Another grim record, another grim milestone for the sunshine state. Nearly 100 of those victims were in miamidade county. Thats where things stand on this monday morning, august 3rd. With us we have contributor Mike Barnicle. White house reporter for Associated Press, jonathan lemire. Host of kasie dc on msnbc, the great kasie hunt. And politics and journalism professor, politics editor and msnbc political contributor, Jason Johnson will join us in a moment. Jonathan lemire, i want to start with you and then go to kasie and get her take on whats happening on capitol hill or whats not happening on capitol hill with the coronavirus outbreak and then i want to go to Mike Barnicle and you and i are going to pile on Mike Barnicle and ask him how he allowed the red sox pitching to get this bad. Jonathan lets start with you first and talk about a piece you wrote for the Associated Press about donald trump and the campaign. Something youve been saying for some time. And that is that his staff keep telling him, his Campaign Advisers keep telling him, mr. President stop thinking this is going to be like 2016. Theres not going to be a last minute surprise. Thats not when the charge starts. It starts right now. And it starts right now because early voting is coming up. And a lot of peoples opinions about you, mr. President , are already set in stone. The president , joe, has been telling people for weeks now to try to reassure allies that he has plenty of time, its still early. He points to election day being three months away. He calls back to 2016, how there were these late breaking events, particularly the james comey letter, that shifted things his way. And his aides have been telling him, perhaps the last week and a half they were able to get it through, this is 2020, people vote when they vote, whether its election day or early. Well see this year a historic surge in early voting, fuelled by the pandemic where people are not going to feel safe traveling to the ballot box and theyll mail them out ahead of time. North carolina, that begins in a month and several others begin soon thereafter. Even if there were an october surprise, a reversal of fortune for the president say in the stretch run. Millions of ballots will have been cast. So they had a pause in advertising for several days to reassess message and strategy. Theyre going back on the air today, monday, focussing on the attack that joe biden is under the left wing elements of his party. Lots of luck with that one. They cant have rallies so far thats right, that attack has not struck. And theyre planning a ton of day trips to states, battleground and otherwise, to get the president in front of voters. The president usually in august takes a week or two or longer vacation in bed minister, new jersey, thats off. Hell take occasional week ends, but thats not going to be an extended time. Theyre rethinking the national convention, so theyre trying to see what they can do to put him in his voters minds. If he can cut into deficits, deficits they think arent as high as public polling, he has to show he has a handle on the coronavirus pandemic. Thats whats weighed him down since march, unless he can show progress there, its going to be a tough place to win. Of course, the president was ruminating trying to figure out why his poll numbers were low, dr. Faucis numbers were high and why things were going the way they were, and he suggested people just didnt like him, it was his personality. Its not his personality, which is offensive to a lot of people, but it is the fact hes called it wrong from the very beginning on this pandemic thats now killed 150,000 americans. Donald trump in january saying it was just one person coming in p from china, would be gone. In february saying it was 15 people but soon it was going to be down to zero. And march, saying it was going to magically go away in april when the sunshine came out. April telling people to use disinfectants and uv lights. Maybe to inject the disinfect t disinfectan disinfectants, to have dr. Birx check that out. Of course, he promised this was going away, was going to magical disappear. Said it would be with us in the fa fall. Tried to reopen schools in april or may when 80 of americans didnt want them reopened. I can go down the list, you know the list yourself. Is somebody trying to talk . Im sorry i keep getting interference. Anyway, you can go through that laundry list. People arent making a decision based on his personality. Theyre making a decision based on just calamity policies that have put the United States in the worst position of any country on the planet. We should not be where we are right now. And we are where we are right now despite the fact we have the best hospitals in in the world, the best Research Universities in the world. The best scientists and doctors in the world. Ive said it for months now, weve won at least half of every noble prize given out for science since 1950. We are better positioned than any country in the world to face down this pandemic, but because of bad leadership we find ourselves where we are. As weve been saying since march, you cant bully a pandemic. You cant lie to a pandemic. You cant wish away a pandemic. And weve been saying that constantly since march. The president s ignored it. Joe biden was saying back in january, can you believe that, six months ago, joe biden was saying in january, listen to your doctors, listen to your scientists, let them lead you, mr. President. Were not ready for the pandemic, mr. President. But the scientists are. Talk to your scientists, talk to your doctors, let them lead you. Let them guide you. And he just hasnt done it. Hes ignored them, pushed them to the side and kept saying this was going to magically gone away. It hasnt. One thing that has gone away is Economic Relief for americans whose lives have been shattered by this pandemic. And apparently no one in the senate cares about that because the benefits have expired and it doesnt look like Mitch Mcconnells senate wants to do anything about that. Tell us whats the latest . They could have done something earlier, now here we are, and the benefits have expired and theyre scrambling to try to pull something together. The reality is because of that failure you just walked through, the only thing that congress can try to do to help people is shovel money out the door because now the economic crisis is worse because the medical crisis is so bad. Its clear the white house, if you listened to mark meadows and Steve Mnuchin yesterday morning they still want to do a big package to try to send money to people, because they realize just how bad things are for so Many Americans and they are facing an election in just a couple months. But for senate republicans, joe, its almost already turned into a scramble for what the Republican Party is going to look like after trump is out of office. People are very down on the president s chances right now. And so you have posturing from ted cruz in the senate lunches talking about how much money theyre spending. Arguments between people like tom cotton, keep spending the money. Democrats will spend more money anyway, and we need to prop up these republican senators who are at risk of losing their seats. Thats the backdrop for when theyre sitting down across the table, and Mitch Mcconnell wasnt in washington this weekend, his staff said he was kept abreast of the situation, but he has a Campaign Going on in kentucky. And the reality is if the Administration Says they want to pass it, mcconnell may have to do it with democrats in the senate. Thats kind of the state of play with where things are here. Republicans have gone back with counter proposal, with no clear major progress with where, you know, democrats are saying we have to do this. And, you know, theyre also refusing to look at things like voting, which is a huge problem. The election is three months away and theres still no real plan to allow americans to exercise their votes amid this pandemic. So were far away from a deal sitting here this morning, joe. And you are right. There are a lot of vulnerable republican senators who understand they need to pass legislation to give Economic Relief to people whose lives have been destroyed by this pandemic and also to make sure that people in their states can actually vote. Democrats really need to come together, and republicans need to make sure that theyre able to fund this voting process, so its not a nightmare in the fall. And i know a lot of americans are going to be looking. And jason, right now, Mitch Mcconnell is more than just a majority leader who is worried about where he, you know, where the caucus is. Hes got to worry about his own race. Look at Martha Mcsally whos in a lot of trouble politically. Look at Corey Gardner in colorado. Joanie ernst is iowa is probably in trouble. Susan collins in maine in big trouble. Even if you look at whats happening in georgia, you have us doing much better than expected and yesterday in North Carolina this poll came out on thom tillis, and thom tillis is getting beaten by nine points in North Carolina. The deep south losing 48 to 39 to cunningham. And donald trump also in that state, a state thats gone republican every year except 2008 for my gosh how long . Probably 45, 50 years. Donald trump still losing this time by five points to joe biden in North Carolina. Four points, im sorry. It seems the republicans are just sitting on their hands, not doing anything about voting, Economic Relief for working class and middle class americans in many states like arizona, colorado, maine, North Carolina. Can Mitch Mcconnell and the republicans really sit back and let donald trump rig the election and let donald trump you know, try to rig the election. And let donald trump basically tell millions of americans, let them eat cake . Thats where donald trump and the Republican Party is right now. Joe the real challenge, if you look at some of the biggest sticking points to the republicans coming up with a plan to help these vulnerable senators, its tom cotton, rand paul and ted cruz. The guys who want to run in 2024. The safe republicans who think that, hey, donald trump may be out of here and i want to set myself up to be one of the new leaders of the party. Theyre also the people standing in the way of creating the kind of relief that would help Susan Collins, thom tillis, Martha Mcsally and joni ernst. The other issue is this, as we talked about earlier, even if magically some relief is developed. I think at some point they will, look usually the republicans are in a position of strength weve seen daca negotiations and things in the past, eventually the democrats will cave because theyre worried their constituents will get mad at them. Thats not the case anyone. You have democrats and independents united saying i dont like the job that donald trump is doing. The republicans in are in the vulnerable position of having to defend what the president is doing and they dont know how to come up with a valuable plan. You know, its not just that we had the Susan Collins of the world and the Corey Gardners of the world, the fields theyre in is more competitive than six weeks ago. I dont think Mitch Mcconnell realizes how tenuous his position of power is, thats the reason everyone is scrambling for the doors. I think Mitch Mcconnell has to worry more about his own reelection than ever before. Probably why he was in kentucky this past weekend instead of trying to get the bill passed. There are two elements to the bill, one is Economic Relief but also more and more people are getting concerned when donald trump talks about rigged elections, once again hes confessing or projecting, because a lot of talk about the new postmaster generals changes at the u. S. Postal services and theyre already reportedly creating backlogs in delivery that could threaten the arrive for the mailin election. Luis dejoy, who President Trump appointed, has put in measures, including limiting overtime, shutting down sorting machines early and requiring letter carriers to leave behind mail. Delivery days of at least two days in parts of the country as a result of that. But claims that mailin voting is inaccurate and unreliable. Now there are observers that believe the changes are politically motivated and designed to undercut the Postal Service. Workers told the Washington Post that the backlogs are so dire if the new procedures remain in place, workers may not be able to locate all the ballots in time for them to be processed. Quote if they keep this up until the election, theres no telling how many days worth of delay there could be a post worker from california told the Washington Post. So, mike, there it is. Donald trumps best Case Scenario where he goes on tv last week and he talks about the delays that we could have with mailin voting. And then he implements policies in the u. S. Postal service that are designed to delay voting. He predicts the future by shaping the future, by putting one of his political hacks inside the Postal Service to try to slow things down. Yeah. You know, call me a cynic joe, if you will. But one thing we all learned in the year 2000 is that republicans are good at fixing the way we count ballots in the country. Now with this furor over mailin votes we could be sitting down for thanksgiving dinner not really knowing specifically who the president elect of the United States is. So we all have to pray that theres going to be a landslide for joe biden in order to avoid this conflict. But the larger topic here this morning is one you cant ignore and you cant miss if you go out of your home for five minutes. And it is that we have elected people, specifically in this case, to the United States senate to take care of problems that come up with their constituents in state after state after state. What were talking about this morning, literally, is the economic present today and the Economic Future near term and long term for millions of American Families whose lives, economically speaking, may never be the same because of the inaction of the United States senate and the inability of the United States senate and specifically Donald Trumps administration to cut a deal to keep the families afloat in the short term. And it is unbelievably outrageous theyre wringing their hands and walking back and forth from one end of the capitol to the other complaining about the negotiation process when there are millions of families that are going to sink into an economic meyer and never come out of it. A lot of americans get the checks from the government and immediately turned around and paid their rent, paid part of their mortgage. They depended on that to be able to hold over and keep their family inside their apartment or inside their town home or inside their Single Family home. Now, youre going to have eviction notices going out in Martha Mcsallys arizona and Corey Gardners colorado and joni ernsts and i can keep going, and Mitch Mcconnells kentucky and are they really going to be able to explain to their constituents, you know what, we didnt pass that to keep you in your apartments or to keep your in your family homes because ted cruz and tom cotton and people who want to be president four years from now because they didnt want us to pass it. And we just didnt have the power, the strength to roll them and get it passed. Are they going to really say that . Also, when people are lined up to vote and they cant vote or they find out that their ballots, their mailin ballots, their absentee votes, ballots, dont get there in time because republicans wouldnt pass legislation, now in august, im warning you again republicans like i started warning you in march, im trying to help you here. If there is chaos in november and you say no to giving the post office the money it needs, the funding it needs, to giving states the money it needs to protect the american democracy this fall, itll be another mark against you. Just like this pandemic. Just like ive been telling you, just about every single day since march to make your president take this virus seriously. To stop lying to the American People. To stop being polly annish to the American People. To stop making promises that obviously were never going to be fulfilled. To stop saying were going to be able to open by easter. Were going to be able to open by memorial day. Goo good lord, the fourth of july has come and gone and its only getting worse. And its only getting worse because you didnt hold your president to account in march. Americans keep dying because you didnt hold your president to account in march. Hell, you wouldnt even start Wearing Masks until recently. Some of your governors wouldnt let localities pass mask ordinances. What is that about . Right. Yo