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. it doesn't look like things

are going to improve any time, either, anytime soon, that is. even as cases begin to decline in some recent covid-19 hot spots, the white house is now warning of new potential epicenters. yesterday, the u.s. reported 2,000 deaths in a single day for the first time since may. and a new projection estimates the death toll in this country will double by december to 300,000. if that model holds true, demand for voting by mail will almost certainly increase between now and november. later this hour, i'll speak to the senate democrat in charge of overseeing the post office on what we need to do before then. and what he says may be deliberate attempts by the trump administration to undercut the usps. let's begin today, though, with the u.s. on track to cross another depressing milestone in the coming days. the country is nearing 5 million confirmed cases. a marker that we're all but assured to meet this weekend.

already, more than 160,000 americans have died. and now, the ihme is predicting the current death toll will nearly double to 300,000 by the first of december. according to a recording of a phone call obtained by the center of public integrity, there are ten new potential hot spots that are of concern to dr. deborah birx and the white house coronavirus task force. among them is atlanta, where federal and state officials are now working to construct a surge testing site at the city's giant airport. joining me now from atlanta is nbc news correspondent blayne alexander. i would like to know what's happening with that surge testing site. but also, with that new ihme model that's predicting as many as 300,000 deaths by december 1st. it also says that if mask wearing was consistent around the country, that 70,000 lives could be saved.

>> yeah. certainly. so let's first talk about the testing site. it's being described as a mega testing site. the capacity to process some 5,000 people every single day. and that's opening doors on monday. it's just off the property of the atlanta airport, so certainly, this is going to be a high traffic area. we know that people can come there, get tested free of charge, with just an appointment beforehand, but people do not need to display symptoms in order to get those tests. they're promising results within 48 to 72 hours. certainly, this would be a major step in increasing the state's testing capacity, but this comes, as you mentioned, as the state passes two very troubling milestones. the first, hitting, surpassing 4,000 deaths state-wide for the first time in this pandemic. and among those deaths is a 7-year-old little boy from down in savannah, georgia. that is the youngest person to die from covid-19 here in the state of georgia. and the youngest and the first and the only young child to die from the virus. so as you look at that and as you get that new warning from

the white house that atlanta is one of a handful of cities that really they're concerned about. they're concerned about the growing number of cases, the surge of cases. we also know atlanta is the place where, remember, there was this battle between the city's mayor and the state's governor over whether or not to mandate masks in the city of atlanta. now, the mayor had tried to make that requirement or make that a requirement. the governor has pushed people, encouraged people to doit, but says mandating masks goes a step too far. katy. >> blayne alexander in atlanta, also, we should note we only know it's one of the places that the white house is concerned about because the center for public integrity was able to get ahold of that call. >> also, new york governor andrew cuomo has cleared all state schools to reopen this fall, including new york city, the largest school district in the country. under the governor's order, all schools in the state can reopen, so long as their district is in a region where the average pause tiv test rate is below 5%.

right now, most regions in the state do meet that threshold, including new york city. joining us now from new york is nbc news correspondent stephanie gosk. stephanie. >> hey, there, katy. it's interesting. the infection rate state-wide is actually less than 1%. which is pretty dramatic when you consider this really was the epicenter for so long. the deaths here still to this day eclipse state death totals, the next is california, which is three times less than this or a third of this, rather, i should say. this doesn't answer the question for parents. there's still a lot that is involved in this question. it does not give districts license to, in dr. fauci's words, let it rip. they have to present plans that conform to public health standards. that will include things like social distancing in schools, masks, kids can't be in crowded schools, and that really will

depend on the district. upstate, where there are less people, it will be a bit easier to do something like that. here in new york city, you're dealing with schools that already have overcrowding issues. it's going to be hard to get kids in those schools for extended periods of time, staggering them and having class sizes be small enough to conform to those health regulations. you also have to deal with the teachers union, which has its concerns. here in new york city, the mayor has said that if two students from different classrooms test positive for covid, they will shut the school down, but the union wants that to be just one case in a school. they want that school to shut down. so all districts are going to have to deal with those issues, too. it is definitely a tangle of issues. katy. >> certainly very complicated. especially with all of the crowding in new york city schools. as stephanie was alluding to. in parts of georgia, the first week of school is coming to an

end, and parents, teachers, and students are not feeling so good about how things are going. the state school superintendent is now strongly suggesting all schools offering in-person learning follow social distancing and mask wearing. precautions that are recommended but not mandated by the state. he's also calling for more transparency from schools after a high school student posted this now viral photo of a maskless crowd in a hallway on the second day of her school's reopening. she was suspended for that post. her suspension was lifted but not before other students were warned that there will be consequences if they, too, reveal what was really going on inside the school walls. in kguwynette county, the school year hasn't started, but there are already staffer whose have tested positive or are in quarantine. and while students won't return

until august 26th, all teachers are expected to prepare and teach classes from school buildings, even for virtual learning, which begins next week. joining me now is ashley newman, she taught fifth grade in gwinnett county until recently when she resigned after her request to work from home during the pandemic was denied. thank you very much for joining us. walk us through why you asked to work from home and why that request was denied. >> well, for a lot of people in gwinnett county right now, we're stuck in a difficult position. the cases are so high that harvard has weighed in on where we are and they have said we're not prepared. per 100,000 people, how many cases we have per day, if it's over 25, then we are in the red zone, and we should be under stay-at-home orders. we're at 37 per day, and this was as of a few days ago. and they're telling us we absolutely cannot do any of

that. so we have to make sure that we are absolutely being transparent like you said before. because being transparent is something that is not happening in gwinnett county public schools now. we have teachers that have reported from over 20 schools anonymously, that we are -- i know -- that we are from 20 other schools, are saying that we are going to have -- we're having reports of teachers, administration, having custodial staff that are all being sent into quarantine right now, and there's no public knowledge of this information. the only way that we know this information is because it's being spread by teacher to teacher and we're talking about it. we're trying to be transparent as educators because we're concerned about the community right now. if teachers are being sent to quarantine, who is going to take care of this class? open houses have already begun. and there are people that are saying i'm sorry, i'm in

quarantine, i can't help you right now because they don't have the option to actually work from home. it was an option that was originally given to us in july. on the 20th, in a move to digital instruction notice. and it was retracted and we never heard the reasons behind it. so we're very concerned because many educators are immuno compromised. many educators have children who are immuno compromised. as you could tell a moment ago, i have a young one. we have young children who can't join us in the school building, and we can still get our work completed. i think a lot of people have the fear it's going to look the same as it did in march. in march, we were in panic mode, in an emergency situation where we had very little resources to help us get through this. and now, teachers have been training for months in order to prepare for a digital opening for as long as necessary. >> well, that is a really good point, that there has been now this summer for teachers to get

ready to do it as best they can. they're not just suddenly trying to figure out how to teach from home over a computer on the fly. i know you said you don't know, but why do you think it was suddenly retracted, this possibility of allowing teachers to work from home? why they have to go into a school building. do you think it has something to do with the president's demand to reopen brick and mortar schools and the threat to withhold federal funding? >> i think it's all a ripple effect. i think that educators are now in a position where they are having to make the best choice for their family. and you know, in georgia, we just had the senate bill 359 pass this week from governor kemp, and that is stating that businesses have no option or they don't have to hold liability for any deaths or injuries related to covid-19 in their buildings. so that's an even more extreme situation that we're in as educators. you're expected to be in the

building, and we're not going to be held liable. the second you walk through the doors, that's on you. so for my family, that was not an option. that really was not something that i was comfortable with, to send my daughter back to school. i know that the schools are working really hard to do what they can, but we have a lot of people that live in gwinnett county. we have over 180,000 students in gwinnett. it's the largest school district in georgia, and we have to make sure we're doing what's right for the community, because students deserve more than a rotating door of substitutes and their teacher and having to take on the weight of that concern of whether or not their teacher is healthy and safe. >> that is a good point. consistency is key. ashley, thank you so much for joining us. and thank your daughter for allowing us to steal a little bit of your time. tell her hi for us. >> i definitely will. thank you guys so much. and in florida, the teachers union is still battling with the governor on whether schools can

reopen for the start of the year there. the palm beach post reports that florida governor ron desantis told health department officials to keep quiet as he pushed for in-person learning. according to the paper, under his directive, county health directors across florida were told not to tell school boards whether it is safe to reopen. and that's exactly what happened at that vulucia -- at this vulucia county school board meeting. >> do you feel that the current covid rates for our county are conducive to the safe reopening of vulucia county schools at this time? >> the department of health, and you know, all of the health officers around the state, has asked the department of health for guidance with this question because we're all being asked this question by school boards, and we were -- we have been advised that our role here is to just advise as to what can we do

to make the environment in schools as safe as possible with covid-19. it is not to make a decision on whether or not to open up the school. >> joining me now is the volusia county school board member you saw, he's also a licensed respiratory therapist at a florida hospital. i want to get my head around this. what is happening here is the department of health is being told not to tell schools whether it's safe to reopen. has that always been the role that they have taken? was there a change here? >> there's no doubt that we are under unprecedented times, and this is new for them as well. when the governor issued the executive order that florida schools should open five days a week, brick and mortar, and also said by advice and order of the local health department. and so when we turned to our

health department to ask them if they felt it was safe pursuant to that executive order, they were instructed not to give us that guidance. and so ultimately, what you have is you have education professionals making health care decisions during a pandemic on whether or not schools are safe to operate at this time. >> so those local health officials, though, from the department of health in the past, if there's been an outbreak of some kind or a health emergency in the school, in the past, have they recommended a school closure or said it's better and safer if it shuts down or better and safer if x, y, and z happens? >> that i'm aware of, we have never had something like this come up, although they usually provide guidance to us when there's an outbreak, but there's no doubt that a pandemic is something that a lot of us can't even fathom. and so as a health care professional, like i said, i am a respiratory therapist, and i

has also served as the chair of the florida board of respiratory health in the department of health. i understand that it's to insure that floridians are safe and being taken care of, and so the ironic part about it is they are not politicians. they are health care professionals. and so i knew that when asked, they were not going to give us the guidance on that. only because of their mission and how it doesn't mirror our reality right now. right now, in volusia county, our current positivity rate is somewhere around 10%. at the time, it was around 12%. and so we are still considered by the cdc to be very in a what they call a substantial spread, and so the mitigation efforts that we should have at this time are shelter in place. so ultimately, what i have called for is basically for the

state and -- to follow the same exact guidelines that they set out back in may before this became political and we had all kinds of outside influences deciding for us. furthermore, what their lack of telling us what was safe or not actually put the burden now on the local school board, which we will be revisiting on tuesday, as to whether or not it will be safe. we did move our start of school to august 31st. making us the last central florida county that will be going live with brick and mortar. as of right now. and so you know, we're moving forward with our plans, but we are definitely realizing that this burden is now on the local school board to make the decision as to when it is safe. >> schools making decisions on health instead of department of health officials. thank you, sir, for joining us. we appreciate all of this information. >> thank you for having me.

and as new york city gets the green light to reopen schools, new jersey's case numbers start to rise. what's the governor doing about it? plus, the white house and congress have failed once again to find middle ground on relief for struggling americans. what's the disconnect? and what will it take to end this political staring contest? i'm going to ask michigan senator gary peters. >> also later, with the election now 88 days away, facebook employees are asking mark zuckerberg to go public and get ahead of any potential effort by the president to undermine the results of the election. don't you just love the look on the kids' faces... yea, that look of pure terror... ...no, no, the smile... ...and that second right before the first tear comes... ...what?! pizza on a bagel-we can all agree with that. do you want a hug? here's your iced coffee! ♪

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the markets dropped slightly this morning, even as a better than expected monthly jobs report seems to have boosted the president's spirits. they added 1.8 million jobs and unemployment dipped to 10.2%. president trump called the numbers great and touted them multiple times on twitter. but many economists including a senior economist at glass door, who spoke with nbc news says today's numbers are a sign that the economic recovery is losing steam. millions of americans are still out of work, and as of this afternoon, congress was not able to reach a deal for a new relief package, as initially hoped. time is running out for those families still desperately in need of a lifeline. this afternoon, minority leader chuck schumer argued the democrats are willing to compromise if republicans meet them halfway.

>> we are committed to negotiating. and as we said, we are willing to make compromises. we are -- our bill, the heroes bill is at $3.4. theirs is at $1, so the speaker made a fair offer, and you should have seen their faces. absolutely not. i said, you want it to all almost all in your direction or you won't negotiate? they said yeah. so we are trying to compromise. >> let's bring in nbc news congressional correspondent leann caldwell. is chuck schumer -- is the way he's describing it the way that our reporting bears out? >> so, katy, first, the big news is that mnuchin and meadows are in pelosi's office right now with pelosi and schumer, so that's a little bit of a good sign, right? so what pelosi and schumer are saying is they offered, if the republicans come up a trillion

dollars, their bill is at $1 trillion, if they come up another trillion, the democrats will come down a trillion and they'll be a lot closer together. apparently, mnuchin and meadows rejected that offer last night, and then heading into the meeting, reporters asked mnuchin if he would be willing to add another trillion to the bill. and he said that is a nonstarter. so head nothing to this meeting today, it doesn't look good for them to even come to any sort of agreement. and this is just the top line number, katy. then you have to work on the details. we're told they're still extremely far apart on school funding, on state and local money, and this core issue of unemployment insurance benefits. the thing is they're meeting now. when they emerge out of that meeting, their posture, the public posture, their tone is going to be a clear signal on if anything is going to be possible. katy. >> leigh ann caldwell, from

capitol hill, thank you very much. >> and joining us now is michigan democratic senator gary peters. senator, thank you very much for joining us. let's just lift off right there from what leigh ann was talking about. it seems like there are some areas of disagreement in terms of the financial scope of this package. getting it down to a $2 trillion package instead of a $3 trillion package, would that be acceptable? >> i think bottom line is that we know we're going to have to find some sort of compromise. but i think what is most frustrating about all of this is we have many folks in the republican senate caucus that basically believe that there shouldn't be any additional resources at all to help american families and small businesses and our schools to be able to reopen in a safe way. so when you have a large percentage of the caucus that wants to be at zero, and really don't recognize the magnitude of the problem that we're faced and the fact that we have economists

across the board saying we need to have continued support of this economy as the economy starts to slip, if it starts digging a hole, it's a whole lot more difficult to get it out, and it's going to be more expensive. so it is important to do the right thing for american families and businesses, and recognize that, but there are a lot of folks in the republican caucus that don't do that. it's why we have, as i mentioned, 20 folks that aren't there. mitch mcconnell is not even in the room. we have president trump basically playing golf. they don't see the challenge to american families, and as a result of that, i don't think you're seeing good-faith bargaining on their part because we simply have different views of the challenges we're facing in the economy and american families are facing right now. >> if there is a bill, when do you expect to be back on capitol hill voting for it? >> we're ready -- we'll be back as soon as possible. we need to have an agreement on some top-line numbers. there's a lat of work to do in terms of a number of issues, where that money goes, what is the process that it will be distributed.

there are a number of issues. one i'm working on related to the postal service and a slowdown of service that's having a major impact for americans and people all across michigan. there are a number of issues that need to be addressed. we need do it quickly. we cannot delay. we have already delayed so long, the house bill has been out over two and a half months. mitch mcconnell didn't even bring it forward. we're in a crisis situation for families who are now losing the additional compensation for unemployment. that's hurting families in michigan who are making difficult decisions about keeping food on the table, a roof over their head. we have foreclosures, evictions coming forward. i don't think the republicans understand the magnitude of this crisis and how it's impacting people's lives. it is unacceptable to be delaying. we need to move. we need to have action. and we need to do it quickly. and i'm ready to do it. my democratic colleagues are ready to do it. let's hope the republicans get onboard. >> senator, do you have a red line for what you won't vote for? i mean, is there a certain threshold in terms of funding, i don't know, for states, for schools, funding for the

unemployment insurance, or is there a funding for the postal service that must be in this bill for you to say yes to it? >> i don't think it's productive to talk about red lines right now. i think what is productive is saying let's approach this with good faith. understand that american people need help, and businesses need help, and our education institutions need help. let's get in, roll up our sleeves, make the decision, understanding there's going to bow give and take. you heard leader schumer say we're ready to have that give and take discussion. but let's have a good-faith discussion and understand that this aid is absolutely essential for folks all across our country. let's approach it with that type of effort. >> let's talk about the postal service really quickly. if there's no money for the postal service, are you going to say yes to a bill? number two, you have already said you're worried about the postal service being politicized by the post master general. we have a big election coming up. 80 million people are expected

to send their votes by mail. >> absolutely. but what we're seeing right now impacts folks today, even before the election. with actions taken by the new trump appointee, as our post master general, a number of processes are going into place. it coincides with what i'm hearing from people all across michigan, mail is being delayed. they're not getting it the way they should. these are folks who count on the mail to deliver prescription medicines to them, who count on social security checks and pay roll checks and want to get bills so they can pay them so they don't have late fees. business mail needs to move forward, and we're seeing the slowdown. i'm hearing from constituents, i'm hearing from folks in post offices, our letter carriers are saying they have never seeb a situation where the management allows mail to be piled up and not move out. we expect a reliable mail service. people count on getting those pieces of mail to carry out their daily activities. and we expect that from the postal service, through all

conditions. they're always making sure that mail gets delivered in a timely fashion. so we have to address it now, but as you mentioned, as we look to vote by mail where you're going to have a huge surge of mail coming in through the postal service, voters expect to make sure those ballots not only get to them in a timely fashion but certainly get back to the election clerk so they know their voices heard and their vote matters. >> we have been waiting for a piece of first-class mail for ten days now in this household. still not here. senator gary peters, senator, thank you very much for joining us today. and coming up next, we're headed to new jersey where the case count spiked 175% in the last two weeks. why is that? and how does the governor plan on stopping it? cases are also creeping up across the midwest. indiana hit a daily record of new cases yesterday. we're going to talk to a doctor, a friend of the show there, who has been tracking the virus for us since the outbreak began.

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we're following the latest headlines on the coronavirus in the united states. and here are the facts as we know them this hour. ohio governor mike dewine has now tested negative for covid-19 after a rapid test taken yesterday initially indicated he had the virus. the rapid test was part of a routine screening before governor dewine met with president trump and kept the governor from seeing the president on his trip to ohio. alameda county in california will offer a $1200 stipend to patients who tested positive for covid-19 and are asked to stay home and self-isolate without unemployment benefits or sick leave. the county has set aside $10 million for this project. and should cover an estimated 7,500 of them. >> 67 nfl players have opted out of the season due to concerns about covid-19. players considered high-risk who opt out receive a $300,000 --

$350,000 stipend. any player who is considered to be less at risk will receive a $150,000 salary advance. the season is scheduled to open on thursday, september 10th. and in baseball, walk-off home run celebrations look a little frankly weirder today. after an atlanta braves outfielder knocked the game winner out of the park last night, instead of jumping into the arms of his teammates or getting a series of slaps on the back, the other braves met him at home plate in a semi socially distant semicircle. welcome to 2020. new jersey governor phil murphy issued a stern warning that covid is spreading too quickly and too widely across his state, new jersey, like much of the northeast was hard hit by the virus this spring and only got in control of the outbreak after a swift and strict lockdown. officials think they have identified at least one reason for the new uptick, big house parties like this one in alpine,

new jersey, with hundreds of people. joining me now from hoboken is nbc news correspondent ron allen. so ron, in los angeles, the mayor there is threatening to shut off the water and power for any house that has a large party. the governor of new jersey says he's concerned about this spread. what is he doing to stop it? >> he's making it clear, and warning people tat all the progress that the state has made could be lost, as we lack at whether schools are going to open, as we look at whether more businesses are going to open. it could be loss unless the numbers come down. there was a spike at the end of july. house parties, a lot of house parties and gatherings were happening at the jersey shore, beach communities, as summer got into full swing. here's what the governor had to say about the numbers today. >> it's the sixth day in a row that we have had a lower rate of transmission. it's still not where we need it to be, but that's a good sign. so let's keep it that way.

that clearly is on you, it's to some extent on policy, by limiting the indoor gatherings. folks, i hope, are beginning to get the message, no house parties indoors. a friend of mine was staying in a new jersey hotel recently, and they had to call the front desk and say, listen, it's not on my floor but right below me, there's clearly a bunch of young people having a heck of a tinal a hotel room. that's the last thing we need. >> he also made a big pitch for cooperating with contact tracers and saying 45% of people who were called after someone tested positive by a contact tracer, 45% of those people were unresponsive. which is not helpful at all, because that's the key to stopping this thing if you test positive, you give names, you try to reach them, and then you try to contain the spread. so another worrisome sign here in new jersey. there's also a big public relations media campaign warning people to get tested at places like this urgent care. so they're doing a number of things to try to stop this

before it's too late. katy. >> you got to get the public bye-in. ron allen, thank you very much. >> coronavirus cases are on the rise in midwestern states. illinois and nebraska are seeing steady increases of new daily cases, and in that recorded call we mentioned add the top of the show, dr. deborah birx said she was concerned about upticks in nine cities including kansas city, omaha, and detroit. >> indiana set another record for daily cases. more than 1200 reported today. it is the second day in a row that the state has seen over 1,000 new daily cases. joining me now is dr. steven sample who we have been checking in with throughout the pandemic. he's an emergency physician at memorial hospital and health care center in jasper, indiana. dr. sample, it's always good to see you. it's been a couple months, i think, since we talked last. with cases on the rise in indiana, what are you seeing at

your hospital? >> absolutely. hey, katy. how has it been? been a long time. our hospital cases are starting to go up. we're seeing coronavirus cases every day. over the last couple of weeks, our county actually of about 50,000 has led the state in percent positive test rates. we have been as high as 25% for a rolling seven-day average. today, i think we dropped to number four in the state and were about 17.5%. so definitely not a good trend for us. because we are kind of flying in the dark with positivity rates like that. we just don't know where the virus is in our community. >> are you seeing people taking it more seriously now or has there been -- i know for a time, they were, but has there been a sense of complacency? is mask wearing being done consistently? what are you seeing when you're at your local grocery store? >> absolutely. so i was just at walmart about an hour and a half ago. i drink about 300 gallons of

diet pepsi everyone week, and i had to load up my cart. i saw 100% mask compliance for the first time since this whole thing started. it brought me joy. nobody was screaming at anybody, nobody called me a sheeple, and i got it done. didn't see anybody's face, so that was good. >> i'm slightly worried about your consumption of soda. as a doctor, i feel like you should know better on that. >> we all have our vices. >> clearly. do you have what you need in your hospital, though, for potential influx of patients? do you have enough ppe? do you have the ventilators? do you have enough testing? if somebody walks in the door and looks like they might have or they have the symptoms of covid, can you give them a test, and how quickly can you get it back? >> sure. so for now, yeah. we can. we are still, because our supply chain from the start of all this has never been terribly robust,

we are still reusing ppe in a suboptimal way, but we have been pretty consistent throughout the whole thing. i can right now get testing on my patients that come in with symptoms. i can't just swab you if you want one. we are testing all hospitalized patients right now with a rapid test. so that we can try to maintain hot and cold zones for now as we can. in the community, we have a local -- i'm sorry. go ahead. >> no, are those rapid tests reliable? we just talked about a case with the governor of ohio, dewine, getting a rapid test yesterday. it shows up positive. didn't meet with the president. got another test today, showed up negative. >> these tests are suboptimal. we all know that. that's why it's so important, i think, to do so many. studies show 25% to 30% false negatives. there are fewer false positives than false negatives by a long shot. so it was a little surprising to see a false positive in governor

dewine, but certainly not impossible. our technology moving forward should be trying to get these fast, on demand, and as accurate as we possibly can. because without that, there's no way to keep a clean zone. and our schools are starting next wednesday in our county as we have a high positivity rate. >> is there enough contact tracing being done in your state? is there any contact tracing being done to make sure that if there is an outbreak, say, at a school when it reopens, that it can get tracked and people can remain safe? >> so i don't have a whole lot of privy to the local machinations of the contact tracing. i know that it is probably not nearly as robust as it should be. it is nowhere as robust as it should be. and we have already heard just a little bit ago that people don't really terribly cooperate with that anyway. we need an army of people making phone calls, tracking people down. i haven't seen that yet. >> dr. steven sample, on what looks like a beautiful august

day there in indiana. doctor, thanks so much. always good to see you. >> good to see you as well. thank you. and in just a few minutes, i'm going to talk to the missouri democrat who dealt a blow to her party's establish mentd in tuesday's primary. >> first up, facebook employees are urging their boss to go public with a plan to fight back against the president should he use facebook to undermine the results of the next election. will mark zuckerberg listen? saturdays happen.

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employees are asking m ms. to get ahead of what the president might do on social media if he were to lose the election. one employee wrote the company is headed for a problematic scenario where facebook is going to be used aggressively to undermine the legitimacy of the u.s. elections in a way that has never been possible in history. joining me now is the cohost of the pivot podcast, kara swisher.

she's also a "new york times" and msnbc contributor. kara, always good to see you. this is an interesting question because back in 2016, the president was going on and on about how the election was rigged and there were real questions about what he would do if he lost. he won. if he loses this time, it sounds like there are a lot of social media employees, facebook employees, who are raising concerns about their platforms being used against them. is mark zuckerberg going to listen to this? is there a chance that he would, i don't know, take some measures and put some measures into place in order to make sure that does not happen? >> katy, it's hypothetical. that's how they're answering this question, unfortunately. oddly enough, i wrote a column about this almost two years ago, about him trying to do this, when he was starting to go off on wars. he started tweeting about civil wars and it's been escalating since then. there's no doubt this will happen. i'm under the assumption they have a plan but they don't want

to particularly share it with everybody. they have some sort of plan in place. interestingly, jack dorsey was asked about that today in an interview on the daily, of "the new york times," and he kept talking about a hypothetical. but you can be sure, and i am sure, they do have an actual plan if he starts to really trade in lies or create confusion. they have already gotten much more aggressive towards things he says online in just this week that happened again around covid-19. so we'll see. i can't imagine they don't have a plan in place. if they don't, that's a frightening prospect. >> well, you said you wrote about it two years ago, because it was entirely predictable then, and it is entirely predictable now. if they don't have a plan, i agree with you, it would be concerning. the president is already going after the election before the election started. already trying to undermine the confidence in vote by mail. he's already warning against this to his supporters, signaling to them, you talked

about how twitter and facebook are taking some measures against that. do you think it's adequate so far? >> it's very slow roll. they're all very proud of themselves right now, and they talk about how they're finally intervening, but this is three years in, and this was a pattern you saw going on for a long time. so what happened is just like i talked about with you, it's like giving a toddler sugar for years and then wondering why they're sick and crazy and running around and possibly have diabetes. it's just this kind of thing where it's probably too little too late given you have to really now really monitor this -- his particular feed and then you get called, you know, for censorship, which was doing your job when it was doing your job, but now it's looked at as censorship. they make it into an issue. you even saw representative bach, who is usually pretty -- >> yeah. >> -- sensible, saying this stuff today. they're obviously pushing this idea that it's unfair. don't trust these -- don't trust anything. at the same time, these sites

are trying to censor us from saying it. they're not. they're trying to censor them from saying things that are inaccurate or dangerous. >> when it comes to social media, is the cat already out of the bag? is there any way to fix this misinformation problem that we are living in daily? >> no. no. i mean, it's an architecture problem. and i have talked about this, written about it a lot. it's a basic architecture problem. dorsey actually addressed it today. he said i should have had some ethicists and social media people, social scientists there, to say maybe if we have incentives, which are likes, those likes, maybe that will lead to bad things. and we should have done that a long time ago. at this point, the way it is architected is perfect for president trump or others who want to make trouble, even if there's a lot of great things on this platform, and there are a lot of great things on both of these platforms, and they're useful in a lot of ways. it's just that they can be taken advantage of because of the

incentive structure. if the incentive structure is wrong, the building is wrong. the building does lend itself to hate and anger and rage. engagement leads to enragement, as i keep saying. >> the dorsey interview on the daily today is really interesting. especially that especially that conversation surrounding likes and incent vising and what that makes people do. i recommend everyone take a listen to it. kara swisher, thank you for your time. >> thanks a lot. next i'm going to go one-on-one with the woman who sidelined the establishment in tuesday's democratic primary in missouri. what issues will cori bush take to capitol hill if she wins in november. cori bush next. xt are you tired of clean clothes that just don't smell clean?

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instead, the united states sparked a new virus outbreak. one likely new member of congress says what america needs now is a plan that puts the poor and working class people hurt most by this pandemic first. cori bush democratic candidate for congress in missouri's first district, joins me now, cori, thanks so much for being here and congratulations on winning your race. if you win in november what do you plan to bring to the new congress in january? >> thanks for having me, first of all. what i plan to bring is the experiences that i have had living as a black woman in america, someone who's a regular everyday person, a working class single parent. just bringing that congress, i remember what's that like and i'll fight for the everyday person. >> what's congress not doing

right now, is there something they can pass maybe in the heroes act or another that's not the heroes act that would make things easier in this moment that we're living in? >> i'd love to see a $2,000 a month universal basic income that's retro active and that lasts for a year, also making sure that there's a real moratorium on evictions, we're actually cancelling utility shutoffs, putting money into our school systems, right now they're figuring out hybrid, online, in-person schooling, some schools still are trying to fight to get chrome books for the students and, you know, we're trying to make -- we're trying to make teachers become medical professionals. we need to put money there and continue to fight for medicare for all. >> you know, you're part of something of a wave of

progressive democrats that have unseated longstanding democrats and are trying to remake the house, given that, do you expect there to be more people like you showing up in the future, do you expect that the democratic party is going to move more progressive in the ensuing handful of years in a way that would allow something like universal basic income, the green new deal, those sort of policy proposals that may seem pie in the sky toward the guard of the democratic pry party but may not be sooner than latter? >> absolutely. i'm hoping so. i want to be a help to that -- somebody at one point in my life held me so i want to be of help. so what i'm looking at, i have harriet tubman on my shirt.

i may have made it and go back and bring people up to start to fight for everyday people. there are things that can happen now. people who are ready to push forward in that. we need to do something different. >> cori bush, thanks so much for joining us. we appreciate your time and congratulations, again, on winning your race. >> thank you. that does it for me this hour. i'll see you back here for "meet the press daily." in the meantime, brian williams and nicolle wallace are next.

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good day. let's wind up this week. brian williams here with you on this friday afternoon. 3:00 on the east coast. 12 noon out west. nicolle wallace will be here with us in just a moment. but we begin with the headlines at this hour, the coronavirus has now killed over 160,000 americans and the university of washington analysis model projecting that nearly 300,000 souls could be lost by december 1st, however, they predict universal mask wearing could save over 66,000 lives. all of this comes as the u.s. is on track to