He was walking away from the pulpit to applause. As he approached his secret service agent, he stopped. He kept his distance. He reached for his mask. He put it on, and he continued to walk out. As someone said earlier today, it might have been the most considerate and thus the most president ial moment of the day, which brings us to the current president. He did not join the three former president s paying his respects to john lewis. He did start his day by suggesting on twitter that we delay our president ial election, which for the record is a power only congress has and has never invoked. Quoting here, with universal mailin voting, not absentee voting, which is good, 2020 will be the most inaccurate and fraudulent election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the usa. Delay the election until people can properly, securely, and safely vote. Again, america has never moved or delayed an election despite civil war, world wars, other crises, and its not happening this year in the face of a pandemic. But it is worth noting perhaps that trumps post came 16 minutes after devastating new numbers underscoring the pain the pandemic is having in our nations economy. Well get to all that just ahead as well. But this afternoon the president spent a good bit of time continuing to try to sow doubt about the election, attacking without evidence the integrity of mailin voting. Tens of thousands of mail ballots have been tossed out in this years primaries. What will happen in november . So many years ive been watching elections, and they say the projected winner or the winner of the election. I dont want to see that take place in a week after november 3rd or a month or frankly, with litigation and Everything Else that can happen, years. Id love to see voter i. D. I also dont want to have to wait for three months and then find out that the ballots are all missing. Do i want to see a date change . No. But i dont want to see a crooked election. This election will be the most rigged election in history if that happens. As plit i fact notes and its incumbent on all of us to keep reporting and repeating this, there is no evidence to support trumps overall claim that mailed ballots are corrupt. All u. S. States allow qualified voters to vote by absentee ballot, and five states utah, colorado, hawaii, washington, and oregon currently conduct all their elections primarily by mail. And on capitol hill, even trumps most obedient allies today refused to back him up on this one. Never in the history of the country, through wars, depressions, and the civil war, have we ever not had a federally scheduled election on time, and well find a way to do that again this november 3rd. I understand the president s concern about mailin voting, which is different than absentee voting. But never in the history of the federal elections have we ever not held an election, and we should go forward with our election. No way should we ever not hold our election on the day that we have it. And of course all this is playing out against the bleak backdrop of a nation in the midst of an uncontrolled pandemic. Confirmed cases now closing in on 4. 5 million. Over 153,000 souls have lost the fight with this virus. Tonight the Washington Post is reporting that more than 1,400 deaths were reported nationwide on wednesday. That means roughly an american dies every minute. Florida broke its singleday record of covid19 deaths for a third day in a row with another 253. Staterun testing sites there are shutting down tonight ahead of the Tropical Storm that is expected to strengthen into a hurricane by the weekend. Also today weve learned that herman cain, former republican president ial candidate, has died of the coronavirus. One of his last public appearances was at President Trumps rally last month in tulsa. During todays briefing, trump offered condolences for cain and other covid victims, but then he seemed to segue into an effort to deflect any blame for policies that might have contributed to these new spikes. America grieves for all of the 150,000 americans who had their lives taken by this horrible, invisible enemy. All over the world, theyre having tremendous problems. Resurgence has taken place in many countries that people thought were doing well. California, washington state, maryland, virginia, nevada, illinois, oregon, and many others. They were thought to be doing well, and they had a big resurgen resurgence. Governors that were extremely popular are not so popular anymore. They were held up as models to follow, and then they got hit, and im not even saying its their fault. But a permanent shutdown would no longer be the answer at all. As we mentioned, the Commerce Department was out today with these alarming new numbers illustrating the impact of this pandemic thus far. The u. S. Economy contracted in the Second Quarter at a record rate and then some. It was the worst quarter in our history. The gdp from april through june dropped a staggering 32. 9 . Put another way, thats a loss of fully onethird of our output of goods and services as a country. And the number of unemployed americans rose by 1. 43 million. Thats the 19th week of straightup jobless claims. Meanwhile, that 600 a week federal unemployment benefit that has helped tens of millions of americans stay afloat, that expires tomorrow after the senate failed to reach an agreement on more relief. You may be interested to know the senate adjourned tonight for the long weekend. One more item on this busy news day. An incredible sight this evening as the nba resumes league play. Everyone kneeling, including some of the biggest names in the sport. Players, coaches, refs, trainers wearing shirts emblazoned with black lives matter. The league having suspended its policy of standing during the national anthem. Its a lot to cover, and here with us our leadoff discussion on a thursday night, jonathan lemire, White House Reporter for the associated press. Stephanie ruhle, Senior Business correspondent for nbc news. Shes a veteran of the Investment Banking and Business World and the host of the 9 00 a. M. Hour on this network. And tamara keith, White House Correspondent for npr. Tamara, id like to begin with you. Im going to play for you on the subject of delaying the election a clip tonight from fox news. Here is tucker carlson. At this point its probably unwise to suggest changing the electi election, voter fraud or not. Too much is in flux already. Thats not accidental. Its by design. A bewildered population dealing with change from every possible direction cannot fight back. Thats why theyre doing it. So our job is to defend what we already have as a nation and to promote the continuation of it. Keeping things the same has never been more important than it is right now. So, tamara, lets call that polite pushback from friendly media, but even on the hill, as we said, some of trumps true elected supplicants went against him on this today, and it brings us to a very 2020 question about discerning the line in your view between whether this was distraction or distraction mixed with actual intent. Well, and it doesnt necessarily matter exactly what it was. The president succeeded at distraction, and he did this thing that he has done throughout his political career where he just raises questions. And by raising questions and then his team or his allies rush to say, oh, no, he couldnt have possibly been serious, he then puts it into the bloodstream. He gets people talking about it. And really the effort here was part of his longstanding effort to discredit the Election Results or to sow enough doubt about the upcoming election just in case. And it comes in the context of him being behind in the polls, all of the polls, and obviously polls are just a snapshot in time. But President Trump has used this tactic repeatedly where he says something that goes too far. Then he and his aides claim, oh, he didnt really mean it. And then he mocks everyone for taking it seriously. But in this case, this is deadly serious, and thats why you saw Mitch Mcconnell and other highprofile republicans shutting it down very quickly. And jonathan lemire, indeed it is deadly serious. We are in the middle, after all, of a deadly pandemic. We do have militarized feds in the streets of at least one major american city. Did anyone in your reporting travels today treat this was a straight face, Anyone Around the president call this a great idea . No, brian. And it certainly wasnt some sort of strategy that was hatched beforehand. The Campaign Officials that i spoke to today were caught flatfooted by this as well. This was not something that was discussed in advance. This was the president sort of reacting, lashing out. And, indeed, as he so often does, just sort of floating the idea out there, which he can distance himself from later, which he largely did at the white house briefing. He kept saying, i dont want it to be delayed. I dont want it to be delayed. He was fixated on the idea that it would take several days, potentially weeks to get the results. But i think the point is important. It continues to his Ongoing Mission to sort of undermine the process itself, to cast doubt on the validity of this election. You know, we have even him rail against mailin voting. We have seen him question states and the governors there. We have seen him slow down funding to the post office, which in itself will delay ballots potentially to millions of americans across the country. I think there is a sense that because of the pandemic, because of the challenges the nations going to face, the states are going to face, and indeed counting votes this november, that it will take quite some time for the final victor to be declared. In the state of new york, for instance, that primary is more than a month old. All the results arent finalized yet, and i think we could be staring at Something Like that. And i think the president is not going to waste any opportunity, it stands to reason, to question the results, particularly if theyre trending against him. Launching investigations, lets say. Lets remember, of course, that he put together a probe into voter fraud in 2016. That probe came up empty, but he still ordered it. And i think its the idea of sowing doubt in whats going to happen. Indeed this idea was cast aside immediately. He cant do this. Congress made clear it wont do this. But its part of an ongoing effort by the president. One last point, republican allies are fearful, though, that also he betrayed his hand a little bit. It was recognition that hes losing and that that is a cause for alarm for republicans, particularly those in the senate who are trying to keep their seats and are afraid of being dragged down by him. So, stephanie ruhle, to tamaras point, regardless of intent, coming 16 minutes after cat cliz mick economic news, it was a de facto distraction. Before we get to the cat acliz mick economic news, i want to play for you a collection of the times the president has told us how unbelievably great its about to get. Youre going to have a fantastic Third Quarter. It will be a Third Quarter the likes of which nobody has ever seen before. The Third Quarter is going to be tremendous numbers, Fourth Quarter likewise. By election days, youre going to see some incredible numbers. Were going to have a good Third Quarter. But next year, and i said it before, will be the single greatest year economically that weve ever had, okay . I think next year is going to be an excellent year, maybe one of our best years ever from an economic standpoint. Stephanie, exactly how much trouble is the u. S. Economy in as of tonight . Well, the president you left out the sound bite of the president s Senior Adviser and soninlaw, jared kushner, who said wed be rocking and rolling come july. So while the president was splashing around in this kiddie pool of chaos, talking about the election, he was forgetting about the fact that in the last week alone, 1. 4 Million People filed for Unemployment Benefits. You mentioned it earlier. Tomorrow the expanded Unemployment Benefits run out. And, yes, gdp is down 32. 9 , more than triple the second worst quarter. Now, its no surprise. We turned off our economy. We expected that to happen. However, republicans, especially the president , have said over and over, were going to rocket right back. Its going to be a vshaped recovery. Brian, look at this economy. It is an economy divided by green. Yes, youre seeing a roaring comeback for, lets say, the four Biggest Tech Companies out there, whose earnings blew it out today. But for the majority of the rest of the country, there is extreme longterm pain without any solutions. And the fact that congress is going home without figuring out the next relief package is just extraordinary. We keep hearing over and over, well, theres tons of businesses who would love to hire their employees back, but theyre just making so much money on unemployment. That might be a portion a small portion of americans. But if they are so concerned with fraud and misuse of money, 2 trillion have been given out, and theres virtually no transparency. And on both sides of the aisle, not many lawmakers demanding more. Ten months from now, when the country is suffering even more economically, people will be demanding answers. Where did that money go because it didnt go to people who needed it most. Yeah. Steph, to your point, exactly how many workers are living so high on the hog thanks to the supplemental payments that its a disincentive to returning to their jobs . Brian, its a complete exaggeration. Are there people who worked in the Restaurant Industry who are not rushing to get back to work right now . Well, maybe, because maybe they live in states where the president is saying, were going to force you to go back to school, and we dont have child care sorted in this country. For working parents, if your kids cant go back to school, if there isnt a place for them to go, how can you . If you work in a restaurant thats only at 25 capacity or only doing takeout, how are you going to make your tips . So its a complete exaggeration saying that businesses are dying to hire people back. Theyre simply not. Take your pick. The Restaurant Industry, the travel industry, every day we hear about more and more businesses, businesses that are even doing well that have optimized, that have said were laying workers off. When google announced that all 200,000 of their fulltime and contract employees will not be coming back to the office until next year, think about all the ancillary businesses thats going to crush. Tamara, lets talk about the absence of a national plan. There have been days this week that have felt like march and april where this coronavirus is concerned. Is it your reporting, is it your hunch that this president s just going to try to get the rest of the way these next 96 days without a cohesive and considered National Strategy on a pandemic . Well, about two weeks ago the president said maybe it was only a week ago. Ive lost track of time. But he came out into the Briefing Room. This was his first briefing back after taking a couple months off. And he came into the Briefing Room, and he said we are working on a strategy. It will be a great strategy. He hasnt come out back into the Briefing Room and really laid that out. The closest that ive been able to detect of his strategy is something to the effect of protect the fragile, protect the elderly, protect people in nursing homes, and everybody else go out and live your lives. He has been more consistent much more consistent about talking about Wearing Masks. He was seen wearing one today. So talking about Wearing Masks, washing hands, social distance. He is saying some of the things that Public Health experts say you need to say and that you need to repeat. But in terms of, like, broadly how america crushes this virus, there isnt a big, Overall NationalStrategic Plan that is clearly articulated at least. And, again, some of the things that would have been cool to hear around march or april of this year. To jonathan lemire, to stephanie ruhle, to tamara keith, our thanks for starting us off on a busy thursday night. Coming up, dr. Vin gupta on the president s quote today, and here it is. Young people are almost immune. The doctor will talk about the challenges that covid survivors still face. And later, john lewis eulogized today with calls to get out and vote and make change. We will ask two Pulitzer Prize recipients about todays conflicting messages from the former president s, from the current president , as the 11th hour is getting under way on this thursday night. I am robert strickler. Ive been involved in communications in the media for 45 years. Ive been taking prevagen on a regular basis for at least eight years. For me, the greatest benefit over the years has been that prevagen seems to help me recall things and also think more clearly. And i enthusiastically recommend prevagen. It has helped me an awful lot. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. 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