Transcripts For MSNBCW Andrea Mitchell Reports 20200807 : vi

Expectations with 1. 8 million jobs added and the Unemployment Rate falling to 10. 2 . Moments ago, new York Governor Andrew Cuomo announcing that the Covid Infection rates statewide in new york are now low enough to allow all School Districts to open including new york city, the nations Largest School system. And the gridlock on capitol hill continues. Democratic and white house negotiators will be meeting again this afternoon after being unable to close a wide gap all week as Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell stays on the sidelines and President Trump starts the weekend early. Hes at his bedminster golf resort where hes also holding fundraisers over the next few days. Ill speak to a member of the House Democratic leadership, south carolinas jim clyburn, and get his take on joe bidens recent controversial comments on black americans. We begin today with the pandemics impact. Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms joining me right now, madam mayor, thank you for being with us. A new report from the center for Public Integrity where dr. Deborah birx is mentioning increasing rates in georgia as well as other states. Tell me about the situation in atlanta. Its among a handful of cities where there are still major concerns. How are you dealing with the disease in atlanta . Its unfortunate, andrea, as i saw you mention that new york is opening up schools, because theyve been able to get on the other side of covid19. Unfortunately in atlanta and across the state of georgia we are headed in the wrong direction. Our numbers are continuing to rise, and our icu beds are at and beyond capacity at many of our hospitals. And we are continuing to face this challenge of reopening the state while not taking the precautions necessary to put us in a place like new york and so many other states who have been able to get to the other side of this virus. As you talk about the schools there, there is some footage, really disturbing footage of a school north of atlanta, where we see i think it had to shut down, we saw pictures that went viral, taken in a hallway, a corridor packed, crowded with students. Its less than an hour from your city. Its very concerning, andrea. I have four kids. I took two of my kids out yesterday to attend a taping that i had to do. And just watching my two kids fiddle with their masks. Theyre kids. They were taking their masks on and off. Its very difficult to expect our children to be able to abide by all of the rules that are necessary for us to combat covid19. And thats my concern, as schools are reopening across this state. Many School Districts, including the School District in the city of atlanta, have opted to go with Virtual Learning for the first few weeks of school. As ive said repeatedly, its not just about our kids. Its about our kids often being asymptomatic and infecting teachers and custodians and cafeteria workers. But unfortunately, in georgia, just yesterday, a 7yearold with no Underlying Health conditions died from complications related to covid19. So much for the president s declaring that they are almost definitely immune from it, the children. We know that there are these tragic cases. They may be outliers, but this is the tragedy and this is the risk to the schoolchildren, while you as a mom of four children know how important it is to get them back in the classrooms. How is atlanta responding to your urging them to wear masks, mandating it, the governor disagreeing, the lawsuit, how widespread is the wearing of masks from your observation . As ive been out, ive been very encouraged by the number of people that i see with masks on. And its very hot in atlanta, as you can imagine, right now. Its 90 degrees plus every day. But as ive gone into the Grocery Store and other places, people are Wearing Masks. And i actually was pleasantly surprised, because i didnt see many people Wearing Masks but people are certainly heeding the warning and very prefectuapprec that were pushing forward with a mask mandate in the city. Weve gotten notes from Business Owners who also express their appreciation. Were rapidly approaching joe bidens decision on a running mate. Can you at least clarify whether or not you have had an interview . I assume not an inperson interview, i dont think youve been traveling. Andrea, ill continue to refer you to the Biden Campaign for questions about that. But as ive said repeatedly, this is the most important election of our lifetime. John lewis reminded us of that with his parting words. If we dont exercise our right to vote, we will lose it. So i know theres a lot of speculation and excitement about who joe biden will name. But the most important persons name on that ballot will be joe biden. The former Vice President did try today to clarify a statement. He got a lot of backlash yesterday when he was saying that the Latino Community is diverse, quote, unlike the Africanamerican Community. He tried to say that he did not mean to suggest that the Africanamerican Community is a monolith. But is this a problem, the way he was articulating this . Well, i believe what he was trying to articulate was just in terms of voting patterns. But i know he doesnt believe we are monolith, because ive had these conversations with the Vice President directly, and weve talked about the growing importance and voice of the progressive wing of the party, fueled in large part by younger africanamericans. So i know that he does not believe that. And i though that as his policies have come forth, his policies reflect his appreciation of diversity within the Africanamerican Community. I do think obviously that it perhaps could have been expressed better. But i know his heart, and i know the conversations that i have had with him directly, and what hes expressed to me about his appreciation about diversity within the Africanamerican Community. And i know how busy you are, but i was really struck when i had a chance to listen to Michelle Obamas podcast yesterday where she talked about what she called a low level depression that shes experienced during the pandemic, largely because of the experience of George Floyds death, reliving a lot of the racism that she and president obama encountered on their campaign and when they were first in the white house. And it struck me that that is that experience, with all of these police cases, youve experienced them in georgia, as you know, thats something that a lot, millions of africanamericans, africanamerican women, are feeling. Absolutely, andrea. I appreciate the obamas for so many reasons, but i especially appreciated that she had articulated that, because just a couple of days before, i articulated something very similar to my husband. I said, im waking up feeling really down, and i almost used the exact words, low key depression. And it is something that clearly is felt by so many africanamericans. And seeing it in our kids, the level of anxiety and fear and frustration. And its difficult as africanamerican parents because we are supposed to reassure our children that everything will be okay. And it will be okay. We know well get to the other side of this. But its very difficult when adults and children are struggling to make sense of where we are in america, which again, is why i cant stress enough the importance of this election. This term of donald trump needs to be a comma in our history, not a period. I appreciate your answering that question so personally, i think its an important message. Thank you very much, mayor bottoms. Thank you. Dr. Ashish jha is the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute and he joins me now. Thanks for being with us, dr. Jha. Lets talk about this decision that Governor Cuomo Just Announced to open all districts. Theyve met the guidelines in terms of the infection rate, transmission rate. Is it safe . Andrea, thank you for having me on, and that is the big question, right . We all want our kids back in but the question is can we do it in way thats safe. And there are two parts to that. Part one is having Community Transmission at a very low level. And i do think much of new york, most of morninnew york, maybe a new york, meets that. But the second part is making sure buildings are ready, that theres ventilation, that you can have classes outdoors if you dont have all that, so really spacing kids out. Thats going to be a district by district, school by school decision. I guess what i would implore School Officials to do is to emphasize grades k5. I think we can go back to inperson learning in new york if we get it right. We have a big story breaking, mayor mike dewine of ohio tested positive for coronavirus, then hours later tested again and was negative. Then i saw dr. Gupta on Brian Williams show last night who said, wait a minute, guys, the kind of test he was given has very few false positives but the second test has a lot of false negatives. Can you weigh in on that . So were in the middle, as a nation, of transitioning to a new group of tests. These are rapid tests that i think a lot of us have actually been calling for more of them. And they dont have a problem with false negatives, but a lot of us argue its not a big deal if we test people often. You can actually still pick up most of the disease because the test is particularly good when you have the virus. What happened with governor dewine say bit confusing. It seems like he had a positive, then he had a negative with a pcr which can miss tests. At this moment if you asked me is he infected or is he not, i would say i dont know. He should probably have a repeat test in the next 24 to 48 hours. The jury is still out. The test he had last night can miss some cases, also has false negatives. This is one of those situations where we have to wait one more day, get a repeat and get a sense of where he really is. Thank you very much, thanks for that explanation, its always good to see you, appreciate it. Thank you. More than 16 million americans now are out of work and white house negotiators are heading back to the table with Congressional Democrats today to try to come up with a deal. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn joins us with the latest. Plus who does congressman clyburn think has the passion he says is needed to be joe bidens running mate . Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports only on msnbc. 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Speaker pelosi made clear to my colleague Kristen Welker that the two sides are far apart. This is life and death, life in terms of economic success and the life of our democracy. We have serious differences. This isnt about bickering. This is very major differences as to science, the role of governance in all of this. Joining me now is the House Majority whip, congressman James Clyburn of south carolina. Congressman, thank you very much for being with us. Thank you for having me. Its always good to see you, sir. Im wondering whether you think theres any way to narrow this gap. People are hurting. I know you sent your bill over in may and there should have been negotiations since may to narrow these differences. But we are where we are, and for two weeks they have made very little progress. Yes. And i think a lot of that has to do with the attitude that senator mcconnell has taken on it. When we first sent the bill over to him several weeks ago, a couple of months now, he made mockery of our efforts. 3 trillion effort to try to keep state and local governments open, to try to get Online Learning effected, telehealth, the kind of things we know we need to do in this pandemic. And he laughed at it and hes now walked away from it. And hes saying hes going to leave it up to the house and the white house. If thats what weve got to work with, thats what weve got to work with. But as you know, when youre dealing with a legislative body, and whatever we do has got to pass the senate, it would be a much better effort if the leader of the senate were involved in this process and let the two legislative bodies get together. To sit back and have people who dont run for stuff, never been involved in how to reach Common Ground, and to have the attitude being taken that the idea of a compromise is when you see things my way, and that seems to be the republican attitude on so many things. They want Common Ground as long as its their ground and you come over to occupy it. Thats not the way you do business. We ought to really have more serious discussions than we seem to be having. And Speaker Pelosi is at this hour right now at a briefing, she was just talking to my colleague Kristen Welker in the last hour. On meet the press, you told chuck todd that joe biden needs a running mate with a lot of passion, that he has the gre greatest heart but not a rahrah guy that will motivate people. Looking at that list, a lot of people are saying that the kind of passion and energy, the best campaigner on that list might well are kamala harris. It could be. She has a lot of passion, no question about that. But there are several others. Val demings is as passion as you want to be. I think she would fill the bill as well. And karen bass, karen is a very passionate person, and she has background and experience running. So i think that those women that are being talked about are all real good people. Now, susan rice, a lot of passion, in fact a lot of people hold her passion against her. She gets her language gets salty sometimes and people say thats too much passion. So shes not short on passion. There is also, were trying to clarify what hes said about the Latino Community, saying its more diverse than the Africanamerican Community. How do you react to that . The word diverse, you know me real well, you know im sort of a stickler for the word being what it is. And what he was talking about is whether or not, what continent. When you Start Talking to latinoamericans, youre talking about not just various communities and countries, youre talking about various continent. Theeth th eth ninicity, the div the ethnicity. Most africanamericans come from the caribbean or africa, our roots are basically in africa. All he was talking about was the diversity of not just the communities but also of the continents. And you bring those backgrounds and those experiences into the discussion and you dont have the same set of experiences that you would have if you didnt have this kind of diversity in your background. So the diversity could be within a community, within a state, but there is a broader diversity in his discussion and its more worldwide. But you dont get a chance to explain all that have in a sound bite world. Understood. Thats the perils of the campaign as well. I want to ask you about kanye west. I