good afternoon here in the east and a good morning out west. i'm chuck todd. we're monitoring significant increases in cases of covid-19 today. arizona saw more than 4,000 new cases. florida saw more than 9,000. over the past two weeks, 41 states have seen a percentage increase in confirmed cases. earlier on the "today" show, admiral bret addressed president trump's retweet of retired game show host chuck woolery implying the cdc is lying about this

crisis. >> i don't spend time looking at any of that on twitter because who knows how it's mean and how it's interpreted. >> the cdc and our doctors aren't lying. you're not lying. >> look, we may occasionally make mistakes based on the information we have, but none of us lie. >> in a new opsaid, four former directors of the cdc say no president has politicized science the way president trump has. writing, quote, public health experts face two opponents. covid-19, but also political leaders and others attempting to undermine the cdc. also this hour, jeffrey epstein associate ghislaine maxwell will appear in federal court for a bail hearing. we'll bring you any developments as they happen in that one. joining me now is my co-anchor for the next two hours, katy tur. and, katy, it's -- i would say happy tuesday, but with the virus, it'syeah, and we also ha

politics to talk about, chuck, as we're getting ever closer to the november election. and today again we have something of a campaign saftern. vice president pence is in baton rouge, louisiana, this hour. he's set to participate in a roundtable on reopening colleges, but he will not be meeting with state attorney general jeff landry as planned. landry announced he has tested positive for covid-19. in just a few minutes, joe biden will speak in wilmington, delaware, about a green infrastructure plan, as well as what his campaign is calling the failure of president trump to address the pandemic and its economic fallout. we also got another piece of sobering information about that fallout. there was a new study that found an estimated 5.4 million americans have lost their health insurance during this pandemic because they lost their job. so at a time when you need

health insurance most, you're losing it because health insurance is tied to your private employer. >> yeah, the statistics today are just across the board show the different ways this pandemic is. the fact we're having to shut down again, i mean, there is, unfortunately, not the cascading effect of this pandemic, i think, is right back front and center for us. let's go down to florida. governor ron desantis is holding a roundtable with miami-dade county mayors. 34 different municipalities within the county. there's 34 different mayors within the county of miami-dade. as florida continues to see a drastic increase of new cases of covid-19. the state reported an additional 9,000 today alone. that's down from some of their peaks over the weekend and late last week. a new report from the tampa bay times is offering a small note of optimism suggesting the record high case totals which

top 15,000 may have been due in part to a testing backlog. still, it's impossible to deny the virus is running rampant throughout the sunshine state and thousands of floridians are waiting to be tested. those that do get tested, trust me, i know firsthand from some relatives and friends. they wait days to get the results of their test. joining us now in one of those 34 municipalities within miami-dade county is nbc's kerry sanders in miami gardens. so the situation today, any better than late last week? >> well, you know, when the numbers came out today, 9,251, i think is the number today, it would seem like it's encouraging down from 13,000 -- or 15,300, but when you look at the lines behind me and you see that many of the people here are not showing symptoms, they're just anxious. they want to know whether they have coronavirus. and so we talk about the backlog and as the "tampa bay times"

pointed out there was a virginia company slow in perhaps processing and then did a big dump which gave us that 15,300 number. it really points out that there is so much attention and concern in the everyday home that people have of coronavirus. have i been exposed? do i have it? am i spreading it to someone else? when you have these delays with the tests coming back, you're asking people to do something that many of them tell me they are not doing. they get in line. they drive through here. they get the test. now they start arriving here close to midnight. so it's a very long evening into the morning, waiting to come through here. can take six-plus hours to get through. they get their test, and then they have to wait for the results. and in some cases, even the governor said they have to wait a week, which is too long. we know people who have waited up to 15 days now to get their test results. what you're asking people to do is sit at home for 15 days. not go anywhere in the off

chance that they test positive. since so many people are unwilling to sit at home that long, well, it causes the spread if indeed they are positive. as you noted, there's a meeting the governor is about to attend with the mayors here. we can see the leave picture. he's been running behind schedule about every time he does these meetings. running behind today is no surprise. while he was holding a news conference, there was -- this was yesterday. there was somebody who slipped in who decided he was not going to let the governo without heckling him. this is the first time we've seen it but it reflects the frustration. let's listen for a moment. >> we came to jackson in, i think early march when this pandemic was really starting to pick up steam. at that point, i don't even know if miami-dade had a case, a positive test. maybe a couple, but it was obviously much different than what we're finding here.

>> -- record-breaking cases every day and you are doing nothing. you guys have no plans and you're doing nothing. shame on you! >> and that reflects the frustration people who believe that the governor is not doing enough to get a control of this. but as you noted, he's meeting with the mayors of miami-dade county, which is the epicenter within florida and hopefully coming up with a plan that will help folks figure out where we go from here. chuck? >> kerry sanders in miami gardens for us, thank you. katy, even the president -- one of his former chiefs of staff, mick mulvaney, seems to say the delay in getting a test result shows that we still have a testing problem. a reminder that all politics is local, huh, once it happens to you. suddenly -- anyway, over to you. >> he said it in an op-ed. his son waited 5 to 7 days to get tested. his daughter wanted to visit her

grandparents and she could not get a test. she did not qualify to get a test. here in new york it takes 7 to 9 days to get test results. there's a horrible backlog at the two biggest testing companies, quest and lab corp. there's a backlog that needs to be worked out. president trump, chuck, is also facing fresh criticism in another key battleground state. the president was asked about school safety yesterday after three teachers in arizona got sick while sharing a summer school classroom. one of those teachers died. >> what do you tell parents who look at this, who look at arizona where a schoolteacher recently died teaching summer school. parents who are worried about the safety of their children in public school? >> the schools should be opened. schools should be opened. kids want to go to school. you're losing a lot of lives by keeping things closed. i think there's a lot of better if they can keep the schools closed in the election.

>> the headline in the arizona republic this morning reads trump responds to question about arizona teacher who died, schools should be open. he also made it political. joining us now is nbc news political reporter monica alba. you know, you wonder if he even heard the substance of that question, although we've been in this situation before. he completely glossed over this death, and he just went into schools should be open. politically, it's the democrats trying to hurt me by keeping schools closed. there are a lot of administrators out there who are worried, though, monica, that they just do not have the resources in place. they don't have the money for those resources. and also, the spikes in their communities. this is across the board. but many communities are just too high to risk putting kids back in a classroom. >> katy, they're also confused. and that's for good reason. you have mixed messaging coming from the white house which last week broke with its own agency

with the cdc guidelines that were going to be able to allow people to see how they may reopen schools safely saying they didn't like them. they thought they were too restrictive. that came from the top from the president. and then you have the white house saying they're going to come out potentially with their own guidance. now they're walking that back saying essentially they do defer to localities and different school districts. while the white house will support funding for certain schools who want to reopen in the fall as part of the next c.a.r.e.s. 4 act i'm told by a white house official, they're not going to come out, it looks like, with their own guidance. this is another example of contradictory messaging on soften important topic. you remember back with houses of worship a couple of months ago. the white house didn't like the cdc guidelines on that. they put out their own. this was an attempt by the president to pressure and do the same, but it doesn't seem it's happening, of course. that could still change. the white house is seemingly backing down now saying school districts have to decide for themselves what is best, particularly also still

following the cdc guidelines we understand will stay in place. you're talking about arizona. a critical battleground state. some breaking news on another one which is florida. those cases spiking. you heard there from kerry sanders, the republican national convention, which is set to take place in jacksonville, six weeks from now, we're told now by republicans familiar with the planning, a lot of that may be moving outdoors fully. we're learning this as there are so many questions about how many people can even come together, whether it's indoors or outdoors. the three days that are contracted there currently now we're told could move to a fully outdoor venue. the president could be accepting his renomination outside. we're talking about the end of august in florida. you have a pandemic, heat, humidity, potentially hurricane season. all of that now adding to the complications of how you're going to bring together as many as several thousand people, whether they're outdoors or not in the middle of this health

crisis. we're continuing to learn more, but we're told there was a meeting at the white house yesterday with the president and republican officials about how they can hold this event, again, at the end of next month. >> monica alba bringing up some really great points about the end of summer in florida. thank you very much. chuck, when it comes to schools, the administration keeps pointing to europe and places overseas that have reopened schools saying it's been a big success. but it's really been a mixed bag overseas. there was a big takeout about what happened in israel with schools and the daily beast today showing that one month after they reopened schools on may 17th, the spike in israel when it had been completely under control is now completely out of control again. and that they chock that up, a lot of it, to kids getting it and teachers getting it in classrooms and spreading it within the community. >> right. but none of those countries attempted to open their schools while their case count was going

up. they waited to get their case count to go down. so that's a -- that's an important, i think, aspect of that. by the way, that's huge news that monica alba just broke here on our air that basically the entire republican national convention is going to get moved outdoors, or they're finally contemplating that, realizing they're basically in a box at this point due to the decision they made to leave north carolina and go to florida at the end of august. let's stick to schools, though. in spite of the pressure from the white house, three of the largest school districts in the country -- los angeles, san diego and atlanta -- have decided they'll remain closed physically and begin their academic year entirely online. joining us is the superintendent of the dallas independent school district, michael hinojosa, the former superintendent of dekalb county school district in atlanta. they made the decision to delay the august 17th opening. your school district, you're also scheduled to open august 17th. i want to bring up something you told garrett haake last week. let's play that, and we'll talk

on the other side. >> think schools will open on time or do you need more time? >> we were planning for this for a while. initially i thought we'd be ready but i'm starting to have second thoughts about, can we pull this off by august 17th. >> all right. that was five days ago. i'm guessing you've had second, third, fourth, fifth thoughts by this time. is august 17th still the day? >> as of right now, but next week i'm having a meeting with our school board and recommend a different plan. think about it. we shut down. there were only 1300 cases in march in the whole state of texas for the whole month. every day in july there have been over 1,000 cases in dallas county every day. so the situation is getting worse. and i was looking at your screen up here, katy and chuck. what i noticed, if texas were an independent country, and sometimes we think we are, we would be in the top ten number of cases in the entire world. we'd be ranking up there with some of those countries. so things are not getting

better. they are getting worse. we probably need some more time. >> let's talk about what plans -- i'm sure you've got different plans depending on the level of infections in the area, depending on what part of the reopening you're going to end up being in four to six weeks from now. but do you have -- what's your thoughts specifically on splitting off elementary, the younger -- figuring out a way to provide a classroom environment for younger children, particularly for parents that don't have child care versus older children who we think can handle the online learning process slightly better? >> that's an important question because in texas, we have a law, if you leave a child under the age of 12 at home alone, you can be charged with child endangerment. so we were thinking about that. we had to pivot away from that because we were given direction by the state that if one parent requests a school to be open, whether it's elementary or secondary, you have to have open space. so we've had to pivot that we

have to open any of our schools, if one parent requests it, according to our state. now they are giving us a three-week pass, but we just don't think that's feasible at this time. we'd like to just stand down. we do have control over our local calendar so i'm recommending to thenext week th until september the 8th and expect that maybe things will get better by that time and maybe we can handle everybody having a -- parents still have the option gop ionoption, do i a bricks and mortar building but we'll have a little breathing room by september 8th. we don't have it right now. >> the new heroes bill has a lot of money in it for schools. not as much as some education groups wanted but it's close to $100 billion for schools. is that going to be enough money, the money that would get down to you in order to put in place the safety measures you'd need to reopen schools? of course, that's also a very big if because it's something

that would still need to pass the senate and right now there's no sign of that happening. >> katy, while the c.a.r.e.s. act got us started, we're depending on the heroes act. it got through the house okay but stalled in the senate. we've got to have that legislation to give a backstop to school districts. we had to help big business, small business, individual families. now we have to help state and local governments. that's where our police officers and teachers are. so that's vital for the future of this country and all of the individual states to have support from the heroes act. we're watching that very closely, but it has stalled in the senate for a while. >> so many teachers go into the classroom and buy a lot of their own supplies because schools are so short on funding. are teachers going to be supplied with the hand sanitizer they need, the personal protective equipment that they need, or is that something that you expect they're going to have to take on much like they take on, you know, crayons or extra

paper, et cetera? >> well, we have some things to complain about. that's not one of them. we've ordered everything we need including shields and masks and hand sanitizers. the state has done the same thing. we've placed all that on order. most of it is already in. we have 150,000 students, 220 campuses. so we don't expect our teachers to have to come out of pocket, like they always have for everything in their whole careers. this time we want to take care of it. we have gotten support from the state to make that happen in addition to our local funds. but that bill is going to get bigger and bigger, and we need a way to pay those off at some point. >> michael hinojosa, the superintendent of the dallas independent school district, really appreciate you sharing the perspective for the country from what you are seeing from your point of view as well. much appreciated. we'll be watching. good luck with your decision. katy, over to you. >> and chuck, that is a live look. we're going to show it on our

screen in a moment. wilmington, delaware, where any minute now, joe biden is set to roll out his clean energy plan. we'll bring that to you live as soon as it starts. and coming up in person summer school started up in detroit this week, and for the second day in a row it has been met with resistance. protesters blocked buses saying it's too soon to send kids back to the classroom. we'll be live in detroit right after a quick break. you're watching msnbc. and absorb wet messes, all in one disposable pad. just vacuum, spray mop, and toss. the shark vacmop, a complete clean all in one pad. cranky-pated: a bad mood related to a sluggish gut. miralax is different. it works naturally with the water in your body to unblock your gut. free your gut, and your mood will follow.

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for the second day in a row, demonstrators are protesting the decision to allow in-person summer classes at detroit's public schools citing a lack of safety and preparedness. this morning, school buses were blocked from leaving the terminal to pick up children who are now allowed back inside schools for the first time since mid-march. joining us from detroit is msnbc correspondent heidi przybyla who was at this morning's protest. heidi, what were you hearing? >> katy, i'm standing outside priest elementary school. it's one of 23 schools across the city that are opening for summer school. and that's happening amid significant angst given that covid numbers here are starting to tick up. given that this city has already seen so much death due to the pandemic. and so what you saw are protests. protests outside the bus terminals trying to stop the buses from picking up children. you are seeing a lawsuit being filed by activists to say, under no circumstances, should these

children be used as quote/unquote guinea pigs. you're seeing parents who have very little faith that the schools are going to be able to implement the safety protocols outlined in a 60-page document. take a listen here to one of the activists outside the main bus terminal on the west side of the city this morning, katy. >> we know from bus drivers, teachers, parents that the schools are not safe. they are not following the guidelines that they even set for themselves. but even if they were, it would not be safe to send kids back into these schools. the cdc has said that the fastest way to spread the virus is reopening the schools. and they're only opening them in detroit in this whole area. just detroit. >> as you heard there, as you heard there, katy, she said just detroit. i've checked around and there are very few school districts doing this outside of the city.

this is an impoverished city. no matter who you talk to, there's one thing they all agree on and that is that covid is exposing the real disease in this city and that is poverty. back to you katy. >> heidi przybyla in detroit, thank you. chuck, over to you. in just under two hours from now, a judge will hear a legal challenge to the trump administration's new directive to deport hundreds of thousands of international college students if their schools decide to go virtual this fall. the lawsuit brought by harvard and mit is backed by more than 200 universities and 18 states. last week we reported on states like california joining this lawsuit. the schools are arguing that the policy jeopardizes students' safety and would throw their fall plans into disarray. if the judge does not suspend the rule, colleges across the united states will have until tomorrow to notify i.c.e. if they plan to be fully online this fall.

katy, look, i didn't go to law school. i'm not going to sit here and play lawyer on tv, but, boy, it is hard to imagine that this rule will get upheld because what if the university decides, we're going to be sort of -- we're starting off online. we're going to make a decision a month later. we might be able to have some in-person. either you're going to game the system that way and i.c.e. says if you have one in-person class they can come and the universities game it that way or you're putting these students in weird jeopardy. so i -- this feels like a rule that was come up with to satisfy a political base that the president swears he's losing. >> you wonder who they are trying to punish. the schools and professors or the students here. and then also chuck, a number of professors out there who have said they are willing to take one of their classes outside, even through the winter, hold classes outside in the snow, if

necessary, in order to make sure that those students have at least one class to go to so they do not need, or they will not be deported under this new rule, if it is not, or if it is upheld by a court. and that's obviously a very big if. coming up next -- as we see a record spike of coronavirus cases across the country, are doctors and nurses feeling the strain. from once again scrambling to have the right and enough ppe -- it's happening again -- to treating the sickest of patients. >> definitely seeing a surplus this month of patients coming in covid positive and critical care patients, unfortunately. before, when this first began, we had increased numbers, but now it seems to be overcapacity. and we're starting to get to a point where it's -- we see it as much worse than when this first began.

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others see cracked concrete, instrundown courts.ere. i see a way to bring pride back to communities. that's why i made project backboard and a site with godaddy. how will you make your mark? make the world you want. in just a couple of minutes from now, former vice president and 2020 presidential candidate joe biden will unveil his plan to pull the economy out of a recession and invest in clean energy. the plan calls for a $2 trillion

investment in clean energy over four years. that is a big, and it is an ambitious change from his previous proposal during the democratic primary to spend $1.7 trillion over ten years. biden will also announce a push for a 100% clean energy standard by 2035. a proposal first introduced by governor jay inslee and endorsed by senator elizabeth warren last year. we're going to bring you that speech as soon as it begins. interestingly, chuck, he's framing this as an economic win. a way to get people back to work. a way to get industries back up and running during this pandemic. it's turning them towards green technology and bringing the workforce along with it. it's actually something we're starting to see the european union do during their pandemic response in order to make sure the people are not out of work and that they can use this time to its best advantage.

>> look, there's two ways to use insurance money when you get hit with a natural disaster and your house is damaged. do you repair it the way it was or if there's new technologies, new this, do you improve it? that's sort of the mind-set biden is trying to have here. we'll see if voters embrace it. one prediction you'll see out of biden between now and election day is every event will be through the prism of the economy. when you look at it, it's the only weak polling number he has right now against president trump. so i expect to hear a lot about economic plans between now and november almost on a daily basis. let's turn to the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic. here are the facts as we know them at this hour. boris johnson announced today people will be required to wear masks inside shops and supermarkets in all of england. the rule goes into effect in ten days. violators will be fined up to 100 pounds. that's about 125 u.s. dollars. the deficit reached a record $864 billion last month.

just in that month. for context, the budget deficit in june of last year was just $8 billion. okay? miss something zeros back then, huh? the increase can be attributed to the massive spending programs to alleviate the lm t pandemic and the tax revenue for the millions of americans who have lost their jobs. with nfl training camp scheduled to begin at the end of the month. new policies and equipment will be introduced to protect staff. oakley, you know them, they'll develop this new face shield that will be placed in players' helmets to limit the spread of the virus. i'll be honest with you, katy. after you go run a 40 once, you're a 300-pound lineman, you're going in your three-point stance, you're not keeping your mouth shut. you're huffing and puffing. you're going to be exchanging a lot of droplets there. i hope this face shield works. it would be a huge step for football if it does.

>> it would be a huge step. and i hope they can bring that technology to athletic masks. frankly, if you're trying to do sprints or run at all in a mask, it can feel like you're suffocating. cross your fingers on that. also, four months into this pandemic and this is -- we're turning toward the more serious. health care workers are sounding the alarm again they face shortages of face masks, gowns and other protective equipment. stuff they need to do their job, not just to exercise. "the new york times" and "washington post" report that some doctors and nurses are being asked again to reuse masks and other supplies as cases surge around the country. joining us now is emergency room physician in new jersey, dr. michelle harper. she wrote about the stress and fear doctors experienced back in april in a medium post called "when this war is over, many of us will leave medicine." doctor, thank you very much. i'm sorry. you're also the author of "the

beauty in breaking." a memoir about your life in medicine. thank you very much for joining us. to hear that there is still a shortage in ppe when there was all this time to stock up on supplies after what happened here in new york, i am just curious, what is the advice you'd be giving other medical professionals in places like arizona, california, texas and florida who are currently in the depths of this crisis? >> honestly, all we can do is what we can. unfortunately, there's not a coordinated government response. so we do the best we can with the supplies we have. what people are saying is true. they are reusing shields, reusing masks. that's the position we're in. and we just brace and hopefully the hospitals will have some system in place like a recycling program that we currently have.

and that's it. and then community members, of course, doing their part twhen comes to masking, hygiene. maintaining the physical distancing. i understand people are tired and they're lonely and want to get back to their life but that's not where we are, yet, in this country. >> you wrote about how after all this you believe a lot of doctors and nurses are going to leave medicine. is there something that they can do, other doctors and nurses that are experiencing this right now? they can do to mitigate the trauma of this to protect themselves from that ptsd, that trauma, in order to keep going with a career you really invest in and a career that's so necessary for the well-being of -- well-being of all of us? >> that's a great question, and it's a little challenging right now. i mean, luckily in the north

where i practice right now, there's a lull medically so we can take advantage of trying to heal ourselves, whether it's having a physical practice like exercise and eating healthy. therapy. involvement in groups where we can try and destress. for people where it's peaking and they are still dealing with the deluge and they're in the middle of it, this is a time of survival. so you do what you can, and then you try and heal later. those are the facts on the ground, unfortunately. and even in the north, we're still bracing as well. we're seeing the rates go up. we're not naive. we expect the second round to be coming our way. >> dr. harper, last friday, dr. osterholm of the university of minnesota made a -- pointed out a grim statistic we're about to

hit. we're getting awfully close to have lost 1,000 medical workers to this virus. and he said, in four months, imagine losing 1,000 soldiers in a war overseas in four months. we know where the country would be. we know where congress would be. we'd be talking about ways to honor these folks. we talk about gi bills for those that are fighting. it feels auk ward to say this, but it feels as though we need to remind the country that you're on the front lines here, dr. harper, risking your life. >> it's true. everything you're saying is true in terms of the loss to death and illness of health care providers that we so critically need, but then there's also disability that's going to happen. the fall is coming. actually, we thought we would have a little respite, but we're seeing that even in the summer, in parts of this country, they have no respite at this time. and then the fall will come where we have a spike in viral

illnesses. and it will get worse. even those of us who are still alive, because people are going to get sick. we're not going to be able to work for that reason as well. we do need to take care of our health care providers. all of our essential workers for this reason. we so sorely need them. in addition to everything we've talked about, the lack of ppe, lack of testing. there's other stress, even for those of us in the northeast who luckily have a little lull in disease severity and e.r. volumes. there are stresses of, well, health care providers because medicine in this country is run by for-profit as well. medical providers have been furloughed, fired. there are pay cuts. so we work in this environment of financial insecurity, while we're trying to heal from the physical trauma, bracing for the next physical trauma, and for essential workers who aren't medical providers, it's even

worse. i'm talking about people like the bank tellers i take care of. the grocery store clerks. the mail delivery people. they already didn't have a living wage, and they're having a pay cut. they don't have health care and they're working during a pandemic. they're forced to work until they physically drop, and then they come to me in the e.r. and i admit them to an intensive care unit. >> it's just heartbreaking. and so infuriating. dr. michelle harper, thank you very much for coming on and helping us understand. we appreciate all of your time. chuck, over to you. >> thank you. >> thank you, dr. harper, for bringing some voice to this. any minute, joe biden is set to speak. we'll bring you that speech live as soon as he begins. first, it's looking more and more likely that 2020 will be one of the hottest years on record. i'm not talking about anything

like popular, but we're talking about climate. out climate. to build unlimited right.

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only on verizon. any moment, former vice president and 2020 presidential candidate joe biden will take the podium in wilmington, delaware, to introduce a new joint economic and environmental policy plan. we're going to bring that to you live once he takes that podium and begins speaking. 2020 is on pace to be one of the hottest years on record. so this timing is interesting. the national oceanic and atmospheric administration or noaa, released a report on monday that found the first half of this year was the second warmest on record in its 141-year history. joining me now with more on this is msnbc weather reporter bill karins. bill, what's it look like from your perspective? >> first of all, let me say i'm really glad we're doing this story. there's a watchdog group that

monitors all the media to see how many climate stories they do. we're down 80% this year on the number of media climate stories being presented to the public. it's not like the problem has gone away. it's obviously we have everything from the pandemic to the election and the black lives matter and it's just taken a back seat. so it shouldn't, though. we still have to address this. this isn't a problem that's going to go away in the next 5, 10 years, even 20, 30, 40, 50 years from now. what we found out is so far for the first half of this year, we're on pace for the second hottest year to date. all-time record heat, this big blob of red, what's been going on in siberia in the northern siberia toward the arctic circle, it's been so unusually warm it's ridiculous. in north america, even areas of canada have been cooler than normal. but this anomaly here in siberia is taking us to the point of challenging the warmest year ever recorded. as far as billion-dollar weather disasters. there's consequences to this. already $10 billion weather

disasters. six years in a row we've had ten or more. the average used to be four or five. we'll have to see what this year brings, the second half of the year. we're just getting into the heart of hurricane season and one of the biggest consequences is warmer ocean temperatures. that's the energy and the fuel for the hurricanes. and this month, we saw water temperature off florida of 92.5 degrees. warmest ever recorded. so if we do get storms in these areas, look out. i'm glad we're back to doing some of these stories and reporting on this. we have to address it. it's going to take money and politicians and funding. >> yeah, no, there was a feeling that because everybody was standing still for the first few months of this pandemic, air travel was down, car travel was down, that we would make some gains in combating the carbon dioxide emissions and combating global warming. but those gains are quickly

reversed as a number of climate scientists have pointed out as everyone starts to drive again and will start to fly again soon. it wasn't enough drastic action for long enough. bill karins, thank you so much for joining us today. we appreciate it. chuck, over to you. as we wait for joe biden to deliver his remarks in delaware, his campaign is launching new ads in four key battleground states. they'll air in arizona, florida, north carolina and texas. the texas spot is digital only but it is running as polls show a close race between former vice president biden and president trump with the message focusing on the state's recent coronavirus surge. take a look at it. >> people are frightened. they are especially worried about their parents, grandparents, loved ones who are most at risk. this virus is tough, but texas is tougher. we can stop the spread. but it's up to all of us to do

it. >> joining us from wilmington is our man on the biden beat, mike memoli. there was an interesting debate within "the new york times" last weekend. late last week with jonathan martin doing that piece about, well, what is -- are they going to expand the map and that the biden campaign is no, no, no, we're not going to, you know, put the cart before the horse. it's about michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin first. then we'll worry about your georgias and texases and then they do this ad. what is the strategy? are they truly going to expand the map or focus on the path to 270? >> well, chuck, when the biden campaign laid out their version of the battleground map three months ago, they had three states in the expansion category. arizona, georgia and, yes, there was, in fact, texas. but when you talk to the biden campaign, there was really one state on the list they were

focused on. and that was arizona. but as you mentioned, texas was something we're hearing from a lot of members of congress. a lot of democrats really for the last several years have wanted a national candidate to put that on the map. one thing to consider. what else is on the ballot in texas this year? there's an important senate race. john cornyn is acting like a candidate that's in trouble. when you have a biden campaign outlining today the second plank of an economic plan that would be expensive, $700 billion last week, $2 trillion for this green infrastructure plan. this is a biden campaign knowing that they want to put the trump campaign on defense on states that used to be in their bag. two, they want to win the senate with them. they know he's going to need some help in the senate specifically. so if they have a choice of a dollar in a state without a senate race or a dollar in a state with one, they're going to choose the one with the senate race. >> texas also has three or four

legitimate targets that the democrats just missed on the house level that they would get. and they have an outside chance in the state legislature, believe it or not, in texas, too. so that's really what this is about. it's not that people expect bide on the carry texas, they just want him compete thing enough to help down the ballot. we'll see. an interesting take there. having a senate race in your state helps guarantee biden money. that may be good news for kansas democrats. mike, thank you. katy, over to you. chuck, breaking news in just the past couple of minutes. we have gotten word the president will be holding a press conference at the white house today at 5:00 p.m. eastern. still no word on what he's going to cover on that. they've said press conference a number of times and the president hasn't taken many questions. >> i know that time slot. >> it will be on your hour, so

you can handle this. you're watching msnbc. don't go anywhere. we'll be right back. we'll be right back.

we are learning more about president trump's order commuting roger stone's prison sentence. the order released by the justice department shows stone will not only be spared from serving his 40-month sentence, it releases him from two years of probation and a $20,000 fine imposed by the court for his crimes. joining us now is msnbc news analyst howard fineman. he interviewed roger stone on friday. always good to see you, howard. so what happened behind this order? how much was roger stone, i guess, playing puppet master behind the scenes with some people who might have been talking to the president? >> well, i think roger stone didn't need the puppet masters in between, he was always speaking directly to the

president, if not actually so, certainly in his public posture and the way he dealt with the prosecutors. roger stone's strategy from the very beginning was to try to prove to the president that he, roger stone, was no rat. that he wasn't going to cooperate, that he was going to try to stone wall and stiff arm prosecutors and investigators and congressional committees as much as he possibly could. he told me that he really hadn't talked directly to the president over the last year, year and a half or more. but he did say, and what i thought was a news worthy throw away, he had talked 29 or 30 times to the president during the time to have campaign. and i think what stone was trying to prove to the president was, i will not talk about those conversations with you. whatever you told the prosecutors yourselves, don't worry, i don't contradict it. therefore, in the end, you're going to do what any good boss

would do. both regular and crime syndicate. and that is reward the guy who didn't rat, and that's precisely what the president did. >> does stone see this as a reward for him protecting the president? >> no question. no question. he said to me that the president was a man of compassion, that he was a man of understanding and mercy. he went so far as to compare the president in a way in his, roger stone's life, to the fact that roger says that he became a born again christian under the guidance of franklin graham. so donald trump said that -- excuse me, roger said that he was saved by donald trump and jesus christ. and if that doesn't summarize the trump re-election campaign, i don't know what does. >> also says that he's going to try to help trump with his

re-election bid. unclear what that might look like. howard fineman, thanks so much for joining us today. go ahead, quickly. >> i was just going to say that roger stone will have a direct line to the president. >> howard fineman, thanks so much. chuck, over to you. >> we are minutes perhaps even seconds away from hearing from joe biden. we he'll be rolling out his multitrillion dollar clean energy plan. you're watching msnbc. you're watching msnbc.

it's 11:00 a.m. out west, 2:00 p.m. in the east. i'm chuck todd. here's what's happening right now. breaking news out of the white house this afternoon, we have learned the president will be holding a press conference, at least that's what they're calling it, at 5:00 p.m. no word on what he plans to discuss and if he will take ques