News Information and Media Site: America's two crises ... and Val Demings joins MTP

From NBC's Ben Kamisar

If it's Sunday, America is struggling with two crises.

For months, the country has been transfixed by a new virus, the novel coronavirus, that's claimed more than 100,000 lives and upended American life.

But this week, those concerns took a back seat to questions of police misconduct and systemic racism after the death of a Minnesota man in police custody, the latest in a long string of deaths in recent years.

As the nation has watched the disturbing images of Floyd's death and several nights of tense protests, today's "Meet the Press" tackled the latest developments and news from all fronts.

NBC reporters, fanned out across the country, shared their reporting from a weekend of tense protests.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said the federal government should be doing more to serve as a check on police departments.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser sympathized with protesters while warning that destroying property isn't the answer, and called on President Trump to meet the moment.

But as the mayors addressed the nationwide pain and frustration, Bowser warned that the threat from the coronavirus hasn't abated, and the protests have the unintended effect of jump-starting its spread.

2020 VISION: Demings calls for nationwide review to address police misconduct

Also on today's "MTP," Florida Rep. Val Demings, the former Orlando police chief who's being vetted as a potential running mate for Joe Biden, shared her thoughts on how America can move forward.

She called for every police department and law enforcement agency to review its policies in hopes of addressing police misconduct, adding that the federal government should help departments set those standards.

"Before, as we dealt with misconduct involving police officers, we've always tried to deal with it as an individual department or an individual city or an individual state. But ... we are overdue for us to look at the problem as a nation."

—Demings on "MTP."

Click on the photo below to watch the full interview or read more here on the MTP Blog.

TWEET OF THE DAY: Where we are, where are we?

DATA DOWNLOAD: Coronavirus cases picking up in rural America

While the numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths broadly are trending downward in America, those top lines don't tell the full story.

States like Texas, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey are seeing big declines in new cases and deaths.

But states like California, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Alabama and Virginia have seen more new cases over the past week, with some rural counties seeing a massive increase (1,200 percent in West Virginia's Randolph County).

Click on the image below to read more from this week's Data Download.