in the week. mandatory and voluntary evacuation orders also in place in parts of texas. stay with us for continuing coverage on that. see you back here this time tomorrow. anderson cooper picks up our coverage right now. have a good day. i'm anderson cooper. want to welcome viewers here in the u.s. ian around the world. more encouraging signs in the fight of the coronavirus. the average number of daily new cases tumbled and deaths fallen 8%. three times as many states are holding steady or decreasing the case counts and as much of the nation experiencing a decline signs that the uneven response by states to the pandemic is leading to new hotspots. the midwest seeing a 5% jump, one expert telling cnn that people forgot this was a pandemic because the region wasn't hit as hard initially. south dakota reporting its

highest seven-day average for new daily cases. a stunning 53% surge from the prior week. health officials announcing that several new cases linked to that massive bike rally earlier there this month and in kansas the state added nearly 4,000 cases in 1 week for the first time. the governor says each county in the state now has at least one positive covid case. and as more u.s. schools try to strike a balance, the new study offersen sight to track infections. senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen has details. >> anderson, there's been a lot of questions asked, how many children are there out there in the united states that don't look like they have covid and look fine and are infected? researchers in san francisco did a very smart thing. they looked at children who were at children's hospitals for other reasons, surgeries, for whatever, but not for covid and seem perfectly fine and tested them for covid and let's take a

look at the results. in hospitals in various parts of the country, 33,000 children tested, children who did not have signs of covid and 250 out of those group of children turned out to have covid. this is the part where there are lessons learned is that the number of children varied greatly by community. some hospitals had no children with covid. some hospitals 2% of the children who didn't have symptoms who looked fine 2% of them actually did have covid so that tells you that things are different community to community so that means that different communities need to think about things like school reopenings differently. anderson? >> dr. fauci is kind of pulling back the curtain on what it is like to work on the white house coronavirus task force. he is talking as part of a new "the washington post" piece on vice president pence. what is he saying? >> it is interesting.

he called himself, fauci, like the skunk at a picnic. in other words, i think what we are supposed to take is the unwelcomed visitor who is bringing bad news. he did have kind words for the vice president, said that he is a decent man and that he is very smart. he also said that he's an optimist but that the vice president's optimism never stopped the vice president from allowing fauci to come in and basically stink up the room where the president was and allow fauci to give the president bad news and what f fauci's saying. >> thank you. quite a visual. colleges and universities are cracking down on student gatherings after seeing a rise in coronavirus cases. the hope of in-person learning is fading. we are tracking the rising number of cases. what are you finding? >> it is a game of whack-a-mole

and let's start at the university of alabama system, over 500 cases have been reported since classes started just last wednesday and seen over 500 new cases so what are they doing? not only is the school system focused on this now, the city of tuscaloosa is stepping in, the mayor saying because of the rise and a joint project to make sure that everyone in the community is healthy they're closinging down bars for two weeks and limiting alcohol sales in restaurants and a creative step taken by local officials, maybe other cities will do the same for college towns. you go to other colleges across the country, the university of missouri has 159 active student cases and go to unc chapel hill. they had over 400 cases reported last week when they decided to close in-person classes and shut that down. the web side now has reported a positivity rate of 31%, just on that 1 campus. as you mentioned in the

introduction, a lot of these schools are cracking down and have disciplinary actions against students specifically and fraternities. university of kansas issued action against two fraternities there and ohio state university suspended 228 students for attending off campus parties and group gatherings with over 10 people and clearly a big step that colleges are taking, a risky bet to bring students back to campus and saying that they -- no one is off limits for being suspended and they have to follow the rules to be healthy. >> a complex situation. appreciate it. more protests erupt overnight in wisconsin where police shot an unarmed black man seven times in the back in front of his children. protesters faced offer wi with o police. 29-year-old jacob blake survived the shooting and now learning he is paralyzed.

sara sidner is on the scene. what did his father say? >> reporter: his father said that right now they have learned that his -- he is paralyzed from the waist down. what doctors do not yet know is this is something that's going to be permanent or whether or not this may subside and get more movement back in the lower extremities but the family and jacob blake having to deal with the thought that his life is forever changed indeed if he is paralyzed for life, waiting to get more details on that as the day goes by. he is still in intensive care in the hospital. we also heard from his uncle who talked about jacob blake and said that he was a wrestler, a strong guy, somebody who he said if anybody could make it he could and the entire family really shocked when you look at this video that they have jacob blake with them, that he has

survived this. there has been a reaction, of course, in this community. we have seen people peacefully protesting in the day and then as night comes you see people start being destructive and clashes between police and protesters, tear gas overnight as well as we watched several buildings go up in flames. the family has been very adamant and very pointed. they believe in peaceful protest. they are honored that people have come out in jacob blake's name but they do not want to see anymore destruction, no more vie listens at all, not in his name and so they're very clear in saying that we are also hoping to hear from the family and their attorney who is expected to be out here in the next couple of hours to give us an update on jacob blake's condition and how they're going to proceed. what we have not heard much at all is from the investigators. we haven't heard anything from

the state of wisconsin department of justice who has taken over the investigation into the shooting. we have gotten no real additional details from police here about what happened leading up to the shooting. we have heard from the police that took that viral video saying that there was a skirmish of police and jacob blake, there was some sort of a tussle and tased by police before you see him going around the van where his three children were inside and they some point police yelled knife, knife, knife. no other details from any agency about that and we know what is on the video, shot seven times in the back. anderson? >> sara, i interviewed the governor of wisconsin yesterday on my digital show on "full circle" saying they won't be able to necessarily put out

information given it's an ongoing investigation. you know? it may be several days before they're able to do that but those details that you just said about the tasing, that's the first time i've heard of that. we didn't know that yesterday i think or i hadn't heard it yesterday. so we know that there was a domestic dispute call we're told the police were responding to. do we know the details of that? >> reporter: that is the problem. one thing is that the kenosha police department does not have body worn cameras and never be able to see for ourselves and the public not see for themselves exactly what happened on camera and heard stories from witnesses saying that there was a domestic dispute between two young ladies and that he intervened, jacob blake intervened in that at some point. that is one thing that we hear from witnesses but we haven't

been able to corroborate that, for example, with police and the investigation still ongoing and so we're not getting details as to the lead-up of what happened. and you know, we are now going into two, two and a half days in and we haven't heard anymore details but we did hear that he somehow intervened in between two young ladies who were having a dispute. we do not know how and why police came to try and arrest him. and how this all ended up in such a shooting where he was shot in the back. we don't know the details just yet just from what the witnesses have been telling us. >> sara, appreciate it. just in, new cnn reporting on the qanon supporter who's closer to congress. plus republicans paint aal te terntive reality at their

convention. james comey janes me lioins me respond. ng sandwiches! on king's hawaiian bread! yum! king's hawaiian.

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we knew kand marjorie taylor green was a qanon supporter but now we learn about the conspiracy theories she's supported in the past. andrew, what have you found? >> so we found that before green was a congressional candidate she was a correspondent for a website called american truth seekers and this is a now defunct conservative blog and just to give you an idea of some of the stuff this blog posted,

they posted that the 2018 shooting at stoneman douglas shooting was a massive false flag. that's a quote. in a couple posts that green wrote she wrote that the conspiracy about pizzagate was real and in another post said that the charlottesville white national protest was an inside job to further the agenda of the elites. and you know, sort of to like deconstruct this a little bit, pizzagate is a conspiracy theory that democrats were running a pedophile ring out of a pizza restaurant and this charlottesville thing, she was basically claiming that it was being done so that they could put the agenda of the elites and further it and this is really, really nutty stuff.

and -- >> we should point out on the pizza parlor thing, a guy actually went to that pizza restaurant in washington, d.c., heavily armed to, you know, rescue children. there obviously were no children held there or just a complete fantasy and he was obviously arrested. he is serving i believe five years in prison for that but it could have been -- he could have shot up the place. this has actual real world implications. >> that's the thing. this stuff has real life consequences. president trump praised this person as we saw in tweets saying she is a future republican star and a real winner. and what i was going to mention is she also had a facebook post where she said that nancy pelosi was guilty of treason which she said was punishable for death

and that's almost the most normal thing that we are talking about here is that someone speculating the speaker of the house could be put to death. when that's the most normal thing in terms of conspiracy posts it shows you how far gone this stuff is. >> she also said that -- seemed to be a 9/11 truther saying a plane didn't go into the pentagon. appreciate your time. joining me next to respond is james comey and kimberly guilfoyle calls herself a first generation american. her mother is puerto rican and, new development, we'll have more on her speech last night. also a new development in the scandal of jerry falwell jr. more on that ahead. ♪ come on in, we're open. ♪

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republicans are gearing up for night two of the nation ap convention. tonight's speakers first lady trump, two of the president's children and secretary of state mike pompeo. their message is this, the economy is surging back, despite

millions of job losses, the coronavirus is being beaten back despite the -- without much mention of the 177,000 dead americans and with the message without president trump in charge the nation will descend to chaos, violence and anarchy. >> they're not satisfied with spreading the chaos and violence into our communities. they want to abolish the suburbs altogether. >> it's a horror film, really. they'll disarm you, empty the prisons, lock you into your home and invite ms-13 to live next door. >> they want to destroy this country and everything we have fought for and hold dear. >> the president's son donald trump jr. making that case loud and clear. >> this time the other party is attacking the very principles on which our nation was founded. freedom of thought. freedom of speech. freedom of religion. the rule of law.

>> the rule of law. donald trump jr. saying that the trump administration stands for the rule of law. of course, this is just days after the president's former chief strategist steve bannon is just the latest ex-trump associate to find himself in big legal trouble. want to bring in former fbi director james comey. director comey, thank you for being with us. just steve bannon, his arrest recently charged with defrauding donors to private group that was supposed to raise money to build a section of border wall, how serious do you think the charges are against him? >> very serious. both because it includes fraud charge that looks on the face of the indictment to be incredibly detailed and strongly supported by text and emails but also, the amount of money stolen, hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars jacks the punishment up. it is a difficult road and if

i'm him and lawyers i think i'm going down. >> the president has been railing against mail-in voting, calling it a disaster, an easy way for foreign countries to meddle in the election. i have spoke to a number of secretaries of state and said that the mail-in voting systems are safe and never seen a hint of foreign interference and though there is out of millions of votes cast as statistically insignificant number of people who try to vote twice or commit some sort of fraud and those people are prosecuted. in your years working the fbi have you ever seen widespread voter fraud, widespread mail-in voter fraud? >> never. i'm used to operating in an evidence-based world and not seen evidence nor anybody on the truf team offer evidence. they say there's not a physical

evidence there is not. they haven't come forward with any evidence and i saw senator tim scott from south carolina saying mail-in voting is safe. >> the president also threatened to send law enforcement perm or talked about them to polling places to prevent voter fraud. a number of critics said it's reviving a tactic of voter intimidation. does the president have the power to send local law enforcement to a place? and is it needed? >> he has no power over state and local law enforcement. and so, they should and they will ignore a suggestion like that which is as you said brings us back to awful days when we used cops to try to scare people of color from voting so they will and they should ignore him. i suppose he could try something at the federal level. i can't imagine how a federal agency would abide a direction but look.

it sends a chill through all of us as a reminder of some days we in america thought we left behind. >> just last week the senate intelligence committee report found that paul manafort was passing along information to a russian intelligence officer in 2016. do you think robert -- their report was very damning and had -- was very focused, bipartisan report. how do you think it compares to the report of robert mueller? did the mueller team you think miss something? >> no. i think mueller's mission was very different and much more narrow. his job was to figure out so what evidence is there to bring into a court of law to establish a crime was committed beyond a reasonable doubt? he was a prosecutor. what the intelligence committee was doing is looking at all the reliable information that was out there, whether or not it could be marched into a

courtroom, and that's what led them to the stunning conclusion that the head of the president's campaign was a grave counter intelligence risk to the united states of america. folks ought to let that sink in and think about it when the attorney general said there was nothing to investigate here or the president say it's just a hoax. >> we have learned more details about the fbi's apply case for fisa warrant on carter page, a number of indiscrepancies and now there's an attorney who has i guess lied about what was on one of the applications. or lied about what his role was in this. does that make you or should it make people look at this entire investigation differently? it seems like given this was the most important thing or one of the most important things the fbi was working on, so many

inaccuracies and an attorney lied, that's not good. >> yeah. i agree. my first reaction is that's the result of bill barr's worldwide dragnet but i don't want to downplay it. it's important that people tell the truth in investigations and it looks from the pleading and the court hearings that as a junior lawyer of the fbi, i only know what i know about this from reading it because it happened after i was fired but a junior lawyer changed the document for reasons i can't understand from the public record. that's serious and he is before a judge to decide what a just punishment is. i hope it reflects a new approach by the justice department of false statements. they have to be taken seriously no matter who makes a false statement in an investigation. >> the justice department is investigating the investigation into 2016. do you think bill barr will release a result of this probe before the election and do you

worry about it being political in nature? >> of course i worry about anything this administration is doing and especially this notion that they need to investigate the investigators after the investigators had been investigated by everybody already but i don't know what they're doing so it's hard for me to say. i hope at some point the american people get transparency of what john durham is doing and has found and i'm confident he'll find the work was done in a professional way but i don't know and i'm skeptical that they'll be respectful of conducting themselves like professionals. >> did you know the attorney who falsified this document? >> no. no. maybe i was in a meeting with the guy business he was a junior level person in the office but doesn't mean it shouldn't be taken seriously. >> do you worry about the public's trust in the fbi, that it has been so damaging, shaken?

the number of missteps in the past four years. >> oh, very much. the fbi depends upon the faith and confidence of the american people that it is competent, honest and inspectedependent. mistakes are important. lies about the fbi are more important because they're harder to undo. the fbi has to worry about it as i do and the best way to deal with it is show the american people your work. when you make a mistake, add it and wok to make sure it doesn't happen again. we need the fbi no matter what our politics. >> you are a lifelong republican, i believe. what is your message, you're speaking at this founding principles convention tonight. what is your message to republicans, to conservatives? >> my message to independents, former republicans and those principles republicans that are left that there are things above policy disagreements and important to have policy

disagreements in this country but coming the core values there's only us and stare at those things like the rule of law and the truth in deciding who should be president and my message is we have to have a president who is decent and is the person of integrity. we will have that if we elect joe biden. >> you know, i don't know if qanon was an issue so much when you were at the fbi. i'm wondering what you make of this -- i mean, is this bizarre, you know, conspiracy theory is kind of an overused word but it is based on anti-semitic, anti-catholic tropes used for generations. this time it's of cabal of democrats and hollywood celebrities and others who are allegedly and ridiculously running a child sex trafficking ring out of a pizza parlor and communicating in code in the public. and drinking the blood of

children to stay young and worshipping satan. there's now candidates, one who has a chance of becoming a congress person in the republican party and the president called that person a future star of the party. i know the fbi has said it could lead to -- it could be a kind of a risk for domestic terrorism or illegal actions. what do you make of this? >> there's always been an attraction to nutty conspiracy theories. the difference here is that it was always hard to talk to crazy but crazy was outside the fence. maybe shouting at the white house from outside the security fence. well, now it's not only on the white house grounds and in the building building and how do you deal with it? the president is not only condemning the craziness, which as the fbi said could be doing

rou dangerous but wrapping his arms around it. it is not enough who can believe that? we have to take it seriously because it's in the house and could be dangerous. >> james comey, i appreciate your time. thank you very much. >> thank you for having me. hurricane laura targeting louisiana and texas. some counties telling people to leave now. a cluster is linked to a starbucks. hear what happened inside the cafe and the spread of the virus from that mass i biker rally, now worse than previously thought. with secret, you're unstoppable. no sweat! try it and love it or get your money back. monitoring patients in hospitals around the world so that doctors and nurses can make sure you feel safe. as new challenges have arisen, we've grown to bring that same safety and support

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hurricane laura continues to gain strength as it barrels toward the gulf coast. the storm's expected to major hurricane by the time it makes landfall. a hurricane warning for portions of texas, louisiana along the coastline. low lying areas are already under mandatory evacuation orders as it's quickly approaching. want the latest with meteorologist jennifer gray. what is the latest? >> anderson, this is not going to have more interaction with land before it makes landfall and so basically this storm is in the perfect environment to rapidly intensify.

it crossed over cuba, now in the gulf of mexico with winds of 75 miles per hour, gusts of 90 moving at 16 miles per hour. the hurricane hunters have found wind of 83 miles per hour so that does indicate some strengthening with this storm. this storm could very, very likely rapidly intensify by the time it makes landfall as a potential category 3 storm, winds of more than 111 miles per hour. this is showing 115. by wednesday evening. expected to make landfall east texas, south louisiana, overnight wednesday night into thursday morning and then make its way to the north and then eventually east. here are the warm waters of the gulf of mexico, low 90s. it's about to enter into. here's the other storms that have rapidly intensified. think of rita, katrina, michael. i don't like to compare storms

but don't think of this as a harvey. this is not a storm to sit over one area for a week at a time 6. we're looking at anywhere from, say, 74 to 110-mile-per-hour winds potentially around houston, just east of lake charles. that does include lafayette. winds with places like port arthur, biomoneaumont, texas, i track stays the same. it's still time to wobble to the west or the east. could see 13 feet of storm surge across southeast texas, southwest louisiana. 6 to 9 feet of storm surge just to the west of that near galveston island. could pick up three to five feet of storm surge into galveston bay, and the water quickly goes up the lakes and the rivers and they can cause major flooding to areas well inland.

anderson, we are looking at a lot of rain, as well. six to ten inches and some could be more. anderson? >> jennifer gray, thank you. south korea large cluster of new coronavirus cases linked to a starbucks. south korean officials believe 66 covid cases connected to a starbucks there. health officials say it's mainly among customers not wearing face masks inside. similar outbreaks here in the u.s. let's quickly check in with our correspondents. >> i'm lucy, coronavirus cases linked to the sturgis motorcycle rally have spread to at least two other states. according to minnesota health officials at least 27 cases of covid-19 are linked to the bike rally and nebraska health officials say at least seven cases are linked to the e vents. south dakota's now warning of poshlt exposure at four businesses that served

attendees. >> i'm bryn gingras in new jersey. schools in danberry will begin with virtual learning only. there's an outbrack in the city that canceled youth sports for the summer and residents in all nursing homes are being tested as the state says it's trying to squash the outbreak by in part just doing more testing. the state believe that is the flare-ups in cases could be tied to international travel and domestic travel which could then get spread at gatherings where people don't wear masks. the state is also trying to get a handle on flare-ups in east windsor and also at a nursing home. as far as the school situation in connecticut, the sup superintendent says he'll revisit that decision in october. >> want to thank the correspondents. political shifts and family

die namings co dynamics come to a head, a father that supports trump and his biden supporting step daughter joins me. kimberly guilfoyle said she's a first generation american. wayfair has way more ways to renovate your home,

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as we all know, political

conversations at the dinner table have always been a fine line for families to walk, but in the trump-era, family get-togethers can return into arguments sometimes. one family has shown how much politics can work. one is a union worker, voted for obama twice and now supports trump and kelly has become an enthusiastic voter. kelly is dan's stepdaughter and they both join me now. thank you for being with us. this is a situation going on in a lot of families across the country. dan, what was your take-away from night one of the republican national convention? >> you know, i was -- anderson, i'm doing my best to try to stay positive and solution-oriented. i'm a guy that tries to give credit where credit is due and,

you know, one of the reasons why i supported trump in 2016 is because americans need jobs, we need a lot of jobs, and i always thought as a united steelworker, i thought nafta was always a bad trade agreement. and i'm an unapologetic supporter of freedom. >> and kelly, for you, kelly, if you watched the convention last night, what did you think of night one? >> i didn't watch that much of it. i've been pretty nervous to see you guys today so i didn't want to add to that. >> i understand. >> i mean, i did try to watch a recap and like a fact-checker, that's basically what i've been looking at today. >> it's interesting us because we wanted to talk to you because, as i said, i think there's so many families that have, you know, people in families that have different points of view and it's interesting how your politics have kind of -- or at least the

parties you support have switched for both of you over the years. as a family, what kind of impact does this have, dan? is this a topic of debate often or is it just not discussed? >> well, no, it was during 2016. we had some pretty heated debates. now kelly and i are finding a lot of common ground. i've always been open-minded and i've always enjoyed history and learning more about the slavery and racism in america and my talks with kelly has educated me a lot on things that i was not even aware of. so i'm greatly appreciative for this. b but --

>> kelly, over the summer i understand your family st down and watched two netflix documentaries, both were focused on race. a lot of families shy away from topics when people are on opposite sides. you guys dove right in. can you talk to me about that? >> yeah, it's an ongoing thing, you know, i'm trying to get them to come over and see my side and there was an opportunity when they came to my house. i don't have fox news on. i was like, hey, this documentary is inspiring, let's watch it together. i really want to know what you think and i want you to see why i take my sons to the protest marches, because it's not what you think. there were protests and we went and it was a good experience for us and i really want to pass it on. i guess i'm trying to justify my actions as a mom to my family

and get them on board. >> kelly, you used to be a republican. do you see yourself firmly how as a democrat, and i guess then i'll ask a similar question to dan. >> yeah, so when i was young i was raised catholic and i would go to like the pro-life fair with my grandma and pass out pens and i felt like it was really important and i thought i was saving lives and making a difference. you just see all of this going on around you and i, myself, had two miscarriages and i had to take a pill that was used for abortions, and the story came out about a woman that couldn't get a prescription filled from a pharmacist because he didn't agree with it. if that happened to me, that would be really hard, so it was a real eye-opener. but a true movement is so much more than taking care of a baby. we've got to give mom access to health care and health

insurance. we need so much more. >> dan, is your mind made up so far for the election or do you think it could change over the next couple of months? >> well, you know, anderson, i'm pretty much locked in with president trump because i do -- because, you know, the united steelworkers has always been looking for a president who is going to stand up to china on decades of unfair trade practices, you know, so that's important for me as a steelworker and, also -- so we've got that. and also i have to give president trump a thumb's up on the opportunities initiative, but i also see a lot of improvement, a lot of room for improvement with that initiative. >> dan and kelly -- >> i'll willing to work with

president trump or, you know, candidate biden, should he be elected. >> i appreciate both of you talking about this t. it's uneasy for families and it's nice to see that you're both talking and having good conversations and respectful. so thank you so much for both of you for joining us. wish you the best. >> thank you. >> anderson, can i make a real quick shout out here to dr. gerald higginbotham with descendants of american slaves and shelton with american slaves incorporated in louisville, kentucky. i've been working with these two gentlemen and they are very solution oriented and they've got great ideas as far as how we can improve race relations in america. >> i appreciate your time. thank you for joining us. coming up, the confusion as trump's leading evangelical

supporter, controversy, a sex scandal involving a pool boy.

at the top of the hour, i'm anderson cooper. for the second consecutive day the number of americans dying has fell below 500 and it has fallen 8% over