Summary
Kavita Patel, Andrew Weissmann, Baratunde Thurston, Lanhee Chen>
Transcript
KATHLEEN BELEW, AUTHOR, "BRING THE WAR HOME": That bombing was not just a one-off event, but when -- as part of a social movement with deep broad roots in our society.
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL, MSNBC HOST: Professor Kathleen Balu (ph) gets tonight's last word. Thank you very much for joining us and I really appreciate it.
BELEW: Thank you for having me.
O'DONNELL: The 11th Hour with Brian Williams starts now.
BRIAN WILLIAMS, MSNBC HOST: Well, good evening once again. As we bring another week to a close day 1,359 of the Trump administration, 25 days until our presidential election day with the number of confirmed coronavirus cases now rising rapidly across much of our country.
Tomorrow the president who is still recovering from the coronavirus, who still may be contagious and shedding virus is scheduled to hold his first event since his released from the hospital five days ago. He's expected to speak to supporters gathered on the South Lawn about law and order.
On Monday Trump plans to travel to Florida for a rally, more on that in a moment. Meanwhile, the White House is still refusing to answer questions about the tests the President has been given whether the virus is still in his system. For starters, this week, Trump's been working overtime trying to convince a nervous nation via nonstop interviews on Fox News that the coronavirus isn't a threat.
He told Americans, "don't let it dominate your life," described his own illness as, "a blessing." He insisted he was cured and he was not. Tonight, he continued to paint a rosy picture of his COVID diagnosis during his first on camera interview since the diagnosis happened to be with Fox News, Dr. Marc Siegel.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I feel really, really strong. I think didn't feel strong, didn't feel really strong. I didn't have a problem with breathing, which a lot of people seem to have. I had none of that. But I didn't feel very strong. I didn't feel very vital. I didn't feel like the president of the U.S. should feel. And I knew there was something a little bit off.
MARC SIEGEL, FOX NEWS: Did that occurred to you were the doctors were telling you something and you were negotiating with them or did you just do what they said?
TRUMP: I didn't negotiate. But, you know, ultimately I have a lot of respect for these doctors. They're really the best doctors I think in the world in Walter Reed. I've seen the work they do on the military and people coming in so badly injured that like you've never seen before. I have a lot of respect. So I really tended to listen, but generally, maybe I wouldn't. But I would -- I did tend to listen to this group, could have led to bad things from that point. I don't know. But I got lucky. I think with a certain medicine.
I took the Regeneron within a period of 24 hours, I felt very different. They wanted to keep me for observation. You know, they wanted to be sure it was good. But I did. I was there for I guess three and a half days. They wanted to keep me -- I wanted to leave after the first day. Right now I'm medication free. I'm not taking any medications as of, you know, probably eight hours ago.
WILLIAMS: That's about how that went. Note, Trump said he didn't have a problem breathing. Last weekend, the White House physician said the President was indeed given supplemental oxygen during his treatment. During the interview, Trump was asked about tests he received in the hospital as well as about his latest tests for presence of the virus.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They tested the lungs. They checked for the lungs and they tested it with different machinery. They have incredible stuff that I've never even seen before. And it tested good, initially, I think they had some congestion in there. But it tested, ultimately, it tested good. And with each day it got better. And I think that's why they wanted me to say frankly, but the CAT scans were amazing. The equipment was incredible.
SIEGEL: I heard you said you were going to test again today. Have you been retested?
TRUMP: I have been retested. And I haven't even found out numbers or anything yet, but I've been retested. And I know I'm at either the bottom of the scale or free.
SIEGEL: When is your next test going to be?
TRUMP: I don't know probably tomorrow, Marc. They test every couple of days, I guess. But it's really at a level now that's been great to see it disappear.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Nobody seems to know but that's what we've got. As for these upcoming in-person events, Political reports, over 2000 guests have been invited to tomorrow's White House event and that, "Guests for Saturday's event won't be tested for the virus and won't be required to wear masks."
Now this event seemingly designed to rile the base and trigger the political left is being held exactly two weeks after the Rose Garden gathering that a lot of people consider the likely super spreader source of the White House outbreak involving nearly 30 people, many of whom attended that ceremony and indoor receptions. Here's Dr. Anthony Fauci's call on that event.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: The data speaks for themselves. We had a super-spreader event in the White House. And it was in a situation where people were crowded together, were not wearing masks. So the data speak for themselves.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: And indeed tonight on Fox News, Trump was asked what lessons he has learned from his own illness.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I think the biggest thing is that I did do it early. Now, you know, I have such great access to medical. We have White House doctor who's great and you have so many great doctors. So it's a lot easier for me than somebody that's, you know, not doesn't have access to a doctor so easily. I think the big secret for me was I got there very early. And, you know, I think it would have gotten a lot worse. One of the doctors said he thought it would have gotten a lot worse.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: We mentioned that Trump is also gearing up for a rally in Florida on Monday because in lieu of any real doctor information, why not. Today, Minnesota officials say nine cases are now linked to his September 18 rally there. One patient according to the newspaper is in intensive care.
As we mentioned, confirmed cases are now increasing all across our country. NBC News reports the average daily number of new COVID infections, stands now at about 45,000 double what it was in June.
President's illness has upended the presidential debate scheduled course few hours ago. The Commission on debates officially canceled the next one October 15 in Miami after Trump refused to agree to a virtual event for now. The final debate of the scheduled three scheduled to be held in Nashville, October 22 and hosted by our own Kristen Welker is still on the schedule.
It's a lot. It's been quite a week. Let's bring in our leadoff discussion panel on a Friday night. Susan Page, veteran journalist bestselling author, USA Today Washington Bureau Chief, last seen by a national audience moderating this week's vice presidential debate. Peter Baker, Chief White House Correspondent for The New York Times also happens to be the author of the new book, The Man Who Ran Washington: The Life and Times of James A. Baker III, by Peter Baker and his wife, Susan Glasser. And Dr. Kavita Patel, clinical physician, former senior aide during the Obama administration, she's now a non resident fellow at Brookings and among our medical contributors.
Well, gang, good evening, and welcome to you all. And Doctor, we're duty bound to begin with you. You've heard the President says he's not on meds, considers himself cured. He's not. He's not sharing test results, goodness knows, but they're going to have a couple hundred people over to the White House tomorrow. I guess the other name for this is a Friday during the Trump administration.
DR. KAVITA PATEL, FORMER AIDE TO VALERIE JARRETT IN THE OBAMA WHITE HOUSE: Yes, that's right, Brian. And it's another irresponsible Friday in the Trump administration because the people that are being invited to that White House event being explicitly told they don't have to wear masks and then casually just not even acknowledging that White House complex itself, we're still seeing cases, as you pointed out, that are likely going to continue for the next several weeks. That's just the nature of how this virus invades a population.
So, with numbers rising, 54,000 cases of coronavirus, a record high in the United States in the last 24 hours, it is probably again, it feels like we say this often, Brian, the height of irresponsibility to bring people in, regardless of whether it's outdoors and distance with a president who is still in a vulnerable period. He may be again a telemedicine visit with a doctor on Fox News somehow can't get a replace actual objective criteria and objective data which is all the American people are asking for. And one simple question could put this to rest. Is he PCR negative today and you heard him dodge that very question.
WILLIAMS: Peter Breaker, the course of one day just a couple interviews he said both that he was hospitalized because something was a little bit off. But then also said quote I might not have recovered at all. Hard to know what's going on here though the sicker he is in the retelling the more heroic the comeback story is, I'm guessing. He's not been seen except for official White House cameras. They were the ones who had to shoot the Fox News telemedicine interview tonight because of COVID. Do you have any read on the few non-COVID White House aides who are still reporting to work? And how they feel about the guy back to work in the Oval and a couple hundred house guests coming over tomorrow?
PETER BAKER, THE NEW YORK TIMES CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, there's a real sense of shock. I think still in this White House even a week afterward. I think there's a sense that aides have not gotten the full picture themselves. They're wondering what's going on. They're just like us. They don't have a full picture. They haven't gotten one from their bosses within the White House. Some of them are worried of course about their own health. A lot of them are staying home, as you put it is kind of a ghost town and affected that White House right now.
And their aides who worry that the President obviously is moving too quickly at a time when we don't know for a fact he's gotten through this. A lot of patients get a second week, you know, crash kind of effect. And it's just, I think, it's a very, very troubled time at this White House. They know they're losing, the polls are bad. Some of them obviously, are still holding out the idea that there's a magic bullet out there, because four years ago, he managed to come back from a large deficit and still win the race. They still think that that could happen. This year, some of them do, or at least they're telling themselves that. But it's a very, it's a very, you know, dispiriting time, I think, in the White House, because there's not a lot of positive and upbeat, you know, opportunities they had.
WILLIAMS: Susan Page, it's great to see you. I'm glad you're not speaking to us from the witness protection plan. First question is the obvious one, what's it like to be there in the middle of what I always call the most thankless job, bar none and all of media?
SUSAN PAGE, USA TODAY WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: You know, it was a, it was a thrill. It was an honor. I feel like this is a big moment in American history. And these debates are invaluable. I'm so disappointed that the debate next week is not going to take place. It's the one time when you're not looking at a friendly interviewer or a paid TV ad. And you get a chance to look at the two candidates side by side. So even though, you know, I have my critics on Twitter, I'm now still afraid to look at twitter. I can't say how privileged I felt to be able to do that.
WILLIAMS: Susan, don't worry. That's what Twitter does, 24/7. Dr. Patel, when you hear even Dr. Birx caution about what may be coming in fall and winter, you know, it's time to pay attention. And I am assuming you share those worries.
PATEL: Yes, Brian 41 states are seeing a rise in cases now where the numbers are incredibly concerning, 16 states in the United States have at least a 10 percent positivity rate. And we have at least eight states where hospitalizations are increasing, kind of in double digits that are concerning for hospital capacity, including Wisconsin where you've got weightless in some parts of the state for people to be able to transfer the adequate level of care. So this is what I think Dr. Fauci, Dr. Birx and a number of others have been concerned about as we get into colder seasons. We're starting to see some of that viral flu, different kinds of other illnesses that can make this harder to diagnose, Brian. So I guess I'll do my daily public health duty, get your flu shot, because it's time they have them. And it can be helpful in preventing, but I hope we can at least decrease which is, you know, Dr. Fauci said we'd like to get to less than 10,000 new cases a day, told you we were at 54,000. We have a long ways to go together.
WILLIAMS: And goes without saying wear a mask. The advice you and others give constantly. Peter Baker, we know something about who's on speed dial on the President's overly used phone. Most of them are old friends from New York, a lot of them in the real estate business. Do we know who he's been talking to at least since he got out of the hospital who says, hey, good idea to call Kamala Harris, a monster and a communist? Who says, hey, good idea to keep diminishing the virus that has killed over 210,000 souls?
BAKER: Well, I think this is all him. I don't think he's getting a sheet of paper that says here, your talking points. Let's just say that the virus is simply, I mean, you get over and is no problem whatsoever. I think that this is all him. And I think that the aids, of course, as they have been for four years trying to reverse engineer policies and statements and so forth to match whatever it is, he says in the sort of free flow interviews and sessions and phone calls and stuff.
You know, it's -- there is no strategy for this, at this point. He had wanted to change the subject from the coronavirus. He's trying to do that with this talk about Hillary Clinton's emails and trying to get Bill Barr to prosecute Democrats. But we're only 25 days away from the election. And every day that goes by as another day that the poll numbers are not closing. And he's feeling, I think, increasingly anxious about that.
I would like to say one thing, by the way before finishing here is I would say Susan Page did a fabulous job. And anybody who has not been in that seat and I haven't been in that seat has no idea how difficult it is. I thought her questions were fabulous and she's ashamed that they weren't always answered.
PAGE: Thank you.
WILLIAMS: Yeah, I was going to say in lieu of a mute button it is. She did a fabulous job. And it continues to be the most thankless job in all of media always will be no matter who the candidates are.
And Susan, that brings us to you, you know, Pompeo today saying he's going to root out and release the Hillary Clinton emails. That's great. What that Donald Trump was running against Hillary Clinton. He's underwater, as Peter points out in most polling. He has a real problem with women voters. We know what he said about the California senator who sat across from you this week. What do you think the strategy is? Is there any slippage in the bass otherwise, why does it explain all bass plays now?
PAGE: And of course, the base is not enough in this election. The Trump base will not get him back to a second term in the White House. You know, I think the strategy has been to change the subject from the coronavirus, but once the President himself was diagnosed with COVID-19 that became impossible. Witnesses the coronavirus election it is infecting everything. You know, thinking about just the vice presidential debate, the first topic we talked about was coronavirus. The second one was presidential succession, an issue that's become more -- just come sharpened because of the president's diagnosis. The third topic was the economy which has been devastated by the coronavirus. There is one issue in this election and that is it.
WILLIAMS: As a good friend of mine used to say as I'll say at the end of this broadcast tonight, have a great weekend unless you have other plans. Our thanks to our big three on a Friday night after the week we've had. Susan Page, Peter Baker, Dr. Kavita Patel, greatly appreciate it.
Coming up for us, when all else fails, the president leans on his secretary of state and his attorney general, always pliant to help with his reelection campaign. But would he actually pardon himself? Our next guest use that phrase on the air this afternoon. I'll ask Andrew Weissmann about it.
And later all the news have you shaking your head, wondering why everything seems vaguely out of control, to keen observers on what it feels like to witness what's going on in our country right now. And what all the political fallout may be, as the 11th Hour is just getting underway on this Friday night.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WILLIAMS: The President's financial dealings and they are dense, they are deep and troubled are even under more scrutiny tonight following two new reports from the Washington Post and the New York Times concerning the concerning the President's past cash flow, tax deductions, these are topics.
My next guest says he wishes he had pursued during his time with the special counsels Russia investigation. In his new book he writes, "An investigation into Trump's finances could have produced important evidence perhaps better delineating a motive for the President to curry favor with Russia or for Russia to assist Trump in the election."
We're happy to have back with us again tonight, Andrew Weissmann, former lead prosecutor during the Russia investigation, under special counsel Robert Mueller, former lead counsel at the FBI. He is these days a distinguished senior fellow at the NYU School of Law. And his recent book is, Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation. It is now a New York Times best seller.
Counselor I was watching, when you were on with Nicolle Wallace this afternoon. I stopped what I was doing when I heard you use the phrase self pardoning. Given my Catholic upbringing, it sounded vaguely dirty. But please explain legally what it is you're talking about?
ANDREW WEISSMANN, FORMER FBI GENERAL COUNSEL: Sure, well, if you think about the situation that President Trump is in, assume that he loses the election. He is facing three buckets currently of legal problems. He has the problem of the federal obstruction of justice, material that came out during our special counsel investigation, and the new attorney general is going to have to be looking at that and whether to go forward on that. And he faces two state investigations in New York, one civil and one criminal. And, of course, based on the New York Times reporting, all of those may advance in various ways that we don't even know yet.
Well, he has one power as President of the United States until January 20, which is he has the pardon power. And he can't get rid of the state investigations. If you exercise a pardon power, it only applies to federal cases. But he is facing potential federal prosecution. So one thing he could do is just pardon himself, that has never been done. You can imagine why that's a really bad idea to interpret the constitution that way, but the language of the constitution doesn't actually cabin the pardon power. So he could try it.
And of course, you know, let's say the Supreme Court says, you know, that's invalid. We'll say what, he's no worse off than having not tried it. The other thing he could try if he thought it was really dicey to pardon himself is he could resign, assuming he got a commitment from Vice President Pence, to pardon him in the same way that you had that applied to Nixon with respect to Vice President board. And you had a pardon again, in advance of any prosecution.
WILLIAMS: Fascinating thing to contemplate. And of course, we rule nothing out during this era. If you take just what the New York Times knows, and let's assume they know way more than what they've reported. What we have read in the New York Times alone, would that have helped the Russia investigation had you known that going in, had you been able to discover that while underway?
WEISSMANN: Oh, you've frozen. It was at least a flattering picture. Let's see if we have Andrew Weissmann back. Ah, the era (ph). OK, we have you back. You seem to be --
WEISSMANN: Great.
WILLIAMS: It's kind of proof of life, you seem to be moving, please continue.
WEISSMANN: So the answer is that that's something that we could have obtained. And I talked about why we didn't and disagreements within our team as to whether we should have gotten it. But get cutting to the chase in terms of how it could have helped us, it wouldn't have gotten us all the way. But it raises a lot of issues that you'd want to look at. And let me just give you one that's a little in the weeds, which is, if you remember the Trump Tower meeting in June of 2016, where Russians came to Trump Tower and said, we have dirt on Hillary Clinton. And Don Jr. said, we love it, of course, accepting something from a foreigner to help a campaign is illegal.
Well, that meeting was set up by a Russian oligarch, and the New York Times reporting was fascinating, because they talked about that same Russian oligarch, was the one who sponsored and paid for the 2013 Miss Universe pageant were oddly, according to the New York Times, the oligarch got no money, but Donald Trump made over $2 million. So that's the kind of thing that, you know, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to have follow up questions as to how does that happen, that the person who's putting up the money doesn't, you know, doesn't make anything but Donald Trump does.
And then pieced that together with Eric Trump's statement in 2014, where he said, we don't rely on American banks, because we have all of the funding we need out of Russia. So, again, that's the kind of thing that, you know, I can see the Manhattan DA's office or Letitia James, the New York Attorney General or even the next attorney general looking into and, you know, I think Donald Trump, if he loses is going to have a lot of legal fees.
WILLIAMS: Yeah, he did say that about the Russians after all out loud, and on television. Final question about Bill Barr, who has really proven himself to be a kaleidoscopic supplicant for this president, does even he have limits enough and conscience enough to know that it's a bad look to release a Russia origins investigation before the election? Or do you think this the alleged dust up between him and Trump is some kind of shiny object for the political base?
WEISSMANN: You know, we don't know the full story yet. But, you know, I'm going to give you my conjecture. My conjecture is that Bill Barr put as much pressure as he could possibly put on John Durham to issue some kind of interim report. And I actually, if I had to buy it to bet, I would say that the issue here is that John Durham, actually decided that he was going to act like a career prosecutor and not let politics play any role in spite of the Attorney General's pressure. And I say that because if you remember, just about three weeks ago, the number two prosecutor in that office resigned. Somebody who is very close to John Durham, and that, to me was a clear signal that pressure was being put on that investigation. So we don't know the full story yet, but I don't give the Attorney General credit for that.
WILLIAMS: Again, to our audience, the book is called, Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation. There is no report more inside about that investigation that occupies so much of our time worry and attention. Andrew Weissmann has been our guest tonight, with our thanks.
Coming up, why won't the White House say when the President last tested, negative or positive for the virus? One of our next guest says whatever the reason the effect of not answering is devastating, that discussion, our next guest when we come right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HALLIE JACKSON, NBC CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: On that last of test, you said have that. You don't know or you don't want to say.
BRIAN MORGENSTERN, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY: So, we don't have that. There's, well, I don't personally know.
JACKSON: Right. What is that mean?
MORGENSTERN: And there -- there are --
JACKSON: Have you asked Brian? I think Wednesday you said you're going to look into that.
MORGENSTERN: Right. SO, Hallie, the president doesn't check all of his HIPAA rights at the door just when he becomes president. Just because he's president doesn't mean he shares every single detail of you know, his entire life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Just a couple of points here. That guy works for us. We paid for the President's health care. We paid for the helicopter ride to and from the hospital, the little motorcade ride to wave to the crowd. He's our president. He doesn't want us to know about testing. And yet he wants to invite hundreds of people over to the White House balcony tomorrow, so he can address them from the Vita Perone Memorial balcony above.
About these times we're living in one of our next guests. Baratunde Thurston wrote this quote, this is what it feels like to be sane in the United States of America. Right now we're trapped in a car careening toward a Cliff's edge. Two tires have already blown out we're going down the wrong side of the road. And the driver is the president.
For more we are welcome -- we are happy to welcome back the aforementioned Baratunde Thurston, writer, activist, comedian forum producer for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. He's now the host of the podcast How to Citizen and the author of The New York Times bestseller "How To Be Black." Also Lanhee Chen rejoins us. Research fellow at the Hoover Institution, former policy director for Romney-Ryan 2012, notably a former senior official at the Department of Health and Human Services back when it was still hole.
Baratunde, thank you for narrating what was the old sequence of Mannix back in the day, a thrilling portrait you have written for us. What the President's doing now is kind of straight up Kim behavior not little but Jung Un. He's insisting he's cured, he's not. Yesterday he called himself young. He referred to himself as a perfect physical specimen Is it working and with whom?
BARATUNDE THURSTON, AUTHOR, ACTIVIST, AND COMEDIAN: Brian, thank you for having me back. It's really good to be on your show again and hello Lanhee good to see you. I would just add that the person riding shotgun in the car has a very distracting fly stuck in his hair as well, which makes the ride all the more torturous for a nation really ready to move forward in our journey as a people.
I don't know if this is working and for whom What I do know is what isn't working, that a person who's taken an oath to protect and serve us all has become a public health threat to his own staff, to the people who work in that building who also worked for us, but work for him to the members who come and visit him to the people who are going to come to his rally. And he finds the time and a week full of so much drama for COVID joy rides, he finds the time to mouth off on Rush Limbaugh to spew profusely profanity laced spewing at Iran, which is a nuclear power.
And all the while we have another story going on in this country stories that we've missed, Joe Biden goes to Gettysburg this week, and tries to heal the nation. And I think there's just such a contrast and character. There's one person, one character who's trying to bring us into despair and division. And there's another one who's trying to bring us to a higher place.
And for my own sanity, I have to tune into that other channel because I can't keep watching this show. It's too ugly.
WILLIAMS: Lanhee, our friend Baratunde raises good points to his point about Joe Biden, correct. To his point about the president dropping an F bomb today with Rush Limbaugh, we have so much other news didn't even include it tonight. We've got a hurricane hitting Louisiana.
But again, with the churn of everything else going on. Lanhee, you made the point earlier today about the danger. When was the President's last negative test? When was the President's last positive test? We can't seem to get those answers. The bill comes due to us. We're paying for all of it. Why is it important?
LANHEE CHEN, FMR. SR. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES DEPT. OFFICIAL: Well, it's important for a number of different reasons. I mean, first of all, just because you've got a bunch of people that may have been infected that may have been involved in this event at the White House. And knowing whether the President and when the President tested positive or last tested negative is essential to that determination.
But, you know, just to go to the politics of this for a moment, Brian, I mean, look, in a political campaign, I've been involved in many of them, you really try to minimize self-inflicted wounds. You really try to minimize situations where you make it harder on yourself to make the case to the American people.
And when you see an interview, like the one that you played with Hallie at the top of the segment, when you have the inability, really of the White House to generate basic pieces of information about the President's health, we're not saying let's see his lung X-ray, we're not saying, you know, let's see all of his blood work. I don't particularly care what his potassium levels are.
But I do think people ought to know when it was that he tested negative last and to not have that information available to the American people I think generates a whole series of political challenges for the president, generates a whole series of political challenges for the Republican Party, but for the country leaves a lot of people wondering the answer to a question that they really shouldn't be wondering the answer to.
WILLIAMS: Indeed. Baratunde, can you imagine if your line of work in the health department is tracking COVID numbers in the District of Columbia, Eugene Robinson made this point two nights ago, the White House event was such a super spreader. It's responsible for a spike in their local numbers. You can see it right there in front of you.
THURSTON: Yeah. And Brian, here's what's really tragic. We don't have to be here. We had other choices. As a nation, our leaders could have made different choices. This president could have taken the recommendations of the scientists and policy leaders he had access to. We had a roadmap for dealing with this pandemic, months ago, testing, tracing, supported isolation, it was literally handed to him. He just had to take that big Sharpie and sign it into action. And he couldn't manage that.
Contact tracing is the thing that we need that just to protect him, but to protect all the people around him. He has access to the CDC and refuses to use them. What kind of example is that setting for the kids who can barely go to school right now.
WILLIAMS: As I keep saying got to be a reason the three of us are still home. These gentlemen have agreed to stay with us. We'll fit in a break. Coming up the increased anxiety over what voters could face at the polls on election day. And what could happen to the results without us knowing we'll talk about these gentlemen in a moment.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, U.S. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We can't just win we have to win. Overwhelmingly, the American people are going to want to decide our future. Not this president attorney general who is less than straightforward. You're the ones.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Joe Biden wearing a mask warning voters about what he says are phony challenges as the president and his allies continue to question the integrity of the election now 25 days out. Politico for one reporting it this way, quote, the Trump campaign has established what it says is a 50,000 plus army of volunteer observers across an array of battleground states like North Carolina and Pennsylvania where operations are already underway.
Remaining with us our guests Baratunde Thurston and Lanhee Chen. Lanhee, four out of five doctors recommend for those patients who are positive for coronavirus invite a couple of hundred friends over give a speech from the balcony about law and order. What is going on at the White House? Is there a problem with the base? Is the base slipping? Because all this stuff is aimed at the base. And as I said earlier, this event was engineered to trigger the left.
CHEN: Yes, I mean, if you look at it, at this phase of the campaign, the question really ought to be how do you expand the appeal of the candidate? How do you figure out, you know, how you get to voters who might still be undecided or who are swing voters who maybe have some discomfort with let's say the how the president speaks are tweets, but they might be sympathetic to what he's trying to do.
And I think for those voters and event like this, the kinds of media appearances he's been making. It gets back to the question of what is the goal of the campaign at this point? What is it that they're trying to do? You know, I've talked to a number of Republicans over the last couple of days and it's been that same question, you know, what exactly is the campaign trying to do? Are they really trying to win this thing down the road?
And then the other piece of it is what's going to happen to down ticket Republicans who are now running on the same ballot as President Trump, when it appears as though the president is really focused on his core population, they're going to show up and vote for him, it doesn't really matter what he does. So the notion that he's trying to motivate them or mobilize them, I think we're a little beyond that at this point. So it's a head scratcher. But it's also just another bad news cycle that they're going to have to deal with by doing this event.
WILLIAMS: Baratunde, I'd like to give you the last word, and it's about voter suppression. What are your real fears about it? And have you been heartened to at all at the pictures, we've been seeing an early vote and just lines that stretch out forever, depending on the state?
THURSTON: Thank you, Brian. I am concerned because we have an entire political party, the Republican Party, which seems committed to running away from voters, to making it harder for people to vote. This is the party of free market, open competition, but they were afraid to compete fairly in the open market of democracy in terms of people's right to vote. So you've got suppression through voter intimidation, aka poll monitoring.
And I'm feeling heartened in the following ways. Five and a half million people have already voted. That's beautiful. And that's good. I'm feeling heartened by the history where we've been through this before. And folks try to put obstacles in our way, especially people of color and poor people. And folks are rising to the occasion.
And I'm feeling heartened, because the number of people signing up to be volunteer poll workers who accelerate the flow through the voting process is at record numbers. People are going to power to the polls.org and other places like that, to try to help this democracy move forward. Instead of dragging it back into an era that we should have left long time ago.
WILLIAMS: As Barack Obama said at John Lewis his funeral it's hard to believe we're perhaps going back to an era of poll taxes and having to guess the number of jellybeans in a jar but this is where we are. Our great thanks to our two guests this evening, Baratunde Thurston, Lanhee Chen as they say, have a great weekend unless you have other plans. But thank you for joining us tonight.
Coming up a rare look inside what's being done to harden our election when we come back.
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TRUMP: 50,000 ballots were -- something happened manipulated, let's call it. 50,000. They're finding balance in garbage cans with the Trump name on it. Military ballots, they find ballots, they found a whole blank of ballots in a river, in a stream in a very good state. But it's disgraceful.
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WILLIAMS: There's a great REM song called Find the River. That's what we need to do. Fact checkers, in fact have no idea where this river or stream is. That was our coronavirus positive president during just his latest stream of consciousness interview on a friendly Fox News family outlet.
He is that rare president trying to cast doubt on our own election. Indeed a lot of people are worried about what he could do with this election and what outsiders could do, maybe even in his name. But we have a rare and exclusive reassuring report on the cyber security front tonight. Here with that NBC News correspondent Tom Costello.
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TOM COSTELLO, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 25 days till Election Day with 8 million having already voted under the threat of foreign interference. Outside Albany, New York, NBC News was given exclusive access to a national security operation center coordinating cyber defenses against foreign and criminal hack attempts.
BEN SPEAR, CENTER FOR INTERNET SECURITY ELECTION DIRECTOR: We see a lot of cyber threats impacting elections as well as other state, local and business organizations as well.
COSTELLO: Election defense became a top homeland security priority after the Russian hacks of 2016. Now, massive collaboration with the military at the FBI and NSA.
CHRIS KREBS, DIRECTOR OF CYBER AND INFRASTRUCTURE SECURITY AT HOMELAND: It blows anything I've experienced in my career on the waters.
COSTELLO: This week, Homeland Security warned us cyber threats from both nation states and non-state actors will remain acute and will likely grow, singling out threats from Russia, China and Iran to disrupt election infrastructure.
(on camera): How often do you see a probe or an attempt at an attack?
KREBS: Every single second.
COSTELLO: Every second?
KREBS: The internet's a wild place.
COSTELLO (voice-over): Chris Krebs is the director of cyber and infrastructure security at homeland. Surprisingly, he vows this year's elections will be the most secure ever.
KREBS: Look, anything can happen on the turn of a dime. But we're ready. We've secured systems, we've exercised, we're trained. We have incident response plans in place. We're ready for just about anything.
COSTELLO: The challenge coordinating defensive strategies with 6,000 local and state governments nationwide. Matt Masterson is the point man on election security.
MATT MASTERSON, DEPT. OF HOMELAND SECURITY SR. CYBERSECURITY ADVISER: We literally have intrusion detection sensors sitting on state networks across all 50 states looking for malicious traffic, looking for malicious activity.
COSTELLO: It could take just one county election officer clicking on a ransomware e-mail to allow hackers in. So far no sign of a coordinated for an attack. But U.S. Cyber Command is also on the offensive in 2018 targeting a Russian troll farm, taking it offline.
KEN DILANIAN, NBC NEWS INTEL AND NATIONAL SEC. CORRESPONDENT: That really didn't set them back much substantively. But it's sent a message to Russia that the United States had that capacity and could do it again.
COSTELLO (on camera): Importantly, Homeland cybersecurity says the greatest threat to the election may really not be Russian hacking, but Russian disinformation campaigns to undermine confidence in the election. And those campaigns are very much underway. Brian.
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WILLIAMS: And Tom Costello, thank you for that report. Coming up for us back in 1973, Maureen McGovern asked the musical question, there's got to be a morning after. We'll have something like that after this.
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WILLIAMS: Last thing before we go tonight, again this evening we're going to let the very twisted and creative types at the Lincoln project take us off the air with their latest efforts. So here now, The Walk of Shame.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rough night.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Rough four years.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Consider that again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Lincoln project is responsible for the content of this advertising.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: See what they did there, borderline melancholy almost like Charles Schulz meets Family Guy and meets Rick Wilson. Perhaps giving new meaning to morning in America. The men and women the Pirates of the Lincoln project to take us off the air and end the week we've had.
That is our broadcast for this Friday evening. Thank you for spending this time with us. Have a good weekend unless you have other plans. On behalf of all of our colleagues at the networks of NBC News, good night.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. END
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