intelligence professionals exactly what's going on with attempts to undermine our election and you're going to see increasing calls to declassify this in real time, we're under

assault right now, brian. >> wow, let's hope those briefings carry more raw information than the ones we have come to expect on the coronavirus. two of our frequent guests for very good reason, certainly focuses the mind. frank figliuzzi and joyce vance. another break. when we come back -- new developments in that devastating series of explosions in beirut, that's next.