phil rucker, that nicely sets up a question about polling. the latest polling shows the president underwater to joe biden, and to quote brianna keilar, all of the polls show the same thing. we learned today, by the way, we've been in a recession since february. depending on which stat keeper you quote, coronavirus is showing up levels in either 20 or 26 of our states. and, oh, by the way, there are new barricades around what passes for our presidential palace. so the job jonathan karl is talking about, re-electing this president, none of that organically adds up to being awarded a second term. >> yeah, brian. the president's in an incredibly weak position right now, and he has a lot of challenges in the five months ahead between now and the election. he's clearly trying to address some of those with his law and order messaging. but the reality is a lot of americans are in pain, are suffering right now, and there's chaos all around them. and, you know, in addition to those top-line numbers that you called out from the polls -- and what i mean

phil rucker, a.b. stoddard, jeremy bash, a great thanks for coming on. thank you very much. >>> coming up for us, that bolton book, not the only problem facing the president. there's also the minor matter of the largest indoor gathering since the arrival of the pandemic. why so many are saying the rally in tulsa is a bad idea, unsafe at any size. >> and later, stunning charges against the police in the death of rayshard brooks. tempers still hot as atlanta now wonders what will happen in court? will this change policing? and what about the family of rayshard brooks? "the 11th hour" just getting started on a wednesday night. at any size. started on a wednesday night. at any size. started on a wednesday night. at any size. started on a wednesday night. at any size. started on a wednesday night. at any size. started on a wednesday night. businesses are starting to bounce back. but what if you could do better than that? like adapt. discover. deliver, in new ways, to new customers. what if you could come back stronger? faster. better. at comcast business, we

phil rucker, a.b., jeremy bash, great thanks for coming on. thank you very much. >>> coming up for us, that bolton book, not the only problem facing the president. there's also the minor matter of the largest indoor gathering since the arrival of the pandemic. why so many are saying the rally in tulsa is a bad idea, unsafe at any size and later, stunning charges against the police in the death of rayshard brooks. tempers hot as atlanta wonders what will happen in court? will this change policing? and what about the family of rayshard brooks? "the 11th hour" just getting started on a wednesday night. finding dental insurance plans can be confusing, confusing like, "why am i sitting here in a hospital gown waiting to get my eyes checked?" ready? absolutely not. see, having the wrong coverage can mean you get the wrong care, or you're paying more than you have to. that's why i love healthmarkets, your insurance marketplace. they make sure you have the right coverage, health insurance, medicare, and yes, dental too. wow, think that's painful? wait

phil rucker, a.b., jeremy bash, great thanks for coming on.hank you very much. >>> coming up for us, that bolton book, not the only problem facing the president. there's also the minor matter of the largest indoor gathering since the arrival of the pandemic. why so many are sayinghe rally in tulsa is a bad idea, unsafe at any size and later, stunning charges against the police in the death of rayshard brooks. tempers hot as atlanta wonders what will happen in court? will this change policing? and what about the family of rayshard brooks? "the 11th hour" just getting started on a wednesday night. and ask your doctor about biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in certain adults. it's not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to and stay undetectable. that's when the amount of virus is so low it cannot be measured by a lab test. research shows people who take h-i-v treatment every day and get to and stay undetectable can no longer transmit h-i-v through sex. serious side e

phil rucker, that's something you know because you've co-authored a book on donald trump. but i'm curious, given the book that came out from john bolton, what's new to you about it? a lot of it is reinforcement of things we already know from your book. what surprised you in what john bolton had to say? >> you know, ali, just the breadth of the alleged misconduct by the president was striking in bolton's book. you know, all of these anecdotes that bolton unspooled in his memoir which were carefully recorded in his notepads in realtime speak to broader things that we already knew about this president, but there were specific moments in particular, the president's conversations with the chinese president, xi jinping, in which trump asked xi for assistance in winning re-election in 2020. that is against the law. remember, that's what he got impeached for as it relates to ukraine. here we have from his own national security advisor an example of the same conduct and behavior happening with china. so that is striking. i don't know that there are going to be any actual legal rami

>> my colleague phil rucker brought up history, brian. in talking to senior republicans today, especially those who are from older generations, they reminded me about richard nixon and his presidency. in 1970, he took a trip late at night. he couldn't sleep, to kent state, went to the lincoln memorial to meet with protesters. it was a surreal moment. they recalled some of the early days in congress when they thought nixon was isolated, not really communicating with anyone about vietnam. the president, the leader of the party, yet not really with his own party, not really the leader at the white house, going adrift. talking with republicans tonight, they see a president adrift, a president striding across lafayette park, lafayette square, to have this photo opportunity, holding a bible in the air. and they are both perplexed but also locked, locked they say by the current of history, their own lack of willingness to speak up, to have the political will to say anything just months before an election, relying still on his political capital t

with us is phil rucker, chairman of the center for afric african-american studies at princeton university, eddie gauld. >> i want to start with you, phil, dana's piece on america ebbs, it's the piece i quoted from, a country that's never been in so much trouble with a president whose own advisers not to speak out. >> yeah, that's right, nicolle. it's an incredibly piece of reporting and writing by my colleague and it speaks to the moment that we're in, for the country, but also for this president who seems unable to unite the country. he has not spoken publicly about the crises unfolding in cities across the america, including a block or two away from his own executive mansion since saturday. we heard from him today on a conference call with governors where he seemed to be trying to accelerate and inflame some of the tensions by encouraging a much more forceful response by police, encouraging a militarized response in these cities, telling these governors they should throw caution to the wind. to regain control and that could intensify the situation. it's worth pointing out, over the week

phil rucker, susan page, katie benner, can't thank you enough for being here with us. >>> coming up for us, because tulsa wasn't controversial enough, the president heads to one of the other hot spots in our country for another indoor rally. why one e.r. doc there says this could be a disaster in the making. >>> and later, republicans against trump. in a lot of cases more vocal, making tougher ads against the president than the democrats are, say nothing of their extraordinary trolling capability as "the 11th hour" is just getting under way on a brand-new monday night. there are times when our need to connect really matters. to keep customers and employees in the know. to keep business moving. comcast business is prepared for times like these. powered by the nation's largest gig-speed network. to help give you the speed, reliability, and security you need. tools to manage your business from any device, anywhere. and a team of experts - here for you 24/7. we've always believed in the power of working together. that's why, when every connection counts... you can count on us. president is

phil rucker, susan page, katie benner, can't thank you enough for being here with us. >>> coming up for us, because tulsa wasn't controversial enough, the president heads to one of the other hot spots in our country for another indoor rally. why one e.r. doc there says this could be a disaster in the making. >>> and later, republicans against trump. in a lot of cases more vocal, making tougher ads against the president than the democrats are, say nothing of their extraordinary trolling capability as "the 11th hour" is just getting under way on a brand-new monday night. i got an oriole here. eh. common bird. ooh look! over here! something much better. there it is. peacock, included with xfinity x1. remarkable. fascinating. -very. it streams tons of your favorite shows and movies, plus the latest in sports news and... huh - run! the newest streaming app has landed on xfinity x1. now that's... simple. easy. awesome. xfinity x1 just got even better with peacock premium included at no additional cost. no strings attached. just say "peacock" into your voice remote to start watching today. >>>

phil rucker, susan page, katie benner, can't thank you enough for being here with us. >>> coming up for us, because tulsa wasn't controversial enough, the president heads to one of the other hot spots in our country for another indoor rally. why one e.r. doc frthere says ts could be a disaster in the making. >>> and later, republicans against trump. in a lot of cases more vocal, making tougher ads against the president than the democrats are, say nothing of their extraordinary trolling capability as "the 11th hour" is just getting under way on a brand-new monday night. ralax for my constipation. stimulant laxatives forcefully stimulate the nerves in your colon. miralax works with the water in your body to unblock your system naturally. and it doesn't cause bloating, cramping, gas, or sudden urgency. miralax. look for the pink cap. and ask your doctor about biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in certain adults. it's not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to and stay undetectable. that's when the amount of vir

. >> phil rucker, "the washington post" broke the story that a former undersecretary of defense, james miller, submitted his resignation to esper from the defense sign board, advisory board, and he shared with "the washington post" his letter of resignation that president trump's actions monday night violated his oath -- from his letter -- to take care that the law be faithfully executed as well as first amendment right of the people peaceably to assemble. he wrote, you may have not been able to stop president trump from directing this appalling use of force but you could have chose to oppose it. instead you visibly supported it. what are the implications of that, phil, as you look at what is supposed to be a civilian leadership of the military in this country. >> they are quite significant, andrea. what we've seen since the episode on monday is that esper has thoughts to backtrack. he put out a statement yesterday stating the military should always be apolitical, reminding the pentagon of that. and he did a statements in the last hour saying he disagreed with the president about the c

as phil rucker told you a moment ago, i've known general mattis for decades. he is a good friend.e is a very, very high integrity individual. i think he just hit the boiling point here. i'm glad this moment has come for him to step up. >> you wrote a very powerful sentence, i think, in this op-ed that i want to read to our viewers. you say that we cannot afford to have a future lafayette square end up looking like tiananmen square. i think a lot of people would be very scared to think that would happen in the united states but we are seeing this stand-off with the military and the national guard and now these forces without any insignia on the streets pushing back protesters. talk to us a little bit about that concern that you have. >> indeed. let's kind of do the numbers for a moment here. we have about a million law enforcement officials in this country. we also have 500,000 members of the national guard. these are troops who are trained to participate in activities involving all the things we're seeing now, civil disturbances, humanitarian relief. these are citizen soldiers tha

at this point, let's start off our conversation this afternoon, phil rucker, co-author of the bestseller stable genius." also with us kimberly atkins. both phil and kim are msnbc contributors. good afternoon and welcome to you both. mr. rucker, i'll begin with quoting one of my favorite writers, phil rucker of the washington post, the thousands of empty arena chairs after his campaign had hyped overflow crowds and ticket requests totalling more than 1 million, symbolized the beleaguered state of trump presidency and of his quest to win a second term. to a nation broken by a pandemic and recession -- and with a racial justice movement royaling communities across the country. trumped offered no reconciliation, instead put up a fight. to give us distance enough to kind of say, what was that? where was the crowd? how much credence to put in the campaign of teenagers on the web grabbing up hundreds of tickets in blocks to inflate the expe expected the crowd size, the campaign briefly tried to say, the crowd stayed away because they were intimidated, the threat of violence outside? >> the trut

phil rucker, talk to us about how the president has been wrestling with this and how he has resisted, he's been really tone deaf about the protests around the country. >> he has been, andrea, and we've heard from the president again and again the phrase "law and order." he wants to be seen as standing entirely behind and with police officers around the country and really driftilling down on thatw and order theme regarding his approach to these protests. and yet here we have him showing a little bit of movement here towards some of the policing reform that activists want, but clearly, as kristen was just laying out, it does not go nearly as far as those who have been taking the streets would like to see. and the president has had this very delicate dance where he doesn't want to do anything that's going to alienate or offend the law enforcement community, which is frankly part of his political base. he has counted on support from sheriffs' associations, from police officers for years now dating back to his first campaign, and he needs them again in his reelection campaign. so look for

phil rucker, thank you for joining us this morning. >>> breaking news overnight. nascar investigating after the discovery of a noose in bubba wallace's garage stall at talladega speedway. wallace, you remember just a week ago, nascar's only black driver. he pushed nascar to ban the confederate flag and raced in a black lives matter themed car just days ago. he tweeted overnight what happened is a painful reminder of how much further we have to go as a society. nascar says it is outraged and will do everything to figure out who is responsible. we're going to continue to report on it. >>> first, much more on john bolton's exclusive interview ahead of his book release. two men who have profiled the former national security adviser extensively are going to join us to break down his interview and what questions still need to be answered. here's a big one. if you have all this explosive content, why didn't you tell congress? >>> new york city was once the epicenter of the coronavirus in the united states. today it officially enters phase two of reopening and governor an

with us from "the washington post," phil rucker.oining us, msnbc legal analyst who worked with the sdny, maya wiley and former top state department official, rick spengle. maya, mayor bottoms saying that she was signing an administrative order that would take their grievances and solutions and she said this wasn't just for atlanta, she hoped it would become a model for the nation. she has, to me, emerged as a real nation figure, very aware of this moment, not just in her city, but in her country. >> absolutely. and we're seeing black women who are mayors of major cities around this country leading the conversation about transformation, from london in san francisco to lori lightfoot in chicago, muriel boor muriel d.c. it's a struggle to move from tinkering to transformation. because the pain we heard from the family is a pain that resonates deeply now and fortunately, not just within the black community, but within the why white community. it is a painful loss when we see these videos and recognize that people are dying. but they're

but people will be more eloquent on this are joining our conversation now, phil rucker, white house bureaungton post, out with some stunning reporting today. eddie glaude is back, professor of african-american studies at princeton university. phil, i have read your story three times today. another turn or another revelation that makes me smack my head. >> it feels like a familiar story over these last three years, but our piece, is the republican party in crisis over the president's incendiary handling of another crisis, the protest in the country over the racial injustice, as well as the pandemic? the president's management of both of those crises has been rough to say the least. he's tumbling in the polls and it's creating a lot of alarm in republican circles especially among those strategists who are trying to help preserve the gop majority in the senate and my colleague bob costa and i reported that there's a growing resignation that this is the reality, the dynamic that the republican party is going to have to deal with heading into the november elections of a president who's profound

phil rucker, thank you very much. >> great insights, phil, thank you. >>> well, the president has also repeatedly said he will not even consider renaming military bases named after confederate leaders even though pentagon leaders are open to the idea. this as the protests over police brutality, confederate statues and racial injustice march on. nbc's morgan chesky is in dallas for us this morning. morgan, good morning to you. what's the latest there? >> reporter: kristen, good morning to you. this part of our american past is really becoming more polarizing by the day. here in dallas their confederate memorial is covered up and closed off due to fears of vandalism. now from small town america all the way to our nation's capital, our shared history is adding a new chapter. this morning the protests continue. from chicago to grand rapids and south to miami. the calls for racial justice already prompting change. iowa and new york passing laws to change how police operate. and in louisville, kentucky, leaders unanimously banning no-knock warrants after a police officer shot and killed breo

from "the washington post," white house bureau chief, phil rucker.lso joining us, basil smikle, plus, claire mccaskill. basil, let me start with you. i hesitate to cause and effect, but as with the pandemic, donald trump seems to have dealt himself out of any leadership role in a crisis weighing on the vast majority of americans right now. >> yes. before i forget, shout-out to the business that got the large printing cloth order, by the way, who are the members of congress today. because that was a -- i think the showing there of democrats in the house, coming forth with this very strong package of reforms was very, very important to how we move forward. and it does show that not just donald trump, but republicans in the house, who did not -- none of them supported this bill. it hopefully will show how out of step with the country they are. i'm encouraged by a lot of the republican leaders that have come out in support for changes in policing, for -- in support of black lives matter. but i will just say this. my big concern has been and will be, do t

joining us now from "the washington post," the one and only white house bureau chief phil rucker. so the one and only former communications director in the obama white house and hillary clinton's presidential campaign, jen palmieri and former obama health policy director, dr. kavita patel. phil, i'm going to start with you, because this is a political show and the president is engaged in some politics here. i ask you, as he rolls into arizona today, has he learned nothing from what happened in tulsa? >> you know, john, the lesson from tulsa was going to be not to do rallies in the middle of a pandemic, then the answer to whether he learned anything is no. however, it's worth noting the rally he's doing in phoenix is going to be at a much smaller scale than what we've envisioned and what was planned for in tulsa. they were expecting about 3,000 people at that church that's not an arena with 19,000 seats as we saw in tulsa, oklahoma. to date, the trump campaign has not announced any additional mega rallies. so they may be trying to scale that back. some of our reporting at the post a

we're joined by the former acting solicitor general of the united states and phil rucker the co-authorf "a very stable gener genius." let's stick with the decision itself. on what grounds are dreamers protected? what does this decision mean? >> so the dreamers got what they were really asking the court to do, which is to say when president trump came into office and rescinded these protections so they could be kicked out of the country they call that arbitrary and capricious. they said you did it the wrong way. the heart of what the dreamers were saying not that a president could never do it. they were saying trump, you did it the wrong way. you did it in a lawless way. you didn't provide reasons or explanation and it looked fishy start to finish which is what happened in the census case as well when the supreme court 5-4 in a decision by john roberts again said you could add a citizenship question to the census, but you have to do it in the right way. these are tremendoustsor the president. the president calls it a shotgun blast to the republicans and conservatives. no, it's a shotgun