Threat of russian inooe leelect interference. Good morning, everybody. It is thursday, september 10th, and im yasmin vossoughian. Wow, do we have a lot to cover this morning. Were going to begin with those trump tapes. He admits to intentionally misleading the public on the truth over the coronavirus contained within the 18 interviews, reportedly totally nine hours was this. So, give me a moment of talking to somebody going through this with fauci or somebody who kind of it caused a pivot in your mind, because its clear just from whats on the Public Record that you went through a pivot on this to, oh, my god, the gravity is almost inexplicable and unexplainable. Well, i think, bob, really, to be honest with you sure, i want you to be. I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down. Yes. Because i dont want to create a panic. All right. So i want to get to some ways that the president carried out his plan to play it down as he puts it. One concerns the comparisons that he made to the flu that he knew were false. Heres what he said to woodward on february 7th about how deadly the virus can be followed by his remarks at a Campaign Rally in South Carolina just three weeks later. It goes through air, bob. Thats always tougher than the tough. You know, the touch, you dont have to touch things. The air, you breathe through the air and thats how its passed, so thats a very tricky one. Thats a very delicate one. Its also more deadly than your you know, even your strenuous news. This is more deadly. This is 5 , not 1 or less than 1 . This is deadly stuff. So a number that nobody heard of that i heard of recently and i was shocked to hear it, 35,000 people on average die each year from the flu. Did anyone know that . 35,000. Thats a lot of people. It can go to 100,000. It can be 27,000. They say usually a minimum of 27,000. It goes up to 100 thousand peop people a year die, and so far we have lost nobody to the coronavirus in the United States. 190,000 people later, we have lost a lot of folks to the coronavirus since then. So the president also intentionally misled the public on the effects of the virus on young people. Heres what he told woodward back in march followed by his remarks on fox news. Now its turning it its not just old people, bob. Just today and yesterday some startling facts came out. Its not just older people. Yeah, exactly. Its plenty of young people. If you look at young children, children are almost i would almost say definitely, but almost immune from this disea disease. They just dont have a problem. All right. So according to the experts from woodwards new book, National Security adviser Robert Obrien warned everyone of this. This will be the biggest National Security threat youll face in your presidency. This will be the roughest thing youll face. Despite that warning, the president continued to mislead the public. Here he is just a month later. One of my people came up to me and said, mr. President , they tried to beat you on russia, russia, russia. That didnt work out too well. They tried the impeachment hoax, and this is their new hoax. So President Trump acknowledged yesterday that he did downplay the coronavirus earlier this year, telling reporters that he wanted to reduce panic. He also criticized Bob Woodwards book as a political hit job, and in an interview last night with fox news, the president accused joe biden of also downplaying the virus. Did you mislead the public by saying you downplayed the coronavirus and you repeat lid did that in order to reduce panic . Did you mislead the public . I think when you said in order to reduce panic, im a cheerleader for this country. I love our country. I dont want people to be frightened. I dont want to create panic. And certainly im not going to drive this country or the world into a frenzy. We want to show confidence. We want to show strength. We want to show strength as a nation, and thats what ive done, and weve done very well. On the woodward book, on the book itself, he called i didnt participate in his last one. He takes jabs at people. He did it with obama. I dont have time to read it, but i gave it a little bit of a shot. Sounds like its not going to be good. But if you look at what i said, i said, dont panic. We dont want you jumping up and down. Dont panic. We would have lost 2 million lives instead of what were talking about. Anything above one is no good. We cant have it. Its chinas fault. They sent it to us, and its no good. But i thought id give bob woodward some time. I gave him some time. But as usual with the books he writes, that didnt work out too well. Perhaps. I dont know. Maybe its good. Who knows. I want to show a calmness. Im the leader of the country. I cant be jumping up and down and scaring people. I dont want to scare people. I dont want people to panic. Thats exactly what i did. If you look at the representatives of joe biden, you see what they were saying. They said, no problem, this wont be a problem. He didnt think it was going to be a problem until months later. He was way late. Pelosi was way, way late. All right. So i want to remind folks, joe biden published an oped in usa today on january 27th warning of the possibility of a pandemic. January 27th. It came just days after the first coronavirus case in the United States was announced. Biden, meanwhile, lambasted the president s record, his comments, downplaying the severity of the coronavirus pandemic. He knew how deadly it was. It was much more deadly than the flu. He knew and purposely played it down. Worse, he lied to the american people. He knowingly and willingly lied about the threat it posed to the country for months. He had the information. He knew how dangerous it was. While this deadly disease rip tlood u oed through our nation, he failed on purpose. It was the life and death of the american people. By the way, i want to remind people, next wednesday coming up on morning joe, bob woodward will join mika and joe for his first cable interview after his new book. Joining me now, politico reporter daniel lippman. Great to see you. Wow, its been a 24 hours or so. I know. Theres so much to unpack here, but i think probably the most simple question here, daniel, this is this is clearly damaging. Many of these recorded phone calls between woodward and the president are clearly damaging to the president and his book. But is it enough to shake the confidence of even his most steadfast supporters . Well, his steadfast supporters will be with him the entire way. Remember his life, i could shoot someone on fifth avenue, and i wouldnt lose my supporters. So the problem with these remarks is that Many Americans who are on the fence and theres only maybe 10 of people who are swing voters and only, you know, a small section of them are in those battleground states they have been most affected by the pandemic, and they dont want to hear their president is playing it down. They want to hear the president is taking charge and trying to defeat it. Thats why these comments, they wont be happy with them. So could there be any legal blowback . Could there be any investigations in the pipeline because we are hearing this president admit on tape that he purposefully downplayed the coronavirus that has killed nearly 200,000 americans and that number continues to go up . I dont think congress is going to launch a new investigation since they already started a number of investigations looking into how the administration has handled the pandemic, but i think it also the one other reason why this makes it so hard for the white house to push back against this is its the president s own words. Hes basically a coauthor, shadow coauthor of this book because he gave 18 interviews for it, so its going to be hard for the Kayleigh Mcenanys of the world to say, oh, he didnt say that when they have audiotapes. So its much harder to spin and say, you know, he didnt mean that. Trump himself is now admitting, oh, yeah, i did kind of play it down because i didnt want to play panic. Hes trying to shade it, but hes not denying its his own words. Thats exactly what Kayleigh Mcenany tried to do yesterday in saying the president did not try to downplay the coronavirus where we all know the facts, we see it for ourselves, that the president certainly did do that when he full well knew this thing was as deadly as it is and you could get it literally by talking. Daniel lippman, stay close. Im going to talk to you again in just a little bit. Still ahead, a judge denies tossing out a case. And later thick smoke turns the sky around the San Francisco bay bright orange. And then a check of your weather when we come back. Eather when we come back. When the world gets complicated, a lot goes through your mind. How long will this last . Am i prepared for this . Are we prepared for this . 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The committee proceeded to spend more than 1 million. The defense was racines office failed to show a violation of the nonprofit act and does not allege that the committee is, quote, continuing to act in a manner that violates the law, court papers say, but the judge disagreed with that. Stephanie, a former friend to First Lady Melania Trump and a recent tellall, melania and me, she provided tens of thousands of documents to support it. Danny cevallos joins me. Good morning. Great to see you. Talk about this. What is alleged to have been the illegality here, and was it paying the president s hotel or just paying too much in general . Thats a big distinction. Its paying too much. Nonprofits are required to not commit waste or whats called private inurement. If they have events, they have to pay for facilities and stuff like that. While it doesnt look good for the inaugural committee to go straight to the trump hotel and hold an event there, according to the kacome plant by the attorney general, the wrong was dmited when they overcharged when the trump hotel overcharged the inaugural committee and the inaugural committee decided to pay the inflated fees, at least according to the congratulations, knowing they were inflated at the time. So we have the defense with racines office that they failed to show a violation of the nonprofit act and that they do not allege that the committee is continuing to act. The judge disagreed with that. Can you talk us through that . Right. The argument is, that well, this happened many years ago, so how can they be continuing to act . But state attorneys general and the d. C. Attorney general are usually charged as watchdogs of nonprofits, and they step in if the nonprofit is doing something wrong, like in this case, wasting funds or privately benefiting other people, and when they do that, they can usually take over the nonprofit or claw back some of those funds, and the continuing congratulations here is that the inaugural committee here continues to fail, to recapture those funds, and the trump hotel continues to retain those funds, knowing that they overcharged the political inaugural committee. So those are the continuing violations. And theyre alleged in the complaint for a very particular purpose because they need that continuing action in order to be able to maintain a lawsuit. If everythings really all done and finished, then theres nothing to really complain about anymore. All right. Danny cevallos, thank you as always. Good to see you, my friend. Still ahead, everybody, disneys live action remake of mao lan is facing criticism over its filming location. Willem marx join us us next to explain the controversy. Were back in a moment. To explain the controversy. Were back in a moment you should be mad your neighbor always wants to hang out. And you should be mad your smart fridge is unnecessarily complicated. Make ice. Making ice. But youre not mad because you have e trade which isnt complicated. Their tools make trading quicker and simpler so you can take on the markets with confidence. Dont get mad get e trade and start Trading Commission free today. To deliver your packages. And the peace of mind of knowing that important things like your prescriptions, and ballots, are on their way. Every day, all across america, well keep delivering for you. To soccer practices. And new adventures. You hope the more you give the less theyll miss. But even if your teen was vaccinated against meningitis in the past. They may be missing vaccination for meningitis b. Lets help protect them together. Because missing menb vaccination could mean missing out on a whole lot more. Ask your doctor if your teen is missing meningitis b vaccination. Thereyoure not good enough hard to control but i am enough music and i know what im made of put your skin in the game with a razor that puts your skin first venus my skin. My way. Unlike ordinary memory wansupplements. Ter . Neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. Memory. Focus. Accuracy. Learning and concentration. Try it today with our moneyback guarantee verizon knows how to build unlimited right. Start with americas most awarded network. Im on my phone 24 7. Then for the first time ever, include disney , hulu and espn . Were a big soccer family. Handmaids tale. I love frozen. Then give families plans to mix and match, so you only pay for what you need. And offer it at a price built for everyone. Plus, get the Samsung Galaxy s20 5g uw on us when you buy any note20 5g. And 300 when you switch. The network more people rely on gives you more. And mines unlisted. Try boost® high protein. With 20 grams of protein for Muscle Health versus only 16 grams in ensure® high protein. And now enjoy boost® high protein in new cafe mocha flavor. Disney is facing International Criticism and calls for audiences to boycott its live action remake of mulan after filming in china where the government is accused of serious rights against minorities. At the end of the movie disney thanks Government Agencies where a mostly Muslim Uighurs have been detained in reeducation camps. The criticism comes after more than two dozen uighurs testified and accuse chinese officials of crimes against humanity, torture, and genocide. Disney did not respond to multiple request for comment on nbc news. Joining us now from london, correspondent willem marx. Great to see you. This was astounding to see the development of this whole thing. Talk us through this. What more do you know . Reporter so when the movie came out, mulan last week, some people started seeing in the list the list of chinese agencies that were thanked by the Production Companies and disney as part of the moviemaking. Amongst those one was called a tur pan company. We spoke recently to a man from that part of shin jong. He had moved to a neighboring country, kazakhstan. He went back and visited his pare parents. Thats where he said he was arrested. He was taken to a nearby police station, tortured including being hung from the ceiling face down, chained by his hands and ankles and beaten with rods. His testify is one of a part of two dozen uighurs. Its an important complaint because its the first chance chinese officials will be held accountable for some of the activities inside there. I spoke to a man responsible for the legal side of it, rodney dixon in london. I asked him how significant was it that the u. S. Government itself was issuing sanction, visa restrictions on officials for similar types of behavior. This is what he said. These tips that have been taken by the u. S. Administration to sanction the Chinese Administration are tremendously important because theyre based on evidence of human rights being violated. Those are the very rights were asking the prosecutor to investigation, and she could seek that underlying evidence as part of that investigation. She could use it and develop it. Its very important these steps are taken in different ways to ensure that the circle is being closed and that those responsible cant escape out of it. Reporter now, yasmin, it is important to say the Chinese Government has denied repeatedly the accusations. We asked them to comment about the detailed list of allegations. The press office there told us socalled genocide was, quote, nothing but a lie and that, quote, the issue concerning the area is about combatting violent terrorism and separatism. Yasmin . Wow. Unbelievable developments there. Nbcs willem marx for us. Thank you very much for the story. Very much appreciate it. Still ahead, everybody, were going to dig dig into the new whistleblower complaint that accusing top Homeland Security officials of downplaying the threat from russia on election interference. Also more from Bob Woodwards book that the president denies the idea of White Privilege. Well be right back. The idea of White Privilege. Well be right back. Of Psoriatic Arthritis to help you look and feel better. Dont use if youre allergic to cosentyx. Before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. An increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. Tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms, if your inflammatory bowel disease symptoms develop or worsen, or if youve had a vaccine or plan to. Serious allergic reactions may occur. Watch me learn more at cosentyx. Com. To deliver your packages. And the peace of mind of knowing that important things like your prescriptions, and ballots, are on their way. Every day, all across america, well keep delivering for you. Every day, all across america, for bathroom odors that linger try febreze small spaces. Just press firmly and it continuously eliminates odors in the air and on soft surfaces. For 45 days. Another day, another chance tlets do this. Rd. By making internet speeds fast and reliable. So you can keep up with your customers. By ensuring those speeds have wireless internet backup. So if the power goes down, your connection doesnt. And by covering all your connected devices with serious security. So we can handle this. And this. While you get on with this. And this. Be fast, be secure. Bounce forward. With comcast business. Get started with a powerful internet and voice solution for just 64. 90 a month. Call or go online today. I got this Mountain Bike for only 11. Dealdash. Com, the fair and honest bidding site. An ipad worth 505, was sold for less than 24; a playstation 4 for less than 16; and a schultz 4k television for less than 2. I won these bluetooth headphones for 20. I got these three suitcases for less than 40. And shipping is always free. Go to dealdash. Com right now and see how much you can save. Welcome back, everybody. Were going to begin this half hour with a whistleblower accusing officials at the department of Homeland Security for distorting intelligence and downplaying the threat of Russian Election interference and domestic terrorism from White Supremacists all to fit the president s political agenda. Brian murphy was a top Intelligence Analyst at dhs and yesterday he submitted the written complaint on acts allegedly taken by kirstjien nielsen, former head of the Security Department and acting secretary of state chad wolf and others. On the subject of domestic terrorism, the complaint alleges this, quote, mr. Murphy was instructed by mr. Wolf and or mr. Cuccinelli to modify intelligence assessments to ensure they matched up with the Public Comments by President Trump on the subject of antifa and anarchist groups. Added in there, mr. Cuccinelli stated that mr. Murphy needed to specifically modify the section on White Supremacy in a manner that made the threat appear less severe. Also, mr. Murphy made several protected disclosures regarding a repeated pattern of abuse of authority, attempted censorship of intelligence analysis and Improper Administration of an Intelligence Program related to russian efforts to influence and undermine u. S. Interests. Specifically, mr. Wolf instructioned mr. Murphy to cease providing intelligence assessments on the threat of russian interference in the United States, and instep start reporting on interference activities by china and iran. He served from march 20th until july 31st of this year and according to the complaint he was demoted in retaliation for repeatedly raising concerns. A dhs spokesman did not specifically respond to a request for comment on this. Lets get to more now on the experts from Bob Woodwards latest book. In addition to the comments that President Trump made in downplaying the virus, according to the Washington Post in woodwards book, Infectious Disease expert dr. Anthony fauci tells others the president is on a separate channel and unfocused meetings with rudderless leadership and his sole purpose is to get reelected. Dr. Fauci distanced himself from that quote yesterday. You know, that quote, others said that. You can ask others. I dont recall that at all. I didnt read the book, but according to what i saw in the newspapers, it says, others have said that. I dont want to get involved in the kind of stuff that is very distracting to what im trying to do and were all trying to do with this outbreak. So excerpts from woodwards book documents where some officials inside the Trump Administration wrestle with whether or not to quit like dan coats. Woodward describes coats work as essentially tortured. He was invited in by mike pence. When coats considered resigning because of the president s handling of russia, pence said, look on the Positive Side of the things hes done. More attention on that. You cant go. In Bob Woodwards lengthy interview for the book, he repeatedly spoke on the National Reckoning on racial injustice. After federal agents forcefully removed Peaceful Protesters to make way for President Trumps staged photohe called on the law and ford stance. He said repeatedly, quote, were going to send in the National Guard for the poor bastards who dont know what theyre doing, these poor radical lefts. On july 19th, woodward asked the president about White Privilege. Let me ask you this. I mean we share one thing in common. Were White Privileged who my father was a lawyer and judge in illinois, and we know what your dad did. Do you have any sense that that privilege has isolated and put you in a cave to a certain extent as it put me and i think lots of White Privileged people in a cave and that we have to work our way out of it to understand the anger and the pain particularly black people feel in this country. No. You really drank the koolaid, didnt you. Listen to you. Wow. No, i dont feel that at all. All right. So during another conversation about race on july 8th, trump complained about the lack of support among black voters. He said, quote, ive done a tremendous amount for the black community, and, honestly, im not feeling any love. The two spoke again on june 2nd more in depth about race in this country. Do you think theres systematic or institutional race in this country . I think there is everywhere, probably less here than most places that okay, but is it here in a way that it has an impact on peoples lives . I think it is, and its unfortunate, but i think it is. Joining me once again, white house and washington reporter for politico, daniel lippman. Youre hearing the president finally admit there, yes, i think it is here, but still necessarily trying to downplay it. Its interesting, daniel, the president s comments on White Privilege, basically telling bob woodward hes drank the koolaid considering what the president has done over the last few days, talking about the use of the term White Privilege do away with any teachings based on the podca podcast which walks people through the history of slavery in this country, particularly black americans and all americans in this country. What do you make of the president s comments about race . Well, you know, its a sign that he thinks that his hes able hes going to try to get as many voters who are tired of hearing about all of this. They dont want to feel guilty for who they are, and hes trying to kind of add fuel to the fire in the culture war and racial divides in this country. Remember, Kellyanne Conway told fox news a few weeks ago, it helps the Trump Campaign when theres images of cities burning on tv so they can play up the threat to the suburbs. So this is not new rhetoric for the president , but its very rare for a president to appear so out of touch. You know, it wouldnt hurt him too much to say, of course, i want to help make their lives better instead of saying, wheres the love, why didnt they all vote for me . Yeah. This is not a president whos selfaware or in touch with whats happening in the country right now, especially when it comes to the reckoning of Racial Justice in this country. I think many are scratching their heads and saying wheres the accountabilities, not only for the president who purposely misled americans and 190,000 folks have now died from the coronavirus when, in fact, he very well may have been able to save lives by telling people the reality and truth of this virus and how people can get it and how they can actually protect themselves. Where is the accountability across the board for the folks that surround the president that knew this information, that knew his thinking, and then knew what he was saying in public . Well, i think the accountability is on election day. This is why elections matter. And so if youre going to have a Hillary Clinton versus a President Trump, you would have wondered how they would have handled the pandemic dinkly. In terms of the people around the president , many are trying to do the right thing. Theyre constantly telling trump, take this virus seriously. Mike pence is running a shadow operation in trying to work with the states and not fight with them. And so, you know, they its not a when youre in those jobs, unless you resign publicly and say, President Trump, you know, why wasnt he taking this seriously, a lot of them feel like they can make more of an impact on the inside and try to persuade trump to do the right thing. Sometimes theyre successful. Sometimes theyre not. But thats from my conversations with the administration officials, thats the feeling i get. To be fair, though, mike pence was the head of the Coronavirus Task force and he had the exact information the president had. He knew exactly what his boss was saying every single day when he was up on the podium, and he did not refute him. He did not outright say this is more than the flu, especially when the president was trying to pretend this is the flu and were not going to lose as many thousands of folks as we have lost, and that number continues to grow as i still mention. Daniel lippman, thank you as always. So good to see you this morning. Still ahead, everybody, more on the unprecedent wildfires raging in the west. The governor of oregon says it could be the most costly event in terms of life and economy. Your first look at morning joe is back in a moment. Your first look at morning joe is back in a moment. The lexus es. Every curve, every innovation, every feeling. A product of mastery. Lease the 2020 es 350 for 359 a month for 36 months. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. [camera man] actually anyone 50 or over is at increased risk for shingles. The pain, the burning my husband had to do everything for weeks. And the thing is, theres nothing you can do about it [camera man] well, shingles can be prevented. Shingles can be whaaat . [camera man] prevented. You can get vaccinated. Frank they have shingles vaccines whaaat . Thats what i said. Were taking you to the doctor. Not going through that again. [camera man] you can also get it from your pharmacist talk to your doctor or pharmacist about getting vaccinated. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist. They fell head over heels inng love ultra flings. With its irresistible scent. Looks like their dog michelangelo did too. Unfortunately for him, its more of a forbidden love. Gain ultra flings with two times oxi boost and febreze. The irresistible scent everyone loves. [ ] when you have diabetes, managing your blood sugar is crucial. Try boost glucose control. The patented blend is clinically shown to help manage blood sugar levels. It provides 60 more protein than the leading diabetes nutrition shake. Try boost glucose control. Im szasz. [norm] and we live in columbia, missouri. We do consulting, but we also write. [szasz] we take care of ourselves constantly; its important. We walk three to five times a week, a couple miles at a time. Weve both been taking prevagen for a little more than 11 years now. After about 30 days of taking it, we noticed clarity that we didnt notice before. Its still helping me. I still notice a difference. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. To deliver your packages. And the peace of mind of knowing that important things like your prescriptions, and ballots, are on their way. Every day, all across america, well keep delivering for you. Welcome back. Devastating wildfires continue to spread across california and the pacific northwest. At least six people were pronounced dead on wednesday two. In lions, oregon, three in california, and a child in washington state. At least 35 fires in oregon have torched more than 300,000 acres, leaving several communities completely destroyed. The states governor has enacted an act. Its a similar state in washington, leaving neighborhoods completely devastat devastated. And residents in california witnessed apocalyptic skies yesterday. So far the states fires have burned over 2. 5 million acres this year. With that lets get a check on your weather now with nbc meteorologist bill karins. I mean i think the big question is here, bill, when are these fires going to be contained . The winds are dying down, yasmin, but, i mean, we have two months at least left in the fire season. The fact that californias already broken its record for the most acreage burned in a season and we have two months left is just eyeopening. If this is what Climate Change is going to look like in the future, everyone is saying no thank you. Heres a map of the wildfires burning in the west. We have a total of 103 fires theyre tracking, some of the biggest ones are in Northern California we have numerous fires in oregon that have exploded in the last couple of days including washington state. The smoke covered almost the entire west yesterday. The smoke is sitting there. We do have elevated fire risks still in areas of california and oregon, but we dont have the santa ana winds that would rapidly spread the fire. We saw over 2,000 acres burned by the bear fire because of the winds. We have a flash flood risk in the atlantic. We have one to the east of richmond toward chesapeake. Notice the areas in yellow. Those are trying to move along the jersey shore, along long island, and a couple making their way toward d. C. And baltimore. It could pour from hartford to new york to philadelphia, right down to d. C. , especially coastal sections of virginia. Todays forecast, downpours in the northeast. Windy it will be dry. Lit stay dry for a while. Heres your weekend outlook. Friday we dry out in the northeast, rainy in the southeast. Saturday, we watch for storms in the midwest, more of the northeast, and it looks like a soggy sunday in the northeast. If you have plans in the northeast, it looks like saturday is going to be your best day of the weekend. Yasmin, we cant stress enough whats happening in the west with the fire season. This is unprecedent. Weve never seen this many large fires at one time. It certainly is. Thank you, bill. Still ahead, everybody, new reporting as the Trump Administration tries to reach a deal with tiktok. Also, the pandemic gets in the way of a major deal involving luxury retailer tiffany. Those stories driving your business day coming up next. G yr business day coming up next. Per. With secret, youre unstoppable. No sweat try it and love it or get your money back. With the icon that does the same. The rx, crafted by lexus. Lease the 2020 rx 350 for 409 a month for 36 months. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. To deliver your packages. And the peace of mind of knowing that important things like your prescriptions, and ballots, are on their way. Every day, all across america, well keep delivering for you. Every day, all across america, for bathroom odors that linger try febreze small spaces. Just press firmly and it continuously eliminates odors in the air and on soft surfaces. For 45 days. Welcome back. Time now for business. Tiktok is discussing with the u. S. Options to avoid a full sale of its american operations. Cnbcs Julianna Tatelbaum is joining us live from london on this. Good morning, julianna. What is the latest on these most recent negotiations . So cnbc has learned from our own sources talks with the u. S. Government to come up with ways to avoid a full sale of tiktok. These sources say that byte dance is ready to hand over control of the u. S. Operations of tiktok to a tech firm but still wants to maintain ownership of certain assets. It remains unclear at this point whether beijing and or washington would be okay with an arrangement. We are up against a clock. Next week is the deadline for byte dance to divest tiktoks operations or expect a full shutdown there. Another store today, lvmh and tiffany, the news that has come out in the last 24 hours, tiffany is suing lvmh after the french luxury giant said it would not complete the takeover of the jeweller. Lvmh said the reason theyre intending to drop the deal all together is the government of france has requested they postpone the completion of the merger beyond the november deadline that was originally agreed in november of last year. Now its to the courts to decide whether this is a valid reason to break up the deal. Usually these contracts are airtight and we know the economics have changed now that the Coronavirus Crisis has hit and this deal was agreed in november. I was curious about this, you see moving trucks everywhere in new york city right now. The rental market has seen a major nose dive. You have more than 15,000 apartments empty in the city right now. How is this affecting the overall economy . This is a huge change for the manhattan rental market. The number of empty rentals nearly tripled from last year. There were hopes for a rebound in the end of fall or 2020 but the number of apartments on the market means that rebound is looking increasingly unlikely. Julianna tatelbaum live from london on this, thank you so much. Good to see you this morning. Up next a look at axios 1 big thing. Coming up on morning joe, much more from Bob Woodwards revealing interviews. The Washington Post robert costa will join with his reporting. And Chuck Schumer with efforts on trying to pass another coronavirus bill. Tryin another coronavirus bill shes confident, protected, her strength respected. Depend. The only thing stronger than us, is you. Depend. Im a verizon engineer. And im part of the team building. A powerful 5g experience for america. Its 5g ultra wideband, and its already available in parts of select cities. Like los angeles. And in new york city. And its rolling out in cities around the country. With massive capacity. Its like an eightlane highway compared to a twolane dirt road. 25x faster than todays 4g networks. In fact, its the fastest 5g in the world. From the network more people rely on. This is 5g built right. Only on verizon. 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Ask your doctor if your teen is missing meningitis b vaccination. To deliver your packages. And the peace of mind of knowing that important things like your prescriptions, and ballots, are on their way. Every day, all across america, well keep delivering for you. Welcome back, everybody. Joining us from washington with a look at axios a. M. , editor in chief for axios, nicholas johnston. Give us axios 1 one thing. Why trump talked to woodward. The books are based on authors own reporting that leaves to a common theme from the president and his administration thats fake news because nothing is on the record. Thats different in the woodward book because he has the tapes to prove it. The president , nine hours of on the record taped interviews detailing a lot of his thinking. No president in history, where we know as much of what hes thinking in real time. The president s stream of consciousness and his twitter account gives us a minute by minute breakdown of what hes thinking, watching, talking about. Now we have more detailed records from bob woodward, more detailing of what the president is thinking, over nine hours, six months of the pandemic. Why would the president grant that . But woodward is the chronicler of the president. A number of interviews wondering how its going to play out in the book. Its reported in the first book that woodward wrote the president s staff get him from talking to woodward and the president hated that. So the president s thinking was if he were to talk to woodward, hed be able to shape the narrative, win over bob woodward and get a better book than what hes gotten in the end. People feel they could spin bob woodward and now President Trump learned a lesson that you cant. Hes talking about how that book isnt any good and told sean hannity last night he probably wouldnt have time to read it. Its astounding. In my head the president gave 18 hours or so 18 interviews nine hours. Yeah, 18 interviews. You scratch your head thinking why would he do this . Youre talking about the insecurity that the president has that he has shown over the last four years or so and he thought he could spin it. And the president , wondering how hes feeling now. He views himself as a deal maker if i can get in the room with vladimir putin, kim jongun, then we can solve this problem one on one, thats how he viewed his real estates deals, how he views political aspirations he has and the press, if he can talk to these people personally he can spin the conversation and get a better outcome. Thats what he was thinking about the woodward book. Several people on his staff didnt want him talking to woodward and blocked him the first book. And now the president went on record with woodward. I know axios is spending millions in battleground states to ward off gender bases against kamala harris. Womens group are spending millions of dollars online pushing back against sexist smears against kamala harris. Theres a number of memes on social media. These groups were prepared knowing that if joe biden picked a woman for president these were things they would have to fight back against. Coming back about her competence, romantic instances. There was an nba photographer who shared one on social media, and he lost his job on that. Theyre concerned how these will impact glow information voters. Folks who spend their time online. Particularly his panic and latino women under 40, theyre concerned about turnout. This is a key group to get out to the polls. Theyre worried these attacks might suppress that vote. So theyre trying to reach out to these voters and make sure they turn up at the polls in november. Thank you as well. We will be reading axios a. M. In a little bit. You can sign up for the news letter at signup. Axios. Com. That does it for me on this thursday morning, im