republican national convention gets under way, and last night's speakers offered a dark defense. also postmaster general louis dejoy gets grilled by democrats on capitol hill over recent changes to the u.s. postal service that have caused major delays in mail delivery. >> and researchers say a man in hong kong is not the first person to become infected with the coronavirus for a second time. what it means for possible immunity to this virus.

good tuesday morning, everybody. it is august 25th, and i'm yasmin vossoughian. we're going to start with the republican national convention kicking off yesterday by officially renominating donald trump for president. the convention speakers painted a bleak view of a joe biden presidency while portraying donald trump as the one standing between order and anarchy with one speaker calling him, quote, bodyguard of western civilization. republicans also misrepresented the president's record, describing him as a leader who acted quickly against the coronavirus and got for social justice, this as the president continued to rail in against mail-in ballots. >> they're be sending them in, people will be picking them up, bribing, paying off people to grab some. this is going to be one of the

greatest scams. it's common sense. this has nothing to do with politics. who's mailing them? mostly democratic states and governors. supposing they don't mail them to republican neighborhoods. >> so here's the thing, if they don't have any enthusiasm, you'll say, are you going to get up and vote? i don't want to get up and vote. i want to watch television. but there's a boll lot. oh, here's a boallot, what the hell am i going to do with this thing and then they're knocking on your door, harvesting. did you get the ballot? >> yeah. >> here it is, get out of here. >> that's the most honest way of doing it, and that's unfair. >> by the way, there's no evidence to suggest that any of this is happening. important to note that there. they adopted a resolution yesterday declaring it will not adopt a policy platform for the

election citing the restraints and size of the rnc. they stated strong support for donald trump and his administration and its opposition to policy positions of the obama/biden administration. the document declares that the republican party has and will continue to enthusiastically support the president's american first agenda without saying what exactly that is. the resolution also accuses the media of, quote, outrageously misrepresenting the implications of the rnc not adopting a new platform in 2020 and goes on, calls on the media to engage in accurate and unbiased reporting especially as it relates to the strong support of the rnc and president trump and his administration. let's talk new polling here. so we have a new poll following last week's democratic national convention showing little change in favor of popularity. joe biden's favorability is

currently sitting at 48% as you see right there. 46% of likely voters have an unfavorable opinion of the former vice president. so let's compare this to 42% with a favorable opinion of the president and 56% with an unfavorable opinion. in morning consults general election polling, biden does lead the president by ten points, 52% to 42%. joining me now, managing editor of the "washington examiner" magazine jay caruso. good morning, jay. good to see you this morning. >> good morning. >> were you surprised to see the poll, that we didn't see a major bump for joe biden after the convention? >> not at this point. the conventions here just with what they have and they can't do the kind of convention they'd like, something with crowds and balloons, it gives more of a positive vibe. so it's not surprising. this is more of a convention.

people have to get a sense of where the candidates are at, what they're going to do, how the campaigns are going to roll out over the next couple of months, but it didn'ter is prize me there wasn't much movement after this. >> and he had a widespread going into the convention when it came to polling and has maintained that widespread when it comes to double digits. >> right. >> let's talk about the first day of the republican national convention. in your view, what were the main takeaways so far and what we can expect over the next couple of days. >> well, it was an odd mix, i thought it. was kind of strange. you had someone like tim scott give a speech a that was very positive, talking about his upbringing, what led him to where he's at today. and then, of course, you have the couple from missouri who painted a picture of a mad

marxist country if donald trump wasn't re-elected. you had nikki haley give a speech and then kimberly guilfoyle for whatever reason -- i think my cats heard her in arlingt arlington. she was in d.c., eight miles away, and they heard her. her entire speech was a shoutfest, which i thought was really odd. there was donald trump jr. saying everyone was welcome in the republican party when he said months ago mitt romney should be expelled from the republican party because he dared to vote to remove his father from office. there were a lot of mixed signals. a lot of it was good. i thought the conversation with donald trump and the truck driver and those kidnapped in foreign countries was all well and good but was overshadowed by what you talked about at the top, the kind of bleak picture that they painted if joe biden was to become president, which

is kind of the theme that the trump administration a going to -- trump campaign is going to try to make this about. they're going to try to make this a choice election again and try to take it away from trump's record, which is where i think joe biden focused it on, which is very good for him. >> and the coronavirus -- and it seems like the trump administration and the rnc are taking a bet here that people are tired of the coronavirus because you didn't see anybody wearing any masks or anything. so it was interesting to see that, the juxtaposition of the way in which they covered it. and, of course, this is going to play out over the next couple of days, the coronavirus pandemic we're currently in, losing over 175,000 people in the country compared with what we saw last week with everyone social distancing and wearing masks. jay caruso, thank you. postmaster louis dejoy appearing on capitol hill yesterday to defend changes at

the u.s. postal service ahead of the november election. at times he was combative with katie porter. dejoy acknowledged a lack of familiarity with some basic aspects of the postal service, but refused to commit to reversing recent challenges that have caused massive delays for mail. >> what is the cost of a first-class postage stamp? >> 55 cents. >> just wanted to check. what about to mail a post card? >> i don't know. >> you don't know the cost to mail a postcard. >> i don't. >> what if it's a greeting card like a square envelope. >> i'll submit i know very little about a postage stam snoop can you tell me how many people voted by mail in the last

presidential election? >> no, i do not. >> i'm concerned about your understanding of the postal agency. i'm concerned about it because you started taking very decisive action when you became postal general. you started directing the unplugging and destroying of machines, changing of employee procedures, and locking of collection boxes. >> again, li will repeat i did not order major overhaul plans. the items you identify were not directed by me. >> mr. dejoy, can you tell me who ordered these changes if you're the postmaster general? >> the postal service has been around for 250 years. there are plans. there are many, many executives. almost 30,000 executives within the organization, and there are plans that existed prior to my arrival that were implemented. >> mr. dejoy, if you did not

order these actions to be taken, please tell the committee the name of who did. >> i do not know. >> mr. dejoy, will you commit to reversing these changes? >> no. still ahead, the latest in the legal fight over the president's finances. new york's attorney general is now looking to depose the president's son eric trump. and protests overnight after police shot a man multiple times in the back. those stories and a check on your weather when we come back. n your weather when we come back we miss you. it's totally not the same without you. we miss your "let's do this" look. the sound of your laugh cry screams. and how you make every day here the best day ever. we can't wait to get you back so we've added temp checks, face coverings, social distancing and extra sanitizing to get the good times going again.

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has filed a complaint against eric trump.

there's an investigation into the trump organization financial practices and has asked the supreme court dom pell the company to cooperate. according to court documents, eric trump, the president's son and the company's executive vice president, canceled a scheduled interview two days before he was to answer questions under oath, citing concern the investigation was going, quote, beyond the scope of a civil inquiry. the documents reveal james' office was asked about representations made to banks and the reporting of forgiven loans to tax agencies. james tweeted. this i took action to force the trump organization and specifically evp to comply with my office's ongoing investigation into its financial dealings. for months the trump organization has failed to comply with our subpoenas into this investigation.

eric trump then said this is the highest level of prosecutorial misconduct purposely dropped on the eve of the republican convention for political points. joining us now, msnbc's legal analyst danny cevallos. good morning. >> good morning, yasmin. >> i want to start with a civil investigation by an attorney general and a criminal investigation. can cooperation with one lead to the other? does it make sense that eric trump cancelled the voluntary interview here? >> i'm a defense attorney, so it does make sense that eric trump canceled a voluntary interview. unless there's a 0.0% chance you're going to do that, it's

not advisable to do that. they're different from district attorneys in that they also have broad civil litigation powers, and particularly in new york, the legislature has given the state attorney general considerable power to investigate fraud in the business sphere, and they can do than seek a court's order stopping that alleged fraud. this attorney general in new york did exactly that back in 2013, i believe, against, guess wharkts tru what, trump university. this is after the state attorney general investigated fraud in the business. >> danny, we have had considerable coverage of the cases against the president and

the need to or the want to obtain his financial information, and we know that they're currently investigating his financial information. we know leticia james is doing this in new york. mite might they be looking at some of the same issues? >> they're likely -- the two agencies are likely to cooperate with each other, and that's the challenge when it comes to the criminal investigation. >> all right, danny. seems like we're having some technical issues, but thank you for joining us this morning. always appreciate it, my friend. still ahead, we're tracking hurricane laura. meteorologist bill karins is going to join us with the very latest coming up next. ing up nen and civic involvement.

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welcome back. in california, over 14,000 firefighters are continuing to battle fires burping across the state. the fires which have been burning for ten days are now the largest the state has experienced. the fires have also claimed the life of a seventh victim. over 250,000 residents have been under evacuation orders as the flames have burned over 30 million acres of land. fire experts are expecting more fires as forecasters predict lightning strikes and temperatures in the bay area to be warm and dry with the high in the low 90s. a lot happening there. so with that, i want to get a check on your forecast with nbc meteorologist bill karins. andwhile t and while the west is dealing with the fires, the devastation coming out of there as they're trying to control this thing, we're also looking at a hurricane turning toward the

golf course -- gulf coast. >> yasmin, this is our worst-case scenario that we talked about in march and april is what's going to happen if we get a major hurricane amidst of the pandemic with evacuations of hundreds of thousands if not millions. the forecast is as dire as we feared yesterday. so right now the storm is in the gulf of mexico. we just got the new update in from the hurricane center. there are minor tweaks and changes, but not a lot. right now the winds are just below the hurricane threshold. they need to get up to 75 miles an hour and then it will be a hurricane later today. it's starting to strengthen as it heads toward cuba. so here is the fearful part. here's the part from the hurricane center that. i do take it to a major category 3 hurricane just to the right of

houston, right along the texas/louisiana border as a category 3 with 115-mile-per-hour winds just as midnight wednesday into thursday with a landfall likely around 1:00 a.m. or so. then the storm should rain itself out and be a flood threat all the way through arkansas, tennessee, kentucky, and rain on saturday through the mid-atlantic region. but let's focus on the landfall because that's where the worst storm surge will be, where the most destruction will be, lives will be changed, homes will be destroyed. and as we go to the european model, this is a little to the west. the houston, galveston area, you have to pay attention. there ooh l be massive ev evacuations taking place into southern louisiana during the day today and tomorrow, and as far as a lot of our other computers, we have a bunch of these. all these squiggly lines are possible solutions.

a lot of them are pinpointing the area along the texas/louisiana border. what this means for this region is a devastating storm surge. this will be the biggest threat to lives and to property. water rising of 7 to 11 feet and then you get wave action on top of that. this is a swampy low-lying area, and this will move well inland. this could possibly be compared to hurricane rita or ike, depending on the exact land fall location. and, yasmin, those with both multi-billion-dollar disasters, and that's what we're looking at. 48 hours from now, a multi-billion-dollar disaster amidst the pandemic. >> i could be wrong, but the last time houston was somewhat devastated when it came to hurricanes, i believe it's harvey, if i'm accurate in that. do you remember the strength of harvey, just so folks understand

what's headed toward them right now? >> well, harvey, i believe, was a category 3 or 4 at landfall south near corpus christi and drifted and went up toward houston and rained forever. that was a different dynamic for the area because they didn't have the huge storm surge. they had freshwater flooding with that. this will be more of an ir wissf storm surge and devastating landfall. every situation is different. houston is a wild card in this one. right now they're supposed to be on the weaker side of the storm, but this could shift. >> i know you'll be watching it for us, bill. thank you. still ahead, everybody, a look at democrats' count counterprogramming during last night's republican national convention. also, the first case of a person being reinfected with the coronavirus. what new findings suggest about possible immunity and what

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welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian. we're going to begin this half hour with the opening night of the republican national convention with donald trump now officially the president for renomination. alice barr has night one of rnc. >> reporter: on night one of the republican national convention, a parade of speakers both celebrating and defending the

record of president trump. >> one leader took the decisive action to save lives. >> reporter: the pandemic taking center stage as the president honored the frontline workers. to convention speakers downplaying the country's stunning death toll, more than 177,000 lives lost and millions of americans still unemployed. donald trump jr. standing behind his father and attacking democrats that have returned. >> must be biden's radical left wing policies would stop our economy cold. >> reporter: diving in with the culture words with mark and patricia mccloskey, the st. louis couple who pulled guns on black lives protesters mar f. ing through their gated community. >> what you saw happen to us could happen to any of you watching around the country. >> reporter: hershel walker coming to his defense. >> you hurt my soul. the worst one is racist.

>> reporter: senator tim scott making case that president trump is the best choice for the black community. >> so when it comes to what joe biden says he'll do, look at his actions. look at his policies. look at what he already did and what he didn't do. >> reporter: the president and his party setting the tone for this convention and for what they hope will be four more years in the white house. >> and our thanks to nbc's alice barr for that report. first lady melania trump is expected to speak tournament and the president's children and secretary mike pompeo will also be among the speakers. and democrats ignored most of the attacks coming from the republican speakers instead focusing on the counterprogramming on the president's, quote, failed coronavirus resporngs summing up the expectations for this week's convention. a spokesperson for democratic nominee joe biden said this.

what voters will hear from donald trump this week are the last things this country needs, more desperate wild-eyed lies and toxic division in vain attempts to distract from his mismanagement. what they won't here is what american families will have to deal with. meanwhile they used a projector to turn the side of a building where republicans were speaking into a 75-foot-tall billboard with the word 1/,000-deaths per day displayed over a photo of the president golfing. they launched on ttv rnc, republican national chaos. trump is moving toward deadly

mismanagement. the jobless left without a lifeline, grandparents left alone. trump has no plan for covid. nothing will change because trump won't change. >> it is what it is. >> enjoy the convention. >> i'm joe biden, and i approve this message. >> all right. so in a notable change, the biden camp confirmed yesterday that the democratic presidential nominee joe biden and his running mate senator kamala harris will be readily tested for the coronavirus as the white house heatins up. it was a medical recommendation and comes as biden and harris ramp up in-person campaigning in the final weeks of the ee vex. staffers who interact with the candidates will be tested regularly. over the past few months biden

has said several times that he has not been tested for the virus, noting he's experienced no symptoms. at age 77, the form e vice president remains at a higher risk for illness if infect aid cording to the cdc. all right. the first documented reinfected person has been reported. the 33-year-old man has become the first to be infected with the coronavirus a second time. the patient was first diagnose and hospitalized in late march for two weeks. the second infection occurred four months later after the man reportedly returned to hong kong after traveling to europe. he was hospitalized but remains asymptomatic. they used genome sequencing analysis to prove he was infected by two different strains of the virus. the findings suggest that some

of it may have only lived through reinfection. the scientists have been working on treatments from antibodies from recovered coronavirus patients. joining me once again, jay caruso. i first want to hear what type of reactions you are hearing to the counterattacks presented by the democrats and joe biden's team so far. >> not much. i mean counterattacks to convention speeches are similar to or counter to state of the union speeches, and people don't pay too much attention to that. it's not all that well coordinated,al though t althoug democrats get credit for some of that. as i said earlier, one of the tacts they're tacking is very smart. they're focusing on donald

trump's record. one of the mistakes, i think, in the 2016 campaign was focusing on his character, what kind of person he is. everybody knows that already. that's never going to change. that's always going to be the same. baked in. so they're focusing on his record. so going after him especially on the coronavirus, i thought the speakers last night at the rnc convention oddly were just talking about his wonderful leadership and repeating this notion that his little china travel ban saved millions of lives when there's nothing to suggest that that's the case is smart. that's what they have to use. so as long as they keep hammering away on his record, it's going to work, and that puts the trump campaign and republicans on defense because they have to defend that record instead of talking about the post -- the dystopia that we'll live in if joe biden becomes president. >> so you say record, right?

they're hammering on his record. back in 2016, he didn't have a record. he had just business dealings. now they have more to talk about, his failings that he's presented over the last four years, but there's alsco individual, which is top of mind of americans with so many lives lost and we're currently in the middle of this thing, continuing be fearful of the spread of this virus. does the numbers -- do the numbers of those infected by covid, 5.8 million people nationwide, 175 million dying in this country alone. do they have an impact, do you think, on the president's base? >> i don't know. you know, what it will have more of an impact is the impact it's having on the economy, because they're -- this is where the democrats have been very effective. they say trump hasn't laid out a national plan.

he's tried to wish this away. what you're seeing is we have areas around the country locked down. they have to be locked down because there was no national plan. people can argue whether or not a national plan can work. that's not the point. we're talking about a presidential race here, so it is a situation where if there's going to be any effect, it's going to be from the voters who still can't go back to work, people who can't visit relatives or they have trouble doing that. that is where it's going to hit trump the most more than the numbers overall. going to be the lack of economic growth that's going to -- i think, is going to hurt him more than anything else. >> and the millions of folks that are currently jobless across this country right now and the shuttering of businesses in so many cities. "washington examiner's" jay caruso, thank you as always. we're going to see you coming up on "morning joe." still ahead, everybody, the scene in kenosha, wisconsin,

during a second night of violent protests following the police shooting of black man there. your first look at "morning joe" is next. your first look at "mor" is next. welcome back.

what began as a peaceful demonstration monday evening delved into violent protests for a second night in a row in kenosha, wisconsin, following the shooting of a black man. multiple people were injured as cars and businesses were set on fire and damage overnight. multiple buildings burned to the ground and looters ransacked stores. the wisconsin national guard was called in to help and enforce an 8:00 p.m. state curfew following an incident deployed in what appeared to be tear gas. a warning, the next video i'm going to show you is disturbing. 29-year-old jacob blake remains

hospitalized in serious condition after a video posted on social media appeared to show officers shoot him in the back right there multiple times. blake's attorney says three of his clients' children watched the scene unfold from the car. the officers involved in the shooting have since been placed on administrative leave. the wisconsin department of justice has launched an investigation into this incident. president trump has been briefed on the matter while presidential democratic nominee joe biden has called for a, quote, immediate, full, and transparent investigation. all right. let's switch gears once again and get a check on your weather with nbc meteorologist bill karins. >> yasmin, we're going to continue to focus on laura because today's going to be the day we get massive evacuation orders and people on the highways trying to get out of the way and doing final

preparations in anticipation of a major hurricane landfall in the midst of a pandemic. listen to your emergency managers. we don't want to have a gridlock situation like we did with hurricane ike in the hurouston area. so we're going to talk about rapid intensification. today is the day laura has cleared all land obstacles over the warm waters and there's nothing to stop it from intense fig. you need 85-degree water to get the hurricanes to get going. the waters are 85 degrees. that's like high octane. that's nearly two days lawyer are will be over the warm water with the average temperature of 6 degrees. rapid intensify fi indication is defined as a storm increasing by 35-mile-an-hour winds. right now the storm is at 65

miles an hour. at this time we're talking a 100-mile-per-hour storm. we think it's very likely. that's possible. so here's kind of the timeline on things right now. winds are at 65 miles an hour. it just cleared cuba overnight and now it's over the warm waters. for the impacts today, not many. we expect it to be safely over land. today's a good day to listen to your evacuation orders, get the preps in order as the stone begins to arrive. it will rapidly intensify through tonight into tomorrow. that's when the winds will begin to increase. it looks like the people will want to be out of harm's way. by wednesday afternoon/evening, that's when the landfall will hall. that whole region, you know, when we get that landfall t storm of this strength, that's when coastal structures are destroyed. power outages will be widespread

with the storm, too, and the biggest concern is the storm surge. so yasmin, if you're at the beaches or the coast line in southern louisiana, imagine the water being 11 foot higher than where you're standing and wave action on top of that. that's how high the storm surge is going to be in that area. it's going to be destructive and change some of these community forever, wherever we get this landfall. >> i've seen those storm surging in some of the hurricane coverage i've seen on the ground, especially if you don't heed those warnings. thank you, bill. a major shakeup and an escalation in a bitter back-and-forth between a popular video app and the trump administration. the stois driving your business day coming up. tion the stois driving your business day coming up. super emma just about sleeps in her cape.

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welcome back. time now for business. the dow jones industrial is going through a major remodeling after announcing it will add

saleforce honeywell, and n jen. julianna tatelbaum joins us live from london. is this? >> these are major changes we're seeing to the dow jones. the changes go into effect august 31st, monday. sales force replaces exxon mobile, honeywell replaces raytheon. it was in a four for one stock split which would reduce the benchmark exposure to the technology sector. a lot of indexes -- a lot of funds track the dow jones index so this will have implications. another story, tiktok is suing the u.s. government over

president trump's ban. the owner of tiktok argues that the chinese company has been denied due process to argue it isn't a national security threat. this comes after president trump filed an executive order earlier this month citing the international emergency economic powers act that would ban tiktok from operating in the u.s. by september 15th. tiktok is continuing sales talks with microsoft and oracle according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to cnbc. we have another day, more folks furloughed in the country, delta airlines, the airline industry being hard hit, they're planning on furloughing 2,000 pilots, i believe, as the coronavirus continues to ravage the country. what more do you have on this? >> that's right. the airline sector one of the hardest hit parts of the

economy. delta will furlough pilots in october according to an internal company memo, delta's head of operation said delta was overstaffed only 25% of revenue has been recovered six months into the pandemic. tough times if for sure. >> sure is. julianna tatelbaum from london for us. thank you very much. up next, a look at axios' 1 one thing and more from the opening night of the republican national convention as donald trump becomes the nominee for president. also after announcing her support for joe biden, carly fiorina will join the conversation. "morning joe" is moments away. conversation "morning joe" is moments away. and it's already available in parts of select cities. like los angeles and in new york city. and it's rolling out in cities around the country. with massive capacity,

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welcome back, everybody. joining us now from washington with a look at axios a.m., police reporter for axios, hans nichols. great to see you on this tuesday

morning. give us axios' 1 big thing today. >> we're looking at the polling on the pandemic, our 1 big thing at axios looks at the trust deficit that both candidates have with the rest of the country, but it's particularly stark, acute with president trump. just 31% of americans trust donald trump to say the right thing and be honest on the pandemic. now joe biden is a little bit higher, he's at 47%. but both candidates are below 50% on the important issue of trust. that speaks to the challenge that either of them will have to govern when this pandemic is over because more than half the country doesn't trust either of them to give accurate information on the pandemic, but donald trump's numbers look particularly low, at least on that score. >> that's going to prove difficult i feel like for the democrats as well when they are focussing a lot on the response or a lack thereof from the trump administration over the last six

months or so. >> that's right. when you listen to what sort of the democrats' message was at their convention it was focused on donald trump and that appears to have some affect, driving some of the numbers down, because the country doesn't trust the president on the pandemic. but just looking at last night at what was on stage, the first episode, the star donald trump, no surprise there. but the best supporting actor was probably the second amendment when you looked at the way gun rights coursed through most of the conversations, it was clear that's what republicans wanted to make the evening about. yes, there was a lot of donald trump but the focus on the second amendment gives you another indication of the trump strategy and that is to drive out the base, use fear, and scare americans that if the other party is elected, joe biden gets elected, their guns potentially will be in danger. >> it was interesting yesterday

because as i was listening to donald trump speak during the day he made a jump from talking about the second amendment and the right to bear arms to preexisting conditions he was all over the place when he went on for an hour, i believe, speaking yesterday and then he had the gun toting couple speaking as well. what is that about? >> i can't speak to the transition between preexisting conditions and gun rights, having made awkward transitions myself on television i'm not going to necessarily be critical of that. but with donald trump you get a stream of consciousness, a lot of thoughts going in a lot of different places but there isn't necessarily a thread to weave them together. that's the challenge for the convention. we saw last night how they did it, they have another three days to go. the challenge is how do you tell a broader story about the trump show that just isn't about trump. you saw it with his son don

junior trying to make the case the pandemic is in the rear view mirror, there's light at the end of the tunnel. when you look at the convention, i didn't see a lot of masks. it's another indication that the mask issue is the dividing line. it was almost as though we were in a post-covid world. but when you look at our polling, it's clear we're still living in a covid world. not that many people are going back to offices, only 30% that have the ability to go back to offices are going back to offices. not so at the rnc, they appear to have a vaccine, at least at the rnc. >> it seems they wanted folks to forget we are smack dab in the middle of a pandemic right now with thousands of people dying all the time. do the numbers resonate with the base? do the number of people who have died in this country resonate, over 170000? >> yes, and no.

what's interesting in the polling that we're seeing is just the extent to which people know someone who have died or know someone that has it or they themselves have have it. 58% of americans know someone who had covid but a fourth of those americans have been tested and a little more than 20% of americans know someone personally who has died of the virus. the interesting thing of those numbers, is how they've slowly been progressing upwards. the trajectory on those is clear as the virus continues to rampage across the country. yasmin. >> hans nichols great to see you my friend. you can sign up for the news letter at signup.axios.com. that does it for me, i'm yasmin vossoughian. "morning joe" starts now. >> blood along moves the wheels of history. >> they want to