in his first public appearance in months, former vice president and presumptive presidential nominee joe biden left his home to commemorate memorial day. he was wearing a face mask. biden traveling to the delaware memorial bridge, veterans memorial park to lay a wreath. joined there by his wife, jill biden. there were dozens of veterans who were also in attendance. and this is, of course, a very personal day for biden. his oldest son, beau, an army vet who served in iraq and died of brain cancer in 2015. i'm brianna keilar and you're watching cnn's special live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. thank you so much for joining me this memorial day which is one unlike any before. as the nation honors the more than 1.2 million americans who

died for this country, president trump paid tribute today at a wreath-laying ceremony at the tomb of the unknown soldier. and as the nation pauses to remember the fallen, americans will also remember those who have lost their lives in the fight against covid-19. this week, the united states will reach 100,000 deaths in this pandemic. at this hour, the coronavirus is blamed for 97,000 u.s. deaths. the number of cases now topping 1.6 million, but still, that has not prevented scenes like this, beaches, boardwalks, pools, packed with many people who are not wearing masks, who are not socially distancing. and this holiday weekend is marking a reopening milestone as of sunday, with the last of the state's entering an initial phase, all 50 states are now in some stage of reopening. as you can see here, looking at new cases from the past week to the previous, 18 states are

seeing a trend now of more infections, 22 are holding steady, ten of them are seeing a drop. cnn's jason carroll following how states are responding to the pandemic at this point and jason, what are beach towns doing when people don't wear masks, they're not practicing social distancing, they're not behaving in the interest of public health? >> reporter: well, look, it really depends upon where you are, brianna. here in this park in brooklyn, we are seeing people practicing social distancing but when you look across the country, there have been a number of cases of people doing just the opposite. and all of this, as the world health organization has just now come out saying that they are worried that americans are becoming complacent and as a result, we could see a resurgence come this fall. these were not the images health officials were hoping to see this memorial day. party goers ignoring social distancing rules, packed this pool in missouri over the weekend. scenes of crowded vacationers on

a board walk in ocean city, maryland, and myrtle beach, south carolina. >> you wouldn't know a pandemic was going on by looking at the beach today. >> traffic is completely shut down. >> reporter: more crowds in daytona beach, florida, where gunfire erupted as people standing shoulder to shoulder blocked traffic. >> when you get this volume of people, it's going to be tough to control until we get other things open or close things off. >> reporter: the fda commissioner tweeting this morning, with the country starting to open up this holiday weekend, i again remind everyone that the coronavirus is not yet contained. the warning comes as at least 18 states are showing an upward trend in covid-19 cases. north carolina seeing its highest one-day number. arkansas, health officials now monitoring the state's second peak. some new cases linked to a high school pool party. >> they're young, they're

swimming, they're just having activity, and positive cases resulted from that. and so it's just an encouragement for us to be disciplined in our activities. >> reporter: troubling and conflicting signs in alabama where the governor is pushing forward to reopen the state while montgomery's mayor said there's still a critical need for icu beds. >> we're still at a crisis level in this community. we still have issues right now with more positive cases coming in. >> reporter: near downtown los angeles, 115 new cases at a farmer john meat plant. in virginia, 257 new cases at a tyson food poultry plant. even so, a number of americans still saying reopening the country is not happening fast enough. president trump deemed houses of worship essential and called on governors to reopen them. new jersey's governor says he spoke to the president and says his state like many others will

reopen houses of worship when the time is right. >> i think we all want to, anyone who worships wants to get back doing what they have always done, but again, we've got to do it responsibly. >> reporter: health officials concerned about a resurgence in cases. white house coronavirus response coordinator dr. deborah birx urging everyone to practice social distancing and to wear a mask. >> a mask does prevent droplets from reaching others, and out of respect for each other, as americans that care for each other, we need to be wearing masks in public when we cannot social distance. >> reporter: and new york's governor andrew cuomo wrapped up his press briefing today where he announced death benefits of families of first responders going forward will be provided by state and local governments and also called on the federal government, brianna, to do the same. >> that is good news, jason

carroll, in new york, thank you. the mayor of houston said he will now enforce a 25% capacity rule of businesses across the city after seeing images of crowds not voluntarily complying with social distancing over the weekend. houston mayor kiln ves ter tusy joining us now talking about what he saw and certainly did not like. at what point were you thinking, okay, this is not working? >> brianna, first, let me say happy memorial day to you and everybody else, certainly we honor and remember our veterans and those fallen but let me say when i saw some of the pictures, one of my council members sent me some pictures and there were other pictures on facebook and social media of people around swimming pools, no social distancing, no masks. i just said, we have to pump the brakes. people, there are some pretending as though this virus no longer exists, and quite

frankly, it's not only endangering themselves and those at these gatherings, but they're engaging everybody else when they leave these gatherings, they go back home, they go to their respected places, other people are being jeopardized. so at that point, we just have to pump the brakes and that's what we started doing yesterday. >> were you surprised that people failed to act in the interest of public health? >> i wouldn't say i was surprised. we've asked people to stay at home for the last two months, so i know people want to get out. i know, for example, businesses have been not able to operate, so we want the economy to open up, start the commerce. i understand that, and let me just say, for most businesses, and for most customers, they are obeying and complying with the rules, but there are some who just barely missed complying.

they totally opened up large gathering gatherings. those are the people the council rescheduled in march and april, to prevent community spread and by and large in the city of houston, we have been successful. our numbers are comparatively very low. >> it's an exception but that's all the coronavirus needs, right? i wonder what happens if a bar or restaurant, as you describe blatantly violates these capacity rules, what happens? >> well, what happens then is the fire marshals go out and talk to them, they inform, they make them aware of what the requirements are and we ask them to voluntarily comply. if they fail to voluntarily comply, we can close them down for that particular evening. i am pleased to say, for example, we received 180 complaints from last night.

the fire marshals went out, talked to the establishments, the managers and the owners and in all cases where they went out, the people agreed to voluntarily comply. that's a good sign and we're hoping that others will follow suit. >> mayor sylvester turner from the great city of houston, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you for having me. happy memorial day. >> remembering on this memorial day to you as well, sir. breaking news, the world health organization putting a stop to its global study of hydroxychloroquine because of safety concerns. it's the same drug that president trump touted and personally took, and despite the weekend being a time to remember america's fallen and as the nation nears 100,000 coronavirus deaths, the president instead tweeted sexist attacks, bs conspiracies. he accused someone of murder and he played golf twice. we'll talk about that. this is cnn's special live coverage. t-mobile and sprint are joining forces to power your business.

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as public health officials expect the u.s. death toll to reach 100,000 this week, president trump spent much of the holiday weekend lashing out on twitter and playing quite a bit of golf at his resort. protesters gathered outside of his golf course in virginia. one side reading, i care, do you? 100,000 dead but the president defending his decision to golf, tweeting, it was the first time he had played in almost three months. he also attacked former president obama and former vice president biden for vacationing and relaxing and quote, always playing golf while in office. a line then candidate trump repeated on the campaign trail. >> i'm going to be working for you. i'm not going to have time to play golf.

he played more golf last year than tiger woods. >> now the president's claims about his predecessor part of his 48 hour twitter tirade that focused on anything but the deadly pandemic or this solemn day, memorial day. on saturday, the president shared sexist insults against female democrats including retweeting a message that called hillary clinton a, quote, skank. another insulted a gubernatorial candidate's weight. tweeted with no evidence, proof or basis that mail-in ballots will have the greatest rigged election in history. he's posted mail-in, by the way. and then a conspiracy tv show against a morning tv show host. missing, mentions of the americans who died and bragged about the nation's response to the coronavirus crisis, writing, cases, numbers and deaths are going down all over the country. also not true.

cnn political commentator s.e. cupp is here. no matter who the president is, there's always criticizing the response to a disaster, but something that has been true since the beginning of this is that the president really had a real opportunity, handed one to unify people, to lead, to set a tone, and he's really squandering it, isn't he? >> and for some time. i think we should say, brianna, this has long gone past offensive, and distasteful. i think what we're seeing is the president losing it. i don't think the president's behavior is that of a healthy stable balanced person, that he can't all of his energy, efforts and attention on this global

pandemic, on securing the physical and economic safety and health of this country is very alarming. instead, devolving down these rabbit holes of conspiracy theories, baseless conspiracy theories as you pointed out, attacking women for their looks and their weight, you know, threatening governors, one in michigan for mail-in voting, another in north carolina for not guaranteeing a full house at the rnc. this is not how a healthy controlled person would behave at all, let alone during a pandemic and on a weekend meant to honor the memories of our fallen soldiers. i think it's time for us to just call this what it is. the president is not well. >> i think you mentioned memorial day weekend. i think, you know, for me, as a member of a military family, i think that's one of the things that really stands out to me is

i think about where our family's minds are this weekend. this is a tough weekend. >> sure. >> when you're a military connected and the president is the commander in chief, there are people, there are supposed to be people on your mind this weekend who gave the ultimate price. we're talking about that. i interviewed several widows and family members who lost loved ones over this weekend and they've been very much on my mind and then to see someone tweeting this kind of thing clearly, it seems at least in those moments, these people are not on his. >> no. it's grotesque, and, you know, my heart goes out to military families and unfortunately, or fortunately, we all know a veteran who has fallen in service and it's not hard to try and think about those people and what their families are going

through. today, it's one day a year. i don't need the president of the united states to help me do that, but at the very least, don't get in the way of that and that's why i say this is beyond offensive because of course it's offensive. it's grotesque. it's not healthy behavior to do that. it's not helping him. it's not helping his own cause politically. you know, i saw some members of his own party in congress tweeting him, please stop doing this. this is not helpful. this is not productive. so there's no good reason why he's acting this way, which leads me to believe, i think what anyone can plainly see is obvious, he's not healthy and not well and the worst possible time for our country to have someone in charge who cannot master basic control and discipline to focus on this incredibly serious task at hand. >> yeah, this is a moment too,

at least to be decent and certainly to lead because this is a memorial day we are thinking of lives lost in service to this country and s.e., it's been completely redefined this year when we think of these folks on the front line. people in the military will tell you, that's what we do, that's what we sign up for and now you're seeing an entire group of other people who have had to answer this call and it's really just amazing so we honor them too. >> thanks, bri. safety concerns raised again about the drug president trump touted to treat the coronavirus. details on the breaking news that the w.h.o. has paused its global study on this. plus, the slowing spread of the virus in the uk may actually be bad news for a vaccine trial there. the japanese prime minister said a vaccine is significant in determining whether the olympics will go on next summer. i just love hitting the open road and telling people

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breaking news that we are following today. the world health organization has temporarily halted studying the trump touted drug hydroxychloroquine citing safety concerns. officials made decision after new findings linked it to a higher risk of death in seriously ill coronavirus patients. dr. peter hotez is the dean of school of tropical medicine at baylor university and acclaimed

vaccine researcher. this is the same drug the president claimed he was taking for preventative measures for two weeks which he wrapped up last week but scientists from across the globe are saying that it's too dangerous to even continue in clinical trials with. how significant is that? >> yeah, a lot of this came out of a publication last week in the lancet group led by a cardiologi cardiologist with 96 patie,000 patients, in a third of those were either randomized either hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine, or hydroxychloroquine with uae zit row me or hydroxychloroquine with uae zit row

z az azithromycin and then a serious arrhythmia, that was really concerning. the w.h.o. had to act part of their solidarity study looking at three or four different medications and it's clear they have to pause this one now, it's not ethical to continue and probably going to shut down pretty soon. >> unethical to continue, that encapsulates what's going on here. doctor, we're learning that oxford university's trial has a 50% chance of success according to scientists because the number of people with the virus in the united kingdom is actually falling too quickly. you need to have people try a vaccine and then need to be subject to it to see if they get it or not. the lead researcher saying we're in the bizarre position of wanting covid to stay.

>> yeah, atrian hill is a long standing colleague and friend. he made that statement. i didn't quite understand it because it was referring to the fact there may be decreased transmission by the time the vaccine is ready to test in the uk, but who cares? this is a vaccine that's been licensed to astrazeneca, one of the major vaccines going into operation warp speed. i hate the name, but there it is, operation warp speed in the united states and elsewhere, brazil or elsewhere. whether or not there's transmission going on in the uk should not really matter. unless he's referring to something else, i would assume that the trials are going to go forward. we had one result in human primates with mixed results in terms of not human primates, moving forward with people and we should be able to get a good sense over the coming year and a half whether the vaccine is

working and whether it's safe. >> we're constantly looking for these bright spots aren't we? this is a long road ahead of us. dr. hotez, thank you so much for joining us. there are clusters breaking out across the u.s., including at a great clips store, as well as a private school. plus, the white house has issued new travel restrictions on brazil. cases in that country surge to the second highest total in the world. cnn is on the ground as a war of words erupts between brazil's president and the mayor of a town that has been forced to dig mass graves. all right, let's do it.

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today! japan's prime minister is speaking out about his country's plans to host the olympics which have been pushed to next year because of the pandemic. prime minister shinzo abe said the development of a vaccine is, quote, significant to being able to hold the games in 2021 with all of the athletes and the spectators present. and japan is where we begin our look at the pandemic headlines around the world. >> reporter: i'm in toqkyo. japan no longer in a state of emergency but japanese prime minister shinzo abe's approval rating dropped to 29% according to a leading newspaper poll. among the concerns, not enough testing for the virus and the response to the economic fallout. restaurants around here are likely to stay open longer for

tomorrow, but many shopkeepers worry with social distancing in place whether that will be enough to keep them in business. >> reporter: i'm in madrid, in barcelona after ten weeks of confinement, restaurants are openi opening. they can meet to have a meal or drink together. half of the country is on this so-called phase one of the reopening. the rest is on phase two, which allows even more activities including indoor service at the restaurants. masks are still required in public unless you're far away from other people and the government plans to reopen for international tourism in july to try to restart that important part of the economy. >> reporter: i'm nic robertson in london where boris johnson's chief adviser just stood his ground, said he has no apology, no regrets, didn't consider resigning and stands by his position that his actions of

traveling north in the country with his sick wife and young son to try to find somewhere to isolate that he stands by that decision. he says that the reason people are angry about it, in essence, because it has been badly and inaccurately reported by the media. >> the trump administration is clamping down on travel from brazil, prohibiting any foreign nationals who have been in this country for the last two weeks from coming to the u.s. second to the u.s. in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases, 60,000 brazilians infected and more than 22,000 deaths there. despite this ghastly toll, brazil's president continues to shrug off the pandemic as merely a little flu. cnn's nick paton walsh is in a brazilian city that has been really hit hard by the virus. nick, tell us about this city and the mayor there who is furious at brazil's president. >> reporter: yeah, i mean, this

is an extraordinary story of essentially the brazilian president caught candidly in a cabinet video recording where he was talking to his inner circle and always been somewhat playing down the coronavirus, a little bit, but this meeting, recorded calling the mayor in one of this poor areas, in the middle of the amazon, called menous, calling the mayor of menous because he was forced to dig mass graves with a piece of expletive, caused a lot of consternation, wondering why to criticize someone looking after his own people. here's what happened when i put that statement to the mayor of this town. the president call you a piece of [ bleep ]? >> yes. >> reporter: why did he do that? >> his dream is to be dictatorship. >> reporter: you blame his words for the outbreak here because people were too busy going about

daily lives? >> complicit in the deaths in brazil. he's co-responsible. >> reporter: seeing the people in menous, what was the message be? >> president bolsonaro, please shut up and stay home. resign. resign, resign. >> reporter: why? >> because he doesn't govern brazil. >> reporter: now, we were in an enormous graveyard, referred to earlier and startling to see the cases that are positive coronavirus tested, some graves, but seemed about five times as many suspected coronavirus graves just across the road from it. startling because it gives you an idea that the numbers we hear officially may not be the full picture. bree

breeana? >> these are just arresting pictures that you captured there. and what i don't understand is there are images, of course, of the brazilian president wearing a mask there but also still dismissing the virus. you've seen him out and about shaking hands as well with people as all of this has gone on. >> reporter: yeah, a graveyard in sao paulo but you're right, bolsonaro startlingly, even though his tone somewhat shifted to calling this a war, most definitely continuing to meet his supporters in public, not wearing a face mask, not all the time, seems to have flown over the crowd in the government capital, landed in a mask and then took it off but right at the moment that this country is heading into its peak, possibly in sao paulo, the most number of cases, a week or two weeks away,

mostly through a ravaged city like this. different around the country, he is still giving that simple visual symbol he's not wearing a mask. i'm wearing one here because it is mandatory in manaus and rhio daij n, and hydroxychloroquine now essentially banned almost by the w.h.o. because the dangerous effects it can have. they've made hydroxychloroquine available for use even mild or moderate cases of coronavirus. partially led to the resignation of a health minister here. startling move by the federal government on the brazilian level. you heard the anger of local officials here. echoed amongst many people as well but the mayor said one of the reasons why people possibly suffered so much in this city because they were listening to brazilian president bolsonaro when he said it's not a big deal because he's the president and

you would do that, so they have to take extra efforts on a local level to get social isolation in place and get people wearing masks. when you have graves and burials, there were five in the two hours we were at that graveyard today. so startling that it's still happening at this scale and pace here and startling too for the federal government still putting out a message of, it isn't that big of a deal. brianna. >> those pictures from sao paulo. thank you, nick paton walsh in manaus, brazil. many summer camp owners in the u.s. are forced to make the tough decision to shut down this season. i'll speak to one couple who just made the call at their camp in maine and plus -- president trump threatening to pull the republican national convention unless he can guarantee a certain demand that involves crowds.

parents could face a long summer indoors with their kids as sleepaway camps across the u.s. wait to see if they'll be allowed to open. one camp in maine already had to make the hard decision to close for the year. >> due to the current situation with coronavirus, we have made the difficult decision to postpone kippewa to next summer. we know the bond is strong and real and so much more than being in one place so we'll continue to find ways for us to stay connected over the upcoming weeks and throughout the year. >> i'm joined now by ginger and steve clare, thekippewa for gir.

some say away camps are a good option because of this containment but it's very difficult. tell us the factors that went into your decision to close down. >> yeah, certainly. as i say in that video, this is one of the most difficult decisions we've ever had to make, and there's so many different factors that really played into it. it's hard to pinpoint any one specific thing. i'll say that we, as you've done, we've consulted with experts and doctors. we've pored through the different guidelines that have been made available to us for opening camps safely this summer, and, you know, we went through them and realize those protocols would really impact every aspect of camp for us, from dining hall to the bunk settings and our facility and how we run our activities, so ultimately, personally, we just didn't feel that we could

maintain the level of support and kind of the kippewa magic that our kids really expect and deserve. >> it's very specific to our program, i think. i think some other camps may find a way and even for us, able to modify some of the smaller programs and we are still looking to run some programs this summer. kippewa academy and family camp. >> did you guys feel like the guidelines were enough? did you feel like they answered the questions you had about how do we do this and that at camp? >> the cdc guidelines were called considerations for summer camp, not mandatory but quite late coming out. they came out last week. before that, the american camp association did a fantastic job and produced an 80 page field guide for us. they partnered with a health professional company and came up with something that was very great for us to try and plan around, and then ultimately, we

were guided by the main cdc guidelines so that the main guidelines were mandatory and involved a checklist that we had to sign off on, so really, we based our decision more around the main guidelines rather than the cdc guidelines but they were all helpful. >> i would also say, we feel fortunate that maine has come out with these guidelines. there were a lot of camps and camp directors either having to make a decision without knowing what the state is going to allow, or are still waiting to hear if and how states are going to allow camps to open this summer. >> yeah, it's going to be tough. for so many of them, we know so many families who you are used to seeing are going to be so disappointed, but we wish you luck, ginger and steve clare, thank you for talking to us from charlottesville, virginia. we appreciate it. >> thank you so much. stunning videos of crowds completing ignoring advice of medical experts over the holiday weekend, plus, the nba considering finishing out the

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today on homefront the digital and television column where we bring you stories of military families and try to bridge the divide, we remember service members and veterans who died as a result of their service to our country and this

includes service members and veteran bh veterans who died from suicide links to service in the military. on the memorial day they are scluzed from remembrance and from informal practices because of the stigma that surrounds their deaths. today we remember them for the lives that they lived and here with me now to do this, the widow of john roko and from suicide prevention for taps and tragedy for survivors and taps as i mentioned and nicole lang hurst lost her younger sister michelle in 2015. nicole also works with taps with sibling suicide survivors. thank you both for joining me on this very important day. and kim, starting with you first, we've been talking throughout the week and you've said something that stuck with me. you said they did not die heroic

deaths but they lived heroic lives. why is it so important to honor them for that today. >> well, gosh, whenever someone dies by suicide we worry that how they died will define who they are and wipe out everything they've done in their lives and we know that service members have lived heroic lives. they served and sacrificed and they fought and they have a lot of stressors and lives heroic lives and i want that to be what was remembered, not how they died. >> and nicole you points out that michelle was your breast friend and life with michelle and let you name her after a beatle's song when you were three and she served in afghanistan when he was retired due to an injure from a training accident. what do you want us to know

about her and how you have dealt with that without letting her death define her. >> my sister's life was an inspiration for me. she signed on the dotted line and served her country fearlessly and with such bravery and i want my life to be about service to others and instill that hope into other people that you could survive a suicide loss and make your life worth meaning. so that is the message i would like to tell everybody today on this memorial day. >> and you've really taken that message and run with it, for sure, nicole. kim, the v.a. have statistics that shows a veteran dies from suicide almost once an hour. you would like the military to take mental health and for service members to take mental health as seriously as they take physical health. what needs to be done? >> absolutely. we need to start talking about mental health as part of overall wellness in our troops.

starting the minute they come to recruiting office and in our military academies, teaching them to expect to have mental health challenges and what to do whenever you see them, the same way that you have physical injuries and physical challenges, you're going to have mental health challenges, especially for what we're asking our troops to do. so integrating that and making it available and making it not that you have to ask for help but it is there every day and you're expected to use it and train in your mental health. >> nicole, some of the family members that i spoke with for this story, they said they see service-connected suicide as an injury or illness related to military service. i thought that was something that really i think encapsulated how people could better just conceive of this notion on a day like today, on memorial day. >> yes, that's right, brianna.

i think that today we should honor all of those that died, including those who died from suicide, which, in my opinion, has a lot to do with the horrors of wore -- of war that our service men and women have seen. >> and i want to thank you both. and kim, i want to give a final word to you, as you remember john, how do you remember his life? >> well, it was a big full life. he was larger than life. the life of the party. he cared about everyone and everyone was his friend, you know. everyone was his friend and people that i didn't never even met in his life would come up to me after he died and said he was my best friend. so just a great guy. >> your loved ones wore wonderful people and heroes, thank you nicole and kim and honoring john and michelle and

our fallen heroes this memorial day and check out the column that we have up today at cnn.com/homefront. send us story ideas and feedback at homefront at cnn.com. our special coverage continues now with brooke baldwin. brianna, thank you so much. hi, everyone, i'm brooke baldwin, thank you for being with me on this memorial day. and it is a memorial day unlike other in recent memories as the large parades and public ceremonies held in honor of fallen service members are replaced by scenes like this one. long island where veterans and marines joined local firefighters in wreath laying while maintaining a distance of six feet apart. and in virginia, a ceremony was live streamed with some portions