♪ ♪ welcome to "kasie d.c." the president claims coronavirus will just disappear as 5 million americans are infected. and as congress fails to bring economic relief, the president goes at it alone in a move some democrats and republicans call quote unconstitutional slop. plus, news that china, iran and russia are looking to tilt the balance once again. i'm going to talk to house intelligence committee chairman adam schiff and later, the search to find a vice president. we'll dedicate our 8:00 hour to the latest in joe biden's quest to round out his ticket but first, after negotiations fell apart on capitol hill this week, president trump sought to step in and project the image of a president by passing a b ing ind

congress to help struggling americans. yesterday with members of his private new jersey guolf club looking on, the president signed a series of executive actions he claims will provide aid to millions of americans in need but the reality is, the documents signed in big black marker can't provide anywhere near the help that a bill from congress could. one action set a weekly federal unemployment benefit of $400, $200 less than before and states have to contribute 25% for americans to qualify. another action suggests federal agencies quote consider some eviction protections. the catch is the tax doesn't prohibit any evictions. a third action defers the payroll tax for workers that earn less than $100,000 a year, the catch is the government could simply choose to collect that money at a later date. and all of this is to say

nothing of the looming constitutional questions. republican senator ban sass said the pen and phone therapy is unconstitutional slop and quote president trump does not have the power to unilaterally rewrite the payroll tax law. once upon a time, president trump probably would have agreed. >> you know, obama signs his executive orders all day long because he can't get along with anybody. it's not the way it supposed to work, as you understand. he doesn't work the system. that's why he signs executive orders all the time because he can't get his own people to go along. so he signs executive orders and then everybody sues and you're not supposed to be doing that. he goes and signs executive orders. in htheory, the old fashioned wy get everybody into a room and get something people agree on. the whole concept of executive order is not the way the country is supposed to be run. you're supposed to go through congress and make a deal and go and talk to people and get the

guys in there, and, you know, whether you're republican or democrat, you're supposed to all get together and supposed to make a deal. >> but because the president couldn't make a deal, this series of legally questionable half measures is what americans are left with. and now, the trump administration and republicans in the senate are essentially daring democrats to take legal action, and caught in the middle are everyday americans struggling to make ends meet as this pandemic rages on. >> i lose my job. i lost everything else. no money. no nothing. >> my mental and emotional health is struggling. what's at stake for my family is being able to stay who we are. being able to maintain the life that we have. >> don't know how i'm going to continue to pay my bills. i'm going to have to borrow, i guess, and hopefully everything

gets paid. >> and with that, i'd like to welcome in my panel tonight, jonathan swan, washington post white house reporter and msnbc analyst ashley parker and political reporter and could be content executive and contributor shauna thomas. welcome to all of you. shauna, let me start with you on the broad picture here. it seems the president wants headlines saying he did things to help and there is a world where -- that we've been covering the last several years. he was able to write those headlines, write those the way he wanted them to but in this particular case, americans across the country are living out the experience and the reality is he simply cannot help them as much as congress could. so is this -- what is clearly a political strategy from him going to work? >> i mean, i think it's a political strategy white houses

have done before. there are a lot of executive orders out there written pretrump that were just for political purposes. i'd like to remind people barack obama signed one about guantanamo bay and closing it when he first took office but what i think is there is a sugar high that the president might get from that. i was looking through newspaper headlines during the day and the "denver post" trump ordered by pass congress. the dallas morning news trump sidesteps congress on relief. the atlantic journal constitution trump signs executive orders. it makes it look like what we've been talking about, take charge, do something, be presidential. unfortunately, what you pointed out was that, you know, people are going to see this and be like hey, okay, so am i getting my $400 check? the answer to that is well, maybe. so i think like it is good to point out people are going to either feel the effects of this or not.

at some point, the people that you showed before are still not going to get that check. i mean, some of them might and some of the states may have the money to match what the president did, if we find out that's legal and doesn't get overturned in court and all the things we're used to. but in the end, people are still going to vote on how they feel once we get to november. >> and, you know, i think republicans on capitol hill are essentially daring democrats to take this to court as you elude to because their calculations is the headlines generated out of that would not be great and this perhaps takes the unemployment insurance question off the table in negotiations. i mean, my understanding of that is still as you point out, it's so complex. it's really hard for me to see how this diffusions the issue. ashley parker, your story in the washington post, you talk about president trump as the guy who sold himself to the american people as a deal maker.

you say he was the negotiator, ultimate deal maker repeatedly found strategies by the pressure and law making in washington and relied on show menship and pageantry to turn fail injuries in -- failures into victories. do you think it will work in this situation? >> well, the president, as you discussed, got the headlines he wanted but this is not long-term effective and as shauna said, people in the country at the end of the day know if they did or did not receive a $400 check. they know if it's $200 less than their current checks and know if they didn't get a check at all. i was talking to some senate republican aids today who said look, there absolutely is a stalemate in the negotiations that has totally broken down and that is bad for the white house and republicans but they did

think in terms of the messaging and the headlines at least in doing this someone likened it to playing tennis so at least now it's the democrats serve. they think the president took some action. small inconsequential legally dubious but at least put little in erm the it terms of messagin pelosi and chuck schumer. it may have accomplished what the president felt he needed accomplished for 24, 48, 72 hours. >> well, certainly when we talk about messaging. this at least let the president's supresident e president's surrogates get on television. one sound byte from peter navarro stood out to us. i'll play it for you and talk about it on the other side. >> you have to understand, this is the hardest working president in history. he works 24/7.

he can be in bedminster, ma mar-a-la mar-a-lago, the oval office or in between. the problem is capitol hill, the swamp. the two houses that are too far apart, i mean, the lord and the founding fathers created executive orders because of partisan bickering and divided government. that's what we have here. the president is taking action. >> jonathan, the lord? the lord and the founding fathers created executive action? i'm interested in your reaction first of all and also, your reporting on how we got here from behind the scenes. >> look, it's fairly in character for mr. navarro, that kind of rhetorical flourish. there is a real problem here, which, you know, we've sort of talked around a little bit but haven't addressed directly which is if you actually think about it, it's not that complicated an argument for democrats to make. their argument is this is a

crisis. this is a pandemic and more money is required. we need the $600, you know, extended into next year via unemployment boost and vastly more money to the states, et cetera, et cetera. now, you can make a good intellectual solid republican argument, conservative argument based on fiscal restraint and discipline against that that the number needs to be lower and here is why. that's not what president trump is doing. that's the problem. deep down in his core, he's not really animated by fiscal restraint or fiscal conservatism. you have this situation where his team knows that if left on his own in a room with nancy pelosi and chuck schumer, donald trump and the treasury secretary steven mnuchin would go along with a huge deal, massive deal they could tote as the biggest deal ever.

it actually mark meadows as annedan avenue very for republicans on the hill that are getting squeamish about massive spending and finally saying enough is enough. that's where the block cage is. so you have this bizarre situation where president trump yes, is doing executive orders but he's not really making the argument for why the democrats proposals are unacceptable beyond just a few broadsides that the states, we're not going to bail them out for poor management. really, that's the extent of it. >> it is a bit to get straight answers aside from pointing to things they claim are unrelated to coronavirus relief being too expensive and sahill, let's pick up on that and look at the policy here because the reality is every single member of congress is under pressure from their constituents here. we've seen these federal unemployment insurance payments

keep people out of poverty, if anything, stave off what could have been a much worse economic collapse. we got wall street analysts now looking at the fall, and others warning that if congress doesn't do something, we could be in an entirely different place. we know the virus is still getting worse, not better. do you think the imperatives are going to be so strong to do something that this reality changes this week that, you know, these policies are so in demand or do you think that this state mate is the end of the story? >> kasie, if you're the president the urgency and desperation for a deal is going up and up by the moment. the only -- the best shot he has politically for reelection is the economy starts to improve and there is come back narrative. this is proverse because he has the opposition party willing to inject a $3 trillion stimulus into the economy just before his reelection and president trump and the republicans are saying

no, they don't want to do that. with the series of executive actions that the president has taken, he is trying to trap the democrats into a situation of saying i did this for ordinary people and democrats are suing me. pelosi asked multiple times this morning if she's going to file a lawsuit. she didn't answer. i asked a senior democratic aid and didn't get an answer. democrats are much more comfortable talking about the policy and keeping it to flag a fragments because the people you showed at the top, people desperate and struggling and when it's coming democrats are focussing their argument saying when the president is doing is inadequate, it is not what we need and we need much more and only congress can do that. >> i mean, shaunna it seems to put democrats in a box here. it is extraordinary hard to say

we're going to see the president for trying to give people additional unemployment benefits. how do they thread that needle? >> i mean, i think speaker pelosi wouldn't answer that question. chuck schumer on a sunday show today wouldn't answer that. he said i'll leave that to the lawyers. there is a possibility there is outside organizations that might go ahead and sue and take that pressure off democrats. the way they thread the needle is how we see now, you try to present what you did and i do think that the talking point we passed something way back months ago to try to deal with the fact that we knew that the things we already passed would go to sunset is a very good talking point, that they have already put something on the table with respect to the house democrats. but in the end, you know, i believe peter navarro on meet the press said negotiating on tv isn't the way this should be done. what i heard on tv is nancy pelosi saying hey, we're willing

to drop money from ours by saying some of these things set earlier than wanted. i heard republicans on tv say there are some movements that we can make. i think the way they thread the needle is by continuing to say come to the table, come to the table, come to the table and putting the focus on those people who you showed earlier. >> all right. shauna, thank you for your reporting and analysis. appreciate it. when we continue, we'll have brand-new reporting on the president's debate prep plus, women and in particular women of color are facing sharper job cuts than men. our latest reporting on the she session. plus, russia, china, iran try apparently to interfere in the election. again. intelligence committee member jim heinz up next. committee me jim heinz up next.

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welcome back. the u.s. gained 1.8 million jobs in july but long-term unemployment, people out of work for over three months spiked dramatically. joining me is nbc news political reporter ally -- ali vitale. hi. >> hey, kasie. think about what closed down when the initial rounds of shutdowns came in the spring. nail and hair salons, restaurants, schools, all of which are sectors of the economy

that have high numbers of women, meaning when the layoffs came, that's where the losses were. despite the pandemic's major blow to business, there's a lot of gratitude at d.c.'s coiled salon. >> we try to keep each other on a positive note because it's hard. we we >> reporter: the co-owners were forced to close, filing unemployment and seeking ppp loans. >> it's a lot but worth it. it's worth it if it's going to help your business come out of this whole covid-19 thing and be a float. >> we're not a big salon. so we kind of don't have all those things in place, you know what i mean? >> reporter: yeah, it's being a small business. >> yeah. >> reporter: meanwhile, cora was grappling with how to keep her dream alive. >> i opened up a business to be able to provide jobs for my community, hire those who look like me. >> reporter: before the pandemic, she was bringing on new employees and growing her

baltimore area business. >> literally two to three weeks later, covid and it just completely wipedo us out. >> reporter: april was the worst. women made up a majority of the 20.5 million jobs lost. skyrocketing female unemployment into double digits for the first time since the numbers were tracked. black and asian and hispanic women were hard hit. diane limb is an economists. >> they worked in sectors of the economy most adversary affected but the stay-at-home orders and the business closures. >> reporter: more than half of people in retail and personal service lost their jobs. food services like cora's cafe also saw huge cuts. all those sectors, majority female work forces. >> because we're in the food industry, for us everything shut

down. i think we just got back to work sometime in may with limited hours, limited days. basically no staff. >> reporter: weren't these the jobs and sectors of the economy considered recession proof. >> yes, because during the great recession, these were recession proof jobs. this is not like any economic recession we've ever had because its driven completely by the control or lack of control of the disease. >> reporter: and things have gotten even more difficult as work life collides with home life. >> it's the she session because of the types of jobs women hold but it's also the she session because of the demands that women have at home right now. >> i'm only working weekends, friday, saturday, sunday because there isn't any camps or anything or anywhere i feel comfortable sending my child. so now i don't have any flexibility like i used to. >> reporter: jobs are starting to come back, but slower with

each new report. women are getting more of those jobs than men but they still lag far behind their prepandemic employment levels. an analysis shows 8% of women who have been laid off have no chance of rejoining the work force. >> job loss seems to be becoming more permanent than economists first expected it would be. >> reporter: even those who jobs have come back are wondering if it will last. are you nervous there will be another shutdown and you'll be forced to close? >> i'm not nervous but i'm sure there will be another one. >> reporter: it's worth hammering home, kasie, how different this recession is from 2008. during that recession, people stopped buying big ticket items like houses and cars but all of these majority female sectors that we've talked about, they were relatively stable. then again, that was a normal recession. this is a recession amid a pandemic and women workers are disproportionately bearing the

brunt. >> ali, thank you for your reporting. thank you. joining me is democratic congressman jim himes of conn con. congressman, thank you so much for being here. i'd like to start where ali's package left off, this incredibly dramatic impact. she focused on businesses but obviously americans across the country had their income functionally slashed because congress hasn't been able to come to a compromise. do you think that the house speaker nancy pelosi is pursuing the right strategy trying to force republicans to the table? do you think that republicans made things more politically difficult by functionally walking away and having the president sign these executive orders? >> kasie, it's more basic than that. democrats and nancy pelosi two and a half months ago passed a huge bill, the heroes act which

is proportionate to the emergency that americans are facing right now. 160,000 americans dead. 10% unemployment. tens of millions of people unable to find work. we passed a bill in the house 12 weeks ago. the republicans 11 weeks into that, just two weeks ago come back with a tiny little plan, by the way, including buying a couple extra f-35 jets and expensing three martini lunches. they have never been serious about understanding we're in a historical catastrophe. nancy pelosi said let's split the difference and do something in the $2 trillion neighborhood. they said no. it's not so much tactics. the question is when are republican colleagues going to get serious about addressing the historic emergency americans are facing right now. >> what's your sense from being on the conference calls that i know have happened through the weekend? do you think that congress is

going to pass a big deal of some sort or do you think this time for negotiating is over? >> well, i'm an optimist. the executive orders, which aren't executive orders. three of four are memorandums saying to investigate rent. you know, that's not going to cut it. you're not going to fool americans when they are hungry or can't pay their rent. eventually in my opinion, one of two things or two of two things will p hahappen. my republican colleagues will realize this is a national emergency if there were jobs added in the last month or so and maybe, just maybe, the president is going to realize and he's going to stop listening to mark meadows. the president is going to realize he's about to lose this election and one of the things that he can do to be competitive in the election is actually to do a big deal to alleviate the pain of americans.

we know donald trump. he will take full credit for that and say look at the money you're getting and state aid and taxes aren't going to go up. for reasons i don't understand. a man who traditionally in every moment of every day understands his self-interest hasn't figured out that what the republicans have done to him now is pretty much guarantee he's going to lose the next election. >> almost as though republicans are thinking about life after president trump. congressm congressman, let me switch gears. the other critically important piece of news we were digesting at the end of the week was this odni, the director of intelligen intelligence report saying russians are in fact trying to sbeer fe interfere in the election and interested in seeing president trump reelected. what in your role on the intelligence committee can you do to try to push back against this? senator blumenthal is calling

for decloassification of the materials. what's the next step a few months before the election? >> most importantly, the american public needs to know what is going on. the russians aren't trying to interfere in the election of 2020. they are interfering. if you read carefully, the memo public you can see on the odni's website, the way he talks about russia that russia is conducting operations using americans to denigrate joe biden and we all know what that means because you know in the intelligence committee, mentioned by name this pro-russian ukrainian legislator mailed a package to non-other than devin nunes. fedex said it was received. these operations are underway and they are being channelled by my republican colleagues into saying don't look over here. look at the fact, look at this fantastical notion that it was actually ukraine that interfered in the 2016 election. that operation is underway and yes, then evan says the chinese

would probably not rather see donald trump reelected but weighing whether they do operations and iranians don't much like us so they are doing something out there but not actually conducting operations in the way russians are. the next step is for the american people to really understand what this looks like and that's why i actually celebrate that second letter. a lot more specific than the first statement he made. americans need to understand what it looks like, you know, that what you read about joe biden on some website or get into facebook or either side, it quite possibly could be a foreign power trying to change your opinion, trying to get you fired up and influence the way you act as an american citizen. if it requires some declassification, again, it's our job to protect sources and methods but if it requires some declassification for americans to see in greater detail, we should do that because americans really need to understand what this looks like. >> do you think that the social

media companies where a lot of people get this information in which the russians we know have been using, do they understand the nature of the threat? are they actually working in your opinion in good faith and in the significant enough way to make a difference? >> well, i guess what i'm willing to say there is that they learned some of the lessons of 2016. i mean, some of this facebook stuff in 2016 where they were taking payments for ads in rubles, you say wait, these people are supposed to be smart. but, you know, i think they have learned a lot and the cambridge scandal seems like 1 million years ago, they have learned a lot but they are still the vehicle by which russia or anybody else tries to get americans fired up around misinformation. they have to do better. i know that they're trying, you know, twitter is not taking political ads. they are trying. we are talking about the integrity of our democracy. i mean, what is more precious to us as americans than that?

we have to try harder. >> all right. congressman jim himes, thank you. great to have you on the program. appreciate your insights. when we come back here, there is empty presidential campaign comments and then there is what happened this week. >> following the radical left agenda. take away your guns, destroy your second amendment, no religion, no anything. hurt the bible. hurt god. he's against god. he's against guns. he's against energy. guns. he's against energ y. we see you....looking out for all of us.

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nearly 160 people are dead with dozens more missing in beirut of that powerful explosion on tuesday. thousands of anti-government m demonstrators protested upset at the lebanese government for corruption and mismanagement. president that receives the best intelligence in the world made a number of false claims what actually happened in the immediate aftermath. >> the united states stands ready to assist lebanon. we have a very good relationship with the people of lebanon and we will be there to help. it looks like a terrible attack. this was a -- seems to be according to them, they would know better than i would but they seem to think it was an attack. it was a bomb of some kind, yes.

>> "the washington post" ashley parker writes that quote trump's assertions were largely met with a collective global shrug. more than 3.5 years into his presidency, trump increasingly finds himself minimized and ignored as many of his more outlandish or false statements are briefly considered and just as quickly dismissed. ashley parker is back with me with jonathan swan. let me start with you on this reporting. i think is there is a question and especially with the election looming, grappling with just what kind of an impact president trump has had on our relationships with our allies but also the world at large and whether, you know, depending on your protective, whether the damage he's done is reputable. >> i think people inside his presidency and critics would argue he has had a formidable role in terms of our perception in the world and our relationship with allies but something is changing and the

president's comments where he offered no evidence which were out of lock stepped with everyone in the world what happened in lebanon are an example how this is changing. early on in the administration, i can remember getting calls from diplomats trying to understand the president tweeted what does it mean? when the president went to nato the first time and declared obsolete, allies were besides themselves in panic and within the world, people have understood that the president will just say stuff and there is often not a lot of muscle behind it. of course, sometimes there is and he will withdraw from the paris climate accord or make a move but more often than not, they got good at telling when he means something and when he's just spinning blustering and what you're seeing is the world is generally what it makes sense, ignoring him. let's pause briefly to keep in mind how stark and shocking it is the president of the united

states could stand at the podium several times suggest that that devastating explosion in beirut was the result of a bomb and an attack and nothing really happened. the world didn't move. >> yeah, it's remarkable the degree to which he previously was able to dominate every headline caused, take these actions that are primarily in someways are collective shrugs. that takes us to the new reporting you have out tonight just because it has put all the more pressure and focus on the upcoming presidential debates between donald trump and joe biden because those will, we believe, be moments where the entire country will be tuned in to the extent that folks are following what's playing out in the election.

you have some new reporting about just how team trump is preparing for all of this. fill us in. >> yeah, these debates have taken on out sized importance in both in donald trump's mind and also among his senior aids. you ju just to set the context, donald trump has been deprived of just about every element of the campaign that he had foreseen and planned. he's been deprived of his message with the economy and rallies and the tactile campaigning they had with this huge field program but he's also been deprived of opportunities to really go after joe biden. joe biden has been able to have a very low sort of small footprint in this campaign and the focus entirely has been on donald trump. so look, two weekends ago, donald trump at his bedminster golf club in the conference room there had a meeting with a small group of his closest aids, his son-in-law jared kushner and

bill and senior advisor jason miller and chris christie, the former governor of new jersey who played hillary clinton in donald trump's 2016 debate prep sessions. so what i'm told from sources who are familiar with their results of this meeting is that based on the president's private comments, it seems likely that christie will play joe biden in the debate prep sessions that they end up doing. this was never formalized but trump has been saying things like christie was tougher than hillary to debate and things of that nature. the resolve to meet at least once every ten days, keep the group very, very small, five or six people to limit the potential for leaks but they all see these debates as the most important predictable inflection points between now and november 3rd. they don't think joe biden will submit hyimself for any tough interviews between now and election day. this is the only chance to

batter him before a national audience. >> we're not even done with the parlor game and on to debate prep. great reporting. ashley parker, thank you so much to you, as well. when we continue, could we see barry gold water and john mccain's senate seat fall into democratic hands for the first time in 50 years? and tip the presidency for democrats at the same time? e prr democrats at the same time mizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. i wish i could shake your hand. granted. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ ♪ ♪ 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. wherever you go, summer safely.

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mcelder mcsally. vaughn takes us inside the race. >> reporter: democrats could cause more than just a dustup in american politics. >> torpedo's full speed ahead. >> reporter: they are looking to arizona to up end the balance of power in washington to not only win the white house but take back the senate, too. >> chuck schumer is going to have to pry that senate majority out of my cold, dead hands. >> reporter: martha mcsally facing a challenge by former astronaut and navy pilot mark kelly for a seat held by the gop. >> i think arizona is better served by having somebody who is not partisan, not beholding to their political party. >> reporter: more that mcelderry sally depending the party's future out west. >> this will decide the direction of the country, this race will decide the senate majority. that's the implications of your vote here. it's do you want what the radical left is offering? >> reporter: the two campaigns

spent $45 million with still three months left. more than any race in the state's push history as both candidates try to claim the mantle as independents. is there a member of congress you think you most identify with? >> john mccain. you know, he was like the standard. he was the guy i looked up to and then later, i got to meet him and eventually call him a friend. >> one year as a senator, i tied for the most bills signed into law. that takes bipartisanship. that takes independence. >> reporter: but mcsally also remained close to the president. she voted to acquit him earlier this year and consistently stood by him. >> reporter: you voted for the gop health care bill and gop tax bill and have not pushed back in terms of the pandemic and family separations, they seen you walking on these major issues with president trump. >> that sounds like a media narrative. i'm a progress magmatic problem.

i'm trying to get things done. >> reporter: representing tension between the parties in 2020. kelly saying she's too aligned to president trump's republican forty. >> i see somebody that votes with her party most of the time, who is incredibly partisan. she voted for a tax bill giving $1.9 trillion of tax breaks to big corporations and the wrelt thou -- wealthiest americans. to get health insurance if you have a preexisting condition. senator man senator mcsally vote against that. >> reporter: why should folks vote that way. >> i'm committed to protecting people with preexisting conditions. we just have to bring the cost down. obamacare is failing people. the prices have gone up and there is less options. >> reporter: why should people trust the republican party? >> i'm asking them to trust martha mcsally, right? >> reporter: kaelly has no experience. mcsally is focussing on china

and a chinese tech firm that invested in a company mark kelly co-founded. >> who will hold china accountable? not joe biden and kelly. his business is funded by a chinese company. >> reporter: are you concerned about their investment in the u.s. company like this one you're invested in? >> absolutely not. i mean, world view does business with d.o.d., nasa, d.a.r.p.s., universities. they're not concerned. so it's not an issue. >> reporter: arizona is central to democrats' national plan hoping kelly can help propel joe biden across the finish line and for weeks polling has shown kelly ahead of mcsally. >> you can talk about the polls this is a dead heat election. don't be fooled. >> reporter: it shows trump and mcsally need to win back his share of the independent voters to hold on. >> i'll let you figure that out. i'm doing my job as a senator.

i deploy back and forth to d.c. every week. i listen to arizonians. i stay grounded in what normal people need. >> reporter: what would you message be to those voters who are considering republicans and independents considering voting for joe biden? >> i would say -- >> reporter: arizona could be the deciding state. >> yes, so i'd pick joe biden clearly. he has the leadership x per y s experience. >> reporter: it could transform the nation's capital 2300 miles away. >> our thanks to vaughn hillyard for his reporting on the race. when we continue, oklahoma and missouri expand medicaid. the president this weekend announcing an executive order to force insurers to cover preexisting conditions. i feel like i've heard about a plan like this somewhere before. i'll talk to congressman rodney davis about that and his personal battle with coronavirus. up next. personal battle with coronavirus. up next. businesses are starting to bounce back.

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congressman rodney davis announced he had tested positive for the coronavirus, and he was issuing stark warnings even before his diagnosis. just days before his positive test davis urged fellow republicans about staying safe and said, don't become stupid and become the story of the day.

congressman, thank you for being here. we hope you and your family are on the mend. it is clear, based on your previous comments, this is something that spreads so rapidly even when you do everything right, it's very hard to prevent yourself from catching it. how are you feeling? >> i'm one of the lucky ones with minimal symptoms. i had a sore throat yesterday and really that's it. i took my temp every morning and every night with the same thermometer, and i knew i had a little spike on wednesday, went and got tested, assumed it would be a negative test. lo and behold, i'm positive. we did everything on monday and tuesday when the attending physician thought that might have been the times i could have contracted it, everything we could to follow guidelines, meeting with constituents, social distancing. i must have made a mistake

somewhere because i came down with it. >> forgive me for being so direct in this, what is louis gohmert doing, running around the hill with no mask on telling staff he had a positive test. why are some of your colleagues handling this the way they are? >> i think louis has learned from the reaction. not just louis but chairman came down with it. i believe he wore a sk make, followed the guidelines, so did i monday and tuesday. when i'm in d.c., i urge my colleagues to do better reducing the risk and mitigating the risk. unfortunately as we just talked earlier, i still got it. i don't know how. we've got to be careful, vigilant. we've got to understand even though we try our best sometimes, it still may infect you. >> let's turn to health care poli

policy. the president said he was issuing an executive action to protect people with pre-existing conditions. people with pre-existing conditions are protected under obamacare. that has come under threat by a lawsuit. should they drop that lawsuit? >> i don't think the courts are going to rule on obamacare. they already have ruled on the tax provisions allowing obamacare to become law. in the end, we republicans passed a plan that actually would have lowered premiums and protected pre-existing condition coverage. >> you and i both know the economics of that doesn't work out unless you require people to be paying premiums and everybody get covered, you can't pay to cover all the people who are the sickest among us? >> obamacare, the affordable care act is leaving 60 million americans behind. many times people are faced with

higher premiums and less choices. we wanted to do what we could to protect the conditions that should remain like pre-existing conditions. that's what we did in the 2017 health care bill. a lot in the media said pre-existing conditions are not protected. seemingly alluded to the fact senator mcsally when she was in the house vote to get rid of pre-existing coverage. it was mcsally amendment that said in the bill that nothing in the legislation could affect pre-existing coverage. that's why the president today had to reiterate something we already know is protected but there's so much misinformation out there and he had to do something to make sure he cleared that up. >> i absolutely understand the messaging on this. i still don't have my head around health insurance economics of have it because i don't think it does. before i let you go, do you

think purchase has done a good job handling the coronavirus pandemic. >> let's take a step back, kasie, you've known me for a while. you know i'm a pragmatic legislator. we have to remember this virus didn't exist on earth a year ago. we have experts learning about the virus the spire time we're fighting the virus. if there's a failure -- >> sure. but a lot of countries have done better than we have. >> a lot of countries have. there are areas we've done better than a lot of countries. in the end there's bipartisan failure not preparing for this pandemic. we've got to make sure now instead of monday morning quarterbacking this pandemic as it goes on, let's make sure we monday morning quarterback this thing after it's over and never, ever get caught flat footed again in this country, republican president or democratic president. >> congressman rodney davis, thank you very much for being here. we're glad you ended up with a mild case here.

when we continue we're going to dedicate the 8:00 hour to vice presidential pick. i'll be joined live by top reporters and analysts like steve schmidt and former candidate beto o'rourke about how he sees the field in play and adam schiff over american intelligence in election interference. american intelligence in election interference what do you think? i don't see it. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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cue the election music. we're bringing you the latest on 2020 presidential campaign and joe biden's running mate. he has spent the weekend huddled with family in rehoboth beach trying to make his final decision. at the moment biden is sustaining leads in national polling. his choice might be a hail mary. we have learned michigan governor gretchen whitmer canceled an appearance on this show and flew on a private pain to meet with biden last weekend. that tell us one thing, even as the campaign promised us a decision, the candidate hadn't made a decision. the other women in the final round of consideration include senator kamala harris and former obama national security adviser susan rice. multiple sources say elizabeth warren and tammy duckworth can't be counted out. in just a minute i'll talk to

steve schmidt about what happens when you pick the wrong person. and beto o'rourke on whether texas is a toss-up. adam chiffon the council, light is blinking red on russia again. we're lease than 90 days to the election. so much feels and is completely different. for the moment, no rallies. the trump campaign is knocking on a million doors a week, according to polit c"politico." biden campaign, zero. then the conventions, the only familiar part about the dnc relocated from wisconsin to wilmington will be the clintons speaking. we may even hear from both senator bernie sanders and republican governor john kasich on the same night. and president trump may give his nomination speech from the white house raising major ethical concerns. with that i'd like to welcome in my panel nbc news correspondent

mike memoli, president of brilliant corners research and strategist, pollster and msnbc analyst cornell belcher. president and coe of the senator for american progress and former senior adviser to president obama and hillary clinton, near tan do not and lon chin. mike, i have to start with you. this was the conversation we were having last weekend. we talked a lot about biden trying to find the kind of person he really gels with. what has changed over the course of the week? what new information does the former vice president have about who his next vp is going to be? >> well, kasie, a few points to kick us off in this second and i trust final special edition of the countdown to presidential pick on "kasie dc." first of all, our sources are

telling us a decision -- an announcement, i should say, is not imminent. by imminent i mean the next 12 hours. the only person who seems to be having fun is joe biden who was teasing reporters all weekend catching up with him in rehoboth beach. if he has made a decision it's not communicated beyond a small circle of veefrs. wh -- advisers. what do we know about that. one thing intriguing and infuriating for me as somebody following this for a long time, if you look back at the trend, it seems to be the more we're talking about somebody at the mom, the less they are in the top of the list and in consideration. i think gretchen whitmer is as perfect example. everyone narrowed their list down to a small group she was not part of. what happened? we found out she was in delaware as we were talking last week having this meeting with the former vice president. so it seems to be the campaign

has liked the fact and been doing a very good job of keeping the heat off of those who are perhaps in the serious consideration. lastly, kasie, i think one thing true all along, no matter what list you've seen, it's always kamala harris and somebody else. it's boiled down to a race between kamala and not camilla. as joe biden with any decision, it's a process of getting himself comfortable getting comfortable with the kamala harris as his running mate or choosing another. >> cornell, let me ask you this. over the course of theas week, we've seen nasty back and forth kind of among the candidates. david axelrod said we've never seen so much research out there. maybe because we're talking about women out there and the double standards are pretty evident. my question to you is based on

what we saw, do you think there would be significant backlash among the democratic party if president biden -- vice president biden ultimately decides against choosing a woman of color? >> i think it's complicated. i would like -- before i begin, i would like to double down on my friend ax's point here. the microscope the women are put under is different than the one put under for men. it's different and unfair. it's doubly unfair for a woman of color. i have a good feeling if it is, in fact, a woman of color, that she is going to be in the cross-hairs of the trump campaign as an attack point because they are having such little success attacking biden. to your point about whether there will be backlash or not, i think african-american women have said, you know, we pulled

joe biden out of trouble here in this election. to a certain extent the guy i worked for, barack obama, when african-american women rallied around him, hillary clinton was not going to catch him. when african-american women rallied around hillary clinton in 2016, bernie sanders didn't have a chance and pt same thing is happening now. it's absolutely fair for african-american women to say, look, we've helped determine who the nominee is. politically we like to see a diverse ticket here. i think that's completely fair. i think strategically it makes sense. kasie, you can talk a lot about an all white ticket but i'll wait for you to tell me when an all white ticket has been successful as a diverse democratic ticket in the last two or three decades. >> neera, what's your response to that? do you agree with that assessment? >> you know, i actually agree with a lot of what cornell said.

i think the truth is there are a lot of great candidates there. i will say i want to reaffirm the point there seems to be a lot of sexism. i think the idea that there's oppo research dropped by one person or another is ridiculous and feeds the sexist argue, a catfight between women that really shouldn't be happening. i guess my basic take of this is we have a lot of great candidates. i do think a diverse ticket, it's already diverse in that it will be a man and a woman but a historically diverse ticket is something that a lot of the democratic party would look forward to. >> lon, let me ask you from the flip side of this, the first rule of picking the vice president, first rule of veepstakes is to do no harm. in this particular election cycle, biden's campaign is trying to potentially -- and i

suppose this actually fits into the do no harm rubric, that they don't want to turn off, perhaps, republicans who might be willing to abandon president trump and instead vote for joe biden. if you're the biden campaign, how do you think about that? what's your advice to them as they think through that particular piece of this question? >> well, i think you have to weigh the likelihood that you're going to get make republican support against any potential demotivation of the democratic base by not picking someone who has got progressive bona fides. that's been the challenge, the needle that has to be threaded by the biden campaign. fundamentally if you're looking at it now, the race is such you ought to be thinking more carefully about republican voters, more carefully about somebody who can credibly allow the biden campaign to say, look, we're not controlled by progressive left.

we are not controlled by that group of people that may be unattractive to some swing voters. i think the biden campaign has the luxury, because donald trump is such a polarizing figure, they have the luxury on counting on a decent amount of turnout from progressive voters and can go after that middle segment by picking a vice presidential nominee that won't undercut joe biden's argument that really he will governor and campaign as someone relatively more moderate. >> we're showing our -- we're just showing our viewers a graphic that essentially shows not necessarily huge differences among the people he's considering in terms of how it might impact voters directly. i want to spend time on the theater of all this. this is something that goes into the lore, every single presidential campaign year. we've entered that phase where every single tiny detail is scrutinized, perhaps

misunderstood to great fanfare. it happens to peter doocy of fox news i have competed with in the halls of the capital in the past. let's watch what happened between him and the former vice president that sent a lot of heads spinning before we -- well, you watch and assess. >> have you picked a running mate? >> i have. >> who is it? >> you. >> definitely a joke. but lon, you and mike, i want your take. you planned the theatrics of the romney event. you were there. we were figuring outlet out when you were driving down to announce paul ryan. what goes into covering this up and making it happen so it's actually a surprise. >> a tremendous amount of deception or attempted deception. you might recall mitt romney before the pick was made, we had him fly into hartford, wear a

baseball cap and sunglasses, trudge in the back of his house into the woods so people wouldn't go where he was going. >> he was evading alex mo, my friend specifically. that's who he was evading when he ran through his woods. so sorry, lanhee, continue. >> there was evasion and evasion when he got picked where we had him fly to north carolina instead of norfolk and drove him from north carolina to the event with then governor romney. obviously you're trying your best to put people off the scent here but it's hard, as more and more people know, as more and more people discover the news, a lot of the possibility the stuff can get out is certainly there. campaigns are doing all they can to make sure the announcement is as much of a surprise as possible and that all has to be well choreographed. >> mike, it seems like pandemic makes it easier to cover up for

the biden campaign. no t-shirt manufacturer to call or sign place making placards with the ticket's name on it, we have a lot less stuff to go on purchase no. that's absolutely right, kasie. in fact, we're actually hearing this might be a completely virtual announcement. we may not see joe biden and his running mate together on the stage until the convention and even if that's possible we're not clear just yet. i'm reminded as i saw that clip yesterday of peter doocy of a moment that happened 12 years ago when i was camped out in joe biden's driveway. at that point we knew barack obama planned to announce his pick in springfield on saturday. when i saw the senator at that point, i shouted out and said, senator biden, where are you going to be on saturday. he pointed right here, right here. i'm not the guy. to your point about deception and a lot of diversionary tactics that had to go on here,

joe biden was engaged in it himself. he didn't know he was the pick at that point. he didn't know he wasn't the pickets. he was at that point trying to throw us off the scent. >> playing coy, if you will. very funny. mike, you've been with him such a long time. cornell belcher, let's switch a little more seriously here, the battleground -- nbc put out its battleground map this week, it looks incredibly strong for joe biden. the battleground toss-up states we're talking about are not wisconsin, pennsylvania, iowa, fwrnlg, texas. it looks completely different. biden 334, trump 125, only 79 toss-up. would the vp pick specifically but also the race more generally, is this a lead so strong that biden can't lose it? what do you think the dynamics are? >> hush your mouth. of course not. he can't lose it.

no. the dynamics of this are unfolding. although socially if you're in the trump campaign, rnc structurally you have a lot of problems because of that map you show. look, as strong as a candidate obama was in '08 that i worked for, we weren't spending money in texas and spending lots of money in georgia in the -- having to defend places historically solidly red is problematic. if you're sitting in the rnc or sitting at the senate campaign committee for republicans and you're looking at these states that are coming online for joe biden and coattails, if i'm mitch mcconnell, i'm getting a little bit nervous. the dynamics of this are unfolding. he has had a consistent lead for a longer time we've seen any democrat in recent history hold

a 10-point lead. structurally it's difficult since lbj realign the parties, it's been difficult for a democrat to keep and hold a consistent 10, 12 point lead over republicans nationally. >> yeah, i mean, i can tell you based on my reporting. republicans, mitch mcconnell, they are more than a little nervous about hanging onto the senate. neera, last word to you. i think one of the big reasons why we're seeing this map change so dramatically is because of women, suburban women, african-american women, the gender gap here is historic. it seems when you look at those numbers, the numbers between the gender gap for biden and trump, it seems insurmountable to me from that perspective. can trump win if women turned against him so dramatically? >> i think this is an issue that relates to the vp pick. i think donald trump is going to run -- his only strategy is to run unrelenting negative campaign. so far it hasn't worked against

biden. i think vice presidential pick is a new target and a critical feature choosing a vp. who can get in the ring and fight back aggressively. that's really the central question that matters for folks. i think it's a central question for vp pick. it's pretty intense. having someone prosecute the case, go on the offense, really make the case clear about the president's failures and not get ruffled by the attack coming her way, that's a central feature going forward. >> we're in for a rough-and-tumble season. thank you all for a great conversation. always great to see you. beto o'rourke and steve schmidt are standing by. but first house intelligence chairman adam schiff joins me to talk about that and a warning. the light is blinking red again. warnings of election interference. g red again. warnings of election interference we see you....looking out for all of us.

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here we go again. on friday u.s. consider intelligence said russia is trying to help donald trump win the 2020 election. in his most detailed statement to date, he wrote, quote, we assess that russia is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former vice president biden and what it sees as an anti-russia establishment. evanin, a said china and russia want to see trump defeated in a november election. in a joint statement house speaker nancy pelosi and adam

schiff criticized treating different actors intent and capability as equal threats to democratic elections. joining me now is the chairman of house intelligence committee congressman adam schiff. mr. chairman, it's always great to have you on the program. thank you very much for being here tonight. clearly the alarm was sounded here. you and the speaker, as we outlined, have concerns about how it was presented. you and i both know there's so much the public doesn't understand because it's still classified. what else do you think americans need to know about what's going on? >> well, the threat from the reactors is not the same threat. you get a sense of that from the director statement but it's a bit buried. the statement leads with china, says china has a preference. by the time it gets to russia, it says russia trying to

denigrate biden presidency, democratic party and establishment. there's a lot more the intelligence community could say about what russia is doing. i think it could be really much more straightforward in terms of relative threat between these actors which is not at all the same. if you look at the first statement the director put out, it went into no detail. it was very generic. it's not as if things changed between then and a couple weeks later except for the fact that that first statement was treated with broad criticism as deserved. a more recent statement, though it's an improvement on the first, still leaves out a lot of information shared with the american people help protect us from this russian interference and can deter the russians. this is a key point, kasie, which is donald trump has not deterred the russians from engaging. they are at it again. if anything the sum total of the

president's words and actions it's to encourage russians to help him. if we call them out, hold them accountability we can provide a deterrent. the more generic, the more the intelligence community tends to blur the lines between what russia is doing or china or iran, the more the russians will feel they will not be held accountable. >> you use the word encourage. do you think president trump isatic actively welcoming or working along the same currents as the russian operatives. >> i think when the president stood up in helsinki and basically said, vladimir, you deny involving yourself in the connection, my intelligence community said you did, i'm with you, vladimir. i don't believe my own agencies. when the president is on the phone with putin as he was a week or so ago in the face of

his own intelligence agencies saying now publicly, but, of course, knowing privately the russians are at it again and the president says not willing to confront putin, that is an encouragement. now, the president won't say what he spoke to with putin but i think we can all understand he's never confronted putin and certainly not likely to be doing it now. so putin understands this. he doesn't need to be told explicitly by the president what the president would like. of course, putin views donald trump, even in the absence of anything more, as the most pro-russian president we've ever had. someone undermined transatlantic alliance, paved the way for russian influence in syria, someone who withheld arms from ukraine allies and fights the russians. someone fairly transactional and only interest in what's in it for me, donald trump, not what is the best interest of the

united states, that is a perfect president from vladimir putin's point of view. he doesn't need to be asked. he understands the president's silence and also understands this president. >> we understand that you, of course, are privy to a lot of information that you can't talk about. i'm curious what if enterprising reporters or americans were interested in digging further into what was going on, what subject matters are at the forefront of your mind as we sit here just a few months out from the election? >> well, what i'm most concerned about is the president is out there every day essentially trying to discredit the votes of millions of americans who are going to be voting by absentee ballot, voting from home because it's a pandemic. that is a safer way to vote without risking getting ill. he's discrediting those votes in advance. this is taylor made by

amplification by a hostile power. what could be more disruptive of an election if a lot of americans don't have faith in the outcome. so i think this is the prime opportunity for the russians to amplify the president's misinformation as false information. if it is a close election and the president contests the results, it's another supreme opportunity for russians to amplify that kind of discord in the united states. so that is what i think people need to be paying attention to. the president is undermining or democracy and it's a great avenue for the russians to make further mischief in undermining our social cohesion. >> in speaking of institutions, robert draper and "new york times" magazine was reporting extensively on trump's interactions with our intelligence agencies. it suggests that the intelligence community actually changed what it says to the president to try and keep him

happy essentially. are you at all concerned that would extend through the period of an election when we may be grappling with these questions? >> absolutely. and you know, i think we have seen this sadly now over the period of years. the intelligence community for a long time held out under the leadership of dan coats and retained its independence, its willingness to speak truth to power. that evaporated with the appointment of ric grenell, essentially a political partisan and hack and completely politicized the top at least. that agency. now i think what we're seeing is a more subtle effort to dumb down what it's willing to tell the public and elevate china because it's consistent with the narrative the president wants to tell, and i think that's a disservice. i think american people should be told the truth about what russia is doing, what china is

doing, what they may do. what iran is doing or my do you about it shouldn't be done with a narrative to telling the president. first these intelligence agencies ultimately work for the american people. they have a right to know the best of their analytical assessments and they need to know it before the election. we don't want to be another postpartum after the -- postmortem after the election and rue that we didn't do more to alert the american people to the threat. >> all right intelligence committee chairman adam schiff, thank you very much for your time. it's always great to see you. when we come back, what happens when your running mate choice doesn't work out. steve schmidt and stewart stephens joining me next. >> we knew that it would be a political risk, but we felt that the challenge was so great that

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welcome back to "kasie dc." my next guests involved in selecting running mates for presidential campaigns. one opted for a game changer, the other picked a policy wonk. joining me senior adviser to john mccain, msnbc analyst

schmidt. and stewart stephens, author of the new book, it was all a lie, how the republican party became donald trump. gentleman, it is great to have you on the program tonight. i want to talk briefly about veepstakes and then also get to what the president has done in the last 24 hours. steve schmidt, let me start with you. we saw you defending the palin pick there. we obviously know how it worked out. i don't feel like any campaign is going to make that mistake until that's a very distant memory. what's your thought? >> i said in that interview, kasie, i hoped it would be a long time, a generation would pass at least before anybody made a political decision to put somebody on a ticket who was so imminently unqualified to take the oath of office and assume the burdens and duties of the american presidency and become the commander in chief of the most potent military in the

wor world. >> fair enough. stuart stevens, i don't think you had any remorse choosing paul ryan. obviously the campaign did not work out as planned. what did you learn in that selection process? you've obviously, and we'll get to your book in a second, you're critical of where the republican party has gone. if anything you made a bet against the old version of the party. >> you know, that was a very personal decision by governor romney. i think that was pretty clear he made a governing decision. i don't think we ever did any polling or anything on it. i frankly was hesitant to offer advice because i thought it was too personal. in 2000 when bush was picking his running mate he and mark mckeown were rin in crawford and said would it be appropriate, governor, if i talked about vice presidential, i wanted to push tom ridge. he charged me, we were sweating in crawford heat. he said, hell, no, why should i

care what you think. stephen, when somebody is getting married, wait until they ask you before you tell them. good advice. >> great. >> i stayed out of it. i think paul ryan was an excellent choice and would have made an excellent vice president. >> steve schmidt, i've got to ask you to turn to what we've seen unfold over the course of the weekend. you had a very lengthy twitter thread that i certainly commend folks to read if they are looking for a focus on what the president did and how it fits into norms or lack thereof. i'd like to give you the opportunity and ask you to kind of lay out for us what this set of actions meant in your view. >> it means primarily, kasie, that trump is losing.

look, donald trump is cornered in his bedminster golf club and he stood there yesterday signing unconstitutional executive orders, engaging in nonsense, nonsequit nonsequiturs, jgibberish, proclaiming himself a victim to a half drunk saturday crowd of golfers assembled there, people that pay $350,000 to join the club. now, outside the gates of tru trumptoppia there we have 10 million out of work, dead from covid, more to come, we see our standing in the world completely shattered and the farce is playing out at the bedminster golf club. a travesty. no lan to deal with covid.

in a couple of weeks we're going to start at the at the front of a covid and eviction crisis. all across the country we'll see the chaos that results when the schools are unable to open or open for a period of a couple of weeks before they have to shut down. of course our total unpreparedness for the second wave of covid in flu season over the cold winter months. the united states is the epicenter of coronavirus. this is one of the great catastrophes in the history of america. it's one of the most lethal events in the history of the country, and it happened singularly because of the incompetence of dompnald john trump. he's intellectual, morally unable to lead through a crisis like this and the country is paying a very, very high price. we're having a reality tv show star who refuses to read, who thinks he knows everything, cares only about his self-interest and nothing about the country, her future, our

traditions or our constitutional nor norms. >> stuart stevens, book entitled "it was all a lie" started off by saying it was all a lie. already looking to a post trump world, jockeying with each other, tom cotton. if it was all a lie and the conditions we're living under are what steve schmidt outlined in terms of the handling of the coronavirus crisis, what comes next? can someone like you work for the next person trying to be the next republican president after donald trump? >> i don't think there's a place for me in the republican party as long as it's a trump party. i think it's going to be a trump party for the foreseeable future. when i say it was all a lie, think about this weekend. republicans were pretty much silent and go along with the president unilaterally cutting

or raising taxes, we're really going to do that? we have a democratic president announces -- going to announce a wealth tax and going to raise the capital gains tax, just do it unilaterally, that's really what we're going to do? seems to be this complete abdication of the responsibility to protect government as a functioning force. this transactional trumpism that i'll do this because maybe it will help me in the next news cycle forgetting it's the president of the united states the most important cup in the world. what you're doing matters and sets precedence and people are watching you. it's appalling. it's the most anti-conservative instinct i can imagine. >> steve schmidt, there were a

lot of questions in the way that the biden campaign started out was to say, okay, we've got four years of trump, we can still fix this if it's only four years. sitting here knowing what we know now about how this year unfolded with the coronavirus pandemic and the way it's played out, do you believe that? do you think the country can recover? >> i think we will recover but we have to get donald trump out of the oval office. i firmly believe this is the most important election since 1864 where american voters decided between lincoln and george mcclellan, decided whether we would remain a union or the union into a state on the southern border. here we are in this election, no hope of recovery and renewal unless and until donald trump is gone and over the long-term the repudiation of ill liberal

return holding the country captive. nobody that's ever bet against america has ever won money. we need to be clear, the greatness of the country isn't necessarily something that exists into the future, we shouldn't rest on the achievements of past generations, this country is a mess. we have a generation of failed leadership that's unprecedented in the history of the country. we are in decline. trump has put this country into a nosedive. we are in a national tailspin, have been for 3 1/2 years. we are pitied around the world, american weakness impossible to have conceived even if you have a most skeptical view of a trump presidency from the last day of barack obama's presidency, point of weakness impossible to wrap your head around as this country suffers under trump's incompetence. >> less than three months now

until joe biden faces president trump. steve schmidt and stuart stevens, thank you both for your time tonight. great to have both of you. when we come back, beto o'rourke joins me live. rourke joins me live. could shake your hand. granted. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ (vo) jack was one of six million pein need of a home.ers he found it in a boy with special needs, who also needed him. as part of our love promise, subaru and our retailers host adoption events and have donated 28 million dollars to support local animal shelters. we're proud to have helped over 230,000 pets so far... changing the lives of dogs like jack, and the families who adopt them. subaru. more than a car company. t-mobile and sprint have merged. now that sprint is a part of t-mobile, we have more towers,

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aetna never did. we're always here to help you focus on your health. because it's always, time for care. there's a new battleground state, texas, and it has 38 electoral college votes. the way that we put it in play was by going to each one of those 254 counties, no matter how red or rural, we did not write you off. no matter how blue or urban, we did not take you for granted, now we have a chance to beat donald trump and win texas. >> one year ago beto o'rourke attempted to translate his close senate race with ted cruz into a pathway to the presidency but, of course, came up short. his prediction about texas becoming a battleground is ringing true. the first nbc news 2020 battleground electoral map shows texas as a toss-up. that could be a state where joe

biden's running mate may spend time campaigning. joining me congressman and presidential candidate beto o'rourke. thanks for joining me and being on the program tonight. let's start there. you tried to turn texas blue against ted cruz. so many people thought it was a good chance because frankly the left was interested in seeing him defeated and supporting you. you couldn't do it. what changed between then and now. >> keep in mind that was a midterm year which typically favors republican turnout over democratic turnout. not only did i get between 2 1/2 points of ted cruz we won more votes than any democrat in history. 500,000 republican voted for greg abbott, republican for governor and me for u.s. senate. we won independents decisively and saw an overwhelming surge, up 500% of young voters from the last midterm election. in fact texas is not a red state

or a blue state, it is a nonvoting state. we had ranked until 2018 50th in voter turnout. not because we love democracy less but decades of voter suppression focused on black voters and brown voters in this state. what's changed since 2018, one, this is a presidential election cycles which favors democratic voter turnout. two, you have the absolute drape wreck of the trump presidency which has killed more than 162,000 of our fellow americans, almost 8,900 of our fellow texans, put kids in cages, lost lives of six of them on the u.s.-mexico border and 23 people were slaudered a year ago in my hometown because of donald trump because immigrants an invasion, infestation, describing them as animals and treating them as such. all that on the minds of voters. when you match that with a democratic nominee like joe biden who is focused on bringing

this deeply divided country together again, he will become the first nominee since 198 to claim the 38 electoral college votes in this state. >> that's a bold prediction. we're going to save that one for the archives. >> please do. >> we obviously at msnbc say that is, in fact, entirely possible. let me ask you, as we cover this vice presidential pick, there's a lot of focus on what a lot of women operatives out there identified as sexism, the process has played out. frankly, i've heard from a lot of female operatives when you were running your presidential campaign that they were frustrated that you got a lot of attention and very focused on early on in a way some women candidates are not and you benefited from that. did you feel like you experienc experienced the sexism or understood the sexism the women

candidates faced based on the way you were treated? >> absolutely. this country is still sexist in the way that we treat women in america. look at it economically. women are paid a fraction of what white men are paid african-american women are paid 61 consensus on tents on the dot a white man makes. that carries into our political process, and so you have in our politics right now. the foundational structural problems that we have in america, that have tended to favor white men. i cannot be blind to that even though i am a white man. that's a play right now. thank god again for joe biden and the fact that he's committed to choosing a woman as his running made. he has so many extraordinary

candidates. karen bass to kamala harris. i got to know her on the campaign trail. to susan rice who has exceptional foreign policy credentials and an extraordinary career in the obama examination in addition to everything else she's done beyond that. i don't know that his choice of a woman as vice president fixes our politics but it is certainly a strong step in the right direction. >> we're going to talk a little bit about that next as well, how things have changed and how they've stayed the same. beto o'rourke, thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back. time. >> thank you >> we'll be right back (neighbor) whatcha working on... (burke) just an app. it's called signal from farmers, and it could save you up to fifteen percent on your auto insurance. simply sign up, drive and save. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ ♪ ♪ we've always put safety first.

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presidential politics have come a long way in the last 40 years, or have they. >> add excitement to an otherwise dull ticket. the arguments against are that picking a woman is a gamble that could hurt more among men than it helps with women, that none of the women are qualified and

that he could be accused of tokenism and giving in to another special interest. >> since geraldine ferraro run, there have been more cracks in the glass ceiling. sometime in the coming days, we'll find out which woman will be the vice president. we've learned over and over again how far we have to go. it's been subtle. whether it was her comments on carly fiorina's appearance or kamala harris as too ambitious, there are lessons richly in need of learning. there's a coalition of women who formed a group bamd at sexist attacks. we have her back. we in the media owe it to our

viewers to learn from our mistakes and to talk about women running for office in a way that fits the dignity of the office and our own dignity as well. that's going to do it for us here tonight. coming up action five states account for more than 40% of total coronavirus cases in america. as millions suffer, joshua johnson talks about when actual relief will be on the way. for me, good night from washington.