A different theme, absence. This week is slated to be dominated by the president s family. More on the Trump Convention later in the hour. Meanwhile were expecting what could be a pivotal vote on capitol hill, House Democrats looking to pass legislation that would give 25 billion to the u. S. Postal service as President Trump continues his attack on mail in mailin voting. Congresswoman bass, madam chairman, thanks for being with us this evening. Let me go right to this vote. The democrats are coming back to the hill and trying to put through this bill that would fund the post office, as well as try to give more help to the average american citizen that seems to have been abandoned by this president and his party. Explain what exactly you and fellow democrats are trying to do. Sure. The main thing the bill does is provided 25 billion for the postoffipost office, which is what the post office asked for. The other thing is its to get the postmaster general to correct what hes already done by taking the machines out, by dismantling the sorting machines and removing the boxes. He has to replace all of those. He said he was willing to stop moving forward with dismantling the machines, but we want him to go back and rectify what hes already done. The president a couple of weeks ago said he would sign a standalone bill but you and i know what he says one minute, we dont know if it going to last the next. Well see. Were doing our part of it. I will tell you, will, we already passed this 25 billion from the post office three months ago. We did the heros act, expanded Unemployment Insurance and expanded the payments to renters, all of those provisions in the heroes act, we had the 25 billion for the post office. Thats just been sitting over in the senate for the last three months. So the heroes act, which would have done all of this, including monies to the post office and including giving additional funds to american citizens that need it, they would not pass that. Its been sitting in the senate. So now youre coming with the stand alone just for the Postal Services, which President Donald Trump said he would sign and were going to see if the nat will pass just a stand alone and see if he signs it. The importance is to protect the post office where people get medicine, Social Security and as well as for mailin voting and even while his handpicked postmaster general hes railing away on how mailin voting is going to end up being in a fraudulent leelection in november where there is no evidence or data to back that claim up. Over the years republicans were the ones that really promoted mailin balloting. They were the ones that had mastered this. But now that were going to make it available to everyone, now all of a sudden theres a problem with it. This is just the latest version of voter suppression. I have to say that some of the things that have been going on in our country related to this election, this is the kind of issues that i deal with in the Foreign Affairs committee in other countries, that we always criticize other countries from doing this. The other thing he said hes going to do yesterday is hes going to send out his goon squad, his police officers, we dont even know who they are, you know, the masked men in uniforms without tags, hes going to send them to polling places. Well, the only reason for that is to intimidate voters and especially voters of color. Africanamericans are intimidated because they will be told if they make a mistake voting, theyll be thrown in jail. Immigrants will be intimidated because they dont know whether or not theyre i. C. E. Agents. Were going to not let this keep us from voting him out of office. So on one hand he is saying hes going to send Law Enforcement, i think he even said sheriffs and other people like that to the voting sites, which clearly in this era of george floyd intimidates a lot of voters and immigrants who are going to feel that theyre going to be profiled, even if they are citizens, to be pulled over by Law Enforcement and questioned. Thats on one hand. On the other hand, he doesnt want mailin voting. So he clearly just does not want to see americans be able to vote in their senators, congressman and president. He doesnt want some americans to vote. You know hes joked and theres an a audio they just uncovered where he joked and said he was happy that the black vote didnt turn out the way it should have in 2016 and he knows us not voting was a correcting factor to him winning so black folks need to be put on notice. Did you hear that . Hes expecting us to help him win by not voting that should energize all of us. Not just black people, but that should energize all of us. If thats the way he thinks hes going to win, we need to make sure that that does not happen. And i usually agree with you. Ive known you for years and our poll tebs are similar b polite with you, i dont think he was joking. I think hes trying to make sure blacks and others, whites, asians, latinos and others dont get to vote this time. Hes not going to depend on them not voting on their own. Congresswoman care bash, chair of the congressional black caucus, i didnt even ask you if our candidate in the Democratic Party for Vice President is successful whether youre going to run for that senate seat. I didnt even ask you that. But if you want to interrupt me and announce something, im open for it. I have nothing to announce. Sorry about that. Well, i have to try. Thank you for being with us this evening. Joining me now are two former chairs of their respective parties, democrat ed rendell and republican michael steele. Before i get to the weeks activities of the Democratic NationalConvention Chair rendell and chairman of the party, michael steele, governor rendell, what is the significance and importance of financing the post office you just heard chairperson karen bass talk about and the implications for mailin voting as well as essential needs people have for using the post office. Were talking about Social Security checks, medicine, prescriptions, all kind of things are at stake here with this slowdown. Thats the point, rev. Far more than voting, its the things you talked about and more. Those are the things that will be affected by increased funding at the post office. Nothing we can do in legislation to force the Postal Service to bring back the voting machines. That was a disgrace. Theres only one reason for not bringing them back, he wants donald trump to win the election and wants mail voting to get screwed up. Those are essential for effective and competent mail voting. So the bill itself has significance as to what citizens need for ordinary functioning post office. As far as the election goes, i dont think the bill will help very much unfortunately. Michael steele, put the president aside for a minute. Dont those down ticket, down ballot republicans running for the senate i think about 20 senators are up, seats are up, those running for congress and all, dont they fear the backlash that voters would have if they cant get their Social Security checks on time, if they cant get medicine on time . Doesnt this hurt republicans that will be down ballot in november . Thats a good point. My friend and governor rendell, its good to see you again. Thanks, rev, for bringing us together. Yes, and i think that thats a huge part of this narrative thats not being talked about in the context of coming into this weeks convention. A lot goes into the effort when you have a president ial election for sure, and its all about the top of the ticket. But the rnc, state Party Organizations are also concerned about everything else. And that is from races from governor all the way down to the state legislature, which is incredibly important this year. Why . Because the redistricting process begins in 2021. Ho legislatures that are up for grasp, particularly those that are close at the margin, youve got to Pay Attention to that. You can talk about i remember in 2010, we flipped about 11 state legislatures across the country. That was a big deal. The party that really focused on that before, until 2010, i dont know if theyre focused on that now but i do know, reverend, that there is a great deal of concern about whether or not officers for governors and state county executives and other statewide offices are going to be in peril because they carry that baggage for the president and youve already begun to see some try to distance themselves because of the nature of their districts and the nature of their states. And unfortunately they cant get away with it that easily. We know that all too well from 2006 and how the Republican Party got stung nationally but more specifically in those local statewide races because of how the country felt about the top of the party. Governor rendell, the Democratic Convention this week, many were nervous, many were saying how is this going to work without a live audience, how is this going to be produced well enough to get a message across. I from my days of being like a son to james brown know a lot about production, and i thought they did a very good job in terms of the production. How do you feel they did in terms of their messaging and whether or not the points that needed to be brought home were brought home as one who shared that party and shared it while we had live a live audiences in each of the conventions. I remember the 2004 convention, you and i spoke the same night and we work on the energy of the crowd. Without that do you think the point was made . It was certainly well produced. It was incredibly well produced and the Biden Campaign deserves a tremendous amount of credit. But donald trump said it was a dark convention. I dont know what convention he was watching because i felt so optimistic and so energized by the convention. The messages were of hope, the messages were of decency, to restore decency and i thought they did a great job getting the message across. A how does mi, michael steele,w does the republicans come back behind this convention . Theirs will also be virtual but certainly wheres the diversity going to be . Where are those luminaries that are unexpected . You had leading republicans that went on, governor kasich, colin powell, coming on endorsing the democratic candidates. Are they going to be leading democrats that come on and talk for donald trump . What are we to expect this week and what do the republicans need to be able to deliver since theyre back to back and it will be fresh in peoples minds what they just saw . You touch on a number of important points, reverend. Lets start with just the landscape, the scenery, the back drop of the convention. Thats a very high bar that the democrats set. No one thought that this would come off the way it did. Not as a criticism but just because we didnt know, no one did, how this would play out. And i think David Plouffe put it best, they built the plane as they were flying it. We already know republican planners have gone back and rethought and reimagined some of their programming in light of what the democrats have done. So i think thats going to be one of the big head winds for them going into this. The thing, though, at the end of it, theatrics, whether they get democrats to come and stand on the stage for donald trump or not, at the end of the day what they have to push back against is what the democrats have successfully done and branded this upcoming election as a referendum on President Donald Trump. Going into this and youve heard it for a while that the republicans wanted to make sure this was about, you know, president ial leadership and draw the contrast between his leadership and joe biden. And so but the democrats and the nature of events have pretty much made this so far a referendum for the American People on how the president has handled covid19, the flatlining of the economy and the civic unrest that is rife across the country. If they cant push back on those three narratives, its going to be a long way to november. Chairman rendell, governor rendell, the Republicans Convention this week, what would you counsel democrats to do in response to whatever we see this week . We see its mostly family members and people in the president s inner circle or his orbit. Do they aggressively go after and counterprogram as he tried to do or do they lay back like muhammad ali and a rope a dope and let him punch himself out . I think the latter. Theyre going to come out fighting once the election is over. The republicans have to scare the living bejabbers out of americans with the problems going on the street, theyre going to say donald trump is the only hope for law and order, falsely accuse joe biden as being for defunding police, theyre going to lie about it. Theyre going to try to paint joe biden as some captive of the far left. We need to respond very quickly, very forcefully with the truth, with good statistics and good arguments. We cant let their charges go unresponded to. But at the same time, i think its going to be such a native convention, we can let themselves say [ inaudible ]. Who says al sharpton cant bring parties together. Coming up, my memo to the president , a posthumous pardon when there is so much more to be done. First, my colleague richard lui with todays top stories. Thanks, reverend. Coronavirus cases continue to climb in the United States. As of right now the cases top more than 5. 6 million. Thats more than 176,000 people. 177,000 now with the very latest data as of this moment. And new forecasting by the institute of Health Metrics and evaluations. A report says there could be more than 300,000 deaths by the end of the year. That same report concluding if 95 of americans wear a mask that number will drop by 69,000. Covid infections behind Major League Baseballs decision to postpone the entire weekend series against the yankees and mets. 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I got this Mountain Bike for only 11. Dealdash. Com, the fair and honest bidding site. An ipad worth 505, was sold for less than 24; a playstation 4 for less than 16; and a schultz 4k television for less than 2. I won these bluetooth headphones for 20. I got these three suitcases for less than 40. And shipping is always free. Go to dealdash. Com right now and see how much you can save. For this weeks memo to trump, i want to talk about susan b. Anthony and the posthumous pardon you thrust upon her this week, mr. President. At first i thought maybe you considered her a kindred spirit. I realized i was giving you too much credit. You are many things, mr. President , but a student of social movements is not one of them. Of course the actual reason is such simpler and its a micros could of microcosm of your presidency. You made an effort to pander to a group among those of whom you are rapidly losing support, women. Mr. Anthony was arrested for casting a ballot. Youre making voting more difficult for voters using the debunked myth of widespread voter fraud to justify your acti actions. Even during the press Conference Announcing the pardon of anthony, you couldnt resist attacking mailin voting and while the highprofile blow back of the potential sabotage of the Postal Service got your crony to announce his suggestion special of local box collecting plan, local reporting shows you have not stopped the dismantling of sorting machines or the unexplained rerouting of mail. Your intentional breaking of this Crucial Service may be an illegal attempt to thwart mailin voting but the consequences are being felt right now like in rural new england where thousands of chickens being shipped to poultry farmers are arriving late and dead, causing the loss of thousands of dollars for struggling local farmers and like veterans missing their prescriptions and seniors waiting on late Social Security checks. Back to the pardon. That, by the way, that susan b. Anthony never wa