good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington. we will have all of the latest news on the republican national convention in just a moment. but we begin today with that deadly weather threat along the gulf coast. hurricane laura continuing to strengthen as it barrels toward land. the massive category 3 storm heading to coastal towns from texas to louisiana, with dangerous storm surge that could flood entire communities. "today" show co-host al roker has our up to the minute forecast. >> andrea, the news does not get very good for this. we already see rain bands making their way up and into louisiana. 225 miles south/southeast of lake charles. it's a category 3 storm with 125-mile-per-hour winds, moving northwest at 16 miles per hour.

it will be intensifying this afternoon. it will become a category 4 storm. and now, what it looks like, as the day rolls on, this will make landfall as a category 4 storm sometime either late tonight, early thursday morning. dangerous rain, wind gusts, the storm surge, and it will keep going as a category 1 storm right on into parts of arkansas, and then make its way up through the upper mississippi and ohio river valleys. we're most concerned with the storm surge. this is live threatening. we're talking 15 to 20 feet in some spots. that storm surge could reach 30 miles inland to i-10. the storm surge is the deadliest part of the storm. top of the tides, the wind pushes a wall of water up. three feet would be a surge that's considered life-threatening. six feet, that blows out the back sides of buildings. the weight of the water breaks through doors and windows. nine feet is catastrophic, moves further inland. entire neighborhoods will be destroyed with that kind of surge. the winds will be a big problem

as well. hurricane-force winds arriving tonight, causing power outages, downed trees. these downed trees, the power outages could last for days, even into weeks. and the rainfall, andrea. we're talking widespread flash flooding, urban flooding from the gulf coast to the mississippi river valley. locally up to 15 inches of rain in some spots, moderate to major river flooding. this is a dangerous, dangerous situation. it's going to be coming in at night, andrea. people won't see the storm surge, they'll see it and experience it. if you've been ordered to evacuate, do it now. your window to leave is closing rapidly. andrea? >> it's a really important lesson, an important warning, al roker, thank you. let's go down to the gulf coast, nbc's morgan chesky in louisiana, directly in the hurricane's path. morgan, what's the latest where you are? >> reporter: andrea, if you ever wanted to see what a ghost town looks like, we're standing right

in the middle of one here in cameron, louisiana. this is the place where the eye of laura is expected to pass within the next 24 hours. and it's hard to believe but even with laura still in the gulf of mexico, which is just past those natural gas storage tanks behind me, we're already starting to see its impacts right here in this community. and we can look just down the street. low-lying areas already underwater here as they've tried to -- people have tried to leave town because they know what's to come. and it's important to remember the name of cameron for another reason, and that's because hurricane rita, when it struck here back in 2005, brought a storm surge 18 feet high, the highest surge recorded from hurricane rita. we're just now hearing reports that laura could bring that and even more. i want to show you what 20 feet looks like. this gentleman's home, henry mccall lives here, 20 feet high, still piylons going into concrete, and he is the only

person we found who thinks he's going to be able to ride out this storm. this surge has been labeled as unsurvivable. meanwhile, an hour to the north of us in lake charles, mandatory evacuations are still in place. people are still trying to get out while they still can because going back to rita, that memory is still very fresh. the storm surge was so powerful it pushed water 50 miles inland, flooding vast areas of lake charles. the big concern right now, getting everyone out of this danger area while they still have time, because we know that shelters, andrea, already are filling up because social distancing is in place, they can't put as many people there as they have before. places as far as austin now having to turn away eevacuees from hurricane laura simply because there's no room. a lot of concern over the next 12 hours as we see how this storm plays out on louisiana's doorstep, andrea. >> morgan chesky, thank you. a perfect storm indeed. turning to politics,

president trump is using all of the tools of the presidency in an unprecedented way to boost his reelection chances. tuesday night's convention featured videos of the president pardoning a convicted but reformed bank robber and hosting an immigration naturalization ceremony at the white house. the trump campaign also used the road garden for the first lady's speech with a live audience and when the secretary of state break all rules by addressing the convention from the holy sites in jerusalem while on an official trip. with melania trump's speech as the centerpiece, the campaign was also trying to soften the president's image to appeal to suburban women voters even though the speeches and videos' gauzy focus were in sharp contrast to the president's own words and policies. tonight, the campaign takes a big turn toward the military and national security with vice president pence speaking at historic fort mchenry in baltimore where we find monicaal

about a tod monica alba today, and "weekend today" co-host kristen welker. monica, what are we expecting tonight? >> they're doing a sound check where the vice president will be expected to speak. this evening is billed as the land of heroes. you're going to expect to hear a lot about the military, national security, and there will be an audience for this speech, as many as 130 people who are somewhat distanced but not six feet apart, chairs much like what we saw in the rose garden last night. many of them, we're learning, will be veterans. that is really the focus here tonight at ft. mchenry. the location and backdrops of the first lady's speech and secretary of state mike pompeo's making headlines, this will go in a different direction, it's historic in its own nature but it's not them using the white house for political purposes.

this is a very patriotic backdrop. you'll also have the vice president speaking to the national moment. he's technically head of the coronavirus task force so we can expect him to touch on the pandemic. unclear whether he will echo those notes of sympathy we heard from the first lady but that's something we can certainly expect. apart from that tonight, we'll hear from white house officials, kellyanne conway who is set to leave her post office as counselor to the president, will make an address tonight, and white house press secretary kayleigh mcenany. they'll both be speaking in their personal capacities but blurring the lines between white house business and the campaign. we're set to hear them later tonight. vice president pence will be here speaking with his wife, who

will make her own remarks. when the vice president formally accepts his nomination, he is usually joined by the president and first lady, we'll see if that takes place here tonight. tomorrow, as a counter response, the democratic vice presidential nominee, kamala harris, has announced a speech in washington tomorrow perhaps responding to some things we'll hear from vice president pence tonight in baltimore, andrea. >> that would indeed be the first time that either she or joe biden have ventured out during this week rather than what the president did which was to be out and about all over the country to battleground states during the democratic convention. kristen welker, melania trump was really the only person last night to speak about the pain that americans are feeling as we approach 180,000 deaths from covid-19. she didn't call at it the china virus as the president and a lot of the aides do as well. she was speaking in a way in sharp contrast to some of the

president's own policies. she seemed to be trying to air brushing her husband and his record. >> that's right, and to your first point, andrea, you heard this empathetic outreach from the first lady to people suffering from covid-19. as you point out, she did not use the term "china virus," that in and of itself a sharp departure from what we heard from president trump. she became the only speaker so far in this convention to really give that type of personal appeal and outreach. a lot of people have been looking to president trump to give that type of outreach. we haven't heard it from him yet. will we hear that type of language or even anything close to it on thursday? that remains to be seen. but it did draw a lot of attention because we heard that from former vice president joe biden, when he delivered his acceptance speech last week, a lot of people noting that it echoed what we heard from him. typically you rely on the president to be the consoler in chief. the first lady really took that mantle last night.

in terms of some of the other topics she touched on, the racial tensions that we have seen, these protests all across the country, made some remarks that raised some eyebrows by calling for an end to the looting. of course a number of the protesters would take exception to that and would argue that they are peaceful protesters. and a lot of people also made note of the fact that of course candidate trump pushed the birtherism theory against president obama, one that melania trump supported. the first lady trying to reach out to a core constituency, suburban women. undoubtedly they were link to her empathetic remarks. she ticked through what she considers her signature accomplishments, be particularly her "be best" antibullying

campaign. she chooses her moments to speak very carefully and doesn't all align with the president, and we saw that on full display last night, andrea. >> peter, there are a number of other unusual comments and speakers, certainly mike pompeo from jerusalem, taping that with the backdrop of the old city, the holy sites of the three major religions behind him, against the hatch act, arguably, we'll talk about about that later with joaquin castro, his subcommittee is investigating, and the content of the speech, misleading claims about north korea prosecut korea, what they've accomplished with nato and china and things of that nature. and then larry kudlow, speaking of the pandemic in the past tense, and making claims about the economy that are completely unfounded. >> yeah, look, i think the secretary's speech from jerusalem did break with norms.

apparently michael beschloss, the historian, found a precedent 75 years ago. just last month the secretary himself sent out a cable in his name reminding state department employees that they were not to engage in partisan activities and it specifically said presidential appointees may not engage in presidential politics. they tried to argue that no state department employee had anything to do with this speech, they were not participating, they had other people handle the logistics and so forth. but it does break a tradition. i think that's sort of in keeping with what we've seen for four years, the president who came in, remember, who has never been in politics or the military before, and so he doesn't particularly care much if things have been done a different way. his whole attitude is the fact that it has been done a certain way means you should think about doing it the other way. that he's been sent to washington to change things, to disrupt. that's been his approach for

four years, in many ways it makes him appealing to a lot of supporters, they don't like the establishment, they don't like the old rules. if they see him as flouting them, they see that as a positive, not a negative. obviously it's flustered a lot of people in the foreign service and even republicans, veterans of previous campaigns. similarly, you're seeing white house staff, people not normally featured at a political convention, kellyanne conway, as we mentioned, larry kudlow. but the president wants to put his best face forward. i think some of the better speakers, republicans think so, were the ordinary voter types addressing the convention, a lobsterman from maine, a police officer from out west and so forth, they may have had some of the most effective speeches. we'll see what they bring tonight. >> with larry kudlow complaining that he inherited an economy in ruins from the obama/biden team and that the recovery is, you know, vibrant and that we're all

back, i guess he's looking at the stock market, that's one indicator, but certainly not at unemployment. >> yeah, look, i think that the central argument that president trump has made is i can build the best economy ever, even though it's now sidelined because of covid, i will do it again. this stretches the facts, as you point out, the economy was not in a recession when they took over, they've managed to keep the recovery that started under president obama going until the covid epidemic. but, you know, obviously i think a lot of people simply would return to february's economy if they could. >> thanks to peter, thanks to monica, and kristen welker. msnbc contributor steve schmidt, a founder of the lincoln project, joins me now. steve, a change in town last night in an attempt to tried to reach out to suburban women, but

using all of the perks of the presidency. incumbents have a big plane and can get around the country on the blue and white plane that thrills people in local communities. but never before at the white house, the secretary of state from jerusalem from an official trip, the rose garden. what do you make of it? >> i think it's disgraceful conduct, andrea. these are important symbols of the american state. and they belong to all of us. the white house is not a partisan residence, it's the people's residence. it's the residence of the president of the united states who is four things. he's the head of government, he's the head of a political party, he's commander in chief of the armed forces, and he's the head of state, the government of the united states. the use of state symbols to advance partisan interests the way that trump is doing is disgraceful. look, i think the commandant of the marine corps should be prepared to resign in protest

over what happened last night. we see a marine officer escorting the president into the room for a naturalization ceremony. we see the playing of "hail to the chief" for a partisan purpose. we see the marine guard swinging the door open, exactly like you see the russian soldiers swinging the door open for donald trump's favorite autocrat, vladimir putin, when he walks down the hall in the kremlin. it's completely inappropriate. the secretary of state flew on a 757 at taxpayer expense to stand on the roof of the king david hotel in jerusalem to pander to evangelicals. this is the secretary of state who spent about as much time in iowa as he has traveling around the world. what we saw about mike pompeo last night, who has delusions and fantasies about being president himself in 2024 is that he's another type of scott

walker candidate, essentially a division 1 double-a quarterback with fantasies about playing in the nfl and frankly he's not good enough, he lacks the charisma and star power, we saw that last night. if he was a normal politician giving a convention speech with aspirations, you would say, this guy doesn't have it. but we saw another clinic of dishonest, delusion, and fundamentally there's 180,000 dead americans and the first person we heard talk about this at all was the first lady last night who also told us that donald trump always tells us the truth. so again, this is the great national gaslighting that we saw continue last night. >> well, let me just ask you, though, should democrats be alarmed at all these advantages of the incumbency? despite early polling advantages for joe biden in battleground states, it is historically difficult to defeat an incumbent president. >> it is historically difficult

to defeat an incumbent president, number one. i suspect there is at least a point or two of undercount for trump voters. and democrats, like all americans from my perspective, should be concerned, because i don't think the country can stand four more years of this. donald trump has put this country into a nosedive, into a spiral of precipitous decline the likes of which we've never seen before. we've never seen a president laughed at and mocked by leaders of the western alliance. we've never seen a president of the united states regarded as a buffoon by our adversaries and allies on the world stage. we've never seen 180,000 americans die of a pandemic that never had to happen, that could have been avoided. we've never seen the level of racial animus loosed by the president of the united states upon the country. we've never seen the division, the incompetence, this level of ineptitude in the history of the country by any leader of the

country. democrats should be alarmed, everybody should be alarmed, because if donald trump were to be reelected, i think the america we're going to be living in is a very different country than the one we all grew up in. >> last night during our coverage, chuck todd said that a key for the president is whether or not he can increase his 44% approval rating and that if he can, if he can get up to 46, 47, he's got a real shot at reelection. do you think last night's mix of trying to soften his edges with those pretaped pieces and also throw some red meat to supporters with eric trump and kim bondi, do you think those tactics could help him do that? >> no, i don't think the convention has been particularly successful, andrea, in the sense that the ratings were smaller than they were four years ago. they're smaller than the democratic convention. look, this is produced for an audience that finds oan credible

or is someone who exists in the bubble of fox news or newsmax. eric trump is up there attacking the bidens. eric trump is forbidden from running a charity because he's a crook in the city of new york. pam bondi was investigating trump university in florida. she got a $25,000 donation, and voila, the investigation goes away. we saw the former corrupt attorney general of florida, bondi, echoing the talking points of russian misinformation and disinformation about the bidens that we know it is what it is, russian disinformation campaign. she repeated it full on. i think this is very much preaching to the choir. and basically the theme of this convention is a broadcast to white america, to donald trump's dystop dystopia, saying black people are coming to burn your suburbs

down. that's what the underlying message of this convention is. it's completely deluded. it's detached from reality. we're living in a world at this convention where covid doesn't exist or we're passed it. we're going to hit 200,000 dead americans before we get to the election. we have a shattered economy regardless of how the stock market is performing. we're on the front edge of a foreclosure and eviction crisis that will dwarf anything that happened in the great recession. we see this unusual assortment of white house staffers, and by the way, it's totally inappropriate for them to be participating in this as white house staffers. family members smearing the family of the democratic nominees, smearing the family of the democratic nominee. the totality of this, it's a fundamentally breech of breach

of decorum, of history, an assault on the values of probity and rectitude by a family who has desecrated that house, desecrated that office for 3 1/2 straight years. >> steve schmidt, putting it all out there on the table. thanks for being with us, steve. >> thank you, andrea. in wisconsin, protests turned deadly overnight, two people were killed in clashes over the shooting of jacob blake, a black man. how blake's mother is asking the community to respond to her son's shooting. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. rea mitchell reports" on msnbc. thousands of women with metastatic breast cancer, which is breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, are living in the moment and taking ibrance. ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for postmenopausal women or for men with hr+/her2- metastatic breast cancer, as the first hormonal based therapy. ibrance plus letrozole significantly delayed

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start now at godaddy.com overnight in kenosha, wisconsin, the third night of protests over the police shooting of jacob blake turning deadly. two people were killed, one injured in a confrontation at a gas station. a warning, this footage is disturbing. you can see a man with a gun running through the street. protesters, he goes to the ground, opens fire on the people around him. [ sound of gunfire ] nbc news cannot confirm what happened either before or after the recording. we don't know whether the armed man was taken into custody. this comes after the wisconsin

governor declared a state of emergency and more violent clashes with the police and national guard using armored vehicles and firing tear gas to break up the demonstrations. all this despite pleas from jacob blake's mother for peace and healing in wisconsin and across the country. >> as i pray for my son's healing, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, i also have been praying, even before this, for the healing of our country. we are the united states. have we been united? do you understand what's going to happen when we fall? because a house against each other cannot stand. >> joining me now is nbc's shaq brewster in kenosha, wisconsin.

shaq, i was watching that live yesterday on msnbc. she was so moving, so deeply affected, she talked about how she had prayed in his hospital room with him and with the police officer on duty in the hospital room. this woman is drawing on resources of strength and faith. i don't know where she gets the ability to deal with this. his injuries are devastating, according to the family. >> reporter: yeah, that's exactly right, andrea, that press conference was extremely emotion emotional. not only did you hear from the mother, you heard from his father, you heard from mr. blake's sisters. you heard them talk about the impact that the shooting is going to have on the kids who were in the back seat of that vehicle when they saw their father get shot. the 8-year-old still asks, why did they shoot my daddy in the back. the purpose of the press conference was to give an update on his condition. we have new information this morning on his condition. his family says he's still in a

lot of pain, that he is doing better but that he is not out of the woods just yet. during that press conference they explained the extent of his injuries. they said there's a bullet still lodged in his vertebrae, that he has multiple wounds throughout his body, that he has kidney damage, liver damage, that it will be a miracle if he ever walks again. he has a long road of recovery ahead. that's why you heard his mother plead for peace, for calm, and also prayers, prayers that we did not see last night -- or sorry, prayers that we did see last night, but the peace that we did not see last night with the escalation of those protests that turned deadly. there was less property damage, but unfortunately there was that loss of life. kenosha police saying two people were killed, one person was injured. you saw that video, and you played some of that video. it's still not clear exactly what happened. right before that video that you played, the chunk of video that you played, you hear people saying, as they're chasing this person, you hear people saying "he shot someone else."

police confirmed there were multiple shooting instances and incidents last night. the situation turned deadly and the tensions remain high as people and officials are hoping that there won't be a fourth night of violence as we continue to monitor things here in kenosha, andrea. >> i'm glad to hear that he is in stable condition. they said they had taken out his intestines, his small intestine, his colon. this man is grievously injured and probably will not walk again, according to the family. they say they needed a miracle. let's pray for that. thank you so much, shaq brewster. and a party divided. donald trump's convention notable for republican party heavy hitters who were not attending. two members of a growing group of disaffected republicans joining me next. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. ar. >> tech: we'll fix it right with no-contact service you can trust. >> tech: so if you have auto glass damage, stay safe with safelite.

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♪ president trump is behind in the battleground states. but he does have a path to victory albeit a narrow one. there are six key states that could help him once again draw an inside straight as he did in 2016. arizona, florida, and north carolina. and in the northeast and midwest, pennsylvania, michigan, and wisconsin. joining me now, a republican who is not supporting the president for reelection, christie todd whitman, former new jersey governor and the former epa administrator for george w. bush. welcome, governor, thank you very much for being with us. let's talk about -- >> good to be with you.

>> -- whether or not donald trump can be reelected. clearly he can be, but what you see out there, and what you see at this convention. >> well, the convention, last night, i thought was a better night than the first night. it wasn't quite as dark and as foreboding as the first night was. but, you know, it also was describing a person i didn't recognize. certainly not the man in the white house. when you talk about compassion for people who weren't like him, he's the one who called all mexican rapists and murderers, who said muslims were all terrorists. a compassionate family man? he's on his third wife when he instituted policies to separate women and their children. so i didn't recognize the person they were talking about. even the economy, the economy was doing very well when he first took over, it's in a shambles now. he's not responsible for covid, of course not, no one would accuse him of that but i will say his initial response by ignoring it and downplaying it,

which he continues to do, has made it harder for us to get the economy back on track because it didn't give the states or the municipalities any kind of a coherent base. he can win reelection. i don't think there's any question about that, because his base is not going anywhere and they are going to vote and it's a question of whether other people, particularly republicans who are disaffected by this man, and independents, newly-minted independents, will need to decide to vote. >> in fact, in terms of still undecided voters, i want to share our interview by our vaughn hillyard with two undecided voters. >> i'm still in the undecided category. >> i'm honestly leaning towards biden. my big issue is his age.

i mean, i'm 71. he's 78. >> i'm paying a lot more attention to both debates. it's so early right now. i can't really say who i'm swaying to or from. >> and joining us now is michae republican national chairman and newly-minted member this week of the lincoln project. michael, let's talk about how race and these clashes in wisconsin could also influence the vote, because you heard, you know, strong law and order messages, even in the first lady's message, which is in her speech softer than a lot of the other speakers, spoke of race and the protests in terms of looting and violence, not in terms of legit protest for justice. >> first off i want to say i appreciate the first lady leading off her comments yesterday with acknowledging not just covid-19 but that there are other tensions inside our culture and our economy right now. and i think on the issue of race

specifically, that's a real -- that's going to be a real driver for this administration, i think, for this president in particular. let's not get this twisted in any kind of way, when it comes to what the president has already said about suburbia, sort of throwing out to suburban white females, you know, that they're coming for you, your neighborhood is going to change. african-americans live, a lot of us live in suburbia, but that's not the point. the point is to sort of create this tension between the cities and suburbia, assuming, you know, old narratives about white folks fleeing from the cities into the suburbs to put up the white picket fence. that's a 1950s mindset that we saw play out in the 2016 election that is now being repackaged and rebooted for 2020. what makes it more insidious, andrea, is that we are right in the middle of a lot of racial tensions because of pleaolice

shootings of african-american men and the recognition by the black community that we've had enough. and so the president, having not spoken to that, driving this sort of suburban message, i think creates a very toxic mix this november. in 2016, what was it, oh, the caravan is coming across the border. same in 2018. it was the other are coming to our country. now others are coming to your neighborhood. >> unfortunately we're going to have to leave it there, we've got so much to cover today with the hurricane as well. thanks so very much to christie todd whitman and michael steele. we're keeping a close eye on hurricane laura, expected to rapidly strengthen into an extremely dangerous category 4 storm with catastrophic surges and extreme winds in the next hour. stay with us, you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. - [narrator] this is steve.

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secretary of state mike pompeo is now under investigation by a house panel after his unprecedented political speech last night. the first secretary of state since at least world war ii to speak at a political convention. and he taped his remarks against a backdrop of the holy sites in contested jerusalem while on an official state department trip. >> the president to move the u.s. embassy to this very city of god, jerusalem, the rightful capital of the jewish homeland. >> congressman joaquin castro is chair of the house oversight subcommittee opening an investigation and demanding answers about what he calls a partisan political event. joining me now is the democratic congressman, joaquin castro of texas, mr. chairman, thank you very much. what can your committee do?

mike pompeo is notorious for refusing to testify when asked, i think he's only appeared once before the house democrats since becoming secretary. >> yeah, look, our concern is that secretary pompeo has once again politicized the state department. this is a state department whose morale is at an all-time low, where people are leaving in alarming numbers, where it's getting hard to get a lot of applicants for the diplomatic corps. what we're trying to get to the bottom of is why exactly mike pompeo went to jerusalem. from what i'm hearing, it's quite possible that the reason he went was to make that political speech and used official government resources to get there. but we need to get to the bottom of that. and what he did appears to go both against the hatch act, because it prohibits government employees like him from engaging in politics on duty, and then also against the guidance, the policy guidance that he himself

provided to state department employees where he said that they should not have any role or attend any political party's conventions. so he seems to have violated that as well. >> now, apparently he did violate both, but the fact is you could argue he needed to be in israel because he was also going to uae, he's building on this historic peace agreement that they helped broker. is that a reasonable argument, that he was there anyway? which it does not justify him taping the speech, i'm just suggesting it. >> no, certainly. and those are the issues that we need to get into, we need to see his exact travel schedule. we need to see the planning behind it, all the preparation that went into it. and again, the timing of when he made the decision to go there for the politicalersus the official travel. and part of the reason that it's so problematic is american taxpayers paid for his trip to israel. they paid for him to go to

jerusalem. so when you're on an official visit like that as secretary of state, there isn't any free time to do politics or to do your own personal business. you're there on the taxpayer's dime. so what he did is very problematic. >> also in his speech, he misstated these alleged achievements, nato, north korea, all of the things that he claimed pretty much have not been realized, iran. >> that's right. i mean, the speech itself, and again, he was speaking about official business that he has conducted in his role as secretary of state, working on these issues of nato, working on north korea, but to your point, andrea, he also exaggerated greatly the accomplishments of the trump administration. the trump administration has not had a coherent or comprehensive foreign policy. and there is a sense around the world, because of the trump administration's work and because of secretary pompeo's failures, that the united states is not a north star anymore on

democracy, on human rights, on rooting out corruption, on freedom, on the things that we have stood for for generations. and the world now, more and more, is starting to disregard and go around the united states because of the administration's failures. >> joaquin castro, congressman, thank you very much. and the nbc news coronavirus count has now tallied a dreadful 180,000 american deaths from the virus, as we've been on the air today. that number has just been reached. melania trump is recognizing the pandemic's toll, standing alone in a sea of speakers ignoring the crisis, next.

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(vo) elevate your senses. the audi a6. get exceptional offers at your local audi dealer. first lady melania trump last night giving her longest and most consequential convention speech. she spoke about her immigrant roots and expressed sympathy for those suffering from covid-19. in sharp contrast to her husband. >> we all know donald trump makes no secrets about how he feels about things. total honesty is what we as citizens deserve from our president, whether you like it or not, you always know what you is thinking. >> joining me now is anita mcbride, former chief of staff

to the first lady, laura bush, executive in residence at american university. great to see you. thank you. a lot of things were different last no last night. first ladies have spoken at political conventions since 1940 when eleanor roosevelt was the first and then not again until pat nixon in 1972 and every first lady since as you well know helping laura bush prepare her speeches. but melania's was really different because of the rose garden. what did you think about that law or regulation or practice? >> well, practice more than law or regulation because let's remember, too, not that it was convention, but we did have two presidents in the past that used the white house to announce their decision to run for re-election -- ronald reagan announced from the oval office in 1984 and jimmy carter announced from the east room. so there is a bit of precedence. this is a little different because conventions are inherently a political event

despite being part of the democratic process for nomination. so it is out of character but, andrea, what has not been out of character with this administration since the campaign and since they got there? >> let's talk also about her role. she has been less high profile than a lot of her predecessors. i'm thinking of lausha bush going to afghanistan, starting the first cooed university there or helping launch that, the american university in kabul. and doing so much for the women, women's rights in afghanistan. her literacy projects, other first ladies obviously hillary clinton and health care very controversially, but she has had her be best program but this was really a coming out if you will in terms of her being very clear about where she stood in contrast to her husband. >> well, i think also very clear about what she

addictionur iue that is raging you know, you would say these are things that would make us feel not good about our country yet there was a way that she presented where we that we can overcome these incredible, you know, difficulties. and that we are a nation willing to sacrifice for a better country. so i think that she clearly has had some experiences of meeting people that touched the way she thinks about her role as first lady and how she could, what she could potentially do if given a second term. and then of course right -- she even used the words covid, which no one else in the administration uses to describe this horrible pandemic. she is very independent and she said that as well.

>> well, a fascinating point. we'll see how much of a role she plays in this very limited virtual campaign. anita mcbride, we have to leave it there. thank you so much for being with us. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." msnbc will have complete coverage of the republican national convention all day and our primetime coverage begins at 7:00 eastern on msnbc with rachel maddow, nicole wallace, joey reid, and brian williams. i'll be over on nbc news on your local nbc station with lester holt, savannah guthrie, and chuck todd. chuck todd appears next. the new hour of "mtp daily" right here at 1:00 eastern on msnbc. canthat has spread to other parts of the body, are living in the moment and taking ibrance. ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for postmenopausal women or for men with hr+/her2- metastatic breast cancer,

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we're living through four crises at the same time. a public health crisis. the u.s. set a new single-day record for coronavirus infections. an economic crisis. devastating unemployment not seen since the great depression. a climate crisis. the impact of climate change is dangerous and it is already being felt in the united states. and a national reckoning on racial injustice. no justice, no peace. we need a team that's up to the task, leaders who can rally the nation to fight this virus. to not only rebuild our economy, but build it back better. to address the threat of climate change and to root out systemic racism. together they'll lead america, unite america and heal america. joe biden and kamala harris,

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so we start with breaking news. hurricane laura on track to hit the border of louisiana and texas. louisiana governor john bel edwards is speaking about preparations for this storm right now. let's listen in. >> and i will pause again to say that our team in louisiana, when it comes to disasters, when it comes to responding, we have the very best anywhere in the country.