gop endorsements for joe biden. more than two dozen former republican members of congress this morning announcing their support for the former vice president. among them, senator jeff flake, who famous took to the senate floor during donald trump's first year in office to condemn the president's, quote, reckless, outrageous, undignified behavior. here he is today, three years later, with a ringing endorsement of joe biden, mixed with a blistering indictment of donald trump. >> this much i know. with joe biden as president, we will be able to preserve the civic space wherein republicans and democrats can go back to merely disagreeing about issues of policy, without fear of revenge or reprisal. that day cannot come soon enough. and so it has because of my conservatism and conservative my belief in the constitution and in the separation of power and because i am gravely concerned about the conduct and behavior

of our current president, that i stand here today, proudly and wholeheartedly, to endorse joe biden as the next president of the united states of america. >> today, a total of 26 former elected republicans joined senator flake, in not just condemning trump's conduct in office, but throwing his full support alongside joe biden. the list of republicans rejecting trump might have, in normal times, looked a lot like a list of would-be speakers at a normal republican convention. but not so in the era of donald trump. when celebrity appearances include stars of viral videos, controversial for their racial dog whistles, a member of trump's own family, who will feature prominently each night of the convention. the very same family that's now complicated in yet another newly revealed investigation. news breaking just this

afternoon that the new york attorney general is investigating the trump organization for misleading len adores, by inflating the value of their assets. it's an investigation based in part on testimony from trump's former fixer, michael cohen, before congress last year. and it places trump's son, eric, in particular hot water. from david tharnfold, the filing asks a new york state judge to compel the trump organization to reveal information. the filing said that eric trump has been scheduled to be interview in the investigation in late july, but abruptly canceled that interview. the filing says that eric trump is now refusing to be interviewed, with eric trump's lawyers saying, we cannot allow the requested interview to go forward, pursuant to those rights afforded to every individual under the constitution. this being a trump family

production, we will next hear from eric trump when he addresses the republican national convention tomorrow, as announced. trump's week of disunity is where we start today with some of our favorite reporters and friends. from "the washington post," white house bureau chief, phil rucker is back. also joining us, former democratic congresswoman, donna edwards. plus, former rnc chairman, michael steele, joining us now today, is a brand-new newly minted senior adviser to our friends at the lincoln project. that announcement coming on the first day of the republican convention, designed for maximum impact. and i will start with you, my friend. why did you join the lincoln project and why today? >> you know, i think for me, dr. king summed up the moment. it's been part of a long journey for a whole host of reasons, as you know, nicole. but dr. king said, our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that party. and we are at a point where it

matters, how a president leads. it matters, what a president says to young men and women who are coming into government service, as they look at how they treats government service. it matters how he handles a crisis. it matters how he leads the people through that crisis. all of these things matter. and so to all of my friends, my republican friends, independent friends, democratic friends, today is the day where things should matter. and you need to take stock what matters to you and the kind of leader you want to lead in these moments. and for me, it ain't him. >> it's a different step, though, and i've tried to explain this to my democratic friends. i didn't have any internal struggle voting for hillary clinton four years ago, but i know you did. i know other republicans that couldn't vote for trump also couldn't bring themselves to vote for hillary clinton.

articulate what it is that makes four years of seeing him trample institutions and the rules of law and watching his family turn the government into their own personal slot machine, what is different? what makes it easier to vote for joe biden now? >> that. what you just described. if we were having debates about policy, the big and grand ideas about the direction of the country and we were sparring with our progressive friends and our liberal friends about these types of issues, it's a different conversation. you don't see, you wouldn't see those philosophical conservatives taking the steps that they've taken to create the distance between themselves and someone who is ill liberal and does not have this sense of connection to these ideas and these values. i mean, nicole, i think about when i was a 17-year-old kid and

decided to become a republican, what animated that? what moved me into that space? it was a man named ronald reagan and a party he was creating at that time as america as a place where we all get to live and we all get to compete and we all get to thrive. and you know, that doesn't discount things that we may disagree about politically and policy wise, but it does speak, i think, to the things that draw us in. and so ask yourselves now, if you're a 17-year-old, about to turn 18 and this is your first election to vote, what's driving you -- what's drawing you into this conversation? so the constitution matters. freedom matters. the bill of rights matter. when you have the president of the united states saying that, well, if i don't give them money, people just won't be able to vote. really?! that's your go-to. that's what you want to be a part of?

that's american? it's not. and so the bullying, the bs, the lies, to me, at some point, it's got to matter. and it should matter to every american, as they assess the next 70 days of this campaign and decide where they're going to be, because that space that they're going to create, nicole, that's the future. and what kind of future do you want that to be? and so it's hard, i guess, for a lot of folks, it was hard for me, as a former national chairman, i get it, but i'm an american. i get my role as a former party leader, i'm still an american. and these things matter to me, much more than aligning myself with a party that has clearly decided it would rather be sycophantic than principled. >> donna edwards, the moment is exactly as michael describes it.

and the feat, the political feat that joe biden is pulling off is he's moving his political platform farther to the left that's it's been in modern political history and racking up republican endorsements by the hour, because this is not a moment to endorse policy. because there's real concern that our very system, our very democracy is on the line. >> well, i think, nicole, it's the that, when, you know, some progressives came out and were very opposed to the idea of giving speech time to republicans, to speak on joe biden's behalf. and i frankly, as a progressive, was not disturbed about that at all. because this really is about democracy. and good for michael steele. i think for so many republicans and these 27 today and you and others, there is no home in the republican party anymore if you

believe in the rule of law and in our institutions and in the peaceful transition of power, and all of the things that we've talked about. and so i think that that is so much bigger than one policy or another or whether you agree or disagree. we will have those debates going into the future. those of you who are left may try to reconstitute something of a republican party or something else, that really is an opposition party for democrats. but right now, we have to stand in the gap toward democracy, and i think that's what all of us are feeling now, that our institutions have been so broken that we are on the verge of losing them. and that is much more of an imperative than debating one policy or other. >> jeff flake was appalled by donald trump from the beginning, but it took him a long time to come around to today's announcement of endorsing a democrat. here's part of -- more of his

explanation of why. >> in 1206, it was bad enough when for in months of advance of the election, the republican nominee for president claimed falsely that the coming election would be rigged. now, as president of the united states, he has said, and i quote, the only way we're going to lose this election is if the election is rigged. what kind of president talks like that? what kind of american leader undermines confidence in the elections in his own country as part of his strategy to hold power? this is extraordinarily dangerous to a free society and it stands to inflict lasting damage to our democracy. >> phil rucker, i'm not going to ask the usual version of, why doesn't anyone stop him, i'm going to ask you, what evidence do they see that this is working? >> that's a great question, nicole. and i don't think i have an answer for you, because there

doesn't seem to be a lot of evidence that it's working, but it's a calculation that the president and his advisers are making. that they can intimidate people from voting. if they can sew doubt about the legitimacy of the election, president trump might be able to hang on in some of these battleground states where the polls currently show him trailing joe biden. or, perhaps, the election results could be close enough that trump would be able to contest them in some way. remember, not only has the president warned that election is going to be rigged and warned of widespread fraud without any evidence, by the way, but he has also warned of litigation and said that after the election, there may be lawyers and lawsuits and lit going on for weeks, if not months. and you know, he seems to be hinting that that's something -- that that's a tactic he will employ rather than conceding if he were to lose. so this is uncharted territory for our democracy and it has

alarmed a lot of people in both political parties, but very few republicans are speaking out about it as senator flake just reaction in '16 both around jeb bush and hillary clinton that americans were wary of dynastic american political families. did the trump family miss those stories, or did they just decide that their family were only people they could count on to show up this week? >> i think the trump family feels like that trend, that historical trend in our country of being against monarchies may not apply to them. because this week at the republican national convention is entirely the trump show. this is a party presenting itself completely in donald j. trump's image. he is going to be participating each night in the prime-time programming. his family members are going to be speaking. the political speakers who are going to be speaking are those

who are the most enthusiastic trump supporters. people like senator tim scott, who has defended and advocated for this president repeatedly. senator joni ernst of iowa. congresswoman elise stefanick, one of his fiercest defenders in the impeachment proceedings late last year. this is the trump show, and if you're not onboard the trump train, so to speak, there's not really a place for you at this republican national convention. >> and that has been operationalized. the platform isn't a platform at all, it just says, "go, trump." but donna, i want to ask you, they've also seemed to turn the corruption of foreign policy into a forward-facing brand. the sitting united states secretary of state, who also sat on the phone while donald trump sought to extort zelensky and i think was on the phone with the leader of turkey, with erdogan, when donald trump green lit that deadly incursion into -- that resulted in the death of so many of our kurdish allies, so that's

his records. he's going to be addressing the convention from a foreign capital, from israel. >> yeah, this is -- i mean, this is unbelievable. and obviously, we keep using the word unprecedented, but it's almost as though we don't actually have a word in the vocabulary anymore to describe the ways in which donald trump and people like mike pompeo have completely turned our politics and our process, upended that. i mean, can you imagine a sitting secretary of state, hillary clinton, going to the democratic convention and delivering, you know, a speech on behalf of president obama? i mean, secretaries of state don't do that kind of thing. and from a foreign capital, no less. i really think that what we've seen today in terms of the republicans who are coming out and others who are standing up, to stand for our democracy is, we are seeing them directly challenge what the

administration does that is not in comport. we're already going to see a convention conducted on the grounds of the white house. again, something that has not been done before, and shouldn't be done and so, even though trump is doing these things and the secretary of state, we should not talk about them as if they are normal or as if they should continue to exist after this administration no longer exists. >> so, michael steele, the outrage bucket, i think, is what we've been addressing, but that's the heart. there's the head piece of this. at a strategic level, trump's allies will acknowledge that a referendum on trump is no bueno for trump. appearing every night and having your family appear every night forces the voters to go up or down on trump. it's strategically moronic. >> yeah, i don't quite get that. and largely because what they have to be talking about

requires the sobering of the moment. over -- almost 180,000 americans are dead. and the president's response is, it is what it is. so how do you then go into a convention and talk about that, right? you've got so many millions more of americans who are still dealing and reeling from this virus. you've got a flatlining of the economy with yet again a million more americans filing for unemployment. how do you then turn that into a happy moment? so that is what you're up against, because the reality of it is, each of those data points -- and we won't even get into the civil rights -- the civic conflict that we have with yet the killing of another african-american by police -- >> oh, we will, we will, we will. we'll get into all of that. >> so how do you then have that conversation when you know that each time you do, it becomes a referendum on not just your

administration, but your very words? >> you know, phil rucker. >> that's the reality. >> so, phil rucker, let me just give you a last word on this. i mean, failure on covid is their brand. i mean, what are they taking to the country? 175,000 destroyed american families was the best we can do? is that it? >> well, we'll have see what that argument looks like. i suspect the argument is going to have some happy talk and talk about the virus is coming -- or excuse me, the vaccine is coming. trump has repeatedly tried to promote the idea that there would be a vaccine in this country before the election, even though a lot of health professionals say that it's a very rosy and all too optimistic timetable, but the president will want to try to make people forget about the troubles and the difficulties and his management of this pandemic and somehow feel optimistic that with him at the helm for another four years, americans are going

to get out of this year of despair that the economy is going to be booming again, and so forth. and i fully expect that that's the case he's going to make, as well as his surrogate speaker. >> phil rucker, thank you so much for starting us off today, my friend. when we come back, imagine a republican convention that celebrated the rule of law, honored the country's national security agencies, and hued to the truth. it's not a mirage, that gop convention kicks off tonight as well, with jim comey headlining a night focused on the topic of truth under attack. we'll tell you all about it. and joe biden getting the post-convention bounce off of his convention. how he and his running mate plan to hang on to their momentum this week. plus, trump's hat trick from the low road today is his accusation that the democrats are using the pandemic to, quote, steal the election. but, of course, it was the president who held a news conference last night touting a supposed breakthrough covid

therapy, the night before his convention starts. we'll separate politics from science, when we come back. we'll separate politics from science, when we come back you say that customers make their own rules.

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it's the biggest threat to the rule of law right now. >> that evenhanded law enforcement has disappeared from the justice department under bill barr and donald trump. it shouldn't matter whether trump likes you or not. everyone should get a fair shake and that the truth is under attack, both by the attorney general and the president. those things matter. that's why i'm speaking for the first time ever at a political event this year. >> the truth, under attack. that's according to former fbi director, james comey, who, as he mentioned, is being driven by

the actions of this administration to speak out. tonight, comey will be discussing the rule of law at a convention for republicans, but don't get confused here. it is not the one put on by the rnc. you know the one that abandoned a platform and said, we're for trump. this one is called the convention on founding principles, and it builills its as a countervision for republicans and independents who are in opposition to the renomination of donald trump and in support of a new, more unifying vision for the party and the country. joining us now, former chief strategist for mitt romney and george w. bush, author of "it was all a lie: how the republican party became donald trump." my friend, michael steele, is back as well. i want to talk about this convention. i was briefed on this a while back, and they have really evaluated, i think, the profile of people making the case against donald trump. and i hope people listen, because it will sound more

familiar to anyone who voted for ronald reagan or george h.w. bush or any republican before trump. but i want to ask both of you, where the urgent need to be a part of defeating trump comes from and i pulled that thread with michael, so let me start with you, stewart. >> look, donald trump to me is everything that we felt we were against. i mean, it's not that he's abandoned these principles. he's against these principles, actively. he's against personal responsibility. he's against free trade. he's pro-russia. he's pro-dictator. i didn't get into politics just because i needed like some people to hang out with. it was supposed to be the idea you had mutual interests that thought of the direction of the country and the culture, and he's everything against it. so of course, we should work against him, if we believe what we said. and i do.

>> you know, michael steele, i was just thinking, you know, your announcement today is going to have a lot of ripples, and among them, i've lived through all of them, so you've got my number, call me as you go through it. but there is this line that you cross when you actively start making the case against trump. it's one thing to sit it out. it's another to make the case against donald trump. but it is really, you know, the only way to kind of avenge any of our roles in landing the party to a place where it thought donald trump was the answer. how do you grapple with that? >> you know, it's part of the struggle. and stewart, in his opening comment, made me think about that very point. let's just put it in terms i think we all kind of understand, as republicans, some of us, unfortunately, former. i'm going to get you all back, but the -- donald trump is everything, everything, and a

whole lot more, that republicans said that barack obama would be and would do. that's where the protection we often hear from donald trump lies. he said all of this stuff how the country would be torn apart, the constitution will be trample ed and institutions would fall at the hands of -- well, guess what, here we are. it didn't happen over eight years. it's happening right now. going back to dr. king's talk, words about standing in the moment when it matters, that's what this is about. stupid's going to do stupid. it's not reflection, it's not, oh, why are these republicans saying this? these are people who helped build the party, these are people who helped win elections.

why are they saying this? so before you start projecting on me or stewart or anyone else, turn that mirror around a little bit and ask yourself, does donald trump really reflect you? do you really like that? because if you do, maybe you shouldn't be in this party in the first place. this is not the party of trump. this was the party of lincoln. and so that's going to be the defining line and the fight from now on. and that's why i'm so glad to be working with stewart and others at lincoln project to return to those lincoln principles about what it is. look, folks, i have not left the gop. i find i can be a bigger irritant staying inside than going out, okay? because i joined this party 44 years ago. and i'll be damned if i'll let donald trump run me out in four. >> you're a bigger person than me. i want to ask you about the ad strategies, stewart stevens, because you make some of the most -- i'm looking for a family-friendly word and i can't think of it -- badass political

ads than i've ever seen. >> on march 31st, trump's covid team led by jared kushner decided to ignore testing in states with democratic governors. evil was in that room. oh, it looked like any other bureaucratic meeting. there were power points, spread sheets, briefings, and estimates of the dead. it was that meeting that led to trump policies that would kill more americans than pearl harbor, vietnam, and 9/11. more americans than world war i. it was deliberate, cold, political, premeditated. some people say trump and kushner were incompetent when it came to covid, but let's call it what it is. >> it is what it is. >> evil. >> you know, this is a -- you're talking about the party that we don't recognize. this used to be a pro-life party. and the indifference is evil. the indifference to the loss of life. i ask every day if donald trump

has been making calls, secretly, privately at night to families who have lost loved ones, if he's not comfortable grieving in public, maybe he's calling them privately. and no one has told me that he is. so this indifference. and as you said, the incompetence does become the evil act. >> look, i mean, i was against donald trump in 2016, as you were and as michael was. looking back, we were optimists about donald trump. if we had said that the republican convention is going to start on a day when more americans have died in the last five months than any other time in american history, when we're in the worst economy in the history of our country, worse than the great depression. when americans can't even leave the country to go to most countries, because we've become such international pariahs, people would have thought we were crazy, but that's what's happened. that's what donald trump has done. it didn't have to be this way.

decisions have consequences, leaders have consequences. we've always said that and it turns out that's true. and ear we are, donald trump is a direct result -- where we are is a direct result of donald trump incompetence and leadership and the republican party going along sflp stewart stevens and michael steele, a little bit of therapy for me as we start donald trump's convention this week. the perfect conversation to have. thank you both for spending some time with us. after the break, team biden is all systems go, ready for the final sprint to election day, starting with a smart new ad campaign using the president's words against him. that is next. against him. that is next

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a lot of people cannot let that go, the way you challenged him. so how did you go from there to here? >> i want joe biden to be the next president of the united states. i believe in joe biden. i believe in his perspective. and frankly, i think that conversation is a distraction from what we need to accomplish right now and what we need to do. and we certainly have one thing in common in this election, in addition to all the policies, which is, donald trump should not be president of the united states. and so that's where i'm focused. >> with that conversation in the rearview mirror, joe biden and kamala harris are done with it. done talking about the past, they hope, with their counterparts focused on their big event this week, the

democrats are poised to push forward the campaign, already out with a new targeted political ad, seizing on trump's call for a boycott of goodyear. it will air in akron, ohio, near goodyear headquarters in fayetteville, north carolina, near their manufacturing plant. joining our conversation, axios political reporter, hans nichols, and lucky for us, donna stuck around. donna, i want to start with you. you know, we just spent time with stewart stevens and michael steele, who disagree with joe biden about a lot more than the one issue senator harris raised. do you think that divisions inside the democratic primary, which was large and went on a long time, are overplayed or do you think it's just sort of a question to ask and answer? >> well, i think -- i do think it's ask and answer. i think the democratic party is more unified than i've seen it, because all of us recognize having experienced this last three and a half years, what the real threat is. and we're prepared, again, to have -- you know, joe biden and

kamala harris as president and vice president are going to get pushback, they're going to get challenged. they are going to get, you know, sort of confronted on a variety of issues, but we're prepared to do that after they're inaugurated, after they're elected on november 3rd, but we're not going to have that debate now, because those differences really pale in comparison when you think about the threat that donald trump poses to our democracy and to our very lives. and i mean, you know, that is really i think what most democrats i talked to recognize. and i do come from that progressive wing. and i will have no problem whatsoever voting for joe biden and kamala harris. >> hans, take me inside what looks like a smart and targeted first ad buy, responding to something trump said, but really getting themselves on offense, turning it around and using it against him in a pretty targeted

way. >> so targeted is right. we're at the stage of a presidential campaign where we all learn a lot more about geography. and in northeast ohio is akron, ohio, where, we look at our maps, pull out fayetteville. it's on the cape fear river. i had to look that up. but this is a move by the biden campaign to make trump play defense in states that he should have already put away. so yes, they're doing targeted ads, having to do with this good year debate, this goodyear kerfuffle, where goodyear had restrictions on make america great hats, the president tried to turn it into a culture war, the biden campaign tried to turn it into a manufacturing debate. so, yes, you see the broader tactics of the campaign. but taking a big picture, look at this, nicole, we're in the last week of august, nine, ten weeks out from election day. the trump campaign wanted to have ohio locked up and north carolina locked up. and yet the biden campaign, even if they don't end up winning those states, they'll force the trump campaign to spend more

money there. and iat this point, those sort f tactical decisions matters. >> you know, hans, it also strikes me that joe biden is fighting on trump's turf. this is a fight ultimately about economic security and where trump went to counties like erie, p.a. and bay city, michigan, and akron, ohio, with an economic message, they are four years and most of those places are in worst economic condition than they were four years ago. i think the fight about the economy is just, it's interesting that biden is waging political battles in such a targeted way around the economy. >> it's not just the economy. it's on this idea of manufacturing jobs for white working class, right? i was with the president, i think it was 12 months ago when he was in lima, ohio, making his version of the argument. but here's the little peeling back the numbers on biden, trying to go after trump on the economy. when you look at the last two

nbc/"wall street journal" policy, the economy numbers on who americans trust more on the economy and bringing things back, even though biden has a 10 to 12-point lead overall, president trump still has an advantage on the economy. and when you talk to democratic strategists that are close to the biden campaign, around the biden campaign, they acknowledge that that's a concern. because we don't know what the koe covid is going to look like in november, we don't know what it's going to look like with schools the end of november, and they're somewhat puzzled on this, but democrats are somewhat puzzled why trump's economic numbers haven't cratered. it makes sense to them why trump's numbers have cratered everywhere else, but they've been remarkably buy i can't on the economy. and when you talk to democrats, that's a concern. and now you see the biden campaign trying to maybe puncture some of those numbers. >> well, donnan, i know you don't turn around national poll numbers nationally, you turn them around one akron, one fayetteville at a time. >> i think that's exactly right. and i think what you see, you

know, in north carolina and ohio are states where, you know, the biden campaign wants to be able to play in some of these states. they want to be able to expand the map. north carolina has a senate race that's at stake. this could make a difference there. and as hans said, make them spend money. but i think where democrats are really challenged is because a lot of voters perceive that it was covid that caused the economy to fail, and they don't look at those kind of underlying conditions. but i do think that biden and harris have to continue to go after this. they can't just cede the territory of the economy, which looms large in people's everyday lives to republicans. so they'll make the case on competence around covid, how they would build and strengthen jobs, but they cannot let go of the economic argument, because even if they peel back one or two or three points from trump

in this territory, that's all a game for democrats. and that's the way biden is -- apart from the fact that he views himself as the working class guy, as the guy who can speak to union workers, as a guy who can speak to people who get up and, you know, work with their hands every day. and i don't think he wants to let that part of his own biography be ceded away to trump and to republicans. >> hans nichols, it's wonderful to see you on our tv again. thank you, my friend. donna edwards, always great to spend some time with you. thank you so much. after the break, he did it with the state department, he did it with the justice department, and now he's doing it with the fda. trump once again making wild allegations, yelling, shouting in all caps, deep state. he thinks they're out to get him. his bizarre, paranoid tirade, next. his bizarre, paranoid tirade, next

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[ aevery box has a mission: and wherever you're headed, choice hotels is there. to protect everything inside from everything outside. when what's inside matters, count on boxes. [ doorbell rings ] paper and packaging. how life unfolds. so on saturday, the president was assailing the fda, accusing it of delaying coronavirus research for political reasons. he called members of the agency, quote, the deep state, who were hoping to delay treatments until after the election. then, one day later, last night, trump touted the fda's issuance of an emergency use authorization for convalescent plasma as a treatment for those hospitalized with coronavirus. a move the agency had to put on hold just a week prior when top

health officials, including dr. fauci warned that the data and the proof, the research wasn't strong enough to prove the plasma's effectiveness. joining us now to help us understand this, global health policy expert and msnbc medical contributor, dr. vin gupta. what does all of this mean? >> well, nicole, i think at its core, it means the fda gave a headline that the president was craving. and in the absence of data that dr. fauci, dr. francis collins, the head of the nih, were willing to stand by. and i can say for all of us on the clinical front lines, whether us in the emergency rooms or the hospital rooms, those of us describing this medication and this treatment, this doesn't change a lot, nicole. convalescent plasma was already used before this announcement on sunday and it's still going to be widely prevalent. it doesn't changes anything. what it does is it complicates the lives of scientists, of clinicians and ultimately us

guiding family members on whether or not this is an effective treatment. that's the issue here. because now nobody is going to want to participate in a randomized controlled trial, nicole. they'll want the treatment, even though we don't have any data suggesting that this treatment is beneficial. we don't have the right quality data. >> vin, let me read you this -- this language jumped out at me and startled me. he called members of the agency, the fda, we're now in month six of a pandemic that's killed 175,000 americans, and he called them, quote, deep state and accused them of hoping to delay treatments until after the election. i mean, we now know, because he says everything out loud eventually, that he is only addressing the pandemic now out of electoral concern. i mean, what does that do to the scientists and doctors inside the fda and other agencies? >> it makes our job a lot harder, nicole. because what we have, the highest elected official in the

land. we can't look to for sober, sane advice. because he's politicize everything now we have a group of families and individuals across the country who say, i'm not going to get a coronavirus vaccine, regardless of how good it is, because i think -- because the debate has been politicized. when it comes to plasma, it's going to be impossible to actually bring clarity to this issue, because it makes our life tougher. politics and science makes our life tougher. what he's done with the fda, and frankly, let's put the onus on commissioner dr. steven hahn, who wears a white coat like myself, he should resign before he's willing to stand by and permit this. he is losing credibility and face value every moment he enables this type of policy from going through. this is not burnishing his legacy, it's harming it considerably. where's the surgeon general in all of this? the entrusted medical officials that are entrusted to do no

harm, that's where we're looking to now. no longer the president, to them. >> let me ask you, donald trump is probably -- phil rucker reported at the top of this hour that he's likely to offer some happy talk around what is just becoming a rolling tragedy. we are now at 175,000 americans who have lost their lives. i remember when the white house rolled out some of their first models. and i remember asking people like you and others, how do we process the possibility here at the end of march that 100,000 americans might die. we're now almost double that number. i mean, what is the case that the country would have to accept if they thought that trump was their best shot. that this is the best we can do, the world's worst handler of a global pandemic. >> well, i would certainly hope there's no case in which the last six months convinces anybody on either side of the political aisle that this is a road map for success. so there is no case, nicole, that makes rational sense,

scientifically, for continuing for four more years what we've seen the last six months. what we know -- and this is the problem here. we've been distracted yet again, from things that matter. you might have seen -- your viewers may have seen this headline headline up up today that there's the first documented case of reinfection of a patient and study in hong kong that was initially exposed four months prior and now exposed with a new strain of coronavirus. deeply concerning, nicole, because this means antibody testing. it may not mean anything now, and the clinical mean something limited. a fascinating study out of india suggesting face shields in addition to masks completely eliminated the infection. so there's a lot not talking about that i wish we were talking about. >> let's talk about it for one more minute here, and then we

will have you back tomorrow to pick up the conversation. there's also new reporting that the declines we are seeing are because those localities or states finally put mandatory mask measures into place. do you think we will settle the mask debate or will it continue to divide people along part is not -- partisan lines? >> i will not comment on that. we have seen local strength and leadership in spite of governor ducey and governor desantis's best effort to try and implement a mandatory mask policy, and cases are coming down regardless of state level leadership, so that's a great sign. >> doctor, thank you for spending time with us. when we come back, another

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de-escalate but as you can see, officers followed him back to his car and shot him pointblank in the back. three of blake's children were reportedly in the car at the time. a witness says he heard a officer shout drop the knife, but police have not commented whether or not blake was armed. protesters took to the streets overnight. wisconsin's national guard is being deployed to the area ahead of tonight. donald trump said earlier he would be briefed by attorney general barr, adding quote, the video tells a story that is troubling. end quote. for his part, joe biden this morning called for an immediate, full and transparent of the investigation and insisting the officers be held accountable. we will focus on the law and

order theme, and the second hour of deadline white house, next. i.

it's mind-boggling. >> mind-boggling. >> but that's all about his base. all he wants to do is appeal to his base, he has no principles. none. none. and his base, i mean, my god, if you were a religious person you want to help people, not do

this. the [ bleep ] tweet, and the lie, oh, my god, i'm talking too freely. >> holy bleep is right. it's 5:00 in the east. donald trump in the words of his sister, no principles and all about the base, the tweets, the lies, holy bleep. a former federal judge speaking there on tapes obtained by nbc news, and the significant of the comments, and bury has never spoken publicly about the disagreements with the president. on the same weekend in which we learn his own sister finds his political persona repugnant.

the republican party platform desolves officially into whatever trump says it is. therefore be it resolved that the republican party has and will continue to enthusiastically. it's what tim alberta describes today as the grand ole melt down, writing, quote, it can now safely be said as his first term in the white house draws toward a closure donald trump's party

stands for no special ideal, and it possesses no organizing principle, and it represents no detailed version for governoring, if it lights up on fox news, if it serves to alienate americans from elites, then it has a place in the grand ole party. associated press white house reporter, jonathan is standing outside the white house for us toyed, and pulitzer prize columnist, eugene robinson is there, and elise jordan from the state department. i have to start with you. i don't even have the words for it, so i will let mary trump's words speak to it, but the notion that the gop is just waving a white flag and co-signing on to the misogyny and racism and children in cages

and on the good sides are on both sides at a kkk gathering in charlottesville, and even in the time of trump it's appalling. >> i don't know about you, but reading the tim alberta piece, you just really can't believe how quickly of a fall and how precipitous of a fall the gop has taken. literally, the party, as you read does not have a platform. it does not stand for any ideas this year. it's strictly all about donald trump, and so if the gop continues to want to follow the carnival barker with his misogyny and racism and all of his cruelty, they can continue down that path. where does the gop land at the end of this week? will they have any kind of vision other than donald trump, i alone can fix it?

it's really doubtful. >> let me play more of what mary trump, barry, had to say about her brother. i have worked in politics. family stuff is complicated, but for a family member to reveal just how repugnant is the only word that i can think of to sort of incapsulate what she's saying on the tape, really does sometimes shock even a politician's own supporters, because family is also featured at a convention, and donald trump knows this, and donald trump obviously believes family matters because they are speaking every day at his convention, and here's more of what his family thinks of him. >> he went to fortham for one year, and then he got into the university of pennsylvania. i guess he had somebody take the exams. >> no, way!

he had somebody take his entrance exams? >> sat's, or whatever. that's what i believe. >> how did you know him? how did donald know him? >> through high school. he always wired the tests. he was a great test taker. you know, when you have people who do that. >> jonathan, i want you to take that testimony of donald trump cheating -- i interviewed a guy that wrote about donald trump cheating in golf, and it was a great one, one of my favorite books of the trump era, and we know the campaign chairman was working with the russians, and there was cheating in the 2016 election. cheating does cut against the central brand that elise just talked about, i alone can fix

it, but only if i cheat? >> you are right, nicole. you should point out at the top the white house denies the president asked anybody to take his sats. members of his own family are stepping up to criticize him publicly and privately. it goes to show where how the president and his family relate. last week we saw the bidens. they played a role in that convention as well, the democratic national convention, and it was to paint a picture of empathy of joe biden's character, and that's the opposite of the trumps, and it's really more about spreading the brand, and ivanka trump being one of her father's close advisers, and so o. and it goes to how complete the trump

family's takeover of the gop, and he bent them to their will. and that tonight the speakers are reflective of that. yeah, there are bright spots of the republican party, these are younger and rising republicans, nikki haley, and mr. scott, but it's a lot of the trump culture war. we will have the young donald trump, jr. sidekick will speak, and more than anything, donald trump is going to be everywhere today. even though he's not giving his official acceptance speech until thursday, campaign officials told us to expect him in some way and in some form every night, and the convention needs more trump, and even today he was in charlotte and gave a rambling address for more than an hour, and he has a few more events on the ground in the

carolinas this afternoon, and wanting to overshadow tonight including the bright and young stars. he is everything that is the republican party right now. >> who thinks, jonathan, that donald trump talking helps donald trump win elections? >> well, the joe biden campaign is not unhappy to have donald trump be the feature of every night of this convention. i can tell you that. the aides are delighted the more trump is doing. donald trump believes he's the answered. he always fancied himself, his best speaker and best communications director and he believes he has the star power, and he dominates a news scape like nobody else, and he feels that's the focus, but on that point, we hear from the president every day. there was a lot of build up and anticipation for biden's

candidacy last week, and right now the republican operatives have said as much as trump still excites the base, a lot of the country is tired of him, just fatigued, and he will say the same things over and over, and this speech this afternoon is the same, and people will tune him out. >> eugene, i don't think you bring in new voters by bringing into the trump coalition, and here's the white house chief of staff refusing to say they were not one with yao anon. >> you can end the president disavow, does he condemn q -- >> we don't know what it is. i find it appalling that the media, when we have all of the important things going on, a list of top 20s that the first

question at a press briefing would be about qanon that i had to google to figure out what it is. >> i googled it, too. but i did that the day donald trump took time out of a press briefing in the middle of the global deadly pandemic to nod his appreciation to a qanon candidate that said something nice about him, and i googled it a second time because it didn't stick, and that day donald trump refused persist uent questionin to denounce them and their conspiracy theories. the only reason i know what it is, and mark meadows just lied there in the interview, but it's because donald trump refused when asked and pressed to

distance himself from the whack jobs. >> yes, therefore those that work for him cannot denounce and separate themselves from qanan either. this is north korea under kim jong-un, and this is romania, and, i mean, this is absolutely at a point of absurdity. i think that clearly what we are going to see all week is just trump, trump, trump, trump, trump. i watched his entire sort of rambling hour-long talk today and i really would be just delighted if i were running the joe biden campaign to see that, and to see more of that because it was, again, it was red meat for the base, and for those that drunk the kool-aid, it was

great, but for anybody else, it got tedious and was absurd and ultimately it was the kind of thing you would tend to click off. we'll see if he does it every night, but he sure did it today. >> elise, only donald trump would not be insulted by what gene just said about kim jong-un, i think that's a comparison he would be flattered by. let me show you what we will do in a second trump term. >> i would strengthen what we have done and do new things. space force, for example, i have done more -- i have an interesting distinction, and actually sort of a bad person in terms of doesn't like republicans or me said trump is whether you like him or not,

he's done more than he said he was going to do, like, i never mentioned space force, that campaign, and we did space force and i never mentioned a lot of things. >> we did space force, apparently. >> space force? wow. wow. and he also built the wall. it just is mind blowing that donald trump consistently cannot answer this simple question of what he is going to do in a second term. sean hannity gave him three tries at it, and friendly commentators have asked him the question and yet he just veers into absolute nonsense, and only provides more fodder for his critics that say he's only in office for himself, which is clearly and duh phauemonstrativ truth at this point, donald trump is operating for his personal interests and not the

national interests and his primary interests is his ego and feeding and fueling the narcissistism, as his niece, mary, wrote in her book. >> there's another police shooting in the news and i think we can expect donald trump to trot out a lot of support for law enforcement. my question is the public is processing these issues in a far more nuanced way, and more than 70% of americans associate themselves with the black lives movement and moment, and i am not sure this cuts the way the trump campaign cuts. does this shooting today give them pause or are they full steam ahead? >> well, a pollster said to me he never had seen any candidate more out of step with an issue than donald trump has been about

these wave of protests calling for racial justice. according to our reporting, this convention is going ahead with a heavy law and order call, and there's going to be a lot of attention paid to law enforcement, thanking them for their service, and it's siding with them in what has become a cultural issue here. the president has not weighed in on the wisconsin shooting yet, and it's not specific if it will be addressed from the stage tonight, and even if the white house comes out and condemns this incident and we are learning a lot about it, that's not going to change their tone about law enforcement. the president closely allotted himself with the police, and he condemns the protesters using terms like thugs, and he cleared

lafayette square, just a few yards from where i am standing with, of peaceful law enforcement so he could have a photo opt. this is a culture war issue he wants to have. >> eugene, it's complicated by massive shifts, and complicated of joe biden's five decades of standing with law enforcement himself, and joe biden and senator harris coming out saying we are not for defunding the police, and it's complicated with the rebukes, the invited rebukes from general mattis who compared donald trump's tactics tozis, and to the most senior adviser disassociating himself. it's not what i think the donald

trump campaign campaign thinks it's is, to be surrounded by sheriff arpaio. >> no, i think it is actually -- actually, the simple parts are the important parts right now. it's what we saw with our eyes when we saw derek chauvin's knee on floyd's neck, and that changes you, well, if you have a soul that changes you and it changes the way you look at the world. this latest incident, we don't know the details. there could have been some reason or perceived reason on the part of police officers why they shot jacob blake seven times, but if you happen to see that video, and it's really difficult to watch, again, it's something that changes you.

you see what looks like an injustice in a way that really touches your heart. i think that is what has happened these past months with the majority of americans, and that doesn't mean, you know, it's immediately everything changes and gets better, but it does mean that we're in a different phase and it's not the old sort of 1968 law and order base that donald trump seems to think we're in. i agree, i think he's badly misreading where public opinion is on this. >> we will be watching. thank you so much, my friends, for spending time with us. we got through a lot. i appreciate it. when we return, donald trump is all out of salt on the november election while his homeland security down plays the

threat of russia, and plus the new york attorney general now investigating the trump organization for allegedly misleading lenders by inflating the value of its holdings. the ag wants answers from the president's son, eric, and more. - [narrator] did you just reward yourself

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could you please tell me who did order the changes if the u.s. postmaster general did not,

because the changes have resulted in -- >> the postal service has been around for 250 years. there are plans, and many, many executives. almost 30,000 executives -- >> you are claiming my time. >> plans that existed prior to my arrival that were implemented. >> mr. dejoy, if you did not order those actions to be taken, please tell the committee the name of who did. >> i do not know. >> mystery. postmaster general lewis dejoy said he was not the one that ordered the changes. he faced roughly six hours of questioning from lawmakers including on the impact of the changes and his contributions to donald trump and other republicans, and let's bring into our conversation california democratic congresswoman, jackie

speier. it's not a game of clue. if it was not him, who was it? why couldn't he answer that? >> exactly. it's hiding the ball, and he did a fair amount of that today in questioning. it's pretty obvious that something happened when the search was going on in which they had reduced the number of candidates to 12, and all of a sudden a mr. dejoy pops up as a name and he ends up getting the job. his conflicts are so gross and his involvement with the company called expo, which is one of the contracting companies, he's the ceo of the company and has between 30 and $70 million in stock in that company, and somehow that's okay? well, it's not okay. that's part of what we were trying to get out today. >> his conflicts, you know,

speak to his state of mind but his behavior has been revealed. there's an internal memo on overtime that my colleague reported on, and his colleague, mr. strumman, has eluded to. what is the case he's making to the oversight committee about his role in what's happening? >> well, in some respect he's doing this massive change and then pausing for the elections, but this massive change speaks to, i think, unwinding the postal service and that's what i think many of us fear. if his intent is to outsource the sorting function by shutting down all these machines and dismantling them so it can be outsourced to some third party that would explain some of his actions and it should cause all of us to be quite concerned. fplt let me play some of his testimony on this area specifically and we will talk

about it on the other side. >> have any plan the managers across the country in the usps request sorting machines be requested? >> i don't know that. how would i know that? >> you're in charge. >> what is the harm to do it until election day -- >> in washington, it makes plenty of sense. to me it makes none. >> you have not explained why. >> because they are not needed. that's why. >> what is the explanation for the bins of dead checks and rotting food and overflowing mail and the equipment refused or disconnected? >> i visited the processing plant last week, and they are under staffed and have 200 openings right now. as i went through the sorting facility and saw the machines in

operation, they are able to handle 30,000 pieces of mail an hour. it would take 30 postal workers an entire day to handle one hour worth of sorting done by these machines. the actual head of maintenance said you cannot re-plug in the machines unless you get approval from us. for dejoy to act like he doesn't know anything about it, and this is a statement that went out just a few weeks ago, so this is under his watch and he cannot say it's somebody else's responsibility. >> a lot of our conversations over the last 3.5 years have centered around the investigation in russia's role in the attack on our democracy in 2016. the slowdowns, it would appear from today's testimony, we can't

begin to understand what is happening because you have in dejoy somebody that does not acknowledge what is happening on his watch, and where do you put joy's conduct and trump in 2016? >> it was 2016 when he was a candidate, he said it was a rigged election until he won. he uses that regularly no matter what because it inflames. the effort now to rig the process, because there's going to be unprecedented numbers of ballots that are going to be put through the mail, and we should not be afraid of having these absentee ballots filed because that's written proof, that's a paper trail. if it takes two weeks to process them and count them, so be it. we will have a paper trail so in fact russia's intervention can be curtailed if we can maintain

the legitimacy of our system. >> did dejoy say anything to confirm that what you just said is true, that all the absentee ballots will be processed and counted? >> he's obviously sent out a notice saying you have to file your ballot by the 27th if you want it counted. the word is between three to five days these ballots should be returned. we do know in the primary there are over 65,000 ballots that were not counted that were rejected through no fault of the voter. they were actually mailed in a timely fashion but somehow lost in the process. that's what we are concerned about and want to guard against. >> congresswoman, thank you so much for spending sometime with us. my colleague, rachel maddow says we will continue to watch this. and then false claims about mental fitness, and those

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as donald trump tries to position himself as the law and order candidate a this week's republican convention, there's yet another law and order problem in trump world. this afternoon we learned new york attorney general is investigating the trump

organization for misleading its lenders by inflating the value assets. the trump organization has been ordered to present documents. the executive vice president of the company, eric trump, is expected to address the republican national convention tomorrow night. nick, these investigations have flown more under the radar than the mueller probe or the investigation that ultimately n insnared michael cohen and sent him to jail. let's talk about this development today. >> well, it's important to point out, nicole, that president trump is about to find out what other people found out before him, which is that the new york

attorney general has some of the most powerful tools in the country of any law enforcement office including the feds to investigate charitable fraud, and they have sweeping powers under past ags, and what we are seeing now, i think, is the long tail of the trump organization extending into the trump presidency. his company is under investigation for things they did before he became president. i think it's important to point out that these are things that probably would not have gotten investigated if he had not become president, but, he has prosecutors and law enforcement circling around in several jurisdictions, around financial dealings, loans, purchases of buildings, deals he struck when he was still the businessman and not the president, and in a certain sense it's all coming to roost while he is the president. >> michael cohen, in his

testimony, i believe is -- i remember watching the exchange when michael cohen explained exactly how the fraud went down, he said, we would inflate the assets, we would deflate the, you know, exposure. i mean, michael cohen testified under oath. we know they were watching him and charging him for everything he did. he was never charged with lying to congress after that testimony, so how did that put in motion or is that sort of a book end to today's news, nick? >> well, i think it's important to point out that the evidence for this is out there on the public record. there was a great investigation in the "new york times," and there's the cohen testimony and he laid out the types of fraud that he alleges was seen. my colleagues laid out similar kinds of fraud and it all has to do with the business of telling one person that a property is worth one thing and telling a

lender it's worth something else, and you can get into really deep trouble for that. it's interesting, you know, in this eurpb environmenvironment president is under attack for such an array of misdeeds, colluding with a foreign power, and abusing the government itself, it's all coming back to financial engineering at the trump organization, which is how he got started in his career. >> you know, there's so much that i think to the voter, especially the kinds of voters both campaigns are talking to in the final 70 days, it can look like a blur. i think they baked in that he cheats and he lies, and the other is everybody is bilking the maga voter. bannon skimmed off the top of people who believed so passionately that the wall is the answer to what i'm not sure,

that they gave their hard earned money for an effort to build a wall and he stole from them. this is another story of donald trump cheating and stealing. if the maga voter seems to think it's a grift, that seems to pressure donald trump politically? >> that's the word i typically use, it is a grift. i am sure there are trump supporters that will stand by him no matter what, and there are still voters that wanted to take a chance on him for whatever reason, may not have liked hillary, and you know, the swamp has not been drained and it has gotten bigger and more dense and populated by people around him. to nick's point, what they are doing is legally pulling back

the curtain and making the case that trump has never -- has not been and is not who he says he is, and i think that for a lot of voters, they are just going to be tired of going through this year after year if he were to be re-elected, year after year after year, which is part of the case that the democrats made, why put our country through this? >> and there's also -- his son, eric trump, has denied a request to testify. a normal campaign would say, you know what, ron johnson and some of our folks, they want to raise up joe biden, and we better not do that because eric trump is under investigation by the attorney general. they think their family business is above scrutiny and they are part of the family enrichment program, and they continue to smear joe biden's family.

>> well, you know, that's really the shame of it all, because all is that left in the donald trump arsenal is add an attack, and as we look at that and as you heard joe biden talk about this, he wants to be the transitional president, and that may not strike a chord with many, but to me that's important because what that says is that his view of governance going forward is to go out of his way to bring us back to a point of normalcy, end the chaos and work across the aisle to do this and be the managerial president that bridges the divide or the gap between an older generation and a younger generation in somebody like kamala harris that is more representative of the country. yes, you would think this whole

week when you look at the republican convention is just going to be -- is this going to be a striking irony? how do people get, that are involved in the kind of grift get this primetime coverage and how can you not say there's something wrong with that, that this somehow should not be who we are? >> thank you both so much for spending some time with us. it's always great to talk to both of you. when we come back, donald trump shattering the norms of the u.s. president see and once again destroying the line between campaigning and governoring. i made it this far without it being written in the

teleprompter, but it's qanon. >> our thanks --

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yes, hope is alive and well. see what scholarship you qualify for at phoenix.edu. will continue to be prisoners of the darkest of american forces, or will we free ourselves to right a brighter, better, nobler story. with our voices and votes let us write the next chapper of the american story, one of hope and of love and justice. if we do so we might just save our country and our souls. >> i hope so. that was jon meacham during last week's democratic national convention. it was a rare appearance from a presidential historian, and these are not normal times, not even close. donald trump constantly reminds

us of that as he obliterates the lines of campaigning for a second term and governing. presidents of both parties, including barack obama and george w. bush have mixed campaigning and white house business, but trump trampled over norms and challenged legal boundaries that limit activity. perhaps trump's most blatant use of the white house yet will happen this week when he will accept the republican nomination from the white house lawn. joining us now jon meacham, his book comes out tomorrow. i think we should just read it out loud like a book club once it comes out, you will talk to us about talking to him. give us a little preview.

>> well, congressman lewis was an american saint and somebody that embodied the best anybody can be, in america or a human being. he was in tune with a larger drama and he wanted to bring american life closer into harmony with the life that was escaped in the sermon on the mount. that may sound hoekey and sentimental, but it's not, because he led with his head again and again in my native region a half century ago, and we live in a better country because of him. one of the things we watched all day today was donald trump and his administration to some extent trying to undo the better world with the post office hearings. a vote is the most important form of nonviolent protests you can imagine. here we have a president that has declared war on the vote,

and we will see it for the next four days. this sort of narcissistic infomercial that is about to unfold in front of our eyes. >> you made an argument last week about the country. president obama made an argument about the democracy. michelle obama made an argument about the children. joe biden launched his campaign about our soul. this feels so big on the biden plus everybody who doesn't approve of him side. donald trump, i think i can go on a limb and predict his election will be very small. are we sure that's a fair fight? like, are we sure that we can take the country a message as heady as the democracy and the country and that donald trump will sort of sneak around the back? >> no, we can't be sure. that's why it's a campaign.

it's a battle -- you know what vice president biden has been saying, he says we have not won the soul of the country but it's a battle for it. it president trump has exacerbated the worst of american forces. he didn't really create a lot of them, he's managed to create some as he's really corrupted the presidency again and again. but let's be clear, you know, the soul of the country is not all good or all bad. in my view any way. it's an arena of contention between our better angels and our worst instincts. and the best eras we have are the ones where the better angels just manage to win just enough of the time. and so it's a very close run thing. and i don't think anybody can take anything for granted. how can we, given what we have experienced the last four years?

>> you -- your sort of observations and analysis of the day-to-day, people have drawn the parallel, especially over the last couple of months with this national reckoning over race. i mean, sit a fair analysis to george wallace and those sort of darkest days? >> sure. >> yeah? >> sure, it is. sure, it is. it goes back to strom thurmond. it really goes back to reconstruction. but we'll just bore people for the last eight minutes going back to the 1870s. strom thurmond, in 1948, walked out of the democratic national convention because harry truman was going to propose a civil rights plan, and do something radical like deseg gate the military, allow black soldiers, who were willing to die for liberty, to fight alongside white soldiers. thurmond goes out of the convention, he goes to

birmingham and puts the governor of mississippi on the ticket and runs as a states right democrat. george wallace picks that up 12 years later or so, runs a national primaries in '64. does very well in 1968. 52 years ago, george wallace, governor of alabama, as a segregationist, won five states and 13.5% of the popular vote. so, yeah, there's a direct line here. and it -- our worst impulses recur what we have to do is find a way to push those to where they're ebbing instead of flowing. and they're flowing under this president and we have to stop it. >> so you are effort at ebbing is going to be -- your book is out tomorrow. "the truth is marching on, john lewis and the power of hope." will you come back near the beginning of your book tour and read it out loud. everybody needs that balm during

the week of the gop convention. john meacham, congratulations on the book. it was a pleasure to watch you last week at the convention. when we come back, remembering lives well lived. remembering lives well lived to reconnect and be together. and once we did that, we realized his greatest adventure is just beginning. (avo male) welcome to the most adventurous outback ever. the all-new 2020 subaru outback. go where love takes you. (avo female) get 0% apr financing for 63 months on select models during the subaru a lot to love event. tempur-pedic's mission truly transformative sleep. so, no more tossing and turning. because only tempur-pedic's proprietary material adapts and responds to your body- -so you get deep, uninterrupted sleep. take advantage of our best offer of the year, with savings up to $500. so here's to the strong, who trust in our performance and comfortable,

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susan described to abc 15 in arizona how much pain her husband was in. how he couldn't breathe. then last week, tony's fight ended. he died holding susan's hand. so naturally, she set out to preserve as many of her memories of him as she could. when she texted his phone, he found a video he took of her. they within on the beach, and you could hear tony in the background, simply describing how much he loves his wife. that's who tony munoz was. he was a family man, he was a veteran. he had a hardy, genuine laugh, and he care sod much for the people around him. we'll leave you with this. it's how susan describes her husband. "i never knew someone could love me as much as he loved me. he showed me love every day. my kids are just the best because of him." thank you for heting us into

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welcome to "the beat." i'm ari melber. as we come on the air right now, there are two big stories in politics right now. president trump kicking off his convention, of course. a campaign to win votes for re-election. and then there's the other story, president trump's own postmaster general, bailing on that plot to crack down on votes against president trump's re-election. democrats are drawing new concessions for him under oath today. this is that emergency hearing that was originally forced by