welcome to wednesday, it is "meet the press daily," i'm dayty tur in for chuck todd. if it is 5:00 p.m. in washington, we are once again expecting the president to hold a news conference this hour. it comes as he is once again saying that this virus will go away, as he pushes for schools to reopen. meanwhile, dr. fauci is once again warning that new cases remain at about unacceptably high level and he's once again warning that they must come down dramatically before we can safely reopen. >> as long as you have any member of society, any demographic group who is not seriously trying to get to the end game of suppressing this, it

will continue to smolder and smolder and smolder. and that will be the reason why, in a nonunified way, we've plateaued at an unacceptable level. now, i'm sorry for the long-winded answer, but i think that's the problem. >> fauci wasn't speaking explicitly about the president or his supporters in that clip, but he could have been, because as we surpass 158,000 deaths, president trump has basically at every turn downplayed the severity of this virus, while misleadingly telling the country and his followers that it will disappear. >> it's going to disappear, one day, it's like a miracle, it will disappear. >> we're prepared and we're doing a great job with it and it will go away, just stay calm, it will go away. but i think what happens is, it's going to go away. this virus is going to disappear. it's a question of when. we're doing so well after the

plague. it's going away. i said, it's going to disappear. it's going to disappear. and i'll be right. this thing's going away. it will go away like things go away. >> that last clip was from an interview the president conducted this morning as he pushed to reopen schools. at the same time, we're getting images like this one in georgia, showing crowded hallways with few students wearing masks. it comes as new jobs data suggests once again that hiring is slowing dramatically in this country, due to the spread of this virus. white house negotiators on capitol hill have been so inconsistent in outlining what the president will support that the next phase of virus relief has been mired in uncertainty. the virus has paralyzed america, virtually everywhere. contrary to the president's claims that it's only effecting a small portion of the country. the issues facing communities across america are splashed across the front pages of local

papers in this country. montgomery, alabama, a story about child care providers who are struggling in this pandemic. biloxi, mississippi, the entire front page of "the sun herald" is about various covid issues. ventura county, california, a look at how the virus is ravaging impoverished communities. grand rapids, michigan, a look at how children are at risk of going hungry. we looked at hundreds of local papers today and, no surprise, this virus is impacting communities everywhere. joining me now from the white house, where we await the president, is nbc news white house correspondent kristen welker. garrett haake has the latest on the negotiations on capitol hill. and with us, peter baker from "the new york times." and dr. amish adalja, senior scholar at the johns hopkins university center for health security.

kristen, i do want to start with you. how involved is the president in the -- gosh, the overcoming over this virus, the attacking of this virus, behind the scenes? how much more involved is he than just getting out in front of reporters and reading a piece of paper? >> i think he's ingauengaged, k holding regular meetings, certainly with his coronavirus task force. at the same time, you have seen him, several weeks ago, try to turn the page on this crisis, try to focus on the economy, try to focus on his re-election campaign and that is where he has been met with great challenges, because of course, as so many medical experts and economic experts, frankly, have said, he cannot tackle this virus and really start to see the economy get back on track until the virus is under control. and that just has not happened yet. it's remarkable, as you played

his sound bite yet again this morning, saying that he expects the virus to just go away. now, he is going to be holding a briefing in less than a half an hour from now, katy, so, it's a chance to ask him about what specifically he means by that, why he's reiterating that statement yet again, as he continues to call for schools to reopen and as we're seeing cases surge in various states throughout the country. this adding urgency to this white house, to the administration, to try to get more of those rapid tests out nationwide, but that hasn't happened yet. and the critique, of course, is that there hasn't been a national testing strategy. so, what is the update on that and why hasn't that happened yet? those are among the questions that loom large over this president and over this white house you and all of it, katy, really adds urgency to those talks that garrett has been watching on capitol hill. the fact that you've had these ongoing talks, trying to get yet another relief bill done and yet there is no imminent deal in

sight at this point, katy. >> i want to get to that deal in just a moment, but peter baker, first, i want to ask you this. people are getting sick by the thousands. people are losing their jobs because the economy can't really reopen while people are getting sick and people are locked inside. people are struggling right now, they can't pay their bills. they can't find new employment. does the president get it? >> well, you know, the statement that you just played, the idea, well, it will just go away, doesn't suggest that he does, right? it doesn't suggest that he is connecting with the pain and suffering of the american people. 160,000 people dead so far. we had 1,300 people die yesterday. if we keep this up, we'll have another 90,000, 100,000 dead by election day. to say it's going to go away is not reassuring to the people who are looking at those numbers and the vast number of people who have been effected because their jobs aren't there anymore, because they can't afford health

care, because they are stuck at home because their kids aren't going to school. he has yet to find a way, i think, to connect with the american people who are, you know, enduring this terrible crisis, in a way that suggests that he understands just how tough it really is for them. >> does he understand that the economy can't really reopen unless the virus is under control? does he get that? >> well, you know, that's what people told him back in may, when he was first arguing to reopen the economy. people said, look, first get the virus under control and then the economy will follow. if you try to reopen too fast, you won't get the economy, because the virus will snap back and look what happened. so, we're right back where we started, basically, three months ago, where we're having to have this debate, where the virus and the economy are inextricably connected. if he really wants to get things going, especially by fall when he's facing a re-election, then, you know, what the experts are saying is, he needs to take more

drastic action right now to get control of this virus. we haven't seen that kind of urgency. >> dr. adalja, where is he getting this idea that this virus will just go away? >> i don't know where he's getting it. some sort of unreality. this is a virus that spreads efficiently from person to person. it's established itself in the human population. it's not going to go anywhere until there's a significant proportion of the population vaccinated. coronavirus that can spread from humans, we deal with it every year and this looks like it's going to be a seasonal coronavirus, so, it will not magically disappear. and we need to do the simple tracking, tracing and isolating but we've been unable to do that since the beginning of this pandemic. >> we can't even get test results back in a timely manner in most of the country. garrett haake, on the subject of testing, what kind of negotiations are happening, to fix the log jam that we're

having with our testing capacity? it's been six months and we still don't have adequate testing across the country in a timely manner that would allow for contact tracing. >> well, remember, when these negotiations started, the white house was pushing to zero out the money that would be provided in this next relief bill for testing. democrats feel like they've confidently nipped that in the bud, but the negotiations continue, and money for state and local governments remains probably the single biggest sticking point. the white house and the democratic negotiators here are literally hundreds of billions of dollars apart on how much money they think needs to go to state and local governments and that's money that could potentially be used to help with the coronavirus response in hot spots all across the country. now, katy, i can tell you, since we've been on the air, negotiations have wrapped up for the day. mark meadows and secretary mnuchin were in nancy pelosi's office for about an hour.

democrats are hoping they can extract some agreement from the postmaster general, so they can potentially lower the number of billions of dollars they're asking. no major breakthrough. progress continues. the congressional front that qualities as good news, but it's certainly not going to be enough for all the people across the country waiting anxiously to see what their federal benefits will look like, when and if a deal is reached on this next relief bill. >> so, nancy pelosi is talking right now, we're monitoring that, to see and this is chuck schumer now talking, to see if either one of them have any news on the negotiations. so, garrett, it sounds like they are coming closer together on the things like unemployment insurance, on extending the evictions moratorium, potentially until december. is that what we're going to see, that it's a $400 extension a week on the unemployment benefits. is that locked in stone at this

point? >> i think nothing is locked in stone at this point. i think, you know, the classic cliche here is nothing is decided until everything is decided. but i will say that we and other news outlets started reporting that $400 compromise this morning and felt for all the world to me like a trial balloon. what i didn't see today were people shooting at it. we didn't see people saying that number would be totally unacceptable to them, which suggests to me it's the kind of issue they can sort of table for now and move onto some of the other things. the eviction moratorium is the biggest red herring to me in all of these negotiations. the white house has been saying, the president or his top advisers, they wanted to see that continue. that wasn't even in the senate bill, so, the idea that this was a compromise means it was essentially a compromise between democrats who wanted it, the white house who wanted it and perhaps senate republicans who didn't. so, the process of gaining concessions and coming to agreement here is a little bit unusual. >> garrett, what's the timeline right now? >> anybody's guess.

i mean, everyone wants to move quickly on this. they seem to have set for themselves an arbitrary deadline of trying to get some kind of deal struck by friday. congress loves to set arbitrary deadlines. unfortunately, they also love to blow through them. we're in august. most of these folks would rather be at home, campaigning for re-election. so, we'll see what they're able to come up with. >> let's talk for a second about mail-in voting. garrett just mentioned that the postmaster general was in negotiations with nancy pelosi and chuck schumer and steve mnuchin and mark meadows. there are a lot of questions about whether the post office, usps, will be able to handle mail-in votes in november. at the same time, kristen welker, the president is going after the mail-in votes, saying it's rife with fraud. the administration is suing nevada. what is behind that? i mean, mail-in voting shas been happening in a number of states, mail-in voting has led to winnings for the republican party in california, leads to wins in utah. why are they so angry about it

in a state like nevada? >> it's just remarkable, katy, and he's targeting states where he essentially has feuds with the leadership. for example, yesterday, he said that mail-in voting works perfectly well in florida, which is where he actually decided to vote by mail. and where he doesn't like the potential results, and the potential outcomes of the races in that state. so -- but i think the bottom line here is, he's raising questions about the legitimacy of the november election and that is creating essentially a backlash not only among democrats, but among republicans, as well, and raising the question, katy, if he has these real concerns, why not make sure that he is funding the postal service, giving them the funds that they need to make sure that people can go and vote safely in november, katy. >> well, it makes you wonder if the goal is not to -- to get it

done right, but to be able to push back or question it if he does not win. peter baker, it feels like deja vu. the same thing he did in 2016 when the polls showed him losing to hillary clinton, he started talking about a rigged system. he told people to watch polling sites in places like philadelphia, where he knew he wasn't going to do that well. how much of this is just the president's anxiety coming over about the election and how much of it is the administration preparing to fight the results if he does not win? not the administration -- yeah, the administration, the white house. >> yeah, no, that's a great question. yeah, this is a constant theme of his, right? fact-based web service which tracks president trump's statements and speeches went back and calculated this. they found 700-plus raising -- times he has raised vote fraud since 2012. 700-plus times. 91 times or more so far this year alone. more than that, because that's now a dated figure. they cluster around, of course,

the election themselves. 2012, 2014, 2018, so forth. and it's, you know, even some of his own former advisers saying he's setting ground here to explain what would happen if he loses to joe biden, if he loses to joe biden, it's not because he did something wrong, it's because the election was somehow stolen. now, we're conflating two different things here, or he's conflating two different things here. there are issues to be addressed with regard to mail-in voting, whether or not the u.s. postal system is ready to handle the flood that could be coming, given the covid concerns, but that's a different thing than fraud, which is the other thing he's saying. he's suggesting any of these problems with elections like we just saw in new york automatically mean they can't be trusted. that's a different thing and i think that -- and he's trying to sort of make them all be the same thing so voters, his voters, won't trust the outcome if he doesn't like the results. >> dr. adalja, i just want to get one last point from you,

going back to this virus. we've seen images out of a georgia school where high school students are crowded together in the hallways, a lot of them not wearing masks. it looks like normal times. how concerned are you, when you see images like that? there are members of the football team who have tested positive for covid. >> so, what that shows you is a school that's not prepared to deal with conducting classes in the midst of a pandemic. this has to be a priority. opening schools in a safe manner, following guidelines. what you can't do is go back to what it was like in a prepandemic era. we know that children are less likely to get the severe con consequences of the disease, but that doesn't mean they can't get infected and it doesn't mean they can't pass it onto other people. that tends to be relatively rare, at least compared to adults, but it is a possibility and when you have a school and you have people crowded, not doing face coverings, not following any of the guidance, that tells you that this school didn't really prepare to conduct classes and you are going to see cases. it is inevitable you're going to

see cases. and then you're going to see panic and disrups thtion that c have been avoided. >> the school district said it is encouraging mask use but it is not requiring it. dr. amish adalja, peter baker, garrett haake, kristen welker, thank you. we're awaiting the president's news conference. once he does start peek ispeaki we're going to bring it to you live. also ahead, the white house chief of staff said if there's no action on the hill by friday, the president will act unilaterally. i'm going to talk to democratic senator jeff americaley about this. but first, the very latest on that massive explosion at a warehouse in beirut yesterday. at least 100 are cob firmed dead and 4,000 are hurt. those numbers are only expected to grow. we've also learned one of the people killed was an american. according to the governor of beirut, the explosion has left at least 200,000 people homeless. remember, we are in the middle

of a global pandemic. the massive blast came from a warehouse at a shipping port, where more than 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate was being stored without proper safety measures. ammonium nitrate is a common industrial chemical used in fertilizer, but under certain circumstances, it can turn into a devastating explosion. that is exactly what happened here. the explosion leveled buildings in port and could be heard and felt as far as 145 miles away. it is still not clear what set it off. we'll be right back.

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plus, get two hundred dollars off when you buy an eligible phone. welcome back. you are looking at live pictures here of capitol hill, where, as we mentioned earlier, congressional negotiators just wrapped up a meeting discussing the details of the next coronavirus relief bill. those talks included postmaster general earlier this afternoon. moments ago, nancy pelosi and chuck schumer said they had a

heated discussion with him about their concerns and they did not find his responses to those concerns to be sufficient. and after weeks of back and forth, the contours of a relief bill are coming into focus. contours that appear to include $10 billion for the postal service, less than half of what democrats had been demanding to ensure timely mail service as millions of americans prepare to vote by mail. but with both sides so far apart on a deal, white house chief of staff mark meadows moments ago said that if a deal is not reached by friday, the president is prepared to issue some kind of executive order to restore unemployment payments and eviction protections that recently expired. with me now is senator jeff merkley, democrat from oregon. senator, thank you very much for joining us. i want to talk about the contours of this bill. a $400 a week unemployment benefit. that's down from $600, but it looks like it could be extended until december. is that adequate for you? >> ah, no, it's not.

and a lot of statement unemployment agencies that actually prosecute the checks say that will throw a real wrench for them to have to make this sudden change. and we don't need to create more chaos. and we need to rebuild this economy from the ground up, and these families are proceeding to pay their rent, their mortgage, their utilities, they're keeping other businesses afloat and so really do damage to the recovery, as well, in addition to hurting the families that can least afford to be hurt. >> so, is it your sense the democrats are going to hold firm on that $600? >> i think we're going to keep pushing on it. obviously, in every negotiations, republicans control the senate, there's going to be compromises worked out, but let's understand, the fundamentals that the house put forward almost three months ago when they passed the heroes bill, are right. we need to have testing and tracing. we need to support state and local government. we need to have election assistance to make sure the elections are pandemic-free, if

you will, that you can vote without getting sick. we need to -- to assist in these various ways on health care and education, and of course the complexities of schools, of serving children, either online or in limited ways going back into a class room. all these -- these have been there for months now while mcconnell and the senate republicans have been sitting on their hands saying, well, let the states go bankrupt and we're not that worried. well, maybe not living in their cloistered communities where everyone's wealthy, but most of america's really struggling. and we need to help. >> so, you said that the republicans don't seem to be taking this seriously. the other day, i guess you stand by that claim today. >> absolutely. it's like a check the box arrangement. like, they know they have to do something. there is an election ahead of us, so, they need to do

something, but they're not treating this like the worst n pandemic in a century. they're not treating it like the worst economic implosion since the great depression. even the great depression, we didn't lose so many jobs this quickly. and it just makes no sense. they're still talking about giving tax breaks for three martini lunches. s of, i think they're completely out of touch with how families are being effected across this nation. >> what about the postal service? $10 billion, down from what the democrats had wanted at $25 billion. is $10 billion enough for you to have confidence that usps will be able to deliver election ballots on time to the people that need to fill them out and back to the various states? >> katy, i want to see the analysis on it, because truthfully, without the analysis, i mean, what is it -- what does it actually take to make sure that every ballot gets postmarked in the states where

postmark is required to have your ballot counted? what does it take to -- to process the extra flow that might come in the last few days? you know, i watched in oregon in my first election, so, we're going back to 1998 election, half the ballots were by mail just because of an effort of both parties to encourage their citizens to vote by absentee ballot. and two years later, it was all by mail, 100%. postoffice was not an issue. post office -- it never was a problem. they were able to process it just fine. i'm worried that there's kind of a deliberate strategy here to throw up one more impediment and that this postmaster general is working with the president to make it a problem, make it a problem so he can argue that he doesn't like vote by mail and the post office can't work, put me in charge, i'll show you. and that just is against -- it's another form of election manipulati manipulation.

and we're seeing so much of that. we're seeing it in the strategies for registration cards, for polling places, where you reduce the number, you put in bad machines, you change the location, you change the hours of early voting, all these strategies. if the president believed in our constitution, are we the people constitution, he would believe in voter empowerment, and we need to keep fighting for that, for that fundamental right, for every person to participate in the direction of our country. >> let me go back to the bill. have you gotten a sense from your leadership, from chuck schumer, about when to expect to vote on something, to get it passed? >> no, not at all. they're far apart. i mean, we have seen the republicans say, well, maybe we'll go from 200 to 400, maybe we'll give a little bit of funding for state and local governments, maybe a fourth of what the house had put forward. but think about the areas they're apart on. housing, elections, the post office, food, schools, testing

and tracing. testing and tracing absolutely the critical tools for getting ahead of this pandemic and they're dragging their feet on it. which doesn't just mean that more people get sick, it means tens of thousands more people will die. we've got to have a robust testing and tracing program in this country. >> what is the log jam? is it just money? it seems like if you -- if you need more capacity at quest diagnostics or lab corp or you need more swabs, it seems like those are two things that you can overcome or we should be able to overcome as a country. are those the problems or is there something else going on that we just don't know about? >> this is a mystery we'll ponder for a long time. i mean, we know what enables countries to get ahead of this disease. we've seen it happen in country after country. they still can have outbreaks, but they're prepared to manage

them, because they're small and because they have enormous preparations for testing and tracing. and so, i think the president was imbedded with the it will just disappear philosophy and let's not talk about how bad it is, because people will find out how bad it is. it's kind of, let's cover our eyes and our ears and cover the eyes and eyes of the rest of america. that is just not fine. i think about how we didn't have a national program on producing protective equipment and we pushed hard here, democrats pushed so hard to have it, defense production act and so forth. we didn't have a national program on testing. we didn't have a national program on tracing. it's three strikes and you're out. and this president is -- he struck out and now is just trying to cover it up and we can't let that happen, that's why we've got to keep pushing. >> it's incredible we're six months into this and it's a mystery why we can't get faster

testing done, more widespread testing. senator jeff merkley, thank you for joining us. appreciate your time. >> thank you, katy. and the president is set to speak from the white house, maybe somebody will ask him why testing is such a problem. we're going to go there live when he does. also ahead, the democrats new virtual reality. the upcoming election in milwaukee will have almost no attendees. plus, big announcements from both biden and trump about where they're going to accept their party's nominations. s. >> tech: so if you have auto glass damage, stay safe with safelite. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪

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welcome back. former vice president joe biden will not travel to milwaukee for the democratic national convention. instead, he'll accept his party's presidential nomination from his home state in delaware. in fact, the entire convention is now going to be effectively virtual. no national democratic party officials will travel to wisconsin because of concerns about the coronavirus. meanwhile, president trump is floating gi ining giving his ac speech from the white house, which would be a significant defiance of the norm of separating official white house business with campaigning. joining me now is nbc's mike memoly, who covers the biden campaign. mike, thank you for joining us. how does the biden team feel about the president potentially accepting the nomination from the white house? the optics of that, and how that might compare to joe biden's optics? >> yeah, they haven't weighed in specifically on the idea of

president trump doing it from the white house, though there is sort of the confluence of potentially both men doing it from their homes in some respects, but what has been interesting in terms of the decision to move the former vice president's acceptance speech from milwaukee here to delaware has to do with at least they're spinning it as the idea of the former vice president setting a good example, right? they really did want to have this speech in wisconsin. when the democrats chose milwaukee among several bidding cities to do it, there was a sense that they were trying to make up, let's say, for the mistakes of 2016, when hillary clinton, of course, famously did not campaign in that battleground state in the final months of the campaign. they delayed the convention from july to august, they adapted it to a more virtual but still, even last week, advisers saying they were going to anchor the convention in milwaukee. as we've seen with other events the president has done at late, he was traveling to pennsylvania to do his economic speeches, but

the last few he's done here in delaware. the mayor of milwaukee limited gathering to smaller than 225 people and he believed that's necessary at this point to follow that guidance and that means not doing his convention speech there. >> so, does that mean we're not going to potentially see joe biden and his running mate in person together when the person is announced? or when he accepts the nomination? >> listen, katy, we're not even sure if he's going to be able to do the interviews with potential running mates in person. i can tell you, i think the former vice president really does want that to be the case, as he narrows in on his selection. those interviews haven't taken place just yet, but they're still considering whether or not he can do them virtually or in-person. think about the major moments of a campaign we're not going to be able to see or we don't know we'll be able to see. when the former president, barack obama, endorsed joe biden, that was virtually, when

they finally sat down together, a socially distant conversation. now, a rollout that doesn't necessarily include both people in the same space. that famous shot on a convention stage, balloons falling of the running mate and the nominee arm and arm. just not going to be part of it. but the biden campaign has been planning for these contingencies for much longer than the trump campaign appears to have done. we know there are key elements of the republican convention that are very much unclear, where the biden campaign has been preparing for those eventuallies all along. whether or not those optics matter. the biden campaign, at least putting the big money where their mouth is in terms of investing in the fall. they announced yesterday, just this morning, in fact, $280 million in reservations this fall, especially geared earlier rather than later, as they have an eye on early voting, putting -- they've outraged the trump campaign to use. >> yeah. mike just really quickly, axios is reporting that the top two contenders are susan rice and

kamala harris. does that line up with your reporting? >> i don't think they've narrowed it down to two, katy. and i think one of the things that's been clear in my conversation conversations, along with my colleagues, when biden engages himself in this process, that reopens things, there are some names maybe we haven't been talking about as much of late who are still very much in the mix and we'll get a clearer picture in who is coming in for the final conversations. >> very interesting. mike, thank you very much. and we've got some other election updates for you, after yesterday's primaries. congressman roger marshall is the winner in the kansas republican senate primary. he beat kris kobach, giving republicans a much better chance of holding onto kansas' senate seat. groups linked to democrats invested to prop up kobach, hoping to give themselves the best opportunity to flip that seat. we saw a couple of incumbent members go down. steve watkins lost his primary

to state treasure jake la turner. and lacy clay lost the nomination to progressive corey bush, who had the backing of justice democrats. missouri voters also approved medicaid expansion under the affordable care act at the ballot box yesterday. they became the 38th state to do so, following oklahoma's ballot initiative last month. we'll be right back. insurance so you only pay for what you need. almost done. what do you think? i don't see it. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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welcome back. some coronavirus hot spots across the country may be getting a reprieve right now, as data shows case numbers declining in texas and florida. but while california's data has signaled that state is also in decline, some of the counties with the largest covid case load have cautioned not to trust those numbers. at least four counties, including l.a. county, the county with the state's highest number of covid cases, have said they are having issues reporting their data, resulting in potential undercounting of

cases. nbc news's steve patter sson isn los angeles with the latest. what is the deal with this discrepancy? >> yeah, and i can tell you, it's even more than four counties at this point. it is the system by which the state takes this reporting data from these county health departments. the health department for the state says there is a reporting glitch in that system that has led to a significant decline in the numbers that we're seeing. this comes at a very dangerous time, because for so long, california has been sustaining these incredible number of cases, so, all these health departments, including the top health officials in the state, are looking for any good news to report and they are seeing it. a week-to-week decrease of 20% in the weekly number of positive cases. the governor reported that earlier this week, but like everything that has come in this data this week, both at the county level and the state level, there have either been addendums of asterisks or out and out caveats that say, maybe

you shouldn't trust this health data, because of the glitch that is happening. the problem is, we don't know how long this glitch has been going on, how many days this has been affecting these numbers. and we don't know necessarily how significant it is. only that it is significant. the top health official in the state says it is unequivocally changing statewide data. so, they're looking at the numbers to make sure that everything is correct. and they're doing that by going back through these local health departments, trying to check with each individual lab to get the numbers updated and appropriate. but this bears out in what i was reporting today. i spoke to several nurses. it was a national day of action for nurses across the country, but really focused here in california, that say they are lacking the proper ppe, they're lacking the proper staffing, but

more to the point that they are not seeing the declines that are reported, reflecting in the e.r.s, the icus and the germ hospital wings where they are doing all they can to battle against this virus. it is really disconcerting, particularly when a lot of the metrics determine contact tracing, they determine what happens next happens in the path of the virus and what gets implemented, as far as rolling back some of the things that have been in place or keeping the state in a lockdown fashion. they really need to get a handle on this, because a lot of the numbers right now are in the dark. katy? >> steve, we just got the two-minute warning for the president, but i have one more question for you. in terms of testing, where do you stand now in los angeles county, in the state, in getting tests back? how long does it take? >> it's anywhere from right now, five to it can be as high as 12 days. we've seen some of the testing improve in certain areas, but specifically, when you're looking at communities and we keep saying this over and over

again, these minority communities, and particularly regions where the virus has hit really hard, like the central valley, where you have a high amount of latino workers going to work on farms where there's meat processing plants, the bread basket of the state, there, the testing really has been lacking, so, they're hoping to improve that, as well. but again, the reporting on the data that comes from that testing has to be correct with the testing that comes in or else none of this really matters. katy? >> steve patterson in los angeles. steve, thank you very much. and again, we're awaiting the president, who is set to speak any moment now. we're watching that sliding blue door in the briefing room. in the meantime, peter baker is with us. and peter, just quickly, how does the white house staff feel about how these past few weeks have been going for the president with these interviews with jonathan swan, with chris wallace, fox and friends this morning, where he continued to downplay the virus. do they think this strategy is working?

>> well, you know, look, polls show he's in trouble and that the main issue is the coronavirus. so, they know he needs to get hold of it. they do find it better that he's out front addressing it, in a way he hadn't been until two, three weeks ago where he was trying to pretend to move on, now he's -- >> peter, i'm so sorry to interrupt you. you were ahead of me on that. the president is coming out. let's listen to see what he says today. >> i'd like to begin by providing an update on my administration's actions to protect american workers as we battle the china virus. since the virus escaped china, my administration has enacted $3 trillion in economic relief. it's been very, very successful and you saw that by the numbers that were issued yesterday, the day before, as to used car sales and auto production, they've been incredible numbers, actually. shockingly incredible. we've been negotiating in good

faith with democrat leaders in the house to extend relief payments. we're negotiating right now, as we speak and we'll see how that works out, but if democrat leaders put partisan demands aside, we would reach an agreement very quickly. it would happen very quickly. in the meantime, my administration is exploring executive actions to provide protections against eviction, eviction's a big problem, very unfair to a lot of people, it wasn't their fault that this virus came from a far away land. as well as additional relief to those who are unemployed as a result of the virus. very importantly, i'm also looking at a term-limited suspension of the payroll tax, something that is great support for many, many sides, especially some of our top economists and some people that we have great respect for. so, we're looking at a

suspension of the payroll tax. the democrats are pri mamarily interested in a $1 trillion bailout of the poorly run states, we are some states and cities, you know them all, we don't have to go through names, but they've been very poorly run over the years and we can't go along with the bailout money, we're not going to go along with that, especially since it's not covid-related. earlier today, i met with a great governor, arizona governor doug ducey. he's really done a fantastic job, beyond even the covid situation, which you've been reading about as it pertains to arizona. a state that is a model for applying a science-based approach to the decreasing cases and hospitalizations without implementing a punishing lockdown. arizona's record in reducing the spread of the virus while maintaining hospital capacity

and allowing society to continue functioning and functioning very nicely, very successfully, is an example that shows how our path forward can work in other states. arizona has a record states. arizona has a record to be proud of. it has reduced the number of new cases by over 75%. cut the positivity rate in half and reduced e.r. visits by two-thirds, all the while keeping the economy functioning and functioning really well. when cases surged in june, the vice president and dr. birx visited arizona to consult with the governor. they had long consultations with him and his staff and the vice president has been in constant contact ever since. my administration has went in

touch with those in the midwest to provide similar guidance. we had a great relationship with the representatives in arizona. it has been such a successful he said did he ever. the federal government has supplied or delivered more than 400 million pieces of protective equipment to arizona along with 70,000 vials of remdesivir. we've provided over, excuse me, we provided over $18 billion in economic support to arizona, including more than $8.6 billion to support over 80,000 small businesses. so we've been helping arizona and it has gotten tremendous results. our goal is to protect the most vulnerable increase, recovery rates. you know that. something so important. to prevent hospital overcrowding, all the while avoiding the strinkent lockdowns

that would inflict substantial suffering in this phase of the battle we have the tools and knowledge to implement a targeted approach as we race and deliver a vaccine and we are really working very hard on the vaccine and we're doing, i think they're doing a fantastic job. i've been meeting with officials of some of the greatest companies in the world. meeting with scientists. they're getting very close. if not there, they're testing. any proper analysis of infection control measures must take into account the short term and long term public health harms including death caused by a far-reaching shutdown. when you shut down, you have many, many things that happen. from suicides to depression to drinking to alcohol and drug problems, to problems with marriages. problems with marriages.

you have people confined to their house, their apartment for long periods of time. a lot of problems with that also. instead, arizona has adopted the following measures. advising residents to maintain social distancing, the state encouraging mask use in public places, especially when social distancing is not possible. the governor exercises discretion to restrict capacity at indoor locations to limit the possibility of super spreading. a big thing. my administration surged treatments. we got them a lot of treatments and therapies to the state, including nearly 70,000 vials of remdesivir. enough to treat over 11,000 patients. it has been very successful, i might add. my administration also delivered ppe and point of care testing to over 100 arizona nursing homes in toll.

the federal government has provided massive amounts of masks and equipments and gowns. you know some of those. arizona was a very big beneficiary. more than 1,000 national guard and medical personnel have been deployed in arizona. they've really helped. they've been terrific and i want to thank them. they have been brave and brilliant. we also supported our tribal communities. they were hit very, very hard. we delivered rapid testing systems to the navajo nation which has been really, really in originally bad shape and now getting better and very, very quickly. the navajo nation has now one of the highest levels of testing per capita anywhere in the world. we worked very hard on the

tribal areas. in particular in this case, the navajo nation. they've done incredibly well. overall, arizona has conducted over 1.1 million tests. more than the entire nations of japan, mexico and switzerland, arizona's per capita testing is higher than germany, south korea, france, canada, and they've received nearly $1.3 billion for the coronavirus relief fund. meanwhile, outdoor dining limited indoor dining and most of the other businesses in arizona have remained open and very vibrant. this is an approach that has been incredibly successful. arizona has been able to protect high risk populations and quickly bring the outbreak you understand control without the need to impose overly punitive measures. thanks to advances in treating the virus, the fatality rate across all age groups in arizona

is very low. the data driven strategy also preserved capacity ensuring those who need care and receive it immediately. very quickly. at the peak approximately 50% of beds remained available with roughly 20% of all occupied beds going to patients hospitalized with the virus. they kept other things going. they kept other forms of operations going. they kept elective surgery going. an amazing job. only 6% of the current hospitalizations in the state are related to the china virus. arizona has demonstrated success in protecting the state's african-american population. only 5% were african-american and african-americans -- we're going to jump out of this and go back once the president starts taking questions.

it is important to know that he's focusing heavily on arizona. the administration is not supporting giving money to states across this country to shore up their budgets during the pandemic. he's talking about giving $18 billion in economic support to arizona. peter baker, how important is arizona for november to the president? >> well, it's pretty important. it is one of the states that joe biden has good chance of picking up. that president trump is feeling defensive about. and i think that the fact that the virus has been spiking so badly there the last few weeks and months will upset that political apple cart. and this is a problem across the south and the west. a lot of the tats right now, having issues are states where president trump is more popular than others. and it is, it challenges him in his desire to keep pushing ahead and say the virus is behind us and we're moving on and we're reopening. when it is the very people that he speaks to the most who are suffering the most at this

particular moment. >> dr. gupta, with us as well, i remember being late to the game in terms of telling everyone to wear masks. closing down some of the more vulnerable businesses. once it started spiking in that community. he was painting a very rosie picture of how arizona handled this crisis. >> you bet. the governor is not to be put up as an example of an effective leader in this crisis. he is an example of what we should not need in a leader. he got in the way of mayors of cities to implement mask ordinances and he finally decided to get out of their way and now he's taking credit for mayors doing the hard work of implementing mandatory masks in dense populations like phoenix. that's number one. he didn't lead.

he led from behind. he decided to get out of the way by removing obstacles. and number two. to highlight this. he's still pushing. even though dr. birx gave him cover to say it's to know delay school. reopening on august 17. he still continues to push on that. the school board in arizona, i've heard from a few of them. they've said we need to delay this. they are still taken up with covid-19. the chances of resurgence are still quite high this governor is not leading from in front. he's leading from behind. >> peter baker, back to the politics on this for another second. i guess i'm stuck on talking about all the money he's sending to arizona. yet at the same time, the state i'm in, new york, facing a serious budget shortfall. new jersey as well. we're almost out of time.

is it crazy to speck the president to focus on blue states with economic aid? >> well, he's making it out to be a partisan thing. he's saying they're in trouble and he doesn't want to help them because it is up to pelosi if she wants to help them. it is rather remarkable. represent all the states, not just the states where he's won in the past. it is rather striking. >> he's not the president of red america. he's the president of everybody. doctor, thank you, peter baker, thank you as well for sticking around with us. "the beat" starts right now as we wait for the president to take questions. hi there, ari. >> hi there. welcome to "the beat." let me tell you what we have. we are monitoring the briefing from the president. he is currently giving updates on the federal coronavirus response. there's no medical experts there.