Say about the virus or its toll, but he did go hard after joe biden and Kamala Harris. After all, bidens widely praised acceptance speech was a takedown of trumps leadership. And so 24 hours later, trump was in front of a conservative group with a rebuttal and a dystopian vision of a democratic victory. Over the last week, the democrats held the darkest and angriest and gloomiest convention in american history. They spent four Straight Days attacking america as racist and a horrible country that must be redeemed. Joe biden grimly declared a season of american darkness, and yet look at what weve accomplished until the plague came in. Im the only thing standing between the American Dream and total anarchy, madness, and chaos. If we dont win, its all gone, okay . Its all gone. We have to win the election. Im the one. You know theres a theory that if you dont have it by the end of the year, crazy nancy pelosi would become president. You know that, right . No, no, think of that. Think of that. Just a fact check here on trumps allegation about nancy pelosi because, remember, it was our last president who taught constitutional law and not this one. The speaker would only become president if congress, when it counts the electoral votes on january the 6th, cant figure out whos president. In that event, the election would go to the house with each state voting. Only if that step yields no result would a pelosi presidency come into play. It is a scare tactic, though, for the trump base as are his false charges about fraud and mailin voting. I dont like this mailin ballot deal. Theyre going to send out 51 million mailin ballots to people that havent requested them, and nobody knows whos getting them. Were not prepared for this, 51 million ballots. It will be a tremendous embarrassment to our country. They also think im trying to steal an election. Just an opposite. I want the fair results of an election. That brings us to the president s appointed postmaster general, louis dejoy, big trump donor who records show has given over 1. 2 million to the Trump Victory fund and millions more to the party, organizations, and candidates. Hes only been on the job since midjune. No prior postal experience. He has put into place a series of controversial changes including the removal of key sorting machines in what sure looks like an effort to hinder mailin voting. The changes have already slowed our mail delivery. There was no other expected outcome. And last week there were reports several states were warned about mailin ballots for the november election, how they could be delayed or disqualified. Dejoy was questioned about all of that today at a Virtual Senate hearing. Did you discuss those changes or their potential impact on the november election with the president or anyone at the white house . And remind you youre under oath. Ive never spoken to the president about the Postal Service other than to congratulate me when i accepted the position. Prior to implementing the changes, did you discuss these changes or their impact on the election with any Trump Campaign officials . No, sir. Can i have your word that youre not going to mandate that states send out any ballots using either the more expensive first class mail and will you continue the processes and procedures to allow election mail to move as expeditiously as possible and treat it like first class . Yes, sir. We we will deploy processes and procedures that advance any election mail in some cases ahead of first class mail. Will you be bringing back any mail sorting machines that have been removed since youve become postmaster general . Any of those come back . Theres no intention to do that. Theyre not needed, sir. Were being told that youre limiting overtime, and this could possibly add to backlogs. Are you limiting overtime . We never eliminated overtime. Its been curtailed significantly is what i understand. It has not been curtailed by me or the leadership team. No matter what you heard right there, as for that last response about overtime, nbc news has obtained an internal post Service Document showing dejoys policy changes prohibit extra or late trips and mandate that mail carriers return on time. One other thing we learned dejoy told the senate he supports voting by mail and like his boss, the president , it happens to be how he votes. On monday, hell get to answer more questions before a virtual House Committee hearing. Next week, of course, republicans will hold their own nominating convention. It all begins in charlotte, North Carolina, on monday. Trump will be in the state. Politico is reporting hes expected to stop by the actual Convention Site where the roll call vote will be held. While much is still unknown about this event, including the official title, we have learned that trump will likely speak on more than one of the four nights of the convention. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reporting democrats are planning to counterprogram throughout the week with a series of events by calling attention to the contrasts between trump and biden. Even as his quest for a second term becomes official, there are trumps legal troubles after all. Today his lawyers filed an emergency motion with an Appeals Court to stop the release of his tax returns, which of course had been cleared for release to the manhattan d. A. Trumps former Senior Adviser and close chum steve bannon also vowing to fight federal prosecutors in the Southern District of new york. Bannons been charged with fraud and Money Laundering in connection with a Crowdfunding Effort to build trumps border wall. Bannon has pleaded not guilty. Today he called the prosecution politically driven. I am not going to back down. This is a political hit job. Everybody knows i love a fight, and i was called honey badger for many years. You know, honey badger doesnt give, so, you know, im in this for the lorng haul. Im in this for the fight. Im going to continue to fight. This was to stop and intimidate people that want to talk about the wall. And a Late Development in a story we have been following steadily. Nbc news reporting the late word that former cia director john brennan was indeed interviewed today at langley cia headquarters for eight hours by u. S. Attorney john durham, who is reviewing the investigation into those ties between russia and trumps 2016 president ial campaign. Brennans former deputy chief of staff says brennan was told he is not a subject or a target of any criminal investigation but only a witness to events. Now, earlier this month, sources told nbc news that a brennan interview could signal that durham is nearing the end of his inquiry. Its a lot, and with us to talk about it, three returning veterans on a friday night. Phil rucker, pulitzer prizewinning bureau chief for the Washington Post, who is the coauthor along with his very stable colleague Carol Leonnig of the bestseller a very stable genius. Jon karl, chief White House Correspondent over at abc news. We get to talk to him because he too is an author. The must read front row at the trump show. And melissa murray, an nyu law professor, clerked for judge Sonia Sotomayor while on the u. S. Court of appeals. Good evening and welcome to you all. Phil, id like to begin with you and your beat. What was the real west wing reaction to the fournight democratic show, to the final speech by joe biden, and give us as much of a preview as you can of the rnc convention. Yeah. So, brian, publicly the president s advisers and aides are saying that the democrats put on a convention of doom and gloom to use the phrase that we hear out of the Trump White House. They believed it was too negative of a tone and a message from the democrats. But privately there is an acknowledgement among the president s advisers that he is behind in this race, that joe biden clearly has momentum and has the advantage at the moment and that the Democratic Convention was pretty well executed from a technological standpoint, from an innovation standpoint, from a message discipline standpoint, all things that matter in politics. So looking ahead, the republicans want to try to project a sense of optimism and give voters a feeling that four more years of President Trump will help us get out of this pandemic and rebuild the economy after the recession this year. But there are a lot of big ifs in this convention including some of the cultural warriors who are going to be speaking and may have very controversial and divisive messages. There are also some ethics questions being raised about the way the president is going to be conducting this convention. He will be giving his acceptance speech thursday night from the white house itself. That is federal property of course, and there are also concerns about so much of the activity happening in close proximity to his own hotel, the trump hotel on pennsylvania avenue in washington. Jon karl, can we just assume that after four nights of the Republican Convention, theyre simply going to insist that the democratic ticket is hunter biden and aoc . Essentially. Look, brian, this is going to be dark, particularly, i believe, the president s acceptance speech. This is going to make american carnage look like morning in america, and weve seen hes telegraphed this. In scranton, yesterday, he actually compared himself to a wall. He said, we are a wall between the American Dream and the complete and total destruction of the greatest country on earth. He said today, they are coming for you. They are coming after you. This is going to be a very dark vision, and i think phil raises a great point. I mean weve, you know, all been under the assumption that you cant do overt politics on federal property, and certainly not at the white house. And he will the president will deliver his acceptance speech right there on the white house right there at the south lawn, presumably white house officials, white house aides, people on the government payroll doing the work of preparing and executing that very critical day of the Republican Convention on federal property, on the federal dime. Because a piece of legislation called the hatch act at least used to matter. Yeah. Hey, professor, its not like all other news stopped happening while our attention was focused on the Democratic Convention. And specifically id like you to weigh in and let our viewers know the state of play on the president s tax returns. Well, so far it seems that the president has suffered another blow on that case. Yesterday judge Victor Marrero in the Southern District of new york said that the subpoenas could go forward, that the president hadnt been able to prove that they were overbroad. He tried to get those stayed. Victor marrero denied that state, and now hes proceeded to file for a stay with the Second Circuit. The Second Circuit did not accept that emergency request for a stay but did set oral arguments on the stay for september 1st, so that will happen. And the real question is what happens after that, whether those subpoenas will be made available to may czars, whether may czars will produce those documents. Either way, the public didnt get to see them. These are documents released to a grand jury and all of those remain squesz tered from public view. Jon karl, has the president found out the hard way and in public that somewhere north of 90 of us happen to love the post office and a good number of especially men and women who have served our country depend on it to stay alive . He absolutely did. You saw it in the way he talked about this. You know, at first there was the threats that he was going to withhold funding from the post office. By the way, he reaffirmed that threat today saying he would veto the democratic bill to provide 25 billion in additional funding. But the talk seemed to be antipost office, you know, decrying this idea of voting by mail, which he is still doing. But what you saw happen as the story blossomed and people saw their mail slowing down is that people rely on the post office. All americans rely on the post office, but especially americans in rural areas. I can tell you as somebody who spent time growing up in south dakota, in those places, you need your mail. Your mail is your lifeline. And those are in many cases those are trump voters. These are rural areas. This extends. This is not simply targeting democratic cities. He appeared to be targeting an institution held dear by americans all across the country, including many of his supporters. And, you know, by the end of the week, he was saying, save the post office. Professor, back over to you, speaking of news that happened this week that didnt get its proper attention. This republicanapproved joint report from the Senate Intel Committee in which, a thousand or so pages, we learn the Intel Committee made criminal referrals on the president s son, djtj, on jared, on bannon, and on two others. And, professor, it remains, i think, the largest undercovered story of the week. Well, its definitely one thats managed to stay under the radar for over a year. Like this letter was sent over to the u. S. Attorney and the d. C. Circuit back in august of 2019. It doesnt necessarily say that jared or donald trump jr. Were engaged in any conduct that would be illegal but it does note that there were discrepancies between their testimony before the Senate Chamber and the testimony of richard gates. So thats something that is worth noting. The most, i think, damning conclusions from that letter were about steve bannon and some other Trump Associates where they were sort of accused of providing misleading statements to the Senate Chamber. And that of course could be referred on to criminal investigations, but we dont really know what happened. There hasnt been any discussion. The u. S. Attorney for the d. C. District hasnt said anything, nor has the department of justice. And that by itself might be worth thinking about as well. Phil rucker, back over to you, the headline is so numbing tonight, at or about 300,000 projected deaths by december 1st, just in time for our country to head into the holiday season. Joe biden told jons Network Today that he would be willing to indeed shut down the country again if that was the advice of science. According to your reporting, has there been any attempt at refiguring the official position of this administration on this virus and its slow march from sea to sea other than their current policy statements, something like, it is what it is . You know, not exactly, brian. There is there has been a slow recognition this summer that the virus is not going away, which is of course what President Trump has repeatedly projected. Its also, by the way, what Vice President pence declared in that wall street journal editorial a couple of months ago. They now acknowledge that these numbers are bad, that they are growing, that were going to have this virus with us for some time. But there is not any sort of a new National Strategy for how to confront it and how to get rid of it. In fact, testing remains a problem. In some places, people are taking days, sometimes as long as a week or longer to get the results of their tests, which render those results relatively moot if theyre trying to control community spread. And theres very inconsistent rules around the country when it comes to precautions like wearing a mask or social distancing or what to do about restaurants and any of the other number of public gathering places where this virus has been spreading. And so we have a patchwork solution out in the states, and we have from the president somebody who is trying to demonstrate command of the virus and focus on the Public Relations aspects of it without really forcefully confronting the virus in the way that scientists and Public Health officials believe is necessary in order for the United States to control these numbers. Jon karl, you get the last word before we lose you, before you return to the friendly confines of abc news. So is what were looking at during this campaign, as masks have been red and blue politicized, are we going to see rallies politicized, meaning its the Trump Campaign that will allow and promote gatherings of humans . I think thats what youre going to see next week. I mean the president we dont know much frankly because theyre still cobbling it together. They werent planning anything remotely like a Virtual Convention until it dawned on them that they wouldnt be able to do the Big Convention in jacksonville, florida. But i think in every one of these every one of these nights, there will be an audience of some kind. We saw the president before an audience today in virginia. By the way, almost none of the people Wearing Masks there. We saw him in skranlten yesterday. Same deal. He knows he cant get those big arenas because the states simply wont allow them. But he will be doing events with people and try to make that a contrast to draw with joe biden, who will not be doing that. Great thanks to our big three after the week weve had only this friday night. To phil rucker, to jon karl, to professor melissa murray, thank y