jelani cobb and nicole hannah jones. let me just pull out and show outsce you the scene here.d it over to miguel, my partner, my photographer for the past few days, that's the 3rd precinct that burned out. next to it, a liquor store, a tobacco store and smoke shop. next to it, a restaurant, more restaurants and a burned out block. this is the picture of one area, here in minneapolis. i'm going to leave you with some pictures of what we have experienced in covering this story in the last couple of days. joy reid joins me after this and she will be talking to minnesota congresswoman ilhan omar. have a good weekend. >> they're aiming their fire now. they're working towards us. get back. get back. get back. he's hit. step back. watch it, guys. we got gas here. all right. back up. back up. back up. back up. they're now moving toward us, they're now moving toward us. there was -- >> they're shooting. >> they're shooting. put your helmets on. miguel, stay with me. we got gassed. continuing to fire at us. there we go. here is the gas canister. there has been no provocation, joshua. th

and this sort of alienation culture that i think both jelani and karine are talking about is sort of baked into donald trump as a human being. he is alienation embodied. i wonder why his having succeeded to power didn't even soothe it a little bit. >> because i think it's been a politics of grievance going all the way back to the civil rights years, to the george wallace movement, to richard nixon's southern strategy and it's been said often because it's true that there was a lot of racial politics being played on the right and in the republican party before trump, but it was a dog whistle and he uses a bull horn. but you still have to ask yourself why the world is he going after barack obama right now? because barack obama is actually very popular. i looked today at a ugov poll. it shows that 55% of americans have a positive view of obama. this was an average of polls, 1919 to early 1920. only 33%, basically the trump base, are negative on him. and i think that picking this fight is really sort of risking nuclear conflagration. i think trump -- i think obama, as you suggest, represe

we're joined now by jelani cobb, and that is the essence of this kind of protest is, can you hear us?t is to be heard, and it's to be heard with outrage. that certainly is happening this week in minneapolis. >> that's right. and, you know, i think that one thing that i have to say about this, and we've talked about the cyclical nature of this. but i do want to say that there are things that matter. i want to speak to something that former attorney general holder said. he mentioned ferguson. you know, i was there in ferguson six years ago, and there was a lot of anger there that was boiling over. there was some sporadic fires that were being set, and i remember people saying at the moment that mike brown died, around then, when it was announced that the attorney general was coming, that there would be an investigation, that people actually paused. like it did actually mean something to people in the community. and that was the line that they were saying, you know, keep your cool. the attorney general is going to investigate. people had the hope that they might actually achieve justice

. >> jelani, why is the president doing this? he's not one we've seen to be a great church -goer. we see him go golfing more than go to church. is he trying to manipulate the belief in god to try and get votes? >> we have not seen any situation that the people hold sacred that the president is not willing to manipulate for his advantage. one of his key things is support of evangelicals. some of them even showing up to double-digit differences between his polling and joe biden with joe biden in the lead. he is trying to do everything he can do to shore up his base. one last thing i'll add to that really quickly is that when he says that churches and houses of worship are essential, that's not what the -- he might feel like that's essential for their spiritual development or essential for their social purposes or moral values or all the things we think of with religious institutions but that's not what the term essentialme meant in terms of ts pandemic. we were talking about services that could only be delivered in person, food workers, warehouse workers, transportation people and p

joining me now is jelani cobb. a staff writer at the new yorker. msnbc political analyst britney pat nick cunningham. phillip goff and alesia gar ga, principal at the black futures lab. i'm going to go through and let everyone comment on this. this was remarkable. it's not what i was expecting to be discussing this morning. but i want to start with alesia and brittany because the two of you are original members of the black lives matter movement. we saw uprisings over the michael brown killing, we saw it in baltimore, saw it in new york over eric garner. what i'm hearing now is that this is something different. your thoughts alesia? >> wow. well, i have a few thoughts. number one, i think it's important for us to hear what is being said here, especially in relationship to white supremacist forces who certainly have a stake in making sure that the kind of cover of this moment, right, helps to advance an agenda. we're not unclear that minnesota, in addition to having some serious issues with law enforcement, also has serious concerns and issues with

jelani is working on a zoomsical, a zoom musical. s ay you're going to be in the front row?> need money for that ticket, man? it's going to be expensive. >> i got a lemonade stand in the works. >> we'll get a gofundme going. thank you, will, we appreciate it. >>> coming up, the dos and don'ts of wearing face masks. >> why fashion doesn't always equal function and the fabrics you might want to avoid. test test >>> the pandemic is costing canada two of its furry residents. >>> the pandemic is costing canada two of its furry residents. the calgary zoo is sending two giant pandas back to china because it can't feed them. travel restrictions have limited the animals' bamboo supply. giant pandas eat about 90 pounds of bamboo each day. >>> in the battle of covid-19, face masks are essential. >> as so many of us get creative with mask fabrics and styles, health experts are warning not all masks are created equal. becky worley has some dos and don'ts. >> reporter: the plate, even the accessory. >> that's not always one size fits all. >> reporter: look online and you'll see instagram

. >> jelani cobb, thank you very much for joining us on this painful night. we really appreciate it. ali velshi will be joining brian williams in the next hour. "the 11th hour" with brian williams is next. >>> well, good evening once again. day 1,225 of the trump administration. 159 days out from our presidential election. as you well know by now, we're keeping an eye on minneapolis tonight. a third night of protests there. now smoke is rising as well from its twin city, st. paul. all of it, of course, following the death of george floyd, the unarmed man whose death was watched on video with a knee to his neck for several minutes on end, under forcible police custody in the street. we have new video tonight showing several officers on the ground as floyd is being held down. no charges have been filed in this case, and that, to many people, is the problem. a news conference today was frustratingly news-free. we'll have much more on all of it just ahead. for the very latest from minneapolis, we want to go back now to correspondent ali velshi, who is on the grou