let's go to the white house and talk with nbc's josh lederman. josh, there's been some reaction. have we heard directly from donald trump yet? >> reporter: not directly, alex. a chorus of reaction, praise, has been coming in for every living u.s. president now with the exception of president trump. that's fine as some democrats are concerned. they're raising concerns that the president could do more harm than good if he issues comments that are not seen as appropriate about the death of john lewis. we heard from congresswoman karen bast, chairwoman of the black caucus. while the nation mourns the passing of a national hero, please, president trump, say nothing. please don't comment on the life of congressman lewis. one trump administration official we are hearing from today, alex, is vice president mike pence, recalling john lewis as a friend and remembering paying a visit with john lewis to that notorious bridge on the 45th anniversary of bloody sunday in selma. pence going on to say john lewis will be remembered as a giant of the civil rights movements who selflessness and conv

josh lederman for us this morning at the white house. mar m . >>> meanwhile, president trump's insistence that covid-19 will disappear, the reality of the situation is much more severe than that. the united states has recorded more than 3 million cases of coronavirus in nearly 135,000 deaths. look at the seven-day average there it the had it has been moving up. as i mentioned the top of the country, the country -- at the top of the hour, the country continues to set new case records almost daily. a new one yesterday topping more than 70,000 new covid-19 cases. on average, cases are growing by at least 5% in at least 36 states. but even worse, hospitalizations and deaths are steadily and significantly rising once again hitting record numbers in many areas. and the intensive care units in several states, notably in florida and texas are increasingly overloaded. in phoenix, arizona, the mortgage is rapidly reaching capacity and officials have called in refrigerated trailers in which to store bodies. it's gotten to the point that dr. anthony

thank you very much, josh lederman. progressive programming at sirius xm and betsy woodrough, msnbc contributor. betsy, you first, here. give me your sense based on your reporting about the president's mental i mentality, surrounding his commuting of roger stone's sentence. is any part of it to stop him from potentially spilling the beans? >> this is very much of a piece with the president's thinking about roger stone's case, going all the way back to the earliest days of special counsel robert mueller's russia investigation. the president has always believed this is a hoax, that the deep state was conspiring against him and that the bulk of the allegations regarding a very real interference that the kremlin sponsored into the 2016 u.s. election campaign were fabricated, that it was a conspiracy launched against him. and trump sees roger stone as a victim of that conspiracy, rather than as a person who, as a jury convicted him of having done, lied to investigators and tampered with a witness that those investigators wan

for that, let's go to josh lederman, joining us from the white house. what are you hearing on this front? and what about the president? >> the president has not spoken out personally about this yet, alex. we did hear from the president through a written proclamation that the white house released in the last few minutes, ordering flags here at the white house, as well as at u.s. embassies and military bases around the world to be lowered to half-staff. the flag here at the white house was lowered to have staff around 9:30 a.m. and around the same time at the u.s. capital just down pennsylvania avenue at the order of house speaker nancy pelosi. those flags, according to this proclamati proclamation, will be lowered for the remainder of today. we're also hearing from the president's press secretary, kayleigh mceneny, saying that lewis was an icon of the civil rights movement and he leaves an enduring legacy that will never be forgotten. mceneny going on to say we hold his family in our prayers as we remember john lewis' incredible contributions to our coun

that's josh lederman from the white house. >>> many states that stepped up reopening plans are stepping back as coronavirus cases rise faster and faster. by our count, the country had the largest single day increase yet, more than 70,000 newly confirmed covid-19 cases. coronavirus related hospitalizations are at the highest level since may, up at least 5% in at least half of the country. let's focus on the nation's largest hot spots, namely texas, california, and florida. all three states are seeing death tolls continue to rise at rates that have health care officials worried. first, we go to nbc's priscilla thompson at the houston fire department station 17, east of downtown. and priscilla, more than 260 firefighters are off, either sick with coronavirus or quarantining. that's about 7% of the city's firefighters. how is the department handling that? >> reporter: joshua, as the fire chief put it to me, there's no easy shift right now. you know, they're working with a fraction of their staff at a time they're fielding more calls for service than ever before, around 1100 calls per day. s

josh lederman, good morning to you. this decision, although expected by some, it was still shocking to a lot of white house aides, right? >> reporter: that's right, alex. we're learning this hour from sources close to the administration, according to nbc's carol lee and pete williams that attorney general bill barr actually tried to convince the president not to offer this clemency to roger stone. the attorney general, in recent days, had called the prosecution of roger stone righteous and said that the sentence that roger stone had been given by the judge was in barr's view fair. the attorney general apparently unsuccessful in convincing the president not to go ahead and offer this commutation to his long-time friend, roger stone. but we know there's also opposition from other aides within the white house who were concerned about the political ramifications of the president offering this clemency, worried that there would be blowback from people who thought the president was intervening in the impartial, fair justice s