storm surge. plus remarkable comments from attorney general bill barr. attacking prosecutors in his own department of justice and saying the stay-at-home orders in the early month of covid-19 were the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in american history, other than slavery. also this morning, the big ten football season will take off next month president trump is taking a victory lap but at least one college president said it had nothing to do with him at all. >> let's start with president trump and the director of the cdc who appear to be at odds over the potential of the timing of a vaccine and wearing a mask. robert redfield said yesterday a vaccine will not be widely distributed until spring or

summer of next year. >> i think there will be a vaccine that will be initially available sometime between november and december, but very limited supply and will have to be prioritized if you're asking me when will it be generally available to the american public so we can begin to take advantage of vaccine to get back to our regular life, i think we're probably looking at third -- late second quarter, third quarter 2021 >> i think he made a mistake when he said that. it's just incorrect information. and i called him and he didn't tell me that i think he got the message maybe confused maybe it was stated incorrectly. we're ready to go immediately as the vaccine is announced it could be announced in october. >> then to the question of masks at the senate hearing yesterday. dr. redfield also came out in strong support of masks to

combat coronavirus. >> face masks are the most important public health tool we have i'll continue to appeal for all americans, all individuals in our country to embrace the face coverings. if we did it for six, eight, ten, 12 weeks we'd bring the pandemic under control we have clear scientific evidence they work and they are our best defense i may go as far to say this vaccine is more guaranteed to protect me from covid when i take a vaccine. >> it's not more effective than a vaccine. i called him about that. those were the two things i discussed with him i believe that if you asked him, he would probably say that he didn't understand the question but when i called up robert today, i said to him, what's with the mask, he said i think i answered that question incorrectly.

i think maybe he misunderstood it you have two questions, maybe he misunderstood both of them but the answer to the one is it's going to be a faster dis i distribution than he said. the distribution process isn't as much his thing as say mine. but i hope the vaccine is going to be a lot more beneficial than the masks. so president trump said dr. redfield was confused. after wards redfield said this, quote, i 100% believe in the importance of vaccines and the importance in particular of a covid-19 vaccine a covid-19 vaccine is thing that will get americans back to normal everyday life the best defense we currently have against this virus are washing your hands, social distancing, and being careful about crowds jonathan lemire you were in the crowd with president trump

yesterday, you asked questions about the contradictions he said the head of the cdc was, quote, confused by those two questions. he didn't look confused if you watched the tape how did this play out afterwards you have new reporting about what went on after the president left the stage >> that's right, willie. we can safely say this we've never been here before, in terms of a president so frequently and publicly contradicting the medical experts and health officials on his own staff, including here the director of the cdc who as you say did not appear confused yesterday when he offered a time line on the vaccine and messaging on the masks that doesn't square with what the president has been saying day in and day out and what he hope happens for his re-election bid. yesterday the president said he was docked up by dr. scott

atlas, his new favorite of the medical team, that they thought a vaccine would be available to first responders, emergency workers, the ones who need it most by years end. the president was leaning hard into the idea of october or early november, falling just before the election. we know his advisers want that to happen, thinking that could be the october surprise. i asked about masks, if indeed the cdc director thinks that masks are as or more important than a vaccine, why not considering the resources you put into developing a vaccine with not use similar energy promoting mask usage, even if it's you and members of the white house staff wearing them, even though you are tested them every day, to promote the use. he also said that is not something he agrees with that leads us to, does he have

confidence in the cdc director, the cdc director tried to clean up the comments rather than resign out of protest. interesting to see how that relationship plays out in the coming days. and the moments after the briefing concluded, the president retreated to the white house press office to watch the coverage of what had transpired he and a couple aides watched it on fox news. and the president turned to a group of aides with him, watched how he rebuked and undermined redfield and said i did the best i could in terms of trying to change the messaging of the moment which seems to yet again fly in the face of science >> two big things here, jonathan lemire obviously he wants that vaccine within the election period and he wants to be able to announce it. but there was even disagreement in the room as to when that vaccine would be available and who it would be available to was it first responders, was it

people who most needed it, was it the general public, and that would change from october to november to q-1 to march it was a push to try and get some sort of vaccine announcement as soon as possible, who cares who it's really for, who cares what the truth is the president just wants what he wants. whether or not it actually is a fact something we've seen before, a pattern of his presidency. you brought up masks which would save lives, here's the exchange yesterday in the white house briefing room. >> why not have the staff wear it more often to set an example for the country? >> i'm tested and i'm sometimes surprised when i see people sitting like joe, joe feels safe in a mask, maybe he doesn't want to expose his face i don't know what's going on he'll be way away from people, nowhere near people, nobody with him, he doesn't draw any crowds. so he'll have big circles, way

far away there's no reason for him to have masks on. >> let's bring in dr. vin gupta, a pulmonologist and an nbc news medical contributor. and apologies dr. gupta for having you repeat basic facts and science here but the president of the united states appears to be again making fun of or saying it's less important for some to wear masks made fun of joe biden wearing a mask because he was far away enough from people this to me appears to be a massive disservice to the american people where we're going to have 200,000 deaths, i believe, by the end of this week and the death toll keeps counting masks save lives, don't they >> good morning, mika. thanks for the opportunity first of all, yes. 100% this is what we know

this is where the current state of science is, now we have definitive proof of what the president knew on february 7th, which is covid-19 is airborne. what should that trigger any leader, whether you have a health background or not that should trigger, not only let me make sure every american has access to a mask one that is well fitting and high quality. especially with fog in the west coast that well fitting piece has never been more important. people are in psychological lockdown mode because they don't want to inhale the smog and be exposed to covid in many parts ofrt count of the country right now >> you say people are scared i agree with you, i'm scared members of my family are scared. a lot of my friends are scared, a lot of people i know are really scared and they wear the mask but there are a lot of people who are following the president and making fun of masks, running

through stores screaming at people, getting in fights. my problem is they don't think they need to wear a mask how did we get here and how do we compel people to understand that their lives are at stake? >> you bet there's a real -- there's a clear reason why, it's the president at the abc town hall making fun of the idea of mask wearing, doing so at the press briefing that's the reason we're here the science is that if 95% of americans wore masks, we would follow the trajectory of hong kong, places that were puddle jumps from wuhan that have not experienced nearly what we've experienced. the reason why is that masks work to control an airborne spread that's why it's not -- a vaccine is never substituted for a mask. that's the whole point here. the president is basically saying a vaccine is going to be better we don't need masks is

effectively what he's saying but we know the fda has been moving the goal post on efficacy of a vaccine, how they define success. they're saying a vaccine that's 50% effective in reducing disease severity is an effective vaccine. that's not going to end the pandemic but if 95% of americans wore masks we would end the pandemic so the president is confusing the public. >> doctor, i also want to point out the man the president has been leaning on was in the room yesterday, dr. scott atlas, he's the one promoting herd immunity. that's why you heard the president talking about herd immunity as a strategy i wanted to put that out first, you and other doctors told us how dangerous that idea is but dr. redfield the director of the cdc couldn't have been more clear in his sworn senate testimony yesterday when he

talked about masks and the time line of a vaccine. and yet he has a president come out and contradict him immediately, probably making up details of a phone call they had. if you, dr. gupta, are in the position of dr. redfield who find themselves in the position that dr. fauci and dr. birx have found themselves in the last six months what do you do do you come out and tell the truth come what may? how do you navigate this >> good to see you glad you asked the question. i would directly contradict the president and make him fire me because dr. redfield and dr. jerome adams who i had an exchange with on twitter to this effect last evening, at least dr. adams, the surgeon general, the public health spokesman for the country should care more about getting it right more than the job. so i would go out and contradict the president, if he wants to

fire you, let me hit fire you. but the oath is more important than the title that's what i would do, willie. >> president trump yesterday just the hits kept coming also blamed blue states for the country's coronavirus death total. >> the blue states had tremendous death rates if you take the blue states out, we're at a level that i don't think anybody in the world would be at. we're really at a low level. but some of the states, they were blue states and -- >> "the washington post" points out that more than 90,000 deaths have occurred in red states and if that were the country's total we would have seen the second most number of deaths globally, trailing only brazil the united states would still be responsible for the 11% of global deaths despite constituting only about 4% of the world's population

the depths of the president's lies are so blatant and brazen and there are certain outlets and organizations that just repeat them. so there's a part of the population that believes these lies and don't know what is really going on. listening to dr. vin gupta say that 95% of people if they wore masks we could end this virus. this is preventable. yet the president is pushing us in a direction where more people are dying. and now talking about red states and blue states. last time i checked, they were all american citizens. >> yeah. it is striking how he is taking this virus in that blue state comment. and seeking to divide and pit people against each other more and the mask debate, which shouldn't be a debate, people should wear masks, it also feeds into that to a certain extent.

people who are against masks versus people who are for masks. people in blue state versus people in red states we've said a thousand times the virus doesn't care politically what you do, which state you live in. the virus does apparently care about whether you wear a mask or not. but he is remarkably consistent in his ability to divide i think this goes back to the election he wants a vaccine before november that seems to be election related. he wants to seem like a strong person in charge who doesn't necessarily need a mask. that is election related and woodward's book, at least what i've read about it, i still haven't read it, i'm sorry about that bob woodward, points to this idea that everything is about him. is in context of him as the election is

so whatever he appears to think will get him closer to winning re-election is what he's going to say but i think the one thing that strikes me about this, especially in that conversation between dr. redfield and president trump, is it seemed like dr. redfield was saying something i've been thinking for a while, which is science isn't magic. these vaccines and these vaccine companies are moving at an incredibly quick rate. i think everyone in the country, no matter what party wants a vaccine because that will perhaps get us back to something like the normal lives we used to lead but it's not magic. even if we had a vaccine, let's give president trump what he wants, say we have a vaccine by november or december, the amount of coordination and logistics that will be involved to get it produced and then get it to -- out in the states and then decide is it the elderly who get it, is it first responders who

get it first, is it children who get it first, whatever that is is going to take a massive amount of federal government logistics to get it done it doesn't seem like we are treating this as though we have a huge, huge project to do because it appears because the president's eye is only on saying things that will make everybody feel better before we get to the election. >> it's been that way since the beginning as bob woodward's book has revealed to us dr. gupta if we cut through some of the fog we saw created by the president yesterday on the question of vaccines, how will this roll out? it seemed that dr. atlas was suggesting that the most vulnerable people would get it quickly whenever they have it, the president said it'll be sometime around election day, we can't take him at his word, assume it's a little later than that they get it first and how long

does it take to get into the general population when do you see a time when most or all americans who need it will be inoculated, will have the vaccine? >> dr. fauci and others a little closer to the data are suggesting by the end of g-2, most americans will have had an initial dose -- of 2021. the challenge is all the data, all of these vaccines are not that strong in inducing an immune spot immune shot, so that means you need a booster like our kids need a booster, you need a booster so not only do you need one, you need a second. and maybe some individuals may need a third depending on the nature of the vaccine. but that's 660 million doses of a vaccine, not 330

that's a key piece, iwillie. one of two los angeles county sheriff's deputies injured in an apparent ambush attack over the weekend has been released from the hospital the l.a. county sheriff tweeted the news last night saying the deputy has a long road to recovery adding we are in this together the two deputies were shot in their patrol car in compton, saturday night the second deputy was also critically injured in the shooting her condition right now is unclear. a military whistle-blower said federal officials sought use of a microwave-like weapon designed by the military to make people feel like their skin is burning when in the range of invisible rays to deal with protesters outside the white house on june 1st that law enforcement forcibly cleared

lafayette square major adam demarco of the d.c. national guard, the lead military officer in the department of defense for the d.c. region. said he was copied on an email from the provost marshall that said he was looking for two things, a long range accuoustic device and a device called an active denial system as a way to disperse crowds. the same device pentagon officials were reluctant to use in iraq. demarco provided his account as a whistle-blower and written responses to the house committee on naturcural resources obtainey nbc news said he responded the guard was not in possession of either device. and what is now tropical depression sally made landfall

near gulf shores alabama yesterday as a category 2. more than half a million people lost power due to the strong winds. in downtown pensacola, florida nearly 30 inches of rain flooded the streets. the national guard has been called in to assist with recovery efforts let's go to bill karins to see where we stand on this. >> we have issues with water, flash flood warnings in atlanta every night and the heavy rain headed to the mid atlantic it's still a big huge rain maker. we saw record flooding last night in alabama, georgia and florida. here's where the storm is currently, now hitting over the top of georgia, some of the heaviest rainfall moving through georgia into south carolina later today. you can see the maroon behind me, this area is under a flash flood warning. and that's what slides up to the

carolinas throughout the day and into the even to southern virginia this is the rainfall forecast. the highest totals will be in areas of the western north carolina, then the center of the state, charlotte, raleigh, norfolk and virginia could get 4 inches of rain it's going to happen in a short time period. let me catch you up on where we are with the tropical frenzy we have vicky, not a concern we have to watch teddy closely and the western gulf of maine k -- gulf of mexico, a storm. and that's our last name, w. and then we have to go to the greek names. as far as teddy goes let me fast forward five days from now, the storm comes close on monday to bermuda and then we have big differences in the

models, the european model has it near nova scotiascotia, where american model has it far-off of at sea and the european model has a hurricane off the texas coast where the american model does not. this is something we'll watch closely. our friends in new england, nova scotia, we have to watch teddy and in texas and louisiana another storm we have to watch early next week it looks like. this is off the charts as far as how fast we've been having one storm after another. since we're at the peak of the season in mid september it's not going to stop. we could easily be alpha, beta early next week. >> burning through the alphabet quickly this year. dr. gupta, i want to go back to you, you are in washington

state outside of seattle where the wildfires are taking place and consuming the air, the smoke. i've been reading about the air quality index, i read one that said walking outside of washington state is like smoking half a pack of cigarettes. how bad is it there and are you seeing effects in your hospital? >> thanks for highlighting this important issue. we are seeing impacts in the hospital people in our local hospitals coming in with asthma exacerbatio exacerbations. they had asthma and they had a worsening, a shortness of breath things are getting slowly better but our air quality was in the hazardous range for a period of time last week in places like millcreek, california, the air quality index is as high as 900. below 100 is normal. here's the key, two things, one we know covid-19 can more easily

infect somebody in the presence of air pollution, air pollution facilitates infection. and if you're infected with covid-19 you're likely to end up in the icu exposed to high levels of air pollution. that's one the other thing i get, doc we're dealing with two crises right now, where's the n95 you get where's that mask for us if the defense production act had been instituted on february 7th when the president knew covid-19 was airborne, maybe we could talk about not just masks but high quality masks for people >> dr. gupta, thank you so much for being on this morning. we will see you again soon still ahead on "morning joe," new numbers on the state of the presidential race from several key battlegrounds. plus, big ten football is coming back next month and president trump is claiming credit

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we got an opportunity, a responsibility not just to ourselves. we got a legacy to uphold. people to make proud so we got to take advantage of the moment of the momentum. we got to protect our power. be the vanguards of our own voices we got to keep doing the work because our right to be heard won't be taken away on our watch. we got this, we got next >> that's a first look at the new ad from the group more than a vote which together with the naacp defense fund has the questiwe got next campaign.

the ad narrated by cj mccollum set to air during game two of the eastern conference finals. in football, the big ten revealed teams will return to the field next month to adopt significant medical proposals, including daily testing for players and team staff members players who test positive will be sidelined for 21 days and if a team's positive test rate tops 5% all of its practices and games will stop for at least 7 days president trump took credit yesterday for helping the big ten. yesterday writing on twitter, great news, big ten football is back all teams to participate. thank you to the players, coaches, parents, all school representatives. have a fantastic season. it is my great honor to have helped however a big ten president involved in the decision yesterday told nbc news, quote,

president trump had nothing to do with our decision and did not impact the deliberations in fact, when his name came up it was a negative because no one wanted this to be political. jonathan lemire it wasn't just on twitter in that briefing where you are yesterday president trump led with it when he walked out saying big ten football is back, i was happy to help push it over the line and then implored the pac 12 to get back on the field. i talked to people around this decision yesterday who echoed what we heard there which was president trump's downward pressure was not helpful in fact, when his name came up it just politicized it and led the fights they wanted to do what was best for players. >> he's been on this for a few weeks pushing the big ten to get back remember schools in the big ten play in pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, states we've been talking about the last two

months which i'm sure it was a coincidence for the president, who is a football fan. that's right, reporting of my colleagues at the ap saying those schools weren't impacted by trump's call to get back to football though he did excerpt some public pressure. we have seen him, fans respond to him, players respond to him, echo his facalls for football t come back. and now moving to the pac 10 all college sports remain at different categories than professional sports. these are college kids not being paid for their service as we learn about covid-19, as we learn about its side effects, including cardiovascular ones, heart inflammation that can impact athletes in the best shape. that is something that's a long-term concern. and there are questions whether

these universities should be responsible for long-term care if there are side effects for any of these athletes who do contract the coronavirus so i think this is something that certainly i'm sure football fans are happy to have them back but it's something we need to watch carefully. college athletes very differently than professionals who are paid millions to play and therefore can make choices -- they have much more atonmy to make choices. >> the conference think it's doing what's best for the players but they don't know because science doesn't know, medicine doesn't know about long term effects you had ed orgeron saying he thinks his entire team has had not knowing the impact long term on the athletes. >> it's how the entire pandemic was handled. unfortunately if we were like other countries we'd be in a better place up next, when it comes to the

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we can't allow politics to interfere with a vaccine in any way. americans have had to endure president trump's incompetence and dishonesty when it comes to testing and personal protective equipment. we can't afford to repeat those fiascos when it comings to a vaccine when it occurs the stakes are too high. american families have already suffered and sacrificed too much so let me be clear, i trust vaccines i trust scientists but i don't trust donald trump and at this moment the american people can't either. >> it's not just president

donald trump at the top of the next hour we'll talk about attorney general bill barr and his possible influence over federal prosecutors, "the new york times" reporting that barr recommended charging some charged in violent demonstrations barr raised the issue whether seattle's mayor could be charged for allowing a weeks' long protest in her city and compared lockdown orders to slavery joining us now ed luce his latest article which will be out this morning is entitled america is drifting into a perfect storm. ed, tell us more about your piece and how what i just reported might play into it. especially as it pertains to these elections. >> what you're going to talk about as regards to bill barr is

extremely relevant to, i think, what's going to happen over the next few weeks the reason i talk about america drifting into a perfect storm is we have an election here in which people on both sides believe that if the other side wins, that there will be an existential threat to the future of american democracy. the playing field will be tilted against them in other words, that this is a zero sum, an all or nothing election very different to the normal business of democracy. this is a game that has to be won. and the -- if the other side wins, it will be because of fraud. now donald trump has, of course, been describing this as the most corrupt election in american history for months now this isn't just a couple of throw away remarks this is a consistent message to his supporters

that if things go wrong, it will be because of a democratic rigging. and the talk of a democratic coupe, is rife it's common place on sites such as the federalist, "breitbart," fox news circles so his base is primed up for the idea if he loses it will be because of fraud and on the left, i think perhaps a lot more understandably, there is exactly the same fear that, you know, if trump wins it will be because he's allowed a pandemic to rage, where i think, if you listen to the scientists, going into covid 2.0, a second surge as the influenza season begins, which it is beginning round about now, which is going to be escalating in the build up to november 3rd.

we're going to see a sort of day fac -- de facto suppressed votes with the mail-in ballot. and if trump wins it's not going to be seen as legitimate by many people on the left this is a perilous moment for american democracy this is not how things should work you don't see the opposition as the enemy. you see them as an opponent. americans increasingly see the other side as the enemy and the stakes as all or nothing i feel a visceral sense of drea about this election in a way i never have before. >> understood. jonathan lemire? >> ed, good to see you you talk about how your concerns will happen as the president riles up his supporters were he to lose. talk to us a little bit about -- what are warning signs you see about the runup to the election,

and perhaps how president might lean on the levers of government to try to put his thumb on the scale here and alter election results, making it difficult to vote, perhaps launching politically motivated investigations, namely the department of justice and william barr what can democrats do to try to safeguard the process? >> there are a couple of things that i think are pretty well flagged that this show has talked about a lot one of them is, of course, an october surprise in the form of the president trump championing a vaccine that -- as a miracle cure that simply isn't ready to be presented as such. perhaps we're inoculated against that scenario because we anticipated it there are also potential october surprises in terms of potential clashes in the south china sea, the temperature there between china and taiwan and america

selling more arms to taiwan is very high and we should not take our eye off that ball. ditto for iran secretary pompeo this week talked about snap back sanctions on iran. which means basically intercepting iranian oil tankers potentially in the strait of hormuth. what president trump can do the voting machinery, the fairness on the ground, elections are run by states and counties, not by the federal government therefore what he can do directly is very limited but i think as he and bill barr have been making very clear, there's no daylight between bill barr and the president on this they see mail-in balloting as a fraudulent activity. they see -- they know that more democrats than republicans by

far are planning to vote by mail this year. and again, are teeing up not just their own base, but also a lot of republican lawyers for a lot of cases to stop counting in swing states across the country. and so, i think that's the real -- this idea of there being a red mirage on the day of the election with the physical count, it looks like republicans have won you then have president trump claiming he's won and all further counting should stop bill barr has teed himself up to legally intervene on behalf of that claim >> this is a nightmare ed luce, thank you for laying that out shawna, you have the next question >> good morning, ed. your piece is a little bit

terrifying and seems to say that we are primed for conflict in this country no matter which direction the election goes. i'm curious, do you think, assuming that president trump isn't going to take sort of a tone after the election of we all have to get together and believe in whatever the ballots actually say, but do you think there are any leaders in the united states or a confluence of leaders in the united states that could help tamp down the conflict, i think you're pointing to, that we may get to after election day >> i think it's a really good question the statement earlier this year by joe biden i think it was on trevor noah's show the military, the armed personnel would escort trump from the white house i understand the sentiment but i think it was a little bit rash to suppose people in uniform, military uniform would sort of break more than a two-century

tradition there and intervene in civilian politics. so we have to look to people around trump to -- for reason to prevail in the republican party, if it's very clear that the alternative to conceding in what has been a free and fair defeat, which i think is the scenario you're asking about, the alternative to conceding is a constitutional breakdown and so, we have to hope that somebody like jared kushner, you know, or people in the private sector, steve schwartzman, have the courage and also the wisdom to see in a situation like that that scorched earth is going to burn everything down for everybody, including the trump organization but i can't readily think of who these wise birds would be. which is why i sort of desperately fumbled for jared

kushner. that's how sort of empty this cupboard is. >> that's how frightening this is ed luce, thank you so much some harsh realities there in your analysis. still ahead, concerns over the coronavirus appear to give joe biden the advantage in several swing states plus, susan collins and lindsey graham fighting for their political lives. as republicans try to hold onto the senate we'll run through the latest numbers. and snl picks a new actor to play joe biden in the season opener we'ltel ll you who it is

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nbc announced yesterday actor jim carey will be the latest performer to play democratic presidential nominee joe biden on "saturday night live." the show returns live from new york next month, october 3rd,

it'll be live in new york for the first time since march the role has been played by jason se day cuss, john me lay knee he'll be joined by alec baldwin, and maya rudolph who will play senator kamala harris after her performance last season people fell in love with it snl will have five new episodes in october leading up to election day on november 3rd i have no doubt that the talented jim carey will do something interesting with this and he'll be good at it. but i have to go formal endorsement for joe sudeikis >> i'm going to second that endorsement of sudeikis. taking nothing from jim carey who's a legend but along with the onion

portrayal of joe biden, i think his portrayal of the former vice president was so spot on and hysteric hysterical i'd love to see him back and certainly new episodes of snl running up to the election i suspect they'll have material with which to draw their show next week. >> they'll be live in studio 8h. now you have me thinking about joe biden watching his corvette in the driveway. still ahead, the president contradicts the congressional testimony of the director of the cdc on the timing of the vaccine and the importance of wearing face masks saying the director of the cdc in his sworn congressional testimony was, quote, confused peter baker joins us with his new reporting next who is usaa made for? it's made for him a veteran who honorably served and it's made for her she's serving now

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welcome back to "morning joe" it is thursday september 17th with us we have mike barnicle and errin haines, white house correspondent for "the new york times" peter baker and correspondent for pbs news hour amnva lavs president trump and the director of the cdc are at odds over the timing of a coronavirus vaccine and the importance of wearing masks. here's robert redfield in a senate hearing yesterday testifying that a vaccine will not be widely distributed until

spring or summer of next year. >> i think there will be vaccine that initially will be available sometime between november and december, but very limited supply and will have to be prioritized. if you're asking me when is it going to be generally available to the american public so we can begin to take advantage of vaccine to get back to our regular life, i think we're probably looking at third -- late second quarter, third quarter 2021 >> i think he made a mistake when he said that. it's just incorrect information. and i called him and he didn't tell me that i think he got the message maybe confused maybe it was stated incorrectly. we're ready to go immediately as the vaccine is announced and it could be announced in october. >> also in that senate hearing dr. redfield came out in strong support of what's been obvious to a lot of people for a long

time which is that wearing masks to combat coronavirus is a good idea. >> face masks are the most important powerful tool we have. i will continue to appeal for all americans, all individuals in our country to embrace the face coverings if we did it for six, eight, ten, 12 weeks we'd bring the pandemic under control we have clear scientific evidence they work and they are our best defense i might even go so far as to say this face mask is more guaran e guaranteed to protect me against covid than when i take a covid vaccine. >> number one it's not more effective than a vaccine i called him and those are the two things i discussed with him. i believe, if you ask him, he would probably say that he didn't understand the question but when i called up robert today, i said to him, what's

with the mask? he said, i think i answered that question incorrectly, i think maybe he misunderstood it. you have two questions, maybe he misunderstood both of them but the answer to the one is it's going to be a faster distribution than he said, maybe he's not aware of the distribution process, it's not his thing as much as it is say mine as far as the mask is concerned, i hope the vaccine is a lot more beneficial than the masks. >> following those remarks dr. redfield tweeted this, quote, i 100% believe in the importance of vak skeens and the importance of a covid-19 vaccine. the best defense we currently have against the virus are the important mitigation efforts of wearing a mask, washing your hands, social distancing and being careful about crowds so the comments from the

president contradicting dr. redford come in the context of bob woodward's book where we hear and see the president sayingsomething different in private than in public about the severity of the coronavirus and what people ought to be doing about it so viewers are left with a choice, do you believe the hunch informed by politics of president trump or the informed response of the head of the cdc? >> this is the situation we're in where a president of the united states does not have credibility according to polls with the majority of the american public on this topic. polls have asked who do you trust more, president trump or dr. redfield, dr. fauci, the other scientists working on this the polls show that the public is much more trusting right now of the scientists than the president. and it's because the president's own messaging has been at the very least contradictory among

himself at the same time he's contradicting the scientists it's a remarkable thing yesterday, it's hard to imagine a president sort of dressing down one of the nation's top scientists for an agency that's a premier health agency, for not just policy recommendations that the president might take into account different factors than a scientist would but the facts being presented by the scientist. that's a remarkable situation. >> there is a big concern, people watching this presidency, this wannabe dictator. that this is becoming cult like. the people who love this president and follow him and follow him all the way to refusing to wear masks and calling it their right and follow him in different ways when he is delivering flatout lies to the american people. he's tweeting doctored videos of joe biden, retweeting them the disinformation from the

mouth of this president is frightening to me at least listening to these analysts and historians who are watching the direction that this is going in. especially right now for the people who follow this president, i'm sorry to say, blindly. because they're putting their lives at stake the death from coronavirus is slow and torterous. and he didn't care about them. the moments after the cdc director testified about the safety of mask wearing, you heard dr. gupta on our show this morning, if 95% of the country wore masks, we could mitigate this virus and the president is flouting masking making fun of it making fun of his political opponent he talks about deaths in red states or blue states. my fear is for this country and all of us, but especially in the

moment for people following this president who is running this country like it's a cult let's turn to the attorney general bill barr who in comments at an event at hills dale college in michigan yesterday expressed his opposition to stay-at-home orders in the early months of the covid-19 pandemic with a connection to slavery. >> tell the business people what the rules are, and then let them try to adapt their business to that and you'll have ingenuity and people will have the freedom to try to earn a living but, you know, putting a national lockdown, stay-at-home orders is like house arrest. you know, other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint this is the greatest intrusion on civil rights in

history. >> i don't know what my question is to you the attorney general comparing businesses to prevent the spread of a virus that has shutdown the country in many ways, health and also economically, saying it's the worst restraint since slavery. your thoughts? >> willie, i don't really know what the answer is you know, i mean, first of all, other than the fact that there is no equivalent to slavery for anything in this country, and, you know, why the attorney general chose to make that comparison, i cannot say in his mind but, you know, slavery being a pretty egregious thing for most americans. perhaps that was the impetus for that comparison. to try to illustrate how onerous

he sees the restrictions of the pandemic to have been. but, you know, what about, you know, the freedom to, you know, protect one's self and to stay alive amidst a global public health crisis. you know, that i guess is not a liberty that he would think would be equally important but listen, you know, to mika's point about kind of the, you know, dr. redfield's cautions about masking, saying how important of a protection that that could be. you know, this -- hearing from officials like this and knowing, to peter's point, about the fact that most of the american people are not feeling great about the president's handling of this pandemic, these are the kinds of people that are filling the void in terms of public safety. and also a plan, i remember this

summer when the president talked about how a national plan was coming around the pandemic that hasn't happened so in absence of that, everybody from businesses to parents who need to figure out, you know, the next few weeks, months, possibly year of their life under this new normal, you know, are largely starting to, you know, rely increasingly on the guidance of these public health officials who are continuing to encourage, again, masking, social distancing precautions in absence of a vaccine that is not coming, according to medical experts, any time soon. >> as we've been saying this morning, the framing of attorney general of this as an intrusion on civil liberties, he called the lockdown, masking, an intrusion on civil liberties saying it's the worst we've had except for slavery, of course, which is a different kind of

restraint to use his words but the way he and the president talk about these things we needed doctors say since februar february, framed as an intrusion on civil liberties, we see the manifestation of that where people hear that and run through stores yelling at people wearing masks telling them, you can't take away my liberties >> it's becoming ominous, the direction this is going to as we head into the election, willie there is a failure in leadership as it pertains to the coronavirus. if you listen to the woodward tapes, trump's voice himself, there are basic truths and we have people following this president who are believing his lies and running with them literally through stores there are also people covering this president who are going

along with these lies. so there's a segment of the population who doesn't even know basic truths we have a huge problem here. just with that scenario. and then the attorney general, who also spent a good amount of time criticizing career prosecutors. take a listen. >> name one successful organization or institution where the lowest level employees' decisions are deemed sacrosan sacrosanct there aren't any letting the most junior members set the agenda may be good for priest school, but it's no way to run a federal agency. good leaders at the department of justice, as any organization, need to trust and support their subordinates, but that does not mean blindly deferring to

whatever those sub board nants want to do. >> and the "new york times" reports that bill barr recommended charging some of those arrested in violent demonstrations with dediscussi . according to sources who were on the call, barr warned that violence in some demonstrations could worsen as the election approaches "the wall street journal" underscores the priority mr. barr has given to prosecuting crimes of violence leading to a majority -- leading to major property damage as president trump has made a broader crackdown on the violence and property destruction a key campaign issue. barr even raised the issue of

examining whether seattle's mayor could be charged for allowing a weeks' long autonomous protest zone in her city mike barnicle, joe tweeted this, barr considers jailing seattle's mayor for sedition, be prepared for the most dangerous attorney general in american history to be the tool trump uses to illegally up end election results. what's your take >> my take is the fbi has a list of the most dangerous elements in this country and at the top of the list are white supremacist organizations and neo-nazi organizations and organizations like the boogalo boys out in cities around america. you never hear bill barr talking about them, talking about charging them with sedition. you hear bill barr involving himself in politics. these two stories that we've

covered since the top of the hour, donald trump versus dr. redfield and bill barr backing up donald trump and attacking career employees in the department of justice, deserve to be joined together in played over and over and over again. because if you do a forensic autopsy of the failures of this administration with regard to covid-19, its handling of it, it's all encompassed right here in the last 10 or 12 minutes that we saw or listened to it is horrendous we are approaching 200,000 deaths from covid-19 in this country. there is going to be no wall with the names of the casualties, the victims, the killed in action victims to covid-19 there's going to be no wall for them yellow ribbons at the end of the driveway on your mailbox aren't going to cut it. this is a complete breakdown and failure in incompetence and immorality i would submit of this administration and people

like donald trump's enablers in person just now bill barr the attorney general of the united states >> amna, your take on these concerns i look at the elections, i'm worried that they're building up to something nefarious here. >> mika, i think the president has two main messages going into the election one is this law and order message, which he's had since the beginning of his campaign and in response to the nationwide racial justice protests and black lives matter movement he has come out on the side of law and order and maintaining that, rather than saying let's address the root concerns of this movement and protests the other is on the pandemic front as has been said that things are going to get better that everything is going to be fine, the economy is opening, things are opening up, football is back, life is getting back to

normal and the vaccine is coming there aren't a lot of wins for the president on either front because the protests continue because a lot of work has to be done when it comes to racial justice in this country and the vaccine is a threat for millions of americans with hundreds dying every day and the u.s. continuing to lead the world when it comes to both infections and deaths we have to remember, too, that who is the most vulnerable in all of this. i want to point to the recent study done we've known for months that black and brown communities have been disproportionately affected when it comes to the coronavirus and we see that children of color are being affected when it comes to death it's a small number about 121 kids over a matter of months over 400,000 or so infections. but each family, imagine the loss of losing your child to what could have been a

preventable infection. this is also before schools are reopening. there's still great uncertainty ahead. there aren't a lot of answers coming from the president and the white house right now. so we're in this remarkable moment which has been said before in this conversation where science is on the ballot americans are being asked to decide if they want to believe the president or if they want to believe the head of the centers for disease control and prevention it's not just a matter of civil liberties, people are in the streets in anti-masking protests so this is a real divide it's a very real divide. it's been a long-time coming anyone who covered the 9/11 truthers and pizza gate and q-anon knows once you start distrusting the systems that doesn't go back in the bottle. this isn't just going to have an impact on the election but a long time after. >> and those people have been elevated as president trump

retweets and voices their conspiracy theories. as we talk about the president's strategy, there's a new poll out, the president has targeted the suburbs and said suburban white women, joe biden wants to abolish the suburbs. there's a poll showing it's not working. only 11% of suburban whites say being tough on crime is what's important to them. no, what's important is coronavirus. the thing at the center of our life what's important is corona, the economy and the follow effects of the pandemic that's swept through the country over the past six months. so do you expect the fact that it's not taking hold, the president to continue down this law and order path and try to scare suburban voters into voting for him >> i think it's a theme we'll continue to see this fall. yes, i think the president used it as important to rallying his own voters, his own base as you

say he'd rather not talk about the coronavirus, would rather put that behind us and say we're rounding the corner is the phrase he's using. so the law and order from his point of view is a more salient message at least getting the people inclined to vote for him and like his policies to turn out again and put aside any misgivings that they have about the coronavirus or about his leadership and other issues. so the law and order thing may not be attracting new voters it's thought to solidify voters he had or thought he had we're about a week and a half away i think from the first debate, september 29th, tuesday. i think that will be the key moment when we see these two candidates on stage together and there's a choice rather than referendum right now president trump is not doing well at the polls because it's been a referendum a question whether you think president trump is doing a good

job or not, and less than a majority of the people think he's doing a good job. he's going to turn it around by making vice president biden an unacceptable alternative we'll see that in the debates. still ahead on "morning joe," new reporting on a disturbing case from georgia after a whistle-blower accuses a doctor of performing unnecessary hysterectomies at an.c i.e. detention center we're back in a moment sing you. that wall is your everest. but not any more. today let's paint. behr. exclusively at the home depot. - i'm szasz. [norm] and we live in columbia, missouri. we do consulting, but we also write. [szasz] we take care of ourselves constantly; it's important. we walk three to five times a week, a couple miles at a time. - we've both been taking prevagen for a little

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the doctor at the center of abuse allegations against female immigrants, including a high number of hysterectomies at a georgia i.c.e. detention facility is now speaking out his lawyer denied the allegations in a statement yesterday reading in part, quote, doctor amean is a highly

respected physician who has dedicated adult life to treating a high risk, under served population in rural georgia. meanwhile, mexico officials have asked for a formal investigation into the alleged practices which may be considered a human rights violation. it comes after a nurse who worked at the corrections facility and four lawyers representing clients claimed that immigrant women are routinely being sent to the doctor who has left them bruised and performed unnecessary procedur procedures the nurse who filed a whistle-blower complaint did not witness in the of the alleged pros procedur procedures i.c.e. said there have been only two hysterectomies since 2016. joining us is an author of the new book "once i was you" a memoir of love and hate in a

torn america and boy what an important time for this book, maria your thoughts on this reporting. >> what's really hard for me as a journalist -- thank you for calling me a veteran journalist, and much respect to you as well. i've been reporting this story for years, mika. as you're reading that introduction, it was an african-american nurse in texas, in in remondville, texas that we reported about in 2011 that was alleging that several women had been raped, some had become pregnant and then they were being deported because if you deport the women, where's the evidence of the problem. we were reporting about people being overmedicated in this facility because on the one hand they'll give you two tylenol if you're really sick but another way to control you is by overmedicating you to a point

where you are basically a zombie we were reporting about this this was an official complaint, there were whistle-blowers what's happened since then the situation has gotten worse sadly what this is is really the result of consistent dehumanization because nothing like this should be surprising at this point anymore, mika. if you -- i'm going to say something horrible, it's quite early in the morning, but this is horrible. if you are -- >> it is. >> -- somebody who's a pedophile or a doctor who wants to experiment on people's bodies, if you are a sexual abuser with a high school degree, you can get plemployed at immigration detention facilities and if they're privately run and people are making a profit on wall street off of those bodies you're not going to report on this, we're not allowed into

these places this is what happens when you call people illegal, say they're a threat, and as you know immigrants have been a part of this country since forever, but sadly as i write in my book, it has been a tortured relationship between this country and immigrants >> the consistent dehumanization that you point to, how would you describe what has happened in the past few years in this administration i would think in a way it's revved up to epic speed? >> you're right. it's epic speed. sadly what i had to come to terms with in my book and this is hard, mika, as well it's not just the republicans. it's the democrats who have pots on both of their houses. which is why at this moment i would say there has to be radical action it is not a radical act to say we are going to close down these detention facilities that's not a radical act what is radical is what's

happening inside those detention facilities you're right while this was leading up, laws signed by bill clinton, then 9/11, george w. bush the push to increase and build all of these detention facilities then barack obama becomes known as the deporter in chief and then trump is elected and as all facilities said the shackles were taken off what's happened in the last years has been the horrific effect and at least now, mika, we see it. we know it we've heard the babies who are in these cages we've heard their voices it's not like when i was reporting about this in 2010, 2011, the year 2000, and people are like what are you talking about? that's not happening we know it now and sadly, mika, the reality is every single one of us has the responsibility to look at this and do something about this because it's not going away on its own. >> it's willie, good to see you

this morning i'm glad to see you talk about the long history of this, it's gotten focus the last three or four years, the problem in these camps, but what changes, if joe biden is elected -- as you say it's been out in the open now, it's explicit now. stephen miller talking about using this as a deterrent, separating families as a deterrent for people who may be thinking about coming to the country. jeff sessions saying it's a deterrent we don't want people to come so we're separating families so if joe biden becomes president, what do you hope happens on day one >> he doesn't have a better opportunity than today to say this needs to stop they need to be shut down. and immediately begin a process of reunification of all of the families that comes with unlimited mental health. now, that's me i'm not a politician but as a human being, as an immigrant myself

i was born in mexico, i'm a proud american citizen that's what needs to happen. i'm afraid the democrats will see this -- in fact, joe biden said i don't want to be radical. this isn't radical what's radical is what's happening against human beings' lives. i understand, this could happen to me because i wasn't born here at this point anybody not born in the country is like a litmus test i think that's one of the saddest things that has happened between you and me, the fact i wasn't born here means that something like this could happen to me. that's what we need to recognize. and please joe biden say something, do something, do not be quiet now >> maria, can you share with us the message of your book >> well, the message of my book, actually, mika, it kind of started when i had a viral moment on prime time, msnbc with

joy reid now years ago i said illegal is not a noun. you can't use it to refer to a human being, it's an act i thought that was going to be my book, illegal is not a noun but my publisher, agent said let's make this a bigger book. so it is a story of my life, but it is multiple stories because i'm a feminist, i'm a survivor of rape, i'm an immigrant, a journalist, the first latina in all the news rooms i worked, and we did a lot of history in the book i like to say there's spinach in the book but it's delicious tasting spinach, so you're going to learn something you'll walk away knowing something about my life, as you know, as a journalist with a family it's hard to talk about this with other journalists who are going to get in our business it's been a long haul and our country has to have a reckoning.

immigrants love this country and we're not going anywhere >> the new book is "once i was you, a memoir of love and hate in a torn america" maria, thank you so much for coming on the show this morning. coming up, nbc's heidi przybyla joins us with her reporting as the republican led senate ramps up his investigation of joe biden and burisma ahead of the election. "morning joe" is back in a moment our retirement plan with voya gives us confidence. they help us with achievable steps along the way... ...so we can spend a bit today, knowing we're prepared for tomorrow. wow dad, do you think you overdid it maybe? i don't think so... what do you think, peanut? nope! honey, do you think we overdid it? overdid what? see? we don't think so, son. technically, grandparents can't overdo it. it's impossible.

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welcome back to "morning joe. it is 7:38 in the morning at the united states capitol and this morning politico is reporting the senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee voted to authorize more than three dozen subpoenas and depositions as part of a

republican-led investigation targeting former obama administration officials and their roles in the presidential transitional period however the panel decided to scrap a second vote which would have authorized a subpoena to the u.s. ambassador of slovakia as part of the committee's investigation on joe and hunter biden. mitt romney said he would have voted against it the decision to skip the vote was made independent of mitt romney's opposition according to aides. senator ron johnson of wisconsin told supporters on monday, stay tuned in a week we'll learn more of vice president biden's unfitness for office joining us now heidi przybyla who has new reporting on the story. also with us, curt bardella.

good morning to both of you. i want to start with you heidi senator johnson saying it out loud yesterday we are going to find more about joe biden's unfitness for office, underlying the political impetus of this investigation. >> that's right, willie. today that panel is going to hear from the only known person to have actually spoken with joe biden in 2015 about burisma and nbc news has learned that multiple colleagues have been told that burisma was never an issue, never a factor, he was never asked to change u.s. policy nor did he change u.s. policy on ukraine due to burisma. in fact, hosting has told colleagues that joe biden and the president actually tried to crack down on burisma by encouraging, in 2015, during a meeting with ukraine officials for the former founder of

burisma to be prosecuted so this is all around the same time, willie, that these allegations from the committee were to have taken place when, in fact, the obama administration was trying to crack down on corruption this is really the latest blow to this investigation, which the fbi has already said is an attempt by -- is being used by russians to, quote, launder disinformation through this investigation and as you cited at the top there, willie, johnson has been making a number of comments not just yesterday but consistently throughout this probe. in august he said, quote, we've got to speed it up because we have an election coming. of course, the big irony here is that this entire investigation is really relying on and was spurred by the same corrupt ie cra ukrai ukrai ukraines that the obama

administration was targeting we saw it last week when the russian law faker that rudy giuliani was working with has been, quote, an active russian agent for over a decade. that is what the treasury said in levying sanctions against him. >> curt, you've worked on committees like this if you want it to be a serious investigation, you keep your head down, issue subpoenas, talk to witnesses and file a report and ron johnson from wisconsin is going out publicly and advertising what he's up to here. >> ron johnson, much like the pattern for republicans and donald trump, they're saying the quiet part outloud this is benghazi all over again. the republicans using the strings of power to try to go after the political adversaries. it doesn't matter what the truth is, the facts are, they're hoping the mere appearance of corruption and unethical conduct

is enough to drag down the joe biden presidential campaign. it's treasonous, frankly, that a member of the united states senate would traffic in russian propaganda to target an american presidential candidate using the levers of power to do it this is exactly why so many people i think are turned off right now of the republican party overall. this is a party that used to talk about responsibility, responsible oversight, getting to the truth, getting to the facts, investigations aren't about trying to get to an outcome and solution, it's about methodically, discreetly, responsibly getting to the truth. that's the opposite of what's happening, they're trying to make headlines and make the headlines they're manufacturing truthful by having an investigation back wards and ron johnson and every other republican that sits up there and allows it to continue should be ashamed of themselves. >> errin haines has a question for you. >> good morning.

i'm wondering what you think -- back in january when the country was focused, you know, on the impeachment hearings and questions of burisma and hunter biden -- when senate republicans tried to make that a part of the conversation we were not in the midst of a global health crisis and a national reckoning on race i wonder what you make of how much of an issue this is going to be as republicans try to bring this back up with seven weeks to go until the election is that going to be seen as a distraction in the midst of everything else that frankly the american people and voters are having to weigh in this moment or does it just contribute to the chaotic climate that so many people feel they are in right now? >> i think it just illustrates how desperate and out of touch the republican party has become with main stream america the idea that during a pandemic,

200,000 americans now almost dead, no end in sight, the president openly contradicting his own cdc, tampering with different processes, trying to limit the scope of information coming out for political purposes if ron johnson and the homeland security want to investigate something, donald trump is giving us amle fodder of things to investigate and pursue things affecting the people's livelihood in real time, the fact they're not doing that and engaging in these witch hunts instead -- this is basically taxpayer financed opposition research i don't think people want that, when their unemployment has run out, their health care is running out, and they don't know if they can send their kids to school safely, and this is what the republicans want to touch? >> kurt and heidi, thank you for your reporting

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and what am i? >> the faithfulness you talked of, madam. tell me truly, when you found out he was going, did you get engaged that same hour >> you mocked me once. never do it again. i died that day. you can die, too, for all i care >> as you wish >> oh, my sweet wesley what have i done ow ooh. >> that was the scene from the iconic 1987 film "the princess bride. just last week, the cast reunited for a star packed live

screened script reading as a fund-raiser to help joe biden's campaign in key battleground state wisconsin. joining us now, two of the stars. carrie elwiss and robin wright great to have you both on the show what a scene robin, start us off here how did this come about? >> kerry wrangled all of us together, getting over 100,000 people to participate and raising how much money did we get for the democratic wisconsin party, kerry >> yeah, we actually did very well we made over $4,257,000. it's the biggest grassroots fund razor that the democratic party of wisconsin that's ever held sflp they said this is the biggest event they've ever done in terms of grassroots

fund-raising robin, when you first heard the idea of revisiting that that for so many of you launched your careers and you've both gone on to such success since then, what was your thought and did it kind of take you back to a different time >> oh, completely. it was so moving and so invigorating to be involved with the whole cast again, what, 37 years later? and what that generated to have so many people join forces and want to get out there and volunteer which is the most porch important thing. whether you're doing text or phone banking or recruiting polls, poll workers, we all have a party in this to change the course of history. this is the most important election i think we've ever had. >> so, kerry, i'm sure this raises the question and there

are democratic chairs going, they raised how much are you going to take this act on the road? >> we are, willie. we've been approached by some other battleground states to do some other movies. >> i bet >> so we're looking at doing some other table reads, yes. >> mike barnacle has a question for you. >> robin, bill goldman was friend of mine and seeing you today and nearly every time i've seen you during your great career in every role you've ever been in, forgive me, every time i see it, see you, i think of one word, mowage. what does it feel like for you and for kerry, and kerry, i'd like you to answer this, as well, to be part of a program, a movie, rather, that is so enduring that it sort of eclipses a whole lot of things you may have done, but the movie itself is so enduring, still

popular today. what does it feel like to have been a part of that? >> i mean, i feel honored to be a part of such an iconic film. and having read the script together with the full cast, it's so relevant to today. there were so many things afterwards, right? kerry, we were like, oh, my goodness the masks, the joke about the masks in the movie, i feel like it's very important and may be everybody should listen to the script more closely next time. >> it's true i think as an actor, you're lucky to have anyone resinate with your work and this film in particular, as robin says, resinated with so many people. and now it's bigger than all of us so, yes, we very proud to be a part of it

>> thank you so much amazing. we appreciate your being on this morning. >> sure. can i just say -- >> still ahead -- oh, yes, go ahead, kerry >> yes we encourage anyone who wants to get involved please go to wisdems volunteers.org if they want to volunteer or donate. >> sure. still ahead, polls show more voters are concerned about the pandemic plus, president trump and the director of the cdc appear to be at odds over the timing of a potential coronavirus vaccine. and the importance of wearing masks. "morning j" oeis coming right back

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i actually got to read it last night i read it very quickly and it was very boring. by the way, i read the book last night very rapidly because it was very boring. >> okay. that's president trump two days in a row claiming that he read bob woodward's new book, quote, last night, the last two nights. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is thursday, september 17th joe has the morning off, but along with willie and me, we have white house reporter for the associated press jonathan lamere and nbc news and msnbc contributor shawna thomas. and we're following a lot of stories this morning, including

tropical depression sally now moving inland after hitting alabama and florida with flooding rain and storm surge. plus, some remarkable comments from attorney general bill barr. attacking prosecutors in his own department of justice and saying the stay-at-home orders in the early months of covid-19 were the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in american history other than slavery also this mortgagning, the ten football season will kick off next month president trump is taking a victory lap. but at least one college president says it had nothing to do with him at all willie it is a busy morning and let's start with president trump and the director of the cdc who appear to be at odds over the timing of a potential coronavirus vaccine and the importance of wearing masks. director robert redfield said in a senate hearing yesterday, a

vaccine will be the be widely distributed until spring or summer of next year. >> and i think there will be vaccine that initially be available sometime between november and december, but very limited supply and will have to be prioritized if you're asking me when is it going to be generally available to the american public, so we can begin to take advantage of vaccine to get back to our regular life, i think we're probably looking at third -- late second quarter, third quarter 2021 >> i think he made a mistake when he said that. it's incorrect information and i called him and he didn't tell me that and i think he got the message maybe confused no, we're ready to go immediately as the vaccine is announced and it could be announced in october >> and then to the question of masks at the senate hearing yesterday.

dr. redfield came out in strong support of wearing masks to combat coronavirus >> face masks are the most important powerful public health tool we have and i will continue to appeal for all americans, all individuals in our country, to embrace these face coverings i've said it, if we did it for six, 8, 10, 12 weeks, we would bring this pandemic under control. these actually, we have clear scientific evidence they work and they are our best defense. i might even go so far as to say this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against covid than when i take a covid vaccine. >> number one, it's not more effective by any means than a vaccine and i called him about that those were the two things i discussed with him and i believe that if you ask him, he would probably say that he didn't understand the question but when i called up robert today, i said to him, what is

with the mask? he said i think i answered that question incorrectly i think maybe he misunderstood it he had two questions maybe he misunderstood both of them but the answer to the one is it's going to be a much faster distribution than he said. maybe he's not aware of the distribution process it's not really his thing as much as it would be, let's say, mine but i hope that the vaccine is going to be a lot more beneficial than the masks. >> so president trump says dr. redfield, the head of the cdc was, quote, confused afterwards, redfield tweeted this, quote, i 100% believe in the importance of vaccines and the importance in particular of a covid-19 vaccine a covid-19 vaccine is the thing that will get americans back to normal everyday life the best defense we currently have against this virused are the important mitigation efforts of wearing a mask, social distancing and being careful about crowds

jonathan lamere, you were there in the room with that briefing of president trump asked a couple of questions on masks and about these contradictions he said the head of the cdc was, quote, confused by those two questions. he didn't look confused if you watched the tape how did this play out afterwards >> that's right, willie. and certainly we can safely say this we have never been here before in terms on of a president so frequently and publicly and consistently contradicting the medical experts and health professionals and the public health experts on his own staff, including here the director of the cdc who did not appear confused in his testimony yesterday where he offered a timeline on a vaccine and messaging on masks that simply doesn't scare with what the president said day in and day out and particularly what he said he is hoping happens from

his re-election bid. he said they thought the first responder would be available to first responders, the most who need it most by year's end and we know his advisers really want that to happen, thinking that could be his october surprise and i asked him about masks and said, look, if, indeed, the cdc director thinks that masks are as or even more important than a vaccine, why not, considering the resources you put into developing a vaccine, why not devote similar energy into promoting mask usage, even if it's simply a matter of you and members of the white house staff wearing them, even though you, of course, are tested every day to promote their use and he also said that was not something he agreed with

that leads us to this question, does he truly have confidence in the cdc director the cdc director clearly decided to clean up those comments rather than trying to resign out of protest it will be interesting to see how that plays out in the coming days and yes, in the moments after the briefing contacted, the penalty retreated to the white house press office to watch the coverage of what just transpired and according to a person who overheard the exchange, the president return to the group of aides with him, watched how he rebuked and undermined redfield and simply said, i did the best i could in terms of trying to change the messaging of the moment which of course, those, seems to yet again fly in the face of science. >> first of all, pull back two things here. obviously, he wants that vaccine within the election period and he wants to be able to announce it but there was even disagreement

in the room as to when that vaccine would be available and who it would be available to was it first responders, was it people who most needed it? was it the general public? and that would change from october to november to q1 to march. it was a push to try and get some sort of vaccine announcement as soon as possible who cares who it's really for. who cares what the truth is. the president just wants what he wants, whether or not it actually is a fact something we've seen before, a pattern of his presidency i brought up masks which would save lives here is that schak >> why not have the what you say wear more often for the benefit of the country >> well, i've tested and i'm somewhat surprised joe feels very safe. >> a mask. maybe he doesn't want to expose his face i don't know he'll be way away from people.

there will be nobody with him. he'll have circles there is no reason for him to have masks on. >> let's bring in dr. vin gupta. apology eggs, dr. gupta, for having you repeat basic facts and basic science here, but the president of the united states appears to be making fun or of or saying it's less important for some to wear masks, made fun of joe biden wearing masks because he was far enough away from people. this, to me, appears to be a massive disservice to the american people where we're going to have 200,000 deaths, i believe, by the end of this week and the death toll keeps counting masks save lives, don't they

>> good morning, mika, and thanks for the opportunity first of all, yes, 100%. this is what we know now we have defenive proof of what the president knew on february 27th, which is, indeed, covid-19 is airborne whether you have a -- that should trigger not only -- let me make sure every american has access to a mask, but one that is well fitting and high quality. especially with smog on the west coast, that well fitting high quality piece has never been more important because people are scared the reality is in people are in lockdown mode. that is one. number two, just to be clear -- >> dr. gupta, you say people are scared i am scared. members of my family are scared. a lot of my friends and family are scared and they wear the

mask but there are a lot of people who are following the president and making fun of masks, running through stores screaming at people, getting into fights. my thought is they don't think they need to wear a mask how do we get here and how do we compel people to understand that their lives are at stake. >> you bet the president making fun of people wearing masks, that's the reason why we're here. the science is that if 95% of americans wore masks, we would follow the trajectory of hong kong, of these places that were puddle jumps from wuhan that have not experienced nearly what we've experienced, 100 of the death burden the reason why is masks work to control the airborne spread. that's why a vaccine is never substituted for a mask

that's the whole point here. the president is saying a vaccine will be better, we don't even need masks. but we know that the fda has been moving the goal post on efficacy and how they define success. they're basically saying a vaccine that is 50% effective in reducing disease veefrty is success approved that vaccine. that is 234not going to end the pandemic so the president is confusing the public >> dr. gupta, stay with us we want to get your take on how medical professionals can navigate the president's disinformation campaign. we'll keep this conversation going next on "morning joe." ♪ here? nah. ♪ here? nope. ♪

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dr. gupta, the man the

president has been leaning on was in the room yesterday, dr. scott atlas. he is the one that's been promoting herd immunity. that's why you hear the president talking about herd immunity as a strategy so i just want to put that out there first. you and other doctors have told us how dangerous that idea is, especially coming from the president. but dr. redfield, did director of the cdc could not have been more clear in his sworn senate testimony yesterday when he talked about masks and he talked about the timeline of a vaccine. yesterday hehas a president come out and contradict him immediately probably making up details of the phone call they had. so if you, dr. gupta, are in the position of dr. redfield who finds themselves dr. birx or dr. fauci have found themselves in, how do you navigate this you know what i would do i would directly contradict the

president and make him fire me dr. redfield and dr. adams who i had a conversation with last night, at least dr. adams, the surgeon general who is a public health spokesperson for the country choo care more about getting it right and their hippocratic job and less about their job. so if he wants to fire you, let him fire you, but the oath is more important than the title. so that is what i would do, willie >> penalty president yesterday blamed blue states for the country's drugs death total. >> the blue states had tremendous death rates if you take the blue states out, we're at a level that i don't think anybody in the world would be at. we're really at a very low level. but some of the states were blue

states and blue states managed >> more than 90,000 deaths have occurred in red states and if that were the country's total, we would have seen the second most number of deaths globally, trailing only brazil the united states would still be responsible for the 11% of global deaths, despite instituting only about 4% of the world's population the deaths of the president's lies, shawna thomas, are so blatant he and brazen and there are -- there are certain outlets and organizations that just repeat them so there is a part of the population that believes these lies and don't know what is really going on listening to dr. gupta saying 95% of people, if they wear masks, they could end this virus. yet this president is pushing us in a direction where more people

are dieing and now talk about red and blue states, the last time i checked, they were all american citizens. >> yeah. it is striking how he is taking this virus in that blue state comment and seek to go divide and pit people against each other even more. and the mask debate, which shouldn't be a debate, people should wear masks, it feeds into that to a certain extent people who are against masks versus people who are for masks. people in blue states versus people in red states and we've said this a thousand times. the virus doesn't care about which state you live in. the virus does apparently care about whether you wear a mask or not. but we are -- he is remarkably consistent in his ability to divide and i think this goes back to the election he wants a vaccine before november that seems to be election

related. he wants to seem like a strong person in charge who doesn't necessarily need a mask. that is election related and the woodward's book, at least what i've read about it, and i still haven't read it and i'm sorry about that, bob woodward, points to this idea that everything is about him is in context of him as the election is. so whatever he appears to think about get him closer to winning re-election is what he's going to say the one thing that strikes me about this, especially in that conversation between dr. redfield and president trump is it seems like dr. redfield was saying something that i've been saying for a while science isn't magic. these vaccines and vaccine companies are moving at an incredibly quick rate. i think everyone in the country, no matter what party, wants a vaccine because that will

perhaps get us back to the vaccine that we've been living closer to the normal lives we used to lead but this isn't magic let's give president trump what he wants let's say we have a vaccine by november or december the amount of kword naticoordind logistics that will be involved to get it produced and then get it out in the states and then decide is it the elderly who get it first, is it children, whatever that is going to take a massive amount of federal government logistics to get it done and illustrate doesn't seem like we are treating this as though we have a huge, huge project to do because it appears the president is focused on saying things that will make people feel better before we get to the election coming up, covid is the most pressing medical issue right

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one of two los angeles county sheriff's deputies injured in an apparent ambush attack over the weekend has been released from the hospital the l.a. county sheriff tweeted the news last night saying the deputy has a long road to recovery adding, quote, he's not alone. we as a community are in this together the two deputies were shot as they sat in their patrol car the second deputy, a 31-year-old mother of a young boy was critically injured in the shooting her condition right now is unclear. and military whistle-blower says federal officials sought use of a microwave like weapon designed by the military to make people feel like their skin is burning when in the range of its invisible rays to deal with protesters outside the white house june 1st saw that law enforcement forcibly cleared lafayette square major adam demarco of the

d.c. national guard, the lead military police officer in the department of defense for the d.c. region said he was copied on an email from the provost marshall from the national capital region that said he was looking for two things one, a large range acoustic device, a kind of sound cannon known as an lard and a device called an active denial system developed by the military some 20 years ago as a way to disperse crowds. it's the same device pentagon officials were reluctant to use in iraq. demarco provided his account as a whistle-blowerer in written response he said that he responded that the guard was not in possession or either device and what is now tropical depression sally made landfall near gulf shores, alabama, yesterday morning as a category

2. more than half a million people in alabama and florida lost power due to the strong winds. in downtown pensacola, florida, nearly 30 inches of rain flood today streets. the national guard has been called in to assist with recovery efforts >> dr. gupta, i want to go back to you you are based in washington state outside of seattle where so many of the wildfires are taking place and consuming the air, the smoke i've been read background the air quality index. i read one estimate that said even walking outside in parts of washington state is like smauking half a pack of cigarettes, something like that. how bad is it there and are you seeing effects in your hospital? >> we are seeing impacts in the hospital people here in our local seattle hospitals coming in with asthma exacerbations, meaning they had asthma and can they had a worsening of it. the concerning piece here, willie, things are getting

slowly better, but our air quality was in the hazardous range for a period of time last week in places like mill career, the air quality is above 900 we know covid-19 can more easily infect somebody in the presence of air pollution air pollution facilitates infection. if you're infected with covid-19 you're more likely to actually end up in the icu. the other thing i get asked all the time is hey, doc, we're dealing with two infections. where is the n95 mask for us if the defense production act had been constituted on february 7th when the president knew

covid-19 was airborne, maybe we could have started providing high quality masks for people. >> thank you so much for being on this morning. we will see you again soon coming up, actor and comedian larry willmore joins the conversation with his new project. more joe is coming right back. i'm a verizon engineer. and i'm part of the team building... ...a powerful 5g experience for america. it's 5g ultra wideband, and it's already available in parts of select cities. like los angeles. and in new york city.

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welcome back a new reuters poll is out this morning that suggests the president's strategy of telling suburban voters that joe biden will ruin their neighborhood may not be resinating. only 11% of suburban whites said the most important factor driving their vote was that candidates perceived interest in being tough on crime and civil unrest that number has only declined in recent weeks those polls who are much more interested in a candidate who

has a plan for handling the pandemic overall, biden holds a 9 point national lead over donald trump among likely voters 50 to 41%. joining us now is ceo of the robin hood foundation and u.s. army combat veteran wes moore. wes, first of all, it seems like people are beginning to see that the president just doesn't have a plan as the polls show and even asked about a plan for health care to replace obama care, he just says he has a man and he doesn't but the concern is now looking towards the elections and comments that the attorney general made, including paralleling lockdowns to slaver slavery.

i wanted to get your take on his comments >> people will at least have the freedom to try to earn a living. but the -- but, you know, putting a national lockdown stay-at-home orders is like house arrest it's -- you know, other than slavery which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in american history. wes. >> good morning. you're spot on it's not even that that rhetoric is not appealing to people it's that they're looking for real solutions and we're not looking to be divided any more the old rhetoric of law and order does not come with actionable solutions when people are talking about stay-at-home orders, the thing that we know is in the case of

covid 19, you look at this massive impact that covid-19 has had in our communities, the health implications and the economic implications, we know the things that have helped to lower the curve. so that inl flinging on civinfr great civil liberties. >> i would also like to point out there is no lockdown, so there is no infringement but in particular, you guys that are looking at big picture of this stuff, what does this picture look like while you look at a place like new york city, what are the on the ground impacts of economics, of health and everything else that's flown from this crisis >> i think times when people say, well, what does the

conclusion of this look like, the reality is and my honest answer is i don't know the only thing i know is we're not there yet. the severity of the impact this thing has had, the fact that well over 40% of the population could not afford a $400 shot with cash and that shot came and it was a lot more than $400. the fact that in new york city alone, for example, that half of the city lived in poverty for at least a year half of the city and now it's precovid-19 so i think the level of insecurity that people are feeling right now, the level of frustration at a coordinated response is something that becomes amazingly frustrating because the people are the ones who have lost the jobs the people are the ones who are now dealing with severe implications we also know those are the

people who are going to have the most disk time getting back into the workforce. all these things, all the language right now and the old rhetoric that we continue to hear, that's not addressing those dynamics and that's the frustration we're both seeing on the streets and that's the frustration being amplified. >> as you say, there is no light switch day when everything goes back to normal you guys are teaming up on this new report about lost earnings, the potential of anyone with criminal conviction, even for a misdemeanor charge, so basically what it means to your life to go to prison even on a misdemeanor charge, what did you all find? >> and what it means to have any form of interaction with the criminal justice system whatsoever you know, we're thankful to have a chance to work with the folks at brennen on this

one of the other big things that the report continues to show is you cannot address racial injustice and the racial wealth gap in this country without confronting the generational -- that has been caused by the criminal justice system. the criminal justice system is particularly black and latino. plaque and latino males account for about 50% of the inmate population and if you look at the population index, the inverse remains true so we see that this has not just devastating questions on families, devastating questions on communities, but if you're looking at the pure economics of this that a person who is formally in prison will earn nearly $500,000 less over the course of their careers than they might have otherwise and how incredibly color tinged all of these dynamics are.

>> so, wes, stay with us i want to bring in the co-founder of vox.com and senior correspondent focused on politics and economic policy matthew iglesias he's the author of the new book "one billion americans the case for thinking bigger. set the scene for the message of your book given that the population in america is on decline even before the coronavirus. but 1 billion, what are you saying >> i'm saying we should take seriously the idea that we need to compete with major rising powers in asia like china, but we should think about what makes a great country? what are the sources of strength here and it's our people. and steps we've been taking to reduce legal immigration, we should be trying to take advantage of the fact that people want to come here and we should be investing in the

population so many americans want to have family and they struggle with the cost of child care we have one of the highest child poverty rates in the world as your previous guest was saying and we need to address these issues, grow our nation and be as great as we can be. ed. >> but how do we turn it around to top the population for declining? and you just laid out many reasons to perhaps foster an increase that turning things around at this point very difficult >> you know, it's challenging, but i don't think it's impossible people say pollsters in the social survey, they would like to have about 2.5 children on average. but in practice, we only have about 1.7, 1.6 and it's primarily because of the cost of child care that's something we can address,

right? this is a country that has incredible wealth, incredible financial resources. we have people who need jobs we have the ability to put this together the pandemic has disrupted things, but the trump administration likes to talk about illegal immigration, but they've turned down the dials for legal immigration. they've made it harder for people's spouses to get work visas. and we should be reversing all that one of the greatest things about the united states throughout history is that people want to move here. people don't want to get to china. but we're not taking advantage of that opportunity even though it's low hanging fruit for us. and an inclusive view of united states is how leaders have build us up and president trump is doing the opposite >> matthew, it's great to see

you. i'm sure you've heard already there is pushback on this idea, saying there are too many people in america, that our schools are under stress because they can't handle the chas size everything else that comes with a growing population what does a united states of 1 billion people look like to you in terms of just the bandwidth of the country to support that >> you know, the united states is actually very sparsely populated country. at 1 billion, it sounds like a lot. it's a high number but we would be about half germany, much less dense than england or the united kingdom. and we struggle in a lot of ways because we don't have enough people the smaller cities in the northeast and all the cities in the midwest have lost people and it's very challenging to support the infrastructure and to support the school systems in places like detroit, cleveland, st. louis, because they don't have the tax base that those cities were built for.

if we could bring more people in, that helps stabilize our infrastructure problems. >> matthew iglesias, thank you so much. up next, a new show that ms pros to be funny, sometimes serious, potentially awkward and most definitely honest comedian actor producer and host larry wilmore joins us next. and before we go to great, we're following the personal stories of people impacted by the coronavirus. people like karen smith, a 61-year-old realtor from hastings, minnesota, who spent ten days in the icu with covid-19 back in april on her worst night during her icu stay, she begged a nurse to not leave her alone, fearing she was going to die karen's partner, mike, was hospitalized with covid-19 thankfully, both survived. and were discharged, although still feeling very weak. doctors told them to expect a

six to eight-week recovery period the pioneer press checked back in with karen who reports still having a number of ailments, including chest pains, shortness of breath and fatigue. she says in part, quote, i have some really good days and i have some really bad days still i have some cognitive issues where i know the words i want to say, but they won't come to me right away it's really discouraging overall, we are thankful that we're still alive and that we're here we'll be right back. ys! safe drivers save 40%!!! safe drivers save 40%! safe drivers save 40%!!! that's safe drivers save 40%. it is, that's safe drivers save 40%. - he's right there. - it's him! safe drivers do save 40%. click or call for a quote today. ...to soccer practices... ...and new adventures. you hope the more you give the less they'll miss. but even if your teen was vaccinated against meningitis in the past... they may be missing vaccination for meningitis b.

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you've got a new late night show coming to peacock where you talk about the state of the world, my 90s. >> you are kind of old >> the elections >> the elections, yes. >> and you'll interview guests who really have something to say? >> yes >> looks like you have one hell of a show and you really know what you're doing. >> i do. >> wilmore, a brand-new late night series streams september 18th on peacock. >> the exclusive interview with himself. larry is returning to late night with his new show "wilmore" which premieres tomorrow on peacock and the emmy award winning producer, actor and comedian joins us now. good morning welcome back to late night so glad you're here. tell us about this show. we loved you on "the daily show," the nightly show as a producer of so many of the shows

we love. what can your fans expect tomorrow on peacock? >> thanks, willie. so great to see you again, too i've been a fan of yours for so long >> thanks, willie. >> well, wilmore, i was talking to dan who runs peacock and he wanted to do a show where we could have that conversation that america says it wants to have and so it came out of that simple idea of me engaging the people and the things that are going on, and then we're using this time of the election, like 11 shows, to kind of cover that as well. so it's a combination of interviews with people and covering the election. it's really simple, though >> what's it like to launch a late night show. this is not your first rodeo, but doing it this way, under these circumstances. other late night hosts sitting alone in their houses trying to do monologues. what is that going to be like? >> it's very bizarre, but the good news is, we're constructing it with that in mind

we have like the simplest set you can imagine. it's just me like in the basement of the cia it looks like with two big -- it looks like people have been interrogated somewhere on that set. it's really simple we're going -- we know we're going for spare. i am even dressing casually. you may see me in t-shirts like this it's bhomore about engaging in conversation and keeping it light. that kind of expression. >> there it is >> larry, wes moore is here and has a question >> hey, wes. >> congratulations we're all very excited i have a question for you on something you just said on the idea of being able to add a sense of levity and keep light it's a difficult balance to be able to do that. >> it is >> when everything feels so heavy to people right now. >> absolutely. >> where anxiety is high frustration is high. uncertainty is high. how do you approach the process of doing something that is going

to be informative but keeping it light, despite the fact it's such a heavy time in our country's history. >> it's a great question, wes. and it could be because i grew up in the '60s like when i was first aware of things was about that year where martin luther king was killed and rfk and remember the late '60s and i got like breath from watching flip wilson or the comedies on television i'll never forget how much comedy meant to me growing up in the worst of times no matter how bad things are, if we can find some kind of humor in it, and it's not easy with everything, especially in a covid year where people are dying and that's a serious issue. of course, i'd never take that lightly. but to find levity in it, even if we're deconstructing it, i think it can just help us get through these tough times. it's in the tough times when we need levity and humor the most and sometimes, as i say, wes, i have to keep it 100% real, too sometimes we find the hume nor

that >> so larry, let's talk about, without giving too much away about tomorrow's premiere on peacock. you're going to focus on protesters you've got meghan rapp irapinoe booked and amber >> you guys covered all that stuff back in 015, the ferguso protests, and she was on the ground there starting as a medic. now here she is running for congress so i wanted to get a perspective of what it's like on the ground, inside of the protests, that type of thing. she was great. of course, meghan being in the sports world and the sports world to me can sometimes get a little performative without how they approach protests so we had a really fun conversation about that. of course, amber has her new

show coming out. you guys have seen her and we have a little fun. at the end of our show, we try to have a little fun we do the lightning round where it's just jokes. we want to leave the audience feeling good rather than feeling, oh, no. you know, things are horrible or whatever >> that is certainly welcome right now. so glad to see you back. tomorrow night on peacock, the show is called "wilmore," larry wilmore, we'll be watching good to see you. >> thanks. i encourage people to dvr "morning joe" every day like i do, even if you can't get up early on the west coast. >> trading plug for plug >> what can i say? you guys are the best. >> you've been there since the beginning. good luck with the show. see you tomorrow night mika >> new polling out on some of the key senate races look at this in maine. democrat sarah gideon has a 12-point lead over republican

senator susan collins. 52% to 42% collins who won nearly 70% of the vote six years ago is being dragged down by her middle of the road approach to donald trump who is deeply unpopular in the state. and in south carolina, look at this, senator lindsey graham also fighting for his political life locked in a dead heat with democratic challenger jamie harrison at 48%. harrison rates higher on favorability, honesty and the question of whether he cares about average people and in kentucky, mitch mcconnell seems to be holding strong against his democratic challenger amy mcgrath 53% to 41% but, wow, those first two senate races, maine, that's not looking good for susan collins and we want to end with playing one of the key sound bites of the morning. president trump yesterday blaming blue states for the

country's coronavirus death toll >> the blue states have had tremendous death rates if you take the blue states out, we're at a level that -- i don't think anybody in the world would be at. we're at a very low level. but some of the states, there were blue states and blue state matters. >> the president's comments come one day after he tried to distance himself from democratic-run states at a town hall in philadelphia >> what they want is a bailout of democrat-run states that are doing poorly and, you know, i don't think this is the -- >> why do you keep talking about democratic states. they're american states. >> democrat-run states are the ones doing badly, george if you look at new york, illinois if you look at -- a lot of different places, they're doing poorly and cities in particular these cities are being run so poorly largely because of -- largely because of the crime

they don't want to do anything about crime. sanctuary cities they have sanctuary cities where they are protecting criminals. they have things that the republicans don't have so they are. i don't want to say -- look. i'm the president of everybody but i don't want to say it, but they're democrat-run cities. it is what it is >> the president left all 50 states in a lurch, leaving it up to the governors 50 different states. 50 different strategies. wes moore, no mobilization of the defense production act, no national strategy. and he continues to lie about this virus and you have cult members, whether they be in the media or voters in america who have been misled by this man who are following him blindly. it's becoming -- it's becoming frightening. not only for these people's lives but for the sanctity of our democracy. >> well, this is a perfect

example that leadership matters and truth matters. because what we heard just now is not truth the economic fallout from this pandemic has left states with an estimated $555 billion shortfall. in fiscal -- in the next two fiscal years the stays and the cities are able to do and are leading as best they can, considering the fact that the federal government has not provided resources to them in order to help lead on this issue leadership matters and truth matters in this. >> wes moore, always great to have your perspective. great to see you mika, we got a snapshot of the way this administration views the country this morning with those sound bites which is from the president's point of view if it weren't for those blue states, new york, new jersey, his numbers on coronavirus would look much better and from bill barr we heard national lockdowns, which we don't have, are an infringement on personal liberty in this

country and not a way to get us through this crisis. that's how they look at it >> yeah. i don't think his followers and also those who are parroting his lies on television understand the implications and if they, do that's a whole different story. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now >> hi there. i'm stephanie ruhle. it'sthursday, september 17th let's get smarter. on a day when fires and floods are making headlines across this nation, the coronavirus pandemic remains the biggest threat to american lives on wednesday, we learned more than a thousand americans died from the disease in all, nearly 200,000 have died and new cases have been ticking up all week long despite that, president trump keeps telling us we're rounding the corner on the disease. we are absolutely not rounding the corner on wednesday, th