Earlier today, protesters gathered outside dejoys home for a loud protest. Also tad, fedex put out a statement saying it does not accept individual ballots for shipment, advising voters closely review their states requirements. And a new investigation by the Senate HomelandSecurity Committee which oversees the Postal Service. It is clear that without overtime, without sending extra trips with taking these machines, sorting machines out, its slowing down the process. Theres no question about that. I have asked the postmaster general a number of questions. He is not very transparent. He doesnt want to come forward with facts. Nbcs Josh Letterman is at the white house. Josh, the president continues to resist emergency funding for the cashstrapped Postal Service. What, if anything, might change his mind . Depends what day you ask, garrett. The president has been all over the map in terms of what he might accept in postal funding as the issue of usps has been pushed into the forefront of the most political crisis except for the pandemic. The president s resistance to more funding in the post office, saying in his view democrats need it so they can expand mailin voting across the country. But then just a day later, the president said this. Take a listen. Would you be willing to accept the 25 billion for the Postal Service, including the 3. 5 billion . Its not what i want. Its what the American People want. So that was a little bit of a surprise to some people, garrett, that the president says he could potentially accept some funding. Its a good example of the reasons that senator Mitch Mcconnell wants nothing to do with these negotiations. He has been burned before by the president s ambiguity about what exactly he would accept and in terms of a final deal. As far as negotiations between democrats and the white house, we know they did speak this week for what we believe was the First Time Since the president took those executive actions, but there have not been a lot of signs of progress. Just this morning, nancy pelosi, the house speaker, saying in a letter to colleagues that their negotiating position is essentially the same as what its been, House Democrats willing to come down about 1 trillion from what they wanted if the white house would come up a trillion from what they had been offering. So far, the white house does not seem to be willing to move that far in the direction of democrats. As far as lawmakers, the senate skipped town. Theyre gone now until after labor day. Its hypothetical they could be called back. The house went away a long time ago. Not a lot of signs of optimism right now, even as a lot of those benefits that need to be extended have since expired. Mitch mcconnells lack of direct involvement in these talks has been notable from the getgo. I want to ask you about a tweet that the president just sent out. He essentially con dprat lates arizona, iowa, louisiana, new mexico for getting their applications in for this expanded federal unemployment benefit that was outlined in his executive order. Do we know if theres any real followthrough on that . Are people in those states likely to see their checks sooner because of this . Reporter theres a lot of ongoing questions. There have been Big Questions about the way the white house wanted to have states pick up a quarter of the tab for extended federal benefits, later saying that the states could probably use other money to try to get that to people as soon as possible. So we dont expect to see that money in peoples pockets tomorrow, but certainly some optimism in some of those states the president referenced that help could potentially be on the way soon. Josh letterman, holding down the fort at the white house for us today. Thank you. Lori cash is the president of the American Postal Union local 183. This is not theatrical, the changes at the post office. Can you talk about the direct impact of the changes seen by the new postmaster general . Sure. Postmaster general came in and made changes that significantly impacted the way that we do our job every day. He basically took the Postal Services complete distribution operation and flipped it upside down. Normally, weve always been of the culture that all mail is committed for the day is delivered that day. Theres no delaying the mail. And since he put in these no overtime rules, no extra trip rules, very, very strict dispatch times, were finding ourselves delaying mail in both our plants and in our offices on a daily basis. We have a lot of communities that are reporting to us that there are days they dont receive any mail at all. The changes that he has made are seriously impacting our customers. And these are customers that depend on us to deliver, you know, important things. We deliver their medication. We deliver Social Security checks. We deliver all of their things that they order, groceries and things that they order to live on. I mean, when we went through the pandemic, people were ordering disinfectant and toilet paper, and they still continue to order these things. So, the changes that he has made that have delayed mail are seriously impacting our communities. 80 something days between now and the election. To we anticipate more changes coming down the pike in is there anything youre aware of that folks out here in the country should be seeing change in the next coming days or weeks . I mean, we obviously dont know, because hes not telling us. We are learning everything as everybody else is, as its happening. I saw the collection boxes on facebook yesterday being taken off the street, just like other people did. So as these changes are being made, its not something that were being made aware of in the offices. There are changes that were being told about the day that theyre happening. I certainly, with the pattern thats happening first, were changing the over time rules, then we are delaying the mail. Now we are taking collection boxes out. And were taking machines out of offices as well. So, i obviously think hes on a pattern and definitely i dont think this is the last thing. Im certain that hes going to change more. That is extraordinary to me that you heard about these collection boxes being taken out on facebook. Uhhuh. I think a lot of people discovered it that way. But its a little alarming that thats how this is being communicated internally. The post service sent to a bunch of different states warning them its not entirely clear you all can meet the deadlines necessary for people to vote by mail. You and i talked in the week, you were a little more bullish then about the Postal Service being able to hit those deadlines. What is changing and what can you tell me about the critical election of those deadlines . Im so disturbed at that letter. Im disturbed at the fact that we had to know, as a group, that the Postal Service as a whole had to know when this pandemic started, we started getting into it, seeing that it wasnt going to go away, it was going to be here for a while and we were going to see an increase in ballots for our elections, they had to know at that point that this would impact november elections. Why wait 80 days before the president ial election, before we notified election boards all across the country that their dates for requesting absentee ballots and getting their ballots back didnt jive with our delivery . Thats very concerning. And it should be concerning to everybody, that dejoie and counsel waited that long to notify everybody that this wasnt going to jive and that we possibly were going to have ballots that werent going to make the cutoff. We spoke about the volume. I still have no concern with volume. I know my people can process that mail, but when i see a letter like that go out and i see the Postal Service telling people that they doubt themselves that they can handle it, they doubt their own process, sure, thats concerning to me. And i still stand by my get your ballot out two weeks in advance to avoid the delays. I still think thats going to help us but the American People need to be concerned that we are not being notified of these possible issues until so close to the election. Yeah. Were concerned about it, too. Lori cash, thank you very much. Well definitely stay on top of this story. Thank you. To the newly minted democratic ticket, joe biden and Kamala Harris are gearing up for the Democratic National convention two days away. Democratic nomination for president and Vice President. Joining us from wilmington, delaware, ndipa, how are these candidates getting ready for a convention that is going to look like nothing weve seen before. Reporter thats right, garrett. Were in wilmington, delaware, right now, where in a few days, joe biden will accept the nomination a block from where we are. Keep in mind, this was all supposed to take place in milwaukee, wisconsin. Theres been quite a turn around in adjusting to a virtual convention, entirely new setting and state. Along with all of these adjustments both joe biden and Kamala Harris have had to adjust in how theyll reach out to these communities and voters in a convention where everything will be virtual. They wont be shaking peoples hands or seeing people in person. That comes with an adjustment, a shift and how theyre reaching out to all different kinds of communities. And one of those ways, the Joe Biden Campaign came out with a new ad with joe biden and Kamala Harris next to each other and its bilingual, in both english and in spanish. Im going to play that for you right now. Attack a listen. [ speaking Foreign Language ] thats what our taught us. Now joe confirmed hes walking with perfect company. [ speaking Foreign Language ] and a champion for the community for years. Kamala is a final piece of the puzzle. Together they will ensure the american dream. You can see there, garret, how theyre using Kamala Harris to kind of excite different kinds of communities of voters and make sure that enthusiasm is still going all the way until november. As we know, Kamala Harris is from the seat of california, a very large Latino Community there, large latino population. Shes had a very strong support from them. Shes always been a champion of programs like daca. Its something i, myself, saw on the trail when i was covering her, enthusiasm from a lot of latino voters. Well keep an eye on that. Definitely will, deepa. Thank you. Video and ad of people campaigning without masks, the old school way. Maybe the only way well see that again this cycle. Deepa, thank you. Next week, msnbc will have special live coverage monday through thursday starting at 7 00 eastern right here on msnbc. Maxine waters, democrat from california. I want to get your reaction to President Trump fuelling this false, racist, birther conspiracy against senator Kamala Harris. What do you make the president of going back to this old movie weve already seen before from this president in a new character with Kamala Harris . The president of the United States of america is unbelievable y divisive. The president lies. Hes pitting people against each other, going back to the old birther argument that they attempted to use against obama. This is a president that is the most deplorable human being that i have ever encountered in my life. And hes undermining our democracy. We cannot take any more of this president. This president is not only attacking the person that was just appointed or selected by biden to be his Vice President , and he is not hesitant to do it. This man has no shame. The name calling, he called her nasty. On and on and on. I dont know how much more the American People can take. As a matter of fact, when you couple that with what hes doing, undermining our democracy, tearing up our post office, i believe that it is time for section 4 of amendment 25 to be put in place and his cabinet should send to nancy pelosi, the speaker, as identifyed in the constitution, that this man should be removed from office. Section 25 should be put in place. He is dangerous. He is tearing up, again, this country, undermining our democracy. And i want to tell you something, im getting more complaints about what hes doing to the post office than i have on any other issue in my district. He cannot have our post office. He cannot do this. Weve got to stop him. Congresswoman, let me ask you by the way, i dont think youll get any help from the cabinet on the 25th amendment. These mailin ballots may not make it in time. What should congress be doing . You be rushing back into session and have an emergency hearing on this . How do you make sure that your constituents votes, if depending on mail, are going to get counted . Actually, you know, im not even supportive of just having a hearing. I want to have an injunction against the president based on all the actions that he has taken that is so obvious that it is political, that he is trying to destroy the post office because he believes that mailin voting, absentee voting will defeat him. And he will do anything. It was referred to by one of my friends as the scorched earth approach. This president will do anything to try and stay in office and so i think we need to get right to the court with an injunction. I will be talking with the speaker about that today. He has demonstrated that he is undermining the democracy. It is in defiance of the constitution and i want him to be stopped. And i dont think a hearing is enough. I think that we need to go directly to the courts and try to get an injunction against any more movements by him. We just heard that he is making change changes every day, with his friend, his contributor, that he put in to run the post office. Hes carrying out the president s wishes, mr. Lewis dejoie is one of his contributors, who has contributed a lot of money. And he was sent there to do the president s bidding. And the president wants to stop the post office from being able to take those ballots and to ma make sure that they are counted. And hes absolutely shown us that hes willing to do anything. Congresswoman, when you talk to the speaker later today, what are you going to say to her about these covid relief talks . Obviously, both houses of congress are out now. How do you shake things loose and move things forward . A lot of americans are depending on that relief bill. The first thing im going to do is thank her for offering up 1 trillion and moving away from the 3. 4 trillion that we voted out of the house. She has gone into these negotiations showing that she is willing to compromise. They will not come up with another trillion to make it 2 trillion to deal with what is needed in our cities and our states, and to make sure that the renters have some support. You know, the renters are now in a position that if we dont get that 100 billion in that heros act, they can be evicted. All the landlords have to do is give them a 30day notice. I want the republicans, and i want those supporters of the president and other republicans to tell them, nancy made the first move. She offered up 1 trillion even after her house had voted for a full 3 trillion. What are you going to do . Cant you match that with a trillion and move forward . I want pressure on the republicans to stop blocking these negotiations, and i want the president to get out of the way. Those executive orders only complicate the negotiations. And so its on the republicans now. Its on the president. Its on mnuchin. Its on meadows, who is representing the president , to get these negotiations going. We need the pressure on the republicans to come back to the table and negotiate. Congresswoman, one last question on the election. You were very outspoken about joe biden. You said he needed to pick a black woman for his ticket. He has now done so. What do you think about the selection of Kamala Harris and the historic nature of that pick . Well, i want to tell you that im overjoyed that the president that the Vice President chose a woman with the best qualifications. She stood head and shoulders above everybody, black or white. He did the right thing. Shes competent. Shes capable. She has the experience. And i think the two of them are going to do wonderful for this country. I believe that President Biden will be the president , that he will get elected, and she will serve as his Vice President. And together, they will undo the harm that trump has done to our country. They will respect the constitution. They will support our democracy, and they wont get in bed with putin and the russians. They wont destroy our post offices. They wont do the kinds of thing this is president is doing, willing to lock up our kids in cages, willing to take money from our budgets to build a wall when we need budgets to protect the people who are now the victim victims of covid19. I am so happy. Im so pleased. They make a wonderful team. Im looking forward to working closely with them. One california specific question for you. Theres no reporting from buzz feed that said as of august, 1. 1 million unemployment claims in california had yet to be paid. And take months to clear. If congress does approve any of these Unemployment Benefits, the head of the States Economic development department, folks who would process this, told reporters it could take 20 weeks to process them. This is as evictions could resume as early as september 1st. Whats behind this delay in california . Is this a technological problem . Whats deelt in california . Let me say this. No one expected to be confronted with the kind of covid19 virus that we have now been confronted with and our systems have no