joining me once again from the "washington post," eugene scott. ne, we touched on this a little earlier, but i want to ask you this. are we expecting more lawmakers urging against voting for president trump especially amidst this convention we're going to watch over the next three days? >> i think we might seem of that come from this convention, but it certainly will not be a priority. they want to rally its base and people who are left of center behind joe biden and the ideas that they believe the democrat is nominee or presumptive democratic nominee wants to put forward to make america great as far as the democratic party sees it, but we should expect moving forward to november to see more republicans and more former trump supporters, be they former staffers in the administration, previous lawmakers or longtime business executives come out against trump because the hope is that enough who vote against trump, the win for joe biden will be more obvious and more clear and so that whatever anxiety people may have with mail-in ballots and voting that

willi "washington post" eugene scott. eugene, good morning.ell me what will you're hearing about joe biden's running mate? you hear mariana talk about diversity that she's a black woman, asian-american as well. if she did win vice president, she'll be a first. you hear abouttiship that she have. and also what it says about joe biden himself, and how he's willing to pick someone as his running mate, who will keep him on check, as she did on the campaign trail. >> most voters i've heard from in the last -- you know, less than 24 hours, really pleased. kamala harris was most people's first choice that i asked about in the past week or so. and i think what the president is highlighting when he talks about her performance during the primary and perhaps not doing incredible well, fails to acknowledge that many people said, while they did not want her at the top of the ticket, they did want her to be vp. so, this is actually working out in a way that many voters who plan to vote left were hoping things would about a year ago. what i think joe biden h

joining me now, a reporter for the "washington post," eugene scott. eugene, good morning to you. great to talk to you this morning. interesting about the testing in that we had so many discrepancies of testing in this country, and yet it seems the white house, the trump campaign is using its full capacity for testing in order to make it seem that this pan dem sick not happening in this country, and so many of us are not staying close to our homes, and which we are, and now 180,000 lives being lost because of this pandemic. with that, what did you make of the vice president's speech last night and the overall reaction you're hearing about it? >> well, i think a key point from the vice president's speech seems to be a continuation of something we heard earlier this week, and that's this idea that the pandemic is over, that it has been a success in terms of how it was handled, and that president trump is responsible for that success, and the reality is none of those things are true except for president trump being responsible, although, it has not been viewed as a success. and the r

joining me now for a deeper look is eugene scott and white house reporter with the daily beast. gene, you wrote a piece highlighting the president's effort to try to appeal to undecided voters and suburban women. he's struggling with both of those groups. o he spent most of the time attacking people he knows won't vote for him. is that the approach? >> so far it has been. i think what the president has done so far demonstrates he believes the best attempt he has at winning voters who are not already on the trump train is by trying to convince them the alternative is worse than he is. he's having a difficult time convincing many voters that america is what he says it is on the other side of the aisle in they can see these things for themselves. we have video tape showing that trump supporters have actually incredibly aggressive in attacking their political opponents and we have video tapes and other evidence showing many of the protesters that trump is calling thugs have been protesting peacefully. what he is doing right now instead of offering a counter argument and alternative t

and joining me now, "washington post" political reporter eugene scott and pulitzer prize winning historiane new book is "his truth is marching on: john lewis and the power of hope," out now. eugene, president trump said he's done repeatedly more for the black community than any president since abraham lincoln. >> he does make that statement often. he rarely follows it up with facts and stats that would prove his point. that's why among other reasons, most black americans do not support this president. and according to polling, they believe he is racist. the reality, though, is that much of donald trump's black voter outreach isn't really focused on connecting with black voters. it's focused on connecting with many of the white americans who are, quite frankly, uncomfortable with so many of his statements and actions that are interpreted as racist, such as his frequent taxis on tattac black lives matter movement. the people who are listening to trump's statement and want to be able to reference it aren't demanding more. >> and jon meacham, at this pivotal moment, how do we handle this very