an auctioneer sold it all to the highest bidder. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thank you for watching. first up on msnbc -- setting the record straight. former special counsel robert mueller said roger stone "remains a convicted felon." plenty more in a new pinn piece. we'll explain. too little, too late? the president finally dons a face mask? part of a political calculation and how much does it matter now? back in business. not quite at usual. disney reopens despite a spike in covid-19 cases. a look at financial hit goya foods might take after the company's ceo praised president trump. good morning. sunday, july 12th. i'm fill inminnow. >> and i'm cory kaufman. here is how it looks in cape

may, new jersey. a balmy 74 degrees. >> the beach is open. like in any other states social distancing is required. face masks, and not able to be six feet apart. cases across the country are skyrocketing. several states report a record number of new infections. texas and north carolina reported their largest single-day jump in new cases and hit record highness hospitalizations. the louisiana governor is the latest to issue a mask mandate announcing everyone over the age of 8 must wear a face covering in public, unless a health condition prevents them from doing so. the governor also announced all bars in the state will close starting monday. and florida, crowds flocked to walt disney world. parks reopened with new rooms. visitors wearing masks and practicing social distancing after florida reported over 10,000 new cases. total number of cases in that state over a quarter million.

signs of progress from the state hit hardest early in the pandemic. new york governor andrew cuomo announcing hospitalizations dipped over 800. the lowest the state has seen since mid-march. the death toll the lowest it's been in four months. > but the numbers are still not good many states saying they may have to shut down again. >> reporter: across the country we're continuing to see states report a record number of coronavirus cases, but now we're also beginning to see death toll climbing as well as some governors are threatening drastic action to get the situation under control. across the country, death rates once declining are now trending up with death tolls surging more than 50% over the last month in at least six states. including arizona, florida and texas, where the virus has killed more than 3,000 people. now an army medical task force

heads to houston expected to arrive tuesday as the governor warns the state is at risk of shutting dack down. >> seeing in the state of texas the next sftep would have to bea lockdown. >> reporter: morgues requesting refrigerators trucks to help store bodies, including this area where a 6 week old infant died of coronavirus complications. a refrigerator truck also requested in arizona, hospitalizations hit a record. near tucson, one manager worries she's running out of space. >> i don't want to be at 2:00 in the morning wondering what we're going to do with someone's loved one we don't have space for. >> reporter: at least 40 states now see ag dramating a dramatic in cases, florida the epicenter reporting a staggering 75,000 new cases in just over a week. in louisiana, a mandatory mask order and all bars closed.

the governor's response to a spike in cases. >> as recently as june the 19th, louisiana was number ten in the country per capita cases. today we're number three. >> reporter: in georgia, the case count, more than doubled in the last month triggering a standoff between the governor and the mayor of atlanta. governor brine kemp insisting mayor keisha lance bottoms plan is legally unenforceable. and across country the mayor of san francisco says rollbacks are part of the new normal for plans to reopen the city now on hold due to a recent spike in cases. >> the openings and closings, these things are going to sadly be a part of our life now. the certainty we all want and look forward to is no longer existing. >> reporter: a harsh new reality all too parent in san antonio. this week a patient in their 30s died of the virus after attend ag covid-19 party. >> just before the patient died they looked at their nurse and said, i think i made a mistake. i thought this was a hoax, but it's not.

>> reporter: here in california, the situation appears to be getting rors. six of the seven pandemic indicators moving in the wrong direction. here in los angeles, the mayor threatening to issue another state-at-home order if the situation persists. guys? >> nbc's erin maclachlan in california, thank you. now to the front lines in florida where officials added more than 10,000 new coronavirus cases yesterday bringing the state's total to more than 254,000, third highest in thejo of advancing health equity. doctor, thank you. >> disney world reopened this weekend. reports say the crowd had small crowds, short lines and social distancing, masks required. are these safety measures enough? >> no. definitely not enough. we're seeing in florida as you just mentionrd a surge in cases. so to reopen a business of this magnitude even at reduced

capacity and with masks is actually quite careless. i'm really concerned about those visitors. i personally wouldn't even take my family there. >> doctor, obviously we know the park is outdoors. so i know people are saying, okay. what we're hearing now with the indoor issues versus the outdoor issues, and i guess the risks you might be taking there. is there something to take into consideration for these large outdoor events, even though they're not held indoors? >> sure. definitely there is less of a risk given it's outdoors and we know the virus doesn't spread as quickly outdoors, but you still have large groups of people. people waiting in line next to each other. you're still increasing the risk of transmission and to be honest, you have to ask yourself, is it worth it to go to an amusement park? is your life worth it? at this point i would say no especially given the number of cases seeing in florida at this time and the surge that's happening. >> the florida governor, ron

desantis, continues to brush off calls to create a stays-wide mandate subpoena mandate. is a mandate needed? >> getting more and more evidence universal masking is incredibly effective. a recent study came out a few days ago that showed introducing a mask now would save tens of thousands of lives by october. so the way the situation's going in florida with increase in cases, i would say governor desantis should issue a mask mandate as soon as possible. we're going to see tremendous amount of death and unnecessary death that is. >> doctor, i think a lot of our minds as we look forward and kind of figure out exactly how long we'll deal with this, a lot of people wonder about the vaccine. if a vaccine is developed end of this year or early next year, do you think we could start to get this under control by then or still be dealing with it beyond a vaccine becoming available, widely available? >> i'll be honest with pup usually vaccines take several

years to be developed. it's highly ambitious to expect the vaccine by end of year. probably earliest is spring 2021. so i don't think we should weigh off of our hopes on a vaccine. probably looking at other therapeutics helpful and learn how to take care of coronavirus patients, but this virus is not going anywhere as we've seen what's going on in the rest of the country right now. >> things are developing quickly. just this week, doctor, the world health organization added guidance on airborne transmission saying it is possible for the virus to spread through droplets in the air. we've been talking about this kind of transmission for weeks now. why is the w.h.o. just now putting out this guidance? what took so long? >> always a lag in information as far as the w.h.o. we had a group of scientists that came with significant evidence showing that there may be airborne transmission of this virus which is quite scary, and that really tells us that

staying indoors with this virus even more dangerous and we should have people wearing masks indoors if the transmission rate is so high. >> i've heard that there was even recommendations to go as far as to turn off your ac if there's a concern. what's your feeling on that doctor? >> definitely we have to think about areas where you're indoors. there's poor circulation. there are crowds. encouraging people to open the windows. work on their ventilation systems make sure the air is moving, ball those unincrease risk factors for the virus being transmitted. >> doctor, appreciate your time this morning. thank you. meanwhile, back to washington, d.c. covid-related news, the president finally abandoning his rigid and some argue detrimental anti-mask stance. here he is wearing his face covering. joining us from the white house, josh letterman. in these times here of coronavirus, sthothis should ha

been unmarkable, seen it months ago. but now the president dons a mask effectively the first time. we've seen it one other time. why now for this media opportunity that he allowed us in to see him like this? >> reporter: good morning pt president was increasingly the last man standing within his own administration on the topic of wears masks. despite his reluctance to do so saying he thought his political opponents were using this as an issue. we know the administration increasingly wanted the president to show that symbolic move of wearing a mask as public health officials really argue that is such a critical step for us to slow the spread. the white house and the president's own campaign have been shifting on this moving, for example, in his own events from saying mask, optional to masks are strongly encouraged. so the president biting the bullet yesterday to send that signal that it is okay to wearing a mask. at least in a hospital setting which is the excuse that the president used for why yesterday he was finally putting on that

mask. the real question, though, is whether this becomes a pattern from now on. here at the white house we're wearing masks all the time with exception of a few moments on-air and properly socially distanced. i was here at the white house just after president trump returned from that trip to walter reed where he wore the mask. as he got off the helicopter and walked into the white house with his aides he was no longer wearing that mask and didn't respond to my question whether he plans to make this a habit wearing a mask going forward as public health officials suggest we have to do. >> josh, switching gears a little. we heard rare public comments yesterday from former special counsel robert mueller in light of the president's commutation of roger stone. he wrote an op-ed defending his office's prosecution saying stone is still a convicted felon and rightly so. why do you think he decided to speak out now? >> reporter: the man who rarely speaks, robert mueller, speaking out pretty forcefully in this "washington post" op-ed.

i think the reason, the president has been using a communitiation of roger stone to try to change the narrative about the russia investigation as well as the president's own impeachment away from his own douct make it a story about overreach by democrats and overzealous witch-hunts by robert mueller and his team. mueller pointing out in this op-ed that roger stone was convicted by a jury of his own peers. the mueller investigation led to the convictions of seven people. not something that didn't amount to anything, but the white house pushing back strongly on mueller's op-ed in a statement saying that robert mueller and his corrupt investigation failed to hold anyone in the obama-bind administration accountable for negligence towards russian interference or spying on the trump campaign. the white house statement going on to say that mueller should keep his promise to the american people and let the report, which fully exonerated the president, stand instead of pontificating in the editorial pages with more

spin, unless we go without doing fact checking on that the president was not fully exonerateed by the mueller report. in fact, robert mueller made a point to say the president was not exonerated why in report particularly when it came to obstruction of justice by the president. >> very important asterisks to add to the report. nbc's josh letterman at the white house. thanks. we'll delve deeper into why robert mueller felt compelled to react to the stone communitiation. >> up next, key elements to mueller's op-ed and the end result mueller may be hoping to achieve. o achieve. i have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now, there's skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved... ...90% clearer skin at 4 months... ...after just 2 doses. skyrizi may increase your risk of infections... ...and lower your ability to fight them.

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roger stone was treated horribly. roger stone was treated very unfairly. roger stone was brought into this witch-hunt, this whole political witch-hunt and the mueller scam. it's a scam, because it's been proven false. >> president trump defending his decision to commute the prison sentence of longtime ally roger

stone. >> now former special counsel robert mueller is pushing back against the claims that his investigation was illegitimate. in a new op-ed and in a rare outspoken moment he writes, "the russia investigation was of paramount importance. stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. he remain as convicted felon and rightly so." >> joining us now, senior political analyst with nbc news digital. robert mueller says he was compelled to respond claims roger stone was a "victim of our office." the investigation uncovered. he writes he also identified numerous links between the russian government and trump campaign personnel. stone among them. did not establish members of the trump campaign conspired with the russian government in its activities the investigation did, however, find it would benefit from a trump presidency

and work to secure that outcome and the campaign suspected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through russian efforts. how much does this truly strike at the heart of the hoax message that president's been trying so very hard to sell. >> reporter: in reality, it undercuts it for those who read the mum ormueller report when i out this wasn't surprising. mueller said at the time the president wanted, got, accepted russian help, and the russians were trying to help him. the key to the roger stone situation here is that as mueller writes in the op-ed, they determined that stone was talking to russian intelligence officers and knew when russia was going to make moves on behalf of the trump campaign, but roger stone as waltz convicted of lying about his role to congress. so this is a situation where, you know, where the reality and

the facts on the ground, which involve serious effort by russia to disrupt our election and the welcoming of that by a presidential candidate is, you know, is at odds with the hoax message, not just at odds, it undermines entirely the hoax message the president has. >> digging further into the op-ed discussing stone's conviction, making false statements also to congress, mueller writes when a subject lying to investigators is strikes at the core of the government efforts to find the truth and to hold wrongdoers accountable. it may impede those efforts. so those last six words, to me, kind of stands out. do you get the sense that stone's obstruction, that, stone's obstruction impacted the investigation more than vigilly thought? >> reporter: infuriating to so many who read what robert mueller writes is that he's often very careful in his wording, as you point out those

last six words. but if you read the entirety of the mueller report, basically he concludes that one of the reasons that they couldn't establish there was a connection, or couldn't establish a conspiracy specifically between the trump campaign a russia is they felt people weren't being honest with them. that's what he's certainly implying when he talks about roger stone and stone talking to congress and the stone conviction. it's impossible to get at the truthpeople who might go to prison over not telling the truth are willing to go to prison rather than tell the truth. >> live from washington this morning. good to see you. thanks. >> reporter: good to so you, too. new research out this morning may rule out one possible way to combat coronavirus. and the study that points to what might be the best approach to conquer it, but is it achievable anytime soon? able an?

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now to the latest on the coronavirus pandemic. another record-breaking day for several states across the country as the total nears 3.3 million nationwide. south carolina tourism industry taking a hit because of the coronavirus. myrtle beach hotel occupancy, just 64% during the fourth of july weekend. new research out of the massachusetts institute of technology suggests blocking middle seats on an airplane could reduce the risk of coronavirus transmission by about half. some airlines face criticism after announcing they plan to start rebooking middle seats. one county in florida is giving crossing guards a new kind of whistle since they're now wearing masks. new hand-held devices making similar sounds to the whistle with just the press of a button. a new study out of spain appears to have debunk a theory we heard so much about. herd immunity. scientists studies 70,000 people and discovered only 5% developed antibodies. live for us from brussels, what

does this mean for the concept of herd immunity? >> reporter: well, as you say, this has cast doubt on that idea, because the key, conclusion of this study, is that trying to achieve herd immunity through natural infection while we don't have a vaccine is not achievable. the fact this is a large-scale study, gives themselves confidence a real snap. shot of the situation. they did study this in spain. spain one of the hardest-hit countries. the fact only 5% of the population developed antibodies is important. why is that so? the current moment the scientific threshold for achieving herd immunity hovering around the 60% mark. that number will change as scientists discover more as covid-19. we don't know whether there will be immunity. one of the things that can be taken out of this study according to analysis there is

that by pursuing herd imprudenty collateral damage. more deaths in the whole world population and overburdening the health system. we spoke to a doctor who co-authored the study who says this is unethical. take a listen. >> the reason this is one of the most effective only 10% of the population has, have developed antibodies. that means if you want to achieve herd immunity exposing the population, you should be prepared to have a much more equipped health system, and you should tolerate something that this, i think, is unethical. >> reporter: herd immunity a concept a few countries looked into, during the early days of the pandemic. a country that took a different approach to most is sweden. not imposing lockdown, life continued as usual and under scrutiny because of the high

death toll and death rate compared to its neighbors. some argue there wasn't any big benefit. sweden stands by their decision we reached tout their public health agency and they think they did the right thing in terms of doing a more sustainable approach in the long run. what does this mean for us? according to the doctor we talked to, she said until we know nor and until we have a vaccine, best thing we can do now is do what we can to avoid the spread of the infection. guys? >> something we're having a tough time doing here in the states. nbc's tessa live in brussel this morning. thank you so much. head back to the u.s. now. north carolina struggling with the spike in coronavirus cases there. the state hit a one-day record high adding more than 2,400 new cases and officials can't keep up with testing with those riding numbers. nbc's jordan jackson in mount airy, north carolina. talk about the numbers. what are officials most

concerned about here with the spike? >> reporter: right. we are seeing record numbers here in the state, but i really want to talk about how this spike is impacting testing capacity here in north carolina. we're currently seeing about 22,000 tests contacted per day. that's up from about 1,300 in march. this combination of this surge in testing in just a comply shortage is creating all types of issues for this state. i want to play a little bit of what governor coop her er had t earlier this week. take a listen. >> on the covid testing front we're experiencing new delays in getting tests back. it's tough when a person gets a test and sometimes waits a week to get a result. unacceptable. labs across the country are slowing down partly due to a nationwide shortage of important testing supplies. >> reporter: now, cooper calls

this a nationwide shortage, but health care officials tell me that really what they are most concerned about is just how this is affecting the data they are looking at in trying to analyze. right now the percentage of positive cases here in the state is hovering just around 10%. actually double what health care officials want to see here, and because there is such a lag in testing, the question becomes just how reliable is this number that they're looking at? how reliable is this data they're looking at? and doctors sort of have told me this is like trying to come up with a, an action plan for tomorrow using last week's data. it's just not up to date and making it incredibly difficult for these health care officials to make these tough decisions. cori? >> really is. and very tippy-top. new york had a transmation rate of 20%, or covid positive rate of 20%, half way there in north carolina. nbc's jordan jackson live in north carolina for us.

thanks. kids in america are heading to summer camp as infections rise in the u.s. and most summer programs are enforcing strict guidelines. camps in several states are temporarily shutting down after dozens of kids and staffers tested positive. >> nbc's amanda golden joins us live. numbers are staggering. does this mean more camps will close? >> reporter: a really good question and not a lot of clarity as camps in different states will follow the guidelines of those states even those counties. it's a summer camps look to open in the spring, the cdc provided general guidance. the american camp association given a field guide, suggestions, without any link, guidance or mandate whether or not camps should open. a prominent camp network in missouri opened five of their overnight summer camps and just last week one of the camps initially notified parents there were two counselors that tested positive, they would send the

kids home and then the count skyrocketed to 82 campers and staff. it wasn't just them, but continued on to another coamp. a confirmed case that also caused that camp to shut down mid-session. not shutting it down for the entire summer. the missouri health except planning to shut down the camps permanently and the k-2 with the camp with at least 82 confirmed cases plans to reopen in three days and accept kids back starting july 18th. speaking of parents with the camps are outraged what they see but siympathize with the camp's position and trying to provide normalcy for their kids at the same time. take a listen to one parent. >> it's -- it's been a hard time. it has.

because like i stated before, the one thing my child looks forward to is summer camp. it's been part of our history and it's so much. these kids are losing so much. it's just hard. it's hard for everybody. >> reporter: so the parents are in a tough position. they didn't know how to tell their kids they couldn't have a normal summer, wanted to give them this opportunity. the camps themselves are not prepared for a covid outbreak. no one can plan to that kind of cluster even if they put protocols in place, trying to keep distance between kids, cleaning protocols things like that is just impossible to plan for. they have failed to respond how they plan to move forward but still planning to remain open rest of the summer. >> a tough one. thanks, amanda. front lines in florida. officials added more than 10,000 new coronavirus cases yesterday

bringing the state's total to 254,000. the third highest in the nation. joining us, dr. laura hitchcock, the family physician in orlando. despite rising numbers, orange county especially, 18,000 cases, despite that disney reopened. what were your thoughts when you heard this and when you hear the safety measures put in place, are they enough? >> it is very concerning to me that -- absolutely -- from what i -- [ inaudible ] -- environment -- >> all right. unfortunately we're having audio issues with the doctor here. we'll get back to her as soon as we can. we appreciate dr. hitchcock being on with us and hopefully can get insight from florida from her soon. with less than four months to go before the general election, democrats have high

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27 vitamins and minerals, and nutrients to support immune health. new today, reports that democrats are lobbying joe biden to go big expressing concern that he's being cautious in this campaign that offers the possibility of a new path to the presidency. also comes as other democrats are warning against over-confidence. >> joining us, michael starr

hopkins founding partner of northern starr strategies and worked on the hillary clinton and president obama campaigns. welcome in. do you agree biden needs to go bigger and what does that even mean? >> i think what joe biden needs to do is be consistent. be kind of the steady hand that i think the country needs right now, and i think we need to not get caught up in the moment. i think democrats are very guilty right now of being scared of our own shadow given what happened in 2016. >> and saying this is a chance not only to defeat president trump, but rout him and discredit what he believe is his dangerous style of racial democrat gogi but the president's pace is steady. are the people's minds made up here and the stance on race? >> the president's base will stay with him no matter what. 22% to 26% of the country. but when it comes to vice president biden, i think his

support is something we're seeing shift. ed progressive side and moderate side of the party and is bringing democrats together in a way we haven't seen in a long time. joe biden has an opportunity most democrats don't get, and that's to pass progressive legislation that the moderate side will also agree to. >> take a look at this monmouth university poll that shows half of all voters say they will vote for the democratic candidate in their district. so does this offer up an opportunity for democrats to take control of the senate? >> it does. when you look at the senate, there's a lot of seats that are extremely vulnerable. whether it be susan collins in maine, cory gardner in colorado. the north carolina seat and two senate seats up in georgia both looking extremely vulnerable. given the wave that looks like is going to occur in november, i say "looks like" because polling of a snapshot. what we see in the polls are where the country is right now, but as we've seen with

coronavirus, anything can happen. it looks like democrats are going to absolutely have a wave election come 2020, and not just take back the white house but take back the senate as well. >> michael, 50% of voters also say they are not at all likely to vote for trump in november, but will these voters including democrats all show up for joe biden? >> i think they will. what we saw in 2016 was an election where people were voting against hillary clinton. not necessarily for donald trump. and we're seeing the exact opposite here. we're seeing people who may not exactly be excited about joe biden, but are very turned off by donald trump, and motivated to come to the polls because a lot of the division that he's set. so heading into this 2020 election, i expect to see trump try to fire up his base, but that also will fire up the democratic base, just going to be a wave of people who are in sena senatorial elections and elections in the house. >> sounding alarm to democrats,

saying retook the house based on issues like health care, but in november may be forced to react to president trump's partisan rhetoric, which could be a losing strategy in close districts. what do you hear from democrats in these areas? >> talking to democrat especially florida, the perennial bellwether state. they want to focus on jobs. james carville always says, it's the economy, stupid. you look at the president's response to coronavirus, which cost millions of americans jobs, we're seeing 1.5, 1. million unemployment requests every week. that's really at the essence where people are upset. people know coronavirus wasn't preventible but also know the response could have been better. so when people are now being cost jobs, people are now being laid off, that's where the economy really comes into play. >> all right. you seem pretty confident this morning, miking.

h michael. surpassing democrat retch station since the pandemic arrived, republican registration. >> i'm not. republican registration will go up getting closer given worries about republicans whether trump can get re-elected. the problem is when democrats and independents are turning out in a way we haven't seen since 2008. looked at the primary elections in every state democrats are turning out in ways we haven't seen since that obama election. i think what we're really looking at is whether or not republicans are going to turn out in anywhere near the same numbers. so far everything we've seen, they're not. >> all right. michael starr hopkins, appreciate you joining us this morning. back to the pandemic and the debate over sending children to school. the president yesterday again threatened to pull federal funding from those that don't physically reopen. >> as nbc's anne thompson reports, for more districts paying for those changes needed, to open safely, it is a tall order.

>> reporter: the president is pushing for children to go back to the classroom as new research sho shows they're not only less likely to get the coronavirus but less likely to spread it. still, the american academy of pediatrics which supports a return to school says safety precautions need to be in place. the center district in kansas city, missouri, is taking no chances. like many districts across the country, this one home to 2,600 students, it's comforting a new math. >> most of our conversations at this point have been about additional expenses. >> reporter: now part of its $40 million budget is going to non-traditional school supplies. stocked in this warehouse, masks, wipes and other safety equipment >> covid-19 wasn't bchbche budg. what we had to spend money on to make sure adequate training and supplies and equipment was readily available. >> reporter: all this as state

and local revenues are squeezed as well. safety expenses for an average sized school district of nearly 3,700 hundred kids, an estimated $40,000 for hand sanitizer. $148,000 for disposable masks. almost $450,000 for additional custodial staff. add in other costs and the total comes to nearly $1.8 million additional, but district lice new york, l.a. and chicago are 100 to 300 times larger. after getting less than 1% of the first stimulus package, public schools are opening washington is more generous. >> if the federal government doesn't step in to support public schools, what happens? >> i don't see how we do anything but remote education if the federal government doesn't step in. i don't see how we have the money for masks. the money for cleaning. i don't see how we do this. >> reporter: making sure the dual goals of in-person learning and safety add up to success.

anne thompson, nbc news, new york. >> thanks to anne for that report. there is growing backlash to comments by the ceo of goya foods praising president trump. >> that includes a boycott against what's a staple in many latinx households. how much impact is it having? of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya®. uncover clearer skin that can last. janssen can help you explore cost support options.

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new fall out today following calls to boycott goy foods after the ceo expressed support for president trump. >> #goyaway has been trending since thursday. he said protesters shouldn't expect an apology from him any time soon. >> i'm blessed to have the fortune of being a head of a company that is iconic and -- >> so the answer is no. the sans no you're not going to apologize for standing next to president trump? >> hell no. >> joining us now is yahoo! finance reporter is a bi.

how do you think boycott could affect goya? >> it's something they should pay attention to. no company in corporate america wants to face a buy coycott. it happened with the goya foods ceo praising president trump at the white house. he said the u.s. is blessed to have trump as our leader. the reaction was swift. on social media goya foods fell into hot water. #goyawa trending. we have celebrities and prominent politicians criticizing goya foods and advocating for are the boycott. julian castro saying that goya foods is a staple in latino households for generations and for the ceo to praise a

president that villainaizes -- saying he said people should think twice and aoc criticizing goya foods saying me googling how to make my own adobo which is a seasoning. >> we talked about in the beginning here no company wants a deal with this in a middle of a pandemic and any sort of calls for a boycott, but they have reported a quadruple in sales since the pandemic started. now that there's a backlash over this, are they feeling financial effects? >> right. they likely haven't felt financial effects because it just happened. it was on thursday he made the comments and the boycott is just picking up steam. in terms of what goya is saying. they're going to help families that have been affected by the pandemic. the company promised to give 1 million cans of chickpeas to families at food banks so

families that have been impacted by the pandemic can get some aid. also 1 million pounds of their products. so goya foods is clear aware. they're try to be sensitive to consumers. the ceo doubled down, not back down. doubled down on his comments saying he views this backlash as suppression of speech and that he will not apologize for what he said. >> help us understand how significant the hispanic community is. not just for goya but the economy as a whole. >> yes, hispanic americans, latino america is critical to corporate america. you're talking about likely billions of dollars in consumer power. for this boycott to be called, it speaks to the environment we're living in now. we're in the middle of a pandemic. tensions are very high. there's very little tolerance for consumers for ceos that are not sensitive to issues of race and social justice. >> yeah. we start to see the effects of

that majorly. >> that'll do it for this hour of msnbc live. thank you for watching. up next alex witt with robert mueller's rare public comments. he's defending the investigation of roger stone and rejecting a text from the president. more of mueller's own words and new reaction from the white house. ler's own words and new reaction from the white house. it's the 11:05 endless-orders migraine medicine the 2:20 back-to-back calls migraine medicine it's called ubrelvy the migraine medicine for anytime, anywhere a migraine attacks without worrying

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first up here. weighing in. robert mueller's reaction to the

controversial lifeline the president threw roger stone. also, president trump puts on a mask. why he wore it and why now. plus, sounding like a broken record about breaking records. the life and death covid crisis hits more states even hawaii and alaska. doctors putting it into perspective. >> what's scary it means the sickest patients are yet to come. we're in a scary moment. maybe there will be a miracle but none of the numbers look like they're going that way. it doesn't feel that way in the er. a good morning to you. i'm alex witt. thank you for joining us. we'll look at wilmington, north carolina. another hot day is on tap. a high temperature of nearly 90 forecast with a slight chance of rain. beaches are open but any beach goers are advised to engage in social distancing including wearing face coverings. the beautiful fog will be lifting soon. we begin with the white

house. a major reversal from the president publicly wearing a mask for the first time during the pandemic while visiting service-members at the walter reed military hospital. we go to josh. the big question. why now? >> reporter: it took four months of a raging pandemic and 135,000 dead americans but the president has finally worn a mask in public. donning that mask for a brief photo opportunity yesterday as he was at walter reed. why now? well, the president has increasingly been at odds with the urgent pleas from his public health advisors pleading with americans to cover their faces when they're out in public, if we're going to get this pandemic under control. but the real question here now, alex, was this a oneoff? does the president feel by wearing it on camera yesterday he's checked a box and can now go back to not wearing a mask or will he now show symbolically the importance of wearing a mask by doing it on a regular basis? here at the white house, we are wearing masks a