with me is josh letterman. josh, let's start with this. how is the white house reacting so sffar? >> reporter: the white house sending mixed messages. saying they might be open to some funding for the post office after president trump has repeatedly expressed his opposition to the $25 billion that democrats want to inject into the postal service to make sure it's prepped to handle what could be an unprecedented number of mail in votes come the fall. the white house chief of staff suggesting there could be a willingness to sign some type of a piecemeal deal where the white house agrees to give funding for the post office if democrats and congress agree to give some funding for some of the things that the president wants such as stimulus checks to americans while leaving out some of the other things that are on the democratic wish list such as billions of dollars to what the president says bail out state and local governments. that mix messaging coming into play as the president's advisers are continuing to take to the air waves today to spread misinformation about fraud and mail in

we go to the white house to nbc's josh letterman. tell us more about the specifics of the executive order signed by the president, josh. >> what played out was half presidential news conference, half political rally, somehow merged into one. the president acting in his official capacity signing executive orders while a group of his supporters and members of his club stood in the same room, at times cheering and yearijeer based on the questions the president was getting. the president took several shots at joe biden calling the green new deal childish saying it's not for adults. but i want to break down for you exactly what the president signed as far as these executive orders because that's really is going to affect the lives of millions of people out there. the president signing four executive orders today, one extending federal unemployment benefits at a $400-per-week level. i'll get back to that in a second. also extending the moratorium on evictions so that people hopefully won't be kicked out of their homes for the remainder of t

let's bring in josh letterman who's at the white house. josh, good morning to you. of course, the president is traveling this weekend, but this postal service issue is traveling with him because he's not letting up on it, and it continues to be an issue out there. >> that's right. it sure does, ken december. it was a major sticking point and the congressional notes had been the focus on state and local funding the president sought. now it's about funding for the postal service as well as election resources. as we get closer and closer to the election there are growing concerns whether the post office will be ready. now democrats want $25 billion for the postal service as well as another $3.5 billion to run the elections across the country. we had expected the president, based on his opposition as he's stated now several times to this additional funding, might threaten to veto a bill if it came to his desk that had the postal service funding in it. so we were a little surprised to see the president say he would not necessarily allow a veto, a little bit of wiggle roo

nbc's josh letterman is at the white house. josh, a showdown is continuing between many on capitol hill and the administration, but there within the streets of d.c. there has also been a showdown at the postmaster general's home. >> reporter: that's right. a growing firestorm over the post office and the postmaster general with protesters marching on his home in washington, not far from here yesterday, as well as his calls for resignation from folks like bernie sanders and other democrats. the president last night distancing himself a little bit from some of the changes that have taken place at the post office, saying he hasn't spoken directly with the postmaster general about those changes, but insisting that any changes that have taken place have been about cost-cutting and the fiscal solvency of the post office, which has seen a decline in its volume particularly during the coronavirus pandemic and not related to the upcoming election. take a listen to what the president said when he was asked directly about the changes and t

all right, nbc's josh letterman. thanks, josh. >>> to say the president has had his share of run-ins with reporters would be an understatement, but he may not have to worry about that at this month's convention. a new report says they will not be allowed to attend. >>> also this morning, new reports of young students contracting coronavirus may raise even more concerns about reopening schools. but we're all going at our own speed. at enterprise, peace-of-mind starts with our complete clean pledge, curbside rentals and low-touch transactions. with so many vehicles of so many kinds, you can count on us to help you get everywhere you want to go... enterprise. i thought it had to be thick to protect. but new always discreet is made differently. with ultra-thin layers that turn liquid to gel and lock it inside. for protection i barely feel. new always discreet. ♪ reinventing. it's what with comcast business, your small business can work faster, with powerful internet from the nation's largest gig-speed network. work safer,

joining me now is josh letterman. , this is a remarkable statement from a career military officer in the united states to say -- you and i don't report on these types of things typically in the united states. these are things you report on in other countries that are authoritarian. that the leadership of a country limited a military person's career because of political matters. >> that's right. alex vinman such a key witness in the impeachment testimony against president trump, talking about the phone conversation between president trump and zelensky. there was a lot of questions about whether the pentagon was actually blocking his promotion in retaliation for him providing that testimony against the president. eventually the pentagon did release a statement saying that he would have been promoted had he not voluntarily left the military, but now retired lieutenant colonel alex vinman putting this scathing editorial in the "washington post" saying i made the difficult decision to retire because a campaign of bullying,

josh letterman is at the white house with more. and josh, what is the white house potentially putting on the table here. >> reporter: you would be forgiven after the conversation we've had the last week you gotten the impression that president trump was opposed to more money for the postal service. he said that as much this past week when he said out loud that you can't give all of this money to the post office because it will be used to expand this mail-in voting that the president is so adamantly opposed to. but in the last several days, that white house position seems to eroding with the president saying he was not necessarily opposed to providing funding for the post office, if he got what he wanted out of negotiations with democrats. and now today white house chief of staff mark meadows seeming to float the idea for a one to one exchange. stimulus checks in exchange for post office money. take a listen. >> i'm all about piecemeal. if we could agree on postal, let's do it. if we could agree on stimulus checks, let's do it. i've

. >> nbc's josh letterman is at the white house. josh, was this meeting underwhelming? were we expecting a decision to come out of it? >> reporter: it's never a good sign when negotiators emerge from a session saying that they made progress but unable to really tell you what they've made progress on. that was the situation today. both the democratic congressional leaders and the white house negotiators saying that they moved the ball down the field today. but that there's quite a long way from that ultimate goal with democrats really holding firm on what had been some key priorities from them, key among them not reducing these unemployment benefits below the $600 federal benefit that has been provided for the last several months as so many americans have been thrown out of their jobs due to the covid-19 epidemic. the other factor here, very important, to democrats is they don't seem to be budging on the idea that they want a long-term extension of this. they want a broad deal instead of a one-week fix, a band-aid that the white house has been suggested would tide them o

let's bring in josh letterman at the white house. mark meadows was demanding claims that mail in ballots lead to fraud. we'll spplay part of that. >> do you realize how inaccurate the voter rolls are with people moving around. let alone the people that die off but sending ballots off based on a voter roll. any time you move, you'll change your driver's license but you don't call up -- >> there's no evidence of widespread voter fraud. there's no evidence of widespread voter fraud. >> there's no evidence there's not either. that's the definition of fraud. >> congressional democrats are vowing to not let this go. can you tell us where the issue is. >> reporter: there's a few things taking place converging to send democrats into real crisis mode. on the one hand, you have the president continuing to stoke fears about mail in voting and spread misinformation about widespread fraud that we have not seen take place. the kinds of allegations that his chief of staff mark made does was echoing in that clip. you also have these structural chang

. >> nbc's josh letterman is in washington for us with more on all of this. josh, you listened to what was first dubbed as a news conference, but we've been there before. we know what those events really are. does the president have the authority do any of what he just mentioned? >> reporter: it's a little bit fuzz y kendis, and the president is certainly going to get sued if he tries to take steps using executive action. the president says that's okay, he gets sued all the time and he's okay moving forward with that. some of what they're talking, the president may have some room to maneuver. for example, on federal student loans, the president certainly has a lot of authority to adjust payments, similar to the moratorium on evictions. but some of the things the president is talking about, especially the payroll tax de r deferme deferment, really unclear exactly how that would work through executive action. for example if the president defers payroll tax payments, would that mean the taxpayers would owe them later on and have to pay them back retroactively? a

josh letterman and former federal prosecutor and nbc legal analyst paul butler. thanks to both you have for joining us. josh, the president already getting push back on the morn talk shows. we heard nancy pelosi calling this unconstitutional slop. what can you tell us about the bush pack? >> both sides really are spending the daybreaking down exactly what it is the president signed last night and how exactly it's going to work. it's pretty complicated. we'll break down what was included in what the president signed last night. the first part has to do with unemployment benefits that are extended now to $400 level down from that $600 that had been provided through federal unemployment ben if i waefits de coronavirus pandemic. the president also moving to defer payroll taxes through the end of the year to extend the moratorium on evictions from people facing the loss of their homes as well as deferring student loan payments and forgiving interest on those student loans. with several of these items, there are some real nagging questions that have to be answered. part

. >> nbc's josh letterman is at the white house. josh, the president continues to resist emergency funding for the cash-strapped postal service. what, if anything, might change his mind? >> depends what day you ask, garrett. the president has been all over the map in terms of what he might accept in postal funding as the issue of usps has been pushed into the forefront of the most political crisis except for the pandemic. the president's resistance to more funding in the post office, saying in his view democrats need it so they can expand mail-in voting across the country. but then just a day later, the president said this. take a listen. >> would you be willing to accept the $25 billion for the postal service, including the $3.5 billion? >> it's not what i want. it's what the american people want. >> so that was a little bit of a surprise to some people, garrett, that the president says he could potentially accept some funding. it's a good example of the reasons that senator mitch mcconnell wants nothing to do with these negotiation

nbc's josh letterman is at the white house. what do we know about robert trump's death and the reaction that's happening at the white house. >> good morning, cory. the white house has not disclosed the cause of death of his younger brother robert trump, but we do know according to the president he had been seriously ill in recent days and spent some time in the hospital, the president traveling now less than two days ago to new york presbyterian to visit his younger brother as his situation was deteriorating. that was a notable difference from the way the president approached the illness and death of his other brother who died decades ago, that according to mary trump, the president's niece in her recent book, the president on the night that his other brother was admitted to the hospital declined to visit him, instead went to the movies. we did see the president in this case pay a visit to his ailing brother. notably it was also robert trump who filed the lawsuit a few weeks ago against mary trump to stop the publication of her

josh letterman joins us now. the president has been on a bit of a retweetstorm today, claiming widespread fraud of course with mail-in ballots. what is the late nest his effort to defund the postal service? >> he has been retweeting a series of tweets from spokespeople from the republican national committee talking about dead people voting, widespread mail fraud. we should point out although there have been some problems with mail-in voting in some of the recent primaries we have seen, there has been no evidence of any kind of widespread fraud so far. but this seems to be on the president's mine as waging a battle over mail-in ballots and funding for the post office. as far as the negotiations with congress to extend covid relief and possibly add money for the post office and for vote by mail operations, we have a little bit of movement here after several days of really inaction. we learned just in the last hour that the white house chief of staff is now having conversations with a group in congress known as the

josh letterman referred to them as the problem solving caucus.you heard whether anything moved in the talks today? >> i have not heard anything about any movement, but let me tell you, we have the chief negotiator, nancy pelosi, our speaker who's been doing this for decades, who's taking feedback from members of congress across the board. i have faith that she's going to get this done. but we have to keep up the pressure because again our democracy is at stake, it's so critically important. people have the ability to get their mail, to get their medicine and to get their ballot. and it's a shame. it's quite a disgrace that this president is outright in public saying that his objective is to slow down mail in ballots and votes. he is a danger to our democracy. >> i want to ask you about the attacks on kamala harris, on her right to be on the ticket right now. you were raised by immigrant parents from mexico. you were raised in california. are these attacks personal? >> the president doesn't know what else to do other than attack women, immigrants,

josh letterman is in washington with more on this. josh, good afternoon to you. great to see you today. once again. so you have both sides trading blame here, josh. the white house and some democratic leaders, they appear to be open to getting back to the negotiating table. talk us through this. >> reporter: yeah, that blame game is certainly going on in full force today. but if there is one thing at this point that both sides actually agree on, it is that it would be far better to do this the right way, to do it through legislation, through some type of a grand compromise between democratic leaders in congress and the white house with potentially some buy in from senate republicans as well. the opportunity there to do far more sweeping steps to help the american worker than what the president is able to do through the executive actions that he announced last night. so even as both sides are trading blame this morning, not all hope seems to be lost for a deal. both democrats and the white house negotiators suggesting that they still have some overlap between thei

we want to go to nbc's josh letterman at the white house. the president is visiting louisiana just two days since the category 4 storm barrelled through the state. there reaction right now from the white house to the news that the dn sirks going to stop the in-person briefings. >> no reaction from the white house. we asked them for comment on this. we know, as ken was pointing out, this has been a long pointed of contention between the administration and congress. just the last time that congress got some information from the government about this, about those three countries that had an interesting in interfering, russia, iran, and north korea, we heard senators -- i'm sorry, in china. we hert senators saying there is a lot more classified information that they have seen that the administration was declining to make public. this is a battle we are going to see continuing between the white house and congress up through election day. >> absolutely. let's go to the meeting in the gulf where the president is. what else do you know about this tr

josh letterman, you heard what shaq said. you heard what the mayor said. mr. president, stay away. you are racist, you are sexist. you have made fun of disabled individuals. this was clearly, all they we didn't have any information on the killing overnight, this is clearly aimed at the white house. >> that's right. the president -- the mayor, i should say, of portland clearly laying the blame for this violence directly at the feet of president trump. i was making a list of some of the names he called the president. you mentioned a few of them. racist, sexist, called him antidemocratic. said the president should either support portland or stay the hell out. let's watch a little of what he had to say to mr. trump. >> do you seriously wonder, mr. president, why this is the first time in decades america has seen this level of violence? it's you who have created the hate and the division. it's you who have not found a way to say the names of black people killed by police officers, even as people in law enforcement have. and it's you who claimed that white supremacists are good people. >

josh letterman joins us from the white house. even though the dni says it will stop the in-person briefings, any word from other department ws whether they will continue? >> reporter: the fbi and homeland security are going to continue. just to break this down for viewers who might not be familiar with the office of the director of national int intelligen intelligence, john ratcliff is the president's top adviser on entell jens matters. that job is to oversee the more than dozen u.s. intelligence agencie agencies. the fbi, the cia, the nsa as well as the military intelligence units. the office of director of national intelligence which has been reporting to congress on things like which foreign countries are interested in interfering in our elections. they will no longer provide the in-person briefings. fbi and homeland security department will continue in-person briefings for lawmakers on things like misinformation campaign, cyber attacks that are threatening the election. system of those practical matters of getting into the we

josh letterman live at the white house with a whole bunch of things including the banning of tiktok. we hope it doesn't come in a 15-second slick music video. let's hope. >>> the state has more than 500,000 infections with more than 9,000 deaths. dr. anthony fauci expression some cautions and also optimism on a vaccine. he and other top government officials testified before congress. >> i guarantee that you're going to get a safe and effective vaccine, but from everything we've seen now in the animal data as well as the early human data, we feel cautiously optimistic that we'll have a vaccine by the end of this year and as we go into 2021. so i don't think it's dreaming, congresswoman. i believe it's a reality. >> florida reported 267 coronavirus deaths on friday. that marks the fourth day that they set a single-day record. and a new cdc study shows that children, kids of all ages, are susceptible to the virus and play an important role in the transmission. the details explain an outbreak at a camp last month. 260 staff and children tested positive. most of them were 17 and under. th

josh letterman is in washington joining us on that. josh, good morning to you. or good afternoon to you, actually. i'm used to reporting in the mornings. talk to us about what the white house is saying this morning. >> even before the president announced those executive orders last night, he had said he knew he was likely to face legal challenges if he went ahead with this step. the president saying he's expgting that and he's willing to push back. take a a listen to what one of his top advisers said about the legality of moving forward with executive action. >> one of the things i've leerned here is what we have is statutory authorities to do it and i'm confident that every single one of those orders that cleared through the office will stand up. >> even if they don't ultimately stand up in court, that's not entirely the point. white house officials say yes, the president wants to take action that will help americans immediately, but a lot of this is also about the president being visible. out front and center taking action. if he tries to take these steps to b

. >> josh letterman has more for us from washington. josh, walk us through the president's executive action here and the reaction to it, too. >> reporter: well, good morning. with the stroke of a pen, the president making an end run around congress to take these steps on his own that he says congress has failed to take to bring immediate economic relief to americans struggling all across the country during this pandemic. president trump saying last night in his news conference that he feels he's basiccally taking care of all of the major issues here. we know that's not true. we know that the president using his own authority can only do so much. you really need a law to move much farther forward so let's look at what the president actually did do last night with his executive order, signed in new jersey. the first part of it is extends that unemployment insurance that we've been talking about that's lapsed. the federal $600 has lapsed, president trump says he is going to extend $400 a week for unemployment benefits, that's more than the

we are joined now by nbc's josh letterman and nyu professor of law melissa murray. r. anything else we know? >> yeah, that's right. we knew as of a couple hours ago president trump for the second time in two days had hastily called a press conference that was not previously on his schedule. we did not know exactly what was going to take place at that news conference. now in the last few minutes a white house official confirm pg the presidepg -- confirming the president will sign an executive order on coronavirus economic relief. we don't know exactly what will be in what the president signs today but a pretty good sense of what he is looking at based on some comments the president made last night when he threatened to take executive action and outlined steps including the eviction moratorium that so many democrats and republicans want to be extended right now. the president also looking at a payroll tax deferment. something that is very controversial even among republicans who say it is not the best way to juice the

josh letterman and former federal prosecutor and nbc legal analyst paul butler. t already getting push back on the morn talk shows. we heard nancy pelosi calling this unconstitutional slop. what can you tell us about the bush pack? >> both sides really a

. >> shaquille brewster and josh letterman are standing by with the details on those and other developments this hour. shaquille is in delaware and josh is at the white house. and josh, we'll start with you first. the trump administration today continues amping up its attack against voting by mail. what's being said? >> well, even as democrats are sounding the alarm with increasing an increasing levels of intensity about this crisis with the post office, garrett, protestors marching on the house of the postmaster general, the president's top aides are turning up the volume on their attacks on mail in voting. take a listen to what the president's chief of staff and trade adviser had to say about mail in voting this morning. >> you realize how inaccurate that voter rules are with just people moving around? let alone the people that die off. but sending ballots out just based on a voter roll? anytime you move, you'll change your driver's license, but you don't call up and say, by the way -- >> voter fraud though there's no evidence of widespread voter froud. >> there's in evidence there's not

josh letterman. and oregon public broadcast reporter, sergio amos. sergio, i want to start with you because you've been following the dynamics in portland. walk us through what is happening right now. >> so, today's day 94 of consecutive protests against police brutality in portland. what we saw this saturday was a conservative rally, the trump caravan came through portland and you had a similar rally last saturday where there was massive brawls in the street. list were asked about the rally ahead of time, what were their plans for staffing it. they continue to maintain, you saw in the press conference, that because they staff more police officers at night for the black lives matter protests, they don't have the manpow tore kind of insert themselves in the day and separate the two groups. >> josh, here's how mayor wheeler responded to president trump's latest twitter attack seeming to reiterate his calls to send in the national guard. take a listen. >> mr. president, how can you think that a comment like that, if you're watching this, is in any way h

josh letterman for us at the white house. break down what the president is saying. >> reporter: after sticking largely to the script in his 70-minute speech to the republican national convention this week, the president was back to his usual style of ad libbing and riffing as he rallied supporters last night in new hampshire, but interestingly the message was very much the same. it boils down to this. in joe biden's america, you will not be safe. and it's a message centering around law and order that really the trump campaign that be congealing around in the past few days. that old messaging about joe biden not being apt mentally, kind of falling away with a real focus now on law and order. trump campaign officials say that the events that americans are witnessing on the ground in kenosha, wisconsin, here in washington, and in other places is buttressing that message. so they're really honing in on it. president trump last night describing protesters here in washington who were outside his speech as thugs, saying that we cann

nbc's josh letterman is joining us from the white house once again. and i understand there is new reaction from john ratcliff. what is he saying about this. >> reporter: yesterday when this story first broke, the office of the director of national intelligence said the reason they were calling off the briefings is because they were concerned about leaks from congress in their words but there wasn't detail about what kind of leaks they were concerned about. now, today, we're finding out what the subject of the leaks they were concerned about was. and if you guesses russia, you were right. intelligence officials telling us that john radcliff was very upset about what happened a month ago after a top intelligence official briefed lawmakers about threats to the election from russia, china, as well as iran. but the headline out of that briefing after some of that information made its way into the media was that russia was once again trying to help president trump win re-election and hurt his opponent joe biden. we know the president has been very reluctant

and our colleagues andrea mitchell and josh letterman report diplomats are shocked that he is using this when it's very unusual and highly unprecedented. so it won't just be the content that we may see. a lot of the themes certainly we expect to be echoed but the actual locations and backdrops tonight are incredibly, incredibly a standout. the other thing, steph, we expect to continue to hear about these culture wars. you saw a lot of that last night. you'll have nicholas sandman, the covington graduate addressing the convention tonight. we're told to expect more surprises and appearances by president trump. he'll be in the rose garden with the first lady later tonight. >> all right. let's dig deeper into all of this. right now i'm joined by the one and only michael steele. this guy knows the republican party. he's the former rnc chairman and new senior adviser to the lincoln project, an anti-trump republican group. you have seen their ads. michael, you are a messaging guy. what did you make of the messaging last night? >> the messaging last night focused on one thing and one thing only

for new reporting on that let's bring in reporter for nbc news josh letterman.r new reporting wi, let's st with how unusual this is. >> good morning, willie, we're hearing from diplomats across the spectrum of current, former, serving abroad, currently in the u.s. who are appalled by this decision, the complaints fall into two buckets, the first bucket of outrage, so to speak, has to do with the fact that the secretary is using jerusalem as the prop to win over voters for the president's re-election. and the idea that politics is supposed to stop at the water's edge and he's infusing u.s. foreign policy with domestic prix and america is weaker on the stage when people think our foreign policy is subjects to the whims of our elections every four years. and the second bucket of outrage has to do with what one diplomat told us was secretary pompeo shredding the hatch act after his own state department hammered into diplomats the need to keep work and personal life separate. you can't do it in government, it's against the law, violates ethical guidelines that we obt