Transcripts For KNTV Meet The Press 20240712

This morning my interview with senator Bernie Sanders of vermont. Plus our brandnew nbc news wall street journal poll on the eve of the Democratic National convention, also as covid relief talks break down. Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gave a damn. President trump says no deal, no new Postal Service funding for mailin voting. Its very simple. How are they going to do it if they dont have the money to do it . Sabotaging the mail in order to help his reelection chances what weve never seen before is a president saying im going to actively kneecap the secures a agreement in the middle east. Ill talk to National Security adviser robert obrien. Joining me for insight and analysis are nbc news capitol hill correspondent casey hunt. Former Homeland Security secretary jeh johnson, carol lee and Charles Benson from our nbc affiliate in convention city, milwaukee. Welcome to sunday and our coverage of the Democratic National convention. Its meet the press. From nbc news in washington, the longestrunning show in television history, this is meet the press with chuck todd. Good sunday morning. Normally on the sunday before a National Political convention wed be inside a sports arena right now anticipating cheering crowds, boisterous protests and even anticipating colorful balloon drops, but not this year, not before this years Unconventional Convention or next weeks republican gathering somewhere in america, this years conventions, like everything else, have been up ended by covid19. One thing that has not changed here, though is the preconvention naming of the running mate with joe biden picking the oddson favorite of the role. Biden will try to do something that has not been accomplished since 1992, defeat a sitting president and they begin with a bit of a head start. Our brandnew nbc news wall street journal poll shows joe biden with a ninepoint lead over President Trump 5041, while thats down a bit from last month, overall, the numbers look pretty stable when you look at this race over the entire summer. But interestingly, among biden voters only 36 say their vote is more for biden. While nearly 60 say theyre voting primarily against mr. Trump. Overall, interest in this election is extraordinarily high. 79 of all voters right now in august, 83 of democrats and 85 of republicans and all of these voters say theyre highly interested in this election, those are october numbers normally. The bottom line from our republican and democratic pollsters is this, while President Trump needs to pull another inside straight to win this election is not yet a done deal for biden and all this past week the president made it clear that hes willing to hobble the Postal Service and impair the mailin voting which he fears will help the democrats in november. The mailin voting will be catastrophic and make our country a laughing stock all over the world. Tafter an urgent warning to dozens of states that it cannot guarantee all mailin baltds will be counted. Dejoy acknowledged unintended consequences to service arguing cuts were necessary because our Financial Condition is dire. Is he trying to discourage mailin voting. No, not at all. The steps that hes taking are trying to stop the tremendous losses that have taken place for many, many years. Hes trying to make it great again. Mr. Trump has repeatedly claimed without evidence, that mailin ballots lead to widespread voter fraud although he and melania have requested mailin ballots in florida. Ive heard some people think that the reason the president doesnt want people to vote by mail is polls show that people who want to vote by mail tend to vote for Vice President biden so this say political calculation. What weve never seen before is a president say im going to try to actively kneecap the Postal Service to encourage voting and i will be explicit about the reason im doing it. Meanwhile, President Trump is struggling to respond to the bidenharris ticket who are hammering his handling of the virus which 58 of all voters disapprove of. Lets institute a mask mandate nationwide starting immediately and we will save lives. Other countries are following the science, trump pushed miracle cures he saw on fox news. Mr. Trump and his campaign are struggling to define harris. The Republican National committee argued liberals revolt against bidenharris ticket. She will have to hide her time as a prosecutor from the antipolice left. Before saying her pick shows radical extreme i was have seized control of the Democratic Party. Shes radical left and now she tries to pretend shes not, but shes the most liberal person in the u. S. Senate. The president called harris nasty, a mad woman and renewing the racist birther Conspiracy Theory he pushed for years about president obama. I heard it today that she doesnt meet the requirements and by the way, the lawyer that wrote that piece is a very highly qualified and very talented lawyer. I have no idea if thats right. He wrote an article saying there could be a problem. Its not something that im going to be pursuing. Harris was born in oakland, california. Joining me now is the independent senator from vermont, Bernie Sanders. Senator sanders, welcome back to meet the press, while this is a convention sunday and we want to talk about the campaign, i want to start with the Postal Service, youve spent a lot of time in your career fighting on behalf of the Postal Service in different ways, fighting to make sure stuff doesnt get cut. This is a topic you are well versed in. So let me ask you this about what were seeing right now. On one hand the United States Postal Service is telling states they cant handle the increased capacity of mailin voting and on the other hand weve got reports of sorting machines going away, no more overtime. What are we witnessing here, senator sanders, legitimate reform of the Postal Service or sabotage . Chuck, what you are witnessing is a president of the United States who is doing everything he can to suppress the vote, make it harder for people to engage in mailin balloting at a time when people will be putting their lives on the line by having to go out to a polling station and vote. So what trump is saying is were going to do everything we can and this is not me talking, this is what trump himself said. Look, i happen to think, as you know that trump is a pathological liar. He lies all of the time, but i have to admit that the other day he was very honest. He said, look, we want to kill mailin balloting. We dont want millions and millions of people to be able to cast their ballots through the mail so well destroy the Postal Service. Well defund it. They cant vote. I guess that he thinks that a suppressed vote, a lower voter turnout will work for him and help him win the election. This is a deliberate e for the to defund and destroy the u. S. Postal service so that people cannot engage in mailin ballots. Thats not Bernie Sanders talking. Thats what donald trump is telling the American People and it is an outrage, chuck, because this campaign is more than health care. Its more than education, its more than the Postal Service. It is democracy and he is sabotaging our democracy. Think the question now is what does congress do . What can you do . The house is youre hearing some word that the House Democratic leadership is thinking about bringing the house back early to deal directly with this Postal Service crisis. Do you think thats a good idea and do you want to see senator Mitch Mcconnell do the same thing . Absolutely. I think what the democratic leadership in the house, nancy pelosi and others are talking about is exactly right. This again is not a debate about the Postal Service alone. Thats important. This is about the future of american democracy and whether people have a right to pa participate. Chuck, earlier this week, here in vermont we had our primaries. We had the largest voter turnout in primaries in vermont history. Most of the people voted by mailin ballots. It worked just fine. We can do this in every state in this country, so i would urge Speaker Pelosi to bring back the house. We will do everything that we can to get mcconnell to bring back the senate. This is a crisis for american democracy. Weve got to act and act now. You know, your colleague brian schats, democrat in hawaii saw trump messing with it is more impeachable than the ukraine thing which was super impeachable. Hes going to try to cheat. I guess, what do you call what the president is doing when he said that hes hoping this lack of a deal on the Postal Service means no mailin voting . What do you call it . I call it undermining american democracy, and chuck, what i hope is that Everybody Knows my point of view. I am a strong progressive, but this campaign is not about whether youre progressive or moderate or conservative. This campaign in the deeper sense is whether we respect the sacrifices the men and women died in defending american democracy against the president who really quite openly is trying to undermine our democracy and i hope the American People come together, progressive, moderates, conservatives to say sorry, mr. President , we may have our disagreement, but in america we are a democracy. Everybody is going to vote and were not going to let you get away with what youre doing. What would you tell voters right now that want to vote by mail that are nervous . I would tell them, look, the average voter is put in a very difficult position. You are more than familiar with the fact that there are states which have discouraged mailin votes and urged people to come to the polling places and some of those people have become sick. So the average person is put in this terrible quagmire. Yes, i want to vote and participate in democracy, but im afraid to go out. The people who man the polling stations often are older people. They are afraid of spending an entire day of dealing with voting. What i would say it people is stay tuned. In one way or another, we want to make sure that the people of this country have the right to vote and donald trump is not going to undermine our democracy. When you say stay tuned, what does that mean . Do you really believe congress can act to hamstring the president here . He seems to control the we will do everything that we can in every way that we can and different states may respond differently, but this is an issue. This really is an issue where ideology shouldnt get in the way. I dont care if youre a conservative, moderate, whatever you are. If you believe that people have a right to vote and in a pandemic should not have to put their lives on the line to go into a polling station, you know what . You will have to support the full funding of the Postal Service and make sure that people can participate. All right. I want to talk about tomorrow night. Youre speaking on the same night as john kasich. First of all, what do you make of that, number one, and give us a preview of your speech if you dont mind. Only if you dont tell anybody, chuck, all right . Just keep that between you and me what my speech is. What im going to be talking about are a couple of things, number one what i just referred to is that this is a campaign about whether or not we maintain american democracy. We have a president and its not just the Postal Service. You will recall that not so long ago trump said maybe we should delay the election. Im behind in the polls, lets delay the election and earlier than that, maybe if i lose i may not want to leave office. This is a president who has used federal agents in unmarked cars to round up people exercising their constitutional right to protest. So this is a campaign about democracy, but ill tell you what else it is. Right now, as we speak, chuck, and we dont talk about this enough. With 30 Million People having lost their jobs since the pandemic and since those 600 checks have ceased to come, what you are seeing in all over this country is people in economic desperation. Youre seeing people who today in america, the richest country on earth unable to feed their kids and worried about being evicted from their homes. You are seeing people who cannot pay their bills and have no health insurance. What we are looking at is an absolute horror show. What congress has got to do is not only fund the Postal Service. Weve got to maintain those 600 checks. Weve got to make sure that people get at least 1200 to pay their bills and obviously trump and mcconnell have done nothing in that regard. Let me ask you about one aspect of the Democratic Party platform, there is one reference we can find to medicare for all. Im going to read it here. We are proud our Party Welcomes advocates who want to build on and strengthen the Affordable Care act and those who supported medicare for all approach. All are critical to ensuring health care is a human right. It is the only reference we could find to medicare for all. How do you feel overall about the Party Platform and do you feel like youve got enough of your views represented in it . Well, chuck, as you may be aware i am not the candidate. So my views are not the dominant views, but what i will credit strongly of the Biden Campaign towards what joe and i talked about this and he and i agreed that we should have task forces dealing with some of the major issues facing this country including the economy and health care and Climate Change and education, et cetera, and the people on those task forces work very, very hard and im not here to tell you as a strong advocate for medicare for all that we got everything we wanted. We truly did not, but i think if people look at the outcome of those task forces to find the reality that if those Task Force Proposals are implemented. You know what . Joe biden will become the most progressive president since Franklin Delano roosevelt and that of this moment is what we sne need. Kamala harris, this is joe bidens future of the Democratic Party, perhaps a future president and a future nominee is she a future member of the progressive party. Almost all progressives understand that in this moment we have got to do everything we can to come together to defeat donald trump who in my view is the most dangerous president in the history of this country. As i have said many, many times the day after biden is elected we will be working with the grassroots people of this country, with working people, to stand up to fight for an agenda that works for working families and not just the 1 and that most certainly includes medicare for all. So we are going to rally the American People around an agenda and i look forward to doing that the day after biden is elected. Very quickly, in the state of wisconsin, kanye west is trying to get on the ballot and one of his petition signatures that apparently right now is being used to get him on the ballot is by the name of a the gentleman by the name of Bernie Sanders and it claims that you have signed this. Mickey mouse apparently signed this petition signatures. I just want to confirm that that is not you, sir. I cannot confirm mickey mouse. That, i dont know about, but i can tell you i certainly did not sign that petition. Okay. Senator Bernie Sanders, we look forward to hearing what you have to say tomorrow night and again, how do you feel about sharing the stage with john kasich . John will do his thing, i will do my thing. I expect there will be different type of speech e bes, but we ar united in the standing that trump has to be defeated and biden has to be elected. All right. Bernie sanders, the progressive independent senator from vermont, the runnerup in this democratic nomination fight that we all witnessed here. Thanks for coming on and sharing your perspective, sir. Thank you. When we come back ill talk to National Security advise this is decision tech. Find a stock based on your interests or whats trending. Get realtime insights in your customized view of the market. Its smarter Trading Technology for smarter trading decisions. Fidelity. Were all doing our best to keep each other safe. At walmart, despite everything thats changed, one thing hasnt, and thats our dedication to you and our communities. Were working together, instore and online, through pickup and delivery, to safely get you the essentials you need. [ aevery box has a mission to protect everything inside from everything outside. When whats inside matters, count on boxes. [ doorbell rings ] paper and packaging. How life unfolds. Welcome back. From joe biden to nancy pelosi, the praise has been pretty universal. Last week President Trump announced that israel and the United Arab Emirates also known as uae would establish full diplomatic relations making the uae only the third arab state after egypt and jordan to officially recognize israel. It was a significant achievement with broad implications for the middle east and one of the many issues among also the russian interference in our elections that i want to discuss with my next guest and joining me now is President Trumps National Security adviser robert obrien. Good to have you on the program again. In announcing this agreement the president portrayed it as an icebreaker, if you will, for israel to normalize relations with other countries in the region particularly gulf states. What kind of time line should we expect . Is this months . Is this years . Who will be number four . Well, thanks, chuck. Thats a great question. Let me answer, before i do, its a bit of a bittersweet weekend for the president and we had the remarkable accomplishment with the accords and he lost his Brother Robert when was his best friend and i want to extend my condolences to the family as they mourn robert trumps passing. Last week was quite an accomplishment and it was a result of very hard diplomacy, much of it being quarterbacked by the president of the United States itself on calls with Bibi Netanyahu and muhammad bin zayed and it took courage by other leaders, as well. As you indicated there have only been three of these peace treaties since israels founding and its a hoististorical accomplishment. We fanned out as soon as this was announced and ive been on the phone with leaders in the region and the president has Jared Kushner has, secretary pompeo has and we are quite hopeful that we can build on this momentum and i cant give a time line because these are the toughest negotiations in the world to broker peace within israel and the arab and islamic world and we are confident that we think there are a couple of other countries that will get onboard soon and im curious about that. Im curious, saudi arabia, because theyre the guardians of some important religious aspect of islam, do they end up the last . Dunk they could do it or could they be next . Its possible they could be next. Islam, as you know, chuck, are the king of saudi arabia, the keeper of those two sites and the other two sites are the al aqsa mosque and king hussein of jordan supervises that. One of the great things about this agreement is you will now have direct flights from those fantastic airports in abu dhabi and tel aviv. We will have arab and muslim pilgrims coming to jerusalem and coming up to the mount and worshipping at the al aqsa mosque and we think that will be a great confidence builder and im hoping that king salman and mbs, muhammad bin salman see that development and realize this would be great for saudi arabia and it will be great for the arab people and the islamic world, as well. So were hopeful. Well have to see what happens, but were talking to a number of countries in addition to saudi arabia. Im curious, you know, there seems to be a little bit of i dont know if its an intentional misunderstanding or not. The uae says they feel comfortable making this deal because israel will not be doing annexation. Prime minister netanyahu has made it clear, he made it clear this morning in remarks this morning about this that israel did not have to pledge to do anything, and did not have to pledge not to perhaps annex parts of the west bank. Let me ask you this, does the United States believe israel is entitled to annex the west bank . Well, what weve said all along is the con turs of the west bank have to be decided by negotiations between the israelis and the palestinians and President Trump and his vision for middle east peace put out a map and that map was the starting point for negotiations and we think the only way this can get decided to have peace between the israelis and palestinians is for them to come to the table. There are some facts on the ground and settlements there that are durable and longstanding and there may have to be some land swaps and thats something thats been considered all of the way back to oslo, but i think in the meantime we are confident and it will not extend sovereignty and israeli law to the west bank and thats what part of this deal is about. I understand Prime Minister netanyahus view that ultimately there are parts of the west bank that israel would like to have and there are probably other parts along the borders that palestinians would like to have and thats why you would have a negotiation, and im hoping that this uae deal with israel and other deals with israel will encourage the palestinians to come to the table because we want a twostate solution and we want to see the palestinian gdp double and we want to see a great state of palestine living in peace next to israel. That would be fantastic. Your loss at the u. N. At the extension of an arms embargo on iran and given how much the how few allies the United States had on their side on this issue, do you at all look at this . Wouldnt the United States be in a better position to extend this embargo on iran if they had remained the iran deal and is that a big diplomatic mistake . I think its exactly the opposite of that, chuck, and getting out of the jcpoa and showing our allies and partners in the region who are terrified of iran that received 150 under the jcpoa in sanctions relief and they didnt take that money to improve the lives of ordinary iranians and they took that money and engaged in proxy wars with syria, yemen and other parts of the middle east. So i think getting out of the jcpoa was the predicate for this fantastic deal between uae and israel. Look, the only people you have Thomas Friedman coming out with an unqualified endorsement of the deal which i never thought i would see President Trump being endorsed by Thomas Friedman on this deal and David Ignacious and others, and the only two people werec the ayatollah and ben rhodes, and it was not because we should have stayed in it. Want to move to the issue of russian interference. It was an alarming thing that the dni put out that russia is actively still involved in trying to denigrate the Democratic Campaign in particular. The president likes to say and you have said that this administration somehow has been tough or russia than the last administration. Let me ask you this, if you have then why is it a policy failure that russia is still interfering in our elections . Well, i think the dni report was really terrific and what the dni report which has not come out before is it details that the influence and the efforts of china and of iran to denigrate President Trump and to make sure that hes not reelected. It also talked about the russian interference. As i said and the president made very clear, were against every Foreign Party trying to get involved in our elections, whether its the communistnd whether its theocracy in iran. We want all of them to stay out of the election and what weve done to make sure that happens is weve spent millions and millions hardening election infrastructure and working on cybersecurity and weve sent very strong messages with these countries. With respect to russia, we put so many sanctions on russia theres almost nothing left to sanction. Its not working. Look, these are foreign powers that are adverse to the United States. We are in a period of Great Power Competition and look, russia and china are on the other side, but what weve done is we pushed back unlike the past sent javelin antitank missiles when they were sending blankets and mres. We tried our best to stop the pipeline from russia to germany and have had tremendous success there. We put sanctions on hundreds of russians. We closed their consulates in San Francisco and seattle. We closed the diplomatic annex and we had russian spies in the u. S. And all of that was done under President Trump and not the other administration. We stood up to china in a big way and were just not going to tolerate this. It sounds like youre conflating and you dont seem to have as much evidence as russia. I dont think thats true. We have no evidence. They they have not released any of the evidence that you have said, ambassador. None of what you have said of china was not in the intel report. Will you make this chinese stuff public . What the intel report said is that there is information to suggest that theyre doing that. What were not going to do is release sensitive intelligence, but if you believe the dni on russia, then you have to believe them on iran and china, as well. The media cant its not a cafeteria where you can go through and say ill take this and not that. Theyve made it very clear and ill come out and say that there are other countries that would like to interfere in our elections, as well, beyond russia, china and iran and they have different preferences. Right. One quick question, though, if russia is a bad actor, why does the president want a summit with Vladimir Putin before the election . Why reward Vladimir Putin with that if hes a bad actor in our democracy. Weir n are not having a summ but he would like it. He is having a p5 meeting with the p5 in germany and russia. The president doesnt want something here . No. Weve rejected that and its not just russia. What the russians are proposing is a summit with with russia, germany, iran and the other p5 members to try to bully the u. S. Back into this terrible jcpoa deal which is the worst since munich. Wed like to get an arms control deal with russia. When the soviet union was there and the evil empire was there, Ronald Reagan negotiated to try to reduce the Nuclear Weapons that are pointed at each country. Wed like it see that happen and have good relations to russia, but thats up to the russians as ive made it clear and the president has made it clear they have to decide how theyd like to move forward. Wed like to get an arms control deal with russia. Thats safe for america. Does the so the president has not asked for a meeting with putin here in the United States . No. Were not doing a meeting with putin in the United States, but at some time wed love to have putin come here to sign a terrific arms control deal that protects americans and protects russians. Ambassador robert obrien, again, a huge week in the middle east. I appreciate you coming on and sharing the president s perspective. Thanks for having me on, chuck, take care. One note before we go to break as ambassador obrien mentioned earlier and the condolences he passed along, we would like to acknowledge that the president did lose his Brother Robert trump. Robert was a big supporter of his brothers candidacy. Roberts in the news as he joined the president s lawsuit of their niece mary to trying to stop the book of the president and his family. He was not just my brother, he was my best friend. Robert trump was 71. It was headline news. President trump versus the Postal Service. At Fisher Investments, we do things differently and other Money Managers dont understand why. So, what do you provide . Cookie cutter portfolios . Tailor portfolios and other Money Managers dont understand why. To our clients needs. But you do sell investments that earn you high commissions, right . We dont have those. So, whats in it for you . Our fees are structured so we do better when you do better. At Fisher Investments were clearly different. 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Thats why were helping you stay ahead and adapt with a network you can count on, 24 7 support and Flexible Solutions that work wherever you are. Call or go online today. Welcome back. Our panel is joining us from their remote looks. Nbc news capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt, former Homeland Security jeh johnson, nbc news correspondent carol lee and Charles Benson from our nbc affiliate wtmj in milwaukee. Ill let you get started, because youre the only one in the convention city. The rest of us are not, charles, is there a convention happening . How were the parties last night . Yeah. Wish you could have been here. Milwaukee is a great place to be in the summertime. Look, everyone knows this is not the convention that democrats wanted. However, it is the convention that they have decided to have, and what i mean by that is they believe this was the safe and smart decision, not to have a big convention. It is largely going to be an allvirtual convention. So were not going to see the Vice President ial nominee joe biden or his running mate, senator harris. We are going to see, expected to see President Trump and Vice President pence here in wisconsin next week. Stark contrast, strategically different decisions and by the way, chuck, that plays well with both parties within their parties. No, youre right in many ways and look, i wanted to get you in there on the convention, but kasie hunt, i want to begin with before we get back to the convention with this Postal Service and whats going to happen on capitol hill and suddenly recess is over. I want to just show you how much this story is penetrated and these are not the biggest city markets in america. This isnt an east coast bias story and take a look at how much this Postal Service story is penetrating america. New sweeping changes to the u. S. Postal service could mean a delay in getting your mail. Some montana communities looking their local uspa collection boxes disappear. The elimination of letter sorting machines is happening even here in the Lehigh Valley at the main mail hub. So kasie, the point there is to show this is not some dr thing when it comes to the Postal Service. This is something that is affecting so Many Americans in their communities. This is something, in a way, like the virus that everyone is experiencing in their own specific ways and that makes it different from many of these other headline and chirondriven stories or issues for President Trump and its gotten to the point where you have congressman jim cooper, hes from tennessee, not a progressive fire breather by any stretch of the imagination. Its a pretty conservative with a small c district and theyre saying they should drag lewis before the postmaster general before congress and if he doesnt show up, he should be arrested by the sergeant at arms and thats how bad it is with these communities and there is a question about whether the house will come back to do something about this. Nothing has been decided at this point, but i do think its a possibility and one thing i would say, chuck, as we talk about this as a political issue. For the Biden Campaign, i think theyre thinking of this as yes, the mechanics and seniors are getting prescriptions in the mail and all of those things and they also see this as a concerted Disinformation Campaign to undermine american faith in our civic institutions and the ability of our institutions to function correctly and they see that as dangerous, and they want to make sure that americans do believe that their mail will work, that they have ways to get their ballots in because they see this as part of the Trump Campaign strategy to undermine faith in the election generally, chuck. Jeh johnson, probably the single most Government Institution has been the u. S. Postal Service Going back decad decades. It does feel like if youre undermining the Postal Service, you are undermining the most important theres of our democracy. Thats correct, chuck. I think the message to the American Public has to be plan your vote. Youre going to vote as soon as you get a ballot, return it in the mail because we dont quite know what will happen in the runup to election day. I do know this, a properly resourced missionoriented agency of our government can do this, could move 100 million ballots in a couple of days. Everyone likes to point out that absenteevotes are the same as mailin ballots. A mailin ballot is a local act, and mailing a ballot from my home in essex county. When they all show up, thousands of them have the same destination so properly resourced, you could do this and from what were hearing we lack the leadership in washington to want to make that happen. Carol lee, the head scratcher on this politically is the idea that Rural America is a big part of the president s base and Rural America views the Postal Service as an important lifeline. Thats absolutely right, check, and the president said that hes not going to roll back or push to roll back any of these changes that the postmaster general has made that have caused some of the delays that weve seen, but i think there is a real question facing the president whether or not he sticks to that. I spoke to a white house official yesterday who wouldnt rule out that the president changes positions on this and that he does try to in some way, tamp down the political firestorm which is coming from both sides of the aisle. Democrats and republicans, and there is a real concern like his railing on mailin voting generally, he risked suppressing his own and hurting his own interest in suppressing his own vote, chuck. Very quickly, Charles Benson, this Postal Service story, how consuming it w consuming was it to your viewers . We had one during the pandemic, one last month and the other one in april where there was more chaos and confusion and more Court Challenges and we already saw in real time concerns about ballots, ballots that did not get to voters and voters who were not able to get those ballots back. We had a Record Number of absentee ballots about 1,000,001 in april and it could be twice that. Having said that, starting midseptember those absentee ballots will go into the hands of wisconsin voters and theyll have up to 45 days to vote. Yeah. Well see if they end up having to return. Kasie hunt, you covered Bernie Sanders in 16 very closely. He really made it clear this is a detant and then november 4th, ill be back. He did, chuck. I think it speaks to, quite frankly, president bidens personal approach. He has extended some grace to Bernie Sanders that the Sanders Campaign didnt feel that they were extended in the wake of the 2016 president ial primary nominating contest. I think thats made a real difference, and i think he also feels like his policies and positions are being heard out by the Biden Campaign, but certainly, you know, theyre willing to sing kumbaya for right now heading president bid, but well see. He didnt say inauguration. He said november 4g9 whith, whii [ action music throughout ] every box has a mission to protect everything inside from everything outside. When whats inside matters, count on boxes. [ doorbell rings ] paper and packaging. How life unfolds. The volatility. The ambiguity. The moment calls for more. And Northern Trust delivers more. With specialized expertise. Proven strategies rooted in data and analytics. And insights borne from over 130 years of successfully navigating economic turbulence. Giving you clarity. Inspiring confidence. And helping you uncover new paths forward. Northern trust. Wealth management. Come on in, were open. All we do is hand you the bag. Simple. Done. We adapt and we change. You know, you just figure it out. Weve just been finding a way to keep on pushing. Welcome back. Data download time. Our latest nbc news wall street journal poll shows good news for democrats overall, but there are a few shining lights for President Trump if he can figure out how to capitalize on them. When it comes to a handling of a few key issues, mr. Trump does hold an edge among registered voters on one big one and the biggest is the economy, but he also leads on issues like crime and having the necessary mental and physical health for the presidency, but its a tech point edge on the economy which may represent the president s best chance to gain traction in this campaign, but of course, biden has his own winning formula of issues. Voters in our poll believe hed be better at bringing the country together, hed be better at handling Race Relations and the biggest, dealing with the coronavirus. He has a 16point edge over President Trump on that issue, larger than the president s lead over biden on the economy. So which issues are actually the most important to voters this year . Heres what they told us. When we asked them to list the two or three they cared about most when picking a president , a majority told us the economy is the number one issue on their minds as they make their choice so remember, thats an issue President Trump leads on by 12 points, but on all of the other top issues, bringing the country together, strong Leadership Qualities and health care and yes, the coronavirus, it is biden who is leading trump among those voters. So President Trump and his team are smart to argue that hes better equipped to guide an economic recovery, traditionally, the economy trumps all other issues, but that may not be the case in a year when voters blame the president for doing a poor job in controlling a pandemic. When we come back, those fringe vo 2020 has been the year of the unthinkable. But a moment like this can bring us together to rethink the way forward. So wells fargo is using some of our locations as driveup food banks to help provide 50 million meals for americans in need. Donating all the roughly 400 million in ppp processing fees to support nonprofits assisting small businesses. And committing one billion dollars to help put an end to the Housing Affordability crisis. The unthinkable has happened. Now its time to rethink how to make a difference. You can adjust youriggest sacomfort on both sides. Eep your sleep number setting. Can it help me fall asleep faster . Yes, by gently warming your feet. But can it help keep me asleep . Absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both effortlessly comfortable. Will it help me keep up with mom . You got this. So you can really promise better sleep . Not promise. Prove. And now, all beds are on sale. Save 50 on the sleep number 360 limited Edition Smart bed. Plus 0 interest for 36 months on all smart beds. Ends monday. To learn more, go to sleepnumber. Com. Welcome back. This week we saw the rise of something called qanon. If you are not familiar with it, for viewers, it is a really Conspiracy Theory that lufrms all conspiracy theories together and claims one weird deep state thing and one person is pulling the levers and very popular in the extreme right these days and an adherent named Marjorie Taylor won, and she is likely to end up in congress as the first conspiracy theorist of this qanon thing. Heres what the president had to say about her victory. She did very well in the election. She won by a lot. She was very popular. She comes from a great state and she had a tremendous victory, so absolutely, i did congratulate her. But specifically her decision was the Conspiracy Theory. Do you agree with it on that . The president refused to ever answer that question. Hes refused to answer that question millions of times. Hes never said he believes in it, but he always seems to do a wink and a nod by not saying anything in either direction. How dangerous is this qanon . Is this a virus inside the Republican Party . Im afraid it could be, chuck. Chuck, qanon and movements like it are gaining currency because of the way in which americans receive their news and receive their information on social media, not enough organizations have standards, have journalistic standards and people therefore are drawn to sources of information that reaffirm their own biasses and their own prejudices and conspiracy theories and that is the environment in which we live and americans have to be much, much more skeptical about what they read and see and thats how a group like this Gains Traction to the point where someone can win a primary. Carol lee, youve been doing a lot of reporting whether it was on the russia interference issue, and i got a pretty back and forth with ambassador o briobrien. Even those that want to sound the alarm will afraid to sound the alarm because it will upset the president when it comes to qanon. The president clearly sees this as something where he doesnt want to alienate any of his supporters and its worth noting that the president has retweeted and promoted multiple times things that qanon supporters and believers have posted. So hes not just not denouncing this, in some ways hes embracing it and even one of his Campaign Aides criticized a republic republican lawmakers for speaking out on qanon and conspiracy theories. This is another instance where people around the president said that the president , they dont want him to give oxygen to this, but at the same time people have the right to be wrong. So thats the viewpoint in which theyre coming on this and there is a reluctance to challenge the president on this, because he sees it as a political issue and something that he doesnt want to put his thumb on the kascalen because it might hurt his election. It seems that the leadership on the republican side, theyve had some words, perhaps, about Marjorie Taylor green, but not much else and heres what her runoff opponent described her this way. Dr. John cowan who was running as most of the mainstream conservative candidate. He described her this way, kasie, shes the antithesis of the Republican Party. She is not a conservative, shes crazy. She deserves her own youtube channel. Shes a circus act. The senator will welcome her in and seat her on committees. Chuck, i think it is very important that we underscore here that this Conspiracy Theory is starting to move out of just the fringe. Weve seen celebrities struggle to deal with it in their instagram and twitter comments. We have also seen a series of incidents in real life many of which involve violence or the threat of violence to the point that you had this fbi warning about this people. So i think it is very important when we talk about how we cover this. It is not just a matter of people being free to believe what they want in a political way or say what they want. This is leading to actual acts in real life that are threatening people and their live live livelihoods when they say come on in and join the party. Theres much more than that and responsibility that goes to the social Media Companies where so much of this is percolating. Charles, i know you said you have yet to come across this a lot in wisconsin and i think a lot of us hope that stays the case given how kooky and crazy this is. I apologize we have to cut that short and im a little low on time. Before we go, please join lester holt, Savannah Guthrie and myself with the nbc News Coverage of the democratic convention. Well start on 10 00 and on streaming well start at 8 00. Thats all for today. Thank you for watching. Please keep safe and well be back next week getting ready for the Republican Convention the Republican Convention because if its sunday, no birds chirping woman chattering [narrator] ordering dinner for the family . family gasps rewarded with a side of quiet. baby murmuring grubhub rewards you, scooter horn honking get a free delivery perk when you order. doorbell rings [group] grubhub