good afternoon from washington. welcome to weekends with alex witt, i'm garrett haake and there is lots to tell but this hour. breaking news, the democratic leaders in congress ramping up oversight of the post office. they're calling on lewis de joy to testify before the house committee calling the meeting on august 24th. this is as the white house

continues the campaign against mail-in voting. >> do you realize how inaccurate the voter rolls are, with just people moving around. not let alone the people that die off but sending ballots out just based on a voter roll, registration, any time you move, you'll change your driver's license but you don't call up and say by the way i'm -- >> but there is not widespread voter fraud though. >> there is no -- there is no evidence that there's not either. that is the definition of fraud. >> what is getting chuck and nancy back to washington, it is not concern about the working men and women of america who need our help right now, they want to come back so they could rename the post office the united states ballot harvesting service. >> also new today, an nbc news/"wall street journal" poll showing president trump trailing joe biden. the democrat now leading by nine

points. and as we count down to the start of the democratic national convention tomorrow, kamala harris speaking out against voter suppression tactics. >> because they know when we vote, things change. when we vote, we get the voting rights act and the civil rights act and the fair housing act. let's also remember why they don't want us to vote. and it is because that is a way to strip us of the power of our voices. >> we start with shaq brewster who joins us from wilmington, delaware, where biden and harris will give their interviews this week. she's making a major statement on the eve of this convention. >> reporter: that is exactly right, garrett. and we've heard a lot from senator harris recently in the past couple of days as she's given multiple one-on-one interviews notably with being interviewed by women of color and notably targeting publications that target african-americans. and in this latest interview that we heard and was published this morning, you heard her push

back on this innuendo and rumors and that she isn't eligible for the job despite being born in oakland, california. listen to how she pushes back on that assertion and uses it as a call for action for some of her supporters. listen here. >> look, i'm very clear-eyed about the fact that they are going to engage, as you said, in what they have done throughout his administration which is let's just be very candid and straightforward, they're going to engage in lies and deception and attempt to distract from the real issues impacting the me american people and i expect a knock down, dragout and we're ready. >> i'm prepared to fight because this is a fight that is for something, not against something. this is a fight for where we need to be and as you've heard me say many times, i'm very

clear that we need to focus on what can be unburdened by what has been, but as we also know, nothing, nothing that we have ever achieved that has been about progress has come without a fight. >> reporter: and this coming as you mentioned, garrett, on the eve of the democratic national convention. we know that vice president biden and senator harris will give their speeches here in wilmington. but let's go through some of the speakers. we know it is going to be some of the top tier people from the democratic party. you start on monday, we'll hear from senator amy klobuchar, andrew cuomo and john kasich on the same day that we heard from senator bernie sanders. that said something. there is some messaging in that decision there. then to tuesday, we'll hear from dr. jill biden, we'll hear from former president bill clinton, also lined up with representative alexandria ocasio-cortez. prime time wednesday we'll hear

from former president barack obama and that is where the date we'll hear senator kamala harris accept her vice presidential nomination on a day that we hear from secretary hillary clinton and nancy pelosi. you go to thursday, that is the big day that we hear vice president biden accepts his nomination and also speaking that day cory booker and senator tammy baldwin and tammy duckworth who was considered as one of his vice presidential nominees. all of this comes as we see the poll coming out that nbc news/wall street journal poll showing vice president biden with the 9 point lead and that is a lead and a plaermargin mir in the other polls we've seen this morning. this is the momentum that the campaign is trying to ride into the big week into the big week of the democratic national convention. garrett. >> shaq brewster, thank you. imagine seeing bernie sanders

and john kasich on the same bill. you don'tee th see that every d. starting tomorrow through thursday, each night beginning at 7:00 eastern right here on msnbc. meantime, the white house today singling the possible chance the slimmer of a chance for common ground with democrats after weeks of stalled negotiations on a covid relief bill. josh letterman is at the white house with more. and josh, what is the white house potentially putting on the table here. >> reporter: you would be forgiven after the conversation we've had the last week you gotten the impression that president trump was opposed to more money for the postal service. he said that as much this past week when he said out loud that you can't give all of this money to the post office because it will be used to expand this mail-in voting that the president is so adamantly opposed to. but in the last several days, that white house position seems to eroding with the president saying he was not necessarily opposed to providing funding for the post office, if he got what

he wanted out of negotiations with democrats. and now today white house chief of staff mark meadows seeming to float the idea for a one to one exchange. stimulus checks in exchange for post office money. take a listen. >> i'm all about piecemeal. if we could agree on postal, let's do it. if we could agree on stimulus checks, let's do it. i've been the one that has been advocating for that. >> great. >> speaker pelosi said she won't do anything unless it is a big deal. >> >> reporter: and pelosi and democrats have been opposed to doing a piece meal approach from the beginning. they're afraid of losing leverage if they just do part of this deal at one time as well as losing the momentum given that this is likely the only opportunity for any real covid relief legislation between now and election day. so whether this new offer of sorts from the white house is going to create any new momentum to return to the negotiating table, we'll have to see.

at this point in time, it seems like the white house and congressional leadership are essentially doing their negotiating through television interviews, not sitting down at the table together. the only talks the white house has had in the last few days, not with pelosi, but more rank and file members known as the problem solvers caucus. but nancy pelosi is so concerned about the mail-in voting issue and the post office crisis she's considering bringing the house back to session early to address that issue. we'll have to see whether that could potentially create an opportunity for them to continue with the negotiations about this broader relief bill as well. including this usps funding that democrats are adamant needs to be given immediately to assert the major crises with the election that democrats see looming on election day. >> it is interesting to me that meadows is so confident that stimulus checks could be sent out, millions of them through the mail but worried about fraud

on ballots. josh letterman for us at the white house today, thank you. josh. with me now is daniel straus from the guardian and jeff mason white house correspondent at reuters. jeff, what is your reaction to the line of messaging coming from the white house today on the post office. here is meadows saying we want to do this piecemeal, one tack at a time. is that new. >> in his case, an offering of sorts to say we're willing to give you something as long as you give us something back. and we're not willing to move on the demands that speaker pelosi and other democrats have made for a massive what they consider a massive bill, $3 trillion or so. is it new? it is a suggestion that perhaps a little bit of what president trump has been saying about the postal office has been bark and maybe not as much bite. if they're willing to compromise on that funding. but it is obviously something that democrats are taking very seriously and we'll have to see

if they're willing to compromise on their end in terms of doing it in a separate bill as opposed to a larger one. >> daniel, did the president hit importance with the rock here. did he anticipate the kind of backlash he's getting for targeting the post office in this way. >> not really. and it turned everyone into postal service experts and we're learning about funding for the postal service, why we have it and what service it provides. here the thing, though, even if we're talking about defunding the postal service, i think allies of president trump are realizing that this is a service that does multiple things. it is not just mail-in ballots. it provides constituents in rural areas who would vote for trump needed services like medicine, a route to get bills and send information out into the rest of the world. these are things that the white

house realized, if it were disrupted, would probably be felt across the country and across the political spectrum. >> jeff, i think we know the president would rather be talking about the economy if it were something to be bragging about right now. but instead he's tracking themes of this birther conspiracy theory or going after the post office. is there electoral upshot for him here, why are we talking about the issues or the president, i should say, directing the conversation in away at these issues that don't seem like they would be particularly hopeful in november. >> garrett, that is a question you could ask about the last three and a half years. the president chooses to go off an various topics that he cares about and that many of his supporters care about but that often don't actually help him politically and i think that the postal service may be an excellent example of that. but more broadly, the fact that in that recent poll that you cited at the top of the show,

that many americans and many voters see president trump has stronger on the economy than vice president biden. it suggests to me that, and i know this from my own reporting, that many advisers around the president would like him to just talk about the economy. and he doesn't do that. he talks about the economy and goes off on other issues an that is a distraction. >> he steps on his own message. daniel, house democrats are saying they want the post master general to testify as early as next week. here is chuck schumer talking about this in new york. >> i'm demanding that the senate hold hearings and call mr. de joy and the head of the postal commission before them this week. i'm demanding that leader mcconnell go into regular session so we could have these hearings. if dejoy refused to appear, he should be stamped return to sender. he shouldn't be allowed to be

the post master general if after all of this destruction he can't answer to the american people what he is doing. >> dad joke, postal puns aside, do we think dejoy will appear? the white house has resisted oversight in every way possible in this administration. >> the schumer -- he always has a trademark joke, doesn't he. >> yes. >> i really don't. other administrations have refrained from putting cabinet secretaries and high ranking white house officials in front of congressional committees. and i think that is what we're going to see here. partially because dejoy is not a career public servant. he's a former trump donor and major republican party donor. this is not someone you want to hoist in front of a congressional committee and the c-span crowd who will be scrutinizing and already scrutinizing him for his past history and his critics say has

ulterior motives to overhaul the post office and stream line it. but i think there is going to be a fight over it and it is clear at this point that the close eye that the country is casting on the postal service is not going to go away any time soon. >> i want to ask you both briefly about the new nbc reporting on russia. jeff, is this another example of the president going off on a tangent that doesn't help him, that he might want to meet with vladimir putin before the election. what could be the upside of this if you're the white house. >> that is a good question. it is possible that that is a reference to what the president has said publicly, that he's considering inviting president putin to a g-7 meeting if one happens before the election. but broadly, i think, i can't answer that question. if it is meant as a distraction, how seriously he's considering that. they have floated the idea of a pleating with president putin for ages now and it is sort of come in and out of the

conversation. it certainly is very interesting timing for that to be coming in again right now. >> daniel, that same idea, white house seems to think they have some good news to share on foreign policy, the uae deal this week and could they try to ring something positive in the meeting with putin to help in the election. >> it is possible. but at the same time i want to stress that white house officials aren't always completely aligned with trump on when he wants to meet with putin. the president is eager to talk and have private meetings with putin outside of what his aides really prefer. and what we know about these meetings is that the president has not so far brought up that reporting by the "new york times" that russia was putting bounties on american soldiers' heads. those are not things that the white house and the trump re-election campaign wants to highlight during the final months of a close election where

the president is lagging behind his -- his defact facto at thi point democratic opponent. >> we'll leave it there. thank you. coming up, just how important is this week's convention going to be for the biden/harris ticket. i'll speak with someone who has spoke at a convention before. the rev al sharpton. the rev al sharpton. a lot of folks ask me why their dishwasher doesn't get everything clean. i tell them, it may be your detergent... that's why more dishwasher brands recommend cascade platinum... ...with the soaking, scrubbing and rinsing built right in.

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right now joe biden and his newly selected running mate kamala harris are preparing to make their dnc debut. they're both scheduled to supreme at the wholly virtually convention where biden will be nominated. joining me host of politics nation, the rev al sharpton. and you've spoken at a dnc before, you know how this goes. what is biden need to accomplish in his speech. this is a ticket in the lead right now according to our poll. >> he needs to inspire turnout and he needs to, in many ways,

give people the assurance that their vote will count, that the party is going to might to make mail-in ballots work as well as they are going to manage those that will go and vote in person, they're going to manage the lines and make sure that the integrity of the voting process is protected. if he could get turnout, if he could inspire turnout, he already has the wind at his back because many voters are anti-donald trump, but he has got to make them say it is not enough to scream at the television. you have to come out and vote. we're going to make sure every vote counts and protect mail-in voting. that is what he has to do. and do it without an audience. there will not be a response, without a audience and he and kamala harris has that task and i think that they are preparing themselves to begin. >> harris does have sort of a different challenge here.

biden is such a well-known figure nationally, he's been on the political scene for decades. what does harris have to do and what is really arguably her big national debut? >> she has to be one that could energize without appearing to be someone you would not see in the role as vice president. so she has to be able to thread the needle of saying that i am energetic, i am fiery but i'm not provocative or out of control. i could be vice president and i'm prepared to do whatever is necessary to help run this country. and i think that she has the experience as attorney general and d.a. in the bay area of california, that she's had to balance and thread needles before, she just has the biggest needle and roll of thread she's ever had in her career and i think she will be up for the task. >> to pressure at all there.

rev, i want to ask you about black turnout. there is so much ink spilled on the idea that hillary clinton numbers in 2016, will have barack obama numbers at the top of the ticket, but that 2016 numbers will not be acceptable with black turnout if democrats want a democratic president in 2021. what does this ticket need to do to inspire it and is this another thing that is laid on kamala harris's shoulders. >> i think they have engage the communities. for example in '16 the democrats lost michigan by 12,000 to 13,000 votes. i argued then if hillary clinton has gone in and i blame handlers and campaign staff on this, if she had gone into the detroit, one or two more times, she could have gathered those votes and in two mega-churches there. they need to go into the communities and use black media, because you've not only got to have exposure, you have to have

media platforms that are trusted by the voters that you're trying to target. blacks watch mainstream media but they trust the voices on black radio. they read black periodicals and i think they have engage them often and deal directly with their concerns and the issues. we're in the year, garrett, of george floyd. they need to be very much on that we are dealing with a year of racial reckoning and we get it and we have a president in office that is hostile to it, a vote for him is against your interest and a not vote at all is to vote for him. >> i'm fascinated by this debate with senator harris about whether she's too progressive or not enough. it is amazing to see the back and forth on this. when you're on the vice presidential ticket, she's running on joe biden's policies but i wonder does that debate become problematic for her and

does she have to address it in some way and lay out where she is on theo ideology perspective >> i think a lot of people screaming progressive is based on whose definition of progressive. in the black community, for example, you have people that are progressive on many issues but missing in action on issues that concern the black community. you have the same issues raised on barack obama. and he overwhelmingly won the black vote and won the election and was re-elected. so she could not confuse noise with the real band of people that will go and vote. everybody making noise does not make music. >> that is a good point. the trump campaign loves to talk about enthusiasm. they feel like they have far more enthusiastic voters and today the "wall street journal" writes that even though he's leading, that biden is failing to generate widespread

enthusiasm. is this a real problem, does it matter how enthusiastically you put that ballot in the mail? >> you have to raise enthusiasm, but then enthusiasm, i think, that the biden/harris ticket challenge is on the issues. if you just remind people just how they are faring during a pandemic that did not have to happen at the level it has happened, because this president, according to his own health experts, was alerted in late january, and never acknowledged it until march. he was in denial all of february and early march. this just shows people the mirror. look at where you are. you don't know if your children are safe at school. many of you don't know whether or not you're going to get help in terms of your own stimulus checks. they need to use what matters to people. don't talk at people. talk to them about their conditions. that will raise all of the

enthusiasm that they need. >> reverend al, spoken by someone who knows something about giving a convention speech. thank you very much. we'll talk about what you need to know to get a ballot in the mail and where it is going after this break. after this break

the democratic national convention is set to begin tomorrow. you're looking at a live picture of the city of milwaukee where, of course, the convention was supposed to be occurring. but this four-day event is sure to be historic for a number of reasons including that it is the first convention to be completely virtual. jo joining me now is the communications director for the dnc. this is unlike anything we've seen before. how do you capture the skrie excitement and bounce and get enthusiasm for a glorified zoom

meeting of a convention. >> you're right. this is not a traditional convention but we're not in traditional times. we're in a pandemic. you see parents across the country struggling on whether to send kids back to school, whether it is safe. you have people working from home. you have people who know family members and others who have gotten coronavirus or potentially died from the virus and so our convention will look very different. it will be over four nights. it will be from six hours every night from 9:00 to 11:00 and we have the stars of our party, but they won't be behind a podium. you won't have six hours of elected officials behind a podium back-to-back. you're going to have live and curated content reflecting the stories of americans, some who have lost loved ones from coronavirus and some who have felt the impact from a donald trump administration and others who have been lifted up by joe biden. and so i think that this will be -- it will not only have the

stars of our party but you'll see the stories from real americans all across this country and it is something that all voters want to watch, not just your political operatives. >> i want to ask you about our new poll. 58% of people told our "wall street journal" poll said their support for the biden ticket was more vote against president trump, 38% said it is more vote for biden. do you see this as a problem? how do you get more voters excited about joe biden than just excited about him not being donald trump. >> well i would say people are excited about joe biden. look at first 48 hours since kamala harris was announced as a running mate. they raised $48 million in the first 48 hours and that was fueled by the grassroots. and if you've seen the enthusiasm, in poll after poll not only is joe biden leading but what we've seen across the

country is there is more people coming into our party. and what you'll see as part of the program there are folks who are traditional democrats and who have voted in every election and who have worked hard for our party but also people who have never voted before. and so i think that everyone understands what is at stake in this election and you are seeing a lot of enthusiasm from all walks, latinos, african-americans, progressives an others for joe biden and kamala harris. >> that 48 million in 48 hours suggested enthusiasm for kamala harris which is a different thing potentially. but rising enthusiasm boot raises the whole ticket, i suppose. there is criticism of the dnc around the idea of a lack of latino and muslim voices among those scheduled to speak at convention and you have john kasich, the former republican governor of ohio among the speakers. julian castro addressed this last night.

i want to play what he said. >> i would be lying if i said i'm not disappointed that there aren't more latinos and latinas and the democratic party over the last few years, i'm not sure right now it is fully represented on that stage. >> what do you make of that? are you missing an opportunity to show the sort of full diversity of the democratic coalition. >> we will show the full diversity of the democratic coalition. i could guarantee you twl are a number of latinos that are represented in our program and we announced a number of them last week. they range from a daca recipient on the front lines of pandemic, we have rising local elected officials, one thing that is changed for this convention is we don't just have one key note, but we have a key note with 17

rising democrats, diverse democrats from all across this country that make our party so great. and so we will have a number of folks what are speaking throughout the entire four days. and i'll say that our program isn't out and so stay tuned and we'll have a muslim american leader and other leader wloz will represent our country. >> the inclusion of kasich in 2016 was democrats favor republican said something about the biden strategy, does it not, about people who you may be trying to reach out to who weren't always part of the democratic coalition? >> well the theme for the convention is united america. and regardless of who you voted for in 2016. we want to speak to everybody. whether you voted for hillary clinton or voted in the democratic primary or whether you are a firsttime voter or frankly you want to speak out against donald trump because you understand how dangerous it is. so i think that joe biden's campaign has been pretty smart

about this. they understand in order to win we must reach out to everyone, not just those who turned out in the democratic primary, but everyone. and that is what you're going to see as part of our convention. >> sochi, thank you so much. i'll be watching. and with just 79 days to go no until election day, tens of millions are expected to vote by mail. they can't agree all will arrive on toim. so what are your options to make sure that every vote does get counted. mara barrett is on the ground in one of the states that got the warning from the post office, pennsylvania. and walk us through, what could you do if you don't want to vote in person, how do you make sure your vote gets counted? >> reporter: garrett, those delays that the usps is warning about is real and they are happening now. i had a voter reach out and she

shipped a package and it is sitting inside in this facility for ten days and others are waiting for up to three weeks and they are adamant that you request our application early and you send it in and you get the ballot and you fill it out and send it back in. so it is a multi-step process but there are thsome things to to make that process better. i spoke with haley at voter.org and she suggested this. take a listen. >> having access to the post office really jeopardizes a lot of the work going on across the country. one of the things that everyone should advocate for is that because of these delays, you're ballot should be counted as long as it is post marked by the correct day. much like we administer tax collection in this country. if it is post marked by the day, then your vote should be counted

and government should take it and receive it. >> reporter: so this is something that pennsylvania has asked the department of state to consider. they're looking to make sure that votes are counted if they come in up to three days after the election as long as they've been post marked by that day. some counties in pennsylvania are also looking at enacting in-person absentee voting centers, especially in this area of pennsylvania. so that is an alternative option that you could get. but all in all, because of these delays, election officials are really advocating for voters to send in battols as early as possible to guarantee you are marked before election day so as the changes take place your vote could be counted. garrett. >> mara barrett in philly. thank you. coming up, brand-new polling giving us a clearer picture of where things stand not just nationally but in the battleground states that will decide the election. those numbers are next.

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we are counting down to the democratic national convention which starts tomorrow. and a new nbc news/wall street journal poll has joe biden leading president trump nationally by nine points. joining me now is pollster and msnbc political analyst cornell belcher, from brill yoents corners research and strategy.

i'm struck by how stable this race has been with joe biden having the consistent high single-digit lead. how should democrats feel heading into this convention and given that stability, do you think we'll see that traditional post convention bump? >> i'm struck by it also. and in fact, it scares me. it is so stable, it terrifies me. [ laughter ] we're winning, we're winning bigger than we typically are so i'm terrified. but, look, you typically see a tightening of the race, you typically see a post-convention, one way or another. i'm not sure we'll get that this time because it is not the typical convention and frankly so much of this is a referendum on trump, it is a referendum on presidency. but i have to tell you, this is

unlikely anything we've seen and the numbers that you just showed about how the majority of voters, even bider voters, a vast majority are voting against trump, that just speaks to how this is overwhelmingly a referendum on donald trump. and how does donald trump change the dynamics of this. his job approval have never been great but they've tanked. and he's not led on a consistent attack on joe biden that has moved voters in one way or another and now they're trying it on senator harris. but the trump campaign, they have to try to change the fundamental dynamics of this and not make it a complete referendum on them because you see what the numbers are. >> we know so much about these two men, it is hard to see what shakes this up. and when you peel back this poll, we get to the combined 11 battleground states that nbc is looking at. so that is arizona, colorado, florida, maine, michigan,

minnesota, everybody knows the battleground states. we have biden leading by 7, 49 to 42%. and how do you see this comparing to 2016 and the idea that democrats have sort of pulled trauma from '16 where i think a lot of democrats felt good about polling position over the late summer and early fall and then got a little dicier there toward the end. >> well, this is just fundamentally different. one, it is an incumbent. and two, you don't have the -- i think hillary clinton was a fantastic and qualified presidential candidate but she's also someone that republicans have spent several decades spending millions upon millions of dollars attacking and her negatives were just as high as donald trump's negatives. you don't have that with joe biden. and, look, the polling in 2016 was problematic in the force choice two way because so many

voters, especially young obama voters broke third party that it was misleading. i don't think the polling from 2016 was wrong as the narrative was wrong because in the end it wasn't a two-way race and in the end the polling and in 2016 was just as good as 2012 if you don't loo acthe two-way forced horse race. and structurally democrats don't tend to hold a nine to ten-point lead consistently over republicans. not since lbj signed the civil rights legislation. this is tough for democrats to do. i don't suspect that we'll continue to hold a ten point lead but how far above his job performance could donald trump get. could he get back up to 45% of the vote, that is what i'll be watching for. there is another number buried in the poll and that is the president's relative d durability with latino voters.

it is 58% to 31%. who do you make of that and how does the biden campaign knock that number down? >> one, it is doing a lot of research in florida, it is so ground zero of the change that are happening in this country and the latino voters, latin x is not different at all depending on dominican or puerto rico or cuban background, it does impact sort of their voting preference. and, look, i think it is the same thing that folks saw from 2016, trump's racism, his anti-immigration disqualifies him with 100% of black people and 100% of latino voters. and you do have a tradition of 20, 25 or so percent of latino voters breaking republican.

an the other part is you've added arizona to the battleground states. arizona wasn't part of our battleground mix in 2012 when i was working on the obama campaign and part of the battleground mix now. that also speaks to the broadening of the battleground field and it is broadening because some of the states are becoming more diverse. so you're adding arizona and pretty soon, watch my words for this, you'll be adding georgia to that list also. >> coy do this all day but we have to sell some ads. so thank you very much for talking about this poll with me. >> thank you. >> coming up, the spike in coronavirus cases among one of the highest risk groups and why health care leaders say it is hard to keep these kind of outbreaks under tight control. re so you only pay for what you need? given my unique lifestyle, that'd be perfect! let me grab a pen and some paper. know what? i'm gonna switch now. just need my desk...

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we've got some concerning new numbers to report. coronavirus cases and deaths are on the rise in nursing homes across the u.s. according to a new report,

nearly 3,000 people in assisted living facilities contracted the virus between may and july. chris pallone is in orlando, florida, a city and state with large retirement communities, and chris, what can you tell us about what's happening there? >> hey, garrett. obviously, that report is a big concern here in florida. which has the highest percentage of people over the age of 65 in the united states. and it's such a jarring statistic because when you look at the national statistics and the statistics here in the state of florida, let's use florida. about 9500 victims to covid-19, 3800 of them were residents of nursing homes or workers in nursing homes in assisted care facilities. that's about 40%. that's a trend that health officials are basically seeing nationwide, is that of all the deaths from covid-19, about 40% are happening to people in these facilities. so obviously, it's a top priority to try to keep people safe. however, if there is any good

news in that report that was released by that industry trade group this week, it is that their data cut off towards the middle or end of july. so about three or four weeks have passed since then in the state of florida. health officials say new cases among nursing home residents are flat and new cases among nursing home workers are going down. that's certainly the good news. however, the governor here, ron desantis, is concerned that because things tend to lag a little bit in nursing homes compared to the general population, we could still see an increase, a rise in deaths, as time goes forward. >> important reporting. >> i'm concerned over the next couple weeks, i'm concerned of seeing kind of a tail where we start to see some of these long-term care deaths. when it gets in, it can spread very, very quickly, and if you can't get a handle on it, then you end up in a really significant situation. we have a lot of controls in place, and we're working hard on mitigation, but when you have

4,000-plus facilities, particularly some facilities in some of the areas that have traditionally had high prevalence here, it's definitely a challenge. >> something to watch in the coming week, garrett, is the governor and the state has convened a task force to try to figure out how to allow nursing home residents to actually get some visitors, allow some family in or caretakers in to see them. these people haven't been allowed to see their family essentially since mid-march. the state is trying to figure out a way if they can be done safely to allow these people to have some human contact with their family and friends. it's going to set up a battle over testing, some people on that committee have already said they think that this could be done safely without testing the people who are coming into the nursing homes. others say that's a crazy idea. you need instant testing to see whether the people are positive before they go in. their next meeting is on tuesday. we'll have to see what they decide. >> all right, chris pallone for us in orlando. thank you for that. that's going to do it for me

this hour. i'm garrett haake. alex will be back next week, and up next, lindsey reiser talks to john podesta, the chairman of hillary clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, on the expectations for this week's democratic convention. no uh uh, no way come on, no no n-n-n-no-no only discover has no annual fee on any card. mornings were made for better things n-n-n-no-no than rheumatoid arthritis. when considering another treatment, ask about xeljanz a pill for adults with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis when methotrexate has not helped enough. xeljanz can reduce pain, swelling, and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections. before and during treatment, your doctor should check for infections like tb and do blood tests. tell your doctor if you've had hepatitis b or c, have flu-like symptoms,

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good afternoon. i'm lindsey reiser. as the war over the post office rages in washington, democrats say they want to hear directly from the general.

house democrats announcing today a hearing in which they want to grill post master general and trump mega donor louis dejoy. this as president trump continues to push the fact-free claim that mail-in balloting will lead to fraud. a claim his chief of staff backed up with this stunning statement today. >> any time you move, you'll change your driver's license, but you don't call up and say, hey -- >> there's no evidence of widespread voter fraud, though. there's no evidence of widespread voter fraud. >> no evidence there's not, either. that's it definition of fraud. >> so the lack of evidence is the evidence? and new poll numbers just out from nbc show why this administration may be motivated to talk about any other issue other than the pandemic engulfing the nation. joe biden currently leads the president by nine points in the poll. and this might be why. 58% of