up where i left off, i started my last question line asking each of you if our federal government was doing everything possible to be able to respond and each of you said, within the capabilities of our government, that we were. the reason i wanted to address this is, when we talk about a national testing strategy or greater coordination on personal protective equipment, what i've heard over and over again is that it's about where the responsibility is. is this the responsibility of the federal government or the responsibility of states or localities. when i talk to the people in my district, what they want to know is about capabilities. and they really don't want to just see this kind of bralame gn between different parts of our government. they ask if we're doing everything humanly possible to be able to address this crisis and is every level of government including the federal government doing everything we can to deal with this and if not, the american people deserve to know why. dr. fauci, just to be clear,

when i asked you this, and you said within the capabilities, that we were, i want to ask you, would you say our response at the federal level to this crisis, would this be considered in your mind, drawing on all your expertise, is this the gold standard of responses that our federal government can do, is there nothing else that you can think of from your expertise and experience that we could be doing or should be doing that we're not already doing? >> i think i just have to repeat what several of us said, that within the context of what we have, what's available to us, we're doing everything that we possibly can. i'll just repeat what i said, clearly the thing that i am responsible for, we are doing everything that we possibly can, absolutely. >> with what you see with your position on the task force, for instance, are you confident in the level in which we're using the defense production act to be able to bolster production? >> you know, that's something that's really out of hi relevmy

congressman, about the extent and the implications of the defense production act. >> what about when it comes to, we had federal test sites, 41 around the country, that we handed over to states refuse are you confident that's the right move, that we shouldn't be standing up more federally backed test sites? >> i'm sorry. >> the federally backed test sites, 41 across the country, we've been handing them over to the states instead of continuing them under federal control. do you think that's the right decision? >> i don't think i can give a good answer to that because that's not something i get involved with. i don't know, bob, maybe you have further information about federally funded testing sites, because that's out of the purview of what i do. >> dr. redfield, do you have any thoughts on this? >> i think it was important to -- as the chairman alluded to, to begin to enhance and transfer this capacity to these

federally funded health clinics and the increased capability. it is a partnership. so i think these were appropriate moves. i do think, when you ask are we doing everything that we could do, there's two things i would like to say. one is, don't miss this opportunity to realize how important it is to make the investment in the core capabilities of public health for the future, because clearly we were handicapped when this outbreak started, and we don't need to have that happen again. secondly, i don't underestimate who ultimately is the most important in helping us beat this pandemic, and that's the american public themselves. >> i get -- look, i get that. but i find that to be a frustrating narrative too, because certainly all individuals have to take on some responsibilities to be able to do this. but that feels like we're pushing it off to them. and it feels like their responsibility is now being pushed to the american people.

for instance, as you know, congress, we passed legislation in april that includes $25 billion in additional funding for testing and tracing. i'm still hearing that a lot of that hasn't been used. so i wanted to ask you if you have knowledge of how much money hasn't been spent on this, and whether or not the omb or any other part of the government is holding up access to be able to do that so we have the capabilities and the resources to be able to increase our cables. >> it's important, congressman. of that money, of that $25 billion, which is a significant amount of money, $10,250,000 came to cdc. we got out to the states, local, county health departments literally within two, three, four weeks. that's been all distributed. >> one last question, here, dr. fauci, do you have thoughts on using rapid antigen testing or paper strip testing, things like

that that could create more point of care response? >> yeah, i can answer that one, sure. anything that gets us quicker, more rapid, more scale-up capability of testing is something that would be desirable. and in fact, that was one of the things i mentioned very quickly in the third component of the nih strategic plan, the radx, about a half billion dollars, to try and develop the tests you're talking about, rapid, point of care, highly sensitive, highly specific. >> let's try and work on that together. >> the time of the gentleman has expired. you're recognize for you five minutes. >> thank you, madam chair. the one question i have left today, i think it's a question the american people want to know, my district certainly wants to know in indiana, is it your opinion, do you believe that china covered up the origins of the crisis? you are in this closer than anybody else in our country and the american people listen to what you have to say.

i've been asking lots of questions since this committee was created because i think china needs to be held to a much higher standard than we're holding them. do you believe china covered up the origins of the crisis? >> congresswoman, it depends on what you mean, origin of the crisis. >> the beginning of the pandemic, the disease itself, as it broke on tv and we saw it. >> i think from what we know, and i'm sure bob can also comment on that, from the conversations that we had early on, it was led to believe that, early on, that this was jumping from an animal to a human in the context of the wet market in wuhan, and that it was an efficient virus that just jumped from an animal to a human and didn't necessarily spread well human to human, at a time when it was clear that it was at least a few weeks and maybe more of transmission from human to human that we didn't know about. then when we finally found out that it was a highly efficient

transmitter from human to human, it would have been nice to know about that sooner. >> do you think china is a threat to the american vaccine research that we've been talking about for the past three hours? >> did china do what with the vaccine? >> is china still a threat today to the american vaccine research? >> no. i don't think so at all. one of the things people need to understand, that what we do is really transparent. we publish it. we announce it. so if they want to hack into a computer and find out what the results of a vaccine trial are, they're going to hear about it in "the new england journal of medicine" in a few days anyway. >> when i testified earlier, i was talking about the fact that a few days ago our country indicted by the justice department two chinese nationals for hacking the heroes working on a vaccine. china has obstructed every single thing we've done, turn we've made, place we go, starting all the way back with ppe. and i was very involved in my district in trying to get ppe and china was obstructing every

single part of the way. so i think, you know, my fellow folks in my district and in this country believe otherwise. i think the american people want to make sure, when we're talking about safe vaccines and we're talking about the fda and we're not short cutting safety and those kind of things, i don't know how in the world that we can stand there and say, no, i don't think china's a threat to the vaccine production in this country when we just indicted two people and not just two, but i think that -- i think that question is so important, madam chairwoman, i think it's so important, i want to re-ask my question, i see our chairman is not here, but to you, madam chairwoman, i think we need to investigate that answer on cybersecurity. we've already indicted more than two people, but just two people in the last couple of days ago, why can't we have a hearing in here, and i understand the chairman has said before, well, there's other committees having hearings on the role of china, but nobody is having a hearing on the role of china versus the producers in america and the vaccine process that we're looking for, the heroes that are trying to save lives, that would

be appropriate for this committee, can we get a commitment, can i get a commitment from you sitting in for the chairman, that we will actually have a hearing and look at this? >> this committee is chaired by mr. clyburn. >> right now it's chaired by you, madam. >> i do not intend to give you an answer to a question about how to run this committee in his absence. you may address him when he returns, not me. >> i appreciate that answer. and i will. but i think for the record, i think we still are owed an answer as to why we can't look at that in this committee. there's no other committee set up to look at the vaccine process of oversight than this one, especially having you gentlemen here today. so i would yield back my time and add that for the record. thank you, dr. fauci. >> mr. foster, you are now recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, madam chair, and

to our witnesses. first off, i would like to second the comments of my colleague, representative dr. mark green, on the letter that was recently sent from this committee providing for ongoing real time bipartisan oversight of operation warp speed by the government accountability office, the gao. with dr. green and myself as the bipartisan points of contact, directing the gao, on points of interest to the committee. in my time in science, i was involved in billion-dollar research projects that were subject to gao oversight. they would bring in outside experts, they would ask hard questions, and they would report back to congress the truth as they see it. both from a technical and scientific point of view and also a project management point of view which can often be critical. gao is fastidiously nonpartisan. they will give us real time briefings, staff briefings and member briefings, and period reports on the progress of vaccine development and

manufacturing under operation warp speed but they will only give us briefings on a bipartisan basis, which i think is very valuable, because it is crucial that people believe, when vaccines and therapeutics become available, that the process is not politicized, that we have bipartisan agreement on reasonable decisions, free of conflicts of interest or political intrusion, are being made. and that the gao is intent on not becoming a tool for partisan advantage, which helps our government work better. an example of the sort of thing that i'm interested in having them look into, something i was discussing with dr. redfield over the break, which is monoclonal antibody therapeutic manufacturing. there is a lot of the good news is that there is a strong immune response to this virus by the human immune system. this means among other things that vaccines are more likely than not to work and it also means that antibody therapeutics are more likely than not to work

as they have against recent viruses. so we may be in this position where, yeah, there's a miracle cure that can then prevent or cure covid-19. but we do not have the manufacturing to meet the demand, especially given the ongoing flareup of covid-19 in our country. so you can imagine the politics of that will become extremely fraught rapidly, when we have to decide how to dispense this potentially lifesaving therapeutics. and so it's also a circumstance in which aggressive project management may be crucial. you know, you can imagine, if you want to produce the maximum number of antibodies, you may say, okay, we are going to choose the most effective antibody from company "a," we are going to produce it using the optimized cell lines from company "b," and we're going to use the high volume production equipment on company "c." this will require things like the defense production act being used at their fullest to just

leapfrog around issues of things like intellectual property. already the companies that are optimizing cell lines are getting into patent fights and so on. we don't have time for that. so one of the things i would like the gao to look into is to make sure that we have in advance the sort of project management, you know, that the contracts that are being made with all of these companies anticipate this, or that discussions for the applications of the defense production act, are actually taking place ahead of when they'll be needed. it's just one of many examples there. so i just want to encourage both of you and hhs generally to greet with open arms the gao oversight. they can -- you know, it's not always fun being subject to gao oversight but their questions actually make the projects better. and so if -- and also, i think you probably have been involved with projects that have been involved with gao oversight.

and so there's a career-long association of the gao personnel and the agencies they represent. and so it's not like you're getting a letter from congress where you just kind of roll your eyes and try to do the minimum. these are serious questions by professionals. so when dr. green and i intend to use that to provide real bipartisan information to this committee and to congress and to the american people about what's really happening, i think that will be crucial. so any of you, do you have any comments on other things that we can really do to make the public confident that the right decisions are being made for the right reasons in this? >> well, thank you for that, congressman foster. yes, i mean, the fact is that we are very transparent in what goes on in operation warp speed. >> but there have been public comments by the scientists, the active collaboration, which was set up by hhs. some of the scientists involved in that said i have no idea what's behind one of the

operation warp speed decisions. >> so in direct answer to your question, i think you brought up a good point about the monoclonal antibodies. we didn't get an opportunity to mention this in any of the questions, but monoclonal antibodies, just this week there were two trials that have been initiated, one on an outpatient basis for early patients, one on an inpatient for more advanced patients which we really have a lot of anticipation that that is going to be something that is going to be an important tool in the armamentarium of how we treat covid-19 patients. so i wanted to get that in because i think that's really important. remarked the scrutiny of the gao or otherwise, i have been, in the many years i've been doing this, had many gao looking into the things i've done, in fact i've found it in many respects very helpful. >> thank you. i yield back. >> the gentleman's time has expired. ms. velasquez, you're recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, chairwoman. i want to get back to the delays

in testing. researchers at the university of pennsylvania recently found that testing sites serving communities of color in big cities are fewer in number, have longer lines, and often run out of tests faster when compared to sites in whiter areas in those same cities. as ben bernanke and janet yellen told the select committee, nothing is more important for restoring economic growth than improving public health. yet we have a president who says slow down testing, please. and the most vulnerable are being impacted, from line workers, small businesses, that cannot reopen safely, in black and latino populations. i have some questions along these lines.

dr. fauci, i have a simple question for you. do you attribute this inability to control the virus to the delays in testing and contact tracing? >> thank you. control of the virus is clearly a multifaceted process that involves many things, the most important of which is what we were just speaking about before, about testing, about masks, crowds, outdoor versus indoor, distances, et cetera, et cetera. we've been through that multiple times during this hearing. testing is a part of the process. but the process of controlling infection, when you're talking about contact tracing, obviously you need testing, and you need testing back within a reasonable period of time. and the concern that you're expressing is for the days that it takes. and admiral giroir has addressed

that several times during this hearing. but testing is a part of the comprehensive approach, not the only thing, but as part of the approach. >> thank you. south korea had rapid results for testing and tracing, and the virus is essentially contained there, or gone. do you agree that what they did with respect to testing helped those countries get the virus under control? >> virus under control in some of the asian countries were due to a number of factors. their ability to shut down almost completely, as i mentioned in a remark before, to the tune of 90 plus percent. >> did they rush to reopen the economy? >> no. they shut down, they had the capability, because they got down to a very low baseline, to do adequate identification, isolation, and contact tracing. right now they are trying to reopen. it's going to remain to be seen

how successfully they do that. >> so for the record, does testing results in the u.s. see more covid cases or are other factors causing this spread? so are we seeing more covid-19 cases in the u.s. because of the testing results? >> obviously if you do more testing, you're going to see more cases. but the increases we're seeing are real increasing in cases, as also reflected by increasing in hospitalization and increasing

in deaths. >> why is it that professional sport leagues can get testing turnaround times within 24 hours but we cannot do it for all americans? >> well, some of the sports clubs have been using the rapid test which is really very different from the test that requires extraction of dna and takes time and a different machine. so they have bought a bunch of machines that allow testing to take place where you get a positive back in five minutes and you can declare negative in 15 minutes. >> dr. redfield, do you support the fact, do you agree with the fact that there is a disproportionate testing going on among latinos, black, native americans? >> i wish the admiral was here to answer it, but i've heard him

answer this before, and tony may comment, that he has said disproportionately these testing sites in areas that have indicati indications of more complex socioeconomic status, i don't remember the exact number, maybe tony does, but more than 70%, intentionally trying to target areas that may be more disadvantaged. so i wouldn't agree with that statement. but i would like the admiral to be able to get back to you with the specifics. >> so you haven't seen the long lines in urban cities and also in states where we have large populations of latinos and blacks? >> we've seen the television lines. what i was trying to say, when you said was it specifically disproportionate for hispanic, latino, or african-american or

native americans. and i'm not comfortable supporting that comment. i would rather get the specific data from the admiral, which i do think the system has really gone over the other way to try to make sure we've enhanced the community health centers and federally assisted testing sites in areas that are specifically more disadvantaged. >> the gentlelady's time has expired. the chair yields five minutes to mr. raskin. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. if you're trying to still figure out why the administration and our republican colleagues cannot format formula formulate a plan of action, look at some of the diversionary tactics of our colleagues today. our distinguished colleague from ohio keeps raising, for some reason, the supreme court decision in south bay united

pentecostal church versus newton which rejected his position just about six weeks ago in a 5-4 decision. a church said that the restrictions limiting the number of people who could go to church to 100 were perfectly constitutional because that was the exact same rule that applied to lectures, concerts, movies, spectator sports, theatrical performances, split party gatherings and so on. in other words, there was no religious discrimination taking place, which is why the supreme court rejected the claim, and there is no religious free exercise exemption to public health orders, as you were indicating, i think, dr. fauci. so the parties in the case cited numerous cases of church gatherings with people unmasked, si singing, chanting, and so on, that became super spreader events. there is no religious immunity to this disease and there is no

free exercise exemption to universal public health orders. now, as for protests, let us not confuse the issue. whether your protest is a right wing protest like bugaloo or ones like the one against governor whitner, or whether it's protesting in support of black lives matter across the country, the same rules must apply. if a jurisdiction has a six-foot rule, and a masking rule, which i assume and hope every one of them does, it applies equally to everybody. and the preliminary results suggest, and i know because i've been to a lot of the black lives matter protests, is people are not getting infected there as much because they are observing those rules. obviously when you go to an anti-public-health-order, anti-mask protest like the ones

that shut down the legislature in michigan, most people are not wearing masks and are not observing the public health protocols they've come to destroy. if you're really concerned about people getting sick at protests, we have to look at the use of tear gas and pepper spray. everybody saw the secret federal officers who were assembled by attorney general barr in oregon remove the mask of a naval veteran and spray pepper spray right in his face. that's extremely dangerous, to remove someone's mask and then to have them sneezing and causing and is no on. so it's the use of those chemical irritants i think which is the real danger. but admiral giroir, what i wanted to ask you was about the role that jared kushner has played in developing the administration's approach. is he still with us or -- he's gone now, okay. dr. fauci, let me turn to you, then. are you aware of the role that jared kushner has played in

developing the administration's approach to diagnostic testing? >> i have no knowledge of that, congressman, because i've not been involved in that, it's been admiral giroir being involved in that. >> okay. then i'm sorry i missed mr. giroir on the second round. yesterday "vanity fair" reported something astonishing, which is that jared kushner recognized there was no plan and he formed a secret working group at the white house in march and april to develop a national testing plan which operated in a, quote, bubble and did not coordinate with other experts at hhr -- or rather, at hhs. and they actually came up with a very detailed and potentially effective national testing plan. one person involved said it wasn't rocket science but it was a real plan, in which the government would coordinate the distribution of test kits and an aggressive program of contact tracing across the country but the white house reportedly dropped the plan, according to

this article, "how jared kushner's secret testing plan went poof into thin air," okay, the white house dropped the plan on the political logic that the outbreak was going to be limited to democratic states. this is back in march. in new york and new jersey. and you remember, there was a lot of talk about how this was a blue state disease and there was somehow some kind of political or ideological immunity to getting it, so they thought it would be a better strategy just to pit the states against each other in that vicious free for all for equipment and materials, and then blame the governors when everything went wrong. and we've seen the shocking, devastating results of just letting it go and not having a plan at all. with that i yield back to you, mr. chairman. >> i thank the gentleman for yielding back. i think we've finished our second round of questions. and i would like to now yield to

the ranking member for any closing statement he might want to make. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and again, i want to thank our witnesses for coming here, including dr. giroir, dr. fauci, dr. redfield. you're on the front lines as well as the teams that are behind you working to implement president trump's plan to combat this virus. in fact dr. giroir left to go address thousands of people who work under him. he talked about 7,000 deployments that have been made under president trump's command to have men and women in uniform to help at the state and local level. we've seen so much work being done on this plan, i keep going back to it, some people want to deny that this plan exists, of course at the same time they're criticizing components of the plan. part of this plan, there's thousands more pages online, this is just a small part of president trump's plan to combat the coronavirus. part of the plan included

stopping flights to china which, as dr. fauci testified under oath, saved lives. that was president trump's call. he got criticized from it. in fact he got criticized from some of the very people who say that he doesn't have a plan yet they criticize parts of his plan and that plan worked and saved lives. i know dr. fauci, you testified under oath about some of the other decisions that were made by president trump working in conjunction with you and the rest of the team, these respected, internationally respected medical doctors, that saved lives. thank god president trump keeps his focus on carrying out this plan every day while people are literally trying to disagree with it and then deny it exists at the same time. and so when you look at now where we are with operation warp speed, this is something that is so incredibly important. working to find an actual vaccine for the disease. again, dr. fauci, i know dr. redfield, you talked about this, i appreciate you giving out the website again. there were 250,000 americans who

have signed up to be tested for this virus. might be one of the most tested trials for a new virus in american history. probably the quickest time that we've been able to get a vaccine for a disease we knew nothing about even six months ago because china lied to us, because china still to this day is trying to interfere with our ability, while we're working feverishly to get the vaccine, china is working feverishly to try to steal the vaccine. we ought to have a hearing on that, i know we talked about that and brought that urban iss. when you look at the incredible work to get testing kits into nursing home, that's part of president trump's plan and it's saving lives. if those five governors would have followed the federal guidelines, as testimony under oath confirmed, thousands of deaths would not have happened. i wish they would have followed the guidelines. i wish they would share the data. they're still hiding the data, those five governors. we've asked them.

those of us on the republican side, if just one member on the democrat side, mr. chairman, would join us, to ask those governors to share with the american people, they're hiding from the sons, the daughters, the grandchildren of those who died in the nursing homes, they said they don't have to give us the data because not a majority of this committee has asked, i wish, mr. chairman, you would join us in asking for that data, what's wrong with skasking for e facts. then we look at opening schools. this is one of those untold stories, unfortunately. there are 50 million plus children across america counting on us to get it right. the trump administration has laid out plaa plan for how to reopen schools safety. you talk about school administrators on the use of cloth face coverings. cdc suggests all school reopening plans address adhering to behaviors that prevent the spread of covid-19. they go into detail on all the things you should do as we talked about, all of that.

you have to socially distance. you need to do it. but to say you can't do it is a copout. this is america, for good -- >> in defense of the administration's planning, minority representative steve scalise, the whip from the house, defending the administration, showing all the plans that they have. good day, i am andrea mitchell in washington. this has been an extraordinary three hours plus hearing from the top public health officials, where the top public health officials have been warning americans, wear a mask, take more steps, if they want to stop the coronavirus from continuing to ravage cities and states across the country, while sounding hopeful about a vaccine. >> i am appealing to all americans to be part of the public health solution. wearing a simple mask properly is critical to limiting the transmission. >> there's never a guarantee that you're going to get a safe

and effective vaccine. but from everything we've seen now in the animal data as well as the early human data, we feel cautiously optimistic that we will have a vaccine by the end of this year and into 2021. so i don't think it's dreaming, congresswoman, i believe it's a reality. >> here are the facts at this hour. as we know them, the u.s. now has more than 4.5 million confirmed coronavirus cases and has suffered a staggering 153,000 deaths. this morning, florida officials reported a fourth straight day of record setting deaths from the virus as daily cases begin to plateau. most troubling, now a new group of states in the south and midwest are emerging as the next potential hotspots and dr. fauci told congress today that is because those states reopened too soon, without first meeting the task force guidelines. and with a category 1 hurricane now heading to florida, state officials have had to temporarily close testing centers for now.

not surprisingly, today's hearing again exposed the partisan divide in congress. the top republican jim jordan hammering dr. fauci about whether protesters spread the virus without mentioning political rallies like tulsa. >> do protests increase the spread of the virus? >> crowding together, particularly when you're not wearing a mask, contributes to the spread of the virus. >> i'm just asking if it contributes to the spread of the virus should we limit it. >> i'm not in a position to determine what the government can do in a forceful way. i don't understand what you're asking me as a public health official to opine on who should get arrested or not. i said crowds. i didn't say specifically, i didn't say protests or anything. >> so the protests don't increase the spread of the virus? >> i didn't say that, you're putting words in my mouth. >> joining me now, msnbc's garrett haake on capitol hill. nbc's morgan chesky in dallas, dr. mario ramirez, emergency room physician and former acting

director of the office of pandemic and emergency threats at the department of health and human services, and dr. vanessa carey, physician and ceo of seed global health, welcome, all. garrett, there on the hill, it is not surprising that this was partisan, but the jim jordan questioning and some of the other republicans' questioning of dr. fauci and the other public health officials seemed to really, really show just how bad things are in the midst of this pandemic, when they have not approved any agreement on emergency aid, which is expiring tonight, emergency employment comp, we'll get to that a bit later in the program, and here they are fighting over protests versus church. >> yeah, i thought the politics of this were interesting, although i will give some of the other republicans on the panel a little more credit. i thought jordan's questioning was a little bit of an outlier. his focus on protests and essentially trying to badger dr. fauci on the differences between protests or businesses or churches or things like that opening up seemed an off note to

the rest of the hearing. the other republicans on the panel, of course, political, look, this is politics, every question that happens in a hearing like this is political in one direction or another, but they were more focused on elements they felt the president wasn't get morning credit for like the decision to shut down travel from china or what is going to be the overwhelming issue in the next two months, which is reopening schools, how it can be done safely, what we know or what we think we know about how children can get or spread the virus. to the degree the republicans are asking policy questions, those they were asking about, what we know about the virus in children and schools, i think did have value to them. i think the other big topic that i think should be a good takeaway from this for everyone was the discussion about vaccine creation and distribution and whether or not corners are being cut. all of the medical experts on the panel said that the way they are producing a vaccine so quickly is based on an increase in technology, not that they're short-circuiting anything on safety. i think that's another story line we need to put a pin in, because as we get closer to a

vaccine being developed and ready, i think there's going to be a lot of questions about just what's in it, how safe it is and so forth. we've heard those experts laying down a marker today saying all of this is being done the right way. >> and morgan chesky in dallas, i think we have breaking news from governor abbott, the governor announcing local officials do not have the right to preemptively shut down in-classroom learning, can you clarify? >> andrea, that's exactly right. and he's echoing the sentiment of the attorney general, ken paxton, who made a similar statement earlier this week. governor abbott essentially saying it's the job of local authorities in texas to monitor the progress of the virus in towns and states and they do not have the authority to prevent schools from reopening or to shut schools down should a virus outbreak occur within the next few months as school openings take place.

i've had a chance to speak to several teachers who definitely have a sense of frustration regarding that, everyone calling this a bit of a moving target going forward, not just on who is allowed to keep schools reopened and who can close schools, but on how schools will operate, period, because districts are still trying to make that decision as we go. meantime, as far as the state of texas goes, it depends on what statistics you look at. you have just yesterday, texas reporting its deadliest day of the pandemic so far, recording 322 deaths. that now means texas has recorded more deaths from covid-19 than the state of new york. it is now the deadliest state in the country when it comes to the virus. we're standing here just outside of a drive-through testing clinic that we visited three months ago. i had a chance to speak to the doctor here. i said, what's changed from then to now. he says that they've seen more people coming here with less

severe symptoms but that instead of seeing a hundred cars a day, they're seeing upwards of 300 cars a day. certainly a frustrating sight for doctors who are just trying to contain this virus, andrea. >> morgan chesky, thank you so much. dr. ramirez, what about the governor telling local officials that they do not have the right to prevent in-class learning, they have to wait for an outbreak and then get permission to shut down, how does that worker? work? >> andrea, this is really just nonsensical, right? when i go back to the hearing and i was looking at what representative scalise was saying, he was holding up reams of pages with a plan, but the heart of the thing is not putting the words on the paper. the hard part is the actual implementation and that's where this is getting stuck. this is why teachers are anxious, this is why parents are nervous about sending their kids back to school, because the

plans have been so muddled and frankly congress hasn't allocated money to fund schools. the governor can say schools have to open but the parents will not send their kids back if there isn't adequate protections for them. >> if states and governors are ignoring the guidelines and opening too soon under pressure from the president, that defeats the whole push of the cdc guidelines, dr. ramirez, because they opened too soon. >> that's right, andrea, your plan is only as good as your implementation of the plan. as anybody who has worked in strategic planning will tell you, and as i said, putting the words on the paper is the easy part, it's where the work gets done and where the rubber meets

world, that's what tells you what the result will be. >> dr. vanessa carey, you're on the front lines at a hospital in boston and you're looking through your foundation at what's happening around the world. how is this affecting you, the way the u.s. is handling this crisis? >> i think it's very striking to see the failure and understand the importance of health as being fundamental to our wellbeing and our freedoms and the things we want to enjoy. health security is economic security, it's individual security, it's community, national, and global security. and covid has illustrated that more than anything else i can think of in modern history. and so for me as a critical care physician at mass general hospital, i worked in the surge in april and may and was on the front lines of what was happening. and what was frustrating for me was watching many parts of the country not adhere to things

that we know, even in the absence of vaccine, can prevent covid, which is social distancing, wearing a mask, washing your hands. it's very painful to see other states follow into this place of seeing huge surges, increases in death, massive uncertainty, when we've seen the lessons of states that had early surges and we could have done a better job. i want to echo the idea that a plan on paper is useless if it's not a thought-out plan, it's not clearly communicated to those in a position of power and leadership and implementation, and if it doesn't make sense to protect the american people or the world. and i think that we have an opportunity to protect ourselves here and now even while we wait for a vaccine to happen. but it's about taking our health seriously. we are only going to see deaths rise, because the deaths are going to lag the number of cases. so we have worse days ahead of us. i read a statistic, or way to phrase the statistics that is very poignant.

150,000 deaths is 9/11 death tolls 50 times over. we didn't tolerate it then. it should be shocking that we're tolerating what we're tolerating today. >> dr. vanessa kerry, dr. ramirez, garrett haake, morgan chesky, this is an abbreviated edition of ""andrea mitchell reports," thanks for being with us. ahead, president trump had been touting that the third quarter would be great. >> you're going to have a fantastic third quarter. it will be a third water the likes of which nobody has ever seen before. third quarter is going to be tremendous numbers. fourth quarter, likewise. by election day, you're going to see some incredible numbers. we're going to have a good third quarter but next year, and i said it before, will be the single greatest year economically that we've ever had, okay? i think next year is going to an excellent year, maybe one of our best years ever from an economic

standpoint. >> joining me now is chris lu, former secretary of labor in the obama administration, now a senior fellow at the university of virginia at the miller center. chris, put this in context. you've got the numbers yesterday, no fix on the unemployment comp, no agreement in congress on any of the other benefits, even a short term fix, and we're going into more surges in more states in the midwest, in places like ohio. it's moving from the south, where it's beginning to plateau, and now it's on the upswing elsewhere. is there any end in sight? >> in addition to all the bad predictions that the president has made, let's add another one to the table. back in february, larry kudlow said the impact of the virus to the u.s. economy would be 0.2%.

it's not just the historically gr bad gdp numbers. what we have right now is an economy that was in free fall, probably recovered a little bit, and now is faltering and probably reversing itself. and that has a real impact on americans in this country. we recently saw that 34% of americans reported that they're worried they can't make their housing payment this month. 30 million americans reported that last week, they didn't have enough food to eat. so all of this was avoidable, all of it was predictable. it's one of the reasons why house democrats passed this heroes act 2.5 months ago so that we wouldn't be in this situation where enhanced unemployment was expiring, at the same time as we had these moratoriums on evictions expiring as well. we need to provide help to businesses, workers, and customers as well, because

fundamentally this is still a public health crisis and unless people feel confident, business will not return to usual in this country. >> chris lu, thank you so much. as you talk about the desperate economic situation, negotiations on that coronavirus relief package have completely broken down. they actually haven't really started. the senate has left washington for a long weekend, no action on that package. the trump administration is now offering a one-week extension of the $600 weekly federal unemployment benefit. the democrats have rejected that proposal. an agreement would have had to have been reached by today to avoid a lapse in unemployment benefits. texas congresswoman veronica escobar joins me now. you're from el paso. texas is literally on fire with this. now the governor is saying today local officials do not have the authority to keep in-classroom schools closed because that's a state option.

what is your reaction to that? that just broke today. >> you know, andrea, thanks for having me on your show, we have had example after example, unfortunately, of failed leadership, both from the white house as well as from the governor's office in my own state. we know what works. we know what will keep people safe. we know what will address this health crisis. and that is robust testing and tracing, making sure that we have mitigation plans in place, also making sure that we provide the resources necessary to state and local governments. none of that has happened. and as you mentioned just a few moments ago, the senate adjourned without working with the congress, which passed the heroes act ten weeks ago. and now we have the governor of our state essentially telling schools wanting to kind of get things back to normal, but he

also has along ago took away the power of local leaders to be able to control the situation in their own communities. my view is, if you're not going to lead, at least let others lead. allow local governments the power that they need in order to keep their communities safe. >> your community, your constituents in el paso are among the most vulnerable, many of them are front line workers, many of them don't have the kind of housing where they can socially distance at home. and they are people of color who often have underlying conditions, poor nutrition. they are more affected by covid than other communities. >> absolutely, andrea. one of the things that dr. fauci told me and members of the congressional hispanic caucus months ago, was that latinos and latino communities in america are as vulnerable to covid as people in nursing homes, as

people in assisted living facilities. and that if we don't surge communities like mine with resources for robust testing and tracing and mitigation and treatment, then we are going to suffer the same fate, unfortunately, as vulnerable populations in those assisted living facilities. what we've seen in texas is that latinos are getting sicker at higher rates. we're dying at higher rates. el paso for some time has been among the highest -- we've had among the highest deaths per capita in the state, a state that already has seen itself become a hotspot soon after reopening. communities also like el paso, andrea, on the border, we have additional challenges. our border is still relatively fluid despite donald trump's best efforts, because of trade, because of our economic

interdependence. we need, and i've been calling for for some time now, a binational covid plan. but unfortunately, again, not only has the white house failed to have a national plan, and not only has the governor of texas failed to have a state plan, but they're not even thinking about how to collaborate and work with our neighbor to the south. it's been one year since 33 americans were killed in a domestic terror attack, the worst attack against latinos in american history. your thoughts about what changed? >> you know, andrea, it's going to be a very difficult day on monday for el paso. my community is still in pain. there's still a lot of trauma. in fact, mental health experts in the community that i have spoken to have shared with me their concerns about the compound trauma that el paso has

suffered. first from the attacks against our community by the white house as it attacks immigrants. then the is domestic terror attack that took 23 lives, injured dozens of us, devastated all of us and covid that is now disproportionately impacting people like mine, the state of our mental health i think is a cause of deep concern for me. the state of our economic health is also a deep concern because of covid. we have a lot to work on. a year later we still don't have gun violence prevention legislation, despite the fact that the house has delivered it to the senate, well over a year ago. and we are still are facing a reckoning against hate. my community is going to continue to face that hate with love and set the example for the rest of the country.

>> thank you so much congresswoman, our hearts are with you. thank you very much for being with us today. and president trump this afternoon is traveling to florida. it's a covid hot spot in key battleground states in a day after suggesting the november election be delayed. 16 minutes of government report came out with the worst gdp drop in u.s. history, worse than any other time, including the great depression. >> i don't want a delay. i want to have the election but i also don't want to have to wait for three months and then find out the ballots are all missing. i don't want to see a crooked election. this election would be the most rigged election in history if that happens. >> the president's comments, pinning him against former president obama, who in a eulogy for congressman john lewis, slammed efforts to suppress the vote. >> there are those in power who are doing their darndest to earn e discourage people from voting

by closing polling locations and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ideologues and attacking her voting rights with surgical precision, even undermining the postal service in the run-up to an election. that's going to be dependent on mail-in ballots so people don't get sick. >> joining me now, "the new york times" peter baker, and donna edwards with. thank you very much. donna edwards, the post office with the new postmaster general, a donor to president trump who has taken over, they're slashing money, big money in every states, this seems to be what president obama was alluding to, big attack on mail-in balloting. >> well, it is, the new

postmaster general installed is in with the directive to slow roll the mail. we know there's been an attack on the post office from many republican conservatives for the last three decades. but now so many voters need to cast their ballots by mail and the postal service, really at the direction and behest of the president of the united states, you can hear his rampant attacks on vote by mail. it's being he forced right now in the postal service and that should be, you know, like a three-alarm fire for congress, as the president and white house refused to include funding for the postal service in a run-up to the election. this is a direct way to suppress the vote as president obama described yesterday in that eulogy to john lewis. >> and, peter baker, we know, of

course, no president can delay the november election. it's not legally possible. but he did become the first president to even suggest this. and to make a serious effort to delay his only election. it's pretty extraordinary. he got immediate pushback, rare pushback from both mitch mcconnell and kevin mccarthy and republican leaders across the country. >> yeah, exactly. remember we had elections during the civil war when lincoln was ripe for re-election and he thought he would lose and he thought it was possible to make sure soldiers in the field weren't likely voting for him but could still vote. f.d.r. didn't try to stop the election of 1944 during world war ii, elections during pandemics 1918, 1968. it was such an extraordinary thing to hear the president even float the idea that it shocked even his fellow republicans. he got no support outside of 1600 peps avenue.

the point is not that he necessarily is going to try to do it or could do it, the point is it's in keeping with the rhetoric he's been using for the last several months, discrediting the election even before it happens. with polls showing he's down by double digits, he's already out there preparing a different narrative for why he might lose. the reason is he's saying it will be stolen, it will be rigged, it will be corrupt. he has a history of this, fact-base service that measures or monitors his statements he made 91 statements or tweets this year about election fraud and he's made 713 going back to 2012, usually bunched up around the time of elections like 2014 and 2018. so it's part of a large he question he's raising about the efficacy and credibility of american democracy, which is something we've never heard i think from inside of the oval

office. >> and on the subject of covid, there was a real loss for the president, a friend, strong supporter, surrogate in this campaign, herman cain. he died at 74 years old. diagnosed nine days after attending that tulsa rally. we don't know if that was the cause. but that certainly -- he was certainly seen there not wearing a mask. at the time he did not wear a mask. now we're told "the washington post" has talked to republican officials in tulsa saying they are trying to contract trace to all of the other people seen with him at that rally. he also was making statements on tv and on twitter praising the president for the mt. rushmore, upcoming july 4th rally and saying masks aren't necessary. >> yeah, we've always seen the white house pull back from that kind of event that they held in tulsa. and certainly we do not know

whether herman cain contracted the coronavirus there, but certainly it was -- it would have been some time around that time frame. he's been sick for a few weeks now. and he was -- had become a true alley of the president. they were competitors -- political competitors at one point but fellow businessmen and trump admired herman cain's kind of up from the bootstrap beginnings and the fact he had built a large and profitable business. and they liked one another personally. this is the second person that was fairly close to trump who has died of the disease. and the president also knows a number of other people who died of the disease. you don't hear the president talking now about the disease being a hoax, personally acquainted with and very close to at least two people who have

died of it. >> of course, herman cain, one brief moment back in 2011, was meeting the republican pact in the run for president spcy, camt of nowhere and had a very fast rise as well. we know a lot of people are very sorry and our condolences to his family. donna ed waerds, before we leave, i do want to talk about the president continuing to defend and this doctor in houston doubling down in an interview with our affiliate kprc in houston, doubling down on her completely false claims about hydroxychloroquine. this ricochets around the world and around the country. >> it's dangerous. it is really dangerous, andrea. we heard just before we came on air, the statements by dr. fauci and the panel about

hydroxychloroquine. there is absolutely no evidence that this is like the grand solution for covid-19. so it's really dangerous and really dangerous for the president of the united states to be repeating claims that have been, you know, completely rebuked. >> thanks to all of you for again this quick edition. wear a mask, socially distance, listen to the doctors, real doctors. that does it for this edition of stev andrea mitchell reports. chris jansing picks up. good afternoon. at any moment donald trump will be talking to florida and we will see if he talks to reporters before leaving the white house. tension moments as members of the coronavirus task force testified before the house subcommittee on the virus.

dr. anthony fauci answering lingering questions