Joining us tonight. She is, at the moment, the next best thing to mary trump because he is a lifetime friend of mary trumps and knows her very well and spoke to her. Spent a lot of time while mary trump was writing the book that was so featured on your show last night. And, so, shes going to tell us what she knows about how this book came about and what she knows about this relationship that mary trump has with not just her uncle donald but the rest of the family. And how is that going now . Yeah. Thats fascinating. Im so glad youve got her. Were in this unusual situation where mary trumps book is in the hands of journalists and coming out next week, but she herself is still legally precluded about speaking about what she wrote the book about so you are going to get as close as anybody can get. And she is authorized to speak for mary trump. This is not just a friend raising her hand and saying, hey, i know her. You know, i have something to say. This is this is a kind of carefully arranged way of doing this at this stage. This is exciting. This is im riveted already. Go lawrence. All right. Get home and watch. Thank you, rachel. Okay. I will. Bye. Well, donald trump has no power to open schools in america, none. Let me repeat that. Donald trump has no power to open schools in america. But he does have the power to read the president s daily brief and study the intelligence reports in that brief about all of the threats to americans and american soldiers that the Intelligence Community can find anywhere in the world. Donald trumps niece has written a book which we will discuss later in this hour with a lifetime friend of hers, as i just mentioned, and in that book Donald Trumps niece explains why the current president of the United States does not care enough about protecting american lives around the world, including American Military lives or the lives of American School children. Mary trumps book says that Donald Trumps father was a, quote, high functioning y sociopath and trump is fundamentally incapable of acknowledging the suffering of others. Donald trump does not care. That is not news. But the ways in which donald trump does not care become clear whenever new matters of president ial concern emerge in the news that donald trump clearly does not care about. There is no real dispute that donald trump did not care about the children that he was putting in cages in our southern border. Donald trump wanted his voters to know that he was putting those kids in cages and absolutely did not care about those children and he wanted his voters to know that he felt that way because donald trump believes that thats one of the very big reasons that those voters voted for him, that he does not care about anyone at our southern border. Donald trump doesnt care about american soldiers who may face a greater threat in afghanistan because Vladimir Putin is paying to have them killed. And donald trump doesnt care about anyone currently enrolled in any Public School in america. Donald trump doesnt know anyone who attends a Public School or works in a Public School. From where he sits in any one of his homes, donald trump has no idea which direction to go to find a Public School, but donald trump wants all Public Schools to go back to normal in the coming Academic Year starting in august. But not private schools. Not the rich kid private schools that his kids have gone to. Donald trump is not pretending that he will tell private schools what to do, just Public Schools. He threatened today in his typical empty threat way to cut funding for Public Schools that dont open up and pretend that everything is okay in august and september. That will never happen. Donald trump will not cut one penny of funding for schools because of how they deal with the coronavirus. I want every school in america to open and get back to normal. As soon as it is safe. Donald trump wants every school in america to open and get back to normal, period. He doesnt care if its safe. And by now donald trump knows if that happened this august, millions of people would get sick very quickly, students, teachers, parents and anyone who lives near a student or teacher or parent, which means everyone in america would be no more than one or two degrees of separation from a coronavirus infection. Donald trump knows people will die if that happens. Its not going to happen. But if it did happen, people would die. Students would die. Children would die. Teachers would die. He knows that. Donald trump knows that hes in the middle of a big bluff right now about being the proschools president. This is the new republican game of the week. And the republican governor of florida is playing it exactly the way youd expect republicans to play this game. They are just lying about this. News reports indicated that floridas governor and the state education commissioner have ordered, ordered all florida schools to open. Thats the headline that ran yesterday. But the fine print in that order shows that it is not an order. It is a hope. It is a sort of suggestion, at best, because at the bottom of page 2 of the socalled order from the state of floridas department of education, it says, quote, the daytoday decision to open or close a school must always rest locally with the board or executive most closely associated with a school. This republican order is nothing. It orders nothing. Donald Trumps Campaign to corrupt the centers for Disease Control continues. He says he doesnt like the guidelines that they have issued for reopening schools. Heres what donald trump doesnt like, promoting social distancing, wearing cloth face coverings, having children bring their own meals, discouraging sharing of items and disinfecting surfaces often. Donald trump doesnt like that. So the mike pence White House Team is going to come up with an even softer set of guidelines for opening schools, which everyone will ignore because, as nbcs jeff bennett exposed today, mike pence and donald trump have no plan. Articulated the problem and areas of risk that students face if they stay out of school come the fall. But what is the plan . What is the administrations plan in terms of testing, Contact Tracing to support these schools . Schools werent built to socially distance, which is one of the reasons why fairfax, virginia, new york, texas have moved to this hybrid aapproach. So what is the plan . And then i have a question about kids and covid, if i may. The plan is command you to do what we have done from the very beginning. The pence gibberish that followed that is not worth your time. There is no plan. There is only the pose of the republican tough guys who arent afraid of a virus who want to open the schools. And then there are the questions that you only get to ask in the trump white house. Is it safe to send people back to school . Is it safe to send manafort back to prison . Is it safe to send manafort back to prison . Donald trumps former Campaign ChairmanPaul Manafort was released from prison because of the threat of coronavirus. Donald trump issued a tweet today saying that of course American Schools can reopen because schools have reopened in germany, denmark, norway and sweden, countries whose example donald trump doesnt usually follow. Yesterday the United States reported a record high of 54,130 new cases of coronavirus. Denmark had 10. Norway had 11. Sweden had 283. Germany had 397. And as of tonight, the United States has reported a new record high of 58,238 cases. That means that as of tonight there have been 3,058,250 confirmed cases of coronavirus in this country and that as of tonight this country has suffered 132,873 deaths from coronavirus. Willy garcia knows more about Public Schools than anyone named trump ever has or ever will. We see what happens when they let bars open prematurely and you saw those young adults in there in that nice life little bar and they went home and they infected everybody around them. This isnt a bar. Were talking about second graders. I had 39 sixth graders one year in my class. I double dog dare donald trump to sit in a class of 39 sixth graders and breathe that air without any preparation for how were going to bring our kids back safely. Leading off our discussion tonight, arnie duncan, the former secretary of education during the Obama Administration and an Emergency Room Physician in phoenix, arizona. And arnie duncan, i would like to begin with you. The idea that the president of the United States can, first of all, somehow order people to go back into schools or then also somehow penalize schools financially if people dont go back to school the way donald trump wants them to, what is your reaction to all of that . Well, hes a liar. And thats not news, but hes bluffing and he has no power here. So let me just make a couple things very, very clear. The president of the United States doesnt fund Public Education. Thats what congress does. He has no ability to order schools to go back. We all desperately want our children to go back to school, but it has to be safe to do so. Because this administration has done such a terrible job of keeping our kids and our community safe, thats an open question right now. I desperately want our kids to go back in july, this month, to catch up to what they lost academically and socially during march and april and may and june, but because our country did not follow what scientists tell us to do because donald trump wouldnt, you know, push Wearing Masks and physically distancing, our kids have lost that opportunity. So what happens this fall is up to us as citizens to give our children a chance to go back to physical schools. Dr. Shah, you are also a member of the house of representatives in arizona. Arizonas house of representatives. So i want to ask you, first of all, from your governing position, what do you see as the schools situation just in your state just in arizona and what do you anticipate happening with schools . Its a topic of great concern for us. Arizona has had some issues with Education Funding over the years. We have had the dubious honor of being nearly last in the amount of funding we provide for pupil. We have had high number of kids per classroom, and that was all before the coronavirus. So being able to successfully open schools at the date that we were supposed to is actually july 17th was supposed to be one of the days. That isnt happening. The governor pushed us forward. But i just cant see how thats going to happen, being such a hot spot as we are, so im anticipating a delay there. Arne duncan, what would you recommend to schools and School Districts around the country since they will get nothing like the kind of flow of advice they would be getting from any other administration, democrat or republican, prior to the Trump Administration. They will be hearing nonsense from the president every day. The cdc has been corrupted in what they can say publically about this. So schools out there who dont have the resources to make their own scientific evaluation of whats going on, what advice would you give them about how to approach this . Well, actually, it happened today. Dr. Tom freedman, along with my predecessor, we put out our own guidelines today for School Districts to follow. No one is waying a inpaying att. He lost his credibility months and months ago. Most districts will end up in a hybrid type situation where some students will be in school some of the time. All students will be doing some virtual learning. And people are going to problem solve this at the local level. And their leadership, their compassion, their empathy, their concern for students, for parents, for staff, for teachers, for custodians, for cafeteria workers, for folks that drive the school busses, their leadership has been remarkable and im proud of what theyre doing in these dark times. What about the situation in arizona . Joe biden talked about it today, about people waiting in line for hours to get tested in arizona as the numbers skyrocket as you approach Maximum Capacity of your hospitals. What is the situation there tonight . Continues to be rough for us here. You know, i work in the emergency department, and what were seeing is that, you know, i mean, my own practice one out of two or one out of three people i see have covid or covidlike symptoms. Thats a marked uptick. The highest in the world is what weve been hearing. Very high positivity rates on the tests were getting back. And the testing has also been so delayed. We cant seem to get these test results out because the companies are struggling, so were looking sometimes at a 7 to almost 10 day delay in getting the results back. So its been hard. Icus again are at 90 capacity. So still were in a very tough spot, and in the middle of a real uptick in our cases. And arne duncan, the strain on testing, once again were having a strain on medical supplies nationally, how does that interact with the decision about opening schools because you would want schools to open within an environment where, if there was a sudden need for a rush for extra medical services, that that would be possible. Yeah. Its exactly right. There is actually worse than that. You need access to lots of tests. You need to get those results back rapidly. You have to be willing to contact trace. If there is someone that is positive, figure out who they have been in contact with. You have to be willing to quarantine. None of those things have been in place at the national level. If there is any true concern for kids or or education or for parents or teachers, the administration would be talking about increasing funding for Public Education because of all the increased costs associated with dealing with this pandemic, rather than bluffing and threatening to take away funding, which, as you said, is not going to happen. There is no bottom with these guys. There is no bottom. Former secretary of education, arne duncan. Thank you very much for joining us. And, doctor, thank you also for starting us off tonight. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for having us. And when we come back, Donald Trumps refusal to respond in any way to intelligence reports that russia is paying bounties to kill american troops in afghanistan. Tonight we have new reporting on what led to that situation. Hey, can i. Hold on one second. Sure. Okay. Okay safe drivers save 40 guys guys check it out. Safe drivers save 40 safe drivers save 40 safe drivers save 40 thats safe drivers save 40 . It is, thats safe drivers save 40 . Hes right there. Its him hes here. Hes right here. Hi hi. Hey thats totally him. Its him thats totally the guy. Safe drivers do save 40 . Click or call for a quote today. Are made with farm grownal apples as the first ingredient. Safe drivers do save 40 . And key nutrients you want. So you can have a daily multivitamin free of stuff you dont want. One a day Natural Fruit bites. A new way to multivitamin. Iredefined the wordng thschool this year. Its why, at xfinity, were committed to helping kids keep learning through the summer. And help College Students studying at home stay connected through our university program. Were providing affordable Internet Access to low income families through our internet essentials program. And this summer, xfinity is creating a Virtual Summer camp for kids at home all on xfinity x1. Were committed to helping all families stay connected. Learn more at xfinity. Com education. Today joe biden said this about Donald Trumps failure to do anything about intelligence reports that russia has been paying bounties to kill american troops in afghanistan. We have learned overwhelmingly that he is out there not doing a damn thing about the fact that there is overwhelming evidence that putin has gone and hes paying significant bounties to kill american soldiers in afghanistan. If my son were still alive after having spent a year in iraq, i dont know what the hell i would do, how all those parents feel, all you who serve feel. Today ryan goodman at just security delivered stunning reporting about donald trump directing the cia to share intelligence with the russian government after donald trump had been briefed that Vladimir Putin was supplying arms to the taliban. Joining our discussion now is ryan goodman. He is the founding coeditor in chief of just security and is a professor of law at new york university. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. Take us through this reporting and how it leads to the story that we have been covering for over a week now. So the question i had was why would putin think that he could get away with paying bounties to the taliban to kill american soldiers. The answer i found is because, in large part, he was doing something beforehand, which is providing weapons to the taliban and the pentagon was up in arms about this, raising it publically, having to go out and do media interviews and the like to say that russia should stop giving weapons to the taliban of all people because it was threatening nato. And what did President Trump do . But he sent putin over a direct signal. He did nothing. He said nothing. And i have, you know, former Defense Department officials saying on the record that that undercut any effort for the Defense D