Joe biden striking a much calmer tone in philadelphia but still criticizing mr. Trumps record on the pandemic, on race, race relations, climate change, the economy, while giving this assessment of what a Trump Victory would mean. If you lose, what will that say to you about where america is today . Well, it could say im a lousy candidate and i didnt do a good job. But i think, uh, i hope that it doesnt say that we are as racially, ethnically, and religiously at odds with one another as it appears the president wants us to be. Joining me now, robert gibbs, former press secretary to president obama. Michael steele, former Republican National committee chairman. And nbcs mike memoli in detroit ahead of joe bidens arrival there for his big trip to michigan today. Michael steele, first to you. The president s rather strange answer about that retweet only minutes after this interaction with savannah about qanon. Let me ask you about qanon. It is this theory that democrats are a satanic pedophile ring and that you are the savior of that. Can you just once and for all state that that is completely not true . So will you disavow qanon in its entirety . I know nothing about qanon. I just told you. You told me, but what you tell me doesnt necessarily make it fact, i hate to say that. I know nothing about it. I do know they are very much against, uh, pedophilia, they fight it very hard. They believe it is a satanic cult run by the deep state. Ill tell what you i do know about. I know about antifa and i know about the radical left. I just dont know about qanon. You do know. I dont know. No, i dont know. Michael steele, his own fbi and homeland intelligence agencies explaining what qanon is and that it is dangerous. Were talking about domestic terror here. Theyve been violent. How can he say that he doesnt know . And she just defined it for him. As the song goes, if you dont know, now you know. And the truth of it is, he does know. The president has been briefed on qanon. But the core point for trump is that they like him. They admire him. And they push out whatever hes saying and whatever he wants out in the ether. So this he doesnt get into the minutia of what theyre doing. Hes not into all the other stuff beyond what he knows about the pedophile part of their antipedophile position. For him, theyre a group who likes him, thats why he retweets them. To savannahs point, youre the president of the United States. These things matter when you say them, when you tweet them out. You cant just randomly tweet something out with no understanding of what it says to the country when you tweet it out. So when you tweet out qanon stupid, people think, oh, okay, thats a legitimate thing. So, you know, no matter how you cut at this, andrea, hes not going to get into the space where he can be perceived to have been wrong in doing so. The guy who retweets is full of retweets on Something Like this. And he was retweeting again today, some really crazy website. Robert gibbs, the Biggest Issue obviously is the coronavirus, thats the Biggest Issue hanging over everything, over the economy. The president couldnt or wouldnt, i should say, even tell savannah if he had tested, been tested on debate day and when his last negative test was. Lets watch. The debate commissions rules, it was the honor system, would be that you would come with a negative test. You say you dont know if you got a test on the day of the debate . I have no problem. Again, the doctors into it. I dont ask them. I test all the time. And did you take a test, though, on the day of the debate . You ask the doctor, theyll give you a perfect answer. They take a test and i leave and i go about my business. Did you take a test on the today of the debate, i guess is the bottom line. I probably did. And i took a test the day before and the day before and i was always in great shape. Do you take a test every single day . No. But i take a lot of tests. And you dont know if you took a test the day of the debate . Possibly i did, possibly i didnt. Robert, what do you make of that . Andrea, sometimes a nonanswer is an answer. What i make of that is, he didnt take a test the day of the debate. And i think that seems somewhat clear. You know, when thats your answer, the structure of it means you didnt. And look, i think both that answer, but i think his answer on coronavirus, still questioning the efficacy of mask wearing at this stage, and after he himself has dealt with the coronavirus, contrasted with what joe biden said at the beginning of his town hall exchanges on this, i think are the exact contrast that the Vice President ial campaign wants. The question you asked of michael, joe biden said when it comes to the vaccine and treatments and how we go about our business in reacting to coronavirus, joe biden said the president s words matter. And, you know, that undecided voter, you know, really nodded their head and got that. People understand that. I think it was a real stark contrast, if you watched those two events, on the issue that really does matter most to voters right now. And another big issue, of course, has been all of the reporting on his tax returns, which, you know, still have not been put out, but the New York Times had all of that reporting. Jen palmieri joining us, former Communications Director in the Obama Administration and of course Hillary Clintons president ial campaign. The president confirmed, basically, to savannahs questions, the New York Timess reporting that he owes 400 million, but he wouldnt say to whom. Im very underleveraged. I have a very, very small percentage of debt compared are you confirming that yes, you do owe some 400 million . What im saying is its a tiny percentage of my net worth. That sounds like yes. I dont owe russia money. I dont owe v i owe a very small its called moralities. Any foreign bank or entity . Not that i know of, but probably, because its so easy to solve, and if you would like to do i will let you know who who i owe whatever small amount of money. Jen, hes never been questioned about this, that was really illustrative. There was a lot there. Theres a lot to unpack. Hes not normally pushed the way Savannah Guthrie pushed him and particularly the style where she kept coming back at him in a conversational way, he wasnt used to dealing with that. I dont imagine he walked onto that stage thinking he was going to admit to being in debt to 400 million, and calling that a small amount, most americans would not agree its a small amount. And i think we also have a sense of, you know, what is trump facing on the outside, when he does lead the white house. If hes facing 400 million in debt, if hes facing possible prosecution from the state attorney operating out of new york, you have a sense of all the reasons why hes hanging on so hard to the white house. But it was a pretty stunning admission. The whole hour was just extraordinary. Mike memoli, lets talk about a very different 90 minutes, which was joe biden in philadelphia. Hes on his way to michigan, i guess, where you are today, and detroit. But one thing he did dodge was the question about whether he would pack the Supreme Court, being caught between two parts of the Democratic Caucus on this in the senate on this. This was George Stephanopoulos trying to pin him down. If they vote on it before the election, you are open to expanding the court . Im open to considering what happens from that point on. You said so many times during the campaign, all through the course of your career, its important to level with the american people. It is, but george, if i say no matter what answer i gave you, if i say it, thats the headline tomorrow. It wont be about whats going on now, the improper way theyre proceeding. Dont voters have a right to know where you stand . They do have a right to know where i stand before they vote. He said he would explain it all before election day. But people are voting right now, some 12 million or more people have already voted. Yeah, andrea, i mean, one of the ironies of bidens stated position there that he doesnt want to comment on this issue because then it becomes the story, is that his continued dodging of this question has itself become a story. I mean, you talk about what a contrast we saw, though, in these two town halls last night, you really do wonder what we would have seen had these two men been sharing a debate stage in the town hall format and really you kind of wish you could have seen that. Short of that, i was struck, watching this, last night, just at how biden performed in terms of he was very reflective at times. At times he even gave President Trump some credit on Foreign Policy when he was asked about that by a voter. But he much more broadly criticized him for isolating america. And then when it came to that Court Packing question, elapsed into, as he admitted, his days as a constitutional law professor, talking about the merits of some of the ideas that democrats have put forward, proposals to reform the Supreme Court, maybe expand it, maybe add some age limits, time limits to the tenure of Supreme Court justices. But ultimately not giving that answer, but andrea, as biden does prepare to come here to michigan, robert referred to comments that biden made in terms of the words of a president matter. Were also seeing the same comment from governor Gretchen Wilmer here in michigan as she was responding to comments trump directed to her on thursday calling her a dictator. It will be interesting to see one of the things ill keep an eye on is whether Governor Whitmer joins joe biden on the campaign trail today. We know theyve spoken since the revelation of the plot to kidnap her but we havent seen them together. Whitmer one of those women on georges Vice President ial short list as well. Indeed. And in fact the michigan government just put out a decision today, the secretary of state, i believe, saying that people cannot carry weapons into polling booths. So thats obviously top of mind, continuing the threats of possible problems going forward. Jen palmieri, you worked in the Clinton White house. You saw joe biden trying to respond to a question from a trump voter last night about the crime bill and how it was certainly perceived today to be unfair to minorities on sentencing and other provisions. And his response was that at the time, the black caucus supported it. But he did acknowledge that there were some problems with that crime bill which he used to tout so much. Yeah, and its true that its true that at the time, in 1994, when that crime bill was passed, it was something that was passed with the support of the congressional black caucus, it was something they worked on together. And, you know, we had the same issue come up in 2016, with hillary and the admission that whats happened, what happened 20 years on, is those sentencing guidelines had had pretty disastrous impacts on a lot of peoples lives. Thats something biden reckoned with yesterday too. Robert gibbs, youve prepared president s for debates. And youve seen how president obama in his first debate didnt do well as an incumbent, then came back in later debates. If you were preparing donald trump right now for a debate next week where hes going to face off with joe biden, Kristen Welker, our colleague, is the moderator, can he come on strong and combative as he did in the first debate . And to a great extent last night as well. No. And i think if you step back from last night, i mean, he was not as torqued up as he was the week before. And i think many of us thought that when you put an undecided voter into that equation, he probably is going to dial back some. He was still pretty hot, but he dialed back some. Look, i think the biggest challenge that donald trump has is, he needs voters to fundamentally rethink and reevaluate in a positive way his actions and his presidency. And i think that is the hurdle that he has to get over. And so in many ways, i think hes got to get people, and the answers he gives about what he wants to do differently, before he draws that contrast with joe biden. I was surprised at this town hall that he didnt focus a bit on the economy, which is a bit more of a Natural Advantage for him. Indeed. Well have to leave it there for now. A lot more to come next week. Robert gibbs, jen palmieri, michael steele, mike memoli, thanks to all of you. Ahead, rudy awakening . New details about the president s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani being the target of a russian influence campaign. First, the president continues to spread false information about covid19 as more than 8 million americans now have been infected with the virus. A fact check from our medical expert, coming up. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. A Digital Foundation from vmware helps you redefine whats possible. Now. From the hospital shifting to remote patient care in just 48 hours. 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Com right now and see how much you can save. There are now more than 8 million coronavirus cases in the u. S. With thursday hitting the highest single day mark since july, suggesting the country is suffering from a third peak with 38 states now having increases, reporting double digit increases. But President Trump continues to falsely claim scientists have found a cure for the virus. Its rounding the corner. And we have the vaccines coming. And we have the therapies coming. And ill tell you what, one thing, when i got it, i had a choice. Do nothing or use some of the things that were looking at, like in this case regeneron and eli lilly makes something thats supposed to be incredible. And i think that maybe i wouldnt be doing this discussion with you right now. We have therapies now and cures, maybe you can use the word cure, but we are therapies that are absolutely incredible. Joining me now is dr. Kavita patel, former Health Policy director for the obama white house. Thanks very much for being with us, dr. Patel. I want to do some Fact Checking with you, first of all claiming theres a cure and also, how is it for people who dont know any better, who listen to the president , who think thats authoritative, to think theres cure for this disease . Andrea, thats a great set of questions. There is no cure for coronavirus, covid19. Thats a fact. Certainly the president i think has done his share of spreading misinformation. And to your point, more candidly, if youre listening, you would believe the commander in chief, why not . And this is a series of misinformations, including that there is no cure, thats a fact, if people think theres a cure, it might make them more prone to do other things like not wear masks or take precautions that we know can protect you. That leads to a whole other level of misinformation that was spread last night about masks as well. But that is unfortunately we do not have a cure. We have promising treatments. But you have to be generally hospitalized with pretty severe illness to get those treatments. And even then its not a cure or a treatment that you can guarantee will get you out of the hospital safely. And in talking about his own ability to combat the coronavirus, he keeps talking about how he is immune. Now, because he took regeneron, which gives you synthetic antibodies. According to the New York Times, and this gets into your area, not mine, but according to the New York Times today, the monoclonal antibodies he received were produced by the drug company in a matter of weeks. Without replenishment this may leave mr. Trump more susceptible to the virus than most patients who recover naturally from covid19, several experts are warning. Is there something to that . Yes, this gets into an area where were still trying to understand how these artificial kind of antibodies, to your point, the ones the president received which are still experimental, andrea, so i want to stress that, these kind of artificially administered antibodies we believe can provide you some protection like it did in the president , most likely. Again, we still dont have clear details on whats happened to him so were relying on these statements hes made and the position hes made. But youre right, they dont last forever. Even Natural Immunity, andrea, if you or i were infected, we believe our body has some sort of Natural Immunity response, its not clear how long that would last. Maybe months. But maybe longer. But again, its not enough to give anybody protection or say that theyre, quote, immune from the disease. And in fact, were watching people closely to make sure that they are not infected again. There are very limited cases of reinfection with covid19, but they do exist