talk him into letting him speak to his parents because he'll never get to speak to them again. what about all the other victims here that can't speak to shirlee or thomas or roger or mary? this sunday, pandemic and politics. >> the situation is dire. >> the u.s. reaches 5 million confirmed covid cases. >> come into my icu. come watch. patients and families are being crushed. >> that is a huge toll to take every day, knowing that you're the only person and may be the last person who speaks to them. >> while president trump continues to deny the tragedy he's overseeing. >> it will go away. things go away. absolutely. no question in my mind it will go away. congress deadlocked. >> this morning was a disappointing -- i don't care what rose they try to pin on it.

>> with millions losing benefits, negotiators fail to reach an agreement. >> we did not make any progress today. >> president trump signs executive orders he claims will help those in need. my guest, peter navarro, democratic whip dick durbin, and the doctor from johns hopkins university. the coronavirus in the classroom and the debate over opening schools. >> we talk to a principal, a tomb teacher, and a school nurse on opening schools in the age of pandemic. and decision 2020. tangled up in blue. how the electoral map has shifted with just 12 weeks to go before election day. joining me for insight and analysis are msnbc anchor joshua johnson. kasie hunt, and rich lowry, editor of "national review." welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press."

>> from nbc news in washington, the longest-running show in television history, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. good sunday morning. it's easy, even dangerous, to become numb to the scope of the coronavirus tragedy that's all around us. yesterday the united states hit a total of 5 million cases. that is 2 million more than brazil, which is second in the world in cases. we've also passed 160,000 deaths. we were at 163,028 this morning. and the university of washington's model projects the toll could roughly double to 300,000 by the first of december, but let's put that 160,000 figure into a little bit more perspective. that's about 40% more than the total number of americans killed in world war i. it is nearly triple the number of americans killed from vietnam, and if that university of washington figure is connect we would have passed the battle

deaths from world war ii all in less than one calendar year. here's another perspective. over the past two weeks we've suffered roughly one death from covid-19 every 77 seconds. president trump continues to insist, as he put it, it will go away like things go away, and when pressed in an interview recently, mr. trump added, they are dying, that's true. it is what it is. yes, it is what it is, and what it is a once in a century crisis made worse bipartisan politics, testing mistakes, evolving advice. a public too quick to ignore safety guidelines and a president who has chosen to deny, dismiss, and distract for far too long. adding to that, washington seems more paralyzed than usual, deadlocked on a relief package, prompting president trump who himself has refused to meet with negotiators personally, to step in late yesterday and attempt to sidestep congress. >> i'm taking executive action. we've had it. >> president trump signing a series of executive orders after his own negotiators failed to make a deal. >> it was a disappointing meeting.

>> this morning was disappointing, and i don't care what rose they try to pin on it, it's got a lot of thorn. >> we did not make any progress today. >> with a nation in crisis -- >> what's at stake for my family is being able to stay who we are, being able to maintain the life that we have. >> the limited actions are likely to be challenged in court as president trump takes on powers constitutionally granted to congress. >> maybe they'll bring legal actions, maybe they won't, but they won't win. >> 30 million americans are set to miss another benefits check this week. an eviction moratorium expired last week for millions more. the small paycheck protection program lapsed on saturday, and some student loan relief will expire at the end of september. president trump's action sets a weekly unemployment benefit at $400. >> why did you decide on $400 when previously families were receiving $600? that will be a hardship. what do you say to them?

>> no, this is not a hardship and this gives them a great incentive to go back to work. >> states, many dealing with budget gaps and pleading for more federal support must contribute 25% in order for americans to qualify. >> which governors have told you that they would sign on? >> well, if they don't, they don't. that's up to them. >> among the new orders, deferring payroll tax for those earning $100,000 a year and a move opposed by many democrats and republicans suggesting federal agencies consider some eviction protections and deferring student loan payments. the constitution does not give the president power to either appropriate or tax without congress. president trump once promised to be a dealmaker. >> i'm different than other presidents. i'm a dealmaker. >> i do hundreds of deals. the deals come out of my ears. i do deal. you have to do deals. we don't want to do the executive orders all of the time. it wasn't supposed to be about executive orders. like tip o'neal and ronald reagan, you have to bring them together. >> but now a deal is elusive

with the two sides, trillions of dollars apart on a package, which should include money for schools, reopening, for virus testing, and aid to cities and states. >> i say come back when you're ready to give a higher number. >> at his golf club this weekend the president spun the facts both on the economy, for 20 straight weeks unemployment claims have topped 1 million shattering historical records. >> the single greatest three-month period of job creation in american history. >> and on the virus. >> a pandemic which is disappearing. it's going to disappear. >> and joining me now is peter navarro. he is the director of trade and manufacturing policy. ha also the national defense production act policy coordinator. dr. navarro, welcome back to "meet the press." >> good morning, chuck. >> and i want to start with something the chief of staff said on friday. take a listen, sir. >> we're going to take executive orders to try to alleviate some of the pain that people are experiencing. this is not a perfect answer. we'll be the first ones to say that. but it is all that we can do and

all the president can do within the confines of his executive power. >> so is this an acknowledgement? do you agree with the chief of staff that this is not enough? that this is a small amount here and in order to do more that's necessary, you've still got to work with congress? >> he didn't say it was a small amount, chuck. what he said was it's not enough. what we've got here is the failure of talks and the president taking action on four fronts to help four discreet groups. so you have the payroll tax cut, which is effectively a substantial wage hike for americans who have their jobs. you've got a plus-up for workers who are on the unemployment lines. you've got relief for renters and single-family homeowners so they don't become homeless, and you have -- for our young people who have this crushing burden of

student loans, you have relief. and those are four targeted solutions, and that will help deal with the pain. it's unfortunate that we have not yet got a deal, but in the absence of that president donald j. trump is acting on behalf of the american people. >> i want to ask you about these provisions. some of them look legally dubious here. are you confident -- what gives you confidence that the president has the power to decide when to postpone the collection of taxes? >> well, one of the things i've learned here at the white house, chuck, going through a lot of work on executive orders is what we have the statutory authorities to do, and i'm department that every single one of those orders which cleared through the office of legal counsel will stand up. if you look, for example, at the eviction and foreclosure language in your opener there you noted the words shall consider. well, that's how you have to write it, but everybody knows in that bureaucracy, that you damn

well should do it and you will. the payroll tax cut, we clearly had the authority to do that and that could be done easily through the treasury department and i would note in 2012 nancy pelosi was a strong supporter of the payroll tax cut, and barack obama used bonds funding to make sure that the social security was not harmed in any way and president trump, there's nothing more strongly than he supports is the integrity of social security. so each of these provisions work. it's unfortunate that these negotiations to date have failed, but look, this should be easier than it is, chuck. we have two sides and ones that want one trillion and the others want 3 trillion and the first thing is agree on some number in between and step two is figure out within that what you both agree on, something like a

$1,200 check to every american. and then what you do -- >> right. >> -- you trade off and go back and forth across the table what you want, respecting each other's red lines. you don't make the republicans play for planned parenthood or platforms, for example, this should be easy. the question we've had watching this unfold. the question the president has is whether the democrats really are sincere when they come to the table, and i'm not sure -- it doesn't help when speaker pelosi goes out after every day with scarfs flying and beats the heck out of us for being cruel people. >> let me follow up. go ahead -- no, let me ask you this. where is the president? why was he at his golf club all weekend? why isn't he negotiating? look, i understand you guys don't like each other and nancy pelosi -- well, where is he? why isn't he involved? >> you have to understand this is the hardest-working president in history. he works 24/7. he could be in bedminster,

mar-a-lago or anywhere in between. he could be at the whirlpool factory like we were thursday, celebrating working men and women. the problem here is capitol hill, the swamp. the two houses are too far apart. the lord and the founding fathers created executive orders because of partisan bickering and divided government. that's what we have here, but the president has taken action. his constituency, let's be clear. his constituency is mainstream republicans and blue collar democrats and independents who are sick and tired of the swamp, and he reached out and he took action. he didn't have to sign executive orders. he could have just let this keep going, and he did not. he took action, action, action and action. >> you -- okay. you outlined how a negotiation works and you did something very interesting. you said the democrats are at $3 trillion, the republicans are at $1 trillion.

we've got to meet in the middle. that's what the democrats proposed. they said hey, let's meet in the middle on a number and it looks like mark meadows said no. >> no, no. that's not accurate. here's the thing -- the cardinal rule in negotiations is you don't do them on tv. you don't do them here on tv and you don't do them on capitol hill in the rotunda like nancy pelosi does. you do it with sincerity and have to have both sides to do a deal. i know a deal could be done if you just go by that rule. it can be done, but in the absence of this -- president trump will act to help people who are unemployed, who are hurting, people who are working that need more money. renters, homeowners who are really facing a bleak future of eviction and foreclosures and students who need to get out from under that burden of debt. >> assuming negotiations continue and a deal happens maybe in a week or two weeks, i assume the executive orders will

become null and void? >> if congress solves the problem, there's no need for the president to take executive action, okay? we'll see what we get, but here's the point. let's not go there. let's go to this. we have four actions president trump has taken that will help workers, the unemployed, renters, homeowners, and students, students who have student loans. what we need is sincere negotiation. we have to believe that both sides actually want a deal and there is this theory, chuck, that the democrats would prefer to see the economy go into the tank for another 90 days because that harms the president. i hope that capitol hill hasn't become that cynical, but watching these negotiations, it makes me wonder. >> i think the cynicism is a two-way street. i take your point. >> we're it willing to bend. >> he has a reputation of killing more deals -- >> that's not fair. >> he's a great negotiator and what we don't want is to have

this break down, and we went up there in good faith. we didn't see our side going out in the rotunda throwing grenades. it was the other side doing that. >> let me ask you about the dpa part of your job. >> yes. >> you wear a lot of hats. the last days of summer how trump fell short in containing a virus, and i want to pull out this paragraph because i think it impacts you, dr. navarro. despite repeated calls to invoke the defense production act to help resolve testing supply shortages, the administration has resisted doing so. trump and several white house aides have instead continued to think that it is politicallied a van tanks to creed the issue to the states to avoid taking owner ship or blame for the issue.

why haven't you used the dpa to figure -- to help fix this testing problem in the country? >> so we're going to come out with a report early this week that identifies all of the things the president has done using the defense production act. there's over 30 actions we've taken. a lot of them related to testing. i think the poster child for that was a dpa title 3 that we did that got guilford maine, and upping the production of swabs to 20 million a month. those are the things we're doing and we're fighting using the dp on all fronts. we're using the defense production act in kokomo, indiana, nobody will ever, ever do better than that. where is that urgency for testing. >> pardon me? >> where is the urgency for testing? that's the point here. >> i'll give you another example. >> selective instances. >> we are issuing grants to mach sure we get point-of-care virus testing. this, to me, is going to be the

game-changer where right now we've got two types, right? we've got a lab test that takes a number of days which is not optimal. it's highly accurate and we have the i.d. now of abbott, which take 15/to 20 minutes, and we're expanding that reach, and we have a point-of-care that's like a pregnancy test where you can do it at your home. chuck, we are working 24/7 on these things and they've made great progress on therapeutics. this president is going to probably be able to get one or more vaccines by the end of the year. that's a third of the time it usually takes in using a defense production act. so i'll get you -- i'll personally send you a copy of this report when it comes out. you tell me afterwards whether we've done a lot using that dpa, but it's the most rapid industrial mobilization in this country since world war ii. >> and i think there are a lot of people that hear your enthusiasm and want to see you use it even more, but dr. navarro, i have to leave the conversation there. thank you for coming on and

sharing the administration's perspective. i appreciate it. >> yes, sir. joining me now is senator dick durbin of illinois. welcome back to "meet the press." i want to start with something peter navarro just said. he said in negotiations one side has one number, and he said there needs to be something in the middle, and when i heard that i thought, well, that sounds like potential progress. did you hear that as suddenly the white house wants to move to the middle because that doesn't seem to be what mnuchin and meadows did. >> chuck, let me just tell you, if that is the standard, we've not only accepted it, we've offered it. we were at $3.4 trillion in the bill that nancy pelosi and the house democrats passed 12 weeks ago. 12 weeks ago. and now we've come down to the range of $2 trillion.

they were at a trillion. we asked them to come up to a trillion, and it does exactly what mr. navarro suggested. we are ready to meet the white house and the republicans halfway. we've said that from the start. we have priorities that may be different from theirs and in terms of the dollar amount we are at what mr. navarro suggested. >> i'm concerned about the president's authority to do these things in order to get the courts to look at it, do you think congress ought to file suit on, for instance, the payroll tax eo or the unemployment eo? >> this is a moral dilemma. we want unemployed people to receive benefits. we never wanted them cut off at all. so i'm not going to suggest we run out to court at this point. i think some will. there will be some challenges. this country club fix suggested by the president is going to be a cut in the unemployment benefits for 30 million americans. it's either going to be cut from $600 to $400 or from $600 to zero, wra it is right now, if the president's executive orders don't stand.

the bottom line is this, these people are not lazy people. we have five unemployed americans for every available job. this urban legend, which i say is an urban lie about people sitting at home bingeing on netflix and eats chocolate-covered cherries, i've met with these families and they're desperate to go back to work, and they've taken a cut to wages below the unemployment benefits and they want back in the job and they understand unemployment is a temporary helping hand. so this notion that they're lazy and if they tried harder they'd find jobs just doesn't work. >> want to put up a comment from a house democrat who is in a swing district and listen to what he said yesterday. representative tom malinowski of new jersey, a first-term democrat, he warned a lack of an agreement would prompt his voters that congress is broken and washington is broken and that is great for challengers, he added. the question is do you feel pressure that you have to cut a deal even if you don't like what you're getting?

i mean, do you worry that the democrats are taking too hard of a line here and at some opponent you have to move more than you want to? >> chuck, that's the nature of a negotiation. you have to give a little to get a little and that's what it boils down and look what happened on march 26th and march 16th when we passed the c.a.r.e.s. act. 96-0, bipartisan, and we now have 20 republican senators who said not a penny, zero. nothing at this opponent. and we have mitch mcconnell, the republican leader who is not even attending the negotiating sessions, and same thing with kevin mccarthy, the house republicans and look at the

first priority and the first priority, of course is unemployed and even higher than that is doing something correctly about the coronavirus. when i heard mr. navarro with his talk about testing i'm thinking are you in touch with the real world? the president has been saying for weeks and maybe months, if you test you can get it. that wasn't even possible and you'll have the same instant results of testing that he does with white house visitors and that isn't the real world out here. the people are waiting in line for testing, and they're waiting for results from five to 12 days, which makes them almost pointless. that is a priority for us. testing to deal with the coronavirus is key to opening the environment -- excuse me -- economy and opening our schools. >> right. final question with a little democratic politics. i want to put up this tweet from david axelrod, and you know him, longtime chief strategist for president obama, an illinois guy these days, and he says this, i can't remember any vp selection process where so much oppo research has been dumped. if i were joe biden looking for

a good and loyal partner, that should be a source of concern. david axelrod didn't imply who was behind this, but there has been a lot of negative stuff dropped on a couple of candidates, susan rice and karen bass in particular. are you concerned about how all this looks? >> i am concerned, but not surprised, chuck. this is the political world we live in. it never was bean bag. it's always been a tough game, but it's gotten much worse over the last several years. the level of preposterous claim, the charges that have been thrown and they've gone out of sight, lock her up, lock her up, for goodness sakes. that goes way beyond anything any of us have seen in presidential campaigns, and that is the nature of this business. and those who stick with it and my colleague, tammy duckworth, for goodness sake, she's all, but an american hero for what she's given to this country and there have been those on right-wing television shows that have criticized her as not being worthy of consideration for this office. that to me shows the extremes that they'll reach. >> dick durbin, i'm going have to leave it there, the number

two democrat from illinois, senior senator from illinois. thanks for coming on and sharing your perspective. >> thanks, chuck. >> you got it. when we come back, progress on a vaccine. even if we do have one by year's end, how effective will it be? that's next. effective will it ? that's next.

welcome back. as we mentioned earlier, we had 5 million u.s. cases yesterday. for some perspective, the first covid-19 case in the united states is believed to have occurred on february 6th. we hit 1 million cases on april 28th, 82 days later. it then just took 43 days to hit the 2 million mark on june 10th. we hit the 3 million mark on july 7th. that was 27 days later. and then just 16 days later, we reached 4 million u.s. cases on july 23rd. and, again, it took just 16 days to hit this 5 million reported case number right here in the united states. joining me now is dr. tom inglesby of the johns hopkins university. you put out a list of ten recommendations.

you guys didn't call it a reset, how do we get control of this virus now? ago one of your sort of colleagues in the larger sense michael osterholm is calling for a reset of some sort "new york times" today editorial page calling for this. it feels like officials are calling for some sort of reset, partial lockdowns, things like this, and yet we're not having that conversation at all on the political side of things. are we doomed to sort of live with this virus now if we're not going to at all look at your recommendations? >> i don't think we're doomed to this fate. i think we know what to do. other countries have done it. i think the purpose of these resetting reports and these calls for kind of a re-establishment of the basics is that we know that in other countries, universal masking, physical distancing, avoiding

large gathering, and those kinds of things have worked. if we look at countries like italy, spain, and france. they have a total of seven or eight deaths a day and we have a thousand and it's not magic what they did and i think if we act together in national unison, we can get there and that's what the purpose of these many of these reports are. >> want to bring up the issue of masks. there have been some people who said we have 95% compliance on mask wearing, we could sort of get this virus under control. is that unrealistic, and do we need do more than just mandating masks? >> we do. i think masks are not alone -- and not by themselves are alone the solution, but they are a critical part of it. we know that physical distancing makes a big difference. we know that large gatherings are places where superspreading events occur, and you have to

get around quickly and infect many people at once, so we have to do a number of things together. in terms of simple things like diagnostic testing results coming back much more quickly, it's unacceptable for the country to have testing come back a week or two weeks later. it's not useful at that point. it's not useful even doing the tests and there are a number of things that we have to do, but they're not complicated. they may be hard, but we have to do them in unison. and all of those are not hard except when the word politics gets involved and it makes everything harder, and i want to keep you out of the political space here. let me ask you a question about vaccines and to sort of set expectations, dr. fauci implied that the first vaccine that we get, he hopes it's 75% effective. the fda said they'll approve any vaccine that's at least 50% effective. can you explain to the public what that means? what it means and what it doesn't mean and what our expectations should be for the first vaccine? >> well, we know that many of the vaccines that we use are not perfect. they don't prevent every case of

disease. but if they prevent a substantial portion of disease, then that can help us get to a point where most of us are protected. the disease can't spread quickly between people anymore, a concept that is called herd immunity. herd immunity doesn't mean we won't have the disease anymore. it means it won't as efficiently spread in an epidemic form. >> and is there a percentage figure in your mind that you think will sort of give us a huge step in the right direction? is it a vaccine that's at 75%, or sit is it 50%, or do you fea that could be a false sense of hope? >> i think we would take 50% because 50% is a lot better than what we have now. we have no tools, no vaccine tools or medicine tools that we can use to slow this down, so 50% would be far better than what we have now. of course, we all want something that is 75%, 85%, 90% effective,

but we'll have to see what we get. and i think for the amount of time that has passed since the beginning of this pandemic to have this vaccine that's 50% effective in the coming months or in the beginning of 2021 would be phenomenal, but we hope it's better, but 50% would be better than what we have now. >> tom inglesby from johns hopkins, one of our experts that we have on here regularly, i appreciate you coming on and sharing your expertise with us, sir. >> thanks for having me, chuck. >> you got it. when we come back, some politics, the changing electoral map where the presidential race stands right now. the panel is next.

like you, my hands are everything to me. but i was diagnosed with dupuytren's contracture. and it got to the point where things i took for granted got tougher to do. thought surgery was my only option. turns out i was wrong. so when a hand specialist told me about nonsurgical treatments, it was a total game changer. like you, my hands have a lot more to do. learn more at factsonhand.com today.

welcome back. the panel is with us from their remote locations. msnbc anchor joshua johnson. nbc news capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt, and rich lowry, editor of "national review." the nbc news political unit's first battleground map of 2020, full disclosure, i am a member of said political unit so i've contributed to this myself. we begin with what hillary clinton won? 2016 all of which remains the second congressional district which trump carried in 2016 we are currently classifying as a toss-up which is why you're seeing stripes. there are six trump 2016 states that we've been considering the key six battleground states, wisconsin, michigan in the north and all have biden with a consistent lead, and right now before we get to our s ts t s s

tossup state and biden would have 320 electoral votes. far more than the 270 he needs on par with the barack obama electoral numbers of 2008 and 2012. president trump leads in 20 states, good for 125 electoral votes and nebraska's second congressional district we have as leaning biden right now. four states, georgia, ohio, iowa, and texas, all of which president trump won last time, if those are the toss-up states, you know where the map is. rich lowry, i start with this, a backdrop because i asked this simple question. why is the president not taking the democrats deal at this point? because it seems it probably would help his re-election prospects? >> chuck, there's some dispute about how real the reduced spending is in the latest democratic offer, but the white house definitely has been reductant to get much above $1 trillion, and i think it's with

an eye to renewed republican concern about the deficit, and i very much get concerned about the deficit, and the real sin here isn't deficit spending in the midst of major economic dislocati dislocation. it was all of the deficit spending that took place when the economy was good. >> joshua johnson, i had one democratic aid, and that's been what's made these negotiations so odd is the normal rules of politics they thought would apply to the other side which is the political pressure at the moment has not impacted them yet. >> yeah. it's kind of interesting. the way that the political pressure has shifted over the course of this pandemic. mitch mcconnell was interviewed by politico this week, and it's harder than it was four months ago, and we're that much closer to the election.

dr. navarro said you don't negotiate in public and that may be part of why this is so hard. i think it is also telling that both sides can't seem to come to an agreement perhaps because of the publicity around these negotiations. it might be bet or both sides if they just sent delegates and if all of the major players stayed home and stayed away from cameras for a while, but yeah, as we get closer to the election, unfortunately, it seems like less and less is getting agreed to because every sound bite after every negotiation becomes something that can end up in an opponent's campaign ad. >> kasie, i look at this situation, and i think they have to come to an agreement. there's just no choice. the economic fallout is too great not to and yet, do you see them landing this plane this week? >> i think the blame game has made that potentially very difficult at this point, chuck, and republicans are essentially making a bet that the democrats are not going to go out there and try to knock down the president's unemployment

insurance executive order because they simply can't be seen doing that, and i think there are real questions about mark meadows, the white house chief of staff and his role in these negotiations because steve mnuchin seemed relatively willing to cut this deal with democrats and there does seem to be this overarching bet on the part of democrats that the people that will pay the ultimate political price for not doing a deal are going to be the republicans in the senate or the white house, and whether that's the best course of action in the country is up to our viewers to decide. >> hey, rich, is the real problem here for the white house the fact that any deal that congress cuts is going to be majority democrats having to vote for both in the house and the senate? >> yeah. that's another constraint, but it's definitely in his political interest to do this and get a deal. these executive orders are nebulous, they're confused, and a poor substitute for law-making. and i should note, even if they're technically legal, this is not how our system is supposed to work where congress affirmatively declines to do something and the president rummages around for authority to do it on his own and this is part of a long-running trend of an executive trampling on an effectless congress.

feckless congress. >> are you in the ben sasse camp, rich, what do you call constitutional slop? >> it's against the spirit of the system and what many of us invade with us and it's an extension of that. >> i want to pivot to veepstakes. >> joshua, the david axelrod tweet that i asked senator dick durbin about, it's an insider conversation, but this idea that are some candidates running too aggressive a campaign for this number two slot? >> that's the thing. i'm not sure how to read the campaign. if you were asking me who was going to win the nba championship, know the rules of the game and i know how the players have done. no one knows the rules of this game. none of us knows exactly what the campaign strategy is, who the players are or what the leaderboard is.

so this kind of "no way for us to know," which make this whole political season even more opaque, forgive me, chuck, by the way, but i do want to mention before we get too far out that navarro did say something to you that was a bit deceptive in the way that the payroll tax is being viewed which makes negotiations harder. he said nancy pelosi approved it. that was a payroll tax cuts of two percentage points and nota payroll tax cut and that was deceptive in what he said. >> there was a plan to restore social security. you get to the challenge of trying to fit an hour's worth of television in. >> right. exactly. there are a lot of things that i had to unpack on that one. kasie hunt, we're going to hear from the vice president at some point about his running mate, maybe tomorrow. it does feel as if we're still sitting it's kamala harris versus the field. biden world seems divided. some think it's the perfect pick, and some think can you trust her to be your loyal number two. >> well, david axelrod didn't name names, but the underlying

suggestion has been that it's kamala harris' camp that is playing hard -- political hardball behind the scenes here in trying to make sure that her way to this pick is relatively clear. i'm not saying that we have reporting on that, but the suggestion from people in public is very strong, and i think that's what women operatives i've talked to have looked at this process and feel we're experiencing more of what hillary clinton went through, that this process is this way partly because it's women fighting it out, and people are less comfortable with women in that role. but i think at the end of the day, this is going to come down to the relationship between the vice president and the person that he ultimately picks. so only he knows the answer to that question. >> and the fact of the matter we know he's probably met with more of these folks than we've been able to track during this pandemic. all right, guys. well done. thank you very much. when we come back, you want to know what states the trump and biden campaigns really think they can win? there's an easier way to find out than trying to guess.

we'll show you next.

this year, the alzheimer's association walk to end alzheimer's is everywhere. on every sidewalk, track, and trail across this country. all of us are raising funds for one goal: a world without alzheimer's and all other dementia. because this disease isn't waiting, neither are you. take the first step on your walk right now. go to alz dot org slash walk.

it's totally not the same without you. we miss your let's do this look, the sound of your laugh cry screams, and how you make every day here the best day ever. we can't wait to get you back so we've added temp checks, face coverings, social distancing and extra sanitizing to get the good times going again. it's time to roll out the red carpet and kick open the universal gates. we're finally back... and can't wait until you are too. welcome back. data download time. if you want to know what a campaign really thinks about its chances, don't listen to what it says. follow the money. since june there's been some interesting movement showing us which states each campaign is bullish about and which ones are neck and neck. first, the big three blue wall states that went for trump in 2016. both campaigns were fully

engaged and all three until mid-june, but in recent weeks we've seen some changes. let's take a look at the state of michigan. in the week of june 2nd, the trump and biden forces were spending at roughly the same level there, $474,000 for team trump, $498,000 for team biden. biden built a substantial polling league and by july 21st, the financial numbers were roughly $16,000 for trump in michigan and about $1.6 million for biden in the state. then there are the state's donald trump won in 2016 where the biden campaign and pro-biden outside groups are offense, north carolina, arizona, and florida. we're going focus on arizona. trump spending was at $161,000 versus nothing for biden. by the week of july 21st, trump and company were spending 1.1 billion, then there are the states hillary clinton won where she once saw an opportunity,

nevada, new mexico and minnesota. the trump campaign is spending very little now in new mexico and minnesota. but let's look at nevada. pro-trump spending has gone from zero the week of june 2nd to more than $400,000 and staid there through july 21st. and why biden seemed to think that it was safe enough not to spend early on, more recent ad buys suggest they're not paying attention to nevada. the heavy campaign ad is yet to hit and battlegrounds can continue to shift and so far the advertising map continues to expand for joe biden and president trump's team is mostly having to play defense. when we come back, coronavirus and the classroom. when will it be safe enough to send children back to school. this upcoming school year is overwhelming. >> how will we build engagement with our students and make it feel like we're still in a building? >> my biggest concern about going back is being able to keep

them safe. >> as excited as i am to see all of my students i am anxious about the unknowns the school year will bring. the sleep number 360 smart bed is on sale now.

can it help keep me asleep? absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. it's our weekend special. save up to $500 on select sleep number 360 smart beds. plus 0% interest for 48 months on all smart beds. ends monday. but what if you could startdo better than that? like adapt. discover. deliver. in new ways. to new customers. what if you could come back stronger? faster. better. at comcast business, we want to help you not just bounce back. but bounce forward. 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 back. all this week nbc news and msnbc are airing a special series, "coronavirus in the classroom condition an education in america during the covid-19 pandemic."

the big question, of course, whether schools can be opened and opened safely and how do you open them? this morning we brought together intimately involved in trying to get students educated this year while also trying to keep teachers, students and their parents safe all at the same time. jacqueline dungy is the principal at the new paradigm loving academy in detroit, which is hoping to create a combination of in-person and virtual learning and he's a teacher in las vegas and they plan to start online only. and christine mcclary is a nurse at the east sanford school in auburn, alabama, where parents get to choose between in-person and remote learning. a principal, a teacher, and the

school nurse, you guys are on the front lines of all of this in many ways. jacqueline, i want to start with you as a principal, i have a brother-in-law who is a principal and he's feeling it from all sides. the pressure not to open, the pressure to immediately open. everybody wants immediate answers. i can only imagine the pressure you're feeling right now. just tell us a little bit about it. >> well, of course, we all want to ensure a safe return to school for our students, our families and even our staff, and with that being said, there are so many things that have to come into play to ensure we're able to do that. we surveyed our families. we wanted to make sure that they felt comfortable with even coming back to school. we put together a task force to study, you know, make some decisions about what are we going to do in the future upcoming because we knew this was going to be a long experience. >> theo, in las vegas, your school you'll be starting online only at first. what's the biggest hurdle you're concerned about clearing as you prepare for this online-only environment in a couple of weeks? >> i think the biggest thing, chuck, is that it's new for everyone, right? it's new for me as a veteran teacher. it's new for the parents and families and it will be new for the student, and so i think the biggest hurdle for us is how do i engage students in an online

platform and how do i make sure that they're showing up every day, that i'm building relationships with them. that's going to be the biggest thing and the toughest thing that educators are facing right now is just that engagement and getting those kids to show up and understand what school looks like this year. >> christine, let's go -- believe it or not, and i don't know how many people watching know this, but most schools do not have a full-time school nurse. according to a survey, we were able to find about 35% of full-time and other, 30% of schools have a part-time school nurse, and about a quarter don't have any nurse at all. >> right. >> so, first of all, i want to talk about what role do you believe you should be playing whennet it comes to opening the schools? do you feel like you and your fellow school nurses, you should be doing the testing or supervising a testing strategy?

>> having a safe school throughout our state and throughout the country is paramount for all school nurses. so i think, first of all, i would say we need to have a full-time nurse in every school every day. that would really help with the children and their safety and their health. as far as testing, this alabama association of school nurses did come up with a plan that was four-pronged that addressed potential testing in the schools with parental consent in order to get results back more quickly so we would know if children were actually sick or not. we actually were looking into doing thermal scanning with a.i. technology to try to determine if a child was symptomatic quickly before the child got into the school and potentially exposed either their teachers or other students. >> what about the technological divide? who closes that gap? are you expected to do it for these parents? are you expected to find the technology for these kids or is someone going to come in here and get these resources?

>> well, i'll tell you, as a school district, we were able to get during the spring 99% of our families engaged in online platforms, and we were able to provide technology for any of the students that were in need, and we were able go provide support with internet as needed and necessary. so we haven't been able to get support as well as shift some of our funding to bridge that digital divide because that is a huge concern. that led to me as a person, but as our leadership team and other principals doing home visits to ensure that students had the technology that they need as well as ensuring that they knew how to use that technology and that that wasn't a barrier because we know that with our students that are in those distressed and lower socioeconomic groups that we have to make sure that we are bridging that gap. >> i think the biggest thing that we have to remember is that the school system is meant to actually uphold the community, and i think that in the spring

time we made sure that our students had the technology, but if i have a family that has two or three children at their home, i need each of them to have a device. the first thing that i have to do as a teacher is figure out what that family needs and find out and survey them and do they have wi-fi? can they get on? does their device work? and so all of those things are the first things we have to do to engage those families at the very beginning, and i -- the other thing, because we have kristine on, too, teachers can't do this without the other's support and the educators who are out there helping us. if i have a family and that student isn't coming on and i can't figure out and i can't get them on, then my school psychologist, my school counselor, social worker, school nurse, those folks are essential to make sure that all of those needs are taken care of. >> how much would it cost to make sure there is a school nurse in every school this year?

do you guys van estimate on something like that? because that's obviously -- one in four schools have nothing. i assume this is something that would have to come from the federal government. >> well, currently, chuck, it doesn't. at least in my state. it is funded by the state. when we applied for c.a.r.e.s. act funding, the alabama association of school nurses in our plan, we applied for c.a.r.e.s. act funding for our plan, and so that would have funded for a school nurse in every school in the state of alabama for one year. you know, i think the approach to reopening schools has somewhat been back card. we approached it from an educational standpoint and not a health standpoint, and i think if we had started looking at that time from a health standpoint, how do we reopen safely? how do we get isolation rooms and so forth instead of what can we do to keep kids safe at home and we have a lot more school systems opening up. >> the rest of our discussion at meetthepress.com. that's all for today. thank you for watching. we'll see you next week because if it's sunday it's "meet the

press." another staggering measure in the coronavirus crisis. the united states has now surpassed 5 million confirmed cases, and the global tally is closing in on 20 million. also, president trump announces new executive actions meant to deliver aid to americans impacted by this pandemic, but even some republicans are criticizing his move. and joe biden is set to be closing in on his pick for a running mate. the stakes are high and could potentially make history.