masks elsewhere coming of course as iran continues to struggle with the economy being crippled by u.s. imposed sanctions. sam kylie, cnn in abu dhabi. thank you all. i'm kate bolduan. we'll see you back here tomorrow. hi there, i'm brook baldwin. thank you for being with me. i welcome the viewers. the pandemic quote is not even close to being over. that is the warning today from the director of the world health organization. as 31 states report an increase in new coronavirus cases. reporting record numbers of new infections. only four states seeing a drop in new cases and at least 12 governors are pausing or scaling

back the reopening plans. health secretary azar gave a warning here on cnn and appeared to contradict what vice president mike pence said last week of remarkable progress in the fight against covid-19. >> things are very different from two months ago. we have three therapeutics, hospital capacity, reserves of personal protection equipment. we're speeding our way towards having vaccines. so it's a very different situation but a very, very serious situation and the window is closing for us to take action and get this under control. >> here's how serious it is. the city of jacksonville, florida, the site of the republican national convention in august just required face coverings for everyone. we'll get to florida in a moment but first one of the first states to reopen is now dealing with a major spike in cases. texas. the governor greg abbott said the spread has taken a swift and

very dangerous turn. cases in texas have jumped from about 2,000 a day to 5,000 a day and cnn's miguel marquez is at this hospital live for us this afternoon in houston. miguel, you were granted rare access inside that hospital with a large number of covid patients. what did you see? >> reporter: a lot of what we saw is what we have seen in other places but it is here now. rare access indeed. rare because hospitals don't usually allow reporters in but it is such a serious situation and this hospital and across the state are looking at an absolute terrifying public health crisis. >> everybody ready? >> reporter: houston, texas. now home to a major coronavirus outbreak. a procedure all too common when treating the most seriously ill

with the virus. this patient on a ventilator, the breathing tube replaced to improve oxygen flow to the lungs. >> one, two, three. >> okay. it is in. good. >> reporter: the tube pulled out. caked with dried secretions from the lungs rife with infection. the new tube improves oxygen flow. >> whoo! first one for today. >> so that was -- >> we have to change the tube and somebody with no oxygen. his tube was malfunctioning. it has a balloon at the end that was ruptured. >> reporter: united medical memorial center serving a mostly working class community in north

houston some things we have seen elsewhere. on a ventilator, a patient's chance for survival goes down. way down. >> once you intubate them the answer chances of leaving the hospital is less than 20%. >> reporter: unlike other hospitals we have seen, this facility is transforming itself into a sort of covid specialty center. >> last three weeks i have seen more admissions and sicker patients than the previous ten weeks so it's been an exponentially increase on the severity of illness and then the number of cases admitted. >> reporter: expanding way beyond the intensive care unit turning sections of the hospital into temporary airtight chambers creating negative pressure zones to keep the air born virus up and out and strict protocols in and out of these zones, everyone must have a test for coronavirus before entering, even journalists and protective gear

so abundant that everyone triples up. some employees getting through eight sets or more of ppe in a single shift. >> this is for the people you are treating? >> correct. >> they know what you look like? >> reporter: in the 100 days treating patients with coronavirus only one nurse has developed the sickness, she is now being treated by her own colleagues. >> you are the front line worker in the battle against covid and you now have it. >> yeah. and it's -- i wouldn't wish this on my own enemy because i hurt from here all the way down. the base of my neck, and it's getting any sleep is almost like -- it is impossible. >> reporter: she is not sure how she got it and may have been a patient what stopped breathing and despite multiple layers of ppe the physical effort to save his life may have put her own at risk. >> i was coding him.

and as i was pushing down air was coming but that's the only position that i could do it with. >> reporter: the isolation of the disease difficult to deal with even for someone who knows what to expect. her thoughts now with her nine and 10-year-old daughters. quhald you say to madeline and abigail right now? >> baby, mommy loves you and misses you. i hope you have a great time in california. okay. i'm done. >> reporter: the lone star state in a full-blown surge with coronavirus cases and hospitalizations rising at alarming rates. in travis county, the convention center preparing to host an emergency care facility. bexar county with more than 600% increase in hospitalizations in june and in houston hospitals are nearing capacity and

preparations to turn nrg park where the texans play back into an emergency medical facility. it was taken down in april. >> i could redo anything it would have been to slow down the opening of bars. >> reporter: texas now reversing parts of its aggressive effort to reopen its economy. bars now closed again throughout the state. >> it's been a difficult. >> reporter: mohammed owns two flight clubs in houston and closed until further notice and fighting for his life. how do you think you got covid? >> when the club opened, i have a -- they like to give me hug and everything so they try to give me hug. or shake hand or maybe there was paying the money. counting the money return today united memorial medical center is at about 80% capacity. >> please understand the patients are very sick, about to die. so we have to admit them and

once they're here despitd everything we do, i mean, they have to stay in the hospital anywhere between five and ten days at a minimum so those beds will be occupied for a period of five to ten days so sooner or later within the next two weeks we will be at full house. >> reporter: the doctor that worked for 100 days without stop is a sort of coronavirus specialist. for now it appears to be paying off, 96% of patients admitted to the hospital he says beat the disease. >> covid is a very fluid illness: it is an illness that changes and what i knew four months ago is completely different than what i do now and the way i treated patients two months ago is 100% different. >> reporter: still surprise? still do things that make you scratch your head? >> every single day i get surprised. every day. >> reporter: the doctor now aggressively attacking inflammation and blood clotting with everything from vitamins, physically rotating patients,

antibiotics, hydroxychloroquine for some, even s.t.e.m. cells. anything from having to put patients on a ventilator. the virus still confounding doctors and surprising those trying to avoid getting it. this husband and wife who did not want their names used share a room in the unit an endid everything staying home, wearing masks and keeping distance from others. >> it is scary. i wish that people would take it more seriously. they should take it more seriously. you can't -- you can't trust people just because they look healthy. because a lot of people are walking around looking healthy and they're not. >> reporter: it is the biggest challenge those that don't know they have it are giving it to others making them sick and possibly killing them. >> in houston, two type of patients, those with covid and those that will get covid. when they get sick they don't all come to me at the same time

which is what's happening at the present time. and that's what's going to kill patients because we won't have enough resources. >> miguel, i want to thank you. watching that piece, that's a gut check for every single one of us. i know it's summer and some people in the country think do i need to wear a mask? those doctors, that nurse who's sick, those patients showed you why we all still need to. i still -- it was only a couple months ago when you got the access inside that new york hospital and wondering since this is houston and some mocnth into this, does this hospital feel like they learned from other hospitals now that we are several months in? >> reporter: they have learned so much about the disease and how to fight the disease and how to prepare for the disease. this hospital the way that it is arranged itself looks completely different than the hospitals i was in in new york city. what is the same is that surge

of patients they're seeing, what will kill people is the virus, yes, if they're sick enough but what kills more people if hospitals like this and others across the state so full they can't take people in and people are sitting literally in the parking lot waiting for a bed and expire out there. all the cars here looking like they're going in somewhere, these are people waiting to get tested. they started to line up at 1:00 a.m. this morning. >> wow. >> reporter: this hospital alone they have five different sides around the city. they have tested about 85,000 people. he just updated us. they see a positivity rate of 16%, two days ago 13%. so the rate of transmission is doing this here. it's terrifying. they don't know where the top of the peak is. they had a sense of that in new york at the worst of it. they have no sense of that at least here right now and other hospitals don't seem to have a good sense of it. >> a difference at least in what you said in your piece here

versus several months ago is remember the issue over ppe and gowns and that kind of thing and did you say -- was your word triple up on the gear they have so much? >> reporter: they had us put their ppe on. you do one layer and then a second layer on us and before you go into the specialized units they put a third layer on. double up on the gloves and the bits over the feet. it is -- it is so difficult to move from one end to another but they have had great success keeping the staff healthy but that is also one thing they need and desperate for doctors, desperate for nurses and cleaning staff to turn those rooms around and get others into those beds. all that stuff and absolute desperate need right now in houston, texas. >> i am competing this out. this should be required viewing for every single one of us as a reminder. this is so far from over. to you and your crew, thank you

for that. that was extraordinary. that's texas. talk about florida. the city of jacksonville just announced that they will start mandating face masks for public and indoor locations starting right now. this comes amid skyrocketing coronavirus cases in the state. numbers so alarming that mayors in florida shutting down the beaches for the fourth of july weekend which is obviously a massive deal and looking at this year, florida reporting 18,000 new infections this past weekend alone bringing the total number of cases in the state to 146,000. randi kaye is live in palm beach county. back to jacksonville for a second. mandatory masks starting now? tell me more. >> reporter: that is starting now. what's so interesting about that as you mentioned is they joined many other counties because the

governor did not put out a state wide man date on the masks and it is important and worth noting jacksonville because that's where the rnc convention is but the governor now saying about that convention that he is not ready to say that masks won't be required there but he is saying that masks are a work in progress there. he says he hopes, his words, he thinks it will be fine by that time. a couple of months ago we were doing better than we are now and not sure what he is basing that on. back to the beaches here, they're going to close. you can see there's disappointed people for the holiday weekend. miami-dade is closing. broward county. florida keys is closing for the holiday weekend of july fourth. the three big counties here in south florida hardest hit. 60% of the cases coming to those counties. but the real problem is that we

are not going down. over the weekend, more than 9,500 cases on saturday, a record high, also very concerned about the younger people. more and more cases 18 to 24. 25 to 34 is the big group. about 20% positivity rate among those and very concerning what's happening here in the state of florida. >> i know the beach is fun. fourth of july is fun. take a look at what's going on in that hospital where miguel was in texas. all of us be careful. thank you at the beach in palm beach county. the white house lashing out after the conservative chief justice with yet another blow to the trump agenda. this time siding with the liberal justices on a massive abortion case. and dr. fauci speaking to cnn and delivers a new warning

about a vaccine for covid-19. why he says it may not be toetdly effective. and why that could rest in your hands. why the president of the united states is sharing videos of supporters chanting white power and then this couple pointing guns at peaceful protesters. you are watching cnn. i'm brooke baldwin. we'll be right back. was that your great-aunt, keeping armies alive? drafting the plans. taking the pictures. was it your family members? who flew. who fixed. who fought. who rose to the occasion. when the world needed them most. (♪) find and honor your ancestors who servered in world war ii. their stories live on at ancestry. throughout our history any time something bad has happened to us ...we've recovered. we fall, we rise.

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a book that you're ready to share with the world? get published now, call for your free publisher kit today! we are back. you are watching cnn. another major decision out of the supreme court with 5-4 ruling, the justices striking down the louisiana abortion law which was aimed to limit the number of abortions in the state. chief justice roberts yet again siding with the liberal leaning justices on the benchmarking the

first time that he's swung to the left on a consequential decision this year alone. he ruled to uphold the daca program and sided with the idea of protection for lgbtq workers. did white house released a statement reading instead of valuing democratic principles justices intruded on the prerogatives of state governments imposing their policy preference in favor of abortion to override legitimate abortion safety regulations. steve vladic is a cnn contributor. what do you make of the chief justice's rule, not just his role in this case but the last two? >> it is a little early to suggest that he's overnight become a closet progressive. >> that's not happened. >> no. and indeed i think we saw that

in both other cases. but you know, this is a case where i think the chief's institutional sensibilities offended. the court decided a case out of texas similarly and the louisiana law was modeled on the texas law and so the chief says, listen, i'm not a huge fan of this jurisprudence but up to us to prove it, not the lower court. this was very similar to another case from a couple years ago when the chief wrote a similar concurrence saying i don't love this doctrine but we the supreme court once we hand the decisions it is up to us to decide whether they're still a good law and not state legislatures and not lower cots. >> wasn't it after the daca ruling the chief justice essentially said, he had written here's how you can repeal it legally to your point so not a closet liberal. thank you so much for that quick analysis, steve. good to have you on. the white house's leading expet on the pandemic is speaking to

cnn warning that a vaccine for coronavirus may not be totally effective. what dr. fauci is saying now. plus, as more americans join the movement for racial justice president trump is sharing disturbing videos including one couple pointing guns at peaceful protesters. coming up. what do you think? i don't see it. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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with coronavirus cases surging both across the south and the west, there are three big questions right now about the vaccine. when will there be one and how effective will it be and will people get it? the nation's expert dr. fauci talked to my colleague senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen about exactly that. >> i doubt seriously that any vaccine will ever be 100% protective. the best we have ever done is measles which is 97% to 98% effective. that would be wonderful if we get there. i don't think we will. i would settle for 70%, 75% effective vaccine because that would bring you to the level of

herd immunity. >> about the russian bounties but can you say that he was briefed today. >> i'll say that the u.s. receives thousands of reports a day on intelligence and there are subject to strict scrutiny. the cia director, nsa, national security adviser and chief of staff can confirm that neither the president or vice president briefed on the alleged russian bounty intelligence. >> has he been since briefed since the reporting came up? >> let me back up and say this. there is no consensus within the intelligence community on the allegations and in effect there are dissenting opinions from some in the intelligence community with regards to the voracity of what's reported and the allegations continue to be evaluated. >> one more question if i could. is he upset that this intelligence reportedly shared with the british government but

not him? >> i have no further comment other than the two assertions of previously. kristen. >> thank you. how did the president not briefed on the russia bounty story? was he out of the loop? >> no. there was not a consensus among the intelligence community and in fact there's dissenting opinioning and it would not be elevated to the president until it was verified. >> president trump tweeted overnight intel just spoke to me. what specifically does that mean? who spoke to him? did that person in fact give the president a full briefing in that conversation? >> i have no further details on the president's private -- >> when's coming the white house today and who will brief the lawmakers? >> last night the chief of staff mark meadows called both senator mcconnell and congressman hoyer and said that he would be briefing eight members from the committees of jurisdiction so there was a bipartisan

invitation extended but no further details. >> is that believing going to happen today? >> yes. ongoing at the time when i came out here at least it had started i think 30 minutes prior. >> coming the white house? members of congress have come or are coming the white house? >> yes. >> kaitlan? >> is it concerning of a hint of credibility the russians offering to pay to kill american troops and the president was not told about it? has the national security adviser or anyone explained why they didn't think it rose to the level that the commander in chief to find out about it? >> intelligence is verified before reaching the president of the united states and it was not verified. i would note that when the president, there's no stronger advocate than president trump. he never hesitates to act when there's a threat to the servicemen and women. for example in syria in 2018,

when dozens of russian mercenaries killed in defensive u.s.-led strikes so when our adversaries directly targeted u.s. or coalition partners the president has not hesitated to act and this was not briefed up to the president because it was not verified. >> i understand but not everything in the daily briefings that's the written document is airtight. they let the president know what they' they're hearing. that's why it's intelligence. why did that not rise to the level but sharing it with other countries? >> they evaluate intelligence reports and brief the president as necessary. >> so my other question is, if this does be borne out to where the president believes it is true, what will he do to hold russia accountable and still inviting vladimir putin to the g7 or g8? >> i won't speculate whether it's verified or not and won't get ahead of the president on

further actions but no -- >> they're not disputing -- >> there's dissenting opinions within the intelligence community and i can confirm there's no consensus on the allegations. further i would point out, with regard to russia, this president has been extremely strong on russia imposing sanctions on hundreds of russian individuals, expelling dp diplomats and several other actions. >> the intelligence community. >> i have no further notifications for you other than to say there's no consensus and dissenting opinions from some within the intelligence community. >> you don't think that the report is true? >> there's no consensus in the intelligence community and that the dissenting opinions from some in the intelligence community exist. darlene. >> thank you. i wanted to go back to the tweet the president tweeted yesterday and then removed. this morning you said that he didn't hear the phrase white power in the portion of the

video and that when it was signaled to him that was there he took the tweet down. so does the president retweet other people's tweeted and videos without knowing the full contents of what he is retweeting? >> he didn't hear that particular phrase when he tweeted out the video. >> did he listen to the video before retweeting it? >> he did and did not hear that particular phrase. >> also, given your opening, do you have any comment on mississippi taking steps to remove the confederate emblem in the state flag? >> i would say that that's a decision for mississippi to make and it's commendable they took this action in a lawful manner and the appropriate steps rather than tear down statues and monuments. >> thank you. a follow-up on the russia and then another issue. does the president have a specific message from moscow given the reports? >> specific message from moscow? no. he is not briefed on the matter.

there's no consensus in the intelligence community. >> all right. on a separate issue, jab sonville, florida, today apparently issuing a mask order. that is, of course, where at least part of the rnc will be held this summer. has the president's thinking of wearing a mask changed at all given that order and the increased coronavirus cases in florida, texas, arizona and elsewhere? >> i talked to the president. it is his choice to wear a mask, a personal choice of any individual as to whether to wear a mask or not. he encourages people to make whatever decision is best for their safety and no problem with mask and to do what your local jurisdiction requests of you. question? >> thank you. there's reports of american troops killed on this order.

>> i would note that those that take "the new york times" at their word they erroneously reported that the president was briefed on this. he wasn't. before buying into full flenlged narrative of "the new york times" that falsely stated something about the president that you would wait for the facts to come out and note once again there's no consensus in the intel community and there are dissenting opinions from some within it. >> so you say that he wasn't briefed. does that mean it wasn't in the pdb either? >> he wasn't personally briefed on the matter. both the cia director, national security adviser and chief of staff can confirm. >> i have a question on coronavirus please. >> sure. >> secretary azar said that the window is closing. cases on the rise.

very serious time. the vice president held a briefing on friday. what is the president's message to the american people and not seeing him publicly talk to the public, encourage them to do things to stay safe? >> i would note that there's a whole coronavirus task force briefing on friday where all of the questions that the american public had were addressed. we're encouraged to see that fatalities are coming down. this sunday i believe we had the lowest fatality rate since i believe march 22nd, so late march. what that signals to us is catching people in the communities, the people who are being infected tend to be those as vice president pence noted half of those testing positive under age of 35 and catching people in their communities. we are aware that there are embers that need to be put out. but these soons of a decreasing fatality, increased

therapeutics, four of them, they are working. remdesivir in particular reduces hospital time by a third so these things make us uniquely equipped to handle the increase in cases that we have seen. yes? >> there's a national conversation going on right now about proper place of symbols of the confederacy, statues, memorials, names and the president inserted hirms in this debate and people trying to understand what his view of memori memorializing the confederacy is. a couple questions. one, does president trump believe that it was a good thing that the south lost the civil war? and then, two, is he interested if following nascar example to ban the confederate flag at his own events? >> first question is absurd. he's proud of the united states of america.

sec, with regard to the statues, americans oppose tearing down the statues. there's a harvard/harris poll released last week saying that 60% said that the statues should remain and 70% said they should block from destroying the symbols. >> is he interested in banning the confederate flag at the rallies? >> that would be a question for the campaign but look. this president's focused on taking action on fixing problems and why he had the executive order a few weeks ago to keep the streets safe and secure and where his focus lies and those tearing down statues they do appear to have no ideology of defacing statues of baldwin, an abolitionist, hague that died fighting for the army in the civil war.

a monument to fallen police officers vandalized in sacramento and unacceptable and why an executive order saying those tearing down statues to be punished to the foul extent of the law and will not stand for lawlessness and chaos and stands with 71% of americans saying there's no place for tearing down statues as they do across the nation. >> explain the flag at the events? >> christian? >> thank you. first off, the president's been talking about this big infrastructure push. the proposal that d.o.t. is working on. secondly, care for info on the phased four notions are going. is congress open to the back to work bonus that the president said he is in favor of? >> i don't have any up dates for you on phase four. infrastructure. the president mentioned for the last three years he is keen on democrats coming the table to work with us on infrastructure.

he's keen on a phase four seeing a payroll tax holiday to help low wage workers and those that need it most. these are real effective measures to help the american people and the onus on democrats to come to negotiating table. steven? >> is there an indication that it's different than infrastructure in february? that was roundly denounced by all the democrats. >> i won't get ahead of the president or the negotiations. >> thank you. first about the statues, i covered closely the trump inauguration rioting trials and ended in jury nullification and i was wondering if president trump is concerned that the same will happen that the people who are charged, the four, tried to topple the jackson statue particularly given the personal role helping the african suspects. >> that will be a decision for the courts to make and for juries to make but the president is very keen on seeing these

actions brought to justice because tearing down american monuments and defacing federal property and the lincoln memorial are not things the american public want to see as noted with that 71% poll. >> got it. second question is over the weekend president trump retweeted a contrast of the presidency and president obama's and there was a chart of different things that president obama did and president trump did and a difference was president obama proving that extra judicial killings of the americans overseas. there was a little bit of confusion earlier. president trump's presidency of the position on that. are you able to clarify if he oppos opposes that? >> the president will point to the difference of his record and that of president obama which is what he was getting at with the tweet. you have the obama-biden presidency, the weakest economic recovery since world war ii. with president trump you saw

isis defeated. with vice president biden and president obama the so-called jv team of isis became the varsity team and overran two separate countries and the president will always draw contrasts with president obama and he was drawing a contrast in that tweet. >> thank you. two questions of covid-19. remdesivir we found out today that the pricing going forward for roughly a five-day trial $2,300 for government-backed programs. $3,100 on the commercial market place. does president trump approve of that pricing considering there's criticism whether that's too high? >> that's a really good, important and substantive question i think deserves a good answer to and first the wholesale acquisitions costs or the federal supply schedule about 3,200 for a course of remdesivir and remdesivir is an in-patient drug done by infusion and because it is an in-patient

drug the patient would be very unlikely to see the cost of the drug and to pay the cost of the drug because the way that hospitals get reimbursed for in-patient drugs is paid flat fees for admission and as explained to me this means in layman's terms that hospitals have to eat the cost of treatment used and buying it for say $3,200 the wholesale acquisition cost and that remdesivir drug saves that patient time in the hospital they only spend a third of the time in the hospital as a patient without it that would mean that the hospitals are actually profiting because they're getting the patient out early so that basically all comes down to saying that the patient will not see that cost. >> price point. >> right. >> secondly, just picking up where jeff had asked about masks saying that the president had no problem with masks and that individuals should do whatever their local jurisdiction requests, however, the hhs

secretary azar said this weekend, quote, we have to practice social distancing, use face coverings when we can't. going into an area and social distancing cannot be practiced should they listen to the local jurisdiction in which face masks might not be mandated or the hhs secretary saying wear a face mask? >> cdc guidelines are recommended but not required and we -- the president would encourage even to follow the orders of the local jurisdiction and cdc guidelines. >> thank you. a follow-up and a separate issue. i want to be clear. congressional leaders who are briefed on the russia situation but the president has still not be briefed on the situation? >> look. this is asked and answered. the president is briefed on verified intelligence. >> and how does he know if he hasn't been briefed and certain that russia didn't put out these bounties? >> the president is briefed on

verified intelligence and again i would just point you back to the irresponsible decision of "the new york times" to falsely report that he was briefed on something that he in fact was not briefed on and i really think that it's time for "the new york times" to step back and ask themselves why they have been wrong, so wrong so often. "the new york times" falsely claimed paul manafort asked for polling data to oleg dare pos ka before a rejection and then agreed on russian interference before a correction that it was only four agencies and 2017 february of that year "the new york times" claimed trump campaign aides repeated contacts with russian intelligence which even james comey has said is almost entirely wrong "the new york times." "the new york times" published a column in march of 2019 by a former "times" executive editor

exerting an overarching deal for the pro russian policy and investigated for three years with taxpayer dollars before ultimately getting an exoneration in the mueller report. it is inexcusable, the failed russia reporting of "the new york times" and times that the "the new york times" and also "the washington post" hand back their pulitzers. >> i have a separate question. >> okay. we're going to skip over that back piece because what we really need to get at is the truth. this story today is absolutely huge. "the new york times" reporting it. we are reporting it. "the washington post" is reporting it. what i'm talking about is the fact that russia essentially bribed taliban militants to take out coalition forces in afghanistan. coalition forces equals american lives. american troops. and "the washington post" has reporting that in fact americans were killed because of this.

so the question is, was the president briefed of something of this nature? and he says he hasn't. she said he hadn't been and apparently the british briefed in the last week. how did this not rise for the commander in chief to know? there are a lot of questions. i have the pentagon correspondent barbara starr standing by. we heard the same line, she was ready. daniel o'day is with us, as well. a couple things i wrote down. the president nor the vice president were briefed on this. the question came out, you know, has he since been briefed? she didn't answer. the talking point that she repeated over and over again is no consensus within the intelligence community on the intelligence so it wouldn't be elevated to the president until it was verified. what does that mean? >> reporter: well, it means that the president apparently didn't know about it and still does not

appear to have a lot of kour yosty about it. talk about real life for the u.s. military on the front lines in a combat zone. what you did not hear the white house press secretary say is that they are going to look into it. that the president wants to know immediately all the intelligence, that the president wants the know what the state of this information is, whether it's verified or not. what's the best analysis of what may have transpired? that means that there are u.s. military and potentially british military families out there asking themselves the question if their loved ones killed at the hands of russian cash spread around in afghanistan and you did not hear the white house express anything about that. they talk about how president trump is a major advocate for u.s. troops. okay. but why are they not talking about the military families who were watching this who want answers?

why are not saying they will get to the bottom of it? if intelligence is not given to the president when -- until it's verified, one more thing, talk about how this intelligence arose. in afghanistan, there are u.s. special forces on the ground. some of them openly or covertly. highly trained intelligence operatives and from all elements of the u.s. intelligence community. that information about what the russians may have been doing base rose up from the it would have gone to the top u.s. commander there. it would have come to the pentagon, which also has not commented on any of this yet. there are natural flows of information. and what this means is a threat to u.s. troops verified or not, a threat to u.s. forces is not something that rises to the

level of concern by the president of the united states. i don't see how we can take anything else away from this press briefing. >> let's go to kaitlan collins in the briefing, who asked a couple of questions. how concerning would it have been that this didn't rise to the level of commander and chief. what was her response to you? >> they didn't explain if the national security advisor or cia director or officials have explained why they thought this wasn't important enough to bring to the commander in chief. instead, this is not verified intelligence, and there is not a consensus in the intelligence community whether or not this report is true. she didn't say who descents and who doesn't think it's true. there's a difference if the cia director doesn't think it's true than if the director of national intelligence doesn't believe it's true. that's incredibly important.

this idea there has to be a consensus and everyone has to agree, is just not grounded in reality. these are the intelligence briefings that president gets. so he's aware of what they're hearing, working on and where they think it's coming from and during the intelligence briefings, the president can hear descenting opinions. here's what this group thinks and why we think there are holes in the story. you give the president of the united states a heads up when there's something as incredibly serious as this, even if there's a level of competence in whether or not it's true. and this is something we should note, cnn has confirmed, the "washington post" has confirmed, the associated press has confirmed, and multiple outlets have confirmed the intelligence. as we were sitting there in the briefing, she didn't eevren say whether the president has been briefed on this yet. what are they going to do about

this now and what that's going to look like going forward. so, there's a lot of unanswered questions. they insist the president didn't know but didn't say why the president doesn't know or what they're going to do about it going forward and what they're going to do to russia if they do decide it's verified and true. there's still so many questions. >> that, to me, is also the thing. and let me bring it back to barbara and daniel and to you. it's been corroborated by various news agencies. >> the british. >> i was bringing in barbara off the top. why wouldnt the president of the united states, to your point, i'm thinking about the american military families and british military families who have lost loved ones. we're hearing perhaps this could have all happened because of russia taking a bribe or the

taliban taking a bribe from russia. shouldn't the white house have a strong response? >> i would think so. we have watched for 18 years america's longest war and seeing so many military families from countries around the world have to bury their loved ones. this is real life for u.s. military, british military families, for those who serve around the world. if the russians were up to this, why are we getting these talking points from the white house that it was unverified, uncorroborated. that isn't the point. the point is the president of the united states, i don't think there has been a case when there is any kind of potential threat to u.s. troops overseas, on the frontline in combat, that this does not immediately get into the oval office by somebody who says i have something we need talk about.

the pentagon -- let me be very clear. so far the secretary of defense, the chairman of the joint chiefs, top commander who are in charge of operations in that part of the world, not saying very much about this. the white house does not seem to want anybody to talk about it. >> it's such a huge story. and a look of more. daniel dale, i'm coming to you now because i want to pivot to a couple of thulgter questions about coronavirus in the briefing. the fact that she's essentially downplaying -- i think one of the phrases i heard was the embers of coronavirus. what do you think of that? >> that's one of the president's favorite phrases that we'll see near embers. this is not a dying fire. this is a raging forest fire that hasn't come close to being put out.

we have record number of new cases and sharp uptick in positivity rates. we have sharp upticks in hospitalizations and key states like arizona, texas, california, which means it's not just young people with mild symptoms as the president and his white house keep saying. we see a consistent effort from the president and spokes people to minimize what's going on. the president has said it's dying out, fading away. none of that and none of what she said today is accurate. >> daniel dale, thank you all very much. i want to move on and talk about mississippi. the state of mississippi is making history, passing a bill to remove the federate.

thank you so much for being with me. we begin with a stern warning

from the director of the world health organization that this pandemic is far from over. and infection in the united states is no exception. when you look at this map, all these numbers, 31 states report an increase in new coronavirus cases. and all of this is coming as the national debate over wearing masks intensifies. today the governor of new york is challenging the president to issue an executive order mandating them. >> let the president have the same sense and do that as an executive order. and then let the president lead by example and let the president put a mask on it. because we know it works. we've proven that it works in the state of new york. and the president can still be new york tough and new york smart and united and disciplined and loving. >> also, just this afternoon, the city of jacksonville, florida, decided the republican

national convention announced it will require face coverings indoor and outdoor. live in los angeles where governor gavin newsom has mandated the closure of bars. tell me about all the measures being taken to try to stop the surge there. >> reporter: for the governor says he's looking at the data. and right now california is seeing more new cases than ever before. more people in the hospital than ever before. he has now said in los angeles county and six other counties in california, any bars that did -- just one second, sir. any bars that did reopen now have to close again. it's a similar thing we're seeing across the country. people pausing or rolling back on reopening. because of this, this, and this. >> somebody -- >> reporter: we are hearing this. >> arizona is on pause.