calling them in some cases anti-american propaganda. and in an exclusive new interview the man who knows the president better than anyone says trump will do anything to hold on to power. michael cohen says he does mean anything. plus, the president, a vaccine and an election year. gerald fordary experience with a rushed solution to a medical crisis could not be more relevant. we want to start with that new report from "the washington post" which says the white house is directing federal agencies to stop racial sensitivity training calling it un-american propaganda. that the office of management and budget plans to come up with a list of all contracts related to the training sessions involving white privilege or critical race theory and do everything possible within the law to cancel those contracts. i'm joined for more on this by political analyst rashad richie and earlier today the president tweeted racial sensitivity

training was a sickness that cannot be allowed to continue and asked people to report any sightings so we can quickly extinguish. this isn't a time when the country is going through a national reckoning on race relations so is this tone deaf? >> it's insane is what it is. i feel like i'm in the twilight zone. the president of the united states calls individuals who teach racial inclusion, diversity un-american while giving a pass to dictators would literally meddle in the election to manipulate our very democracy, something sacred to us. >> and poison their opponents. >> right. there you go. here are the facts, 65% of americans say they have either experienced workplace discrimination or they have seen it with somebody else firsthand. 60% of americans say that this president has made race relations worse. over 80% say they have, in fact, experienced workplace discriminate face personally, you got to believe them. >> so "the washington post" also

goes on to say several studies found federal contracts are actual actually disproportionately -- >> i actually teach critical race theory at the university. it gives you the why and tells you the background as to why the bias exists and for my students i have white students, black students and brown students, it is eye opening to understand the genesis that created the element that we know today as racism without understanding critical race theory is very difficult to overcome the barriers of our social dysfunction without that background so if you eliminate that background you never get to the why and for most people, they never understand there is an actual implicit bias. >> president trump and joe biden

traveled to kenosha. protests going on since the police shooting of jacob blake and saw no surprise here. different approaches to the racial unrest in the city from the two candidates. trurm on one hand touting his administration supporting police saying he'll be tough on rioters, biden trying to point out the difference between rioting and protesting and criticizing the president's racial justice policies. let's listen. >> if you loot or burn you should be accountable, period. >> violence in any form is wrong. the idea that this president continues to try to divide us, give succor to white supremacists talks in ways -- not only incorrect but immoral. simply wrong. >> what do you make of these

vastly different visits. you listed who voters are likely to consider the law and order president. they think biden would not be only better for improving our cities but for race relations and the president is doubling down on his strategy. >> he believes they're more racist for the country that did not vote for him the first time. his strategy is not to be a coalition builder. not trying to expand the republican party. he literally believes there are more bigots in this country than voted for him the first time so that is his strategic approach but let's look at the tone. the tone of this president is a direct contrast from joe biden. that is why the president of the united states, he's down in republican states like georgia. he's within the marginerror for almost every swing state. joe biden is leading the gamut of those swing states. not only are black people offended or people of color offended by the rhetoric and style and policies of this

president but seeing a lot of republicans who vited for trump the first time saying enough is enough. >> you know, rashad, before we let you go, in a little bit we'll have a live report from louisville, kentucky, seeing protesters protesting the killer of breonna taylor and counterprotesters. do you think people seeing those images of these two kind of groups clashing. do you think those images will anyone fit president trump in the long run? >> not at all. it won't benefit him for this election or when we look at this historically. why counterprose an obvious wrong and side with those counterprotesting what is obviously wrong. breonna taylor should be alive today. her boyfriend never should have been arrested for a crime what soever. this is a tragedy in democracy but we have politicized these events to such a degree they have become tribal in our conversation. right is right. wrong is wrong regardless of the political connection. >> that is such an interesting way to put it.

rashad richey, thank you so much. we appreciate it. as i mentioned civil rights activists protesting the death of breonna taylor are clashing with trump supporters just outside of churchill downs in louisville where the long awaited kenturby is under way. gabe gutierrez joins us. we saw tensions flare between protesters and trump supporters earlier. hearing music in the background. what's going on now? >> reporter: we're quite a bit aways from churchills downs. we're still by jefferson square park in downtown louisville where we've seen over the last hundred case or so the center of the protests here in louisville. much more different, much calmer scene than what we saw about an hour ago, again, this is jefferson square park. you see the memorial for breonna taylor right over there and see folks gathering here. these are mostly black lives matter protesters. there are some protesters here who are armed. we have been seeing some of them

with weapons throughout the last several hours, but it was about an hour, hour and a half ago that some of the protesters here got in a heated confrontation, heated discussions, rather, with some of the far right militias that have shown up. some of them bearing flags, supporting president trump. others just saying they wanted to keep the city safe. but they did come here heavily armed and wanting to make their message heard. so, again, right now things are quiet. what happened just down the block there where you see those dump trucks in the distance, a little past that, police in riot gear came in, separated two group, as you saw in the last hour or so and so that managed to decrease tensions significantly and, yes, now as you hear there's music playing in the background, there is a sense of almost a party atmosphere celebrating the life of breonna taylor but, the concern is throughout the afternoon we're hearing that some of these -- some of the far

right militias as well and far left militias are gathering closer to churchill downs and there could be significant protests as the afternoon wears on. the race, of course, not expected until 7:00 tonight. some of the protesters are gathering around 4:00 p.m. or 5:00 p.m. so as it gets closer to race time there is a potential for more con tron takes between protesters and counterprotesters, the kentucky derby an iconic american event pushed back several months because of the pandemic but now protesters who were demanding charges in the case against the officers in the case of breonna taylor are using this as kind of their megaphone to get their message out there. they feel that this race should not be run at all until these officers are charged, but as we saw earlier, some far right group, some militia groups are coming here and trying to make their own statement. >> nbc's gabe gutierrez, thanks

for monitoring the situation there. police are preparing for more potential protests in rochester, new york, tonight over the death of daniel prude in police custody. though protests were largely peaceful last night tension dis flare elsewhere in the city. resulting in 11 arrests and multiple injuries to both protesters and officers. joining us now from rochester, new york, with more is nbc's kathy park. kathy, good afternoon to you. what is the latest on these demonstrations? how are police preparing for potential unrest tonight? >> hey, good afternoon. so typically the marches and ralliies start off relatively peaceful and takes a turn during the overnight hours. what we saw last night when protesters clashed with police throughout different parts of the downtown rochester area. at one point we saw fireworks being launched and police are saying that there are agitators in the group who launched those as well as rocks and plastic

bottles toward officers and, therefore, police had to respond by deploying tear gas as well as pepper balls, so obviously things are tense and rochester is on edge. we are in front of police headquarters right now. we saw over to my left the state troopers have gathered and they're mobilizing now a little bit earlier than what we saw yesterday and then over behind me or in front of me are several rochester police officers and you see a lot of them in their vehicles right now so they are certainly stepping up their enforcement for planned protests later on this evening. and demonstrators, we had a chance to talk to a lot of them over the course of several days and they are saying that, you know, some of the officers are the aggressors and blaming them for ramping up some of the tension here. we had an opportunity to talk to

a longtime resident of rochester and he told us that really the police chief should come out, have an open conversation with the constituents as well as with protesters and talk it out to quell the violence. here's more on my conversation with scott wagner. take a listen. >> what's happening in our community, what's happening in rochester is a microcosm of what's happening nationwide. and i saw the community lined up on one side of those barricades and the police lined up on the other side of the barricades and it was a face-off. that's not a way to have a conversation, it's not a way to unify. it's not a way to work together to find a solution. what i would like to have seen happen here and what i would like to see nationwide is for the police chief to come out and say, please bring the leader of your movement over, let's step behind the barricade and let's have a conversation. we made a mistake. >> reporter: and right now here in the downtown area things are

pretty quiet. once again, police are stepping up their enforcement but we have learned that overnight 11 people were arrested and 3 officers were injured. >> well, please have a safe night tonight. kathy, thank you. now to north carolina which sent out the first 2020 general election mail-in ballots yesterday. more than 600,000 north carolina voters have requested their ballots. by the way that's 17 times higher than this time in 2016. and just last night during a facebook telerally president trump ignored the advice of election officials and doubled down on comments made earlier this week where he told north carolina voters to test the system and illegally vote both in person and by mail. >> in order for you to make sure your vote counts and is counted, so important, make sure your vote counts because they'll lose your vote, they're lose your ballot, who knows what's going

to happen with these people, sign and mail in your ballot as early as possible so you sign your ballot and mail it in, just mail it in. on election day or early voting, go to your polling place, even though you've mailed it in. go to your polling place to see whether or not your mail-in vote has been tabulated or counted. >> state election officials pushed back warning voters that double voting is illegal. joining me now with more anbc's jordan jackson. so, jordan, how are county election officials handling this huge surge in mail-in ballots? >> reporter: well, officials tell me they are working around the clock trying to make sure that everything goes as planned but, you know, remember, this is typically not a state that likes voting by mail. normally that number is just around 4% to 5% but election officials tell me this year that number could actually be in the 40s. now, i spoke to an elections

board member earlier this morning here in forsyth county just about some of the specific challenges they're facing here. take a listen to what he told me. >> so we don't have concerns about being able to manage it. we have concerns about having another hands on deck and that's the real concern. if you got a lot of ballots you want to have a lot of people so you can manage the numbers of ballots that come in. >> reporter: so in this election it's not necessarily the process that is concerning officials but just trying to get enough hands on deck to deal with these huge volume of absentee ballots coming in. >> how have election officials been responding to trump telling voters they should test the system by voting twice? >> reporter: yeah, you know, election officials pushed back against the calls from the president. they told me that they were surprised to hear those comments and they actually added an orange banner to this state's election home page just warning voters that trying to vote twice

is, in fact, illegal but a lot of them tell me they are worried voters here will rye to take the president's advice and then will face those consequences themselves, again, just really stressing the importance of following the law here. >> nbc's jordan jackson for us in winston, salem, north carolina, thank you. still ahead how the recent report of president trump's disparaging reports about the military are solidifying a group of republicans' decision to shift their support. plus, creative solutions, how teachers across the country are thinking outside the box to keep kids engaged in the classroom during the pandemic. - oh. - what's going on?

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the president reversed a decision that would have certainly further upset the nation's fighting forces. the president said late yesterday he planned to reverse

pentagon budget cuts that would have permanently closed stars and stripe, the military newspaper that is informed american troops since the civil war. the paper's publication was set to end later this month. rick snyder, former governor of michigan, a key battleground state. he formally announced biden saying biden would bring back civility while the current president is a bully. the former governor is one of nearly 100 republican and independent leaders who endorsed biden this week as part of the newly formed lincoln project coalition called republicans and independents for biden. another member of this newly formed group, former massachusetts republican governor bill weld joins me now, also a former 2020 presidential candidate. good to see you. thanks for joining us today. first i want to get your reaction to that report from "the atlantic" that he referred to fallen soldiers as losers and

suckers. are these the kind of comments that sort of solidify your decision to endorse biden? >> lindsey, i'd like to say i was surprised to hear that the president referred to all veterans as suckers and all of our war dead as losers, but i'm not. i really don't think anything would be beyond this unhinged would-be dictator. yeah, i think it crystallized the moment for us, republicans and independents for biden but we want to send the message that donald j. trump is not a republican. he doesn't have the belief in dienst cyst, strong defense, fiscal conservatism. he has nothing in common with the republican party and if he wins this election, there's not going to be a republican party. there's just going to be a support group for this very unstable would-be dictator. the other message that i think we want to send is that it's okay to follow your heart. you don't have to lockstep, you

know, vote "r" just because mommy and daddy did or grammy and grandpa. think for yourself and if theme think for themselves against this awful backdrop of the paramilitary stormtroopers shooting people who are saying, gosh, maybe black lives do matter, you know, it's going to be awful if that happens. >> well, i want to play you a bit from an interview with lester holt and michael cohen. cohen said trump would do anything to win re-election. let's listen. >> donald trump will do anything and everything within which to win and i believe that includes manipulating the ballots, i believe that he would even go so far as to start a war in order to prevent himself from being removed from office. >> the president is also trying to sow distrust in election results and told fox news' chris wallace i don't know if i'll

accept the results. we'll have to see. what concerns you the most about this? >> well, he's clearly a very dangerous man. i think michael cohen knows his former client very well. i mean, i wouldn't be a bit surprised to see donald trump start a wag the dog, starting a war to distract everybody. and it's -- the thing that troubles me is the former seven-year veteran of the justice department is his daily assaults on our constitutional freedoms. you know, he says a free press is the enemy of the people. an independent judiciary is the enemy of the people. he might as well just get out in the south lawn and rip up the united states constitution. and i think increasingly people are seeing that. >> former governor bill weld of massachusetts, thanks so much for joining us today. >> thank you, lindsey. kanye west's presidential campaign has been almost entirely self-funded and he spent close to $6 million of his own money supporting his bid.

according to politico h only br $11,000 of outside contributions. west's campaign spent millions on political advisers and hundreds of thousands on legal fees and polling data. despite west's personal spending he essentially has no chance of winning in november. he's currently only on the ballot in 11 states. still ahead, a president, the race for a vaccine and an election year. sound familiar? how president gerald ford's experience in rushing a cure to a national crisis provides some insight into what's going on right now.

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president trump is commenting publicly for the first time on the poisoning of a vladimir putin critic. alexei navalny is being treated in berlin and they say he was poisoned by a nerve agent developed by the soviet union as a chemical weapon. but president trump says he's not convinced by a nato briefing about it and certainly wasn't

willing to blame putin for it. >> i don't know exactly what happened. i think it's tragic. it's terrible. it shouldn't happen. we haven't had any proof yet but i will take a look. it is interesting that everybody is always mentioning russia and i don't mind you mentioning russia but i think probably china at this point is a nation that you should be talking about much more so than russia because the things that china is doing are far worse. >> nato and germany say there is proof beyond doubt that a nerve agent was used. the kremlin is denying any responsibility. france is seeing a record surge in coronavirus cases after schools opened and people returned from summer vacation. the country's seven-day average has nearly doubled over the last two weeks with nearly 10,000 new cases added just yesterday. france is now europe's second

hardest hit country after spain. with far more infections than neighboring germany and italy. french president emmanuel macron has vowed not to lock down the economy again even if cases continue to rise. joe biden has revealed for the first time that he has been tested for coronavirus. the 77-year-old former vice president talked about it during a campaign event in wilmington yesterday. after weeks of keeping his testing history private, biden says he'll be tested regularly as he relaunches in-person campaign events. the president mocked biden this week for wearing a mask on a regular basis, something the president's own cdc recommends. as many are hoping to see a covid-19 vaccine as soon as possible, some are worried about the dangers of fast-tracking it. an analysis from historian rick pearlstein in "the new york times" describes the fiasco following president ford rushing a swine flu vaccine feeling the pressure of a coming election. in the end the virus remained contained to one military base,

one person died but many more got sick from the vaccine. about 450 people developed the paralyzing syndrome and more than 30 died. pearlstein wrote if steady mature gerald ford succumbed to haste when his presidency came on the line imagine what donald trump will do. george deaner joins me now. george, you take a slightly different take on this. you say that ford did follow and wasn't so much pressured politically but some in his administration were motivated by politics so what are the dangers of fast-tracking a shot to win an election? >> well, the dangers in trying to win an election are multitude, right, because this is a very tricky business. you're introducing a biological entity into a large amount of other biological entities and there's no surety especially when the vaccine or whatever

medicine you're putting in is not tested properly ahead of time. there's absolutely no guarantees what is going to happen. so the 1976 case is very interesting for a lot of reason, mainly revolving around science as well as a political aspect. >> the president's administration hope to have a vaccine as soon as possible but many believe by the election. how comfortable are you? how confident are you that the people surround him and the president himself will follow science. >> well, the track record so far with covid-19 and this administration is not suggested that political factors don't play a role in how decisions are made. so i believe the scientists are under enormous pressures as they would be anyway dealing with the issues of a pandemic. but i think these issues are nagaubo magnified because political concerns are pleading into discussions that should not be political or should not be politicized. i would be very concerned

because this process takes time and we're talking about a terrible pandemic which has killed this morning, this morning's numbers are over 187,000 americans, over 875,000 people around the globe so this is an immense problem but we're talking about introducing a vaccine into somewhere north of 300 million miranda lamberts and so a vaccine that's not properly tested, that is very concerning. >> let's talk about the catch-22 nature of this. if ford didn't take steps to keep americans safe from a potential pandemic and the virus spread, he would have been blamed for not doing his job so let's talk about that fine line for any president really. >> well, you know, with great positions of power come great responsibilities. there's really no way you can avoid that decision if you're president ford. his scientific advisors recommended making a vaccine and distributing it as widely and

quickly as possible. he was well informed that this -- there's no guarantee. it's hard to put a percentage on what are the chances it's going to happen but the fact that it is not an unreasonable expectation that it could happen really put president ford in a bind and to his credit, he took it by the horns. he decided that if this is going to be a program that we're going to roll out to protect people, it has to have the imprint of the president on it. so he went to great lengths to get in front of this and to promote it because not because of his political aspects, i don't believe, but because of what he was trying to do which was get the vaccine into as many arms as possible to protect people. >> even those good intentions had pretty devastating side effects and consequences, professor george deaner of wichita state university, thank you. >> thank you. in a new interview senator kamamoto kamala harris can be trusted with the vaccine process.

>> i will say that i would not trust donald trump and it would have to be a credible source of information that talks about the efficacy and the reliability of whatever he's talking about. i will not take his word for it. >> let's bring in dr. ka vivita patel. dr. patel, what do you think first of the president ford example? do you think trump is learning from history here. >> i would like to say he is but i think we've got so many points about how politics has entered and just the most recent exam surveillance we had dr. steve hahn, the food and drug administration commissioner responsible for overseeing the vaccine approval who actually misstated statistics that should be very obvious to someone at

his education level. i do think the president ford example shows what you said. there is a fine line of not ago ing enough and potentially overreaching in terms of politics and a vaccine and i think, unfortunately, most americans don't understand the majority of health professionals don't understand what it takes to get a vaccine under emergency approval, lindsey, because it's rarely ever done. we're not in the state of a public health emergency very often. so all the kind of normal processes that we have for everything else are being incredibly accelerated and i think that is causing a lot of this confusion and this overlay of political opinion. >> well, there's confusion about the time line because a spokesperson for the world health organization said yesterday they don't expect widespread vaccinations until the middle of next year, 2021. they say really none of the candidates in advance trials

have demonstrated a clear signal of efficacy but then the cdc is telling states to prepare for vaccine distribution by early november so how do you reconcile the two? >> yeah, a great question. so i've looked into this a little further. what the cdc is telling states is that the most likely vaccine target so the vaccines that are showing the most promise, lindsey, are the ones that have extremely unusual storage requirements and i know this sounds kind of mundane but we already saw the problems with supply chains not having enough nasal swab, not having those little chemical reagents to run tests so i think the cdc in giving guidance to the states is actually trying to prepare them for all the things we might need to get vaccines. i think the world health organization is being incredibly reasonable in saying that billions of doses of vaccines and what likely will be two shot, lindsey, at least 28 day as part will take time and i think that's exactly right. i've been thinking about patients in the united states of

america and aside from high risk patient groups that need to get it early, most americans are looking earliest at spring of 2021 to get those two shots. >> right, so instead of 330 million vaccines we're going to need 660 of them. there's some grim new numbers out from the university of washington. their health institute and they say, they project if things continue as they have been by the end of the year we could see 410,000 deaths from covid-19. and right now if we can put the graphic up i believe we're at around 189,000. does that seem realistic to you? >> well, look, i really hope we do not get to those numbers, lindsey. they used a number -- remember, this is the same group that the white house kind of -- the coronavirus task force first touted as, you know, their kind of main data model they were following and what this has taken into consideration is that the mask usage by americans will be at what it is now which they

approximate about 51% of americans are wearing masks. if that continues to hold, then, yes, we are going to see increasing numbers but here's a takeaway in labor day weekend which we're in right now wearing masks works and i think that's so important for viewers to hear and being outdoors helps even more and small groups, not large groups and crowds, so i really hope that we can nip this and the other estimate they're making, lindsey, is that the coronavirus will follow a bit of a seasonal pattern like the pneumonia patterns that we've seen in the past and that means that the winter could be a harder month which is, again, raising their estimates on deaths. >> dr. patel, you and i have both been reporting on this since march and saw memorial day and july 4th. now seeing labor day and you are saying still only about 51% of people are wearing masks. thank you for your time today. still ahead the law and order candidate. president trump's claims only he can keep the country from chaos

so how is it playing out against the backdrop of nationwide protests and calls for police reform? plus, a lawmaker is the latest to come out in support of a teen who killed two protesters in kenosha, wisconsin. details on the radio interview fueling outrage.

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since your ancestors served in world war two. many of their stories remain untold. find and honor the veterans in your family. their stories live on at ancestry. a republican congressman is praising a teenager who killed two protesters in kenosha, wisconsin. kentucky representative thomas massie said kyle rittenhouse showed, quote, incredible restraint when he killed two and injured a third in the midst of a protest over the police shooting of jacob blake. massie made the comments in an interview with a west virginia radio station arguing the self-described militia member acted in self-defense. the teenager is charged with two counts of first degree homicide as well as other charges. president trump spent the week once again pushing the idea that he stands for law and

order. >> for the sake of all americans we must uphole the rule of law and defend the american dream. >> they want to see law and order, that's a change they want. they want law and order. >> some people think those are two terrible words, law and order and they're not terrible at all. they're beautiful. they have to be used judiciously and properly. >> when you enforce the law, order follows and we need order. we need -- we need order. >> i am your president of law and order. >> several law experts say trump is anything but a law and order leader and only pro-law enforcement when it is convenient and say, quote, he has spent much of the past 3 1/2 years smearing law enforcement when he dislikes the subject of their investigations or their conclusions. joining me now is one of the authors, joyce vance, former u.s. attorney, law professor at the university of alabama school and nbc news contributor. can you tell me more about your first point that trump is not

pro-law enforcement? >> the problem with the president's approach, it starts with his definition of law and order. he thinks that that is about keeping people in line when reality law and order is about having safe communities, communities where people can enjoy all aspects that we're entitled to enjoy in society, the full range of our constitutional rights so he starts with this notion that it's somehow about keeping us in line when law and order is really meant to be something that's pro-citizen and pro-enjoyment of our rights. >> and pro-justice and you point out the rule of law should be applied to everyone equally. where do you see president trump not fulfilling that? >> the president is transactional when it comes to his support for law enforcement. he supports law enforcement when it's doing work he wants them to do. we've all seen investigations where it gets too close to the president's inner circle and then he calls things like the

investigation into russia's interference in our 2016 election a witch-hunt. that's not how it works. our laws are meant to apply equal to everybody, doesn't matter who is close to the current president. >> undermined the intelligence communities. there is a new harvard poll that says biden leads, a4/46 in establishing law and order. so that kind of tells me this strategy isn't working. the president always goes out and touts law and order but this poll is suggesting that maybe people aren't buying it. >> it's very hard to call yourself the law and order president when you're not willing to follow the law. >> that is a statement, joyce. i also want to get your reaction to attorney bill barr this week on trump's comments about voting twice. i think we have some sound here of bill barr we can play. >> he's trying to make the point that the ability to monitor this

system is not good and if it was so good, if you tried to vote a second time you would be caught. if you voted in person. >> that would be illegal if they did that. >> i don't know what the law in the particular states say. >> you can't vote twice supply don't know what the laws in the particular state says. >> that is striking, the attorney general there saying he doesn't know if voting twice is illegal in north carolina. i heard before we played that sound, joyce, i heard a sigh from you and i think that that sigh could be as brief as your statement before but i do want you to elaborate on it sounds like bill barr is acting like trump's personal attorney. >> bill barr has always told us who he is from the minute he entered on duty at doj and lied to the american public about the conclusions reached in the mueller report to the present day. as you say, lindsey, he has always been the president's wing man and not the lawyer for the american people and no case is that more glaringly shown than

here. every lawyer in the justice department knows as does virt l virtually every american citizen that you only get to vote once one man, one vote. it's a fundamental component of our system of government. bill barr knows that. the fact that he couldn't say that when it was a push against the president shows us exactly who he represents and it's not us. >> before we let you go, given barr's behavior, are you concerned about him giving us maybe an october surprise to try and influence the election that would be in favor of trump or setting up precedent for really what has become the politicization of the justice department? >> bill barr has walked so far down the path towards permitting doj's work to be politicized that i don't think anything would surprise us at this point in time. he has hinted that the so-called durham investigation which is a look of actions of folks in the

obama administration to investigate russian interferes in the 2016 election that might result in conclusions, maybe some indictments close to the election. this would be so out of sync with doj's practice to take no steps to influence an election that close to the time it occurs, it would be so inappropriate for a sitting attorney general to be the one who hallmarked this kind of approach but i think we have to be prepared for that. >> joyce vance, so suck symptom, black and white, i never even had to interrupt you today. thank you for joining us. still ahead, the new trail blazers. >> we've never done this before. we're trail blazers and these first few weeks is all about problem solving. >> educators get creative to make sure their students can excel in online learning. stay with us. this week on "the upper hands"...

special guest flo challenges the hand models to show off the ease of comparing rates with progressive's home quote explorer. international hand model jon-jon gets personal. your wayward pinky is grotesque. then a high stakes patty-cake battle royale ends in triumph. you have the upper hands! it's a race to the lowest rate, and so much more. only on "the upper hands." it's a race to the lowest rate, and so much more. 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.

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bringing puppets to preschoolers. >> you get the first glimpse on the set of in the workshop. the cast of characters get into some crazy situations dealing with different emotions kids will certainly smile but there's a serious side to all of this. >> the goal is that we're going to be able to reach a national audience for this. and we're really hearing from teachers that they need something to inspire their students and act have yactivate engage learning. >> they're partner with the mesner puppet theatre at four schools. >> each month they get an episode featuring niko. >> hi, i'm niko. >> and their teachers get resources to help them teach social, emotional learning, things like safety, how do we interact with our friends. >> from kansas city, missouri to

southern california where caricatures are helping teachers and students alike fight the loneliness. >> we've never done this before, we're trail blazers. >> it's hard for him to keep the wheels from coming off the wagon. >> we did coaching. this is happening, these kids are going to be here. they're not just going to be here and be like, oh. they're going to be here and be excited. >> however he learned quickly his students are resilient. >> like you do in the morning. >> they're already digitally tough. >> you like the idea of eating human flesh? >> he needed help. >> as a teacher i need the connection. >> it went beautiful. >> that's awesome. >> so he resorted to a skill he used years ago while working at sea world. >> what i'm going to do from now on -- >> he drew a caricature of each of his 52 fifth graders. and placed them at their desks.

>> excellent, edwin. thank you jacqueline. they're all smiling, looking at me, paying attention. jude your hand is still raised is that from earlier? we're going to work on that, emily. >> parker, landon, serenity, and rom roman. the hair, eyes, cow licks. it's just enough of a connection. go ahead, daniel. >> i was sitting there, thinking to myself, i don't want to be in a classroom that doesn't have the kids in it. thank you, glad you're here. >> reporter: now he doesn't have to. >> such ingenuity and talent. our kids are in good hands. that's it for me, i'll see you at 2:00 p.m. eastern. the news continues after the break with richard lui on msnbc. .

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and a very good day to you. welcome to msnbc news headquarters in new york i'm richard lui. making news this hour for you, president trump under fire. the white house doing damage control after the atlantic reported that the president called american soldiers killed in combat suckers and losers. the president denies those allegations he said he fought hard for military families but parts of the story continues to be confirmed by media outlet, including fox news. joe biden calls his comments sick, deplorablend