po pot neuse but it is over new york state. big trees, lots of ran, flooding, power outages. kate many. >> just look at that track all the way up. we'll be watching it. thank you so much. thank you for joining me. great to be back. cnn's coverage continues now with john king. hello to our viewers and welcome to viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm john king in washington. thank you for sharing this busy day with us. the president of the united states in attack mode today and in the process telling lies and contradicting his own experts. nothing new there but it still matters very much. back to school season is here or just around the season for coronavirus stressed american families, the president says schools need to open and he says the fake news is hyping the coronavirus numbers to hurt him.

dr. deborah birx works for the president, not the media. >> if you have high case load and active community spread just like we're asking people not to go to bars, not to have household parties, not to create large spreading events, asking people to distance learn at this moment to get this epidemic under control. >> more broadly, the president says the virus is largely under control. again, we defer to dr. birx who says this virus is, her words, in a troubling new phase. >> i want to be very clear. what we are seeing today is different from march and april. it is extraordinarily widespread. it is into the rural as equal urban areas. >> predictably, the president this morning angry with dr. birx for putting truth over spin. she quote took the bait and hit us, pa thet ek, the president says of the administration's top

doctor. the coronavirus response coordinator but the facts support dr. birx and survey the case count month by month and july was a disaster. nearly 1.9 million new confirmed coronavirus cases over july's 31 days. that is 1 million more than in june. far and away the worst month of this pandemic. the seven-day average of new cases is down but above the 60,000 per day mark and there are some hopeful indicators of cases hitting a plateau or declining in some big states and warnings, too. this is what dr. birx means. this is not a new york, florida, california and texas problem. the positivity, the states in red. the percentage of coronavirus tests trending up in 31 of the 50 states. look at the numbers across the country. if you look just from the case

count, this is the most encouraging this map has looked in quite sometime. 11 states heading up. 28 states holding steady. 11 states heading down in the case count. compared to last week. 28 steady and 11 down. only 11 heading up. just a week or so ago, ten days ago, 38 states heading up. 11 states heading up. the map does look better on this day. sadly, as we have learned over five, six months the death count lags the case count so even as cases come down or stabilize the death count heading up in 30. past week to previous week. 30 states, a higher death count and that is a lagging indicator. let us hope if the case count stayed down this map will change, as well. a sad map looking at deaths. the summer surge reordered the

states if you will. new york once the leading states in terms of case count is number four. these states here, california, florida and texas have driven the summer surge in a bit of a plateau at the moment. if you look regionally and how it plays out, the south is the dominant driver of the summer surge. trending down a bit in recent days. see here in blue, the south and the west driving the case count in the summer. the northeast back in april it was the northeast atop. now the northeast down at the bottom in relatively stable and watching some troubling signs. some mid western states to watch right now? missouri, illinois and ohio. there's july 2 there. all three of the states may be slow but moving up. the question is can they plateau and push it back down? this is what dr. birx said she is worried about and states that did succeed in pushing it down,

massachusetts, my home state, starting to eke up. you have governors everywhere, in a lot of places, saying this is a dangerous trickle. you have to move quickly to try to stop it. with us is katelyn rivers from johns hopkins center for health security. when you hear dr. birx say it is a new phase and getting into not just urban areas but rural areas, take your look at your the da the and explain what she means. >> it is true that the epidemic continues to expand across the united states although many of the states that were hard hit early in the epidemic are doing well like new england as you mentioned earlier. there are other stats just now starting to climb in case counts and so we need to continue to be vigilant, continue to put in place the practices we know slow the transmission of the virus and look ahead and decide where we want to be in one, two, four, six months and we need to put in

place to get to that point. >> and that piece is troubling especially if you overlay it with looking at the positivity rate. some of the case counts are relatively low in these states but in more than 30 states the positivity rate in the past week higher than the week before telling you the virus is spreading. how much is a question. in your recent report you talk about ramping up testing even more. >> in about 18, 20 states number of testing being done is actually falling and it's falling because our testing system is under such strain that we just can't even deliver the test today that we were doing two weeks ago. that's a recipe for disaster and very worried about a lot of those states that in the days and weeks ahead we see more suffering and hospitalizations and deaths. >> is there any way to fix the testing issue in the short term

as we see the positivity rate go up or stuck in this rut because we don't have the infrastructure in place? >> there is a lot of being stuck in the rut because we don't have the infrastructure in place. although the number of tests administered is drifting down, i don't think that's necessarily a bad thing because a few weeks ago we were administering more tests than we could turn around. people weren't getting the results for one and two weeks. to make the tests useful for medical decision making and public health we may need to reduce the number of tests to administer as many as we can return in a timely manner but i think we still do not have clarity of the bottlenecks in the testing chain. it's not apparent what's slowed us down. and that's within of tone of th need to see change. we need to see analysis and how

to move the barriers. >> anybody watching, go to the johns hop conditions web side. the recommendations include more ppe, trying to figure out the testing backlog, a number of recommendations and this debate is political sometimes. if you have a view, have a view but this is fact based and data based. if we look at the south versus the midwest, the south has been driving the numbers. you see the green line there. the south has been driving the numbers throughout the surge of the summer so far but you look at indiana, ohio, missouri a lot of states in the midwest with case counts going up, the positivity rate going up. what can be done or what troubles you most? >> the main things to do for places that are starting to heat up is close high-risk indoor settings where we know the virus likes to spread. that could involve bars, indoor dining, moving some of the

services, maybe religious services outdoors. and i think also requiring masks is an important step to reduce transmission but the important thing is that these places take action now and not wait until it becomes overwhelmingly apparent that things are going wrong. important to try to regain control before the virus picks up momentum. >> one would hope the lessons of july tell the governors not to wait. we saw that happen. very much appreciate youren sights and expertise as always. thank you. >> thank you. president trump spreads disinformation about the pandemic, goes after a member of his own task force. so what's going on?

i'm a talking dog. the other issue. oh...i'm scratching like crazy. you've got some allergic itch with skin inflammation. apoquel can work on that itch in as little as 4 hours, whether it's a new or chronic problem. and apoquel's treated over 8 million dogs. nice. and...the talking dog thing? is it bothering you?

no...itching like a dog is bothering me. until dogs can speak for themselves, you have to. when allergic itch is a problem, ask for apoquel. apoquel is for the control of itch associated with allergic dermatitis and the control of atopic dermatitis in dogs. do not use apoquel in dogs less than 12 months old or those with serious infections. apoquel may increase the chance of developing serious infections and may cause existing parasitic skin infestations or pre-existing cancers to worsen. do not use in breeding, pregnant, or lactating dogs. most common side effects are vomiting and diarrhea. feeling better? i'm speechless. thanks for the apoquel. aw...that's what friends are for. ask your veterinarian for apoquel next to you, apoquel is a dog's best friend.

apps except work.rywhere... why is that? is it because people love filling out forms? maybe they like checking with their supervisor to see how much vacation time they have. or sending corporate their expense reports. i'll let you in on a little secret. they don't. by empowering employees to manage their own tasks, paycom frees you to focus on the business of business. to learn more, visit paycom.com pathetic is the president's new label for the top doctor on the coronavirus task force. dr. deb la birx is on the receiving end of that insult today because she dared to speak the truth saying the coronavirus is in a new phase and schools in

areas of community transmission should stay closed for now. the attack came in what is sadly a trump trademark. a tweet that insults a powerful woman and twists the facts. two powerful women in this case. look at the tweet calling the speaker of the house crazy and insult inadults dr. birx. and you can see from the sweet the president said birx hit us because of criticism leveled by nancy pelosi but that is not true. birx did address criticism of pelosi here on cnn i didn't wit bash but the comments were all made before the question about speaker pelosi. with me now from the white house is kaitlan collins. birx has been fauci'd by the president to borrow a term of the times. >> reporter: the first time we have seen him publicly go after her and it is different because dr. fauci when the president

attacking him, the office is not in the west wing but dr. birx is and calling the performance pathetic offering blunt warnings of the u.s. outbreaks saying rural areas are not immune and people in large households need to be wearing a mask potentially and the president says he believes she only made those comments because the house speaker nancy pelosi has been criticizing dr. birx for not being forthcoming enough she says and making comments like this one she did today on cnn. >> i don't have confidence of anyone who stands there while the president says swallow lysol to cure the virus. i think she has enabled. >> reporter: she's saying she is enabled president trump, she believes that reference, john, swallowing lysol the briefing when the president suggested

disinfectants to treat coronavirus. dr. birx was sitting there and i was in the room that day and you remember he asked her, deborah, do you think this could be work with light in the body to treat coronavirus. she expressed confusion and didn't combat that immediately and so the way that some people had hoped that she would but another thing that's interesting to all of this that's happening, john, white house officials spent the weekend criticizing people and pelosi for undermining the public's trust in dr. birx and now silent where the -- another one of the top health experts and comes with record numbers in the united states and the president is continuing to do what he's been doing since january and since february which is down play the severity of covid-19 but they are even taking it more seriously because we're told they're doing random mandatory testing of staff that works in

the west wing saying they have to get a test if they're selected and now you have to go. >> a little bit of an escalation there. that part's important. katelyn collins, live from the white house. appreciate that. dr. birx chose to lash out at "the new york times" asked to respond to speaker pelosi. >> i think it was unfortunate that "the new york times" wrote this particular without speaking to me. i have never been called polly-anna-ish or nonscientific or nondata driven and will stake my 40-year career on the principles of utilizing data to really implement better programs to save more lives. >> with me now the white house correspondent for "the new york times" maggie haberman. there was commentary of dr. birx and dr. birx would roam the halls of the white house

talking, sometimes passing out diagrams. we have hit the peak and the message back to mr. trump and said putting out the embers and wording picked up be the press secretary and by mr. trump himself. it is a well documented, well reported piece. she decided when asked about speaker pelosi i guess maybe she is learning from the president to lash out at "the time." >> sure, john. thank you for reading from the story we did which ran a few weeks ago. i think it is unfortunate she chose not to talk to us. to have her speak to us and want people's voices included. she made the choice not to and then unhappy within her story and not within the rights to falsely suggest we didn't try to reach her which we did and in terms of the word pollyanna we did not call her that in the

story but the issue is with her colleagues in the story because the reporting is from people who were frustrated with her, whether she was intentionally helping or not or didn't realize how the president or the white house would seize on the information, it was a rosier assessment of where things were in the current moment of plateaus as a declining and a receding in general across the country and that is something that she is criticized by the colleagues again. the issue is with her and not us. >> the recent change in tone is because just like the president you can keep saying things, the data doesn't support them and now talking about this new phase and she is going, traveling most of last week traveling to cities urging them to get more aggressive because she has been more optimistic in the presentations in the public comments and inside the white house. this is another piece from the piece. dr. fauci is for 30 years to describe he as more political

than him. more pessimistic by nature and mourned the virus will be difficult to control often commenting he was the skunk at the garden party. these internal dynamics, the disagreements between and among the experts, are part of the problem. they're part of why we are now. they cannot come together, reach a consensus and then consistently act on a plan. >> in fairness to them, john, i want to avoid this sort of fauci good birx bad positioning that seems to happen with everybody. fauci made errors in the month of february. you know? the president spoke -- criticized him for that. he was very reliant on flawed data at least early on. since then he's become much more pessimistic and skeptical and in fairness they're working for somebody who will twist what they say, will pull the rug out from under them as we saw the president do with dr. birx today

so i understand that creates a difficult dynamic but that having been said they have to decide whether what they want to do is keep defending what the president is doing or if they want to speak candidly to the public about the risks are. i think both are doing more of that. dr. fauci is for a while. but this is the dynamic that exists. i don't have any reason to believe they'll be on the same page. >> maggie, appreciate your reporting, insigthts and the story holds up today and a glimpse at the dynamics. appreciate. we'll continue this conversation jix a new twist today in the president's almost always misleading attacks on mail-in voting. using covid to steal the state, see you in court. that's the president's tacks on new changes in nevada and note the see you in court part. the trump campaign and the republican national campaign

fighting efforts the make it easier to vote for mail amid the coronavirus pandemic. the president and the rnc say what is happening in nevada is illegal and will destroy integrity. the democrats say the idea is to keep people safe but encourage them to vote. source the truth from the spin. michelle rendell is an independent reporter. thank you for joining us. the president says this is an illegal coup. he may not like the results but this was the governor and the legislature passing a new law, correct? >> yeah. so what we have seen yesterday, the bill passed the senate. it's going to be headed towards the governor for his signature any time now. >> and so, the bill would -- this is ab 84, a mail-in ballot, polling locations, vulnerable populations to request a ballot filled out handed in for them. the last part what the republicans and the president keep calling harvesting.

that somebody can show up and help you or a union to show up or a political organization could be going door to door. what was -- take us inside that debate in nevada. >> yeah. in the past three days or so there have been two very long hearings in the special session of the nevada legislature. people are not allowed in the building and calling in on the phenomenon lines and did get people a lot of people saying this is going to bring people in that are going to come into nursing homes and potentially fill out ballots for all these people that don't quite understand what's going on. so there was a lot of public comment to that effect that this was going to be some source of major fraud in the state of nevada just because you can allow someone now that's not a family member. previously it was a family member and now it can be someone else to help a vulnerable person fill out their ballot.

>> part of this is you have a republican secretary of state that disagrees with the democratic governor, right? >> yeah. our republican secretary of state conducted our june primary in an all-mail pretty much fashion. but she has made it clear that she would like to return back to the more traditional format in the november general election. with a few more -- making it easier to get absentee ballots but not sending them to everybody. and then of course, we have the democratic governor who has said he wants more access to the ballot and people not having to stand in line to cast their ballots. >> michelle, great reporting in the middle of what is a big national debate. going state by state through the election and keep in touch and see how it works out in nevada. thank you. up next, more positive tests and players opting out. is major league baseball's

season in jeopardy? hike!

simon pagenaud takes the lead at the indy 500! coming to the green flag, racing at daytona. they're off... in the kentucky derby.

rory mcllroy is a two time champion at east lake. he scores! stanley cup champions! touchdown! only mahomes. the big events are back and xfinity is your home for the return of live sports. postponed by rain, well, that's a normal scheduling wrinkle of the baseball season. postponed by covid, a new normal. ten days into the already shortened baseball season, nearly 30 players and staff tested positive for the coronavirus, 19 guams postponed including tonight's matchup

between the cardinals and the tigers because at least two cardinals players tested positive for coronavirus and everyone larger outbreak with the marlins. the commissioner says baseball will work through this. our next guest says keeping players on the field is important at this time of national stress. doug landville played for nearly a decade in the majors. i'm grateful for your time today. i'm a fan. you are a fan, former player and analyst now. it is a hold your breath moment. what is the feedback you get from teams and players how stressful this is? >> very stressful. these players are in it. they're literally on the ground and it's important that they have the insular nature of the environment so they stay close and informed and protect each other so to some degree they're in the camps trying to keep protected and baseball has played a role here to not only

inform us about how this virus operating but an environment where players who have resources, the ability to get access to testing, all these elements that seem favorable yet still having these challenges so we're looking to baseball beyond that entertainment value, we are actually gaining a bit of information on what we are facing right now. >> this virus does not discriminate and extra careful it can still find you. you wrote a fascinating piece in "the new york times." you were on the field after 9/11. and you write about that. baseball came back quickly after 9/11. i remember my time on the phillies in the wake of the september 11th attacks as a player and player representative i wondered how we would justify coming back to play at all but we found that some of what we recaptured is essential to the spirit and the restoration of the society. it had become larger than the

scoreboard. do you see that moment now as you watch this based on that experience you had as a player after 9/11 that you root for them because the country needs them not just for the strikes anibals in the games but for the spirit? >> absolutely. part of it is just tapping the experience as a family, as a parent. you know? i have four kids and we are waiting every day. you may know this feeling. should we go to school? are we going to school? so much of the information i've been able to distill is through the lens of major league baseball and used the examples to talk about how tenuous it can be. baseball has all of these resources to be able to kind of fight this virus with the best of what we can offer because you do have the resources, you have the generally healthy athletes to take this on so we're aligned with its success because we want to see it successful because in

some ways it does give us comfort of what's possible. day-to-day the players trying to take it and all you can assume out of victim ory is making it through the next day. >> i'm a red sox fan and spent the weekends cursing losing to the yankees with my sons and felt normal to be stressed and mad about something that was not the coronavirus. the commissioner told espn this over the week, we are playling, the players need to be better and not a quilter in general and no reason to quit now. we have to be fluid but it is manageable. so the commissioner will try to keep this on the rails. what for you is a marker if first marlins and now the cardinals. what point is it can we sustain this? are you confident they can stay on the good side of that line? >> they placed a lot of

protocols and they know it's fluid and information is informing them and also projecting out what their next steps need to be so they have to expect interruption. out of summer camp, a secondary spring training, they knew they would have a disrupted season but it is the failsafes put in place to try to address it. quarantine teams like the marlins or adjusting in those ways so they will have to continue to expect this. and hope the information they get in realtime allows them to make better moves and they can spontaneously change the protocols to address that new information but continues like this and from a competitive standpoint that is a challenge because you have teams in the national league east, for example, 2-1. played 3 games and other teams have played 10. that's a huge challenge. >> every day we learn, adjust and try to adapt.

best of luck. >> thank you, john. >> thank you. now let's shift to a related story in the nfl. head coach of the philadelphia eagles has tested positive for coronavirus. we are told pederson is in self quarantine and the coach is doing well and the team says it will test none at the facility who believes they may have come in contact with the coach in recent days. is there any hope for reviving those now expired extra unemployment benefits? negotiators about to get back to work up on capitol hill.

behind every 2020 census taker's mask is a friendly neighbor. they'll be coming by to ask simple questions that inform how billions in federal funds are spent on local services every year for the next decade. time is running out. shape your future. start here at 2020census.gov. that selling carsarvana, 100% online wouldn't work. shape your future. but we went to work. building an experience that lets you shop over 17,000 cars from home. creating a coast to coast network to deliver your car as soon as tomorrow.

recruiting an army of customer advocates to make your experience incredible. and putting you in control of the whole thing with powerful technology. that's why we've become the nation's fastest growing retailer. because our customers love it. see for yourself, at carvana.com.

did you know liberty mutual customizes your car insurance ta-da! so you only pay for what you need? i should get a quote. do it. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ lookentertainmentour experience: xfinity x1. it's the easiest way to watch live tv and all your favorite streaming apps. plus, x1 also includes peacock premium at no extra cost.

this baby is the total package. it streams exclusive originals, the full peacock movie library, complete collections of iconic tv shows, and more. yup, the best really did get better. magnificent. xfinity x1 just got even better, with peacock premium included at no additional cost. no strings attached.

the white house and congressional democrats are set to resume talks next hour and giant differences over the size and the details of a new coronavirus stimulus package. phil mattingly is following the talks and saying they're talking but are they making progress? >> reporter: no. look, the promost progress out of the course of four separate meetings, top white house negotiators, white house choof of staff mark meadows, speaker nancy pelosi on saturday where they met and i'm told according to people briefed on that meeting that the progress was understanding what they disagree on, what both sides' red lines are and watching something that if you look back to march and the understanding, the grasp of the package passed you recognize how different the dynamics are and an issue are the people negotiating and the president.

take a listen to what speaker nancy pelosi said asked about that this morning. >> is the president himself involved in these negotiations? >> i assume that he is. i trust that he is and that they represent his point of view and that they carry back our point of view to the president. i certainly hope he is. >> reporter: not a resounding vote of confidence there and part of the reason is the president is on twitter talking about a payroll tax cut. the white house is moving forward on things unilaterally that's not in play right now and mitch mcconnell is not in the negotiations right now. aware of them but not in the room and senate republicans had serious questions about where the president is and you get to the difficulties right now. it is not just policy. on the policy the goals are significant and real. democrats want to maintain that $600 flat rate on unemployment

insurance. republicans want to take it down pretty significantly. nearly trillion dollars more in funding. ple republicans want flexibility. there are a number of major issues to be ironed out. there are dead loonlines of mil people hurting and the realities of there's politics coming up, an election. will that start to straighten things out and we should know more after the meeting that starts at 1:00 p.m. >> phil, two weeks ago in an interview the president said he was crafting a new health care plan. we know it's an election year, very unlikely that anything not related directly to the coronavirus gets done on capitol hill. any republicans have any idea what the president's talking about? >> reporter: no. not at all. i'm always very hesitant, way too much snark and how people

cover a lot of things but a level of absurd the i ity to tao a health care plan coming in two weeks and "the washington post" wrote a story of everything is coming in two weeks. there is nothing coming in two weeks, yesterday or today with health care. the administration has done a lot of things on health care and signed on to a lawsuit to completely dismantle the affordable care act but a new health care plan as far as i'm talking to plrepublicans up her nobody knows about it and i don't think republicans want any part of that given how that debate plays out for them, john. >> repeal and replace didn't go well when they controlled everything. appreciate the update there. the president's back up on tv. that would be his campaign and the new campaign manager says he wants debates sooner.

tide pods child-guard pack helps keep your laundry pacs in a safe place and your child safer. to close, twist until it clicks. tide pods child-guard packaging. come on in, we're open. ♪ all we do is hand you the bag. simple. done. we adapt and we change.

you know, you just figure it out. we've just been finding a way to keep on pushing. ♪

a book that you're ready to share with the world? get published now, call for your free publisher kit today! retired general calling president obama a terrorist leader now getting a big role at the pentagon despite opposition in congress. it is an end around directed by the president himself. anthony tada you wroo his name last week, the con for mags hearing canceled after there's

numerous comments and conspiracy theories. he tweeted he later tried to delete the tweets and issued some apologies. the trump campaign is back on the air after a brief pause to review the strategy. two new ads launched today suggest joe biden is now in the view of the ads now more of a puppet of liberal democrats, those ads target north carolina, georgia, florida and arizona. and the trump campaign wants more and earlier presidential debates. today the manager says early and mail-in voting why he thinks late september is too late for the first debate. >> we want more debates, debates starting sooner, first debate scheduled for september 29th. by that time 16 stating will have been voting by september 29th. >> up next here, joe biden promised you something this week but you'll likely have to wait. .

an army family who is always at the ready. so when they got a little surprise... two!? ...they didn't panic. they got a bigger car for their soon-to-be-bigger family. after shopping around for insurance, they called usaa - who helped find the right coverage for them and even some much-needed savings. that was the easy part. usaa insurance is made the way liz and mike need it- easy.

little things can become your big moment. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable.

don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea or vomiting. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines, and if you're pregnant or planning to be. otezla. show more of you. gimme two minutes. eligible for medicare. and if you're pregnant or planning to be. and i'll tell you some important things to know about medicare. first, it doesn't pay for everything. say this pizza... [mmm pizza...] is your part b medical expenses. this much - about 80 percent... medicare will pay for. what's left... this slice here... well... that's on you. and that's where an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company comes in. this type of plan helps pay

some of what medicare doesn't. and these are the only plans to carry the aarp endorsement. that's because they meet their high standards of quality and service. wanna learn more? it's easy. call unitedhealthcare insurance company now and ask... for this free decision guide. inside you'll find the range of aarp medicare supplement plans and their rates. apply any time, too. oh. speaking of time... about a little over half way and there's more to tell. like, how... with this type of plan, you'll have the freedom to choose any doctor who accepts medicare patients. great for staying with the one you know... or finding... somebody new, like a specialist. there are no networks and no referrals needed. none. and when you travel, your plan will go with you anywhere in the country. so, if you're in another state visiting the grandkids, stay awhile... enjoy... and know that you'll still be able to see any doctor who accepts medicare patients.

so call unitedhealthcare today. they are committed to being there for you. tick, tick, tick, time for a wrap up. a medicare supplement plan helps pay some of what medicare doesn't. you know, the pizza slice. it allows you to choose any doctor, who accepts medicare patients... and these are the only plans of their kind endorsed by aarp. whew! call unitedhealthcare today and ask for this free decision guide. joe biden keeping us waiting. the cam pan says there are 11 women in contention to join the democratic ticket but cnn told the search really has 5 leading contenders including 3 black women. kamala harris, susan rice, karen bass and elizabeth warren and tammy duckworth. here to share the reporting on the search jeff zeleny and

departi. jeff, the interesting part is the lobbying cam pan at the end. >> there's no question about it. you can tell the end of the search is near and the former vice president is going to be having these one on one interviews with some of the people on the list. you can tell it's almost at the end because of the amount of lobbying and opposition research flying in all directions and learned more than we have known before. we have seen these potential candidates defending themselves essentially doing job interviews on sunday television. it is a different search and this cam pane is different this cycle. these candidates cannot be out there essentially working with voters on the stump so so much behind the scenes movement happening and we are told that the former vice president will be having critical interviews

this week and that is the sense. he is looking for a biden if you will. looking for a partner and that is going to be so essential. he doesn't really know many of the candidates for a long time. he of course knows them from the campaigning a bit and doesn't have deep relationships with them and why we are told the one on one meetings likely in person or likely on zoom or phone calls are so, so important. >> and i assume that's what the most important thing, if the vetters have not raised a red flag does joe biden feel comfortable and understands the job should be able to figure that out but to the public part of it, karen bass on television had to deal with a couple things of late. a video reported of her at a ribbon cutting of church of scientology saying nice things about the church and quite controversial and then the republicans came after her for

statements that they viewed after overly sympathetic to the castros in cuba. >> one, don't consider myself a castro sympathizer. number two, my position on cuba is really no different than the position of the obama administration. i believe the republicans have decided to brand the entire democratic party as socialists and communists. >> this is always an interesting battle, fight, competition. more so this time i think in part because if you're a democrat and a candidate to get on the ticket the prospects look pretty good right now. >> that's right, john. you are seeing a public audition here from some of these candidates, especially the lesser known like karen bass trying to defend herself, walk back some of those comments she made in the past but then seeing people like kamala harris and elizabeth warren already well

nona known and not auditioning but they have the allies actively lobbying the biden campaign. we know some allies of harris were granted a phone call with the biden campaign recently to make a case facing attacks against her. >> jeff, how different the campaign is. candidates not doing big rallies and in part that gives susan rice maybe a better chance, a former staff member at the state department and your reporting is this. if there ever was a time to pick someone without campaign experience this would be the year. susan would be the best partner. clearly a friend from the cabinet with a good word but that's an interesting risk. >> it would be absolutely unusual but again in this campaign cycle so many things are unusual. i think the key part there is

governing partner. the former vice president knows that if he wins the election come next year he inherits so many issues. on the national security front, the economic front. hess looking for a partner at the end of the day. there certainly are different calculations in tells of who helps him with a constituent sy but that is one of the reasons that susan rice at the end of the process is looked at much more seriously than at the againing but we have to follow the biden playbook. he was picked, 12 years ago tomorrow that he had his one on one interview with barack obama in a minneapolis hotel room. those two were not close friends at the time. they became, of course, good worki working partners. he is working for someone to work with him and you have to give a stronger consideration to someone that has run before an enthat's kamala harris in this small group of people who he's

considering, john. >> interesting. appreciate the reporting and insights. i want that map over your shoulder. that's a nice -- brianna keilar picks up our coverage right now. we'll see you tomorrow. i'm brianna keilar and want to welcome viewers here in the united states and around the world. today president trump is lashing out at yet another task force doctor and this time it's dr. birx after she gave a less than glowing review of where the u.s. stands on the coronavirus. but here's the reality of coronavirus on the ground. most of the country is holding steady but 11 states that are seeing surges and 3 are in the midwest. the rise in cases in the heartland is leading the white house to mark a new phase of the pandemic. >> i want to