With covid19. Patients who took the drug that the president has been taking. And a positive note today, the cdc says youre unlikely to catch the virus just from touching surfaces like package deliveries. And the defense secretary telling the today show that he is now completely confident of having a vaccine this year. Joining us now Nbcs Carol Lee at the white house. Pbs newshour White House Correspondent amisyamiche alcin charlie sykes, editor at large at the ball wark, and Emergency Room Physician and coordinator threats with the department of health and human services. Lets talk right now about the president. Hes in the blue room balcony of the white house looking out over some members of the memorial day funders, outpouring for the memorial thunder. Hes just indicated the cdc will have an announcement later today Opening Church and religious services. This has been a dispute between the cdcs restrictions on religious services and white house pushback. What do we know . It has, andrea. What we know is that the president is saying he may have had more to say on this topic later today. Its really become a key focus for him as he pushes for the countries to reopen. In part because its particularly of interest to a key constituency for the president. That is evangelicals. What we know about the guidelines that are expected to come out if not today than soon is there will be things like recommendations for people to wear gloves if theyre serving holy communion, for instance, for social distancing. But the path to getting here is, as you referenced, been a little bit rocky. The cdc put out guidelines earlier this week for things like schools and restaurants and mass transit but left out places of worship, in large part because the white house didnt like how restrictive they were. Their was backandforth discussions on that and the white house is saying they will put forward some sort of recommendations hopefully, they say today. Other white house aides have been a little less definitive about that, thinking it might be a little later but the president just indicated he really wants that to happen as soon as possible. He says he considers churches essential. If you can see him setting up to make this a little bit of a wedge issue, a political issue, that he says that some democratic governors are not treating churches in the same way that theyre treating restaurants. Theyre making them say virtual for longer than perhaps other facilities. And so hes going to have something, hopefully we will hear from him later today, andrea. And i wanted to also share with all of you what the defense secretary mark esper had to say to Savannah Guthrie on the today show, taking his cue from President Trump about how likely it is that a vaccine will be ready soon. Lets watch. You said we will have a vaccine at scale, meaning presumably at hundreds of millions of doses, ready to go by the end of the year. Is that possible . Absolutely its possible. I have spoken to our medical experts about this. Were completely confident we can get this done. I have to say, talked to dr. Fauci. Said it was possible in 12 to 18 months. Others characterized it as aspirational. But what i hear you saying is the military will deliver a vaccine ready to be brought to scale and brought to people by the end of this calendar year. You know, when eisenhower launched the u. S. Military against nazi germany, he didnt say we might win world war ii, we will try. When john f. Kennedy aspired to put a man on the moon, he didnt say well give it a good shot. He said we will do it. Hes talking about being absolutely confident. Charlie, theres some concern among the medical community that this is going to fire up the antivaxxers and make it less likely that people will think this has been done safely. Thats been a real concern at nih and cdc. You know, you hope that hes right, that we do have a vaccine, but theres a real difference between making people feel hopeful and pedaling false hope and pedaling snake oil. Today was a very, very bad day for snake oil when we found out the untested malaria drug in fact leads to more deaths. So this is one of those moments where you would hope that the science and the medical community would drive this as opposed to what i feel is happening is that this is a political decision driven with a lot of cultural elements to it. You mentioned the antivaxers. Among the really zeshidisturbin things we are seeing is not only refusal to wear masks, as if tribal signaling, but also the rise of the antivaxxers in some of these open it up right now no matter what movement. So i think theres a danger this will be a giddy exuberance that will mean people will let down their guard and donald trump is signaling whatever happens, no matter what the death toll is, were not going to go back to shutting down the country. So this is a huge bet with a very large number of american lives. And setting up either china or the governors or local mayors and the fall guys as scapegoats. It goes wrong. Lets talk about the mask mondayling the president refuses to make. Just the other day i was talking to mayor garcetti in l. A. He said real men wear masks. Well, the president , lets see what he had to say when he did wear a mask in private in the ford plant, in public and on the tour, the rest of the tour though when he could be seen, he refused to wear the mask. Heres what he had to say. I did wear i had one on before. I wore one in this back area but i didnt want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it. But when i was in the back area, i did have the mask on. Did you have goggles on too, sir . I did. I had goggles and mask. Why would you not be wearing it here, sir . Because in this area not necessary here. Everybodys been tested and i have been tested. In fact, i was tested this morning. Its not necessary. So the point, yamiche, is you dont wear the mask to protect yo yourself but to protect other people to whatever exposure they have to your speech, especially loud speaking. Thats right. The president is always in search of a quote. What you see here is the idea of facial covering of the mask hes trying to make it a foil against the media saying i dont want to give them the satisfaction of wearing the thing that my own federal government is telling people that they should wear in order to not spread this virus. Its really a bit of an interesting position hes taking there. But what the president is doing overall is hes setting himself up as the person who knows whats best for the country but he said im the person elected. You should follow me. But there are Health Experts saying, one, this administration was slow to react. As a result more people died that didnt need to die because of the fact the president did. And he take thats personally. Now while moving forward while other people are saying slow it down, lets be cautious about how we reopen, the president is saying im going to go with my gut. Im going to go with a small sliver of americans who are asking for all things to be reopened because they feel their rights are being trampled on. What they see and feel are the vast majority of americans want things to be done in a cautious way. And another thing to note a lot of americans, even when governors and mayors tell them things are open, this goes to an issue of comfort. Americans will have to feel like they can trust whoever is telling them to go back in and open things up. In that regard you will see dr. Fauci and dr. Birx, those are where people are looking for guidance. The president has shown some frustration on the fact the Health Officials are the ones with the credibility here. And the person that we have with credibility on all things medical is dr. Ramirez. Dr. Ramirez, lets talk about some of the mixed signals we have been getting as people discover more about this virus. Now the cdc overnight having new guidance that you cant get it as easily from a surface. Weve all been frantically wiping things down and food and packages and leaving cartons outside 24 hours and worried about touching anything. What is a reality check here . I think its important to remember, andrea, with viruses like coronavirus the key method of entering into the body is through the mucous membranes and nose or mouth or possibly the eye. I think what the cdc guidance really says on a prak tctical ll youre not going to contract the virus by touching it and have it go through a skin barrier, to your bloodstream. But i think its important to wipe down groceries and other things because if you touch the virus and touch your face, thats where the risk of infection is. Thats so clear because that means if youre washing your hands and doing the other things you should be doing and not touching your face, even though we do it unconsciously all the time, youre still safe. But doorknobs, any kind of entryway, wearing gloves is such a great bis of advice. Let me talk to you quickly about the lancet. Its a very well known Public Health communication from the uk. They had a large study but not a peerreviewed study, correct, on the hydroxychloroquine . Thats right. Its not a doubleblind trial. What the lancet study shows there was a study of 96,000 patients, and looking only at the charts of patients who were only taking hydroxychloroquine or hydroxychloroquine together with azithromycin were at a much greater risk of death compared to those patients not taking the medicine. If we step back for a second and look at the numbers themselves, the original study that said we should even be using hydroxychloroquine at all was a study of 53 patients. Only 53 of which seven dropped out. This is a study of 96,000 patients that showed for people who were taking hydroxychloroquine or hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin, they were 34 and 44 more likely to die respectively when they were using those medicines. I think this data really clearly shows, a, why we do medical research. Its to show this kind of information. But, b, it clearly illustrates that its irresponsible to use this medicine outside of anything other than a controlled clinical trial. This study really shows its both medically irresponsible and probably unethical for physicians to continue to prescribe this medication outside of those settings. And we should just remind that white house physician prescribed it for the president of the United States, arguably whose health is more important to our country to the world than any other single individual for so many reasons. He said he was going to stop taking it this week because it was prescribed for only a twoweek period. I will leave it there. Dr. Ramirez, thank you very, very much. And thanks to carol lee and yamiche alcindor. And, of course, charlie sykes. Coming up next its the start of summer but not the start of summer as we know it. How beach towns and businesses alike are preparing for memorial day weekend. Plus, our National Guard has been put on the frontlines against the fight against covid19 since the beginning. But now some of their benefits are in question. More on that coming up later this hour. Stay with us, youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. 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And theyre very hopeful and cautiously optimistic, to use the phrase, that things are going to be okay here at belmar. Theyre doing a lot of things to take precautions to make it safe. For example on this boardwalk there are usually benches. Theyre gone to make more space. The bike ride nearby is gone as well. Here you can see theyre trying to organize traffic up and down the boardwalk on different sides. Here you can see a gateway to the beach. Theyre going to limit capacity on the beach and theyre flying drones over it to keep track of people and there will be ambassadors walking along as well here. And over there the place to buy a badge if you want to go on the beach at some point. Earlier we talked to hundreds of volunteers here who are going to try to enforce social distancing on the beach. Heres some of what she had to say. Really all of our little ambassador of Friendship Force is foris to remind people to socially distance. Try to remember to socially distance. Just like everyone, people get enthused when they see somebody and naturally walk up to each other. I do it all the time. So i have to be reminded. I remind myself. Thats all were here for, ambassadors. How difficult do you think your job will be come memorial day weekend when the beach is presumably very crowded . Another thing like most of the things going on with this pandemic, time will tell. Some are using the old phrase, a kind and gentle approach to this. There are police going by. We havent heard a lot of that but there are a lot of officers around as well. This is a very orderly town. Theyve been thinking about this for a long time. A lot is riding on this. So many communities along the shore essentially have 15 weeks to make a years living. Andrea . Ron, i hope they start Wearing Masks though. Not seeing a whole lot of masks around you as people walk by. No, youre not. You are, though. Thank you. Morgan, what about dallas, where the bars reopened last night . Owners balancing safety concerns and trying to keep down the population and the virus. Andrea, theyre certainly trying for and that will be a target moving forward as they enter phase two at midnight this morning. There were plenty of people to take advantage across the street at lee harveys, a bar across the street that opened at midnight. They had a line around the bloing from 12 to 2 00. This highly anticipated move by Texas Governor greg abbott going across the state allowing bars, breweries, bingo halls, bowling allies, all the chance to reopen, in addition to day care facilities as well. These bars will only be allowed to have 25 capacity inside. However, here at this bar in dallas, the patio is allowed to have basically full capacity as long as people social distance. When youre asking how to balance safety concerns, i know we have spoken to several owners who if they dont have Hand Sanitizer on the table, they have staff going around asking people if they like a spritz of Hand Sanitizer to enjoy their evening. That will be a new norm people will be seeing as they go out and about. In the meantime weve seen growing pains from bars here in dallas that opened fre maturely. Police having to get called out and disperse the crowds there. So unfortunately that could be sign of whats to come as everyone tries to find the happy medium of opening up and maintaining that safe distance. Andrea . Thank you so much Morgan Chesky. Joining us now, the vice dean of Public Health at Johns Hopkins school of Public Health. Looking at the pictures at jersey shore and dallas at the bars, are you concerned . I see a lot of people and not a whole lot of masks. So im more concerned by the pictures of the bars than the beach. I think outdoors is less of a risk. I love the interview with the person saying shes out there encouraging people to remember to stay apart, which is great that theyre voluntary efforts like that. I think its important for people to get outside a little bit. But be careful. When theyre doing that, i like they remove the benches. Things like that are smart things to do. The bars are a little more stressed out because the wave in the bars can make people want to shout. That can spread the virus a little bit. Hand sanitizers help but your real concern is when people are breathing or coffee, its going to propel it in a large way. And some of those outdoor patios can get quite congested. I think we will have to wait and see what happens. It can get congested down there. What about what the president is saying if theres another wave, another outbreak, we are not closing . Hes saying hes going to really push back against any closing of hot spots, if they occur . You know, i think its easy to talk about that when theres not a wave. Some of the projections are that if we have a really bad flu season, and have a lot of infections, that it will be a real ka catastrophe. In that setting, im sure the president will change his mind. So i think its sort of a lot of talk now but right now, what people should be doing is protecting themselves to avoid the chance of that kind of scenario. I just want to point out on our sister network, cnbc, dr. Tony fauci was just saying about the very confident projections from the defense secretary mark esper that hes absolutely confident of a vaccine by the end of the year. Fauci said hes optimistic, that they have a lot of shots on goal but they still have to be cautious and everything has to be tested and they have to go through the usual hoops. Im sure you would agree with that. I certainly do. You know, dr. Fauci is the worlds expert in thinking through how to develop new technology for infectious diseases. Hes putting a lot of money into different vats to see if some of these vaccines can get further along in the process and hopefully one can go all the way. Frankly, im cheering for dr. Fauci. As he said, no guarantees. Thank you very much, dr. Sharfstein, for being with us today. Happy memorial day to you as well. Youve been working so hard for us. Up next, the covid19 emergency talking about working hard, building field hospitals and running test sites. Much, congressman jason crow of colorado want to make sure our National Guard get the benefits they deserve. Congressman crow joining me next. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports. vo what does it mean to be americas most Reliable Network . It means helping those who serve stay connected to their families. And now, verizon wants to give them something back. Our best pricing ever. 30 per line for all nurses, teachers, first responders, military, and their families. Not for a few months, but for as long as they need. Plus, up to 700 off the motorola edge . Because the people we rely on deserve a network they can rely on. New tide power pods one up the cleaning power of liquid. Can it one up whatever theyre doing . For sure. Seriously . One up the power of liquid, one up the toughest stains. Any further questions . Uh uh one up the power of liquid with new tide power pods. Get the perfectly grilled flavors of an outdoor grill indoors, and because its a ninja foodi, it can do even more, like transform into an air fryer. The ninja foodi grill, the grill that sears, sizzles, and air fry crisps. Tens of thousands of National Guard members are helping fight covid19 in communities across the country doing testing, putting up field hospitals, delivering food. But theres a plan for a hard stop to the National Guards mission. On june 24th, that would end it one day before many of these members would be eligible for retirement and vacation benefits. This morning on today, Savannah Guthrie asked the secretary of defense about this. What do you say to those who think wait a minute, this order is stopped right at 89 days, right at the very moment the National Guard might get some benefits. Do you think that was buy design . Whats your take on that . Look, im not going to comment on the details of whats being reported out there in the media. Let me just say once again im fully committed to supporting our National Guard members and active duty members as well. The National Guard in terms of extending these authorities if theyre working missions and making sure we provide all of the support we can to the states to get the job done in this coronavirus fight. Im not worried about the number of days. Hes not worried about the number of days. Joining me now is democratic congressman jason crow of colorado, who was in the National Guard while in college, and former army ranger and served in iraq and afghanistan. Thank you for your service in all of these regards. Congressman, what do you have to say to the secretary of defense about the National Guard . Well, i am worried about the number of days. I learned early on in my military career as a leader of soldiers you dont mess with peoples benefits. You dont mess with their time. And this 90day cutoff period is a really important one. Medical benefits, education benefits, Retirement Benefits kick in. We have over 40,000 National Guard men and women who stepped up to serve their communities during this crisis. Were sending the wrong message if we cut these folks short of their benefits. We have to be encouraging their service, supporting them and their families. I earned very early on in my military career talk is cheap when it comes to supporting our troops. Im far more interested in benefits than i am in bumper stickers. I know there are more than 70 members of congress that have pushed back against this bipartisan, and the president is listening. We dont know which way this is coming down. Did you hear theres any give from your involvement in the Armed Services committee . Yeah, i put together a group of about 120 members of congress of both the house and the senate, along with senator bennett here in colorado and a lot of membersst Armed Services committee, republicans and democrats have pushed back on some of these policies because they made no sense. Theyre arbitrary. Theres no reason for it. Its disregarding the advice of many of our governors and communities who desperately need the service of men and women who need the support of men and women of their families as they continue their service to our country. We are standing up and pushing back. We are hearing the administration and the pentagon is really to look at some of these policies and they might be moving back on someone, particularly the 90day cutoff for a few units. We are not going to stop pushing back on this until we have a Firm Guarantee were willing to do the right thing and it shouldnt take Congress Actually to be pointing this out. And were also hearing from our pentagon correspondent courtney kewpie that there is a planning at the chiefs level for a military deployment. What are you hearing about that . You can imagine in the navy there are real challenges to maintain social distancing until theres a vaccine, we should say, as hot spots are continuing, as are outbreaks. Yes. When we get through this crisis, when we get through the Crisis Response mode phase, we have to go through in the military what we call afteraction review. Thats where you review everything that went well and did not go well during the mission and you have to make improvements. We have to do the afteraction reviews in the military. Armed Services Committee will be pushing hard to make sure thats done. I think theres a fairly widespread agreement we were not ready for this. The u. S. Government, military was not where we needed to be in response to this crisis and structural changes had to be made. We have to look at Community Control structure and had to look at the resources that the military did and didnt have. We have to be ready for this. This is not going to be our first pandemic. There are going to be more. We have to learn from some of failings of the last couple of months. Congressman, thank you very much. Stay safe. As you observe your memorial day out there in colorado, thank you again. A few years from now when nasa launches its nextgeneration space telescope, it will not be named the Wide Field Infrared survey telescope, as it has been so far, and for very good reason. The successor to the hubbell will instead be named after dr. Nancy grace roman, nasas first chief astronomer and first woman executive. She started at the space agency at the heart of the cold war back in the 50s when the russians beat the u. S. Into space. Inside nasa shes known as the mother of hubbell because the space telescope was her brainchild. Dr. Roman died in 2018. The telescope would scan the skies of the milky way by measuring the light over millions of galaxies. This is the first time a woman will be the name sake for a telescope, or for anything in nasa for that matter. Coming up china wants to tighten its grip on hong kong, prompting an outcry from pro democracy activists there and u. S. Officials here. Coming up, a live report from beijing and another from hong kong. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. C. Stay fresh for weeks . Now they can this towel has already been used and it still smells fresh. 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Today is chinas most important political event of the year, the annual National Peoples congress. It was postponed originally because of the coronavirus outbreak. Now the meeting is going ahead and chinas message to the world is that they have conquered the virus. In a surprise move, beijing also announced it will curb hong kongs autonomy and liberty. , liberties that have been protected since 1997 when china returned ho and congress to sovereignty as part of a National Security plan. Joining me now from beijing nbcs global correspondent tess air sela in hong kong. At this political event its effectively a Rubber Stamp Parliament so theres never much debate over any of the issues and its expected this new plan for security laws in hong kong cooperation could come into effect as early as next week. Andrea, for the number of months the protests have carried on in hong kong, they began last june and grew quite violently by the time september, october rolled around. When we were there, we often wondered what would a crackdown look like . Beijing had been signaling at that point the protests were going to end. They just werent saying how. It seems instead of ending those protests in the streets of hong kong, theyre ending it here in central beijing with this plan to adapt these laws. What it effectively does is circumvent the Hong Kong Legislature and call into question the one country two systems policy that has protected liberties since 1997. So understandably people in hong kong are very fearful. The plan is already garnering international criticism. Its unclear how countries like the u. S. Will respond to it it because so many people in so many places are, of course, more concerned with how the pandemic is affecting their country. So what the next step will be is unclear. But, again, this could all be put into effect as early as monday or tuesday. That is really alarming to a lot of people, tesa. What are the reactions in hong kong . I was there for the handover from britain to hong kong from britain to china, but with the new status for hong kong. It was protected because partly hong kong was the economic jewel really of the region of the country. And it was very important to have international support. Absolutely, andrea. As janice was saying, theres a sense of fear here this could mark the end of the one country, two systems, something hong kongers really take pride in. , that makes this city special, as they say. And a lot of them, the open s opposition, say this could be the heed of hong kong. We saw a small pocket in front of the chinese leeation office that was interesting. They were given fines for vltsivlts covid19 social distancing measures. This could complicate plans because sunday there are calls for bigger protests. Andrea, that feeling of is this the end of hong kong is really palpable out there. But the chief executive came up today, early this evening, she defended the law and said hong kong will remain free. , and this is needed for stability. There are two sides to the story. The u. S. S will have to assess that themselves. They have until the heed of the month to see if hong kong is autonomous from china to extend a special preferential economic relationship it has with hong kong and that adds another layer of fear for hong kongers. How will this affect business . How will this affect the status of hong kong as a Financial Center . All of this together has an atmosphere of fear and sadness, andrea. It really must as well. Tesa, thank you so much. Tanks to janice. Lets bring in jeremy bash, former chief of staff at the cia and pentagon. Jeremy, what is your take now, especially as the u. S. Is ramping up the Trump Administration is ramping up the china blame game over the pandemic . Theres a lot of politics involved in that. And threatening to retaliate against china for the coronavirus. Yes, first, andrea, for the big picture, chinas rise is the essential challenge facing the United States. Its at the center of our own National Security policy. I would say theres a bipartisan issue chinas rise and what china is doing to clackdown on hong kong as well. In particular china is using the cover of this crisis, the Health Crisis and economic crisis brought about by coronavirus, to crackdown to enact the National Security quote unquote laws, really to bring the xi jinping standard commit my dictatorial model to squelch descent. It has to be met by a strong reaction from the Community Med by the United States. We have to be very cleareyed about what china is trying to undertake here. I think some of the signals we sent over the last couple of months, congratulating china, welcoming china into a new trade agreement with us, is exactly the wrong message to be sending. Mike pompeo issued a Statement Today condemning chinas decision about hong kong. Saying the decision to bypass hong kongs well established predsies for the people of hong kong would be a death knell for the economy that beijing promised for hong kong. With that hes certainly in sync with people from both parties and around the world, at least in the west. I think thats right. That statement, andrea, was exactly on point coming out of the Statement Department and secretarys office. Look, i think in some respects this administration has been a little bit of a tale of two china policies. And by that i mean there are certainly a large number of officials inside the Trump Administration if you look at someone like Matt Pottinger at the National Security council, folks at the state department, certainly folks inside the department of defense, out at indio Pacific Command who are very concerned about what china is doing regionally and want to take a very tough line on china. The president has taken a different tact. He, of course, has tried to develop this personal relationship with xi jinping but given china pretty big latitude on a number of issues. Of course, the president congratulated xi jinping in late june as intelligence officials were warning the president that china wasnt being straight with the World Community about the coronavirus. The president , of course, said i talked to jinping. Theyre handling it perfectly. Everything will be fine. I think once it became clear, andrea, this approach by the president of congratulating china, welcoming them, giving them a pat on the back, actually was undermined by the intelligence and by the facts. He pivoted 180 and has been trying to blame china saying the coronavirus in the United States is all about china attacking us and, of course, that also masks american reactions and american confidence or lack theroff to the whole crisis. I want to also ask you about the president s daily briefings because now the New York Times is reporting, and others have reported as well, that the president is blaming the briefer, a woman veteran from the cia who briefs him every morning. We know that he doesnt were told he has not been reading the briefings, that he takes it orly such as it is and doesnt take it every day and now blaming her for not alerting him to the pandemic back on january 23rd. What do we know about that . Yes, andrea, according to this report, i think its plain to see the president is trying to throw the cia under the bus. Basically what hes saying is they never told me about any coronavirus. In fact, when my briefer talked me about it or briefed me about it, she underplayed it. I dont believe that. I would like to see declassified the intelligence reports that the Intelligence Community were providing about the coronavirus in january or february. I dont think its becoming of a president or any policymaker to throw their intelligence briefer under the bus. This particular intelligence is someone i know. Shes been in the community three, four decades, highly respected, nonpartisan, nonpolitical. Intelligence officials need to brief the president the way the president wants to get the briefing. And theres no one right way or wrong way. Not only is this president ignoring intelligence, hes also integrating things from the right wing news media thats entirely inappropriate and actually dangerous. At a time when theres a new head of dni as of yesterday, john ratcliffe, as he resigned from congress today. We will have to see how this plays out as well. Thank you so much, jaermy. Thank you for being with us. Coming up the coronavirus laid bare racial and economic disparity in the country as nothing else has in decades. One charity working among others to support those hardest hit by the coronavirus. More on that coming up next. Stay with us. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. C. Now more than ever, you need technology you can rely on. And people you can rely on. Im a Dell Technologies advisor. Me too. Me too. Me too. And if youre a small business, were with you. We are with you. Were with you. We want to help. So well be right here. At home. Answering your calls. Providing support. And standing by you every step of the way. Bye bye. You should be mad they gave this guy a promotion. You should be mad at forced camaraderie. And you should be mad at tech that makes things worse. But youre not mad, because you have e trade, whos tech makes life easier by automatically adding technical patterns on charts and helping you understand what they mean. Dont get mad. Get e trades simplified technical analysis. Get the perfectly grilled flavors of an outdoor grill indoors, and because its a ninja foodi, it can do even more, like transform into an air fryer. The ninja foodi grill, the grill that sears, sizzles, and air fry crisps. And we have just heard from the white house that the president will be in the Briefing Room at 1 00 to hold what they are calling a news conference. We heard from the president that he was going to have something to say today about guidance for religious groups. That is what we may also hear. We dont know what kind of questions he may take. Of course, well be bringing that to you live, as well. Meanwhile, billionaire philanthropist soros is giving 130 million for coronavirus relief, much to atrisk populations in new york city, including the homeless. Also going to atlanta, chicago, and other cities around the country. Joining me now is the president of Soros Open Society foundations. He served in the Obama Administration as ambassador to south africa and was also, before that, the executive director for the dnc. Great to see you again. Thanks for being with us. What do you want to do with the 130 million that you are redeploying for covid relief, for atrisk groups . Andrea, it is an honor to be on your show. I wish that circumstances were different. We are deploying 130 million in support of the most vulnerable workers around the world, but most especially here in new york and 20 other cities in the u. S. The goal of these funds is to provide direct relief and assistance to essential workers who, truth be told, feel like sacrificial workers in this moment, as they provide Front Line Services for us, to make sure that we all can put food on our table, and that you and i get to work remotely from home, while they struggle to even preserve their homes. In addition to front line relief, andrea, we are also trying to motivate and spur local, state, and National Government to be in partnership with those communities, to move away from an us versus them mentality as it relates to immigrant workers, to provide more essential, direct relief. We know that in the first instance of the stimulus package, those immigrant communities were denied assistance by the federal government. In this next tranche of stimulus, democrats in congress have managed to have these resources put in the bill. We hope that that will be preserved in the u. S. Senate. Andrea, immigrant workers provide 400 billion in annual taxes at the local and the national level. Theyre not being provided a dime in stimulus. Were not going to be able to recover as a country, as communities, if immigrant workers are not part of that recovery. Thats such an important point. So many of these so many of the people who are at risk, so many of the people on the front lines are people of color. This has become a huge issue, as well. I wanted to ask you about the Political Campaign because you do have a background in polit politics. Joe biden taped an sbriintervie with the breakfast club. It was edgy, defending his record with africanamericans. This is the full exchange with the host, who asked him about his record with africanamericans and was pressing him on having a woman of color, an africanamerican, as his running mate. Lets watch. Thats really our time i apologize. You cant do that to black media. You cant do it to white and black media. My wife has to go on at 6 00. Okay. Oh, im in group. Listen, you have to come see us when you come to new york, vp biden. I will. It is a long way until november. We got more questions. You got more questions . If you have a problem figuring out whether youre for me or trump, and you aint black it dont have nothing to do with trump. It has to do with the fact that i want something for my community. Take a look at my record, man. I extending the Voting Rights 25 years. I have a record that is second to none. The naacp has endorsed me every time ive run. I mean, come on. Take a look at the record. All right. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Thanks. I will come back. All right. Look forward to seeing you in person. That was quite an exchange, patrick. Bidens senior adviser, sanders, says the comments were ingest, but the Trump Campaign seized on it. I want your take. I respect simone, but those are not the kind of comments that one should make, even in jest. I have had the privilege of working with the Vice President. Actually, he swore me in as u. S. Ambassador to south africa. I know that hes a conscious, thoughtful person on shethese issues. He should be able to point to an astounding record as Vice President , which saw black unemployment reach its lowest levels, and black wealth reach its highest level under the obama biden administration. However, Vice President biden is in no position to determine who is black enough or not. I understand that the entity was testy, and there is a generational challenge there, but i know when it comes time to really litigate the campaign, theres a thoughtfulness that joe biden will demonstrate that was not demonstrated in that interview. Andrea, if i could, you made an important point as we cut away, about the fact that minority communities, africanamericans, latinos, are feeling the brunt of the covid challenge. It is true in health care. It is true in economic outcomes. And i hope that as we get deeper into the campaign, well be having that conversation instead of the one that you just had up on your screen. A very good point. Thank you so much, patrick gasper. Thank you for being with us today. As we conclude, i just want to say, were also thinking about all of the veterans who have served for so many decades. That does it for this edition of Andrea Mitchell reports. Chuck todd and katy tur pick up our coverage after a break with President Trump speaking from the Briefing Room. The Briefing Room. 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 than one. For small prices, you can build big dreams. Spend less, get way more. Shop everything home at wayfair today. Truly transformative sleep. So, no more tossing and turning. Because only tempurpedic adapts and responds to your body. So you get deep, uninterrupted sleep. During the tempurpedic summer of sleep, all tempurpedic mattresses are on sale duringthat Liberty Mutual customizes your insurance, i just love hitting the open road and telling people so you only pay for what you need [squawks] only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Get the perfectly grilled flavors of an outdoor grill indoors, and because its a ninja foodi, it can do even more, like transform into an air fryer. The ninja foodi grill, the grill that sears, sizzles, and air fry crisps. Subut when we realized she wasn hebattling sensitive skin, we switched to new tide plus downy free. Its gentle on her skin, and dermatologist recommended. New tide pods plus downy free. Safe for sensitive skin with eczema and psoriasis. I geh. Common bird. E. Ooh look over here something much better. There it is. Peacock, included with xfinity x1. Remarkable. Fascinating. Very. It streams tons of your favorite shows and movies, plus the latest in sports news and. Huh run the newest streaming app has landed on xfinity x1. Now thats. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Xfinity x1 just got even better with peacock premium included at no additional cost. No strings attached. Just say peacock into your voice remote to start watching today. Good afternoon. Im chuck todd. Here are the facts as we know them this hour. In any moment now, we are expecting a briefing from President Trump himself at