potentially a weak spot in terms of having a lot of vulnerable residents there to this virus. we acted very early working with the long term care facilities. making sure they were screening their staff, banning visitors and then banning hospitals from sending covid positive patients back into long term care facilities early on in the pandemic. requiring masks and ppe of the staff who are going to interact with the residents and the state of florida because a lot of these facilities were not prepared for this. state of florida has sent more than 10 million masks just to long term care facilities. half a million face shields to long term care facilities. this was something that was a vulnerability and we wanted to do all we could to help protect those residents. having covid dedicated skilled

nursing facilities so if you have an outbreak at a nursing home and you're not able to properly isolate the patient, maybe that patient doesn't need hospitalization but they need to be isolated. you now have these dedicated facilities. there's one right here in pensacola where the folks can be transferred so they are not spreading the infection in their nursing home. that's something we didn't have available in march. we now have a lot of that available throughout the state. any time you have a resident of a long term care facilities in the hospital, regardless of if it's for covid, they need to be tested before they are discharged back because we're concerned about something being asymptommatic and bringing it back and spreading it amongst vulnerable residents. now we went through, i had the national guard and the strike teams going to nursing homes,

testing the residents, testing the staff. it took us, because we have over 4,000 facilities in state of florida. it took us about two months to get through all of that. now what we're doing is every two weeks, every staff member, employee at a long term care facility needs to be tested. we have a system in place where the tests are being distributed. we'll be getting data on the long term care facility workers hopefully in realtime as they are testing. this is something that is a mandate and a requirement. that is the way to, if somebody is positive, you can isolate that worker so they're not interacting with the residents and spreading it there. nationwide, if you did an honest accounting of how and not all states have done that but if you were honest about it, certainly more than 50% of the covid reat a timed fatalities have been with residents of long term care

facilitie facilities. that's our number one area of vulnerability when it comes to covid-19. we have done a lot on infection control, helping them as best we can. there's a look at the covid dedicated facilities. we have one in tallahassee. between for northwest florida you have a couple different options. we'll be opening one up in miami dade county on july 1st. this is there. didn't have that three months ago. i think this will help protect the most vulnerable and throughout this whole time, 80%, almost 80% of the long term care facilities in florida have not had a covid positive resident which i think is pretty good given how contagious this disease is and how it can pass

asymptommatically. we have tried to support as wbet we can. the brunt of the covid related fatalities are in the 65 plus age group. we have advised since march, for folks in the vulnerable age groups or have underlying medical conditions to limit, avoid crowds, limit contact as much as you can with folks outside the home. given we're seeing this circulate with young people. there's a vulnerability there. the seniors here in florida have been diligent. i know it can be tiring. we would ask to maintain that diligence right now and if you're in one of those younger groups, make sure your behave ng

ways that aren't going to put someone more vulnerable at risk. we also talk about avoiding the three cs. closed spaces with poor ventilation, crowded places with many people nearby and close context settings such as close conversations. that's the reality of how this thing likes to transmit. in florida, and you're seeing cases across the entire sun belt. i'm not sure why you're seeing it there as opposed to other places but one of the things i think is factor is as it gets warmer in florida, people want to beat the heat. they want to go inside. they want to do air-conditioning. if they are having a party or getting together, they are much more likely to be doing that indoors in the ac and in a closed space. that is going to increase the risk of transmission of the coronavirus.

you don't see a lot of out breaks tied the outdoor activity. it didn't mean you can't if you're really close in a large group. you may have seen some of that in the u.s. recently. from run of the mill activity, outdoors will be better than indoors. crowded places, none of this stuff in our phase one or phase two would perm it us to have crowds. we have seen that with the clusters. i think some of folks may talk about it. they'll say what did you do.

we had a big graduation party for all my friends and you ended up having them getting infected. the three cs are something to think about. avoid them as much as you can. then in addition to that, particularly when you can't socially distance, wearing a facial covering. we have advised that since the beginning of may including and especially for face-to-face businesses. i think you have seen that with businesses who do things like hair salons and barbershops. you see a lot of restaurant where is the servers are wearing the facial covering and the gloves. i think that's a good thing to do. i think it gives customers a lot of confidence that you are really putting safety first. washing hands and if you are sick or have symptoms then stay home. you have an ability to get a test at all theese sights but stay home and don't infect other people. that's where we are. i think that the increase cases

are being driven. a lot of it because you are seeing much more spread amongst the younger demographic. i think that positivity rate, we like to turn that and get that going in a downward direction. we are testing a lot more and part of this is you're testing in areas you wouldn't have been testing before particularly in that 18 to 34 demographic. it's important to identify who may be carrying this so even if they aren't significantly ill from this, they don't pass it to somebody else who may end up being more vulnerable to a serious illness. i appreciate being here. i want to turn it over to tom to make some comments and we'll let some of the other physicians speak and maybe just have a discussion. >> thank you so much. we're glad to be with you and grateful for your leadership. hey, everybody.

good to be with you today from msnbc world headquarters in new york. we're listening to a press conference in new york. giving us an update on the coronavirus cases there. florida one of the many states right now seeing a surge. today they reported a record number of coronavirus cases. yesterday they recorded a number of coronavirus cases. today the governor was essentially saying young people are driving this surge. they are worried about the 18 to 44 age bracket and the 25 to 34 age bracket. blaming socializing. the governor saying maybe graduation parties are to blame. encouraging these young people to avoid seeing their family member who is are in vulnerable populations to try to avoid negative outcomes. i want to bring in dr. peter hotez at baylor college of medicine. director of the texas children's hospital center for vaccine development. doctor, we heard governor saying

he was surprised to hear the young people are driving this surge. is this something we should be surprised by? >> we have seen a step acceleration in number of cases. not only in florida but the major metropolitan areas of texas, including houston where we're seeing dramatic rise with projections saying we could have two or three times the current number of cases. this is very steep acceleration. we're seeing it in san antonio and dallas and in phoenix. we're hearing that it's due to young people. i haven't seen a lot of evidence for that and there's a lot of speculation as to what's driving this. i haven't seen a lot of evidence based to support it. i also haven't seen whether how much of this is going on in the low income neighborhoods. i don't know what the impact

will be on closing the bars. i don't know that will be a sub stantive enough interaction. if it is raising among young people, it's going to spread across the community and go outside that demographic. i don't know what the end game is for in florida and texas and arizona, this business of closing bars saying that's what we're going to do. i'm not confident that will turn this thing around. >> you're speaking to the fact the state let bars know this weekend they would be closing in the state of florida. >> do you fear some places reopened too soon and that's part of it? >> there's no question. we had to maintain aggress ifr social distancing tloue ining te month of may. very few governors were prepared to do that. we opened it up and without

putting in place all the checks and balances that we needed in public health. in some ways, this was both predicted and predictable and now the numbers are rising aggress ifrly. the measures being proposed from my standpoint are not evidence based. i don't know whether if they are going to have a substantial or really any impact. it's a pretty serious experiment given we don't know how this will affect. >> you are in texas. i want to talk about that state as well. part of the sun belt area that's seeing a surge right now. part of the area where you work is really the largest collection of hospitals in the entire world and just recently they announced they don't have anymore icu beds. how concerned are you right now that doctors are just in triage mode at this point? >> well, we do have icu beds in

our texas medical center. it's mammoth. it's the worlgd's largest with 60 institutions and 100,000 beds. we can convert other beds into icu beds. >> doctor, i've got to stop you. vice president mike pence is in texas in dallas right now speaking with can governor abbott. >> here is what i know. what i know is that texas working together. we were able to slow the spread of covid-19 in april and in may. i know that once again, all texans coming together and working together, we will once again slow the spread of covid-19. texas understands the need of so many families in state to ensure

they have the ability to provide for their lively hoods. families need to put food on the table. they need to pay rent. they need to take care of their families. we want them to be able to do that. hence, we know we can do both. continue to allow businesses to open while containing the coronavirus, but it does require all texans to go back to those strategies that we mastered. wearing a face mask, sanitizing your hands, keeping a safe distance. remembering this, that is if you don't need to get out, there's no reason to go out at this particular time. if you can keep your distance from others, that's a very good safe place to be and that is especially true for anybody who is age 65 or older and hence is in a more vulnerable data set.

one thing remarkable texas and that is despite the increase in the spread of the coronavirus, texas still has the second lowest death rate of the top 27 most affected states in the country. we cherish the lives of our fellow texans. we must all come together and all work together to make sure we do all we can to continue to protect the lives of our fellow texans. we'll take these, worn by everybody, in the coming days to make sure we will protect those lives and slow the spread of covid-19. someone who has been a partner with us in this effort, who has provided guidance, help and support every step of the way. someone whout help we wouldn't be having a successful response to covid-19 is the vice president of the united states, mike pence. thank you for your friendship.

thank you for your leadership. >> thank you governor abbott. thank you for those good words. thank you for your leadership. the white house coronavirus task force represented here today by dr. debra birx and secretary ben carson has been working closely with your administration. we're grateful for the partnership that we forged. president trump wanted us to be here today with the developments over the last two weeks with the rising positivity and the rising number of cases. with a very simple message and that is to you, the people of texas, we're with you. we're going to stay with you. we're going to make sure that texas and your health care system in texas have the resources, have the supplies, have the personnel to meet this

moment. the governor and i also talked today about the vital importance of testing. texas is testing at an enormous scale across the state. in our briefing today we spoke about how we can accelerate testing, accelerate the returns on testing and we'll be carrying that back tonight to the coronavirus task force as well as to our prooifrt partners. we're going take back the specific request that you forwarded to us. i want to acknowledge that all along the way from the time we first unveiled the 45 days to slow the spread, cases and positivity in texas were low and steady. you flattened the curve here in texas.

it's a tribute to the people of this great state. reopening which economy which should begin in early may is a tribute to your leadership and the steady progress of putting progress back to work. with the development of new cases going from 2,000 a day to 5,000 a day positivity rate going from 13% to 14%, we're grateful that you have taken the steps that you have taken to limit the keend of gather -- ki

gatherings and meetings that may be contributing to the community spread. let me add my voice to the governor's voice to say when we issue the guidelines to open up america again, we laid out a phased reopening plan. texas took that plan and implemented it here in a safe and responsible way but there was guidance throughout that applied to all the phases. chief among them was people should continue to practice good hygiene. wash your hands, avoid touching your face and wear a mask wear ever it's indicated or where ever you're not able to practice the kind of social distancing that would prevent the spread of

the coronavirus. we would strongly reiterate that today. i know that roughly half the state is under local ordinances. strongly recommend if your local officials and consultation with the state are directing you to wear mask, we encourage every one to wear mask in the affected areas and where you can't maintain social distancing, wearing mask is just a good idea. we know from experience will slow the spread of the coronavirus. we are seeing in texas and in florida and other affected states significant number of younger americans that have contracted covid. it's a good thing that we know people have contracted it.

not because younger americans without underlying conditions are vulnerable to a serious outcome but because no american under the age of 35 would ever want to infect a parent, grandparent, elderly neighbor or an elderly friend. that's what i would say and what dr. birx said on friday to all the wonderful young people here in texas. we have to put our arms around and protect the most vulnerable among us and seniors with underlying health conditions. as we engage in the kind of steps that the governor directed

here in texas, we just encourage particularly all of the younger americans among us. if you have a concern, whether you have the symptoms or not, go ahead and get tested. to practice the kind of measures that will keep our most vulnerable safe. again, i just want to thank you. i want to thank you for what you have done in this state when we hear that texas has the lowest number of fatalities of the major affected states. that's a tribute to your health care workers, your people and your leadership. our objective is to save lives

as texas continues to rope your economy and help to lead this country back to work. i'm a fphone call away. this team stands ready to work with you and senator cornyn. we'll make sure texas has what you need, when you need it and with your leadership, with the cooperation of the people of texas, and with god's help. i know we're going to blunt this outbreak. we're going to protect our most as a rulerable and save lives. thank you, governor. dr. birx will share some

information. >> thank you. it's a privilege to be here in the this great state of texas. i love the motto. it's been a privilege to work with the health team here and the governor. we talked about your opening plan, i think, late friday night. some time the end of april where we talked through the aspects of the opening plans. it was a very serious and safe opening plan. you can see the impact of the opening plan and how it worked out. all of may, for almost five weeks and then there was an inflection point. i appreciate the governor and the health committees really understanding that inflection point was around test positive. that seems to be our earliest indicator of new cases because we have enough testing now at

the community level to start finding the a symptommatic and early cases. we can start seeing the increase in test positive before we see evidence of increased hospitalizations. i think that has -- that's good to know that's an alert system that we can trust and it's an alert system we can trust as you begin to control this. we have having a great meeting with the health commissioner and leadership at this medical center. what raised the concern is what's happening now is different than what was happening through april and may where you were having outbreaks that were quickly contained because they were in a nursing home or prison or meat packing plant. somehow over the last 15 or 16 days, it's taken on a very different aspect through texas. you can see it in harris county. harris county primarily, you can see the rate of increase is quite enormous right now and see

it in bexar county and travis county. dallas is more steady in its rate of increase. i think b in talking to your medical group here and to all the texans, what we're seeing here is an increased rate of hospitalization of 20 to 40-year-olds. i think that really telgs us that there's a lot of infection in the 20 to 40-year-olds. we know that's the primary asymptommatic group. what it tells us in that asymptommatic spread, it's hitting those vulnerable 20 to 40-year-olds that had issues with koe morbidity. maybe obesity, type two diabetes. when you're out with your friends and i want to thank the action for the governor on the bars, i'm appealing to every texan to wear a mask. i think we know now, there's scientific evidence that masks both keep you from infecting others but may also partially protect you from getting infected.

i think that's a new discoffver and new finding. it's very encouraging to texans to know you can protect one another. i know it's difficult in the 30 and the 20s and 30 something but really just to ask every one of them to wear a mask. every single one of them to wear a mask. if their interacting with parents and grandparent, they should wear mask then too. we know how many of them are asymptommatic and no one wants to pass the virus to others. we see from this very medical center that you have 20 to 40-year-olds in the icu. most likely they will recover because texas has done extraordinarily well. we have to protect one another and so i really came here with the vice president to really hear what was happening at the ground level to get a report because in the end, it's communities that will stop this epidemic with great state leadership. we're grateful to be here and to learn from you all and to take

that back and take these best practices. take the best practices of closing the bars and then following the impact. by getting masks, 100% compliance in harris county and dallas county and bexra counar and travis county. we have additional tools that we didn't have just two months ago. we have different tools to prevent the spread with masks and social distancing and a much hire and greater level. we know closing the bars but we also have better therapeutics and better care and better knowledge about how to save people's lives. we have a different tool set to bring to the people of texas to actually curve the epidemic and stop the spread here as well as sure that every one in the hospital does well. thank you for the opportunity for your staff. thank you for coming in on a sunday, spending the time with me. i'm grateful.

thank you, doctor. >> dr. carson. >> it's wonderful to be back here. i haven't been here for quite a long time. ut southwestern has a very well deserved excellent reputation. i want to thank you mr. vice president for the tremendous leadership of the coronavirus task force. it's made a tremendous difference. it's wonderful working with governors like you. governor abbott who pay attention to data and who are willing to be flexible for the sake of the people. making a big difference. some people get into their lane and stay there no matter what's going on. dr. birx is the only person that i know who works longer harder than the president who didn't sleep. we appreciate that.

we learned an enormous amount of this virus and disease over the last few months. it is an evolving process. we're learning more each day. in this country who don't know about the hand washing techniques that should be employed, about the masking, about the social distancing. the problem is people aren't doing it. we get to determine how long this thing is going to plague us. it's sort of like a battery. a rechargeable battery. every time it can infect

somebody, it gets new life. if you do the right thing and it's not infecting a lot of people, it kind of dies down. we get a chance to really affect that the way we want to. you have to look at the long term freedom. if we beat this back now, we get a lot more freedom from the long run. i think we're on the way. >> thank you. >> let me first start by saying thank you for being here. you and dr. birx and dr. carson. i think this is very reassuring to the 29 million people who call texas home.

let me say how proud i am of the great job you and your team have done and i've known you long enough to know that you don't make rash or emotional decisions. you do it based on the facts and this is, as we were discussing earlier, sort of like trying to design and build an airplane while flying it. things that we thought were true, proved not to be so. things we didn't know we know and so that's a big deal you're here, mr. vice president. it demonstrates a commitment that you and president trump and the entire administration are making to the people of texas and the people of our country. in closing let me say there's a couple of things i heard today

that stand out. one is when you turn to governor abbott, you said whatever you need. whatever you need. it's not going to be lack of resources available to kill this virus and to get life back to whatever the new normal is. i think dr. carson must have some texan in his roots because i heard him this morning say we will dominate this virus, not let it dominate us. there's nothing more texan in spirit than that sort of attitude, dr. carson. thank you for mentioning that. finally, i just say, the message i think you heard today and you continue to hear from the vice president, dr. birx and the coronavirus task force is a plan executed properly and with prudence is called for. panic is not called for.

it will not dominate us. thank you. >> all right, everybody. back here in new york right now we have been listening in to a press conference in dallas, texas. talk about the cases in texas. they said they flatten the curve but in the last two weeks something changes. cases went from 2,000 a day to 5,000. positivity rate went from 4% to 13%. everybody really at that table encouraging people to wear masks when social distancing is not possibly. i want to bring in dr. peter to talk about that.

we see the president and vice president photographed without a mask. we see the rallies would you tell us masks. what example should they be setting? >> let's take a step back and let's review what we heard from the florida governor and the texas governor. this is really the new gamble of many of the governors in the southern states. they're gamble is that if they do focus on these two major measures, expand masks and shut down bars based on a their premise it's young adults that they can slow this virus or stop this virus. i would say only to that what is the evidence that will work? have they modelled this? is there any expectation this will really happen? i haven't seen that.

this will expand tlouhroughout community and remember how this works, the death don't parallel the number of cases. the worry is that their gamble will not pay off and we'll see a steep acceleration in deaths within two or three weeks. >> they reopened safely but they were one of first states to reopen. the do you think there's cause and effect here ? >> no yes. as soon as that was done, i pointed out april 30th, may 1st when they were proposing this that the models show you had to keep it closed throughout the month of may before we go back to containment mode meaning one new case per million res dent

per day. there was a big drive to go ahead any way. there was the urgency to open the economy. what we're seeing is predicted and predictable. i'll say once again, the measures being proposed -- the new measures being proposed now, i'm not confident this will be adequate to do what needs to be done. the problem is the governors want their cake and eat it. they want to open up the economy, have little impact to the economy but still undertake surgical measures to slow the rise. i'm not aware of any evidence to show that's ever worked and that will be possible. >> the governor saying to people don't go out if you don't have to, make sure you're wearing masks. the vice president encouraging young people to not see senior citizens right now. maybe members of their families. bars closed. these are some of the measures. if you were in constant communication with state leaders

there in texas, what would you be telling them they needed too? >> there are ways to do this. we can look at the impact. get some situational awareness. look at what the impact will be on your measures and convince yourself that you're going to be satisfied with the result because what you don't want to do is suddenly realize your deaths are rising in two or three weeks and you say, oh, my god, what did we do? be -- own your actions and be able to predict what will happen. >> right now the vice president telling people in the room he's grateful to get this ground report. dr. birx saying they will take the information and bring it back to washington and see if closing the bars is successful

in flattening the curve. do you feel as though your state is being used as a test case? >> well, the truth is, we're seeing this dramatic rise across the major metropolitan areas of the southwest. owl of the big cities, los angeles, phoenix, houston, austin, dallas, san antonio and yet the white house coronavirus task force keeps on dismissing this as a few hot spots, kwoequ unquote and points out we're not seeing a rise in deaths. to me it's disingenious because it doesn't reflect the hard reality this is just the beginning of a monster. they have not adequately made any effort. >> we're going to keep you here and listen in a bit more during this q and a. >> the president has me leading

the coronavirus task force. part of our guidance is guidelines to open up america again. encourage people to wear facial coverings where social distancing was not possible. our administration is promoting the practice but when the governor and i talked this week, we talked about the importance in this moment of calling on people across texas. wear a mask. if you're in the 50% of the state that requires it locally, we encourage you to adhere to local guidance and listen to your local health officials. they are tracking what's happening in their community every day. the guidance they give about when to wear mask, when it's appropriate, when it's necessary is important. for anyone, if you can't maintain social distancing, which is that if you're going to be within six feet of people for

more than 15 minutes, it's a good idea to wear a mask. with everything we see happening with the ride of cases, particularly among young people, if you're going to see mom or dad or elderly friends, good time to wear mask to make sure no one would inadvertently pass the coronavirus. governor, i want to thank you again. thank you for your leadership. we'll be following up on the discussions that we had and i appreciate the senator support of the cares act, legislation, resources and i'll reiterate the promise that he quoted and that is to you, people of texas,

we're going to make sure you have what you need when you need it. we're going to get through this. when we look at the path of the coronavirus, everything the people of new york and new jersey and connecticut went through, new orleans, michigan and the steady state that texas managed the last few weeks. we'll get through this together. thank you very much. >> this press conference wrapping up here. members of the coronavirus task fork getting a ground report in texas. the vice president reiterating it's a good idea to wear a mask when social distancing is not possible, encouraging people if they will be visiting their parents or grandparents to wear a mask. we should note the commander in chief, president trump, saying he likely will not be wearing a

mask when he goes out. dr. peter, if i still have you, i wanted to ask you about something that dr. debra birx said in that press conference and that is new research shows wearing a mask not only helps me prevent giving you the virus but getting it from you. is that new information we learned? >> i think that information is not as well established as the fact that it more likely prevents you from transmitting it to others. i think there could be some mitigating affects of wearing a mask but overwhelmingly right now the research says the big impact is if you have covid-19, you have a lot of virus in your upper airways, nose and mouth and as you're speaking it, that mask keeps it contained. that's the major effect. if there's reduction in acquiring it, that's even better. >> we heard dr. ben carson

saying wearing a mask now will allow us to have more freedoms, long term. are you concerned about really the amount of that we're seeing masks being so politicized in this country? >> down here in texas and other states in the region, we struggled getting people to wear masks. it was a fight to not only make that a major message but mandate it and finally, here in the major cities, the urban areas, we can do that. we should not have had to struggle like that. that should have been the first criteria for reopening. it's not only in texas but oklahoma and arizona that fights me and others against vaccines and now they expanded it.

they are fighting contact tracing, social distancing, masks all under this fake term of what they call health freedom or medical freedom. it's a totally made up term but it's had a lot of damaging consequences for us. >> thank you for your time. we want to go to another state now seeing a huge surge in covid-19 cases. california, where cases have s passed the 200,000 mark. the governor ordered seven counties, including los angeles to immediately close bars and night life locations because of the increasing covid-19 cases. what's the latest? >> reporter: that announcement coming on the heels of us finding out that here in los angeles the infection rate has risen above 9% and the infection rate down in imperial county is

over 23%. that's the highest in california. you're starting to see a lot of these infection rates creeping up across the state. hospitals way over capacity with hundreds of patients being transferred to other counties. the governor saying imperial county needs to reimpose some of its lockdown measures immediately and really reemphasizing the importance of social distancing, of mask wearing and the imperial county board of supervisors held an emergency meeting on friday but declined to make any immediate changes saying they would be announcing plan soon. hearing in los angeles, that infection rate is also climbing. now around 9%. the hospitalizations are also climbing. one thing to notice is some of the numbers we saw this week, those living in the lowest income neighborhoods are four times more likely to get

covid-19 than those living in the wealthiest neighbors. we're seeing new numbers showing latinos and the black community have death rates twice as high with officials saying a lot of that is attributed to the fact they work in front line jobs where working from home isn't an option so they are exposed to hundreds, if not thousands of other people. >> some alarming new numbers out of california. thank you. we will be right back. alifo. thank you. we will be right back. it's time for the lowest prices of the season on the sleep number 360 smart bed.

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like real bad. we can't wait to get you back so we've added temp checks, face coverings, social distancing and extra sanitizing to get the good times going again. we're finally back... and can't wait until you are too. welcome back, everybody. just a few hours ago president trump retweeted a pretty disturbing video called the villages where trump supporters are seen chanting a racist slogan while facing off with counter protesters. the retweet has been deleted. here is the video the retweet

contained. >> white power. white power. >> there you go, white power. you hear that. >> the president retweeted it saying great people. he did not condemn it. when he deleted it the white house saying quote, president trump is a big fan of the villages. he did not hear the one statement made on the video. what he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters. my colleague josh letterman is at the white house. before we ask you about that, got to ask you about what we heard from vice president pence. we heard him say that in the briefing on friday but today felt like a much more pointed message. >> reporter: yeah, there was a definite difference today between the vice president's comments here in texas as well as from just a few days ago in the coronavirus task force briefing as well as the comments that the president continued to

make reluctant to wear a mask himself. reluctant to urge americans to wear masks as well. right now we're hearing a much more forceful message from mike pence saying people should wear masks, particularly if they will be in close proximity and where it makes sense. we should point out that every time that the administration has an opportunity to mirror this, to really set an example for people, they have declined to do so. the trump administration and the trump campaign have been filling the events where they have not required people to wear masks. where not the vice president or the president were wearing masks. i was with the president a couple of days ago in wisconsin where he was touring a shipbuilding facilityclined to . whether the trump administration will embrace and whether the vice president is out on a limb by himself a bit here and

whether the president will continue to be reluctant to take that step himself as well as to call on his supporters and other americans to wear masks. >> has there been any reaction from the republican party for the retweet. >> reporter: there sure has. it's the republican reaction that is taking a lot of people from surprise including from tim scott, member of the republican party as well as the only black republican in the senate. take a listen to what he had to say. >> there's no question. he should not have retweeted it and he should take it down. >> does it offend you? it offends me and i'm white. >> listen, if you watch the entire voideo, you can't play i. the entire thing was offensive. the comment about the white power was offensive. we could play politics with it or we can't. i'm not going to. i think it's indefensible.

we should take it down. >> reporter: the president did take down the tweet. it's the latest step by president trump that is undermined his broader effort to try to reach out to black voters as we get closer and closer to the election. >> thank you. nbc news has confirmed the u.s. gathered intelligence that russian intel officers offered cash bounties to taliban fighters to kill coalition soldiers. the president tweeted today that neither he nor the vice president were told about the alleged russian bounties. nbc has been reporting on this writing nbc news has not confirmed whether trump was given a briefing but it would be unusual if top officials didn't brief the president on something this explosive. ken joins pe now. there's been reports that the president doesn't read briefings, so is that a possibility? >> that's 100% a possibility.

the information was included in his daily written brief and he just didn't read it. that still doesn't explain because all his top intelligence briefers know he doesn't read it so that doesn't complain why they didn't brief him, if it's true, on this very significant piece of intelligence. one the intelligence isn't that strong or they afraid to talk to him about russia because they know he wants good relationship with putin. people are not bringing trump the truth because they are fr afraid of how he will work. this is exemployees ifr allegations. >> thanks for your time today. that wraps it up for us this hour on msnbc. thank you for watching. the news continues after the break. hing the news continues after the break. needles.

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good afternoon. we are covering the big stories as they are happening here on msnbc. this weekend there are record breaking spikes in coronavirus cases in florida, georgia, south carolina and nevada. california in the last hour ordering all bars in seven counties closed, includi