Hello from the Greater Washington area. I'm Chuck Todd and this is the Chuck Todd cast.

Oklahoma and Arizona. Those were the first two stops in President Trump's campaign reboot,

which he attempted to get underway the last weekend. And those events contain all of the

narrative of the 2020 election cycle. Fudes over race, debates over masks, internet

trolling, and the underlying worry that the coronavirus is with us in the room. And across

the country, as cases of COVID-19 climb, President Trump's poll numbers are falling. It's

the one curve that's been bent down. The New York Times, CNK, today shows Biden in the

leave at 14 points nationally, even eating into support with Trump space, such as men and

non-college educated voters. And if you want to say that's an outlier, fine, but this is,

I believe, the third national poll in the last 10 days has had Biden up double digits.

Question is, how much of this is Trump versus Biden? And how much of this is Trump versus

the virus? Joining me today are two reporters who cover the White House day in and day out. Mike

Bender, that the Wall Street Journal had an exclusive interview with the president last week

and Annie Carney, who writes for the New York Times wrote about the fallout from his mid-pandemic

Tulsa rally. Welcome to you both. Mike, let me start with you in your interview with the

president. First of all, was it in person or on the phone?

It was in person at the Oval Office, just TNI, on the obsidian of the Resolute Test.

Okay, so did you know in advance, or was this one of those, he pulled G-N with about 20 minutes

notice?

Yeah, I got a call from the White House press shop at about 4 o'clock that afternoon saying,

how soon can you get here? And I said, well, I don't know how soon can you get a haircut

in a shave in Washington DC these days? They did give me enough time to get showered at

...