phil rucker to you first, take me inside this really disgraceful effort to smear dr. fauci. writing that trump was furious about tony fauci's 67% credibility and approval rating on questions on coronavirus. where he stands down at about 25%. >> nicolle, throughout this pandemic it seems almost everything has been politicized and seemed through a partisan lens and one of the few figures who's not seen a political actor has been dr. anthony fauci, his approval rating has been higher than that of virtually any politician and certainly higher than president trump throughout this crisis. members of both parties are turning to him for information. what you had in the last few days is an effort by the white house led by the president to discredit dr. fauci, sow doubt what he's been saying publicly. we saw that begin by the president last week in an interview where he said that dr. fauci has gotten a lot of things wrong and said things that are not right. and that was followed up in the reporting by my colleagues over the weekend in the washington post by a white house official anon

with that, let's welcome in our three leadoff guests on a monday night without the shouting phil rucker, pulitzer prize-winning white house bureau chief for "the washington post," co-author along with carol leonnig of the best-selling book "a very stable genius. shannon pettypiece, a veteran journalist and senior white house reporter for us at nbc news digital and dr. murtaza akhtar, clinical assistant professor at arizona university's college of medicine in phoenix he also has expertise in how racial inequality and income inequality affect our health and longevity. with that, good evening and welcome to you all shannon, i'd like to begin with you. are we being led to believe that reviving these briefings is not a matter of public health and has more to do with the president's standing our friend toluse olorunnipa over at phil rucker's newspaper tonight has a headline that mentions an attempt to revive the re-election campaign are these campaign events that touch on public health >> well, advisers at least a week or two ago were saying to me that they thought what was the best public he

hey, phil rucker, is there any reporting that we're going to hear any expertise at this briefing tomorrow because one assumes, looking at past practice, that we're going to hear mike pence thank donald trump for his leadership >> well, we hear that a lot, brian, but there's no clarity yet from the white house about what the stagecraft will be like tomorrow at the first of what we assume now are going to be regular briefings featuring the president. it has been billed just in the last few minutes in the daily schedule that the white house put out as a news conference by the president as opposed to the daily coronavirus briefing, which is what they were called before now, remember these briefings all through the spring included dr. fauci, dr. deborah birx, the white house coronavirus coordinator, oftentimes the cdc director was there, the fda administrator as well. but it's unclear whether tomorrow we're going to only see the president or whether we're going to see that full array of government experts and i would pay close attention to dr. fauci because the last few weeks there's been a gr

phil rucker, let me start with you. by sam stein, who's also covering the president, the administration's moves, to tie funding and threats to cut funding to reopening in the fall, regardless of where the pandemic stands and where the surges and spikes are come september. where's this coming from? it was sam's theory and he was still reporting this out that it was tied solely to his burning desire and dependence on the economy churning back up ahead of his campaign intensifying in the fall. >> you know, nicole. there could be a couple of factors at play here. certainly, the economy is driving the president's push to reopen the schools. and it's for a very simple reason. you can't reopen the economy. you can't have people go back to work if they have nowhere to send their children during the day while they're trying to work. so if the schools are going to be closed in the fall, it becomes then very difficult for economies to get fully back up and running. but there's also a political consideration at play. the president

ashley parker, phil rucker, josh dawsey reporting, quote, trump often launches into a monologue, placing himself at the center of the nation's turmoil. the president has cast himself in the starring role of the blameless victim of a deadly pandemic, of a stalled economy, of deep-seated racial unrest, all of which happened to him rather than the country. earlier today our own jose diaz-balart spoke to the president about the current state of this pandemic. >> is the united states losing the war against covid? >> no. we're winning the war, and we have areas that flamed up, and they're going to be fine over a period of time. but unfortunately we had this plague sent in from china, and it's a disgrace that they didn't stop it in china. they should have stopped it. >> in an interview with the "financial times," dr. fauci said the country is living in the middle of a perfect storm as this virus spreads. amid recent tension with the president, dr. fauci said, quote, i have a reputation as you probably have figured out of speaking the truth at all times and not sugar-coating things. and that may

phil rucker, also associates of jared kushner, as we mentioned, the president's law firm. how is that fair if all of that is true? >> well, what this data shows is a number of firms with connections to either the trump administration or other power brokers in washington were able to get that federal funding much more easily than other businesses out around the country without those sort of connections. it's kind of a classic game in washington where those who have a hookup, those who have a link, a connection to the powerful in this country, in this government, can get favors from the government much more easily than others. the problem is and the reason why there's so much outcry today over this revelation is that there are a lot of businesses out there across the country who are really hurting, who either didn't receive funding from this program or didn't receive enough funding from this program to help them. and there's also not been any act by congress yet to try to do additional stimulus spending. you know, it's been four, five months now since the pandemic set in, an

from the "washington post" phil rucker, "new york times" reporter nick and senior adviser to the bidenn. nothing moves donald trump -- a former military personal member says if putin grabs anything here it's trump's political pain. >> he's privately furious about it and hands complaining to his advisers and campaign team about why he's losing to joe biden. he likes nothing less than to be labeled a loser. that's his fear here and that's his reality as well four months ahead of the november election. nicolle, talking to republican strategists, there's a growing fear in the party that trump is going to cost the party their senate majority and could endanger other elections up and down the ballot. there's a real anxiety about that right now and an urgency to get the president back on track. >> nick, it's hard not to tie the fate of senate republicans to their refusal to even hear witnesses in donald trump's impeachment or their sort of trepidation to step away from a president who so obviously is unfit for the commander in chief part of the job by using the military to clear protesters, b

phil rucker who joins us in just a moment along with his colleagues reports it this way. there is no cohesive national strategy with unenforced federal health guidelines and administration is offering a patch work of solutions often in reaction to outbreaks after they occur. although trump and his team declare sweeping objectives like reopening schools, they shirked responsibility for developing and executing plans to achieve them, putting onus on state and local authorities. earlier on this network, atlanta's mayor talked about the lack of guidance from the federal level. >> everyone is doing something differently, and it's extremely frustrating not to have leader and guidance and giving us solid direction on how we move past this as a country. >> and this was interesting. all day today the white house has been trying to distance itself from the latest round of attacks on dr. anthony fauci, attacks that originated inside the trump white house. trump's trade advisor peter navarro attacked fauci in this morning's "usa today" as one does. this morning a white house spokeswo

joining me now is nbc white house correspondent kristen welker, phil rucker, white house bureau chief for "the washington post," and charlie savage, washington correspondent for "the new york times," part of the team that broke the story on all of this. charlie, you've now reported in "the new york times" about this money transfer and that added to the growing accumulated information that led intelligence officials to take this more seriously. now you've got the president's tweet going back against this. tell us what you know and how seriously you think this should be taken. >> right. well, so the significance of this new information, which by the way was withheld from congress in those initial briefings they had earlier this week when just members of one party and then the other from the house were brought into the white house, is that the intelligence portrait supporting the analytical conclusion that this was real and was happening evolved over time. initially there were some detainees captured in afghanistan, some taliban militants, some criminals from a network that worked closel

joining me now nbc news correspondent kristen welker and phil rucker, white house bureau chief for "the washington post" and msnbc political analyst. kristen, there have been repeated claims even during the campaign that people had heard the president use the "n" word and other slurs. no one ever proved it. and mary trump just says that she grew up in this family and that it was routinely used by his family. she did not include that particular claim about him in her book. but in answer to rachel maddow last night whens of s of rachele question. >> andrea, that's right, and i think you hit at what is so potentially damaging for president trump about this revelation, the fact that it does not come in a vacuum. the fact that it comes in the wake of all of those rumblings during 2016 that people had heard president trump use similar language. now, of course the white house is define ant, insisting he doet use those words. but as you point out, this is a new revelation and we know this is a president who has delved into the culture wars regardless of what he may be saying in private. and we'

with us white house bureau chief phil rucker, also "new york times" political reporter and former communicationector in the obama white house, jen palmieri. phil, this has been one of those weeks in the trump white house that people will time capsule and look back on. remember that week in the rose garden when he said all that crazy stuff, none of them sentences. remember that week when even the red estatdest states started to their own week and remember the week that models predicted 40,000 people could be saved if there were a mask mandate. >> nicolle, i was there in the rose garden as the president went on for an hour talking about a wide range of topics, but briefly talking about the coronavirus which is the pandemic we're dealing with across this country. he's grasping for ways to recover politically to gain some momentum and the easiest thing he could do is take charge of the pandemic and get control of it and make people feel safer and more secure and get the testing where a lot of the public health experts believe it could be. yet he's not been able or not shown the discipline or intere

"washington post" bureau chief phil rucker. msnbc's garrett haake on capitol hill. and nbc's mike memoli covering the biden campaign. kristen, we expect to see another briefing, it's not a white house coronavirus task force briefing, the task force was not there, it was the president soloing, but he certainly did change his tone. >> andrea, that's right, you heard the president give that very sober assessment, essentially preparing americans for what he said is the reality that this situation and crisis will likely get worse before it gets better. i thought it was notable, he talked about the fact that he wanted to see testing improved in various parts of the country, that people should be getting their results more quickly. the question is how is that going to happen, what's the plan to do that. we are trying to get those answers. i was able to follow up with one of his top advisers, kellyanne conway, today to ask if those sorts of conversations are going on behind the scenes. she says they are. so the question is will we get more details about that specifically in

in that extraordinary piece of reporting from our friends phil rucker and ashley parker includes this in the past couple of weeks, senior advisers began presenting donald trump with maps and data showing spikes in coronavirus cases among, quote, our people in republican states, a senior administration official said. this new approach seemed to resonate and he closely prescripted remarks, so to me he only cared when his voters started getting sick. it is a stunning symptom or cause or whichever end of the chicken and the egg you want to stick donald trump at this point in this mess, that the tribalism, even when it applies to the lives of his fellow citizens is coming from the president. >> yeah, this is a president who just refused to listen to the science. he refused to accept the science. and two realities are present now. one, it didn't disappear, and two, it moved from blue states to red states. and now he is blocked, boxed, trapped, zpaand instead of lead, he is folding. he is capitulating. and that's what these voters are seeing in these red states. and particularly the elderly

given the president is the one who more often than not is undercutting it. >> peter alexander, phil rucker, thank you for joining us. >>> next, new york city enters phase three of reopening today, but it won't include indoor dining. plus, why is the world health organization resisting an alarm being raised by over 200 scientists. we're digging into research about the airborne spread of covid-19. >>> first, more than 150 people were shot across the country over this weekend, including several children. in new york city, more than 40 people were hit. nine were killed. philadelphia, six people were killed. 20 were hurt in 16 separate shootings. two people also died in a nightclub shooting in greenville, south carolina. in atlanta, an 8-year-old girl died near the site where rayshard brooks was killed by police last month. in washington, d.c., an 11-year-old boy was killed on the fourth of july. and two kids died in chicago where nearly 80 people have been shot since friday. when you shop with wayfair, you spend less and get way more. so you can bring your vision to life and save in more ways

white house bureau chief, phil rubbicker rucker, and dr. kavita patel. you were just watching the task force briefing at the department of education. and most importantly, to watch the cdc head, dr. redfield, and then the vice president, kind of doing a two-step around the question. now, here are the cdc guidance, as printed out most recently. two full pages, including that critical question that the reporter asked, can students -- students should be six feet apart. and have many schools, most schools, cannot handle that. there's no question, peter alexander, that pediatricians, parents want kids back in school. that is the desire, but can it be done safely? and that is where the president insisting on the reopening and doing it the way he did the reopening of businesses, perhaps too soon and perhaps not safely in some instances, is pressuring the cdc and clearly the cdc, according to your reporting and carol lee's reporting today, is backtracking on their guidance and coming up with new guidance that better fits the president's demands, rather than perh

>> working with my colleague phil rucker over the last few days, it's evident that republicans, particularlyn the u.s. senate, are concerned that their hold on power could be slipping away because in states like maine where susan collins is up for reelection or colorado with cory gardner, even texas with senator john cornyn, a red state, republicans are on edge because the culture war in their view is not enough to hold on to that coalition of suburban voters and independent voters and women voters that you need to win in a tough political year. and president trump, this is where he keeps going to politically, stoking these tensions on race, on culture, and someone like scott reed at the chamber of commerce told us that candidates are trying to keep their distance. >> professor greer, yesterday ali velshi discussed how july 4th, independence day, does not feel the same for everyone. colin kaepernick tweeted something much to the same effect. with regards to these two different sets of remarks, joe biden's remarks seem to be reaching out to everyone. president trump is remaining tight with hi

annie carney, robert costa, phil rucker, thank you-all for your reporting tonight. i appreciate all of your time. >> we're following breaks news out of san diego after a fire broke out aboard a naval ship. at least 17 say lilors and four civilians were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. about 160 were on board. a loud explosion was reportedly heard before the fire started around 8:30 a.m. local time. it eventually went to three alarms with black smoke filling the port. the ship had undergone regular maintenance before the fire broke out and the cause remains under investigation. >>> when we continue, the president finally relengths to doing a photo op in a mask just as florida has the highest single-day record of new cases of any state. and now the president's inner circle is tweeting how good he looks in a mask. we have guests as states big and small see record coronavirus cases this weekend. small see record coronavirus cases this weekend er things er things than rheumatoid arthritis. when considering another treatment, ask about xeljanz a p

wishing and hope willing not save american lives. >> phil rucker, there are conversations going on about whether trump sees that he is losing and doesn't want to lose, and maybe doesn't want to run. is there somebody in and around his orbit who is saying we've got this coronavirus. we've got this black lives matter issue. we've got this russia-afghanistan soldiers issue. we need a plan. we need to get our arms around some of these things because there is 125 days to this election. >> and ali, after that, an economic recession that could potentially get worse later this summer and into the fall if a lot of these states that have reopened start to slow down and actually backtrack and close businesses again, as we're starting to see happen in a few places. there is no grand strategy at the white house right now. the president clearly does want to win this campaign. he hates the idea of being a loser. that's separate from whether he has a governing agenda future a second term or whether he even wants to be in this job for another four years. but in terms of a plan to address all of these con

well, i think, anderson, it's missing and that was a really well done story by ashley parker and phil rucker. there was one in that paragraph that's missing which is the president's inability to see anything other than whether it impacts him or not and so when it started impacting him in his mind, was when his supporters started seeing covid cases spreading in red states. before that, the white house had been basically limiting this to a blue state problem and i think the president does have more agency than some of that might suggest. i think the president likes to try to see if he can convince people of his version of reality. it's not just that he believes he can. i think he wants to see if he can do it in most of these cases so i do think they're absolutely right, all of these factors are why he's uniquely unable to meet this moment. >> professor, what en it comes testing, the president is bragging about the number of tests the u.s. has done. if it takes two weeks to get a test or a week to get a test, doesn't that basically render the tests meaningless? >> there is a lot of issues with

carol is also the co-author along with her "post" colleague phil rucker of the best-selling book "a very stable genius" and with us, dr. vin gupta. he's an e.r. doctor specializing in all kinds of illnesses but also an affiliate assistant professor with the university of washington's department of health metric sciences and he's a pulmonologist. vin, i'm sort of fascinated because the president put out there that other places were ahead of this and as a result, they're doing better. but in fact when you look at the measurements when they're put out, and anybody can look at the graphs of seven-day rolling averages, you can adjust it for when we started and when our first case was and who was ahead of us. there's no metric that looks like america is doing better than anybody else except kind of maybe brazil. >> thanks, ali. i think the most important metric, ali, is what are the number of tests per confirmed case. that is the metric that we rarely talk about. the president never wants to talk about it for good reason because we don't perform well on that metric. we do 14 tests per confirme

white house correspondent kristen welker and white house bureau chief for "the washington post," phil rucker interview, the president seemed to continue this strategy of downplaying the virus. is this a coordinated strategy inside the white house because republican leaders in those states that are suffering most cannot be on the same page as the president >> i actually think there is a fair amount of debate about this strategy, steph, within the white house. you're absolutely right. president trump continuing to downplay the virus during that contentious interview with fox news in addition to repeating that now widely panned claim that the virus is just going to disappear. the president again falsely said that the increase in cases all across the country is because there's more testing that is a claim that has been disputed by top doctors on the coronavirus task force they note the fact that hospitalizations are on the rise as well as deaths. now the president saying he's not going to issue a national mandate to wear masks. and more mixed messaging on that point today, steph you had the u.s.

there was an article in "the post" this week that broke this down, by phil rucker. kurt, you've seen the light, my friend, changed your affiliation and distanced yourself from the party that accepts this kind of rhetoric. but i have to point out that this problem didn't start with donald trump and won't end with donald trump. because you were formerly a member of this party, what are your thoughts on what's happening and how do we change, like how do we bring this country together when there is a significant member of the republican party who has never stood up to this president, never checked him on this behavior. what's the path forward like? >> well, i echo everybody's sentiments, it's wonderful to see you in this chair and have this opportunity, empowering voices like yours to have these opportunities i think are so important. and i think that's actually part of the solution, is we need to start as a country listening to other people that we wouldn't normally listen to, to have that exposure and have that conversation, frankly to have some uncomfortable conversa

joining our conversation now, phil rucker, white house bureau chief for the "washington post," and co-authorst selling book a very stage stable genius. and also with us is an epidemiologist and a professor at the fielding school of public health. and doctor, i want to ask you, what do you hear -- i mean, i hear the alarm and the political crisis that we are in the middle of when i hear dr. fauci speak. but he was talking as brian said with the nih and what did he reveal in terms of the science and enteam y teempidemiology of? >> and i think that dr. fauci is highlighting what we've been afraid of, which is that the virus is spreading unchecked. and we're not doing what we need to do to be able to stop it. and let's face it, as governor cuomo said the other day, we are literally with the political discourse that is going on enabling this virus to spread. it is not justfacilitation of t spreading. we know what it takes to stop it and we've had this discussion from the very beginning. i mean, my tune has not changed in the months that we've been having these discussions. we know how the virus i

i'll quote, this is piece you on co-authored with phil rucker.pitol hill, some republicans fret mostly privately to avoid his wrath that trump's fixation on racial and other cultural issues leaves their party running against the currents of change. coupled with coronavirus pandemic, and related economic crisis, these republicans fear he's not only seriously impairing his re-election chances but also jeopardizing the gop senate majority and its strength in the house and robert, the question that occurs to me is, when will we know? when will we see that? when will men and women with the letter "r" after their names on ballots in november, we saw a republican senator from iowa take a pass on this opportunity, joni erns, this this weekend. >> brian, we know a little bit, working with phil on this story, one of the republicans strategists we quoted on the record was a gentleman named scott reid ran bob dole's presidential campaign. reid's a figure who speaks for many of these republicans. he's in touch with senate campaigns daily. the chamber of comme

i want to bring in our panel now, philip rucker, white house bureau chief at the "washington post" and dr. natalie azhar. great to see both of you. phil, let's start about the president's decision to commute roger stone's sentence. what was going on behind the scenes? >> this is something the president has been thinking about for many weeks now. he has been saying publicly for some time that he thought roger stone was treated unfairly by federal prosecutors, even as robert mueller was putting pen to paper this evening defended the conduct in that investigation and said it was entirely proper and appropriate and pointed out of course that roger stone had been convicted by a jury of lying to investigatorsno investigators. nonetheless the president wanted to save stone, his friend and confidante and someone who noted in an interview yesterday that he didn't reveal anything about the president, that he had protected the president in his dealings with federal investigators. there reportedly was some dispute amongst the president's advisers in the administration about whether to take this action. nbc i believe is reporting today that the at