good afternoon. i'm chris jansing. it is 11:00 a.m. out west, 2:00 p.m. in the east. today, uncertainty and frustration building just days after the president announced executive actions on coronavirus aid. doubts about the real world impact of those orders and whether the president actually has the power to bring economic relief to americans without congressional approval. so, we expect to hear from the president. he's going to respond to those concerns, i'm sure, later today. because we just learned he'll hold a briefing at the white house that is scheduled for 5:30 eastern time. >> with both washington and american workers in limbo, confirmed cases of covid-19 in the united states have surpassed the 5 million mark. possibly fueling the transmission of the virus are

superspreader events. the kind of large group gatherings we saw this past weekend. hundreds of people packed into a california church or on a ten-day bike rally in south dakota, bringing out more than a quarter of a million people. and despite the president's claims that children are largely immune to the virus, a new study has found that at least 97,000 tested positive in just the last two weeks of july. and at the same georgia school where the photo went viral, nine students and staff members have tested positive for the virus. the school is closed today and tuesday for cleaning, but could reopen on wednesday. and in an historic move, the detroit free press reports the big ten has voted to cancel its fall football season. citing serious concerns about safety during the pandemic. so lots to get to, but let's begin in washington this afternoon where the questions and the controversy continue over the president's executive actions on coronavirus relief.

some lawmakers have called those moves unconstitutional, and they will likely face legal challenges. what power does the president even have to enforce any of them? only one is actually an executive order. the other three are less significant memorandums. add to that talks between the hill and the white house have stopped altogether. joining me now from the white house is nbc news correspondent carol lee, and from capitol hill, nbc news correspondent garrett haake. carol, the criticism was almost immediate after the signings. for example, you have that $400 unemployment aid. $100 of it is expected to be paid by the states. they're always cash strapped. he's taking money from disaster relief and hurricane season. what is the white house saying about all of this? >> well, chris, the questions are mounting and the white house has kind of been on defense ever since the president signed these executive actions. we just heard from press secretary kayleigh mcenany, who was asked about that question

you just raised in terms of how the states are supposed to come up with $100, their portion, $100 of the $400 in unemployment benefits. she essentially said that states need to get creative and suggested they use money from previous relief legislation. she was also asked about the timing of all of this, which is something the white house has been unable to answer, and she didn't have a clear answer. she said we're looking at getting this money to americans almost immediately. what does that mean? she couldn't even say whether that meant weeks or months. but said to stay tuned and they're working around the clock to figure that out. no real deadline in terms of when people can see this relief. questions are mounting on whether or not it's legal, whether or not it will be effective. and all the while, you have the president who is not engaging in potential negotiations with capitol hill, when everyone agrees, including white house officials, that real relief is going to come from some sort of legislation and not from the

president taking executive actions, which privately they acknowledge are potentially legally vulnerable, but there is some political gamesmanship in all of this where you have the white house trying to put the president out there, look like he's taking action, trying to do his best to provide relief to millions of americans who are hurting, and putting the burden on democrats, one of the things kayleigh mcenany said is that if there's a delay in this money getting to americans, they can blame the democrats, chris. >> okay. well, that brings us perfectly to garrett haake. what's next on the hill? i know i saw a note just in the last couple minutes, you have been talking to some sources. what's up? lawsuits, renewed negotiations? what's going on, garrett? >> well, a couple things. i think everyone involved on the congressional side, including congressional republicans, by the way, many of whom are vulnerable senate republicans who want to pass a bill as well, to help their own fortunes in november, want to get back to the negotiating table, but they feel as though, and this now democrats now, i'm referring to, they feel as though the white

house needs to come back up here with more that they're willing to give to get back to the negotiating table. as of now, about an hour ago when i last checks with my sources, senior democratic aides, there was still no contact between the speaker or chuck schumer, the minority leader in the senate, and the white house negotiations here. everybody feels like, as carol just laid out, the ultimate solution will come with everyone coming back to the table, but if the white house believes that the president can pull sort of an art of the deal walk back from the negotiating table and force democrats to come to more favorable terms with him, democrats believe these executive orders just don't amount to much. it's not so much that they might not be legal. it's that they just won't do anything. and the idea that somehow creates more pressure on them or more to the point, relieves pressure on the white house to act, they feel like just doesn't pass muster. that ultimately, there will need to be some action on this, and if you'll allow me a bit of personal privilege, hearing carol's reporting of kayleigh mcenany's press conference, i

had not heard that before we went on the air, the idea that they suggest states pull into relief money to pay for this unemployment insurance, the white house is also arguing they don't need to spend more money on aid to states and local governments because that pot of money exists. now they're telling the states to double dip into it twice while still not coming to the table to spend more of it. it's fascinating to see the ways they're getting twisted around the axel here trying to not do more at this point. >> yeah, with people's futures at stake, you also have a situation where they're putting out these memorandums and one executive order without being able to ask the basic questions like when can they expect the money? they don't have their ducks in a row here. garrett haake, carol lee, thanks to both of you. all of that is going on and it's pretty critical what isn't going on, as you heard garrett say, no more talks planned. all of it as the death toll continues to rise. georgia, for example, had its highest single day death toll on

friday. now, testing is ramping up there with a new mega testing site at the hartsfield-jackson atlanta international airport. up to 5,000 people a day will be able to get a test now. with me from georgia is nbc news correspondent blayne alexander. hey, blayne. i know atlanta was one of the cities designated a coronavirus hot spot by the white house task force last week. tell us what you're hearing and seeing there on the ground. >> well, let's start with the number of deaths. the highest single day total since the pandemic began, 91 deaths on friday. which really underscores the need for what you see right here behind me. this is billed as a mega testing site, the biggest testing site here in the state of georgia, able to process some 5,000 people every day. typically, this is an airport parking lot, but it's been converted into the testing site for the next few weeks. they're promising they're going to return results within two to three days. promising that turnaround, but georgia has certainly been in

the spotlight, yes for the number of covid cases and desh, bualso for images you also saw come out of a high school. north kaulding high school, ability an hour outside of atlanta. it drew a lot of scrutiny from across the country after during the first week of school, you saw students packed into a crowded hallway between classes and very few were wearing masks. now we have learned a parent sent me a letter that was sent out by the superintendent that says today and tomorrow, the building is now going to be closed because nine individuals have teshed positive for covid-19. they're closing the school for deep cleaning and such. but today, the surgeon general, the u.s. surgeon general was actually in town, in atlanta, and i asked him what his reaction was when he saw that photo. take a look. >> as a public health official, when you saw that picture, what did you think? >> when i saw that picture, i thought these are kids who don't understand they're not going to have a prom. they're not going to have a spring break. if they don't really embrace their role in stopping the

spread of this disease, and again, as a father of two young kids, and both my parents are school teachers, i was thinking, gosh, they need to do a better job of helping these kids understand how this matters to them so they don't blow it off. that was my thought cowhen i sa it. >> so chris, i pressed him a little bit after that, and i said, if that's the case, why not call for some sort of mandate? why not recommend a mandate as students start going back to class? he said he's not against a mandate, but he believes education eworks better in that case. chris. >> blayne alexander, thank you so much. i want to bring in dr. irwin redlener who is a pediatrician and director of columbia university's national center for disaster preparedness. always good to see you. i hardly nowhere to start with georgia, but it's closed today and tomorrow. they say they're going to deep clean, but then a decision will be made on tuesday night, according to a letter from the

principal, on whether to reopen. do you see a scenario in which that school can safely reopen on wednesday, knowing that there were nine positive cases? >> you know, not really, chris. i must say, and you know, one of the problems there is that you can't just deep clean and expect the possibility of that outbreak happening in the school or other schools for that matter. you need to be separated. you need to have everyone wearing masks. that needs to be mandated. you need to make sure that teachers and staff that are older or have high risk factors are protected. but the other thing is we also have to make sure that if kids are in the school in classrooms, that we need to make sure that the ventilation systems in those schools are working. and that's not the case unfortunately for lots of classrooms around the country. they have a lot of work to do, and especially looking like the kids are sort of not adhering to the basic fundamentals of

separating and wearing masks, i don't really see how we can see that school or other schools like it reopening anytime soon, chris. >> yeah, and i'm wondering how you ascertain that you don't have any kids besides those nine who are covid positive when at least the letter from the superintendent didn't say anything about contact tracing and there was an adult who said, look, my two kids, they were everywhere that day. it was the first day at school. i don't even know where you begin to contact trace, but the second part of that is that letter didn't call for any kind of formal testing. it said, hey, parents, if your kids have symptoms, get them tested. how does that prevent an asymptomatic carrier from going back to school on wednesday or thursday or friday and spreading it all over again? >> absolutely. and of course, other kids may be spreading it as well. and i think it's an entirely inadequate message coming from

the schools to the parents, and don't forget, georgia was the first state to reopen businesses, which they did on april 24th. again, well before the proper procedures to detect, protect, protect the community from spread here. we have a very serious problem that i don't see being handled in a serious way, consistent with public health guidelines by many school districts around the country. i'm worried about this danger experiment. it's really going to involve 55 million kids in some way or another trying to return to school in september. it's a little early. we don't have many -- we're going to have to watch carefully. >> yeah, more of them are going back to school already today. so let me just ask you one big picture question which was this shocking number that came out over the weekend that i think it was 97,000, nearly 100,000 kids just in the last two weeks of july tested positive after we had heard multiple times from the president that there's almost no chance of them getting

it. is this simply the result of more testing? is this that we're learning more? that kids are carriers, kids can transmit and get sick more than we thought? what do you read into that number? >> so unfortunately, chris, the reality is that there are many more people who are positive, including children, and where i'm sure that was the last two weeks of july, so by this time in august, i'm sure we're well over 100,000. we probably have close to 100 deaths in children right now already. and there's no reason to believe that this is going to get better anytime soon. this is why i'm saying, this is a very big uncomfortably dangerous experiment that we're doing with all of these children now getting back to school. you know, we appreciate the need to get kids back in the educational track. it's critical, but we have to do it safely. we can, but we have to take the proper steps. >> dr. irwin redlener, always good to see you. thank you so much. >> it is education week here at

msnbc news, so later, we'll focus on solutions for returning to class safely, just what irwin had to say. we're going visit one maryland school testing out an innovative approach. plus, the veepstakes, we're going to get the latest on joe biden's search from his home base in delaware, and new polling from two key battlegrounds that will likely not make the president's campaign very happy. gn very hap.

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sources tell nbc news that

joe biden's vp pick could come by the middle of this week or even sooner, but there's another new push for his pick to be a black woman. more than 100 black men in entertainment, activism, and professional sports have signed an open letter to the presumptive democratic nominee strongly advocating just that. with me from his post in wilmington, delaware, is nbc news correspondent mike memoli who covers the biden campaign. let me read a little bit of the letter to you, mike, and i'm quoting here. for too long, black women have been asked to do everything from rally the troops to risk their lives for the democratic party with no acknowledgment, no respect, no visibility, and certainly not enough support. and it goes on to say, failing to select a black woman in 2020 means you will lose the election. how much pressure is there for joe biden to pick a black woman right now? >> yeah, chris, it's so interesting because this has been a recurring discussion since the former vice president

announced he would in fact choose a woman. some democrats pushing him to go one step further and to say he would choose a woman of color. biden, of course, has resisted doing so, making that commitm whenever he's asked about it, but as i have been talking over the weekend to dmentds not involved with the biden campaign, one thing i kept hearing is this idea that while the former vice president may have been able to choose a white woman earlier in the process, one consequence of the delay that we have seen moving beyond his original timetable of the first week of august has maybe cost him some of the goodwill he might have been shown by african-american voters such an important constituency for the biden campaign, in part because of what we have seen play out, infighting, potential opposition research democrats have been raising. they don't like the idea that black women especially have been pit against each other because of this apparent delay. it's also important to note what has been central to the biden campaign strategy from the

beginning. they viewed the 2020 campaign on building on what was a successful strategy of 2018 for democrats to get back the house. that relied on strong turnout from african-american voters and suburban white women voters especially, that's why you're seeing gretchen whitmer as somebody who is in serious contention, chris. >> we keep waiting, waiting, waiting. mike memoli, waiting there in delaware, thank you so much. so joe biden keeps getting good news from pollsters, that's for sure. the latest in the form of two brand-new battleground state polls showing him with a large lead. and while many democrats say they know a lot can change between now and election day, one thing that can't be changed is a vote. and an unprecedented number of americans are expected to vote early. by mail. so how much time does the president really have to shore up a second term? joining me from the big board is nbc news national political

correspondent steve kornacki. hey there, steve. break down the numbers for us in the new polls. >> let's take a look here. some of the premier battlegrounds we have been talking about since 2016. a poll from cbc news and ugov. they looked at pennsylvania and found biden up 49/43. biden up by six points. that's a state trump won in 2016. he won this thing by about 46,000 votes. but a point for trump in 2016. pennsylvania had not gone republican since 1988 until trump flipped it. now this poll shows biden up by six. we have consistently been seeing this in pennsylvania. biden leads in this state, the amounts vary. six points, though, in the most recent poll we have. again, another one from wisconsin. trump won this by a fraction of a point in 2016. no republican had done that in three decades. now, biden leads by six in this poll. again, we have been seeing steady here, biden leads in wisconsin, the margins vary, but he continues to lead in the polling.

six points here. there's also one, a ugov poll out today in michigan, the third of those three midwest states that trump flipped in 2016. they have got biden up by four here. this actually one of the closer margins we have seen in michigan polling, but even with that, biden continuing to lead. if you look at the electoral college implications of this, everybody knows, but in 2016, this is where things landed, and the most direct route back to the white house for democrats is simply to flip the three states that traditionally voted democratic that flipped to trump. if they flip pennsylvania and michigan and wisconsin and nothing else changes on the map, that alone would be enough to give joe biden victory over donald trump, the three states narrow in 2016 for trump. if democrats win them back, that alone could get biden there, chris. >> what about early voting? we talk about the clock ticking really for both sides. are most of the people who vote early already baked in?

they have known for a long time who they're going to vote for? i guess my question is, what do we know about late deciders and whether they vote early? that sounds like an oxymoron. >> one of the things here is we don't know a lot, especially because this is a pandemic election. there's going to be mail-in voting on a scale we haven't seen before. the polling right now is telling us that democrats are a lot more likely or at least say they're a lot more likely to vote by mail than republicans are. what it could get you into, a situation, and we saw this in '16, is the folks earlier in a lot of states in '16, the earlier folks seem to be more democratic, the same day, the folks who turned out on election day and cast ballots then, they went big for donald trump. i remember seeing this in florida in particular in 2016. that's a thing to remember as we look at early voting numbers. if they favor one party early, remember, the other party does have that opportunity on election day to make up for it. that's what trump did in 2016.

>> steve kornacki, always good to see you at the big board. thank you for that. it is education week at nbc news, and up next, you're going to see how one maryland school thought outside the classroom to get students back to class. >> and former education secretary arne duncan is here with his advice for parents and teachers worried about the risks of returning to school. darrell's family uses gain flings now so their laundry smells more amazing than ever. [woman] isn't that the dog's towel? hey, me towel su towel.

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we're following the latest developments in the coronavirus

pandemic. here are the facts at this hour. the host of a massive house party in alpine, new jersey, well, not good. been arrested. that party drew between 300 and 400 guests last week. the charge -- recklessly creating a rifrk of widespread injury and violating the governor's order against big events. >> despite the number of flyers being down about 75%, the tsa said it's confiscating more guns at checkpoints. they fount three times as many firearms in carry-on bags this july compare today the same month last year. >> another series has been cancel for the cardinals due to the team's coronavirus outbreak. ten players and seven staff have tested positive. the team has not played a game since july 29th. >> and the big ten conference has voted to cancel its fall 2020 football season. that's according to a report from the detroit free press. the midamerican conference, you may know, scrapped its season

over the weekend. >> and it is education week at nbc news. as more school districts go back to school today, some of florida's 2.8 million public school students are back in classrooms, but with spaced out tables and signs encouraging masks. in some other states, education is moving to the great outdoors. joining me is nbc news correspondent geoff bennett. so geoff, i guess outside isn't just for recess anymore. >> you're right about that, chris. can you hear me? >> yeah, you were broken up a little bit. we can hear you fine. >> oh. okay. well, look, the number of school districts are trying to find ways to pursue in-person schooling. what they're doing is they're moving classrooms outside. since most school buildings aren't built for social distancing, i traveled to two schools, one here in maryland,

and another right outside philadelphia, to see how they're doing it. take a look. >> as schools across the country scramble to reopen safely, this school in montgomery county, maryland, has found a solution in its own backyard. it's moving all fall classes outdoors. >> theida data shows being outds drastically decreases the chance of transmission. >> this is the head of school serving children ages 2 to 12, armed with a masters degree in public health, she weighed reopening aungzs and concluded outdoor schooling was the safest, pointing to studies that show coronavirus transmission rates are lower in outdoor settings compared to indoor settings especially combined with social distancing. to prepare for the year, they created model outdoor classrooms with small tents and tables. larger ones are on the way. tents will stay open at all

times to allow for maximum air circulation. occupancy will be limited to no more than 15 students. and children will wear masks. outdoor education during a pandemic isn't new. it was common during tuberculosis outbreaks. denmark has already bushed many classes outside. now a small but growing number of u.s. schools are embracing outdoor schooling, including charl charlestown playhouse. the school plans to stay outside until the end of the year and has asked parents to dress children accordingly. >> there is no bad weather, only bad clothing. we shared with the families that their children need to be dressed for the weather. >> eric miller is sending his two daughters to the school. >> they can build things, dig holes, play with bugs. my kids are always better behaved after a day outside than they are after a day inside watching the ipad. >> our very computerized world, sometimes we need to realize

that the safer better place is in open air. >> educators excited to bring students a classroom that takes learning outside the box. >> that's geoff bennett reporting. thank you for that, geoff. with me now is arne duncan who served as secretary of education during the obama administration. always good to see you. so there is no bad weather, only bad clothing. i like that phrase. but what do you think of this idea? at least for now, outdoor classes? >> i love the creativity, where it's safe, where it's practical, it makes sense. a high school with 3,000 students is much harder to figure it out, but where we have baseball fields, soccer fields, we should absolutely be trying to use the outdoor spaces as much as we can. makes all the sense in the world. >> yeah, i was looking at those signs in the classrooms in florida where, you know, mask wearing is encouraged but not

required. is there a really safe way to get students physically back indoors into the classroom, and what would be those circumstances? >> well, what's not the safe way is to do what we saw in georgia, and that just horrified me. that was like educational and medical malpractice, stuffing a hallway full of high school students, packed, no social distancing, no masks. just a recipe for disaster, and guess what, disaster hit them very quickly. so as we think about trying to go back to physical school, where we can, where it's safe, and i keep saying the best way to give our children a chance to do that is be beat down the virus in our communities. we have to practice social distancing. we have to insist on masks. anyone who says masks are optional, no, we have dress codes in school, codes for behavior. we can insist on masks. we should try to bring back the youngest students first, the most vulnerable students first. for me, this is about slow and steady wins the race. we want to be the tortoise here,

not the heaare. we don't just want to open. we want to stay open. let's start slowly and gradually. if it goes well, we bring more students back. if we bring back too many students and things break down, as it did in georgia. guess what, they're shut today and tomorrow already. we don't want to further traumatize students. we don't want to endanger the health of parents, teachers, staff, of anybody. >> so in chicago, the school district announced they're going to do remote classrooms, after teachers threatened to protest. look, you dealt with a lot of teach teachers. you dealt with a lot of unions. you heard what the unions had to say. they had recommendations out for a while now. how powerful is that? how powerful are these concerns? either from individual teachers or unions as a whole? >> well, i think it's really important to listen to everyone, and we theed to have safe working conditions. what i really look is at in what states do we have the virus positivity rates on the testing under 5%. in & the truth is we only have

14 states out of our 50 where the positivity rates are below 5%. 36 states, that's not the case. so let's continue to wear masks. let's continue to socially distance. i keep saying we have to choose kids being in classrooms over drinking in bars. indoor restaurants. we just as a country haven't had the discipline to create the safe environment for our children to go back to physical school across this country. we have to behave very differently now in august than we did in the previous four, five months where we didn't listen to science, we weren't smart, and we let this tidal wave just sort of overwhelm us. >> former education secretary arne duncan, always good to see you. thank you so much for taking the time to be with us. we appreciate it. >> thank you. america's top intelligence officials say russia is back at t working to put their thumb on the scale of our election. so why is the chair of the senate homeland security committee choosing to focus on hunter biden?

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♪ wayfair you've got just what i need ♪ chicago officials have a s message for last night's looters. we have you on video, and we will pursue you to the fullest extent of the law. check it out, the scene in downtown chicago overnight, as dozens of stores along the city's magnificent mile were vandalized and robbed and gunfire was reported hours after an officer-involved shooting resulted in a faceoff between protesters and police. at least 100 arrests were made. 13 officers injured. downtown chicago went into lockdown with expressway exited blocked, bridges lifted to keep vehicles and pedestrians from entering the area. mayor lori lightfoot calling last night's events inexcusable. >> this is not legitimate first amendment protected speech.

these were not poor people engaged in petty theft to feed themselves and their family. this was straight up felony criminal conduct. to those who engaged in this criminal behavior, let's be clear. we're coming for you. >> joining me from chicago is nbc news reporter shaquille brewster. she couldn't have been any more clear there, but give us a sense of what happened. some of the problems were continuing into the early morning hours even, right, shaq? >> that's right, chris. it's something that really developed over the course of the day. police say it started with that officer-involved shooting. they say they were responding to a call when they saw a suspect who then ran on foot. he fired at them, and they returned fire. shooting that 20-year-old black man, but then they say there was some misinformation over the age of the suspect, and the circumstances surrounding the shooting. that's when they say people kind of took advantage of the situation. listen to how the superintendent described what happened after

that. >> officers were dispatched to our downtown area once we got word of the social media posts. soon, car caravans were headed into the loop. this was not an organized protest. rather, this was an incident of pure criminality. this was an act of violence against our police officers and against our city. >> and the violence and destruction was pretty widespread throughout the city. you see some of the cleanup still going on right now. many of the businesses that were previously boarded up in may after the death of george floyd and the uprisings then, they're finding themselves having to board up one more time to protect the businesses this time around, officers say they'll be put on 12-hour shifts and vacation days are going away. the tee is saying they're taking this seriously. at the peak, there were 400 officers deployed to the downtown area last night. as you see from the destruction, it was not enough. the officers and law enforcement

were overwhelmed by that organized violence that happened last night. chris. >> shaquille brewster, thank you for that update. much appreciated. >> senator ron johnson, republican chair of the homeland security committee, has issued subpoenas today as part of his investigation into hunter biden's dealings in ukraine. as well as into what he calls the false trump russia collusion narrative. and top national security officials are sounding the alarm once again about election interference. according to the office of the dni, russia is once again looking to interfere in the election on behalf of president trump. while iran and china reportedly want to see the president defeated. let's bring in natasha bertrand, the national security correspondent for politico. good to see you today. let's start with the subpoenas from senator johnson. what more do we know, natasha, and how do they relate to what we do know about russia's plan to interfere in our election? >> yeah, chris. it's a bit confusing.

the subpoena that johnson's committee issued was actually to the fbi, to fbi director chris wray, and he wants to know more about the cross fire investigation, the investigation into russia's interference in 2016 and the president's involvement in that. his campaign's involvement in that. he wants to know more about the origin of that, how it began, et cetera. this is in parallel to an investigation being conducted by lindsey graham on another senate committee. so that is separate from the broader investigation that ron johnson has been conducting into the bidens, into hunter biden, who is joe biden's son, and into joe biden himself with regard to their activities in ukraine when joe biden was the vice president. so this is connected to what we were told by the country's top counterintelligence official on friday, which is that russia has is using these ukrainian figures as cutouts to push disinformation into the american election. and to kind of muddy the waters

surrounding joe biden. now, this is connected to ron johnson's probe because he has been investigating claims essentially being made by these very same ukrainian figures with regard to joe biden and his activities in ukraine. so it's a little bit messy, but what we saw on friday was the first real reassurance and confirmation of the fact that russia is, again, working to undermine the democratic candidate in the 2020 election and to boost trump ahead of november. >> so natasha, congressman adam schiff talked last night about what he believes to be the politicization of the intelligence community. let me play a little bit of what he had to say. >> now, i think what we're seeing is more subtle effort to dumb down what the ic is willing to tell the public and elevate china, because it's consistent with a narrative the president wants to tell. and i think that's a disservice. i think the american people

should be told the truth about what russia is doing, about what china is doing, may do, what iran is doing or may do, but it shouldn't be done with an eye towards telling a narrative the president prefers. >> natasha, is the congressman right? is there a kind of false equivalency between russia and china and iran here? >> there's a lot of consternation among democrats that they're elevating china to the level of russia in order to protect the president's feelings. right? that the intelligence community wants it to appear like all these countries are interfering for different reasons in order to muddy the waters ahead of 2020 and not just russia to boost trump, because of course, the president is very sensitive about anyone suggesting that russia might have helped him win in 2016. so there is a feeling among many democrats that bill ebanina, the top counter intelligence official in the u.s., is trying to play this game where he kind of makes a foreign interference

sandwich. he puts china on one side and russia in the middle, when in fact, a lot of people who have seen the intel say that russia, the threat posed by russia is much more acute, whereas china might be playing a long game, might be trying to influence policy, making public statements about their preferences, russia's interference is actually more insidious and more directly threatening the situation surrounding the 2020 election. >> natasha bertrand, always great to have you on the program. thank you so much. good to see you. president trump is denying a "new york times" report that the white house was looking into having his face added to mt. rushmore. according to the times, an aide actually approached the south dakota governor's office ahead of the president's july 4th visit. the president called the story fake news, while also pointing out he wouldn't mind it. and the governor told the paper that mr. trump has personally

approached her on the topic in the past. but instead, the governor presented the president with a four-foot reproduction of the monument that included trump's face alongside presidents washington, jefferson, roosevelt, and lincoln. as we speak, some 70 million americans risk eviction. any protection they had is expired. the president says he took executive action to help them. but did he really? here's your iced coffee! ♪ america runs on dunkin' ♪ yeah, it's time for grilled cheese. ♪ ♪ after we make grilled cheese, ♪ ♪ then we're eating grilled cheese. ♪ ♪ because it's time. ♪ yeah. ♪ time for grilled cheese.

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up to 40 million people in the u.s. are at risk of eviction as they struggle to pay for housing as a result of the pandemic. unfortunately, it appears the president's executive actions may not help most of them, if any. the action he signed at his new jersey golf resort doesn't actually stop evictions, rather it calls for the hhs and cdc to consider whether an eviction ban is needed. many states have zero protections which leaves many of the most vulnerable including those living in states who voted overwhelmingly for president trump in 2016 twisting in the wind. joining me is president and ceo of the national housing conference. all those states where it's approaching 50% or over 50% of eviction threat, the president signing that memorandum, does it

help at all? >> well, thanks for having me on the show, chris. it doesn't. but it does move the ball forward in that the president is acknowledging that we have a huge problem here and that it's going to disproportionately affect people of color, that it's going to be a lot harder to socially distant if you evicted. all those things are the exact opposite that you want to have during a pandemic and those my talking points, they're in the executive order, so i think that's pretty strong case that congress and the president need to get together and come one a solution to this, that's more than just kicking the can down the road by saying we're not going to evict you today but you'll have to pay 6 months or 12 months of missed rent tomorrow. that's not a solution. we need rental assistance.

>> so, there weren't a loft specifics from the president himself so i want to get your thoughts on what economic adviser larry kudlow said yesterday on cnn. >> does this -- yes or no, does this freeze evictions, prevent evictions, full stop, period, as the president said yesterday. >> it will. it absolutely will. we're setting up a process, a mechanism, okay, i can't predict the future, all the federally financed single families and multifamilies will be covered as they have been. with respect to additional population, again, if hhs declares emergencies then evictions will be stopped. >> that's a lot of ifs. so in the meantime, if those ifs

don't come to being what's the threat here, what's the real world potential impact. >> well, you know, larry kudlow is not some talking head, he's actually the national economic adviser to the president of the united states, so and i have been in government the last time i checked, we do lot of work over the weekends, i think if the hhs secretary and the cdc have the authority they should do it today. it's also not enough -- we actually need help people pay their rent and the landlords need to get the rent as well, i don't think we have hedge funds owning all of our rental property, either. it's in everyone's interest to have the federal government come in and pay the rent for people who can't afford to pay it for no reason other than this pandemic. you can argue against having

government in all kinds of areas of our life and during a once in a hundred year pandemic, that's still going to be on the let's have government help space. >> good to have you on the program, sir. thank you so much. we appreciate your time. that does it for me this hour. i'll see you right back here at 4:00 p.m. eastern. . eastern. this isn't just a wifi upgrade.

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it's 3 dlk p.m. in the east. 12 noon out west. we begin, though with the headlines at this hour. there are now more than 5 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus here in the united states. a number that has doubled since the end of june, however the cdc believes the actual number of infections is far higher than that, the death toll now stands at nearly 164,000. as schools start to reopen a new report says that at least 97,000 children have tested positive for the virus during the last two weeks of july. the report also says that at least 338,000 kids have tested positive since this pandemic began. a blow for college football fans, the big ten conference voted to cancel the 2020 college football season because of the coronavirus. the paper reports there could be a formal announcement as early as tomorrow and that the big ten is trying to coordinate with

other big