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 y