Good morning. Its saturday, july 25th. Im ali velshi. President trump waking up in his golf course in new jersey once again at a cost to taxpayers. And while some may think trumps golf habits a sill thing to discuss, golf has found its way into a new controversy. Donald trump intransacted Woody Johnson who also happens to be a major trump donor to try to persuade the British Government have the british open Golf Tournament at trumps golf course in scotland. Get this, ambassador johnson raised the issue with a highranking british official. That was confirmed to nbc news by the formers second in command. Plainly put, the president of the United States tried to use the power of his office to pressure a 14 power into making decisions not for the benefit of the country at all, but for the benefit of his personal business. Thats exactly what authoritarians do. Another grifrps into hlimpse in america. But far more important is the crisis in portland, oregon. The president and the administration would like you to believe that the reasons the federal government has sent in camouflaged federal troops with the ability to arrest Peaceful Protesters, place them in unmarked cars and sometimes formally arrest them and sometimes release them without a word is because of violence at federal buildings. But those agents in trumps response have instigated nearly all of the violence. Consider this report from nbcs mara barrett on portland from last night. Quote, within minutes peaceful protests shifted to clashes with federal agents overnight friday escalating much more quickly than weve seen in the week weve been on the ground. Multiple fireworks were set off toward the federal courthouse and minutes later tear gas was deployed. Federal agents exited the building firing pepper balls and deploying tear ghas that densel filled the air. That makes sense not with the situation on the ground but with trumps order to, quote, dominate the protesters. As i said, its a constitutional crisis. The president is ordering federal authorities to dominate american citizens exercising their constitutionally right to protest. What the president and his administration are doing is taking district violent action against those who oppose him politically. Hes even said to publicly. Were sending law enforcement. Portland was totally out of control. The democrats, the liberal democrats had no idea what they were doing. Were looking at chicago too. Were looking at new york. Look at whats going on. All run by democrats. New york and chicago and philadelphia, detroit and baltimore and all of these oakland is a mess. Were not going to let this happen in our country. All run by liberal democrats. Youre only targeting cities run by democrats. Is this just a political stunt. These cities unfortunately that are in trouble are all run by democrats. Right now were sending extra people to help. Were arresting a lot of people that have been very bad. Portlands not out of control and the federal troops are not there to help. In addition, to more cities being under siege, trump threat then week to send 50,000 to 60,000 more toogagents to citie the president is threat war on cities run by his opposition. 60,000 agents is an army. We do have a system of checks and balances and while it seems powerless to stop trumps assault on American Cities, it may hold him responsible. The inspectors general of both the department of Homeland Security as well as the Justice Department have officially opened investigations into the president and the federal governments response in portland and in Lafayette Square in d. C. A month ago. Joining me now is the woman that played a vital role in getting those investigations up and running. Thank you for being with us. I want to get your take on this, the idea that there are investigations by the inspectors general. I had a list last night when he was on lawrences show of six inspectors show who have been targeted by donald trump and removed. They are the people who keep the departments honest. Trump just sort of gets rid of them when he doesnt like what they do. Well, thank you for having me on the show. And im glad that the inspectors general are starting these investigations. We demanded that they do that. Were calling on them to do that and demanding those answers. We will be watching vigilantly to make sure that those inspectors general are protected. Because, youre right, alli, ths is unacceptable whats happening in portland and were not going to stand for it. Think we need to keep in mind whats happening across the country. The Trump Administration has completely failed to provide National Leadership on coronavirus. His poll numbers are dropping. People are connecting the dots and saying, were out of work, were about to get evicted, theres no National Leadership, and so donald trump is trying to distract the country and make us afraid. And were not going to stand for it in portland, in oregon, or across the country. We can see right through it. Its unacceptable what hes doing. And frankly, since we smopoke lt week, a lot more people have been hurt by these federal troops that are here in portland and were just not going to stand for it. I want to ask you about the situation in portland. I spoke to Nicholas Christoph whos there. Weve got our reporter mara barrett there. We see the images. Donald trump is characterizing it as a place out of control where police and state authorities cant get a handle on the situation. Tell us the truth about portland. Thats not the truth at all. In fact, we had lets remember by people are protesting. Theyre protesting because black lives matter. And after that horrific murder of george floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police officers, people were protesting marching for justice, for us to address as policymakers, as a society systemic racism. And we had primarily peaceful protests in oregon and across the country. Rightly so. And what happened when donald trump sent these troops in is that they have escalated the conflict. And look at the troops. Theyre in camouflage gear. They have militarystyle weapons. They are escalating the conflict and people, as i mentioned, are being hurt. Since we last spoke, ali, christopher david, the veteran was beat with batons and sprayed directly in the face because he dared ask the officers a question about their oath of office and the constitution. And just a few days ago, ali, a history professor from out of the History Department at lewis and Clark College was shot by these federal agents with munitions. And she said in the emergency room she just kept thinking to herself, this was my government that did this. What is happening is unacceptable. The truth on the ground is that the escalation is coming from these federal officials. Theyre there on the pretension of protecting a federal building. They are going way beyond that and violating the Constitutional Rights of oregonians. Were just not going to stand for it. We have the biggest protest yesterday since george floyd was killed. Yes, the federal response seems to have provoked further protests not less of it. Absolutely. Thank you for joining us again, we appreciate your time. Thank you. Another city that the Trump Administration has threatened to deploy federal agents to is milwaukee, wisconsin. Joining me now is democratic congresswoman gwen moore. This is even more authoritarian because its not the president who said he wants to send people there, its the chief of staff mark meadows. This is now spreading all over the place that kind of anybody can send federal agents to whatever city they just decide to. Ali, good morning in the is an absolutely lawless, unconstitutional, unprecedented action in the United States of america. And i watched your earlier blocks and so hopefully we will be able to get some judicial relief from these storm troopers. I am very concerned about the notion that theyre going to send these troops to milwaukee. And, in fact, they have already sort of laid the groundwork for this operation, legend and predecessor operation relentless pursuit. And to use as an excuse the increased murder rate in milwaukee, much of it caused by the increase and misery index from this pandemic virus that the president has done nothing to provide National Leadership around mitigating where weve seen this increase largely attributed to domestic violence. So its hard for me to see how troops in camouflage are going to intervene in an increased murder rate in milwaukee. So im very skeptical about their motives. Yes, i think that many cities are being lured in by the notion that theyre going to send in grant money to help with overtime for police. But that is a lot different mission overtime for police and extra police hires is a lot different mission than having folks leap out of unmarked cars and arrest citizens who are protesting. And i particularly concerned about that, ali, since were going to have the Democratic National convention in milwaukee. Yeah. Where there is there are bound to be the protesters. There should be protesters in america, but this thing about this law and order cloak is an old trick and it continues to work. Donald trump has been tweeting, he tweeted at suburban housewives of america. He actually used those terms. Hes tweeted about suburban Property Values going down, about they are coming into you know who is what he said are going to come into your neighborhood. Those arent even i was talking to eddy from princeton, he said those arent even dog whistles, theyre just straight up racist tropes. Yeah. Yeah. Just straight up. And, you know, our governor has indicated that he doesnt want these folk in the state. Our attorney, our state attorney general has really referred to it as fascist. Our local Police Department has said no thank you. And, again, we are going to exhaust every means that we can to prevent them from disrupting our community, particularly during the dnc. You know, your colleague lawrence odonnell, wrote a book about the 1968 chicago convention. And i think what people really dont remember or understand about that, that all the chaos and rioting and stuff was caused by the police. By the police really launching an attack on folks who were peacefully congregating in a park. The mayor had declined to provide permits for peaceful protests beyond one permit and we dont want to see a repeat of that in 2020. Were not going to stand for it. Congresswoman, good to see you again. Thank you for joining us. Democratic congresswoman gwen moofr wisconsin. Coronavirus cases and deaths are still on the rise in this country. But there may be hope yet. The development of a vaccine looks encouraging and my next guest is one who should know. Hes the director of the National Institutes of health. He joins me next. Back up, first hanna has been upgraded to a category one hurricane in the last few hours. Its the first hurricane of the atlantic season. It has been churning in the gulf of mexico is expected to strengthen and make landfall in texas later today. Beaches around the state are closed and a hurricane warning is in effect for much of the texas coast. Velshi continues in a moment. This network is one less thing i have to worry about. 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And you have money, more money to spend because you got both free money. Go to rakuten. Com and sign up today for a 10 bonus. Tens of millions of americans who lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic could soon find it harder to say in their homes or put food on the table. An extra 600 a week in Unemployment Benefits that the federal government had provided under the c. A. R. E. S. Act that passed in march is set to expire this weekend. But republicans and democrats are deadlocked over extending those benefits and Senate Majority leader mcconnell says it could take a few weeks to resolve this issue. By the way, it takes the states a little time to get it into their system, so it could be many weeks without the extra money. While this bitter fight goes non washington, the pandemic shows no sign of slowing down. According to an nbc news count, more than 70,000 new cases were diagnosed on friday, 1100 more lives were lost. Thats the fourth day in a row that the daily death toll was about a thousand. According to the New York Times, the surge in cases in the United States is so extreme that once adjusted for population, ten states are recording more new cases than any country in the world on a per capita basis. Joining us now is dr. Francis collins, the director of the National Institutes for health. Dr. Collins, thank you for being with us. I want to jump forward because weve had a lot of discussions about masks and School Reopening and testing. I want to jump forward to the idea of their putics arapeutics vaccines. There are over a none testing and half a duds than look promising, aboutthy ha they hav have efficacy and produce antibodies in people for a number of time and they have to be safe. And thats the more important one, because everybody will want this. Using those two criteria, where do you think we are right now . I think were on the road towards proshlotentially a good outcome by the end of this calendar year, by about december, because we do have several vaccines that are based on different kinds of scientific approaches, which is a good thing. You dont want to put all your eggs in one basket. And these have already gone through the phase one trial approach are whe approach where you find out whether this can be tolerated in a small number of people with nothing more than a soar arm and sore arm and a little bit of fever. But you dont really know that its safe and effective until you try this out in the real world for each of the four vaccines that are going to be tested over the next couple of months, the first one starting on monday, 30,000 people will be asked to volunteer to take part in the trial. Half of them will get the vaccine, half of them will get a dummy placebo because you need to understand this in the most rigorous way. And then well look to see whether they are protected from getting infected with covid19. That means that most of these trials are going to be done in place wheres the virus is actively spreading because thats how youll know. It vaccine is working, so the southeast and the west are where most of these initial sites are going to be where people are asked to sign up. But were on that pathway. Please do not imagine that were cutting any corners here as far as safety and efficacy. We have to know, do these vaccines work and do they work for everybody and do they have any kind of safety problems . In which case we dont want go with that one. But we have a menu now of enough opportunities that we should have by the end of this year something that works, maybe two or three vaccines that work, that would be nice too. So there are people who are sort of add vvertising. Because i want a vaccine as much as anybody does, i dont believe ive had coronavirus so i would love that vaccine. Theres nobody who wont want one. So the pressure, the political pressure to get a vaccine out there is greater than it typically is for most drugs. Every drug goes through phase three testing and sometimes theyre released for emergency use. But we really cannot let the political influence have any impact on this process. And we will not let that happen. As the director of the National Institutes of Health Working with my colleagues at cdc and fda, there will be no willingness to cut a corner h e here. If the vaccine doesnt work, doesnt protect people, if it isnt safe, it will not be approved. That will be particularly financially painful thing to happen. One thing were doing as part of operation warp speed is to actually start manufacturing tens of millions of doses of each of these vaccines on the chance that theyre going to work. Because you dont want to get to december and find out one looks good and have to wait another three months to build up enough doses to start immunizing people at highest risk in the is manufacturing at risk which may mean that a lot of doses will have to get thrown out for vaccines that didnt work. But we hope that at least one of them will work and then well that be far ahead of where we otherwise would have been. Well, dr. Collins, a lot of americans are concerned about their National Institutions of some sort getting diplomatic sized a politicize and i appreciate you not letting that happen. Thank you for being with us this morning. I was glad to be with you. Thank you for spreading the word of the science. We will continue to do so. Florida seen a spike in Coronavirus Infections and deaths this weeks but that hasnt stopped the governor from siding with President Trump in saying the schools are going to reopen this fall. Our fight against covid shouldnt deprive our kids of the tools they need to succeed. Heres the hard truth. Our