e's like 180 books in my, in my library now. it changes your perspective; it makes you a different person. it's true, it's so true. to start your free 30-day trial, just text listen17 to 500500. i keep thinking about that 25-year-old indian woman all of 5 feet tall who gave birth to me at kaiser hospital in oakland, california. on that day she probably could have never imagined that i would be standing before you now and speaking these words, i accept your nomination for vice president of the united states of america. >> senator kamela harris making history as she formally takes her spot on the democratic

presidential ticket. plus, the scathing remarks from former president barack obama, accusing donald trump of turning the presidency into, quote, one more reality show to get the attention that he craves. also, more reporting on the postal crisis ahead of the election as the president slams mitch mcconnell for the timing of it in upcoming testimony. good thursday morning, everybody. it is august 20th, and i'm yasmin vossoughian. so we want to begin with senator kamela harris making history as we showed. the first woman of color to formally accept the democratic nomination for vice president of this country. in her speech delivered live from joe biden's hometown of wilmington, delaware, harris shared parts of her own personal story, took aim at the president, and called on

americans to fight for the country's future. >> my mother instilled in my sister miya and me the values that would chart the course of our lives. she raised us to be proud, strong black women, and she raised us to know and be proud of our indian heritage. she taught us to put family first, the family you're born into and the family you choose. i have fought for children and survivors of sexual assault. i fought against transnational criminal organizations. i took on the biggest banks and helped take down one of the biggest for-profit colleges. i know a predator when i see one. donald trump's failure of leadership has cost lives and livelihoods.

if you're a parent struggling with your child's remote learning, or you're a teacher struggling on the other side of that screen, you know what we're doing right now is not working. >> so we're at an inflection point. the constant chaos leaves us adrift. the incompetence makes us feel afraid. the callousness makes us feel alone. it's a lot. and here's the thing. we can do better and deserve so much more. >> right now we have a president who turns our tragedies into political weapons. joe will be a president who turns our challenges into purpose. joe and i believe that we can build that beloved community,

one that is strong and decent, just and kind, one in which we can all see ourselves. >> so in addition to the senator round ought tt the night, also r president barack obama assailing president trump in his speech last night, calling him a threat to democracy, and issuing a stark warning to americans of the dire need to vote him out of office come this november. the former president made his poignant plea from the museum of the american revolution in philadelphia where he was flanked by the text of the u.s. constitution. >> i have sat in the oval office with both of the men who are running for president. i never expected that my successor would embrace my vision or continue my policies.

i did hope for the sake of our country that donald trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously, that he might come to feel the weight of the office and discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care. but he never did. for close to four years now he has shown no interest in putting in the work, no interest in finding common ground, no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends, no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves. donald trump hasn't grown into the job because he can't. and the consequences of that

failure are severe. >> so obama's remarks left the president seethes on twitter, unleashing a series of angry tweets directed at the former president. joining me political reporter shaquille brewster. shaq, good to see you. it was quite a night last night. former president joe biden will be accepting the nomination formally and taking the stage as well. what did you make of president obama's comments on president trump? do you think they will hurt president trump's re-election bid? this is one of the first times we have seen a former president barack obama assail president trump, responding to so much of what he believes were policy mistakes. >> reporter: yasmin, you know, you mentioned it earlier.

it was -- probably president obama's harshest criticism yet of president donald trump, but you alluded to this a little bit before. last night history was made. kamela harris accepting the party's nomination, she became the first african-american -- first black woman and asian-american to accept the nomination from a major president -- she appeared on the ticket and accepted the nomination for a major political party. that history, that sense of history, is something that the party truly leaned into last night starting with nancy pelosi, the first woman to serve as speaker of the house. then with secretary hillary clinton, the first woman to be nominated on a presidential ticket or for president on a presidential ticket for the democratic party. and then you heard that speech from the first black president barack obama. but, yes, it was his harshest criticism yet of president donald trump. you heard him frame this as not

only a character witness for vice president joe biden saying he's seen the work that vice president biden has done in the white house, returning this economy, recovering the economy, and his work in pushing forward with obamacare. but you also heard barack obama also suggest this is one of the final chances or major chance this country has to preserve the democracy. that's why he was right next to the constitution that was printed on the wall. he really was raising the stakes of this election saying it's much more serious than any policy discussion in which we heard a lot of policy last night. it was more serious than any policy discussion. it really goes into the preservation of this democracy, which is why he ended his speech on the tone we've heard before from former president obama in calling and pleading for americans to use the power they have to go out and vote in a way he says he hasn't seen before. he see this situation, this moment that we're in right now, as dire.

yasmin? >> all right. nbc shaq brewster. thank you as always, my frenl. stay close. i'm going to talk to you again in just a little bit. so presidential nominee joe biden had harsh words for the president's handling of the coronavirus pandemic with a meeting yesterday. during a meeting biden questioned the president's intelligence saying in part this. when it comes to the pandemic, after months of failure, he just gave up. you know, i used to think it was because of his personality, but i just don't think he can intellectually can handle it. i don't think he's competent enough to know what to. do he just waved the white flag. buddhen's comment comes as a new campaign ad was issued. still ahead, everybody. what the postmaster plans to do ahead of the election.

also another state sues over their plan to extend mail-in voting. those stories and a check of your weather when we come back. f your weather wn hewe come back migraine medicine. it's called ubrelvy. the migraine medicine for anytime,

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welcome back. house speaker nancy pelosi says postmaster general louis dejoy will not make cuts to the postal service. pelosi said he told her in a phone conversation while he will refrain from additional changes, he has no intention of returning the sorting machines removed from facilities or collection boxes taken from the streets. the refusal to fully resuscitate postal operations will be raised in dejoy's upcoming congressional testimony. pelosi said a temporary pause, quote, does not reverse damage that has already been wreaked.

and governor phil murphy is seeing. the lawsuit seeks to throw out the executive order on the grounds that it is a, quote, direct youer is passion of the legislature's authority because the chambers of the state assembly are charged with setting law. >> listen. fit's okay to show up and protest, it's okay to show up and vote in person. we've senn democrats with this hypocritical point that says somehow we shouldn't be able to show up at the polling place and cast a vote, that's just ridiculous. here's what we do need. give them some options with mail-in voting. if they request an absentee vote, we certainly want to encourage them. the post aufoffice will be reado deliver the ballots.

but we also want to say if you show up curbside or in person, you should be able to do that. >> governor murphy told reporters this, bring it on. he went on to accuse the trump team of a full-throated campaign to undermine the election itself. we're going to hear more from governor murphy when he joins "morning joe" later on this morning, so you don't want to miss that. joining me now is msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. good morning. >> good morning, yasmin. >> it's in addition to existing election law in the state of new jersey. it is not an elimination of in-person voting. so what is the problem here? >> all of these cases can be boiled down to one conflict. on the republican side, they're arguing that any time you increase ballot access, you increase the possibility of flood, whereas, mostly on the democratic side, you're seeing governors, in this case, for

example, trying to simply increase ballot access by allowing mail-in voting, and the republican argument here is that governor murphy's order here is an order by the governor. and the legislature has the sole responsibility most of the time for determining how elections are supposed to be run. so that is the main gist. even though republicans acknowledge that allowing more people to vote will allow increased access to the polls, it increases the danger of voter fraud by allowing -- by having a system that isn't ready to handle this increase in ballots while simultaneously allowing more ballots to come in. >> you know, we talked about these cases against the u.s. postal service because of the cuts made by postmaster louis dejoy. now we're hearing that he was going to walk past those cuts, but then speaker pelosi seems to say, in fact, he's not doing

that, that he's not restoring these voting machines. he's not restoring the mailboxes. so where does that leave some of those cases that we spoke about yesterday? >> the big quest with the postal service, the decommissioning of those machines, is what is exactly being removed and what exactly is being put in. does the postal service need the 600 machines they are decommissioning? are they obsolete? will they help increase mail-in ballot ak sechlts all of these changes may not be that big a deal. they would mostly be within the executive branch's direction. but any time those decisions are made, big decision, little decisio decisions, cost huff cutting decision, now you're infringing on the right to vote, a constitutional right, millimeter the framers deem so important that even the postal service

might run smack dab into the constitution if it affects the right to vote. >> i quickly want to ask you this, danny, because many of the cases we discuss here especially when it comes to the u.s. postal service or the election in general has to do with the election. is there any chance that any of this stuff is going to be settled before november 3rd? >> that's the challenge is that courts take a long time. you're seeing some litigants in pennsylvania come to mind immediately that are racing to the courthouse and doing anything they can to get their case heard as soon as possible. in pennsylvania, for example, the attorney general's saying to the supreme court of pennsylvania, hey, take this case away from the lower court right now because time is of the essence. we don't have time to go through the normal appellate process, and it will be fascinating and really interesting to see how the courts handle this sense urgency. courts, frankly, are not designed to move that quickly in ordinary cases, but these are not ordinary cases, and they're not ordinary times.

>> >> danny cevallos, missing your daughter over your right shoulder this morning. >> she'll be back. she'll be back. >> looking forward to seeing her. still ahead, the fbi considers the qanon as a c conspiracy theory. we're going to hear about that next. heory. we're going to hear about that next to be honest...a little dust? it never bothered me. until i found out what it actually was. dust mite droppings? ewww. dead skin cells? gross! so now, i grab my swiffer heavy duty sweeper and dusters. dusters extends to 6 feet to reach way up high... to grab, trap and lock away gross dust. nice! for dust on my floors, i switch to sweeper. the heavy duty cloths reach deep in grooves to grab,

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facebook has banned hundreds of pages. it includes 900 facebook pages, and more, pushing the con conspiracy sis as part of the social media's policy skpang. it states pages, groups, instagram accounts associated with these movemented and

organizations will be removed when they discuss potential violence. the group has been linked to various violent attacks like train hijackings, a police chase, and a murder. they say it's become a domestic terrorism threat and specifically mentioned qanon. yesterday during his press briefing the president commented on the uptick and popularity of the conspiracy theory while declining to disavow the movement. >> during the pandemic, the q&a a nonmovement appears to be gaining a lot of followers. can you tell us what you think about that and what you have to say to people following the movement right now? >> i don't understand much of the movement other than i understand they like me very much, which i appreciate.

i've heard these are people that love our country. >> at the crux of the theory is the belief that you are secretly saving the world from this satanic world of psychotics and cannibals. is that something you're behind? >> i haven't heard that, but is that supposed to be a bad thing or a good thing, you know? if i can help save the world from problems, i'm willing to do it. i'm willing to put myself out there. >> okay. so let's switch gears here. so california is in a state of emergency as more than 90 wildfires ripped through homes and businesses there. tens of thousands of residences are under evacuation orders as many fires have expanded. cal fire is asking for help from the country saying they need an

additional 125 fire engines and at least a thousand more file fighters to her combat the blazes. they're coming amid continuing heed waves and lightning strikes that have added to these extreme conditions. >> let's get a look at your first forecast with meteorologist janessa webb. good morning. some of these images coming out of california are completely devastating, and if you think about some of the temperatures they've been dealing with out there, over 100 in some places where they haven't had that in quite quite some time, you wonder when will this and how will this subside. >> yeah. i mean it all started on sunday where a lightning strike that's very rare for this time of year. normally we don't see lightning and that bubble of low pressure in that area really start to happen until the fall months, so a really rare situation. the heat is starting to back off across oregon and seattle this afternoon, but, still, we're

talking about 100-degree temperatures across the southwest. so it's definitely very brutal. and what's really going to help southern california today is hurricane genevieve. that will produce a little bit of moisture, but we're expecting more lightning strikes throughout the day. also we're watching two systems that now overnight, tropical depression 13 has formed, and this system is making its way very close to the windward islands. we're going to start to see tropical updates and alerts go into effect by this afternoon. i do think this become as tropical storm later on tonight, and we'll continue to watch the storm. you can see the forecast keeps it under a hurricane strength. but, yasmin, it is really time for people to start preparing and getting prepared for two potential storms in the atlantic. >> all right. i know you'll be tracking that for us. thank you, janessa. still ahead, the latest on the postal crisis and the

postmaster is called upon to reverse recent changes. a photo of much needed equipment, dismantled and stored in a garage. we're back in a moment. ored in a garage. we're backn ia moment from prom dresses... ...to soccer practices... ...and new adventures. you hope the more you give the less they'll miss. but even if your teen was vaccinated against meningitis in the past... they may be missing vaccination for meningitis b. let's help protect them together. because missing menb vaccination could mean missing out on a whole lot more. ask your doctor if your teen is missing meningitis b vaccination.

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welcome back, everyone. i'm yasmin vossoughian. we want to begin with exclusive images that appear to show high-volume mail-sort machines

out of service and dismantled despite previous assertion by the u.s. postal service that machines were being reallocated. one machine that can process 35,000 pieces of mail per hour and which employees say was in good working condition was removed recently from a waterloo, iowa, post office and now sits in a garage. in portland, oregon, a postal employee says these sort machines were in working condition before being decommissioned in the past few weeks. these have not been verified by nbc news. and in grand rapids, michigan, a disassembled machine was sitting in a postal service parking lot. there has been no comment by postmaster dejoy who suspended until after the election the cost-cutting measures and policy changes which have been blamed for delivery service slowdowns on tuesday he said, mail

procession equipment and blue boxes will remain where they are. that's what he said. but he did not specify if what has already been removed will be put back in place. also the president is accusing senate majority leader mitch mcconnell of playing into the hands of democrats with the timing of a senate hearing on the postal service scheduled to begin on friday that's going to feature the testimony of postmaster louis dejoy. tweeting at mcconnell, president trump asked this. why are republicans allowing the democrats to have ridiculous post office hearings before and after our convention and added this. let them hold them now during their convention or after our convention is over. so let's talk about the convention. democratic national convention where in her speech last night former secretary of state hillary clinton invoked her 2016 election loss as a caution aary

tale to urge americans to turn out and vote in november. >> for four years people told me, i didn't realize how dangerous he was. i wish i could do it all over or worse, i should have voted. look. this cannot be another would a could a should a election. recommend back in 2016 when trump asked, what you do have to lose? now we know. our health care, our jobs, our loved ones, our leadership in the world, and even our post office. >> to the young people watching, don't give up on america. despite our flaws and problems, we've come so far. we can still be a more just, equal country with opportunities previous generations could never have imagined. >> all right. joining me once again, nbc news political reporter shaq brewster. so, shaq, if you think about mail-in voting across this

country, the post office should be able to handle the influx of folks that are going to be voting by mail, the 100 or 200 million people that will likely vote in this election. but when you see these images of these sort machines being put in facilities where they are out of commission, the worry is they won't be able to handle it. >> reporter: that's right. it's important to note that the post office says -- when you talk to postal unions and postal service employees, they say they can hanel this influx of mail-in voting. they say they handle millions of christmas cards come christmas season and this is something they can deal with and can imagine and have the ability to deal with. that's what democrats have been emphasizing all throughout their convention. you heard that on monday when michelle obama said if you vote by mail, request your ballot

today. they know it can be handled, but they want people to is that right this process early. michelle obama said request your ballot today, but she also said if you can vote in person, vote in person if you can. you heard that from secretary clinton yesterday. vote by mail, request your ballot soon. return your ballot as soon as you get it. make those selections very quickly. democrats know. they see the slowdowns because of the different changes that have been made by the postmaster general that's leading to the hearings that we're going to have later this week, and the senate or house bill that will be voted on this weekend, they know the changes that have been made, but they want people to still have confidence in the vote-by-mail system. they know it's a state-by-state decision, but they believe if people come out to vote, democrats believe they will do well. they don't want the news of this, the talk of the slowdowns to impact what eventually happens. so that's why the focus all throughout the convention has been you can participate in a

vote-by-mail, but make sure you do it early, return that ballot early. yasmin? >> so we talked about former president barack obama and his speech and kamela harris, her acceptance speech as well. i played hillary clinton's cautionary speech. she was a very divisive candidate in 2016. a lot of folks either loved her or were not into her at all. how is her speech being received this morning, and do you think it could influence voters to vote against the current president? >> reporter: you know, i think there was one big thing -- there were several points she made, but one point she made that i saw people really repeat. you look on twitter, the twitter conversation. one comment that really got retweeted a lot was the idea that the margin -- that she won the popular vote in 2016. so she said this time that margin needs to be overwhelming. she wants people to come out

with overwhelming force. democrats believe they have the numbers on their side. you heard from former president obama say the other side can't win on their ideas, so they make it harder to vote. you saw the beginning of last night. the somewhat unusual move from senate kamela harris where she addressed the crowd backstage or the backstage crowd that was there and said there's a lot of misinformation about voting right now, but the reason you have the information is because they don't want you to vote. they don't want you to participate in this process, and that shows how important it is to participate in this process. what you heard from secretary clinton and other speakers last night were raising the stakes, going beyond the policy discussions you normally hear, going beyond the advocacy of joe biden telling his personal story, but making very simple case that if you vote, you can win. if you vote, you will achieve the change that you want, the

change you have people protesting in the streets fighting for right now. i think that is the core message you heard from secretary clinton who really personalized it by talking about her own experience in winning the popular vote, winning by 3 million votes, but still losing the election. she doesn't want that to happen again, and she made it clear to people who were listening there's a way to avoid that and prevent that from happening if that is their choice. yasmin? >> the message has been consistent throughout this entire election cycle bringing us up to this point, which it is going to come down to voter turnout. nbc shaq brewster. thank you as always. great to see you this morning. appreciate it. still ahead, the latest in the nation's struggle amid covid-19 as a fifth state has now surpassed 10,000 coronavirus-related deaths. your first look at "morning joe" is back in a moment. morning joe" is back in a moment. i'm greg, i'm 68 years old.

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welcome back. another grim milestone reached in the coronavirus pandemic as florida became the fifth state to reach 10,000 deaths. georgia leads the country in the rat of new cases according to the coronavirus white house task force which urged the states to take stronger stances on controlling the outbreak. mayor de blasio said the rate of tests coming back could be as low as 0.24%, a sign that the city is conducting a high number of testing and is so far managing to handle its outbreak. for reference, the world health organization recommends an infection rate of 5% or less to safely reopen -- sorry about that, guys. my dog is barking at the screen.

settle down, yokes. colleges are cracking down on students who don't follow social distancing guidelines. university of connecticut has revoked on-campus housing for students found partying in a packed room without masks. drake university also banned studented. and eat universities, fraternities and sororities are stoking the fires of the coronavirus. >> instead of saving lives, a decision to close universities could cost lives. it is significantly safer for students to live with other young people than to go home and spread it to older americans. that makes sense.

the shutdown thing is causing tremendous depression for those places shut down. >> there are some universities and colleges that have a system set up where they test virtually everybody that comes in before they even get there to make sure you don't intro dunes into the community of dorms if you have the facilities and the resources to do it, where you might have an empty dorm where when someone tests positive, you can safely isolate them there. and if they need medical care, you can get them the medical care. if you have the capability of doing that is correct it is conceivable you may be able to successfully bring people back to colleges and universities. >> all right. let's switch gears and get a check of your weather once again with nbc meteorologist janessa we webb. good morning, janessa, once

again. >> good morning, yasmin. we're seeing an early fire season in california for areas of the pacific northwest. very unfortunate that these lightning strikes sunday, we've seen over 10,000 around th, and what has sparked the fire danger. we have hurricane genevieve making its way across southern california, and we're going to except a lot ofprecipitation along with the lightning storms. yesterday we saw 27 million people now impacted by heat warnings. we want this system of warm air to push, bubble of warm air to push east. right now it's stuck in the las vegas and phoenix area. the feels-like temperature, 113

for el paso, 103. i heard people talk about, no, it's just a dry heat. no, it's a daines heat and very concerning in this area. >> all right. thank you, janessa. still ahead, everybody, a historic move for apple and a surprising turnaround for air b airbnb. those stories coming up. airbnb those stories coming up. (neighbor) whatcha working on... (burke) oh, just puttering, tinkering... commemorating bizarre mishaps that farmers has seen and covered. had a little extra time on my hands lately.

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welcome back. time now for business. apple is the first company in history to reach $2 trillion. julianna tatelbaum joins us from london. good to see you this morning. talk about this milestone for apple. >> well, apple has had an incredible run, doubling its value in just about two years. this year alone year to date shares are up about 60%, up over 120% in the last 12 months, and

this $2 trillion mark is largely symbolic but underscores what tim cook has been trying to do with the company, which is shift its focus away from hardware and toward software and it's so. the next milestone, thinking about the path from 2 trillion to 3 trillion, but a long way to go then. another innovatener focus. airbnb said they filed confidently for an i.p.o. with the sec. it underscores a rebound we saw in the travel industry. part of the story here is that u.s. travelers are looking to airbnb as they look to shy away from hotels in this time of uncertainty with the pandemic. >> i want to read a tweet from

the president he wrote don't wear good year tires they announced a ban on maga hats. after the president putting out this tweet, good year's stock dropping 6%. talk to us about this. >> this is a tricky story. president trump's tweet came after an image started circulating which was a slide from a good year training presentation, which outlined that maga attire is unacceptable in the work place. good year has come out following president's tweet and the image saying this was not a good year corporate message it was not created or distributed by good year as a company. the company asked employees to refrain from expressions of

political thoughts or any candidates. good to see you this morning. up next a look at axios' 1 big thing. and on "morning joe" following the president's indictment on the dnc stage tuesday night, former secretary of state john kerry joins the conversation. and facing a lawsuit from the trump administration over mail-in balloting, governor phil murphy is our guest. r phil murphy is our guest.

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welcome back, joining me now with a look at axios a.m. political reporter, alexi mccam monda mond. good to see you. >> good morning to you and your dog, who i had the pleasure of hearing from earlier. so today's one big thing is

about last night's democratic national convention. a lot of themes appealing to women and young voters but one thing is how the democratic party is looking at the future, not just the country they want to live in but the country they want to rebuild and the leader they want to be front facing and that's represented by senator kamala harris who is, of course, a historic pick for running mate. one of the way the democrats tried to push this theme is an obama aide told me and axios that originally barack obama was supposed to be the closing speaker. but when harris was selected as the running mate, obama said i would like to switch positions with with her and have her be the last closing speech as a way to pass the torch to the new

generation of leaders is what they said. >> so you were at the chase senator in downtown wilmington as senator harris took the stage, what was it like? >> that's right. i was not sitting in my hotel like i have been a lot of the time while in wilmington. but i was there last night, and it was a good reminder of how things are totally different. the room that we were in, yasmin was so silent you could hear a pin drop. it had to be that way, there were about 30 of us in there, all reporters, and i'm grateful to be one of about 30 americans who got to see the speech live in person. but it was as if senator harris didn't know we were there or couldn't acknowledge that we were there, because we weren't supposed to be there. her audience was a national audience not the folks in the room. but to watch her give this

speech with no applause at the end other than the folks in the zoom boxes, but it's a totally different reality now. >> these candidates could do well shooting a movie all on green screen with what they've had to deal with the last couple of days on the convention. it was a historic moment last night as former president barack obama gave a stern warning about the president. something we haven't heard from him to this degree before. what was so powerful in your view in that moment? >> former president barack obama has often stayed on the sidelines not coming out and forcefully speaking out against president trump or the number of things that democrats are speaking out on with regards to president trump. we don't hear much from former president barack obama so for him to come out and give a forceful rebuke of president

trump is a big deal because we don't see it often. and we heard from barack obama what we've heard from other democrats the last few nights start starting with former first lady michelle obama, which is not relying on the personal attacks on donald trump but the dems are saying we don't think this guy is competent enough to do the job. former president barack obama said something to the effect he hasn't risen to the occasion of being president because he cannot. that's a shift in tone we're hearing from vice president biden, kamala harris, where they're not relying on criticizing president trump in the traditional ways but they're saying he's not smart enough, competent enough to do the job and for your predecessor to say that is a strong rebuke. >> sure is. thank you alexi. good to see you as always.

you too can sign up for the axios newsletter at signup.ax s signup.axios.com. that does it for me, i'm yasmin vossoughian. "morning joe" starts right now. during the pandemic, the movement appears to be gaining followers, can you talk about what you think about that and what you have to say about people following this movement right now? >> i don't know much about the movement, other than i understand they like me very much. >> at a minimum we should expect a president to feel a sense of responsibility. >> i have heard that it is gaining in popularity. >> regardless of ego, ambition or political beliefs. >> they do supposedly like me. >> they are counting on your cynici cynicism. >> i heard these are people that like our country. >> the worst unleashed. >> there's a theory you are secretly saving the w