Come up with a plan, President Trump decided he was going to take matters into his own hands over the weekend signing four executive orders. Hopefully we can do something with them at a later date but were going to be signing some bills in a little while that are going to be very important and will take care of pretty much this entire situation. Well, that doesnt make very much sense. Why . Because the president said these are bills. But only congress can pass bills. What the president did was sign executive orders which most likely will be challenged. In theory, the orders are supposed to get more aid to unemployed workers, suspend the collection of payroll taxes, stop evictions and help with student loan payments. But there are some serious question marks. For example, the president is offering less financial help than people were getting before and theres no stimulus checks or aid to Small Businesses included. Secondly, when talking about things like the payroll tax holiday or moratorium on evictions, youre talking about temporary relief at best. The money still has to get paid. Its just a pause. And finally, theres the question of whether the president s orders are even legal. Whether they are legal or not takes time to figure out. I associate my remarks with senator sasse who says theyre unconstitutional slop. Unfortunately, the president s executive orders described in one word could be paltry and three words, unworkable, weak and far too narrow. Yikes. I want to start with my colleague Garrett Haake on capitol hill. Are they still trying to get a deal through in congress, or is that now over . Trying may be too strong of a word for it, stephanie. I think hoping is probably a better place to start right now. Both sides say that they understand that it would take a force of law, an actual bill to provide strong relief, more complete relief. Things like the direct payments for individuals. Things democrats want like money for state and local governments. Right now theres no negotiation happening to speak of. In fact, theres not even conversations happening, which might confuse people who watched the president over the weekend speak saying democrats have reached out to him. I can tell you senior democratic aides told me the democrats involved in this sure havent and Chuck Schumer was more strong in denying what the president said was true when he was on morning joe this morning. Listen to Chuck Schumer. Fables from donald trump. Fables. Thats what he seems to specialize in. I didnt call him. Speaker pelosi didnt call him. No, we didnt call him. He makes these things up. I dont hear any of the conciliatory good will of a negotiation getting back on track, stephanie, but the reality is sometimes in washington these things have to fall apart before the two sides can get back in the room together. Where that unfortunately leaves everyone else in the country right now is congress, the president s negotiators, everyone essentially playing the multy trilliondollar game of chicken while they see whom invites whom back to the table first. A game of chicken . I want to go to carol lee at the white house. The only way this helps is if it gets money to people that need it quickly. Is there any reason the administration thinks this could happen . It was a week ago larry ckudlow said this couldnt be done Via Executive order. The white house is trying to make the case that this is going to get relief to americans who so badly need it and quickly. You heard the president s advisers over the weekend, including Peter Navarro who was on meet the press saying the president is taking action and shifting the blame over to congress. Theres real questions about whether the president , what the president is doing will have any effect any time soon for anyone and, you know, theres democrats and republicans who are criticizing this. Theyre saying that not only is it not effective but real questions about whether what the president is doing is unconstitutional. And as you noted, even some within the president s own administration have said in the past that this is not something that can be done with the stroke of a pen. However, the president is trying to do that. And hes really at the end of the day, taking a lot of actions. Theres a big show, and it looks like a lot of activity, but its not necessarily going to translate into any sort of real relief to americans any time soon. And, meanwhile, you know, all Economic Experts will tell you that if theres the economy doesnt have some additional support, if americans dont get cash in hand, some time soon, that the economy is going to continue to slump as we head into november. So theres a lot of pressure on the white house here and the president starts the week with, really, on defense, and under pressure to answer a lot of questions and to really show that he is actually going to be effective in terms of getting a deal with congress, which is where the real relief is going to come. The president starting the week with a great big show. Thats what he does while americans are saying, show me the money. Joining me to dig deeper into all of this, Pulitzer Prize winner and bureau chief for the washington post, phil rucker, also the author of a very stable genius. Looking back on the last couple of weeks, do you think this is where we were headed all along . Congress was going to get nowhere and the president was going to come in and blame them . Well, it certainly is something that people might have predicted. Remember, these negotiations on congress had been going on for weeks. In fact, House Democrats had put together a plan for this stimulus a few months ago, and its taken a long time to get to this place. Clearly last week as they were negotiating, the two sides were not able to see any middle ground. The president was really an absent negotiator throughout. He was somebody who campaigned as being the ultimate dealmaker. The art of the deal is the title of his book, and yet he was not able to make it happen here, which is why he did these executive actions over the weekend. But as carol was just explaining and garrett as well, there are a lot of dubious assertions in these memos that he signed, and a lot of questions about how much of that relief is going to reach the american people. Some states are going to have to be involved and they are already cash strapped. So its unclear if the states are going to be able to provide the resources that would be required to get all this money into the hands of people quickly. All right. Then lets talk about those specifics because the president and his allies have always said hes a deal guy. Not a detail guy. There was no deal, but the details dont make sense either. The president said people on unemployment are going to get 400 bucks which is less than the 600, but even if they get the 400, he said states would kick in some of the money. But on sunday, he said, well, maybe not. What in the world is going on . Well, according to the order that he signed, states have to kick in 25 of that money. So only about 300 of the 400 will be coming from the federal government. And remember, these states are already under water with their budgets because theyre not able to run a deficit the way the federal budget is able to. State revenues are falling short because the economy is in so much trouble. These governors are cash strapped. They say they dont have the resources to provide this sort of relief. Well see if some of them are able to put that together. But its not as if every american is going to wake up tomorrow and have a 400 check. Thats not how this package is going to work. The president has been saying from the getgo, he wants to do away with the payroll tax. Thats not happening but what hes trying to do here is a payroll tax holiday. Meaning you dont have to pay it now, but you will have to pay it later. Hes turning it into a campaign pitch, promising to make it permanent if hes reelected. Does the president even have the power to do that . Well, the congress has the power to determine how we tax and spend. They have that authority. Its worth pointing out theres widespread and bipartisan opposition to the president s idea of a payroll tax cut. Republicans in congress did not support it by and large but the president is doing this executive order now, which is effectively a holiday, a delay, but its not automatic. And businesses are going to have to develop systems to be able to delay that payroll tax through their payroll systems. And thats a burden on businesses and its unclear if many businesses are going to actually follow through and try to enforce it or put it into action because of how complicated the process would be. Given how many republicans dont support the idea of a payroll tax cut, given that Steve Mnuchin himself said it would take so long, to your point, to work its way through the system and not get in the hands of people who need it most, where does the president s, dare i say, obsession with the payroll tax cut come from . Who wants it so badly . You know, he wants it. He likes the idea of a tax cut because hes sort of a marketer at heart and it sounds good and youll not find that Many Americans who say, i dont want my taxes to be cut. Its catchy. And hes looking for ways to increase Consumer Confidence and make people feel better about the state of the economy because that helps him politically. And so this payroll tax cut idea is something that hes been talking about for many months now, since back in the spring. It never got any traction on capitol hill, but nonetheless, its something the president has been trying to advance along with his economic team. He was unable to get any legislation to that end and so you saw the order he signed over the weekend, but it is not a permanent cut as you point out. Its really just a holiday. A delay, and only if businesses choose to implement it. All of these orders are great marketing for the president. Congress cant do it, but im going to step in and get the job done. The bigger question is, are you . Phil, thank you. Were going to leave it there. Still ahead, it is back to school today for another wave of students in this country. So were kicking off a new series coronavirus and the classroom. What is happening in School Districts where the virus is already spreading. Plus, a deal that would have given kodak government money to produce drug ingredients is now on hold. But what about the big, big investors who have already cashed out . Im talking millions of dollars of gains. First, Chicago Police giving us an update after large crowds smashed windows, looted stores and clashed with officers just last night. This all happened along Michigan Avenue in the area known as the magnificent mile. At one point, shots were fired both at and by police. No injuries were reported. It is believed the clashes originally broke out after a suspect was shot by police in the citys engelwood neighborhood. Well bring you updates as soon as we get them. Or colon cancer. Or colon cancer. 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Clean magic eraser, and mr. Clean magic eraser sheets. Puts its customers a wiin charge . Rier well, the good news gets shared. And it gets rated 1 for customer satisfaction. But dont just take our word for it. Take theirs. Its your wireless. Your rules. Only with xfinity mobile. Call, click or visit a store today. As a number of schools across the country are reopening today and others are making their final decisions, there are some new serious concerns. A report from the American Academy of pediatrics reveals 97,000 children in the United States have tested positive for the coronavirus in the last two weeks of july. A number of schools that have reopened are seeing the spread very firsthand. A high school in georgia that drew attention after a student there posted this image of crowded hallways now has at least nine confirmed cases. They have moved to Remote Learning today and tomorrow. And in mississippi, more than 100 students who were possibly exposed to the virus are now home quarantining after just two weeks of school. Well be speaking to the superintendent of that school district. First, i want to bring in our reporters who are seeing exactly how this is playing out in different districts, starting with sam brock in macclenny florida. Masks arent mandatory. Why is that . Thats a great question. We reached out to the Superintendents Office to try to get more information about that, stephanie. They declined an oncamera interview but did lay out some of the things theyre doing. Optional masks is one of them. They are recommended according to the administration when theres less than six feet of space between people and 15 minutes or more of contact. A lot of people we talked to were quite surprised by this. Its empty now but for the last hour or two, i was watching parents and teachers coming in. The teachers were all wearing masks. The parents and their kids by and large were not. I talked to a number of moms. One of them said its a personal choice. Shes encouraging her child to wear the mask when they are in line for lunch or around other crowded hallways and students around the area but that its a personal decision. One mom of seven said she cannot believe there are no mask requirements. She was very pleased to see when she dropped her 6yearold son off that they were sanitizing all of the kids, keeping them sort of broken up, certainly no large groups. Those were good things. But we talk to moms about their reaction. Jessica hanson is a mother of five. Three kids going back to school today. She said its a balance between the Health Risks Involved with covid19 and socializing her children and getting them back into the school community. Heres what she said. The fear that i have about them getting any kind of virus is, for myself, no different than any other year that, you know, we spread things and germs are here and theyre here to stay and so building up the best immune system for them is priority for me. I think that the isolation, at least for my kids i can speak to, the isolation, its gotten to them. So i know theyre excited to go back. Now stephanie, there are 2. 8 million Florida Public School students. A small portion of them are going back to school. Primarily its small counties like this one, about 30 minutes outside of jacksonville. Theres a lawsuit, ongoing right now, thats being heard at this moment regarding stopping a mandatory emergency order to offer inperson instruction. Sam, thank you. And as different districts are debating the best way to bring their students back, theres a growing number of public and private schools who have decided the safest way to reopen classes is to move them all outdoors. Geoff bennett has more on that. What did you find . Hey, steph. One of the Biggest Challenges for schools that have been cleared to reopen for inperson instruction is how to handle physical distancing. An educator, any parent of schoolaged children knows schools were not built for social distancing. They were built to cram as many kids into a given space. Some 30 students in one class. In most cases across the country. A small but growing number of schools have settled on a solution. Theyre moving classrooms outdoors. As schools across the country scramble to reopen safely, this school in montgomery county, maryland, found a solution in its own backyard. Its moving all fall classes outdoors. The data shows that being outdoors drastically decreases the chances of transmission. Rolling hills. Wooded trail. Reporter alicia davis enwright is head of school serving students 2 to 12. She weighed reopening options and concluded outdoor schooling was the safest. Pointing to studies that indicate coronavirus transmission rates are lower in outdoor settings than in indoor settings. Especially when combined with social distancing. To prepare for the coming year, they created model outdoor classrooms with small tents and tables. Larger ones are on the way. Tents will stay open at all times to allow for maximum air circulation. Occupancy will be limited to no more than 15 students. And children will wear masks. Outdoor education during a pandemic isnt new. It was common during tuberculosis outbreaks. Denmark has pushed many classes outside. Now a small but growing number of u. S. Schools are embracing outdoor schooling. Including charlestown play house, a preschool and kindergarten near philadelphia. The school plans to stay outside until the end of the year and has asked parents to dress children accordingly. There is no bad weather, only bad clothing, and weve shared with the families that their children need to be dressed for the weather. Eric miller is sending his two daughters to the school. They can build things, dig holes, play with bugs. My kids always are better behaved after a day outside than they are after a day inside watching the ipad. In our very computerized world, sometimes we need to realize that the safer, better place is in open air. Reporter educators excited to bring students a classroom that takes learning outside the box. Now to be clear, not every school can do this. Not every school wants to do this. But this is a viable option for, in many cases, small private schools that can repurpose acreage or even small Public Schools that can repurpose athletic fields or may be able to use a nearby park that a city or town owns. Interesting solution, geoff, thank you. Joining us now, dr. Edward lee childress, the superintendent of the corinth district down in mississippi. Dr. Childress, after just two weeks, youve got more than 100 kids quarantining. Anyone who has tested positive . Anybody gotten really sick . We have had students to test positive. As of right now im not aware of anyone that is really sick. However, we do have over 100 children quarantined at this point. Exactly how many students and Staff Members have tested positive in your district . We have, as of right now, we have one staff member thats tested positive and eight students. Do the students who are quarantining have access to online instruction . They do. The students that are quarantined have access to our Virtual Learning program. That is one of the things that while we did have a traditional opening, we also gave parents an opportunity to select a Virtual Learning option, rather than attending school. You posted a few pictures of classrooms on twitter. But in those photos, students dont look very far apart. Do you feel your district had the resources it needed to make the necessary changes . Some of the classrooms do not have the full sixfoot distancing. As we all know, schools were not built with that in mind. However, in many cases in our Elementary Schools we do have that. So Additional Resources might have helped. However, what we have done is we have begun to move those classrooms where we do have some extremely tight areas into some of our more common space such as the cafeteria, the mezzanine level of the gymnasium and the auditorium. The big, large spaces were not using on a regular basis. So what happens when this quarantining is over . Once the quarantining is over, were following the Mississippi State department of health and cdc guidelines in terms of quarantining. If a student is exposed for a 14day period. They are then allowed to return to school. And this week, we will have probably 80 of those children that will be returning to school over the next several days. If you see the number of cases spike further, whats the next plan . I think if we see the number of cases spike further, well have to look at what of the options that we have available. We could go to a hybrid model or convert to a Virtual Learning model. Were fortunate weve been a 1 to 1 district so every child has a device that if we need to go virtual, that will not be an issue. All right. Dr. Childress, thank you so much for joining us. Stay safe. Stay healthy. Best of luck to you. Joining us, dr. William hazeltine, president of Access Health international, Infectious Disease expert and author of the handbook of a covid back to school guide questions for parents and students. When you see outbreaks in schools across this country but in places like mississippi and georgia, what do you think went wrong . Well, whats going wrong is we havent controlled the epidemic in the country. And as it spreads from one part of america to another, that puts enormous pressure on schools and even more pressure on individual moms and dads. Its up to them to make decisions. Up to local School Districts, as youve heard, and up to moms and dads and what to do for their children. And its chaos, as a matter of fact, across the country. Theres really chaos because people arent given clear direction. Thats why i wrote the book to help individuals do the best they can make decisions and so it gives some very simple guidelines for things to look at. At this point, which states do you believe are in a good position to reopen schools . New york has an infection rate of less than 1 . Right. I think thats the first thing we ask people to look at. What is the infection rate in their zip code, in their county. Thats the most important thing. I would say there are a few states in the United States, vermont is one, new york city and new york state is another, where the infection rates are quite low. The real calculation that a parent has to make is, how likely is it that my child or myself are going to encounter somebody who is contagious . And that depends on what the spread is. And we provide maps, and there are maps we give guidance to, that show you how to figure out whats happening in your zip code, whats happening in your teachers the teacher zip codes . Thats really important. The next thing you have to figure out is, is your child at a higher risk of infection and getting sick if they are infected . And finally, what is the school actually doing . Youve seen just in your program i was watching, youre seeing the schools are highly variable. Why theyre not using masks is beyond me and i think its beyond any health expert. Youve got to have these children using masks, and youve got to have distancing. I love the idea about outside schooling. Thats much better than inside schooling because we know about aerosols that hang in the air. But its really important to have the mask and to have the distancing. One of the reasons the numbers have gone down in places like new york is that people arent going out. Theyre not completely sheltering in place, but we are smauts i somewhat isolated and staying in your quarantine circles. Once you go back to school and you have parents, teachers, students, subways and public buses, doesnt that reverse our the behavior that got us to this good place . It does indeed. In fact, if you look around the world, lets take europe, for example, right now youre seeing a resurgence of the virus in exactly the countries that had seemed to reduce the infection rates. Fortunately, i live in new york. I also have a country place. But when i go into new york, i see everybody using masks. I would say its 95 plus there are people using masks. And when people do congregate, we do see centers of infection. And that is very likely to occur in schools. Weve already seen it occur in schools. This isnt something thats going to stop. When kids go to schools. One thing i want everybody to think about is a coronavirus is a cold virus that can kill. We all know how we get colds. Kid goes to school and bring the cold back. This is a cold virus that can also kill. Thats how you should think about it. So i listen to that mother say, you know, i send my kids to school so they get exposed. Well, exposed in this case is exposing the kid to something thats possibly lethal, but exposing you, too, and anybody you contact with. This is different. This is not like getting measles or mumps thats very unlikely to kill you. This can kill you and can kill your parents and can kill your grandparents. Its a dangerous virus. A cold virus that could kill. Thats an important way to think about it. Dr. Haseltine, always good have you here. For you at home, all this week, nbc news and msnbc, we are talking about coronavirus and the classroom. Get all the facts, possible solutions and expert advice. Well have new stories every day. Still ahead President Trump has claimed that the coronavirus started inside a lab in wuhan, china. This morning, we have exclusive access to that lab and the doctors who lead it. Plus, a deal for kodak that they produce pharmaceuticals, something theyve never done. But its on hold. But some investors have already cashed in, big time. One investor following it joins us. 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. This virus is testing all of us. And its testing the people on the front lines of this fight most of all. So abbott is getting new tests into their hands, delivering the critical results they need. And until this fight is over, we. Will. Never. Quit. Because they never quit. Californias economic challenges are deepening. Frontline workers stretched too thin. Our nurses and medical professionals in a battle to save lives. Our schools, in a struggle to safely reopen, needing money for masks and ppe, and to ensure social distancing. And the costs to our economy, to our state budget . Mounting every day. We need to provide revenues now, to solve the problems we know are coming. 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. This morning, new developments on the massive kodak deal we told you about last week. The federal agency that was supposed to give the Photography Company a 765 million loan to develop pharmaceutical ingredients is now putting that deal on hold after it came under serious scrutiny. Jeffrey has been following this story. The day before the dfc, the agency, put this deal on hold, they told my colleague john allen they didnt see anything inappropriate with this transaction. And then, voila, the next day its on freeze. Walk us through what happened here. Its a fascinating story. Over the last three weeks, we first saw a run up in the stock before the announcement. The reason for that, according to our reporting, is that this news was given to local press in rochester where kodak is based, ahead of the deal. They didnt tell local press it was embargoed so they published it. It asked those journalists to remove it from their website. We have laws in this country called regulation fair disclosure. We want everyone in the market to know everything at the same time. This created a series of those who knew and those who didnt which was really problematic in the market. The next morning, rachel levy on our team breaks the story of what this deal is and the stock surges. It goes from 2 to 60. But there were a couple of issues. One was the monday run up and, two, a day before the deal, option grants were given to the ceo of kodak which at one point during the run up netted him about 100 million. Since then, the s. E. C. Has opened an investigation. Congress is looking into the deal and the stock has fallen back down to 9 and the deal officially on hold while dfc waits for the results of the investigation. That ceo and some of the largest shareholders, clearly insiders, in the last two weeks when the stock ran from 2 to 60 or thereabouts, do we know if they sold out, if they cashed out of any of these monster positions . So no executives of the firm as far as we can tell have sold out of their monster positions. The stock was valued near 100 million. Its now back below 20 which is still more than most of us will make in a year but its fallen back significantly. Two people connected to the company, however, did sell. One gentleman who . Moses who is not a board member but he is the fatherinlaw of a board member and a large shareholder. Sold in the middle of the run up. And another gentleman, mr. Far funkle who is a board member donated his shares to a local synagogue which isnt a sale but hell get the tax benefits of that sale from the stock on its highest day. So lets just get this straight. The fatherinlaw of a board member cashes out. Another board member cashes out and donates his position to a charity. I believe that charity he he is the board chair of that charity as well, so he controls that. These are he is the president of that he is the president of that charity. Do we know if any investigations are going on around the board members, the executives, these massive shareholders . I cant think of a stock out there that has seen these kind of swings in such a short period of time. We dont know of any investigation into those shares. We know the investigation is focused on the monday disclosure of the news and the options grants given to mr. Constantanza. These were the first Board Meeting with a dilution in the shares. In terms of the donation and the stock sales, right now we dont know if they are investigating. The s. E. C. Says theyre taking a hard look at everything. So our expectation is all of this is in play and mr. Navarro this morning said he is also on hold awaiting the results of this investigation. Peter navarro had said early on this is a great deal for the government. Its a fully collateralized loan. Yet, based on our reporting, we have seen no evidence or we have no idea what that collateral would be. A company with basically somewhat defunct patents. Any further information of why the u. S. Government from the getgo would have thought this was a good deal . The president two weeks ago was saying what a great deal it was and then when it went under serious scrutiny he acted like, i dont know much about this thing. This is the logic. You dont want a company with a lot of ties to the pharmaceutical industry making these chemicals. What youll have is people making chemicals to benefit them. If you have a drug in fda approval, youll try to focus on those. So kodak was nice it was a sweet spot of knowing how to work in the Chemicals Business but not having preexisting relationships with pharmaceutical companies that might push their drug over somebody elses. That said, i think a lot of this also reflects around the messaging of this deal. On tuesday, President Trump, navarro, the ceo, they all said, look at this great deal. Its a done deal. Its going to be terrific for america. You have tond, it was a letter of intent. Due diligence hadnt happened. The collateral had not been looked at. This deal when it was announced was far from done. And i think part of that messaging was what really made investors unhappy because they were under the assumption this was a done deal and now, since then, its become very clear there was a letter of intent that was very preliminary, and there were a lot of checks and balances that needed to come through. The deal was far from done. Yet the fatherinlaw of a board member and an existing board member cashed out big time. Coback was ideal because it didnt have preexisting relationships with pharmaceutical companies. So the next question will be, did they have preexisting relationships with anyone in the Trump Administration . Thank you so much for joining me. Keep reporting. This is a super important story. Next joe biden is set to announce a running mate any moment now. Why womens groups are already preparing for a wave of sexist and racist attacks. Guess what. Womens groups dont have to be waiting for that. We all, do and we all have to say enough is enough. The open road is open again. 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Grubhubs gonna reward you for that with a 5 off perk. doorbell rings [crowd] grubhub fireworks exploding joe biden is set to make his most important choice any day you. His running mate. The Presumptive Democratic nominee huddled with family at his home in Rehoboth Beach, delaware, as he closed in on what is possibly his most important decision. Leading possible choices include california senator kamala harris, former National Security adviser susan rice and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer who flew to delaware last weekend for an inperson interview. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Duckworth and karen bass and val demings also still being considered. Mike memoli and ali vitali have been all over this reporting. The former Vice President said first week of august. Last i checked, thats over. Whats going on . The word weve been using to describe this process is deliberative. Thats a polite way of saying that joe biden is taking his time. Obviously, this is a consequential decision. Just as important is the way theyll roll out this decision. Thats where the effect of the pandemic cant be understated. Were looking at a virtual announcement. The Biden Campaign team was really in intense discussions over the weekend. Preparations for this announcement should it come any time in the next few days. If joe biden made a decision its not one communicated widely within the Biden Campaign, though. Biden seems to be one of the only people enjoying this process. He was teasing reporters as he was in Rehoboth Beach this weekend, asking him about it, joking with one that he chose him as his running mate. But, steph, its hard to overstate the anticipation now. A lot of suspense and intrigue has turned into just a little frustration as that timeline has continued to slip, but this is such a key moment for the campaign and theyre determined to do this on their terms without any leaks. Ali vitali, dust off the good old sexist broken record because its back. You reported all weekend there are womens groups preparing for an announcement. They are putting Media Outlets on notice because they know that shes too aggressive. Shes in it for herself. Out for number one. Theyre coming down the pike. Accusations against senior women in government that you never hear us complaining about when it comes to men. Youre exactly right. The sexism and frankly the racism, none of that is new for women in politics. What is new is this effort by top womens groups that are basically saying, were not going to let it happen anymore. And so what we saw over the weekend was an open letter from naral and planned parenthood, times up effectively asking media to be deliberate about the way they talk about these women and this woman, whoever she is when shes selected, not to play into these latent biases and stereotypes littered throughout the Political Landscape and instead to just focus on the merits. It all comes against the backdrop of 2016, for example, when President Donald Trump used to use repeated gender dog whistles against hillary clinton. Then you fast forward even to right now in this veepstakes. Kamala harris has been call too ambitious. There was a report out the other day in a newspaper that likened this pool of female candidates and joe biden choosing from them as an episode of the latbachel these womens groups are saying weve seen this movie before, and were not going to watch it again. Valerie jarrett had some really good, simple advice on what theyre talking about here. Listen to what she said over the weekend. Just deal with the substance. Dont talk about what she looks like. Stop describing us in words that you wouldnt use to describe a man. And again, steph, this isnt these groups saying, and all of them made this clear to me. Theyre not saying dont criticize her, dont vet her, dont cover her, whoever this female Vice President ial candidate will be. Instead, do it in a way thats deliberate where youre thinking about everything from how youre framing a story, how youre framing a segment like this. The way you started it, enough is enough, that puts the correct framing on it that were dealing with the substance and not all the sexism and racism that seeps in. It trickles down to what photos they might use on an article. A lot of new guides coming out. Letters putting people on notice saying once we put this to your attention, its going to be hard to forget about and thats especially important as we go forward with 80plus days left and a female contender coming onto the ticket and the scene very soon. An episode of the bachelor. That is straightup pathetic. And you dont need to be a leftleaning womens group to stand up and say that is complete garbage. No one deserves it. Honestly. Think about it. One of the president s favorite and most famous tag lines is, youre fired. If a woman had that, theyd be calling her a stonecall witch, except not the word with a w. Ali, mike, thank you. Its really important we continue to cover this. Coming up next, an exclusive look inside the the wuhan lab p trump blames for leaking the coronavirus. N b laPresident Trump blames for leaking the coronavirus. Dont just think about where youre headed this summer. Think about how youll get there. 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Tensions between the United States and china have been escalating for months due to the coronavirus. U. S. Officials including President Trump and secretary of state mike pompeo have been claiming it came from a lab in wuhan, china. But still have not given any credible proof for that theory. Nbcs Janis Mackey Frayer was given exclusive access to that lab at the Wuhan Institute of virology, the first time any independent media outlet has been allowed to see it since this pandemic began. Janice joins us now. You got a chance to tour this lab and speak with two of the top scientists. What did you learn . Reporter we spent months asking for this access, stephanie, to the Wuhan Institute, to see this high security bsl4 lab, the only high Containment Lab and it really is like a centerpiece of chinese ambition. It is also where there are accusations that are being centered, some emanating from the white house, about how and where the virus started, that maybe it was manufactured, or there was a leak or some sort of accident. Theorys that have been shot down by scientists including dr. Anthony fauci for a lack of any scientific evidence. At the lab, we were given the tour of its basically a box within a box. There is filtration systems, to have clean air come in, for solid waste to go out, people who work within the lab, where positive pressure suits that are connected to hoses, and everything, they say is to international standards, the technicians have been trained in france and the u. S. I spoke with the institutes director, she did her master degre degree in colorado and she spoke to me in part of the interview in english. So the institute has done a lot in this battle against covid19. It is unfortunate that we have been targeted as a scapegoat for the origin of the virus. But make no mistake that our work has been and will always be for the benefit of all. We are the autobots, not the decepticons. The state Department Cable that talked about worries at the wuhan lab, that there were safety concerns and lack of trained staff, the people at the institute say that u. S. Diplomats didnt even visit in january, their visit was two months later, they attended a seminar. Didnt speak about biosafety and never set foot in the wuhan lab. Stephanie . Janis, thank you so much. Janis Mackey Frayer from wuhan, china. That wraps up this busy hour. Im stephanie ruhle. You dont want to miss our hour tomorrow, right here at 9 00 a. M. Ill have my interview with ceo and chairman of jpmorgan chase, jamie dimon. On the other side of the break, Ayman Mohyeldin picks up our breaking News Coverage. Our breaking News Coverage heres your iced coffee america runs on dunkin alice loves the scent of gain so much, she wished there was a way to make it last longer. Say hello to your fairy godmother alice. And longlasting gain scent beads. Part of the irresistible scent collection from gain the open road is open again. And wherever youre headed, Choice Hotels is there. Book direct at choicehotels. Com. My hands are everything to me. But i was diagnosed with dupuytrens contracture. And it got to the point where things i took for granted got tougher to do. Thought surgery was my only option. Turns out i was wrong. So when a hand specialist told me about nonsurgical treatments, it was a total game changer. Like you, my hands have a lot more to do. Learn more at factsonhand. Com today. Good monday morning, everyone. Im Ayman Mohyeldin in new york. Two big stories unfolding this morning on two different fronts were following for you. First, the growing silence between the white house and congress. What our team is learnin