good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington. as hurricane laura continues to rip through louisiana, the c category 1 storm slamming through the state, causing flooding and power outages for hundreds of thousands of residents. state troops, rescue crews and national guardsmen are starting to move into coastal areas as conditions begin to improve, checking on residents in and around lake charles, residents who chose to ride out what appears to be the most powerful storm to make landfall in louisiana since the 1850s. this hour, president trump is going to travel from his washington hotel to fema headquarters for a briefing on the storm after a meeting in the

hotel. our team is in place. we'll bring you the latest on the forecast. first up is the "today" show's al roker and the search and rescue operations with former coast guard commandant thad allen. al, the storm has packed quite a punch. >> that's right, andrea, the strongest landfall in louisiana, last time was 1856, as you mentioned. it's the second storm, the third hurricane, to make landfall in 2020. in fact two other years has had three continental u.s. hurricane landfalls, back in 1886 and 1916. this one made landfall 1:00 a.m. central daylight time in cameron, louisiana, a category 4 storm with 150-mile-per-hour winds. we've got tornado watches right now stretching from louisiana all the way into mississippi and up into arkansas. and in fact, little rock, for

the first time, is under a tropical storm warning. shreveport had its first hurricane warning. right now laura is a category 1 storm, 50 miles east/southeast of shreveport, moving north at 15, weakening as it moves inland as a category 1 storm. a flood threat and more tornadoes tomorrow. and then it makes a right turn and starts heading into the mid-atlantic and on toward the northeast. rain and wind for the northeast on saturday. then the storm clears out, moves offshore by sunday, and we'll look at improvement during the day. now, the destructive winds are going to be a big problem too. you can see still, as we move up into arkansas today, we're talking about tropical force winds. the risk for downed trees and power lines. this is the potential power outage map. and you can see it stretches from the gulf all the way up into illinois, indiana, and

ohio, as the system moves to the north. also we've got widespread flash flood and urban flooding, extreme rainfall, rates of up to 3 inches per hour. we could have some spots that get anywhere from 10 to 18 inches of rain before it's all over. again, here is where the tropical storm warnings and hurricane warnings still exist, as this storm is still a category 1 storm. as we go forward, the one good thing, andrea, is the storm surge is not as bad as we were expecting. thankfully, we were talking about yesterday about 20 feet. it may have topped out, it looks like, 11 or 12 feet. we're not sure because a number of the gauges got wiped out at 11 or 12 feet. there could have been some stronger storm surges. but the good news, andrea, it came in below high tide, it came in after the high tide, and that i think was the big dinners, so that we didn't have the storm surge. but the winds are still a factor and will continue to be a factor

over the next 48 hours, andrea. >> and clearly those power outages are going to persist for quite some time. al roker, thanks. and of course all this in the middle of a pandemic, as dangerous a combination of crises as could be. nbc's morgan chesky in lake charles, louisiana, which was hit hard. morgan, yesterday you were looking at some of those xwa embankments that had been put in, about 12 feet. were they breached? >> reporter: not that we know of, andrea. here in lake charles it's a devastating day for so many people. daylight brought our first chance to see laura's devastation. we're 30 miles away from the gulf but these winds were devastatingly destructive. these winds toppled a tv tower into this building, shearing off its corner, before falling into

another building and coming to a rest, nearly destroying this entire structure. so andrea, we know that this is just one area here in the city. it's almost impossible to find a building here that hasn't been hit by these destructive winds in some form or fashion. what makes it even more difficult, as you mentioned, power outages, but xlcoupled wi that is communications were made even tougher. the tv tower had cellphone equipment positioned on it, which makes it tougher for people to do anything today. we received notification also of an entirely different kind of disaster, that is a chemical plant fire happening about 20 to 30 miles away from where i'm standing, that now has two nearby communities on lockdown. people are told to closed their air vents and stay inside because what have could be burning at this west lake chemical plant. that coupled with the destruction that laura brought

the city here in lake charles is incredibly uneasy. and so as it stands right now, officials are still flying over the area in helicopters to get a true extent of the damage, but it's a tough day, andrea. >> "tough" is an understatement indeed. my god, what those people have gone through. thank you very much, morgan chesky. what a rough night, and the aftermath. i'm joined now by thad allen, the commandant who served as national incident commander during the 2010 bp oil stipill the gulf. you've seen a lot, general allen, but this is awful, the impact of this storm. >> the storm came ashore in one of the lowest parts of louisiana. we saw floodwaters off lake charles. we don't know the exact portion, but it's a low lying area and

water proceeded unimpeded from lake charms. i have concerns for cameron, holly beach, they were decimated as they were in hurricane rita. >> and the chemical plant, there was some conversation last night from general honore and brian williams, late last night, but the area of cameron and lake charles and some of the oil facilities, natural gas facilities. i don't know if this is part of that complex, but that some of these new facilities should not have even been licensed, that there was a lot of local concern about that after the previous storms, after katrina in particular. >> there's an intersection of a channel that runs from the ocean to lake charles on the intercoastal water way. there's various petroleum and petrochemical plants there, that's always a plan. there have been spills in the past in that area that required, as they managed the oil spills associated with it. [ inaudible ] leakage or

anything that needs to be responded to. >> and one other thing is because this was so fast-moving, has that reduced at least the storm surge, do you think, and the flooding? >> well, i'm not [ inaudible ] it would appear the speed of the storm did damage the storm surge. a lot of issues related to that. there are a lot of cattle ranches in that area. and one of the big problems we had with rita was stranded cattle [ inaudible ]. there will have to be a testament to how high the water was and how fast it came through, what was the impact on the agriculture in the area, and of course we prioritize safety and life. [ inaudible ]. >> that's a huge challenge. thank you so much. thanks for being with us today. meanwhile, in wisconsin, a white teenager under arrest for first degree intentional homicide amid clashes over the police shooting of jacob blake, a black man, of course, in kenosha, wisconsin.

there have been days of protests. last night was peaceful. what we're learning into the teen involved in the latest shooting, coming up. 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. tools, cattle, grain, traded goods. even shells represented value. then currency came along.

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i got this mountain bike for only $11. dealdash.com, the fair and honest bidding site. an ipad worth $505, was sold for less than $24; a playstation 4 for less than $16; and a schultz 4k television for less than $2. i won these bluetooth headphones for $20. i got these three suitcases for less than $40. and shipping is always free. go to dealdash.com right now and see how much you can save. in kenosha, wisconsin, a fourth night of protests, but they are now peaceful. last night police say, though, they found a knife in the car of jacob blake, a black man who was shot seven times in the back by a white officer as he was opening the car door following a

domestic incident at his home. three of his six children were in the back seat at the time. kenosha police do not wear body cams so we can't see what happened before or after. this is a white 17-year-old, who was active in a police youth group, who was arrested in connection with the deaths of two people on tuesday night. before the shooting, he explained why he was armed. >> so people are getting injured, and our job is to protect [ inaudible ] and part of my job is to make sure nobody is hurt. i'm running into harm's way, that's why [ inaudible ]. >> that was 17-year-old kyle rittenhouse. we should warn you the video you're about to see is disturbing. you can see a man that night with a gun, a long gun, running through the streets, surrounded by protesters. he lands on the ground, he opens fire, he shoots two people.

we don't know what happened before or after that video stops. meanwhile, as we say, this was not the scene last night. last night was relatively quiet in kenosha. the governor of wisconsin authorized 500 national guard members to protect the city. all this as professional sports teams around the country have decided to halt their seasons. the nba, wnba, mlb, and soccer, postponing games as players protest the jacob blake shooting. nbc's shaq brewster is in kenosha. shaq, what's the latest from the investigation? >> reporter: as the investigation stands now, andrea, it is in the hands of the state. but there has also been a federal civil rights investigation that's been launched. the state attorney general now announcing he's doing that as a measure of transparency, to build confidence from the community, to have two separate, parallel investigations. we learned in the press conference some of the basic details about the original shooting of mr. jacob blake.

we learned it wasn't done by officer rusten sheskey. he's been on the force for seven years. they say as officers were responding to the scene, they tried to arrest mr. blake. they then fired their taser at him unsuccessfully. they say at some point in the interaction mr. blake acknowledged he had a knife in his possession but they do not say whether or not officers saw that knife. they say after the shooting, they recovered a knife from the floorboard of mr. blake's car. so they're giving us some very basic details about what they know about what happened. they're signaling we're not going to hear many more details for at least about 30 days, when investigators turn over the case to the prosecutors for a decision to be made. and then we also are learning more about the suspect in that tuesday night shooting, the one that was deadly, of two protesters. we know that 17-year-old kyle rittenhouse is accused of shooting and killing a 26-year-old and a 36-year-old man and injuring another.

he's charged with intentional homicide. he came from a town in illinois about 30 minutes away. he's currently in custody there. we are expecting him to be in court tomorrow, andrea. >> thank you very much, shaq brewster. joining me now are jeh johnson, former homeland security secretary in the obama administration. let's talk, jeh, about this incident and the way the administration has responded. there was no mention of jacob blake at all in speeches last night despite law and order appeals from the vice president. and a brief passing reference to kenosha. the vice president, former vice president, i should say, joe biden, did speak to the family. nobody from the white house has so far. they are not ruling out some contact or some outreach in an interview that marc short did with hallie jackson earlier today. what have you heard about this incident that causes you concern?

>> andrea, i think we have to spend a moment to take a step back and look at the big picture of what has happened in kenosha. in the space of 48 hours, a black man, unarmed, is shot seven times in the back by local law enforcement. and then a very short time later, in the very same town, a 17-year-old with an assault rifle, white, is allowed to walk the streets with his assault weapon, and as your video just demonstrates a moment ago, right in front of local law enforcement, and there's no effort to stop him, to the point where he is apparently in a position to kill two innocent civilians. so there's something wrong with that picture. and we need to carefully examine why these types of incidents continue to happen. in response to your question

about the trump administration and the lack of any mention of jacob floyd, in my judgment no administration can govern in this moment credibly without acknowledging the grievance black lives matter and the endless, the seemingly endless string of excessive force, killing of unarmed civilians, continues to happen in this country. whoever the president is, whatever administration is in power, in my judgment, has to acknowledge this grievance and try to address it. >> certainly the athletic community is responding. we've seen what's happened in professional basketball, leading the way, baseball, now soccer, even tennis, naomi osaka. the sports world is coming together in a way that our leaders in government are not. i wanted to play something that jared kushner had to say today

about that, about the question of the one-day postponement or longer postponement from the nba. >> nba players are very fortunate that they have the financial position where they're able to take a night off from work without having to have the consequences to themselves financially. so they have that luxury which is great. look, i think with the nba, there is a lot of activism and i think that they've put a lot of slogans out but i think what we need to do is turn that from slogans and -- and signals to actual action that's going to solve the problem. >> aside from tone, the fact is that it is more than slogans, they are taking action, and -- >> right. >> -- he's in government. it's the white house and government that can take action and solve problems. >> i think this is a real turning point for professional sports, andrea.

obviously a large percentage of nba players are african-american. and i'm pleased that the nba, the black players and the white players, have apparently decided to stand together against this problem. and everyone is taking notice. the professional athletes i believe have more influence over our thinking than perhaps they realize. and so i think this is a real turning point. and you saw the chain reaction that it had when it started with the milwaukee bucks. it spread throughout the nba and then into other professional sports. and you're right to say it's much more than slogans, it's actual action here. >> i wanted to share also, tuesday night, what the coach doc rivers had to say. >> what you hear, donald trump and all of them talking about fear. we're the ones getting killed. we're the ones getting shot.

we're the ones that are denied to live in certain communities. it's amazing why we keep loving this country and this country does not love us back. >> such a powerful emotional statement, jeh. >> andrea, you and i are old enough to remember lbj's speech to congress in march 1965, where he said what happened in selma is not a black problem, it's not a southern problem, it's an american problem. i think we are in a very, very similar moment right now in our nation's history. and we need a president who can speak to all of us to say that what we see now is not just a black problem, it's not just a problem in kenosha, it's not just a problem in other cities discrete discretely. it is an american problem.

it's up to all of us, black and white, to care about this issue and try to address it. >> jeh johnson, thanks for being with us today, very important day to have you on our show, thank you. and republicans are ready for fireworks on the final night of their convention. president trump formally accepts his party's renomination at the white house. but last night it was vice president mike pence's turn in the spotlight with his law and order battle cry. will it resonate with voters? stay with us. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc.

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president trump is set to give his convention speech tonight accepting renomination from the white house's south lawn, an unprecedented break from tradition and laws that prohibit use of the white house for political campaigns. the president will accept the renomination in front of a crowd of a thousand people. they will not be tested according to the white house, and it will be followed by a fireworks display on the mall. last night vice president mike pence accepted nomination at historic ft. mchenry in baltimore with a warning about dark days ahead if the president were to lose. >> the hard truth is, you won't

be safe in joe biden's america. law and order are on the ballot. >> his speech was peppered with false claims about biden on health care, abortion, and crime, as well as exaggerated claims about the president's response to the coronavirus. he of course heads the task force. joining me now is nbc white house correspondent and "weekend today" co-anchor kristen welker, and pbs news hour white house correspondent yamiche alcindor. and we can now mention that the vice president, the former vice president, joe biden, will be joining us as well later this hour, i believe it will be his first response to last night's attacks at the rnc. kristen, the speech that we're expecting to hear tonight, you've got a few excerpts, but we expect that it will be a very strong attack on joe biden. >> it is going to be a strong attack against joe biden. and so we'll be listening

closely to the prebuttal that we expect to hear. let me just read you part of what we expect to hear tonight. the president poised to say, quote, at no time before have voters placed a clearer choice between two parties, two visions, two philosophies, or two agendas. he will go on to say, we have spent the last four years dealing with what we were inflicted on by joe biden over the last 47 years, their agenda is one of the most extreme set of proposals ever put forward by a major party nominee. this fits into the broader critique that we have heard by republicans of the democrats trying to paint them as being extreme. the reality is, joe biden really painted himself as a moderate choice during his convention. i anticipate he'll reiterate

part of that with you later on today. the question is, you know, will the president strike a positive note? we've heard a whole lot about the fact that he wants to be optimistic when he addresses the american public. but of course it does come against the backdrop of the pandemic, now 180,000 lives have been lost, andrea, and of course there is new unrest in kenosha. will he address that, will he talk about jacob blake by name? what will his messaging be? of course as you pointed out, last night the vice president did not address jacob blake by name. so a lot of attention on those words and high stakes tonight, andrea. >> indeed. and to that point, yamiche, not only didn't he mention him, but he did not mention this man who was shot seven times in the back in front of his children and is paralyzed right now, fighting for his life, but there was only

reference to kenosha in passing in terms of violence and not in terms of peaceful protests. the strategy here is clearly the law and order campaign and to instill fear and try to get back those suburban votes, those suburban housewives that the president keeps talking about in, we should say, a rather old fashioned way. >> that's right. and i think part of the reason why we're seeing this large protest, including of course the biggest sports protest, the biggest sports boycott we've seen in a generation, is in part because the rnc is drumming this beat of law and order, talking about the fact that we need to support the police as a country, not talking very much about the systemic racism we see all over the country, not saying the plain fact, which is that african-americans are 2 1/2 to 3 times more likely to be killed by police than white people. doc rivers, the nba coach, said it's amazing that

african-americans keep loving this country when this country does not love us back. it's interesting to also hear the white house really push back on the protests, specifically by nba players. yes, they've just voted in the last few hours to resume their playoffs this weekend, but they were boycotting major games, at least we heard jared kushner say they have the luxury to take off work when really it's not a luxury in their mind, it's because they're protesting the fact that as black men they feel like they're being criminalized and fear the way they're being treated by police. we saw the vice president's chief of staff marc short, that this is outrageous by nba players to protest and talk about police brutality. i think all those themes are at top of mind as president trump comes to the south lawn tonight. it's going to be an interesting event with some 1,500 people. there is no mask mandate so we'll see a lot of people without masks gathered at the white house. it's going to be really interesting to see if they're getting tested. kellyanne conway said they would be getting tested.

we're hearing maybe they won't be tested. all of that will be things we're watching as well. >> and kristen, a lot of people, most people were not wearing masks last night in baltimore, although maryland does have a mask mandate. so does the district of columbia. so why no masks on the white house, on the south grounds? >> well, the white house has said they are going to encourage people to wear masks but that they won't mandate it. and of course they have really drawn a line in the sand when it comes to a mask mandate, because of course joe biden, senator harris, are pushing for a mask mandate. so it will be interesting to see how many people actually wear masks tonight, andrea. in terms of who is going to be tested, i'm told that people who are in close proximity to president trump will be tested, but of course there are going to be a number of people who are not in close proximity to him, hundreds of people in fact. and so we'll be watching to see if any of those other people are

tested, because of course that's such a critical issue, and it does come as we're also waiting to hear from senator kamala harris a little bit later on today, she'll be delivering her first remarks this week, really, in such a public forum, her strongest criticism yet, i am told, of president trump, his handling of the pandemic. and i'm also told that she is going to be mentioning jacob blake directly, andrea. >> kristen welker, yamiche alcindor, thanks to both. today hundreds of staffers who worked for the late senator john mccain, for former president george w. bush, and for senator mitt romney, are come out to back joe biden for president. one of of them joins me now, mike murphy, a strategic adviser for republican voters against trump and an msnbc political analyst. welcome, mike, thank you very much for being with us. the speech last night, you were tweeting that you thought it was effective, that the law and order message, with all the inaccuracies that you acknowledge, had political

power, that democrats should be concerned. >> yeah, they've got to take it seriously. i think the convention was quite a mixed bag. trump's in big political trouble. they have not gotten out of it. they've got the problem now, especially what's going on in the country, that president trump is the classic arsonist firemen, starts a huge fire, then runs around the corner and puts on his fire hat and say he's going to put it out. pence drew a little blood and sent the right dog whistles to the republican world. now, as you say, the facts were slaughtered. pinocchio's nose could reach from italy to south america. in the politics of it, pence did put some hurt on biden because they're trying to frame this not whether or not we need police reform, they're avoiding that topic, they're just saying democrats are soft on looting. the biden campaign i think has done a pretty good job of

getting out in front of that but they can't let a demagogue like trump run away with the message and frame them in the corner. that's the last thing the republicans are down to. what was kind of a vile business, i think pence did an effective job of pounding that message. >> should joe biden go to kenosha? he's reached out to the family. should he find a safe way to actually travel and go there? >> well, if he can, it would be good. i think it would be good politically, it would be good for the country, because what we need right now is a president, somebody who can rise above petty politics and remind us of what our american experiment is all about, and the country we want to be, and some of the challenges we have, and show us a positive path forward. trump is incapable on a hundred levels doing that. biden could, you saw it in his

acceptance speech. the campaign is worried about taxing resources when they show up in the middle of something like this. if he could, it would be effective and it would fill a need the country has right now for what a president could do. >> and when you look at the president's speech tonight, my best bet is that all of the reporting, all of us saying this is unprecedented, it violates law, practice, tradition, mike pence -- mike pompeo in israel, that's not what's going to reach the swing voters, that they're going to make their decisions on other issues, on the coronavirus, whether what they see is very different from the way mike pence described the president's response, and the economy. >> yeah, look, i'm hugely offended by it. trump crushes norm of everywhere. we'll have to steam clean the white house after he's gone. writing speeding tickets on the way to a bank robbery i don't think is a democratic path. the issues that beat trump are

kitchen table. he screwed up covid and he ruined the economy. if you want to be poor for five years, reelect him. it's tempting to get all excited about all his transgressions, but campaigns are won on issues that people care about in their everyday lives. trump's terribleness, some of that is built in, but you have to convince people that reelecting trump is not in their personal interest. >> what about being able to campaign virtually? can the biden campaign compete with this largely virtual campaign against the president who is obviously getting out and about and they were actually doing it last night? >> yeah, i think the trump campaign did a good job with the convention, going to milwaukee could help him, but he doesn't

need to be rope lines. the story will be an ego maniacal president is cheating in his marriages, cheating on his taxes, and now cheating on the rules republicans and democrats have followed when running for president. packing staff in there in a way that send a terrible message about public health while we're struggling to protect our country from a pandemic, to applaud like monkeys at his ego show, i think that defines trump and tells people everything they need to know about him. i don't think this crowd stuff will do trump very much good at all, it's very revealing, actually. >> mike murphy, thanks very much for being with us. after a break, vice president joe biden will join us live for an exclusive interview on "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us. with us at leaf blowers.

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hurricane laura is barreling through louisiana, now a category 1 hurricane, slamming the state with ferocious winds, widespread flooding, and power outages in a wide area. local officials are waiting to send in rescue teams until the worst of the storm passes through. msnbc's senior national correspondent chris jansing has been in the hurricane's path throughout the morning and skwoins joins me now from bossier city. chris, so much rain behind you, what are you seeing, what damage? >> reporter: we're seeing quite a bit of damage. we just got word in the last couple of minutes that there was one person who sustained significant injuries and has been hospitalized after a tree cut into their house. we took a drive, i think we can show you some of the pictures, and found a number of downed trees. in one case, part of it cracked off on top of a roof. the owner said you could really hear the boom. and then just down the block from that, we talked to a teacher who lost half of her house in katrina and now is here

and has a downed tree in her yard. here is a little bit of my conversation with her. >> this is nothing new, you told me you dealt with katrina. >> yes, we used to live in covington, i moved here two years ago. >> what goes through your mind, hearing that sound, having lived through this before? >> "what's next." because it starts off small and gets bigger, usually. >> and you're a teacher. >> right, it's been a whirlwind. >> reporter: a whirlwind. schools are closed, you can see behind me the casinos are closed, businesses are closed. they're hoping to be up and running. the eye of the hurricane east of here, a little further east than they thought it might, so in some cases they're breathing a little sigh of relief but they're still getting a full look at the damage. there were lots of power outages

that we saw as we were driving around shreveport, andrea. >> chris jansing, thanks so much, stay safe there in louisiana. in the crisis with the hurricane and the crisis in wisconsin, the former vice president, joe biden, joins us right now for an exclusive interview on msnbc. mr. vice president, it's good to see, this is the first time i've seen you since you became the democratic nominee, so congratulations are in order. but i do want to ask you about all of the crises. let's first talk about the hurricane. >> my lord, my heart goes out to them. i just pray that they're not going to find they've lost more people than they thought. and, you know, our main concern that we weren't prepared enough for this brutal hurricane, and donald trump keeps saying we're

going to be safe, but we'll see. i just hope and pray people get through this. >> and of course there's what's happening in kenosha, wisconsin. i know you've reached out and talked to the family. jacob blake was never mentioned in any of the speeches at the republican convention, not mentioned when the vice president mike pence spoke last night. he also said that joe biden would double down on the very policies that are leading to violence in america's cities, adding that the hard truth is you won't be safe in joe biden's america. your response to that? >> yeah, joe biden's america. look, while running a video of donald trump's america. the problem we have right now is we're in donald trump's america. you know, to quote kellyanne conway, she said, and i'm paraphrasing today, they're looking for more violence and more destruction because it helps them politically. he views this as a political benefit for him, he's rooting for more violence, not less, and

he's clear about that. what's he doing? he's pouring gasoline on the fire. this happens to be donald trump's america. donald trump's america. covid is out of control, he's not prepared for it, he hasn't responded to it, and he continues to do nothing to deal with it. we have 15 million people out of work. it just is amazing how, if you noticed, they didn't speak about covid and they didn't speak about any of the reason why we're doing what's happening in kenosha is happening. and by the way, i condemn violence in any form, whether it's looting or whatever it is. and by the way, when i spoke to -- when i spoke to the family, the mom was really incredibly straightforward, she said, this is not who we are as a family, this is not who my son is, we condemn the violence. so who is rooting for the violence here? and then you have apparently, i don't have enough detail to make

a final judgment, it looks like some militia folks were there, a young man who shot two people. where's the condemnation coming from that? so look, if you want to talk about safety, the biggest safety issue is all the people dying from covid. over a thousand yesterday again. it's a thousand people a day, we're worse on than any other country in the world right now. >> let me ask you, you just said that you believe that the president is rooting for the violence. do you think the president of the united states is rooting for the violence because he thinks it helps him politically? >> i think he views it as a political benefit. i had a quote here from kellyanne conway, she said, the more chaos and anarchy and vandalism and violence reigns, it's better for us, it's a very clear choice it presents for us. when has a president or a spokesperson for a president ever said something like that, ever? this is -- i mean, look, this is the same guy, when people came

out of charlottesville and a young woman gets killed, they're spewing hate, their veins bulging, carrying swastikas, he says they're very fine people on both sides. he just keeps pouring fuel on the fire. he's encouraging this. he's not diminishing it at all. this is his america now. if we want to end this, we've got to end his tenure as president. >> one of the other things that lou holtz, one of the speakers, of course the famed former notre dame coach said last night, is that you and people around you are catholics in name only. father james martin was on our air last night pushing back on that immediately and saying that lou hotel or no one else can know what is in your heart or anyone else's heart, and that the abortion issue is not -- catholics are not and the church is not single issue, abortion is one issue but there are plenty

of parts of the church doctrine that president trump has violated. >> well, look. >> what's your response to the attack on your religion? >> well, i think it's kind of preposterous think it's p. i am a practicing catholic and have been a practicing rather li catholic all my life, and my private beliefs to how i deal with my church doctrine, and so -- but the point of the matter is that i am a practicing catholic, and i don't praut law ties about it. it's what gets me through the difficult times in my life.

i believe in it very strongly. >> would you consider going to wisconsin if it could be done safely in this pandemic? >> yes, i would. i would consider that. what i don't want to do is i don't want to become part of the problem and i want to make sure that it's able to be done safely, and would bring some confidence. if i were president i would be going. it's hard to tell now what the circumstance on the ground is. if i went i would try to pull together the white community and black community and sit down and talk about how we can get through this. this is not how all folks in that community agree with the white supremacists, or blacks agree with the looting, and

that's what is being seen now and it has to stop. >> you ahraolluded to this, but 17-year-old, kyle rittenhouse, he was charged with intentional homicide and two people died during the protests on tuesday night, and he is part of a youth police group. he was holding a long gun and out and about and nobody restrained him. what are your concerns about the involvement, perhaps he, but others, white militia people stirring this trouble? >> i am very concerned about it. you saw, what got me involved in the race is what happened to charlottesville. these guys don't use a dog whistle, they use a bullhorn. they use a bullhorn. there's a 17-year-old young man and i don't anything about him, but all i know is there's some

reporting about a malicious connected to him in illinois. this is not who america is. you want to bring about order and security with people ask,, the president never speaks to that. what more people have died on this president's watch than just about anytime in american history on a daily basis. what's he doing? what's he doing about it? the democrats and republicans, and the white house, he's using it as a prop now. look what is going on in terms of the hatch act, and i know people don't know what the hatch act, but using federal properties to make political statements from and political campaigns. can you imagine what would have

happened if barack obama did that when he was running for the second time, or i did that from the rose garden or whatever. it's every single thing, the justice department is the most corrupt in modern day history. it's a basic violation of all the tenants of what we say are designed to keep this from happening. the thing that bothers me the most is the idea of just pouring gasoline on the racial flames that are burning now. that does not justify any of the looting, any of the burning, any of the damage being done by protesters. but the people have a right to be angry. people have a right to protest. they should listen to mom. she's being really, really, really strong and saying, this is not who we are. this is not in my family. this is not my son. we have to get to dealing with

just racial justice. it's real. there's a real problem. notice that problem just keeps getting worse under the tenure of this president because of the things he says and doesn't do. >> he's apparently going to say tonight among other things in attacking you, we have spent the last four years reversing the damage joe biden inflicked over the last 47 years. >> by the way, if you notice the 47 years before, we created more jobs in the last three years than he created so far. everything he inherited he screwed up. he screwed up the economy so badly. for the last four years, we were not having racial riots. when they occurred, we didn't have to call in the national

guard. we protected it without hurting people. we moved in a direction that made sense. the police are basically honorable men and women, but we have to take what is going on out there. he's a fiction writer in the extreme. >> the speech last night that the vice president gave painted a very rosy picture, to say the least, about the pandemic and the president's response to it. what are the things that happened just this week is the cdc changed their guidelines for testing. they said the asymptomatic people who have been exposed to the virus did not need to be tested, which led others to say, most experts to say that there are real concerns. dr. fauci's office made a statement saying he was not present when the cdc made that

direction, and he has concerns the asymptomatic people will spread the virus if they are not tested. the white house said there was no interference in this but said there was consultation, and the president said in tulsa and other places, the more you test the more cases you have so he told his people to slow down the testing. are they trying to slow down the testing and is this a dangerous message? >> you have ever seen any administration put so much pressure on the fda, the federal drug -- i mean, how, in fact, there's no bounds to what this guy does and his team does. we should listen to the scientists, and the fact of the matter is they have been saying, look, right from the beginning, i laid out a plan as to how to proceed in january, and then all the way down the line. columbian medical school said some months ago if this president would have acted one

week early there would be 30,000 people that would not have died, and if he acted two weeks earlier, 50,000 -- i think 57,000 people would not have been dead. what's he doing? you don't know if the plasma works yet, and you have experts saying that. i pray to god that we have a virus -- a vaccine tomorrow. tomorrow. a vaccine, if we had one, i pray for that. but we have to make sure you have credibility when we do get a vaccine and people are hearing to take it after you hear everything from the president of what is good and what is bad and what to use and not use, and it's old hat, talking about injecting bleach -- i mean, there's no rational. this guy, if he heard science he

doesn't understand it. he just seems incompetent. >> last week they got the fda under pressure to reverse the decision on the emergency authorization of convalescent plasma. a lot of scientists are very concerned about that, and last night the vice president said he believes they will have a vaccine by the end of the year, not hoping but believe they will have one safe and effective. how concerned are you they will rush something out even before election day? >> if it works -- but they have to go through the testing. they have to do the protocols that are needed to be done to be able to say to the american public and release all the data to the scientific community saying this is what we did, this is why we think it will work. this is the evidence we have. i pray to god that would happen tomorrow. that would be wonderful. i don't care -- that's much more important than the election, saving tens of thousands of lives, but the fact is,

legislates assume we finally do get a vaccine that works, and how much credibility are we going to have telling people to take it after going through all of this stuff they misrepresented so far? who believes them? who is willing to take their word for it? by the way, you know, the idea -- let's assume we got a vaccine tomorrow. do we have a plan on how to administer the vaccine? how we're going to get it to over 300 million people? these guys don't nknow how to plan so far. but i pray to god, and i really mean this, the bottom of my heart, if we have a vaccine proven to work, that would be wonderful. wonderful. but i will tell you what, using pressure on our scientists to change their opinion or loosen up what they really think is a big mistake, and it undercuts everything about it. franklin roosevelt, to

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