if it's thursday, president trump tries to distract from the pandemic that's killed 187,000 americans by issuing a new threat to slash funding from democratic-run cities, he says, are descending in anarchy. and as the president tries to put the campaign focus on urban unrest, joe biden just arrived in wisconsin. he's meeting with the family of jacob blake. plus, president trump suggests voters in north carolina try to vote twice to test the system. once by mail and once in person. a little problem with that idea, it's illegal. welcome to thursday. it is "meet the press daily."

i'm chuck todd. today marks two months until election day. both candidates will be on the ground in battleground states. joe biden is in wisconsin where he'll hold a community meeting aimed at healing and bringing people together. today's trip is in a small part an acknowledgment that president trump's goal of focusing the 2020 campaign on law and order is worrying democrats. while the latest rounds of polls suggest law and order is not a winning issue for president trump, it's certainly a better issue for him than the coronavirus. in a series of new polls yesterday, president trump got low marks across the board for his handling of the pandemic and its aftermath. nothing about that has improved or changed. he's also trailing biden by a healthy margin. and it's the same story at the state level by a wide margin. voters trust biden more than president trump to deal with the virus. in arizona, wisconsin and north carolina most recently. president trump called these polls fake news. so the bottom line is this -- this president is desperate, extraordinarily desperate to distract from the pandemic

raging on his witch which atch, leading to the deaths of americans every day. we're averaging basically 1,000 people dying every day in this pandemic. and there's ongoing economic calamity. the trump administration is now putting the weight of the federal government behind the trump campaign's agenda with a white house memo directing the office of management and budget to identify funding that could be cut off from seattle, portland, new york city and washington, d.c. at the same time asking justice department to identify cities that qualify as, quote, anarchist jurisdictions. this is some fantasy bizarre stuff, folks. this isn't the first time, though, the trump administration has used distraction tactics. he's asking voters to key in on a political boogieman rather than the real crises americans are facing every morning when we get up. as we've seen from this president, when he doesn't like the current reality, he tries to create a new one. joined by mike memoli who is

with the biden campaign in kenosha and kelly o'donnell in washington. let's start in kenosha with mike memoli. mike, i am curious today, who is joe biden going to be meeting with? we know the blake family. some leaders. is it going to be meeting with the law enforcement community? >> well, chuck, joe biden just talked this week about how he's always had a very close relationship with law enforcement. he thinks he can bring them to the table. he said that law enforcement are among those who want to see accountability in their ranks more than others because they know how much this reflects on them. but we haven't yet gotten a list of the participants for any of the events the former vice president is doing. he should be arriving any minute behind me, chuck, to this church for what we understand will be more of a listening session than an opportunity for him to deliver remarks. i would be surprised, frankly, if he doesn't meet with law enforcement. but, listen, the last time joe biden touched down in wisconsin, it was days before the midterm elections.

president trump was warning about an immigrant caravan coming to take over the cities of the united states. joe biden took to the stage at an event and said it's the responsibility of american leaders to lower the temperature. that this atmosphere of anger is sometimes overwhelming. and that's exactly the sentiment he's going to be speaking to today. the biden campaign has always felt his strength is his empathy. and that's what they hope to be on display here. and one other note. i don't know if you've noticed this, but we've seen joe biden in public almost every day this week. we will see him again tomorrow for remarks. we expect to be focused on the jobs report. as president trump has focused on nickname he thinks might stick finally, hidin' biden it comes as joe biden has now hit the campaign trail in earnest. when you throw in that video with kamala harris this week, has had a presence every day in this campaign narrative all through the week, chuck. >> you know, i do want to play this new ad the biden campaign

is out with that both biden and harris appear in that tries to address this issue in the black community and police brutality. let me play a clip of it and ask you more about it on the other side. >> why in this nation do black americans wake up knowing they can lose their life in the course of just living their life? >> part of the point of freedom is to be free from brutality. from injustice. from racism. and all of its manifestations. >> we have to let people know that we not only understand their struggle, but they understand the fact they deserve to be treated with dignity. they've got to know we're listening. >> mike, in my history of -- look, i've got my own mental archive of television ads in presidential campaigns. i am trying to remember one where both the top two on the ticket were part of a voiceover in that way. part of a narration of the ad. it's a different kind of ad. >> yeah. that's right, chuck. i was struck by the exact same

thing. but i'm also struck by the fact that joe biden is here in kenosha without kamala harris. that this is a visit that is just for him. but this is part of a new blitz of advertising that the biden campaign is doing. you're seeing them hit different audiences with different messages. there's an ad about social security being put at risk. you can expect some of those states where that might be airing more. florida, arizona, big retirement communities. and then, of course, that ad playing on cable and especially targeting networks with heavy viewership among african-american viewers. but it speaks to the role they see kamala harris playing. he had incredible support with african-american voters that played to his strength to win the nomination but it's the younger demographic of african-american voters who have been really motivated, sprung to action this year across the country that kamala harris is really speaking to in that ad. >> the hallmark of the obama/biden 2012 campaign was they had more ads sometimes than

markets to advertise in. kelly o'donnell, i want to shift to where things are with the trump campaign and focus a little bit on how the president really is trying to talk about anything other than the virus. and what's interesting is, i get it's not as if the law and order message is working. it's interesting we've had a couple of polls out today in the last couple of days. does the trump presidency make you feel more or less safe? half the people saying less safe. so i get this issue may be better than the virus, but do they realize it's probably not working either? >> well, it is a place of comfort for the president where he feels like he can command the message and that's part of why you see his government and his campaign really in line on this issue. imagine using federal employees, tasking them with this job of finding ways to hold back funding from american cities. and the theme of that, the direction of that is one of the

main campaign arguments that president trump is making. that he's going against these cities run by democratic leaders, mayors and governors and arguing they are not protecting those places. so as a lever of power, trying to take away funding to compel them to do it differently or at the very least to make it a thing we're talking about today. because this will take some time. the department that is looking at this, the office of management and budget, tasking the federal agencies to find those ways where they can reprogram or redirect money that was approved by congress for a lot of different things. and there's a lot of federal money that goes to cities. they've given them a couple of weeks to do that. we've got this new term of art, the anarchy jurisdictions. that will be one of the legacies of the trump era. and then expect the pushback. this is more about messaging than it is about the plan, although this is, again, using the government's authority. so the law and order piece is where the president finds himself comfortable. he likes to shroud himself in the endorsements from police.

he's trying to reach especially those suburban women voters. and this is a way we're seeing the merger again as we have the blurred lines. another legacy of the trump era between official business and campaign business. >> well, and there's a lot of questions. it's probably -- it's unlikely any of this would be legal given what you're saying. they're looking to see how they repurpose. they are finding, is there anything they can do that wouldn't get them in trouble with the law? let me ask you about another development overnight. and that is the announcement by the cdc telling states to prepare for a large-scale vaccine distribution by november 1 that they need to be ready and identify by november 1. this seemed to surprise a lot of public health -- nobody expects a vaccine to be widely available on november 1, or else we'd start distributing it now. so is this something that the cdc is working on or was this manipulated? >> well, i think this is, again,

forging ahead with what the president's rhetoric is. you've got his medical and scientific experts saying that it is more likely into 2021. some medical experts say it may be the second quarter of 2021 before a vaccine would be readily available for distribution. it might be available somewhat earlier for specific sectors. for example, health care workers who are highly exposed or seniors. this is advancing that timeline, and it's a timeline the president sets in his rhetoric, not set by doctors and the scientists involved here. so on one hand, the administration has been criticized for not being prepared. not being ready. and this is a way to try to at least put in motion some steps to be ready, but it is more the president's timeline than one that we expect to be brought to bear by the ultimate testing and the validity of any vaccines that are currently in trials. so the cdc making this. it's a surprise certainly. but it also falls into that

picture of what the president wants. the president is pushing forward with. his rhetoric somehow becomes policy, and then we debate it on whether it is scientifically sound or even, frankly, practical to be ready to do this. chuck? >> well put. his rhetoric peculiars policy. kelly o'donnell, very diplomatic, but very well put on that front. as always, good to have you. mike memoli, thank you for getting us started. i'm joined by new jersey governor phil murphy. first, i want to start with this order from the cdc on the virus to -- that states need to have wide distribution centers ready on november 1st. tell me how you took that order and how easy or hard will it be to be ready on november 1st if somehow there was something distributed? >> chuck, good to be with you. listen. i hope it's right, but we're going to prepare for what we have been led to believe at least in speaking with the experts, including the folks who

are developing these vaccines that will be prepared for a longer time frame. i hope it is shorter. as kelly indicated, it's possible they could have targeted supplies for the frontline health care workers, vulnerable communities. those are the folks who deserve to get it first ahead of the general population. but based on our conversations, our sense of the time frame was more consistent with end of the year or into first or second quarter and again, if it could be done safely, it's scaled. it's equitably distributed and equity here is going to be an important piece of this. obviously, if it meets all those tests, it's a welcome development, but let's see how it actually plays out. >> i'm just curious. finding large-scale distribution centers in new jersey, will that disrupt your plans for mail-in voting and being able to handle

the incoming on that as well? >> no. chuck, it should not. and it won't. we feel very comfortable with the mailing -- the vote by mail model. the hybrid model we're going to pursue. we tried it in our primary with success. we've tightened it even further for the general, election so yo get the opportunity to put your ballot in the mailbox or drop it at a security location or hand it to a poll worker or show up and vote on a paper ballot. i don't see anything that disturbs that. obviously, we're pushing the u.s. postal service to make sure they're going to be as big and strong as they need to be, but i don't see that crossing wires with any development on either therapeutics or vaccines. >> when new york city gets a cold, when something happens in new york city, it doesn't help northern new jersey. so the president's threat to pull funding from new york city, first of all, how seriously do

you take it, and what concerns do you have on the impact on northern new jersey? >> you know as well, chuck, and you know the virus hit hard in metro new york and that includes a bunch of our northern counties. and we're a heck of a lot better than we were four or five months ooh but we're still not out of the woods. this is very much with us. over 400 positive cases in a state that's deemed to have done a good job with this. so we're still not out of the woods. i have two thoughts on that step that they took. number one, the last thing in my judgment when you're dealing with a pandemic, an all-time economic crisis and at long last a reckoning with the stain of racism and social justice, the last thing we need is leadership at the highest levels of our country to be dividing us. this is a time we have to find the right rhetoric and the right actions that bring us together. and that's not excusing it.

there are criminal elements that are taking advantage of this period in our nation's history. they need to be found and prosecuted and dealt with. there's no question about that. but painting this with a broad brush at a time when we need to come together, in new jersey, we've had hundreds of protests. very few challenges, knock on wood, of violence. i, myself, have participated in protests. both with overwhelmingly communities of color and overwhelmingly white communities. america is overwhelmingly crying out for help with the pandemic, help with unemployment and the economic crisis, and a reckoning with the stain of racism. we need leadership that brings us together and does not try to separate us right now. >> you know, it's interesting. you have taken pains to not criticize the president by name. you were very diplomatic with

that answer there. and i noticed during the republican convention, your sort of diplomatic way of dealing with him ended up being used as an endorsement of how well he handled the virus. how did you feel about that? >> i actually missed that meeting so i actually -- i don't have a comment on that. i would say this, chuck. and i will repeat what i said before. i don't view what i just said was diplomatic. the last thing we need is rhetoric or action that targets communities that separates us for no reason at all. so i just want to be as forceful as i can on that point. and that -- >> i get it. >> but i've said throughout the pandemic, we have been able to find common ground with the administration and i will be forever grateful for that. but we haven't pulled our punches. there's a long list of things we're not going to see eye to eye on, and this is one of them. how to deal with this moment, this unique moment in our history. and if need be, we'll not pull

those punches, and we will speak out and take action as needed. >> you are allowing some indoor dining, 25% capacity. are you encouraging indoor dining, or is this something that you're comfortable enough with but you're not ready to do it? >> yeah, we are absolutely allowing it. we allowed our gyms to open with capacity limits two days ago. tomorrow, you're absolutely right, 6:00 a.m., 25% capacity indoor dining. our restaurant industry has been crushed. they deserve this. the data in our state, while we're not out of the woods, suggests over a sustained period that we can take this step. but i, for one, will repeat what we've said all along. with overwhelming data, this virus indoors is a whole different reality than it is outdoors. so we've had a really successful summer of outdoor dining, and that continues. but our restaurants deserve the ability to at least take this

first step indoors. but there's no question outdoors is a safer reality, regardless of what activity it is, eating or otherwise. >> i was just going to say, governor, you sound like somebody not quite ready to eat indoors. >> yeah, well, i don't feel like you need to. i'm sitting here, chuck. i don't know how it is where you are. but it's 85 degrees and sunny. it's going to be a beautiful night tonight. we're not there yet. but, you know, a month or two from now, we probably don't have that choice. and to allow our restaurants to begin to take those steps to get back on their feet, assuming the data warrants it and the data right now does. i think it's the right, responsible thing to do. >> governor phil murphy, democrat from new jersey, thank you for coming on and sharing your perspective. i do appreciate it. >> thanks for having me, chuck. up ahead -- president trump suggesting north carolina voters, vote twice, to test the mail-in ballot system. what would happen if someone attempts to take that illegal

action? i'm going to ask a north carolina election official, next. darrell's family uses gain flings now so their laundry smells more amazing than ever. [woman] isn't that the dog's towel? hey, me towel su towel. more gain scent plus oxi boost and febreze in every gain fling. on day one we'll implement the national strategy i've been laying out since march. we'll develop and deploy rapid tests

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so let them send it in, and let them go vote. if their system is as good as they say it is, obviously, they won't be able to vote. if it isn't tabulate, they'll be able to vote. so that's the way it is and that's what they should do. >> welcome back. that was president trump during a trip to wilmington, north carolina, yesterday, seemingly encouraging people to vote twice. once by mail and once in person as a way to, quote, test the vote by mail system. the white house denies the president was urging people to vote twice. this morning, the president who regularly attacks voting by mail said mail-in voters should go to a polling place to see if their vote has been received. the north carolina state of elections says they made sure to remind them that attempting to vote twice in an election or

soliciting someone to do so also is a violation of north carolina law. well, here's what attorney general bill barr said yesterday when pressed about the president's comments. >> i don't know what the law in a particular state says. >> you can't vote twice. >> i don't know what the law in a particular state says and when that vote becomes final. >> a weird denial there by the attorney general who also said mail-in voting is, quote, playing with fire. no evidence, no anything, just sort of rhetoric there. for a reality check on the voting process in north carolina, i'm joined by somebody who does know all the laws, greg flynn, chair of the board of elections in flynn county. so i'm an early voter. maybe i forget i voted. but maybe i forget. it's election and i'm not sure. i'm nervous. i show up to vote again. what happens? >> hey, chuck. thanks for having me. if you are that voter, you will have skipped over a few steps

that will allow you to check. we have three different ways to check whether you voted or not. one, you or anybody can go online and check your voter file to see if your ballot has been accepted. two, there's a new ballot tracking system going online in the next few days that will allow you to track your own ballot in extreme detail and confirm that it's been accepted. and you can call your county board of elections to see the status of your voting ballot. so if all that fails, and you show up on election day, you'll be notified that you can't vote because the poll book shows that you've already voted. if you insist that you want to vote, you will be allowed to vote a provisional ballot, and then after the election, before the certification of the vote, provisional ballots will be examined and all the

circumstances will be investigated. and it will be noted that you have already voted and that your second attempt to vote is actually invalid and depending on the circumstances, could be a felony in north carolina. >> you know, north carolina was in the spotlight on voter fraud with the whole absentee ballot case in the 9th congressional district that led to all sorts of issues there. that had to do with, it appears to be, somebody who was not just ballot harvesting, right, collecting ballots but maybe even helping people vote on those ballots. what kind of safeguards are there against something like that becoming widespread? >> so a couple of things. there are some procedures that have existed a long time on the books. but also since the layton county issue, it made absentee ballot requests confidential. so right now, nobody knows whether you have requested a

ballot or not. and the only time that information becomes public is when you actually return your ballot. so that reduces the issue of ballot harvesting. when you complete your ballot, only you or in a year relative or legal guardian can assist you in doing so. now for nursing homes, there's a totally different set of rules, and we have bipartisan teams that go out and help voters. so the bottom line is, we -- people can't mess with the ballots. >> i'm curious, what kind of -- with the president saying what he's been saying about mail-in voting and what he said yesterday, has it caused more -- have you had more inquiries, have you had -- has it created confusion? have you noticed are people suddenly having more questions

or is this just something that's being argued about on social media? >> well, there's a lot of misinformation going around, and our goal is not to amplify the misinformation by rebutting it immediately or recirculating it. we're constantly putting out information about absentee by mail and options for early voting. so we actually have a whole month -- more than a month. absentee ballots go out in the mail tomorrow. so we'll start voting in north carolina tomorrow. and until early voting starts on october 15th, that will be the way for people to vote. so we have been inundated with all kinds of questions about absentee voting based on people's experiences in other states or misinformation they're seeing on the internet. so we're constantly doing it. these comments add to the mix, but we are still going to keep doing what we do. >> is there -- what's the one

thing that keeps you up at night about the next two months? >> we will have -- we have 100,000 -- over 100,000 absentee ballot requests here in -- just in wade county. last -- the last presidential election in 2016, we had a total of 28,000 ballots. so what keeps me awake at night is that our first absentee meeting five weeks before the election when we start counting the ballots, that we're going to be having some long nights making sure that first wave of up to 100,000 ballots is counted. >> so what you're saying is what's causing you to lose sleep is how much sleep you're going to be losing between now and election day with all these ballot counts. go ahead. >> i was going to say by election day we'll have most of the ballots counted, and a small amount of people voting on election day. so we feel pretty confident

we've got it under control. >> no, i think it could turn out north carolina may be one of the first battleground states that gives us a complete picture of what happened on election night due to all the ways you guys do this early on. greg flynn runs the elections divisions in wake county. good luck, and this is a case everybody is rooting for you to do it well and do it right. a closer look at the economic realities of covid-19 as hundreds of people are lining up for help at food banks all across the country. first, mississippi voters are set to make an historic decision. they'll decide whether, too prove this banner as the new official flag of the state of mississippi. the state commission chose the final design prominently featuring a magnolia blossom, the state flower, and the words "in god we trust." the new flag would replace one that displayed the emblel of the confederacy. that flag was retired in june after multiple efforts to do so had failed. we'll be right back.

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california, the state that leads the nation in the number of confirmed covid cases, more than 3 million remain unemployed and with this comes increased food insecurity. the l.a. food banks distribution has seen 125% increase in demand during the pandemic. joining me from the food bank is our own nbc news correspondent steve patterson. steve, i've been seeing these lines increasing locally around here in the washington, d.c., area. sadly, this is not surprising, i guess. >> it's not surprising. it is an unfortunate sign of the times. and you see what's being done here now. the thing that is good about this particular distribution site is this is the l.a. food bank. they've been dealing with this now for weeks and weeks and months and months. until the pandemic really has started. so this is a well-oiled machine. you'll see about 1800 people come through in cars to pick up some of this food but they are so experienced with dealing with it that the cars almost flow like water. so that's good news.

the other good news is that the volunteers, the donations, all of that, as the need has ticked up, that has ticked up as well. people just wanting to make sure that everybody is okay. but the need is absolutely enormous. the l.a. food bank thinks they've put out about 90 million pounds of food since the crisis started. that's 70 million meals for families. people that need a way to feed their family to put food on the table. we've seen that need tick up as this has gone along. it's only getting worse, although some of the unemployment numbers appear to be getting better, the growth rate has really slowed down as far as the recovery. it stalled out in a lot of ways here in california. so we see this action of people needing to do something continue. i spoke to the ceo of the food bank about just that and what kind of strain that puts on the food bank and people that are doing their best to help out in this crisis. here's what he said. >> the need just spiked up significantly right away.

plus 80% increase distribution when the pandemic first started. and now we're at 125% increase on food acquisition and distribution. so we see it as this historic level for the food bank. >> and i managed to speak to some of the people picking up these donations in their cars. a lot of these people are first time, taking advantage of this need that is really so pervasive throughout the community. it is bad in california. it's even worse in l.a. county. because a lot of this area depends on entertainment and hospitality and tourism and a lot of those jobs are not coming back right now, chuck. so a lot of this has echoes of what we felt in 2008. i was a local reporter just coming out of college. a lot of this feels the same way. the only difference is the numbers are much worse. the number -- unemployment number right now, that rate is higher than it was at the height of the great recession back ten years ago or so. so the need is astronomical but

thankfully there are people here willing to help. chuck? >> steve patterson with a very important point on the unemployment picture. and i do think people have not perhaps it's the president's rhetoric that has numbed people for this, but people have not fully grasped the current economic situation we're in. steve patterson in l.a., thank you. up next -- a new step towards combating the racial disparities in health care as new research shows the outsized impact of covid-19 and what it continues to have on communities of color. stay with us. tomizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. i wish i could shake your hand. granted. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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welcome back. a new study published from a team of coronavirus researchers out of washington, d.c., shows assumptions have b the rate and severity of covid infections in young people may not be true for all groups, particularly children of color may not be exempt from the disproportionate toll the virus has taken on their communities at large.

when researchers looked at the coronavirus test results of 1,000 children in washington, d.c., the positivity rate for black and hispanic children was wildly higher than that of white children. 46%. nearly half of the hispanic children tested positive for covid while that number was slightly smaller for black children, 30%. even that number is more than four times higher than their white peers with a positivity rate of just under 8%. joining me is dr. wayne frederick, the president of howard university in washington, d.c. he knows firsthands the effects of covid. he made the tough decision to protect his student body by taking them entirely online. as an m.d., who is also on the city's reopening task force. dr. frederick, good to see you. we wanted to start with those metrics because in many ways, it's those metrics that i think make what -- the big announcement that i know that

you had yesterday, and we heard this morning from bloomberg philanthropies, might be a step in the right direction long term when it comes to trying to erase some of these health disparities. tell us more about it, dr. frederick. >> there's no doubt about it. those statistics that you mentioned are absolutely devastating. and those young people that you're talking about are living in circumstances where the socioeconomics are very difficult. so the bloomberg philanthropies, mayor bloomberg has gifted $100 million to the four black medical schools, including howard. and that gift will play $100,000 worth of debt over the next four years to all medical students, including seniors will get 25,000 towards their tuition and fees and another 75,000. and that's a major investment. getting more black doctors, it's clear that cultural competency is one of the issues that results or lack of it in

increasing health disparities. and so to close that gap we have to produce more black doctors as a nation. this is a step in the right direction for that. >> i remember in one of our earlier conversations, you'd given me a statistic that when you left medical school, you went to howard medical school, there were more black doctors then than there are today. >> the statistic i gave you is that in 1978, more african-american males applied to medical school than did last year. and that's a tragedy. when you think of where we are, with respect to that. and when you think by population, the number of black physicians is not increasing fast enough. and so all of those things are going to lead to significant health care disparities and worsening outcomes in all of our cities if we don't correct it soon. and we have to remember, these are things they don't correct overnight. medical school is four years. the average program is three to four years. so you have to invest in it now.

>> given the disparities we saw among children with covid and the fact the outcomes, obviously, are, yes, more children recover from this without serious complications, but that doesn't mean some don't. given those disparities, does that make -- do you think that public health officials and government officials should second-guess how much school is open, how many -- how much of school is in person right now? >> absolutely. i think it has to be a factor. but the other part of it is that we have to put the entire thing in context as well. you have to remember, these black and hispanic kids in particular, especially in urban cities, are going to have some difficulty with respect to respiratory issues such as asthma. that is well documented that they are more likely to have respiratory compromise. if they get these infections they'll have a worse outcome

which long term would have some difficulties. so you have to take that into consideration when you consider the flip side of that coin is that they also have less access to internet, wifi and devices in order to be online. and so it's a very difficult circumstance and one that i think we really have to look at holistically but it again shows the structural deficits in our society. >> when you say wholistically, i get that. does that mean that we've thought about this where we're trying to -- we've not thought about how to, okay, how are we going to get wifi to all these students and devices to these students? is that what it is or is it much deeper than that? >> i think that's part of it, and i think it also goes much deeper. for a lot of those kids that are in the lowest quartile for the socio economic groups by economic for their families, the

meals that they get during the day, during the school year, are one of the primary sources of that meal at schools. when i say wholistically, what is the newtricianal st aa aal n status going to be? what's going to be their physical exercise opportunities as well and to several other factors that i don't hear most people speaking about when we talk about this issue. i see lots of stuff about plexiclass and how the glasses are set up and do they saall st in one room and everything comes to them. it's a lot deeper than that in my opinion. >> let's talk about the vaccine and the distribution and i think, to me, i assume we have got to be concerned about a few things. there's been a disparity in how this virus hits. how do we prevent a disparity in vaccine distribution, number one, but i also think there's going to be a trust issue in some communities when it comes to whether they trust this

vaccine. >> yeah. that's a great point. i have written an op-ed with other presidents of -- the other three historically black medical schools that we hope will be published as early as this weekend addressing this issue. and what we're calling for is an investment in our four institutions so that we can be involved on the science end and on the clinical end of this vaccine development and adoption and distribution ultimately because we have the trust already in the communities. and if you expand that trust from our four institutions at the historically black colleges and universities, you have a much better chance of getting people to accept this vaccine is safe. you have to remember, some of the studies right now are 4% african-americans. and for clinical trials in this country, that's an ongoing difficulty that we've had, and we see that in terms of oncology trials as well. and it's no different, unfortunately, with these

vaccine trials as well. >> well, it does -- you are making a terrific case of why investment in your medical school and the medical schools of historically black colleges and universities are going to be so important to all of this going forward. dr. frederick, as always, sir, president of howard university, a medical doctor when i say doctor. a lot of times our university presidents are ph.d.s. but you are a medical doctor. dr. frederick, always good to have your perspective. thank you, sir. >> thanks for having me. up next -- facebook made a big splash this morning with an announcement about limit something political advertising ahead of the election. but is anything really changing on facebook? we'll be right back. gets compl, a lot goes through your mind. how long will this last? am i prepared for this? are we prepared for this? with fidelity wealth management, your dedicated adviser can give you straightforward advice and tailored recommendations, with access to tax-smart investment strategies designed to help you keep more of what you've earned

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and easily manage and grow your savings. did you see that? virtual wallet® for digital banking from pnc. it's time to get more from your bank. we're 61 days away from the november election, and facebook has rolled out to great fanfare, a plan they say will combat political misinformation ahead of the presidential election. the site announced it's banning any new political ads a week before election day, and emphasi emphasis on the word new. new ads, not ads already on the site. ballots start going out in north carolina tomorrow. so how helpful is facebook's move in the current political climate? joining me now is nbc news senior digital media reporter dylan byers. the first sentence when they said banning -- will not allow any new political advertising,

it felt immediately like a weasel word there. explain why they think that will be a reform that, you know, advertisers who are already on the site versus, i guess, new advertisers they would take in a week before the election. >> sure, it's an important distinction, chuck, and to your point, look, if the trump campaign, the biden campaign, any political campaign puts out an ad before that one-week window, that ads can continue to run right up until election day. i think the significance here, at least as facebook sees it with this one week sort of moratorium on new political advertising is facebook's point of view is the best thing you can do when you're dealing with potential misinformation or misleading advertisements is put it out there for the world to see and then have counterspeech give other campaigns, political opponents, even you and i in the media, the opportunity to scrutinize the claims that are being made.

the argument that mark zuckerberg, the ceo of facebook, is making, is you know, once you get into that last window, you run the risk of not having enough time for people to combat misleading claims. so i think their point is they don't want to see a scenario where, you know, one day before election day, the trump campaign rolls out a highly misleading ad about joe biden's record and the biden campaign doesn't have enough time to respond. and i think that is what they're guarding against here. but in the grand scheme of things, is it a really substantive change to the way that facebook has handaled political advertising this cycle? no, of course not. >> i was going to say this feels a lot like window dressing because they're not dealing with the elephant in the room, the misinformation is shared content. the disinformation campaigns, it's not paid political advertising on facebook. it's shared user content. no? >> that's right. no, you're absolutely right. at the same time, they have two

different policies for content versus political advertisinadve. they made the controversial decision not to fact check political advertising, believing they're not arbiters of truth, and b, that when you're dealing especially with high-profile campaigns like a u.s. presidential campaign, other campaigns, the media, will come along and act as a fact checker, and again, i think that's why we're seeing this specific one-week window, because they, again, want to make sure that there is enough time for that counterspeech to take place. but look, you're absolutely right. the misinformation problems that facebook, twitter, youtube deal with on a daily basis and certainly are going to be dealing with over the course of the next two months are largely based off of nonpaid content that appears on their platforms. that's something they're wrestling with every single day. >> all right, so let me put a scenario out here for you. if donald trump buys an ad that says vote twice in north carolina, facebook might not allow that ad. but if he posts on facebook to

tell people vote twice in north carolina, they're not going to do anything about it? >> no, that's not exactly right. and we should say that in addition to this one-week ban, there are other steps facebook is putting in place. and among those are sort of more aggressive approach to dealing with misinformation, particularly as regards to voter suppression or as regards to anything that would undermine the integrity of the election. so what i would say is on those specific issues, those specific posts, we actually will see facebook act more aggressively than perhaps they have in the past. >> the proof will be in tpuddin. dylan, our nbc news digital media reporter, really appreciate it. thank you, sir. and thank you, all of us, thank you to all of you watching this hour. apologies there. we'll be back tomorrow with more "meet the press daily." msnbc's coverage continues right after this break. coverage contit after this break edicines with trelegy.

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good afternoon. i'm katy tur. it is 11:00 a.m. out west and 2:00 p.m. in the east. and we're covering a number of stories today on this very busy news day. any one of which could have been our lead. today, the trump administration is threatening to withhold funding from a list of democratic-led cities citing what it calls lawless behavior and anarchy. the mayor of one of those cities, new york's bill de blasio, will join me in just a few minutes. the president is also encouraging his supporters to commit voter fraud.