hello, everyone. live pictures from myrtle beach, south carolina, it has been a busy holiday weekend at america's beaches. and that has health experts concerned about a new coronavirus spike. we won't know for several days if that's the case, but they're already seeing near record high numbers in texas and florida. there are new signs the president's response to the pandemic is pulling down his poll numbers and if this weekend is any indication, the president is banking on a culture war to boost his base. and we'll talk about the maxwell case. why it might be difficult for the accomplice to strike a plea deal with prosecutors. florida emerging as a possibly bubbling coronavirus hot spot. today, florida is reporting

10,059 cases of the virus pushing the total to over 200,000. this is the third time in four days that the state has reported over 10,000 new cases in a single day. nbc's sam brock joins us now from miami. what concerns are doctors there sharing with you? >> reporter: good to be with you here on this afternoon. 21,000 cases this weekend. you mentioned myrtle beach, south carolina, they hit a record in south carolina of 1,800 cases yesterday. there's more than five times that just today in florida. in terms of the concerns locally, they're going to be talking about hospitals. i'm in miami-dade county, that's one of the places where they've shut down the beaches. if you're going to look anywhere at where the hospital would be the most acute, it would be here because a quarter of the cases throughout the state are in miami-dade county. so what's going on here? on june 26th, there was fewer

than 900 covid-19 patients. as of today, the latest new normal dashboard that the county reports, more than 1,500 cases. even if you account for roughly 100, the county says was underreported previously, you're looking at a 50% spike over that time frame. jackson health which is the primary health provider in miami has seen a 47% jump. i talked to the doctor about what he's seeing with icu beds. here's what he said. >> if this continues the way it is, it's going to mean we're going to look like elmhurst hospital in new york. the capacity will be strained and people will have trouble getting in for the things they really need. this really has to be brought under control and it hasn't been. >> reporter: icu beds at jackson health right now are available through special arrangement. which is to say, you cannot just get sick and get a bed right

now, they have to talk to administrators. that is shocking. and it comes at a time right now where the transmission here in miami-dade county, 22.1% is the rolling average over the last couple of weeks. we see videos of people being tested right now. the testing numbers are going up. but it's the positivity rates that have a lot of officials concerned. it's why they're closing down beaches and that could go beyond this holiday weekend if the situation warrants it. alicia? >> have you heard anything from the governor about considering a statewide mask main date? >> reporter: so far he's resisted it. we've seen the calls. it's been going on for weeks. texas would be a got counter example of that. we have not seen a similar pivot yet from the florida governor. in miami-dade county, there's a mask mandate in place, miami beach, the city of miami,

jacksonville, the list goes on and on and on. a lot of cities taking control in their own hands. >> sam, thank you. several outbreaks have caused a coronavirus spike in california with the state reporting 6,000 to 7,000 cases a day. los angeles county has more cases than any other county in the nation. scott, are people social distancing out there on the beaches? >> reporter: you can see, alicia, they are right now. it's 11:00 a.m. local time. here in santa cruz which is one of the only beaches up and down the california coast that is open, no restrictions at all. they had tried keeping the beaches closed up until a couple of weeks ago, but they decided they could not enforce that anymore. they've opened it up and the concern is, this being a popular gety for the bay area that a

lot of people will flood here. not so much to any great extent today. as you can see, there are people who are here and some trying to strike the balance between staying fit and staying safe. >> what is california's governor saying about the spike in cases? >> reporter: it's a cause for concern. they are watching -- they're watching a number of counties basically based on the phased reopening plan that the state and governor gavin newsom has been doing. some counties are slipping back into a watch area, closing bars and restaurants in some places. santa cruz county is right now open. they've had a relatively more subdued outbreak of covid-19 here. but 455 cases in this county and three deaths in a county of about 275,000 people. there is a concern in a a lot of counties -- a lot of areas in the state have not been

reporting the cases over the holiday weekend, especially los angeles county where nearly half of the cases in california are centered. and the concern is we're going to see a spike in numbers when some of those numbers come out tomorrow. >> thank you, scott. texas also grappling with the spread of covid-19. dallas county health officials report a record number of new cases on saturday. greg abbott rolled back reopening measures limiting capacity in restaurants and mandating that masks must be worn at all times in public places. joining me now from dallas is jay gray. the governor said that churches and voting sites are exempt from mask mandates. why? >> reporter: he says it's a constitutional issue. people should not have the opportunity to vote just because they don't have a mask. texas has runoff elections coming up in less than two

weeks. he said specifically don't lose your constitutional rights during a pandemic. he's pushed to allow mail-in voting. he's resisted that idea. in churches -- and we're just in front of a massive cathedral here in downtown dallas where parishioners have been coming in and out, everyone with a mask on, that's something that's been mandated by the dallas diocese. other churches, including first baptist where the vice president spoke just a week ago was not wearing masks. we've seen people going into that church today and all with masks on. maybe they've changed the policy after the governor's mandate. it's a pastor by pastor decision and some are deciding they don't have to wear masks, though, most are abiding by that rule. >> we were just talking with sam brock who is in miami, florida,

hospital capacity a huge issue there. how much of an issue is it in texas? >> reporter: it's really turning into a crisis situation. here in dallas, the county hospital has added a fourth unit just to treat covid patients. in houston, we've seen them running out of icu beds, as well as regular hospital beds. down in the rio grande valley, officials have said we have zero rooms left. they're urging people to stay at home. really, desire predictions from a lot of officials, including from the mayor of austin. >> even if we had the physical icu beds, what i'm being told is there's not the staffing to go along with the surge. if this is happening in austin and dallas and houston and san antonio all at the same time, we're in trouble. >> reporter: yeah, and that trouble many officials fear is

going to grow. yesterday, the last day they reported, over 1,100 new cases. it took 116 days for dallas to acquire its first 1,100 cases. they've done more than 2,100 new cases in the friday and saturday leading into this weekend. and officials here are stressing the results they're getting are mostly ten days out. they are very fearful about what this holiday weekend is going to do to the numbers moving forward. >> thank you. now to washington, d.c. today the president's hand-picked fda chief is refusing to back trump's claim that 99% of coronavirus cases are harmless. monica, the fda chief was pushed for a response on the president's claim this morning. what exactly did he say? >> reporter: he was asked repeatedly to weigh in on that false claim the president

presented last night at the white house about 99% of coronavirus cases being totally harmless in his words. i want you to take a listen exactly to what stephen hahn had to say. he didn't want to weigh in exactly on that and made an important point to americans about where we are in this pandemic. take a listen. >> we know that cases are surging in the country. we've all see the graphs associated with that. it's too early and i'm not going to speculate on what the causization is there. >> i realize this is not easy for you. you're doing -- working really hard to try to protect americans. i have to ask you flatly, to that end, to protect americans, is the president wrong? >> so, i'm not going to get into who's right and wrong. >> so you won't say whether 99% of coronavirus cases are, quote, completely harmless is true or false, what the president said at the white house last night? >> what i'll say is that we have

data in the white house task force, they show us that this is a serious problem. people need to take it seriously. >> reporter: this is something we've seen repeatedly from members of the coronavirus task force, they have to come out and do cleanup on something the president has said. also last night we heard the president touting that a vaccine might be here before the end of the year when the fda commissioner was pressed on that in a different interview this morning. he said he couldn't promise any timeline for that vaccine. and while he's hopeful that could happen in the next six months, there are no guarantees. and what's most important is the safety of these trials before we can get to that point. and this comes as we've really seen a shift and more of the people who are taking these questions and trying to give the medical advice falls to the task force members led by vice president mike pence, but he's the one that has been crisscrossing the country, going to hot spots, texas, and arizona and florida while the president hasn't been talking as much about it.

when he does go into coronavirus, it seems to be, he makes these claims that simply aren't true. and last night, again, also, he said that because the united states is doing so much more testing, that's why we have more cases. but dr. deborah birx has refuted that assertion saying that it's really more about the positivity rates as we've seen in places, again, where the cases are surging. it's not so much about the testing. it's really just about the spike in cases and that's something that's expected to continue to rise after this fourth of july weekend. >> monica, thank you. we're also following some breaking news out of south carolina. a search for suspects in a shooting in a nightclub that was violating the state's coronavirus restrictions. two people were killed, eight injured in the shooting what is described as a very crowded lavish lounge in greenville. tell us, first, about the shooting itself and the victims.

>> reporter: we're told at this point the first shot rang out at about 1:46 this morning. ten people the victims here. two of those people have since passed away. one other is in critical condition. we're told the others are expected to be released from the hospital at some point today. that is according to the greenville county sheriff. we talked about the suspects here. we're learning from the sheriff's department that there are multiple people who were firing shots inside. at this point, nobody is in custody. they are looking for those people. but the sheriff's office telling us that at this point, none of those suspects are a threat to anybody else. they're reviewing a lot of video. there's been video making its rounds across social media. we've seen a lot of different clips on facebook, depicting what had happened that night, and also security cameras. there are 19 different security cameras inside that lounge that deputies are searching through. they're trying to get more information as to who these suspects are. one of the big concerns that

we're talking about too is, covid-19, on friday, as of friday, we had more than 41,000 confirmed cases of covid-19 in south carolina. governor henry, yes, making it clear that things like these nightclubs, concerts, speedways, these things shouldn't be happening in the state. he said so in the address. aside from that, there's a state of emergency that we are under right now in the state of south carolina and per the governor's executive order, you cannot be doing this. people can't be at nightclubs, at concerts, people cannot be at racetracks. and the sheriff told us today that this would actually fall under two violations here, you're talking about the concert violation and also a nightclub violation. so as far as what the fines and the punishment they could be facing, at least from the state and from law enforcement agencies, you're looking at about a $200 fine. there's been chatter here about the potential for perhaps civil

lawsuits moving forward. we're continuing to learn a lot more information as this day continues to unfold. >> thank you. up next, the candidates for president deliver two very different messages to the american people this weekend. what their visions for the country can tell us about the 2020 race. sports fans want their favorite teams back on the field. why sports in america will look very different when they return.

president trump's fourth of july speech followed a similar script to the one he delivered on friday, both describing a dangerous and divided america. >> in every age there have always been those who seek to lie about the past in order to gain power in the present. those that are lying about our history, those who want us to be ashamed of who we are not interested in justice or in

healing. their goal is demolition. >> it's a stark difference from the message the biden campaign makes in this campaign video released today. >> today people are hurting, scared, and angry. but to heal this kind of suffering doesn't take brute force, it takes empathy and understanding. a belief in dignity, resilience, and the american dream. that's what joe biden's family taught him all those years ago. >> with me now to discuss, danielle strauss, political reporter at the guardian and political correspondent for business insider. i want to get your take on the tone of the remarks last night which are similar to what we heard, his remarks in south dakota. does the administration, does the re-election campaign really believe this kind of rhetoric is his ticket to win in november? >> you know, what we saw over the last several days was largely the president relying on

the playbook that he used during the 2016 campaign which obviously proved very successful for him. he struck a very combative tone. it was pretty much like night and day when you compared trump's message and biden's message. the president was attacking people, protesting racism and police brutality, and saying they were pulling at the nation's fabric. he referenced, you know, the pretty heated debate going on over the removal of confederate statues and saying that's based on a web of lies. it's clear that the president's campaign is going to leave heavily on running a very divisive campaign which, you know, as i mentioned a couple of seconds ago, was successful for him in 2016. but obviously, the wild card this time around is this election is happening in the middle of a pandemic that has ravaged the economy and that the trump administration has largely failed to get under control. and so, you know, it's

questionable whether using the type of rhetoric that he's using is going to be as successful for him this time around as it was in 2016. >> danielle, it's not surprising that president trump is using divisive rhetoric. we have heard this rhetoric from him before. but he said on saturday that his administration has made, quote, a lot of progress on what was another record day for coronavirus infections. you have the president on the wrong side of the public when you talk about this virus and when you talk about the protests that we're seeing in the streets. so what is the decision? what is the thinking? what is the calculus inside the campaign about why they're choosing to continue to pursue this message about both the virus and the protests that we're seeing across the country? >> look, to an extent. it's really the president himself who wants to argue that he has total control over the situation and that joe biden is actually the one who is inept and things will get worse under

a biden administration. that's what's difficult right now because a president has a record on this. and really, trump -- top trump campaign officials are trying to revamp the campaign's message. they're really in search of one. so far, the arguments that they have made on handling coronavirus, on the economy have not moved poll numbers in their direction. what we're seeing right now is the campaign very subtlety trying out different messages while the president himself is trying to energize his base. that's why we're seeing rallies in places like kansas and south dakota. but at the same time, they're not getting the response either in polling or at these events that they're hoping for which is record numbers of crowds, no coronavirus infections coming out of that. and that's the real problem for the trump re-election campaign right now. >> listen to what senator tammy duckworth, a combat veteran, said about the president's speech on friday. take a listen.

>> what really struck me about this speech that the president gave is that he spent more time worried about honoring dead confederates than he did talking about the lives of our -- 130,000 americans who lost their lives to covid-19 or the russian bounties on miles per hoamerica. he spent all of his time talking about dead traitors. >> his priorities are all wrong, is that going to be a big part of the democratic message as we move into november? >> yeah, certainly. i think it's also worth noting that nbc news reported recently that the president's campaign actually made a conscious choice to sideline him and not have him be on the front lines as it relates to coronavirus messaging as much because i think they realize what he has said so far and what he has done -- or

rather his lack of action so far has only hurt him among the broader broad broader electorate. we saw polls showing that trump is pretty badly trailing biden on a national level. i believe he was trailing biden by 9 1/2 percentage points and trailing the former vice president in states that hillary clinton narrowly lost in 2016 including michigan, wisconsin and pennsylvania. but i think more importantly, a lot of those polls show that biden was leading trump in states that the president carried in 2016 like georgia and ohio. and they were tied in states like iowa which is why we're seeing president trump hold rallies in states that otherwise would not even be battleground for the democratic and republican candidate, but when you factory in the fact that we have this pandemic that the administration has failed to bring under control, a lot of these states that weren't in play before are in play now.

>> you wrote an article for the guardian arguing that the efforts to beat trump this year are better and more organized than they have been in the past. tell me a little bit about why this is and why this election feels different. >> a lot of these groups will say, look, we have a record of the president now. we've seen him in action. we know what he's like as president and a lot of what we were worried about in 2016 came to fruition. and they really realized that if there's opposition to trump among the republican party that it needs to be -- to feel a sense that they're allowed to voice that and they're allowed to vote for vice president biden. the argument is that in 2016, republicans didn't feel like they could vote for hillary clinton, they didn't feel that they needed any organization or really needed to vote for him at all. they could get -- they could stay home and still hillary clinton would win. they've now seen that that's not

going to happen and they need to be more active. finally i really want to put up one other point on this which is that unlike in 2016, the leaders of these groups, these anti-trump republican groups are much more serious and active within the party. it's not fringe consultants and sort of tired republican operatives. these are some of the best in the party who are working against trump now. >> all right. thank you. we're going to see you a little bit later in the hour. up next, parts of rural america are starting to see a spike in coronavirus cases. why their health care systems may not be ready for it. a pediatric group says schools should aim for in-person schools in the fall. wayfair has way more ways to renovate your home,

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keeping an eye on a couple of beaches on this holiday

weekend in two states dealing with coronavirus. wilmington, north carolina, and rhode island. in virginia, rates of coronavirus infections are declining in former hot spots like richmond but there's an increase in the southwest part of the state. we're at the roanoke memorial hospital. what are health providers telling you? >> reporter: that's exactly right, we've seen the covid rate declining all across virginia in places like richmond, northern virginia, which carried those hot spots earlier, just a couple of months ago. now as the state is opening up, there's a spike in more rural parts of the area including this southwestern portion of the state. covid cases are rising. i spoke to the chair of medicine here at roanoke memorial behind me. take a listen to what he told me about the process and how we got to this moment. >> more recently we've had multiple introductions, especially from places like

myrtle beach, south carolina, and other places where people are not taking precautions, where they're not wearing masks, where they're congregating in bars and coming here and introducing things into the community. that then results in secondary spread because 30 or 40% of these people, often younger people, are asymptomatic. >> reporter: that's what you just heard from the doctor that this is an issue that's happening in this area because of the asymptomatic spread. people are going to places like myrtle beach. we were just talking about the beaches a second ago. the rate there is so high, they're not following social distancing precautions, not wearing masks and they're coming home and not quarantining and they're continuing to not wear a mask. myrtle beach has been a hot spot for this area. when i went into the hospital lobby just a couple hours ago, they screened me. they took my temperature, asked me if i had any symptoms and i was specifically asked if i had been to myrtle beach. it's becoming a big issue in

this area as we see these coronavirus cases rise in this part of the state while the rest of the state opens up and is doing a lot better. alea aleash -- alicia. the american academy of pediatrics argued that schools should reopen. let's bring in the doctor who helped draft the guidance. he's a infectious disease specialist at the university of colorado. he's also a covid-19 survivor and a parent of two school-aged children. you were in the thick of this, in so many ways. how do you account for the difference between your guidance and the cdc's guidance? >> i think our guidance actually is consistent with cdc guidance. i think what we were trying to do with our guidance was give a little bit of help to districts

who were having trouble interpreting what do we do with the six-foot distancing rule. they say keep students six feet apart if feasible. and honestly, in a lot of schools, that's not feasible. our guidance was trying to take all things into consideration, the overall health of children and communities and make the point that kids are best -- are going to be best served in school and how do we make that happen. and so, for example, if you can't be six feet apart, wearing face coverings can make a difference. that's one example where we kind of helped try to interpret the guidance for schools and district that is are making their plans. >> part of your cathat is the r keeping children at home are any worse than the risks present today them in a school

environment. where did you land? >> for sure. yeah, one of the things that's become clear is that, you know, this infection is definitely less severe in kids than it is in adults. some kids can get very sick with this, but it's on the order of other respiratory viruses like influenza. and so, you know, from the standpoint of children's health, they're better off in school. we saw lots of downsized -- kids being at home in the spring, at the end of the semester, where there was honestly very little learning going on, i can speak to that from my own household and also, you know, there were many, many reports of increases in anxiety, depression, suicidality, all kinds of negative effects from the kids being at home. it's not an easy thing to open schools. it's going to be a lot of work and they're going to be places where we may not be able to do

that because of how much covid-19 is circulating in the community. but our guidance really says, you know, start with the goal of having schools open and work backwards, figure out how you can do that. because what we were seeing with some of the districts were making plans to have, you know, kids in school every other week and that's not -- that's really not feasible for a lot of families. >> one of the things that i've heard you speak about before that i think is interesting, especially because our understanding of this virus continues to evolve, is not only whether or not children get it and whether or not they get sick from it, but the role they play in spreading the virus. because i think that is part of the concern on the part of educators, on the part of parents, that you send your child to school, come back with the virus and predecessspread i people in the home. what more do we know about that? >> we're learning more and more every day about how this virus

spreads. what we have seen so far is that in -- some countries have been able to successfully open schools and not seen a lot of outbreaks within school settings. there have been some places, israel, the united kingdom, where there have been outbreaks in schools and we're paying close attention to those. but it does appear that children are both less likely to get the infection, particularly younger children, and they are also less likely to spread the infection. primarily, we think because they don't get as symptomatic as adults with a cough and runny nose and the things that would spread infection. not sneezing as much, et cetera. >> all right, doctor. thank you so much for your time. we'll be right back. e. we'll be right back. - [narrator] did you just reward yourself

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in the midst of the coronavirus storm, the plan of the return of nba, nhl and major league baseball are giving fans a glimmer of hope. will college football, a big money, big contact sport that counts on packed stadiums find a way to play in the middle of a public health crisis. erin mclaughlin takes a look. >> reporter: there's no social distancing in football.

before the college season has begun, there have been explosive coronavirus outbreaks at voluntary work outs, despite 37 cases at clemson university, the school says workouts will push forward. many schools declined to release exact numbers. reports of outbreaks at schools including alabama, texas a&m and defending national champs lsu where at least 30 out of 115 players have contracted the virus, according to sports illustrated. the athletic director at kansas sta state. 14 kansas state football players tested positive for the virus. 60 players have been quarantined including a number of presumptive positives. taylor says the players initially tested negative. he claims they caught the virus through social interactions, not

football. >> if you think that kansas state is responsible for the 14 positive covid-19 tests? >> i don't think we're responsible because, again, that didn't happen in our facility and those kids, we tested them, we told them what to do, we told them the safety precautions they needed to take place. >> this was a foreseeable circumstance. you could foresee these students going out to bars, you still need to own that. that's your responsibility. >> reporter: experts question whether there should be a season at all. ucla players say they're caught in the middle. >> we're the ones that have to go out there and put our bodies on the line. >> reporter: this quarterback is one of 30 ucla players to sign a letter demanding more safety measures including the ability to make health decisions without consequence. >> if they give us the opportunity, a lot of guys are going to want to play. >> reporter: ucla says it's implemented all of the requests in the players' letter. >> there is no such thing as

voluntary. if your coach tells you to do something, as a player, you do that. >> reporter: some schools have required student athletes to sign pledges, acknowledging and accepting the risk of exposure to covid-19. a senate hearing focused on students' rights. lawmakers agree they need more protection. >> do they plan to issue universal coronavirus guidelines to all participating colleges and universities. >> this is under discussion actively on a daily basis. >> reporter: with no national guidelines in place, this oklahoma coach says he wants to see more testing. >> i wouldn't put my players on the field without that and i don't think any -- >> reporter: you expect the ncaa to put that into place. >> i hope they do. i hope they don't leave it up to individual schools. >> reporter: he was pushing back on early voluntary work outs which began for his team this week. >> why is it worth the risk to have a football season in the middle of a pandemic? >> i don't know that it is worth

it. staff members health, anything like that versus go play a football game, that's an easy decision. >> reporter: with so much on the line, some are wondering if the game is worth the gamble. erin mclaughlin, los angeles. coming up, she faces serious criminal charges in the jeffrey epstein investigation, but will she cooperate with prosecutors? we'll talk about ghislaine maxwell next.

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. a new update in the jeffrey epstein case. maxwell was arrested in new hampshire on thursday. she faces several charges including the transportation of minors for sexual exploitation and abuse. maxwell was known as a close confident of epstein's and her arrest a year after his own. daniel strauss is back now. his piece published in the guardian details maxwell's relationship with epstein and the circle of influential people she was in touch with.

in your article looking into maxwell's life you write, maxwell has been called epstein's lady of the house and his business partner, former employees and friends said she was his fixer, manager and social lifeline. multiple epstein victims alleged she recruited women and girls for him to abuse. how did maxwell first get involved with jeffrey epstein? >> they had known each other for years and at times -- their entanglements included their finances and social circles. throughout this process, somehow, we may find out in going forward in the investigation, she became a collaborator or partner in this ring that jeffrey epstein was running. >> she has pictures with a number of high-profile people. she is frequently photographed alongside epstein, the trump, prince andrew, also a guest of

chelsea clinton's wedding. she has so many of these photographs. does she actually have relationships with these people? >> i mean she comes from a at t will find many people who are going to say they were very close to gis lane maxwell because of what's going on in this case right now. but it's hard to tell. she was at some pretty high-profile events like chelsea clinton's wedding. and i think that's going to draw attention to her associations going forward. >> in the federal indictment by the sdny, it states maxwell assisted, facilitied and contributed to by helping to groom and recruit victims known to be under the age of 18. what role do you understand her having played in procuring victims for epstein and

inflicting abuse on these girls. >> it's exactly what indictment says. according to that she was an active participant and she would help lure young women to this sex ring that jeffrey epstein was running. she would sort of befriend them and try and put them at ease and then sort of entrap them in this network. >> maxwell was arrested in new hampshire where she has been laying low for some time. why did she not flee the country after epstein was arrested a year ago? >> that's an unknown question i have had and it's -- she has multiple passports and means to leave and yet the -- when she was arrested it was in a pretty posh setting in this nice house in new hampshire. it's sort of unclear why she didn't leave the country. perhaps she thought that charges would never really get to her. i'm not clear. perhaps she thought it was too long ago and the case would fade into the background.

>> epstein died from purported suicide in prison in august of 2019. is law enforcement concerned about maxwell's safety? >> no. they haven't expressed any public concern about that. what they are interested in is seeing if she's going to move forward with her defense or agree to a plea deal which would probably open up new avenues to understanding the entirety of this jeffrey epstein sex ring and what was going on. that's if more about this comes to life. if she decides to go forward with the trial and a lot more details would be publish sized. it's unclear if she will do that right now. >> underscore that, if she decides to go forward with a trial, explain that to viewers. >> she could agree to -- settle and agree to cooperating with federal prosecutors in further investigating the sex ring or decide that she wants to defend

herself and go to court. >> all right. daniel, thank you. that wraps it up for this hour. i'm alyssa menendez. jonathan takes over at the top of the hour and he will talk to air force veteran chrissy hughley han about whether president trump ignored intelligence. i will be back at 4:00 p.m. to talk to one of the mayors advocating for guaranteed income for struggling americans, in about an hour right here on msnbc. n msnbc. nd auto bundle. we all know customers can save big. [ cellphone chimes ] um, so, we're talking 24/7 protection. as it -- [ cellphone chimes ] [ clears throat ] mara, hello. [ cellphone clicking ] yeah? we can see you on your phone. oh, my bad. you can continue. [ clicking continues ] [ cellphone chimes ] i think she's still on the phone.

hey there, i'm joshua johnson. great to be with you on this fourth of july weekend. from nbc news world headquarters in new york. norm his this would be a great time to hang out with family and friends but this year coronavirus continues to spread at an alarming rate. florida reported more than 10,000 new cases. it's the third time in four days that the daily increase has been that high. texas has also had several days of record-breaking numbers. 40 states are seeing an increase in cases. the reasons why, looks something like this. ♪ >> that scene from diamond lake, michigan, violates just about every cdc guideline you can imagine on covid-19. it looked like they're having a good time. seeing packed beaches in other states and look at the gorgeous

coastline of myrtle beach, south carolina with varying degrees of social distancing depending on where you are on the shoreline. president trump continues to downplay this crisis and to make some indefensible claims. this morning, the head of the fda could not defend one claim in particular. >> i just have to ask you flatly, to that end, to protect americans, is the president wrong? >> so i'm not going to get into who's right and who's wrong. >> you won't say whether 99% of coronavirus cases are, quote, completely harmless is true or false with what the president said at the white house last night? >> dana, what i'll say is that we have data in the white house task force, those data show us things is a serious problem. people need to take it seriously. >> this pandemic has killed more than 130,000 americans, but the president's main message this weeken h