and i wish just to josh lederman's point earlier in the segment that the biden folks would start turning it around on the president and say this is trump's america, this is what division happens and show the disturbing images from wisconsin

let's go to my colleague josh lederman, following this in washington, d.c. what do we know about this shall josh? >> reporter: alex, we knew from president trump last night that he was looking to sign something within a week to take executive action, to take some of the steps that congress so far has failed to take. what we did not expect was that an executive order could come as soon as today. now, to be clear, the white house is not specifying at this point in time exactly what the president is going to do or say when he takes to the podium just about a few hours from now in bedminster, new jersey. all signs point to the possibility that he may go ahead and sign something to follow up on what he said last night. this all coming amid real pessimism on capitol hill about the status of those negotiations. take a listen to how senator chuck schumer described the current state of affairs. >> it was a disappointing meeting. we reiterated in very strong terms our offer. we come down a trillion from our top number, which is 3.4, they go up a trillion from their top

josh lederman is at the white house for us. josh, the president has resisted funding the postal service. what is he saying now? >> reporter: good morning, kendis. there were a few things in life we could get behind. baseball, apple pie and the post office. now the usps has been thrust in the middle of the raging fight over mail-in voting with president trump and democrats. the latest alarming development overnight are the letters that the post office's top leader said the timeline for voters requesting and returning absentee ballots. they may not be able to deliver back in time to be counted. questions if voters trying to vote by mail will be disenfranchis disenfranchised. the postmaster general has been blamed for the delays with the cost cutting measures. whether those were about efficafieffec efficiency or an attempt to kneecap the post office. the postmaster general is looking into the issues. democrats say there is still some time to do something about this, kendis. they have been asking in the negotiations for $25 billion

josh lederman is following the story for us from washington, d.c. josh, a very good day to you on this saturday. i know the president alluded to this yesterday. here is the question, did we think it would happen so soon, like overnight? >> not overnight. in fact, the president had said he was planning on signing something by the end of the week. he didn't clarify exactly if he was talking about this week as opposed to next week, but based on the president's comments last night, alex, what we took to believe from him is that he was essentially using this to create more pressure, right? he was creating a sort of hanging over the heads of negotiators trying to create the pressure to say look, if you're not willing to act, i will. take a listen to a little bit of what president trump had to say last night. >> if democrats continue to hold this critical relief hostage, i will act under my authority as president to get americans the relief they need. and what we're talking about is deferring the payroll tax for a period of months, till the end of the year,

. >> josh lederman joins us now from the white house. good to see you. good afternoon. there's been some pushback from the senate intelligence committee. what can you tell us about that? >> the senate intelligence committee has historically been known as the least partisan committee in the senate. they have a real tradition of leaving some of the partisan politics aside and working together pretty well on security threats to the nation. the republican co-chair of that committee, marco rubio, is laying out a really stark dilemma that is posed by this situation. because he says that the leaks of classified information that he blames on some of his fellow lawmakers are grotesque, criminal misconduct but says it does not abdicate the responsibility of the administration to keep congress informed. he says congressional oversight is now facing a historic crisis, going on in the statement to say that intelligence agencies have a legal obligation to keep congress informed, but that members of congress also have a legal obligation not to divulge classified information. so we're

josh lederman has been following this back and forth. josh, what is preventing a deal from getting done? >> reporter: kendis, negotiations are to bring two sides together. the longer the negotiations go on, the further apart the two sides are. at the top of the list of disan agreements with republicans and democrats at this point is how long of a deal to sign with the white house seeking a one-week extension of the unemployment benefits while they hash out a broader deal. democrats insisting a longer term deal and wanting a full extension of the $600 of federal unemployme unemployme unemployment. republicans suggesting a smaller amount. the gap between the two sides seems to be very wide. house democrats are saying the blame is on the other side. they are saying democrats already passed their version of this. the heroes act back in may. the republicans have yet to put out a bill. white house chief of staff mark meadows is saying the blame is on the other side. >> we have made no less than four different offers to democrats on capitol hill

let's get to josh lederman and barbara mcquaid. josh, we will start with you. what do we know about the orders the president plans to sign? >> we are waiting to see exactly what president trump is going to do when he takes to the podium in just a couple of hours. from his golf club in bed minister. the white house has not officially said whether or not he is going to sign an executive order. but all signs clearly point in that direction, coming off the news conference, the president hastily arranged last night in bed minister, where he said he did plan to move forward with executive action because congress has not been able to get a deal to extend these benefits that so many millions of americans are relying on. we expected trump was going to take more time before moving forward by that. he suggested by the end of the week, which many meant likely next week that potentially creating more pressure for congress to find a compromise that would avert the need for the president to go around congress by signing something himself. now the president scheduling this new

josh lederman, thank you. >>> the four-day event of the democratic national convention will be very different this year than anything we've seen in the past. the first presidential convention to be completely virtual. several prominent democrats are slated to give video speeches until joe biden accepts the nomination on thursday. congresswoman gwehn moore. what can we expect to see? no one has ever seen a convention quite like this before. >> well, you know, i'm not on the production end of it, but one thing i gather, it's still going to be very fabulous. i think that given the upside of all of this is that i think delegates will be able to participate in ways that perhaps they would not have been able to participate had they actually come to a convention in person. and that is, they'll be able to not only watch all the luminaries speak for the four nights but will be able to attend training academies and how to get the vote out, attend the caucuses, like the equality caucus or the his ppanic caucusr the women's caucus, and where they might have had to travel from a hotel that was some distan

let's go to josh lederman at the white house for us. first, let's talk about the president's agenda today. >> as you were mentioning, the president left an hour ago for the stop in louisiana where he's going to be getting a briefing on emergency operations responding to the hurricane damage. he's also going to tour some of the damage as he sees what's happening on the ground both in louisiana, as well as in neighboring texas. he got on to air force one today along with congressman mike johnson from louisiana, as well as acting homeland security secretary chad wolf. and as the president has been heading down there, his aides are focused on showing the president in command, taking a hands-on approach to responding to this hurricane as the president continues to get criticism for his handling of that other big crisis, the coronavirus pandemic. but as you mentioned, alex, we're getting the first comments from the president about the shooting of jacob blake, that so many across the country have been following. his chief of staff, mark meadow

and i wish just to josh lederman's point earlier in the segment that the biden folks would start turning it around on the president and say this is trump's america, this is what division happens and show the disturbing images from wisconsin and other place sg. >> courtney, what stood out to you from the president's acceptance speech and how much was root instead false claims, and we only have like ten minutes. >> i mean, i think there were a lot of messages coming was this idea of trying to soften the president's image, you know, giving white suburban college-educated voters permission to vote for him, even if they, you know, don't like his style or rhetoric but like some of his policies. we saw that through effective speeches, more traditional speeches from nikki haley, senator tim scott, and a series of speeches from women in the administration, any movement as an advocate for women, but really papering over some of his personal history and policy choices. you know, the race has really been about what people think of donald trump. the republicans work very hard. the president including

appears to violate three legal memos issued by the state department's own legal adviser, our own josh ledermancarol lee, and andrea mitchell telling the story this way. quote, one of the legal memos intended to guide political appointees says explicitly in bold letters that senate-confirmed presidential appointees may not even attend a political party convention. house foreign affairs subcommittee is now investigating pompeo's decision to speak based on that internal guidance and then some. so let's talk about it. with us to do that is ben rhodes, former deputy national security adviser in the obama white house, who is these days co-host of the "pod save the world" podcast. ben, i want to quote someone you and i both know, and that's richard haass, counsel of foreign relations in new york. and he writes tonight, the idea that secretary pompeo can speak at the rnc convention in his personal capacity betrays a basic misunderstanding. any individual gives up his or her personal capacity to speak on foreign policy when he/she takes the job. it is public service, not political service. ben, does ri

josh lederman live in washington for us. thanks. >> and she teased that on twitter saying she would be able to make it to that press conference. another thing i want to note from josh's report is in addition to the states having to approve that extra 25% people actually have to be able to be approved through their state before they even qualify for the federal aid, the additional $300, so there is a chunk of people who aren't going to qualify for this $400 in additional federal aid. >> that's not going to happen, or is it? let's find out. >>> the president's new executive actions could face legal challenges in the coming days. joining us is nbc news legal analyst glen kir i wish ner. good morning to you. when you look at these four actions which do you think is most likely to face a legitimate legal opposition? >> good morning, corey and kendis. when it comes to executive orders they are not all created equal. if we look at, for example, his attempt to spend money, with he all know congress has the power of the purse n a time

thank you, josh lederman from the white house. pr priscilla, last year you showed us a devastated home that had a tree fallen in on it, not only on the front side but also on the back side where it really got some damage. >> well, lots of devastation, alex, as a result of those fallen trees. there's also a lot of other things going on, recovery efforts beginning. i want you to take a look at the scene behind me. the streets of lake charles are filled with these trucks. if you take a look up there, you'll see those are utility workers, working to restore power to the roughly 500,000 people in the city who don't have it. and so that is a pretty beautiful sight for many folks he here, particularly as we hear about the death toll continuing to tick up as a result of that's carbon monoxide poisonings because of folks using those generators improperly. we've learned an entire family died as a result of that. we hear officials learning about that. but it's becoming increasingly important to get that power restored. officials are also say