hi there, everyone. it's 4:00 in the east. joe biden is set to deliver his version of a gettysburg address today. his speech expected to be heavy on the themes of unity and healing and the venue is no accident, in the town that is home to the most famous battle of the civil war. campaign aides to biden say he's expected to talk about the battle for the country's soul and how that battle can only be won when americans come together. it's a stark contrast to his opponent who is currently infected with the coronavirus, rattling around the residence of the white house, producing home spun videos that feature him maskless, downplaying the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic that has taken from us more than 210,000 american lives and infected more than 7 million others including the president and many of his closest aides. joining us to discuss the state

of the race, 28 days away from the general election, are a few of our favorite reporters and friends. white house reporter for the associated press, jonathan la mere, donnie deutsch is back. we're joined by garrett haake, live for us in gettysburg. donna edwards, i want to first read to you how joe biden described the speech he's about to give. he said i'm making a speech i've worked and worked and worked on about how the soul of america and racial equality and what significant trouble we're in right now. some people may think it's a little dramatic but i think it's appropriate. we have to unite this nation and i've decided to do it from gettysburg. i've worked on this speech very, very hard. you'll see it and know it. i mean, every word of it, he said. what do you think? >> i'm feeling it already and how important and appropriate for him to deliver this speech at gettysburg.

there's nobody who could argue who's ever been to gettysburg that it's overwhelming and the prese presence and the importance of history and i think joe biden is saying we're in an historic moment that really means that we have to decide where it is we're going to go in this country and the choice that people have leading up to and of course november 4, the election. i think that joe biden recognizes the moment and he wants to really speak to the nation and anybody who knows joe biden knows how much he both cares for the country but for individuals, for people, for their families, for workers, and i think that he will deliver that today. i'm looking forward to hearing the vice president speak to our highest ideals because i think that that's what the nation wants. you could hear it in questions at the town hall meetings. you could hear it in his

responses at the debate and since then, that america wants to hear from a president who's prepared to put all the little pieces back together again and i think that joe biden is making a commitment to deliver that for the american people. >> donnie deutsch, there's so much stage craft into everything donald trump does including being released from the hospital and re-entering his home and brian and i were on television for it, and you just felt like these iconic places that belong to all americans were being hijacked for campaign video production. it feels like joe biden has not missed an opportunity in every news cycle since his convention ended to bracket donald trump with something big when he's small, and you don't get much bigger than gettysburg. what do you think they're going for, and just talk about all that you achieve by standing in

that sacred spot where so many americans lost their lives and where we were r so, sort of a cy divided. joe biden has always staked his candidacy as the one person who can heal the soul of the country. that has always been an evert message and i think subliminal there, but it's still a big and bold move and not without risks. >> i think joe biden from here on in you're going to see him as protector in chief, calmer in chief, and healer in chief. if you want a contrast i think two horrific self-produced video moments that are going to define the downfall of donald trump, it was the june 1 with the bible upside down at st. john's church and also i believe yesterday, october 6. you can look at those as two pillars of self-destructive produced moments by the ultimate reality tv person. nicolle, you've obviously worked on campaigns. i worked on clinton's '92 campaign.

i remember four or five days before the end when they really felt like when stephanopoulos, car vil really thought they had it wrapped up and they said you can run all your positive, mushy stuff. it was like they felt victory already. i don't want to get ahead of ourselves but this is what victory feels like. i think when you start to get to the point where you are just coming from such a positive, healing, protecting, you no longer have to fire shots, you feel your job now is to kind of bring everything together. we're four weeks out but it feels just like the great line where robert duvall says the smell of napalm smells like victory. this smells like victory. >> garrett haake, i would bet my last dollar nobody on the biden campaign would dare say that or convey that today. they're still very much acting like a campaign in a dog fight. i think most democrats view the polls as unpredictable and they either feel like they were fooled four years ago and they

don't want to be fooled again, or they remain concerned about the impact of a pandemic on turnout and the impact of a president who is at war with the legitimacy and the process of voting itself. talk about the view from the biden campaign today ahead of this speech. >> that's exactly right. everybody on the biden campaign feels like they need to run through the tape here and that's not just through election night by the way. that's potentially through lawsuits and legal fights and everything else that might follow it. so the polls are one thing but making sure all those votes get in and get counted is something else all together. i think that's the attitude that pervades the campaign beyond just what the polls show and they show a pretty broadly positive message for the candidate, not just here in pennsylvania where a new monmouth poll out today has him up eight i think but also nationally our nbc average has him up around ten. that's where you want to be. in terms of the speech today, as you said, there is nothing subtle about coming to gettysburg and giving a speech about the battle of the soul of the nation. they're going to hit you over the head with it clearly today. this has been the theme since

biden's campaign announcement in april of last year. when i talked to a biden campaign aid today, they don't want to call this a closing argument but they see this speech that he's going to give here this evening as kind of the idealogical framework that they want to set up for the next month of this campaign, the last month. the idea here is this isn't specifically going to be about policy although that will be in there. it won't specifically abobe abo the pandemic although that will be in there too. this is about who we are as a country, who do we want to be and what kind of leader does it take to do that. to the degree that it's possible for the challenger here when the incumbent's media presence sometimes blocks out the sun, they want to set up this kind of framework to get voters thinking in this way as we get into this final sprint. >> garrett, let me stay with you and let me put up the polls. monmouth has donald trump behind joe biden 12 points in a high turnout model and eight points only in the low turnout model. so that is a sizable lead there

for joe biden in a state that is a senior trump adviser told me that has arizona slips away from them, pennsylvania is a vital importance to them so bad news in that poll. but the lens around this closing argument, these are two areas where joe biden is squarely on the offense. racial inequality, he has an advantage of 26 poenints on the polls. on the coronavirus, an advantage of 11 points. to the degree that the coronavirus leads people to talk about and think about health care, biden is ahead by 20 points there. in the president's post debate collapse, joe biden now is a 12-point lead around issues of safety and crime. most notable though, joe biden isn't just even on the economy, he's ahead two points. it would seem that holding onto the leads around the economy would be the most essential sort

of tactical and strategic mission of every utterance between now and election day. how do they see their standing in the polls? >> look, i think they're glad to see the changes in the economic handling here. by the way, they got a gift from the president today, this idea that the president is going to claim credit for walking away from coronavirus talks. i cover the capitol in my other job and it was never clear that there was going to be another relief bill that actually got passed, at least not before election day. just like with the government shutdown, here you have the president saying not only are you not going to get help, i'm the one deciding that you're not going to get help. it will be a while before that kind of thing can be reflected in the polls but that's another thing that could potentially add to a biden advantage on the economy. if you're talking about a biden advantage on the economy, in the same way that we're talking about how unusual it is to see biden leading by the margins he's leading among seniors in many places, you have taken away the kind of core crux republican argument for why you even have a

republican president or a republican controlled senate. even more moderate independent voters who might agree with democrats on the other issues you just laid out, might look at that economic number and lean towards republicans. if that's gone, what is donald trump running on? again, when i talked to the biden campaign, they don't want to get overconfident or cocky. they understand this is not an election day finish. this is a sprint through the tape that first week in november at the very least but all of these indicators are moving their way. >> so jonathan la mere, to you goes the task of the view from the other side. now, i did also process the news of the white house seeming to, i don't know, take a victory lap around killing coronavirus relief talks and plunging the markets. i wondered if it was the steroids talking or if there was anyone talking at all.

you have a great piece out about the west wing as a ghost town. talk about what's going on there. >> it's a west wing right now that is largely empty and those that are there, according to our reporting, are afraid and confused and uncertain as to what's next. first of all, of course the coronavirus itself is living in the building. the president of course has it, so does the first lady. there have been a number of staffers who have tested positive. the numbers seem to grow by the day. a couple more in the press shop, deputy press secretaries today tested positive. there's certainly a lack of real direction as to what's next. we of course know the president is calling the shots. there were some aides who hoped, with reason, with some reason, that the thought that the president's battle with the virus himself three days or so in the hospital, he might come out with even just a little more understanding of the virus and perhaps be able to show a little more empathy towards those who have suffered. no one was expecting a personality reboot here. their expectations were modest

but even those were dashed from what we've heard from the president in the last 12 hours that he has said that the virus might be dominated. he has suggested that the nation is around the corner again from the pandemic, a pandemic that is still on some days claiming 1,000 american lives a day. while hospitalized he mentioned not one word of compassion for those that have suffered, and now he comes back plunging into the white house yesterday mind you without a mask and now has blown up these talks which as noted may not have gone anywhere anyway but now he seems to, by doing what he did today, own their failure. we've seen the market plummet in the immediate aftermath. it may be disarming him of his best possible weapon, best argument for re-election which would be a strong economy. there are so many americans who are still suffering economically because of what's happened and there's now great uncertainty as to how he's going to govern and also how can he campaign? we're a month out and he's down, down significantly in a lot of places. it's uncertain whether he will

be able to be pronounced fit to resume traveling. he and his team are eyeing that debate next thursday. he made it clear he wants to be there with joe biden but a lot of questions remain whether that's going to be possible. >> jonathan, i talked to a trump adviser sort of post debate performance but pre-covid diagnosis and he said to me, you know, donald trump needed these debate performances to go his way and that meant keeping his mouth shut and sort of hoping for some sort of moment from joe biden. he wasn't capable of keeping his mouth shut. he hasn't been capable of keeping his mouth shut since that debate and he still hasn't cleaned up the problems that his own aides viewed as problematic, the footsie with white supremacists and just his own conduct and behavior that seem to repel people if you trust those polls. what effort exists to even get him ready for another debate if

that should come to pass? chris christie is at the moment hospitalized and his campaign manager is covid positive, his two most senior communications advisers, hope hicks and kaley mcen nany also infected with the coronavirus. >> so much has happened since that debate, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that it was just a week ago and easy to lose sight of the fact that the trump campaign had put a lot of eggs in that basket. they thought that first debate was going to be the moment with so few set pieces left, very little time remaining in the campaign. they thought that's where they could start to turn things around, that biden would stumble on the stage and the president would overpower him. instead we know that did not happen. donald trump's solution to every problem has always been more donald trump. in this case many advisers believe that was a mistake. that was a night where he, instead of constantly interrupting and berating the vice president needed to sit back. they wanted him to get the vice president in trouble and

overextend himself and create a moment that could be damaging. that didn't happen. in fact, the president's support plummeted after that debate. the debate was a moment that did move the needle and in a bad way for donald trump. to immediately have that followed with this coronavirus pandemic which for so many americans is a sense of the president instead of receiving their sympathy for being sick, it's almost a sense of, well, he brought this upon himself. it was his recklessness, ignoring the safety guidelines of his own government that put him in this position and therefore may be emblematic of how he's led this nation through the pandemic, a nation that's still suffering so much. as far as the mechanics of the debate prep, that's unclear because most of his debate team is sidelined with the coronavirus and he barely prepared last time anyway. right now we know that's the date they have circled on the calendar. he wants to go to the debate and resume campaigning even though right now he's not just coronavirus positive, he's still contagious.

>> donnie deutsch, every time i see the economic numbers tick up for joe biden and down for donald trump i think of you because for years now you've talked about how central it is for any democrat to come out ahead in a general election, a national election. what do you make of the current standing in the polls and the cross tabs, the gains that joe biden has made on what everyone has already said was donald trump's strongest argument to the country, the economy? >> garrett said it best. if he has the economy, he has nothing. the fact that biden is up between 10 and 20 points and everything from cares about people like me to handling the coronavirus to race relations and health care, there's nowhere else to go. i want to circle back to what i said earlier. the last thing i think the biden campaign should do is feeling they have it won. i want them to look like a winner but still punching and jabbing on the economy and health care. that one message down the stretch if i was going to give that jab underneath, it's don't

let them take 100 million people's health care away on pre-existing conditions. i said this last week on the show that i thought trump was going to come out like a caged animal because he's never played from two touchdowns down. going forward i think we can only fathom what he's going to be like in the next debate. i think as much as his people are going to prep him to calm down, to go the opposite way, it's going to be more of the same. one other final thought and i know this is crazy, the biggest fear donald trump has of anything in life is losing. his dad said there are losers and killers. we know he thinks he's a killer. if we're a week or two before the election and he is down this dramatically, don't throw anything off the table ranging from dropping the mic so he can get pardoned by pence. i think there's a chapter to this story here that we have not even thought about that is going to be as outrageous as the last four years.

>> to align myself with donnie deutsch not being crazy, donna edwards, a week ago right now i don't think the debate had happened but i want to show you, when a campaign and a candidate gets on offense, it seems to seep into all of their conduct and all the messages. here's joe biden on offense the moment that trump took off his mask when he got back to the white house covid positive, symptomatic, infectious as we understand the pandemic to render people on day four or five after their diagnosis. joe biden put up an instagram video drawing that contrast, putting his mask on and really i think turning this mask wearing -- do we have that video? we'll try to find it. trying to take sort of mask wearing out of politics and putting it into what strong people do. it seems as everyone has been remarking that biden is really now on the offense in terms of

playing on trump's terrain, making the mask wearing the stronger, more protective thing to do for one's family, for one's country, going into trump turf in terms of polling ahead of him on the economy and being way out ahead of trump in pennsylvania which was -- here it is. so there's a side by side, donald trump ripping off his mask the minute he got out of the hospital still infected with covid as joe biden puts his on, looking every bit the leader. both of them standing in front of flags there. what do you make just in terms of what the field each man is playing on says about where these two campaigns are right now? >> i think clearly the biden campaign is playing like they have the upper hand. they are obviously not complacent. they're not sit ting on a lead and be continuing to make the same points they've made for the last several months.

what's interesting is people wondered about joe biden, about whether he and his campaign would be disciplined in a way given his past runs for the presidency, but this campaign and the candidate have been incredibly disciplined on message and able to respond on the dime to the president's irresponsible behavior. that example that you just showed is classic of being able to parlay a response that feeds into their message. they're not going someplace differently and i will say, nicolle, on the economy, one of the things that has struck me is that we wondered whether biden would be able to successfully make a coronavirus economic argument, and in fact, i think that he has and i think part of the reason that these numbers have started to tick up is because the biden campaign and joe biden have successfully

argued about getting control of the coronavirus as the key to opening up and building and rebuilding this economy and so at every single turn, the biden campaign has really been both offensive but also smart and strategic in continuing to stay on their message leading the campaign and obviously donald trump has been all over the map. >> 28 days is an eternity though in any campaign cycle. anything can still happen. i think you're exactly right about where we stand today. garrett, since we've been talking i believe joe biden is nearing the speech venue. we're going to keep our eyes on gettysburg and let you go back to covering that but jump back in front of the camera for us when anything happens. everyone else is sticking around as we've been discussing, waiting and watching for joe biden, a speech he's previewed as one to unite a nation that is

in significant trouble. we'll bring it to you as soon as it starts. plus, new today, all but one of the military's joint chiefs of staff are now quarantining after exposure to the coronavirus. as if our national security wasn't already at risk, we'll talk with elizabeth newman, a former assistant secretary for threat prevention in donald trump's department of homeland security when "deadline: white house" returns after this. er th. er th. with this seal, this restaurant is committing to higher levels of cleanliness. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ the expertise that helps keep hospitals clean, is helping keep businesses clean too. look for the ecolab science certified seal. "a good education takes you many different horizons"

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as donald trump continues to downplay the coronavirus bringing his own sickness back to an increasingly infected

white house, we are following breaking news today on a positive coronavirus test that has forced top u.s. military leaders into quarantine. nbc news has confirmed with defense officials that every member except one of the joint chiefs of staff, the defense department's top uniform leaders including general chairman mark milley are self-quarantining. the coast guard's second in command, admiral charles ray, tested positive for coronavirus after attending meetings last week with other senior military leaders. a spoke person said, we are conducting additional contact tracing and taking appropriate precautions to protect the force and the mission. out of an abundance of caution, all potential close contacts from these meetings are self-quarantining and have been tested this morning. no pentagon contacts have exhibited symptoms and we have no additional positive test to reveal at this time. joining us, from the department

of homeland security, elizabeth newman. all of our other friends are still here as well. this is the nightmare scenario where the president and his white house are down with coronavirus. everyone wishes all of them a recovery. but now there's also at least one positive test at the pentagon. this is not a white house that drills. this is not a white house known to do red team practices but is it your sense that this is a government that is ready for this? >> i have tremendous confidence in our military, our intelligence community, our diplomatic core. the men and women that serve our country are absolutely ready for a scenario like this so it doesn't shake my confidence that we are at risk because we have some military members that have to self-quarantine. it is extremely reckless though.

it is extremely reckless that the president has carried on for eight months now of a response to a pandemic as if he is somehow immune, as if he and his follow e followers cannot follow the cdc guidelines, any of our pandemic plans. while i'm hopeful that he is making a recovery, the sad reality is he seems to have not learned anything from the experience of the last four days and has become more blatant, thumbing his nose at these mitigation measures and it's put his staff members at risk. it's put men and women who serve him like the secret service who put their lives on the line, it puts them at risk. it puts their families at risk.

every one of those people that work at the white house go home to maybe a spouse, children. they may be in contact with elderly loved ones, and they have to now take precautions and hope that their loved ones have not been exposed. it's just so preventable that it's reckless and unconscionable and just one more very obvious way that he is unfit to lead our nation. >> there's reporting that supports just about everything you just said, elizabeth. nbc news is reporting that a military valet, that's someone who works very closely with the president, who came in contact with trump tested positive for covid over the weekend. "the new york times" is also recording under this headline, for the secret service a new question, who will protect them from trump? new reporting on the level of concern among the secret service. there's also reporting that confirms that the cdc is not

involved in any way, shape or form with the response inside what is clearly an epicenter of a coronavirus outbreak at the white house. >> it's just so maddening because it's also not that hard. it's not that hard to do contact tracing. you need maybe additional bodies in order to help you do the work, but we've been planning for this for 15 years. it's written down. there are people across the country that have figured this out, but at the white house they can't do something as basic as contact tracing. it's mind boggling. it's clearly not because they can't do it. it's because they don't want to do it. the question that i have is why. it lends one to think or leads one to think that they're hiding something. i try to avoid speculation and conspiracy theories but this just doesn't make any sense.

you have any number of people who need to know if they've been exposed, and the right thing to do is to conduct that contact tracing as expeditiously as possible. >> jonathan, let me bring you back into this. do we have the video of donald trump seeming to gasp for air? it certainly confirms dr. gupta's theory that he is suffering from covid pneumonia. we'll put that up as soon as we can find it. there's also some -- here he was after bounding up the stairs, ripping off his mask. then he seemed to struggle to catch a breath. again, we hope he's well physically. here's some reporting that i wonder if you know anything about. the "times" reported that it was under consideration for trump to address the nation. is that a thing, jonathan? >> first i would say i was on the white house lawn last night when the president did make his dramatic, if reckless, return,

and we did notice he walked across the lawn fine, slowly but fine, but certainly when he went up the steps it was obvious to us -- we were down below 30-odd feet away -- that he was laboring to breathe a little bit there as he stood and ripped off his mask, saluted marine one, and then went inside having not put his mask back on in order to film a video that he then tweeted out. according to our reporting that's how he's going to speak to the nation tonight. the white house has called a travel photo lid, meaning there won't be an event that we would see so we don't expect an oval office address for now anyway. his aides have tried to prevent him from going to the oval office. they've converted some of the rooms into a work space for him to use. what we've heard this afternoon is that the odds are that it will be another recorded video, that perhaps he'll tweet out or the white house will put out providing an update on how he's

doing. but there are talks certainly for perhaps a bigger forum, maybe some sort of speech from the residence or otherwise in the coming days as the president though sidelined from the campaign trail is unable to hold public events is certainly still looking to remain in the national conversation and certainly he hasn't been shy about tweeting since his return to the white house. >> we should say his tweets so egregious that some of them have been taken down. joe biden has approached the microphones in gettysburg, a speech billed as one talking about healing the soul of the country. here is joe biden. >> you think about all the lives that were lost here. please all have a seat. on july 4, 1863 america woke to the remains of perhaps the most consequential battle on american 10i8. it took place here on this ground in gettysburg.

three days of violence, three days of carnage, 50,000 casualties, wounded, captured, missing or dead over three days of fighting. when the sun rose on that independence day, lee would retreat. the war would go on for nearly two more years but the back of the confederacy had been broken. the union would be saved. slavery would be abolished. a government of, by and for the people would not parish from the earth, and freedom would be born anew in our land. there's no more fitting place than here today in gettysburg to talk about the cost of division, about how much it has cost america in the past, about how

much it is costing us now, and about why i believe in this moment we must come together as a nation. for president lincoln, the civil war was about the greatest of causes, the end of slavery, widening equality, pursuit of justice, the creation of opportunity, and the sanctity of freedom. his words would live ever after. we hear them in our heads. we know them in our hearts. we draw on them when we seek hope in hours of darkness. for score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. here on this sacred ground

abraham lincoln re-imagined america itself. here a president of the united states spoke of the price of division and the meaning of sacrifice. he believed in the rescue, redemption and rededication of the union. all this in a time not just of ferocious division but of widespread death, structural inequity, and fear of the future. he taught us this, a house divided could not stand. that is a great and timeless truth. today once again we are a house divided, but that, my friends, can no longer be. we are facing too many crises. we have too much work to do.

we have too bright a future to have it ship wrecked on the shoals of anger, hate and division. as we stand here today a century and a half later after gettysburg, we should consider again what can happen when equal justice is denied, when anger and violence and division are left unchecked. as i look across america today, i'm concerned. the country is in a dangerous place. our trust in each other is ebbing. hope seems elusive. too many americans see our public life not as an arena for mediation of our differences, but rather, they see it as an occasion for total, unrelenting partisan warfare. instead of treating each other's party as the opposition, we treat them as the enemy.

this must end. we need to revive the spirit of bipartisan in this country, a spirit of being able to work with one another. when i say that and i've been saying it for two years and i'm accused of being naive. i'm told maybe that's the way things used to work, joe. but they can't work that way anymore. i'm here to tell you they can and they must if we're going to get anything done. i'm running as a proud democrat but i will govern as an american president. i'll work with democrats and republicans. i'll work as hard for those who don't support me as those who do. that's the job of a president. the duty to care for everyone, refusal of democrats and republicans to cooperate with one another is not due to some mysterious force beyond our

control. it's a decision. it's a choice we make. if we can decide not to cooperate, we can decide to cooperate as well. that's the choice i'll make as president. [ applause ] but there's something bigger going on in this nation than just our broken politics, something darker, something more dangerous. i'm not talking about ordinary differences of opinion, competing viewpoints give life and vibrancy to our democracy. i'm talking about something different, something deeper. too many americans seek not to overcome our divisions but to deepen them. we must seek not to build walls but bridges. we must seek not to have our fists clenched but our arms

open. we have to seek not to tear each other apart but seek to come together. you don't have to agree with me on everything or even on most things to see that we're experiencing today neither good nor normal. i made the decision to run for president after charlottesville. close your eyes and remember what you saw. neo nazis, white supremacists, and the kkk coming out of the fields with torching lighted, veins bulging, chanting the same anti-semitic bile heard across europe in the '30s. it was hate on the march, in the open, in america. hate never goes away. it only hides. when it's given oxygen, when it's given an opportunity to

spread, when it's treated as normal and acceptable behavior, we've opened a door in this country that we must move quickly to close. as president, that's just what i will do. i will send a clear, unequivocal message to the entire nation. there is no place for hate in america. it will be given no license. it will be given no oxygen. it will be given no safe harbor. in recent weeks and months, the country has been riled by instances of excessive police force, heart wrenching cases of racial injustice and lives needlessly and senselessly lost. by peaceful protestors giving voice to the calls for justice, by examples of violence and looting and burning that cannot be tolerated. i believe in law and order.

i've never supported defunding the police but i also believe injustice is real. it's a product of a history that goes back 400 years to the moment when black men, women and children first were brought here in chains. i do not believe we have to choose between law and order and racial justice in america. we can have both. this is a nation strong enough to both honestly face systemic racism and strong enough to provide safe streets for our families and small businesses that too often bear the brunt of this looting and burning. we have no need for armed militia roaming america's streets and we should have no tolerance for white supremacy groups menacing our communities. if you say we should trust america's law enforcement authorities to do the job as i

do, let them do their job without extremist groups acting as vigilantes. if you say we have no need to face racial injustice in the country, you haven't opened your eyes to the truth in america. there have been powerful voices for justice in recent weeks and months. george floyd's 6-year-old daughter who i met with who looked at me and said in her small child's voice, daddy changed the world. also, jacob blake's mother was another when she said, violence didn't reflect her son and this nation needed healing. and doc rivers, the basketball coach, choking back tears when he said we're the ones getting killed. we're the ones getting shot. we've been hung. it's amazing why we keep loving this country and this country does not love us back.

i think about that. i think about what it takes for a black person to love america. that is a deep love for this country that has for far too long never been recognized. what we need in america is leadership that seeks to de-escalate tensions, to open lines of communication, to bring us together, to heal, to hope. as president that's precisely what i will do. we've paid a high price for allowing the deep divisions in this country to impact on how we deal with the coronavirus. 210,000 americans dead and the number is climbing. it's estimated that nearly another 210,000 americans could lose their lives by the end of the year. enough. no more. let's set partisanship aside.

let's end the politics and follow the science. wearing a mask, wearing a mask is not a political statement. it's a scientific recommendation. social distancing isn't a political statement. it's a scientific recommendation. testing, tracing, the development and approval and distribution of a vaccine isn't a political statement. it is a science-based decision. we can't undo what has been done. we can't go back but we can do so much better. we can do better starting today. we can have a national strategy that puts politics aside and saves lives. we can have a national strategy that will make it possible for our schools and businesses to open safely. we can have say national strategy that reflects the true values of this nation. this pandemic is not a red state or blue state issue.

this virus doesn't care whether you live -- where you live, what political party you belong to. it infects us all. it will take anyone's life. it's a virus. it's not a political weapon. there's another enduring division in america that we must end, the division in our economic life that gives opportunity only to the privileged few. america has to be about mobility. it has to be the kind of country where an abraham lincoln, a child of the distant frontier can rise to the highest office in the land. america has to be about possibilities, the possibility of prosperity, not just for the privileged few but for the many, for all of us. working people and their kids deserve an opportunity. lincoln knew this. he said that the country had to give people, quote, an open

field and a fair chance, an open field and a fair chance. that's what we're going to do in the america we're going to build together. we fought a civil war that would secure a union that would seek to fulfill the promise of equality for all. by fits and starts our better angels have prevailed just enough, just enough against our worst impulses to make a new and better nation, and those better angels can prevail again now. they must prevail again now. 100 years after lincoln spoke at gettysburg, the vice president, lyndon b. johnson, also came here and here's what he said. he said our nation found its soul and honor in these fields of gettysburg. we must not lose that soul in

dishonor now on the fields of hate. today we're engaged once again in a battle for the soul of the nation, the forces of darkness, the forces of division, the forces of yesterday are pulling us apart, holding us down and holding us back. we must free ourselves of all of them. as president, i will embrace hope, not fear, peace, not violence, generosity, not greed, and light, not darkness. i'll be a president who appeals to the best in us, not the worst. i'll be a president who pushes toward the future, not one who clings to the past. i'm ready to fight for you and for our nation every day without exception, without reservation, and with a full devoted heart.

we cannot and will not allow extremists and white supremacists to overturn the america of lincoln and harriet tubman and frederick douglass, to overturn the america that has been a haven and a home for everyone no matter their background. from seneca falls to selma to stonewall, we're at our best when the promise of america is available to all. we cannot and we will not allow violence in the street to threaten the people of this nation. we cannot and will not walk away from our obligation, to at long last face the reckoning on race and racial justice in this country. we cannot and will not continue to be struck in the partisan politics that lets us -- this virus thrive while the public health of this nation suffers.

we cannot and will not accept an economic equation that only favors those who have already got it made. everybody deserves a shot at prosperity. folks,you. [ applause ] duty and history call president's to provide for the common good and i will. it won't be easy. it won't be easy. our divisions today are long-standing. economic and racial inequities have shaped us for generations. but i give you my word, i give you my word, if i'm elected president, i will marshal the ingenuity and good nation to bring us together because i think that is what the people are looking for that. we could disagree about how we move forward. we must take the first steps and

start with how we treat one another. how we talk to one another. how we respect one another. in the second inaugural lincoln said, with malice toward none and with charity for all, with firmness in the right as god gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we're in to build up the nation's wounds, bind up the nation's wounds. now we have our work to reunite america, to bind up our nation's wounds and move past shadow and suspicion. and so we, you and i, together we press on even now. after hearing the second inaugural address, frederick do douglas told president lincoln, mr. lincoln, that was a sacred effort. we have to be dedicated to our

own sacred effort. the promise of gettysburg, that a new birth of freedom was at hand. i think it is at risk. every generation that has followed gettysburg has been faced with a moment when it must answer this question. whether it will allow the sacrifices made here to be in vain or be fulfilled. this is our moment to answer this essential american question for ourselves and for our time. and my answer is this, it cannot be that all this country has been through, after all that america has accomplished, after all of the years we've stood as a beacon of light to the world, it could not be here and now in 2020 we'll allow the government of the people, by the pop and for the people to perish on this earth. no, it cannot and it must not.

we have it in our hands, the ultimate power. the power to vote. it is the noblest instrument ever deviced to register our will in a peaceable and productive fashion. and so we must, we must vote. we will vote. no matter how many obstacles are thrown in our way. because once america votes, america will be heard. lincoln said the nation is worth fighting for. so it was and so it is. together as one nation, under god, indivisible, let us join forces to fight the common injustice and inequality and hate and fear. let's conduct ourselves as americans who love each other. who love our country. who will not destroy but will

build. we owe it to the dead who were buried here at gettysburg. we owe that to the living and the future generations yet to be born. you and i are part of a covenant, a common story of divisions overcome and hope renewed. if we do our part, if we stand together, if we keep faith with the past, and with each other, then the divisions are time will give way to the dreams of a brighter, better future. this is our work. this is our pledge. this is our mission. and we can end this era of division. we could end the hate and the fear. we could be what we are at our best. the united states of america. god bless you all and may god protect our troops. thank you. we can do this. [ applause ]

>> no matter what happens 28 days from today, this speech will be the speech that people talk about when they talk about joe biden's campaign for president in 2020. joe biden fleshing out division behind his campaign for the soul of america, invoking the images of charlottesville and telling mus why that was the impetuous for him jumping in the race and reminds him of nazis in the streets in the european cities in the late '30s. this speech designed to set the tone for the final four weeks of the campaign. donnie, we were texting a little bit. this was, i thought, joe biden at his very best. >> that is exactly right. i was so moved and contrast that with last night and the trump and the mussolini scowl. and this is a message of inclusion and as i said of a winner who is acting

presidential and trying to unite the country. i love that he said simple phrases i've never heard before, that law and order and racial justice could live together. i mean, it is just -- dah. and i love that he said this before and said this a few times. you don't have to agree with me on most things but i'm going to be your president. that, i was proud, i'm a biden guy obviously and there is surprise there. but i stood up there and i found actually my body relaxing and i pictured the constituents that, the suburban women, the older senior citizens, people watching that and saying, yes. and i was -- it wasn't an anti-trump speech, it was an i'm with lincoln speech. he didn't mention facts and figures or mention trump. it was a from the heart speech and agree that is going to the be the defining speech for his campaign. >> elizabeth, you came to the biden so

biden side as a former loyal staffer to president trump and the aimed of his presidency and administration. what do you think will resonate the to people mostly yourself who will were donald trump for a while. >> i've been working on commercials and op-eds and different ways to communicate why i came to this conclusion and now i could just send them the speech. it perfectly encapsulates what we need this this country. >> wow! >> so much of the hate and division that i was seeing from a national security perspective and the concerns that i have for the continuation of us as a democracy, a democratic republic, russia, there was a homeland assessment that came out today that accurately describes russia 's intent is to sow seeds of discord and dissension, to make us so weak as a society and that we could not stand up against their strategic objectives. so the russian interference in

the election is much bigger than any one election. their aim is to make us weak as a society and part of the reason we need a president like joe biden is that not only will he stand up and call russia the threat that it is, and not cozy up to them, but he will also address those things that are making us weak right now. that division and that ability for us to communicate with one another about our disagreements. i loved how he framed that it is the how we could disagree on the how, but we all, most of us in america, want the same things. it is just in the how that we disagree. we need to go back to those shared goals, the shared values, remember who we are at a people. and i love that he put this in the context of we are in a generational fight here. this is not an election like any other. there is something monumental and consequential here which is why i feel very confident, it is

okay to set aside my policy differences and vote for joe biden because we need something bigger than policy fights. we need somebody that is going to help us preserve who we are as a people, unified together under american ideals. >> jonathan lemire, this is a speech against the moment and this moment is nothing if not a trumpian moment. >> yeah, the contrast here was certainly deliberate. joe biden did not mention donald trump's name once in that speech. but of course he was the subtext through it all. as biden called for national unity and trying to set aside the chaos and division that has frankly defined four years of president trump in office. and it comes at a time hours after trump's made for tv return to the white house last night. that may have, in fact, endangered white house personnel as he entered the building without a mark. it comes two days after the president went for the ride in the motorcade around walter reed

medical center when he endangered the health of two secret service agents in a tight vehicle with a covid positive patient. the president himself. and it also comes now as the president has detonated coronavirus relief talks and a series of sharp partisan attacks on twitter today. and is now trying to, as his campaign trying to reshape and reshuffle, what these last four weeks will be like for the president. a candidate who right now anyway can't be on the road. who is status for the debate next week is uncertain and i think that is the image that the biden campaign wanted to project. a call to our better angels, if you will, suggesting trying to invoke a nostalgia for a time when things weren't so chaotic and divided and that is the message that biden is trying to give, that american could heal and be better than that. >> and, of course, jonathan lemire, the reporter among us catching the real headline here,

joe biden intentionally did not mention donald trump once. jonathan lemire and donny deutsch and olivia, it is a privilege to spend the hour with you and watching that speech with us. thank you for staying with us. it is now 5:00 in the east. we have been covering joe biden who went big today, reach forge the same emotional ties to the country that president obama roused with his campaign about hope and change. joe biden today promising to be an american president. to serve all americans. whether he or she votes for him or not. biden today delivering a speech at the site of the most famous battle of the civil war, gettysburg. joe biden re-upping what drew him into this year's presidential contest to the fight for the soul of the country as well as the fight against his thpandemic. biden's message standing in stark con taft to the one his

opponent who spread disinformation from the white house and so egregious some of it was flagged and taken down. donald trump continuing to downplay the virus even as he continues to battle coronavirus himself. joe biden's gettysburg address is where we start the hour with some of our fairity reporters and friends frxt "the los angeles times," eli stokols here and contributor to the journalist and politics professor johnson and doing a second tour of duty for me today, former democratic congresswoman donna edwards back with us. donna, we started last hour together. i asked to you come through and start this hour with me because i thought you had the best intuitive sense for what this speech could be. in your view, did it live up to its billing that -- i'm sorry in joe biden's words this was going to be a speech about the soul of the country? >> i think it absolutely did, nicolle. one of the things that struck me in this speech, apart from the fact that biden didn't mention

donald trump, but he didn't have to. his delivery was presidential. his message was american. it appealed to the best in us. i mean, it called this idea of division and he laid out all of the ways that were divided but he also spoke to the ways in which we could heal. the ways in which under his leadership we could come together as americans and it made you feel good. if you're listening to that speech, it made you feel like you could get a president who is going to deliver on pulling us together and i think that, you know, if this is joe biden's closing message of the campaign, i think it is one that is very, very appealing to those of us who sit at home and wonder how we get out of the pandemic, the racial injustice, economic

inequity and knowing that joe biden actually has a pathway for us. and it is one that we understand because we could reach back to our history knowing that we've been at points of division that we've been able to bridge and i think being there at gettysburg showed us that pathway. i thought it was an amazing, excellent way as a closing argument working into these next 28 days. >> jason, i'll be perfectly honest, as a staffer, i felt this sort of staffer angst. this is such a spot. this is such a point in the candidacy with donald trump sick and rattling around the west wing maskless and making proof of life videos for his supporters. there is so much low hanging fruit to sort of whack at. joe biden went big. joe biden reached for history. did joe biden grab on to the right sort of pillars in that effort for you?

>> yeah, nicolle. this speech by biden is exactly why you don't need to run negative ads right now. because donald trump is his own negative ad. every word that comes out of donald trump's mouth is a reminder of his recklessness and his carelessness. and all joe biden had to do was say, hey, over here, i'm an adult. i care about this country and i want to fix this place and i want to work with you. i actually thought this was the best speech i've seen him give and better than the at closing speech at democratic convention. when i started talking about doc rivers, we're all working from home because of krocovid and i stopped in my tracks when doc rivers in tears, doc rivers who is the former coach of the l.a. clippers and now a coach of the 76ers and said why do black people love america so much when this country has never loved us back. and it doesn't.

this country has murdered us and enslaved us and killed us to this day and joe biden actually acknowledging that and saying, yeah, that is a problem. why is it the most loyal democrats love this country and have never bibe -- never been loved back. we've never seen a candidate ask this before. even obama couldn't touch that issue. i was significantly impressed with joe biden's evolution as a candidate in this speech today. and if he just continued on this path, an honest path of integrity, about fixing the country and asking questions that white america has never bothered to ask before and addressing the needs of the black people that will help him get into office, he might win this on election day without a long legal fight that goes to the supreme court. >> you know, eli, i was struck by how everything has come together to allow joe biden to give this speech today. he has the largest lead that he

has had since he became the nominee of his party. donald trump has descended into public relations antics that just look like stunts and gimmicks, the produced and edited videos, the barbs on social media that are so greejous they are flagged and taken down. with the recklessness with which he ripped off the mask and has an outbreak at 1600 pennsylvania avenue and members of the military in quarantine today because they may have all bebeen exposed. and joe biden was able to give a speech, not against that guy, that small guy making youtube videos basically, but against the moment. against everything that trump ushered in. and i don't know how you push back and defend this moment as anything other than hellacious. >> it is an atomized country at

the moment. everybody does feel divided and there is all sorts of chaos and duelling catastrophe with the recession and the pandemic and the racial unrest. and joe biden is trying to speak to the entire country here, as jason said, the contrast with the president is so obvious, he doesn't have to say donald trump's name. it is just him standing there, acting like a normal president and people in the country are used to seeing even if they haven't seen it for four years. and it is easier for joe biden because of what donald trump is doing to close this campaign. you know, i don't think there are too many people who would have predicted that his closing message would have been i got covid because i care and i was right to do it and i'm such a leader because of it and don't worry about it after 200,000 people have died. don't let it control your life. i talked to a republican consultant this morning doing some reporting on how this is playing and there is consternation about the donald trump messaging and behavior

over the past week and the consultant said it is hard to imagine anything else the president could do beyond this to sabotage his own campaign. his own political chances. and then just a couple of hours later, what do we have? trump up in the residence tweeting that covid talks with over with. now obviously talks were at a long impasse and blame could be assigned to both sides. but here we have donald trump on twitter seemingly not in consultation with his chief of staff, people on capitol hill, just admitting the same way he did in 2018 with the government shutdown that he was the one ending the conversation. that he is the reason that americans will not be getting any more economic assistance at least before the election. and just people's heads are exploding right now. because they just don't see a lot of strategy here. the president is getting out-raised and he can't campaign right now and what he is doing, this could have been an opportunity as some people have

said around the campaign, around the president to show a different side, to show some hum humility and a greater understanding of the virus now that he himself contracted it. but donald trump hasn't been capable or interested in doing that and i think this is just that time is of the essence here. we have 28 days left and the polls have really shown that this race that joe biden has led comfortably for most of the summer he's now leading by a stronger margin after the debate and the week of the president in the hospital. and people are plflummoxed becae donald trump is in capable of changing course. >> i think he could read the polls. but i think he's incapable of changing course. i'm cured mostly of having any expectations about the president doing anything remotely normal. here is where i thought he might

become a champion of medicine. if his life was not saved then vastly improved by medical interventions and a whole lot of them. this is not a medical team that shared everything with us. but from what we know he's on an experimental antibody type of cocktail and remdesivir and used for steroids with very serious covid ammonia and taking zinc and vitamin d touted as being part of the therapy. i thought at a narrow minimum, he would come out just overcome with gratitude for scientific innovation and medicine and doctors and nurses. but he didn't even do that. >> no, he didn't. i mean, i have long since lost the ability to believe that the president can change who he is. he can't change who he is. and it is really unfortunate

because he could have taken the opportunity to acknowledge that he received the best of care from topnotch physicians, the latest in terms of treatment and that he acknowledged that thousands and thousands of americans around the country have not been able to receive that. and he wanted to be able to -- he wanted to be the president who would go out there and celebrate a health care system that might be able to deliver to the american people. and instead he used it as a moment of theater and bravado. and suggesting somehow that people who had coronavirus or even died from it just weren't fighting hard enough, just weren't working to defeat the virus enough. and it was just really shameful and sad and that is why i think that the contrast with joe biden is so stark. there is none of that bravado. there is a humility and i think the american people are seeing

that humility contrasted with arrogance and hubris. >> you know, and jason, just to get back to biden's messaging here, as we are exactly four weeks away from election day. you know, yesterday, he was introduced by or singled out for praised for first responders and talks about nurses and doctors and his own interconnection with them as they worked to save his own family members, his son, his wife and his daughter, all with tragic intersections, with health care. he talks like a human being who has known tragedy. he talks like a human being who has been in a hospital and understands who does what. donald trump just got out of the hospital and doesn't even talk as though he understands that secret service agents are there to protect him and he might get them sick. doctors are out there risking credibility to say whatever b.s.

he wants them to. i mean, he has lost the thread on the people around him. he's not a business man. he's not even a reality tv star any more. he's an american president. his whole salary and crib if you will paid for and funded by the american taxpayer, every american taxpayer whether we voted for him or not. he seems to have lost the thread on what he's doing in the helicopter, what he's doing in that house. >> yeah. and nicolle, i've been saying this for a while, the republicans stop running a campaign like three or four months ago. when mitch mcconnell said we weren't going to come up with covid relief, they're just focusing on cheating and voter sup appreciati suppression and anybody with the myth that trump would come out, because he still has covid, but come out of covid like a christmas carroll and say it is still christmas eve and become a nice guy and show empathy, no. in fact, every time joe biden

talks about -- >> i know, i know. >> -- not just health care workers but even issues that i think are important like health care, right. health care which is a winning issue for democrats, whenever joe biden talks about it he becomes stronger because when you see someone like trump go through covid, and realize that 6 million americans have this and it will be a pre-existing condition and you have one candidate saying, hey, i'm going to keep pre-existing conditions as part of a health care and you have the incumbent health care saying i'm going to get rid of it putting 6 million more people. >> -- eli, i want to give you the last word and i want to ask you about the section of the speech that focused on our country needing to do something about the darkest forces. not just the rancor in our politics but about the rise about white supremacy. joe biden has been working on this speech for a long time. that section feels like

something he worked on on the way lohome from the debate. and granted some have fallen ill and been busy. they never answered for donald trump's comments in that debate for the proud boys, have they? >> no. they have not. they just got washed away about the coronavirus health crisis that came up on thursday. but, you know, go back to that debate and donald trump saying he doesn't like this the new laws because they're like a reversal, they even the playing field and he doesn't like the racial redress and joe biden you could tell, he's obviously trying very hard to speak and to show african-american voters that he hears them, that he sees them, that he understands their concerns right now at this moment. and also i think one interesting thing about the speech that was fairly adroit, he's talking about that as convincingly as he can, but also speaking about public safety. and trying very hard not to let president trump and his campaign

set up this false choice between racial justice and public safety as the president has tried to do framing this as an either/or. and joe biden has been skillful doing that on environmental legislation saying look, the green new deal with create jobs. this is not just a matter of saving the environment and killing the economy. we could improve both if we come at it the right way. i think he's been strategic throughout the campaign and aware of the way that the president likes to set up these either/ors and trying to bust through those to break them down and to reach out to people on both sides of the political divide and to say, look, we could do this in a way where we're not jeopardizing your public safety even though we need to take steps to hold police officers more accountable. i think that is been an effective aspect of the former vp's messaging in the speech today and throughout his campaign. >> and to eli's point, the new cnn poll out today shows joe

biden, i think, with a sizable lead on the question of safety and law and order and protecting citizens around 10 points. there it is. this is the general election map. 16 points ahead of his opponent and here, let me look, on this question of crime and safety, joe biden favored by, i'm not great at math but i think that is 12 points. that is as eli said an either/or, or a false choice brented to the electorate, seems they didn't buy it. donna edwards thank you for spending both hours with us. and eli and jason are staying for longer with us. when we return, the refusal by the white house to take its own coronavirus outbreak seriously. mirrors the administration's own mishandling of the pandemic nationwide and the national outbreak continues to worsen. plus donald trump back to where he was at the start of the pandemic, comparing coronavirus to the flu. we'll get reaction to that from

kristen arquiza. and michelle obama's powerful new closing argument in support of joe biden. we'll have that later in the hour. "deadline: white house" continues after a short break. don't go anywhere. ♪ [ engines revving ] ♪ ♪ it's amazing to see them in the wild like th-- shhh. for those who were born to ride, there's progressive. i wouldn't be here if i thought reverse mortgages, took advantage of any american senior, or worse, that it was some way to take your home. learn how homeowners are strategically using a reverse mortgage loan to cover expenses, pay for healthcare, preserve your portfolio and so much more.

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donald trump's dismissal of his own serious condition and infection from the coronavirus and the increasing outbreak happening within his own home and office, of course, underscores how the trump administration has handled this pandemic all along. recklessly. according to the "new york times," the white house has decided not to trace the contacts of guests an staff

members that attend the the rose garden ceremony for judge amy coney barrett last weekend where most attendees could be seen not wearing masks and not a lot of social distancing went on. 11 people who attended that event including the president and the first lady has since tested positive. it is a stunning decision as this country grapples with loss under trump's lack of leadership. 7 million covid cases an more souls lost. from the ucla fielding school ann ram oin and eli and jason are also still here. dr. ram oin, what is your degree of concern about this white house. we learned of more infections today and we learned that many members of our military are self-isolating and quarantining. how vast could this outbreak be? >> this is a superspreader

event. and the most high-profile and possibly one of the largest in history we have going on here. and the white house has been abdicating all responsibility doing what we know is necessary to be able to contain this outbreak, we need contact tracing which is the backbone of any investigation into a deadly virus cluster. and we have the president's physician, dr. conley, who is an osteo path, an infectious disease physician or epidemiologist, leading the medical unit, leading the investigation, who just said on national news yesterday that he's not interested in looking backward. well looking backwards is actually the backbone of any investigation which is what is required to be able to understand who has been infected and how they've been infected and how we could look going forward to stopping chains of transmission.

we are actually ignoring all common sense and public health knowledge to date by avoiding doing the kind of contact tracing that is requiring to stop what is not only just a threat to public health, but a threat to national security. >> can you just, since it is not happening, what should happen? should everyone who was in the rose garden and then went back and got on airplanes and flew home, should they contact the airlines and tell the airlines to let everyone on the flights know. there were other members of the cabinet there. there were other senators there. whether people have symptoms or not, what should they do. >> so ideally everybody needs to follow cdc guidelines and that is if you know you have an exposed or may have been exposed to somebody who has covid-19, you should quarantine for 14 days. we also recommend that you get tested.

because if you are positive, we then need to contact other people that you have been in contact with. it also helps guide your treatment, because the sooner that you know your positive, the sooner we could start monitor for symptoms that could be of concern. but the other thing is that anybody who has covid, anybody who is covid-19, with the disease, they need to isolate. and they need to isolate for at least ten days, until they are no longer having a fever, with fever reducing medications, and their symptoms are resolving. but for people who are immunocompromised or who have severe disease that isolation period could extend up to 20 days and potentially even longer. south dakota recommen cdc recommends that you ask for physician for guidance which is the potentially the scenario of

our president. >> so elise, chris christie is hospitalized and hope hicks is sick with coronavirus. bill steppien is sick with coronavirus and kayleigh mcenany sick with coronavirus. i believe we're up to three or four of her deputies are sick with coronavirus. this was a workplace that was all of the worst practices known to mankind at the eighth month of the coronavirus pandemic. no one wore masks. they didn't fail to show social distancing but there was mask shaming. donald trump from his podium would mock and taunt reporters who wore masks. there are actually four members of the white house press corp who have tested positive. if the public renders a harsh judgment of donald trump in 28 days it will at least in part be because of his cruelty with his own staff and the people closest to him.

the resident staff and the secret service agents and people who work for the american presidency, not donald trump personally. >> nicolle, having worked if president bush's white house, and you know that the tiny size of the west wing and the close proximity, i'm really grateful that this was never even a call. if you had the flu, you were supposed to stay home. i remember the chief speech writer having the flu before i believe that was the first inaugural and had to specifically stay away from president bush and went out of his way to avoid giving the president the flu. because other people mattered. i just watch the blatant disregard for everyone down the totem pole from the president. that he just absolutely does not care, that he doesn't care about the hundreds of workers on the complex who keep the white house as a pristine example of american democracy and a

monument and testament to our history. all of those workers, it is absolutely mind blowing. and i can't help but to feel that voters, especially as we've seen senior citizens reflected in polls, are going to judge him for that, too. >> you know, jason i want to read you some of axios reporting. there is an extraordinary body of reporting from eli's paper and everyone that covers the white house. a white house source said it is insane that he would jeopardize staff health when we're still learning of new case as mong senior staff. this place is a cesspool. the a.p. reported that it was a ghost town. so an abandoned cesspool is what donald trump has done to what elise just described, what is a special, special place. >> and abandoned cesspool and

swamp and septic tank. who wants to be around this person. and i read about the secret service saying this guy clearly does not care about us. if you wants to get us sick. and i think we're seeing it in the people would have been close to donald trump. it is not like he's a loyal or considerate person. but if we backtrack through this, it is not just chris christie and hope hicks, it goes back to herman cain, going to a rally and passing away after he thought it was fine. it goes back to the fact that i don't think this could be overlooked that the trump campaign came to the first debate late so they couldn't get tested which means they knew there was a possibility of infecting people on the biden campaign. the callous disregard of lives for even people who like him is horrifying. and we've seen this over the years. but i think now that its in an enclosed space and over 100 people between people the from the capitol and white house and can't do their jobs and takeing

there home and not only they want to do their basic job but doesn't care if other people die. and that is the point that is clear. this is not just about being sick or inconvenience, and people could die and donald trump wants to rip off his mask like he's hulk hogan in the '80s tearing off a shirt while you've had people dedicating their lives who are possibly on respirators and i don't know how american could watch this behavior and say i want four more years of this when he doesn't care about the lives of those most dedicated to him. >> to that end, doctor, for the secret service, who will protect them from trump and if you look at today's polls that is a the question on the minds of americans. what does trump have to watch out for, from the public reports of his condition and therapies which includes supplemental

oxygen and some steroids, behavior last night that showed him really laiboring to breathe whether he got back to the white house and what is your assessment and you are not treating him, but what is your take of how he's doing. >> well, what i could say is that there is no way to predict what is going to happen. and donald trump can't predict what is going to happen. he is like anybody else infected with coronavirus, subject to whatever the virus decides it is going to do in his body and his own immune system. and he is very lucky to have such incredible care, access to things that most people in the world do not have access to. in fact, i don't think anybody has access to the care that he has available to him right now. but because we still don't know when he first -- when he had his last negative test, we don't know where he is in the course of this disease.

if he tested positive for the first time on thursday, he's only a few days in. and he must have gotten sick pretty quickly and we know that somewhere around the second week people could get even sicker. so we don't know what is going to happen to him. of course, i do want to point out again, we don't know whether his last negative test was. so he could be much further along in the disease process that within know. and that information would be critical to be able to save lives right now. because this deadly virus is run rampant in a major superspreader event not just through the white house, the senate, the joint chiefs of staff, the donor populations that he was with, the rose garden, the rallies, nobody knows really. the debate. we don't know at this point how many people the president has exposed. >> it is a terrifying thought.

thank you for spending time with us today. el he's and jason are staking around. donald trump is downplaying the coronavirus and comparing it to the flu. kristin urquiza who lost her father to covid is joining us next. father to covid is joining us next when we started carvana, they told us

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some families get to say good-bye in person. it is heart-wrenching but others

haven't even had that luxury. they've been forced to watch a loved one or two or even three die from the coronavirus anoy cell phone or ipad screen. for thousands upon thousands of american families, this pandemic is personal. and tragic. it is a not so slow rolling tragedy and many people lay at least part of the blame, at the feet of the president. not only for his inaction, but for the way he's repeatedly downplayed the threat. and misinformation technique that has continued even after his own diagnosis with covid. joining our conversation is kristin urquiza. her father mark died of covid-19 in june. she was one of joe biden's guests at last week's presidential debate. are you hathy or concerned, trrp was there and his family was there and none of them were wearing masks. have you been contacted by anyone to make sure you're doing okay? >> i was terrified to learn the president tested positive and others in his inner circle. i've gotten a test myself.

i have since tested negative. but unlike the president, i am observing a quarantine nonetheless. to ensure that in case that was a false negative, i don't potentially put a single human being in harm's way. >> so kristin, kayleigh mcenany, the white house press secretary, had negative tests and kept going to work and briefing the press without her mask on. chris christie, i think, fell ill before he was tested so once he had a positive test he quarantined. but so many people in trump's circle don't do what you just described. what is your sense of what is going on at donald trump's white house? >> the only thing that i can say is that it seems like nobody in trump's white house has care for human life. they continue to downplay the

virus, not implementing very simple public health measures that will keep themselves and one another safe. i mean i've been thinking so much about the workers in that building and how they're fundamental rights to a safe workplace are completely being thrown out of the window because this administration wants to exude this idea of strength. well that idea of strength is, it is toxic masculinity which is the conditions for this virus to thrive. >> you know, kristin, you're convention speech, i think you've come on multiple times with rachel and joy and myself and we've had a chance to talk to you like this. but the power of your convention speech is when you looked into the camera and said, my dad's only underlying condition was he trusted trump. i thought you of the minute i saw donald trump tweet from

walter reed, i feel better than i felt in 20 years. i mean, the disinformation and the downplaying is ongoing and so egregious that social media companies took down his tweets today. how do we combat that information from the president, now a covid patient himself? >> i think the other thing, too, that this makes me think about it is that this is a clear example of the two americas that i also spoke about in my dnc speech. donald trump's america, and everybody else's america. where he has access to the best care, not only that a abundance of caution in care. when people like my father were told to go home and wait, until you can't breathe any longer and that was five days. and i think that the way that we need to silence this president is for every single one of us to

vote to ensure every single person we know votes and to continue to vote early before election day happens to ensure that our votes get in there early and counted. >> kristin, do you have advice, i know a lot of people call you with parents who who political inclined in its same way your dad was. what is your advice to people that talk to you that walk similar paths to the one you've traveled? >> i mean, it is not easy. never give up. your parents and loved ones are worth the conversations. but that being said, raise your voice. share your story. please continue to come to me. i will continue to help as much as i can. to get your story out and to ensure that what you're going through is out there in the universe because i think the more that we humanize what it is like to be living with covid,

the harder it is for us to turn a blind eye to its relentless pain that it wreaks on us. >> kristin, it is a privilege to talk to you again. thanks for spending some time with us today on today's news. when we come back, it is just four weeks to go before election day. a powerful closing argument from former first lady michelle obama. we'll play it for you when "deadline: white house" continues after a quick break. don't go nanywhere. k break. don't go nanywhere

four weeks until the election and donald trump has some catching up to do. we've been showing you the latest national polls from cnn with joe biden opening up a 16 point lead. he's also ahead in a lot of the key demographics, the cross tabs as they say. the latest nbc news/wall street journal poll has him up among older voters and suburban women and in pennsylvania, on the focus of the final efforts, joe biden leads there by 12. the lead may look significant but given what happened in 2016 there is a lot of apprehension among democrats so in a 24 minute closing argument video michelle obama shared a message. it all comes down to voting. >> so we can expect that this election will be won by the

slimmest of margins just like four years ago. a handful of votes per precinct in pennsylvania or arizona or wisconsin or florida or anywhere else will make all of the difference. and right now we've got a chance to start getting things back under control, to restore some stability and integrity and soul in this country. it is within our grasp. and that is what keeps me going. >> jason and elise are back with me. elise, it feels like they are putting all of the pillars in place that made joe biden as case during the week of the democratic convention, the video from michelle obamacarying a similar echo to what she said in our convention speech and pack a lunch and putz on your shoes and we're going to vote. and this does seem important to the democrats this time around. >> nicolle, and the turnout

message is exactly what z democrats need to be stressing because the margins of this election are going to be important not only in order for their candidate joe biden to win, but because of the aftermath. and i'm really scared about the political after math of a donald trump loss. we haven't given that much attention to the absolute insane statement that president trump made at the debate last week about not accepting election results necessarily. just because there were so many other things that were so wrong that night, namely he won't disavow white supremacy. but he was not promising to elect -- he was not promising to accept the election results, a statement that would put diplomats around the world, their hair on fire if it happened in any foreign country and yet the president was saying it in our country. so michelle obama's message is so important just because democrats need to have very

robust turnout and the highest margin of victory possible just to quell the potentially nasty aftermath of the election. >> you know, i don't disagree with the strategy, jason, but it is another way that donald trump just field. not only does joe biden have to win but win by an overwhelming margin that all of donald trump's corrupt and illegal efforts to delegitimize the elections like telling voters in north carolina to vote twice, which is felony voter fraud. i get it and understand whyist necessary but it does seem like a victory should be a victory. >> yeah, nicole. we're at the point where the former first lady of the united states, michelle obama is saying we know the other side is going to cheat so you have to vote. that's where we are. it's assumed the president is going to try to stop the vote

through the post office, local republicans will try to stop the vote. we've seen harris county, north carolina where three times as many ballots being dropped off by african americans are getting rejected. everyone knows this will be a fight and only overwhelming numbers and overwhelming margins will intimidate republicans from going to court or going to the supreme court. what i can say is this, you know, michelle obama's message is important because the enthusiasm is there already but large number of voters, especially african american voters. 347,000 african americans have already cast their ballots. 347,000. and 13% of those voters didn't vote in 2016. so that's enthusiasm. that's people who skipped out four years ago like we can't do this again. she's delivering this message at the right time because it's those demographics, young people, black folks, people facing suppression. wisconsin, pennsylvania, north

carolina and believe it or not, arizona. >> jason johnson, elise jordan, it's always a pleasure to talk to both of you but especially today. the news is surreal as usual. thanks for spending time with us. our special coverage of the vice presidential debate between kamala harris and mike pence starts tomorrow night at 8:00 eastern. joy, rachel, brian and me. when we come back as we do every day, we'll remember lives well lived. ry day, we'll remember lives well lived.

every breath was a battle. the virus was taking hold and fast. so in what would be his final days, 28-year-old daniel welch texted his mom. he had two messages for her. the first, i love you. the second, thank you for everything. things got worse but daniel didn't quit. right before doctors put a tube in his chest, daniel held up his hands in the shape of a heart for his family. but according to kfor in oklahoma, that was the moment his text messages stopped. daniel soon went into a medically induced coma and weeks later he died of coronavirus. a peace bringer and a gentle soul according to his obituary. daniel was known for his ye creativity, compassion and ability to melt anger in its tracks. god, we could use that. as always, if you have a moment,

spare a thought or prayer for his loved ones, his younger brother, his mom who he loved until the very end. we'll be right back. we'll be ri. eliminate who you are not first, and you're going to find yourself where you need to be. ♪ the race is never over. the journey has no port. the adventure never ends, because we are always on the way. ♪ ♪ tonight, try pure zzzs all night. unlike other sleep aids, our extended release melatonin helps you sleep longer. and longer. zzzquil pure zzzs all night. fall asleep. stay asleep.

thank you so much for letting us into your homes during these truly extraordinary times. the "beat" with ari begins right now. >> we begin with breaking news. the president is now isolated inside the white house contagious with coronavirus since returning yesterday after three nights in the hospital. taking his mask off before entering this image as you've probably seen by now or on the internet, it's making policy and political waves tonight. trump still under treatment taking a powerful steroid. he's waiting on making executive decisions announcing a controversial end to on going stimulus talks and continuing to