tv The Rachel Maddow Show MSNBC October 9, 2020 6:00pm-7:00pm PDT
6:00 pm
continue to see a really -- i was going to see a steady race in we're continuing to see democrats make gains and hold their gains across the map. so we welcome everyone to come join us. i'm an organizer, so i have to make an organizing pitch to your viewers. >> yes. >> who are tuning in and following the polls. 2020.indivisible.org. >> i'm the son and brother of organizers, so i understand. >> i had to come on and make an ask, chris. >> i was an organizer. that's how i started. >> you're the best. zerlina maxwell, maria urbina, thank you so much. appreciate it. have a great weekend. that is "all in" for this friday night. the rachel maddow show starts right now with ali velshi in for rachel. good evening, ali. >> good to see you, chris. thanks to you at home for joining us at this hour. rachel's got the night off but she will be back on monday. we kind of knew this was going to happen. we didn't know exactly what it would look like but we knew to expect it. we knew as we got closer to the election, the president would start to -- for give me but he
6:01 pm
would start to act a little bonkers. i no he what counts is bonkers and that bonkers is in the eye of the beholder and that this president is unconventional at the best of times, nor is he a stranger to nauseating election eve stunts. as you just heard, if was on this day four years ago, october 9th, 2016, that candidate donald trump, 90 minutes before his second presidential debate before hillary clinton, staged a surprise news conference featuring several women who had accused clinton's husband of sexual assault or harassment. donald trump was down in the polls and the "access hollywood" tape had just come out 48 hours earlier, revealing trump openly admitting to his predatory behavior. it was the lowest moment of the presidential race for trump. hillary clinton's campaign called the stunt with her husband's accusers a quote, act of desperation. but here's the thing. desperate people will do desperate things. here we are exactly four years later, and consider the week
6:02 pm
that president donald trump has had. the president and the first lady tested positive for covid-19. the president was airlifted to walter reed where he was hospitalized for three days, during which time his doctor delivered briefings on the president's condition that were either incomplete, misleading, or contradictory, sometimes all of the above. and the president was loaded up with an experimental antibody cocktail as well as an antiviral medication and steroids generally reserved for patients with severe cases of coronavirus. and the number of people connected to the white house and the trump campaign testing positive for covid-19 grew by the day, sometimes by the hour. we're now up to 27 confirmed cases, including the president's campaign manager, the white house press secretary, and several of her staff, trump's top speechwriter, two high-ranking military officials, three republican senators, and the chair of the republican party. this has also been one of the worst weeks that the president has had in the polls as voters
6:03 pm
have digested not just his covid diagnosis and the reckless behavior that produced it but also the president's disastrous performance in his first debate with joe biden last week. the national polls have been wild this week. cnn has joe biden up 16 points over trump at 57%. an nbc news/"wall street journal" poll pegged biden at 53%, 14 points ahead of the president. even fox news has trump trailing by 10 points in its latest poll, five points further behind joe biden than he was last month. now, battleground state polls are mostly closer, but still very bad for the president. and this week the president learned that the october surprise that he was counting on does not appear to be coming. trump has for months been touting the imminent release of the durham report, which he said would prove once and for all that russia -- the russia
6:04 pm
investigation was all a big hoax, and then maybe attorney general bill barr and his handpicked investigator, john durham, would start arresting and indicting obama administration officials. there was reportedly so much pressure on john durham's team to produce a report before the election that his top aide quit in protest. well, this week bill barr has reportedly been telling top republicans that there will not be a durham report before the election, which might explain why the president has been publicly berating bill barr in recent days. but we're going to get to that in just a minute. also this week the president lost yet another court fight to try to keep his tax records out of the hands of a new york grand jury. but of course "the new york times" already has many of those records, and the paper this week continued rolling out stories about the president's precarious financial situation as revealed by those documents. the president's son eric was deposed this week by new york's
6:05 pm
attorney general in an investigation into possible financial crimes at the president's company. and so here we are. it is friday. the election is less than a month away. we don't know what's going to happen in that election, but by every metric we currently have, the president is losing, and he has just had a very, very bad week. and desperate people do desperate things. the president this week went on a multi-hour, all caps twitter spree demanding to know why his political opponents, including joe biden and barack obama, weren't being arrested. where are the arrests, he tweet-shouted. he called into the fox business channel for an hour, lashing out at his attorney general and his secretary of state for not doing their part to undercut or indict his political opponents, abruptly pulling out of the next presidential debate on october 15th, and appearing to blame gold star families for giving him coronavirus at a white house event. he released a couple of rambling
6:06 pm
videos from the white house in jarringly thick, dark makeup even for him and said getting covid had been a gift from god and he'd been cured and he felt great, so amazing, better than he did 20 years ago. app romo of absolutely nothing, he said on twitter he's pulling all troops out of afghanistan by christmas, which was apparently news to the united states military. he said he needed those troops home so they could be ready to fight north korea or china or russia. also by tweet the president abrumtly pulled the plug on talks over a new covid relief bill until after the election, which would have left millions of americans struggling without help for months. and then just as abruptly the president sort of tried to take it back maybe. after his own justice department foiled a militia plot to kidnap and possibly kill michigan's governor, the president attacked her for her measures to control covid in her state.
6:07 pm
in other words, he attacked her for the very things the militia group said it had targeted her over. today the president spent over two hours on rush limbaugh's radio show, where among other things he went on a profanity-laced tirade against iran, saying to iran, quote, if you "f" around with us, if you do something bad to us, we are going to do things to you that have never been done before. i know it sometimes seems like we say this a lot, but even for this president, this is erratic, manic behavior, and it's uncomfortable to say it, but we honestly do not know if any of the president's behavior has anything to do with the medications that he's been on. from everything we know, president trump may be the only person on earth to get the particular cocktail of medications that he's been given. one of those medications is a powerful steroid that is known to produce hyperactivity and mania. but then again, maybe this is just donald trump.
6:08 pm
he's behaving like this because we are less than a month from the election and he feels like he's losing, and this is what we should expect. that's where we are. the best case scenario here is that our president's baseline behavior is simply indistinguishable from that of a person jacked up on heavy steroids. but it's also clear that the president's personal health crisis is inseparable from the country's public health crisis and that both are creating a political crisis for this white house. as of tonight, a week after the president announced his positive test result, the white house still will not answer the basic simple question of when the president's last negative test was before he tested positive for coronavirus. my intrepid colleague, hallie jackson, spent a full five minutes today trying to get a white house deputy press secretary to say when the president's last negative test was and if he was tested before the debate like he was supposed to be, and the white house deputy press secretary simply
6:09 pm
would not answer. if they are willing to go through the kind of verbal gymnastics that this guy kept up for five straight minutes, chances are the answer's not good. and the answer matters. minnesota public health officials report that there are now nine coronavirus cases linked to the president's rally there on september 18th, including two hospitalizations and one person is in the icu. well, the president was back in minnesota for a rally in duluth on september 30th, barely 24 hours before he announced his own positive test. so how long was the president infectious? was he getting tested? how many people at how many trump events in the days leading up to his positive test should be concerned, especially if the white house isn't do a bang-up job of contact tracing? just last hour the president appeared on fox news for an interview with one of their on-air doctors, who himself has played down covid-19 in the past. trump claimed he's been off all medications for eight hours, and, again, just keeps on saying
6:10 pm
how good he feels. the white house says the president will host a public event on the south lawn of the white house tomorrow, speaking to supporters from the balcony. then he'll hold a campaign rally in sanford, florida, on monday even though we don't know exactly where in the course of his illness he is. the second presidential debate, which had been scheduled for next week, was canceled today by the commission on presidential debates because after trump pulled out, joe biden made other plans. and, again, here we are. it's been one of the craziest, most unnerving weeks of this presidency, and that is saying something. we thought we'd seen every crisis, but this is new. this is the president feeling cornered and losing with less than a month to the election. what happens next week and the week after that? after the kind of week we thought it could be helpful to check in with yale historian professor snyder. he literally wrote the book on how to recognize whether the authoritarian inclinations of
6:11 pm
this president are shifting toward -- shifting the country really authority authoritarianism. that book also tells us what we can do about it and what we can learn from other countries that have gone through something similar. the book is called "on tyranny." here's lesson number ten. believe in truth. to aban gone facts is to abandon freedom. if nothing is true, then no one can criticize power because there is no basis upon which to do so. if nothing is true, then all is sp spectacle. the biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights. so my question is what kind of spectacle might we expect when a leader like donald trump feels desperate? and i know who to ask. joining me now, tim snyder, professor of history at yale university and author of a new book "our maladay: lessons in liberty from a hospital diary." thank you for being with us tonight. i have to be honest with you. we really tumbled this around all day, the team on rachel's show, to say is this alarmist?
6:12 pm
should we be talking about a slide to authoritarianism? do all these lies add up to something? what does a desperate donald trump do because a desperate donald trump is different from a desperate ali velshi or tim snyder. he's got things at his disposal that we don't have. what do you make of this? >> i think he also has problems that you and i don't have. he's in a different situation than he was in 2016. in 2016, he could win or he could lose. now in 2020, you don't see the kind of light-heartedness that you saw in his campaign in 2016. everything is dead serious, so serious that as you say, it looks desperate. and there are reasons for that. one is that he doesn't have money. he's about half a billion dollars in debt, and once he's no longer president, people are going to come to collect. and the second is he's under investigation for crimes. he and his company are under investigation for crimes. so long as he's president, he can hold that off. so from his point of view, this
6:13 pm
is a struggle for life and death. he's not just desperate, as you say, because he's down in the polls or because he thinks he's going to lose. he's desperate because he's in that typical authoritarian situation which is unfamiliar to americans but very familiar to people around the world, which is that if the leader loses, he's afraid of jail, and he's afraid of the poorhouse. so that's the structural situation that he's in. there's no reason to be hysterical about it or consider this alarmist. that's simply the way he's looking at the world right now. >> what's the other side of the equation? what's the part that we're not hearing where there are probably military leaders in this country saying, you all are talking about what happens if he doesn't have a peaceful transfer of power. don't worry, we got this. or people who are thinking through how they will preserve the institutions that we all rely upon, that we think of as democracy. >> that's a really important question because the institutions don't protect themselves. the institutions only protect us
6:14 pm
if we protect them first. so if we sleepwalk through november thinking that everything is going to work out automatically, then we're going to have big problems. it's right as you say that the military will not intervene. however, what mr. trump has been trying to do since the summer are two things. first, he's been trying to change the department of homeland security into an agency which acts against what he perceives to be domestic terrorist threats. and he, himself, has defined a threat as people protesting around the right to vote. the second thing that he's done is he's been encouraging american citizens to take part in voter intimidation. so these are the things that we have to watch out for. these are the things that we need to be alert for even as we are calm. by the way, these are also the things that law enforcement has to pay attention to. in the weeks to come, law enforcement at every level, local, state and federal, needs to think, am i following the rules here, or am i bending or
6:15 pm
breaking the rules on behalf of someone who is desperate to stay in power? >> but what a strange position for law enforcement and military to be in, to have to think about what's my oath to, who is my oath to, who is my responsibility to? two days ago, professor snyder, i was thinking that we were going to be talking about this encouragement of armed people or trump supporters to go to polls and conduct poll watching. and now i'm realizing that the encouragement of armed people may have something to do with this situation in michigan, in which the president had -- there was one answer to that, and that was to condemn it. and the president stopped short of it. in fact he stopped well short of it, criticizing the governor of michigan for the same grievances that the militia members who have been arrested have had. that's a dynamic we have not faced in america since the ku klux klan really. >> again, i mean this is part of a larger pattern that the
6:16 pm
president encouraged citizens to rebel against statehouses months ago. the president has been saying for months that it's all right for -- to rebel against democrats at the city and state level. the summer has been suggesting the whole summer and the whole fall that the really problem in this country are democrat-led cities and democrat-led states. the purpose of this is to create a background atmosphere in which voting itself is going to seem like it's questionable and can be challenged. >> let me tell you after that long intro about everything that's happened in the last week, you are a calming influence. professor tim snyder. professor of history at yale university and the author of "on tyranny: 20 lessons from the 20th century". thank you for your time tonight sir. we have much more ahead but i want to give you an update on a big story we're following tonight. hurricane delta. we're out of letters.
6:17 pm
that's why we're on the greek alphabet now. the storm made landfall as a category 2 hurricane in southwestern louisiana at about 7:00 p.m. eastern time tonight, just 13 miles away from where hurricane laura hit six weeks ago. more than 200,000 people in the area are now without power. some people who fled the last storm have still not been able to return to their homes, and it's currently making its way up the southeastern united states as a weaker category 1 storm. wind gusts in southwest louisiana have reached nearly 100 miles per hour. some areas are reporting deadly storm surges of more than eight feet of water. the storm's going to continue to head north through mississippi, then tennessee through the weekend. hurricane delta is the tenth named storm to make landfall this year. that's the second highest number of named storms in a single season in modern u.s. history. hurricane season has nearly two months to go. climate change? what climate change? more news ahead this busy friday night. stay with us. of the party look
6:18 pm
walk it off look one more mile look reply all look own your look... ...with fewer lines. there's only one botox® cosmetic. it's the only one... ...fda approved... ...to temporarily make frown lines... ...crow's feet... ...and forehead lines... ...look better. the effects of botox® cosmetic, may spread hours to weeks after injection, causing serious symptoms. alert your doctor right away as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness may be a sign of a life-threatening condition. do not receive botox® cosmetic if you have a skin infection. side effects may include allergic reactions, injection site pain, headache, eyebrow, eyelid drooping, and eyelid swelling. tell your doctor about your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions, and medications including botulinum toxins as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. so, give that just saw a puppy look. and whatever that look is. look like you... with fewer lines. see results at botoxcosmetic.com
6:19 pm
6:21 pm
but despite the rising pain and anguish made worse during the pandemic, insurance companies still refused to cover mental health and addiction treatment. until now. senator scott wiener went to work - taking them on. passing a law requiring the insurance industry to cover mental health and addiction treatment. now more than ever, californians need mental health coverage. i won't let up until the stigma of mental health and addiction is finally over.
6:22 pm
the letter to cdc director robert redfield says in part, quote, the first thing would be to face the truth. you and i both know that. one, despite the white house spin attempts, this will go down as a colossal failure of the public health system of the country. the biggest challenge in a century, and we let the country down. the public health text of the future will use this as a lesson on how not to handle an infectious disease pandemic. two, the cause will be the incompetence and illogic of the white house program. three, the white house has had no hesitation to blame and disgrace cdc, you, and state governors. they will blame you for the disaster. in six months, they have caused cdc to go from gold to tarnished brass. that is the beginning of a private letter that was sent to dr. redfield late last month. although we don't know who leaked it, it was written by a legend in the public health world, dr. william fagey.
6:23 pm
among his many achievements, he is largely responsible for the eradication of smallpox. he served for six years as the director of the cdc and for his lifetime of public service was presented with the nation's highest civilian honor, the medal of freedom. so what he says carries real weight, and in that letter to dr. redfield, he did not mince words about the need to stand up to the trump administration, telling redfield, quote, resigning is a one-day story, and you will be replaced. but you could send a letter to all cdc employees laying out the facts. you could upfront acknowledge the tragedy of responding poorly, apologize for what has happened and your role in acquiescing, and assure them that you will defend their attempts to save this country. don't shy away from the fact that this has been an unacceptable toll on our country. it is a slaughter and not just a political dispute.
6:24 pm
the white house will, of course, respond with fury, but you will have right on your side. when they fire you, this will be a multi-week story, and you can hold your head high. that was what a leading voice in public health was calling on dr. redfield to do just last month. stand up to the president and be willing to lose your job in the process. that was dr. foege's advice even before shocking new reporting by "the new york times" this evening which reports that the cdc, quote, drafted a sweeping order last month requiring all passengers and employees to wear masks on all forms of public and commercial transportation in the united states, but it was blocked by the white house. this comes on top of another damning piece of reporting from "the times." the rachel maddow show has reported previously about how the cdc's scientific work at the smithfield meatpacking plant in south dakota was compromised and
6:25 pm
changed because of political pressure from washington. now "the new york times" has published new details about exactly what happened. quote, in april a team of cdc scientists inspected a smithfield foods plant in south dakota and wrote a report to the company about new guidelines that needed to be adopted to ensure the safety of workers and the sanitation of the food. vice president pence's chief of staff, marc short, directed redfield to soften the language of the report, reducing the agency's recommendations to suggestions. not long after dr. redfield dictated changes to the report to his staff in tlnt from the vestibule outside of mr. pence's office, he confided to one of mr. pence's aides at the time, olivia troye, that he felt that he was in an impossible position. quote, my scientists are telling me what i need to do, he said according to ms. troye. but he added, quote, i want to make sure the vice president is happy. joining me now, olivia troye. she was a member of the white
6:26 pm
house coronavirus task force from day one. she was the top aide to vice president mike pence on coronavirus. she left the white house in august and has since been critical of the president's handling of this pandemic. ms. troye, thank you for taking time to be with us tonight. let's talk about this. you say that -- and you tweeted that this is absolutely true. you were in conversations where they discussed this mandate, this proposed mandate to have people wear masks on all public and commercial transit. and the airline industry was begging for this, and the white house said no. >> correct. thank you for having me first of all, but it is 100% accurate. these conversations have been honestly going on for months. this conversation started probably late spring, early summer, and it went through the summer. we discussed facial coverings for transportation workers. we discussed the importance for the critical infrastructure industry. and honestly there was a lot of consent across the task force on
6:27 pm
the need for face coverings to be mandatory, and these discussions went on for a bit. towards the end of my tenure, i remember personally actually putting this on the agenda to discuss mandatory requirements for transportation workers because we knew that it was critical, that that is just a fundamental thing to keep these people safe. and i sat in these task force meetings, and, look, my dad was a lifelong truck driver. he drove a truck until the day he passed away, and i kept thinking about him and the trucking industry and i was thinking about the subways, and i was thinking about the bus drivers, and i was thinking about the airlines. i mean the flight attendants, all of these people, and also the airlines who i won't get into closed-door discussions, but i was there where i heard from many transportation industries saying, this would really help us out. it would help us out if the u.s. government would have our backs on this one. and honestly i was shocked
6:28 pm
tonight when i -- when that article dropped because literally my heart sanction and i said how is it possible that till today, this is still not a thing that will pass the threshold for this white house? it's just common sense. we're going into the fall. we're going into the winter. we need this. it's egregious. >> ms. troye, i need to ask you because you're one of very few people who have been in a position to be in the front lines of some of this decision-making. you've worked in counterterrorism, and then you've worked on the travolta ta -- coronavirus task force so you're an expert in things that can kill americans. dr. foege in the letter to robert redfield said the white house of course will respond with fury when they fire you. this will be a multi-week story and you can hold your head high. tell me about that pressure not to go up against the white house, not to go up against the president or the vice president, the political pressure when, in fact, normal people would say, wearing a mask is inconvenient. i'm the first one to admit. fun is not wearing a mask, but i
6:29 pm
get why i wear it. why is there this position, and why won't sensible people speak back about it. >> it's fear. it's fear that these people will completely be vindictive and destroy you. and i've been there. i have felt it, and you get concerned, and you think that they're going to destroy your reputation, and everything that you have worked for your entire life, that they will just come at you, and that people will believe them. and you don't know what will happen in the days to come. but, look, i'm living proof that doing the right thing is really the bottom line of what matters. having the moral courage to do this. and to dr. redfield, i mean reading that letter was like my heart just -- just hurt because i've had these conversations with him. i know how much he cares, and i have seen him struggle with this every single day. and that agency quite frankly deserves someone to step forward and say enough. and if doesn't give him a lifeline to say, look, we will
6:30 pm
have your back. it's okay. i know it's hard. i know that you are a man of faith, and i know how much you care. but just enough. just come forward. it's going to be okay. you've done your career. we will all have your backs. you have an entire agency of scientists. the data is behind you, and the truth is behind you. and that's all you need. forget the pressure. forget these people. they don't even care about you. we've seen that. and i guess that would be my plea to him. and i say, you know, actually thank goodness for that letter. and though, you know, i work in the national security field, i'm not a believer in leaking things and, you know, i certainly never thought i'd ever be in the position that i am right now where i would speak out. but at some point, this is national security. we have a duty to tell the truth. >> yes. >> we have a duty to come forward and say enough. our job is to protect the american people, and that is a very serious job that we all take seriously.
6:31 pm
>> i'd just amplify that. if you come forward and you bear witness and you speak the truth and you have right on your side, as you said, we will have your back. olivia troye, thank you. olivia troye is a former white house coronavirus task force. she was a member of that force, and she was the top aide to vice president pence. thank you for being here tonight. >> thank you for having my back. up next, at the pandemic takes aim at -- it's our pleasure to do that. as the pandemic takes aim as much of the midwest, we're going to talk live with one of the doctors on the front line. stay with us. we'll be right back. just over a year ago,
6:32 pm
i was drowning in credit card debt. sofi helped me pay off twenty-three thousand dollars of credit card debt. they helped me consolidate all of that into one low monthly payment. they make you feel like it's an honor for them to help you out. i went from sleepless nights to getting my money right. so thank you. ♪ state of the art technology makes it brilliant. the visionary lexus nx. lease the 2021 nx 300 for $359 a month for 36 months. experience amazing. at your lexus dealer.
6:33 pm
6:34 pm
because he thinks the court will decide the election. he won't let voters choose; he wants the supreme court to decide. with this lifetime appointment... ...it's all on the line. let the voters be heard. do it right. demand justice is responsible for the content of this advertising. just between us, cleaning with a mop and bucket is such a hassle. well i switched to swiffer wet jet and it's awesome. it's an all-in-one that absorbs dirt and grime deep inside. and it helps prevent streaks and haze. stop cleaning. start swiffering the unfair money bail system. he, accused of rape. while he, accused of stealing $5. the stanford rapist could afford bail; got out the same day. the senior citizen could not; forced to wait in jail nearly a year. voting yes on prop 25 ends this failed system, replacing it with one based on public safety. because the size of your wallet shouldn't determine whether or not you're in jail. vote yes on prop 25 to end money bail.
6:35 pm
taking california for a ride. companies like uber, lyft, doordash. breaking state employment laws for years. now these multi-billion-dollar companies wrote deceptive prop 22 to buy themselves a new law. to deny drivers the rights they deserve. no sick leave. no workers' comp. no unemployment benefits. vote no on the deceptive uber, lyft, doordash prop 22. one ride california doesn't want to take. this is the cover of the jamestown sun today published in jamestown, north dakota. quote, north dakota reports record number of active covid-19 cases. further down the page, a heartbreaking headline. 17-year-old becomes north dakota's youngest covid-19 death. remembered as a devoted daughter, sister, friend, and future cat mom.
6:36 pm
in neighboring south dakota, similar theme. on the front page of the sioux falls argus leader. covid-19 deaths set new record in the state. and the front passenger of the des moines register today, iowa could prevent many deaths. experts state situation is dire. and right below that troubling headline is this quote from a local doctor. quote, our concern is the deaths could continue to rise. over in helena, montana, the cover of the independent record, 62% of hospital beds occupied. montana's department of public health also reporting 26 of the state's 56 counties nearing maximum capacity. the "arizona daily star," arizona health leader says no specific end in sight for covid. in utah, the salt lake tribune with an entire line graph of new cases taking up half the front page. covid's curve cause for concern. with a record number of new cases and death toll that tops 500, utah is in the grips of a surge that has a tired medical community pleading for public
6:37 pm
cooperation. all they're asking for is social distancing and wearing a mask. the coronavirus epidemic is surging in the heartland and across the midwest and much of the west. as the country passes 7.5 million cases and more than 214,000 deaths, the dakotas are in bad shape. they are the top two states with the highest number of new covid cases per capita. south dakota breaking another record for new cases today, crossing the unfortunate milestone of recording more than 5,000 active cases. the state also set a hospitalization record this week. north dakota just as concerning. the state reporting nearly 4,000 active cases today with over 650 new cases and hospital capacity is dwindling. the death toll tripled its previous high on wednesday as the state faces a critical shortage of hospital beds. just 16 available icu beds and 186 regular inpatient beds in the entire state. but things are particularly
6:38 pm
terrible in wisconsin, where new cases are skyrocketing. the state -- look at that chart. the state is reporting nearly 3,000 new cases today. the second highest total to date just behind yesterday's record. hospitalizations across that state rose 36%. the entire state of wisconsin reporting just 16% of hospital beds remain available. in the past two weeks, new cases have jumped by nearly 50%. their state is reporting a daily case rate of nearly 20%. governor tony evers this week warned that the virus is, quote, out of control in wisconsin. and atop wisconsin's state health official echoed those remarks by warning the state is in a dangerous place that is overwhelming the health care system. joining us now, medical director of infection control at the university of wisconsin hospital. doctor, thank you for joining us tonight. i cannot believe some of these numbers i'm reading across the midwest and the west, but in
6:39 pm
wisconsin. those are numbers that sound like we had months ago before we thought we were on the -- you know, when we were still on the uptick of coronavirus cases. we are seeing a pandemic in full flare in wisconsin. >> this is the first time that wisconsin has really experienced the full force of this pandemic, and i think despite all the preparedness and everything that has been going on since march. i think it's a little bit hard to fathom how quickly things can get out of control. because there is viruses exponential spread, you can have ten cases one day and a hundred cases a couple days from then. >> doctor, when we were talking about this in some cases in february and in march, we didn't know. doctors sort of knew basics about ppe and infection spread and pulmonary disease. we know so much today. why are we seeing these increased numbers?
6:40 pm
>> because i think the fact that we know something doesn't mean that it's always being translated into action. so, for instance, we know that we have to limit our physical mobility, that we have to wear a mask, that we have to limit indoor gatherings, that we have to keep a distance from other people and to stay home if we have mild symptoms. but having said that, you know, it doesn't mean that it's being done. and until these things are implemented rigorously, carefully, and continuously, it seems difficult to think that we would make a dent in the curve the way it is now. >> i was -- i'm traveling around the country every week now to talk to voters. i was in wisconsin two weeks ago, and the trump voters on my panel very close to when we were supposed to tape it said they weren't wearing masks. and it was politicized. it was a political thing. it was about liberty and about freedom. are you surprised at the degree to which a public health issue has become this type of a political issue? >> you know, i think from the public health standpoint, i think masking is one of those things that we have learned a lot about during this pandemic.
6:41 pm
in the early days, there were shortages of ppe, and so physicians weren't necessarily stressing it to the same extent that we are now. but now that we know they work and they work rather well, i think it's a shame that more of the population isn't ready to wear them. >> is it strange to you, though, that we are having this discussion as a political discussion in this country, that it comes up at presidential debates that basic stuff that the cdc could have told us all to do and we could have had bill boards and signs to do it, we don't do in. >> i think public health intervention should really be interpreted in the context of the science. if the science supports it, i think everybody needs to get behind it and ensure that intervention is done. the stakes here are very, very high. we're talking about record hospitalizatio hospitalizations, record number of deaths. p it's a seemingly simple intervention like masking in all areas could prevent that death toll, why not do that? >> why not do it? doctor, thank you for joining
6:42 pm
us. the medical director of infection control at the university of wisconsin hospital. thank you so much for your time tonight. >> thank you. coming up next, some very good news for democrats in one swing state and proof that pressure does actually work. stay with us. are is hard. it's hard. 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. ♪ ♪ ythey customize yours lcar insurance. so you only pay for what you need. wow. that will save me lots of money. this game's boring. only pay for what you need. liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty.
6:43 pm
working, parenting, problem solving. at new chapter vitamins we've been busy too... innovating, sourcing organic ingredients, testing them and fermenting. fermenting? yeah like kombucha or yogurt. and we formulate everything so your body can really truly absorb the natural goodness. that's what we do, so you can do you. new chapter wellness, well done. it was built 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.
6:44 pm
your family, my family, when they drink that coffee, and go "man, that's a good cup," i'm proud because i helped make that cup. ♪ i'm proud because i helped make that cup. our retirement plan with voya gives us confidence. yeah, they help us with achievable steps along the way... ...so we can spend a bit now, knowing we're prepared for the future. surprise! we renovated the guest room, so you can live with us. oooh, well... i'm good at my condo. oh. i love her condo. nana throws the best parties. well planned, well invested, well protected. voya. be confident to and through retirement.
6:45 pm
to save you up to 60%. these are all great. and when you get a big deal... ♪ ...you feel like a big deal. ♪ priceline. every trip is a big deal. ♪ vicks vapopatch. easy to wear with soothing vicks vapors for her, for you, for the whole family. trusted soothing vapors, from vicks i will send out an army to find you in the middle of the darkest night it's true, i will rescue you oh, i will rescue you
6:46 pm
the tipping point. it is that part of election night where you've run out of all your snacks. your eyelids are getting a little droopy. you're kicking yourself for scheduling a 9:00 a.m. meeting on wednesday morning when finally one last states ends up pushing one of the candidates past the threshold of electoral votes and into the oval office in january. that state will matter. it's the decider, the clincher, the tipping point. and this year the tipping point is looking like it might be right here where i am in the commonwealth of pennsylvania. according to the data gurus at 538.com, pennsylvania has a 26%
6:47 pm
chance of being the state that delivers this election. that's a far greater chance by the way than any other state including florida, wisconsin, michigan, and minnesota. just let's be clear. all states matter. every vote counts, but in the end, pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes could decide this election, which is why this news last week went off like an alarm bell in pennsylvania. rachel covered it on the show at the time. republicans in the pennsylvania
146 Views
IN COLLECTIONS
MSNBC WestUploaded by TV Archive on
![](http://athena.archive.org/0.gif?kind=track_js&track_js_case=control&cache_bust=2060671039)