Some 20,000 people will be indoors and in close quarters in tulsa, oklahoma, inside the bank of oklahoma sports arena for the president s First Campaign rally. It will also make for the nations largest single indoor event since the start of the pandemic, which again will be presided over by the president of the United States. Health experts fear that what trump wants and seems to need, an exuberant packed crowd, could lead to an explosion in new coronavirus infections. All week the president s been defending his decision to go ahead with this rally, praising oklahoma for reopening, claiming the virus is, quote, dying out or fading away even as cases and hospital admissions are still surging. He insisted this week, all evidence to the contrary, that the numbers were minuscule. This afternoon the Oklahoma Supreme Court denied a request to delay the rally or to even require the tulsa arena hosting it to enforce social distancing and make face masks mandatory. The Campaign Says they will be handing out masks, but no one will be forced to wear them. Today the White House Press secretary was asked what she intends to do. Will you and other white house officials be Wearing Masks at the rally . Its a personal choice. I wont be wearing a mask. I cant speak for my colleagues. Im tested regularly. I feel that its safe for me not to be wearing a mask, and im in compliance with cdc guidelines which are recommended but not required. We should be guided by science, not cherrypicking science. Nbc news reports leading experts on the Coronavirus Task force advised against holding the rally. Stands to reason. Quote, dr. Anthony fauci, the nations top Infectious Disease expert and Task Force Response coordinator dr. Deborah birx. Both vocalized concerns internally in the last week. That means they said something. Fauci repeated his warnings about these types of events again today. The best way to protect yourself and to prevent acquisition of and spread of infection is to avoid crowds. Avoid crowds. If in fact for one reason or other you feel compelled to do that, which we dont recommend, then wear a mask at all times. Late this afternoon, trump announced his plan to host another event likely to draw a crowd. A huge gathering on july 4th on the south lawn of the white house. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization warns the virus nowhere near finished with us. The pandemic is accelerating. The world is in a new and dangerous phase. The virus is still spreading fast. The man just said the pandemic is accelerating. The w. H. O. Says more than 150,000 new cases of covid19 were reported yesterday, the most in a single day thus far in the pandemic. Almost half of them in north and south america, which would be our part of the world. Americas sevenday moving average of new cases is on the rise. Thats the eu there in gold. As you see, after crashing, they have flattened their curve. Infections are on the rise in some 20 u. S. States, most of them in the sunbelt. Over 2. 2 million americans have been infected. Nearly 120,000 have lost their lives. And now some Major Companies are taking notice and adjusting their reopening policies. In some cases theyve been forced to reclose. Apple today announced it indeed closing 11 Stores Across four of the hardhit states florida, arizona, north and south carolina. What does that tell you . The amc Movie Theater chain today reversed course and announced everybody will have to wear masks inside their theaters after all. Regal cinemas also now requiring face coverings. And then theres the president s rally taking place on a weekend when millions will be out in the streets, outdoors, protesting against racial inequality while celebrating juneteenth, a day dedicated to marking the end of slavery. A curfew that was scheduled to go into effect a few minutes ago in tulsa, oklahoma, was lifted at the president s urging. And this morning trump posted this not so veiled threat. Quote, any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters, or lowlifes who are going to oklahoma, please understand you will not be treated like you have been in new york, seattle, or minneapolis. It will be a much different scene. This afternoon reporters wanted to know precisely what that meant. What he was meaning are violent protesters, anarchists, looters, the kind of lawlessness that we saw play out before President Trump came in with the National Guard and calmed our streets with law and order. Tonight in an interview with axios, trump said he expects a wild evening tomorrow. He doubled down on his threat to protesters saying, quote, thats got to be the least controversial of my tweets. To begin our coverage tonight, we thought we would start by checking in with nbc news correspondent cal perry. He is in tulsa, oklahoma. Cal, this compares to nothing else weve ever covered. A pandemic is a first time around for most of us. What does it feel like out there, and who is talking so loudly . Reporter its the band. Theyre wrapping up thankfully. I think they waited for us to get going here. Its completely surreal, the convergence of these stories where you have the black lives matter movement. You have an entire country fighting for equality and fighting for Police Brutality to end. You have the anniversary here of a massacre, a race massacre carried out by jealous White Community on a thriving black Economic Community here in 1921. That changed the face of this city forever. Then what followed was 100 years of institutional racism. You have the story here of the president across town throwing this rally. And people here are upset. This was not supposed to take place tonight, this juneteenth rally. People were going to stay inside. The cases are on the rise. But local leaders here thought they had to reclaim the narrative. They thought they needed to come out here and reinforce what were seeing across the country in spite of a u. S. President who is tweeting threats at not only the people of tulsa but people who are on the street. It is truly a completely surreal event. What you have tomorrow is shaping up to be quite dangerous. Youre going to have the folks in the northern part of tulsa who are going to want to have their voices heard, who are going to feel like theyre being drowned out by the United States president , who they view and many people in this country view as a racist. And you have his supporters, who have basically been able to figure out a way to get rid of that curfew, camping overnight less than a mile from where im standing. You have the National Guard thats going to reassert itself on the streets, some 250 members of that National Guard, and theres no really good plan about the rally tomorrow. We dont know what time the gates are going to open on that indoor arena. We dont know how you socially distance 19,000 people in an arena that seats 19,000 people. We dont know where the outdoor overflow area is going to be. We dont know how many people are going to be there. We dont know how security is going to be run. All those details are missing including how the community here is going to react. On a day in which you have all of these things coming together, all of these things converging, you have the u. S. President coming to town at what people here believe is an intentional act of trying to inflame an already very difficult racial situation in the country, brian. We have seen our share of surreal lately. Tomorrow will be another dose. Cal perry in tulsa, oklahoma, to start us off. Cal, thanks. Lets bring in our leadoff discussion on a friday night. All Three Friends of this broadcast, starting with annie karni, White House Reporter for the new york times. Jeremy bash, former chief of staff at the cia and pentagon, former chief council to the house intel committee. And maya wiley, former assistant u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york, a veteran of the new york city mayors office, now with the new school in new york. Maya, were going to begin with you because the news tonight has to deal with your old shop. The Southern District of new york. For people who missed the explanation what it is during impeachment, it is basically the department of judgment, new york city office. Heres the headline in the new york times. Its about that man, Geoffrey Berman, u. S. Attorney who investigated trump associates, including but not limited to mr. Giuliani, is abruptly replaced. Maya, hes out on a friday night. The former u. S. Attorney Preet Bharara making it clear on twitter he does not think this was a resignation. We know berman was offered other jobs at doj and declined them. What do you make of it . You know, we used to call it the department of justice, not the department of just trump. Unfortunately all too often it seems, as certainly the optics are, that this is a department that william barr is running as a way of running interference for donald trump. I mean remember that were talking about the Southern District of new york, which is often called the sovereign district of new york because of its independence. All u. S. Attorneys offices have some. The Southern District frankly has more. And mr. Berman remembers not just the Michael Cohen case, Donald Trumps attorney that the office prosecuted. He had recused himself. But theres also chris collins, who was, you know, suspected of insider training, who was a close trump ally. We know that they had subpoenaed documents for trumps inaugural committee. There was just one investigation after another, and of course one of the big ones is also whether Rudy Giuliani, another defense attorney for donald trump and former u. S. Attorney for the Southern District, was being investigated as well, it appeared, possibly including failing to register as an agent for foreign governments. This is a very long list of trump allies that the Southern District pursued or was pursuing. And as we know from this president , loyalty is what he demands, and the justice that he seeks is just for himself. And it aint justice. Okay, jeremy bash. So we have a pandemic. We have tulsa. We have the Southern District of new york. And to prove that weve got to be able to walk and chew gum, i got one for you too. The folks at buzzfeed filed a freedom of information act request for some of the redacted material in the Mueller Report that we didnt all get to read. The tranche theyve seen shows, in addition to other things, testimony that indicates the president knew in advance of the wikileak documents that were going to hurt the democrats and hillary clinton. Yeah, brian. I think we saw some of this during Michael Cohens testimony before congress, and of course in the context of the prosecution of roger stone, that donald trump had clear foreknowledge that wikileaks, which was an agent of the Russian Federation thats the assessment of the u. S. Intelligent community. Theres no dispute about that. That an agent of the Russian Federations release of its hacked information from the democrats was known to the president , at that time the candidate. So it really calls into question all the denials that he wasnt aware of russian interference. In fact, i think its clear he knew about it. Of course he welcomed it and subsequently he has rewarded it. Annie karni, i got something for you. This is from our friends at axios just so every News Organization is represented over the course of this hour. Its about donald trump and tulsa tomorrow night. The president has no intention of wearing a mask at the rally and says people should do what they want. I dont feel that im in danger, he said. Ive met a lot, a lot of people. So far here i sit. We have to get back to business. We have to get back to living our lives. Cant do this any longer. Annie, cal perry described the scene correctly in tulsa has surreal. We have never had this clearly identifiable a mass gathering indoors of people from disparate places in the middle of a pandemic. On top of that, weve never had a president presiding. Thats right. This is the mixed messages on social distancing and masking that the Trump Campaign has put out here shows their conflicting ambitions. On the one hand, they want to demonstrate that trump can take the rally stage in front of a packed arena just like in the old days and that america is reopen again, and thats the message he wants to send, that were back to business. On the other hand, he doesnt actually want that, you know, his most diehard fans are willing to go and sit in a 19,000person indoor arena, to all get sick, to have hosted a superspreader event. Hence you see the Campaign Making people sign waivers saying they wont sue the campaign if they get sick of coronavirus at this event. Brad parscale is giving out masks and saying he will wear one. Kayleigh mcenany in the clip said she wont. Theyre giving conflicting messages because of these ambitions that are kind of at odds with each other, and the big question of tomorrow night one of the Big Questions is will people, you know, social distance themselves . Will people wear masks . In a wall street journal interview yesterday, trump said that he thinks people wear masks not to protect themselves but as a political statement to show they dont support him. Another question is will people in that arena think to put their health to the side to show their loyalty to trump . This is all stuff were going to be looking at in the arena tomorrow night. Hey, maya wiley, i hope your dining room chairs comes with a seat belt because the Geoffrey BermanSouthern District new york story just got stranger. It was the department of justice that put out a press release tonight thanking him for his service, announcing the man they plan to put up for senate confirmation. Berman is out with a statement, and i quote. I learned in a press release from the attorney general tonight that i was stepping down as United States attorney. I have not resigned and have no intention of resigning my position, to which i was appointed by the judges of the United StatesDistrict Court for the Southern District of new york. I will step down when a president ially appointed nominee is confirmed by the senate. Until then, our investigations will move forward without delay or interruption. I cherish every day that i work with the men and women of this office to pursue Justice Without fear or favor and intend to ensure that this offices important cases continue unimpeded. Maya, in baseball i believe they call that a brushback pitch. Whoa, okay. I am sitting down and thats a good thing because thats essentially as public a statement as you will ever hear that suggests that a sitting u. S. Attorney by the way, a sitting u. S. Attorney who had contributed financially to Donald Trumps campaign and who Rudy Giuliani recommended for a slot as a United States attorney. This was a trump insider, has just publicly said, i am being removed, and im staying until im told i have to get out in order to protect ongoing investigations. That is the way i read that. I dont see another way to read it. Certainly the fact that he has been terminated without a conversation, that he had learned about it in a way that he suggests, means, you know, there are a couple of different scenarios, and i dont know whats true. But if i had to speculate, id say either they asked him to do something and he said no, or he just wasnt getting subtle messages to back down, and they decided to take control. But that is an astounding Public Statement from anyone who serves in any role in government, let alone an attorney serving for the department of justice. Jeremy bash, same question. Yeah, i think its clear he was fired because trump is under investigation. We dont know which aspect of the Trump Organization or the trump family or the trump charities or the trump Business Empire is under investigation, but i think its pretty clear that when you fire the u. S. Attorney conducting investigations on a friday night and the u. S. Attorney has to go out and say, number one, i was fired. Im not stepping down voluntarily. And, number two, im going to stay right in my job until a successor is confirmed by the senate, which by the way im not really sure how hes going to pull it off because of course they could put in an acting u. S. Attorney in his place. That would ordinarily be the course of events. But he is saying, im not going anywhere because ive got to protect these investigations. I think its clear theres a lot cooking at the sdny, at the Southern District of new york that we dont know about. And this u. S. Attorney is standing firm. Shame on the Justice Department for trying to