david gura, stay with me. we'll touch base with you throughout the hour. >>> we cross over to phoenix, arizona. vaughn hilliard joins us. states have not asked for any help from the federal government. where does the request for more medical workers in arizona stand at this hour? >> reporter: it's a very good question. we're here at the papaville park military reservation where the arizona national guard is based. we'll talk in a little bit with major maguire, who heads as well as the national guard, the arizona department of emergency management, because serious questions. the vice president announced yesterday that they were working and efforting to bring in 500 medical professionals, because there are hospital comments from yuma and mare coka ko maricopa o not have the staffing capabilities to service the icu in the facilities. those questions on hand we need to get answered. there's also the announcement that came yesterday that there are going to be two field hospitals that are ready to be propped up by t

joining me now from houston is david gura. you're at a testing center there. is everybody who wants to test able to get one? >> yeah, steph, i'm not going to equivocate. i'm a straight shooter. the answer to that question is no. there is the capacity to test 750 people per today. county wide they can test just over 2,000 people. we're talking about the third largest county in this country. there are 4.7 million people who live here. when you look at the state of texas, harris is now leading in terms of the number of confirmed cases, 31,000 plus confirmed cases of covid-19. to get into this site, you have to fill out a questionnaire online. basically you, yourself, has to be in contact with somebody who has been. there's more testing available a's we've seen these numbers rise, stephanie, demand has increased as well. one more thing to say about this site in particular, it's run by the county in concert with the federal government. fema helps fund it, provide supplies for it. couple of months ago, the administration threatened to pull that funding. backlash fro

. >> all right, want to go straight to my colleague david gura in houston this morning.y the governor, lots of people asking why now? why was this not done sooner? >> reporter: yeah, it is clear he was looking at the data, ayman, awe a as we all are, se numbers climb. we have gotten our hands on a letter that the mayor of houston, sylvester turner, sent to the governor on june 30th, asking for more support here in the city of houston, in harris county. and one of the things he asked for in that letter is for there to be a state wide mask mandate. as you said, this goes into effect today at noon, local time. and this is what happened. if you were caught not wearing a mask, local authorities could give you a warning, if you didn't wear a mask after that, if you got a second notice from a law enforcement official, $250 fine and you could get that over and over and over again. we'll see if it works. it is going to take a couple of weeks to figure this out, of course, because once everybody adopts this and starts doing this, it is going to take a while to see what kind of eff

david gura in houston for us. cases there also reaching new records in texas, where we have seen some testing sites essentially being overwhelmed. people waiting for hours in their cars. you're at a testing site there in houston. give us a quick situational report on the ground. >> reporter: yeah, i'm in harris county, so houston is a part of that. this a county-run testing facility outside a football stadium northwest of the city of houston. and you're right, they opened this up early because it gets hot here. they want people to get through before it gets really hot in the middle of the day. as of 7:00 a.m., cars were lining up. this site can accommodate 750 tests a day. there is another site like this across the county. it can do about 750. all told, this county has the capacity to test just about 2,000 people every day. a large number, i guess, at face, when you look at the population of the county, 4.7 million people, it is really quite small. and people here are beginning to wrestle with the seriousness of w

help us answer that, standing outside of one of the hardest hit hospitals there, our friend, nbc's david gura. david, we talked to dr. hotez at the top of this hour, and he's been one of these steady, sage voices of calm for the last 3 1/2 months. and what he's seeing in texas and around the country has him more alarmed than i've seen him, and he's from texas. so take me inside what's going on in texas. >> reporter: he plays a critical role here, nicolle. i'm glad you spoke with him because as i talk to officials here, they talk about how he's on these conference calls that local officials is having. he's bringing that voice of reason. he's focusing on the data and it's sobering but it's so important here. i'm front of lyndon b. johnson hospital. part of the safety net system here. i spoke with the ceo yesterday and he said this hospital behind me is already at capacity. they've been tents that they can use as triage. they can find out in a patient might have symptoms for covid-19, try to get them a bed here, but if not, move them to the texas medical center proper where i was yesterday. offi

with me now from tulsa, oklahoma, is msnbc correspondent david gura. david, you join some people waiting in line for those benefits. what did you learn? >> reporter: this is a fascinating experiment that takes place in the building that's next to me. we think of applying for unemployment benefits at this kind of solitary thing. you do it by phone, perhaps you fill out a form online. what we have discovered in oklahoma is how difficult it's been for so many people in the state. there's an estimated 30,000 oklahomans who have not received their benefits because their applications are held up. they have started this program at least sites across the state. you can show up, get a ticket, come back later and meet with somebody face-to-face. they're pitching this as you have somebody there who can answer your questions and help you fill out the forms and get the benefits. truth be told, these have been difficult weeks for folks here in oklahoma. new numbers out from the labor department today. we have seen more than a million jobs lost across this country fo

help us answer that, standing outside of one of the hardest hit hospitals there, our friend, nbc's david gura. david, we talked to dr. hotez at the top of this hour, and he's been one of these steady, sage voices of calm for the last 3 1/2 months. and what he's seeing in texas and around the country has him more alarmed than i've seen him, and he's from texas. so take me inside what's going on in texas. >> reporter: he plays a critical role here, nicolle. i'm glad you spoke with him because as i talk to officials here, they talk about how he's on these conference calls that local officials is having. he's bringing that voice of reason. he's focusing on the data and it's sobering but it's so important here. i'm front of lindyndon b. johns hospital. i spoke with the ceo yesterday and he said this hospital behind me is already at capacity. they've been tents that they can use as triage. they can find out in a patient might have symptoms for covid-19, try to get them a bed here, but if not, move them to the texas medical center proper where i was yesterday. officials here are really looking at th

david gura is in tulsa, oklahoma, where new unemployment claims are surging at levels the system can't keep up with. kasie, let me begin with you. secretary mnuchin meeting with mcconnell right now reportedly on the hill. what do we know about that and what do we know about the republicans' plan for this new bill? >> reporter: a little update for you just literally in the last few seconds. mitch mcconnell leading that meeting with steve mnuchin the treasury secretary to head down to the senate floor where we'll keep an eye for updates he might offer on where things stand here. we know that republicans have reached a deal with the white house in principle on the top line numbers for how much they want to spend and how they want to lay that out, and it doesn't include this payroll tax cut that the president has been pushing, but that has really caused a large degree of disarray among republicans here in the senate. so they are going to include billions more for testing, although nowhere near the $75 billion the democrats included in their heroes act for that. we also know it will be $105

we start then with our reporters in two of those coronavirus hotspots, msnbc's david gura is at lyndon b. johnson hospital in houston, texas, and nbc's erin mclaughlin is in santa monica beach in california. vid, t texas governor's mask mandate is a big turnaround for greg abbott. what are you seeing in houston as those cases are spiking? >> reporter: andrea, you called this a major reversal and that is absolutely right. the governor for so many weeks has resisted calling for this kind of mandate. yesterday he did late in the afternoon. i think it's for two reasons. one is simply the data. as he looked to what's happening here in houston, in harris county, and across the state, the kind of spikes they're seeing, it has to be alarming to the executive of the state. the other is the pressure he's under from local officials. we got our hands on a letter that the mayor of houston wrote to the governor just a couple of days ago. in that letter, andrea, he said that he needs more ppe, he needs more support. he called for a mask mandate, he wanted to see one put in place. i sat down with the

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that is where we find msnbc's david gura live outside the houston medical center. david, good talk to you again. obviously, staggering numbers there. houston attempting to try to deal with this ballooning number of cases. do they have enough testing, you think, and resources to meet the need of those being hospitalized? >> let me talk about testing first if i could, ayman. three ways to get tested in this community. there's a city of houston testing apparatus. sites around the city you can go online to to try to get an appointment at. there's often a long line to get through there. they test about 500 people daily at some of those sites. the county has its own testing program. yesterday i was outside of houston northwest of here and they test about 750 people per day. there's a private system as well. you can go to certain pharmacies, try to get tested there. but that's a small number when you look at the size of the population in harris county. more than 4 million people live here. so they are underresourced when it comes to testing and more demand for testing than

david gura joins me now from one of the testing sites. he's in houston. this is a site that was set up at a high school football stadium, as i understand it, david. what are you seeing there, what are you hearing from folks on the ground in houston. >> we're northwest of the city of houston and this is a facility that can accommodate about 750 tests a day. this is run by the harris county health department in concert with the federal government and fema. they have the capacity to do about 2,000 tests a day and there are four other smaller sites that they can move and adjust depending on where there's a need, where folks are having difficulty getting testing. there's that, about 2,000 tests a day. the city does its own testing operation and privately run testing sites as well. the problem here is similar to what there is in arizona, the capacity isn't there for everyone to get tested yet. this place opened up at 7:00 a.m. there was a line of cars waiting to get in and to be tested here you have to exhibit symptoms yourself or know somebody who has exhibited

. >> joining me now is msnbc correspondent david gura and neera is back can us as well. s consistently the president still gets high marks on the economy despite the fact americans are feeling so much pain in their lives. as we head toward the fall, is there any indication that real life pain is going to get any better with a medical crisis continuing? if not, is that enough to overcome the image of donald trump the businessman they think is the right guy to handle the economy? >> yeah. you were just talking with senator kaine about the cliff we face in a couple of days and the senator is right. there's precious little time to figure out hispanic to do to stave off something that could be pretty bad. a lot of people getting by because of the benefits through the c.a.r.e.s. act stand not to be able to do that going forward. we could see more people not paying rent and the economy cratering. i look as the president as somebody who job owned the market like no other and abstract exuberance. most americans aren't investing in the stock market but the stock market goes up. the

my colleague david gura is in houston. david, were the hospitals ready for this surge? it's not a surprise. >> it's not a surprise. i was talking with the mayor yesterday and he's been closely watching what happened in new york and seattle, stephanie. looking at that playbook to see how it might play out here. they were not surprised. i've talked to a number of hospital executives who have a plan for how this is going to go forward. i'm in the heart of the texas medical community. and yesterday on their data dashboard, it showed that on a normal day they've got 1330 icu beds. they had 1350 icu patients yesterday. so they've begun to have to expand their footprint to find new places to put those intensive care unit patients. now they say they have a lot of space here. they have plans through which they can find new spaces for them. even using the children's hospital for adult patients. we're in early days. i talked to the mayor yesterday. there was a sense of the gravity of this. when this begins to happen when you see spikes in surges like communities like new york and

david gura is at one of those events and garrett haake is on capitol hill. hat is going on there? what are people telling you? >> this is an extraordinary scene. i came here to see it myself. people here are desperate and they're frustrated. this has gone on for a very long time. you laid out the top line numbers. we have seen this country lose more than a million jobs for 18 weeks in a row now. and that's just extraordinary. and as i've talked to people here, it's remarkable how many of them have received no benefits or haven't applied for those benefits. that's why they've come here to do that. amidst all that desperation and frustration, there are pockets of optimism. i spoke with a guy named joe sermon who works in the oil industry. that's another compounding factor. this is a health crisis and economic crisis born of that. in this state, oil and gas is a huge business. i asked him, what is his day like? how is he getting through this? here's what he said. >> a lot of mental health. just working on my mental health to stay positive. wishing the oil field

nbc's cal perry is in paducah, kentucky and david gura is in tulsa, oklahoma, at a courthouse holding eviction hearings. good to see both of you guys. cal, there you are, mitch mcconnell's home state. paducah, as i understand it, has one of the higher infection rates in that state. what are folks saying they need from congress in this next round of relief? >> reporter: they say that first round of relief was very helpful, very necessary, required and they want the second round to come sooner rather than later. they are worried about a gap. look, this is a laird problem from the schools to the individual to the small businesses to, as you said, these small cities. this is a town of 25,000 people in western kentucky, so difficult to balance the budget when so much of your revenue disappears. we had an opportunity to speak to the mayor who talked about the need for long-term planning coming out of this crisis. >> i would like as a city government to be able to think about what's going to happen after covid. i would like to prepare for some of the big projects we need here to stimulate ou

msnbc's david gura is an in a big hotspot, houston medical center. dasha burns is in florida. david, to you first, hospital beds are running out and they're calling for help with personnel. what is the governor's plan and what is the state doing to contain the virus? >> reporter: andrea, i'm at the texas medical center, the largest medical facility in the world. on a given day it has the capacity to treat 330 icu patients. there are now 1,150 icu patients on campus. the administration will tell you not all those patients are here for covid-19 symptoms, just about 500 of them are, and they have the capacity to move things around, put some of those patients in different wards so she can treat more patients here. but it is serious, and people appreciate the alarm here. health officials are worried about what's going to happen here over the coming days and weeks. i spoke with the incident commander at methodist hospital behind me, she's looking at the data and wondering when they'll have to erect the treatment tents that were built in new york city. lieutenant governor patrick here

. >> david gura is there in texas. they spoke to the president a number of weeks ago, thought they were going to beat this thing. now the cases only continue to grow. joining us is the mayor of houston, sylvester turner. we appreciate you taking the time to talk to us before this holiday weekend. our correspondent on the ground is reporting that more than one in four covid-19 tests in houston are coming back positive. how fast does this situation evolving in use thouston, one o biggest metropolitan areas in the country, and are your people responding to the threat appropriately? >> let me say it is evolving very quickly. let's put it this way, the end of april, early may, the positivity rate was about 5%. then a month ago, it was about 13%, and now, for example, you're recording about 20%. so more people are getting infected, more people showing up at the hospital, more people in icu beds. i appreciate what the governor did yesterday. that was a good step in the right direction, requiring masks across the board, whethe

david gura is in houston standing by. this is a really important step by the governor but is it too late? what's happening in the hospitals? >> stephanie, this is something that local officials have been begging the governor to do for a long while, for many days now. that includes the mayor of houft orngs sylvester turner. he wrote a letter to the governor asking him to do this. days have passed and this crisis has worsened. we're not going to know how effective this mandatory mask order is for a number of weeks because it takes awhile for this virus to attack the system and become detectable in tests. and testing capacity here is woefully inadequate. i'm standing outside one of the safety net hospitals outside of houston. northeast houston. the lyndon b. johnson hospital, part of the harris health system. it's a place that's already reached bed capacity for intensive care unit beds. this is the story across houston now. concern about capacity within the hospital system. and i had a chance to sit down with the head of the

the joining me now from tulsa, oklahoma is nbc news correspondent david gura. what can you tell us?have continued in this community for those properties not covered by the c.a.r.e.s. act. we are in new terrain here. the protections you just mentioned a moment ago, they're in the c.a.r.e.s. act, they apply to units where tenants are receiving subsidies like section 8, where people have federal mortgages. in this community in particular it's worrisome. there are no local protections here in tulsa, there are no state protections in oklahoma. all they have are the federal protections which are scheduled to expire tomorrow. there's real concern here as 32,222 units in this community are protected by the c.a.r.e.s. act at this point in time. so there's potential for thousands of people to be out of their homes by august. that can expire tomorrow. people could be evicted as soon as august 24th. just about a month from now. i sat down with eric howlett, he is with legal aid of oklahoma, and i asked who is fearing right now that they could lose their homes. >> it is a wide spectrum of people

david gura, thank you very much.overnor ron desantis is holding a news conference in daytona beach this hour. he has voiced skepticism over the lockdowns and announced his state is, quote, not going back after reopening. but the situation is not improving in florida. much like texas. it reported an additional 6500 new cases today. joining me now from ft. lauderdale, reporter for our nbc affilia affiliate, wtvj, sasha jones. the governor said he's not going back to lockdowns. how much worse are things is he willing to tolerate? how much worse can it before the governor might consider rethinking a statement like that? >> you know, it's really hard to say. the latest action from the governor has been the extension of a state-wide moratorium on foreclosures. he waited hours before it was set to expire, and then extended it until august 1st. it was relief for the many people who are not able to pay their bills because they're still not back to work because of the state of coronavirus right now here in florida. now, as you