good afternoon. i'm chris jansing. happy friday to everyone. and at this hour a potentially critical meeting in the office of house speaker nancy pelosi. she's hosting the other three key negotiators of the coronavirus relief package after last night's three-hour session left no clear path forward. the speaker telling my colleague kristen welker this morning that democrats and republicans remain divided on the core issues of the bill. >> we recognize the impacts of

behaviors like smoking, drinking -- >> the u.s. economy added nearly 1.8 million jobs in the month of july. that's according to new data today from the bureau of labor statistics. now, that number is significantly lower than the nearly 5 million jobs added in june, stoking fears that a coronavirus economic recovery may be slowing. and chilling new coronavirus forecast is out predicting that the number of deaths could nearly double by the end of the year to close to 300,000. but if 95% of americans would wear masks, it would save 70,000 lives. all this as we're learning just minutes ago that california surpassed 10,000 confirmed deaths from the coronavirus. that's the third highest figure in the nation. meanwhile, in new york governor andrew cuomo says he will allow children statewide including hard-hit new york city to return to the classroom for the start of the new school year. we're going to have more on that coming up in a moment.

but let's start where the action is right now, on capitol hill and the meeting in the speaker's office to try to break a stalemate on a coronavirus relief package. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell says he is keeping the senate in session, but multiple republican senators tell the "washington post" they are going home. all that happening as another provision from the cares act, the paycheck protection program, is set to expire tomorrow. joining me now, politico senior writer and nbc news political contributor jake sherman. jake, i've been following your tweets all morning trying to keep up with what's going on where you are on capitol hill. we heard just last hour from speaker pelosi, and i want to play a little of what she had to say. >> we have been mightily trying to find common ground with our colleagues. it's hard when your values are so different. i offered to them we'll take down a trillion if you add a trillion in. they said absolutely not. if we could do that, if we take

down a trillion and they add a trillion, we'll be within range. >> put in a trillion, jake, take out a trillion. when the sides are this far apart, where does that leave millions of americans who are literally just desperate for this to happen? and what would you expect the conversation is going to be like in that meeting right now, jake? >> well, a few things. it sounds like you're talking about 5 or 6 dollars here, you come down 5, we'll come up 5. but it's not. it's trillion dollars. and keep in mind most republicans are -- republicans are divided here. some believe there should be another relief package. some believe there shouldn't. so this is not just as easy as come up a trillion, come down a trillion. nancy pelosi made that offer last night in her meeting in the capitol and the republicans rejected it. so again, this is just another opportunity to have that same conversation again. now, listen, on a lot of issues here republicans and democrats are quite close. but on the big issues, unemployment insurance, state aid -- state and local aid, they

are very far apart. and there's a lot -- a huge divide to bridge. this is not the second meeting. this will be the 11th meeting in 12 days between these four principals. so i don't think this is a -- i don't really see anything happening new here. i could be wrong. i could be mistaken. i don't like to predict. but if fast is precedent, they are far apart and refmain far apart. >> i know i keep going back to this, but there are millions of people out there frustrated and scared by this lack of progress. they don't know what's going to happen. what do they make of the fact that at least some senators have said they're heading home? i mean, give me a sense. i know it's the four players who are in that room who are ultimately going to make the decision, but what kind of feeling are you getting there? is this a signal that nobody's expecting a deal anytime soon? >> well, people would have stayed in town if they thought a deal was in the offing, and they didn't stay home, they all went home, chris, as you just noted.

now, listen, both chambers are on 24-hour notice. so the leadership will give them 24 or so hours to come back to the capitol to vote on a deal if it's imminent. as you said, the four players are in the room. but listen, if you are counting on these enhanced unemployment benefits or an extension of the ppp program or you are a state or local official who's counting on federal money to help plug the gap from steep losses from this virus, you're in big trouble because they are completely at a deadlock and there's no sense at all that they are getting any closer to each other after two weeks. two weeks ago to the day was the first real meeting between these four principals. and again, no progress, not one iota. maybe one iota, one speck of progress has been made. >> yeah. and as you point out, the people who want to see if their benefits are going to be renewed. but i was just thinking today as governor cuomo was making his announcement, schools that are making plans to reopen, they want to know what kind of money there's going to be there.

the list of people whose lives, whose jobs, bhooz sort of mission in the case of let's say a school district is being put on hold is still on hold. >> that's right. and republicans, by the way, for school funding they're -- this is the criticism of democrats for many republicans. which is republicans have offered $105 billion in new money for schools, which is tough for a lot of democrats to say no to. democrats have been closer to $400 million and $175 billion for k through 12 education. so there's a lot of money washing around in this deal, and maybe democrats will temper some of their asks and maybe republicans will go up on some of their asks. there's just a lot of new money at stake here. there's a lot to be had here for both sides but at this point we don't see any bridging of the gap. and you're right. schools are opening across the country and they're going to do so without a lot of federal aid that otherwise could be had. >> politico's jake sherman on capitol hill with the very latest for us.

thank you. meantime, new jersey's governor phil murphy is warning residents there that the coronavirus is still spreading too quickly. an nbc news analysis has found that new cases have surged there 175% in the last two weeks, all while more and more are trying to get tested. joining me now from outside an urgent care facility in hoboken, new jersey is nbc news correspondent ron allen. ron, how are facilities in new jersey like the one you're at today handling all these folks who want to get tested? >> reporter: they see it as great news. they see it as the way to solve this problem. you can see behind me there's now a sign that says no appointment necessary. so they're encouraging people to come in. and the numbers have been going up and they've. fighting infections. and this community has a fairly robust contact tracing program. they're able to identify a dozen new cases recently and ensure they were related to travel, people who had left this community and gone out to other

places. so they're trying to control that way by testing. we expect to hear more from governor murphy right about now as his daily briefing on the status of things. the last few days have looked encouraging, we understand. the numbers spiked at the end of july largely because of house parties. down the jersey shore. across the state in other places where people were having graduation parties, barbecues, baby showers, those kinds of big gatherings, often family events where people were letting down their guards and taking down their masks as well and not social distancing. and the governor's been very clear that this state is still stuck in phase 2 until the numbers get down to a more acceptable level. the big number is the transmission rate, which is standing at about 1, which a little bit above 1, which basically means each infection is spreading to more than one additional person. so again, we're looking for the numbers today from the governor. as you said earlier, school districts across this state and

across the country are looking to see whether they can open. most are talking about some sort of hybrid system now. we'll see how they react to the decision by the new york governor to open. new york and new jersey have been on similar paths, but lately new jersey has been spiking whereas new york has remained somewhat level. but again, the bottom line is more testing. what we've been hearing from the beginning of this whole thing, we're still hearing here as the solution to this problem. >> all these months later. ron allen in hoboken, new jersey for us. thank you so much on that. and this talk of schools leads us to new york school districts at this hour. able to officially make plans to reopen for in-person learning after governor cuomo cleared them based on low coronavirus infection rates. but it won't be simple. plans have to be submitted and those infection rates have to stay below 5%. new york city mayor bill de blasio says he will be even tougher. >> on the schools i've already said i want to hold new york city schools to a very tough standard and that is that 3%

standard over a seven-day period, if our average goes above 3% infection in new york city we would not open schools if it happened during the school year we would close them. so i believe we're all going to be unified on that and vigilant. >> joining me now is pull monday olologist and msnbc medical contributor dr. vin gupta. so great to see you. so the governor just opened the door for literally millions of students to go back into the classroom. now it's up to local politicians and superintendents to decide whether and how to reopen. what's your take on this decision, this 3%, 5%? what will you be watching for? >> well, i love the 3% target. i think that's the right target. the question, chris, is how are they going to ensure that they're having real-time surveillance of that that's accurate? because the same issues apply to new york that apply to the rest of the country, which is we don't have turnaround time and testing that's adequate, that mayor de blasio can actually act

upon and feel confident in. that's the whole piece about thes have and the have nots when it comes to access to quick tests, these so-called rapid tests that governor dewine and others were able to access so quickly multiple times yesterday. that's the type of test i want mayor de blasio to have throughout the new york city system, the schools there, sew knows oh, is it really 3%? is it 5%? but he needs that active real-time monitoring and he doesn't have it right now. >> and you mentioned dewine. yet as you know there are new questions about testing today after dewine tested positive and then just hours later he tweeted he tested negative, as we've been reporting, he was scheduled to meet the president on arriving in ohio but then immediately went home after that first test. but here's the bottom line. americans are already frustrated by testing, by lack of access in many places, lack of fast results that you just talked about, and now this.

can you help explain what might have happened here? what do people need to know about this quick turnaround, positive, negative? >> there's a lot of confusion here, chris. so thanks for the opportunity. what's clear here, what i thought -- what i didn't like about what the dewine team did is they're undermining trust in these rapid tests. there's a lot we don't know. but what we do know is the rapid tests that dewine got on the tarmac, that the governor got, rarely produces a false positive. meaning a positive test but you don't actually have the virus. that's rare. common, what's more common is you get a negative test but you actually have it. that's the so-called false negative test. so what's true, what's not it's not clear. he then went back to columbus, got a lab-based pcr test, the so-called gold standard. that was negative. can we trust that? who's to say? as an icu doc i've had patients get five pcr tests, five different results, because

sampling error, who knows, there's a lot of uncertainty. but it's to say we have to be cautious, our elected officials need to be cautious when they're interpreting and messaging on results because it undermines public trust. but the bottom line here, chris, is these rapid tests rarely produce false positive tests. you've got to trust a positive test from these rapid tests. i wish the governor had been much more careful in messaging on this positive-negative piece because all tit's doing is creating distrust. >> yeah, i think a lot of people were confused by what they saw yesterday. meantime, down in florida governor ron desantis on tuesday urged his medical advisers to find a way to allow family members to visit nursing homes. he said that if they wore ppe they would be able to hug their family members. and i want to play part of what he had to say. >> look, i'm comfortable with the ppe. hell, hug them. i mean, come on. if you have ppe on and you hug

and you don't sneeze or do something on them, you're going to be fine. okay? that would be very -- now, obviously if you're there for 30 minutes doing that and then you do that's going to be a different situation. but to just go give a hug, i mean, i think that you can do that. and i think that would be very meaningful. >> now, this is after being tested before going in. and one of the heartbreaking realities of this has been separation of the elderly from their families, the emotional, the health toll that can take. so what do you make of the governor's comments? >> i think the governor shouldn't be making up public health policy on the fly. clearly he's stating something that there's no standardized policy on. different states are approaching this differently. but the notion that even if you get a test and you're negative that then you still have to don ppe but then it's somehow okay to go hugging people in a nursing facility where still the risk is quite high for transmission, it's not internally consistent.

again, chris, this is confusing. governors should not -- who are not health experts should not be making policy, should not be speaking off the cuff. it's not responsible here. and so again, this is yet another example of governor desantis just not leading appropriately, not emphasizing the science, we should not be having individuals coming into potentially high transmitting settings like nursing facilities and hugging. when they're wearing ppe. it just doesn't make sense. i have patients who are in icus who cannot see their family members. they have to interact via face-time. we're implementing these stringent measures in place for a reason. we're not trying to be heartless but we have to have a standardized approach across the country, and nursing facilities remain at high risk despite testing. we can't have people hugging in full ppe. it just doesn't make any sense. >> so much conflicting and confusing information. one thing that is not, 70,000 lives could be saved through the rest of the year if 95% of

people would just wear masks. dr. vin gupta, always really appreciate you and your expertise. thanks for coming on the program. any day now we're going to find out who joe biden will select as his running mate. with the democratic national convention now just ten days away. we've got the newly narrowed down list, next. you're watching msnbc. when you walk into an amazon fulfillment center, it's like walking into the chocolate factory and you won a golden ticket. all of these are face masks. this looks like a bottle of vodka. but when we first got these, we were like whoa! [laughing] my three-year-old, when we get a box delivered, screams "mommy's work!" mommy's work. with this pandemic, safety is even more important to make sure we go home safe every single day.

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facebook is removing hundreds of accounts that are posing as african-americans who support the president as well as qanon supporters after linking them to a foreign troll farm in romania. the social media giant is also taking down nearly 300 other fake accounts tied to the epoch times, a conservative website often seen pushing unproven pro-trump conspiracy theories. facebook says the accounts were not deleted for content but for violations of the site's rules against creating fake accounts. well, joe biden today clarifying comments he made referring to the black community as less diverse than latino communities. it started with a question on protections for latin american immigrants while cubans are being deported. and would he re-engage with cuba. >> when i mean full diversity, unlike african-american community and many other communities, you're from everywhere. from europe, from the tip of

south america, all the way to our border, mexico, and the caribbean. and different backgrounds, different ethnicities, but all latinos. we're going to get a chance to do that if we win in november. >> republicans are continuing to slam biden this afternoon. president trump, who has a long history of controversial and insulting statements about race, contends biden is no longer worthy of the black vote. and here is what joe biden wrote. "in no way did i mean to suggest the african-american sxhunt a monolith. not by identity, not on issues. not at all. throughout my community i've witnessed the diversity of thought, background and sentiment within the african-american community. it's this diversity that makes our workplaces, communities and country a better place." joining me now is white house correspondent for the pbs news hour, yamiche alcindor who is an

nbc news political analyst. good to see you, yamiche. less than 90 days to this election. has the president's campaign found a consistent message in attacking joe biden? now they're trying to say, well, he made some comments and the black community's going to leave him en masse. >> the trump campaign is really still searching for a clear message against joe biden. what they have is a hodgepodge of ways to attack him including calling him a radical left and saying falsely that he wants to abolish the police. there's also this new talk point saying that he's someone who's not a friend to the african-american community. there's also of course this messaging that he's not going to be someone who's going to be able to usher in change and a good economy amid the pandemic. and in some ways he's going to return the country to the obama-biden administration, which of course joe biden would say was a pretty good time to be in america. i think the thing here that you pointed out is the president has some real issues, some real complications when it comes to talking about joe biden's

relationship with the african-american community because one, joe biden continues to receive support from african-american voters despite the fact that he's making these gaffes and at times saying things that are of course not right or the fact that african-americans are very diverse from the caribbean to all sorts of other places. but the president has really not been someone who has been seen as a friend to the african-american community. the list is long and i won't go through it. but the idea that he never apologized for the central park 5 ads saying they should receive the death penalty. his response to varlts shil saying they're good people that go to a nazi rally. and the list goes on and on. >> there's also been a lot of messaging on the republican side about who biden's vice presidential choice is going to be. i'm just wondering what you're hearing from the campaign, from the white house, obviously by now they have the oppo research piled up ready to go. but is there a sense that the vice presidential selection will make a big difference when you

see what the underlying conditions of this race are? >> i'm not sure that the vice presidential pick is going to make a huge difference. i think there are democrats who are looking for a party that looks like them. when i talk to democratic voters, there's some excitement around having a woman of color since that is most of the base of the democratic party, black women in particular are some of the loyale esest voters when yo look at democrats. that said, the oppo research as you said is piej up. if he picks senator harris there's going to be a lot of research on her time as a prosecutor, they'll be playing clips of the time she attacked him during that feisty debate. if it's susan rice they're going to be attacking her for her background in foreign policy and benghazi. of course supporters of both of those women would say they're very, very qualified to be president. i think what i hear from the biden campaign is he's looking for someone whoa feels like will be loyal to him, someone he can have a relationship-w someone whoa feels like will carry out his governing agenda, and someone who will be able to step in if for any reason they need to become president.

>> yamiche alcindor, always good to see you. thank you so much. and we're just ten days away from the democratic national convention. still waiting for biden to announce his running mate. in the 2016 cycle the pick was announced three days before the convention. in 2008, two days before the convention. and in the 2004 and 2000 cycles the running mate's name was already out by this point. if not for the coronavirus biden would have had to make his choice four weeks ago since the convention was supposed to start on july 13th. joining me now is someone who has covered a few of those announcements, nbc's mike memoli in wilmington, delaware. good to see you, mike. the biden team has all but promised a decision this week. what are you expecting? >> yeah, chris, well, 12 years ago in fact i was staked out in joe biden's driveway as we were awaiting the potential nuancement that he would be indeed barack obama's running mate. now we're keeping an eye on his

home as well as we're looking for clues whether he's having the in-person interviews with potential running mates. our team also monitoring some of those choices in washington and across the country as well. of course biden promised he would make an announcement in the first week of august. we're nearly at the end of that. and if you want to understand a little bit of the dilemma that's facing the biden campaign and the candidate himself, take a look at some of the conflicting advice he's getting. i want to play for you some of the advice we're seeing from two of the most powerful and influential democrats in the country with very different ideas about what biden should be choosing. let's start with house speaker nancy pelosi. >> i don't think that who the vice president is makes that much difference in the election. it's about joe biden versus donald trump, and that's what the election is about. since lyndon johnson i don't think any vice president has ever made a positive difference except from a negative standpoint perhaps sarah palin. >> joe biden is a guy full of

compassion. he has much more compassion than he exhibits passion. so he needs a running mate with a lot of passion to connect to voters. biden has the greatest heart that i've ever encountered in politics. he is not a rah rah guy that will motivate people. but he is the kind of guy you want helping to put the policy together. >> reporter: so you have pelosi saying don't focus on the campaign, focus on the choice you want in the white house, and then you have jim clyburn whose voice is extremely influential in the biden campaign saying you have to win first before you can govern. another layer of complexity, chris, to all of, this there are a lot of democrats who know well this could be, this vice presidential choice, essentially the first primary in the 2024 or the 2028 nomination for the democratic presidential nomination, and they all have their ideas about who they'd like to see or not see in that position affecting the way

they're advising the campaign on this as well. >> mike memoli at a familiar place for him over the course of many years, wilmington, delaware. thank you sop, mike. we appreciate it. and with just over a month until the nfl season kicks off, or so we think, dozens of players are opting out of playing due to the coronavirus. we'll break down who's saying thanks but no thanks, next. you're watching msnbc. msnbc. (man) $9.95? hm. $9.95? $9.95. what's with all the $9.95 notes? i thought you'd never ask. it's about a life insurance plan with options starting at $9.95 a month. been seeing it on tv. we talked about getting more life insurance. remember how much your brother's funeral cost? yeah, his funeral expenses were a real eye-opener. -north of $8,500. -exactly. (man) what do you like about this insurance? the $9.95 price,

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you'll also get this free prescription savings card that can help you save up to 80% on prescription drugs. california's economic challenges are deepening. frontline workers stretched too thin.

our nurses and medical professionals in a battle to save lives. our schools, in a struggle to safely reopen, needing money for masks and ppe, and to ensure social distancing. and the costs to our economy, to our state budget? mounting every day. we need to provide revenues now, to solve the problems we know are coming.

now for the latest facts on the pandemic at this hour. the big news out of new york, governor andrew cuomo clearing all school districts to reopen in the fall. but based on the seven-day infection rate statewide. that doesn't mean that they will reopen. he's leaving the decision to individual districts. a georgia high school student is suspended for posting this picture that went viral showing crowded hallways in her high school this week. the student, hannah waters, will be back in class on monday. but says she did it because she was concerned with the safety of everyone in the building. >> i'd like to say that this is some good and necessary trouble. so i don't regret posting this because it needed to be said. and the u.s. state department has lifted the advisory for americans to avoid international travel. but don't book your flights just yet because americans aren't welcome in most countries due to

the high infection rates we still have here. and fear of the coronavirus pushed a slew of nfl players to opt out of this season. nbc news's sam brock has more on this from miami. >> reporter: chris, good afternoon. you know, certainly we've seen plenty of baseball players already opting out of their season. now we're seeing nfl players doing the same, prioritizing their health and their families over playing in the sport this year. 66 nfl players choosing to opt out because of covid-19. that sounds like a huge number, but it's actually only about 2% of the league as there's roug y ly 2,900 players. we have a breakdown of what positions they play, what teams they play for. let's get to that. 20 offensive linemen opting out, 11 defensive linemen, 11 wide receivers, 8 linebackers, 6 cornerbacks, 4 running backs, 3 tight ends and safeties. no quarterbacks notably, no kickers or punters. as for which teams are most

impacted, the new england patriots by far had the largest number of players opt out. that was eight. then the cleveland browns with five players. it falls off after that with no players opting out for the pittsburgh steelers, atlanta falcons, and los angeles chargers. now, this gets us through just this first stage of finding out who's going to play and who's not going to play. now we move on to phase 2. there's practices, training camp. the nfl season, chris, is expected to start in about a month. so you can expect plenty of ebbs and flows as the league tries tyrone out hto iron out how this is all going work in the age of covid-19. that's all for me in miami. back to you. >> sam brock. appreciate that. the death toll in beirut has continued to rise now at about 150, but that doesn't mean there aren't some incredible stories. one of them we want to share with you following that devastating blast in lebanon earlier this week comes to us from st. george's hospital. an expectant father was recording this video of his wife as she was getting ready to give

birth when you can see the blast rocking the hospital. my colleague richard engel spoke with the new dad just yesterday. >> nurses and doctors were on the ground. i was looking around to check where's my wife because all the ceiling was down. i was afraid that she might be -- the babe qi was hurt. she was all covered with plastic. >> reporter: the mother and baby, george, are doing well. >> asleep. >> there you see, it that's baby george, he and the mom all are doing very well. the latest u.s. jobs report suggests 13 million americans are still out of work as small business owners nationwide struggle to make ends meet. we've got a live report from phoenix next. you're watching msnbc.

okay. let's dig into the july jobs report. new jobless numbers show that

the momentum we saw in the late spring is now slowing. although 1.8 million jobs were added in july, that's far fewer than june, and nearly 13 million americans are still out of work. despite some job gains in sectors like leisure and hospitality and a lowering unemployment rate, economists warn that the recovery's already losing steam and continues to hit people of color particularly hard. with me now to break it all down is nbc news business and tech correspondent jo ling kent. good to see you, jo. so look, the jobs number we should say was better than expected but a lot of economists say they're worried about a slowdown. what do these numbers mean and what could it mean that we're moving into another week without additional stimulus? >> reporter: it means a lot of people are going to be worried about keeping the roof over their head and the groceries and the food on their kitchen tables. there's no doubt that this is really hurting minority communities harder and women as well. if you look at the women unemployment rate, it's 10.6%.

that's just slightly higher than what the national average was for july. the black community, 14.6%. unemployment. hispanic and latinos 12.9%. and asians 12%. so as you see this overall unemployment rate ticking down and that is certainly the direction we all want to go in, economists are saying that they fear this recovery is only a partial bounceback and the real question is how many jobs have permanently disappeared. and if you look at the jobless claims report from yesterday, you see that 31 million people are currently collecting some kind of unemployment right now, whether it's state unemployment or that pandemic unemployment assistance. so there's a lot of hurt going on. as we've been visiting food banks throughout southern california, we've seen that. yesterday a food bank for about three hours gave away 220,000 pounds of food, feeding 2,500 families. they tell us that the demand at food banks across the country

could be up 50%. these numbers really reflect a painful reality. >> yeah. jo ling kent, thank you for that. appreciate the update. all this brings us to small business owners. the lifeblood of our economy. almost always without any major safety net. and now left wondering when and if relief will come. nbc news von hilliard is in phoenix for us outside a restaurant that is reopening after being forced to close for two months. hey, von, always good to see you. what are you hearing from business owners where you are in arizona? >> reporter: chris, there are small businesses across the country, across arizona that are trying to hold on. i want to introduce you to the aiello family. they have three restaurants here in phoenix. they have 32 employees, chris. and i know folks around the country have lost friends, they've lost family, you yourself lost your aunt last week there. you know, this family, the aiello family, they're close to me. i've known them for almost my whole life. jo aiello and mario aiello, they

opened up their new york italian post right here in the heart of phoenix. we should note joe is still in the hospital right now with covid. his eighth week of being on a ventilator. his wife myra was in the hospital as well for over a week with covid. their restaurant has been shut down for two months. and that has led them to the point myra's out of the hospital covid-free, but while joe is in there just last night she reopened, made the decision to reopen her restaurants along with her two daughters, mimi and isabel. i want to let you hear a part of my conversation on how joe is doing and what the restaurant business looks like here right now. >> these gotten a little bit on his thumbs, a little movement. so he's not at this point completely paralyzed. he's going to have to go for the surgery, and hopefully he'll be able to recover. but everybody's told us that he wouldn't and here we are eight weeks later. so we're not giving up on him. >> for your 32 employees what role do they play in your decision to be opening the business? >> they want to work. they don't want to -- they're

workers. they've been with me forever. and they want -- you know, my success is their success. and they've never missed a paycheck and they've never missed a day of work. you know, the good ones. of course you've got some in there. >> reporter: but they rely on you too. >> absolutely. we rely on each other. i can't do it without them and they can't do it without me. so they were fortunate enough to be able to collect unemployment during the time when we actually closed, which was the middle of june. >> reporter: chris, those federal unemployment benefits expired a week ago. lawmakers continue to negotiate. while the likes of businesses like myra and joe's restaurant, she says in the restaurant business if you do everything right the profit margin is thin. she goes if you go a week, a month, two months, that's devastating. that is the reality here on the ground in arizona right now, chris. >> vaughn, i've got to say myra's strength and her commitment to her employees completely blows me away. our thoughts, our prayers are

with joe, with that entire family. wow. i mean, that's what makes america great. people like that. amazing. thank you, vaughn, for bringing us their story. we do appreciate it. meantime, the national rifle association is now vowing to fight a lawsuit from the new york attorney general's office which wants to dissolve the organization altogether. we're going to tell you why, next. but first, we have some sad news to report. former national security adviser and air force general brent scowcroft has died. serving under both presidents gerald ford and george h.w. bush, scowcroft was the only person to serve as national security adviser to two different administrations. scowcroft is survived by his daughter karen and granddaughter megan. he was 95 years old. what if i sleep hot? ...or cold?

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today we know the line-up for the senate race in tennessee. after a rare thursday election day yesterday, former u.s. ambassador to japan bill haggerty won the republican nomination to succeed retiring republican senator lamar alexander. haggerty is a long-time friend and supporter of utah senator mitt romney, but this time he aligned himself with president trump and even returned a campaign donation from romney, blasting him as "weak-kneed for supporting impeachment." over on the democratic side markita bradshaw, an environmentalist, black activist and single mom, won an upset over former army helicopter pilot and attorney james macler.

he had been heavily backed by the democratic establishment, raising more than $2 million versus bradshaw, who won with less than $10,000. which brings us to the big picture in the newly energized fight for control of the senate and some shocking polls that na seemingly safe gop senators. let's bring in nbc news national political correspondent steve kornacki at the big board to break it down for us. hey, steve. what's going on? >> yeah, chris. quinnipiac, which is one of those big pollsters out there, put out least senate polls. three polls of the united states senate races yesterday. as you say, they certainly raised some eyebrows. let's take you through them one by one, see what we're looking at. let's start with kentucky. this is the one that got the most attention for an obvious reason. mitch mcconnell, running for re-election this year, this quinnipiac poll has it at just five points. amy mcgrath, only five points in that poll behind mitch mb connell. this is a state trump won by 36

points. that's a shocking result. one thing to keep in mind here, there's another poll in the last couple days that also came out in kentucky. let's match them up here and see if they're both finding the same thing. this is from morning concelt. you see they're finding something different. they're finding mitch mcconnell ahead by 17 points. you have five in this one and 17 in that one. and what that makes me say is let's hold our horses here before we say battleground kentucky. let's see if there are more polls that come out that look like this quinnipiac one because it could be an outlier when you have other polls out there that show a dramatically different result. that's the story on kentucky. let's look at another one here. this one getting attention, too. south carolina. here's lindsey graham, he's been there since 2002, in the united states senate, being challenged by democrat jaime harrison. again, south carolina, a very red state. not as red when it comes to trump as kentucky, but certainly a state that president trump is very much favored to win again. here's a dead even senate race, and again, in this quinnipiac poll, we see dead even. we had another poll from morning

consult this week. what does it show? does it show something similar? it does. lindsey graham, 44. harrison, 43. these polls are almost identical. that probably is basically what the race looks like in south carolina right now. and the question for harrison is, 44, 44, you add them up, you're well short of 100. there's a lot of undecided voters in the race right now. we say very red state. harrison can fight graham to a tie at 44/44. can harrison get that number to 50%. can he get it over 50%? in a red state like south carolina, that's the question there, but right now, that's a very even race in the polling. how about this? maine, this one, everybody has been talking about soupsen ca e collins, republican, been there since 1996. they have the democrat up by four, and again, we had another poll here this week from morning consult, what does it show? very similar result. five-point lead for sarah gideon. two polls showing it looks like collins slightly behind there in

maine. >> wow. steve kornacki, thank you for that fascinating stuff. >> the national rifle association is vowing to fight a lawsuit from the new york attorney general's office, seeking to dissolve the organization. alleging that $64 million from donors was used instead at least part of that, to support nra leaders' lavish lifestyles. >> the nra itself and these four individual defendants, in fact, failed to insure and put in place fiscal controls which allowed them to basically loot the corporation and use it as their own personal piggy bank. >> among the accusations that ceo wayne lapierre spent more than half a million dollars on eight trips to the bahamas, $3 million on luxury car services, $12,000 for his niece to stay at a four seasons hotel, and a post employment contract worth $17 million, but without board

approval. joining me now is msnbc legal contributor, joyce vance. joyce, great to see you. the nra called this lawsuit baseless. they said they're going to confront it and prevail. walk us through what you see as the case here, and how likely is it the nra could be dissolved as a result of this? >> well, chris, the important thing to know here is that this is not a criminal case. attorney general james didn't take these allegations of fraud to a grand jury and seek indictments. instead, this is a proceeding under new york's code that talks about how not-for-profit corporations and entities need to be managed. and it permits the new york attorney general to seek dissolution as she did here when there's pervasive fraud. what i think you have to know is that this kind of action isn't the first strategic choice of an attorney general. the first choice might be to go to the board, go to the

membership, to explain that there's been fraud by leaders of the entities. in this case, the corruption is so systematic, it's so extensive, it's so abusive of the donations sent by members across the country, that she had no choice other than to seek dissolution, and i think there's a fairly good chance, as this goes forward, that she will be successful. there's precedent. she did it with the trump foundation as well. >> a president trump, who clearly is not a lawyer, and doesn't really understand what's in this lawsuit, nevertheless, suggested the nra should just close up shop in new york and move to texas. and republican leaders in texas basically said, yeah, come here. we'll roll out the red carpet. but they can't do that, right? >> no, they can't. you just can't pick up your chickens and move to another state. she now has jurisdiction over their assets and over the entity, and they'll have to face this legal action in new york.

>> how big could this get? i mean, we have seen in some smaller cases where essentially things were shut down. i'm thinking about the family foundation for the trumps. trump university. but we're talking about the nra, huge, powerful. they put out a very strong statement saying we are going to fight this. what could a fight like this look like? >> well, they can certainly take it to court. they can certainly challenge the factual basis that she provides. it's going to be tough in this case. there's an enormous amount of money being spent on things like consulting for family vacations. i mean, not the vacations, just the consulant to help plan personal trips or this hotel stay by the niece. so it's very difficult to not view this as fraudulent, and one wonders if there won't be a revolt by the membership, frankly, who might want to reform under a different flag or

whether or not ultimately the board and the leadership will be forced to concede these allegations and have a voluntary settlement. >> joyce vance, always good to see you, my friend. thank you for that. that's going to wrap up this hour for me. i'm chris jansing. thank you for watching. my colleague katy tur will pick up our coverage after this quick break. have a great weekend. customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need? given my unique lifestyle, that'd be perfect! let me grab a pen and some paper. know what? i'm gonna switch now. just need my desk... my chair... and my phone. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ $$9.95? no way.? $9.95? that's impossible. hi, i'm jonathan,

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good afternoon. i'm katy tur. it is 11:00 a.m. out west and 2:00 p.m. in the east. the unemployment rate dipped slightly last month, as 1.8 million americans were sent back to work, but millions of americans are still without a job. and they're running out of options. that's because another week has passed with no congressional action on a coronavirus relief bill. both sides met last hour, and each blamed the other for the lack of a plan. but that is cold comfort for the americans who cannot pay their bills.