ward. and now, we're committed to helping you do just that with a powerful and reliable internet and voice solution at a great price. call or go online today. welcome, everyone, to weekends with alex witt. thank you so much for joining

us. breaking news to start this hour. the president is expected to hold a press conference. let's go to my colleague josh lederman, following this in washington, d.c. what do we know about this shall josh? >> reporter: alex, we knew from president trump last night that he was looking to sign something within a week to take executive action, to take some of the steps that congress so far has failed to take. what we did not expect was that an executive order could come as soon as today. now, to be clear, the white house is not specifying at this point in time exactly what the president is going to do or say when he takes to the podium just about a few hours from now in bedminster, new jersey. all signs point to the possibility that he may go ahead and sign something to follow up on what he said last night. this all coming amid real pessimism on capitol hill about the status of those negotiations. take a listen to how senator chuck schumer described the current state of affairs.

>> it was a disappointing meeting. we reiterated in very strong terms our offer. we come down a trillion from our top number, which is 3.4, they go up a trillion from their top number, which was 1, and that way we could begin to meet in the middle. unfortunately, they rejected it. they said they couldn't go much above their existing 1 trillion, and that was disappointing. >> so now it's up to the president to see how he's going to move forward with this, alex. the one thing that we do know for certain, if the president does try to act using executive action, we can expect lawsuits to come from those who are saying he's challenging his authority. the president in his comments says he's fully expecting to get sued and is ready to push back on that. >> do you have a sense of what might be in this executive

order? >> we know there are several things the president has said he could take executive action on, including deferring student low payments as well as doing a deferment on payroll taxes. those are, perhaps, some of the more controversial elements of this. the payroll tax cut in particular, something not even a lot of republican support. democrats have made clear they really oppose that as well. the other steps the president has been looking at also look at temporary extension of those unemployment insurance benefits that have since expired. but what we don't know is whether the president will seek to expand them at that full $600 federal loan that's been provided so far or whether he will try to extend them temporarily at a lesser amount, alex. >> josh lederman in d.c. josh, thank you. the coronavirus pandemic, number of cases climbing with no signs of slowing down. yet another milestone, 5 million confirmed cases. we are expected to reach that

number some time this weekend. california is also reaching quite a grim threshold, surpassing 10,000 covid-related deaths. yesterday for the fourth day in a row over 1,000 people died from that virus nationwide, bringing the total number of fatalities to 162,000. meantime, hundreds of thousands of people are descending upon sturgis, south dakota, today, a town with a population of only about 7,000. they're there for one of world's largest motorcycle rallies. again, this is in the middle of a pandemic and masks are not required. in new york today, school districts across the state getting ready to reopen after governor cuomo gave the green light for in-person learning this fall. his announcement drawing criticism as school districts in other big cities like los angeles and chicago, they're planning for an all-virtual start to the year. ron allen is in new york city, joining me now. what's the sense you get from listening to people, how many people are on board with this, what their concerns are, ron?

ron, it's alex. can you hear me? >> reporter: yes i do now, alex. >> okay, good. great. we just gave an introto you and talked about the concerns with some people pushing back on the governor's plans to reopen new york city schools and new york state schools, state wide, in fact. what's the concern you're hearing? are people going along with it or is there some pushback? >> this is a multifaceted, really complicated issue. here in new york city, it's not just about whether go to school or not but whether you want to put your children on the subways and buses to get them there. that's the way a lot of kids get to school. it interrupts parent life, work life. can parents work and kids go to school? the most unlikely thing to happen here in new york city is some combination of online learning remotely and in-class learning. how much of that will happen, when and for how long? it's very unclear. when the governor said that he approves schools opening, he even admitted this is a decision

that teachers, students and parents will essentially make when they decide it's safe enough to go back as this issue is debated across the country. >> governor andrew cuomo's decision to allow schools to reopen, including the largest public school system in the country here in new york city is a remarkable turn around for the state hit hardest by the virus. with more than 30,000 deaths. but now the infection rate is less than 1%. >> if anybody can open schools, we can open schools. and that's true for every region in the state, period. >> reporter: a decision welcomed by many parents and teachers. >> we tried to zoom with the kiddos, but it was very difficult. a lot did not have access to devices, or home support. >> reporter: how schools will operate and how they'll address concerns about testing and contact tracing.

>> our biggest concerns are that we have social distancing in place. that is important. when you go into a supermarket, you have to be six feet from the next person. we want that in the schools. >> reporter: when you look around the country at school districts that are already opened in the south, for example, nbc news survey found that as many as 60 cases of covid popping up among children, students and teachers. if you look at states like georgia and mississippi where they have very high infection rates, there are hundreds of students and teachers and staff who have been forced to quarantine after the first week of school because a case was spotted somewhere in a classroom or on a practice field. so, that's what the school year is probably going to look like going forward. it's inevitable, it seems, many people would say, that cases of covid are going to pop up. in addition to school plans about lessons and curriculum, they have to come up with plans about what they're going to do to test people, to test students, what they're going to do about contact tracing,

because these kinds of issues seem inevitable as we go forward into the fall. alex? >> that stat is remarkable, the one you talk about, gwinnett county school system, 260 employees had to go home and quarantine during that first week of school. pretty remarkable. appreciate that, ron allen. recent glitch in the coronavirus reporting system is preventing the state from taking businesses off a watch list. in one bay area county, there is a plan to pay people up to $1250 to stay inside and quarantine for 14 days. this would be in the form of a one-time payment. nbc's scott cohn is joining me from campbell, california. a lot of people might say give me $1250 and i'll stay in and quarantine. you can make money that way and it's safer. but let's talk about the failures that led to the system glitch and how it's affected the

lives of californians, mostly back under an economic shutdown. >> reporter: yeah. alex, we'll get to that one-time payment thing in a moment. that's in alameda county. here in santa clara county, in campbell, south of san jose. the official explanation for this glitch that has led to a backlog of some 300,000 tests is that they were using an existing system for reporting infectious diseases, and it just was not set up to handle the rush of data and plus a recent tweak in the software system caused this glitch. but the practical effect is that, as you said, they are really not making any policy decisions now based on reopenings or closings, because they're kind of flying blind. so, here we are, in one of the many -- main drags in california, where they've closed it off to traffic to allow for socially distanced outdoor

dining. we're in limbo now a couple of days, if not longer than that. more than that, according to the state's health and human services secretary, there is really a ripple effect. >> so we look forward over the next 48 hours, 24 to 48 hours to work on that backbone, support our counties in making sure that the work that they need to do can be done timely, so we cannot only do improved contact tracing at the local level, but we can understand what the future state of hospitalizations will be. >> reporter: so, clearly, there's so much of a key to this is keeping an eye on the ball and yet they're really flying blind in terms of forecasting hospitalizations and that all-important contact tracing. and that is a big issue in a state that's really struggling with this pandemic. you talk about that one-time payment they're offering up in al medimmedia alameda county.

a pilot program, impoverished areas, east oakland and san leandro, where they're trying to give people the incentive to stay home if, in fact, they tested positive. don't go to work. and this is really aimed at essential workers and is meant to take care of about two weeks worth of minimum wage. they'll see how that goes. that's one of the issues. there's so many economic cross currents with all of this. as i said, alex, in california, we are largely flying blind now, at least for another couple of day days. >> very disconcerting, scott cohn. thank you for joining me, nonetheless. the beach town of corpus christi has one of the highest infections of confirmed cases for not just texans but specifically infants. janelle ross joins me now. what are you learning about why infant mortality is so much seemingly higher in texas? >> what happens happened here in

corpus christi, part of oasis county down south, and what has happened is that it seems that people are continuing to gather in public spaces. this is a beach community. we are on padre island, a barrier island off the coast of corpus christi, texas, and where people in other communities might go to parks and other community gathering spaces, here in corpus christi, people go to the beach. as you can see behind me, there are quite a few people here. numbers have been growing throughout the day. county officials feel that beaches may be part of the reason that there are nearly 14,000 active infections here in corpus christi and in particular why there have been 147 infants diagnosed with covid-19. one of those infants, unfortunately, has died. county health officials believe most of those children were made ill or infected by other family members in their household.

what's happening is people are coming to public spaces, in many cases such as here at the beach, we've seen almost no masks and very little in the way of physical social distancing. people are getting infected, taking those infections home and, in some cases, very young children are becoming ill. >> this is terrible. i have a doctor in a moment. i want to confirm. you said 187 infants, is that what you said, one of whom has died? >> reporter: 187 infants, one of whom has died. uh-huh. >> thank you very much for that live report. we'll get further into that right now. turning to the search for solutions, msnbc contributor dr. roy joins me now. 187 infants in that area of south texas near the beach. what are your thoughts on that? >> alex, it's great to be with you on this saturday. such a morbid statistic. what resonates with me, i go

back to what the president has repeatedly said about children being immune. not based on that data, right? not based on the data from georgia. remember that camp where 75% of the children and campers, camp counselors who were tested tested positive? 75% now. we're seeing children, teenagers not only get infected but die across the country. this is sending a clear message. children of all ages cannot only get infected but transmit the virus to other people, including to other children and to adults. we need to take this seriously. we need to practice preventive health measures and, obviously, this is going to have repercussions for school openings, alex. >> exactly. how does new york state say green light, we'll allow them to go back to school in person. nonetheless, how do they combine safely doing it and not furthering the pan temic and

bringing us back to numbers that we do not want to get to again? >> a lot of school, health and pediatric experts, including the american academy of pediatrics. they all agree that schools need to reopen for children education, health and numerous other reasons, meals. it has to happen in a safe manor. in places like new york city, new york state where they successfully contained the virus, it is safer to reopen. but that does not mean that it could happen without public health measures, stringent public health measures in place that. means masks. i do not leave my home without the mask. that means children, staff, adults wearing masks, but also maintaining physical distancing, which is not going to be easy in a lot of these crowded schools and classrooms, alex. >> let me ask you about governor mike dewine of ohio, who tested

negative for a number of tests that he had, goes positive only to say no, a second test has come back positive. what was that test? how concerning is that? >> i can see how this could be tremendously confusing. forget the public, even telling health professionals. a rapid point of care test, antigen base test. the beauty of these tests is that they're rapid. you get the test in 15 minutes, half an hour. the disadvantage is that you're sacrificing accuracy for speed, right? in this particular case, it's actually 80% accurate. you get that result positive 80% of the time. that means 20% you get false negatives. he had a repeat test that was a pcr based test that amplifies the amount of nuclear genetic material of the virus. those tests are really accurate, but because you have to send the sample to the lab, they have to process it, it takes time. so, there, you're sacrificing

speed for accuracy, actually. they're very accurate. but it takes time to come back. as you know, alex, the demand for testing nationwide is placing overwhelming demands on laboratories and reagents. so the increased supply chain demands is impacting the amount of test results and wait times. people are waiting for hours, and it's taking days for the results to come back. and that's really negating any type of effective quarantine or contact tracing. >> right, right. if you don't know you need to be and you're out there, perpetuating and dispersing that virus, that's nod goot. dr. lipi roy, thank you so much. good to see you. coming up, everyone, we'll take a look at the veep stakes for joe biden. who is he going to pick? p stakes for joe biden. who is he going to pick?

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short list of vice presidential candidates for joe biden. this, after reports that she met last weekend with joe biden. witmer did not only re-emerge as a pick but long remained in biden's top tier of candidates. witmer joins the list of candidates to ever be considered vice president, all of them women, many women of color who could be chosen as well. joining me from wilmington, delaware. many have lobbied, as you know, former vice president to pick a woman of color as his running mate. does that have any bearing on his decision that he will ultimately make? what else is going into this decision? >> alex, i think this is the third straight weekend i've joined you to talk about the veep stakes from this very location. it's gone from spence and intrigue to a little bit of a frenzy and certainly some frustration on the part of democrats. i'll touch on the frenzy part

first, tipped off by the revelation just last night that michigan governor gretchen witmer did, in fact, meet with the former vice president last weekend at the shore where the vice president has a little bit of a beach house there, but also this morning, as biden literally a passing comment made to another reporter, indicate iing may have already made his decision. the campaign insisting afterwards that he was simply joking. now the frustration, of course, is that, as i indicated, biden promised this decision would come in the first week of office. we are squarely into the second week of office. biden himself expressed his frustration that has been building with democrats this week. take a listen. >> first of all, they think it's been drawn out they've not watched any other vice presidential picks in history. this, in fact, is ahead of time, matter of fact. most vice presidential nominees aren't announced until a day, two, or three before the convention. and so i've gone through it. it's been very orderly. every one of the women i've --

we've interviewed is qualified and i've narrowed it down. >> you heard him say first i've interviewed, then we've interviewed. the big question over the past several weeks has been, in fact, has he done these in-person interviews? witmer says yes. he has had other interviews over the past week and month. he has to make his decisions now by the end of next week, heading into the convention. not only in milwaukee but will be giving his acceptance speech here in delaware. he needs to have his choice by his side then, alex. >> right. it's definitely coming soon. when this thing goes down, mike, do you think it's because the vice president has put it all together -- former vice president, obviously? put it all together, makes his decision and is out there with an announcement. will there be any lag time? how long does it take from saying this is it, communicating that to the pick, making sure he, she in this case, wants it,

and then they say we're rolling this out? >> well, alex, 12 years ago i was camped out in biden's driveway. he got a phone call while he was with his wife at the dentist office on a thursday. the pick was announced via text message the next night. he was introduced officially the following day. four years ago, when hillary clinton chose tim kaine, he was actually at a fund-raiser for a colleague in rhode island. an aide picked him up outside, put him on the phone with hillary clinton and then he immediately got a plane to join her in miami for the announcement. once that decision is made and communicated, the campaign wants it done on his terms. email list and text list to get that decision first. this has been a leaky process whether or not those leaks have been true, we'll find out for sure in terms of what that short list has been looking like. certainly the campaign doing everything it can to keep the decision announcement on its own

terms, alex. >> wonder if we'll see you next weekend. we will see, mike memoli. amid south carolina concerns -- did i say south carolina? i meant south dakota. that's next. carolina i meant south dakota that's next. ♪ ♪ we've always put safety first. ♪ ♪ and we always will. ♪ ♪ for people. ♪ ♪ for the future. ♪ ♪ and there has never been a summer when it's mattered more.

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it's one of the largest motorcycle rallies in the world. of course, there are covid concerns, so they were mindful of that. they did implement some safety protocols up and down main street here. they have hand sanitizers placed for attendees. they also canceled a lot of city-sponsored events. typically in the middle of main street there would be concerts throughout the day. all of those have been scrapped. as far as social distancing and mask wearing among attendees, it is encouraged and not required. but we had a chance to talk to some of the bikers here. here is a little bit more about their concerns about the coronavirus and why it was important for them to come out this year. take a listen. this year, it's unique, obviously, because of the coronavirus. so, did you have any concerns about that at all? >> no. >> no. >> no, i don't think so.

it's out there. it's going to happen. just be careful. >> i think it already happened. >> reporter: alex, there are people in the community, business owners and that, i spoke to one a few minutes ago, who is mindful about the coronavirus and regardless of the fact that there aren't any mandates here in the city of sturgis, she is watching the crowds that are coming in to her store and making sure that there is a large amount of space, and people are keeping their distance. she handed out ppes among her staff, so she is keeping an eye on that as well. but the city did issue a survey not too long ago, and 60% of the people surveyed actually wanted to cancel this event because of the virus, alex. >> but it clearly is big time on. you see a bunch of motorcycles behind you, kathy park. do stay safe. thank you very much.

to decision 2020. a new book promises to be the perfect guide to beating donald trump. the title? "you're fired." the offer, paul begalla, is joining me now, former adviser to bill clinton. where did you get the title? just kidding. >> stieal the guy's catch phras but good to see you, alex. >> good to see you, too. let's talk about these polls. donald trump is lagging in several of them. any point he's firing himself, if you will? >> that's a good point. he came in with 46% of the vote. okay. i worked for bill clinton, who got in with just 43%, but got re-elected comfortably with 50%. he has not done anything as president to reach out to young people, to women, to people of color, to all the communities that rejected him in the last election. worse than that, politically, he

has betrayed the people who voted for him i document this in the book. there's a crisis in rural america. he has made it worse not better. farm bankruptcies are up. rural hospitals are closing. working folks are getting destroyed in this economy. tens of millions of jobs lost. so, even people who voted for trump, i think, are getting ready to fire him. >> so, yeah. but if you look at the polls in terms of his popularity, approval numbers and the like, do you see a place, if these numbers are accurate -- granted we never know with polls. we remember 2016. that said, if these numbers are accurate, paul, does he have a way to victory? what do you think? what are the statistics, the chances he can win? >> i don't know statistically but he has, as the great poet christopher marlowe said, world enough and time. he has the power of the presidency, all the money in the world. he still has three months to go.

you know, i have this argument with some of my friends who say it's in the bag for joe. >> right. >> it's not in the bag. it's not even in the shopping cart yet. trump has to get his arms around covid. he's trying every distraction in the book, calling people names, yapping about tiktok. he has to get his arms around covid. i saw that interview you did with that doctor a few minutes ago, alex. this is our lives. he's telling people that children are immune. doctors said no, they are not. we listen to our president, we should be able to trust him with our lives and we can't. he has got to do something with health care and covid and has been an utter failure on that. >> listen to what he said last night when he was at that impromptu news conference at his bedminster golf course last night. he said in terms of wearing the masks, it's a political thing. any doctor on the planet will tell you it's not political. it is remarkable. yet sometimes he says oh, yeah, i wear a mask or i support

people wearing masks, but it doesn't seem to ring true. >> it's astonishing. and you know me. we used to work together. it never occurred to me that wearing a mask to protect your fellow americans would be political. it seems to me that's a conservative value. it's a liberal value. it's just a human value. right? we care about each other. we're americans. we're all in this together. so, he has politicized this, though. he has. and i think that that is to his great detriment. he does this. he does diversion by division. he divides us so we don't notice that he's doing a terrible job. that he sent millions of pounds, 17 tons of our personal protective equipment to the chinese. me meanwhile, he is diverting us, saying we shouldn't attack each other over wearing a mask. why is he shipping our masks to china when we need them here? it's all a game with him. it's all politics with him. i think that it's running out.

i think people's tolerance for that has reached its limit, because it's no longer showbiz for ugly people now. it's my life, my mom, my kids. that's why he's in so much trouble. >> i'm going to borrow your anecdote, oh, no, joe biden has it in the bag. i'm going to say it's not even in the grocery shopping cart yet. that's a good one. who do you think the vice presidential pick will be for joe biden? you know, can you give me even a couple of names that you think it should be between? >> the honest thing, alex, i don't know. it will depend on the rapport. barack obama and joe biden served together in the senate. they weren't terribly close. when they met, they really meshed and they built a rapport. i know this. i talked to people close to the vice president. mike had this in his report a moment ago. who can step in, god forbid, but be my governing partner, god willing. the women who have been talked about all are qualified. they're all really impressive.

it shows you, you know, my group, white men, we're 48-0. just to get to equality, we would have to have nothing but women vice presidents until the year 2251. that might be a good thing. it will depend on the rapport in the room. i know what he's thinking, who do i want to be that last voice talking to me? that's what he was for barack obama and many people think he was one of the best vice presidents in history. >> he said something in january to that effect. you're right, paul begalla, but you still didn't give me a name. i'm going to hold you to it. you'll have to come back and give me a name if you can. read the book. it's called "you're fired." you're not fired from coming back here, that's for sure. great to see you, paul. >> alex, great to see you, my friend. >> thank you. whatever order president

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we are awaiting a presidential news conference this afternoon. he is expected to issue an executive order on coronavirus relief after talks with democrats collapsed. a second coronavirus bill is being negotiated on capitol hill. it would replace the recently expired c.a.r.e.s. act, which provided unemployment benefits for millions of people.

david guren is in new york for us. david, welcome to you. talk about the importance of these benefits during this time right now, and what happens to those people who don't get them? >> reporter: yeah. these benefits have been absolutely critical, alex. and the folks i've talked to across the country as i've been traveling have said they've gotten state unemployment in many cases but this additional $600 per week has allowed them to be able to pay a lot of bills they didn't feel they would be able to pay. now that's lapsed. congress has been haggling, should it be passed and the president saying he plans to sweep in and pass some executive action. seth harris, acting secretary of labor during the obama administration and he said how crucial this has been during a time when there are still so many people out of work, so many people unable to get jobs, something i've said over and over again, alex. people want to work, they're just unable to, and the jobs aren't available at this time. take a listen to what the former secretary had to say.

>> in an economy where you have 5 million open jobs and 30 million people receiving unemployment benefits, forcing people to engage in work search makes no sense, because there are no jobs for them to have. that additional $600 has supported those families while they are waiting for the economy to recover and for the pandemic to slow down. so it's made the difference between people, you know, losing their homes, losing their cars, not being able to pay their bills, not being able to feed their kids and being able to sustain themselves. >> reporter: he and economists have been doing an autopsy of this crisis in real time. the huge problem, alex, as you know, is that so many people who were eligible for benefits were unable to get them. i was down in tulsa, oklahoma, talking to many people who have been out of work since march and they haven't received state or federal benefits. i bring that up because that's an important story line here as this goes forward. we had that lapse.

that program has ended. should they implement a new round of assistance, all the computers across this country in employment offices and states around the united states will have to reprogram really outdated technology and that is going to take a lot of time. it's going to take weeks. if they had a flat benefit for people. it would take it longer if they were to scale it to what people were making before this crisis. the president's urgency, people might appreciate that, appreciate what they hear about lawmakers putting this back into effect. but it will take a long time to get that money into people's pockets and the longer it takes, the further the ripple in the economy, alex. >> thank you, david gura. florida classrooms are resuming in-person learning. state's education commissioner gave the emergency order last month. since then more than 300,000 floridians have become infected, totaling more than half a million people now. president of the florida

education system, frederick ingraham. what's your reaction to hearing that schools there in your state must allow students to return to classrooms? what are your concerns for the students and the teachers? >> we have a problem here in the state of florida. first of all, thank you for having me. let me give you some statistics as it relates to kids under the age of 18. 41,000 since this pandemic started have been diagnosed under the age of 18 here in the state of florida. 811 new positive cases in the last 24 hours. this is without school. this is without kids huddling in assemblies, walking down hallways. over 4,000 cases have been diagnosed for kids under the age of 18 in the last eight days, in august. and so we have a 15.1% positivity rate. we know that the cdc says that you must see a 14-day decline and you must have under a 5% positivity rate. that's not the case here in the state of florida. we absolutely are the epicenter.

our numbers are going -- declining slowly, but there is a massive problem here, that we've got to get our hands around before we open our schools and brick and mortar. >> i'm curious. florida education association has sue d saying it's unconstitutional to open while they still face the threat. it can push officials to change their minds before the start. >> there was a hearing on last week. the governor used a stall tactic to get the case transferred from miami dade to tallahassee. the case is going to be heard in an expedited fashion. we hope a judge will hear it on monday or tuesday of next week and deal with that. we've got a bigger problem here of the we've got a governor and commission of education with blinders on. florida education association sent two letters to the state surgeon general with zero

response. we know that it was reported in the post just yesterday that public health officials and doctors are being silenced all across this state in regards to the pandemic. and we also know that a commissioner of education is on the hunt for school districts who violate this order because hillsboro county, their school board just voted last week to go virtual for the first four week s, and our commissioner of education says he will contemplate having punitive situations for this particular school district. >> what is going to happen in terms of the union, which has said, look, we want, for safety's sake, the students to be able to stay home? will teachers take action that would mandate that? >> right. well, let me tell you what the union's position is. we want schools open. >> of course. >> all across this country, teachers want to go back to school. we just want to do it safely. we believe there's a safe way to do this. that we can get kids online

right now until we get this virus under control, until the community spread starts to go down, until the positivity rate starts to go down. we can do that. we can do online learning. virtual education, distance learning is not optimal. it is not the way we want to teach our kids. we want to have that magic created during a teacher and a student. given the circumstances we have, it's dangerous. it's life or death right now. and people from cafeteria workers to bus drivers to professionals and k-12 teachers, they should not be putting their lives on the line trying to educate kids. this is not what we signed up for. >> it's not what anyone signed up for. you're right. kids want to be back in school. teachers want to be back in school. they've got to do it safely. okay. frederick ingraham, good to see you again. thank you so much. in just a moment, new reporting from the biden veep stakes, with a name that suddenly figures more prominently in the race. figure prominently in the race. how about no

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we are just 87 days away from the election. speculation running rampant on joe biden's vice presidential pick. the short list consists of all women, many of whom are women of color. joining us me, mrs. jackson lee. good to see you. >> thank you for having me. >> let's get to the names. there is a new report that you are familiar with that governor with itmer met approximate biden. we have seen reports of kamala harris, susan rice, karen bass, all of them being top contenders. where do you see this going? what do you make of it all? >> first alex, let me first indicate that we lost a great firefighter here in houston, jerry fuchacho, he died of covid-19. he was a firefighter and a

medic: we memorialized him. clearly we know how important his life is and continues to be. i just wanted to emphasize that we are all in this together. when we talk about the vice presidential sweeps, the vp sweep, you really have to look to the man that will be president of the united states based upon the compassion, the policies, and all that he has. it is extremely important to emphasize that this candidate, this vice presidential search, is going to be based upon a comfort level that joe biden has. there are a world of talented women that are involve. i think what african-american women across the nation want everyone to know, that african-american women have been talented and ready to lead. they are ready to lead in the cabinet. in all levels of government. so as we watch the decision being made, we want to make sure that the best person is selected

on behalf of the vice president, who will be the next president of the united states, but we want him to make that decision of both comfort, knowledge, intellect and ability to lead. and i have every faith that he will do so. >> yeah. i was just going to say, i think you were just talking about yourself. you are certainly a good example of women who have done all of that and done so brilliantly in the congress. let's talk about coronavirus relief. you are calling for immediate passage of the heroes act. is that realistic? is that going to happen? do you think your republican colleagues in the senate will get behind that? >> i asked a simple question when people asked why remember robert f. kennedy, i asked why not? i just came from testing sites here in houston, texas. we know in particular the impact onic ands and african-americans which are large populations here in texas, the latinx community. we know with when covid-19

started and the majority of the deaths have been african-americans and hispanics. frankly, we need the testing money now and don't need the $25 billion that the senate is trying to narrow us down to. we need the $75 billion. we need really, the $3 trillion that the house passed more than 11 weeks ago. i also don't understand, and i heard the reporter -- i don't understand how the senate does not understand that, in fact, if you change the amounts from $600 and you try to go down, and you go further down, then you have a serious problem because all of the state employment agencies have to recalculate the amount of money. and citizens will be more desperate. if you don't have for example, the ppp, which is going out today -- i just spoke to a desperate business person yesterday saying they were having difficulty with the bank. they have done everything. they didn't have their money.

they were trying to keep their doors open. i asked the question of the republican senate. they are asking us why. i am asking why not pass this legislation, with the eviction and mortgage moratorium w. the ability for people to make ends meet. so here's where we are. we are not holding out. we were holding up. we are holding up the american people, lifting them up so they can survive. so they can get cash business bursements so they can survive. >> yeah. >> this is not in any way political on behalf of democrats. we calculated this down to the penny. we know what it counts and needs. let me say this alex, the $175 billion for schools not only do we need that money, but we need the centers for disease control to actually give specific guidelines for our schools they are not doctors. they are not medical profession. they need to understand how this impacts children and what they can do in order to be safe. >> keep asking why not. i love that. it makes a lot of sense.

and, again, our condolences as well for you with the houston firefighter and medic whose life you honored. good to see you. that does it for us on this edition of weekends with alex with it. up next, lindsey riser and what we may hear from the president in this afternoon's news conference. that's coming your way next. ing. skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, such as fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches, or coughs. or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine. ♪ nothing is everything. ask your dermatologist about skyrizi.

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i'm lindsey riser, we begin this hour with breaking news. in just about 90 minutes, president trump will be holding a news conference and is expected to sign executive orders that may circumstance up vent congress on a stimulus relief bill. talks collapsed yesterday. no other talks are scheduled. let's get to josh lederman and barbara mcquaid. josh, we will start with you. what do we know about the orders the president plans to sign? >> we are waiting to see exactly what president trump is going to do when he takes to the