covid-19 is probably here to stay for a long time. >> it is constantly an uphill battle for care for these patients. >> some patients have been with this for 30 or 40 days. we have also seen heart attacks and strokes and affecting other

parts of the body. they are tired and sick and then these complications hit. it just gets worse from there. gets worse and worse. >> people are having their hearts destroyed from this virus. people think it's just like the flu, and they will get over it with no problem. >> i don't think people understand how serious it can be. >> we are beginning the show with voices from medical workers on the front line. welcome to thursday. it's me its i'm in for chuck todd. officials sound alarms, but the numbers from last month seem to harden president trump that the

country must reopen, and he may believe that his campaign depends on it. the outbreak of cases is spiraling out of control. florida had more than 10,000 cases in a single day. it is an astro no,cally high number. today the number has grown above 10,000. vice president pence met with governor ron desantis where he seemed confident florida can continue to reopen even as cases surge. texas has been reporting record case numbers and hospitalizations and moments ago governor greg abbott issued an

order mandating that most texans wear facial coverings, a mask. abbott has previously resisted such a move. the rise in cases shows no signs of showing down in a number of states and governors in nearly half the country have begun scaling back or reversing their reopening plans. as we head into the july 4th holiday weekend, the public is getting contradict rory message from at the administration. dr. fauci is warning the country is reopening too quickly. he wants to slam on the brakes, but the president does not. >> the problem we are facing now is that an intent to reopen the government and get it back to

some form of normality, we are seeing spikes in individual states in the united states. what we have seen over the last several days is a spike in cases that are well beyond the worst spikes that we have seen. that is not good news. we have to get that under control or we risk a greater outbreak in the united states. >> now we are opening it up and opening up far faster than anybody thought faster and more successfully. as i said, you are going to have a fantastic third quarter, a third quarter the likes of which nobody has seen before. the good thing is the numbers will be coming out just prior to the election so people will be able to see those numbers. the crisis is being handled. we are likewise getting under control some areas very hard hit. some were doing very well and we

thought they were gone and they flare up and we are putting out the fires. >> let's go to one of those hot spots now. dr. burns is in jacksonville, florida, across the state from where vice president pence and ron desantis met earlier. vice president pence went to arizona yesterday and today he is in florida. tell me what he and the governor said about the state. >> that grim milestone you mentioned, record daily case numbers here, more than 10,000. despite that, the vice president struck a positive tone. he praised the leadership of governor desantis. the governor has been a close ally of president trump.

pence said they will send additional medical personnel here. and they appealed to younger americans, where we have seen an uptick, they asked them to adhere to social distancing guidelines and wear masks. both mike pence and ron desantis were both wearing masks. dr. birx also had a message for floridians. >> to every floridian, we know what works. in addition to the hand washing and social distancing, wearing masks and not having large gatherings inside. not having large gatherings outside. but if you participated in a large gathering in the last four weeks, we ask all of you to come forward and be tested. we are asking for everyone under 40, if you were in a gathering,

please go and get tested, please wear a mask, please do the hygiene issues and please stay away from those who have co-morbidities. >> it is worth noting the juxtaposition of this visit to the state versus last time when ron desesantis declared victoryn battling the coronavirus. it shows how quickly things can change. >> a few weeks ago governor desantis was saying it was basically a media fantasy, basically blaming the media for inciting fear. and now they have a one-day

record like they had in new york. it's clearly getting worse. when you talk to people in florida, are you getting a sense that they understand how serious it is now that governor desantis has taken a new and different tone on how severe this crisis is? >> well, it depends on who you talk to. the folks in the younger demographic, i don't know if the message has hit yet. i think we will see that this weekend which will be a big test on how willing people are to follow some of those guidelines. the governor still has not put in a mandatory mask order across the state. jacksonville just voted this tweak, week, as of monday, masks are mandatory here. we will just have to see where things go, especially if cases continue to rise here.

>> we will see if he changes his tune after governor abbott has issued a statewide order for wearing masks. the numbers in texas and florida are just a few hundred -- not even. i can't do math on the fly, but very close to texas and florida. insight into the trump administration is an msnbc contributor and also is a pulmonologist and medical contributor. dr. gupta, we have the governor of texas issuing an order for texans to wear masks. not seeing the same thing in florida, what is your medical

take? >> good afternoon. good to see you. i think it's too little, too late. both in texas and florida. florida especially given what is happening with day-to-day caseloads. if i was governor desantis, you need to be thinking about how to save lives. that's bringing in portable icus, making sure you have enough dialysis nurses. this is potentially even mobilizing national guard. i know we are not talking about military forces, reserves. we aren't playing games. the cat is out of the bag. while that would be helpful moving forward to mitigate continued sped, it won't avert disaster. i worry that floridians will lose lives because of the

governor's weak leadership. >> where the federal government and president stand, two interesting things this week. one, he relented on masks saying he would wear one. let's see if he does it. two, he came out after the monthly jobs number and touted the number of jobs gained in this economy. how much of this decision-making day-to-day is based on his re-election prospects? >> that's a great question and the answer is a tremendous amount of his desicision-makings driven by that. but there is an irony. if you talk to public health experts, experts in his own administration, people agree the two things the president cares most about, which is getting the economy up and running and his hopes for november, which are

tied together, the best way to do that is to get the virus under control. it is not to come up with savvy, or to come up with a new nickname for joe biden. it needs to be the virus is plateauing or decreasing. that is the only way to reopen the economy, so why he is very focused on his re-election and economy because they are inextricably bound, he is not taking steps to combat the virus if you believe combatting the virus leads to a better economy which leads to better re-election prospects. >> that's what economists and health people will tell you as

well. any reason why the president doesn't come out and speak forcefully on the coronavirus and talk about wearing the mask and say he speaks about protecting federal monuments. he has been very forceful on that, but not the virus. >> the public health officials are pressing this message. you saw someone like dr. fauci making that case hub likely and i understand they make that case privately. we know this president has a version of thinking if he tweets something or says it with enough emphasis, he can make it true. you cannot wish away a deadly pandemic. when the president says something, as he did yesterday, that he thinks the virus is

going to disappear, that's not going to happen unless there is a coordinated effort by the federal government that involves increased testing and public awareness campaign to make it disappear. only then will it go away. >> let's talk about that public awareness campaign. dr. gupta, there are experts out there who will tell you how best to avert a crisis. they are experts with natural disasters, when a tornado might be coming, the best response to get someone in the safest position. there is the same thing that can be deployed in a public health crisis. why in the world has that not been deployed now and how much more effective would that be if there was a coordinated response on behalf of all of the

government, consistency that would flow in. >> that's a loaded question. what i would say to part one, if i had the answer why the president doesn't wear a mask when he should, weakening anything dr. fauci says, then i would go get a lottery ticket. i wish they didn't, because they are misusing it. they could model best behavior and they could speak to people, 60% of individuals in the mountain west weren't wearing a mask as an example. they could speak to those individuals and model why it's important. there is an adversarial nature between scientists and the

president. that is not helping anybody. it is causing people to query whether or not i have the best mow ti m mow tifs in mind when that wouldn't exist if the president handled things appropriately. >> you have governor abbott saying wear a mask a day after the lieutenant governor said he didn't believe dr. fauci. you have a number of health officials across the country including one of the health commissioners in california getting death threats for giving their recommendation to the public how to keep the public safe. dr. gupta, thank you for being with us.

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welcome back, as we said at the top of the show, texas governor abbott just issued a statewide mandate. the state had a new record number of hospitalizations which comes as the world's largest medical center in houston is running out of icu beds. they are operating at 100% capacity. the state had more than 8,000 new cases yesterday and 8,000 cases today. internal messages were obtained showing strain on hospital

staffs. this is the president of houston methodist, the flagship hospital in the texas medical center. i want to get you to react to governor abbott issuing the mask order. >> i feel much better this afternoon than earlier today. i am delighted. i flawed him for not making that decision. we are thrilled. and limiting size of gatherings to ten people. we have been looking at fourth of july weekend with a lot of alarm whether that weekend might act like memorial day weekend did, acting as an accelerant that drives the virus further.

our hospital system has billboards up all over town. we wrapped the paper up. we have been using social media and sent out tens of thousands of warnings to our patients, asking everybody to celebrate fourth of july with their immediate household unit. i'm thrilled he has put this order out today. >> what do you say to people who don't see this as life or death, only see it as a flu, but they will get over it because they are young and healthy or don't know anybody who has been hurt by it. >> it's flat out wrong. in the past couple of weeks i would hear that from people. i have never met anybody who has this. it isn't that bad. i don't meet many people who don't know somebody who has it.

the stories are running rampant and the virus is running rampant. the virus is accelerating. we have a lot of patients in the hospital. we have 2100 beds in the hospital, 500 with diagnosed covid and another 100 or so in workup. that's a lot, but we are managing that. we have awesome employees working to do that. we have surge plans in place. we are right at 100% of our normal icu system. we are about 20 patients more than normal capacity. all of us have surge plans in place. honestly, i think we will be okay handling that for two or three weeks if everyone does what they need to do to get control of this virus.

hopefully this is another element that starts to add to that. we are just urging everyone in houston, stay home, stay apart from each other, celebrate with your family unit. let's get this virus back under control so it doesn't take over our city. >> you are at more than 100% icu capacity. you think you will be able to handle it as long as it doesn't get worse. let's go to the worst-case scenario. if it does get worse, and you tell me what that threshold is, what will happen? >> we have about 330 icu beds in operation at any time. right now about 125 are being utilized by patients with covid. the rest are filled with

patients with serious issues, heart attraction, strokes, all of the usual things that require health and care. we are working hard for the citizens of houston with every illness they have. last time around, unfortunately, every i turned off, and we saw a lot of harm because of the numbers themselves. we can take those 330 in a first phase of expansion, up by another 100-plus beds if not more and in a couple of cases get up to 600 beds so all of the incremental growth won't be patients outside covid. we have a lot of ability to serve, but if we don't get this in control now, in about three weeks that becomes extraordinarily difficult. it can be done if everyone in the community locks on. >> let me give you an example of

what happened here. i live in brooklyn and we were hearing ambulance sirens day in and day out. there was a day when ems workers were told if you have somebody going into cardiac arrest and they flat line, you can't take them to the hospital to try to revive them. it's over. that was a dire situation. could that be the case in texas if things get worse? >> that's a horrible situation. that can happen anywhere, any city, any community anywhere if the virus gets out of control. right now the virus is out of control. not out of control to the point we project it will be there as long as we bend it and bend it yesterday. that's the key message, if the citizens of houston work

together, we can manage it. that's my worst nightmare as a hospital executive. we need to be there for the people we serve and that's a communal responsibility. >> it was a terrible time in new york when that was going on. >> i know it was. >> thank you, doctor, for joining us and giving us a sense of reality and giving everybody a warning for the weeks to come. we want to get in a quick presidential campaign. for the second month in a row, joe biden has raised more money than president trump. last month the biden party brought in $141 million while the trump party was just shy with $131 million. it's a big deal.

the trump campaign will talk about where they are compared to the biden campaign, but make no doubt about it, biden raising this much on an incumbent is a big deal. ent is a big deal

the economy added 4.8 million jobs last month, nearly 2 million more than predicted. more than 7 million jobs have been created or brought back over the last two months. that is good news, but there are still 15 million fewer jobs now than in february, a point which biden made sure to make, but president trump did not. some economists warn that parts of our economy may have to be reclosed due to covid. we have with us jason and brian.

jason, the numbers were better than expected. joe biden admits they are not bad. what do you think of them? >> two things are true. we created a lot of jobs in may and june and we lost a lot of jobs since february. that second fact in some ways is the more important one. somebody came down to earth today and learned the unemployment rate was 11%, they would think this economy that is a lot of problems, needs a lot more help going forward. >> do you think we are going to stay on this track? these numbers have a delay to them. they don't include the reshutering of cases we were seeing across the south and southwest. are you confident this upward trend will be sustainable as the

months progress, jason? >> i think it's very uncertain. still lots and lots of people are losing jobs and lots of people are gaining jobs. what this report is the net jobs number. last week more than 2 million people applied for unemployment insurance. that's been months and months of more than 2 million people, twice what it was in the last recession. people losing jobs, people gaining jobs. most of the daily indicators i have looked at indicate that progress has slowed but has not started to reverse. what happens over the next week or two though is just in creasingly uncertain for the economy. >> doug, you said that part of the reason this economy hasn't gone into the abyss is because of the quick action of the federal government.

these job numbers, do they potentially lead to a sense of complacency in that there is not more urgent action that needs to be taken? >> i hope not. i want to agree with jason and emphasize that we are getting people back to work. jobs in the past two months have tracked exactly the decline in people laid off. get them back to work. that's fantastic. this month even with the gre gregreat report, 600,000 people were laid off. my concern is in doing that, there is too much wishful thinking. there isn't a stimulus benefit or infrastructure program that will create growth if people don't feel safe to go to work and do their affairs.

the other magical thing is that the virus is going to go away or we will have a vaccine. >> this bonus extended for three months is now expired. you say it should not be extended further. why is that, doug? >> it would expire the end of july and is too big to be extended in its current form. 16% of the workforce makes more on unemployment than going back to their old job. as many as 70% of state workers would be that way. you need something more friendly to the labor market. it needs to be smaller at a minimum and it would be better to have it available even if you went back to work. you don't want to have an

impediment of going back to work. having that is an important part of what congress needs to do, but only part. there are dances they need to do on making sure there is ppe for people, making sure work spaces are configured to be safe. all of that will take money. congress should find ways to support the con mitt and find ways to get people back to work and into the stores. there wasn't an income decline. they stopped spending, and it was high income people who stopped spending because they didn't want to be near people. we have to fiction that problem -- fix that problem. >> jason, do you agree with that? >> i agree with a lot of that. if unemployment insurance went away in august, the point that doug just made that incomes

decline would no longer be true. we have protected the economy to some degree. people have by and large had enough money to spend, but just haven't had enough to spend it on. we will get a demand shock. we will get an additional ripple recession if those checks end entirely. i was part of a bipartisan that said it was based on rates. if you were in nebraska, you would get a smaller amount. in cities, you would get more.

>> and eviction bar ends the end of this month and that money helps keep them in their places. we will have the latest from capital hill next. and coronavirus and the impact on communities of color. why are they bearing the brunt of this impact?

welcome back. congressional leaders have been briefed on bounties on u.s. troops. it is the fourth day there have been briefings. the question democrats are asking is when did president trump receive the intel. i am joined by garrett from

capital hill. what did you glean from nancy pelosi. in conversations i have been having with lawmakers, they won't tell me what was in the briefings. but they act like they are more concerned and they are asking what congress should do to punish russia. should i read into that or you tell me what you are hearing and what you can say? >> pelosi shed a little bit of light on all of those topics. first in her written statement and weekly scheduled news conference held. she made the point she thinks the president should read his tdb and less time tweeting about c confederate monuments, meaning this was the kind of information

written down and available for him to read had he chosen to read it. both she and other lawmakers i have tried to talk to have been a little more mum. pleasi pelosi chastised reporters for falling for this con that information is only presented to the president when it's vetted. she makes the point that lots of things that aren't fully locked down and vetted can and do come to the president's attention early on. and what congress might do about this? pelosi talked about reinstituting things that were

imposed a few years ago and then were stripped out. >> there is one more piece of russia related capital hill news. whether lawmakers can get access to grand jury material to the muller investigation. they have been trying to get an unredacted version since last year and now it looks like they will have to wait a little longer. the supreme court agreed to hear it, but it looks like it won't be until after the november elections. after the november elections. she still steals the show. even vogue magazine exclaims, "at 52, cindy still looks as good as she did at 25!" us weekly calls it

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we are also continuing to look at the disproportionate impact the coronavirus is having on communities of color across the united states. ron allen visited some of the new york city neighborhoods hit hardest. >> reporter: she has set up her own food pantry to help her neighbors. >> six feet apart, please. >> reporter: the city is

reopening, the country is reopening, but there is still this. >> yes, but the majority of people didn't qualify for financial help out there. >> reporter: them especially vulnerable to the virus. leading to one of the highest infection rates and deaths per capita. this woman is undocumented and now ineligible for government help. [ speaking spanish ] >> the restaurant where i used to work is permanently closed now. >> reporter: she knows her plight very well. >> my mom was a street vendor. my mom was a nanny. she cleaned people's homes. >> reporter: cruz was just 9 when her mother brought her here from colombia. she is now the first former dreamer ever elected to tate office in new york. now crying out for help in her community. >> when you see this, what you've seen over the last few months, how does that make you feel? >> it's gut wrenching.

because there's only so much i can do for folks. >> reporter: new york's small business services tells nbc news, queens got about 16% of recovery loans. manhattan, the wealthiest area, got 57%. and bronx, the city's peefrt area, received just 2%. >> we have some breaking news. first, i'll thank ron allen for that. we have some breaking news. we have once again broken the daily record for new cases already today and it's 5:45. more than that. so far reporting more than 53,000 cases. joining me now, dr. blackstock, an emergency room physician and the founder and ceo of advancing health equity. an organization whose goal is get to rid of race-based inequalities. thank you very much for being here. we're hitting another daily record of 53,000 cases in the united states. and we also know that this virus

is affecting communities of color much harder. and in a much worse way than it is affecting white communities. what does that mean for the disparity? not only the economic inequality that we're seeing in this country but the health care disparity that we have. what can you tell us? >> even before the pandemic, these communities, black and latino, indigenous communities, were already carrying the highest burden of chronic disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity and asthma, which are underlying factors that make people do much worse when they're infected with coronavirus. we're seeing it disproportionately in these communities and my concern is as this continues across the country, these communities will be even further impacted. >> do you think that it has been easier for white communities,

some, not everyone, but some, to not see this as big of a problem as it is, because it is not affecting white communities as badly as it is affecting communities of color? >> yeah. i mean, there was a survey last week in the "washington post" that showed one in three black americans knew someone who had died from coronavirus. and the number for white americans was much significantly loempl and so when you have someone close to you who dies, or you know someone who has been affected by this, you feel the devastation much more. so my concern is that there are certain areas of the country that haven't been impacted by this. those are parts that really want to reopen. and we know what reopening is doing. it is really exposing people, and really the most vulnerable communities to becoming reinfected again. >> a lot of those communities, a lot of those reopenings are relying on jobs that are held by

black and brown people. essential workers, a lot of grocery store workers, delivery workers, a lot of the jobs are held by minority communities, and not necessarily white communities. >> exactly. because of racism, because of practices and policies have limited black and latino people to certain types of job, so service workers, front line workers,le of my patients here work for the subway, bus drivers. they didn't have an opportunity to work from home. they were exposed to the virus. >> i want to underscore what you're talking about a second ago in terms of who is being affected by this. >> it is more than double the rate of americans overall. and triple white americans. those are pretty staggering numbers.

i want to get you, doctor, on what this is doing, not necessarily for black and brown people who are needing to be treated for covid-19 but have other health issues. would otherwise need to be okay. they also have underlying medical problems that are not being managed, right? so it is making them even more at risk for being very, very sick. so that's the balance that we have to see. we want to make sure everyone is safe and that they're not exposed to coronavirus. they have to be able to visit their doctors and be treated for these chronic medical conditions. >> we appreciate all your time.

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before we go, we want to mark the passing of a television news icon. we've learned long time journalist and anchor man hugh downs died yesterday. he was best known for hosting abc's 20/20 with barbara walters for two decades. he had a long and storied career including here at nbc. he hosted the "today" show from 1962 to 1971. covering some of the most important stories of our time including the mlk and jfk assassinations, along with the vietnam war. hugh downs, a steady voice in turbulent times. he was 99 years old. don't we all need a steady voice right now in these turbulent times. that is all for "meet the press daily" tonight. thank you for joining us. i will see you back here on monday. in the meantime, "the beat" with

ari melber starts right now. >> hi, thank you so much. welcome to "the beat." i'm ari melber. tonight we're reporting what experts are telling us. the covid crisis breaking records and may be approaching a point of no return. later this hour we have updates on president trump's new russia scandal, the bounty payments to kill u.s. troops. do you remember donald trump's talk of travel bans? well, he just got a new one but it is against the united states and his administration's approach to covid. "new york times" journalist tom friedman on "the beat" to explain. plus, bill barr's clash with the famed southern district of new york is back in the news because prosecutors there just indicted a woman linked to jeffrey epstein for a sex trafficking plot. we have that development later. brand new legal story. but our top story right now is of course, and sadly, this pandemic raging across america. coronavirus cases hitting a new daily record right now across