iowa senator chuck grassley announced he will not attend the republican national convention this year because of covid. after his announcement, we called the offices of all of the other republican senators over the age of 80 today. there are a bunch of them. we called them all. we did get one response from the youngster of the group, lamar alexander, who turned 80 years young on friday. senator lamar alexandealexandere saying he is an honorary chair of the campaign, but he will not be attending because he believes the delegate spots should be reserved for those who have not had that privilege before. he's just giving someone else a shot. but lamar alexander is a second republican serving u.s. senator

who will not be attending president trump's in person nominating convention this person. that's going to do it. now it's time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell. >> of course we don't know if anyone will be attending the republican convention or there will actually be a republican convention until the day it happens. the situation in jacksonville, florida, at this point doesn't look like they can really pull this off. but we'll know when it happens. >> and, you know, we don't know if the trump administration or the trump campaign and the president will go away with jacksonvil jacksonville's mask ordinance, for example, which is already in effect in terms of indoor gatherings. that's why he moved the thing out of north carolina in the first place. that will be true in jacksonville, even if everything else comes together. >> maybe it can be a big rv convention where they just get thousands of giant recreational

vehicles and everybody just drives to whatever spot somewhere out there in the great plains where they can, i don't know, i give up, rachel. i can't figure out how to have a convention this year. it's impossible. >> keep going with that idea because i would do that with you right now. that would be super fun. >> okay. >> all right. >> the 2020 version of burni ii man. we'll figure something out. >> i'll look up the details. >> great. well, at the end of this hour, we will be joined by an old friend of this program, a friend of mine, the standing chairman of the tribe who won a major victory today against the oil pipeline that they have been trying to stop for years now. a federal judge ordered that pipeline stopped, closed down, emptied of oil today. also tonight, neil will join us

to interpret an important supreme court decision today about the electoral college. they rarely have ruled on the electoral college in the history of the supreme court. this was a unanimous supreme court decision and it could be, could be, may be the first step in effectively ending the electoral college. well, this country is in crisis tonight. and americans are dying tonight because the president of the united states does not read. the president of the united states golfs, but does not read. the white house staff let it be known to the press on friday morning that the president played golf and on sunday that the president played golf. but the white house staff did not tell us if the president read his presidential daily brief on friday. or sunday or saturday or any day bafr pl before playing golf. the president is running behind,

well behind his democratic challenger by double digits in virtually every poll. one of the issues his democratic challenger is running on is this very simple promise. i will read my daily briefings. what is candidate trump's response to that? golfing, racist tweeting, more golfing and defense of dead soldiers. not the war dead of the united states of america, the war dead of the confederacy. racism is donald trump's subject changer. and the number one subject that donald trump wants to change tonight is what is now an entire week of reporting that donald trump did absolutely nothing about plausible intelligence reports that vladimir putin has been paying a bounty of as much as $100,000 for each american soldier killed in afghanistan. it's always been very difficult to choose what is the worst

thing donald trump has done as president, but this now stands alone on its own island of infamy in the three and a half year horrendous history of trump governance. it has been called dereliction of duty by joe biden. it could also be an impeachable offense. and if we weren't just four months away from an election, if this story had come out one year ago, an impeachment inquiry would have been conducted in the house of representatives over these intelligence reports that vladimir putin has been paying to kill american soldiers while donald trump has done absolutely nothing about it. the president's defense has been i don't read. that's like a pilot telling you that he doesn't read the instruments in the cockpit. that pilot is going to get you killed. and people are dying tonight in america from coronavirus because

the president does not read, and american lives are threatened tonight in afghanistan because the president does not read. and, so, the president, once again, used racism to change the subject. and in today's white house press briefing there was not a single question about russia paying to kill american soldiers in afghanistan. 38 questions, 38, and not one question about the ultimate dereliction of duty by a president of the united states. instead, the briefing was dominated by the kind of question that the white house press secretary uses a flurry of words to evade and never answer. here are three of those questions in a row. i want to ask you a couple of questions. the first one, why is the president so supportive of

flying the confederate flag? question two, for clarity, i'm asking you about the confederate flags. my question is why is the president so supportive of flying the confederate flag. and question three, the president said that nascar saw bad ratings because they took down the confederate flag, banned the confederate flag. does he believe nascar should fly the confederate flag? and why don't they fly it here? needless to say, the white house press secretary did not answer any of those questions and did not answer the question why don't they fly the confederate flag at the white house. it was a messy white house press briefings. it was the stupidest white house press briefing in the history of the white house, but it succeeded in changing the subject. and that was its mission.

mission accomplished. but changing the subject is not saving donald trump from voters' harsh judgments of him. a gallup poll released today shows donald trump with a declining approval number of 38%. leading our discussion tonight is former director of the cia, an msnbc senior national security and intelligence analyst and also with a us a staff writer for the new yorker and professor of journalism at columbia university. and professor cobb, i want to start with you on this tonight because it does present a dell limb ma. it presents a dilemma for us in the news room. it is fascinating you can be asking the question in a white house press briefings why don't you fly the confederate flag here at the white house. but there is always that challenge of what are we moving out of the way in order to cover

the latest trump outrage? and do we cover it just because it's the latest trump outrage? what would your guidance be for how we navigate through this situation in the final months of this campaign especially. >> well, i mean, i think first that question had a high possibility of backfiring. if you raise the question of why the white house doesn't fly the confederate flag, you might well wake up the next day to find a confederate flag flying over the white house. this is the kind of reality we're in right now. but i think the other part of it is, you know, of course, we've had this debate for going on four years now and people have never come to a satisfactory solution about how to approach it. some people say you completely ignore the tweets or the culture war stuff that is his own favorite subject.

it is his native territory. but you can't entirely ignore that. people say you should ignore it and think about the policy things. you can't entirely know it because we have seen during this presidency, charlottesville, we have seen the attack on the synagogue in pittsburgh, we have seen the murder of people in the walmart in el paso. these are people who take these kinds of ideas that are at the root, at the cornerstone of the confederacy. and, so, you can't entirely ignore that. but at the same time, pressing national security affairs. so the only thing we can resort to is to say we can do both. we have to be ambidextrous about this stuff, at the same time we're dealing with the hard-nosed policy and political stuff. >> john brennan, your reaction to this dilemma? i want to get into the specifics

of the intelligence reports. but before we do, is there something -- do you see something, do you recognize something in the propaganda style of the trump white house with other regimes you have studied over the years around the world where they want to get the people's attention away from the most damaging possible story about that regime and so they try to create other such stories. >> good evening, lawrence. and you are absolutely right. i have seen, observed this type of behavior in authoritarian leaders around the world for many, many years. this is, you know, taken right out of the authoritarian's play book, which is that you try to create a distraction from the challenges of problems you face on the domestic front. sometimes you point to other domestic issues or you point to external enemies. i think donald trump has had a history now over the last three and a half years of being

masterful as far as trying to distract attention from the issues and the problems, many of which that he has created or made worse. i think we have a track record right now that has demonstrated that donald trump not only is unable to address these issues but just focuses on what he can do, what other new shiny object he can throw in front of his base and the american public as a way to distract from those issues that really are challenging our safety, our security and these days our health. >> and let me go into some of the details that "the new york times" has revealed about where this story stands as of now. the administration produced a memo. it hasn't been made public, but "the new york times" is reporting on that intelligence memo. i want to get your reaction to it. so a memo produced in recent days by the office of the nation's top intelligence official announced that the cia

have assessed that russia appears to have offered bounties to kill american troops in afghanistan but emphasized uncertainties and gaps in evidence according to three officials. the memo said that the cia and the national counter terrorism center had assessed with medium confidence, meaning credibly sourced and plausible, but falling short of near certainty that a unit of the russian military offered the bounties according to two of the officials briefed on its contents. john brennan, what is your reading of what -- what can you glean from the public reports about this intelligence so far? >> well, first of all, i wonder why this memo was only written now in response to press reports, as opposed to being written several months ago when these reports first came in so they could be provided to the white house and senior officials.

it seems this memo was cobbled together as a way to address the issue and also highlighting that there is some dissent within the community about the credibility of reporting. let me tell you, based on my 30 years of experience in new yorking in national security, the central intelligence agency and the counter terrorism center have the greatest capability and expertise to evaluate something like this. and if they say they have assessed with medium confidence, that is a pretty strong endorsement that this intelligence appears to be very credible. that's why it is incumbent to do everything possible to mitigate the threat to our troops. again, it's clear it's in some respects strange we're debating the question about whether or not donald trump would do anything a normal president or even a normal person would do in these instances.

he does not take his job and responsibilities seriously, and unfortunately it is putting the lives of american women and men who serve in uniform at the country's service at great risk. >> and the president's defense, their line of defense at the white house is the president doesn't read, so if you put it in his daily brief, then that doesn't count. that doesn't mean he was notified about it. john bolton then tells some associates that he personally told donald trump this. donald trump won't confirm that now. he says it's classified information. and this is yet -- it seems to be -- in its way, it's all of a piece of the way the trump administration works with everything. it is never like they're trying to change the subject to a good story. it is always trying to change the subject away from what the worst story is on a given day. >> sure. or i think that the other term we left out of this conversation is lie.

you know, there is the kind of outright version of it. so you either distract or you lie. and, so, as you saw in the speech he gave over the weekend where he said that 99% of covid cases are totally harmless, which is -- if that were the case, i think the hospitals in new york would understand why they were being overrun just a month or six weeks ago. the other portion of this as well is the idea that the president not reading something is an excuse for the behavior to be seen subsequently. and that's just basic. ignorance of the law is no excuse. if any of us showed up and said, you know, we had a work assignment and you said, well, frankly, i didn't read any of this, we would be out of a job. so it's confounding to me that that's actually the explanation that the white house has floated. >> professor cobb and john brennan, thank you both for

starting our discussion tonight. really appreciate it. >> thanks, lawrence. thank you. when we come back, we are continuing to learn more about the coronavirus itself. there is new dimensions to it that are being reported that indicate the range of possible symptoms for the coronavirus could be much, much bigger than previously understood. that's next. don't just think about where you're headed this summer. think about how you'll get there. and now that you can lease or buy a new lincoln remotely or in person... discovering that feeling has never been more effortless. accept our summer invitation to get 0% apr on all 2020 lincoln vehicles. only at your lincoln dealer.

did yocould be signs that syour digestive systemwn isn't working at its best? taking metamucil every day can help. metamucil supports your daily digestive health

using a special plant-based fiber called psyllium. psyllium works by forming a gel in your digestive system to trap and remove the waste that weighs you down. metamucil's gelling action also helps to lower cholesterol and slows sugar absorption to promote healthy blood sugar levels. so, start feeling lighter and more energetic... by taking metamucil every day.

today the list of symptoms for the coronavirus might be much bigger than we previously thought. >> this gets into the body through the airway, through the lungs, but it really attached to the insides of the blood vessels. and so that makes it a vascular disease, a blood vessel disease. it means that virtually anybody who comes into a doctor's office feeling sick might have the

coronavirus. if they come in with symptoms a stroke, it might be covid. if they come in with symptoms of a heart attack, it might be covid. if they come in with what seems like arthritis in their feet, it could be covid. >> that could include many, many more symptoms than previously recognized. as of tonight, there are 2,938,752 confirmed cases of coronavirus in this country. and as of tonight, this country has suffered 131,197 deaths from coronavirus. today the country's average of new coronavirus cases per day reached a record high for the 28th consecutive day. today at least seven states reported their highest ever number of coronavirus hospitalizations. hospitals are reaching capacity

levels in some parts of texas, arizona and florida. on saturday florida set a state record for new coronavirus cases in a single day and 11,458. yesterday florida reached more than 200,000 total cases of coronavirus reported. today, the florida education commissioner ordered all schools from kindergarten to 12th grade to reopen in the fall. and miami-dade county announced that beginning on wednesday it would close gyms, short-term vacation rentals and restaurants except for take-out and delivery. today dr. anthony fauci said this in an interview. >> the current state is really not good. we are still knee deep in the first wave of this. and i would say this would not be considered a wave. it was a surge or a resurgence

of infections super imposed on a baseline that never got down to where we wanted to go. >> joining us now, founding director of the national center for disaster preparedness at columbia university's earth institute. thank you very much for joining us tonight. let's work backwards to what dr. fauci said. what was your reaction to the way dr. fauci described where we are. >> i'm in total accord of what he said, including what he said last week, which was that we were soon going to be reaching 100,000 test confirmed cases a day, which means every ten days. that's only 8 percentages of the total number of cases. he was talking about the cases confirmed by testing. we could be testing ten times that actually in short order here. we're still deep, deep in the middle of wave one, and we're going to have a lot more to come, lawrence, unfortunately.

>> and i want to get your reaction to donald trump's statement this weekend saying 99% of coronavirus cases are, quote, totally harmless. >> another beyond absurd comment from somebody who should just stop talking about anything to do with this pandemic. he doesn't know what he's talking about. it is a tremendous amount of ignorance. i don't know whether it's ignorance or whatever it is, but a lot of misrepresentation of reality. every clinician in this country understands that at least 15% of covid cases in this country will end up in a hospital being seriously ill and a certain percentage will not make it. in fact, it's worth noting, as my friend michael has done many times, we fully should expect 50% to 70% of americans actually getting infected.

many will be having mild or limited symptoms, but, you know, even if you have 1% of a million, i mean of 160 million, which is 50% of the country, we're talking about an enormous number of cases and a significant number of fatalities, which could reach seven or eight hundred thousand by the time we're threw with this lawrence. what is your reaction to the state of florida ordering all schools to open at this stage in the rise of coronavirus cases in florida. >> sure. we should acknowledge that there is tremendous pressure to get schools open again for a lot of reasons. a lot of children, especially those that are living in poverty have to get those kids back in school. and the question is how are we going to do it? it can't be business as usual. we're going to have to figure out how to keep the kids separated, how to make the classes smaller and how to make

sure that teachers and all the staff are protected as much as possible. so there is no way to really sort of answer that without knowing the details and what their plans are. but every city in the country is trying to figure out what to do. new york city has 1.1 children in their program, 70% of which live at or near poverty. there is a lot of things to work out. but parents who need to work, who cannot go to a job that has one week off and one week on because that's the schedule of their kids in school, a lot of pressures and a lot of demands and i don't relish the policymakers that have to make the final decision. getting back to school is important, but how do we do it as safe as possible, lawrence? >> and what benchmarks would school systems use if they do reopen for making the decision to close again if necessary?

>> so this is -- yeah, tough request being asked. let's say this one case that pops up in a particular classroom, that may not be enough reason shs lawrence, to shut the whole school down. so every school district is trying to figure this out. it would be helpful if we had national guidance on how to open this. but like everything else, every state and district is left on their own with this president. >> thank you for joining us again tonight. we really appreciate it. and when we come back, "the new york times" had to sue the trump administration to find out just how badly coronavirus has hit african-americans and latinos in the united states. that's next. that's next. as a caricature artist,

i appreciate what makes each person unique. that's why i like liberty mutual. they get that no two people are alike and customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need.

almost done. what do you think? i don't see it. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

"the new york times" had to sue the centers for disease

control under the freedom of information act to obtain data on the demographic impact of the coronavirus, which allowed the times then to public its lead story on page one today. having studied the data, "the new york times" reports latino and african-american residents of the united states have been three times more likely to become infected as their white neighbors. black and latino are twice as likely to die from the virus than white people. of latino who died, more than a quarter were younger than 60. of white people that died, only 6% were that young. circumstances have made black and latino people were likely to be exposed to the virus. many of them have front line jobs that keep them from working at home, rely on public transportation or live in

cramped apartments or multigenerational homes. joining our discussion now is julian castro, the former secretary of housing and urban development in the obama administration. he is a former mayor of san antonio, texas. thank you very much for joining us tonight. i want to get your reaction to this reporting in "the new york times" today. >> well, it's a block buster report. eye opening, i think, for a lot of people. what can you say? it is a polling. it's tragic. it's infuriating. it is also, lawrence, for folks who are still wondering why so many people are out there on the streets or have been out there over the last six weeks protesting inequality in the country, this is a perfect example of what people are talking about. we know this is a result of so much inequality in housing and health care and job opportunities in so many walks of life that have led to these numbers. it literally is the difference

between life and death in these communities. on top of that, as you showed there, one of the biggest ir ironies here is that the community that have suffered the most have also been asked to do the most. they have been the ones going and working in the fields as farm workers, working at these meat packing plants. they're fast food workers working for low wages and bad benefits, grocery store workers. all around, it is a prime example of the inequities that continue to haunt this nation. the important question now is, what are we going to do about it? not just the public health aspect but beyond this time period, you know, in the next few weeks, what are we going to do about this? >> i want to go to some of the facts that the times uncovered to specify just how difficult this is in these communities, especially the difficulty in

working at home, which is next to impossible. so across the country, 43% of black and latino workers are employed in service or production jobs that, for the most part, cannot be done remotely. census data from 2018 shows only about 1 in 4 white workers held such jobs. and, so, there are the numbers right there on the safest thing you can do, which is stay at home. that's just not available to at least half of these workers. >> that's right. i mean, that is a stunning statistics, but it relates to the plight of so many families out there that don't have the option. they don't have the option of staying home. they need to go to work if they're going to get a paycheck. they work in these industries that actually require them to be

on site. that's why i think we need to do things like pass the heroes act, offer direct rental assistance to people so they can hold on to their housing. we need to do more in a robust way to provide a stronger safety net and going forward. it is also, i think, a great demonstration of why we need universal health care. we need to ensure that we close that digital divide. we need to make sure we raise the minimum wage and provide good benefits for people. >> there is also a stunning report here in "the new york times" coverage about the density of residential arrangements. it says latino people are twice as likely to reside in a crowded dwelling less than 500 square feet per person as white people, according to the american housing survey. so there is real numbers on that residential density problem.

>> well, absolutely. you have in the latino community, the black community, a greater propensity to live in close quarters. a lot of folks live in multifamily apartment buildings, high rises. they live in duplexes, four plexs. it is harder to isolate. it is harder to quarantine. it is harder to stay safe from this virus. again, this is the intersection of race and of poverty. class inequality and racial inequality. and we see it playing out in the worst possible way where the outcome are folks who are passing away or, as many have noted, even if you don't pass away from this virus, you know, being or dealing with an illness that may affect you permanently, also health care bills that are in the thousands or tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, this is crying for the kind of

leadership that will address these long-standing issues. it is also sad that we have a president who is not even able to deal with the immediate issues, much less willing to deal with the longer-term issues. >> julian castro, thank you so much for joining our discussion again tonight. we really appreciate it. >> thank you, lawrence. >> thank you. and when we come back, neil will join us. the supreme court ruled on something they almost never rule on, which is the electoral college today. and might their opinion eventually be the undoing of the electoral college? that's next. that's next. ♪ things are getting clearer, yeah i feel free ♪ ♪ to bare my skin ♪ yeah that's all me. ♪ nothing and me go hand in hand ♪ ♪ nothing on my skin ♪ that's my new plan. ♪ nothing is everything. keep your skin clearer with skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months.

of those, nearly 9 out of 10 sustained it through 1 year. and skyrizi is 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. ♪ i see nothing in a different way ♪ ♪ and it's my moment so i just gotta say ♪ ♪ nothing is everything skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms such as fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches or coughs, or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine. ♪ nothing is everything ask your dermatologist about skyrizi. ♪ (bbut it's even nicer knowing atthat if this happens...ice it is to save on your auto policy. ...or this.... ...or even this... ...we've seen and covered it. so, get a quote today. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪

♪ ♪ we've always put safety first. ♪ ♪ and we always will. ♪ ♪ for people. ♪ ♪ for the future. ♪ ♪ and there has never been a summer when it's mattered more. wherever you go, summer safely. get zero percent apr financing for up to five years on select models and exclusive lease offers.

i have the power to lower my blood sugar and a1c. because i can still make my own insulin. and trulicity activates my body to release it like it's supposed to. once-weekly trulicity is for type 2 diabetes. it's not insulin. it starts acting from the first dose. and it lowers risk of heart attack, stroke, or death in people with known heart disease or multiple risk factors. trulicity isn't for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. don't take trulicity if you're allergic to it, you or your family have medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have an allergic reaction, a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, changes in vision, or diabetic retinopathy. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. taking trulicity with sulfonylurea or insulin raises low blood sugar risk. side effects include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, belly pain, and decreased appetite, which lead to dehydration

and may worsen kidney problems. we're committed to helping ensure trulicity is available and affordable. learn more at trulicity.com. car vending machines and buying a car 100% online.vented now we've created a brand new way for you to sell your car. whether it's a year old or a few years old, we want to buy your car. so go to carvana and enter your license plate, answer a few questions, and our techno-wizardry calculates your car's value and gives you a real offer in seconds. when you're ready, we'll come to you, pay you on the spot, and pick up your car. that's it. so ditch the old way of selling your car, and say hello to the new way-- at carvana. it was a big weekend for alexander hamilton with "hamilton" having its revival in our homes through the streaming services where it's now available. and it was a big day for alexander hamilton at the

supreme court today. here is how alexander hamilton thought we should choose a president. a small number of persons selected by their fellow citizens from the general mass will be the most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated investigations. and that, ladies and gentlemen, is how we ended up with the electoral college. today in a historic ruling, the united states supreme court in a unanimous decision ruled that the individual states can enforce their own laws about how that state's electors vote for president. joining our discussion now is ne neil, an msnbc legal contributor. neil, please take us through the

ruling and you can use as many "hamilton" lyrics as you do. >> that's a very dangerous proposition. >> i know. i know. >> i think this seems like an arcane thing. what is a faithless elector? just by the name, it sounds like something donald trump would love. but the supreme court said today a state can force some individual who has been selected for the electoral college by one party, they can force that person to vote for the candidate of their party. so if you are a democrat in colorado and you have been selected by the democratic party to vote for the candidate, you know, john kerry, whomever, you can't turn around and vote for colin powell. that's what the state law in colorado said, along with 32 other state laws. and the supreme court today said those laws are a-okay.

they reasoned basically that, lawrence, yes, hamilton talked about having a deliberative body and the like, but for practice it hasn't worked out that way. there have been 32,000 votes cast since the founding for one presidential candidate or another, and only 180 of them have ever been faithless, that is switched the vote from the party that had put them into office and indeed of those 180 one-third of those were in a single election in 1872 where the candidate really managed to die after election day. so it made much more sense to have switched votes there. so as a result, the bottom line is the supreme court today said states can bind electors to the party that selected them to go to the electoral college. and that avoided what otherwise would have been a disaster because, you know, sometimes you can have very close times in the

electoral college. like in 2000, there were five electoral votes selected between bush and gore. and if you could go and try to pick off individual electors after election day, that's a recipe for chaos and particularly in the age of donald trump we don't need more chaos. >> so what does it mean to the movement among some of the states to try to limit the effect of the electoral college by joining a compact as california already has done, by the way, saying our electors will be instructed in california to vote for the winner of the national popular vote. and that agreement will go into effect once they have enough states in that agreement that equals a winning number of electoral votes. does this decision allow for that possibility? >> i think it does. i mean, i think it's a complicated decision and we're going to have to study it, but i

think the majority and the separate opinion give a shot in the arm to those people that want to effectively undue the electoral college by the scheme you have said. what the supreme court opinions say today is states have a lot of latitude in this way. they're allowed to both bind electors but also have the electors track the popular vote or other things they may wish. i think that's really important because at the end of the day, lawrence, the electoral college has its roots in the protection of slave states, small states. it's fundamentally anti-democratic. and, you know, this is i think the possibility you mention is one real possible upside of today's decision. >> neal, how many times did you watch "hamilton" this weekend? >> i only watched it once, but since i have seen it about 20 times before. but interesting, lawrence, the

supreme court today actually mentioning hamilton, the play, in it. so quite a weekend. >> he has gone farther with that than we ever dreamed possible and now he's in a supreme court decision. that is really great. thank you very much for joining us tonight. really appreciate it. and when we come back, the standing rock su tribe won a big victory today in federal court when the access to the pipeline was shut down. the leader of the tribe who led that protest against the pipeline four years ago will join us next and get tonight's last word. the corner? or could it play out differently? i wanted to help protect myself. my doctor recommended eliquis. eliquis is proven to treat and help prevent another dvt or pe blood clot. almost 98 percent of patients on eliquis didn't experience another. -and eliquis has significantly less major bleeding

than the standard treatment. eliquis is fda-approved and has both. don't stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. if you had a spinal injection while on eliquis call your doctor right away if you have tingling, numbness, or muscle weakness. while taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily- and it may take longer than usual for bleeding to stop. seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. what's around the corner could be your moment. ask your doctor about eliquis.

balanced nutrition for strength and energy. whoo-hoo! great tasting ensure with 9 grams of protein, 27 vitamins and minerals, and nutrients to support immune health. [ engine rumbling ] [ beeping ] [ engine revs ] uh, you know there's a 30-minute limit, right? tell that to the rain.

[ beeping ] for those who were born to ride, there's progressive. [ beeping ] save without even leaving your house. just keep your phone and switch to xfinity mobile. you can get it by ordering a free sim card online. once you activate, you only have to pay for the data you need, starting at just $15 a month. there are no term contracts, no activation fees, and no credit check on the first two lines. get a $50 prepaid card when you switch.

5g is now included with all new data options. switch and save hundreds. xfinity mobile. . today in a huge victory for the standing rock sioux tribe, a federal judge ordered the dakota access pipeline to shut down and be emptied of oil within the next 30 days. the judge ruled that the army corps of engineers did not

conduct the environmental studies that federal law requires prior to the construction of the pipeline. i visited the standing rock sioux reservation in 2016 when the tribe was leading a protest against the pipeline that became the largest protest by native american tribes in american history. in the final days of the obama administration, in december of 2016, the army corps of engineers decided to stop construction of the pipeline and consider alternative routes for a possible pipeline. the chairman of the standing rock sioux tribe, dave ar chambo joined us on the program the night that decision was announced. >> you know, it was an overwhelming feeling of relief because it feels like the first time in the history of this country that native americans have been heard. >> and then after donald trump was inaugurated, the army corps of engineers was ordered to reverse their position and allow

the construction of the pipeline to be completed. today a federal judge ruled that that process by the trump administration bypassed the necessary environmental studies and approvals for the construction of that pipeline. and joining us now once again is dave archambeault, the former chairman of the standing rock sioux tribe. he's joining us from his home on the reservation tonight. dave, great to see you again, and i can never thank you enough for informing me and showing me around when i was out there during the protest. what is your reaction to the federal judge's ruling that you've been fighting for for so many years? >> well, you know, i think it's a step in the right direction. it's something that we've been always putting in front of the judge, this argument that this pipeline isn't safe and our people have a right, and we should be heard. the pipeline, when it was

granted, violated federal law. we always knew that, and we're just thankful that the judge is starting to see what we've been saying all along for the past four years. it feels good. today's a good day. i know it's not over. i know that the eas process still has to take place, but it's a step in the right direction where we get to hopefully be a part of the eis process, the environmental impact statement process. our tribe should be included in every step. our technical team and our experts should be presenting our concerns all along the way. that's what's needed in the future. but for now, it is a good day to finally know that there is a real threat to our humanity, a

real threat to our environment, and right now with the judge's ruling, with the flow of the pipeline stopping and being empty, that threat will be gone temporarily. but we have to be included in the process to continue and express our concerns. >> the judge's order requires them to go through the full environmental impact studies that they failed to do before. it leaves open the possibility -- the judge's finding -- that at the end of all of that, the army corps of engineers could issue an approval. but joe biden, if that would -- if that does run its course, if that is legally allowed to run its course, it is very likely that it would be next year after we may have a new president. and joe biden has said that he would support the tribe on this, and he would not allow this pipeline to reopen there. so this is one of those cases that in the end may be decided

by the presidential election, as it was last time. >> yeah, and that's -- and that's one of the main reasons why it's so important that indigenous peoples or peoples of this country get out and vote and express their concerns and why we need to have a voice. so it's very important that we're a part of this process. >> and explain to our audience the route of this pipeline, which is when you're out there and you see it, it's so extraordinary. it makes -- you know, it makes a certain visual sense when you see it crossing the land. but it actually goes under the lake, this very large lake that your tribe has always lived with as both a sacred place and a very necessary place to daily life. it's the pipeline under the lake that the judge was especially worried about.

>> yeah. it's a project with this magnitude, this size of a project, it doesn't warrant just an environmental assessment, especially if there's a population that has concern. and we've always had a concern, but it seemed like we never were heard. so when our youth stood up and started speaking out, saying that, you know, we have to think about the future of our nation, the leadership stepped forward, and i commend the leadership today for continuing this fight to make sure that a project of this size and a threat to our nation, not just the standing rock nation but to the united states, goes through the proper legal processes and reviews. and that was our argument from the very beginning. >> the former chairman of the standing rock sioux tribe.

thank you very much for joining us again tonight, dave. and i will be forever grateful to the way you guided me through the experience of being out there when the protest was at its height. really appreciate that. dave archambault gets tonight's last word. thank you, dave. >> thank you, lawrence. >> that is tonight's last word. "the 11th hour" with brian williams starts now. and good evening once again. day 1,264 of the trump administration, leaving 120 days, roughly four months until the presidential election. and coronavirus cases are still spiking across much of our country after what was a busy fourth of july weekend. the surge in new cases comes as the president is working hard to downplay the virus and play up the culture war. the united states has recorded