♪ welcome to friday. it is "meet the press daily" and i'm chuck todd. we begin with more breaking news. the post office is telling states that there is a significant risk that certain voters who cast their ballot by mail could be disenfranchised in this november's election. nbc news has confirmed that states from coast-to-coast, maine to pennsylvania, north carolina, texas, and california, among others, have received letters from the post office's general counsel telling them it cannot guarantee that some ballots cast by mail will arrive in time to be counted. according to "the washington post," at least 46 states have received these letters, believe it or not.

meanwhile, nbc news has obtained an internal u.s. postal service document which reveals plans to remove 671 high volume mail processing machines from postal facilities across the country. the agency told nbc news in a statement that these are simply part of normal business adjustments. of course this is all happening amid escalating fears that the president and the postmaster general, louis dejoy, a trump donor and political ally, are political sizing the agency to help trump win the election or at a minimum, to sow doubt about the results if he loses. president trump has acknowledged he is blocking funding to the post office in an attempt to halt mail-in voting. he does not pretend it's something else. two sources confirmed to nbc news that dejoy met with the president in the oval office last week which means president trump misled reporters two days ago when he claimed he hadn't spoken to dejoy. how often do presidents and

postmaster generals have one-on-ones in the oval office in previous administrations? just ask yourself that. a recent memo from the post mastery acknowledged that cutbacks have resulted in, quote, unintended consequences that impacted our overall service levels although he vows that the postal service should be able to handle the election. they process and deliver 472 million pieces of mail every single day. so over 3 billion a week. and with numbers that big, it's hard to see how a few million, you know, even 100 million of mail-in ballots would somehow overload the system over the span of a couple of weeks unless you want your system overloaded which only raises questions about these warning letters. are you really telling me the post office, which handles over 400 million pieces of mail a day, cannot handle an extra 120 million mail-in ballots over a month?

the math doesn't compute, folks. meanwhile, democrats on capitol hill have grown increasingly uneasy. pelosi and schumer put out a joint statement today calling the president's handling of the post office an aabuse of power although it's unclear what democrats on capitol hill can do about it. abuses of power is one of those things that raises the "i" word. the white house has confirmed that president trump and first lady melania trump have requested to vote, you guessed it, by mail. joining me now my nbc news geoff bennett, the one tasked with following every angle of the postal service story for us. leigh ann caldwell is on capitol hill, and chipeter baker, chief political analyst for "the new york times." geoff, these letters to state, now it turns out, basically looks like almost every state got one. "the post" has it at 46.

we're surprised that wisconsin for some reason has not gotten one, for instance. and now we're learning about this decision to get rid of these mail sorting machines. what more are we learning today from the purview of the postal service? >> i can tell you based on my conversations with postal workers, union reps, and postal officials, to the point you made at the opening of the show, chuck, you're right, this is not a capacity issue. mail is down some 30%. as you mentioned, the post office handles some 50 million pieces of mail a day. there were some 140 million americans who voted back in 2016. so it's not an issue of capacity. it has to do with the delays that have been caused by the policy changes put in place by the new postmaster general. as you mentioned, that internal memo i obtained that was circulated yesterday, louis dejoy admits his policy changes have had the unintended consequences of creating delays. but people who know him tell me

that he views the postal service as a business. he does not view it as a service, even though "service" is contained in its name. so he's focused on making sure the agency is solvent. that is why, he says, he's taken these drastic steps to cut overtime, to cut staffing, that have resulted in two- to three-day delays, in some places it's been a week-long delay. that's what has led to the usps now warning some 46 of 50 states that even american voters who follow their state guidelines could end up having their ballot disqualified if they choose mail-in balloting. in pennsylvania, for instance, the pennsylvania election officials, they're expecting a 50% uptick in mail-in balloting due to the coronavirus. writ large, you have officials say they at least expected 10% uptick. now you have the postal service saying in these states, if people request, complete, and send back a ballot, with the deadlines and delays, they may not and likely won't show up in time.

>> let me ask you this, geoff. the president today seemed to hint that he's fine if the postal service gets more resources to handle this if democrats come their way on a whole bunch of issues. is the president serious about that or, you know, are they that concerned now that he now realizes that if you've got something late in the mail, meme are going to blame him and he's now realizing that might not be a good idea? >> well, there's been bipartisan backlash, because everyone needs the postal service. it has more than just ballots, but checks and stuff. i would file it under "believe it when it happens," because the president has given conflicting signals, as you know, about what he will accept in any sort of coronavirus deal. there's no signal that the talks will resume anytime soon. a word about the cash infusion, though, the postal service says they have the capacity to handle election mail even without the

roughly $4 billion that democrats are calling for. but the reason why the money is important is because it would take off the table the rationale, the explanation that louis dejoy has given for these cuts. if the postal service gets anywhere between 4 to $10 billion in the next coronavirus relief bill, then you have a convincing argument that hey, you don't have to cut overtime, you don't have to remove nearly 700 high volume sorting machines, as i learned today in a document i obtained. so that's one of the reasons why the cash, postal service workers and union reps tell me, is important. >> leanne call leanne caldwell, elizabeth warren's office says the inspector general is now on the beat and the investigation into dejoy has begun. but what's capitol hill going to

do? >> yeah, chuck, there's a lot of outrage on capitol hill. with no clear path forward on how they're going to deal with this. you referenced speaker pelosi and democratic leader schumer's statement where they called on president trump to stop sabotaging the postal service ahead of the election. representative connolly of virginia, the head of the subcommittee in the house, was the first person to call on the postmaster general to resign. then there's republican discontent as well. senator susan collins of maine sent her own letter calling on these policies to be reversed. and even house republican leader mccarthy said that the postal service is going to get the money it needs. so while there is bipartisan, as geoff said, outrage on both sides, you know, congress is

still in this position of trying to do oversight and trying to rein in the administration. and the postal service, which is, you know, this weird tangential part of the government, without a clear path. all this money is caught up, this $10 billion, $25 billion that the democrats want, is caught up in these covid relief talks that are completely stalemated. i've asked parties if they are perhaps -- pelosi's office or schumer's office, if perhaps they're going to move forward on standalone legislation to fund the post office or to invoke some sort of policy changes there. and they keep pointing to the covid relief talks. there doesn't seem to be a lot of incentive at this point to move unilaterally on that one issue. but, you know, congress is gone for at least three more weeks anyway, so this is going to just continue to be an issue where people are yelling about it without any clear path on what

congress can do. >> so if nothing happens in the next three weeks, we're past the point of no return of them being able to -- unless the postal service magically changes its policies, right, leanne? >> yeah, i mean, for example, north carolina, september 4 is when they're starting to mail out their first batch of absentee ballots. we're getting extremely close to all these really critical deadlines leading up to this election. and so it could be too little, too late if congress even decides to do anything. >> peter baker, let's take a step back here. is this domestic ukraine? i mean, is this the president meddling in the same way, he thought he had a great idea to meddle with biden and he ended up getting himself impeached by what he did in ukraine. i feel like he's doing the same thing, he's sort of using his power in ways that no one's ever

tried before for political benefit, going through the postal service, i mean, again, is this domestic ukraine? >> it's an interesting comparison. he's not acting like somebody who doesn't have a stake in this. he's not acting like somebody who's simply concerned about the capacity of the postal service and the integrity of the system. he's acting like somebody who is trying to damage credibility in an election that he's currently losing according to the polls, right? if somebody is really concerned about the integrity of the mail-in voting process, then you would think he would be moving all out to try to do something to shore it up, to make sure it was going to be safe, make sure it was going to be efficient, make sure it was going to be effective, make sure it was going to be things he says he wants. and instead, what you mostly hear is him saying it's all going to be rigged, it's all corrupt, and don't believe it. even some of his own people who

advise him have told us, look, this is his way of setting the narrative on the chance that he loses to joe biden, so he has something to point to, it wasn't that i lost, it's that they stole the election. we'll hear that more loudly in the weeks to come. where it leaves the republicans, though, is in a difficult position because they actually want people to vote mail-in. they have a lot of senate races, house races where they're depending on their own voters to vote mail-in as well. they've won races in part on mail-in voting and they don't want to see the president undercutting their own efforts to get the vote out. >> and peter, it does seem to be, talk about taking on political baggage, so now if something's late in the mail, people are going to blame the president. >> exactly. no president wants to own the postal service because of course it's been problematic for many years, long before president trump came along. it's not the first time people have complained about the postal service. but you're right, now he has

certain ownership of it. unless they come up with some sort of deal in the near future to try to shore it up, infuse it with money, to take the politics away from this, people are going to look at him and say what the democrats said today, which is that he's trying to sabotage the election, fairly or not, they're also setting a narrative at this point. and he's providing them ammunition to do it. >> i want to -- in fact, you know, as we're here drilling down on the postal service, peter, but just look at the last couple of weeks. you have the postal service, you have jared kushner assisting -- and republican lawyers clearly working with kanye west, which as some pointed out, it is not clear what jared kushner is doing with kanye west. he may be breaking some sort of law if he's not careful there on that. you've got what he's doing with bill barr where he basically said to barr, you better get it the way i want to get it or you're going to go down as an average guy. he seems to be trying to

aggressively use whatever trapping of power he thinks can assist him in his election. >> that's right, and he's probably going to give his acceptance speech for the nomination in a week and a half from the white house itself, the ultimate symbol of american power, not the normal place for a president to engage in that partisan politicking. other presidents have delivered political speeches from the white house, so it's not the first time. but it will symbolize i think what you're talking about, which is a president who is, you know, seen as least as using the apparatus around him for his advantage. that's what he was accused of doing with the ukraine, using the power of his office to go after his political opponents by leveraging a foreign power with money that was approved by the taxpayers. and, you know, it fits into i think a larger pattern of concern about where the line is drawn, where it's not, with this

administration. the prosecution of that fbi agent isn't that big a step. what a lot of people are concerned about is what if there are more prosecutions coming this fall, and will they have integrity or will they be seen as just the use of his administration to take on his enemies the way the president himself has been badgering the justice department to do. >> and the final question for you, is the president's decision to essentially allow the qanon conspiracy to be connected to him, he refuses to disown it, he refuses to discredit it. this is a very dangerous sort of political virus that seems to be making its way inside the republican party. any insight as to why the president refuses to distance himself from qanon? >> we're just seeing the return of the conspiracy theorist president, right? we've seen it at various points over the last four years. just yesterday he floated this idea in the briefing room of the white house that kamala harris was born in california and is

somehow not qualified to run for vice president because her parents were immigrants, birtherism reduction from the obama days. it's the fringe, it's the conspiracy theories. you watch the briefings lately, it's been stacked with not just regular reporters but some from alternative, let's say, outlets, not even really very news oriented, but asking questions and advancing theories and suggestions and non-facts that may confuse the public but for some reason the president is embracing and putting into the mainstream. >> he's clearing some people into the press room that have no business having a press credential, that's for sure. geoff bennett, leigh ann caldwell, peter baker, thank you for getting us started. up ahead, we'll talk with one former post office insider who understands what these cutbacks really mean.

plus west virginia senator joe manchin and what he's try to do to stop these cuts. we'll be right back. these cuts. we'll be right back. [ action music throughout ] every box has a mission: to protect everything inside from everything outside. when what's inside matters, count on boxes. [ doorbell rings ] paper and packaging. how life unfolds.

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welcome back. as we noted earlier in the show, democrats have grown increasingly uneasy about the president's efforts to block post office funding in what he says is an attempt to halt mail-in ballots. remember, it's the president suggesting this. as his postmaster general moves to cut resources at the agency. democrats say the president is trying to cheat but it's unclear what they intend to do about it. senator joe manchin is vice chair of the relevant subcommittee. senator manchin, tell me why you felt the need to visit various post offices in your home state. >> the post office is a lifeline

to many west virginians. they get medicine, checks, a lifeline. a lot of areas in rural west virginia do not have good connectivity so broadband is not available. that's the only lifeline they have. if they think they're going to discredit it and turn it over to the private sector, it will be one heck of a fight from me and my fellow democrats. i wish my fellow republicans would speak up. i can see right now, i don't think it's permeated down, chuck, but i got a phone call from a dear friend of mine, he's been a sheriff of a county, he's a veteran, he's a diabetic, and he hasn't gotten his medication.

in my state six post offices have postings that they're going to close. i called about that and they say it was a mistake. i accept a human error, but i guarantee, not one of those people did it on their own, it had to come from up above. it's showing me their true intent. >> it sounds like you're skeptical. do you feel as if -- right now, do you have confidence in the postmaster general? >> not at all, chuck, not at all. >> okay. >> no, no. >> should he be fired, should he resign? >> oh, he shouldn't even be there to begin with, and any way you can get rid of him, please do so. he won't even talk to us, chuck. we represent our states respectively. i understand he's not talking to anybody. the answer we got from one of his top people was, he's not going to talk to anybody in congress probably signal september when he figures out how to run his post office. he's going to destroy it before

he figures out how to run it. we won't let that happen. what i'm afraid of, chuck, more than anything, and i've told all the postal workers i met with today, i said, with all due respect to all of, you have a stellar reputation, the people in my state love you, they depend on you, you've always been there, you're this to happen, from the top down, from washington down, to where this election and basically the people believe and lose confidence and faith and you don't have the support of the public, i guarantee we'll lose our postal service as we know it and i'm not going to let that happen. >> do you agree with -- >> go ahead. >> do you agree, speaker pelosi and senate democratic leader chuck schumer called this an abuse of power by the president. do you believe he's abusing his power right now? >> if this is the intent of the president, to basically have a scenario and the theories that he comes up with continuously, and you know, i've tried to work with the president, i've

always -- whoever my president is, i want my president to succeed. but chuck, i've given it my best shot, i really have. i'll continue to try, but this is wrong. basically he's trying to make -- have a scapegoat if the election doesn't go his way. this is not what the postal service is about. this is not what they're trained to do and it's not the lifeline that they provide for so many people. we cannot let this be -- you know, to be used in this way, it's so callous. the people who depend on it so much, it's unbelievable. the people who are working, the carriers, they're not caught -- they don't want to be caught up in a political fight. >> oh, i've heard that myself in talking to with some of these folks. but i'm curious, what will the senate do? you guys can't even -- you guys can't even put a bill on the floor in the senate right now to participate in the coronavirus relief talks, it's just between the house democrats and the white house, the senate is playing hands off. should we expect the senate to be able to do anything about this when you come back? >> i have to be honest with you,

i'm ashamed to have happening what's happening now. there's so many people hurting in so many different areas. in west virginia, we have hospitals that have closed, three hospitals. how in the world can you justify letting a hospital collapse or close during a pandemic? we have more homeless shelters than ever before across the country and we're not doing anything to help them and their caseloads are unbelievable. it goes on and on, chuck. everybody seems to say, it's okay. they say, we have less than a million people unemployed now. i can tell you, the 900,000 still unemployed are hurting very badly and we can do something. and that's a shame, because i can tell you, the rank and file, as far as senate democrats and republicans, i believe can come together. if schumer -- i mean, if chuck schumer is willing to sit down and talk which i think chuck is willing to talk to anybody, as you know, if mcconnell would just engage and tell us where we can't go, what we're willing to do, to make adjustments and anything, i don't think they should be hung up on the money.

they should be hung up on the services that are needed, do you agree or not agree on that, and then come to a financial agreement on what it's going to take. but it sounds like everybody says, you have to come up and come down, and i heard yesterday, chuck, the president says, it's $25 billion for the postal services, it's why we're not moving. that's their true intent, they're going to hold the people hostage in this country because of what they think would be harmful for them if we have the mail-in voting. i'll tell, we have a republican secretary of state. they did mail-in voting in the primary. it worked very well. they're going to do it again in the general and we're very much committed, we think we can do it very securely. anybody who thinks they can play games with the postal service or mail fraud or voter fraud, that's $10,000 fine and five years in prison. >> senator joe manchin, you sound pretty -- >> chuck, wait a minute, we also have a bill i'm introducing, the post act, which would prohibit any closing of any post office

during this pandemic and also we'll introduce another bill that you can't be moving this equipment around, basically slowing the process down. i ask my republican friends to join me. >> i have a feeling that bill is going to get very popular as people start to focus on this story. senator joe manchin, democrat from west virginia, i appreciate you coming on, and sharing your views with us. they were pretty blunt and i think people need to hear it. >> thank you, chuck, i wish i was there in person with you. bye-bye. >> i look forward to non-socially-distanced interviews. joining me is mark jamison, a retired postmaster in north carolina and a contributor to savethepo savethepostoffice.com. mark, we have anecdotal examples, senator manchin shared a ton of anecdotal examples from west virginia, we know lawmakers are hearing this. tell us what your colleagues

there in north carolina, what's happening inside the postal service and how is this impacting the flow of mail? >> well, what we have is the culmination of 50 years of trying to make the post office something it's not. it's an essential national infrastructure. and for 50 years they've been trying to turn it into a business. now we have a president who is playing games with election mail, which is unconscionable. i worked for the postal service for nearly 30 years. i've been retired for eight. during my time in the postal service, it was well-known that most of management leaned republican. but i will tell you that election mail was sacrosanct. when we got election mail, it moved. it moved that day. it got the best service, no matter what rate it was brought in at.

our vote is our most important right. and voting has to be supported. so, you know, what we're seeing is, if you look at the president's task force that had mick mulvaney and secretary mnuchin on it, we're seeing that wish list put into effect quickly, at the wrong time. you know, we're in the middle of a pandemic. we're in the middle of an economic crisis. now is not the time to do any of these things. some of these things may be justified from a business standpoint, but now is not the time to do any of this stuff. it's being used to scare people. >> let me ask you about this, the reports that sorting machines are being removed. look, we're all -- a lot of us are lay people in this. you're not. it sounds to me like a way to

slow down sorting of the mail. is that what we're seeing? >> we broke down the numbers today. steve hutkens who runs the post office site looked through them. it looks like 14% of sorting machines and 27% of flat sorting machines. you don't even if some of these are pieces of equipment that are obsolete or have outlived their usefulness or need to be refurbished. now, again, you're in a pandemic, you need all your mechanics to be working on floor, keeping the mail processing machinery working so that we can process the mail. you can't devote time, money, and effort to something that may or may not be useful. if nothing else, it's just a bad look. it's just not the right time to even talk about this.

so there's plenty of capacity to process the mail if mr. dejoy and his upper management have the will to process the mail. that's the question. >> in fact, that was the other question, this issue of capacity, we're talking -- look, at a max, 200 million extra pieces of mail. this is if you assume your absentee ballot application, then you shoot it back. over a one-month period. you guys handle more than 2.5 times that amount of mail on a single day. explain to me how that could actually -- it seems to me like the system shouldn't have a problem dealing with, if you ended up with an extra 200 million pieces over a 30-day period. >> no, it shouldn't. i'll tell you, here's the problem. 1993 voting rights act

instructed the post office to allow local governments to mail at cheaper marketing mail rates. that mail, regardless of what price it was mailed at, always received first class service, because it was so important. mr. dejoy has had the legal counsel from the post office send letters to several states, i think it's 46 now, i'm not sure, saying we can't meet these deadlines, we'll process the mail as it's paid for, the class that's paid for. essentially if there's an impediment, it's because management is creating an impediment. the capacity is there. there's one other issue -- i'm sorry, i don't want to interrupt you. >> no, go ahead. >> in the stimulus bill, there's $3.5 billion set aside to

support state boards of election in getting the people in place to count more mail ballots. it costs states a lot of money to move to counting mail by hand and doing the mail ballots. the states need the support. they're hurting. that money is essential. that money is essential right now. the postal service at the end of quarter three had $12.9 billion in ready cash. they need an infusion of cash at some point to see through this. but the really critical thing is helping the states so that they can count these ballots so we don't have a situation on election night where in-person voting was counted and we're a little behind in getting the totals out for mail bolallots a the president said, it's over, i won. you can't do that.

and he said that's what he's going to do. >> no doubt. mark jamison, you got to the point i was curious about, which is the only impedestrianmen pep ones that management is erecting. thank you very much, appreciate it. up next, a congressional watchdog says the president's two top officials serving at the department of homeland security are serving illegally. has the that mean for everything the department has done for two years, is it all null and void? lawsuit-palooza coming against the federal government? that's next. ral government that's next. our agents helped make saving on insurance easy usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. usaa as business moves forward, we're all changing the way things get done.

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welcome back. president trump's top two homeland security officials were appointed illegally, that's according to a new report released this morning by a government watchdog. it says both acting secretary of homeland security chad wolf and his acting second in command ken cuccinelli are not legally qualified to hold their positions, nearly 500 days after former dhs secretary kirstjen nielsen resigned from her post, she was confirmed in her position, by the way, the government accountability office, gao, said the man designated as her replacement had not, quote, been designated in the order of succession and that subsequent amendments to the order of succession made by

that official are invalid, meaning his appointment of chad wolf as his successor had no legal basis. the white house calls the report baseless. this comes after chad wolf has come under increasing scrutiny for dhs actions in portland. we'll be right back with constitutional questions that this may raise. bottom line, has the government been illegally enforcing some laws? we'll be right back.

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welcome back. president trump's top two homeland security officials were appointed illegally. what does that mean for the actions they've taken since they took office? joining me now is robert tsai, law professor at american university. robert, this was my big question. so if they are appointed, if they're illegally holding those

positions, then does this mean every action they've taken is an illegal action? >> possibly yes. eventually that will have to be sorted out. but we have basically a situation that seems at first blush to be an arcane question of federal law with constitutional ideas in the background. but what, as you're pointing out, it's going to turn out to be is something with potentially huge consequences. you have two people who are running the department of homeland security, they have been for some time. if it's true as gao says, that they are exercising those powers illegally, then we will have a huge question of whether all of the policies or actions that have been taken, at least that they've purported to take, have been in fact illegal. if there is some precedent to look to, just a few months back in march, we did have a federal

judge in d.c. declare that president trump's appointment of cuccinelli to a different position was illegal. and the judge in that case said that the immigration orders that mr. cuccinelli issued were in fact to be treated as invalid. we have lots of other lawsuits now challenging a number of things that dhs has been doing. so that's going to be the question going forward. >> well, that's my question to you, i mean, i assume now that there are going to be lawsuits galore from folks that say they were illegally detained or folks that say they weren't given proper asylum. they're going to point to some policy that secretary wolf or secretary cuccinelli recommended and they're going to say, that's illegal, my client was illegally detained or not able to do x.

that's inevitably going to happen, right? >> i think that's right, it's happening even down the street in baltimore, there's litigation there involving covid-related restrictions that have been undertaken, an effort to sort of capitalize on covid to enact restrictions within dhs and as to the people that dhs interacts with. and the federal judge there has raised this exact question, that if the judge were to find that as gao has, that these appointments were a kind of a blender going all the way back to secretary nielsen's actions before she resigned, then what would be the remedy, right? would it be to follow what the judge in d.c. has done and declare particular directives or policies to be illegal? i think there's enormous potential for disarray right now. it's a boon for the lawyers, of course, but this is just a gigantic mess for everybody

else. >> and this is what i'm curious about. gao, they issued their ruling, but, you know, it's not as if chad wolf has to leave his office today or go back to the old job that he had. is this congress now that would have to enforce this? sort of kick him out? is it a court that would kick him out of office? what's the enforcement mechanism here? >> so that's a great question, and it's not as if we have a crystal clear answer here. what gao has done is to issue its sort of judgment, but that's not binding on anyone. gao has now asked the inspector general of the department of homeland security to do an investigation and once that's done, then the ig would issue a report that would go to the secretary of homeland security as well as back to congress. but that may take a while.

and in the interim, i suppose, the most immediate enforcement actions are what you're starting to see, which is you're starting to see elected officials saying that the agency is acting without lawful basis, to call on both acting secretary wolf and cuccinelli to resign, and you're seeing what we just talked about, an effort to get some federal judge to declare authoritatively that very in fact have been appointed illegally. i think right now that's the ball game. and, you know, we'll have to foresee how it plays out. >> all right. robert tsai, our go-to constitutional law expert from across the street from our bureau there at american university. sorry we're socially distanced. good to see you, thanks for your expertise. >> good to see you as well. and we should remind people, this is simple becauy because t president doesn't want to send these folks to confirmation

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. welcome back. in school districts nationwide contemplate whether to open their classrooms, some have been forced to reclose because of outbreaks of the virus. 17 now say they will begin this

year exclusively with remote learning. with me, education secretary under secretary obama. he led chicago's public school system before that. i want to ask first, some sports questions. i want to ask you first about, about a month ago, i think a lot of these major school districts thought they would do a hybrid situation. some in person, some not. it seems like the momentum is, we'd better start all virtually. why has that been the case? why have so many school systems been spooked about even doing a hybrid model? >> well, nobody did not want to go back totally physically, at least do a hybrid. to your question, we as a country haven't done what it takes, what we need to do to beat down this virus and allow kids to go back safely to school. no one wanted to be in this situation but we only have about 17 states, a minority of states where positivity rates for the virus are below 5%.

33 of our states, and many of our large school districts are in those states where the positivity rate is too high, making it not safe. it is not good educationally, not ideal socially and emotionally. school districts are doing extraordinary work to meet the keep feeding kids. we need some flexibility from the trump administration. food is a critical school supply and now we have some bureaucratic hurdles to keep kids being fed during this critical time. as a country in the past couple months, we decided to choose bars. because we chose bars, we made it much harder to choose schools now. >> it's funny you say that about bars and gyms. and we didn't spend any time in may and june thinking about how will we open schools three or four months later. now we're thinking about it right now. are we making the same mistake with sports? high school sports and college sports this fall? are we trying to will something to happen that may lead to a new

outbreak? >> that's a great question. obviously, i'm not a doctor. i am a former high school athlete and college athlete. so i pay particular attention here. i'll say a couple things. if you look at the collegiate level, you see many, many more division three conferences shutting down sports than you do see in division one. i worry, chuck, what is driving more. not all but more division one conferences to play football in particular. you know exactly. why it is a revenue generating sport. and i worry about not just covid, but i worry a lot about what we're seeing with athletes now, baseball players, football players, the big ten, that are starting to have heart issues. that scares the heck out of me. and where you have heart shissu that could lead to severe problems or maybe long lasting problems. if someone had told me as a college athlete that i couldn't play for a season, i would have been devastated.

if you really weigh the long term consequences, i'm extraordinarily concerned that the risks, not just short term but long term that we're putting student athletes in because of the revenue they generate. >> more importantly, do you feel like these institutions are opening themselves up for massive lawsuits if they ruin the careers because you had other conferences, you just made the point. a lot of d-3 institutions have made the point. you have the big 10 and the pac-12. a lawyer can say, it's not as if you weren't warned this was a risk, and yet you encouraged my china to take that -- my client to take that risk. >> i'm not a doctor or a lawyer. beyond the legal risk, as we look across the country, chuck, wherever we've opened too fast, we have paid a tremendous price. we're seeing that with the school systems in georgia where they opened too fast. very, very high positivity rates. it's been an utter disaster. i say experience should be the

best teacher. somehow we think we can't learn from other people's experiences. every state, every school seems to want to learn this by themselves. what we have seen, the economy, bars, schools, where we move too quickly, we pay a real price in terms of health. i know that for a fact. and i don't know why we have to keep paying that price. why we can't learn from previous experience and move slowly and steadily and thoughtfully instead of trying to move too much too fast. >> sadly, i think we know the answer of why we keep having to learn the lesson. perhaps we're just not having coherent leadership and a coherent message from the top. i'll leave that as the last word. head of chicago schools and yourself a collegiate athlete. thanks for coming on. good to get your perspective. >> thank you for the opportunity. >> you've got it. >> we'll be right back. t it >> we'll be right back taking entresto, it may lead to a world of possibilities.

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whew! quite a week, huh? that's all we have for tonight. i'll see you back here on monday. we kick off our coverage of the conventions, the democratic convention is next week. "meet the press daily" will be at a new time. 1:00 p.m. eastern. we are all very excited about that. if it's sunday, nothing changes about that. "meet the press." and my guest will be bernie sanders as well as the national security adviser. good evening, ari. >> you mentioned your new time. i have a political question for you. being around these things, this new cycle, this usually feels like something in october. have you ever seasonable it this early? does that make this the theme the rest of the race? >> i have to tell you, it is a number we'll show on sunday. the amount of interest in the election from the voter right now, we are m