>> we shouldn't hold up troop pay for these bases. it's crazy. i had no idea these were named after these people. we need to rethink it. >> julie: all right. got to go. thank you, gentlemen. matt gorman, richard fowler. thank you for watching at home. i am julie in for harris, and here is dana. >> dana: police departments taking hits across the country as protesters continue calls to defund them. hello, everyone. i am dana perino and this is "the daily briefing." new york city slashing the nypd budget by a billion dollars. protesters camping outside city hall saying even that's not enough. it comes as dozens of cities across the country are considering cutting funds and some are even looking to dump police department altogether. we have team fox coverage. alicia acuna you on what's happening across the u.s. so

let's begin with aishah hasnie. >> hi, dana. protesters are still here and you can see behind me no signs of moving. we found out, a couple minutes ago i talked to an organizer that the organizing groups apparently are going to be leaving. they stayed through the budget vote as promised but they will continue to support anyone here who wants to stay and there are several people who do want to stay. we don't know how long it's going to be allowed to continue. last night protesters started building barriers in the middle of the street to keep police out. three people were taken into custody this morning. this all comes as the new budget passed just after midnight. about a billion dollars in cuts to the nypd includes elimination of two of the four nypd classes and reducing overtime spending. edit comes at a time when shootings are up across the citt year. also facing a loss because of

the coronavirus. nypd retirements are spiking. we've seen back-and-forth on twitter. president trump tweeting in part "new york city is cutting police dollars $.1 million in the theme new york city mayor is going to paint a big expensive yellow black lives matter sign on fifth avenue, denigrating this luxury avenue." the mayor said "black people built this avenue and so much of this nation. we are honoring them through the fact that you see it as denigrating your street is the definition of racism." protesters and council members feel that the budget did not go far enough. they wanted a hiring freeze on police and eliminating school safety officers. the mayor has said will continue to support any people protesting that the city really has to move forward. dana. >> dana: thank you for your reporting. we appreciated. team fox coverage continues with a look at what else is happening across the country. alicia acuna has it. it's not just happening in

new york city. >> absolutely, and we will begin in pennsylvania where governor tom wolf is set to sign the first police reform bill passed by that state's legislature. one prevents officers with bad records for moving from department to department. another bill requires regular training of officers and how to interact with ethnic minorities and requires mental health evaluations. in los angeles, the city council approved part of a plan to replace the l.a.p.d. with community-based responders who are not armed. they will be used for nonviolent service calls and also forces the department to work with the county's health department and homeless authorities. the coauthor of the motion tweeting "the bottom line is that the way things have been going is not working for our communities." this last month has made it crystal clear. we have a responsibility to our people and our people have spoken." senate democrats in virginia proposing reforms to include

downgrading assault on law enforcement officers from a felony to a misdemeanor. in minneapolis, the cities taking public comments on the charter amendment to disband the police department in its current form. one possibility, the creation of a new department of community safety and violence prevention. last month here in colorado the governor signed sweeping reform bill that also bands qualified immunity. whole lot of changes all over the country. >> dana: alicia acuna, important to note it's not just happening in new york. want to bring in democratic commerce meant emanuel cleaver of missouri, also a member of the house homeland security committee. thank you for being here. the way i see it, defund the police is certainly much more than a slogan, as you start to see what's happening across the country. would love to see your reaction. >> this is a spine chilling

nightmarish name for a masterful idea. defund the police, i wish we could get rid of that title. what i think most people are supporting is the reengineering of police. i was the mayor of the city at one point the president of the police board. nobody with an i.q. at room temperature wants to shut down the police department. what i am saying and what many people are saying, thoughtful people are saying is that look, i have a friend whose name is jim, he is white. he is in kansas city. a few years ago he called the police to come to his house where he had a schizophrenic son who had a mental problem for years and years and years. he was in the front yard with a knife screaming and yelling and he called the police.

jim called the police. it ended in his son being shot 13 times in the front yard. >> dana: okay. >> the point i'm making, most of us are saying we need a unit of the police department that is trained in how to deal with those issues. >> dana: i think there's a lot of police officers who would agree that dealing with mental health issues is something that they've been having to do. what we end up with is you end up with these defunding parts but not the reform part that i think was pretty bipartisan. i want to have you listened to joseph borelli, new york city councilman who was against the action that happened last night. here is what he said. >> we know what we're doing and we know that what we are doing will create a more violent city and yet we are doing it anyway. we are making these cuts to appease a fraction of far left new yorkers and i understand the politics of it but we are also

making these cuts to continue this false propagation that police officers are the gravest danger to the public. as though less police officers will somehow make the general public safer in new york city. >> dana: do you have a concern, congressman, that this could backfire, and actually end up with more crime as we have already seen in new york city but possibly across the country with vulnerable populations not protected? >> what i'm hoping we can stop doing is exaggerating people's positions who are seemingly on another side of the issue. look, when i am saying, i will say it for the world. most of the people i know are saying the same thing. we need to alter the way in which we send police out in the community. i have parishioners who are police officers. they don't want to go dealing

with somebody who needs to get their medications reshuffled in the hospital. i don't know anybody who wants to think we don't need the police and take the money and put it somewhere else. change is uncomfortable. even change from bad to good is uncomfortable. nothing is as uncomfortable is remaining stuck in the mud. this is an excellent opportunity for us to change and change for the better. i want police. i want good police. as tim scott said to me this morning and i agree with him, senator scott, he said i don't want everyone to have -- anyone to have stereotypes of me as a black man and i don't have stereotypes of the police and that's where i am. to say the police, saying that

the whole world is evil with the police. that's not where i am. >> dana: congressman, we really appreciate you coming on and helping us talk this through today. thank you. >> good to be with you. >> dana: next, history and mississippi has the state becomes the last of the nation to drop the confederate symbol from its flag. the governor of mississippi joins me live. you say that customers make their own rules.

let's talk data. only xfinity mobile lets you switch up your wireless data whenever. i accept! 5g - everybody's talking about it. how do i get it? everyone gets 5g with our new data options at no extra cost. that's good. next item - corner offices for everyone. just have to make more corners in this building. chad? your wireless your rules. only with xfinity mobile. now that's simple easy awesome. switch and save up to $400 a year on your wireless bill. plus get $200 off a new samsung galaxy s20 ultra.

>> dana: we are getting alarming new alarming new numbers. new cases up, up 80% nationwide. just over the past two weeks. in seven states the weekly average is up at least 25% and the surge is coming, as dr. anthony fauci issues that

dire warning. jonathan serrie is live in atlanta with more. >> hi, dana. it's already having an impact on business. new york city restaurants were hoping to reopen their dining rooms on monday but with the surgeon new cases, the mayor has put a halt to it. take a listen. >> we cannot go ahead at this point in time with indoor dining in new york city. even a week ago, honestly i was hopeful we could but the news we have gotten from around the country gets worse and worse all the time. >> an emergency order took effect in savannah, georgia, today mandating people wear face masks in public and commercial establishments. experts say complacency of her masks, social distancing, and the delayed effects of large memorial day gatherings are driving the new spike in covid-19 cases. patients are trending younger, and although they may be at

lower risk for complications, they can still pass the virus onto the more vulnerable and create a new surge on hospitals. >> we are now having 40 plus thousand new cases a day. i would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around. so i am very concerned. >> public health officials say they are especially concerned about the upcoming fourth of july weekend when people are planning get-togethers and family reunions. they are urging people to limit the size of these gatherings and to wear face coverings when social distancing is not possible. dana. >> dana: jonathan serrie, thank you for the update. let's bring in mississippi governor tate reeves. i will ask about the rising coronavirus cases in a moment but first, you and your state had a historic moment yesterday removing the confederate symbol from your flag. i want to get your take on it. he said if the legislature sent

it to you you would sign it. did you anticipate it would happen? >> i did, as i watch the process over the last couple weeks. it became more clear that more and more people were getting on board to make this decision to retire the 1894 flag but i'll tell you it required a two-thirds vote of the house and senate as we look at it late last week, it appeared was becoming increasingly difficult for them to do so and that's the reason i decided that i needed to take the initiative and say that i would sign the legislation which i will tell you we did yesterday in a solemn ceremony at the governor's mansion. we have the first african-american member of the mississippi supreme court, the first african-american member to hold a district office in our state. we had the leader of the legislative black caucus, we had our speaker and our lieutenant governor. we signed the legislation to move the 1894 flag into a place

where we can focus on our futu future. >> dana: i wanted to ask you about that. did you get a feeling that this allows mississippi to launch forward and perhaps a new phase of the states history? >> what i would tell you is that my goal throughout the last several weeks in dealing and working with people is to listen. i have done a lot of listening. i've done a lot of praying. i have worked with people republicans and democrats. i really listened to those and what it became clear, we will have a conversation and that's been a very difficult conversation but you know, oftentimes conversation among families difficult. i have heard people talk about the eyes of the nation were on our state. i wasn't all that focus on the eyes of the nation. i was focused on looking in the

eyes of my fellow mississippians and making sure we can all be proud of our symbols and be proud of moving our state into the future. >> dana: i appreciate that and i do want to ask, it comes in a time of the nation's dealing with the global pandemic. if you heard that those numbers are up. i know in mississippi, confirmed cases, 7,095, an increase of 35%. your current hospitalizations are 16% and we know that black americans have been affected quite negatively by coronavirus. how are you addressing it especially as we go into the holiday weekend? i know they're beautiful mississippi beaches are calling to people to come and visit. >> there's no doubt that as we are looking at our numbers, we've seen increases in cases up until a couple weeks ago we had never had more than a day or two with more than 400 cases. in the last ten days, we've had one day over 1,000 and in the last three days, over 600 new

cases. there's no doubt community spread is occurring in our state. we are monitoring it very closely, working with our state health officers. i'm very concerned about where we are in this country. i am very concerned about where we are in our state. hospitalizations are up and i'm concerned that elective surgeries which we are currently allowing, the combination of fat in the new coronavirus cases are certainly making our hospital utilization go up. we have got to make some tough decisions in the future, no doubt about it. >> dana: what kind of decisions with those be? you reopened early, early june. do you see a scenario where you would either have to mandate mass querying or even suggest businesses close down again? >> dana, we did a phased-in reopening. we only shut down our economy for less than three weeks in mississippi. we were able to slow the spread. we never had a goal of stopping the spread of the virus because we didn't believe that was realistic.

we recognize that our job was to slow the spread. our goal has always been to ensure every single mississippi and they could get quality care and get better with quality care received that quality care. we have been able to accomplish that. hospital utilization is going up. we were probably going to expand the capacity in our restaurants right now. we only have half the capacity in our restaurants. we have decided not to do that. we are still allowing for our beaches to remain open. we are requiring social distancing. we have not required masks. the way we look at it is we have required masks and eight or ten different counties and various times to make sure that we slow the spread. we've got a deal with it on a county by county basis and we have 82 counties in our state, rather than a statewide basis. were not stealing nearly as much spread in some areas as we are in others -- we are not seeing nearly as much spread in some areas as we are in others. >> dana: thank you for coming

on the show. up next, president trump ripping into reports that russia put bounties on american troops. up next. protected. protected. protected lifetime income from an annuity can help your retirement plan ride out turbulent times. learn more at protectedincome.org.

woi felt completely helpless.hed online. my entire career and business were in jeopardy. i called reputation defender. vo: take control of your online reputation.

get your free reputation report card at reputationdefender.com. find out your online reputation today and let the experts help you repair it. woman: they were able to restore my good name. vo: visit reputationdefender.com or call 1-877-866-8555. guys! guys! safe drivers save 40%!!! safe drivers save 40%! safe drivers save 40%!!! that's safe drivers save 40%. it is, that's safe drivers save 40%. - he's right there. - it's him! safe drivers do save 40%. click or call for a quote today. >> dana: president trump slamming recen me sent radio res that russia pay the tell event to kill u.s. troops in

afghanistan. >> the national security advisor confirmed that the united states didn't share this intelligence about russian bounties with u.s. allies but not president trump. robert o'brien says that decision to not share the intelligence with the president came from his personal brief, a career cia official. o'brien said he is supported her decision to not share it with the president. so does secretary of state mike pompeo was his administration response to this intelligence was spot on. >> the fact that the russians are engaged in afghanistan in a way that is adverse to the united states is nothing new. we took it seriously and handle it appropriately. >> yesterday former vice president joe biden called president trump's response to the intelligence or lack there of a "dereliction of duty."

>> talks about cognitive capability. he either reads and/or gets briefed on important issues and forgets it or he doesn't think it's necessary that he need to know it. >> democrats on capitol hill have been asking for a briefing about all of it from people in the intelligence community and not white house officials. tomorrow the gang of eight is poised to get one, refers are of the director of national intelligence and director of the cia and tomorrow we are expecting it to take place at around 11:30 on capitol hill inside the senate skiff, the secure room used to discuss matters of national intelligence and classified information. hopefully we'll get some information at that time. period >> dana: it's remarkable because you often don't know about a gang of eight

meeting. as the race for the white house heats up, president trump on the presumptive democratic nominee taking shots at each other over their cognitive abilities. let's bring in the political panel. mary anne marsh is a former senior advisor to john kerry. matt griffin, republican campaign advisor. we are not going to get bumped by breaking news. we are going to talk about it. listen to one more thing from yesterday were biden was asked about his cognitive ability. watch. >> i have been testing. constantly testing. all you have to do is watch me and i can hardly wait to compare my cognitive capability to the cognitive capability of the man i'm running against. >> dana: is this the argument that the campaign should be making against joe biden? >> it's a tough argument, dana,

i think for vice president biden to really do a lot with. the bottom line is in the presser yesterday, it was pretty sad. joe biden had a teleprompter in front of him and his cognitive inability to answer the cognitive questions about cognition was full of pauses and performance problems. if donald trump is a problem, as democrats have suggested, his temperament, the way he speaks, the things he says, make him unfit for office. joe biden is the best the democrats can do, then i would suggest that they have nominated from a cognitive standpoint and issue standpoint the weakest potential democratic nominee since hillary clinton. this is not a good nominee. it's a time when democrats think they can beat trump. i think he's exactly the wrong tonic or antidote if they choose to think they are going to replace donald trump in the white house. >> dana: it seems like there's some biden supporters who might

agree with pat. this new poll from suffix university. trump supporters are at 50% enthusiastic and very excited about voting for their candidate. biden still only a 27%. is that a problem for democrats? >> it's not when you look at the facts of the facts are joe biden is 12 points up over donald trump with 125 days to go and only 5% undecided in the latest fox poll. the fact that donald trump is running, as we speak, in texas and georgia, because he's behind as a republican, should tell you everything. as for cognitive abilities or anything else, joe biden has agreed to three debates. donald trump hasn't yet. there are plenty of gaps of donald trump out there. you could do a super cut. most importantly, the mistreating of voters. older voters are abandoning

donald trump in droves. they didn't go to his rally in tulsa because they don't want to get covid-19. they don't want to hear that older voters are impaired when donald trump and joe biden are their age. when you look at all that, he has totally misread it and it feels like a 2016 summer rerun and he's got no new material for 2020 and no one wants to see the greatest hits again. >> dana: pat griffin, let me give you the final word on why you think it might be misguided. >> it's misguided because frankly some of these early surveys are just plain wrong. marianne knows as well as i do, we've done a lot of campaigns. without screening likely voters, most surveys including the usa poll today poll we are talking about were done with likely voters. joe biden's biggest problem is an enthusiasm gap. the party isn't really excited. they may be opposed to trumpet they are not for biden. vice president loses by a most double digits with the economy.

i think it's going to be very tight, very close election. >> dana: on friday, i think we are four months from the election day, this coming friday. we are getting closer. but this is a lifetime between now and then as well. thank you both. appreciate it. as our nation gets ready to celebrate its independence this weekend, the feds are taking special steps to protect our monuments. police in seattle showing up in forest to clear out shop. we'll take you there live

at philadelphia, we know what makes the perfect schmear of cream cheese. the recipe we invented over 145 years ago and me...the world's best, and possibly only, schmelier. philadelphia. schmear perfection. she always wanted her smile to shine. now, she uses a capful of therabreath healthy smile oral rinse to give her the healthy, sparkly smile she always wanted. (crowd cheering) therabreath, it's a better mouthwash. at walmart, target and other fine stores.

we know you're always at univethere for them.x, that's why our advisors are always here for you. learn more at phoenix.edu.

this crisis is going to be over know exactly when and we don't know exactly when the stock market will reach its bottom, we've got to be prepared for this to last a long time. if you assume that you're out of work for nine months but you end up only being out of work for three, well that's great. but if you think you're going to be furloughed for three months and it lasts for nine, well that'll be emotionally devastating. so, we've got to prepare ourselves. tangibly and practically, as well as psychologically and emotionally.

>> dana: the department of homeland security is sending out special federal units across the country to protect monuments and statues from a possible wave of vandalism over the holiday weekend. the acting head of the department announcing a new task force this morning. >> were not going to let these individuals who clearly hate this country continue to terrorize and go after the

destruction of federal property, federal monuments. we are here to stop them. >> dana: in washington, the white house already increased security around the emancipation memorial in lincoln park which protesters have threatened to tear down for the white house saying president trump will not stand for lawlessness. cops in seattle are clearing out protesters from the so-called chop zone and arresting some of them in the process. this after a string of violence in the last couple weeks including a couple of deadly shootings. dan springer is on the scene with more. dan, is it coming to an end? >> yeah, it is over. ultimately the chop has become a flop and the city workers are making very quick work of getting this area back to normal. you can see that's the east precinct which was abandoned 23 days ago. it is now, the graffiti is gone. it's been repainted. all the graffiti laden plywood has been replaced by clean plywood. monday mornings fatal shooting

of a black teenager by chop security really was the last drop. city workers remove some barricades in this morning at 5:00, local and federal police moved in with armored vehicles and began clearing out the area. most people left on their own, some were handcuffed and removed. seattle's mayor had said negotiation not fours would end the occupation but the police chief said the violence got to be too much. >> what has happened here on the streets over the last two weeks, few weeks, is lawless and brutal and bottom line, it's simply unacceptable. >> city crews are dismantling barricades and wading through trash, tents, an old protest signs. several dozen police are in the east precinct which was abandoned 23 days ago and we are told damage is minimal. police arrested more than 30 people. so far on charges of refusing to leave, assault and weapons

possession but overall the operation has gone smoothly. we have seen no violence. there is tension. most expect the protests to resume in this area and around this area in some fashion either tonight or in the coming days. >> dana: dan springer, thank you so much. want to bring in dave rubin, host of "the rubin report." who could've guessed it would end up this way, dave? two shootings, to deadly shootings, the families of those people have got to be so frustrated. i meant to watch the city workers have to clean up the trash left behind is kind of galling. >> yeah, absolutely. i smiled when you said it, not to diminish the loss of life or property or anything else but of course this was how it was going to end. dana, you know i'm a political extremist of sorts. i believe that law and order is an important thing.

i believe we vote our elected officials and to make sure that you can walk safely down your city street, so that a group of antifa people or anyone else can just set up on autonomous zone or whatever they want to call it in your city. we all know this to be true. the idea that the seattle mayor let this go on for weeks and then at least one person was killed there on top of all the property damage and everything else is crazy. i'm telling you, every single police chief that works for a progressive mayor at this point has to do exactly what the seattle police chief did right there, which is stand up and say we want to protect law and order. we want people to be safe. we aren't going to allow this. nobody wants this. that's the thing. the left seems to be constantly led by their worst instincts and the manners of afraid of their . >> dana: i've been impressed with the police chief of seattle, carmen best. she is strong and dedicated to her job and she's quite gracious

in dealing with all this. i'm wondering, thinking about in chicago, the young 3-year-old boy who was shot and killed couple weeks ago then you have the 19-year-old who was killed here in the seattle chop zone. he was the young black men as well. we are having this spontaneous violence of protest against police and i understand there are some things we need to change and some police departments. but there seems to be this selective outrage. these families are also victims of this. >> absolutely. there is selective outrage and i would say that there is an asymmetry, an oblique or very obvious asymmetry of media coverage. fox, you are the only ones that will talk about what happens in chicago every single weekend. i forget the exact number. i think it might've been 16 people killed. why don't we know any of their

names. why won't cnn or msnbc touch it? if it's about black lives matter, than all-black lives should matter. i do believe all black lives matter. i believe all white lives matter. i believe all blue lives matter. this symmetry where we are going to get outraged over this because it sends a political narrative that the left can run with and then plenty of other people including young children get mowed down in the streets of chicago, we won't touch it because it's too complex as to who is doing the killing and that chicago has a democratic mayor and chicago has the gun laws in all these things. that's the stuff we have to get over if we are going to get through it. >> dana: dave rubin, great to see you, great to see that picture of clyde on twitter. follow dave rubin so you can see his dog, and dave. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell, he is on next. what do you think? i don't see it. only pay for what you need.

♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ to give you the protein you need with less of the sugar you don't. [grunting noise] i'll take that. woohoo! 30 grams of protein and 1 gram of sugar. ensure max protein. with nutrients to support immune health.

>> i am bill hemmer. big headlines. you'll see it only here on fox. what will school be like in the fall? we will get a doctor's view. how we protect monuments over the fourth weekend. we will compare -- chris and donna will compare their cognitive skills. we are a few minutes away. >> dana: the senate in a surprise move last night passing the application deadline extension for paycheck protection by unanimous consent. this as businesses continue to struggle nationwide as economic real openings are being rolled back due to the spike in covid cases. with me as senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. it's good to have you with us. president trump just gave an interview to blake burman of the fox business network and he

talked about masks. >> i am all for masks. i think masks are good. if i were in a group of people and i was close. >> you would wear one. >> i have. people have seen me wearing one. if we are in a group of people. usually i'm not in that position. everyone is tested. they get tested before they see me but if i were in a tight situation with people. >> will the public see that at some point? >> i would have no problem. i had a mask on. i sort of like the way i look. >> dana: senator, you were urging the president to talk more about masks. is that more of the message that you think will help the nation recover in terms of economic recovery getting people to wear more masks but also maybe help his candidacy going into the reelection effort. >> i think it's helpful. we have all been told, the single easiest thing we can do is we reopen the economy with the coronavirus still very much out there is to protect ourselves and others by wearing a mask. we have been doing that in the senate. we have been in session most of the time since may.

for example, in june, the house was in session three days and we were here the whole month. they have been in eight days since march. we will -- we were here all of may and june and we have been working safely, wearing masks, distancing ourselves. this is the way to deal with the continuing coronavirus until we get a vaccine. it's going to be with us. we know that. we don't want to shut the economy down again and so we need to wear a mask so i'm glad the president said what he said. >> dana: it was a different take from him although may be a little bit more emphatic. when he has a light touch of humor, that always helps a little bit to land the message. he also said something else, that he would veto the defense authorization act. this is what would fund the troops. because there is a provision that would allow for the

changing of names of military bases named after confederate soldiers or generals from back in the day of the days of the civil war. how would you change the bill to be able to get it to the president without a veto? >> i would hope the president really wouldn't veto the bill over this issue. in the bill, there's a requirement of a three year study about changing names. to me, this is quite different from trying to airbrush the capital of every statue. the way the statues in the capital work, each state picks two. you can trade them out at any time. some states are doing that. i hope the president would reconsider vetoing the entire defense bill which includes pay raises for our troops over a provision in there that could lead to changing the names of some of these military bases.

>> dana: do you think you would have a chance to talk with him about that, and also you have talked about the possibility of additional money and liability protection for businesses going forward when it comes to dealing with the pandemic. is that in the cards, can congress get it done? i know that you had a big june and you got a lot of stuff done. looking forward for businesses in july or august. is it possible? >> we passed in the senate the cares act and then a follow-on to the cares act in march. i said at the time we need to take a snapshot of where the country is in july, see what kind of progress is being made by reopening the country. get an assessment of what did or didn't work in the cares act and then make a decision about whether to do phase four. we may well do it and if we do it, we will do it in july and i can tell you for sure that if we do another bill, it will have

liability protections in it for doctors, hospitals, nurses, businesses, universities, colleges. nobody knew how to deal with the coronavirus and unless you are grossly negligent or intentionally engaged in harming somebody, you're going to be immunized from the epidemic of lawsuits that have already developed surrounding the pandemic. >> dana: senator, do you believe that police reform is dead for the rest of this year for this congress? >> i hope not. as you i'm sure reported last week, senate democrats would not even allow us to get on the bill written by her colleagues, senator tim scott from south carolina who himself is an african-american, has experienced the kind of overreach, you might say, that some police engage in by stopping people simply because of their color. it was a solid bill supported

also by law enforcement because it was not designed to go after them indiscriminately and the democrats wouldn't let us pick it up. i think the conclusion i drew from that was i'm not sure they want a bill. i think they want an issue. >> dana: i have time for one quick last question. we finally know that your opponent in kentucky for this year's senate race will be amy mcgrath. are you looking forward to the campaign? >> i am ready for the campaign. she is going to be quite well-funded. it will be a spirited race raked until the end. >> dana: we'll be watching, senator. senator mitch mcconnell, thanks for joining us. the major league baseball season is starting in just a few weeks, but some top players are now saying they will not play. we'll tell you why next.

suffering economic hardship. the country is crying out for leadership, leadership that can unite us, leadership that brings us together. that's what the presidency is - the duty to care, to care for all of us, not just those who vote for us, but all of us. i promise you this: i won't traffic in fear and division. i won't fan the flames of hate. i'll seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued our country, not use them for political gain. i'll do my job and i will take responsibility, i won't blame others. you know, i've said from the outset of this election, that we're in the battle for the soul of this nation. what we believe and maybe most importantly, who we want to be, it's all at stake. when we stand together, finally as one america, we'll rise stronger than we were before. i'm joe biden and i approve this message.

speed to opening day from major league baseball is just a few weeks away, but some players say they will set out this season because of the coronavirus. todd piro has the details. >> great to see you. two members of the reigning world series champs, the washington nationals will be taking the field. ryan zimmerman opting out of the season, joining teammate on the sideline. for 35-year-old first baseman releasing a statement that his decision was based on family considerations, considering his three young children as well as a newborn and a mother with high risk. he will forfeit around 740,000. similar considerations for the colorado rockies outfielder who cited his pregnant wife and four young children at home while adding the also plan to take the time to educate his kids about civil rights.

the 34-year-old giving up $5.6 million. another notable name, the arizona diamondbacks pitcher, his agent citing personal reasons for the decision not to play. the 32-year-old passing up around $5.6 million this season. mlb owners and players recently came to a agreement on the logistics with the 60 day season which includes players receding pay, of course if they play. >> dana: interesting. thank you. many community pools across the country remaining close this summer while others are opening up with some new restrictions. from limiting the number of swimmers to even reservation requirements. fox business network jeff flock has the details. how are we not fighting you in the pool? >> you know, you got to cover up. you have to cover your face. this is the pool in illinois and

this is one of the few that is open. you are right, regulations, 50 people in the pool maximum, temperature checks, face masks, and supervisors. do you think this can be safe? >> i think this can be safe. if things change we will regulate things. it will be as safe as possible. >> safe as possible. a great way to do it. people coming back, at least opening up. if you do it safely it can be done. she pointed out, he thinks he looks good no mask, i got to tell you, i don't think i look good no mask but i'm doing it because i want to be at the pool. >> dana: you look great and i thought that was a great moment for the president to have a life moment of, i look good and a

mask. it's the new thing, it's all the rage. thank you. thank you for joining us. i am dana perino and i will see you on "the five." bill hemmer, i bet you look good no mask. >> bill: eyewear one. >> dana: send me a picture. >> bill: i like the blue on spirit see you at 5:00 p.m. let's get rolling right now. fox news alert. the hour starts right now, richmond, virginia, where the mayor has ordered the removal of all confederate statues. crews are removing the statue of stonewall jackson. that's a live look now. the confederate general during the civil war. monument avenue, running through the heart of the city. the white house, a lot of news from the white house. fox business is blake burman wrapping up an exclusive. a lot of news on the economy, the virus, masks and more. we will bring that