time of their passing. paul fusco was able do that. he is gone now at the age of 89. that is our broadcast on this wednesday evening. with our thanks for being here with us on behalf of my colleagues at the net work. of nbc news, good night. president trump is doubling down on sending leaders to local cities who say they are not welcome. plus, california surpassed new york for the highest number of growing cases. this as they impose new mask instructions. and moving forward with another round of coronavirus relief. good morning, everybody. it is thursday, july 23rd, and

i'm yasmin vossoughian. putting so-called law and order at the center of his re-election campaign, the president announcing plans yesterday to send federal agents into chicago and says more cities all run by democrats will be added to this list. more than 200 federal agents have already been deployed to kansas city, missouri, to address a surge in violent crime. now the justice department is expanding the program, sending roughly 200 federal agents to chicago and 35 to albuquerque, new mexico. attorney general bill barr says this operation is not like what we saw in portland where unidentified federal agents in camouflage targeted protesters. barr says the program simply adds manpower to existing federal task forces that already work with local police. >> this is a different kind of operation obviously than the

tactical teams we use to defend against riots and mob violence, and we're going to continue to continue to confront mob violence. >> many of our politicians running our nation's cities have put the rights of krilcriminals above the rights of law-abiding citizens. their movement is breaking up police departments, causing crime in cities to spiral, and i mean spiral seriously out of control. we will never defund the police. we will hire more great police. we want to make law enforcement stronger, not weaker. what cities are doing is absolute insanity. >> so the office of chicago mayor lori lightfoot says the president called the mayor last night to confirm that federal agents are, in fact, on the way. we're told the call was brief and straightforward and that the

mayor maintained that resources must be investigatory in nature and coordinated through the u.s. attorney's office. quote, the mayor has made clear, the statement reads, that if there is any deviation from what has been announced, we will pursue all available legal options to protect chicagoans. this statement follows the mayor's flatout rejection in the city of chicago. she writes this, under no circumstances will i allow donald trump's troops to come to chicago and terrorize our residents. we should mention that mayor lightfoot will be a guest later this morning on "morning joe," so you don't want to miss that. so on the heels of the president's announcement to send federal agents to cities to confront the surge in crime, attorney general bill barr claimed the spike in protests due to a lack of reform. watch this. >> we did start this program which we called relentless pursuit. unfortunately covid intervened,

and we had to abort that effort. since then we had that terrible event in minneapolis, but then we had this extreme reaction that has demonized police and called for the defunding of police departments. and what we have seen then is a significant increase in violent crime in many cities, and this rise is a direct result of the attack on the police forces and the weakened of police forces. >> i just think it's important to be clear that the majority of protests that happened after the killing of george floyd were peaceful, so when you hear the attorney general there saying extreme reactions, we have to remember that across the board, across this country, there were, in fact, majority of peaceful protests. so while the justice department announced the new operation of federal agents, homeland

security is speak out. the nation's first homeland security agent tom ridge said this, it will be a cold day in hell before he would consent to an uninvited intervepgs in one of his cities. and michael chertoff had this to say on an abc podcast. >> you can protect federal property, but that doesn't mean it's an unlimited license to roam around the streets and pick up people based on some suspicion that maybe they're involved or going to be involved in something. but the reports that i read about roving around on the street and stopping people and taking them down strike me as going beyond that authority, and that's wholly apart from the fourth amendment issue. we still have a constitution, and that requires a reasonable

suspicion to stop somebody and probable cause to arrest them. and it's not clear to me that that is being applied in this case. >> all right. let's get into. this joining me now, msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos and spokesperson for reuters jeff mason. danny, let me start with you on this one. i have a sense that this is not going to necessarily end well, but operation legend as it is being called, how does it differ legally from what's going on in portland? >> the framers designed our constitution so the federal government would have authority over federal things, war, making money, things like that, while the state have the police power. that's a very broad power that covers law enforcement. federal agents are not supposed to engage in general roving law enforcement. that's something reserved exclusively to the states by the amendment. so you notice the government

here is wording what they're doing very carefully, at least officially. they're saying, oh, we're supporting local police, and to that extent, we're only supporting them insofar as we enforce federal law like drug crimes or gun crimes or things like that because they know whether they're in seattle, no matter where they are, federal agents can not start engaging in general law enforcement and taking on traditional local law enforcement activities. that is flat out unconstitutional. >> so jumping off of what tom ridge said in which he said, and i quote, it would be a cold day in hell before he would consent to an uninvited intervention in one of his cities, dannydanny, these localities -- what type of power do they have to restrain the activities of these federal agents if, in fact, they feel like they're unlawfully restraining people arresting

folks? >> very little other than going to the courts and challenging it because under the principles of federalism, this is an uneasy truce between the states and the federal government. sure, the federal government is designed to be one of limits government, limited jurisdiction. it's only supposed to cover things under federal law. but in modern times, federal law is expanded so broadly that almost anything committed at the local level, even if it's vandalism could be a violation of federal law. even something like spray painting a building, a federal building, is something that's traditionally law enforcement. the feds might argue if it was conspiracy and across state lines and they used cellphones to text message, all of a sudden that's a federal crime and we can be involved. but citizens need to know that federal government is not designed for local law enforcement. they only have the powers to enforce law in the federal area, and that's it.

>> jeff, what do you make of this president's apparent now law-and-order theme heading into the final months of the presidential election? let's be clear. this is in reaction to protesters saying let's defund the police. having covered the protests myself, defunding the police does not mean dysmanhattanling the police departments. it means reallocating some of the money and responsibilities elsewhere, but keeping police departments for the most part intact. >> yeah. you know, i think you're right to note that this is happening just a few months before the end of the campaign, the election on november 3rd. the theme of law and order has become one of the key campaign themes that the president has wanted to focus on. he struggled in the initial days and weeks after the killing of george floyd to come up with a message that was resonating with the rest of the country, and he

settled then and is continuing to push now this law-and-order topic, and i think that's what we saw with the announcement yesterday with attorney general barr and the followup briefing at the white house and in general what we've seen in the aftermath after that killing and the surge in violence that he's referring to and the department of justice is referring to in these cities. notable in terms of politics, he's only focusing on cities run by democratic mayors, and he's made a point of saying that. albuquerque. when, in fact, there's crime in other cities run by republicans like jacksonville, florida. >> that's a good point to make. you brought up bill barr here. in some of what we played earlier, he called the reaction

over george floyd's death, quote, extreme, and i mentioned that for the most part, the protests throughout the country were predominantly peaceful. what type of reaction are we getting to the attorney general's words in calling these protests, these folks in the streets calling for racial justice, racially extreme. >> i was in the east room yesterday for that announcement and his remark stood out to me as well. i think it's another effort by the president's administration, in this case, the attorney general, to sort of demonize some of the protesting and to make it an us ve-versus-them conundrum or contrast rather. that's what he's doing with that. again, these are protests that resonated with a large, larm part of the u.s. population,

particularly with african-americans but not just african-americans, and it was a way to demonize. >> yeah. i mean every single type of person was in those streets protesting the death of george floyd, not just african-americans, noting that as you did. and not just resonating in the united states but throughout the world, fanning out across europe as well. danny cevallos, thank you. jeff mason, thank you. danny, stay with us. just ahead, the president tries to greet world leaders with handshake and he gets turned down. >> and ahead, a vaccine in a new 2 billion dollar deal. those stories and a check on your weather when we come back. n your weather when we come back

at fisher investments, we do things differently and other money managers don't understand why. because our way works great for us! but not for your clients. that's why we're a fiduciary, obligated to put clients first. so, what do you provide? cookie cutter portfolios? nope. we tailor portfolios to our client's needs. but you do sell investments that earn you high commissions, right? we don't have those. so, what's in it for you? our fees are structured so we do better when you do better. at fisher investments we're clearly different. [(vo)stinct radio chatter] audi e-tron. the next frontier of electric. our fees are structured so we do better when you do better. get an exceptional offer at your local audi dealer.

...to soccer practices... ...and new adventures. you hope the more you give the less they'll miss. but even if your teen was vaccinated against meningitis in the past... they may be missing vaccination for meningitis b. let's help protect them together. because missing menb vaccination could mean missing out on a whole lot more. ask your doctor if your teen is missing meningitis b vaccination. as- oh.- oh, darn! your teen - wha- let me help. lift and push and push! there... it's up there. hey joshie... wrinkles send the wrong message. help prevent them before they start with downy wrinkleguard.

we're doing more testing than anyone by far.

i think second is india. we're going to be at over 50 million tests this weekend. to me, every time you test, you find a case and it gets reported in the news. if instead of 50 we did 25, we'd have half the number of cases. so i personally think it's overrated, but i'm totally willing to keep doing it. it makes us look bad, but it's good. i don't mind looking bad if it's a good thing. all right. welcome back. that was the president calling testing overrated as he repeated claims across the nation. also a trip to denmark, secretary pompeo did not wear a mask and he tried to awkwardly go in for a handshake with denmark's foreign minister who refused to shake pompeo's hand as you see there. secretary pompeo tried again, this time with the foreign minister of the faroe islands.

strieng strikes out again, goes in for the elbow tap and an arm on the shoulder. pompeo did manage to elbow bump as i said the foreign minister. according to the foreign minister, the masks are not common in denmark as think do not have a major breakout of the coronavirus. let's switch gears and get a look at your forecast with nbc meteorologist bill karins. we've been dealing with a lot across the nation, bill. >> yes. >> but we're also in the midst of hurricane season, and that's been looming in the background of a lot of folks' minds especially in the hurricane corridor on what to expect. so farthings have been fairly quiet as you and i have been quiet, but talk us through. >> yeah. can you imagine like the quarantine rules if people want to evacuate from one state to another state? i mean can you imagine the nightmare if we get a really big storm with mass evacuations?

it's pretty crazy. let's talk about the two storms we have out there now. one is in the gulf of mexico. that's the medial threat. let's give you an update from the hurricane center. just in, it's still a tropical depression. right now winds are at about 30 miles an hour. it's expected to become a tropical storm by the time we get to friday afternoon, and this would be hannah, already o our our h-named stofrmt we have a tropical storm watch from galveston southward toward mansfield. the rain looks to be south of houston. some could get up to 5 inches of rain and a potential for flooding. another storm is gonzalo. it's still a couple of days away from the windward islands.

could go into the caribbean saechlt at thsea. it could be a hurricane. it could disappear by the time it gets to haiti. yasmin, the peak of the season isn't until september, and here we are tracking two storms already. >> all right. thank you, bill. still ahead, everybody, when it comes to coronavirus, there have been a number of neurological problems linked to covid in adults. now the same problem is rising in children. those details are coming up next. those details are coming up next find your sense of wander. find the world is new, again. at chevy we'd like to take you there. now during the chevy open road sales event, get up to 15% of msrp cash back on select 2020 models. that's over fifty-seven hundred dollars cash back on this equinox. it's time to find new roads, again. ♪

♪all strength ♪we ain't stoppin' believe me♪ ♪go straight till the morning look like we♪ ♪won't wait♪ ♪we're taking everything we wanted♪ ♪we can do it ♪all strength, no sweat with spray mopping to lock away debris 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.

welcome back. now to the research of children infected with covid-19 without respiratory issues linked to the virus. the results were published earlier this month. researchers examined 27 previously healthy kids. four experienced near logical

s neurological symptoms including impaired brain function, headaches, brain s.t.e.m. and sayre bell lar issues and mussing weakness. this is troubling to read this newfound study. tell us more about what they are finding here. >> reporter: we've known for some while that covid in adults can impact neurological activity. it can lead to thinks like strokes in the most extreme cases. but there haven't been a huge amount of data on the impact of children because, of course, children have not been affected knew nairicly as much as adults. as you mentioned, four came up with neurological onset symptoms. there are other children here, though -- and we've been speaking with them in london -- that have suffered neurological damage following covid-like symptoms and then those who

suffered from the previously discovered pediatric inflammatory system we talked about in the past. the challenge here is figuring out how likely this is to happen and what parents should be watching out for. there's a number of different mechanisms on how the system can travel to other parts of your body. the science on that not entirely understood. >> so, willam, talk to us about whether or not these kids have the ability to recover from these issues that they develop post-covid. what is the result from this study when you talk about overall recovery. >> reporter: i talked to one of the lead authors not far away from here, yasmin. he said of those patients, most seem to have made a pretty decent recovery, but we met with one other girl who had a very similar set of symptoms. she's still suffering from flashbacks, having had severe hallucinations, and continues with problems of her memory.

i spoke with one of the lead pediatric doctors. i asked her how frequently we should expect cases like this to show up. >> it appears that the incidence of these complications is relatively low, however, if we are going to have such a high volume of total cases across the country, even a low percentage that has a neurologic complication, could turn into a high absolute number. and so i think the better that we aggressively first try to just understand what this is, the better we're going to be able to care for the children in the longer run. >> this is a really important point, yasmin, of course. there may be a tiny fraction of people who end up with these kinds of neurological symptoms. but given there's millions and millions of infections across the world, the tiny fraction could end up being hundreds if not thousands of children. >> hey, quickly, willem, is

there still no linke as to why some kids get it and some do not? do they still not understand it? >> reporter: the research here, you and i talked about it, they do understand this is something different. but what appears in your brain, a lot more science needs to be done, a lot more cases need to be examined,ed a and a lot more needs to be required. >> thank you. still ahead, the president once again defends his administration's response to the covid pandemic, telling reporters, it's all working out. also with the coronavirus cases still surging in the united states, some areas are imposing new mask restrictions. we're back in a moment. w mask r. we're back in a moment course w. what couldn't keep up was our bargain detergent. turns out it's mostly water,

and that doesn't work as well on stains. so, we switched back to tide. one wash, stains are gone. kind of like our quiet time. [daughter: slurping] what are you doing? don't pay for water. tide is concentrated with three times the active cleaning ingredients. if it's got to be clean, it's got to be tide. i have the power to lower my blood sugar and a1c. because i can still make my own insulin. and trulicity activates my body to release it like it's supposed to. once-weekly trulicity is for type 2 diabetes. it's not insulin. it starts acting from the first dose. and it lowers risk of heart attack, stroke, or death in people with known heart disease or multiple risk factors. trulicity isn't for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. don't take trulicity if you're allergic to it, you or your family have medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have an allergic reaction, a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, changes in vision, or diabetic retinopathy.

serious side effects may include pancreatitis. taking trulicity with sulfonylurea or insulin raises low blood sugar risk. side effects include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, belly pain, and decreased appetite, which lead to dehydration and may worsen kidney problems. we're committed to helping ensure trulicity is available and affordable. learn more at trulicity.com.

welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian. we're going to begin this half hour as coronavirus cases are surge across the country, but specifically in california. the golden state has the most confirmed cases nationwide. yesterday california reported over 10,000 new cases, hitting a new record for a single day, surpassing new york, which was once the virus epicenter of the country. covid has killed 35,000 in new york so far while 8,000 have died in california from this pandemic. yesterday in ohio, minnesota,

implementing mask mandates. ohio's order which goes into effect later today will require people older than 9 years old to wear masks in indoor public places and outdoors when social distancing can't be maintained. indiana's order will also be signed later today. and minnesotans who are 5 or older must be masked indoors aside from homes beginning saturday. the district of columbia also expanded the mask wearing. d.c. mayor muriel bowser announced one of the strictest mask ordinances in the country, ordering children older than 2 to wear a mask when they leave the house and are likely to come in contact with another. and in baltimore, mayor jack young signed an order suspending

bars and restaurants. people are to wear masks outd r outdoors when within feet is not possible. the trump administration announced yesterday it has made one of the largest investments yet, a nearly $2 billion contract with two companies for 100 million doses by december. the contract comes as part of the white house's project warp speed in an effort to drastically shorttown time it would take to manufacture and distribute a working vaccine. under this arrangement the federal government would obtain that first batch for nearly $2 million billion. americans would receive it for free. according to "the new york times," pfizer said large-scale safety and efficacy sales would

begin this much with regulatory sales beginning in october, although, nothing was guaranteed. once again the president claims success in his handling of the coronavirus. watch this. >> we're working with very talented people, very brilliant people, and it's all going to work out, and it is working out. nationwide beyond the outbreak in several states, cases remain low and very stable. 19 states have positive test rates of less than 5%. eight states have positive rates of less than 2%. our nationwide positive test rate is beginning to decline and is currently at 8.8% compared to over 16% at its peak in april. it's coming down. it's coming down fairly rapidly. as far as the outbreak in the sun belt, i said yesterday we continue to vigorously combat the rise in cases in the south

and southwest and the west. we're closely monitoring and aggressively acting to control the reaction in texas, arizona, california. california and arizona, they're starting to come down. they're all doing a good job. they're all doing a good job. they're a talented group of people. there are likely causes for the spike in infections. cases started to rise in young americans shortly after the demonstrations, which you all know very well about. >> the president also pointed the blame on the surging cases in mexico and then went on to -- on mexico, sorry, and then went on to tout the border wall. >> we're sharing a 2,000-mile border with mexico. as we know very well, cases are surging in mexico unfortunately. it's a big problem for mexico. cases are surging very sharply and all across the rest of the western hemisphere.

257 miles of newly constructed wall along the southern border has had a great positive impact on people coming in, and we have record low numbers of people coming in illegally. that's helped greatly. >> joining me once again, white house correspondent for reuters, jeff mason. let's talk about the handling of this pandemic, jeff. a lot of folks have died in this country over the past five months since this pandemic began in this country. the president, though, still seeing his handling of the pandemic as a success in spite of the loss of so many lives. in one of your most recent pieces, you discuss infighting within the white house over how the outbreak has, in fact, been handled. what more do you have on this? >> yes. and, you know, i think it's important to note before talking about the politics of it that obviously the most important

thing here is the health and the health impact of americans. but the interest -- what i found interesting about the fact that there's infighting with the white house is that's having an impact on their ability to create and implement a strategy for dealing with this, and that has included sort of infighting between the president's closest advisers within the west wing led by mark meadows chief of staff and the advisers closest to vice president mike pence who's the leader of the coronavirus white house task force. there's also been a long dispute over whether and how to talk about the virus, and you've seen sort of the result of that or the culmination of that this week in restarting the briefings including the one where you played the clips yesterday. there's sort of the sense of the mark meadows side that the president should. be talking about this really at all. you saw that in terms of new

events, the white house focusing on deregulation, the economy, reopening. whereas, the coronavirus task force briefings had been moved entirely off campus without participation by the president. now after some intervention by kellyanne conway, also some support from the president's campaign, which, of course, he's worried about the drop in polls, he started again. but the briefing yesterday and the one the day before was just with the president and they were short. he has largely stuck to his script, but also said things like the clip that you played earlier saying that it's all going to work out. so he's, i think, working with some advice to stay on the script, but not always succeeding. >> i wonder -- because the timing is interesting to me, jeff, because there was a replacement at the top of the president's campaign with regard to his campaign manager brad parscale being out as his campaign manager and having a

new campaign manager put in place. so the timing of it lines up with this kind of shift we have seen from the president over the last couple of days really when it comes to mask wearing and the mask mandate. he hasn't put a mandate in place, but now publicly saying he supports wearing a mask five months into this pandemic and also these coronavirus task force briefings. is there some information coming from inside the campaign, especially his leadership saying, listen, you've got to address this coronavirus head on because folks in this country don't have confidence in you when you look at the polling across the board with your handling of this virus. >> i think there's an acknowledgement within the campaign and at least in some court corne corners of the white house that this is, indeed, the most important in 2020. and with the large dissatisfaction with his handling of the coronavirus, that's something hes that has

address. mask wearing, it's important. it's coming extraordinarily late in the pandemic, but it's a shift as far as health. >> reuters' jeff mason. good stee you on thursday as always. ahead, the return of major league baseball. what you need to know on opening day. your first look at "morning joe" is back in a moment. your first look at "morning joe" is back in a moment. when the murray's started using gain ultra flings...

they fell head over heels in love with its irresistible scent. looks like their dog michelangelo did too. unfortunately for him, it's more of a forbidden love. gain ultra flings with two times oxi-boost and febreze... seriously good scent. and if you love gain flings, you've gotta try the dish soap. my father my grandmother my brothers and sisters my friends for going back to school the bbq the lake the beach my place for my neighbors my community my people my country my home for him for her for them for you. ♪

i but what i do count on...ts anis boost high protein...rs, and now, there's boost mobility... ...with key nutrients to help support... joints, muscles, and bones. try boost mobility, with added collagen. in a highly-connected lexus vehicle at the golden opportunity sales event. lease the 2020 es 350 for $359 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. with spray mopping to lock away debris 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. you can't always stop for a fingerstick.betes with the freestyle libre 14 day system, a continuous glucose monitor, you don't have to. with a painless, one-second scan you can check your glucose with a smart phone or reader

so you can stay in the moment. no matter where you are or what you're doing. ask your doctor for a prescription for the freestyle libre 14 day system. you can do it without fingersticks. learn more at freestylelibre.us. welcome back. we look at the san francisco giants and los angeles dodgers. while it is a welcome return to competitive play, this season will be much different than usual including an abbreviated

60 games with teams only playing in their geographic regions. rule change like a ruled designated hitter for the first time since the league was created for teams in 1973 and a use for a runner on second to expedite extra-inning games. the seiights and sounds inside stadiums will be in effect. arguing with umpires, prohibits spitting -- sorry, you guys -- and implement a virtual swapping of lineup cards. let's bring in bill karins to save the day. bill. >> i feel for you. >> i'm losing my voice here. >> it's amazing. >> save me, bill. >> it's amazing. yeah, i think we all can remember when the nba was kind of the first league to shut down because of the positive cases inside the league and it was the

first time ever, everyone was like, oh, wow, sports are going away. to have them coming back, at least the major sports, it will be interesting to see what the r reexception is and how it plays out, especially watching on tv with no fans even with piped in crowd noise. so let me get into the covid numbers and quickly get into your forecast. as far as what we've been dealing with out there, obviously a huge number, 70,000 cases. texas and florida had 9,000 new cases and well over 4 million now. we've kind of flattened the curve on the latest wave. if you look at the farthest graph, over the past week, the seven-day average hasn't gone up that much. it's at 68,463. we'll see what happens the rest of the week. it would be nice to go down from the rapid increase this last month. fatalities were high yesterday, 1,205. that was the highest since may

29th. you can see the seven-day average has been going up. right now at 862. that's the highest two-day total since late may as we had a lot of cases reported tuesday and on wednesday. as far as forecast concerns, we have those severe storms that rolled through the east yesterday. downpours in west virginia and into areas of virginia. and as we go throughout the day, we have a lot of people under the riching of severe storms. pretty much everyone from trenton to new york city, hartford, providence, central and southern portions of new england. so we are expecting a very humid hot day. we will have numerous thunderstorms in southern new england today. still very hot in d.c., norfolk, areas of d.c., the gulf, areas of tropical moisture. friday night/saturday morning, that's when tropical storm hannah should be heading into the southern areas of texas,

yasmin. baseball season with basketball right behind it and football potentially starting up. it will be interesting to see how it all plays out. good distraction. >> yeah. no spectators so far. live. but it will be nice to actually be able to watch it on television at least. that's a good thing. thanks for saving the day, bill. appreciate it. it happens sometimes. you get something stuck in your throat. >> i'm here for you. >> thank you, bill. you always are. still ahead, everybody, we're going to go live to cnbc for a look at the markets and how people are reacting to the new round of coronavirus. we'll be back in a moment. of cos we'll be back in a moment. and it continuously eliminates odors in the air and on soft surfaces. for 45 days. (burke) at farmers, we know a thing or we've seen a thing or two. like how nice it is to save on your auto policy. but it's even nicer knowing that if this happens...

...or this happens... ...or this.... ...or this... ...or even this... ...we've seen and covered it. so, switch to farmers and you could save an average of three hundred ninety-five dollars. get a quote today. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ (vo) touch and go. handwriting recognition and the audi a4. get exceptional offers at your local audi dealer. but what if you could startdo better than that? like adapt. discover. deliver. in new ways. to new customers. what if you could come back stronger? faster. better. at comcast business, we want to help you not just bounce back. but bounce forward. and now, we're committed to helping you do just that with a powerful and reliable internet

and voice solution at a great price. call or go online today.

welcome back. the senators in the white house have reach and agreement on the next coronavirus relief package. cnbc's julianna tatelbaum is joining us from london. what can you tell us about it,

julianna? >> that's right. tensions have been running high within the republican party over what this legislation should look like. as of yesterday, senate republicans have reached a fundamental agreement with white house negotiators over how to move forward with this bill. now, the senate senate majority mitch mcconnell has weighed in, indicating he wants to keep the price tag for this package at $1 trillion, and republicans haven't been on the same page about what this deal should look like. some denounced this $1 trillion level amid a soaring debt level already. the latest talks show signs of conciliatory break through, breaking the grid lock that has gripped the legislators for some time now. we'll have to see what comes of it but it looks like headway has been made. tesla reported results

yesterday after market closed and shares have jumped as a result. that's because the electric car maker reported four straight quarters of profit. it paefs the way for the company to be included in the s&p 500, which means passive investors have to put money to work on the stock. elon musk announced the next factory in texas to support the eastern part of north america. back to you. can we talk about the twitter breech that happened last week? a lot of folks were breached, joe biden included. it seems as if now twitter is saying that they had access -- these hackers had access to direct messages of at least 36 users, including one elected official in the netherlands. what do you make of twitter's response to the breach? >> this clouds the picture of

what the hackers actually wanted. the fact that they hacked into several of these vip accounts, joe biden you mentioned, elon musk, bill gates and tweeted from their accounts these asks for bitcoin, but now new details emerged, they took over the accounts of 136 people and took over 36 direct inboxes including one of an elected official in netherlands. so it complicates the picture of what the hackers were looking to do with the heist. so we'll be waiting more detail around what they intended here. >> heist, that's a good way to put it. julianna tatelbaum live from london for us. thank you so much. great to see you this morning. up next a look at axios' 1 big thing. and coming up on "morning joe," as the president offers unfounded claims about the coronavirus from the white house podium we'll speak to a number

of leading health experts including dr. scott gottlieb. plus chicago mayor lori lightfoot joins the conversation as federal agents are sent to her city. agents are sent to her city

welcome back. joining me now with a look at axios a.m. editor in chief, nicholas johnson. great to see you this morning. give us axios' 1 big thing today. >> today's 1 big thing is inside the san francisco consulate. new reporting is an unfolding story of what's happening between united states and china. a prosecutor is alleging that china is harboring an individual wanted by the fbi. this comes after the u.s. government told the chinese government to shutdown the

conflict in houston. what's happening in san francisco can add to this and complicate the situation. we're learning that a chinese researcher entered the u.s. government on an education visa earlier this year and when asked if they were a member of the chinese military or affiliated with the chinese military they said no which is precondition to get into the united states for this research. a follow-up investigation by the fbi established what the government is saying is clear links to the chinese military which is a clear violation of the visa. so the researcher went to the consulate in san francisco and is hiding there, the u.s. investigators allege. this is not how consulates are supposed to be used. we reached out to the chinese government and no comment from them at all. but this is a broader picture about how the chinese government is using these research visas

trying to infiltrate universities. so this could be a conflict between the united states and china in the coming weeks. let's talk about coronavirus here. i know that axios is reporting that after weeks of explosive growth across this country the number of new infections in the united states, it is still climbing but it seems it's not climbing as quickly as it has been. do you see the rate potentially slowing down further? are we reaching the peak? >> that's the question. the case growth, the map we're releasing, the weekly map today, this is the best we've had in weeks, it's good news/bad news. good news because the case growth is slowing but bad news we're plateauing at a high rate,

50, 60,000 cases a day. that's putting a lot of strain on hospitals to take care of the new cases. will the numbers now begin to turn down? will the colors on the map change from brown and gray to green? we're not going to be making progress against the virus until the case counts go down instead of flattening at such a high level. >> let's talk quickly amid insurance policies they are arguing business interceptions only covers floods and fires and virus contamination does, in fact, not count. you have a lot of businesses claiming that the virus is interrupting their business, rightfully so, is this a valid claim? >> this is a big fight coming up about whether these policies for businesses can impact during a pandemic. the insurance company is saying you could have opened, you weren't hit by a hurricane or

flood, things aren't specific about pandemics, where governments forces a business to close down. businesses are telling us these payments are the difference between life and death. the insurance companies are learning these payouts could rival 9/11. so far the insurers are winning in the courts but you can expect congress to take it up later this year. nicholas johnson, great to see you. thank you, my friend. that does it for me on this thursday morning, i'm yasmin vossoughian. "morning joe" starts right now. the one constant through all the years, ray, has been baseball. america's ru america's rolled by like an army of steam rollers, it's like a