Rebrand donald trump as a blue collar working class every man. Good morning. We have former aid to george w. Bush and from the state department elise jordan. The host of politics nation and president of the National Action network al sharpton. Reporter for axios, Jonathan Swan. More from his remarkable interview with the president coming up. Willie, its a thing were starting to see more and more from donald trump. Him working against his own political selfinterest weve been talking about this had for a while. Yesterday was no exception. Lets go through some of the highlights of the day. He spent the day undermining an Economic Relief bill for struggling americans. Constantly attacking the idea of passing it, the people negotiating it. He then attacked deborah birx for telling the truth about the pandemic and called her pathetic. He, once again, believe it or not, he pushed hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for coronavirus a day after the Trump Administrations coronavirus testing czar became the latest official to say doesnt work. It doesnt work. Quote, we need to move on from that drug. Just like the fda said it. Just like everybody in trumps own administration has said it. Its a scam, and doctors who push it are pushing a scam for whatever reason. The Trump Administration has said it doesnt work. But donald trump, he keeps pushing the scam. And he continued to work to undermine legal forms of voting. I have to say again, these are legal forms of voting that usually favor republicans. And its making donald trump freak out, actually. And making republicans freak out that he keeps attacking a form of voting that republicans do quite well in. And, of course, with 156,000 americans now dead from the virus the president decided to take time yesterday morning, again, to attack our show. And this time to attack our shows ratings. He, of course, lied about our numbers, but i responded to him with this genuine plea. I ask again that you please stop obsessing over our show. 150,000 americans are dead. We need you to focus on that. By the way, congratulations to the Morning Joe Team for putting together some of the highest numbers in morning joe history. Willie, of course, you brought up our competition on another channel, ffox friends, i think friday had us getting 1. 3 Million Viewers an hour. So even his attacks continue to be lies. And you wonder why the poor man remains obsessed with us and with i mean, its a cable news show and then going after deborah birx, the person whos been the most loyal to him over the past several months. So loyal that shes actually compromised her own credibility in the medical and science community, which, of course, again another lesson for people that have been loyal to donald trump, it never sticks. But just the absolute sheer chaos while his own team is trying to put together an Economic Relief bill that will help the country get through this terrible time and his doctors are trying to spare more americans from dying as the death count is over 150,000. This guy just cant help himself. Yeah, there was so much yesterday. I had the same thought when i heard about his tweet when he was going after our ratings incorrectly. I thought look whats going on out in the world and youre worried about the ratings of cable news morning shows. Used to be many years ago, the president of the United States has something to say about our show how should we deal with it . I didnt hear about it for a few hours. It gist makes me sad that hes not focussed on this crisis in our country right now. As for the legislation going on on capitol hill, the president if you talk to republicans, both and democrats, they say hes not a part of this. He has representatives helping, mark meadows and Steve Mnuchin trying to get a deal. But the president who campaigned entirely on being this great deal maker, the guy you know from the apprentice, the guy whos going to shake up washington and come in and throw out the old ways and get deals done is not even participating in a deal that would help, by the way, many of his own supporters but tens of millions of americans get money, some food on the table and weather this crisis. Hes not participating in that exercise. Thats who he was supposed to be when he ran for president and hes not delivering on that whatsoever. He said, i alone can fix it. And yet i talk to people in the government, talk to people that work in his administration and more and more theyre working to actively exclude him. Foreign policy people are moving about trying to handle very delicate situations as much as they can without talking to the president , as much as they can keep from the president they do because hes become even more erratic, even more irrational. And you hear it in the campaign that they just try to keep their heads down and stay away from donald trump whenever they can. And here you have, again, here you have the guy who said, i alone can fix it. I know how to make deals. Hes sitting on the sidelines, nobody wants him to be involved because hes such a destructive force. So instead of being involved, hes just sending out tweets and saying nasty things from the white house to actually undermine the work that his people and that the republican senators are trying to get done because they know that theyre in enough trouble as it is because theyre attached to donald trump. Yeah. And now would be a great time to be the master deal maker he claimed he was during the 2016 campaign. The country needs him to put this deal together. Jonathan swan is with us this morning, weve been talking for days now about his interview for axios for hbo when he sat down with President Trump. Heres another clip where the president defends his administrations handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Ive covered you for a long time, ive gone to your rallies, they love you, listen to you, hang on every word, they dont listen to me or fauci or the media, they say were fake news. When you say dont worry about Wearing Masks, many of these are older people. Its giving them a false sense of security its under control. How . 1,000 americans are dying every day . They are, but that doesnt mean were doing everything we can. Its under control as much as we can control. Its a horrible plague. You really think this is as much as we can control . 1,000 deaths a day . First of all, we have done a great job. Weve gotten the governors everything they needed. Many of them didnt, some they did, well talk about the successful ones the good ones one day, we had good and bad and a lot in the middle. I could tell you right now who the great ones are and who the not so great ones are. But the governors do it. We gave them massive amounts of material. Jonathan he says it is what it is, he says weve got it under control and resorts to the greatest hits, saying i gave the governors everything they wanted. That doesnt get to the core of where we are right now. No. And what the federal government could be doing about this. This is a very, very serious point. We in the midst of the worst pandemic in a century. 150,000 americans are dead, 1,000 americans are dying every day. And when President Trump is pressed on it, he returns to a few different lines. He says weve done more tests than anyone else in the world. Yes, thats true, but its also not a particularly relevant statistic. Because many of the tests people have to wait more than a week to get their results which renders them useless because theyre going around infecting other people. The reason weve done so many tests is because we didnt get to the testing early enough, the virus spread like wildfire throughout the country and were now playing catch up. Perhaps the most important thing is the president s own communication. When you talk to Public Health experts theyll tell you communication from a leader is the most important thing to do in a Public Health crisis. You need credible, fact based, consistent communication. This is what i was trying to get at in the interview. He always wants to tell and present the most positive spin on things, even if if it bears no resemblance to reality. Whereas that might be appropriate for selling a commercial Real Estate Property, or hyping a reality tv show, when youre talking about a bunch of people, millions of americans who hang on his every word, many of whom are elderly and in the high risk category, when youre telling them the virus is under control, thats not a harmless statement. It has real world consequences. Its deadly serious. And elise jordan, weve gotten to a point where donald trump has gone from saying this is one person coming in from china and soon its going to be over with. In january. In february saying, its 15 people coming in and soon theyll be taken care of. In march he says its going to go away in april when the weather gets warmer. He promises americans it will go away magically. Then he keeps saying its about to leave, believe me, trust me, its goingaw away. In the spring he undercut dr. Anthony fauci and said this wont come back in the fall. Its going away and its gone for good. And now he is still talking about how its going away. Hes had to move from saying that its one person coming in from china going away to here in august saying, 1,000 people died . It is what it is. 150,000 people dead . Its a terrible pandemic, but its going away. And yesterday deborah birx warned how bad this was. You look at the numbers and you look at the fact that july was just a horrific month. And deborah birx tries to tell americans the truth, donald trump calls her pathetic. And keeps lying to the American People, keeps saying, its going away. And just tosses aside the fact that 1,000 people died in a single day from this pandemic. Joe, i just cant move beyond that jaw dropping moment in jonathans interview where donald trump just essentially puts up his hands and says, it is what it is. Seriously, the american president , we have 150,000 americans who have died, thats countless families who are suffering loved ones who died this year that didnt have to die because of his administrations negligence. And donald trump is just dismissing all of that death, all of that loss as it is what it is. Can you imagine if a wartime commander in chief said, oh, sorry about those men and women i sent to battle that died, it is what it is. Would the American Public accept that . I dont understand why were going to accept that now and i dont see how this isnt anything but the perfect attack ad. Donald trump in his own words dismissing the pain and suffering of countless americans. And, you know, willie jonathan i remember Hillary Clinton in a ben gbhengazi hearing abou four people who died, a thousand people died in a single day in the United States from a pandemic that hes been saying was going to go away since january and he dismisses it with it is what it is. Weve had two and a half vietnams in effect. More people dying of this pandemic which he said was one person coming in from china which would soon go away than died in world war i. My god, how many 9 11s . Forty 9 11s . And now donald trump wanting us, his supporters to go, things happen. No. Things happen for a reason. Things happen because Donald Trumps leadership has been off since the beginning. You compare the number of deaths in other countries across the globe right now with the number of deaths in america, you compare the cases, theres just not a close comparison. We are by and far the worst countries in this pandemic. 1,244 americans dead in a single day in the United States. Zero in spain. Zero in germany. 11 in france. Seven in australia. And one in japan. Again, the United States of america, with the best hospitals in the world, best research, universities in the world, 1,244, willie. And its all because of leadership from the top. President trump talked about those countries, that group right there, which is why we put them on the graphic for a comparison. But theres an embarrassing moment in the interview with jonathan where jonathan talks about the death rate and the president pulls out charts as a percentage of cases. Hes trying to twist and spin his way out of the facts you just stated and the facts you put on the screen. I should point out yesterday the Trump Campaign put on an email where for the first time in writing, august 3rd, i guess we should probably wear masks. So President Trump endorsing that through his campaign finally. Theres another moment where President Trump was talking to jonathan about the legacy of the late congressman john lewis, remember the president finally put out a tweet and that was about it as the country mourned the death of the civil rights icon. Heres that exchange. John lewis is lying in state in the u. S. Capitol, how do you think history will remember john lewis . I dont know. I dont know. I really dont know. I dont know john lewis. He chose not to come to my inauguration. He chose i dont i never met john lewis actually, i dont believe. Do you find him impressive . I cant say one way or the other. I find a lot of people impressive. I find many people not impressive. But no do you find his story impressive . He didnt come to my inauguration, my state of the union speeches. And thats his right. And again, nobody has done more for black americans that i have. I understand. I think he should have come, he made a mistake. Taking your relationship with him out of it, do you find his story impressive, what hes done for this country . He was a person that devoted a lot of energy and a lot of heart to civil rights, but there were many others also. Theres a petition to rename the Edmund Pettis bridge in selma, alabama as the john lewis bridge, would you support that idea . I would have no objection to it if theyd like to do it. Its a good idea . Would have no objection to it whatsoever. Donald trump cant even say john lewis was an impressive man and he brought up repeatedly this poor, tortured, twisted soul brought up repeatedly that john lewis did not attend his inauguration four years ago. So as this american icon, this American Angel, or saint as john meacham calls him, is lying in state, donald trump cant even say anything nice about him. Is that because hes extraordinarily small or hes still sending signals out to white nationalists like david duke who say his election was great for america . Probably a combination of both. I mean, for one to sit there as the president of the United States where the three preceding president s went to not only john lewis laying in state and gave statements, they went to his funeral in atlanta, georgia, none of whom lived in atlanta, made a journey to honor him. And you the president , so small, when someone asked you about him laying in p state, you saying he didnt come to my inauguration. Thats like you asking me about a great figure and me saying but they didnt come hear me preach last sunday. How small for you not to be able to give the kind of due credit to a man who was beaten and shed blood to give all americans the right to vote, those of the black Community Like me who were barred from the right to vote or at least using it in a way that people could not put impediments in the way. For him not to recognize that but say there were many people, to minimize that is to send signals to the most racist and the most backward and bigoted parts of the electorate which he wants to appeal to. And i think its sad that we have this person who has such a low and small selfconcept that everything is about his insecurity rather than being able to see the bigger picture. For that type of person to sit in the white house is dangerous. Its the same type of person that would say with the coronavirus pandemic that were facing, were doing better than others rather than trying to strengthen america to say were going through something that is serious. We must be strong and get through this together, inspire us to do it and say to people, we need to get an answer to this. We need to get the vaccine. We need to get away to keep people eating rather than to try to play the baby thing, im doing better than john next door. We are dying, mr. President , we dont need a comparison. We need a solution. I think it runs as a thread through his whole character he cant raise up to it. Because you criticized him, you got bad ratings. Thats not whats important here. If youre not with me, if youre john lewis and dont come to my inauguration youre not great. Thats who we have in the white house. Well, you know, its interesting that you have republican senators, we talk about a good bit, who actually are lined up and continue to support this president who not only refuses to go visit john lewis as he lies in state at the United States capitol but wont even say a positive word about him. This is something that hasnt happened in decades. That you have a president thats just this small. And willie, the choices are not good for supporters of donald trump. They are either behind a man who is so small that hes refusing to pay any tribute to one of the giants in civil rights history, because he didnt attend his inauguration. Or hes trying to send a message to White Supremacists and others that hes not going to say anything nice about a black man. And, of course, you have to put that as a possibility after months of donald trump picking away, day by day, on the scab of racism in america. Yeah. I like to point out, also, i think a lot of people forget, john lewis also boycotted george w. Bushs inauguration because of the outcome of the election that he thought wasnt legitimate at that time. You know who spoke at his funeral . George w. Bush, travelled from texas to georgia and spoke at john lewis funeral. Everything goes through the prism of Donald Trumps personality, we know that. So the first thing jonathan asked, he said he didnt go to my funeral. And also said, i didnt know him personally. You dont have to know him to know his story. We know donald trump watches tv, there was plenty to say about john lewis if you didnt know anything a