a good monday afternoon to you. we're following the latest facts on this pandemic for you right now. we just heard from florida governor, the governor down play thag state's increase in case numbers, say iing the jump is coming because of an increase in testing. he said the recent surge in cases has been driven by people largely in their 20s and 30s. meanwhile, the united states just crossed 2.9 million cases of coronavirus and nearly 133,000 americans have died. florida, texas, arizona are among the states with the highest surge in cases right now. but today in new york city, they're entering phase three of reopening. allowing nail salons, spas, and

tattoo parlors to reopen. but there will be no indoor dining in new york city as part of the phase three reopening plan. and right now, the white house is scheduled to hold a press briefing as a well. we will keep an eye on that for you during this hour for any headlines, but again, just hearing from florida's governor right now, the governor still add it, holding a news conference at the villages there in florida. the state is the country's new hot spot. it saw a record high for infections climb iing to a stunning 11,348 in just 24 hours over the weekend. kerry sanders is live in st. petersburg, florida. kerry, what have we learned from the governor in the last 30, that minutes or so? >> if folks were looking for florida's governor to announce that he was going to take

control of the state, they're not get iting that right now. as you know for the longest time since this pandemic began in march, the governor has deferred authority over to local governments and he said emphasizing again that this is a problem in certain parts of the state, not one that requires his authority to issue, for instance, a mandate requiring people everywhere in the state wear masks. so you have that in certain parts of the state and others you don't. you have fourth of july weekend where the beaches primarily in south florida from palm beach, broward, dade and monroe county were closed. where over here on the west coast, the beaches are wide open. the reason we're standing in front of this hospital here is this is one of four hospitals that's now reached its capacity in terms of accepting patients in the icu area. that has a lot of people worried. not only about the possibility of more patients arriving at hospitals and having to be

transferred to other hospitals, but also staffing. whether there's enough staff. but right now, as the governor is speaking, he is emphasizing that he believes based on the statistics that he's look iing , that there is not a crisis in the state. in fact, he notes that the average age of those who are now testing positive are 36 years old, suggesting in his news conference that that lower age is an indication that it is not a crisis because as he says, this is disproportionately affecting older people and health statistics do show that, but it doesn't mean younger people are necessarily immune as we know in the state of florida, the youngest victim was 11 years old, so this does impact everybody and whether they die or not, we do know that the ages of those who do need to come into the hospitals run the gamut. craig. >> kerry sanders there in st. petersbu

petersburg. thank you. president trump's campaign schedule is heating up. even as coronavirus devastates communities all over the country, this saturday, the president will be holding an outdoor rally. this time at the portsmouth international airport in new hampshire. attendees at that saturday rally will be asked to sign a waiver acknowledging the risk of contracting covid-19. the campaign announcement said in part quote, there will be ample access to hand sanitizer and all attendees will be provided a face mask that they are strongly encouraged to wear. i'm joined now by carol lee, she's live for us this afternoon from the white house. carol, does this, this choice of an outdoor venue, does it perhaps suggest that the president is considering the risks of holding these events at all or is he still at lagger heads with the white house task force?

>> well, i'd say it's a little bit of both, but he definitely is of the recognition that there needs to be a way for the president to have these rallies in way that's as safe as possible, particularly after what happened in tulsa, where some members of the president's campaign staff tested positive for coronavirus while they were on the ground there. but there was a broader theme going on here. we're months into this pandemic and cases are surging. the president is saying that americans need the to rern to live with this virus. this is something that's going to be around for a while. they're emphasizing that most americans are likely to survive the virus if they survive it. things like therapeutics. and he took the message to a new level saying that essentially 99% of people who contract coronavirus cases, in them, it turns out hob harmless. a member of the coronavirus task force, steven hahn, declined to

defend that comment when he was interviewed on cnn over the weekend. let's listen to what they both had to say. >> now we have tested almost 40 million people. we showcases, 99% of which are totally harmless. >> is the president wrong? >> so, i'm not going get into who's right and who's wrong. >> the president was making a factual point that most people will recover from coronavirus who get it. >> now there we heard the president's press secretary defending that comment. mark meadows was asked about this earlier and he defended the comment as well. said that a the president was saying that a this is largely harmless in most people. he said that they have data to back this up. notably, he didn't offer up any

of that data, but you can guarantee when the press secretary briefs at the white house, this is likely to be very much at the top of the list of questions for her. >> yeah. we'll be anxious to see how they explain it this time. carol lee from the white house. thank you. right now, hospitals in texas are, they're bracing for things to get worse. the centers for disease control and prevepntion warns that texa could see close to 2,000 new hospitalizations every day and just a matter of weeks. in houston alone, nearly 25% of covid-19 tests, nearly one in four, are coming back positive. and that's raising big questions about whether the hospital system can cope with this surge in cases. nbc's priscilla thompson is live at the texas medical center in houston. so first of all, how are health care workers there in houston, how are they able to treat all of those patients and protect themselves? or are they?

>> well, that is a key question, craig, is the idea of protecting those health care workers as these hospitalizations continue. numbers continue to go up. you know, houston mayor, sylvester turner, actually mentioned this. that while he is concerned about the icu capacity, r at this point, he's more concerned about having the staff. the doctors and nurses needed to actually treat those patients. and you know, we spoke to doctors here at houston methodist who say they are going to bring in additional nursing staff so they are prepared to meet those surge capacity needs and you know, you ask about those numbers and the doctors here are telling us that yes, the icu beds are, the staffing is part of it, but the icu beds is also continuing to be a concern and i want you to take a listen to how they're navigate

thag. >> we are transitioning some units to make them icu capable with staffing. so that's why you're hearing we have enough and we're okay, but it is urgent that people heed the warning to make sure they're social distancing. appropriately hand washing and masking up. >> and you ask about how hospitals are handling this higher volume of cases. one thing that the ceo of houston methodist hotold me is that the population is much younger so while they are seeing more cases, more patients coming in, the hospital stays aren't as long as, so they're able to get those people out and back home a little quicker, which has been sort of helping them manage that volume. but here at houston methodist, they are taking a number of precautions to protect their staff, including temperature check, regular testing and keeping them in the masks and practicing the social distancing throughout the hospital to keep their staff well and in a position to treat these patients as they come in, craig. >> okay, priscilla thompson in

houston. thank you. let's turn now to the mayor of san antonio, texas. mr. mayor, we just saw a glimpse of how the hospital system in houston is handling this surge. how are things there in san antonio right now? >> good afternoon, craig. we're not too far away. probably a couple of days away from houston. our positivity rate has skyrocketed from what it was before this surge around 3.5% to now nearly one in four tests are coming back positive. we've seen a surge in cases among young people and unfortunately now, we've also seen a good 25% of the people that are ending up in the hospital are under 40 years old. so it is extraordinarily challenging right now in the hospitals. we've had a tenfold increase over the last two weeks in terms of hospital admissions, five fold increase in icus and ventilators, so it is getting to

a red line point in our hospitals if things don't start to turn around. >> mr. mayor, that surge that you're antonio, do you attribute that to an increase in testing or is there more to it than just that? >> no. you know, we've been increasing testing for a long time now and one key indicator of the fact that this isn't about test is the fact that our positivity rate has skyrocketed. what this is isa a very fast, t fast opening of the texas economy. faster than the data would allow for us to check to see if the decisions that were being made were good ones. along with the mixed messaging you've been hearing up until this very last week about things like mask wearing. if we're going to open up without a a vaccine, without any kind of therapeutics that are proven to work well, we got to be clear about medical guidance. which has been consistent from

the start. physical distancing, wearing a mask, hygiene, are the ways that we can get this back on track. but that has not been the message up until recently from our state and federal leaders. >> you told station ksat that another stay home work safe order for san antonio is not outside the realm of possibility. the county is up more than 14,000 cases at last check, according to our numbers. more than 14,000 cases of the virus there alone. how bad do things have to get for you to consider another stay at home work safe order? >> well, the state, the governor has taken authority of opening and closing certain activities away from the local governments, which i think is a mistake. because we need to have a localized response to these outbreaks if there's not going to be a national standard.

the stay home orders are really the bluntest of all instruments. if we have to go there, it would be an option of last resort. what people need to be clear on consistently and we need this message coming from the highest office in the land is that you know, in order for us to enjoy the america that we want to, we've got to, we've got to participate. we've got to work on this together, which is again, the basic health guidance that we've been getting from the start. mask wearing, physical distancing, all those things that the public health professionals have been clear and consistent from the start and we have not been getting that message and i think that has complicated things and encouraged people to lower their guard. so we're seeing the results of that. the stay at home order, you know, unfortunately, are an option of last resort. we don't want to end up there, but if it needs to, and that's the only way we can do it, we got to save people's lives at the end of the day. >> it also sounds like you think that a national mandate of

requiring masks or face coverings is probably a good idea. is that a safe characterization of your position? >> absolutely is. and you know, one thing that has a lot of us concerned is that we see this seesaw effect going on. you know, when the coastal areas were really, you know, rising a and surging many case, middle america and places like texas were relatively under control. we're starting to see the opposite now. so what we don't want to have happen is when we're in the fall and into the winter, we see the opposite happen and we just go back and forth, back and forth. we need to have a, a national standard in place so that we can begin to open up consistently across the country. >> last thing, mayor your city announced on sunday that you guys are going to stop testing asymptomatic people. why? >> we actually are not. so we are going to continue to

test asymptomatic folks. what we're seeing is that a lot of, a lot of people are using the free tests, those tests that are available for people without insurance or without doctors orders, they're neusing them as screening device. we want to ensure that everyone who needs a test gets one and we don't want people who are coming up to the free labs, the walk up labs, being turned away. so if you are asymptomatic, don't have symptoms, you just want to be tested for piece of mind, you can get a test. but the tests available for walk ups, without an appointment, those without insurance or a doctor, we want those folks to be able to get in. especially if they're exhibiting siymptoms or know they have bee exposed to someone. >> all right. thank you for clearing that up. a little confusion there. sandus antonio mayor. good luck to you there. meanwhile, the state of arizona in an absolute free fall in its fight against the coronavirus. arizona expected to reach 1

100,000 cases today. we're live on the ground as that state grapples with a surge of infections and hospitals on track to run out of beds by august. we also continue to follow the big news out of washington today. the supreme court has decided on a case that could prove critical to presidential elections. the next one now will be four months away. one n wowill be fo months away. when you shop with wayfair, you spend less and get way more. so you can bring your vision to life and save in more ways than one. for small prices, you can build big dreams. spend less, get way more. shop everything home at wayfair today. car vending machines and buying a car 100% online.vented

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following the breaking news from the supreme court, an impact on a presidential election at some point. the court ruled today that states can make electoral colleges in those states. pete williams joins me now. what did high court have to say in this opinion? a unanimous opinion, by the way. >> yeah, unanimous, and i guess ta means that neither side thought this would favor one party or the other. there was no suggestion of conservatives or liberals comk g out differently here. the only exception was which part of the institution or which as a pecht aspect. they said when states appoint electors to the electoral college, the power of appointment takes also the power to compel them to follow the state's dictates on how they're supposed to vote when they go to

december. to back up, when you go to the polls in november, you're voting actually not for the president. not for donald trump or joe biden, you're voting for a slate of electors that have pledged to support one candidate or the other then whoever wins the popular vote if your state, that's the slate of electors that go to usually the sate capitol in mid december and cast the electoral votes. the actual votes that congress counts in january that elect the president. so the we here was are states bound to vote as they pledged that they would to their parties or can they basically on election day, vote somehow, some other way. what the supreme court said is the states have the authority to require them to follow the outcome of the popular vote in their states and if they don't, if they go rogue, then the states can toss out their ballot and get somebody else to come in and cast it. they could levy fines against them and so forth. it hasn't happened often. it's never been so close that a

rogue vote would affect the presidential election, but it's very easy to understand that if you had a really close electoral vote and you know, you could have a tie in the electoral college since it's an even number of elector, then one or two who decide they're going to decide the election could make a big difference. this is a case where i think the supreme court has called a lot of attention on how the electoral college works. the people who don't like it hope that this case will cause people to rethink it and maybe start to move away and go to direct popular vote for the president. but in any event, it's all resolved now before the election this fall. >> how rare are unanimous decisions from the high court? >> on, on -- well, let me put it this way. on really interesting cases like this one, they're fairly rare. we do get a lot of unanimous decisions pr the court that you just don't hear much about.

cases, the employee retired income security act, tax questions, things like that. but on the kind of really, the cases that we focus a lot of attention on, they are surprisingly rare. >> last question here. term's almost over. what are the other cases we're looking out for? >> of course the big cases are whether congress and the new york prosecutor can use a subpoena to get financial documents and tax records from president trump. those are two separate cases and issues and there are two interesting freedom of religion cases. the ability to opt out of the contraceptive mandate of obama care and mouch freedom religiously affiliated institutions like schools have to fire people they believe don't conform to their religious views. you know, do they get an exception from the civil rights laws, then a question about the extent of independeian criminal jurisdiction in the state of

oklahoma. >> okay. pete williams will be one of the 18 people closely watching all of those cases for us. pete, thank you, sir. thank you, thank you. breaking here in just the past few minutes. country star and fiddler, charlie daniels, has died. daniels of course most famous for that hit song, the devil went down to georgia. country music hall of famer performed a at the white house, the super bowl and all across europe. he died this morning at summit medical center in hermitage, tennessee, from a stroke. that's according to a spokesperson. he was 83. the only living suspect in the death of a ft. hood soldier is in court today and now, her family is not just call iing fo an investigation. they want a major change in military policy. we'll look at that, plus the cdc is warning that 11 states, 11,

could see a jump in coronavirus deaths. one of those states, arizona. what officials there are waiting on the skyrocketing number of cases in that state. waiting on the skyrocketing number of cases in that state.

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the cases of coronavirus in just two weeks ago, hospitalizations across the

state are also breaking records. the state reporting that more than 800 patients with a confirmed or suspected case of a virus very placed in an intensive care unit on saturday. joined now from scottsdale, arizona, by steve patterson. steve, it only took two weeks there for cases to reach 100,000 and double. how are folks there responding? >> 101 -- the number arizona adding another 3300 plus cases overnight. so if the question is how are people reacting, i mean we're in a business district. you know, been talking to some of the owners here, it's a little bit slow because we're coming off a holiday weekend, but i say, if i've seen 100 people, i think i've seen maybe ten people wearing masks. maybe less. this is obviously a crisis. people are aware of it, but i think the mentality here is that since that stay at home order lifted back in may, is that people have just simply moved

on. there are many, many people on the ground here including politicians in places of power, running cities, who say that is a mistake. icu beds are at 99% capacity. normal hospital beds, 84% capacity. ventilators at crisis levels. the curve needs to be flattened here. it is simply not happening in this state. so we spoke to one woman who was surprised that this was even still happening. i think it says a lot about what's happening on the ground here. i want you to listen to what she said about the increase, the surge in the number of cases. listen to this. >> i thought we were like safe. i thought we were in the clear already. we always get like alerts saying oh, we just found a new case then it's like, oh x i w, i was. i was in this facility. i just can't believe it's in my location. it's very sad, very shocking. >> you get the sense of disbelief. the mayor of phoenix is blaming

a few people. the federal government, fema, for not bringing in more community testing. blame iing the governor of ariz. talking about the tenor of the state, about reopening the state so much earlier than she thought was necessary. she's also blaming the different gau age groups, specifically people under 44. that number was 40% just a while ago back in may. so there's a serious problem on the ground here. there's a kind of a crisscross of information and a different populations receiving that information in different ways, but just being out here n the hotel, in a district like this where we're not seeing people wear masks, it's kind of readily apparent that there is some worry about people taking this seriously and there's no new stay at home order despite all the crisis level numbers that you're hearing. no new stay at home order coming in place. at least from the governor for now. >> concerning.

you mentioned testing. what do we know about the testing capacity there in that state? are folks able to get a test there if they need to? >> it's been difficult. i mean again, we saw this three mile line last week. people waiting in line six to eight hours, it's what we've heard from multiple lines over multiple weeks. we've heard from different systems that there's a concerted effort to increase capacity. one of the largest testers many the area does about 6,000 cases but they got a request of 12,000 in one day, so they need to bump that up, but that's not an easy process and a lot of it is because of the influx of the state returning again back to normal. trying send an influx back into the economy. that also sent workers back into the workforce. a lot of these workers requiring those workers to get tested. so you have this big bottleneck

of people that are all trying to get tested at once. the state is having a problem with their health systems dealing with the capacity. their bringing in more workers. vice president has approved 500 more medical staff to come in to provide supplies, the manpower necessary, but it is still a difficult situation when you're dealing with this level of surge in this amount of time. i'm not sure if there's anything they can do to put a band-aid on that. to get this under control quickly, but it's an ongoing effort going on. it's just a very difficult process when you're talking about this level of cases, craig. back to you. >> steve patterson, thank you. i'm joined now by msnbc science contributor, dr. joseph fair. he's an epidemiologist, also a vie roll giral gist. let's start with this letter signed by more than 200 experts. this is a letter as you know

that was written to the world health organization warning that the coronavirus may linger in the air indoors and potentially infect people. why do we need to write a letter to the world health organization getting them to acknowledge that? is that up for debate? >> i think because you know, really, the classification among scientists at least between airborne and nonairborne is a very specific distinction. where as to the mass public, it's really not that big of a distinction not something that's going to make that big of a difference in your life, especially with regards to the coronavirus pandemic. so this letter is a letter to the w.h.o. to get them to more or less officially research and or acknowledge the fact this can last in the air longer and this group of scientists in particular advocates that that is the reason we are seeing so much more spread than we earlier had anticipated. other scientists believe it's genetically related and it might

be both of those cases. >> over the weekend, we saw these images, i'm sure you have as well. images of large crowds of people attending these fourth of july celebrations. we saw them in michigan. we saw them in myrtle beach. we saw them in florida as well. out on fire island here in new york. also, quite the scene. are you at all surprised that here we are three or four months into this and we know, we know, what social distancing has led to in certain states and what not essential distancing has led to in other states. are you surprised we're still seeing these aimages? >> i'd say yes and no. everyone was exhausted from the quarantine. there wasn't a clear leadership plan and the messaging changed every day, so it was one of the most uncertain times in recent

history for the american public. and everybody is frankly just ready to get outside, enjoy their vacations, their summers and get back to normal. on the other hand, it is surprising that you know, you would go from being afraid of something or you know, thinking that you have a very high percentage chance of getting it to immediately dropping those guards and dropping very basic things even when you are going out to say enjoy a beach. dropping basic precautions like masks and keeping six feet of social distancing and things like that. frankly, i think a lot of people forget about it's not just the fact that you're at the beach and at the beach, you may be six feet apart from someone, but you know, think about all that's going into that. you're stopping to get fuel on the way. you're going to be in a parking lot near other people and there are going to be occasions where you can't help but not socially distance so you're there by increasing your chances by doing those activities. so as long as you know that, go ahead, but know you're increasing your chances of

getting the virus exponentially. >> i want to clear up some confusion, perhaps, president trump over the weekend, making a claim regarding how harmful the coronavirus is for those who get infected. this is what the president of the united states had to say. >> now we have tested almost 40 million people. by so doing, we show cases, 99% of which are totally harmless. >> is that true? on any level? >> i think that's a very baseless number right now. i mean you know, we don't know what the exact percentage is yet because we're going to have to determine who's got long-term lung damage, how many people were hospitalized. how many people went unnoticed and died of covid-19, so there's no way that we can know that right now, but from everything

we're seeing from hospital numbers, from patients that are in the hospital and the morbidity and mortality that we're seeing now, that number is nowhere near accurate. that percentage, i should say. >> good to have you. thank you. thank you for your commitment to accuracy. preeappreciate that. by the way, this week, this isn't my permanent home here at. i'm usually on at 11:00 eastern. and that's where we're going to be joined bay team of experts. you can submit those questions on twitter using a hash tag or send us an e-mail as well. the former girlfriend and accused accomplice of jeffrey epstein is due back in court this week. what we're learning about the case against her and where it stands today. se against her and stands today

and the tragic end fort hood soldier missing for two months. the tragic death of vanessa guillen and her family's fight for justice. you're watching msnbc. family's t for justice. you're watching msnbc. lactaid is 100% real milk, just without the lactose.

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new always discreet. as cases spike all over the country, the rest of the world is seeing surges, the world health organization on saturday reported a record number of new covid-19 cases globally. brazil and india are among the cases show iing the biggest increases. matt bradley joins me from london and matt, this rise is especially concerning as a number of countries and regions like the eu, are starting to reopen their borders. what can you tell us? >> we're starting to see here in

britain, they've opened up bars and restaurants, hairdressers, but we're seeing the exponential number of by which the cases can actually spread, that's kind of edging past one and that's very troubling, even as the economy begins to open up in earnest. we saw in spain, one of the hardest hit countries in the world, they had actually shut down two regions of spain because of rises in the coronavirus, but you know, these most of that is come frg the americas. south asia, and somewhat here in the developing wo-- and weak health care systems.

and have not seen the second wave. they might be seeing their first wave, craig. >> matt, thank you. back here, the body of vanessa guillen, the missing fort hood soldier, has been discovered. the 20-year-old had been missing since april. her remains were found in a shallow grave last week. police say a suspect in the case, army specialist aaron david robinson died by suicide after investigators talked to him. last hour, a woman charged with helping hide guillen's bod y wa in a texas courtroom. i'm joined now by courtney. what happened in that hearing? >> well, she appeared via zoom given the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, craig. it was a very short hearing and when the judge asked her if she understood the charge against

her, she said, yeah, sure. now she'll go on to further follow on court proceedings. so far, what a this woman, she's warncharged with conspiracy, wi helping allegedly helping specialist aaron david robinson so hide the body and dispose of the remains of this missing soldier. of specialist vanessa guillen. so you know, recapping this story, late april, vanessa guillen went missing. there was an extensive search for her and it garnered a lot of national attention. celebrities, people talking about the problem of abuse, sexual harassment, assault, in the military. even sparking a hash tag. the family said the reason this man may have allegedly went after her is because vanessa was preparing to file harassment charges against him and they believe he found out about it and went crazy and killed her.

we know from some of the court filings that she's believed to have been bludgeoned to death. beaten with a hammer and that's where cecily aguilar allegedly came in. he called her and said i need help getting rid of these remains. they took her about 20 miles away from fort hood. tried to burn her body, dismembered her and buried her in three separate shallow graves along a roadway. those remains were found a little over a week ago and possibly identified over the weekend. azubui as i said, this case has really reignited the debate in this country about sexual assault in the military. >> courtney, thank you. when we come back here, she could hold the key to unlocking everything we don't know about jeffrey epstein's sex trafficking ring. but will she cooperate with federal prosecutors? we'll have an update on that case in just a moment.

as we go to break, a sobering reminder from a front line medical worker that no one is except from the devastation caused by the coronavirus. >> it's really easy to look at the numbers and think, oh, those aren't really actual people. over 55,000 cases today alone. in the united states. over 128,000 deaths across the country. in the last four months. and i think it's tempting for people to trick themselves into thinking it can't happen to their loved ones. it's just so abstract if you aren't witnessing it and the devastation that covid is causing with your own eyes. behind each one of those numbers is a name. a face. a life. a story cut short.

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an e just last hour, jeffrey epstein's former associate and confidante, ghislaine maxwell arrives in new york to face charges including engaging in a sex act. she had ties to a host of politics, celebrities and royalty. there's questions whether maxwell will name some of the others who may have been involved in epstein's sex ring. earlier, i talked to brad edwards, the attorney representing roughly 50 of epstein's victims. which story do you think that

ghislaine maxwell has to tell about prince andrews specifically and do you think she is going to tell that story now? >> no chance. they're very close friends. this isn't a casual relationship. i don't think that prince andrew is going to say what he knows about ghislaine and i don't think she will say what she knows about prince andrews. nbc correspondent, tom winter, joins me now. first, let's start with that court appearance in manhattan. >> the expectation is the hearing will happen friday afternoon. what we're expecting is for it to be a traditional first appearance and detention hearing. at that point, maxwell may have an opportunity to enter a plea. all indications are she will plead not guilty.

and they expect a potential bail package offered pending trial. prosecutors said she is an extreme flight risk and already said that in that she was detained in new hampshire. they presented to a new hampshire federal judge last week, it's pretty damaging information over the last five years or so. she's had up to $20 million in her bank accounts. she has three passports, a national of france and the uk and united states. she's quote an extreme flight risk because she has access to the funds and access to the passports and the ability to travel abroad and escape justice in this case. that's what prosecutors have already said. i expect them to say that if not be a little more strong on thursday and friday, when they make their filings in this case. we should get more details as the week winds up. >> you have new reporting on precisely how that arrest went down as well, i understand. what have you learned?

>> one of the interesting things is how covid-19 is impacting arrests at this time, impacting everybody, including the fbi. in this case they took more cars than probably normal. i would say approximately a dozen, more than that involved in the arrest. in an arrest like this, it's a pretty standard package for them to fly fixed wing aircraft over the house. they have electronic capabilities in those aircrafts and ability to see what's going on at the ground, to make sure the arrest goes smoothly. they do this for a lot of high profile arrests and arrests of a target like this. it's fairly standard procedure. a lot of people were surprised over the weekend they would have used these resources, felt very standard to me, and what's been indicated to me. when people see the amount of resources put into the arrest, you don't want somebody in maxwell's shoes to harm herself or others or want them to flee.

a lot of work has been put into this talking to incidents going back allegedly to 1994, craig. can you imagine the amount of evidence and work that went into this case to be able to bring this indictment. it's really important they made the arrest. they made it and she's being held in brooklyn new york right now and we expect her to make her first appearance earlier this week. >> tom winter, thank you. that will do it for me this hour. see you right back tomorrow morning on "today" and in this chair at 11:00 eastern on msnbc. meanwhile, my colleague, joshua johnson picking up my coverage right after this quick break. right after this quick break it has three times the cleaning power of the leading spray to dissolve kitchen grease on contact. and it's great for bathrooms! just keep pumping the power nozzle to release a continuous burst of mist and make quick work of big jobs. it even works on stainless steel.

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i'm joshua johnson sitting in for katy tur. glad to be sitting with you from the world headquarters in new york. it continues to grow and fast. new york has reported more new cases each day than the day before. that may continue depending on how some of us spent the july 4th weekend. at least one man partied on fire island after developing symptoms and before he got his test results. yesterday, he posted a video apology. that may be cold comfort to governor andrew cuomo. he reprimanded new yorkers who

let down their guard this weekend. he warned the state to keep wearing masks and not to let their guard down. >> we get complacent, we get koki, we get a little arrogant. that is a real threat. it's a threat i'm concerned about. >> three major medical organizations are sending a similar message. the american hospital association, medical medical association and american nurses association are urging people to take the simple steps we know will help stop the spread of the virus, wearing a face mask, maintaining physical distancing and washing hands unquote. records don't mean very much when they barely last a day. just this month the u.s. set three records for covid-19 cases. we can expect more. new cases are outpacing testing

in at least 24 states including california. hospitalizations are at alarming levels. now, they are struggling to keep up with demand for testing. dodgers stadium is supposed to be hosting some of that testing. that facility is closed today but that is where we find nbc's gadi schwartz live. the testing facility you are at, one of the biggest in the country is closed right now. what more do we know about that and the larger plan for testing? >> reporter: this closure comes as a very unwelcome surprise to a lot of people. this is somebody who just came to try to get testing. they're now realizing that it's closed. this is one of the largest testing facilities in the entire country. normally by now there would be a line that stretches all the way down. here's another person coming to get tested we have to tell them it's closed today. that's what it looked like earlier today, a line of cars stepping all the way down until somebody from the parking

division of los angeles told them the testing site is closed today. here's why it's important. this testing site alone accounts for 6500 tests a day. los angeles tests about 14,000. this is effectively about half of the testing capacity in a single day in los angeles. we're going several days without the full numbers and full test capacity at its maximum. as you can imagine, a lot of people showing up here right now have a lot of questions. we talked to one woman and didn't want to show her face or share her identity. she said she has been trying to get a test for several days and had no luck. >> just wanted to get tested and be safe. going to see a couple people, i don't feel safe. if no one in the city is getting tested, everyone could be carrying it and spreading it around. thousands of people not being

able to be tested. >> reporter: we called the city of los angeles to see what was going on. the spokesperson told us they couldn't tell us when it would be open up or when it was shut down but referred us to the fourth of july weekend.they referred us to the fourth of july. they said charities have been helping and they would give back to them. this is the 6th and the fourth of july weekend was a couple days ago. los angeles is testing 7500 people here a day and have others in los angeles. in the city run facilities, only three are open. the rest are private facilities and private facilities are still accepting patients. it does not look like it's easy to get in right now especially for same day appointment. >> seems like it. nbc's gadi schwartz joining us from los angeles.

in florida, hospitals typically brace themselves for hurricane force winds. today, it's a virus drifting in the air that could collapse the system. today, the state reported more than 6,000 new infections. hospitalizations rose more than 50% in just one week. governor ron desantos says 10% of florida's population has been tested. the median age of the latest positive tests was 36. some of florida's vast shorelines were packed this july out for weekend. crowds in cocoa beach may have helped spread the virus by not socially distancing. nbc's kerry sanders is in st. petersburg, florida with more. i'm sure it can sound like chicken little, hospitals will collapse under the wait of covid-19, it's a calamity waiting to happen. what is that concern based on? >> reporter: joshua, you look at certain areas of the state. i am stabbedinding in st. peter,

four hospitals in pinellas county, this leaches the capacity of the icu. they can go to a hospital and deem that as an icu area. it's not just saying these beds are deemed icu area and we keep an infection from bleeding out of there. it's a matter of staffing. you have to have almost a nurse per patient to handle the inordinate amount of attention each patient needs. while the governor says the age is dropping down to 36, we're also seeing those who need hospitalizations increasing, at the same time we're seeing about 45 people a day in the state of florida are dying from coronavirus. the latest statistics show the greatest number to die were here in this county, pinellas county on sunday, 14 died here.

others around the state. the governor, who just held a news conference a short time ago, says his challenge is balancing the protection and health of the citizens, while at the same time allowing society to continue to function. he says, as the age continues to drop, as you noted at 36, he sees, by and large florida, he believes, is doing a good job. this is what he had to say. >> we have to have society function. you can have society function in a way that keeps people safe. i think where you start to see the spread is in social situations people let their guard down, usually like a private party or something like that, that's kind of what we've seen. i think the folks that put a premium on safety, that's showing you that we're able to handle this, have society function, we still want people going to work but do it in a way you take basic precautions.

>> reporter: the beaches, as you noted, cocoa beach were open and fina pinellas county. in south florida they were closed but will reopen. and this becoming the epicenter, there's talk now of closing restaurants again and allowing just for delivery. this is a give-and-take. bottom line, it appears in florida they do not have a handle on the spread of coronavirus, and each community seems to have its own set of rules, which makes it hard to pinpoint whether what's going on is an out of control problem, a continuing problem or something under control. >> keep in mind discussing any statewide issue in florida is florida feels like municipality states in one. thank you for joining us from st. petersburg. joining us in another part of florida, dan gilbert, the mayor of miami beach.

welcome. >> hi, joshua. >> how is miami doing in terms of getting a handle on covid-19 and in terms of not being able to be as busy this summer as it would normally be. >> we're part of miami-dade county, obviously. we don't have handle on it at all. it has handle on us. two weeks ago, 60 patients on ventilators. there are 160 in our county. two weeks ago, 121 patients in icu and now 330, the highest. we know we're in a very steep trajectory. almost a third of the deaths in florida have been in miami-dade florida. things are not looking great and we need to start listening to counter measures and applying them and doing the physical distancing. i don't think you can say it enough at this point. >> we played a clip from the governor at the press conference. i'd like to get your reaction to one more clip. >> this thing has been

circulating for longer in our country we initially thought, kind of at the beginning of march. you see cases, people should put it into context what's really going on. no need to be really fearful about it. we talk about steps individuals can take and we will take statewide. the end of the day this has been around for quite some time. >> mayor, what do you make of that? >> listen, i don't think it's a good idea to tell people this is sort of normal. younger people are getting very sick and hospital stays well in excess of a week or two. there has to be some urgency right now. there ought to be a statewide mask mandate for no other reason than to let people know they ought to wear masks. every time we do something like today, we closed restaurants in dade county, other than for

takeout, we get an amazing amount of people very upset. we get people everyday angry they're being asked to wear masks. it is a little bit of a sacrifice, it is hot and it is odd but the least you can do to save the life of a friend or strange, what me ought to be doing. i wish people gave this the urgency it needs across the board. that's the only way to let people they need to comply. >> i'm a native south floridian. i know south floridian very well and went to the university of miami and i know miami beach very well. the u! everywhere you look. one of the things i know about miami-dade county, it's evolved over the years how we deal with hurricanes. god forbid there's a major hurricane and we're in the middle of hurricane season and tral edouard is moving away. who knows what will happen next.

if a hurricane struck while miami beach is fighting covid-19, what will you do? >> we're preparing for that. we're trying to figure out where we would urge people to go, where we would house them, what part of the state we would suggest they go to. it's great, josh, you brought it up. we know what to do with hurricanes. there's unity of message with hurricanes, every official to the president of the united states says the exact same thing and people do it. with hurricanes we tend to follow directions and make sacrifices. this has not been the case for this. that's the real tragedy here. we're working on that and will do well with hurricanes because we all listen when that happens. >> miami beach mayor dan gilbert, thanks very much. we are told you are safer from coronavirus outdoors than

indoors. but cdc is asking they reconsider that. experts signed on to a fourth coming public letter and warning covid-19 may be more transmissible indoors than we have been told. the w.h.o. may respond to that letter soon. next is the director of the columbia national center for preparedness. good to see you. we have to clarify this used about the virus is airborne. we all know because we're wearing masks because droplets are in the air and we're trying to keep them away. what do they mean by airborne? >> let's break this down. it is very confusing upon the virus is transmitted one from surfaces and the other is in the air. what the scientists are saying, it's not just the large droplets

that can go about 6 feet and fall to the ground. and those in aerosols, once inhaled, can remain in an environment in a closed area, elevator, closed restaurant, bar, your own home. they're lingering in the air so people walking by can inhail those very small but infected droplets. large droplets are in the air and so are small droplets. it matters because we need different control methods and understandings so we don't get infected from either mechanism. >> if indeed covid-19 is more transmissible in an airborne sense and travel farther away from me if i'm infected and infect people from farther away, what kind of new social guidelines do we need to put in

place? the face masks we're wearing are less effective. >> it's not just a question of the droplets going farther if they're aerosized, they're hovering in the air and the infected space people have been in will make it more contracting. if the scientists are correct what we're recommending to people. right now, we're using surgical masks, not very effective on the aerialized version. the n95 masks are much more uncomfortable and more difficult to get ahold of and we want to save those for people at work in hospitals. there may be very serious thinking to modify. i think it's too soon to come to conclusions about what that might mean.

if that group of scientists is correct there will be a lot of thinking going on at every level of government dealing with control of coronavirus. >> before i let you go, one of the things that came up in the last few days is air filtration systems. governor cuomo mentioned certain kinds of systems that might be able to trap the coronavirus inside its filtration system could be a useful benefit to have in reopening businesses. do we know whether or not there are systems that can trap coronavirus in the air and keep it from circulating? >> no. it's a hypothesis and speculation and there may be value to it. systems can do a good job spreading the virus around, especially this new aerialized

version. another thing to do, you know better than anyone, unbelievable, we're living in an era of uncertainty, there is a lot of work for us. >> this is literally bleeding edge science. this is how science works and we as the general public have to live on that edge. doctor, always nice to talk to you. >> thanks. we have more. we will check in on texas where the virus is yet to peak and virus already flowing with patients. president trump's speeches this weekend sounded a lot like his 2016 campaign rhetoric. it worked for him once. will it work again? i don't keep track of regrets and i don't add up the years,

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might see more masks at the president's next campaign rally this saturday in new hampshire. his campaign says it will hand them out and encourage wearing them. president trump held events this weekend without masks and without social distancing. the white house chief of staff says this change comes out of an abundance of caution. >> it's more a factor of precaution. as we look at that, we are nation of freedoms. certainly, we want to make sure that people are free to assemable. it's all trying to make sure that we deal with this virus and the american people know help is on the way.

>> the administration's messages on covid-19 is evolving. a new message in the works says, we must learn to live wit. carol lee is joining us from the white house. what's the latest? >> reporter: the white house is trying to latch onto a new message, one of many they tried out during the last several months during the pandemic. it's a recognition the coronavirus is not going anywhere particularly in the next several months and the country needs to figure out a way to live with it. they stressed things like the number of people who have survived after contracting the virus is very high. they're going to stress things like therapeutics, according to sources we have spoken to at the white house. it's something members of the white house task force particularly the fda commissioner struggled to defend in terms of the president taking this message to a new level,

saying 98% of these cases are harmless. at the same time, you had members of the administration defending the president on that, something the whiteout press secretary said they will come out on the other side of this. that's not exactly what the president said, 99% of people that contract the virus, it's not as harmless. you can see him trying to grasp that new message and move it forward and they recognize it's not going anywhere. this rally is about that, an open air venue, very different from what we saw in tulsa last month, indoors and encouraging masks from what happened in tulsa, a number of people concerned about going to the rally and the numbers were very low. two, you saw people from the

president's campaign contract the virus while in texas . we will see if it sticks. >> thank you. from the white house. the message remains much the same including bigger issues, independence day brought more protests for justice across the country and arguing america's heritage is under attack. >> our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children. their goal is not a better america, their goal is to end america. first responders. >> let's discuss it with former rnc chairman, michael steele. good to see you. hope you're well. i want to talk about something the president just tweeted talking about identity politics thing. i want to know what we should be paying attention to.

you heard about the controversy of teams considering renaming their teams. in the last few minutes the president said, quote, they name teams out of strength but not weakness. now, the washington redskins and cleveland indians, two fabled sports franchises look like they will change their names to be politically correct. indians, including elizabeth warren, must be very angry right now, unquote. let me be clear, i only said the two teams named by because they were stated by the president. and we are avoiding it because. does this actually matter in a larger sense? >> it is. it's one big shining object. i am a washingtonian, i grew up with the washington redskins.

i will say that because that's part of my experience and culture. i also recognize times and the change that's coming. we need to be a part of it and times in front of that change. we don't expect the president of the united states to be a part of this conversation in that way. number one, we need to stop that. stop expecting that. he will not play. to your point, it is the bright shining object he threw out here, very much like with colin kaepernick and other areas. understand that for what it is. he's not a part of this conversation. he's abdicated a role in this conversation going back to what he said about charlottesville. we know as president this is a space he will not engage us or play to our better angels and not move the country forward in a way we can have not just an intellectual discussion but have a personal one where we are reflective of how the nation has

moved over its 400 years relationship with african-americans. so, i think, for me at least, an important part of this. we can do the cosmetic things we need to do. change the names of teams, change the song for states, as we're doing in maryland. we also can't get stuck on that. we have to move into a deeper conversation where joshua and michael can have a counterpart narrative and conversation with our white counterparts and understand exactly how each of us are looking at this very important issue. >> i would love to do that with you one of these days. i don't think there are quite enough hours in the broadcast day but i would love to do that. let's look forward a little bit. i know our time is tight. i'm curious to know what you're looking at. i hear you in terms of the national conversation. this rhetoric worked for now

president trump in 2016. he started his campaign saying mexico sends crime, rapists to our good people and it won him the vote and white house. tell us what you're looking at strategically in terms of whether that rhetoric will win him another term. >> i appreciate you raising it up. it's important. that's the trap people can fall into. a lot has changed, number one starting with the fact hillary clinton is not on the ballot, joe biden is. the public wasn't crazy about hillary and they like joe. here's the rub. let's not walk away from this thinking because we're now four years later we've had four years of trump under our belt, that the public has moved away from him. there's a reason why he says what he says, the way he says it, it still has resonance and appeal to a circuit number of white americans in cities,

suburbs, in rural parts of our country. this is going to require a lot more effort to pull out that vote joe biden will need versus what a trump is going to need. i'm skeptical of this idea this is going to be a big win for joe or a cakewalk in any way because the president knows what he's doing. he does what he does and says what he says the way he does it for a reason, because he knows there's appeal. look at the folks who showed up at mt. rushmore, putting their own health in jeopardy. look at the folks who showed up even though the numbers were smaller, when he did his event in tulsa. there is a resonance and that resonance goes to places that goes beyond just a trump vote. >> michael steele, always good to talk to you, thanks. >> same here. we will focus on texas and hospitals are waiting for covid-19 to peak and how they

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let's update the facts at this hour. this weekend, there are more than 11 million people. brazil had some of the largest increases and the countries that once had it under control including australia and south africa. it is reminding us people of all ages and walks of life can and do die from covid-19. yesterday, it killed broadway star, nick cordero at the age of 41. he spent eight months in the hospital. doctors amputated his right leg because of poor circulation. he was known for his roles and

tommy nominated performance on broadway. testing for coronavirus is moving forward and a rapid test can give results in 15 minutes. a company expected to produce 2 million each week by the end of september. more universities are making tough choices about the next term. harvard says it will reopen next fall with half of undergrads living on campus, most first year students. regardless where they live, all undergrads will take their courses remotely. we mentioned how hospitals are bracing for a very rough fight with coronavirus and the situation is bad in texas and getting worse. experts project the state's peak by july. by then, there could be 2,000 hospitalizations daily. about the last few months

increasing, doctors in houston have to be worn out by now. how are they dealing with preparing for what's next? >> reporter: joshua, those doctors, as you mentioned, have already been dealing with a lot. houston has a positivity rate of 25%. we're certainly seeing those impacts here at the hospitals. the texas medical center is estimating their icu capacity right now is at 98%. hospitals are preparing those surge plans. the texas medical center data suggest in under two weeks they could be in an unsustainable phase in terms of surge plans. the emergency room director here tells me they are looking at converting rooms to icu for the icu capabilities and also bringing in additional staff to

prepare for additional patients they will be seeing, very important. there is always the option to open up a field hospital, something that happened early on in march and april, whenever this virus began to pick up steam here. that would be at nrg stadium and provide additional support. that would be up to the county judge. one thing she has said about this, it's not just about filling icu beds and the hospital rooms so the economy can remain open we need to look at the value of human life here. >> i appreciate you bringing up the county judge. we will speak to her in a minute and i think i might just ask her about it. texas governor, greg abbott, issued a mask mandate the start of the july fourth weekend. some are pushing back. texas has 233 counties and 43 are exempt from the executive

order. county judge lena is here. welcome. >> thank you. >> what about the possibility of an overflow plan using nrg stadium or other large venues to deal with overflow cases. i'm praying you don't have to do that but how much have you contemplated it? >> from the beginning of this crisis we pulled out all the stops to do everything we can do to protect our community. one of those strategies is this medical shelter we set up at this stadium complex. that medical shelter will come into play once the hospitals are converting normal isolation beds into icu beds. it is operational and general operation beds. the concern is it doesn't do us any good to get there. the contingency plan is there. we always plan for the worst. this strategy that we need to

push our capacity as far as it will go is not smart from a public health standpoint. it's not right from a human standpoint. it's also inconsistent from an economic standpoint. if what we are doing is pushing everything to the very brink, our economy is always going to be unstable. we're always going to be chasing this virus. we will never be in a position we are proactive, we are learning from other communities and reopening successfully. that's the bigger problem i have with this. it's not a good strategy. >> let me ask you about that proactiveness. there's evidence in texas specifically, as more people were allowed to get back indoors, hospitalizations road. what are you looking at the best path forward for houston? is it trying to shut some

businesses down, trying to encourage, personal responsibility, social distancing, wearing big masks or thinking about big stadiums, like joel o'steen's church, a hotel college, hospitality college with the hilton hotel. where do you think the biggest difference can be made if things get worse? >> we had a stay home order initially in march. i issued that orderly on. the community was doing great. we flattened that hospital curve. before the curve had a chance to come down on the other side the state re-opened and it took away my power to open those kinds of stay at home orders. where we are right now, we can play games and have experiments. if you look at the rest of the country, the one thing we know works that will flatten that curve and bring it down is a

stay home order. that's why i've been asking for the governor for authority to issue it to the community and put our community on a red alert to stay home. folks are listening and it's not as effective as if there was an order. that's human nature. there's this temptation, now, masks are required and the state has done that and perhaps we can cancels this thing and that one. today, restaurants are still open in harris county and have it inside as long as it is an indoors, good to go here even though we know it is actually more problematic. we are hoping for the best that somehow these halfway measures will do better than the initial stay home order we had. that is not appropriate for the level of crisis we had here and not a long term plan.

even if the curve flattens, you won't bring it down and we won't have time to sharpen our tools on testing and make sure you learn from other communities, how slow to reopen and what to reopen, that's how you learn from a long game and strategic plan for a public health standpoint and economic standpoint. >> i had the pleasure of interviewing you last year. you are the first latina elected county judge, the top elected county official in harris county. >> how are the yustonians dealig with this crisis? >> it's tough. we are seeing a lot of people get tested. there's fear and rhetoric coming from so many levels of government people think they will somehow face a citizenship issue if they make use of the

test sites. seeing a disproportionate number of spanish testing positive and for african-americans. this is proportionately impacting our communities of color. many of this goes back to long standing issues of access to care and other broader structural issues we've been addressing outside this crisis. we are only as strong as our weakest link and our entire community that needs to be involved with this. >> lena, a county judge in texas. thank you very much. coming ahead, we move to south dakota and behind bars after protesting the mt. rushmore event. trump isn't leading on the biggest issues and it's showing in the polls. how the biden campaign might benefit from this moment when we come back. come back. - i didn't know why my body was moving on its own.

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sprinting past every leak in our softest, smoothest fabric. she's confident, protected, her strength respected. depend. the only thing stronger than us, is you. the biden campaign continues to hammer away on president trump's leadership and he wrote an op-ed. that pursuit of a more perfect union has been thrown off for the last four years and no one bears more responsibility than president trump. mike joinens us now. the president's comments feel like a series of layups for the

biden campaign. that's the strategy against mr. jump. how is the strategy for mr. biden coming along? >> joshua, i would say the biden campaign is really running on two strategic tracks right now. on the one hand you have an everyday message they're hammering the president for his handling of the coronavirus and economic impact of that. you heard him last week saying he's trying to ignore the virus at this point, playing golf and surrendered in the face of the virus. then you have the big picture message, the message since the first words biden spoke as an announced candidate, that we are in the battle for the sole of the nation. when you have the trump campaign over the weekend and the president campaigning what the biden campaign says is a dark divisive message and gives them new ammunition for it.

you have the biden campaign talking to their surrogates at nbc news saying these attacks the president has tried to throw against biden have really all backfired. you saw the vice president in a video this weekend playing into the argument he made since day one, we haven't always lived up to the founding ideals to this nation but he commits to do everything he can do as president to help achieve them over time. >> thank you. that's mike covering the biden campaign. native americans behind bars after protesting trump's mt. rushmore. they arrested 15 people for blocking the roads to the monument. no additional details. among those arrested was nick tilson. mt. rushmore was bullet on the tribe's land. kal is not far from mt.

rushmore. >> reporter: we have the five charges nick has been charged with. two felonies and second third degree robbery against a shield of a national guardsman and simple assault charge against a law enforcement officer and two disorderly conducts and one impeding a highway. we did not see any of that violence. we arrived a few minutes after they started and our cameraman saw them wrestling a shield from somebody. you talk to someone here they say these charges are too much and this was a peaceful protest and now they're throwing the book at nick. listen to what his sister told us. >> this is our land. they made a stance because you have to understand treaty law is the supreme law of the land. they were on our land. this is our land. they did a peaceful demonstration, protest,

respectfully communicated with law enforcement through the entire process. >> that bigger issue overhangs all of this, the treaty of 1868 that is supposed to protect the black hills lakota land, brings up the issue whether nick was trespassing at all. he will be bonded in 30 minutes or so. this is a continuation of the very vicious policies native americans face in this country. we are waiting to hear from pennington county sheriff's office yesterday. they said they worked long hours and if they get back to us today we will add it to the recording. >> cal perry in rapid city, south dakota, not far from mt. rushmore. a breaking story in new york city, an incident that went viral. remember amy cooper caught in may on calling the police on a black man in central park, to

put him on a leash. she is now facing federal charges. no relation to mrs. cooper, recorded it on her phone. he asked her to leash her dog in a place that requires leashes. now, she is being charged with falsely reporting an incident. coming up, when you work from home, silicon valley could be anywhere. it might just stay that way. wayfair has way more ways to renovate your home,

from inspiration to installation. like way more vanities perfect for you. nice. way more unique fixtures and tiles. pairing. ♪ nice. way more top brands in sinks and faucets. way more ways to rule your renovation. nice! on any budget, with free shipping. wayfair. way more than furniture. names. coronavirus cases are still rising in the nation's capital. still federal employees are heading back to their offices. the departments of energy, interior and defense have all started the process of bringing workers back. some workers are already at the office including at the pentagon. officials in washington, d.c., worry it's too soon, cases in the district of columbia have been on the decline, concern

that bringing them back could reverse those numbers. the irony of silicon valley. technology that spans the globe but you can't wait to move to the san francisco bay area. in the last decade, big tech has reshaped downtown districts. now, some businesses say that their workers can stay home indefinitely. so what about downtown? >> reporter: packing up is emotional. >> and you start looking in drawers and taking things out and putting things in boxes, it becomes very nostalgic. we've been here for 25 years. from going 4500-square-foot offices with all the employees running around that's created to going to remote is very, very scary. >> reporter: his 15-person staff had to work from home during the pandemic. so even he was surprised when he

and his whole staff turned out to like going remote. now, he's putting the office up for rent. >> what will you save by not having to run this place? >> it's about 30, 35% of our operating budget every month is because of a physical building. >> you'll just cut that out. >> we'll cut that out. >> a cost to other businesses in the neighborhood. so this is what your lunch spot. >> this is our lunch spot. this is where we come every single day, have lunch, have coffee, you know have them deliver sandwiches to the office, it's going to be kind of sad. >> the flying pig bistro has doing takeout orders. what does it mean when companies like that decide we're going to give up on a neighborhood and work from home from now on? >> they have to decide what's right for them. of course we'll miss them.

>> now imagine how many dominos will fall if an entire downtown office building empties out? that's happening across san francisco. twitter says some employees can work remotely forever. now, slack the messaging platform says most employees can work from home for now on. >> do you feel guilty at all of punching a hole in the fabric? >> not only i feel guilty, i'm scared. >> the late nest the decade of huge changes in san francisco. that was nbc's jake ward reporting. thank you for making time for us. the news continues with brian williams next on msnbc. for the sweaty faces,

and the hidden smiles. the foggy glasses, and the sore ears. the determined looks, and the muffled laughs. a simple piece of fabric makes a big statement:

i care. let's all do our part to slow the spread. wear a mask. learn more at covid19.ca.gov. good day. brian williams here with you. 3:00 p.m. here on the east coast. 12 noon out west. i'm happy to tell you nicolle wallace is enjoying a well-deserved day off. she'll be back tomorrow. americans most of us were urged to stay home and try to stop the coronavirus pandemic from getting worse. but some folks haven't listened to that advice, health officials now worried that scenes like we saw this weekend, packed beaches, parties with few masks, very little social distancing, if any at all, will just lead to

skyrocketing numbers of new infections. . so far this virus has killed roughly 131,000 of our fellow citizens. nearly 3 million others have been sickened. although the cdc the actual number can be ten times that. two of the nation's biggest hot spots have hit new milestones. today the number of confirmed cases in arizona passed 100,000. state officials say that more than half of those infections are in people under the age of 44. this comes just days after the number of confirmed cases in florida surpassed 200,000 in a state where the virus certainly seems to be out of control. today governor desantis as usual tried to downplay the increase. >> when you are seeing the positivity increase more people out of whatever amount you're doing testing positivity that's an increase of the positivity increasing. some of things that we have seen

over the last eight days, it's basically been the same. >> as infections rise the white house moving to tell americans they'll have to learn to live with the coronavirus. it's recognition that the virus isn't going away any time soon. but that didn't stop the president from continuing to downplay the severity of the virus by making a public false claim. >> now with have tested almost 40 million people, by so doing we show cases 99% of which are totally harmless. >> instantly of course the president was roundly criticized for those comments which press secretary tried to defend at the white house this afternoon. >> the president was noting the fact that the vast majority of

americans who contract coronavirus will come out on the other side of this. of course he takes this very seriously. the administration has fought hard to make sure that's not the case with our historic response effort. >> however, the commissioner of the fda who happens to be a member of the white house coronavirus task force, dr. stephen hahn refused to defend the president's comments. >> the increasing number of cases also isn't stopping the president from returning to the campaign trail this week, trump campaign says the president will hold a rally in an open-door airplane hangar in portsmouth, new hampshire on saturday. unlike his rally in tulsa last month, attendees will be encouraged to wear a mask. like tulsa, they'll have to sign a waiver promising not to sue

the presidentover his campaign if they get sick. we want to get the very latest in the situation in a couple of major hot spots. correspondents steve patterson is in scottsdale, arizona, at this hour. gaddi schwartz is in a testing site in l.a. that has been shut down today despite a spike in cases, what's possibly behind this? >> reporter: well, brian, this is a big problem and it's a big surprise for people who are coming up this road, usually this road would be packed with ca cars, place touted as the largest testing facility in the intiefr country, the largest one here in los angeles, actually, we got a car coming up right now, they're most likely looking at taking a test and they are now looking around, they're trying to figure out what's going on. they're seeing that dodger stadium is closed right now. they usually stop.

they ask what's going on? we have to tell them, there's no testing today there was nothing posted publicly that the testing was going to close. these are people, some of them have said they had an appointment. in fact, i'll swivel you around here. couple more cars coming. this is what it's been like all day long. lot of confusion. people wanting to get tests for covid-19 coming here and finding that they're closed. brian, this testing site accounts for 6500 tests a day and that data goes straight into the county as it's telling people what's going on with covid-19 right now in los angeles. and that's about half of the number of tests that are run in the entire county of los angeles. 14,000. we'll be missing some important data not only for this today but

this weekend. one lady was extremely frustrated. here's what she had to say. >> it was ridiculous it was closed for three straight days. people want to -- they have to go around and see each other. i just think it's really ridiculous, the biggest testing site is closed. it's supposed to be open right now. there's no signs, there's no information online. >> reporter: now, brian, we're in the middle of getting to the bottom of this right now, we called the city, the city said it had something to do with the fourth of july and staffing by the nonprofit. we called the nonprofit we're hearing there are problems possibly with the reimbursement from the county of los angeles, so there's some retooling going on. the testing site is supposed to be reopen tomorrow.

again, a big asterisk out of los angeles with the numbers. >> gadi, i have to believe and we have to note in this current climate the democratic governor, democratic mayor of los angeles will have a lot of questions to answer especially following this reporting and gadi, before i let you go, for folks on the east coast, we talk about l.a. county, you hear people like me saying it's the nation's most populous county. ballpark, tell people what the population of l.a. county is. >> reporter: l.a. county is about 14 million, give or take, if you include orange county, if you include this greater los angeles area. it can be up to 20, 25 million. extremely large group of people the biggest hot spot right now in the entire country by sheer

volume and this supposed to be the center where the most people are getting tested. again, 6500 tests a day and today that's not happening. brian? >> amazing. gadi schwartz, just outside dodger stadium. as we mentioned steve patterson standing by, scottsdale, arizona, does it feel like coronavirus is at all under control in that state? >> no, it does not, brian. 101,441 is the official up total. >> the arizona department of health says of that 100,000-plus, 62,000-plus is people 44 and younger. you can directly correlate that and health officials are with

the state's reopening on may 16th. following that, there was a swell of cases week after week of an incline of cases going up. the mayor of phoenix has criticized the governor for closing down too late and opening up too soon. people on the ground here are suffering. specifically the health community, the health systems in this area. 89% full. icus, 84% beds full. ventilators have a problem as well. it was mentioned to me from a viewer on twitter, not just the capacity rate but also the staffing levels which are increasingly more thin as they try to concentrate phone these patients. the health system are looking for more people. banner health has contracted to bring in about 400 more people, medical staff, nurses, to try to deal with this situation. testing rates, you know, need to

be increased as well. several testing sites across the state. but there are several more that don't have the supplies needed to keep the people in line being tested. and then there are other places where testing is so sparse people have to drive hours to get these sites. supplies run out. this is a true crisis. with the fact it's feels less tense, less people are wearing masks. in a business district like this, see people -- most of the people i've seen aren't wearing masks. brian. >> unbelievable situation in free fall. the state of arizona. our thanks to steve patterson. and gadi schwartz in l.a. before that. let's get to our panel on this monday afternoon. as we start a new week today. dr. leane and robert costa.

moderator and managing editor of washington week on pbs. doctor, welcome back. great to talk with you. i'd like to begin with your assessment of the state of public health these days when we hear a correspondent as we just did describe the state of arizona, for starters, as in free fall. >> well, he's right. and the problem is that we have no idea where the peak of this particular epidemic is, we know that there's uncontrollable surge at this point in multiple metropolitan areas around the country. we don't know how far that peak is going to be, we do have projections about hospitals being overwhelmed, about when icu beds and ventilators are going to run out. we don't know how much worse it's going to get, we also don't

know what other places are next. we don't yet have the testing to be able to know the true extent of community spread. if there's any time for urgent action by the federal government as well as by local and state officials to really ramp up these restrictions on no indoor gatherings, making sure there's universal mask wearing, that time is now. actually that time was weeks ago. we have to do our part because we're in free fall with covid-19 in many parts of the country now. >> and to your point, it seems like every monday we see pictures of the previous weekend and public health officials are horrified by some public scene or another, thousands of people gathered together, no distancing, no masks. robert costa we have this reporting by nbc news, by your newspaper and others, trump white house is going to pivot to

a message of living with this virus, we know this was one of the points contend in a memo by friend of the court, chris christie, and it's fine unless you die with the virus, the president here will be bucking a whole trend of bad news, a growing positive rate and a growing death toll. >> behind the scenes the president is urging his chief of staff mark meadows and others to take command of the messaging, to be the only messengers when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic. yes, dr. fauci and dr. birx remain inside the federal government they don't have the same profile months ago. that was a decision made by the trump administration. this message was shared by many republican governors in texas and florida and other states. but those republicans are now

facing immense and mounting challenges in their own states. the president continues to plow ahead. focused on his campaign. that's top of mind. he's hoping the country can somehow make it through this pandemic even though there's no evidence it's abating in any way. >> doctor, people like you it would take resignations the people we call our public health officials to be clear of the administration, to deliver warnings candidly. right now, there's an all but total vacuum coming from the white house coronavirus task force and entities like the cdc. >> i think that these officials who are credible public health experts and are in the trump

administration are in an impossible position, because they're walking this tightrope, they have an obligation to the public to tell the truth and they also don't want to openly contradict the president and the vice president because then not only are they forced out they don't have the ability to influence from within and we do need their help from within. i don't want dr. fauci and dr. birx to be replaced others less beholden to the president. those of us who are on the outside, public health officials, not beholden to this administration at all we need to speak the truth, debunk these false claims that 99% of infections of covid are harmless. we have to talk about the suffering. we don't know the extent of long-term damage from people who actually survive covid-19. people have permanent kidney

damage, lung damage, even have neurological defects. i mean, we need to be able to speak on this and now it's up to those of us on the outside to also ring that alarm. >> our thanks to our friends dr. wen and robert costa, the latter will be staying with us for a nakedly political discussion to come. when we come back, two very different visions of the future of america. president trump used the fourth of july holiday to go deep into the culture wars and joe biden called for action on injustice and blamed the president for sending us off course. later, striking new evidence of the disproportionate impact the coronavirus continues to have on communities of color in our country. r country. day syst, a continuous glucose monitor, you don't have to.

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less than four months until the presidential election, a clearer idea of the president's re-election pitch in two large-scale speeches over the holiday weekend. donald trump cast himself as the protector of our nace's heritage, strongest dismissal yet of the pandemic and social injustice crises this country continues to face under his watch. >> the radical ideology attacking our country advances under the banner of social

justice. but in truth it would demolish both justice and society. it would transform justice into an instrument of division and vengeance. >> we'll never allow an angry mob to tear down our statues, erase or history, or trample on our freedoms. >> the president's feeling of the racial divide is not new of course, it helped get him elected in 2016, but this year is different as trump's attempt to secure his most loyal following is now scaring members of his own party who fear the damaging of supporting someone who protects statues of confederate leaders and who disagree with him an enemy. a contrast from former vice president joe biden who's leading trump by double digits in a number of national polls.

>> we have a chance to rip the roots of systemic racism out of this country. we have chance to live up the words that founded this nation. this independence day, let's not just celebrate the word let's celebrate that promise, commit to work, the work we must do to fulfill the promise, locked in the battle for the soul of this nation. >> biden also writes in a piece he prepared for nbc news think over the weekend, this country, quote, pursuit of a more perfect union has been thrown off course in the recent years and no one bears more responsibility than president donald trump. the president and ceo of voter la tina. elise jordan a. and back with us is the

washington post national political reporter, robert costa. maria, take us through how you view this coming election through the prism of your kons constituen constituencies. >> we're a nation of immigrants. we're a nation that thrives with our diversity and this president sadly has not pivoted from his original stance, the moment he descended those escalators and claimed a whole community was either criminals or rapists, he's continued the same, he's escalating the feeling of insecurity among communities of the asian american communities where we see hate crimes correlate very much with not only his rallies, he enters a city and wherever he speaks we actually witness hate crimes

increasing soon after but also the insecurity of saying that in this country we're no longer americans. the challenge, brian, is that when we say minorities in this country, we're talking about 135 million of us who are strong. that's 40% of the country. my children right now, brian, who are 6 and 7 years old, proud americans, it's the richness of that we see so many americans coming back and saying, donald trump, you don't have a vision for america. what he should be doing right now in his re-election stance with so many opportunities to talk about poverty, to talk about health, to talk about race in this country, to heal, to say this is my platform, reelect me because i'm going to take you down this path the next four years, instead he believes americans will come out and vote for him. they won't en masse.

it does not sit well. during the mid-term elections many white suburban moms who voted for him came back to the democratic party because of healthcare because of president trump's position on kids in cages. that's where he's struggling because he recognizes that he only has a faction of certain demographic of disproportionately white men ve versus a whole generation of young people. t and white suburban moms and you have liberal and independents who say he's not taking the country on the right course. we're in the process of an economic crisis of his doing. he's not addressing the pandemic. >> elise, about your profession,

our standing in the world, how we're viewed in the world, if you dropped into this world and looked at news coverage these days, you'd be forgiven for thinking we were in a pitched battle with brazil for coronavirus supremacy, how are we viewed in the world these days? >> well, you know, you look at world opinion and how that's actually moved america in the right direction on certain occasions, such as with the civil rights movement, that the cold war made it look terrible we had so many abuses and jim crow on our home front, pushed elected firms into action. you look at today and donald trump really seems like he's trying to go back and embrace the loss cause and cloak himself in the confederate flag as he did this morning tweeting and maria referenced that donald

trump's running a race-baiting campaign increasingly and i think that's the only strategy we're seeing right now and i'm not sure who he thinks he's going to win over with tweets praising the confederacy, when my own home state of mississippi bandished the confederate flag just two weeks ago and that was an amazing time for the state, something that i have been watching for years and years. and last was voted on when i was in high school. you see how public opinion changed in mississippi. donald trump seems to determine to lead the country in a terrible direction that the country doesn't want to go in. >> robert costa, elise raises a good point. you can live a full adult life in this country and not see until today your president tweet in support of the confederate flag in effect and also let's not forget minutes before we

came in the air team names redskins and indians. i'll quote, this is piece you on co-authored with phil rucker. on capitol hill, some republicans fret mostly privately to avoid his wrath that trump's fixation on racial and other cultural issues leaves their party running against the currents of change. coupled with coronavirus pandemic, and related economic crisis, these republicans fear he's not only seriously impairing his re-election chances but also jeopardizing the gop senate majority and its strength in the house and robert, the question that occurs to me is, when will we know? when will we see that? when will men and women with the letter "r" after their names on ballots in november, we saw a

republican senator from iowa take a pass on this opportunity, joni erns, this this weekend. >> brian, we know a little bit, working with phil on this story, one of the republicans strategists we quoted on the record was a gentleman named scott reid ran bob dole's presidential campaign. reid's a figure who speaks for many of these republicans. he's in touch with senate campaigns daily. the chamber of commerce has invested millions. spokesperson for the business community. he said on the record, these candidates across the country are very worried on the republican side that president trump's fixation on race is not just a series of tweets anymore, it's now part of his podium addresses. his addresses from the lectern, whether it's at mt. rushmore or at the white house or on twitter. that's causing republicans to wonder how can they now run with the president who in the latest

gallup poll has 38% approval. we talked about it, they are so reluctant to speak out publicly because they still need that 38%, that trump base in their own states, it may not be until late october, where republicans break, even then most of them stood by then-candidate trump. >> let's be candid these are grown men and women, elected officials, adults in the united states, scared to death of getting criticized or made fun of on social media by the president of the united states. our thanks to our friends for joining us on a monday afternoon. elise, maria kumar and robert costa. when we come back -- hospitals in houston bracing for the very worst of this outbreak as medical workers warn they're

short not only beds but the staff they need to treat the people in them. that story and more, next.