good afternoon. i'm chuck todd. it's 11:00 a.m. out west and 2:00 p.m. here in the east. right now, joe biden and kamala harris are in willingten, delaware, getting briefed on the pandemic. we're expecting them to speak later this hour. we'll bring it to you. >> their ticket is narrowing its focus on the president's response to the crisis. during her debut as the vice presidential pick, harris laid the blame squarely at trump's feet. >> his delusional belief that he knows better than the experts, all of that is reason and the reason that an american dies of covid-19 every 80 seconds. >> this is as a brand-new monmouth poll shows a majority of americans thinks the united states is handling this pandemic worse than other countries. >> last hour, dr. anthony fauci addressed the state of the crisis, telling national geographic in all locations

where the rate of infection is low enough, a sincere effort should be made to put kids back in the classroom. the problem is there aren't many places where it's low enough. >> and right now, top trump administration officials including jared kushner and the national security adviser robert o'brien are briefing the press on the new agreement between the uae and israel. president trump will address reporters himself at 5:30 eastern later today. but we're going to begin at the white house where the president made explicit today what many had been speculating. he's holding up a proposed stimulus deal he says in part because he does not want to fund the postal service and help improve the chances of making mail-in voting feasible. >> you know, there's nothing wrong with getting out and voting. you get out and vote. they voted during world war i and world war ii. two of the items are the post office and the $3.5 billion for mail-in voting. if we don't make a deal, that means they don't get the money. that means they can't have

universal mail-in voting. just can't have it. >> joining me now is nbc news white house correspondent carol lee. so carol, is the president -- he didn't quite say it, but it sounds like he's saying that's among the reasons he won't cut a deal, he doesn't want the postal service to have extra resources to handle increased mail-in voting? >> yeah, chuck, he really seemed to lay his strategy out there for the public, for everybody to see, saying the quiet part out loud, i guess. and it seems to be that that's one of his red lines. i spoke with a white house official here a few minutes ago who was saying that their position is the bill should only include things that relate to economic relief for americans who are suffering because of the pandemic. they're willing to forego the funding for the fbi building, for instance, and really try to keep a narrow focus on that, and

that's what i think you're going to hear from the white house in terms of what the president's argument was. this official was saying that if the democrats want to have a conversation about funding for the post office and mail-in balloting voting, we can have that conversation outside of these specific relief negotiations. but the president clearly is essentially drawing a red line, and a new one, and one that's likely to escalate what's already been a very tense process that's reached a stalemate and has been at a stalemate for some time. >> speaking of the president sort of saying the quiet part out loud, the durham investigation, the u.s. attorney, john durham, in the same fox interview, carol, and i gotta -- the president seemed to indicate he's expecting a specific outcome, and if he doesn't get it, he's going to blame the attorney general. this is what he said. he said he hopes that the durham investigation, which is investigating the origins of the

russia probe, is not going to be politically correct. and he said attorney general william barr, he can go down as the greatest attorney general in the history of our country or an average guy. we'll see what happens. the president interfering with this investigation in ways that i am old enough to remember when the right was up in arms when barack obama said there's probably nothing on those emails of hillary clinton, and you would have thought he committed some high crime and misdemeanor. >> this is really explicit, chuck. the message that the president is trying to send to the attorney general. i mean, he's essentially saying, look, you can either hand over a favorable report that i really like and go down as the greatest tae attorney general in history or something that doesn't make me happy and then you're just an average guy. we know, for instance, the attorney general has already said back in may that the investigation is unlikely based on the information he had at the time to touch president obama, former president president obama or former president biden, but

still, the president wants something out of this investigation that he can use in the campaign in the closing weeks to hit joe biden on, and basically say he was wronged and joe biden acted in some way that was unfair or at least the people in his administration. attorney general got a very clear message from the president today. >> well, but the president just shreddededibility. we now know whatever the outcome is, it is now tainted no matter what, and now the attorney general is in an impossible box. no matter what you think of him, this investigation completely has been tainted by the president's comments. carol lee at the white house -- >> i was going to say, attorney general barr has said before to the president that he continues to make his job harder by doing things like this, chuck. >> right. but at this point, it's totally discredited no matter how much credibility they think they have. carol lee at the white house, thank you very much. just this hour, as we mentioned, the newly announced democratic ticket is at a roundtable briefing with public

health experts in wilmington, delaware. the focus is the coronavirus pandemic. we expect both joe biden and kamala harris to deliver a few remarks when it is over. this is the democratic party, continues to prepare for a national convention that kicks off virtually on monday. the entire four-day event will be held essentially online or digitally or in whatever you want to call it. with me now is nbc news krount mike memoli who remains in wilmington, delaware. mike, first let's start with what do we expect to hear from the ticket today? and what have they -- what have they learned in their briefing so far? >> well, chuck, what we're seeing today is something that has actually been happening privately for joe biden for the last four months. in may, his campaign announced the formation of what they called a public health advisory panel made up of a number of former obama administration officials including the former surgeon general and a number of other health experts. what we're seeing today is that presentation, which biden has

been saying he's had three or four days a week, happening in front of the press, in front of the public, and it really speaks to the way the biden campaign has been modeling itself for the last two months. les campaigning, more governing. this is an exact -- we heard the former vice president as he introduced kamala harris yesterday, saying he asked her to have the same relationship as his vice president that he had with president obama, to be the last in his case guy in the room, the last person in the room on every big decision, and to be a seat at the table as they consider the big issues of state. and today, we're seeing that exact picture of governing, the two of them hearing from experts, not just on the pandemic, but the campaign also just announcing that they'll have a second briefing on the economy, so the biden campaign has long believed this campaign is going to come down to the pandemic and the president's handling of it, and that includes the economic fallout, and that's the briefings that they're participating in today. >> mike memoli, again another

rainy day. sorry that you've been drawing the short straw on that. but mike memoli in a rainy wilmington, thank you, sir. nearly two days after joe biden named kamala harris as his running mate, the nation is beginning to learn more about the woman who in just five short months could be a heartbeat away from the presidency, becoming the country's first black and asian american vice president would top a long list of proe s professional achievements for her. her career has been marked by a number of first. she was california's first black woman district attorney. she was the state's first female attorney general, also the first indian american elected united states senator. now is the first black woman on a major national ticket, she's promising to prosecute the case against president trump. >> as somebody who has presented my fair share of arguments in court, the case against donald trump and mike pence is open and shut. just look where they've gotten

us. >> joining me now is dan moraine, president of the sacramento press club and former longtime los angeles times reporter, and anita kumar, associate editor and also a longtime california-based reporter as well. dan, let me start with you. kamala harris, in some ways, has been a rising star, future star, people have been telling me about her for essentially the beginning of the 21st century. and here she is. >> well, she certainly is a rising star. and you know what, republicans really did see this when she was running for california attorney general in 2010. as i wrote in "the washington post" the other day, ed gillespie, former chair of the republican national committee, spent his pac that he ran back in 2010, spent over a million dollars to unseat her. or to block her from rising, and

one reason was he wanted a republic republican, but they also wanted to stop a rising star. >> you know, anita, that first race is probably the toughest race she's ever had, that attorney general's race, or at least the highest profile tough race in 2010, and it was close. it wasn't, you know, she won, but i believe it was one of the closest of the state-wide races that cycle. >> right. that's right, but there's going to be nothing like the spotlight on her now. you know, california obviously the biggest state. there's so much attention on it, but this national politics, you know, there's nothing that can compare to what she's about to go through. remember, that's one of the reasons joe biden picked her, is that she had been through so many of these things. she had been vetted. some of the other people that he looked at, they were afraid of what was going to come out and they didn't know, you know, not all of those things have come out. this is someone who has been through it before and we know what's going to come out, generally. >> anita, how is she navigating

the northern/southern california split? the reason i ask that, because in some ways it's the same progressive, quote, you know, centrist democrat, the split between northern and southern california democrats in some ways is the same as the split between, say, joe biden and progressive democrats. and kamala harris is in the same way she's not been pigeon holed nationally, she seems to have navigated that. what is your assessment of how she's done it? >> yeah, that's one of the things you're hearing about in the last few days, is that people are saying, and republicans are scoffing at this, but people are saying she did navigate that and she is navigating all kinds of or all factions of the democratic party. and that's one of the reasons that joe biden liked her. you know, but it's interesting. as we saw the trump campaign say, oh, she's too liberal, she's too progressive, she's going to be the most progressive ticket that has ever been. but then we also saw them say, look at all these democrats who are saying she's not progressive

enough. so you know, i think sometimes when both sides are criticizing you for something, you must be meeting that in the middle. >> dan, there's another phenomenon about her that to me has been similar, i have seen it with other -- i remember this in the early days of barack obama, you would hear from some conservatives who would be like, you know, i have always -- he always listened to me, took my call. you hear that, hugh hewitt, who is a conservative radio host, it has nothing but great things to say about kamala harris. she seems to have successfully at least defanged at least in the california republican circles, some of that on the right. how has she done it? >> well, i'm not sure she actually has. i think that the republicans view her with great alarm here. but you know, she can be incredibly charming. and can -- you know, she doesn't

suffer fools at all. but and she's very tough, but she also has a side, i believe she's empathetic. you know, she's going to be a really formidable candidate, i believe. >> dan, let me ask one final question this way. what would you say is an attribute of hers that hasn't gotten attention that deserves more attention? >> well, she is very tough. she is very serious. she's really very smart. you know, i saw her when i was the sacramento bee editorial page editor, and our editorial board meetings very quick, very fast on her feet. i'm not sure that's going to be news to people who know her, but i do think people will be

surprised. >> dan moraine and anita kumar, two people who have covered the california politician that is kamala harris, thanks for sharing your perspective of her. really appreciate it. and we have a little breaking news from the white house this afternoon. as we told you earlier, the president announcing israel and the uae have agreed to establish official diplomatic ties. it puts some of israel's controversial plans of annexation on hold. >> and down in georgia, a school district went ahead and sent kids and teachers back to class. now more than 1,000 of them are in quarantine. ine. ♪ perfect. -you're welcome. i love it. how'd you do all this? told ya! wayfair. let's talk dining tables. yes! blow it up.

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a second protester has died in the violent protests in belarus against its authoritarian president who is accused of rigging election results to extend his 26-year rule. the country has seen four days of unrest since the president lukashenko, known as europe's last dictator, claimed a

landslip victory with 80% of the vote. hundreds have been injures and at least 600 detained. his challenger, a 37-year-old former teacher, fled the country after being briefly detained and receiving a reported threat to her children. she released this video in which she appears to be reading a statement asking her supporters to stop the protests. they have begun using live ammunition. the european union will meet friday to discuss levying targeted sanctions against be belar belarus, and mike pompeo, who right now is in the middle of a four-country tour of central europe said the u.s. may consider similar actions if the situation does not improve. pompeo also agreed with eu officials that the vote was not free and fair. today, the white house announced an historic diplomatic agreement between israel and the united arab emirates as part of a deal brokered by the united states, the two countries have agreed to normalize relations, making the uae the first aybar

country to recognize israel since jordan back in 1994. israel has agreed to stop its plans to annex parts of the west bank. meanwhile, in lebanon, the parliament has granted the military sweeping emergency authority over beirut. lebanon's capital city has seen growing protests since the massive explosion that killed more than 200 people. many residents of lebanon now basically blaming government incompetence. and now the military has the power to declare curfews, prevent public gatherings and censor the media. a lot going on today in the world of foreign affairs. joining me is robin wright, a joint fellow at the institute of peace, a distinguished fellow at the woodrow wilson center. like i said, a lot to get to, robin. let me just start with the news that the white house announced first. i know we first wanted to book you having to do with what's going on in belarus and lebanon, but let's talk about this. how big of a deal is it, and in some ways, like i said, there's been this sort of unofficial

alliance between the uae and israel for some time. what do you think finally brought it to fruition today? >> well, reflects the changing balance of power, the changing issues in terms of security. for almost 70 years, israel looked at the palestinians as its foremost security threat. today, it looks at iran as its foremost security threat, and it's that old adage, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. and this has been a coming reality. the deeper the tensions with iran between not just israel but also the wider arab world, the greater the incentive to create an alliance among the sunnis of the gulf and israel. i think the united arab emirates will not be the last one, but it's -- there's still a lot of questions to be sorted out. where will the embassy be. what will the level of engagement be? and one of those big questions is which one -- which country wants to be next?

>> i was just going to say, you would assume, saudi arabia and the uae, obviously, i feel like they're very tight when it comes to their foreign policies, but do you think saudi arabia would be next? >> i think as long as the current king is still alive, king sal amman, who is now in his 80s and ailing, that he still feels a real loyalty to the palestinian issue. i think his son, who is the de facto leader, crown prince mohammed, probably has broader visions, but remember, saudi arabia is the guardian of islam's two holy sites, and i suspect it will be if not the last, one of the last ones to make that gargantuan step. >> let's move to another continent, to what's going on in belarus. this has been, and i guess the question i have is is there much sanctions would do here? i say that because it seems as if maybe the west is paying a price for playing ftse with lukashenko for as long as they did, because you keep saying the

enemy of my enemy. there was a time, because he was taking on putin, you know, there's been this sort of battle for him and battle for belarus. what can the west do about this? >> well, this is where i think the europeans and the united states have often differed in how to deal with some of the autocrats in the region. the trump administration has been much more willing to engage with some of them or even tolerate them. and the problem is that sanctions take a long time. the united states has issued sanctions, whether it's on sudan or other african countries today, in sanctioning flights, charter flights to cuba, that there have been a number of these steps, but these don't bring about fast results. and the challenge is how much do you use your other tools of soft power to try to sway a political environment and the trump administration has not shown a

great will in using what powers it has to confront the autocr s autocrats. >> robin, it feels as if, you know, if putin is trying to essentially rebuild the old soviet union, he's made some inroads in ukraine with crimea. i mean, do you think it's inevitable that belarus is going to become essentially whatever this, you know, there's been this talk of some even closer alliance between the two. it seems like putin is doing some regional expansionism and having some success. >> there's no question that vladimir putin has always wanted to re-create one way or another either a formal soviet bloc or russian bloc, or an informal one, where his tentacles spread and has influence politically, trade ties, military, a military presence. his goals are no different than during the soviet era, and i think that will continue.

>> and as long as we have weakened nato a little bit, at least rhetorically, weakened nato, does it make it harder to stop this erosion from eastern and central europe? >> well, the u.s. presence in germany has been a barrier. it's been in a way a stop sign to russian aggression further into yourp. and there's deep concern that nato is weakened, both in terms of the military, american military presence, but also the american military commitment, the broader idea that we are standing strong and are reflected symbolically and physically with a deployment of american troops. >> yeah. and with that shrinking, it does send certainly a symbolic message. robin wright, it's always a pleasure to get your expertise on this. thanks for sharing with us today on a busy foreign policy day when we don't normally cover as much as we should. so thank you.

>> thank you. up next, we're going to head to georgia, where we may be getting our questions answered about kids returning to school. that single school district that has more than 1300 students and staff in quarantine right now. cranky-pated: a bad mood related to a sluggish gut.

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we're following the latest on the pandemic, and here are the facts as we know them at this hour. drug makers are ramping up production of flu vaccines as they face the prospect of a flu season colliding with the coronavirus pandemic. public health experts are urging more people to get vaccinated to ease the added strain on the health care system that comes with every flu season, which by the way, the cdc director, robert redfield, warned against again. >> as i said last april, this could be the worst fall from a public health perspective we have ever had. >> the one piece of good news i have read are somewhat sort of lockdown of the world has slowed down the flu virus traveling around, so maybe that is a small piece of good news. the dallas cowboys are planning on home games with fans in the stands. owner jerry jones says the home team and fans will adhere to all safety protocols but he did not

elaborate on how many fans would be involved, how is he going to avoid line queues things like that, currently, they allow stadiums to befilled to 50% of capacity, which could mean up t cowboys home game. >> amc theaters will be opening for the first time since the pandemic. a goal of opening most of the remaining theaters by early september. but there will be changes. masks will be required for all customers and staff. and in georgia, one school district has quarantined over 1300 students and staff members. chair kerokee county is closing of their high schools out of concerns for coronavirus cases spreading. and an uncertain future lies ahead for the district's 42,000 students. that's where we find ellison barber, in woodstock, georgia, for us. ellison, this was what some

folks feared in an attempt to go in person. what are they learning on the fly? >> right. it's interesting you have like i think in so many communities across this country right now, some very mixed, very opposing views on how things are going in this school district, as we see these numbers continue to come out. this school district has confirmed 78 cases of covid-19 in 21 different schools in this county, in this school district alone. there are some people who say, yeah, you know, the numbers, maybe they are higher than some other places, but when you think how there are 40,000 plus students in this entire school district, the school is doing the best they can given the circumstances. they wanted kids to be back in school. they think that this is reasonable, the infection rate is reasonable if you will, given the total student body population. other parents, other students, have said this is a disaster, and it is time for this school district to reverse course and say hey, we made a mistake.

we're going to learn from it and move more students to in-person learning. as you said, two high schools, they made the decision this week. one on tuesday, another just yesterday. the wrone where we are now, to move all of their students doing in-person to online, at least through the end of the month, because each of those schools had over a dozen students test positive for covid-19, and each school had 15 or so students waiting for test results. i spoke to one student, a high schooler at a high school in this county, and he told me he wears a mask, but this entire school district, they don't have a mask mandate. it is suggested, requested, but not required. he told me one of the students in his study hall class tested positive for covid-19. he found that out this week. he says he was not told to quarantine because he wasn't technically in close contact with that person. but he said over half of the students in his classroom were not wearing face masks. he said some of the rules that are supposed to be enforcement in the district, like

controlling traffic in the hallways, he said school administrators aren't stepping in and doing much. he said from what he's seeing on the ground, a junior in high school, he's afraid he could become positive and these num r numbers we're seeing, they're going to get worse before it gets bet sxr it doesn't look like the school district is going to make major changes as of now, chuck. >> all these school districts once they made a decision, it costs so much money to do one way or the other, and they don't have the financial flexibility to suddenly shift gears. we'll see if the state and feds can kick in here. ellison barber on the ground for us, thank you. we're going to stick with the schools issue here. how can other schools nationwide avoid a repeat of the situation we saw in georgia. joining me is dr. rob davidson he's executive director of the committee to protect medicare. so rob davidson, what -- what did we see in georgia? and is there a way to do a hybrid model? is there a way to do this

safely? and what does that look like? >> well, i think what we saw in georgia is the inevitable outcome of a pandemic that is not under control. when you have viral transmission rates in the teens, 10, 11, 12%, sorry, when you have test positivity rates, 10%, 11%, 12%, in texas, 20%, it doesn't matter how many precautions you make, even if you mandate masks, it's not 100%. we're going to see outbreaks. we're going to see kids in quarantine. like you said, 1300 kids, then the question is, if you're doing in-person learning, how do they get education if 1300 of them are sitting home for up to two weeks? i think that is the answer. it's not a secret. we control the virus, and that largely has not been done in many parts of this country. >> we heard dr. fauci. he's been very careful in how he esays things now about reopening schools. one of the things he said, he does think it is safe if you have the positivity rate and you

have the virus under control. but it's what he didn't say, which is okay, what communities in america have a positivity rate low enough that you can do this? and it feels like outside the state of montana, maybe the state of rhode island, you know, we're seeing in the northeast, there's some. there aren't many places in the country that can, if you just went by the science, correct? >> yeah. i think there's maybe ten or 11 states. michigan, where i am, is one of them. michigan has a test positivity rate of around 3% or so. our cases are pretty leveled out. some communities, larger communities, communities with more dense populations, with, you know, more multigenerational homes, those folks are starting virtual. our community is a smaller community. we are starting with a hybrid model for a few weeks and then going to in-class learning with block schedules. and we'll see. you know, there is a mask mandate in our community, and we're grateful for that because that, i think, will help slow the spread and help keep the

numbers down. >> do you have a -- let's be realistic here, rob. is there a school district anywhere in michigan that has the financial resources to essentially pivot back and forth if they had to? you know, it feels like every school district had to make a decision. if we're in-person, we're going 3 our resources into putting up the teacher, the covers and putting up the plastic barriers, things like that. or if you're going to go remote, we'll find the laptops and software to do this right. is there a school district that can do both in this country? >> no, i'm in a state where betsy devos comes from. she grew up 30 miles from where i am, and they have underfunded schools for decades in this school, now really across the country. so no, particularly in this setting of a pandemic, where state budgets are down, and congress can't get their stuff together to get more funding to schools, i think that's inevitably a huge challenge. again, our ultimate ability to control this virus, this

president's ability to lead, which he has sort of shirked that responsibility, that is how we get back into schools, we get back into businesses, we get bars open, we get stadiums like you said in your open, like cowboys stadium, half full. that to me is one of the most insane things i have heard right now. and controlling the virus is the answer. the president just hasn't done it, and we need him to step up. >> let's get this positivity rate down below 5% and start having these conversations. anyway, rob davidson, coming to us from the state of michigan, committee to protect medicare, thanks for coming on and sharing your perspective with us. >> thanks for having me. so just shy of 1 million americans filed for first-time unemployment last week. and sadly, that's good news. we're in north texas next, where work is so hard to find, hundreds of thousands of residents have turned to local churches and food pantries to eat. >> and later, new rules for getting covid data from hospitals is making it now near impossible to see if we have

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we're going straight to wilmington, delaware. joe biden and kamala harris speaking. >> about a range of issues. we talked about school openings. we talked about the distribution of a vaccine, if and when one arrives. and what plans for made for them, we talked about the racial disparities that exist and how it is covid-19 is affecting different races differently. and we talked about the continued lack of ppe, protective equipment, and testing capacity and the like. and i put out a comprehensive plan over the last three months

on each of these things, but today, i want to talk about one thing very straightforward. doesn't have anything to do with democrats, republicans, or independents. it has to do with a simple proposition. every single american should be wearing a mask when they're outside for the next three months at a minimum. every governor should mandate, every governor should mandate mandatory mask wearing. the estimates by the experts are it will save over 40,000 lives in the next three months. 40,000 lives. if people act responsibly. and it's not about your rights. it's about your responsibilities as an american. the fact is that as americans are lining up to give blood, americans volunteer all their

time for food banks and local charities, supporting their neighbors when they're in need, well, this is no different. wearing a mask is less about you contracting the virus, although it does help depending on the mask, but it's about preventing other people from getting sick. wearing a mask will give the life of a clerk in your local store or your letter carrier, your child's teacher, it will increase their prospects of not contracting the virus. even though it's uncomfort, we're not used to it, wearing a mask is going to get our kids back to school sooner and safer. wearing a mask, every american wearing a mask outdoors is going to get our businesses back and to full strength long term. and we're going to get our country back on track. but again, when i get occasionally confronted with a person in the public about wearing a mask, i say look, this

is america. be a patriot. protect your fellow citizens. protect your fellow citizens. step up. do the right thing. do the right thing. there's overwhelming evidence, overwhelming evidence that the mask and depending on the type of mask you wear, increases exponentially the prospect that you, if you are a carrier and you don't even know it, that you will not infect anyone when you cough, sneeze, sing, shout. a lot of people are dying. we're up over 160,000 people dead so far. and i'll end by saying that it goes back to the study some months ago by columbia university saying that we didn't have to be this way. if the president acted sooner, we would have saved just one

week earlier, we would have saved 30 some thousand lives. two weeks earlier, i think it was 50,000 lives. i hope we learned a lesson. i hope the president has learned the lesson, but again, this is not about democrat, republican, or independent. it's institute a mask mandate nationwide. starting immediately. and we will save lives. estimates are we'll save over 40,000 lives in the next three months if that is done. let me turn it over to my colleague and running mate. she has a few comments to make. >> thanks, joe. that's what real leadership looks like. we just witnessed real leadership. which is joe biden said that as a nation, we should all be

wearing a mask for the next three months because it will save lives. and the thing about joe that the american people know is that his role of leadership in our country has always been about doing what's best for the people of our country. best for their health, their wellbeing, and for their families. that's what real leadership looks like. and when joe talks about his priorities, he knows and he cares about the fact that we have as a nation witnessed 165,000 people who just in the last few months have died in our country. we know that those individuals represent families, loved ones, grandparents, parents, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles, of people who are mourning their loss every day. so what real leadership looks like is joe biden, to speak up,

sometimes telling us the stuff that we don't necessarily want to hear, but we need to know. and the need for this mandatory mask wearing will also be about what joe has articulated and what a biden/harris administration will do in terms of creating a pandemic testing board to get tens of millions of testing kits where needed. to build a public health jobs corps, hiring at least 100,000 americans to lead us through contact tracing as soon as we take office, and to chart a clear path forward for a safe and effective vaccine and guarantee every american, every american, equal access to it by investing $25 billion, which is joe's plan, $25 billion in manufacturing and distribution. and when joe talks about this, i

think it's important that the american people looking at the election coming up ask the current occupant of the white house when am i going to get vaccinated? when am i actually going to get vaccinated? because there may be some grand gestures offered by the current president about a vaccine, but it really doesn't matter until you can answer the question, when am i going to get vaccinated? so again, joe biden is about real leadership in our country, and i'm honored to be with you, joe. thank you. >> well, we thought we would give a couple of the shouted questions a chance to see if they would turn. you know, it's a fascinating little back and forth that we in the pres try to do. you throw the shouted questions,

see if they turn. if they have a habit of it, as one current and former senator do, sometimes they do, there you saw joe biden showing discipline and avoiding it. they were speaking on their coronavirus response. in delaware. let's go back to wilmington, where we find mike memoli outside the hotel there. so mike, i guess if there was news, it was the former vice president calling for a national mandate, asking every governor, since you have to do this by the state, but asking every single governor to mandate mask wearing, claiming it would save 40,000 lives. correct me if i'm wrong, mike. has he been that direct before in his asks for a mask mandate? >> no, chuck. that was a new specific request or suggestion, i guess, on the part of the former vice president. and it's interesting, i menti mentioned at the top of the hour that this briefing he had was this public health advisory council that his campaign formed in may. and i think when these kinds of

things get formed on a campaign, they tend to be seen as largely for optics. i think largely from what we have seen from biden, this might have been a suggestion coming from the experts he was speaking to. one of the advisers actually that they got months ago was about moving the democratic convention into august, the advice he got from the board was that august might be the sweet spot after a first wave and before the fall combination of the seasonal flu plus a resurgence. obviously, that didn't work out. that speaks to, i think, the degree to which this campaign, obviously, as biden himself said yesterday, continues to be guiding in what it's going to be doing in terms of public appearance. there was some interest once biden named his running mate, in how much it might change his appearance. might they do more public events, return to more of a campaign feel. on the first full day as a ticket, what we're seeing is largely the same. a campaign and two principals

focused on setting an example for what they believe leadership should be in contrast to what's happening at the white house, trying to offer advice. an interesting glimpse as well of that dynamic. joe biden speaking about the guidance he's getting from his experts and issuing potential suggestions for what the public should be experts and then kamala harris coming in and saying americans should be demanding that the president answers questions, basic questions like when can i get a vaccine, when can i get tested. that dynamic playing out before our eyes. >> mike, wilmington, i'm wondering if kamala harris has to find a temporary place to live. they're both giving their acceptance speeches now. it looks like they'll spend a lot more time in wilmington than anywhere else if they can't travel. >> reporter: at least for the next week, chuck. there's discussion as you would

expect with a new principle about how and what they can do in terms of public events going forward. it was interesting hearing yesterday about what president trump has planned during the dnc. he's not ceding the spotlight by any means. look for kamala harris to play a significant role during the week of the rnc, whether in delaware or beyond. we'll wait to see what that looks like. i expect to see her play a prominent role. >> you did a great job teasing ahead. mike, thank you. joining us now is nbc news political reporter monica alba who is on the trump beat. we heard mike give a little bit of a preview there. we're learning more about how the president is going to attempt to spin. it's interesting, monica, usually it's a vice president or

surrogate that shadows the opposing party's convention and the principle takes the week off. donald trump is not going to stay in bedminster all week. >> reporter: exactly, chuck. those norms out the window. if we look at four years ago when the democratic national convention was happening, candidate trump was giving press conferences and holding rallies. he was still visible while the other event was happening breaking that traditional norm. next week the dnc will be in full swing virtually. president trump will be out on the campaign trail physically. that's an important distinction that the campaign and white house wants to make. they want to show him traveling to the battle ground state, a very different approach from joe biden and kamala harris who are going to be speaking from delaware. president trump will be in wisconsin and minnesota on

monday, arizona on tuesday and then scranton, pennsylvania on thursday. this is a president who made a total hallmark of his campaign trolling the democrats during the primary season. remember, he would host giant rallies ahead of all the early voting contests. he essentially was shadowing them. now he's saying while the democrats aren't out in full force, we'll hit the road. what will the rnc look like? the president hasn't decided if he'll give his re-election speech from the white house south lawn or gettysburg. >> monica, i'm convinced he's going to see what the democratic national convention looks like and recreate what he likes and try to do other things there. good luck to those putting on the rnc event. monica alba, thank you. weekless jobless claims dip below 1 million for the first

time since last week, but just barely. more than 963,000 americans filed for first-time unemployment claims. millions of americans are struggling to make ends meet. let's go to morgan cheski. moran g morg morgan, you're seeing increased lines at food banks. >> reporter: chuck, you're right. some people who came here for food, didn't get it because the dallas food bank ran out. they were planning on serving people who pulled into the area for the better part of the morning. by 9:00, 9:30 every box here was taken. had a chance to hear from one man who got here as early as

5:00 a.m. just to make sure he would get some food and here's what he said. >> you know, the old song says a man gotta do what a man gotta do. i got two grandkids living with us. eventually their parents come pick them up. we help them best we can. >> reporter: the line to get into the area, chuck, a mile long. we have video from above this neighborhood showing how long that line was stretched down street to street. one in four people who live in this part of north dallas are food insecure. we watched countless cars come up only to be turned away saying come back earlier next time and we'll try to have enough food. chuck? >> morgan, thank you. again, as we've been saying,

this is not a phenomenon that is isolated to dallas. we've been seeing it here in northern virginia and the washington, d.c. area. that is it for me this hour. thank you for tuning in and trusting us. brian williams picks up our coverage after this quick break. america runs on dunkin'

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12:00 noon out west. our friend nicolle wallace has the day off. we begin with the headlines. just moments ago we heard from the newly revealed democratic presidential ticket. joe biden, kamala harris received a briefing from public health and economic experts on the state of the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on our economy. they called for the implementation of a national mask mandate. this comes as the coronavirus took the lives of another 1,500 american souls just yesterday, the highest daily death toll since the middle of may. 17th day in a row in our country with a daily death toll of over 1,000 americans. the number of confirmed cases in the u.s. stands at nearly