president trump will hold a briefing in a couple hours, we can expect to hear more about his war against the post office and mail-in voting. more on that ahead. we're keeping an eye on two very different protests in two different states that both have police on alert today. a far right demonstration and black lives matter demonstration. qanon in congress. a republican candidate's victory all but guaranteeing there will be a supporter of the dangerous conspiracy theory on capitol hill come january. a development met with troubling silence from the president of the united states. let's lead off at the white house, president trump continues his attempt to block the u.s. postal service from being able to accommodate mail-in voting. josh, the white house announced the president will hold a briefing today at 5:00, do we

have any idea what he'll be talking about? >> well, we know that the president has been trying to get out there every single day on the coronavirus pandemic lindsay. the white house trying to show that the president is engaged, he's in charge, and he's in a leadership role. as the polling continues to show that the public does not have confidence in the president's response to coronavirus. and that it's really the key factor that is dragging down his re-election prospects at this point in time. but what we know from all these news conferences the president has been holding in recent days, he goes out there intending to talk about coronavirus, and quickly the topics veer into other territory, such as this crisis over the postal service funding for the usps ahead of the election as well as these broader covid relief measures that both sides acknowledge at this point need to be extended. congress needs to do something to move that forward. about the only sign of progress or life at all in those

negotiations we've seen is something that we just learned about via nbc's leah caldwell, which is some conversations that have been taking place between the white house negotiators, specifically mark meadows a a group in congress that's noefrn as the problem solvers caucus. this is a bipartisan group, they tend to be a little less ideological, a little more solution oriented. they've been having some discussion to see if they can make progress toward a compromise that has alluded the top leadership. nancy pelosi and chuck schumer have a tense relationship with the white house. meanwhile, the democrats are making a concerted effort to demonstrate that they want answers about the problems we're hearing from the post office. these efficiency measures that have been leading to some of these delays we've been seeing. democrats continuing to push for $25 billion in postal service funding as well as another 3 $1/2 billion for election resources as states move toward

mail-in voting during this pandemic. take a listen to what carolyn maloney had to say today about the answers she wants from the post office. >> as the chair woman of the committee on oversight and we form, i have invited the postmaster general to testify before the committee on september 17th. he has replied that he will be there to answer questions. >> and the president for his part has had a similar topic on his mind today. he's currently at his golf club at bedminster where he has a fund-raiser tonight. he's been tweeting quite a bit. mostly retweets of dead people voting, massive fraud in elections, raising issues that are -- concerns that have not been born out by the facts that we've seen on the ground. as you mentioned, the president will have a news conference this evening that we expect to be focused on coronavirus. but we'll have to see what else the president has to say when he's asked about these mail-in voting issues in the post office

as well. >> do we know whether this problem solver's caucus has the blessing of nancy pelosi and chuck schumer in negotiating directly with the post office? >> i think it's a safe assumption that the democratic members of that caucus wouldn't likely have been proceeded with that if they didn't have tacit approval from nancy pelosi that it was okay to be going ahead and doing those talks. often times a caucus like this can make some headway in finding out where on technical matters there's calming ground and delivering some type of compromise that the broader leadership would get behind, because at the end of the day, very unlikely we're going to see anything move through congress unless it has the blessing of nancy pelosi. >> josh letterman in washington, thank you so much. we're still monitoring a tense seen in stone mountain, georgia, where earlier this afternoon, white nationalist clash with counter protesters outside the city's stone

mountain park, causing police to step in and try to break up the violent situation. participants in the white nationalist rally, many of whom carried guns and dressed in military type gear had initially planned the demonstration to be inside the city's park, it houses several confederate memorials, including a statue of robert e. lee. officials closed the park for the day, citing security concerns. we're going to continue to monitor this situation as it unfolds. breaking news also from chicago where protesters have gathered for a black lives matter rally. demonstrators plan to shut down the dan ryan expressway to protest against police brutality. kathy park is there, she joins me now. how are things looking where you are? >> organizers were anticipating a crowd of about 2,000. but based on some of the images that we have seen so far. it looks like the crowd is

closer to 100. and the original plan was to start off about 6 months away from where they're began earlying now. they're going to move on to the expressway, shut it down and come here to the downtown area. it looks like things have stalled for now. the other big headline is what's happening here in downtown chicago. i'm here along michigan avenue, you may remember a couple days ago, there was widespread looting and over to my left is a magnificent mile, which is an iconic shopping district here in the city, if you walk just a couple blocks, you will notice that a very heavy police presence, lots of stores are boarded up. and officials need to take this city back, and they held a press conference not too long ago. here's a little more on what the police superintendent had to say about moving forward. take a listen. >> the men and women of the chicago police department will do everything we can to protect

the safety and first amendment rights of peaceful protesters. what happened last week downtown and on the west side had nothing to do with protests or peace. >> lindsay, just to ensure that the city remains calm and peaceful this weekend, police have stepped up their preference. but also put in place several measures like lifting up these bridges to limit the movement. they've also said 1,000 officers will be here in the downtown area if needed. >> kathy park in chicago, thank you so much. in a stunning reversal, georgia governor brian kemp is expected to issue an executive order allowing some cities and municipalities to impose their own mask mandate. this comes days after kemp dropped a lawsuit against keshia lance-bottoms challenging their

citywide mask requirement. the new order will only be allowed of local businesses's consent. the governor has been widely criticized for his efforts to stop mask mandates in the past, as georgia's coronavirus outbreak has become one of the worst in the nation. in florida, one city's mask debate has taken a more contentious turn. earlier this week, billy woods officially banned his deputies from wearing face masks, even as florida's coronavirus infections approach 570,000. joining us now is chris pallone. sheriff wood told employees there's no conclusive evidence that masks curb coronavirus, a statement we know to be false. masks do indeed curb the violence. what is city leadership said about the sheriff's decision? >> obviously, this is yet another thing in the age of the

coronavirus pandemic that has been taken from a health discussion, and then injected with politics. all of this happening this week as the marion county sheriff billy woods issued not only saying that his deputies didn't have to wear masks, but they can't wear masks, except for a few simple exceptions like being in court or being in a hospital or a school. his deputies and some 900 employees are barred from wearing masks. all of this is happening as the city of ocala, which is where the sheriff's office is located passed a mask ordinance on businesses here. they tried it once, and the mayor vetoed it, and then they overrode that veto by a 4-1 vote, putting in a very simple mask ordinance. a third time violation would only carry a $25 fine. we don't know exactly, other than what the sheriff has put in that memo to his employees, we don't know exactly his

reasoning, he's declined nbc's request for an interview. however, kerry sanders did speak with the ocala mayor, to find out why he originally vetoed the mask ordinance here. >> i don't oppose wearing masks. but just the government mandating that you, you, you have to wear a mask, you can have a protest and be out there with no mask. and you can be shoulder to shoulder, but you can't go to church. that doesn't make any sense. mine's a constitutional decision like i've just described and a freedom decision. is it a health issue? absolutely. >> sheriff woods has backed down a little bit on one aspect of it, in the past, when he first issued this, he said people going into the sheriff's office had to take their masks off and leave them off while they waited in the sheriff's off lobby. they changed that to, they just

have to take the mask off a moment so security cameras can get a picture of their face. california has surpassed 600,000 coronavirus cases. the state tops 11,000 fatalities from the virus. now ranking third in the country behind new york and new jersey for the highest death toll. scott cohn is in san jose, california with the latest. the state is avera 1. ,0 37,000 cases a day with a positivity rate of 2.4%. can you put that into context for us? >> the positivity rate is coming down. and we're dealing with this backlog of tests we were talking about a week ago because of a software problem with the state's reporting system. that is generally clearing out, but playing some games with the numbers at this point. officials are saying that the rate of hospitalization is

coming down. that is certainly important. and certainly would come as a relief to the thousands of health care workers in the state who have been dealing with this pandemic since january. >> you're working so hard to help get these patients better and help keep families updated. and the stress of all of that and trying to protect yourself, and trying to keep your family safe, i think it just takes a toll on you. as a nurse or doctor or health care worker, because you just sort of feel sort of at the mercy of the community around you. >> in the meantime, there is a lot of focus on testing. this is a so-called pop-up testing site here in san jose. people lined up early to get

wristbands and have been coming out throughout the day for appointments to get tested for covid. the processing about 1,000 tests at this site alone per day. lindsay. >> hopefully a good sign with those hospitalizations going down. scott, while i have you, on top of these record breaking caseloads, there's an intense heat wave throughout california. that's triggered rolling blackouts. because of the high power demand. what can you tell us about that? >> they've issued -- the state grid operator issued a state's alert. first time they've done that in years. and what that means is, that everyone is being asked to conserve, but there also have been some of these rotating blackouts over the last 24 hours. the thinking seems to be that they may be able to get through this weekend without more blackouts. but the heat is supposed to continue into next week. so we could see more of that. some of this is the way of life in california. we get the public safety shutoff

from wildfire season kicks up. that is likely to happen relatively soon. but this is something different. it's a heat wave here, as i said, it is expected to continue into next week. >> scott cohn in san jose, thanks very much, stay cool. reaction to the administration's war on the postal service. plus, a closer look at the democratic ticket. i'll talk to someone who knows harris well, who endorsed new vice president pick kamala harris for president. on campus living in the time of covid-19. how colleges and universities are welcoming back students.

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shipping is always free. go to dealdash.com right now and see how much you can save. the president's new war on the post office is garnering criticism from both sides of the aisle this week. president obama called the president's actions unheard of saying trump was kneecapping the postal service. >> what we've never seen before is a president say, i'm going to try to actively kneecap the postal service to encourage voting. and i will be explicit about the reason i'm doing it. that's sort of unheard of, right? >> republican senator mitt romney this week also struck down the claims that voting by mail increases fraud. when politicians attack a judicial system, attack a voting system, attack a free press,

these things threaten the foundation upon which not only our own democracy rests, but democracies around the world rest. >> joining me now, annette barragon. you've been vocal on how these changes to the post office can hurt people. what can congress do about this? we know there was money in a hero's act which is still mccon. does this pressure democrats to come to a compromise on covid relief negotiations? >> well, democrats have been at the table. speaker pelosi had been clear, but we can't leave the post office behind. and we can't allow this president to continue to sabotage not just the post office, but people's lives. this is about our democracy, this is about people's livelihoods as you mentioned, people rely poen their medicine. they're relying upon their paychecks and the delivery of their mail, so house democrats three months ago passed

legislation that would put 25 billion toward the post office which is critically needed. now, republicans are not taking this seriously enough, and frankly one of the things we have to do, continue to shine a light on this, but congress needs to have hearings on this, they continue to shine a lot on what is going on, and we need to continue to press on the negotiating table to get this done. one of the things that would be helpful is, many people across the country, especially in red parts of the country to call their members, call their senators, and put the pressure on. we hope that pressure will get republicans to move, this is about the democracy of our country. in is not a partisan issue at all. >> what do you make of the bipartisan meeting that happened today, the bipartisan group of house lawmakers. josh letterman referred to them as the problem solving caucus. have you heard whether anything

moved in the talks today? >> i have not heard anything about any movement, but let me tell you, we have the chief negotiator, nancy pelosi, our speaker who's been doing this for decades, who's taking feedback from members of congress across the board. i have faith that she's going to get this done. but we have to keep up the pressure because again our democracy is at stake, it's so critically important. people have the ability to get their mail, to get their medicine and to get their ballot. and it's a shame. it's quite a disgrace that this president is outright in public saying that his objective is to slow down mail in ballots and votes. he is a danger to our democracy. >> i want to ask you about the attacks on kamala harris, on her right to be on the ticket right now. you were raised by immigrant parents from mexico. you were raised in california. are these attacks personal?

>> the president doesn't know what else to do other than attack women, immigrants, people of color and he's at it again with senator harris. but i'm so proud that we have a strong woman, the daughter of immigrants, who is going to be a voice at the table and for this country that's going to not just be a stark contrast, but it's going to help bring back this country into having conversations we need to have. and to making sure we are addressing things like racial injustice and immigrant justice. and environmental justice. i'm proud of his progressive record. and we have to make sure this eelection that we get the message out to people that we don't get distracted by these personal and racist attacks, because that's what this president is going to try to do. he's doing it already, and we have to continue to push back. >> would you want to be considered to replace her senate seat? california? >> it's an honor to have my name in the mix. but right now, our focus is to

get joe biden/kamala harris elected into the white house, so we can take back this country. there is so much at stake, our democracy is at stake. >> thank you so much for your time today. still ahead, remote learning, concerns as college students head back to campus. and states with surging covid cases. and mixed messages from major college football conferences on whether their teams will take the field. what will the 2020 season really look like. only pay for what you need? i should get a quote. do it. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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colleges nationwide are reopening their doors to students and faculty, including elon university in north carolina which welcomes students back to campus this weekend. not everyone is optimistic about the upcoming school year. some students hosting a die-in to protest the university's decision to host in person

learning this fall. what have you heard from students and families returning to campus? >> the move-in portion of this weekend is wrapping up, and the unpacking and the target run portion of this weekend is just getting started for the 1600 freshmen who are coming on compass for until person learning. they were greeted with temperature checks, masks and hands sanitizer. i heard mixed reaction from students and parents alike. here's what some of them had to say. >> the concern about college right now is just really the health and safety of it. but if they were home, it's the same thing, we're still wearing masks, we're still social distancing, it's still takeout. all these things, you just have to practice here. i just want everybody to do the same. because then it can be safe for everyone. >> parties are already happening on campus. i could hear them happening last night, they're not quiet.

it's really sad that it's going to take so many people getting sick for this to happen. for the administration to decide to keep us safe, it's really sad to me. i hope to god that no one dies as a result of it. >> so it is those parties that happen on friday and saturday nights, that university officials and parents are concerned about, that is the main concern here. university officials tell me they will be taking parties very seriously, and they admit to nbc news that it's not a very easy thing to enforce, especially if those students are offcampus. lindsay? >> gary, we should mention you're the former news director of elom local news. >> that is right. a big disappointment for college football fans, this week the big ten and pac-12 conferences voted to cancel their fall sports play.

that leaves the acc and sec to take the field. that led lou holtz to compare this season to world war ii. >> we shut everything down for six months. i'm going crazy. i think other people are tired. let's move on with our life. when they stormed normandy, they knew there were going to be casualties. 2% of the people that go to the emergency room go for covid-19. young people, they think it's like cancer, they think they're going to die. >> nbc's jordan jackson is at wake forest university in winston salem, north carolina. football, we know is a moneymaker, how much could these decisions impact the universities but the college towns. >> that's right, lindsay. experts i talk to tell me that the losses could be huge. not just for schools, but these

local economies too. and as you said, acc games might go on this season. but a really big question is just what about the fans, now, many fans in this state will have to watch the action from home this season. and, you know, this could have devastating impacts on the money that a lot of these schools are able to bring in, because when you really think about it, it's not just the ticket sales, but the parking fees, the popcorn sold inside these stadiums, that list goes on and on. and then, of course, no big game days means huge losses for some of the restaurants and bars in this area. i spoke to a sports economist here at wake forest a lit earlier, take a listen to what he told me. >> we've had quite a few small business closures over the last 3 or 4 months. i'm not sure how they're going to be able to survive if there's no football season. you're going to see universities have a financial hit in terms of

loss and gate receipts. that will affect the athletic department as well as the university. so all of those things are lost if fans can't go to games. the way it looks right now, there's not going to be many fans at games. >> even if games go on, that may not be enough to blunt some of the financial blows and it could take years for some of these schools to recover. lindsay? >> and towns. nbc's jordan jackson in winston salem, north carolina. thank you. vladimir putin continues to tout the vaccine that he says is in wide production. but russian scientists have yet to provide any clinical evidence of vaccine safety or efficacy. in this country, operation warp speed is causing some house democrats to question whether the rush for vaccine will lead to pharmaceutical companies bypassing safety protocols. i'm joined by dr. peter hotez,

the dean of tropical medicine at baylor medicine. you have an array of concerns about jumping to phase 3 of trials. can you explain the possible dangers? >> yeah, what i like to point out is the technical hurdle of developing the covid-19 vaccine is not that high. it's an old school problem in virology. this is how all the covid-19 vaccines work. and there are different approaches, ours uses a recumbant protein technology. others use an activated virus vaccines. the technical hurdle to develop a covid-19 is not so high. a covid-19 vaccine. the hard part is doing it under a quality umbrella with quality control, quality assurance, showing you can make it the same way every time, and giving

adequate time to show in clinical trials that it works and protects against covid-19 and that it's safe. it doesn't cause a safety flair or signal. and that's the part that the russians are -- seem to be skipping. probably the most important part. so they're advertising this as the -- i think they call it s t sputnik 5. this is a great achievement for russian science. it's not. it's not the hard part. that's what i'm concerned about, especially now since they may be exporting this vaccine to latin american countries. this could cause a lot of problems. >> how do you think -- russia may be trying to influence other countries. how do you think russia is influencing operation warp speed. >> hopefully we've been insulating ourselves pretty well from this kind of nonsense. we have a robust system here in the u.s. of quality control and

safety and testing. and testing for efficacy. and the fda and the cdc have been doing this for decades, maybe 70 years or more. they have a great track record, and i think or systems are robust that no one has the ability to kind of circumvent that. so we will have multiple covid 19 vaccines by 2021. i don't see a path by which we'll have those vaccines out sooner. even if the russians are playing games. we don't have to go down that rabbit hole. >> well, this is something we're all living at the same time and learning about in realtime. the cdc said this week, those who have recovered from coronavirus do not need to quarantine or get tested for another three months after they recovered. what does this say about immunity? >> yeah, the -- i looked at those guidelines, i have read them three or four times to understand what they're actually saying, i have a medical degree

and a ph.d.. >> we're doomed. >> imagine how frustrating that is for others? >> yeah, i think one of the things that we need to fix is is doesn't mean that you're only immune for three months. i think people that get covid-19 most people are going to probably immune for a much longer period, maybe even years. we saw that with the first sars virus. i think this is probably going to be similar, but we do see sometimes pretty ap idly declining antibody levels after infection, people may still have memory b cells or t cells, plasma cells. i would be careful about the wording of that. i don't think that's what the cdc intended. but it needs a little get of adjusting. >> if you have a hard time understanding guidance from the cdc, that doesn't bode well for the rest of us. still ahead, the rise of qanon. how a fringe conspiracy theory seeped into the mainstream. and could even propel condy

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we have to invest in what the jobs and industries of tomorrow are going to be. we have a great opportunity, build back and build back better. i'm joe biden and i approve this message. there's a growing concern about the rise of qanon candidates for congress. marjorie taylor green is in a strong people to become one of the first members of congress to support the group, which peddles right wing conspiracy theories. president trump congratulated green on twitter and when asked about support for qanon, he dodged the question. >> green has been a proponent of the qanon conspiracy theory. do you agree with her on that? >> she did very well in the election. she won by a lot, she was very popular, she comes from a great state, she had a tremendous

victory. >> qanon -- >> next question. >> do you agree with her on that, that was the question. >> go ahead, please. >> nbc news tech reporter brandy zadrozny has more on this qanon rise of candidates. >> you may have seen posts, memes, the conspiracy theory's main symbol and signal. >> q's plan to save the world. >> what does q stand for. >> in a time of widespread distrust of information, qanon is the mother of all modern conspiracy theories. >> the heart of the qanon belief system, part of the secret kabal. >> donald trump was picked by military leaders to run for president as a way to kind of

bring down the deep state. >> which is affiliated with all sorts of misbehavior, not limited to child trafficking. donald trump and the qanon view is going to save us from this in a moment called the storm. >> and the belief is that the storm is coming. >> what storm, mr. president. >> you'll find out. >> the storm is supposed to be a moment where all of these evil doers, democrats, bureaucrats, all sorts of media 23igs. america will be restored to its former greatness. >> we are finally putting america first. >> since 2017, a person or group calling themselves q has been posing as a government insider online. posting what followers see as clues about this imaginary war. nearly all of these clues, including that hillary clinton was arrested and john kennedy

jr. was alive turn out to be wrong. the batting average doesn't seem to matter. >> do you think he's still alive? >> absolutely. >> the conspiracy theory has spread from fringe internet forum to mainstream maga memes to the real world. >> save our children. save our children. >> researchers note that qanon's path into mainstream politics is really the story of an election, a pandemic and the internet itself. >> if you're at home and you're isolated and you're wondering what's going on with the pandemic and you're unsatisfied with state and national government explanations, then conspiracy theories start to look reasonable in the face of the absence of authority and of knowledge. >> president trump used his own social media accounts to promote followers and content. the white house has called news coverage of qanon and other

conspiracy theories ridiculous. but we've seen how such conspiracy theories can prove dangerous. >> he had the words maga forever and united we stand scribbled on his hand. >> last year the fbi identified qanon as a terror threat. >> you believe your government is being controlled by satanic sex traffickers, that's almost a reason to take action on its own. >> 75 people who have shown support for qanon have rung for congress this year. 19 of those candy dates are on the ballot this november. polls suggest a couple might actually win. candidates like lauren bobber, a restaurant owner who defeated president trump's favorite.

>> honestly, everything that i heard of q, i hope that this is real. >> in july, bob ert distanced herself from her prior praise, in a tweet calling qanon fake news. bob ert is favored to win in november. >> then there's julie perkins the republican nominee for u.s. senate in oregon. the insurance agent calls herself a digital soldier, and in a now deleted tweet said. >> i stand with president trump. i stand with q and the team. >> though her chance in the general may be slim, she won the primary by a landslide. >> have you guys been following 4chan? q? any of that stuff? anybody. >> queen won her primary runoff in a deeply red district. now, the republican candidate is a sure lock for a house seat in november. >> president trump needs me in congress to put business first.

>> she's condemned by her own party in june after several racist and anti-semitic videos she posted on facebook were unearthed by politico. many of her posts have been removed but her support for qanon still lives on line. >> q is a patriot. >> green is set for a runoff in a deeply red district that's all but a sure lock for the candidate. greene and bobert didn't respond to our request for comment. perkins declined to comment on her support for kwa northern, saying she was focused on the issues. >> one or two qanon friendly congress people wind up in washington. i don't think that's going to change anything very much. and the worst thing that's likely to happen from that, is that these people will be given a platform on which to share these ideas. >> these candidates haven't said how their belief may guide them as lawmakers. >> i'm just an annan.

>> for now they just want to win. >> qanon is a creature of the internet that desperately seeks legitimacy in the physical world and particularly in the real world of washington, d.c.. for qanon believers, there would be very little to celebrate war than having someone come to the u.s. senate. there's no victory like that. >> that report from nbc news tech reporter brandy zendrozny. what the white house is saying about the next covid relief package, as lawmakers prepare to recess for the rest of summer. ing out...for all of . and though you may have lost sight of your own well-being, aetna never did. we're always here to help you focus on your health. because it's always, time for care.

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blocking heartburn at the source. with just one pill a day, you get 24-hour heartburn protection. prilosec otc. one pill a day, 24 hours, zero heartburn. after weeks of stalled coronavirus relief talks a bipartisan group of house lie makers met with white house chief of staff mark meadows earlier today to try to advance negotiations. the hour-long meeting comes as congress prepares to leave washington for the month-long august recess after failing to find common ground on a fifth relief package earlier this week. nbc's david joins me with many r now. as we await a briefing from the president, let's talk about the executive actions he signed last weekend from the same spot. and one that's causing a lot of confusion. his order for companies to defer payroll taxes. can you break down what's actually written in the action?

>> yeah. this was confusing almost from the get-go. so what the president's proposed doing is saying for workers who put 6.2% of their income, most of them, towards social security and medicare, they wouldn't have to pay that until the end of this year. and what's caused confusion it's not as though they'll be exempt from having to pay that totally, there would be a deferral. they wouldn't have to pay until next year. the president when he was making that announcement, were he to win in november, he would like to make those deferrals cuts, in effect, making it so those employees wouldn't pay those taxes at all. he can't do that alone. he would need congress to do that. will that happen? how sure should companies be that that is going to happen? do they need to continue to hold money themselves for employees to come pay that back come 2021. so he's trying to make some difference here, but folks i talked to, experts he talked to,

said he's really biting at the margins. when you look at the state of the economy today the pain that people are feeling right now eliminating a rather small amount, a small tax for a short period of time is more like a lone against what's going to happen down the line. it will cause not that much incentive to spend that in the economy. >> one of the reasons why this plan has been controversial is because you have to be employed, earning a paycheck, in order to benefit from something like this. so, we also know right now businesses are struggling. if this is just deferred and there is an expectation to pay something back in the future, how is anything like that possible when so many businesses are already trying to stay afloat? >> it's a great question. and right now there is such a hunger for clarity. you had the chamber of commerce writing a letter to the treasury this week, certified public accountants writing a letter to treasury asking for guidance here. normally when there is a change like this, a cut or deferral, the treasury department issues that guidance pretty quickly.

we haven't gotten it yet. and we're in a real bind here because the president by his executive order says this is supposed to go into effect on september 1st. getting back to your very good point, big companies are likely not going to change anything. they're going to continue to hold this money just in case this is not made into a cut. and employees have to pay this money come 2021. but for smaller businesses, and this is so interesting, it's likely to have the opposite effect. they're going to struggle with what they need to do and another hurdle for them to hire more employees back. that has been kind of the driving goal here since this economic crisis began. so many people were laid off initially and the first few weeks of this crisis and so much talk of bringing those workers back, lindsey. if there's more confusion, more bureaucracy, it will become more difficult for those employers to do so. >> a hunger for clarity, gaifd, uira, putting it in eloquent terms. we're now hearing the meeting between lawmakers and the white house chief of staff mark meadows happened yesterday, not this morning.

we do want to clarify that. teachers, parents and politicians had plenty to say about this school's reopening plans. what about the kids themselves? we decided to find out in nbc's new education special kids in their own words. >> if i was a teacher and had to give coronavirus a grade i would say -- >> i would give it a b plus. >> a c. >> what? >> if i was a teacher i would give coronavirus an f. >> f. >> f with a million minuses. >> i'll just expel it. >> in march when my school was closing down, i thought it was going to be fun. >> because all we had to do was go on virtual with our class and then do our homework. >> then after a few weeks of virtual school the virtual school again. >> the one thing i miss most about being in school is being able to see my teachers and talk to them one on one. >> i didn't really have a good computer to do work with, so i would be lagging. >> it definitely was very, very

weird to have my bedroom as my school. >> i lay on my bed a lot, so get distracted way like -- i get distracted easily. >> i think that sometimes seeing people on zoom it doesn't feel like they're real people. >> when you ask the question, sometimes they don't hear you or sometimes they can't see you raise your hand. >> if you want to learn anything from your math class this year, you have to -- and i had to, learn a lot of it on your own, honestly. >> i would like to see that they come up with a vaccine so this could all just be over, like a bad nightmare. >> i miss my friends a lot. building up these relationships with these great people just doing so many things. and i feel like it's just being torn down. >> just goes to show that anything can change our lives entirely. from one little event that happened. >> and that's it for me this hour. the news continues with richard

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♪ and hello, everyone i'm richard lui here at msnbc headquarters in new york city. we'll start the hour with president trump who is in bed minister, new jersey, today, where he's expected to give a press conference just one hour from now. the president is currently locked in the battle over the u.s. postal service as many put it, he said the quiet