Now its time for the last word with lawrence odonnell. Good evening, lawrence. Good evening, rachel. David plouffe is a member of a really tiny club. Its the kind of club that begins with the adjective living. The number of living, successful, democratic president ial Campaign Managers. Its a very tiny group. And thats why im always taking notes when he speaks. Thats why hes joining us tonight because its just a week left and, you know, there is a certain nervousness out there. You know whos great at dealing with that . David plouffe. I watched him do it twice as a president ial Campaign Manager. Yes. And so hes here. Hes here to bring a kind of calm, professional look at whats ahead. That no drama obama energy brought forward to 2020. We could all use a little taste of that. Thats what we need. We need a little less drama. Thank you, rachel. Well, the final week of the president ial campaign has come down to a contest between a candidate who has a plan to control the coronavirus pandemic and the candidate who doesnt. Donald trumps fourth and most incompetent white house chief of staff has given the Trump Campaign an unforgettable slogan for the final week of the campaign. We are not going to control the pandemic. Soon after mark meadows said that in a Television Interview yesterday joe biden issued a statement saying this wasnt a slip by meadows. It was a candid acknowledgment of what President Trumps strategy has clearly been from the beginning of this crisis. To wave the white flag of defeat and hope that by ignoring it the virus will simply go away. It hasnt and it wont. Mark meadows tried to justify saying we are not going to control the pandemic by lying about joe bidens position. Mark meadows said that joe biden wants to, quote, this is a quote, quarantine all of america, lock everybody down. End quote. In the interview jake tapper fought back against those lies about joe bidens position but mark meadows never changed his statement, we are not going to control the pandemic, which is the most important thing that has been said in these final days of the campaign. It is hard to imagine anything that can be said that will make the difference between the candidates on the most important issue in the campaign any more clear than we are not going to control the pandemic. Mark meadows said, we are not going to control the pandemic because it is contagious. Were not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines. Therapeutics. And other mitigation. Why arent we going to get control of the pandemic . Because it is a contagious virus just like the flu. Why not make efforts to contain it . So the trump position is if something is contagious dont even try to control it. Just go to work on the vaccine. Because you can control that. You can control the vaccine. But you cant. There have been setbacks in some of the Clinical Trials for a vaccine. Mark meadows and donald trump cannot control when we get a vaccine or how effective that vaccine might turn out to be. There was a profoundly revealing part of that interview yesterday, which showed why donald trump caught the coronavirus as did his wife and High School Age son and it shows why five members of mike pences staff have tested positive for the coronavirus this weekend after many members of President Trumps staff have tested positive for it. Jake tapper pointed out that people at trump rallies do not wear masks except of course for the people in the camera shot right behind donald trump all of whom are now required to wear masks in order to sit there. And then mark meadows proved that he is not one bit smarter than donald trump. Have you been to a rally . You come on with us to a rally and we will show you. We give out mask is. We have a number of people they dont wear them. Well its a free society. You are not wearing one right now, jake. There is literally nobody in this room, literally not one person in the studio. So youre saying you always wear a mask wherever you go . Come on jake. The American People know thats not true. I know its not true. I wear a mask except when i am here, in my office, and home. That is true a hundred percent. I wear a mask when i walk in the hallway at cnn. Okay . There is literally nobody in this room is my favorite thing that was said on tv yesterday. Mark meadows and the trump staff and the pence staff actually have no idea how americans who are working in offices and, say television studios, use masks now. The Washington Post had this report about the coronavirus outbreak amongst mike pences staff. The Washington Post reports, they do not wear masks with any regularity, nor do they practice social distancing. Aboard air force two where pence and his team have spent considerable time in recent weeks, jetting among campaign stops, officials often do not wear masks. Mark meadows and everyone in trump world has no idea that the only people in tv studios who are not Wearing Masks these days are the people that you see on camera. Everyone else in the building is wearing a mask. And the people on camera wear masks as soon as theyre off camera. Thats why you havent read about big coronavirus outbreaks at the tv news networks. Donald trump and mike pence and mark meadows cannot protect anyone from the coronavirus because they do not know how to protect themselves or their families and they are not smart enough to pretend that they do know how to protect you and so they say things like, we are not going to control the pandemic. And donald trump keeps saying, quote, we are doing a great job. We are absolutely rounding the corner. Thats what he said this morning. We are absolutely rounding the corner. And today the United States reported 71,282 new, confirmed cases of coronavirus. So as of tonight, this country has had 8,771,483 confirmed cases of coronavirus. As of tonight this country has suffered at least 226,852 deaths from the coronavirus. The Washington Post reports the coronavirus pandemic is reaching deep into the nations most sparsely populated states and counties where distance from others has long been part of the appeal and this year had appeared to be a buffer against the virus. The low density states of montana, wyoming, idaho, north dakota, south dakota have now become some of the nations highest per capita case loads. Even alaska, the least crowded state, is logging unprecedented increases, including in rural villages. During a visit to a field office for his campaign in chester, pennsylvania today, joe biden said this. Look. Yesterday, the white house chief of staff mark meadows went on television to admit to the country that the administration wasnt even trying anymore to deal with the pandemic. He said, and i quote, were not going to control the pandemic. The Washington Post headline today says white house gives up on trying to slow virus spread. No caveats. Just a deadly admission. Early in this pandemic some of you have had to cover me for a long time, called, trump called himself a war time president. Fighting a war against an invisible enemy. Ive been saying for months as you well know, that he waved the white flag all the way back then. He wasnt doing much at all. Some people said i was being harsh. I was being unfair. The white house was coming right out now and admitting what i said months ago was absolutely true. And look how many people are dead. 220,000. And it is expected as many as another 200,000 could die between now and the end of the year. And he said were not going to control it. Not going to control it. The bottom line is, donald trump is the worst possible president , the worst possible person to try to lead us through this pandemic. Leading off our discussion tonight, dr. Michathe director university of minnesota and also my guest served as senior aide to Vice President joe biden and barack obama and was the coordinator of the Ebola Response team during the obama administration. Ron, let me just start with you. Were not going to control the pandemic. This is the equivalent in that war time presidency model that donald trump wanted to have for himself at the beginning of this pandemic before he decided to just quit. Its the equivalent of 1944 and Franklin Roosevelt running for reelection saying were not going to win world war ii. It just is a statement that in any other universe would completely end the Trump Campaign but it is simply i guess another brick of stupidity on the wall of stupidity that the Trump Campaign has built. Well, lawrence, it is a metaphor we are losing americans today to covid at the same rate we were losing americans in world war ii in 1944 so it is a very fitting comparison because the death toll on the home front from covid today on a daily basis is the same as the death toll was in both europe and the pacific during 1944 and world war ii. Thats where we are. As you said, when Vice President biden claimed that donald trump was waving the white flag on covid this summer people thought, saw it as an allegation, and now it is official white house policy. They have simply given up. And basically are just waiting for the vaccine. Well, that is not a strategy. Look, if we simply went to universal masking while we were waiting for the vaccine in the next few months we could save over a hundred thousand lives. That is the entire death toll from vietnam almost doubled. Just by having the president step up and tell people to wear masks. Let alone all of the other things the president should be doing, let alone all the other things joe biden has called on the country to do in terms of testing and tracing and more social distancing, aid to spread people out and businesses and schools. All these things that could save tens, hundreds of thousands of lives and donald trump and his administration have walked off the battle field. Michael, the questions about the Vice President since his closest aides who hes been close to and in the room over the weekend testing positive for coronavirus and then the Vice President continues his campaign schedule. What should the Vice President be doing if people in his work place physically close to him and in a who we know dont wear masks, that is just the practice. They do not wear masks indoors or on the plane. What should the Vice President be doing now . Straight forward and simple. He should be in quarantine. Right now he does pose a real potential risk to others in that he may become infectious before he has any signs or symptoms. Even though he is tested daily we know that can miss the early presence of the virus and he just should simply be in quarantine. And what would you say to an administration that says, the only thing we can control is getting a vaccine . You know, at this point, failure is not an option. As ive been saying for over a month and a half the darkest days of this pandemic are upon us right now. Between now and the time we get vaccines, in any measurable way, were going to see the acceleration of cases, you know, we had predicted weeks ago we would clear a hundred thousand cases a day before long. Were well on our way to doing that. So we have to tell the story to americans why is it that we need to do these things . What is the purpose . Right now we dont have that leadership. You referred earlier to fdr. Right now we need fireside chats. We need a leader that can tell the american public, this is why if we just do this for four or five months at most we can turn the corner then. Right now we still have a long way to go to even begin to slow down this rapid increase in the number of cases. And, ron, it seems to me to define the candidacies on this issue as clearly as they could possibly be defined. Were not going to control the pandemic to the team that is going to try to use every known tool to try to control the pandemic. Lawrence, i think it is first of all the most important issue in the campaign and the Division Just couldnt be clearer. The Vice President biden has advocated a comprehensive plan to fight this virus since march. Even in fact this week its the oneyear anniversary of a tweet he made long before the coronavirus came to our shores warning that america wasnt ready for a pandemic. Hes been ahead of the curve and right about this every step of the way. He called for a universal, nationwide masking mandate in august. Im pleased this weekend dr. Fauci endorsed it. Dr. Scott gotleib former of the Trump Administration endorsed for what joe biden called for back in august. So we have someone who has been ahead of the curve versus someone who at this late date is practicing covid denial. That is really the Trump Administrations position. They just simply deny this is a problem. We shouldnt pay any attention to it. That is costing american lives and should cost donald trump the presidency. You have been the one who has been telling us, looking into the future, i think more than most other experts on this subject, and i think its fair to say looking into the future with the most negative assessment of what the future has been holding for us. What do you see now from where we sit tonight over into say the First Six Months of next year . You know, as a scientist i could give you all kinds of scientific descriptions. But let me just say it straight forward. Scares the hell out of me. Right now we are going to see hundreds of thousands of cases every day coming through the pipeline. Were going to see our hospitals filling up. Were going to see intensive care units overrun. And with all the combination of all this now in pandemic fatigue and pandemic anger, the unwillingness to even believe this is a real pandemic combined with indoor air, where well really transmit the virus, this is just not a good situation. And as i said on your show more than six months ago, lawrence, by the time this is done there wont be blue states and red states. There wont be blue counties and red counties. Theyll be covid colored. Thats whats happening right now and why were going to continue to see this major increase in cases if we dont do anything to turn this around. Ron klain, what do you expect the Biden Campaign message to be in these closing days . Will it stay on this issue . I think youll hear the Vice President address the full range of issues people care about. Covid is top of the mind. He addressed it today in a clip you showed at the top of the show. He is going to also address the broader needs of the country. The need to get our economy back on track, the need to fight racism, the need to attack climate change, which is like covid writ large another thing President Trump denies and says he is not going to attack the needs as a Long Term Health and safety concern as well. I think youll see him talk about the broad range of things that concern the American People but there is no question, lawrence, that the precondition to progress on anything is getting this virus under control and that is at the forefront of joe bidens agenda. Before we go i just have to ask one more lets place this on the afternoon of january 20th after the next president is sworn in. If that president is joe biden, i think we know that there will be a Coronavirus Task force meeting that afternoon where Anthony Fauci will be probably leading the discussion. What do you expect the president of the United States to be facing on the afternoon of Inauguration Day with the coronavirus . You know, all i can say is things are not going to get better between now and then. Without vaccines, we are going to find ourselves with increasing numbers of cases. If americans decide to listen to these messages and actually act upon them, we can slow down cases but i am afraid far too many people will make these changes only after they lose loved ones. I think that is why the numbers will continue to go up. I think it will be a real challenge on january 20th for whoever is in that office. Thank you both for starting us off tonight. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks, lawrence. And up next, David Plouffe and john heilman here to talk about the state of the 2020 race. 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The only thing stronger than us, is you. In mass incarceration of black and brown communities. The shame is on all of us. Im working to right the wrongs of injustice. Ending cash bail. Ending the war on drugs. Decriminalizing sex work, and passing major sentencing reform legislation. But until we Reimagine Community safety and end police brutality, we must keep working to reform our racist criminal Justice System thats shameful to us all. I dont know who is going to win control