lable at walmart, target and other fine stores. good day, everyone, from msnbc world headquarters here in new york, welcome to "weekends with alex witt." we'll bring you up to date with breaking news. today the new epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic shattering case record. florida reporting 15,299 new infections. it is the highest number on record. the total number of cases in that state topping now 269,000. we're going to bring you a live report from florida in just a minute. but first the white house coronavirus testing czar today without with a new warning. >> so, we had no data to suggest that this would go away and we know 90% of our population is still at risk for the coronavirus. so we were hopeful that it would diminish the summer but we didn't count on it. and yes, there is a possibility

it could be worse in the fall. and we are all continuing to increase everything we do. >> in louisiana, governor john bel edwards 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. and announcing all bars will be closing starting tomorrow. and in texas a patient in their 30s died from coronavirus after attending a covid-19 party. a gathering held by someone hin fected with the virus to see if it is real. the doctor at the hospital tells nbc news the last words to the nurse were, i thought this was a hoax but it's not. we've got a team of reporters and contributors. dr. lipi roy will break down the latest developments but we gib wi with sam brock and the record breaking numbers out of florida. you could make sense of this?

>> reporter: i can't make sense of it to say except there is more testing, alex. 15,300 cases today. the previous record in florida was about 11,500, so 4,000 more than that. the previous high across the country was in new york, back in april, 12,300 and that is 3,000 more than that. the state of florida would be fourth in the world after united states and india and brazil and then florida. 70,000 in the last week and that raises any doubt as to whether this is the new epicenter. let's get down to the details. there were 140,000 tests in the batch and the previous batch it 70,000, and 80,000, the test is going down, 24%, one out of every five people four days awag

and now 13.6% so that is better but the thing people have time wrapping their heads around is that you have resorts and the most famous amusement park in the country, disney world opening up at the exact same time florida it seeing the cases. one family from richmond, virginia, decided against taking their kids here and here is them describing the atmosphere in virginia versus what they saw in florida. >> you know, honestly, i think it is interesting coming from richmond where people are at home everywhere. to come down here where most people like out on the streets, we were driving yet and i was like, wow, i haven't seen traffic since march 17th. there is a lot of lack of wearing masks and different things like that that, you know, you're doing it for the safety of everyone not just for your

own family. >> reporter: and, alex, you may recall the governor here ron desantis fought the idea of locking down the state. it is one of the last states to do that and one of the first states to reopen and here we are. now with you don't know whether or not the governor will say anything today. nothing on his schedule currently. but the state of florida right now, no question, in a state of emergency. miami-dade county, alex, 95% icu bed capacity, the last time i had a conversation with a doctor at jackson health, they have to go to make special arrangements right now just to get an icu bed and staffing also an issue and these numbers, there is a lag, are only continuing to go up. that is a scary thought. >> and i've heard the same thing speaking with a florida doctor as well from that same health center. thank you very much, sam. i do appreciate it. right now i'm joined by

contributor dr. lippy roy. a lot of numbers to get to. here is breaking news. there is a new record increase for global cases in a single day. they've added more than 230,000, 233,070 and in in order, the u.s., brazil and india and south africa. what do you make of the new numbers. and on friday it was over 228,000. so we're definitely going in the wrong direction. >> that is an understatement, alex. we're so going in the wrong direction. and you know, back in march and april, you and i were talking about the rise in cases, ppe, testk, we're still talking about that today and it is july. what is that expression, it is deja vu all over again. if we don't go by history and our history right now is just a history of going back three or

four months, we're doomed to repeat it. we know exactly what new york state went through, the hellish period that we went through and the local leaders here and governor made the tough decision to shut down. the countries in europe that are doing well made the same decisions that new york did in terms of just shutting down in order to reduce the community spread. it is just unfortunate that we're not seeing that happen in various states within the united states and sadly in countries like brazil and india that have a higher proportionate amount of impoverished men and women and i will populated levels on a global level. >> you could give me a sense since we have had sam brock reporting from florida, what is happening? >> the short answer, alex, is just lack of leadership. as i said before, governor cuomo made the decision to shut down

businesses and he mandated people stay at home. not do this if you want language, but firm language. life-saving mandates by our leaders. he clearly was listening to his health advisers. it is clear that the florida leadership did not follow the same recommendations given by our national and state health policy leaders. and as a result, the florida residents are suffering and front line health care workers, doctors and nurses are burdened by the number of patients, the volume, the sheer volume of six peek that they're going to be treating. >> if seems like every facet of society is burdened by all of this. but let me ask you the million dollar question, how long is it going to take to pull this country out of this malaise. >> i wish i had an optimistic news for you but what i'm seeing right now. let me start with positive news.

you saw images of the president wearing a mask in public at walter reid hospital. we're seeing signs of the texas governor and peek making more firm language but i just want to say, the recommendations that the public health people like me are seeing is pretty simple. i don't leave my home without wearing a mask and physical distancing. it is not like we're asking people to get admitted to a hospital and undergo major abdominal surgery and donate half of your liver. we're asking really simple things, alex and it could be life-saving. that is what we're asking for. >> all right, dr. lippi roy, thank you for being with us. and now to phoenix, arizona, where the virus numbers updated show more than 122,000 cases more than 2200 deaths and almost 5,800 hospitalizations on a 117 degree day as the state is struggling to provide beds for the ailing and tests for the

sick. my colleague vaughn hillyard is braving it and joining us from tollson, arizona, out skirts of phoenix. i know it is tough conditions. tell me what you're seeing there. >> reporter: if there is any reason to stay home, it is the reality we're in phoenix in the middle of summertime. it is 117 degrees. there is no roller coasters taking off or to be out or take part and we're seeing the covid across the state and the issue is still the inability to get a true perception of how broad and what the true scope of covid here is here in the state. i say that because we were at a couple of different testing locations yesterday down the street here in glendale where there were 1200 appointment

spots and they filled up on wednesday of earlier this week. and today there are no high volume testing centers that are open. this is a tough part here in this west valley. i want to let you hear, i was talking to the mayor here of tollson, anna tovar and her concern about testing in the communities. >> as a mayor, i feel abandoned. in regards to testing for my community, we know that latinos, blacks and native americans are definitely in higher risk of having covid. and testing is that crucial component for us to figure out who is sick, decrease levels as well, too, and have a plan of action of how we slow the spread. my community is about 88% latino. and the vast majority of my community does not have the luxury of working from home. they are risking their lives day in and day out, we've been failed by the national government, we've been failed by

our president. >> reporter: alex, today marked again a record number of icu beds in use here in the state. and you heard mayor tovar talk about access to testing. we should note there is one positive indicator of covid here and that is the percent positive number. the last few days it was 23% and before that it was 34% and that is a good indication but that 22.8% is double of what florida is. it is still a staggering number. we're far from having covid under control here in the state of arizona. and that is why testing access remains crucial here in these communities. >> another sobering conversation, thank you very much vaughn hillyard. and today jerome adams said the coronavirus can be turned around in two to three weeks if anyone does their part, including wearing masks. nbc's josh letterman is at the

white house for us. another welcome on this sunday. it is a major reversal about what he said this year about masks not work fog the general public. >> the surgeon general urging people to wear a mask but donning one today. the surgeon general was tweeting stop buying maskts and saying they don't protect the public. at the time there was a limited supply of ppe but the surgeon general adams said this is a better handle on the virus and how it is transmitted. >> once upon a time we prescribed cigarettes for as matt aches and leaches and cocaine and heroin for medical treatments. >> are you saying at that time you did not know because the cdc in february was looking at asymptomatic transmission of the

virus? >> we were looking at that but the cdc, the w.h.o. and even in may there was a new england journal of medicine article that disputing whether or not masks were effective. >> reporter: and even as icu and morgues are filling and cases continue skyrocket, adams and other task force officials today are insisting the situation hasn't spiralled out of control and we're in a better place than in march and april because we have more testing, better treatments like remdesivir as well as a clear understanding of precautions like masks and social distancing giving the u.s. a better fighting chance and adams pointing out that since it takes about two to three weeks for coronavirus to run its course through the body and stop being contagious, if you wear the masks, he argues this could be turned around regularively quickly. >> we'll see if that will happen. thank you so much from the white house. a new poll and perhaps a

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new today, education secretary betsy devos, with holding funds that don't reopen in the fall amid the coronavirus pandemic. >> american investment into education is a promise to student and families. if schools aren't going to reopen and fulfill that promise, they shouldn't get the funds. then give it to the families to decide to go to a school that is going to meet that promise. >> well you went do that. i know you guys support vouchers and that is -- and that is a reasonable argument. but you can't do that unilaterally. you have to do that through congress. >> well we're looking at all of the options because it is a promise to the american people and students and families and we

want to make sure that promise is followed through on. >> joining me gabby orr, jeff mason and chris lieu, and senior fellow from the university of virginia miller center. welcome to all of three of you. ladies first with you, gabby, how serious is the white house about defunding schools that don't reopen in the fall? >> well, the white house has been talking about this internally for a couple of weeks now and i think just in the last week you've seen the president push up the rhetoric of the importance in his view of reopening schools. this is very similar to the pressure that the administration put on a lot of states to reopen restaurants, reopen nonessential businesses and look where that has led to now. you have resurgence of coronavirus cases in a number of states making for a very complicated reopening across the

u.s. they are not being addressed necessarily to the level that they should be by the administration and the president all the way down to members of the coronavirus task force are now grappling with the consequences of his decision to put pressure on states to reopen. and now they are shifting to a school specific reopening, i think you'll have a lot of the same questions about the potential consequences of this and whether the trump administration should be aggressively pushing for governors to do this. >> so, look, jeff, as there is a push for this, is there specific guidance from the administration on how to reopen. are they referring to the cdc guidelines? is there a specific plan? >> well, there has been back and forth about that, alex. the president was critical of the cdc guidelines and the cdc is going to release more but that is back and forth about that and led to the cdc director to come out and say the

guidelines were not present to be used as an excuse not to open schools. i think the other political angle to this is the president is weakening in polls among white women. and suburban women and as well as men for that matter who were helpful to the election in 2016 so there may be a political aspect for this to push schools to reopen but as we see in polls in swing states and also in states that are traditionally very conservative-leaning, if people are concerned about sends kids back to school it could backfire. >> to the extent that you have nancy pelosi calling this push to have kids back in school appalling, and she's accused the president of messing with children's health. what is your assessment? >> this is an administration that has consistently prioritized politics over public health. it is not just the reopen of the

economy, it is the way they've treated meat packing plants and the way they've treated their own employees. we heard that a thousand tsa employees have tested positive and several dozen marines in okinawa that have tested positive and secret service that have tested positive. so if the administration can't take care of their own employees there isn't confidence to take care of american school children. it is a push without a plan or without the funding needed by schools to add in the ppe and barriers and distancing and this isn't going to help the president at all. >> i want to pick up on what jeff was talking about, the different groups that the president relied upon, chris, with a new poll out of texas. texas we're talking about. we have former vice president biden leading the press by five points and that's not gone for a

democrat since jimmy carter. how do you read these numbers? >> well, i think what is happening in texas is emblematic of what is happening around the rest of the country. in this poll, the president's approval rating overall is around 42%. his handle of coronavirus is 38%. he really has lost independent voters around the country and that is a key demographic that he won in 2016. texas is still probably still a reach for this election but it certainly means that a lot of other closer states, lake like arizona, north carolina, even iowa are very much in play this year as well as michigan, wisconsin and pennsylvania. >> gabby, your thoughts on texas and these numbers? how big of a blow? >> well, look, i think there two fakers here. number one is the demographic in

the last decade. you have a influx of people from other states tending to be more blue and bringing politics with them and that has shifted the ground in the state in a way that is favorable to democrats. on the other hand you have president losing support with seniors because of hi response to coronavirus and this isn't limited to texas, it is happening across the sun belt. we have seen his margins decrease in florida which is now a state that joe biden campaign is spending where they considered hard too get in the 2020 election and in georgia the trump campaign just announced they're spending $10,000 in the suburbs of atlanta and if you're a republican, spending money in georgia on advertising, you're definitely in trouble there. >> that speaks volumes for sure. >> it is not limited to texas. but i do think -- >> yeah. >> i do think the biden campaign is under pressure to ramp up

their campaign in a lot of the states. >> jeff, quickly to you, the numbers if tex-- in texas, what the reaction in the white house. >> well, i think the white house and the trump campaign in general are not pleased about seeing that kind of a trend. that said, texas and is and has been a reliably conservative state. it is still early in 2016 and the trump advisers will point this out, the polling was much for favorable to hillary clinton and trump won the election. right now they are not comparable in terms of the mood of the country and the conditions of the country. but that is one way that the trup advisers are approaching the polling. >> good to see all three of you. thank you so much. lessons no combatting coronavirus from places only a few months ago would have been unthinkable. would have been unthinkable. it's a reason to come together.

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some pretty startling numbers out of florida as state adds more than 15,000 new krohn cases and that is a bigger single day spike than any other state has reported. the statewide total is now just 270,000 cases. south carolina tourist industry is taking a hit because of the virus. officials say myrtle beach hotel occupancy was at 64% during the fourth of july weekend. new research out the mit suggested blocking middle seats to reduce the risk of transmission by half. some airlines are facing criticism after plans to rebook middle seats. and new york adding new coronavirus cases with 1% of all tests coming back positive. very good numbers considering where new york was. but the worst of the coronavirus outbreak is moving south. states in the northeast who spent months trying to get the virus under control is serving

as a road map for the states where cases are surging. let's go to gary in flemington, new jersey, with more on this. you have to wonder the numbers from new york, they're terrific by comparison and how did new jersey and new york go from being the epicenter of the coronavirus to one of the few places where decreases in the cases and hospitalizations? >> reporter: hey, there, alex, a number of officials said the governor himself, they all point to the same thing and that is the early action taken here in the state here in new jersey on march 21st. one of the first states in the nation to have the stay-at-home order and you remember this is a real lockdown here. grocery stores, liquor stores, restaurants, to go, only thing open in the state and as we're seeing in florida, disney world opens and you couldn't even go to a park. and another big point is that

things weren't getting political. governor murphy and cuomo both democrats getting to the facts and getting to the points and making sure they were meeting with the white house and having the calls and the oval office meetings and even had dinner from the president in bedminster and got the masks an the ppe and the testing supplies needed without being too political. >> gary, is there anything you think that states could learn from these spikes? are they able to apply what we applied here? because you talked about all of this going down early. for those states where this is percolating for a while, is it potentially too late? >> reporter: well, something new jersey has been focusing on is contract tracing and that is a call on your phone if you've been diagnosed and saying where have you been and who have you been around so they could call and try to quell the virus there. rutger universities here in new jersey, the school of public

health, said thousands of folks were trained to get them going and calling folks an it is important to pick up the phone and start to quell the virus. >> okay, gary, from flemington, new jersey. thank you for that. let's head over to maryland. where the baltimore orioles kicking off summer cam and julia che chester is on the ground for us. tell me how they are preparing for the season and what are they having to go through aside from the drills on the field? >> reporter: yeah, so the baltimore orioles are following mlb protocols and really taking player and staff safety as seriously as possible. i spoke with the president and ceo of the team who explained to me that they have a command center receiving area outside of the stadium to screen players and staff as they enter the field. and once you get on the field it

is not the typical clubhouse vibe you're used to in baseball. a lot of social distancing, masks aretory except within the lines of the field playing and practicing and you won't see the typical high fives, spitting or getting up in an umpire's face this season as fans tune in and watch the season kickoff on tv later this month. now, as for testing, the mlb has reached about 2,000 tests aday they're conducting out of their own lab in utah. and they have about a .7 positivity rate. that being said, 28 of the 30 mlb teams have had a staff or player test positive. so it is not just about the testing, it is how to prevent the cases from being contracted and spreading in the first place. here is what the leader of the baltimore orioles told me. >> we are always going to err on

the side of caution. so we have not one fan this year. that is the right answer, that is the right answer and we're going to stand behind that. there is nothing more important in our view than the public health imperative and that comes from, as we know, testing, but not just testing. social distancing, wearing masks, good hygiene, and we are reinforcing that to our staff every day. >> reporter: now, the team has decided to not release the individual covid 19 test results of the players and staff but providing that information to the mlb for the weekly data release every friday. so it will be a little bit of a different season here at camden yards. as of right now there have no fans but it is bring i a boost of morale back to the area. >> thank you very much. julia chester there in baltimore. want to let you know, we're keeping an eye on breaking news from san diego, california, where you could see the effects

of a fire, the smoke has built up considerably as we've been keeping an eye on this the last couple of minutes. we have gotten word this is on board an amphibious assault ship by the name of uss bonham richard based there in san diego. we are told that there was some sort of routine maintenance that was underway. we do not know the derivation of the fire and what may have caused it and we should say there are always crew members on board these kind of ships. the good news is if you could look at silver lining there are the weekend and there are fewer on the ship and no reports of injures thus far. uss bonham richard in san diego, something has happened as it was undergoing a routine maintenance cycle. that is one big fire and you see a lot of presence of firefighters there on the scene.

we'll keep a close eye on that and let you know as things develop some of the details. developing also right now, the fallout growing as the president is standing by his decision to commute the prison sentence of his long time ally roger stone. >> 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 is a scam. because it is been proven false. >> so that last part there, now former special council robert mueller is pushing back against claims that the investigation was illegitimate. in a op-ed he writes the russia investigation was of paramount importance and stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes and he remains a convicted felon and rightly so. and joining me now, it is good to see you, thank you for

joining me congressman, i want to start with the stone commutation. what went through your mind when you heard this was a done deal? >> well, two things. first, that the republicans senate were complicit and you could see this coming and you felt like the president felt like that he had a green light and coupled with the fact that the virus seems to give him the cover of darkness to do things like this and to wage an attack on independence and the integrity of the justice department, the intelligence community, and inspector general and even environmental enforcement issues. and the fact that i was one of those questioning roger stone when he lied. i personally -- i didn't take it personally. but 535 members of congress should. and when he lied to the congress, he lies to the american people.

he intimidated witnesses. and did much more. he was the key link between the trump campaign and russian intelligence and their cutout, wikileaks. >> your chair adam schiff said he felt this is part of distraction of the coronavirus and today there is an op-ed suggesting that the president needs political help and who better to give it that his political guru of many decades. what do you think was the president's motivation in commuting stone's sentence? >> i think it is to send a message to those who do his dirty work. you break the law for the president of the united states to protect him, he's got your back. this is extraordinary. i can't imagine the founding fathers who had just left an oppressive king would want to

create a pardon power like this. i think madison referred to circumstances like this as an impeachable offense. it is frustrating because we gave a huge body of evidence to the republican senate and equally problematic impeachable offenses and they elected to defend the president and this is what the country gets in return. the only jury that matters right now is the american public and how the president acts like this coming the november election. >> that is echoed by nancy pelosi. i'll get to that in just a second. i want you to ask you to dig into robert mueller op-ed in discussing the obstruction for making false statements to congress. mueller writes when a subject lies to investigators it strikes at the core of the government's efforts to discover the truth and it may ultimately impede those efforts those last six

words, did stone's obstruction impact the investigation more than we thought? >> oh, absolutely. and frankly i think so as it was taking place. and he wasn't alone. there were those who refused to abide by lawfully obtained subpoenas, they also refused to answer questions before the congress. the president himself refused to testify before the mueller investigation. so these are horrible precedents. the truth did not come out. it won't come out probably for another generation. or until at least until after further court rulings and that is afrp the november election. which is a real crime. there was a line of legal victory this week when the court rules the president wasn't above the law regarding his financial statements. and documents related to issues like deutsche bank and money laundering. but while it was an important

legal victory, it was a practical setback. because again, the american public can't find out the whole truth about the person their voting for to lead this office. >> house speaker nancy pelosi is vowing to take action to guarantee the president doesn't take similar action again. take a listen to what she said a bit earlier. >> we'll have legislation that said a president cannot commute or pardon or offer clemency to anybody who commits a crime convicted of a crime that affects the president's behavior and his culpability. >> so if the house were to pass this, do you really believe this the senate would take this up? is there anything congress could do to make sure this does not happen again? >> we could prepare legislation and pass that legislation. but realize the senate won't take it up. and if they suddenly got some

sort of backbone, the president of the united states wouldn't sign it. so this is in my mind a mandate for the american people to act, to replace this president in november and we'll do our best to make sure this doesn't happen again. and i do believe the supreme court will catch up with the press on all of these actions and the justice system will as well. there is no way that, again, our founding fathers intended for the president to have this unlimited power. i want to stress this, if the president can help his friends to protect himself it is clear in mis mind, if you follow this president's logic, he could also go after his enemies using the just department as a weapon. these are the actions of an autocrat. an autocrat that has to be stopped. congress on the house side will do whatever it can. but until we control the senate

or the senate gets a backbone and a president is willing to do the right thing, all systems of protection will not be in place. >> congressman mike quigley, thank you for your time on this sunday. appreciate it. the tell-all memoir coming out and if all of the books about the president, will this one have the greatest impact? tt

we could be just two days away from the lease of mary trump's revealing tell-all about president trump and the entire family. the book is called "too much and never enough" and the inside story of why she wrote a tell yowl where they labelled here an outcast to shine a cold light on those they described as dysfunctional. joining me now is michael rothfeld, the author of a new book called "the fixers, the

bottom feeders who created the 45th president." we'll have to have you back to talk about your book but let's get on to mary trump's book. why do you think she wrote the book, what is her motivation? >> well she explains in the book that the first time around she didn't take trump seriously. she thought he was just running to enhance his brand. her aunt marianne told her during the election that she wrotes didn't think maryanne trump who is a federal judge didn't think her brother would win and was unfit for office and when he did win, mary trump said she was horrified because of her own experiences in the family and this time around she wants her voice to be heard. and she also speaking out because her father, fred, fred jr., who was sort of an outcast in the family, was cut out of basically by his family and so she is speaking up for him as

well. >> i guess he didn't want to go -- father didn't want to go into the real estate business despite the namesake and became a pilot instead. i'm curious about the president who try the to block the book from coming out. do you think it will be released according to schedule and you'll get your hands on it in a book store on tuesday? >> i believe so. because the ruling that the last ruling was that simon and shuster was able to publish it after mary trump and her brother sued over the will of her grandfather fred trump sr., in that settlement there was a confidentiality agreement regarding the settlement and mary trump said it doesn't bind her from publishing but simon and shuster was not a party so they could publish the book.

>> what do you think is the most outrageous thing this book is going to reveal? >> well, i mean, it has a lot of inside details of the trump family growing up. i mean mary trump has things like donald trump had someone take his s.a.t.s for him, which he said helped him get into the wharton school. >> may i ask, you michael, doesn't she name somebody? she gaves a specific name there. i should say the white house has refuted that. but she named someone. >> yshe does. but i don't know that is corroborated outside of the book. but we haven't seen or heard from this. at this point it is her story and it is a serious allegation obviously. there are many other things about donald trump mocking her father who became a pilot as you said as sort of a bus driver in

the sky this came from her grandfather. just a lot of details about sort of cruelty, lack of empathy, thirst for money and how her father was essentially pushed into alcoholism that ultimately led to his death at 42 and then she and her brother were cut out of the family will. that is sort of the through line of the story. is that they were cut out of the trump family basically, they didn't fit into the mold of donald trump ruthless and just caring only about money, lack of empathy and so that's throughout this book. >> so if that is the case, how much access do you think she had to the family to write this book in present day or is this more of a reflection on the past and what brought, as she said, the president to be the man that he is today?

>> well, she tells a lot from mer memories of childhood and she was in touch with her aunt marianne and so has stories about her and she did go to the white house in 2017 for a birthday party of her aunt, both aunts marianne and elizabeth and tells what happened there and trump hugging her and said i want you to be here and she said i know that is not true and saw mike pence in the former. some from present day and some when she was approached by the "new york times" after the election, writing about the trump family real estate and shenanigans and that is how she learned how sme was duped and he felt she and her brother was taken advantage of it. >> in your article you said on the night of the election she

tweeted first night of my life and we should be judged harshly and i grief for my country. and why so long to speak out? >> well, she -- it is a difficult thing. there is no other other trump f member who has written a book or really talked about this. as i mentioned, she did not think her uncle was going to win. she obviously had this deep seated acrimony from the legal battles. one thing we mentioned in the article that isn't mentioned in the book, when they sued over the will, basically, her aunts and uncles cut her nephew, who had severe disabilities at birth, off health insurance, and they had to sue over that as well. so there was all this acrimony, but she didn't really believe this was going to come to pass. and again, it is a difficult thing when you're one person, you're not as wealthy as donald

trump to speak out, but now being that the election is up and, you know, this "new york times" article had sort of told this story and motivated her to come out and try to make a difference before the election. >> all right. michael rothfeld, thank you for making a difference on my show. we'll have you back to talk about your book as well. >> how california went from a covid success story to a hot spot and what's being done to stop the spread. pread.an rheuma. when considering another treatment, ask about xeljanz a pill for adults with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis when methotrexate has not helped enough. xeljanz can reduce pain, swelling, and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections. before and during treatment, your doctor should check for infections like tb and do blood tests. tell your doctor if you've had hepatitis b or c, have flu-like symptoms, or are prone to infections.

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hey, everyone. giving you evidence of a three-alarm fire. this is in san diego, california. this is onboard the uss bonham richard. this is an ambibmous assault ship that is home ported in san diego. that fire located in the 3400 block on sen street. according to authorities, this ship was undergoing some routine maintenance recently. they do not know the derivation of this vire. the only silver lining we can speak to at this moment is on the weekends while usually there

are crews onboard that ship 24/7, the number is lower. they're able to go off ship and into port there in san diego. so right now, they have no reports of injuries, but again, that is very much a three-alarm fire, and you see a lot of presence of firefighters there on the scene. we'll keep you updated as we get more information on the uss bonham richard. >> meantime, staying in california, coronavirus cases have certainly been picking up there in the golden state. a state that was once considered quite successful at initially slowing the spread of the virus. but now, there are more than 319,000 cases across that state, with about an 8% or so rate of positive tests. joining me right now is asha brown, the mayor of compton. glad to have you here, mayor brown. can you speak to what has happened in california, my home state, i might add? a lot of my family members are there. i worry a lot about it. what has turned the numbers around so quickly in the

negative? >> i think that as we began opening and the subsequent phases and allowing more businesses to open and for larger facilities like gyms to be able to reconvene their operations even in the face of needing to implement social distancing and health guidelines than contractions and community transmissions have increased, even within the city of compton, we have seen cases uptick not as considerable as the rest of the state, however we're taking this very seriously. >> as we look at los angeles county specifically, mayor, that is of course where compton is located, it makes up about 40% or so of the cases across the state. how is compton doing? what are you hearing from your residents? >> i'm hearing greater concern from our residents. we have been able to facilitate testing events and partnerships to provide testing to our population. we have had a hard time really securing additional resources from the county and state government for testing

facilities and we of recently have been able to confirm two additional testing opportunities for compton residents, but the population is dense, and we have a need for health care. we're dealing with systemic challenges of access to health care and so our population is growing more concerned, but also taking advantage of the newer testing opportunities that are now available. >> yeah, with regard to testing, i was looking at the l.a. times headline. there's a story that looks at what they called the failed mass testing in california. points to an investigation that found the state unprepared, overwhelmed, constantly lagging, struggling to keep up. what's your reaction to that, and are you seeing evidence of those problems with testing in compton? >> we're experiencing the challenges on the ground. obviously, no one was prepared for this pandemic, unfortunately, and as testing and resources were rolled out, i didn't see the connection of focusing on populations at the

highest risk, like african-americans and latinx populations and communities on the onset, and i think that ultimately did provide some negative impact in terms of community transmission spread. >> all right. mayor aja brown of compton, california, thank you so much for your time. sobering conversation as it was, i appreciate that. we're going to focus right now a little to the south of you. that breaking news out of san diego, california, giving you one more look at the end of our show, showing you the uss bonham richard, again, an ambibinous assault ship suffering under a 3-alarm fire. we don't know how the fire started. we're told routine maintenance was under way recently. the good news is, again, that we don't have any reports of injuries at this time, though it is believed that there are crew members onboard that ship 24/7. clearly, you see an awful lot of presence of firefighters attacking that three-alarm blaze. we're going to stay on top of this here at msnbc. my colleague, alicia menendez

will pick up the coverage of this and a lot more. stay with us.

good afternoon. i'm alicia menendez. it's 2:00 p.m. here on the east coast. as coronavirus cases surge with over 3 million nationwide and the death toll nears 138,000, the resounding call from medical professionals continues to be wear a mask. something president trump finally did publicly on saturday, while visiting walter

reed military hospital. >> i think it's a great thing to wear a mask. i have never been against masks, but i do believe they have a time and a place. >> also today, pushback to the president's decision to commute the sentence of longtime confidante, roger stone. robert mueller penning a scathing "washington post" op-ed writing, quote, stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed several federal crimes. he remains a convicted felon and rightly so. and despite resistance from his own attorney general, trump standing by his decision. >> 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. so i'm very happy with what i did. >> with me now is msnbc national political reporter josh letterman at the white house. josh, we're seeing reports that dr. fauci has been sidelined by

the trump administration. trump hast