birx is, is it safe? and if it's not safe, is the president trying to encourage that or agree with dr. birx, that people should wait? >> jeff, it is safe to reopen your churches if you do so in accordance with the guidelines, which are laid out very stringent detail here about promoting hygiene practices and there are five bullet points and cloth face coverings, if social distancing is not possible, it's recommended intensifying cleanings and we lay them out meticulously, so i am thankful that we have a president that celebraselcelebrates the first the same amendment that gives you the ability to ask me questions, so imams and pastors can go to their churches and celebrate a first amendment right to pray to your god and practice your faith. >> we celebrate that too. >> and should be thankful there are guidelines that allow us to engage in that behavior. >> we're not asking if they're allowing americans to pray. that's not -- >> to gather in their places of worship, to attend church services, to pray toget

birx, weaver dr.il the the economy, even if we open nail salons, health salons, chris, the economy isn't really going to get going again until we can travel, until we can move around the country. it will not get going again in a real meaningful way by opening small businesses in certain places and so we have to get all of those things i just mentioned to eventually get to a place where the economy really can open back up. that is not happening anytime soon. >> chris: here is one of the republican governors, florida governor ron desantis talking this week as he was starting to reopen his state, take a look. >> what is our biggest obstacle? fear. fear of the unknown. fear sparked by constant doom and gloom and hysteria that has permeated our culture for the last six weeks. >> chris: die, you know it's awfully interesting, as the virus begins to wane at least a little bit, we see and maybe it's because people feel freer to do it, the politics starting to resume and to grow and you've got a red state gove

birx, is, is it safe? and is it not safe, is the president try to encourage that, or the president agree with dr. birx that people should wait? >> yes it is safe to reopen your churches, if you do so in accordance with the guidelines, which are laid out very stringent detail here, about rebutting hygiene practices and there are five bullet points. -- promoting hygiene practices. and cloth face coverings if social distancing is not possible. it is recommended intensifying cleanings and promoting social distancing. we lay them out meticulously. i am happy -- i'm thank for we have a president who celebrates the first amendment, the same that gives you the ability to ask me questions is there to have the freedom of worship. so moms and pastors can go to their churches and places of worship to celebrate what is a first amendment right in this country which is to pray to your god and to practice your faith. >> i want to follow up by saying we celebrate that as well. >> so we can be thanked for their guidelines.

birx, is, is it safe? and is it not safe, is the president try to encourage that, or the president agree with dr. birx that people should wait? >> yes it is safe to reopen your churches, if you do so in accordance with the guidelines, which are laid out very stringent detail here, about rebutting hygiene practices and there are five bullet points. -- promoting hygiene practices. and cloth face coverings if social distancing is not possible. it is recommended intensifying cleanings and promoting social distancing. we lay them out meticulously. i am happy -- i'm thank for we have a president who celebrates the first amendment, the same that gives you the ability to ask me questions is there to have the freedom of worship. so moms and pastors can go to their churches and places of worship to celebrate what is a first amendment right in this country which is to pray to your god and to practice your faith. >> i want to follow up by saying we celebrate that as well. >> so we can be thanked for their guidelines.

birx also worked in this field as well. our colleagues in gilead have collaborated for years both in the developing world and the developed world on hiv. it is one of the reasons why when i joined gilead a while ago, the reason i joined was because of this progress. you remember, of course, back when hiv was a death sentence and now, thanks to the scientists at gilead and elsewhere, we have turned this into a chronic disease and also preventable disease. i want to give special thanks to the administration for their work on the hiv prevention and prep programs that we are working on now. many particularly disadvantaged parts of our country, to get more patients on prevention. the best way to stop and to end this epidemic is a combination of treatment and prevention. hepatitis c, we came up with a cure some years ago and have made tremendous progress including some really creative , new arrangements with the -- in the united states like with the state of louisiana, where we have looked at ways to look at programs to make sure

birx that we should wait? >> press secretary mcenany: yes, it is safe to reopen your church as if in accordance with the guidelines laid out. very stringent detail about promoting hygiene practices and five bullet points, and coverings, social distancing is not possible, it is recommended intensifying cleanings, promoting social distance and meticulously i am thankful that we have a president that celebrates the first amendment, the same amendment to give you walt who asked me questions. the freedom of worship so pastors can go to their churches or places of worship and celebrate first amendment right infix country to pray to your god and practice your faith. it's being >> reporter: we celebrate that too. we are not asking you if the president and the people are allowing people to pray. >> press secretary mcenany: to gathering places of worship. to attend church services and pray together. the president has laid out a clear path. the cdc has laid out a clear path forth is to take place for the first amendment

birx: i think a few things are together. so from the beginning, and i think when we had that first briefing we talked about 1.2 million-2.4100240000 million people succumbing to this incredibly aggressive virus. those other figures that that we continue to stand by in this first wave and really understanding how to profess future hospitalizations and future deaths is really what we're focused focused on every single day. >> chris: but to press it a little bit, a month ago, you are saying we were going to come down below the low end of the model, which is 100-240,000, 260,000, so i guess my question is, in this last month, did you underestimate the strength of the virus, did we reopen too soon, did we reopen without sufficient restrictions? >> dr. birx: what i was saying in that briefing that you were talking about is what that current model was showing. there are different models we have been using all along and really trying to learn primarily, not just for models, but understanding what has happened in spain and italy and

birx was very cautious today. she said, "on paper."hink that 12 to 18 months actually was also ambitious. so, we will have to see what we will have -- what we will have to make sure is that a vaccine is not only effective, but also safe. and so, as long as those two criteria are met, we could certainly have a vaccine. but she was careful to say "on paper." and as dr. faust said, if everything goes as planned. >> dr. faust, earlier today, an oxford university professor working on vaccine development said they'll know pretty soon if a vaccine in the uk is showing real promise. watch this. >> we're pretty sure we'll get a signal by june about whether this works or not. coronavirus doesn't mutate at the pace of flu, as far as we can see, but it's also quite a tricky virus in terms of generating longstanding immunoresponses to it. and as a result, i suspect we may need to have relatively regular vaccinations against coronaviruses going into the future. that, of course, remains to be seen, but that's my bet at the moment, is that this is lik

birx and dr. fauci here in this room giving us an update on the status of the public health on the coronavirus. >> we've heard from dr. fauci the entirety of the day so you have probably heard from him more hours today than you've ever heard from dr. fauci or you will hear from these experts regularly out on television and we'll see next time they're up here in this capacity, but we certainly value their time and we continue to value their time. >> it has been a while since we've seen dr. birx, for example. she's the coordinator of the coronavirus task force. when will we see her and get an update from her and be able to ask questions of her. >> again, i don't know when in this capacity you will see her, but i talk to dr. birx regularly and i talked to her before i came out here because i had questions on funny numbers i heard from elizabeth warren and she corrected me on those numbers because i think it is unfair to the american people to give inflated case numbers and mortality numbers to not ge

birx mentioned o on on.watters' world" last week. >> the media is slicey and dicey how they put sentences together to create headlines. i think the responsibility is the press has is to insure the head lines reflect the signs and data that's in their piece itself. jesse: that's a fair point. but birx was blasted by the view. >> i feel like at this point she is less of a doctor and more like an elderly care nurse to this guy. >> do you think dr. birx is part of the problem? >> i do. i do think she is part of the problem. and it gives me no pleasure to say that. you can't be complicit in a time like this, dr. birx. i think she has become part of the problem. jesse: birx is part of the problem. the view loved dr. birx a few weeks before. they said they only listen to the scientists instead of the president. >> they should believe dr. fauci and the medical experts. >> the woman who led the team during the aids, i think it's birx, he has real professional doctors surrounding him. i would watch them to make sure i

birx: to actually control the pandemic, that is absolutely possible. we need ate it, vaccine or cure.

birx about that. i would encourage our democratic and all americans to make sure we're putting out good information because it does have consequences. >> the justice department is considering bringing federal -- harges against the two men charged with murdering -- does the president think that's appropriate? >> i'll refer you to the of justice statement, which is this, that we're considering the request of the and ney general of georgia have asked that he forward to federal authorities any information that he has about the handling of that investigation. we'll continue to assess all information and we'll take any appropriate action that's facts and the e law and the president, i have heard him say to it me breaks for his heart the family, and we want to see justice in that case as the to us that place. yes? -- were house staff wearing masks aren't the west wing. you're not wearing a mask. what's the reason for that? >> no, it's because i'm distanced from you. hard obably would have a i e hearing from

deborah birx joins us now. good morning, dr. birx. we have all 50 states gradually opening up, but saturday, north carolina reported the highest one-day number of covid cases with 1s,107. 1sh 1,107. they call it a notable and concerning increase. arkansas also reporting a second wave, and minnesota is reaching capacity in its icu. should these states now scale back on relackixing the rules gn these statistics? >> i think it's really important, and thank you for the question, to really understand what's driving those outbreaks, and we have been working with every county and state and local official both through the cdc and through the governors, through the governors' calls to really encourage proactive testing. 4 some of this is increased testing in areas we know are at the highest risks whether it's nursing homes, areas where people work, sleep and play together and really getting proactive testing out there to find cases before there's community spread. i think you know from the arkansas case, a lot of that was associated by a socia

birx. you wrote a whole column about the doctors and their own approval numbers versus this president. should they not be out front on a more regular basis? >> well, i think they should. i think it is what the public wants to hear. we're very lucky at cnn because we just had dr. fauci, for example, on our air last night. but i think what we've seen is kind of an evolution here, which is first it started with mike pence, and the doctors, then they were getting a lot of publicity and donald trump couldn't stay off the stage, then it came to the president, doing those briefings. then his aides advisers and republicans saw his poll numbers going down because the more the public saw him, the less they liked him. so he's kind of now been doing these smaller events with ceos and the rest that kayleigh mcenneny spoke about and kayleigh will do the briefings and then the question is that we still have an answer to your point, brooke, is what happens to the doctors, when will we hear from the scienti

birx spoke. that was useful information.nd the signal to the country of, you know, we're not doing that anymore is really harmful. the way i described this is we are, to use a baseball analogy, we are in the second or third inning of a baseball game. and what it feels like is the manager has decided to leave. and that's a problem. we need our manager to get us through the game. >> thank you both for starting us off tonight. we really appreciate it. >> thank you. >>> when we come back, global pandemic expert and journalist lo lori garrett has been one of the indispensable voices in the coronavirus coverage. she will join us next with the most important question not being asked, and it affects everything. testing, tracing, reopening. lori garrett will give us what we should thinking of next. t the way it works best for you. even the big stuff. you get a delivery experience you can always count on. you get your perfect find at a price to match on your schedule. you get free two day shipping on things that make your home feel li

birx is in a tight spot. she's trying to make the best medical and public health recommendations in a pretty volatile environment right now. and everything is heated right now. and it's going to get worse in the weeks going up to the election. i think, you know, the really important point that i've been stressing is, this epidemic is not spread homogenously across the country. there is tremendous variability not only state by state but town by town. and therefore a situation in a town in the panhandle of texas might look very different from the midwest or new york city or philadelphia. so it's really important that we've detailed knowledge on this epidemic, again, through the testing, through hospital surveillance, contact tracing, syndromic surveillance. and then we can make rational decisions on what to recommend in houses of worship and elsewhere. >> dr. hotez, thank you so much, stick around for us. jeffrey toobin, nice to see you again, we'll get back to you, i'm sure. >>> coming up, a study out today th

birx? >> what a great question. that is a great question.nd very insightful because when you draw in a breath, you can draw in droplets. so when you breathe out, you also breathe out droplets. so we always assume the front of masks are contaminated because you're bringing in things through that cloth and the outside would be contaminated with whatever you were breathing in. so we always ask people to be careful. just like we ask them when they take off gloves to take off gloves in a very specific way so they don't contaminate their hands. >> dr. birx, we appreciate not only you being with us tonight, but all your efforts on behalf of everybody. >> thank you. >> that's very much appreciated. >> thank you, and thank you for both of your work in keeping the public informed. >> wish you the best and godspeed. >>> there's a lot more ahead on this cnn global town hall. we'll talk with laurie garrett, author of "the coming plague" plus vice president al gore will join us to talk about leadership in time of crisis. and spike lee one of the most famo

here's how deborah birx referred to the drug and the study. she joins a sea of health officials in this statement. >> i think the fda has been very clear on their website about their concerns about hydroxychloroquine, particularly when it's combined with another drug. there's still control studies going on for pre-exposure p prophyl prophylaxis. i hope everybody loose at those co-morbidities. >> kind of striking that balance, these studies are still going on. however, the fda had made clear that there are some serious concerns with taking this drug. of course, again, this comes after that study came out shoipg that people who took the drug had a higher risk of death. >> kristen holmes, appreciate it so much as always. >>> dr. birx also says that everyone should feel comfortable leaving their homes but take precautions this memorial day weekend. >> reporter: sun, fun and coronavirus. how safe are we as summer past times beacon? even the great outdoors epidemiologists warn nothing is without risk. >> everything we do has risk attached to it. >>

birx say maybe on paper there could be some sort of vaccine by january? >> well, you went back 10 or 15 years ago and looked at vaccine development, it would take far longer than the timetable we are talking about today. that's a credit to science and scientists and global collaborati collaboration. the number that we are hearing is 12 to 18 months. dr. birx and fauci and other government scientists have said and worked really hard onto move that timeline up in any way and they are hopeful if everything goes right by the beginning of next year that we'll have something. that's anmes is optimal scenari it will come at an expense. when you take steps after steps in sequential form. things will be in parallel. we'll have to mass produce the vaccine candidates even before we know for sure whether they were. it will ensure if it does work that we got the news ready and ready to deploy. this is a scenario that we should hope for but we should not plan on. we should not assume by january everything is going to be fine. we got to ensure that we are hoping for th

birx is, is it safe?> "the washington post" brings us the facts here, reminding us, quote, commanding places of worship across the country to open is not something trump can do. when to open public venues of all types is up to the governor of each individual state. however, just last month trump's attorney general sent up a flare about all this, signaling his concerns about limits state officials had put on worship services and other activities in order to contain the virus. >> we have to be very careful to make sure this is -- you know, that the draconian measures that are being adopted are fully justified. we've seen situations even up till now where some jurisdictions have imposed special burdens on religion. we jawboned at the local governments at that point saying they really couldn't do that. whatever they were doing to churches, they had to do to everybody. >> indeed tonight our own network is reporting the justice department is backing a lawsuit challenging stay-at home restrictions in illinois an

deborah birx, mike dewine, nancy pelosi, joe biden, and mark esper. president trump's statement on recent chinese actions dealing with hong kong. the minnesota governor on the violence in minneapolis, st. paul after the death of an african-american man being arrested by police. morning, beginning at 11:00 eastern, c-span has live coverage of the rescheduled launch of the spacex crew dragon. liftoff is scheduled for 3:22 p.m. eastern as nasa astronauts launched to the international space station. watch live on c-span, online at c-span.org, or listen on the free c-span radio app. on monday, three democrats vying for the party nomination to take on senate majority leader mitch mcconnell join a special edition of kentucky educational televisions kentucky tonight program. the candidates will discuss their campaign platforms and why they are running. what coverage on c-span. >> white house coronavirus response court nader dr. deborah birx held a graduating class at her alma mater to stay true to their moral values. she stressed the need to be data-driven an

birx's time and dr. fauci's time when they had no problem having dr. birx or dr.ci sit there for sometimes more than an hour as the president mused about whatever came into his mind and, you know, tried to grab the spotlight of the very coronavirus task force. they had no problem with the doctors, the scientists sitting waiting for the president to finish so they could present factual information to the american people. the whistle-blower complaint from rick bright, the president said he didn't know the guy. how damning is it for the white house? again, these are allegations that haven't been proven. >> reporter: no, they're only allegations. we should note that h.h.s. has been pretty buttoned up about this because they know it is leading to an investigation that he has filed a request for tonight. and we should note we're going to hear from him in person next thursday according to his attorneys because they say he's going to be testifying on capitol hill. so he may go into these allegations more. but also looking at this, initially we know in a statement he said

deborah birx says a vaccine by january looks possible on paper. what does ma mean? >> there are so many steps to getting a vaccine to be widely available to the public, we have to go through the necessary safety testing. the -- i mean, there are several stages. it has to go through animal studies, it has to go through preclinical studies, safety testing, there have so many different stages that it needs to go through for a vaccine to be determined to be safe and effective in a population before it can be available and so i think we're in the early stages. we're seeing positive signs, data that's coming out that suggests that there are several vaccine candidates that could be useful. it's too early to say we're going to have a vaccine by x date. i mean, it takes time to make something happen. i think everybody is getting creative. we saw it with ebola. we'll see it here. we have to be effective and safe before it can be put into population. >> dr. birx reiterated that the white house said 100,000 to 240,000 people could die even with full mitigation measures in place

birx has said, it is an example. there are areas of the country where we have had to pay much more attention, where the outbreak has been greater. the greater new york city area, new orleans, chicago. but, iowa, with governor reynolds's leadership has been a success story. the mitigation efforts, social distancing efforts, now rolling out testing. iowa has stayed in front of this effort and represent some of the best state response. pres. trump: incredible, right? having someone from iowa on the task force. >> an executive order last week empowered our governors. it has given comfort to the company as well as the employees over the gold standard of cdc, worker protection, along with the testing, which has been a tremendous help. we are turning the corner on that. the plants are reopening. we may have still a few closed. they are opening this week and i think we have turned the corner based on that commonality of uniform standards. gov. reynolds: absolutely. i was on the call with several of our managers yesterday and

today deborah birx said we were getting up to test a million, 2 million a week. experts say we should be doing 900,000 a day. that's a big difference. >> to say nothing of conflating of testing, diagnostic testing, antibody testing that says if you were previously sick that the cdc is trying to correct. it is confusing for people. a white house official recently said the reason he doesn't wear a mask, he doesn't want to appear that he is scared, he wants to look like he's quote, got this. thank you both for your time this friday afternoon. after this break, here we are, the unofficial start of summer. memorial day weekend. absent the global pandemic, millions of people would be traveling even as we speak. so what are the beaches like? we're going to get an update along the jersey shore. >>> and who will joe biden choose? the former vice president going through the process now, picking his own vp selection. we've got some names. that's coming up. we've got somes that's coming up if you have a garden you know, weeds are low down little scoundrels. draw the line wit

birx and that we continue to take this outbreak seriously. it is not going to go away until we have a vaccine. we have to be making decisions and going out to be thinking about how we move forward. having the white house completely engaged incarnating is going to be really important. i agree that the task force should continue. >> neil: one thing we hear very quickly before the white house press conferences that there is a staggered way you get people back, young people first, eager to go back. those vulnerable people that are older americans, those with some health issues, long and hard related issues, diabetes, et cetera. do you agree that group should be the last to come back? >> definitely. we know that this virus doesn't attack people equally, younger people tend to on average do better and at the vulnerable populations, after lead, conditions are overrepresented when you look at hospitalizations and deaths. those individuals even when the economy is going on when social distancing estate home orders are relaxed i really going to have to

deborah birx there today.now, katy tur, i thought what was interesting there was, you know, she's very diplomatic -- the difference is she softens it that pleases the president more than than how fauci does it. so, for instance, she made it clear we're not doing enough testing particularly in senior centers. but she couched it in such a way to say i'm just hopeful we're going to get it done and governors are doing it right are doing that. it's just -- it was just -- it is always interesting to watch how she tries to walk those lines. you can tell there is some sensitivity there tonally how she expresses things when there is an audience of one keeping track. >> same thing about churches saying that churches, she knows if you don't feel well won't go to a church or churches should look at the outbreak levels in their community and then decide for themselves. she's walking a tight rope. this is a president who has made it very clear that he doesn't like to be criticized. he doesn't like to be contradicted. and he

birx through the media as opposed to putting dr. birx and dr. pop on the podium where the media can ask questions. vonnie: explained to us this interesting dynamic. you have the spokesperson talking about reopening, and miami and atlanta saying there was an inverse relationship with the caseload. explain the movement between dr. birx and the spokeswoman? kaylee, the press secretary said on fox and afterwards, she said dr. birx told me yesterday that in atlanta and miami-dade we are seeing caseloads fall as reopening's increase the freedom people have. she called them an inverse correlation so far, and they hope that continued. it is technically correct, but she is coming right up to the line of suggesting that will be the case nationally, her and the president are cheerleading on this reopening at a time when the u.s. still has more than 10,000 new cases every day. they lead the world and confirmed cases and confirmed deaths. ofls are showing a lot americans are uncomfortable with reopening, a lot of consumers are uncomfortable. upo not think th

birx. so, now, the governors, mayors, although dr. redfield didn't really show up much of those briefings. wasn't really welcome, it seems, to present as much back then. mayors, school superintendents, and the public at large are instead hearing primarily from a man taking the drug his own fda warned against taking. the man who suggested doing experiments injecting fellow citizens with disinfectant. now, if it counts for anything, the cdc's long-awaited reopening guidelines, they have come out with very little fanfare. they were posted at the very latest last night but no one knew to look for them until the cdc sent e-mail about it this morning. and of course this is after all 50 states have reopened, in one form or another. just to be clear, a good number of these states do not meet the cdc's guidelines of two weeks of declining cases for reopening at all. those were the white house guidelines as well. according to data from johns hopkins university, 18 states, new cases are twending upward. 15 states, the cases are steady. and, in 1

deborah birx did not. the cdc director dr. robert redfield, they did not either or he did not either. according to senior administration official, informal conversations have been taking place about, quote, what to do about dr. redfield. another source telling cnn he's worried he might have a target on his back and senior officials tell us the director's fear is not unfounded. late today the president denied it. >> do you think robert redfield is doing a good job? >> yeah, i do, i do. it's fake news, caitlan, fake news, therefore you can report it on cnn. it's perfect for cnn. >> the president has, of course, said similar things about people he then goes on to fire, but regardless whether d dr. redfield's job is safe or not, neither he nor his public health experts are front and center at such a significant moment. the last coronavirus task force briefing was on the 27th of april. that's 23 days ago. remember those briefings before the president hijacked them? they actually had a lot of good scientific value, scientific inform

birx and dr.ci here in this room giving us an update on the status of the public health regarding coronavirus? >> we heard from dr. fauci the entirety of the day. we had a hearing as you noted, you've probably heard from him more hours today than you ever heard from dr. fauci. to hear from these experts regularly out on television and we will see the next time they are here, but we certainly value their time and we continue to value their time. >> it's been a while since we've seen dr. birx. she has a coordinator of the coronavirus task force. when can we see her and be able to get an update from her and be able to ask questions of her? >> again, i don't know when in this capacity you will see her but i talked to dr. birx regularly. i talked to her just before i came out here because i had some questions about some funny numbers correcting those numbe numbers. it's the same americans making a decision to not get a mammogram, do not have cancer screenings they need so i just like to reveal some inf

deborah birx is giving no guarantees. we'll just have to live with this uncertainty.le we'll have a vaccine in january? sure, it's possible. is it possible we'll also be working towards that goal? that is also possible. >> elizabeth cohen, thank you very much. let's bring in james phillips. he is a physician and physician professor at the university of washington hospital. doctor, it's great to have you. >> good morning. >> a lot of folks are riding on a vaccine because folks want to go back to normal but they want to do so safely. it surprised me somewhat when i spoke to the head of the harvard public health institute in the last hour that, listen, this would actually be the first workable vaccine for a coronavirus. explain what a breakthrough that would be. >> yeah, he's right. so, you know, when sars and mers, two of the previous coronaviruses outside the typical flu viruses, emerged, the vaccine was started but it never went into production. so we never had a vaccine that made it to any widespread use. its efficacy is somewhat in doubt. i think the fastest vaccine

birx at several events this week. dr. birx and dr. fauci out on the airwaves. they are really incredible people and they have done a great service to the country. we allow the news of the day to guide us in what the american people want to hear. right now we are in a reopening seen withh we have , small business owners, employees, the great heroes that have emerged from this pandemic and have done a lot of the hard work. every day we approach this as how can we disseminate information? there is a need for information that is why i am here, , supplementing the efforts of this president to get the message out. i would also note, he is the most accessible president in history. he took questions twice yesterday and twice the day before. you hear from him quite often as well as the medical experts. reporter: is a task force still meeting? what is the role of the coronavirus task force? people are still dying. what role does a task force have versus economic advisory? ms. mcenany: the task force meets regularly. i go to the meetings. dr. birx is meticulously reviewin

they said innumeral hours were spent on guidelines by deborah birx. according to testimony, most of the states reopening have not met the criteria you set out. >> so thank you. there are two questions there. one, we are in deep partnership with cdc, both for the white house guidelines that were put out on how to open up america again but also the details behind the guidelines. we are working with the cdc with a whole series of products from how to improve contact tracing and how to improve surveillance and detailed guidelines about child care and camp. no one has stopped those guidelines. we are still in editing. i just got my edits back from the cdc late yesterday. i am working on them as soon as i get off this discussion. as you know they put up guidelines quite often. i really want to appreciate how proactive they have been in working with the white house and ensuring that the best science are put for the both within the white house guidelines -- >> is that what guides the edits, science? because it seems like some of the comments it is also politi

birx, to his press secretary. dr. birx gave a nuanced version, saying if people do feel the need given the number of covid cases, they should stay closed for another week and said the president was speaking hypothetically but doesn't think this will come to that. but some don't want churches reopened if they're still experiencing outbreaks. so we should be clear the president doesn't have the authority to overrule the governors when it comes to that, despite that assertion. what is new is they are putting out guidance deeming this essential because so far there were questions about the guidance and what it would be for placed of worship because they put out strict proposals, they've been talking about that from the cdc and the white house pushed back deeming them much too details. >> and elizabeth, the president, i think it is notable, the guidance is coming out now but the president wants houses of worship to be opened up this weekend. so, one, there is a question could houses of worship be ready in time when you cou

birx's outing today? >> well, the -- which part are you talking about?he church attendance and all of that. >> yeah, any of it. >> yeah. so the whole thing was very unusual, and i think both birx and fauci seem to be to be slipping a little in terms of their independence from the president and what the president's trying to say. look, the idea about going back to church, brian, first of all is sort of preposterous if the president is attempting to be the spokesperson for that or somehow the person able to command all churches to be opened. but the fact of the matter is until we have testing that's able to be done rapidly, reliab reliably, on-sooitrt, we're goig to have a problem of people continuing to go to large gatherings and spreading the disease. i could imagine you could have very significant physical and social distancing and, you know, everybody wearing masks, et cetera, et cetera. but it's still a high-risk operation at this point when we still do not have control over the spread of this virus. so it's a risky thing to say. i think there's -- yo

alma deborah birx to her mater,ing howton college in new york. mark dewine to his alma mater, oxford university. speaker of the house nancy he pelosi to smith college in massachusetts. democratic candidate joe biden delivering remarks to columbia graduates. and secretary of defense markest per to the naval academy in annapolis. watch class of 2020 commencement speeches 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, online at c span.org or listen on the free c-span radio app. >> president trump held a meeting today on this year's expected hurricane season. next, experts on the year's storms and fema's preparations. pres. trump: thank you very much. we have a great briefing taking place from officials and our vice president who has done such a terrific job, mike pence. if we might, i think we'll start maybe with pete and you can tell us where we are, where we're going, what kind of season we're going to have with respect to hurricanes. >> yes, sir. he doctor will do the full thing. >> the -- we're expecting a above average year in atlantic ocean. named storms, 13 to

birx and really appreciate her leadership.hat i would submit to you, i'm not going to put words in their mouth, but the reality is, the models don't work the same for every state and the gating criteria don't work in a state like ours where if you look, we never had a peak, we never were above 300 cases on any one day with one exception and that was on friday and that was a data dump. leland: dr. birx was asked that question on fox news sunday. if different states were different as related to the guidelines. here was her answer. >> i think federal guidelines are pretty firm policy of what we think is important from a public health standpoint. leland: doesn't sound like the different states are different and mississippi exhibit you haven't a big peak you should go ahead and open everything up. >> well, what the guidelines also say is that it gives you the ability to not only open up state by state, it gives you the ability to open up county by county. i'll give you an example in mississippi. in scott county, over the last two w