good morning, i'm ali velshi. the memorial day holiday weekend is underway. the unofficial kickoff to summer, and this year it looks unlike any other in recent memory. parts of all 50 states are now open for business right in time for people to head to the beach, hold barbecues and congregate in

ways that they haven't in months, but are they doing so too soon? a new report from "the washington post" warns the coronavirus may still be spreading at epidemic rates in 24 states, particularly in the south and the midwest, according to new research that highlights the risk of a second wave of infections in places that reopen too quickly or without sufficient precautions. the united states is on the cusp of 100,000 coronavirus deaths. it's a number that public health officials always knew we would surpass but one that just weeks ago trump was still suggesting we would avoid. and less than three months ago, he said the virus would disappear. he wanted the country open by that america would be back to normal by memorial day. >> we're seeing tremendous evidence that african-americans are affected at a far greater

percentage number than other citizens of our country. >> something specifically aimed at those communities that are being hard hit -- >> we're helping them a lot. what's happening is we're trying to find out why is it that it's three or four times. maybe that's not going to be the final number but why is it three or four times more so for the black community as opposed to other people? it doesn't make sense, and i don't like it, and we're going to have statistics over the next probably two to three days. >> and we still don't have good answers as to the details about the race breakdown of this infection, but it's not just the optimistic time lines, which were never supported by science or studies or public health officials, but the deaths themselves, in unimaginable numbers being played down as if america dodged a bullet. 100,000 dead being called, quote, minimal.

>> you know, we've come very good at this when you look at what's happening, when you look at the numbers coming down. a lot of states are in really great shape. >> i think we've done a great job. as you know, minimal numbers were -- minimal numbers, we're going to be 100,000 people. minimal numbers were going to be 100,000 people and we're going to be hopefully far below that. >> our death totals, our numbers per million people are really very, very strong. we're very proud of the job we've done. here's the thing, like with smoking or climate change, the merchants of doubt continue to succeed. governors observing the science studying the projections and heeding the advice of public health officials who hesitate to open or lift stay-at-home orders are facing substantial blowback from protesters backed in many cases by the white house or by far right leaning groups and supported by nonsense on social

media. so what we have are governors, mayors and state legislatures falling in line with party and ideology rather than with scientific and medical guidelines and warnings. just this week, the doj joined a push against the illinois governor's coronavirus restrictions saying the state's governor has exceeded his authority. the city of miami is taking a cautious approach all while keeping its world famous beaches closed to the public until june 1st. now, this week's implementing its phase one plan, 26 parks are being reopened in the city, along with retail stores, museums, barbershops, hair and nail salons. the businesses have to maintain 50% capacity of workers and customers while also following social distancing guide lines. restaurants and sidewalk cafes in miami will all have to wait for next week ease phase two to reopen. joining me now is the mayor of miami republican francis suarez. good to see you again.

thank you for being with us. you have expressed on an ongoing basis right from the beginning, and i remind viewers that i think you were case number two in florida of people who actually had coronavirus. you've taken this very seriously from the beginning, but people in your state are ictching to gt out there. people are itching all over the place for florida to reopen. what do you think it's going to happen? >> it's nerve-racking. i can tell you like you said, this week we began phase one. the county began on monday, we began a little later on wednesday. i went to pick up some food obviously wearing a mask last night, and it made me nervous. i mean, i could tell the amount of people that were out was somewhat worrisome. we don't want to have to do in the city is unfortunately have to roll back some of the openings that we've had this week. as you said, we've trailed pretty much everyone in florida, we've trailed the state. we've trailed the counties, and so we're the last ones to open up our restaurants will be next

wednesday. we did it in combination with miami beach, not opening the beaches until june 1st beyond this weekend. so we're hopeful that the message that we've been sending to our residents that this virus propagates much faster than it declines in terms of the rate is something that hopefully will resonate with our residents. >> you know, i just said something that i actually want to take back because i said there are people who are being forced to take partisan or ideological positions on this, but there aren't really. there shouldn't be ideological or partisan positions on this. you've managed that well. i've talked to you, i think, weekly since this began, and at no point has party come up. you're a republican. how did this get political and partisan? why does anybody look at this through any lens other than the science and the public health guidance?

>> it's unfortunate that that happens. we're obviously in an election year. you have the house of representatives, which is, you know, which is a balance for, you know, a potential shift. you have obviously the presidential race. it's unfortunate that just about everything that gets debated and discussed right now at this point is viewed through a partisan prism, and i think that's extremely dangerous, particularly for something of this magnitude, which is a public health crisis. this should be something that is done with the public health experts we've hired, biostatisticians. we've worked with obviously epidemiologists whether it's the department of health or outside experts. we've obviously worked tremendously with the business community to try to understand what their needs are and what is reasonable and what is not reasonable in terms of a reopening, but you know, as a public official there's no right or wrong answer when it comes to this. i think you have to be guided by

what are your best information, the data and your instincts and we're blessed to have the support of my commission in terms of some of the decisions that we made when this was on the uptick in early march, and now hopefully we get it right on the -- you know, on what hopefully is the down swing. >> so you've been working closely with the counties that are adjacent to miami, miami-dade county, broward county, and palm beach county. and with your governor. these are the counties for people who don't know, they're the counties of southeast physic florida. what happens if you start to see an upnitick in cases? do you have a plan? >> yes, obviously our entire phased approach, which is like, you know, the state and federal government phase one, phase two, phase three is predicated on criteria, and that criteria needs to be met before you can advance to a second phase, and obviously, if we start to see a counter trend, then

unfortunately we have to reverse, and that's something that i've said, you know, very clearly from my first message in announcing what we call stand up miami, the reopening plan. there are two paths. there's the path of responsibility and the path of irresponsibility. if we take the path of responsibility, we'll hopefully be able to continue the downward trajectories that will allow us to go into aez tphase two. if we take the path of irresponsibility, unfortunately what we've seen statistically is this virus grows at a rate that's three times faster than the rate that it shrinks when all these stay-at-home orders are implemented. so we know almost certain -- with certainty that if the rules are not followed, what's going to happen? >> mayor, good to see you as always. thank you for joining me, francis suarez is the mayor of miami. another state that's seen a spike in covid is arkansas. the state saw 455 new cases of

the virus. much of the state is set to reopen, one house of worship in little rock is going against the grain. a pastor in little rock is going to continue holding online services until he receives further clarity on whether it's safe to reopen the church to worshippers. the decision comes after president trump announced that he would like houses of worship to reopen. joining me now is little rock may mayor frank scott. good to see you, thanks for being with us. >> good to see you as well, ali. very appreciative. >> mayor, let's talk about this. arkansas is one of those states that didn't really have a full shutdown like other states did. what's your sense of how things are playing out for you? >> well, as you shared, arkansas, particularly here in little rock we had a modified shelter in place where we were not able to do a shelter in place law due to a commerce restriction within our state, and so here in little rock, we

di decided to modify that by instituting curfews understanding that we had to work to get our restaurants to go to take home, curbside and online delivery. what we're doing right now is we are working through this process, we're going to be cautious, confident, collaborative and creative in any of our efforts to reopen. we're allowing testing and data to truly lead the way in how we make our decisions here in little rock. >> so now there's been an increase in testing in arkansas, and some people are saying that the increase in cases may have more to do with the increase in testing than an actually increase in transmission. what do you know about that? >> testing is definitely want to commend our governors for ensuring we get more testing done. what we're focused on is ensuring we focus on the accessibility of testing. we're working with the university of arkansas medical sciences and walmart to create public, private partnerships to truly focus on health care disparities and health care

access. two weeks ago we tart started o with the process of understanding that 16% of arkansas's population is black ask bro and brown. 26% of that population has the most cases in arkansas, and 35% of that are confirmed deaths. we wanted to follow that data by going to places that have hard health care access in unserved, underserved areas. we're continuing to understand more and more about this virus, and even today shortly after this segment, i'll be going to another testing area as well to continue to figure that out as we fight covid-19. >> and you actually just brought up a point that actually we don't have enough national data about and the idea that black and brown communities, particularly those who live in concentrated environments, are getting this illness more than others. the reasons for that in some cases are obvious because sometimes they're in poorer neighborhoods, sometimes they're closer locked together. have you figured out how specifically you will deal with

that issue? >> no, we haven't figured out specifically. however, the best solution is continue to go to areas that aren't receiving health care access and have a high propensity for health care disparities. yesterday i attended a funeral. i'm an associate pastor at greater baptist church in little rock. one of my parishioners died of covid-19. they had other susceptible health care issues from cancer to heart disease and things of that nature. we have to understand that health care disparity has truly been awakened in the midst of covid-19, and the more testing we can do, the more we can be aware not only how we find a vaccine or a cure for those symptoms but the greater need to focus on health care disparities here in our city and our nation. >> mayor, good to see you. thank you for being with us. we will follow your progress with great interest. frank scott is the mayor of little rock. president trump has taken aim at mail-in voting saying it leads to widespread voter fraud.

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they want everybody to vote. i don't want everybody to vote. as a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populous goes down. >> that was 1980, fast forward 40 years, and here's what some members of the republican party are still saying.

>> their bill would make election day a new paid holiday for government workers. what it really seems to be is a package of urgent measures to rewrite the rules of american politics for the exclusive benefit of the democratic party. >> we are forced to have to ballot harvest because it's the only way to win, so as long as we have a robust ballot harvesting operation come november -- and i hate saying that because it's illegal in 49 states -- i think mike garcia is in good shape to hold onto that seat. >> the things they had in there were crazy. they had things, levels of voting that if you ever agreed to it you'd never have a republican elected in this country again. >> if you ever agreed to it you'd never have another republican again. there it is. the assumption that the higher the turnout, the tougher it will be for republicans to win, an assumption that may be accurate because according to a 2014 pew research study, 51% of

non-voters leaned democratic while only 30% lean republican. what would it mean for the future of the republican party or america, frankly, if americans had easier voting options? that's something president trump doesn't want to find out and to delegitimize mail-in voting he's claimed without evidence that it leads to widespread voter fraud. this isn't his first baseless theory. his claims that millions of illegal votes helped the democratic party in 2016, he even created a voter commission to investigate it but dispaband it in 2018 after the commission found no evidence to back his claims. this week florida officials found there were no widespread voter fraud issues during the 2018 elections, another claim that trump has made. this idea that people voting improperly vote democratic is baseless. fraud isn't the only reason why trump doesn't want voting by mail, it's because he's afraid of the outcome, especially in battleground states. this week he threatened to

withhold funding for nevada and michigan after they sent mail-in ballot applications, something he by the way, cannot legally do, and his threat according to michigan's lieutenant governor is, quote, dangerous and unacceptable. joining me is that lieutenant governor, also msnbc legal analyst and professor at the new school, maya wiley. thanks to both of you. lieutenant governor gilchrist, let me start with you. where is the president in terms of legal standing on telling you in the state of michigan that your efforts -- and let's just put this plainly -- your efforts to be able to have more people vote in the upcoming election is illegal and that he will hold back federal funding. >> well, ali, first of all, thank you for having me on the show, and let's start with the fact that the president has no legal basis, authority, or power to threaten or make these claims against the people of michigan. and secondly, he stands squarely against the people of michigan who in 2018 voted to expand our ability as a state government to mail people absentee ballot

applications so they could choose to vote by mail. right now that's super important in the midst of a pandemic where they don't need to choose between going in person to vote and risking their lives and their democratic rights and democratic values. the president is wrong on every level. as i said thr, this a dangerous threat. this is not a democratic practice that the president is going with right now and certainly it will not stand here in the state of michigan. >> maya, just give me some perspective on this. i'm kind of puzzled why the country that tried to bring democracy to the world thinks the goal shouldn't be 100% voter participation and that all impediments to voting should disappear. but clearly we have a long and established history in this country of not having lots of people vote. >> yes, and unfortunately that's directly tied demographics. just like the clips you played, far too much of the discussion is who people will vote for

rather than how they will be allowed to vote and exercise their rights, but let's put this in perspective in two ways. one is you are more likely tobet killed by a deer than to see an individual voter engaging in voter fraud, and we have about 200 at the tideaths a year from okay? collisions with deer. just to put that in perspective, one study of 1 billion votes cast since 2000, only 31 cases that if investigated might have proven to be voter fraud. so that -- just to put that into some perspective. but what trump is doing is even worse in the sense that not only is it not a legitimate concern, he only raised the threats against a state with a democratic governor. this is important because, you

know, georgia's governor has also done exactly what lieutenant governor gilchrist just said. he said that state said let's send out a mailing that gives people the opportunity to request an absentee ballot, and there are other republican states that have done this -- meaning governors who are republican that have done the same thing. this is about whether -- are largely black, latino, women, elderly, and people who are young, people who want to vote but traditionally may not vote for the republican party. i just want to add one other thing, though, historically. absentee balloting has actually been a benefit to the republican party, and that's the irony here because it really originates with making sure our people who are on the front lines of battle, including back in the civil war. it was abraham lincoln that said

let's make sure the soldiers on the field can vote in the election, and we even had it in the revolutionary war, and that has always actually been a benefit to republicans. so let's just call it what it is. this is just about partisanship. this is donald trump being the founding father's worst nightmare. >> but lieutenant governor gilchrist, the problem is this rings a little bit like that phone call to the president of ukraine who desperately needed american aid in its war against russia. michigan's got real need for federal assistance right now. you actually last week are facing a massive crisis with the dam breakages. this is weird for the president to be using this kind of leverage at this moment in time? >> it's problematic, but it is not unpredictable. the president began threatening the state of michigan very early in the coronavirus pandemic here in the united states, and we were one of the hardest hit states and rather than working to do everything he could to

define a national strategy that would have helped us in the coronavirus pandemic, he resorted to attacking our governor, and he's chosen to attack public officials rather than work with us. now, thankfully we have made a different choice. we're standing up for public health and problem solving for people in the state of michigan whether we're dealing with a pandemic or with a once in 500 year flood we're dealing with in mid-ga mid-michigan right now. we're here to solve problems. in the state of michigan we've seen on a bipartisan basis an amazing response to that historic flood. the president has made a dangerous choice and a dangerous practice and habit of his for the people in the entire country. i think it's putting on display the type of leadership that he's choosing to show, and i know that we need different leadership in michigan, for michigan, and for the whole country. >> thanks to both of you for joining me, michigan lieutenant governor carlin gilchrist and maya wiley. for weeks we've seen minority communities being hit

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early patterns and local statistics about coronavirus show that african-american, latino and native american communities continue to be the hardest hit by it. the true scale of this pandemic is largely incomplete because of lapses in the federal government's data. president trump was asked about the disparate number of cases about african-americans in a briefing in early april. >> tremendous evidence that african-americans are affected at a far greater percentage number than other citizens of our country because we're dealing with our -- >> something specifically aimed at those communities that are

being hard hit, those black communities -- >> we're helping them a lot. what's happening is we're trying to find out why is it that it's three or four times. maybe that's not going to be the final number, but why is it three or four times more so for the black community as opposed to other people? it doesn't make sense, and i don't like it, and we're going to have statistics over the next probably two to three days. >> that was april 7th. we were supposed to have statistics in the next two or three days. we're still waiting on more data about how this virus has affected communities of color. several states have provided a few details on the racial makeup of coronavirus cases. for the 1.5 million cases recorded by the cdc, a lot of the data remains missing. the metrics are what determines how states move forward with reopening their economies. without it, many of the vulnerable communities -- by the way, which contain a number of the essential workers -- will not have the resources needed to combat a possible second wave.

joining me now, congresswoman karen bass and robin kelly, who both called on the cdc to increase their data on the racial makeup of coronavirus cases and fatalities. welcome to both of you. good to see you again. congresswoman bass, let me start with you. >> sure. >> we know what the truth is. we know that coronavirus is the same as tb and it's the same as aids and it's the same as all infectious diseases that poorer communities who live in more concentrated places get hit more than others. we've got an added complication with coronavirus in that those people happen to be our front line workers. they're the ones who can't afford to stay hope. they're in the service communities that are out there all the time. we know what we know. what else do we need to know? >> well, we do need to know the data concretely, but also, i think we need to move into action, and so what we had proposed is where you have geographic areas where there is a disproportionate death rate, then we need to focus on those areas. we need to do immediate focus,

concentrated testing. we need to do contact tracing, and then we need to have resources for a public education campaign so that people in those communities, number one, will seek out testing, will cooperate with contact tracers and will abide by the public health recommendations, but we also need protective gear for our essential workers, and i think that that needs to be done immediately. it is not being done right now. we did get those elements in the heroes act, so we need the senate to move on that, and we need to have immediate attention to these areas. right now none of that is taking place. >> congresswoman kelly, the bill extending the paycheck protection program for small businesses included a requirement, an absolute requirement that the cdc issue a report on racial disparities within 21 days. the agency did send that report this week. it was less than three pages. it was two and a half pages

long, and mostly contained links to cdc websites and to testing and coronavirus-related data. what do you make of that? >> the report was pitiful, and they should have been ashamed to even put that report forward. i mean, it was absolutely ridiculous as we all congressmm on, and they need to go back and do a much better job. and we met with so many people, our little group, you know, and we met with the cdc. it was very disappointing that this is what they put forward. i don't know if this was their idea or someone else's idea that they put together such a poor report. >> what does it tell you, though, congresswoman kelly? i mean, look, we've got this problem in that we have realized -- everything we talk about when it comes to inequality in our society reflects the idea that we hold certain lives in less value than others. this is one of those things that

we can recognize the data and as congresswoman bass says, do something about it. why the resistance? why would i think given all the data that exists in 2020 and the data society in which we live you can't get the information you need? >> well, as we've said, the numbers may be shocking but they're not surprising. they don't value our lives in the same way. to me, that's just the bottom line. they don't value our lives in the in the same way. they don't feel like they have to put forth that effort. when we talk to people they said, yes, we agree. we're going to do this. we need to do that, but then at the end of the day, that is not what's being done. i know -- >> congresswoman bass -- >> go on, i'm sorry. >> i'm sorry, i did not mean to interrupt you. it's this delay that we have. >> it's okay. >> congresswoman bass, so irry,p about to say something? >> i think it's the same administration that really doesn't want to test. if you test, you're going to find people that are positive. so i think you've heard the

president on numerous times basically say, well, you people that are dying, people that were sick, they were older as though that is okay. there has been no focus. there needs to be focus. that's why the congressional black caucus has been calling on immediate intervention. what happens is people want to talk about the comorbidities. the underlying health conditions, well, this population has hypertension and diabetes, et cetera, et cetera. very important, we absolutely need to deal with that, but right now the house is on fire, and we need to put out the fire. there needs to be emergency targeted intervention in the areas where there is such a disproportionate death rate. that prioritization has not happened. >> thank you to both of you for the work that you are doing. congresswoman karen bass and congresswoman robin kelly, thank you for joining us this morning. china has reached a major milestone in its fight against the coronavirus. coming up next, we're going to check in on countries that have

already eased restrictions, and we're taking you to the latest global hot spot.

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let's go overseas where china just took a giant step forward in the fight against coronavirus. this morning chinese officials are reporting zero new cases and zero deaths for the first time since the first case was confirmed in december. this news comes after parts of northeastern china were put back on lockdown when a cluster of coronavirus cases mounted in shoe lan province. in the united kingdom starting on june 8th, all travelers arriving to the uk by air are going to be required to self-isolate for 14 days, but a new coronavirus hot spot is emerging in south america. in brazil, rates of infection are rising at alarming rates as the country reaches more than 21,000 confirmed deaths. mass graves are being built nan

the president rejecting the country's grim reality. his cavalier attitude making president trump's response look sophisticated and effective. nbc's global correspondent bill neely is in sao paulo with the latest. >> the casualties are mounting horrifically, tens of thousands of new cases every day. this intensive care unit like most full. >> what's striking is how young people are in here. >> yeah, it's incredible because most people are around 40 years old. >> and some are in their 30s. >> the death toll is doubling so fast they can't dig the graves quick enough, these are the most vulnerable, living in latin america's most densely populated area, their poverty turbo charging brazil's death toll. >> people live here sometimes six or seven to a room, so

social distancing is impossible, and if they don't go out to work, they don't eat. >> you're worried, it's difficult. >> reporter: and they're scared. most people don't wear masks. they can't get them. they've lost jobs, so they're fed by aid groups. in the center of brazil's richest city, the newly jobless line up for food. their president announced billions in aid, but he wants lockdowns to end and brazil to get back to work. at a soccer stadium, a new field hospital ready for the next wave. brazil say experts, still weeks away from its peak of infections. bill neely, nbc news, sao paulo. coming up next, the latest white house controversy distracting from this pandemic. you're watching "velshi" on msnbc. i can save you...

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state mike pompeo is the latest member of the trump white house to be engulfed in a self-serving controversy. an nbc news investigation has revealed that since he took over at the state department in 2018, pompeo and his wife susan have been hosting private, unpublicized gatherings known as madison dinners at diplomatic reception rooms. these events are funded by american taxpayers. the problem state department officials involved tell nbc news is that the events essentially are used to cultivate a private donor and support base for pompeo and that an extensive contact list even gets sent to susan pompeo's private email address. it comes as the white house and state department have failed to hand over documents remlated toa bicameral probe into president trump's firing of state department director general steve linick. this decision came on pompeo's recommendation. linick had opened at least one investigation into pompeo and reports indicate the trump mr

administration is considering a plan to shift to a new unit at the state department which would be an alternative of the work that's done by the world health organization. meanwhile, the white house apparently views this as the perfect timing to begin discussing a potential new nuclear test, which would be the first u.s. nuclear test since 1992. joining me now senior fellow at the center for american progress and former deputy assistant secretary of state for east asian and pacific affairs, michael fukes. thank you for joining us. this is typical of the scandals that start in the trump administration. they start as one thing where we heard this is about mike pompeo getting staff to walk his dog. then it became about something that was going on in terms of workplace violence or a bad workplace environment, and then it comes out sort of separately that he was hosting these dinners and cultivating his political base. this doesn't sound a whole lot like draining the swamp to me?

>> no, that's exactly right, ali. i think this falls into the category of shocking but unfortunately not surprising, right, for the trump administration. these are obviously not the kinds of activities that a secretary of state should be busy with. the secretary of state should right now, for instance, be busy trying to rally the world behind the united states to fight the pandemic, but of course they're undercutting that effort. let's also remember when it comes to secretary pompeo that these revelations, while maybe some of them are new, are not the first time that we've seen these kinds of activities. there have been ongoing reports during secretary pompeo's tenure that he has made repeated trips to kansas, as well as media appearances in kansas, local media all potentially people were thinking, at least for a while, teeing up a senate run. the senate, i believe, democrats were looking into whether or not these were potential violations of the hatch act using your taxpayer-funded office for private, political purposes, and

so, again, these revelations are just piling on top of what we've already known about how s secretary pompeo has been abusing his position. >> david ignatius position. >> the author of a brand new remarkable book. what do you make of what's going on at the state department with pompeo? there are lots of theories. one is that he's a trump loyalist who will dr. trump's bidding. there's another theory that it's about pompeo, but under all of this is the idea that the work of the state department has been undermined. >> my sense is that pompeo is an

ambitious man. i'd be amazed if secretary of state will be the last job he aspires to. he has been interested in running again in kansas. it's hard to know if there were improper assets. secretaries of state often give dinners arranged by their spouses. so the dinners, part of this strikes me as a secondary issue. the thing is is it seemed as was often the case he was acting out of almost personal anger over

what he thought were leaks coming out of the inspector general's office. there's no evidence that the inspector general was leaking and just regarding him as not a team player. that's not on inspector general's job. i really go to good leadership, standing behind our diplomats around the world. those have been the recurring issues for me with pompeo. >> but we're not clear on why this inspector general was fired. we don't tend to get a great deal of clarity. these are not people we know. inspectors general are not well known to the public. their names are never known unless some news event causes them to become familiar to us. pompeo was clear on the fact

that this inspector general was to be fired and we know he was investigating him. >> let's talk about what we do know. right? president trump has gone in recent weeks on a state in firing inspectors general. it is entirely in line for his distan into the actions of his administration. but let's talk about what we do know. we know in the impeachment process that pompeo was aware of what was going on with ukraine but he did not stand up for his own diplomats throwing under the bus his officer and he finally

had had enough and i think that's the most important piece is he is not standing up for his people. he's not standing up for america's values here and the firing of the watchdog when you realize that the secretary himself might be the suspect of the investigation. and a last quick word to you, david, this is one in the list of treaties that president trump has pulled out. do you think there's more to this than meets the eye? >> i think we need to balance the fact that we're pulling out of the open skies treaty with

the interesting announcement that the new arms control is going to begin what sounds like a pretty serious round of exploration in the trilateral arms agreement. china is becoming the equal of the u.s. and russia so i think it's a mixed picture. so many of these officials he treats the department as if he has arbitrary apointment of who stays and goes and that's not the way our system is set up. >> thank you for joining me.

that is all for me. i'll be back on the air tonight at 7:00 p.m. but coming up next, joy reid is joined with the political action committee that donald trump doesn't want you to see. that's next on a.m. joy. 's next.

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good morning and welcome to a.m. joy. as we head into the memorial day

weekend more than 1.6 million americans have tested positive for covid-19. pat reck ewing revealed that he is one of those newly confirmed cases. also just under three months of the first reported coronavirus death in the united states, more than 96,000 americans have died. 96,000 americans have died of covid-19. and a new study suggests utd did not have to be this way. if broad social distancing measures had been enacted earlier researchers say roughly 36,000 american lives could have been saved. had the