good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington where president trump is trying to get back out on the campaign trail as early as tomorrow, after being cleared by his white house physician. but that doctor had previously said they would wait until monday to see if the president was up to a regular schedule. the president indicated thursday night he has not yet been tested to see if he is negative for the coronavirus, raising the question, why would he go out before two successive negative tests as is recommended by the

cdc? and could he be endangering flight crews and other personnel as well as campaign staff? notable last night, causing and clearing his throat a couple of times with sean hannity. >> we had three debates with hillary and on i think the first debate they -- [ coughing ] -- excuse me, they -- [ clears throat ] -- excuse me -- absentee ballots are fine. >> kelly o'donnell at the white house, shannon pettypiece outside the white house, nbc's mike memoli covering the biden campaign, and dr. mario ramirez at hhs, welcome, all. kelly, the president's

interviews, the face-to-face interview scheduled for later today on fox, underscore the urgency they feel to get him back on the campaign trail. >> reporter: and he'll be doing what they refer to as a radio rally with rush lump bauimbaugha way for them to do their own assessment on how he sounds, based on the clips you just praised. it is rare for the president to clear his throat or have a cough, that's not something that's an affect of the president. it does appear to be something perhaps more tied to the illness he's been experiencing. getting out on the trail is something the president is very focused on. he's talked about as early as this weekend. however there is always a lot of logistics that goes along with that presidential intent. and so far we don't have any indication of the practical aspects of staging a rally and all the things that are involved

in that from white house advance and travel and security that are required. so we don't have any indication that that is happening this weekend. and certainly the white house is capable of standing up an event and in this case it would be campaign event, so you have that staff, they can do that quickly, but perhaps not as quickly as this weekend, as the president has suggested he would like to do. into the new week there certainly is the potential for that, if the president is cleared. with a we' what we've heard today from white house officials is he will not be in public in that kind of a setting without medical documentation. the specifics of what that medical documentation would be remain a bit elusive. would it be one test, would it be multiple tests? those are the kinds of details that will certainly be important for the public to get a sense of where the president is in the course of his illness and how ready he is or is not to be a candidate in an active sense again. that's part of what we're waiting to hear. the president can fill some of the space by doing radio

interviews, phone interviews, on-camera interviews. he's tweeted today, certainly one of his most frequent ways of communicating with the public, talked about being briefed on the storm. we have not seen a marine guard at the door, which typically means he's not in the shop, but in the apartment above the shop, living and working in the same space, andrea. >> as he was yesterday, we know, from all evidence, and from what he was saying and what aides were saying. shannon, "the washington post" had a very good synopsis today of the president's state of mind based on some recent remarks during all those phoners and the interviews he had done yesterday. he twice called democratic vice presidential nominee kamala harris a monster. he made baseless spying accusations against his predecessor. he attacked several members of his own cabinet, pompeo and bill barr. he claimed federal law enforcement was watching the nevada governor and an

unidentified new mexico official for potential voter fraud as he continued to assail voting by mail, incorrectly, as inherently corrupt. that's just one day's summary. and oh, by the way, he also said he wouldn't participate in the virtual debate next week, which the debate commission had unilaterally decided on based on concerns that their staff had had, after that wednesday debate when the trump people were maskless and also the fact that after the vp debate the other night, karen pence came up without a mask onto the stage. after that the production crew apparently really said no more. they announced the virtual debate, as you well know, and the president said he would not take part in that. now the biden people have moved on and we're in a debate over debates. where does that leave us, shannon? s. >> reporter: i think you did a great rundown, andrea, of what a president on defense looks like. his campaign for months has been trying to get on offense. they were hoping in that first

debate the president would be able to get on offense, and rather than constantly defending himself, that he would be able to get on offense and start attacking biden, you know, defending his record, start talking about what he was going to do in a second term. that's not happening, when you look at where we are. his campaign and the rnc have one message, to talk about biden's record, the president's record, but that's like someone playing a flute while the president has a blow horn. his message dominates and carries the day. his message, when you look at those things you talked about, andrea, it's clear, it's targeted towards his base. in these final days he's doing multiple interviews on fox news, interviewing with rush limbaugh,

all things to target his base. the strategy there, it's no longer about trying to appeal to suburban women or, you know, minority voters or hispanics. it is about trying to drive out as many white working class non-college-educated voters as they can from the hills of pennsylvania and the woods of michigan, and hope that those numbers can overwhelm all the other areas where he at this point just can't pick up ground with every action that he is taking. >> indeed. not after -- you're not going to get those suburban women after going after the only woman on the candidate -- black woman in the field and calling her a monster, a day after she's had a pretty successful debate. dr. ramirez, i want to ask you about what doctors need to do to determine the safety. it has been inferred from a lot of people who have not examined him that he had a severe covid

pneumonia based on giving him the steroid treatment, based on the hospitalization, based on the drop in his oxygen levels, at least as of a week ago today. if that's the case, isn't the cdc guideline 20 days, not 10 days? 10 days would expire tomorrow, assuming he first learned his diagnosis last week as we were told. we don't believe he's had a single negative test yet, though. >> you're right, andrea, there is a lot of sort of inferring about the president's condition that's going on. i think the use of dexamethasone suggests that was a severe case, but i certainly hasn't examined the president's records. what the cdc says is 10 days from symptom onset is appropriate for mild cases. and then it says that some cases, particularly severe cases, maybe 20 days, to be completely clear. or it's possible you can have

two coronavirus tests that are negative, 24 hours apart. unfortunately at this point we don't know where the president fits in all of that. regardless, what's being lost here is that i think even when a doctor clears you to return and come out of isolation, we still recommend the use of masks. we don't recommend that you have large scale business meetings, for instance, and i don't think we would recommend large scale political rallies. we've clearly seen that outdoor event can pose some risks, we saw that with the supreme court nomination event. even if the president is, quote unquote, cleared, it's clear these events still create some risk to the public health. >> and we should also be concerned about his own health, if he's going to be appearing at a rally, speaking loudly into a microphone, and those rallies usually go over an hour, we should be concerned. mike memoli, we see joe biden with kamala harris yesterday and today ramping up his campaign, he's in nevada today where you are. how are those appearances being

managed? because he still has this very rigid approach to being careful about the pandemic. >> reporter: yeah, andrea, you said it. for all the talk about the basement campaign strategy that was ridiculed by the trump campaign throughout the spring and into the summer, it's biden that's been out on the campaign trail in earnest this week, all four days, except for that one day yesterday when the vp debate, of course he didn't want to overshadow his running mate that day. biden has been on the campaign trail. we expect to see him potentially on the trail tomorrow as well. this is an illustration from the biden campaign of what happens when you act responsibly, when you take precautions. the biden campaign is able to release multiple negative test after multiple negative test, because they're doing these events in a responsible way. he's been doing socially distant roundtable kind of events. also we'll see today in las vegas a drive-in rally. remember the scene at the democratic national convention

when he was accepting the nomination, we had a parking lot with cars honking. this will be the first time we're seeing joe biden himself take part in one of these drive-in rallies. for the biden campaign it's a perfect illustration of their ability to continue on, to campaign when you act responsibly. as it relates to that debate discussion, andrea, from the biden campaign's perspective, there is no longer a second debate. the president canceled it when he said yesterday he would not participate in the virtual debate that the biden team was willing to engage in. and they don't want to be part of a back and forth, "will he or won't he" week. they have a plan and they're executing on it, andrea. >> and they're saying that -- they're saying -- joe biden's campaign is saying they will not do one on the 29th, which was one of the alternative bill stepien/trump campaign proposals, just push the one that was supposed to be on the 22nd to be the town hall and then do the one that was on the 22nd down to the 29th. they say they will not do one in

that closing week. >> reporter: that's right, andrea. we heard biden himself say yesterday, they proposed three dates, we agreed to all three, and that's the plan they're going forward with. the biden campaign points out that october 22, the date of that last debate that's currently scheduled in nashville, that's tied for the latest we've ever had that last debate in 40 years. and you'll know the circumstances 40 years ago, that was jimmy carter versus ronald reagan, when jimmy carter, the president at the time, had not agreed initially to participate in one of the earlier debates. you already have one of the latest debates in recent presidential history. add to that, andrea, voting in earnest, approaching 7 million ballots cast across the country. from the biden perspective, there's no reason to engage in a late debate. >> briefly, kelly, according to "the new york times," the south lawn video that was i think directed towards seniors that we showed a little earlier,

according to "the new york times," that was apparently not done outdoors or at least it was not done on the south lawn, because leaves in the background were on a loop, a video loop. it looks like that was a green screen or against some sort of backdrop. have you heard anything about that? >> reporter: not specifically. but the white house does have its own television production team that does its events which appear on whitehouse.gov. that's not a trump era thing, that's something that members of the military who work for what's known as the white house communications agency, they provide some of that support. also the president uses dan scavino, one of his top advisers, for some of his video and social media messaging. we understand the president is now speaking with rush limbaugh so he is on the radio and communicating with listeners so that he can try to be a campaigner even from here inside the white house gates, andrea. >> they've got a lot of tools at their disposal, indeed. kelly and shannon, thanks so

much. mike memoli, dr. ramirez, thanks for being with us today. as the fbi breaks up a plot to capture and possible kill the governor of michigan, concerns about the dangers posed by domestic terrorists are growing, just weeks ahead of the election. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. ndrea mil reports" only on msnbc ♪ we'd be closer to the twins. change in plans. at fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan. confused about which medicare plan is right for them. hey, that's me. i barely know where to start. well, start here with me, karen. i'm a licensed humana sales agent. well it's nice to meet you karen, i'm john smith. hi john. at humana we know you're unique, so you have different needs from other john smiths. yeah, i've always thought so. and together we can find a plan that's right for you. great! i go to the doctor a couple of times a year and i have some prescriptions, but i'm never fully sure of what's covered and what's not. with humana's all in one medicare

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michigan governor gretchen whitmer says president trump is complicit in that alleged plot to kidnap her after state and federal officials arrested six men they say were targeting her because of her tough pandemic restrictions as well as seven others who were plotting against law enforcement officers. >> just last week the president of the united states stood before the american people and refused to condemn white supremacists and hate groups like these two michigan militia groups. when our leaders meet with, encourage, or fraternize with domestic terrorists, they

legitimize their actions and they are complicit. >> on fox news last night, the president slammed the governor. >> i see whitmer today, she's complaining, but it was our justice department that arrested the people that she was complaining about. it was my justice department that arrested them. but instead she goes and does her little political act and she keeps her state closed. >> joining me now, former national security adviser to president obama ben rhodes. former fbi special agent clint watts. clint, first of all, this is the exact threat that dhs and in particular chris wray, the fbi director, have been warning about, saying domestic terrorism, white supremacy, is their biggest concern. what's your take on these men being charged? >> that's right, andrea, to start, it's not the president's justice department, it's our justice department, for all the people in america. it's super frustrating to hear that. look, this is not a surprise at

all. the sophistication of the plot is a surprise. but the idea that someone would mobilize to go after essentially a sitting governor and law enforcement officers, we've been building to this moment. this is an election year. you've seen increased rhetoric. and what's fascinating about this plot, this isn't just one or two people with an idea. they were actively developing a terrorist plot that's extremely sophisticated. they did organization, recruitment, ideology, targeting, reconnaissance. they even prepped and tested devices. and they tried to do fundraising. this is a significant plot. whenever we see six to 13 people, there usually is a large iceberg of support that's underneath of that. this didn't just happen out of anywhere. when we see one or two terrorists, we tend to think that's a smaller group. we have a major network in this country right now that is mobilizing. i think when you look at the white supremacist plots, the antigovernment plots, even the connection, multistate and

multination, we should be worried in the final three weeks here, especially as we hear that political rhetoric pick up. >> and ben, when you were deputy national security adviser, you were watching a lot of this mobilizing and taking place. here you had the president standing -- saying "stand by" to white supremacists in that debate, then backtracking, mike pence not declaring very clearly where they stood on this. how worried are you about threats coming especially as we approach the election? >> i'm very worried, andrea. and this has all the hallmarks of the process of radicalization that we've seen in terrorist groups around the world. and as clint mentioned, what's particularly dangerous is when it's not just one person consuming something online. and that can lead to a terrible threat of a lone shooter as we saw in kenosha, wisconsin recently. but when people start to come together, the plots grow in ambition and in complexity. and what you need is leaders who

are tnot only applying resource to reach into this communities but you need leadership. the common thread for these kind of terrorist acts is people feel like their way of life is under assault and need to feedback. donald trump has said we need to liberate michigan. these people see mask mandates as efforts to take away their freedom. then they seat president of the united states telling them to stand down, not only not condemning white supremacy but giving voice to their grievances, it's an incredibly dangerous moment, it has to be a sense of empowerment to them, inspiration to them to keep doing what they're doing. we need to treat this as the number one national security and terrorist threat to the united states today and probably for some time to come. >> let's take a look at that video back in april when two of these men were actually in that

protest rally who came into the capital in michigan with their guns. two of these guys were there, and clint, the fbi did a really good job, because they had fbi people there as well trying to get contacts and actually recruiting and undercover, right? >> that's right, andrea. i mean, imagine that this was an al qaeda or isis plot, andrea, and the run-up to election 2016, we saw footage of two armed men in a state capital that later turned out to be part of an actual terrorist plot. it's pretty remarkable to even think this could occur. i think separately what we should look at is the fbi did a pretty outstanding job of actually penetrating into this group, developing human intelligence. that is going to be very critical evidence for advancing this case in court. this is a lot more than just a social media post or somebody having an idea about making wanting to do some terrorist attack. this is actually very detailed information. it shows sophistication of the

plotters and shows there were real capabilities behind this attack. i think the fbi and dhs, while under attack by the president all the time, should be commented for the great effort they put in here and doing it in a timely way during the election. >> and doing it while the ag, bill barr, was telling congress he was unaware of the threats to lynch the governor of michigan, completely unaware of the threats from that group. the president yesterday called on bill barr, pressing him on why he didn't indicting joe biden and indicting barack obama and going after them right now, before the election. >> yeah, i mean, andrea, this is something we expect to see in other countries with authoritarian governments where they seek to imprison their political opponents. he's been ranting about these conspiracy theories about my former boss for years. frankly, nobody understands what

he's talking about. the fact that we're in a pandemic and an economic crisis and he's talking about this, just shows you how completely out of touch he is with what's actually happening to people in this country. the reality, andrea, they've also consistently downplayed the actual threat from white supremacist terrorists. here he is, on the very day a sophisticated terrorist process was uncovered to kidnap and potentially harm the governor of an american state and he's ranting about imprisoning his political opponent. this is kind of an emergency moment here that we have not experienced certainly in my lifetime in the united states. >> ben rhodes, clint watts, i'm afraid we've only gun to scratch the surface of what's going to possibly go on. this is really a very, very scary moment in american history. thank you both so much. and 25 days, 25 days to the elections. millions already voting. how are young voters feeling about the candidates this year? how confident are they about the future? and the pandemic's impact on

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young people under 40 make up more than a third of eligible voters in the u.s. but many usually at least don't bother to vote. are they more engaged this year? new findings from a nbc news/quibi nationally online poll show young people are still less interested in the election than other age groups. only six in ten millenials have a high interest in the election while fewer than. of genz voters do. young voters do overwhelmingly prefer joe biden to president trump in this race. biden leading 64 to 22% among gen z voters and 50 to 36% among millenials. joining me now, nbc news reporter dasha burns from carnegie mellon university in pittsburgh. dasha, what are you hearing

about gen z voters and whether they plan to vote? >> reporter: andrea, we talked to students at carnegie mellon and university of pittsburgh down the road. these are young voters getting a college education and they're getting that education in a critical battleground state. so most of the students we spoke with seemed to grasp the gravity of this election, some were lukewarm on both candidates. most leaned toward joe biden. take a listen to some of what we heard. >> i've been watching the debates and registered, trying to get our friends to register. >> due to some of the situations that have arrived recently, specifically coronavirus and racial tensions, i've been a lot more interested in this election. >> i'm not very interested because of the two candidates. but, i mean, i have to vote. it's my duty as a citizen. >> hopeful but scared for this

election for sure. >> if you don't have hope, you don't have anything. i think that's the one thing i've tried to keep in mind and keep in my heart, is hope, and knowing we've been through tough times as a country before. i believe in the people of this country. maybe not always the leadership. >> reporter: andrea, i asked these students how they feel about their future. a lot of them did express anxiety for the short term. but i've heard some good perspective that other generations have gone through hurdles and made it out the other end and they're hoping they do too. >> i love the sign of hope on a beautiful campus there in pittsburgh. thank you so much, dasha. warning signs for the trump campaign in ten key districts around the country. stay with us on msnbc. country stay with us on msnbc. it was bui lt on blue-collar, hard work. hard work means every day. getting it right. it's so iconic, you can just sit it on a shelf if it's missing, you know it.

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counties that donald trump won in 2016 and how shifts among working class voters, suburbites, and traditional republicans across the midwest as well as the sun belt present troubling signs for the president's reelection chances. joining me now, david wasserman, whose findings are in a "new york times" column today, brendan buck, former adviser to house speaker paul ryan, and adam genleson, former chief of staff to harry reid. what states are seeing a shift now? >> andrea, the places that will decide this election don't all look likealike. they range from military bases to retiree havens to peach orchards to a lot of white collar suburbs like plano, texas. what we found when we looked at

the ten counties that are the best predictors of their states' voting behavior is that joe biden is at least tied or ahead in all of them. maricopa county, arizona, multiple polls show joe biden leading outside the margin of error in that county which is most of arizona. pinellas county, polls show biden is ahead in that senior-heavy county. the frost belt, erie, pennsylvania could be ground zero. people on the ground have told us joe biden is nearly ahead there after trump managed to capture it in 2016. so there are a lot of different paths right now for an electoral college victory for biden. >> brendan, some of the people david highlights, like maricopa county, kent county, michigan, texas as well as, we can also talk about wisconsin, are

traditionally republican voters. why would they be turning to biden? if they are, do you think it's because of the pandemic? is it because of the way trump has been campaigning? why would you see a broader shift here? >> i think the president is having his support depressed sort of across the board. i think we talk a lot about the suburbs and how there's been deterioration there. one thing we're starting to see is that sort of radius of the president's slippage is spreading. look in georgia. i'm from the atlanta suburbs. tom price used to represent george's sixth. conservative congressman. he used to win with 60 to 70% of the vote. that's now a democratic-held district, just in those inner suburbs. now you look at george's seventh, further out, you're starting to get into the exurbs. that is a lean democrat in that seat. what you're seeing is not just those areas where you saw slippage in 2018 but that circle is getting wider. these aren't necessarily liberals, but they're certainly

unhappy with the president's response to covid-19. and i don't think anything he's done in the last ten days has done anything but hurt him with those people. it has depressed the republican enthusiasm a bit. and i think it has solidified the concerns a lot of independent have with him. >> and adam, you would think that he would have wanted that second and third debates. but he's been playing, you know, playing chicken with the debate commission about not doing it. these rallies are not going to deliver nearly the audience that a debate would deliver. but biden is also winning back the obama voters who were key to delivering a senate majority under your old boss harry reid, and either flip to trump or stay home in 2016. do you see the senate shifting as well? >> i think if the election were held today, democrats would be favored to take back the majority. i think that's just a fact of where the facts on the ground lie right now. you know, it's not a big gap. they only need four seats to

take back the majority, three seats if they take back the white house. so it's not a high hill to climb. we're living in a very polarized environment so even gaining a few seats these days is very difficult to do. but i have to say, you know, without jinxing it for my side or anything, that the last week or so has had a real distinct vibe of the 2008 election around the time of the lehman brothers crash, where one side seems to have a handle on their campaign, on the message, on what voters want. and the other side just seems to be completely flailing. you mentioned debates, and now we've devolved into a debate over the debates here with the trump campaign making multiple proposals in the last 24 hours about how they wanted to change the schedule, all that just reeks of weakness and sounds like a campaign that really has no idea what it's doing, is really scrambling to gain traction. >> and that's exactly what happened back then, in a mini way, after the lehman crash, when john mccain briefly thought

about not going to oxford, mississippi, until the last minute. let's talk about the roller coaster, david. we have the uncertainty about mail-in ballots and whether or not there will be interference, whether they'll be counted in time whether in some states they won't be allowed to count if they arrive after the date because of new court decisions. so turnout will still matter. >> absolutely. and a pew research study out today that had biden up 52-42 nationally found that among voters planning on voting by mail, 69 to 27% supported biden. among in-person voters, biden was leading 55-40%. among election day voters, trump still at 63-31%. we're going to have some very lopsided and potentially confusing batches of results on election night. in kent county, michigan, one of

her bell we go bellwethers, and about the suburbs in georgia, we found the best bellwether in georgia may be peach county in macon. that's a place we'll be watching in terms of the early in-person vote and the election day vote, whether the addition of kamala harris can help joe biden rebound to those obama era levels he'll need to be able to win the sun bullet. belt. >> big questions. and of course we have the supreme court hearings next week. we don't know how that's going to play for either party. a lot still to watch. david wasserman, thanks so much. brendan buck, adam jentleson, great information from all of you, thanks again. school enrollment, meanwhile, is down in public school districts across nearly half the country during the

pandemic. how is that impacting the youngest children at such a critical time in their development? mark shriver and jennifer garner, advocates for early childhood education, joining us next. stay with us. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. s" on msnbc. helps you brush in vital minerals to actively repair and strengthen enamel. so you don't just brush to clean, you brush to build. pronamel intensive enamel repair. their laundry smells moremily amazing than ever.in flings, uh, honey? isn't that the dog's towel? hey, me towel su towel. there's more gain scent plus oxi boost and febreze odor remover in every fling. gain. seriously good scent

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pre-k and kindergarten enrollment at public schools around the country is dropping because of the pandemic, creating critical concerns for experts in early childhood education who say 90% of a child's brain development occurs by the time they're 5 years old. that raises major challenges for virtual learning, not widely available in many poorer communities, as well as problems in families where parents cannot really help their toddlers with online learning. an early childhood education coach in denver took part in kids first, a virtual bus tour as part of the biden campaign. >> as soon as i took child psychology and started learning the importance of zero to 5, everything changed thereafter for me. and i had to think about what impact i wanted to have on black and brown children before they got to that point and realized there were some gaps there and

they weren't academically prepared and ready to take on what it took in order to be successful. >> this virtual tour is being led by mark shriver who along with actor jennifer garner are both long time child advocates. they join me now. welcome, both. jennifer, why is this issue of early childhood education so important to you and why is it even more critical during this pandemic? >> it's so important to me because i believe so much in early childhood education as the first step to helping people who have less in this world ladder up into a successful education, and then into -- just upward mobility, that our country is supposed to offer, the american dream. but if you start at kindergarten, you're too late. >> and mark, you're holding these conversations in swing states. so clearly you're looking at it

from a political perspective, that's okay, that's where we are right now. what are you hearing in these states? >> i think we just heard about the importance of this issue, not only for black and brown kids, but kids all across the country. this is the most important period, 90% of brain development happens in the first five years of life. as a country we don't invest in those years. the biden/harris plan does invest. in home visiting, early head start, head start, they try to raise the capabilities and the pay for early childhood teachers. we need to address that today. we need to address it in co-vid relief. and we need to get a system and a high quality system across

this country. >> people could go back to work if there's -- >> jennifer, that's all the talks going nowhere, fixing that problem on the co-vid relief, but what were you saying? i'm sorry. >> i was just saying that moms -- nobody can go back to work if their kids aren't safe and in a learning environment. and we've got to get back to work. we have to get moms back to work, but in order to do that, we have to stabilize the child care industry and we should get rid of the term child care. early childhood educators. dane dent who we just heard from said he's not a chald care provider. she's a brain architect. i love that. >> especially with all the data that we've been sharing about how important those first five years are. it was just announced today,

jennifer, that the world food program has won the 2020 nobel peace prize for its efforts to combat hunger and food security. if you look at the u.s. during the pandemic, some of our children rely on in person schooling for their food needs and lunches, for their breakfasts. and they're not getting breakfast and lunch during this period. what's the impact on that? >> it's a huge, huge issue, and a travesty. and something that we have to address as a country. it can't just be piecemeal, but food insecurity tripled in one month for kids in the month of march. as soon as the shutdown happened. 30 million kids rely on school for breakfast and for lunch, and often to have their backpacks stuffed as they go home to have food for their families after school. and schools were trying as fast as they could to just make the food and try to get food out to

kids, but it's definitely taken a ton of work. i know for save the children, amy adams and i started save with stories which funded schools having money for the bus drivers to get there early and to deliver food out into hollers across the country, or so suppl with the food for kids who don't have access to broad band. but it's going on. we've got to get in there. >> i hate this satellite delay. i'm so sorry. i keep jumping in on you, not intentionally at all. mark, i want to ask you about something. nbc news is reporting that federal prosecutors who won the 2017 so-called pilot program determined children younger from 12 should not be separated because most wouldn't be able to find their way back to their families alone. they went ahead, and we're

learning jeff sessions and rod rosenstein had in a cabinet meeting approved that program themselves. >> it's amazing that in the richest country in the history of the world, in a country that prides itselves on taking care of the -- i'm flabbergasted they would talk about separating one and two-year-old children from their parents and sending children 11 and 12 back to their country of origin and they'd find their way back. can't we do better than that? can't we invest in our kids in this country. so they enter kindergarten ready to learn? the idea the trump administration wants to separate children from their parents is mind boggling. that's why the binden/harris ticket is such a breath of fresh

air. we're talking about humility and a commitment to the common good and restoring the soul of this country as vice president biden says over and over again. that's what we're talking about. you talk about pro life. we're talking about the commitment to life at all stages. that's what needs to be done in this country. it's flabbergasting. >> i want to leave all of us with some real hope and with a smile on your faces so mark and jennifer, thank you so very much. stay tuned. i want to show you what we have next. just to close the week on a happier note with a miami heat fighting to stay alive in the nba finals tonight, they're hoping for divine intervention. >> reporter: the miami heat now down three games to the l.a. lakers in the nba finals. are hoping their shooting guard kendrick nun will help stage a comeback.

nun and faithful fans like him. >> miami heat, we heard there's a nun of your team. it's pretty good. >> reporter: these nuns make it a habit of sinking victory. a backup bench that typically packs pews, virtual guests of the game. >> they think social security exciting to see their principals shoot a basket and be on instagram and for their theology teacher to do a slam dunk. sister margaret ann used a chain saw to clean up debris. the sisters want to bring light to a dark time. >> it might give a little bit of encouragement to say we're going to make it through this. >> reporter: fans like these, a true gift from above. nbc news. >> go heat. >> and that brings some light to

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it's friday. desperate times call for desperate measures. president trump wants to hit the campaign trail days after leaving the hospital following a brutal ten-day stretch that has republicans everywhere ringing their hands. the white house reopens the door on talks for a massive co-vid relief deal as pelosi pushes for a commission to assess the president's mental and physical capacity to hold the highest office in the land. zblchlkts and michigan's governor calls the president complicit after a group was arrested for conspireing to kidnap the governor.