one death per minute. one american life lost to coronavirus every minute as infections continue to rise. 23% of americans cast their ballot by mail in 2016. experts say that number could double this november. and 70 million app users could be looking to make and share their videos somewhere else, as the trump administration faces off with tiktok. "velshi" starts now. good morning. it is sunday, august 2nd. i'm ali velshi. a double dose of disaster converging on the florida peninsula. this morning, a large portion of the state is bracing for the impact of the remnants of hurricane isaias, which has currently been downgraded to a tropical storm. the weather maker's still packing a powerful punch after making its way through the

bahamas overnight, tearing down trees, power lines, and flooding roads. with winds of up to 65 miles an hour, it's expected to hug the eastern coast of florida for most of the day. a state of emergency has been issued for at least 16 counties. governor ron desantis warning area residents to be prepared for what's to come. >> floridians should be executing their plans, particularly if you're on the east coast of florida, in the palm beach and north of there. you should have seven days of food, water, and medicine. you very well may experience power outages, so just be prepared for that. >> all this happening, while on saturday, the state reached an unwanted milestone, surpassing 7,000 recorded deaths from coronavirus. registering more than 9,000 new cases of the disease, and pushing the overall number of infected individuals in florida to more than 480,000, second nationwide only to california. back to the storm now.

after having an impact on the florida coastline, it's supposed to head north toward virginia and the carolinas. but for now, in florida, it is the worst-case scenario. the potential merging of a natural disaster and a public health emergency. we begin this morning with the mayor of west palm beach, keith james, as his city braces for isaias' impact. mayor, good to see you. thank you for being with us. what preparations do you have in place and how are you feeling about this? >> well, thank you for having me, ali. we are preparing as we can. we're optimistic. listen, we're familiar with hurricanes. we have the playbook for that. obviously, we've never done a hurricane in the midst of a pandemic, so we're tweaking the playbook, if you will. our emergency operations center has been activated. we have fewer people there than we'd normally have, abiding by all of the social distancing requirements, but we are getting the proper work done, collecting the proper data. we'll be sending a team out to do a damage assessment in about

an hour. today's going to be a rough day. we had anticipated that last night would be the roughest part, but the storm is moving very slow. >> let me ask you about the things that would be different this time, because you do know hurricanes well, but things that happen in hurricanes are that people require shelter. now, you have to make sure that those shelters are safe of infection and don't become spreaders. how is that different than it would be in a normal hurricane? >> the shelters are operated by the county. but from what i understand, they put in the proper protocols. they've opened more shelters than they normally would have for the number of people that we expect to be affected by this. so, there are four shelters open. they will have proper tapes showing the distancing. obviously, urging people and strongly encouraging people, if not requiring them, to have mask, et cetera. and that's the kind of tweaking that is being done. you just have to allow for more space. even with our emergency

operations center. rather than having everyone under one roof, we have people spread out. still able to do the job they have to do, but not in one location. >> mm-hmm. obviously, at times like this, where wendoing things like you and i are doing, talking over a computer from where you are, what have you -- what's your thought about the resilience of the systems that you're going to need -- power and internet? >> well, our emergency operations center is category 5. this is now just a tropical storm. i say "just," because we could still get winds up to 70-some miles an hour. we're confident that we'll be able to maintain power. and in the other buildings where we have people there also, they're not category 5, but category 3 rated. so we're comfortable. and we also have sufficient redundancies, generators, et cetera. so we're confident that we'll be able to make it through this. >> excellent. what about covid testing sites? that's hard to come by these days, getting tests that you can get results from quickly.

is that going to slow down as a result of this storm? >> yeah, the testing sites have been shut down. most of those are outside, as you might well imagine. with high winds and rains predicted for all day, there won't be any testing done today. we're hoping, as this storm passes, to get those back up and running tomorrow. >> mayor, we're going to keep in touch with you to see how things develop over the next little while. the fact that it's now down to a tropical storm is a bit of a blessing, and it's still a little bit off coast. that's a little bit of a blessing. but as you said, storm surges, wind, power outages, these all remain a danger normally and much more of a danger now that we've got a storm coming in. mayor keith james of west palm beach, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. all right, let's go to nbc news correspondent kerry sanders, joining us from singer island, florida. kerry, what's the situation where you are? oh, i don't have kerry sanders. let me -- we're going to get back to kerry sanders in just a

few moments when we get him. there's a technical problem, but kerry, as you know, covers hurricanes a lot, so he'll give us the lowdown on what's going on there. let's turn to politics. after eight years on the job, joe biden knows a thing or two about what makes a good vice president, and he's expected to choose his running mate this coming week. coming up next, we're going dig into why susan rice and stacey abrams are on his short list. you are watching "velshi" on msnbc. " on nbc. we made usaa insurance for veterans like liz and mike. an army family who is always at the ready. so when they got a little surprise... two!? ...they didn't panic. they got a bigger car for their soon-to-be-bigger family. after shopping around for insurance, they called usaa - who helped find the right coverage for them and even some much-needed savings. that was the easy part. usaa insurance is made the way liz and mike need it- easy.

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sanders back, so let's go to that first. i want to go to kerry sanders in singer island, florida, who is covering hurricane isaias, which is now a tropical storm, kerry. what's the danger at this point? >> reporter: well, you know, people can sometimes get fooled into believing it's a tropical storm. no need to worry. vigilance is still something the authorities want people to recognize. take a look at some video that we shot 14 hours ago of where i'm standing now so you can see

how quickly conditions change from this beautiful coastline into what we now have. but as ugly as it is here right now, the good news is that isaias is a tropical storm and forecasters say it's likely to stay well offshore. i'm standing over here. it may seem odd to see caution tape out on the beach, but this is placed here by biologists because that's a turtle nesting site. they know that the turtles have, loggerheads, have likely placed their eggs there. mother nature has a way of handling this weather much better than perhaps we do. health officials are really concerned today, ali, about the possibility that during the warm-up to this hurricane -- now tropical storm -- some young people or others may have decided it's a perfect time to have a hurricane party.

unfortunately, gathering in a house together with friends in the middle of a pandemic is the worst thing anybody could do. it may turn out, health officials fear, that the greatest problem that we see from isaias is not the weather-related event, but rather, people ignoring social distancing rules, not wearing masks, getting together, and then spreading coronavirus. this has been very much a test run for the state. some shelters were opened in volusia county, but by and large, they didn't have an open evacuation shelters. that is a good thing because the state has been trying to figure out, and they have a plan, of how you separate somebody who has the symptoms of coronavirus from those who were just evacuating, trying to find a place to ride the storm out. we can still see the water coming in, the power of mother nature here, concentrated well offshore. but as this storm continues to

make its way, moving north, it may stay off the coast of florida, but it doesn't mean everybody's in the clear, ali. the likelihood now is likely to maybe make landfall in south carolina. ali? >> yeah, just like florence did. thank you, my friend, kerry. we'll stay with you over the next couple days as this thing develops. kerry sanders in singer island, florida. it's expected this week that joe biden's going to finalize his pick for a vice presidential running mate with an announcement coming soon after. we don't know who it's going to be. we do know it's going to be a women. he's told us that. who brings to the table exceptional credentials, expertise and experience. we know that from the names on the list, of several of the reported top contenders. this weekend on the show, we've been breaking them down one by one or two by two, discussing the pros and cons of each. yesterday we looked at the so-called law and order and military contenders. congresswoman val demings and senator tammy duckworth, in addition to two senators who ran against biden, kamala harris and elizabeth warren. but what about someone who shares with whom biden shares

extensive working experience and also ties to barack obama? susan rice served as national security adviser to president obama and served as u.s. ambassador to the united nations during his time in office. she also served in the clinton administration as assistant secretary of state for african affairs. we know that rice is a name high on biden's short list. it makes sense. rice has exceptional national security credentials, which are valuable right now, considering the state of america's foreign policy under president trump and the fact that russia and others are now actively trying to interfere, once again, in our elections. rice would be sure, however, to infuriate trump, as she's closely associated with the iran nuclear deal and the paris climate agreement. one notable knock against her is that she's never been a candidate for office before. she doesn't think that's going to be a problem, though. and right or wrong, her role in benghazi will pose issues with some voters. biden could also go in a different direction and select someone who's got slightly greater name recognition and a national following but less experience at those levels of government.

stacey abrams was the powerful democratic leader in the georgia house of representatives before being launched into the national spotlight during the 2018 georgia governors race. it was a race that she narrowly lost. she's a champion of voting rights, which makes sense, considering the dirty politics and voter suppression that took place during that gubernatorial contest. abrams also gave the 2019 democratic response to trump's state of the union address. unlike rice, abrams doesn't have much of a relationship with biden and is still a relative newcomer to national politics. let's talk about these two. joining me now, the president of emily's list, stephanie schriok, with me yesterday as well, and associate professor of political science at fordham university, christina greer, co-host of the faq nyc podcast and author of "black ethnics: race, immigration, and the pursuit of the american dream." and speaking of stacey abrams, christina's last piece in "the daily beast" is a warning that the politics and voter suspension and disinformation that affected abrams during the

gubernatorial race could be a roadmap for donald trump nationally. so, christina, let me start with you. let's talk about stacey abrams. she is thought of by a lot of people as a natural for the vice presidential position. she has spoken very openly about wanting to be the vice presidential candidate. how do you think she'd do and where do you think she is in the roster? >> well, i think the minority leader has spoken openly about wanting the job because she'd be great at it. i mean, look at her sort of non-profit public-sector/private-sector experience over the past 15 years. i mean, when stacey abrams was the minority leader in georgia, a state that is purple, a state that is winnable, she was able to galvanize first-time voters, immigrant voters, you know, people who are black, white, latinx, the asian american community, the aapi community. and so, there are a lot of -- we need a candidate who is not only going to be great at governance. i think the entire list that joe biden has laid out, i think all of those women would be just

fine on january 20th. what we need is someone who can help with campaigning and governance. and there are quite a few women on that list that actually can't help with the campaigning phase. stacey abrams has shown that, you know, she can go to various communities that ostensibly don't think they have anything in common with one another or with her and actually motivate them to be participants in their own democracy. so, i think that piece for me, the campaigning and the governance piece, because of her ability to work across the aisle with some of the most conservative republicans in the nation, sets her up to be a fantastic, i think, accompaniment to someone like joe biden. >> stephanie, let's talk a little bit about susan rice. this is not a name known to everyone. she in some ways is known more in conservative circles because republicans put her front and center of the benghazi scandal. but the fact is, when you pull back from that, she has got a great deal of policy experience, a great deal of international

policy experience, something that has not been shown in this particular administration, and she has a relationship with joe biden. he seems to trust her a great deal. >> well, thank you, ali, for having me back on today and for doing these conversations about all of these really, really talented, ambitious, smart women. every one of them, i really do believe, as said, will be ready on day one to be the vice president and whatever else they need to do, so i'm very excited about this. you know, and as i look at susan rice, i really do see someone that has that relationship with joe biden. i think i said this yesterday -- i do not envy vice president biden's decision here. this is a tough one. he has got some great, great options. susan rice, obviously, brings that deep ability to understand what's going on internationally. she understands how this federal government works. the other thing that sort of gets overlooked because it's

happening right now, but she's also dedicated time to helping the mayor, mayor bowser here in washington, d.c., deal with the covid-19 pandemic, kind of working on the domestic chops as well. so, i think, again, there isn't a bad choice on this list. every one of them comes with great, great strengths, and i really do believe can handle anything that comes at them, literally anything. >> christina, what do you make of susan rice's ability to join the campaign the way you talk about stacey abrams? stacey abrams, as far as campaigners go, when you're in a room with stacey abrams, it's pretty clear you're in a room with stacey abrams. she has got a remarkable presence. she engages people. she gives you that eye lock. she talks to everybody in person. we haven't seen susan rice in those environments, but she's fairly comfortable with them. >> sure. i mean, she's been a public

servant for quite some time. i think the concern that i have and many americans have is that we don't get to january 20th and a celebration for the democrats if we can't pass november 3rd. and we can't sort of tin can ourselves, which is choosing someone who would be great for governance but can't get us over the finish line when it comes to campaigning. so, i think that susan rice, because she's not necessarily known in domestic circles, because she doesn't necessarily have issues in domestic circles, that might make it a little more difficult for her. i think, obviously, having a relationship with joe biden and barack obama says a lot about not just her and her credentials, but her ability to be in some of those zoom rooms, i guess we would have to call them now. but i think that the concern is, you know, many people do not know who susan rice is. many black people do not know who susan rice is. and so, if we're relying on black americans to get, again, the democratic party and possibly democracy, there is

going to be a lot of work that needs to be done in a very short period of time to not only introduce her, to combat some of the false narratives that we know the trump campaign will have about as well. >> and stephanie, talk to me about your interaction with stacey abrams. i imagine you've run into her because you have dealt kind of with everybody who's run for a major office in this country, every woman who's run for major office. >> a little bit. and in full disclosure, i know stacey very, very well, and for many, many years, she was the emily's list first ever gabrielle giffords rising star award. my goodness, seven years ago. so, look at this star rising. she's just been extraordinary. obviously, we've supported her deeply in her governors race. stacey does absolutely have -- and you just said it, ali -- this charisma that oozes out in a room, and it is a very, very powerful thing. and i just think the world of her. she also is a great visionary.

this is someone who, like i said, should be governor. christina, thank you for writing that piece on the voter suppression. it is real. it is happening everywhere. and stacey didn't just, like, roll up and just finish after she lost that governor's race that she should have won, if the election was fair. she went out and fought and she keeps every single day fighting. you know, like all of these women. none of them are sitting back with their feet up wondering what's going to happen. they're like, hey, whatever happens, i've got to make sure that we win this november and we change this country, because we are on the wrong track. every single one of them is giving every bit of themselves to get us, you know, get us back to a place to rebuild this government, and we're going to have to rebuild this government. >> ali, can i just -- >> thank you both of you for helping us through this. go ahead, christina. go ahead. >> i was just going to say, we're in highly untraditional

times, and so we need to think about a nontraditional candidate. and some of the ways we've always conceptualized how we think about our vice president is not something we need to do in 2020. and so, i think that, hopefully, voters will be a little creative in their thinking. >> very good point. >> and that relates on it needs to be a sitting elected official just because we've always done it that way. >> very good point to make. the things you normally think about on your checklist for vice presidents, in terms of geography and what state they're going to bring, it's all different this time around. so let's think about it all differently. and that's why we're trying to go as deep as we are into these candidates. thank you so much for helping us do that. emily's list president stephanie schriock and fordham university professor of political science christina greer. thank you. later we'll be talking about karen bass and keisha lance bottoms, mayor of atlanta. we'll be talking about their strengths as well in this race for the vice presidency. all right, another one -- trump versus tiktok. why the president is taking on the popular chinese-owned video app and whether he made good on his threat for executive action. that's next. n his threat for executive action. that's next. i just assumed all bladder leak pads felt the same.

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we're looking at tiktok. we may be banning tiktok. we may be doing some other things. there are a couple of options. but a lot of things are happening. so, we'll see what happens. but we are looking at a lot of alternatives with respect to tiktok. >> that was the president on friday, announcing that the administration may ban the video-sharing app, tiktok, later, telling reporters on air force one that he would use his presidential authority to terminate the application's use in the united states. microsoft was reportedly looking to buy the u.s. branch of the app, but the "wall street journal" is now reporting that the sale is on hold after trump told reporters he preferred to ban the app and wouldn't support the sale, even if it was to a u.s. company. nbc news is reporting that the sale is not on hold but that tiktok is waiting to hear back from the white house on further moves. this all comes after the treasury department announced a review of the app earlier this week, citing security concerns. secretary mike pompeo has called

the app that's backed by the chinese, including tiktok, trojan horses for chinese intelligence. india has banned tiktok in june. now, aside from the security issues, the app has been the eyre of the president since tiktok users claim to have outwitted the trump campaign, registering for potentially hundreds of thousands of tickets for his tulsa rally as a prank. and of course, people didn't show up at that point. and of course, because of the actress and comedian sarah cooper, who has come to internet fame by posting videos of her lip-synching trump's speeches and interviews. trump's actions spurred the company to make quick concessions to appeal one last time to the u.s., including an announcement to bring 10,000 new jobs into the country. >> we've heard your outpouring of support, and we want to say thank you. we're not planning on going anywhere. i'm also proud of our 1,500 u.s. employees who work on this app every day and the additional 10,000 jobs that we're bringing into this country over the next three years.

>> all right, could this be anything more than another push from the trump administration to show its new hard line on china, just months before the election, or are there legitimate security concerns with the application, or does trump just not like it because a lot of people make fun of him on tiktok? nbc's ben collins joins me now. ben, let's just start from -- let's be honest. you know me and you know i know nothing about tiktok. i don't have a tiktok account, don't know how it works. so, let's just start with this. is tiktok a threat from a security perspective? >> it is. but a couple of things can be true at once here. why are we starting with tiktok when there are chinese hardware companies with hardware in american homes that, you know, once they're there, they can pretty much do whatever they want? tiktok is behind a walled garden, what's known as a walled garden on the app store, in apple's app store, so there is some, you know, there is some sort of like a clearance they have to get past here. it's weird that they're starting with tiktok, especially considering what is happening

with the president and this narrative that is basically as true as you want it to be, that these tiktok users messed with his tulsa rally. that was a narrative that really took off. it's sort of true. like, you know, they were a part of a campaign to try to prevent people from going to this rally by taking up all the tickets, but there are an infinite number of tickets. it's complicated. but in the mainstream press, like the narrative became that tiktok users made it so that rally was like a bomb. we don't know. we just need to know more information from the federal government about what they know about tiktok versus other chinese hardware and software companies. >> okay. so, let's move to the next thing. can he ban it? i assume that you can -- maybe he has the power to ban a chinese company operating in america, if they can prove that it's a security risk. and i imagine the bar on proving something is a security risk is fairly low. but then when it was discussed that either a couple private

equity firms would buy tiktok and operate it out of the u.s. or microsoft would buy it, he said he's banning it outright. can the president actually do that? >> you could hypothetically ban an app, but it's very complicated. and the other thing is, kids can get around it. there are mobile vpns that will make it look like your countloc is in a country where it's allowed, like canada. it's not very complicated. and kids will learn how to easily deal with this. in terms of actually banning it in the united states, you're going to need a lot of help from a lot of different companies. you're going to need apple to help out and you're going to have to talk to the android app store and google play and stuff, or you can just disable the functionality, but then you're getting into great firewall, like chinese great firewall sort of problems. it's a really dangerous step to unilaterally ban an app based on information you have not let the public know about. we need to know more. this is not really -- as we know it right now, yes, tiktok could be a problem because of ties to the chinese government. we know that. we just don't know exactly what the problem is yet.

we need to know before this becomes a real speech issue. >> yeah, all right. well, those are the two things we've got to balance here. ben, good to see you, my friend. thank you for educating me and not treating me like the rube i am when it comes to technology. ben collins, tech reporter. coming up, what wasn't included in president trump's recent phone call with vladimir putin? our next guest says the united states and allies are enabling the russian president to be bolder than ever. you are watching "velshi." e bolder than ever you are watching "velshi." looks like they picked the wrong getaway driver. they're going to be paying for this for a long time.

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hi, everyone. the name is "velshi," but we had a little problem with ali's connection, so we'll try to figure out the gremlins and check back with ali in a few moments there. we continue to follow the very latest on the storm that is burrowing its way up the east coast of florida right now. at one point, it was a hurricane. the hurricane hunters were through it over the last 12

hours. the sustained winds around 65 miles an hour. now, this is expected to be with us for quite some time, making its way straight up the east coast and then making another landfall, because it already did so in hispaniola, making another landfall in the carolinas and expected to drop up to 6 inches of rain on some 80 million americans on the east coast. but the good news is, it has been downgraded overnight from a hurricane. at one point, it was packing winds of 80 miles an hour. and now it is at 65 miles an hour, but a lot of people are still paying attention to it and are told to pay attention to it throughout the day. we're going to take a quick break. we'll be right back. ing ttoake break. we'll be right back. [ thunder rumbles ]

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hi, everybody. i'm kendis gibson in for ali velshi, at least for the moment, while we try to figure out some gremlins with his connections from his home studio.

but in the meantime, until we get him back, i wanted to show you something that was pretty much my favorite thing i've seen all day long. and history really in the making. nbc's rehema ellis has the inspirational story of america's first black female fighter pilot. >> reporter: after years of preparation, lieutenant madeleine swagel is living her dream, soaring through barriers. >> yeah, i just love the fast planes. >> reporter: she's the first black female fighter pilot in the nearly 110-year history of naval aviation. >> like feeling the exhilaration and getting thrown back in the seat a little bit. that was awesome. >> reporter: on friday, lieutenant swagel got her wings of gold. [ applause ] she aimed high early, inspired by her parents. >> and they told me i could be whatever i wanted to be. >> reporter: and what she wanted to be was what she saw. >> we would go see the blue angels when they were in town. i don't remember specifically how old i was, but they were just so cool.

i love them. >> reporter: it's rare to see black navy pilots. in fact, only 1.9% of navy aircraft fighting unit pilots are black. this summer, a special task force was created to address the issues of racism and sexism. >> we must work to identify and eliminate individual and systemic racism within our force. >> i'm sorry to see that it has taken so long to have more black women. >> reporter: 40 years ago, brenda robinson was the first black woman navy pilot. what do you say to the nay sayers who say, well, they made it easier for you? and now they've really made it easier for lieutenant swagel. >> i was already flying airplanes before i got into the navy. and the only reason why i was able to get there and my credentials far outweighed any of the other guys i was with. i wish that we were saying, oh, yeah, well, just another black woman who's flying airplanes and she's a fighter pilot. >> reporter: one retired top gun

instructor says lieutenant swagel, a naval academy graduate, deserves her wings. >> they're not handed out. you have to earn them. certainly have to have the smarts to be able to be a tactical aviator. >> reporter: awesome, too, for a woman who had never even been in an airplane before she joined the navy. >> i think that representation is important because we are a very diverse nation. so, i would like everyone to believe that they can achieve whatever they want to do. >> reporter: now, top of her field, flying high into history. rehema ellis, nbc news, new york. >> quite a story and quite a week for black girl magic, hasn't it been? you have beyonce dropping that amazing visual album. michelle obama was back with her first time of a podcast of a former first lady. so, will we hear in the next week of another black girl magic when it comes to the vp nomination? we'll find out from joe biden. for those of you who are losing track of time, it's august 2nd. and for many students, bells

will soon ring and the start of the fall semester later on this month. but now there's a cautionary tale of what institutions face as they prepare to open. new reporting from "the new york times" explains a nightmarish scenario. as hours after an indiana school reopened on thursday, a student who had walked the halls and sat in various classrooms tested positive for covid-19, forcing self-isolation of the student and ordering everyone who had come into close contact to quarantine for at least 14 days. but even with their complexities, officials like dr. robert redfield of the cdc, of course, says that schools should be reopening and should be a priority, as long as they open safely. >> i think it's important to realize that it's in the public health best interest of k-12 students to get back in face-to-face learning. there's really very significant public health consequences of the school closure. >> dr. redfield there in front of congress. but as states continue to go at the pandemic alone, many school

systems are still grappling with how to safely reopen. and that includes florida's orange county school district. it's in the orlando area. it had been planning to open for in-person classes on august 21st, following a controversial order from the state to reopen, even, mind you, as florida's cases continue to climb. well, now the state says the school district can make its own decision on when to reopen local campuses. the reopen date has prompted backlash from its own as the teachers' union in orange county filed a lawsuit against the school district, seeking to block the in-person reopening. now, the union president says that teachers have already seen cases of covid-19 at their schools but claims the district refuses to release that information. all right, well, joining me right now is the superintendent of that school district, barbara jenkins. superintendent jenkins, thank you for being here with me. >> happy to be with you. >> i'm sorry it's not ali, but at least i'm still bald, so all good. >> it's a pleasure.

>> it's a pleasure to be with you. let me ask you, what is the situation right now in orange county? you are due to reopen august 21st. that's just a few weeks from where we are right now. would that be possible given the situation in the greater orlando area? >> so, two things are important to note. first, we did push back our opening from august 10th. secondly, we are opening virtually only. and so, for the first nine days of school, all of our children will be doing a virtual platform and not in person. secondly, when august 21st rolls around, only one-third of our children will actually be coming to class. we encourage parents to stay on the platform that is virtual so they won't have to have the extra added safety needs in place for person-to-person, face-to-face learning. and so, about 60% of our parents are going to stay at home and continue that platform that we've encouraged. one-third of our students, the parents say they need to come to school. they will be with us.

and about 45% of our teachers say they want to be in the classrooms. >> i'm sure many people want to be in the classrooms. it's just a matter of whether the situation allows it to be healthy environment for them to return. you saw those cases in mississippi as well as in indiana, after those schools reopened. in the first week, they had some positive cases. do you get a sense that you guys are doing certain things that will prevent those from happening? >> so, we've put in place as many safety precautions as possible. the school board and i are adamant about trying to keep our children and our employees safe. what's important to note is that emergency order issued by the state does have certain requirements in it. and if we want the financial benefits of full-time students, we need to have some time in august, we believe, we need to have children in face-to-face setting. so, we have face masks involved. we have social distancing. we have cleaning.

we have hand sanitizing. everything that we can possibly put in place to keep our children safe we have made plan for that. but i think it's important to be honest, kendis. it is not reasonable to think there will not be a single case. we have 212,000 students. if a third of them show third up, it's more than likely our one of our 14,000 teachers may actually test positive. >> it is inevitable. >> it is inevitable, many people see it that way. it's just the system in place to make sure it doesn't spread to other people thank you, superintendent. >> thank you for having me. we're working to get ali's technical issues fixed, but it's part of our new normal.

speaking of new normal, researchers are training dogs to find covid-19 by scent. it could be used in airports or stadiums. take a look at this. >> come here, poncho. poncho is a friendly yellow lab, who works a full-time job. he's training to detect covid-19. >> dogs really have an ability to see the world through their nose. >> researchers believe that sharp sense could soon help slow the spread of the virus. >> it could be a valuable contribution in the fight. >> they're training and testing nine dogs with scientific method, first significant a covid positive it, if the virus is deactivated for safe. it's not made easy.

>> the wheel is spun around to randomize, but the dogs find it again and again with a stunning accuracy rate of over 95%. obedience experts say you can't make a dog scent. they have to want to, which is why positive reinforcement is essential. >> my thought would be screening of people, say at an airport or people going into a stadium, or even people coming back to school. if you dog can give us a go/no-go. cynthia says the dogs work with 300 million smell receptors. so explain the concept. later in the study sweat samples will be used, positive and negative covid scents.

>> this will translate most directly to the person being screened in a public environment. >> reporter: dogs have long been trusted detectors and now in the battle to end a pandemic, there could be some new dogs in the fight. all right. so all those pandemic pets you purchased, they may have more of a use. we're going to try to work out the gremlins with ali's connection, but we do have a lot more coming up here on "velshi." we'll be right back. here on "v" we'll be right back. [♪] are you currently using a whitening toothpaste, but not seeing results? try crest 3d whitestrips. its enamel-safe formula lifts and removes stains

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in the midst of this national trauma, so many of our fellow americans are rising to the occasion, with words and their dies serving as a crucial reminder, in this time we really are all in this together. hi, everybody, welcome back to "velshi." i'm kennedys gibson sitting in for ali velshi briefly for this

sunday morning. there's a tropical storm that's off the coast of florida which could affect much of the eastern united states over the next few days. it has weakened slightly, but some 80 million people could end up to 6 inches of rain before it's all forward. each and every week more than 54 million americans in all have filed for unemployment. the gdp shall rank that nearly four times more than the worst recession in the history. more than 4.6 million have been infected. nearly 156,000 americans are dead from a disease which at this time last year none of us had even heard of. yesterday, president trump decided it was all too much and took time off, having no public events on his schedule this weekend. he did have one public

appearance -- golf. yeah. no surprise there, again, of course on the taxpayers ease dime. in addition to being greeted by the trump name on the club's welcome sign that heenes the course after all -- several dozen demonstrators took up just outside the grounds, some paying tribute to john lewis. let's try to forget about our current crisis for just a minute. his latest trip to the links come just months before the potential fiery end of what the united states of america stands for. >> you have a democrat-run city, a city with problems. if joe biden is elected as president, if the bloodshed will spread. you'll have a portland

everywhere. in joe biden's america, you and your family will never be safe. rioters will be protected. and american families will be at the mercy of the violent left wing mob that you've been watching on television. >> that was the president during a so-called rally he held on the tarmac there in tampa. ali is back with us finally. there were a lot of people noticing the optics yesterday with the president on the links while hess chief of staff and many congressional leaders were on capitol hill trying to negotiate a deal, and still nothing came through. >> it doesn't look good. i've been off the air for about ten minutes, and i haven't had a single tweet asking where i am. you're much slimmer, a more handsome guy. >> we are twins, we're