the u.s. is still leading the world in cases and deaths with more than 2.5 million people infected and more than 126,000 people in america who have died. europe and asia have flattened their curves. and dr. anthony fauci is warning that the worst for this country may still yet be to come. >> we're going in the wrong direction. we're now having 40 plus thousand new cases a day. i would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day. i am very concerned. >> as 17 states pause or reverse their reopening plans, here are the facts as we know them at this hour. vice president mike pence is heading to phoenix, arizona, a covid-19 hotspot and a 2020 battleground after the republican governor there was forced to backtrack and shut down bars and movie theaters. the u.s. hit a new daily case record tuesday of more than 48,000 new cases with eight states hitting peak infection rates. moments ago, new york city mayor bill de blasio announcing he

will not let restaurants resume indoor dining as planned. governor cuomo is now asking visitors from 16 states to self-quarantine when visiting new york. all of this as new research reinforces the importance of masks to contain the spread. republican leaders joining the appeal. >> put on the mask. it's not complicated. >> wearing the mask is the best opportunity for us to keep this economy open. >> i hope the president will help us just get rid of this mask politics. >> and with the president denouncing news reports of the russia bounty payments as a hoax, lawmakers in both parties today expressing anger at his continued coziness with vladimir putin. new york senator kirsten gillibrand is a member of the armed services committee and she'll join me ahead. vaughn hillyard, sasha burns,

and kerry sanders join me. vaughn, first to you. the vice president is meeting with arizona governor doug ducey. the governor has backtracked. pence will be landing there later today. the situation is getting worse and you've got a republican governor now taking a u-turn, if you will. >> reporter: it took a month and a half for that governor to take a u-turn. we should note there were only incremental steps taken by this governor's office, that being governor doug ducey's office, on monday, implementing executive orders closing the likes of gyms and bars and movie theaters. but restaurants are still open. retail is still open. malls are still open. there is no stay-at-home order in place. and i just think we need to, right from the get-go, lay out what the vice president is flying into. he is in the air, on air force two, andrea. in new numbers out of the state of arizona that just came out,

record number of new cases, by almost a thousand. just today, in the last 24 hours, andrea, 4,878 new covid cases. again, that's just in the last 24 hours. a staggering new record. a number of deaths, there are now 88 newly reported deaths coming out of this state. another record for it. and perhaps an even more head-turning, numbing number is the fact that there is a 28.3% positive test result rate. again, that means that nearly one out of three individuals who were tested for covid in the last 24 hours, their test came back positive. that is a stunning number. it only suggests that hospitalizations over the course of the next week or two will only continue to rise as these hospitals are now in a crisis care situation. it was just one week ago, andrea, when president trump held an event just a few miles down the road here from sky harbor airport in which there are more than 3,000, essentially

all unmasked individuals. you know, in that area code, we're talking about, in that area code, there's 50,000 folks that were around that trump rally area. this is the country's fifth largest city. now one week later, the vice president finds himself flying into a situation that has become out of control. there's serious questions about what additional steps need to be taken here at a state level in order to turn this tide, andrea. >> and just briefly, vaughn, i think the vice president originally had planned campaign events, rallies, in these states and hotspots he's been visiting but that he pulled back from even before the president had retreated from doing more big rallies. >> reporter: exactly, he was going to be holding a campaign event down in tucson but has since pulled back and is now just flying here into phoenix to meet with the governor and other local officials, andrea. >> thanks for that, and now to nbc news reporter dasha burns in

myrtle beach, south carolina. dasha, cases there spiking, the state reporting more than 36,000 cases yesterday and now 100 virginia teenagers are testing positive after visiting myrtle beach. >> reporter: andrea, that's all exactly right and it's all happening as the city reaps for fourth of july weekend, one of the peak times for tourism here. officials worry it could also be a peak time for transmission. it's not just a concern for myrtle beach. it's a concern for surrounding states whose residents are going on vacation and sometimes coming home with covid. some governors have told their residents to maybe rethink their visits here. the city is trying to take more precautions. tomorrow they will be voting on a mandatory mask order. if that passes, it will be effective immediately. i spoke to the mayor of myrtle beach about that vote and about her reaction to what some of these governors are saying about her city. take a listen to what she told me. >> i think the mask order is

crucial, especially this weekend. and, you know, hindsight is 20/20. our hotels opened up four weeks ago. myrtle beach is a very small portion of the county, literally 2% of the county. there's no way to determine exactly where everyone contracted the virus or if people coming here brought it here. placing blame doesn't help solve issues. >> reporter: andrea, tourism is what props up this entire economy. so it's a tough balance the city has to strike. i've been talking to business owners and workers, and they tell me they're concerned. one woman who is pregnant, a bar manager at a local restaurant, told me she does feel like she's taking a risk when she's coming to work every day, especially on these big weekends. at the same time, this is when she makes the most monday. she gets the biggest tips. she says risk is sort of becoming a part of life here in myrtle beach, andrea. >> and thanks to you, dasha.

now to florida where amid a surge in cases, hundreds of people lined up for covid-19 tests in the early morning hours. kerry sanders joins us now from miami gardens, florida. kerry, we're talking about 109% increase in cases this week in florida. now we're seeing people really not to get tested. >> reporter: there's a lot of anxiety out there, probably for good reason. sticks show one in ten in miami-dade county tested are coming back with positive tests. let me give you a snapshot of where i am right now, to give you an idea how many people are gathered here to get tests. these cars started lining up at 2:00 a.m. they have been inching along since the doors open here to begin tests at 8:00 this morning. folks coming here, all different ages. that's important, when you consider there are now some younger people who are testing positive. for instance, molly dawson.

she's an icu nurse working at her hospital in bolling green and within one day had to be flown to a bigger hospital to be attended to in nashville. her mother has rushed to her side now, but unfortunately she can't be at her side. all she can do is get an occasional facetime in with her daughter. and her daughter can't respond because she is now intubated. this is what her mom had to tell me. your daughter is 25 years old. did you anticipate this? >> no. not at all. it's terrifying. i mean, i don't want anybody else to have to experience what we have. and i know it's going to happen. >> reporter: it's important to note at 25 years old, so many young people that i've spoken to believe, well, if i get it it will be just like a case of the flu. poor molly is intubated, she will be on a ventilator, her

doctors says, for at least four, perhaps six weeks. she's getting convalescent plasma, getting remdesivir, she's getting the treatment, and even with all that, she's in a dire situation. it underscores that this coronavirus, that so many people thought was primarily just going to hurt people over 65, is indiscriminate and we're seeing younger people also exposed but more importantly, once they're exposed, not being cleared within hours or days like so many of them think they will. andrea, one other thing i want to point out in my conversations with young people is that there's a lot of confusion because they don't watch a lot of television news, they don't read a lot of newspapers, but they do spend a lot of time on the internet. a lot of them are telling me, i don't understand what's right, what to believe and what not to believe, because the sources they go to on the internet are not necessarily qualified news sources and there's a lot, a lot of rumor and a lot of speculation and i lot of, i

guess you might call it, propaganda on the internet that leaves young people trying to figure out what do i believe. that's part of the problem here. >> it really is, kerry. and, you know, the message is, to 20-somethings, listen to your moms. to everyone, news literacy is really important. and modeling, modeling from the president on down. and of course that's what we haven't had. >> reporter: absolutely. i mean, there are so many pieces of the puzzle to make what seems like an obvious decision to protect yourself and to protect others. but if you're confused, if you're young, if you're not sure where to go, if you're listening to social media, if you're listening to people posting things that maybe have some sort of political agenda or opinion rather than something based on health, which is what anthony fauci has been trying to say over and over, that this is not a political decision, this is a health decision. if those folks who are sort of

indifferent to all of this started listening to, i think, the experts, they might begin to understand as we head into the fourth of july weekend that everybody has a responsibility here. >> kerry sanders, such valuable reporting, thank you so much for being right there for us, and thanks of course to vaughn hillyard and dasha burns. joining us now is an internist and executive director of the pen center for community health workers and nbc news medical correspondent dr. john torres. doctor, what are you learning in your research about how to get this under control? because the message that we're beginning to pick up from the reporting, from dr. fauci yesterday, is it's out of control, and all the hard work of the first four months may be for naught. >> yeah, andrea, first of all, thank you so much for having me. you know, i think what has made this so challenging is that containing the virus is wrapped up, as we just heard, in all the

daily realities that people face. let's say your laundry worker from north florida where covid is surging faster than ever, and you get a call, you've been exposed and you need to quarantine, and you're thinking, who's going to explain this to my boss, how am i going to put food on the table, who is going to pay my rent? unfortunately a lot of the containment approaches that we're seeing, whether it's smartphone apps or call centers with contact tracers, we may not take those realities into account. public health solutions are designed by and for privileged people. so some of our research points to what we really need, especially in these hardest-hit communities, is to incorporate community health workers. these are local groups on the ground. they're trusted individuals from within local communities. and they actually tackle those daily realities. so they're advocating with sam's boss, they're dropping food off

on his porch, they're helping battle that eviction notice. there's a strong body of scientific evidence that shows that community health workers can improve health and actually prevent hospitalizations, which saves medicaid $4,200 per beneficiary. not only because of covid but all the chronic diseases that have been building up for the past several months, this workforce can actually help save u.s. taxpayers billions of dollars per year. >> and one of the things that certainly came to the forein i the hearing with dr. fauci yesterday, there are different levels of masks, we now know what's more effective. help our viewers understand, what is the best kind of mask to wear? >> so what we're finding out are the best kinds of masks to wear

are the ones that have more layers, especially cotton ones that have multiple layers because they can help filter it out. there's a difference between wearing a mask if you're could you having coughing or sneezing. the mask in and of itself cannot give you that sense of security that you don't need to social distance. you need to do those things arm in arm. social distancing, wearing masks, not being in large groups. those are the things that will help get it under control. wearing a mask in general is not 100% effective. no mask will be that effective. but it does give you some protection than you would have without the mask and more importantly, it gives people around you protection. like kerry sanders said, younger people are thinking, it's not that big an issue, we're young where we don't have the complications. we're finding out they have more complications than we thought they were. plus they can spread this to other people especially those

most vulnerable. none of them want to do this but this is what we're seeing across the country. like the doctors said before me, one of the big issues are those essential workers who can't get out of the areas they have to work in. they might be exposed to it there. they might have to do that. i've talked to experts from american indian tribes, experts from the latino community, they're saying contact tracing with them is a big issue, because of trust, and who they can trust when they get that phone call. so they don't have community members giving them that phone call. if it's others outside the community, they're not going to tell them the truth, and that's what i've been told over and over again. >> and certainly in the undocumented community, nobody is going to trust anybody with the crackdown that we've been experiencing in the last couple of years as well. doctor, in some of these communities, if there isn't enough testing, contact tracing is not going to be as effective even if you had the professionals to do the tracing.

>> yeah, absolutely. i mean, i think that there is a multifaceted approach that we need, that we've always talked about. certainly effective tracing, and again, it's not just tracing, you have to have the support people with all the daily realities that surround them, the social, economic realities that actually help them quarantine, that help them to address not only covid but all these other health issues that are happening right now in our communities. but absolutely we need to have those. and the testing needs to be done, we saw a clip where cars were lined up, and a lot of testing is being done through people's motor vehicles. a lot of people don't have a motor vehicle. we have to be designing these solutions with folks like sam in mind. if we have solutions that are designed by and for privileged folks, this epidemic will

continue to rage, it will spread throughout the rest of the country. our economy will still stutter. and then we will have all of the ill effects from having a faltering economy. >> doctor, thank you so much. dr. torres, as always, great to see, thanks for your help today. s a coming up, is there financial proof that russia paid the taliban to kill american troops in afghanistan? that's up next. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. n omsnbc. cls that just don't smell clean? what if your clothes could stay fresh for weeks? now they can! this towel has already been used and it still smells fresh. pour a cap of downy unstopables into your washing machine before each load and enjoy fresher smelling laundry for up to 12-weeks.

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president trump is facing more questions today about what he knew about the reports that russia paid the taliban to kill american troops in afghanistan and why he has not taken action. "the new york times" is reporting that american officials intercepted electronic data showing large financial transfers from a bank account controlled by russia's military intelligence agency, the gru, to a taliban-linked account, according to three officials familiar with the intelligence. the president is tweeting today, "this is all a made-up fake news media hoax, started to slander me and the republican party." joining me now is nbc white house correspondent kristen welker, phil rucker, white house bureau chief for "the washington post," and charlie savage, washington correspondent for "the new york times," part of the team that broke the story on all of this. charlie, you've now reported in

"the new york times" about this money transfer and that added to the growing accumulated information that led intelligence officials to take this more seriously. now you've got the president's tweet going back against this. tell us what you know and how seriously you think this should be taken. >> right. well, so the significance of this new information, which by the way was withheld from congress in those initial briefings they had earlier this week when just members of one party and then the other from the house were brought into the white house, is that the intelligence portrait supporting the analytical conclusion that this was real and was happening evolved over time. initially there were some detainees captured in afghanistan, some taliban militants, some criminals from a network that worked closely with the taliban, who told interrogators it was happening. and there was a disagreement among different agencies over whether to credit and believe

those interrogation. and the nsa in particular, which sees signal intelligence, data transfers and surveillance to back up things, had more doubts and questions about this human intelligence than the cia and the military did. over time, they also found, either intercepted in real time or found in the raw repository of intercepts that the nsa is doing all the time and throws into a databases and hunts through later on, data showing financial transfers from a bank account controlled by the gru, the russian military intelligence service, to this taliban-linked account. and then there was a raid about six months ago on this network where they captured a bunch of people and the ringleader, apparently, a major person as an intermediary distributing money as reward for people for attacks

on u.s. troops, fled to russia. the initial intelligence doubts were reduced after this additional data came in. we think that the administration, in trying to justify its inaccurate claim that trump was never told about this even though it was in his february 27, apparently, presidential daily written briefing, whether or not he bothered to read it, even though they're claiming he wasn't told and even though they took it seriously enough to develop a menu of options, a late march national security council convened meeting, but the white house has not responded even diplomatically. they justified this by saying there was disagreement over whether it was real or not so it was never briefed to him and wasn't important. but they've been telling congress only the first part of that story and not the additional information that then solidified it. >> there was to be a gang of

eight intel leadership briefing for the congress today. it's apparently been moved to tomorrow. but i wanted to play also for all of you what the secretary of state had to say today in dismissing this new information in "the new york times." >> money flowing to afghanistan to support the taliban has been going on since we went to afghanistan now almost two decades ago. it's not just the russians. indeed, probably not majority russians. money has flowed from lots of places, from iran, even today, the iranians continue to undermine what we're trying to accomplish in terms of peace and reconciliation in afghanistan. >> i mean, it just strikes me that everything goes back to iran. no one is in this instance accusing iran of trying to kill americans. and when they have in the past, we took action, we took out s e qassem soleimani. but kristen welker, it's the specific allegation here that

the military intelligence from russia, led by vladimir putin, did this allegedly, or at least that is part of the assessment going on now, and that they have not taken any action and in fact that the president had six phone calls with vladimir putin after this information was beginning to come together, and no one briefed him to bring it up on the call, give some kind of reaction, or at some lower level to de marmarche the russians. >> that's right, and what we're hearing from the secretary of state, he was making the point that russian aggression in that region is not new. one of the reporters shouted out, "but does this not potentially mark an escalation?" we didn't hear the secretary's response on that. i did have a chance to press national security adviser robert o'brien about this earlier today, i asked him specifically about the president's claim that this is all a hoax. and andrea, here is what he told me.

he said that what is a hoax is the initial reporting that the president was briefed on this and chose not to act. the white house now saying of course that the cia briefer withheld this information from briefings with the president. but of course it does raise a key question, andrea, why then was congress briefed on this apparently in february and may before president trump, why was this not brought to his attention? of course we have reporting that it was included in a written briefing as far back as 2019. the white house insists the president does read his pdbs, his presidential daily briefs, but still no word specifically on whether he read this one, the daily brief that would include this critical information. so this is a president that is on defense and clearly struggling to find his messaging because of course a hoax is something he used to describe the russia investigation and this is a very different matter. american lives potentially at stake, andrea.

>> and as you know very well, kayleigh mcenany, the white house pretss secretary, has dismissed this. phil, i want to get you to react to something she said yesterday. >> the president does read. and he also consumes intelligence verbally. this president, i'll tell you, is the most informed person on planet earth when it comes to the threats we face. he's constantly being informed and briefed on intelligence matters. but i'm not going to allow "the new york times" to dictate when we give top secret information and don't give top secret information. >> phil, you literally wrote the book on whether the president is a very stable genius and is the most informed person on planet earth. discuss. >> andrea, the truth is he's not. and that's been established through our reporting over the last several years. he does not read the presidential daily brief with any regularity and that has

alarmed a number of people who serve him in national security and at the white house. they're very concerned that he doesn't have patience for understanding nuance or basic information about world affairs or world geography. so it would certainly be in keeping with his past practices for him to not have read this detail in the pdb or perhaps if he did read it and perhaps not to think about it too clearly or specifically. this is not a president who becomes engrossed in the details and amasses knowledge. rather, he trusts his gut and likes to make decisions based on instinct in the moment as opposed to based on a wealth of knowledge and information. >> and how seriously is the concern that when it comes to russia and vladimir putin, that intelligence officers may be reluctant to tell him the real truth or to emphasize it because they know of his affinity for putin? >> that's certainly been the

case in the past. i don't know if that was the case in this particular instance. perhaps future reporting will bear that out. but over the last several years national security and intelligence officials who briefed him on any number of matters have always been very careful when it comes to talking about issues of russia or vladimir putin, because they know the president's affinity for putin and they know he's triggered, usually, to react in negative ways when the topic of russia comes up. and so it's sort of like a hazard area for the intelligence community in these briefings. >> phil rucker, charlie savage, and kristen welker, thanks to all three of you, thanks very much. and up next, governor cuomo pausing new york city's planned reopening of indoor dining, and spikes in other parts of the country. we'll talk about that and a lot more with new york senator kirsten gillibrand, up next. stay with us. with us

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new york city residents have gone through hell to get their covid numbers down. now state officials are worrying about infections coming in to new york from elsewhere in the country where the coronavirus is now spiking. that led governor andrew cuomo and of course the mayor to announce today they are canceling previous plans for indoor dining to resume in new york city restaurants on monday. >> phase iii dining we are going to postpone. and it's going to be postponed

until the facts change and it is prudent to open. but the facts have to change. because at this point, it is imprudent. >> joining me now is democratic senator kirstin gillibrand of new york. a lot to ask you about the military and about russia, but first let's start with the coronavirus and this decision to backtrack on the plan to have indoor dining. a good decision, bad decision? >> i think the governor made the right decision. and i do share his concerns that unfortunately we're seeing resurgences all across america as people stop wearing masks, as they stop social distancing. we're seeing a massive spread. and so the governor is doing what he can to make sure that new york does not have its own resurgence. i think it's important that people continue to know that when they wear a mask, when they socially distance, they may be

saving lives. it's important that all of us share that duty to protect others. >> senator, part of the new york governor's approach is this 14-day quarantine for a rising number of states, i think now 16 states where there are spikes. how does that get enforced where people drive in and out of the state all the time? >> i think it's difficult to enforce. but the governor is going to do his best. and i think making it the standard is important. so people understand that if they do come to new york, they have to quarantine for two weeks. i think it's smart. i think it makes sense. and it's, again, just asking people to do their share, to do what they can to protect the vulnerable. >> and as a member of the armed services committee, obviously i want to ask you about this russia investigation now. the cia is going back over the analysis. it's very clear that there was an initial disagreement and then more information came to the fore. and like all intelligence assessments, every never 100%, there is a certain degree of confidence. but what about the president's

defense that he wasn't told, what to sdoes that mean? and now he knows, because he's been reading the newspapers and he's been told and briefed in the last, you know, almost a week, and still no action, no reaction, no demarche of anyone in russia. >> it's more than that. he actually today said it was a hoax. this is president trump's unwillingness to stand up to vladimir putin. we saw it in helsinki. we say it again now. he places this own judgment above those of his intelligence agencies. it's harming american troops. i'm deeply concerned that we need a full investigation of both the house and the senate, we need it in the intelligence committee and the armed services committee. i am the ranking member on the personnel subcommittee. i want to know that members of our services who are serving abroad, serving in afghanistan, are protected. i want to make sure that russia isn't paying for a bounty for their lives.

i want to make sure that the reporting we've seen that there's possible three service members who lost their life because of this bounty, someone needs to be held accountable. we need to know if president trump was briefed and if he wasn't briefed, why not. this is deeply disturbing. and i've read the intelligence reports and i've read "the new york times" and "the washington post" and ap's reporting which says that both intelligence professions as well as special operations forces brought these facts up the chain. >> you referred to the president's tweet today. doesn't that undermine anything that we might say diplomatically to russia, notwithstanding the fact that the secretary of state dismissed it out of hand today and said, well, iran is a bigger problem, how can russia take us seriously and take any pushback that the military might try to make against russia? >> well, andrea, you're quite right, the president has been unwilling to hold putin and

other autocrats accountable. he fails to stand up to threats. and he's failed to protect our troops. the one thing that's bipartisan in this country is that we all value and honor and protect our troops. and president trump is not. and he's failing in his responsibility as commander in chief. >> and my colleague kristen welker had a heartbreaking conversation last night with the father of one of the three soldiers who were killed possibly in a connected incident last year in afghanistan, who has still not heard from anybody in the government. so he had to hear about this from the news. >> god bless him, and the sacrifice of his son should not be ignored. we should get facts and we should get answers. our troops deserve oversight and accountability. they deserve to know. and with this intelligence reporting, i'm deeply concerned that russia may still be being a

bad actor in the region as it has been in the past. >> and the president also tweeting that he is threatening now to veto the entire defense authorization bill if the elizabeth warren monuments protection act is in it. >> look, this country is in a reckoning right now. and i think the black lives matter movement as well as the protests that have gone on across my state and across this country are meaningful and powerful. and i think people are tired of having to look at statues, monuments, bases named after confederate soldiers and generals. it's not fair, it's not right. i think for president trump to threaten to veto the defense bill over this issue that is the right thing to do, again, shows his lack of leadership and shows his disconnect from the american people. >> you also have an amendment to eliminate the discrimination against transgender people in

the military. >> yes, right now we just witnessed a surprising but welcomed supreme court decision that said you cannot discriminate against the lgbtq community in employment. why would we have a different standard for our service members? why would the only place in america where you can still be discriminated against be in the u.s. military? it's an outrage. and hopefully this amendment will be included in the ndaa and that we will pass it. >> thank you so much, senator, thanks so much for being with us, we appreciate it. next, joe biden getting a big boost from the members of the george w. bush administration. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. re watching "l reports" on msnbc. the course structure the university of phoenix offers-

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for small prices, you can build big dreams. spend less, get way more. shop everything home at wayfair today. joe biden just got a major endorsement from a large group of republicans. hundreds of former george w. bush administration officials launching the 43 alumni for biden super pac. joining me now, mike memoli. mike, why now? >> it's interesting, andrea, these aren't necessarily everyday names from the former president's administration but they say they're individuals who consider themselves loyal republicans but who are nonetheless committed to helping elect joe biden as president. they say they're not necessarily endorsing the democratic mr. president form but do endorse

the former vice president's call, that this is a battle for the soul of the nation. this isn't going to be the lincoln project, andrea. they say they hope to raise millions of dollars but to spend primarily on grassroots organizing, to have conversations, republican to republican, more quietly, to try to galvanize support for the former vice president and his campaign. they're also talking quietly with some of those bigger names, former cabinet officials, in the hopes of maybe rolling out some more support over time. and i think, andrea, there's no better encapsulation for where biden's candidacy is at the moment, on the same day he's endorsed by hundreds of former bush administration officials, he's also earning the endorsement of move on, a liberal progressive organization whose members voted overwhelmingly, they said, to support biden and his campaign. move on did not endorse hillary clinton in 2016, andrea. >> and he of course gave that speech about the pandemic, contrasting his own approach to the coronavirus with the

president's, a very sharp escalation of his rhetoric. you were there. this is one of the things he said about the russia investigation and the pdb. >> the presidential daily briefing is something i read every day as vice president. the president read it every day. i was briefed every morning before i got to the white house and then again. so the idea that somehow he didn't know or isn't being briefed, it is a dereliction of duty, if that's the case. and if he was briefed and nothing was done about this, that's a dereliction of duty. >> so, mike memoli, that is part of the case that a lot of these bush people are making as well. >> yeah, absolutely. in terms of foreign policy, biden has obviously incredible depth of experience in a way that the current president does not.

while bush and biden were often at odds on foreign policy, you can understand why they would potentially be more comfortable with biden at the helm in terms of the relationships, especially our allies overseas, than with the current president. >> mike memoli on the biden beat, thanks so much. coming up, health officials around the country receiving death threats just for doing their jobs. that crisis within the crisis, next. stay with us right here on msnbc. stay with us right here on msnbc. to severe psoriasis, little things can become your big moment.

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an alarming additional burden for front line health workers. doctors and nurses across the country are being confronted with death threats, harassment, global abuse just for doing their jobs. a growing number of medical officials in fact have stepped down or have been pressured to quit or been fired outright for speaking out. fearing the pressure from americans who say the coronavirus restrictions have gone too far. nbc news technology jake ward joins me now from oakland, california.

jake, how is this happening? >> reporter: andrea, you know, it's really a shocking thing. we think of the front line workers as being the nurses and doctors who treat you when you hit the emergency room. well, public health officials are the true front line workers, trying to keep you out of the e.r., and yet right now, they're under attack. they're on the front line on the fight against the coronavirus but under fire. >> they've unnecessarily put people in a state of severe. >> reporter: across the country, public health officials are being harassed by the very people they're trying to protect. l.a. county's health director says she's been threatened. >> i like hundreds of other public health officials across the country have in fact received threats and have in fact received a lot of hate mail. >> they don't get paid a lot of money. they put in a lot of hours. they do it for the compassion that they feel. >> reporter: it was a tough job before the pandemic. now, a growing public backlash against health safety

restrictions and lockdowns makes the job even harder. >> you're taking verbal abuse. sometimes there are physical threats for their lives or their families. >> reporter: dozens of health directors and senior officials have resigned, or been fired since april. >> ohioans you have saved lives. ohio's health director resigned june 11th after intense criticism and even armed protesters at her home. even though she had the support of the government. >> it's true, not all heroes wear capes. some of them do in fact wear a white coat. >> reporter: for those who stay on, the harassment continues. >> it's extraordinarily hard to work under conditions where people are so angry with you and take it so personally. >> reporter: and all of this after a decade of shrinking funds and staffs at health departments. some americans seem to doubt the v

covid-19 safety precautions. >> when we have a contamination water, they say we need to boil our water, you can't drink the contaminated water, everybody boils their water. so the fact that people are not paying attention to this as public health advice is alarming. it's not really something i've ever seen to this extent. >> reporter: andrea, you know, this is a difficult and thankless job in the best of times. but the health officials we've talked to have really said this is an unprecedented level of harassment. doing this job, this essential front line life-saving job is harder than ever, andrea. >> california just broke another daily record for coronavirus cases even though the governor and the mayors have done so much. now, what do they do about this uptick? >> reporter: you know, it is just terrible news. not the least because california has been held up as an example to the rest of the nation, andrea. it's been called the california

miracle. the early consistent locking down of the state. but we are now seeing all sorts of fraying at the seams. counties like imperial county, south of us, are in fact at capacity when it comes to hospital beds and are having to send the patients north to counties like this. definitely we're only as safe as the people who take the least precautions, andrea. >> thank you so much for bringing that story to us, jake. we appreciate it. >> reporter: appreciate it. >> that's it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." make sure to follow us on twitter, eamon mohyeldin comes back after a short break. you can't predict the future.

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transfer your service in minutes, making moving with xfinity a breeze. visit xfinity.com/moving today. good afternoon, everyone. i'm ayman mohyeldin in new york. these are the latest headlines we're following at this hour. the u.s. is facing a steep rise in coronavirus cases. there are currently more than 2.6 million cases across the country. and tuesday, 47,000 confirmed cases were reported. that's the most we've seen in a single day since the start of the pandemic. we're also following new developments in the alleged russia bounty story, as democrats in congress demand answers from the white house. today, secretary of state mike pompeo defending how the administration has handled russia without confirming those reports that russia paid the taliban to kill american troops. >> the fact that the russians are engaged in