i'm richard lui live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. thanks for spending your saturday afternoon with us. the president departs for nevada for a rally after he was forced to cancel two campaign events that breached coronavirus guidelines. the president then heads to california monday to assess the damage from the deadly wildfires there. the state's governor continues to highlight the role of global warming as a cause. we'll have a live report from california coming up for you. joe biden remains ahead in the latest "new york times" polling out today. in that he holds a small lead across several swing states. some of them within the margin of error. what that might mean for november as we watch for momentum. and then, recordings which show the president downplayed the risk of coronavirus. new allegations against the department of homeland security and attorney general bill barr, and the president's disparaging comments about military members. all of those headlines lingering. how the democratic nominee is handling those developments.

first off this hour, the tahoe airport. you probably haven't heard of it but that is the site of the republican nominee's rally tonight. joe biden and kamala harris are keeping their things virtual with no in-person gatherings today, contrasting strategies from contrasting candidates with just 52 days to go. let's bring in our team of reporters. josh, let's start with you on the developments. any other week and we say this every week this has been quite a bunch of days for the president at the white house. >> reporter: yes, it sure has. and now he is starting a campaign swing not at all the way he wanted to, richard. the president hoped to hole a pair of major, large rallies at the airports in las vegas and reno. that is not going to be able to happen because the event sites

sawed they wouldn't do it. they wouldn't exceed the nevada restrictions on gatherings of 50 people or more. they've seen the rail its president has held in tulsa and phoenix and other places without social distancing, have not complied with local regulations. now the revamped plan for the president instead he'll go to mindon as you said and hold a smaller rally what is billed as part of the president's great american comeback tour before he heads to las vegas for a pair of events there as he seeks to put a real emphasis on hispanic voters in nevada, a state the trump campaign sees as one of his most likely opportunities to pick up a win in a state the president actually lost four years ago. just in the last hour or so we're learning about this additional stop the president will make on monday in california as the wildfires continue to rage. the president will be traveling to mcclellan park according to the white house just outside san francisco where firefighters have been using it as a base of operations for their efforts in

california. the white house has been emphasizing the president's role in addressing this though he hasn't spoken publically about it save for a tweet yesterday. the white house has spoken with the governors of kaufl and oregon and also there have been 26,000 federal personnel sent to help work on the fires as well as 230 helicopters. richard? >> one of the points being made here on a saturday is the importance of the latino hispanic american vote. this has certainly been the focus of kamala harris and the biden campaign. you're in a state in the west on the border and this particular candidate as well as his vice presidential partner on this ticket have been saying since the very beginning, this is an important bloc we need to go after. >> reporter: absolutely, richard. it is very clear this is a focus on the biden/harris ticket and for kamala harris in particular.

you've seen her start to hit the campaign trail physically. she was in milwaukee earlier this week as well as miami and spent time with latino groups, with latino voters. she stopped by a venezuelan restaurant in miami. we just heard today that she will be headed to philadelphia on thursday so it is possible we see more of that on the ground trend that we're seeing with her but exactly right. the importance of the latino vote has been very prominent in their strategy and so what you are seeing today is kamala harris drop virtually once again into arizona. this is the first time that either bide other than harris have held any kind of event in arizona. neither of them visited the state on the ground in their own primary races. so this is kind of their arizona debut. what kamala harris will be doing is speaking with small business owners who are latino. it is something she did virtually two weeks ago in florida. so this is kind of a trend that you're seeing with kamala harris's reach out specifically. she of course has a strong relationship with the latino community. she is from the state of

california. a lot of members of the latino community luff in that state. she has been championing a lot of issues like d.a.c.a. throughout her career. the biden/harris ticket is really using her and her strength there and highlighting that especially as we see the polls come pretty close between biden and trump with the latino vote. >> she, being from oakland, california and understanding the south if you grow up in california they often say you are latino in many different ways. josh, let's go over to you on this as the president is now in nevada, and will be speaking today, that is an important barometer, bellwether for the latino american vote. it does not have a lot of electoral college votes but is very important when you are running for president. what does that say about what the campaign is thinking, josh? rou . >> reporter: that's right, richard. the president will be leaving washington in the next few minutes for his flight to nevada. we know the trump campaign has been feeling a little optimistic about the hispanic vote in lute of some recent polls that show

that joe biden has actually been struggling with latino voters. we should point out this is not a matter of whether the president can win a majority of latino voters. that is frankly not going to happen and is not something his campaign thinks needs to happen. but in states like nevada if he can even do slightly better than he has done in the past with latino voters in a race where you're seeing the polls narrow to four percentage points within the margin of error even doing slightly better than he has done in the past could make all the difference. >> deepa, there are a couple reports on polls that come out today and the cook political report was earlier in the week. any reaction from the campaign on the biden/harris ticket that nevada specifically since we're talking about it today has ticked a little bit to the right? >> reporter: no, we haven't seen anything new on that front, richard. whether or not biden or harris hits the ground physically in nevada we haven't seen plans on

that either. i will tell you having covered kamala harris in her primary race she was the senator next door from california. she spent an extraordinary amount of time in the silver state of nevada. i was in las vegas about once every three weeks. she has invested a lot of time personally in this state. so putting that investment there, we've been seeing the latino small business roundtables in states like florida and now arizona. i think it is entirely possible we see a trend of that in the other key states like nevada as well. >> josh lederman, deepa thank you so much for starting us off this hour. the poll shows former vice president joe biden winning in 75 out of a hundred scenarios but at this point of the race it is about the momentum. with 52 days in front of us. this week's polling from the cook political report shows it is ebbing right in two battleground states, nevada where reliable polls are few and far between. cook is down grading the state

from likely democrat to lean democrat and then florida cook moved its rating from lean democrat to toss up indicators potentially shifting that uncertainty over trump's standing with seniors and biden's with latinos. on the flip side a recent military times poll showed the president trailing biden by four points among active duty troops and that poll was conducted before the recent reporting that president trump had referred to american troops as suckers and losers. joining us now, taking a look at this, senior fellow at the university of miller center and former assistant to president obama, co-founder of fowler strategies and msnbc plut call analyst. chris, nevada if you were a watcher as i know both of you are, the thought was that state is becoming less swingy, more left potentially. but then we see in the cook political report again i was putting the caveat in, we got 52 days to go, right, it is ticking slightly right. what does that say about what we're seeing for the biden

campaign in nevada? >> well, look. candidly vice president biden did not have one of his strongest performances in the nevada caucus in february and we have seen not only in the polling there but certainly in florida that there's a little you about of a weakness among nonwhites. that being said it is more than an offset at this point by his surprising strength among senior citizens which will certainly play well in places like arizona and florida and especially among independents. independents is sort of an interesting thing to look at. this is a demographic that donald trump won by four percentage points in 2016 and now in major battleground states like florida, wisconsin, pennsylvania biden is leading by double digits. so he is certainly grabbing -- joe biden is certainly grabbing a big part of the middle and needs to shore up his base at this point. it is one of the reasons why democrats will be focusing so much of their persuasion and turnout efforts on not just latinos but african-americans over the next two months. >> of note here, when you look at it, nevada as i said is a

small number of electoral college votes as you know and the president is stopping there despite it trending left but at the same time it's a good sort of petri dish, right? you have a large number of latino american voters. you got a good number of african-american voters. 10%. you got a good number of asian americans pacific islander voters there 10% as well. if you want to test out where you are at when it comes to communities of color that is a good state to do so. >> i think that is right, richard. the problem with nevada right now for the democrats partially is a large port charlotte of the latino population is in the las vegas area and a large part is also part of the culinary workers union which is very large and normally organizes a very huge ground game. and during the covid it has been very difficult to organize a ground game plus the culinary workers union has been so busy trying to shore up unemployment benefits for their employees that i'm not sure how focused

they are on the campaign. but nevada is one of the states that clinton won marginally so you have new hampshire, nevada, and minnesota. trump is in real trouble. in the states that are toss up states, he's losing four out of five that he lost, so he is losing currently florida, losing north carolina, losing these close in georgia. so he is playing defense in all of these. if he loses any of those and in particular if he loses florida, he's going to have to pick up other states. he would have to pick up nevada. or new hampshire. and arizona. that is the last one. arizona is a very interesting state because democrats haven't won that i think since 1948. but if you lose florida, arizona would be -- he would have to win arizona. if he loses florida and arizona, the race is going to be over. >> well, let's drill down on some more of the swing states, the battleground states, chris.

the "new york times" polling i was showing a little earlier does look favorable for the former vice president. there is however only one state where he mitt the magic 50 -- he hit the magic 50 and the margin of error significant in all these states, if i round it off 4% to 6% more or less here. but it is not necessarily the big gaps that he would want if you're the democratic nominee, chris. what does it say to you? >> well, look. what i look at is overall the consistency of his lead which is about 7% to 8% and certainly not where he was in july but also important to put that in context. you know, the biggest electoral victory we've had over the last 20 years has been barack obama winning by seven percentage points in 2008. just given the polarized times we live in, each of these states is going to be close. you go back to the three key mud western stauts that hill hill lost -- wisconsin, michigan, and pennsylvania. wisconsin and michigan look

increasingly good for biden. you saw minnesota which was one of those states that trump hoped to pick off which is seeming like that is not going to happen. if biden can win the midwestern states it really frankly doesn't matter what happens in any of these other states. as rick just said, when he has those three states in play, it gives him many more options to get to 270 whether through arizona, florida, or north carolina. so certainly, look. this is going to be a close race but you'd much rather be where biden is right now than trump. >> so if you are that swing voter, rick, and trying to pick and you do believe that both candidates are imperfect and you are trying to pick the best of the worst if you will, it is the very unfavorables that you might be looking at here and the very unfavorables looking at another poll that came out within the last two weeks, for joe biden they're ticking slightly up in pennsylvania and slightly down for the current president. what would explain that? >> well, i think usually that is

going to be advertising but i don't know the advertising budget. in fact, pennsylvania, i thought the president had taken a little break from pennsylvania. what is natural though at this time as we're coming into the final stretch of this race is that the race historically is going to tighten up. but the remaining story is that there are so few voters undes udd now in many of the swing states less than 5%. that is not a lot of people to persuade. so, therefore, it has to be -- it has to be scored all the time. we've seen from the president with ridiculous comments like he is going to take away, biden is going to take away your children's shoes and your children's playground and biden is going to take away this and that and all of these other things. i tell you the one thing where it is having an effect is when he mentioned the word social uft. that is having a huge effect in florida especially south florida with the first generation immigrants who escaped from

soci socialist countries. they are keenly perceptive or sensitive to socialists. biden known as socialista and he has to get that out and talk to entrepreneurs in south florida who are hispanic because they don't want to hear about socialist policies. they want to hear about entrepreneurship. >> rick tyler do not leave your farm. chris lu please do not leave your living room. stick around and we'll talk to you in a little bit. as we approach election day 2020 we are facing the same threats from abroad, meddling by foreign powers. nbc news' kourtney kube has the story. >> reporter: last november the north carolina national guard helped win the battle against isis in syria. now a new mission here at home helping protect north carolina's elections. >> here is their board of

elections office. >> reporter: we're with lieutenant colonel seth barron's cyber operation team at the election office in rural warren county. there are 13,000 registered voters here. >> i have five soldiers doing an assessment on the critical infrastructure. >> reporter: the team is crossing the state scanning election systems for security vulnerabilities. what is an actual assessment like for a county like this? >> we'll dig into their network configurations, their server configurations, their computer configurations. we say here is what we would do to fix it rou. >> reporter: help the county elections director told us she needs. >> i have a small county and it allows me, it affords me the opportunity to feel comfortable with my i.t. and where i am compared to a larger county in the state. >> reporter: the north carolina national guard has worked with

more than 30 of the state's 100 county election offices. but north carolina is not the only state using its national guard for this type of mission. according to the national guard bureau more than 30 states have expressed interest in cyber security help. u.s. intelligence recently warned russia is trying to undermine joe biden's campaign while china and iran want president trump to lose. at north carolina's state command center they look for potential cyber attacks on infrastructure as well as misinformation and disinformation on social media 24/7. >> so this is the situation room. >> reporter: their work already paying off this year according to the state elections board director. >> we were in the midst of preparing for an election getting absentee ballots out during the primary when one of our counties did have an attack. they worked directly with us to make sure that our election operations did not stop. >> reporter: it was a cyber attack in another rural county back in february.

phishing e-mails resulting in malware the guard making sure there was no impact on anything relating to elections. >> thank you for that report. this school year is proving to be anything but ordinary for students across the country. next how churches and parks are playing a role in creating a safe learning vurmt. and then massive deadly wildfires still killing northern california and all across the state and the west coast. we're live there in a little bit. ♪ everyday it's a-getting closer♪ ♪ going faster than a rollercoaster ♪ ♪ love like yours will surely come my way ♪

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welcome back. devastating fires are spreading across the west coast. at least 28 people have died and dozens more are missing all of this while the country deals with a deadly pandemic. in california the situation does not look good. the state has never seen a fire larger or more aggressive or more fast moving than the one burning north of sacramento right now. officials say it is likely not

even growing at this moment. since the fire started more than 3 million acres of land have been torched across the state making it one of the worst fire seasons in the state's history. let's go to butte county, california. as we look at butte county, california, you're a little bit north of sacramento, the capital there, and there is not much left. >> reporter: not certainly where we are, richard. we're about 90 miles north of sacramento in a fire called the north complex fire. that is different from the massive fire called the august complex that's burned about 3/4 of a million acres. but this is the most deadly of the fires in california thus far. nine people have died. i'm in the town of barry creek which is a town of 500 people. a lot of it has been wiped out. behind me is what was the elementary school. this is just a devastating fire along with the rest of them.

the cause of this one is still under investigation. but governor gavin newsom is pointing to climate change and says if you're skeptical about it, well this is the tragic prove. >> the science all you want but you can't deny your own eyes and your own lived experien. folks up here in butte county have lived the experience as acutely as any other community in the united states of america. and what we're experiencing is historic on top of historic on top of historic record on top of record on top of record. that suggests a pattern. that suggests something is happening to the plumbing of the world. climate change is here. >> reporter: you can see around me the air quality. it's clearly bad here but this extends out for hundreds and hundreds of miles really up and down the west coast compounding the situation we're already dealing with, with the pandemic. this is really just a very serious situation all in all up and down the west coast,

richard. >> how are the firefighters doing? when we look at large fires like this across the west hitting so many different states that is often a concern, whether they have the rest and enough help. >> reporter: yeah, the resources are particularly difficult this year. remember that we're dealing with covid and so just the logistics of the base camps for the firefighters have been complicated severely. and because there are so many fires. one of the things they've done here, they normally have prison inmates that help out on the fire crews. governor newsom has just signed a bill that will allow inmates after their sentence is complete to have their records expunged so they can become professional firefighters when they get out. it doesn't help this year but the resources are spread very thin. and remember as far as the traditional fire season if there is such a thing anymore, we are barely into it. >> me being a californian it traditionally starts next month. thank you so much.

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suitcases for less than $40. and shipping is always free. go to dealdash.com right now and see how much you can save. in case you missed this week's white house worries there were a bunch. first the bombshell reporting by veteran journalist bob woodward. he reports the president chose to down play the threat of the virus to the american public. listen to this expert on a taped interview between woodward and trump published by "the washington post." >> it goes through air, bob. that is always tougher than the touch. you know, the touch you don't have to touch things. right? but the air, you just breathe the air and that's how it's passed. and so, that's a very tricky one. that's a very delicate one. it's also more deadly than your, you know, your even your strenuous flus. >> dhs whistle-blower brian murphy, his revelations went public. the former head of the

department of homeland security's intelligence division says he was directed to downplay the threat russia and white nationalists posed to the country, quote, in part because it made the president look bad. and then yesterday john durham, who is running an investigation into the origins of the russia investigation, his top aide resigned. that trusted deputy was reportedly concerned the team was being put under pressure by attorney general bill barr for political reasons. that right after reports from the atlantic that president trump called americans who died in the war losers and suckers. let's welcome back chris lu senior fellow at university of virginia miller center and rick tyler, an msnbc political analyst. chris, let's start at the top. when we look at some of the reporting that has come out over

newt, al night and also potentially the trump administration interfered with cdc reporting when it comes to the coronavirus and that is just within the last 24 hours. what might that mean? >> richard, this is significant. we have not only the president's voice talking to bob woodward about downplaying the virus. we know he has pushed treatments like hydroxychloroquine that aren't tested. he has openly said he wants to slow down testing because the numbers make him look bad. he has you flouted mandates like masks that all experts have asked for but in reporting overnight by dan diamond at politico is important. what is happening here is that political appointees within hhs are trying to suppress information, scientific evidence coming out of cdc, potential risks out of covid-19 on the relative merits of different types of treatment. this is not just the manipulation of science. it is not just the suppression of data. this is information that's not getting out that could be used

to save people's lives. it is the inappropriate plitization of science. i will tell you this. i worked in the obama white house four years. i don't think i had a single substantive conversation with the cdc director while i was there. that is the way it is supposed to work. you're supposed to let the scientists and experts make these decisions and when political people get involved that is not good for the u.s. government and certainly not good for the american people. >> adding in the politics, talk about the dhs, rick. that again very similar when we talk about the cdc. it appears at least based on this reporting that there was no stone unturned that this administration was afraid to get into when it came to the narrative that was good for the white house. >> well, truly remarkable as chris pointed out, you have all these departments and they are supposed to work for the american people and particularly with the department of homeland security, the cdc, they are

supposed to keep americans safe. sometimes things happen that politically may look -- may make presidents look bad or be embarrassing. this administration has gone out of its way to make sure that the narrative that the president is telling, which as we know is often not true, that is matched by the department's own rhetoric. that is taking place in dhs, department of homeland security, it appears it is now taking place at the cdc with regard to the coronavirus, which is a deadly pandemic. and that's a politicization of departments. then you have william barr who is the, supposed to be the top law enforcement agent of the united states telling americans for instance that china is the biggest threat to election security when we know that russia is by far. it just so happens that it's been said china would like to see biden win and russia would like to see trump win. so these messages are designed

to benefit the president politically. that is not how it is supposed to work and it is very dangerous to the democracy. >> well, since we talked about the cdc and the dhs, let's talk about the doj. why not? chris lu, when we look at the resignation of a top aide to john durham again, he was assigned by bill barr the attorney general to look into the investigation that was undertaken for the question of how involved was russia. that question now brought to the foreagain because of the resignation of a top deputy. what do you make of that? >> well, look. none of this should surprise us. if you look at the past year and a half under bill barr and what has happened with the justice department, whether it is the skewing of the mueller investigation, whether it is the lenient treatment of the president's friends, whether it is him echoing unfounded claims of voter fraud. this is an attorney general that doesn't believe that his role is to work on behalf of the united states. he sees his role to be the president's personal lawyer.

and when you see both the president and barr telegraphing what might be in this durham investigation, it's troubling because if this is an investigation on the level they should know nothing about what is happening. let's also not forget there is a department of justice guideline that they're not supposed to take politically sensitive action within 60 days of an election and by all indications they'll release something before election day and that is troubling, again, not just for the politicization of agency but sort of the sanctity of our elections. >> rick, do you think we'll see something coming out of doj as chris lu says that might be possible here? >> i hope not because the doj is specifically not supposed to do this and this action looked like it was designed to have an interim report to embarrass somebody or to help the president. look, chris says this is not surprising and i agree but i also think that chris would agree that we should cease to be surprised but we should never cease to be outraged.

these things are very dangerous to a democracy and in the aggregate all of the things that are going on, election interference, mail-in ballots, the post office, false information about covid virus, about the state of our national security, the state of our allies, the state of our enemies, these are really dangerous things. they are really hard to counter against when the president of the united states espouses falsehoods daily. >> on the democratic side, chris, who can take this outrage rick is mentioning and make it practical to effect some change or put in the checks and balances basically? or is it too late in terms of the 52 days you have in front of you? >> well look. i certainly think the biden campaign has strategically, they are now running ads on many of these things right now to try to highlight this. i think it is a central part of what biden is talking about which is a return to normalcy, an adherence to norms, to rules.

an understanding of what the system of law and the rule of law is all about. look, as we've talked about, there is not a huge number of undecided people but i think at the margins this could sway some people. >> all right. chris lu, rick tyler, thank you. have a good saturday. >> thank you. all right. an issue that has taken center stage as election day 2020 approaches is policing in the united states. we'll turn now to an update on the minneapolis police officers charged in the killing of george floyd. new details emerging suggesting they could be turning on each other as they mount their defenses. nbc news, gabe gutierrez has the latest. >> reporter: with protesters and heavy security outside the courthouse the four fired minneapolis police officers charged in connection with george floyd's death appeared together in court for the first time. >> we allege the actions of the defendants illegally and unjustifiably ended george floyd's life. >> the ex-officers' lawyers asking a judge for separate

trials. in court filings this week the attorney for thomas lane wrote, there are very reichly going to be antagonistic defenses presented at trial. it is plausible all officers have a different version of what happened. officers place blame on one another. derek chauvin the officer who knelt on floyd's neck is charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. the others are charged with aiding and abetting but all face up to 40 years in prison if convicted. >> you do the crime you do the time. so why is it different for these guys? because we will get justice for my brother. >> reporter: rookie officers thomas lane and alexander kueng are arguing they were following the lead of chauvin a veteran officer. chauvin and thao say they were simply assisting in an arrest in progress. chauvin's attorney has called his actions justifiable. in court filings some of the attorneys have highlighted floyd's history of drug use as a factor in his death. >> the only overdose that killed

george floyd was an overdose of excessive force and racism by the minnesota minneapolis police department. >> reporter: as the hearing ended protesters mobbed former officer lane as he returned to his car. there will be no resolution for months. the ex-officers aren't set to go to trial until at least next march. gabe gutierrez, nbc news. >> thank you so much, gabe. thank you. the challenges of reopening schools during covid. a report from houston where teachers are thinking outside the box to help their students cope and ensure they learn safely.

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teachers in houston are thinking outside the box going outside of the school room for virtual learning. here is nbc's priscilla thompson >> i love it because it is a school setting. now here they can actually have somebody physically right there with them watching them. there is a teacher. and so it's a win-win situation >> i work from home some days. i will go into the office some days. it just depends. i'm blessed to have that flexibility. but i'm not at home every day. so it is important that my daughter has somewhere she can go and feel safe and she will still get the learning she is supposed to >> i began to think about kuds and what the school does for

them. certainly it is the place where kids get an education but it is also the place where many of those kids eat. it's the place where many kids are referred for health services specially for mental health service. it's the place where children who live in an unsafe environment, it is their safe place to go. i began to think about our churches that were at that time and still mostly are here in houston closed. so we have all this space. >> when we said what if our united methodist churches opened up and allow students to come in and have access in a loving and encouraging environment and we can kind of connect with the school district. it'll be like a match made in heaven. >> this is like more of a safe environment for her to be around. it is time for me to be back at work. i've been at home working since

march. it is time for me to go back to work. they offer lunch. they offer breakfast. stretch time. outside time. this is perfect for the kids. >> the reason i chose this for my kids is because i did not have internet service, plus the time schedule. so i can't be with my kids. and go to work at the same time. >> i think some would have kwqu their jobs and would have been out and hustled for more friends they can get the kids to stay with. it is such a heart wrenching decision to have to make. i'm sorry some of them would have had to quit their jobs because in this environment that we're in now with covid there aren't a lot of opportunities. you have to hang on to what you got. >> nbc's priscilla thompson with that reporting. thank you for that. coming up the race to develop a coronavirus vaccine. our medical expert joins us to discuss the latest developments. (vo) businesses are always making choices.

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welcome back. coronavirus numbers in the united states continue to climb. our nbc latest tally has the number right now of confirmed cases getting close to 6.5 million, with fatalities over 194,000. then there is this from the cdc. a new study finds that if you tested positive for coronavirus, you were twice as likely to have eaten at a restaurant. joining us now internal medicine physician and medical contributor, doctor, good to see you. let's start with that. there is a lot of things happening right now as staged reopening is happening in different ways across the country, as you know, and you have reported on. what does this mean, do you think, from the cdc? >> it's good to be with you. look, i've been saying this for many, many months now, we are learning something new almost every day about this virus.

and i get it can still be confusing to the public but we're trying to gather data. look, what we know is that this virus is transmitted through respiratory droplets which can be spread through our mouths and our noses, and mostly through close distance. that's why covering, we know now that wearing a mask to cover reduces that transmission. we tried to, and we now are doing outdoor dining, the thought being that outdoors, less transmission than being indoors, but as you know, obviously, when we're eating, we can't cover our faces and mouths. so it seems like there is some transmission. so this is probably going to affect what they do with outdoor dining. i'm not sure. most certainly i imagine it will put a halt on maybe indoor dining which i think governor cuomo was announcing may have to start in new york soon. >> maybe at the end of the month. i guess the question, of indoor dining, because of food safety, and i guess there is a lot more

questions because of this cdc report than there are answers. >> for sure. there are so many questions. and as i said, before, richard, we really are trying to learn sshz we can, there are -- as much as we can, there are scientists around the globe trying to understand this novel coronavirus and how it's working and the treatment and prevention side of it, but yes, only time will tell, but i think it's going to be unfortunately be a step backwards in terms of reopening and what we do as far as the dining goes. >> let's talk quickly about pharma. astrazeneca pausing trials earlier this week. we have merck that has begun testing one of the experimental vaccine candidates in healthy volunteers. china has one in 100,000 people at the moment that have tried a vaccine. what have we learned this week? >> there's been some back and forth, right, richard? so we know that astrazeneca pulled the vaccine first, because of some, an unexplained

illness and they're still not really disclosing that data but now they're saying the u.k. authorities have actually approved, an independent board said they are okay to open up again. look, the united states has spent over $10 billion on six vaccine candidates. they're clearly very interested in getting a vaccine out. so only time will tell. but remember the key point is you got to complete phase three clinical trials, because we just don't know when an adverse event might happen. 30 to 40 day, possibly six months, 18 months, so we need those clinical trials before we know that this vaccine is really safe to administer to potentially billions of people worldwide, richard. >> how are we doing on blood plasma? obviously, we're not here to talk about politic, but it does involve the likelihood that individuals like you and me may accept these different solutions, vaccines included, particularly with blood plasma, and it became politicized, and now, every day americans may not want to take on this therapy.

>> well honestly, richard, this is one of several examples now that have been politicized. as a physician, i really try to remain as apolitical as possible. i really want to stick to the science and the data. but time and time again, my multiple medical colleagues have said the same thing. the science, the scientific process is being impeded, impaired, by political messaging, and political pressure. so the fda authorized, issued an emergency use authorization, despite warnings from the nih, to hold off on that eua, without the appropriate data, randomized controlled data, trial data, so look, we know there is some mortality benefit, but not a large group, and to only severely ill people so we really need appropriate data, and without pressure, from politics, you know, lives are at stake here, richard and we need to follow the science. >> 20 seconds here, doctor, the

latest information from michigan state, that they've had so many new cases in three week, they're ushlging all of the -- urging all of the students to self quarantine. this is not the only university. what are you telling people when they ask you what to do. >> multiple university, richard. iowa, multiple, alabama, it's telling me what we already know in the scientific community, richard, and that is that we get a lot of people close together, without wearing masks, without physical distancing, this is how the virus transmits. and we know that people from all ages, from children to adults can get sick from this virus and we need to practice preventive measures that we know work. >> dr. lipi roy, thank you very much. >> that wraps it up for me this mour. thanks for sticking around. reverend al sharpton. politics nation. that's up next. politics nation. that's up next (driver) i don't know what happened.

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good evening. welcome to "politics nation." tonight's lead, president trump tigs himself an even deeper hole. the president was already facing an uphill climb to re-election in part because of his handling of the coronavirus. which will soon have caused the deaths of 200,000 americans. until this