if it's wednesday, the president admitted on tape that he knew the coronavirus was far more dangerous than the flu. but he misled the public anyway. that's one in a series of new revelations from a new book by bob woodward base on the multiple interviews of the president. we're getting our first look and listen to it right now. the audio are the resaeceiptrec. joe biden is about to speak i y michigan. he's up big in the midwestern

states. we're expecting a strong response from biden on the woodward revelations. and bill bar makes another highly unusual move to have the united states justice department take over trump's personal defense in a defamation case tied to rape allegations from decades ago. welcome to wednesday. it's meet the press daily. we begin the hour with breaking news that is going to linger, folks. moments ago excerpts from a thoroughly researched book by bob woodward were released as a book derived from 18 interviews with president trump as the country was being pummelled by the virus and racial unrest. audio has been released.

they paint a report. the president admitted he intentionally down laid the virus even though he knew how deadly it was. back in february as the president was telling the public it was no worse than the financial flu. here's what he told bob woodward. >> it goes through air. that's tougher than the touch. the touch you don't have to touch thing. the air, you breathe the air and that's how it passed, and so that's a very tricky, delicate one. it's also more deadly than your strenuous flus. people don't realize we lose 30,000 people a year here. who would ever think that. >> i know. >> it's amazing. >> and then i say well, is that the same thing? >> what -- >> this is more deadly. this is five per -- this is 5% versus 1%. >> so that's what we told woodward in february. and here's what he was telling

the rest of us around the same time. >> you know, in many cases when you catch this, it's very light. you don't even know there's a problem. sometimes they just get the sniffles. sometimes they get something where they're not feeling quite right, and sometime they feel really bad. but that's a little bit by the flu. it's a little like the regular flu that we have flu shots for and we'll essentially have a flu shot for this in a fairly quick manner. >> according to the book the president was warned that this was a deadly airborne virus. something the president seemed to confirm to woodward himself as you heard in the earlier audio. ultimately the president did for a time sound the alarm in public but in his interview with wood board, president trump admitted in march despite everything he knew, he remained intent on down playing the threat. take a listen. >> now it's turning out it's not just old people, which is today and yesterday some startling facts came out.

it's not just old -- >> exactly. >> people. plenty of young people. >> so -- >> what's going on in the country. >> give me a moment of talking to somebody going through this with fauci or somebody who kind of caused a pivot in your mind. it's clear from what's on the public record that you went through a pivot on this to oh, my god, the gravity is almost inexplicable, and unexplainable. >> i think bob, really, to be honest with you, i wanted to always play it down. i still like playing it down, because i don't want to create a panic. >> this is one of the most revealing portraits to the president's response to the co-vid crisis which has killed nearly 2 00,000 people in the united states. let's dave in. carol lee is with us and phil

rutger. he got his hands on the bob woodward excerpts. i want to start with more, but first, phil and carol, and phil, it's interesting with the president we like to always say there's always a tweet, and it does seem like there's always an interview. there's always audio or there's always a remembered quote that will contradict him all the time. what version of the president was talking to bob wood waward what version talks to the american public? >> clearly there are two different versions of drimp in the early months of this crisis. woodward conducted 18 interviews with the president. he recorded most of them. has audio recordings and sought the president's permission to do so and he's released a snippet of them to back up the reporting in this book, because as you know, the president often will claim that reporters have it wrong, that they're making up quotes. they're making up sources. not so. trump is on tape making clear to

woodward in early february that this was a deadly virus, that it was transferred airborne, that it was a big serious problem as he had been briefed on by his national security officials and yet publicly for at least a month after that, trump was down playing the virus as you showed. he was saying something sliek this, it's just like the flu or sniffles. nothing to worry about. totally under control and it was not until early to mid march when states began shutting down and so that was really a lost month. >> i want to stick with the virus excerpts here. control room, i'm going to be calling on full screen number seven. and carol lee, apparently there's one excerpt of jared kushner essentially going he wanted to pivot from governing to campaigning right in the midst of june. which was basically as we were starting our second outbreak. and then there's this anecdote here. fauci at one point tells others the president is on a separate

channel and unfocussed in meetings with rudderless attention. his sole purpose is to get reelected. that's another aspect of woodward's reporting, carol, of how much the reelection has essentially infected the virus response in the west wing. >> yeah. and it's hard to separate that from what we're learning in woodward's book and it's reminiscent of things we've heard from other officials who have worked for president trump. in another book it was outlined how the president's reelection drove every decision he made even when it came to national security. we're getting some of the first responses from the white house on the woodward back. i'll read something they're saying. they're defending the president saying -- she was asked did the president intentionally mislead

americans. said absolutely not. it's the president's job to try to instill calm in the country. one of her quotes is this president does what good leaders do, stay calm. she said the president to go back to dr. fauci is listening to his best medical advice and now she's pulling quotes from dr. fauci. this is going on as we speak. but clearly the white house, this briefing happened an hour late. they were trying to get it together. and this is so far their initial response. >> i want to pivot to the military stuff and anecdotes of the generals there. full screen number six. i want to bring this up. this comes on the heels of the atlantic piece. anonymous sources about the president's words and how -- what his real feelings are about some folks in the military. this excerpt here. at some point it's full screen sick. not to mention any f-ing

generals are a bunch of p's. they care more about their alliances than trade deals. he told peter in a vor row at one point according to book. and this is full screen number five. it was sort of how the president lost jim mattis and dan coats. in in a separate conversation t. a lie is not a lie. it's what he thinks. he doesn't know the difference between the truth and a lie. first, i want to unpack the military comment there, phil. while it's not confirmation, boy, it's like a relation to the comments we saw in the atlantic piece. >> that's right. and it helps fill out a pattern of commentary from president trump about military leaders and service members. we've heard this for years.

the president has disregarded the expertise of his generals and the counsel they've provided to him at the pentagon. and he's said it publicly, he's disregarded people who have served. said john mccain was not a war hero because he was captured. the reporting by woodward about trump calling his generals f-ing generals and saying they're a bunch of p's fits the pattern of behavior we've known to be true. >> and carol lee, i find dan coats, this line to be it rings extraordinarily true in my ear. to him, a lie is not a lie. it's just what he thinks. he doesn't know the difference between the truth and a lie. in any given moment when donald trump is talking to you and carol lee, you've spent time with him, i have. there is a sense he believes what he's saying in the moment when it is a lie, and you say you don't believe it, and he says i say it anyway.

there's a weird aspect of trump that anything he utters is for the moment. you decide whether it's a lie or not. >> right, and this is something we've heard privately from people who have worked for the president for years now, which is essentially that he says something, and he just tries to get through the moment. we've seen this where he'll be before a certain audience, and he'll stick to the script and feed off of whatever his audience is, and then he'll get into a different audience or behind his twitter account and we'll hear something different from the president. so that does ring true. on the generals, this is something that is just such a dramatic shift from when the president came into office during the transition and he was praising his generals, saying he had the best generals around him. he really thought that made him look tough and that he was -- and they bolstered him. and quickly that changed. and what it speaks to is this idea that the president generally doesn't want to be told what to do.

if he's being told something he doesn't agree with, he turns on them. we heard a little bit of this flavor of his comments on the generals the other day when he was asked about general john kelley and the comments that were in the atlantic, and he essentially said i have the rank and file, but the generals, there's a lot of top people at the pentagon who don't like me, and that's something that's likely not to sit well with the generals who currently work for president trump and serve in the military. >> i want to move to the issue of social justice and the racial unrest we've seen as some interesting anecdotes here. i'm going to start with one starting with the grievance from the president, full screen number three on this one. phil, in another conversation about race in july 8th, trump complained about his lack of support among black voters. i've done a tremendous amount for the black community and honestly, i'm not feeling any love. but it's the last excerpt that i want to put up here on this

issue. it's full screen number ten, folks. woodward then asked the president about white privilege. noting they were both white men of the same generation who had privileged up bringings. woodward thought they had a better -- no, trump replied. his voice described by mocking and incredulous. you frank the cool aid. just listen to you. no. i don't feel that at all. phil? again, we go through this whole -- i think about the dan coats, he doesn't know what he's saying, it's a lie, it's not a lie in any given moment, but this feels like directly from trump's id. >> yeah. that is the raw real donald trump speak right there. and i found it remarkable reading about this in the book. there are several conversations that woodward had with trump about race relations. they were taking place as

thousands of people were taking to the streets to protest racial injustice and police brutality, and trump showed no ability to understand the anger and the pain that people were feeling. he again and again would try to steer the conversation back to look at the amazing job numbers that i've delivered. i've delivered this low unemployment rate for black americans. without really addressing the systemic racism in this country, or even understanding how he as a 7 3-year-old white man who inherited a lot of money from his father and grew up with a great amount of privilege maybe it's not best position to understand what so many other americans, black americans in particular, were feeling, and it was just a very raw and unburnished comment from the president that speaks directly to how he feels about race, i believe. >> and carol lee, this is another what i think is a very revealing excerpt here about how the president views some

democrats. upon seeing a shot of senator kamala harris, calmly and silently watching him deliver his state of the union address, trump remarked hey, see the hate. see the hate. trump used the same phrase after an expressionless person appeared in the frame. he said he prefer -- he said he wouldn't be, very nice. carol, we've covered him a while. he just assumes views on people sometimes that are he projects things that i don't know whether he believes it about them or what he believes they should believe about him, but he projects quite a bit when it comes to democrats of color. >> yeah. chuck, this is something that we've seen from the president before. these comments are in the

context of two months out before the election are likely to become a focus because kamala harris is now the v.p. nominee on the democratic ticket. but it speaks to the broader idea, and you'll probably likely see democrats use this, the way the president thinks about women and the way the president thinks about race. what's interesting about all of this that's coming out now is the tapes. you're listening to those tapes, and you're hearing the president's voice, and you almost feel like you're getting a window into something secretive, but these were on the record interviews the president gave and knew the comments would be out there, and that's what's fascinating about the -- how revealing these are. and the white house frankly going back to when the press release for the book came out several weeks ago, officials were telling me they were worried about this. they didn't know what was in the book, and there's a number of things. you hit on the different highlights in terms of his comments about race, his comments about kamala harris.

his comments about the military that are really going to continue to have rememberpercus in the coming weeks. i'm sure others were thinking we should have interviewed nixon. sometimes your best source, it comes with donald trump. you don't need secret tapes. >> one interesting thing to point out about the tapes is typically when you interview a president you're in the oval office with staff members. there's a press secretary there sort of supervising the conversation and making their own recording. but many of these 18 interviews woodward did with trump were just the two of them one on one. it was trump calling woodward from the residents or from aboard air force one. the staff members at the white house did not know all the things trump was telling woodward because the president was doing this sort of on his own which is very unusual in politics. and one of the reasons why you see the white house today scrambling to respond.

because they didn't know what was coming. >> it is unusual, but he's not the first president who thinks they can somehow charm bob woodward on their own and somehow avoid what is going to be a painful probably ten days for the trump white house. carol lee, phil rutger, thank you both for getting us started on what is easily going to linger over this campaign for quite some time. joining me now from warren, michigan where we expect joe biden shortly is mike memoli. mike, we know somebody threw a question out at joe biden as he got off the plane. we don't know if he heard it or not. but he didn't answer anything. do we expect joe biden to sort of ride the news wave here and begin his remarks which were supposed to be about the economy and this sort of made in america pledge he wants to and instead focus on the wad board allegations? >> yeah. absolutely. a biden aide telling me a few moments ago we should expect him

to address the president's comments to bob woodward. the biden campaign has been saying for weeks and months they believe the number one election this will be decided on is the coronavirus and the president's mishandling of it. we also know the point that brought him to michigan today, that they did want to make end roads on the economic argument. the idea that the president has a little bit of an advantage in some state and national polls on his handling of the economy. one way to cut into it is by discussing the policies biden was planning to focus on here, focus on incentivizing bringing jobs back to the u.s. penalizing companies that are offshore and even under the new tax plan. and biden has been trying to say you can't reopen the economy and get the u.s. economy up and running until you get a handle of the coronavirus. and chuck, i was thinking in terms of how we might expect to

hear the president, the former vice president here today. think about how quickly and forcefully he responded on friday to the reporting in the atlantic about president trump's comments about the service of our veterans of the military. he didn't just respond. he responded forcefully. he was as angry in these remarks as i've seen him in his context in the years i've been covering him. so to have the opportunity today to not just be dealing with anonymous sourcing, to have bob woodward, the gold standard in a lot of reporting, and also the recordings of president trump's own words gives biden all that more license to lean into the coronavirus. we should expect him to point to his own timeline. he was warning last year about the shutting down on the national security council that pandemic response unit. he tweeted about it last year. in january he had that op ed in usa today and was warning in january and february that the

trump administration needed to be doing more working with china, have inspectors on the ground there, our healths there. this is all just teeing biden up for what his campaign has always felt was their strongest hargt in the election. >> right. now they want to lead with the virus and bob woodward hands them a reason to. even on an economic speech. mike, hang in there. i want to get at the public health implication of this and the lost time and frankly perception that got created. let's bring in a doctor, our nbc news medical contributor. former adviser to the obama white house. doctor, in some ways this is confirmation of everything we saw in realtime. we were seeing mixed messages and it felt like mixed messages. the president said one thing and the there was a mixed message. i guess the only good news is he at least explained why he was

doing this to bob woodward. what are the implications of this? how much lost time was lost given what the president said to the public in february and march? >> yeah. that's the most critical point, chuck, and not only the lives that could have been saved. i mean, candidly, many of us in public health are reeling from the fact that as you point out, this matches up to the things scientists were saying. however, that means that everyone in the white house, particularly led by the president, participated in what he even himself called a hoax. the hoax was actually -- the hoax was not the coronavirus as he implicated. the hoax was on what the american people and what health officials had to suffer as a result of it. and chuck, if you peel away the onion, the lack of movement on ppe, personal protective equipment, the lack of movement on testing. knowing that this was as deadly as it is and as it was, and even thinking about how much time

between that briefing interview and the national kind of stay at home recommendations is -- it really is -- it's really so troubling that it's hard to put words to it. and how do you explain this to the families that have had people pass away or are still sick? it's just incredibly troubling. and again, the hoax has been on us. and i only hope that as we're still progressing through this pandemic that we hear loud and clear that we do need to let the science lead and all of this while we're dealing with a major vaccine trial put on pause. a lot of confusion about what americans can do to protect themselves. this has huge implications. i worry we're not going to recover for at least a generation, but i hope we can at least put some science at the forefront once again. >> you know, doctor, you said something in your remarks that really sort of gave me a chill. you noted that everybody in that white house, everybody on the

task force, we now know knew what was happening. that the president was intentionally misleading. that the president was intentionally down playing. there's no doubt the scientists had to do what they thought they had to do. right? to stay in the room. but boy, it sounds like you think this is an indictment on the entire government response. >> yeah. it's hard to see it any other way. i mean, just chuck, you've been covering the white house in washington, and i've been in those rooms where the president makes a statement or even if it's being in the west wing or in the executive office building and you hear about something, and it's so hard to imagine that this wasn't -- we talk about a whole of government response. this was a hoax that was kind of perpetuated by the whole of government, and again, i agree with exactly what you said. you've got scientists, credible scientists, dr. anthony fauci, credit worthy individuals, but wow, it's really hard to imagine

that there wasn't a moment where each of those individuals were confronted by exactly those words we heard on tape, and had to make decisions about how best to lead. and that's a hard pill to swallow. >> those early days, the ppe, the mixed messages, i guess it's hard to put a number on it, but you know, it's how -- how much time do you think was lost? i mean, do we think half of our deaths are due to this delay? >> yeah. one thing that's really clear, and it's so -- the chills i got were hearing the president basically admit that this was an airborne, or respiratory virus. and i think about how much we fumble, even myself, in the beginning with recommending people wear masks. first we thought no, you don't want to take away masks from the medical personnel. we could have prevented and chuck, now we have studies that show that if we had had widespread mask mandates, that

we could reduce deaths by as much as 20% to 50%. and some of the modelling coming out of the university of washington reinforces that mask wearing and being outdoors can make that much of a difference. so yes, chuck, it does mean that we could have reduced not just the deaths but remember, we've got millions of people that we don't know what the longer term effects of this might be. we're still in this. i want to make something clear, though, that we do have the science. it did take us time, and it does sound like the president, again, he called this a hoax. but now we know better, and i hope that we can let the career scientists public health professionals who have dedicated their lives to this, let them lead, and just put out the noise and distortion. >> yeah. and they have to address the fact that there's been a miscommunication because there are people in the public who only want to listen to the president. that is clearly having a

negative impact as well. doctor, thank you for sharing your perspective. and while we wait to hear from joe biden, jill biden is on the trail in battle ground, minnesota. in fact, this is the first time we've seen both of the bidens on the trail in separate states on the same way. we think basically since the pandemic began. especially in the age of the virus. while biden is in m michigan, the trump campaign is in pennsylvania. a rally by pence as republicans face a daunting situation in the keystone state. our poll has biden leading by nine points. surprised some people. biden does have roots in northeast pennsylvania and is the state where voters know him the best outside of delaware and the only state he's been ga campaigning in until the last few months. it's a big number that president trump won in 2016. joining me is a former republican congressman from pennsylvania. before i get to the woodward allegations and what we saw and the president's comments, how do

you explain those away? if you're the president? >> i don't know. i simply don't know. it's very fresh. i have not heard the videotape. i don't know if that's out. i'll give you a quick story, though. i was in western pennsylvania in 2016. the day that billy bush tape came out. i'm from the south eastern part of the state. i went around the room and explained how challenging the race was going to be in the philadelphia district. everyone in western washington looked at me and said we don't know what you're talk about. trump is going to clean up out here. this was on the day of the billy bush state. different parts of pennsylvania and around the country results in a different feedback loop in terms of what people are digesting and who they believe. so it remains to be seen. >> that's a great anecdote and allows us to transition back to pennsylvania. there used to be a simple way pennsylvania was described.

james carville had an interesting way of describing it. it's pittsburgh in the west, pennsylvania in the west and alabama in the middle. there's southeast pennsylvania but northeast pennsylvania is slightly different. parts of western pa. walk me through where you think biden has some places to make end roads that he has to do to win and where trump has to recover. >> sure. i see it this way. i think in south eastern pennsylvania biden is going to overperform against hillary clinton. i think in the northeast part of the state you have culturally conservative democrats where trump overperformed. biden needs to cut into trump's advantage there. in south western pennsylvania it's similar. culturally conservative democrats where trump overperformed. the central part of the state is conservati conservative. less voters but more intensity

for trump than there was for bush or mccain. i think the critical part of the state is south central pennsylvania. it's socially skeconservative, it's become more suburban and you're seeing things trend a little more purplish. when i was coming up in the republican circles, chester, delaware in montgomery county was viewed as the fire wall for a republican presidential candidate to offset a lot of philadelphia votes which advantaged the democrats. now county courthouses are controlled by democrats in montgomery, delaware, and chester counties and you have to go over a little bit further into lancaster, i don't recollect county for that fire wall, that republican firewall to come about. so yes, i do think biden is up. i think the race has tightened a little bit, and the question is going to be can biden cut into trump's advantage against hillary in the southwest and northeast parts of the state and

frankly, can he hold up the suburban advantage he has against trump which hillary clinton was supposed to have but didn't end up having on election day. >> you know, you paint a scenario, it sounds like the numbers really are in biden's favor if he overperforms in southeast pennsylvania. that's where the people live. >> i would totally agree with you, yes. that is where they live. >> okay. >> interestingly, you have seen some democrats switch registration to republican. look, i think the only pushback i could give you or counter set of facts would be -- counter set of facts would be if folks who didn't vote in '16 decide to vote, and if they vote for trump, and you hear that. but from your -- i look through the poll that nbc did, and unless your sampling is off because you've undersamplded college educated voters which would vote more in favor of

biden, trump as a significant amount of ground to make up, i think. and that's even if you include the fact that trump is going to underperform by 5%. right? which is a legitimate thing to assume. right? i mean, all trump voters don't show up in a poll. even if it's 4% or 5%, it's not 9%, 10%, or 11%. >> and we don't have third party candidacies that are in the way. that might simply be also the margin there. former member of congress from the philadelphia suburbs. thank you. good to get your perspective. >> we're awaiting joe biden's remarks. up next, bill bar faces questions about the justice department's decision to intervene in a defamation suit against trump that the incident took place decades ago when he was a private citizen. we'll be right back. 'll be righ.

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predicament. they are representing president trump in a defamation lawsuit. he said the move was routine. barr down played it with many seeing it as an overstep to help the president politically and personally. it's an ongoing defamation suit brought by a come columnist after she accused the president. barr said the suit was brought while donald trump was president and acting within the scope of his office. that case was docketed this morning under a new name. carol versus the united states of america. joining me now to take us through the legal and political ramifications of this is a former general counsel for the fbi and a current msnbc legal analyst. there's more background i want to add. it was recently a state court

ruled that basically it was possible the president was going to deget deposed before novembe. this, to me, and studying the president and his legal history over the years, looks to me as an attempt to simply postpone that -- he doesn't want to be deposed before november, for sure. and it's just buying time that eventually this will be seen as not a matter that belongs at the justice department but he's buying a couple months. that's my theory on this. i want you to get it, how unusual this move is. >> first your theory is right. you've seen the president try things that we might lose the battle but win the war, and the war is delay so that any delay is a win. but in terms of how unusual this is, i think an example is when you're a federal employee, the department of justice and the government will represent you as

long as the actions that are being questioned are actions that you took officially. so if you did something in your official capacity, then the department of justice represents you and if all the privileges and immunities that come with being a government official. but if when i worked for the -- if i committed bank fraud, or if i got a speeding ticket, i can't turn to the department of justice and say hey, i'd like you to represent me and i'd like to have all the privileges as if i was acting in my federal capacity. and so here you have the issue of the department saying the president in calling the president who accused him of rape, calling that woman a liar and also by the way, not his type, two things that are alleged, that that is somehow within the scope of the president's official business.

and one indication that this is not, in fact, usual, is if you look at the federal filing that was made, it was made by people at main justice in washington d.c. the local u.s. attorney's office, the southern district of new york did not sign off on that piece of paper. so that's an indication that this is something being controlled from washington that audrey straus, the u.s. attorney did not want her name on. >> so bill barr said this was routine. can you think of anything that comes close to this? >> it certainly isn't rue teout. he would have better to say i think we have a good faith basis to do this, but there's nothing close to this. i think everybody who has been in the federal government looks at this and goes you've got to be kidding. usually it's very hard to get the federal government to agree to represent the normal run of

the mill individual prosecutor, federal employee unless they really can show that what they did was part of their official business. to me, this is another erosion of the rule of law by the attorney general where essentially what he is saying is if the president does it, it is, in fact, the government. i mean, this is saying there is no such thing as a personal capacity. whenever he acts, it is -- he is the state which is, you know, as joy reed likes to say, this is the kind of argument a monarch makes. >> but this is what bill barr believes. right? i guess this fits his belief system in the power of article 2? >> he has this view of the imperial presidency as well as the fact that he seems to take

the view the attorney general is the personal attorney of the president. that is not true. the attorney general of the united states is our attorney. it represents the public. and it represents the institution of the presidency. this is why, for instance, in the impeachment proceeding even the white house understood there's a disdistinction. you saw there was white house counsel as well as the president's personal counsel. what bill barr is essentially saying is no need to have the nicety of personal counsel. we'll just do that job. and that is a very significant erosion that's going on. >> it's rewriting it. andrew weissman, one of our legal analysts here at msnbc. appreciate you coming on. catch pete williams' sit-down with bill barr tonight.

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since we are about a minute away from joe biden, we will hope to reschedule our other interview to talk about the important health issue we believe a lot of people are overlook as we focus on the pandemic. with me are mike memoli and stephanie ruhle. stephanie, we got a preview about what we're expected to hear. is it -- to me it's impossible to message the economy without doing the virus. the president is trying to split the two in and a half. joe biden has been putting them together. what are the average americans, how are they thinking about

this? >> we're expecting joe biden is going to comment on what we've heard about bob woodward's book and if it's true that the president made the conscious decision to down play the co-vid pandemic, the economic distress we're feel right now is a direct result of co-vid. if the president down played it or delayed in sharing information, we have millions of americans in distress. millions of americans without jobs. if the president decided to make this decision about how to manage this virus, it's not going to go well to the american people. but joe also has a needl to thread. what you've seen from democrats is talking about the people unemployed. there's a lot of people in the country who might not be doing as well as they'd like, but they are employed. he has to find a lane so he's not just speaking for one group

of people because what president trump is doing right now is saying without me, the stock market is a failure and even though the stock market and the economy aren't the same thing, millions of americans care a lot about their pensions and 401 k and they don't want to see the stock market go to nothing. it's a false narrative from the president, but joe biden has to explain it. >> you know, mike memoli, the made in america pitch, and he said this earlier, this seems to be their response to the china attacks that have been coming and we assume at least in wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania and minnesota that more china attacks are coming. >> first, you benched the iron man to bring me back. i feel a sense of pressure. >> he's not benched. we discussed this. no. this is a delay. this is like a delay, the game postponed. it does not count against the streak, i promise. go. >> all right. taking what you said.

now, think about how president trump broke down the blue wall. it was talking about nafta and how he would come in as president and use his deal making ability to bring the jobs back. and what the trump campaign has tried to do and done so somewhat successfully is to point out that biden's own record as a senator was in support of a lot of those trade deals. as part of the obama administration he sold tpp, another one that didn't go through. the biden campaign wants to remind everyone in michigan of the other parts of his policy record, especially early in the administration as one of the people who was championing the auto industry bailout. he had to run the recovery act. and they have no problem about using the strength of the american government and the procurement power to do everything they can to try to begin to have more american made products here. the biden campaign seniored

adviser said listen, i'm getting the american economy back on a strong footing. take it away, joe. >> joe biden is now at the podium. take a listen. >> you mr. president, i like the sound of that. where is my president. there you are. thank you, pal. thanks for the welcome. it's great to be here in michigan, and with the united autoworkers. you know, as they say in parts of my state, i got brung up on general motors. my father was, ran a general motors agency. he didn't own it, but he ran it. and you know, cars are cars are cars. by the way, i still have my '67 corvette that's new, it was new. i still keep that. i gotta tell you, i'm waiting for the electric one you just made that goes 210 miles per hour. but that's a different story.

look, earlier this week, and the reason we're a little late here, we found out, getting off the plane, the press asked me a legitimate question that i did not have the background on because it occurred on the plane. earlier this week, we celebrated labor day, and here in the heart of the american automobile industry, we never forget everything that we owe the unions, and unions as you heard me say many times, built this country. unions built the economy, the economic engine that has driven american manufacturing dynamism, and literally, literally in the case of the autoworkers, you're the ones who did it. i want to thank you again, uaw region one, for hosting me today. and it's great to see senator stabenow, my good friend debbie stabenow. got a chance to spend a little time with the governor, but senator stabenow and i worked together on an awful lot of matters over the years. in the united states senate. she was a great partner to me

when i was vice president. and we worked in lockstep to get the people of michigan back on their feet. we joined, we were joined by one of the best and brightest and hardest working governors around, my friend gretchen whitmer, and if you're wondering what responsible, strong, executive leadership looks like covid-19, just look at this executive right here. governor, you have done an incredible job steering the people of michigan through a turbulent time. much of it is brought on by donald trump's lack of leadership. you have been rock solid, governor. you have listened to the experts and you have led with science. and you put the needs of the people who are hurting first, helping them get through this crisis. meanwhile, on the day that we hit 190,000 dead in the united states because of covid-19, we just learned from "the washington post" columnist bob woodward that the president of

the united states has admitted on tape in february he knew about covid-19 that had passed through the air. he knew how deadly it was, that it was much more deadly than the flu. he knew and purposely played it down. worse, he lied to the american people. he knowingly and willingly lied about the threat it posed to the country for months. he had the information. he knew how dangerous it was. and while this deadly disease ripped through our nation, he failed to do his job on purpose. it was a life and death betrayal of the american people. experts say if he had acted just one week sooner, 36,000 people would have been saved. if he acted two weeks sooner, back in march, 54,000 lives would have been spared in march and april alone. you know, his failure has not only cost lives. it has sent our economy into a

for this job as a consequence of it. how many schools aren't opened right now? how many kids are starting a new school year, the same way they ended the last one, at home? how many parents feel abandoned and overwhelmed? how many frontline workers are exhausted and pushed to their limits and how many families are missing loved ones at their dinner table tonight because of his failures it's beyond despicable it's a dereliction of duty it's a disgrace. we're going to hear a lot more about this, i'm sure, not just from me but from the news media and a lot of others. but i want to ask you one simple question what's the value of a promise? what's it worth? what's the worth of a woman or man's word of a president's word?

if it's not matched with action. in 2016, then candidate trump came here to warren just a few days before the election here's what he said. he said if i'm elected, you won't lose one plant you'll have plants coming into this country you're going to have jobs again. you won't lose one plant, i promise you, i promise you that's what he said. donald trump makes a lot of promises he promised he alone could stop the offshoring of jobs he promised he would bring back jobs, stop companies from leaving. he could do what, quote, nobody else could do but him. he promised that his administration would enforce every last buy in america provision on behalf of the american people. and what makes his wild claims

and hopes -- he now hopes we don't notice what he said or won't remember and when he does follow through, or doesn't do with the follow through, the exact opposite. he's hoping we just have poor memories he doesn't give as much credit but the american people are smart, honest, decent, and they're hard working and we expect our president to be straight with us, to do what he or she says they're going to do so let's look at the reality of donald trump's economy and what exactly his promise to the american people and workers are worth. he's on track to be the first president since herbert hoover and the great depression to see the number of jobs in our economy go down, not up, while being president. our economy is down 4.7 million jobs since he took office. 4.7.

even before president trump's failed response to covid-19 crashed our economy, his reckless and chaotic trade policy had thrown american manufacturing into recession it was already contracting in 2019 even when covid-19 hit, trump -- before it hit, trump was creating an average of 500,000 jobs fewer per year than the last three years when president obama and i were in office when the gm transmission plant here in warren closed last year, i bet the workers around weren't all that comforted by trump's empty promises under donald trump, michigan lost auto jobs even before covid hit. what about offshoring? has trump delivered on stopping companies from shipping jobs overseas, american jobs? you already know the answer. of course not.

the rate of offshoring by federal contractors, there are people who get federal dollars from the federal government to do things, the offshoring, big companies being paid by u.s. taxpayers, has doubled doubled under trump. those contracts, federal contracts, with your tax dollars. they have doubled the number that have been offshored he invited companies to the white house to make what he called a pledge to american workers. he couldn't even keep those firms from outsourcing many were giving lucrative contracts, but then some of them turned around and shipped 7,000 jobs overseas. under president trump's u.s. trade deficit has grown. it's hit an all-time high. let me say that again. u.s. trade deficit is at an all-time high under trump in the

last three years president trump's answer to all this is the same as the answer to everything. corporate tax giveaways that warrant offshoring you heard me right giveaways that reward offshoring if you offshore, you get more tax breaks his 2017 tax bill slashed taxes on companies that sent production and jobs overseas those corporations then make huge profits by shipping these foreign-made products back to the united states to sell to american consumers and no industry has taken greater advantage of trump's offshoring loopholes than the pharmaceutical industry. big pharma lobbied trump for a handout. that's exactly what they got from him pharma's building u.s. pharma is building factories overseas instead of in the united states, skipping out on having to pay

u.s. taxes and then sending those same foreign-made drugs back to american consumers all while raising their prices on prescription drugs that union families and working people have to rely on and in the process, by the way, he's trying to do away with all health care in america during a pandemic, we're seeing not only the inequity of this policy but the enormous vulnerability that this creates for our own health security. and our security requires us to have supply chains of the necessary drugs based here, not overseas, not overseas in times of crisis and what about trump's commitment to buy american like the rest of