Died. Add to that hospitalizations are growing in nearly two dozen states, including places like arizona and nevada. But were also seeing a surge in states that have largely stayed under the radar until now. Cases in idaho and Washington State hit singleday highs. And some of the biggest increases week to week are happening in West Virginia, tennessee and montana. All of this is forcing some areas to rethink their plans to reopen. The governor of california is asking six more counties to close indoor businesses, including in san diego which means nearly half the state is closed up once again. The mayor of miamidade is reclosing restaurants and gyms starting tomorrow. And the governor of West Virginia says masks will now have to be worn inside buildings, although hes asking residents to comply voluntarily. I want to start with Garrett Haake who is in el paso, back in texas this week after spending all of april there. Hes going to be with me throughout the hour. Good to see you, garrett. I know el paso just extended their emergency declaration. Theyre worried about a surge in hospital patients. Are they getting in front of it . What are you seeing on the ground there . Yeah, good morning. Im at University Medical center in el paso. Its the only Level One Trauma Center in about a 300mile radius. Here in el paso, they are nervously looking east toward houston and dallas. They think theyre on about an eight to tenday lag behind the enormous surges that have been seen in those larger texas cities. But nevertheless, more patients continue to come into this hospital day after day, night after night. And in many cases they are younger. In some cases, they are entire families. And the hospital is building out its surge capacity. You can see the tents behind me to set up to keep Covid Patients separate from their regular patients here. El paso extended their emergency order for another month. But schools here are set to reopen within the next month. So theres a lot of complicating factors here in this city as theyre trying to balance this surge in new and coming cases. And trying to find some kind of balance where normal where they can continue living here. Well talk about that more throughout the course of the hour. Were going to come back to you very shortly, garrett. Lets go to nbcs Kerry Sanders in kissimmee, florida. So the governor there says he thinks the rate of people testing positive has stabilized but its an almost 15 . Is 15 to be seen as good news . Tell me how things look where you are, kerry. Well, the governor is trying to spin it as good news because what he sees is at the same time, a lowering in the age of the average person at 36 years old. And because younger people, not exclusively, but younger people seem to have less direct impact from coronavirus exposure in terms of deaths or Serious Health concerns, he sees this as eventually going to work itself out and that he thinks this is relatively good news. But at the same time, younger and older people are going to hospitals. Look at the front page of the Orlando Sentinel here today. The headline says it right there. About how many hospitals right now do not have space in their icu. And to expand that across the state, the Florida HealthCare Administration says that we have 44 hospitals that have now reached capacity. The doctors, for instance, dr. Larry fineman at hca who i spoke to said were at unusual times. Right now, every one of the hospitals is discussing during the day how theyre going to handle the increase in patients. Hospitals in areas are usually competitive but not right now. Hca, advent, all of them have a chat in the morning and discuss how theyre going to handle it. Finally, im here at espns wide world of sports to put a fine point on this. America tried to get back to normal beginning tomorrow. Major League Soccer will begin once again having games there wont be fans there, but fc dallas wont be here. Ten of their players tested positive for covid as well as one of their coaches. So a sort of dose of reality as america tries to find the balance between living with coronavirus and getting back to normal, chris. Yeah, the search for that balance on full display. A microcosm where you are. Lets go over to glendale, arizona, just west of downtown phoenix. Steve patterson is there for us. So it seems to me, steve, like almost everything in arizona is trending in the wrong direction. You have cases and hospitalizations surging. Testing is a mess. Ive heard about lines going on for hours and hours to get testing. How did things get so bad . Well, chris, i had a thorough conversation with doctors from the department of Public Health, including the director last night. And they were not shy to admit that there say direct correlation in the explosion of the number of cases were seeing and the governors lifting of the stayathome order back in midmay. They said at the time, obviously, cases were trending downward. They saw Mental Health trending downward in the population. Thats legitimate and something weve seen across the country. And also that they expected the cases to increase in some respect. What they did not count on was the almost total disregard for the virus with certain segments of the population. People packing bars and nightclubs and malls and restaurants and so on. When youre talking about a specific population here, youre talking about 44 and younger in this state. They make up 62,000 of thee 101,000 cases now confirmed in this state. Thats young people. 61 of the cases here making up that number. They said there is now a concerted effort. The mission is to target those people to get the word out to them to let them know this is not okay. Were also seeing an explosion of cases in underserved communities. The block population. The latino population. The states native population. All hurting. To that end we spoke to thomas leone, his organization has been putting on those big testing drives to get resources and testing and testing deserts specifically to those underserved communities. We asked him, sdwhwhat does it to get the job done . Heres what me said. You cant just be testing. You have to implement education component, provide the testing, provide the followup care, consultation and mask distribution and connections to community essential services because people trying to survive this pandemic. So while i had them on the phone last night, the department of Public Health, one of the other questions we had to ask, if its getting this bad y not issue another stayathome order . They said that sauis always an option on the table. But they want to tailor this to each individual community, but hospitals are hurting here, chris. The curve has not been flattened. Back to you. Thank you so much, steve, for that. I want to go back to Garrett Haake in el paso. Garrett, its kind of deja vu all over again for those of white house live in new york and were on the first end of the first wave and we saw that so many of these decisions were left to the governors, of course, and also to localities. And theyre balancing all of those competing interests. Yeah, thats right. In places like el paso, a lot of cities in texas where the reopening was fairly swift, they were moving forward thinking theyve been spared from the worst of the coronavirus. And only in recent weeks have we seen this new spike. I want to bring in the mayor of el paso here, a republican of el paso. Mayor, talk me through what youre seeing now in terms of the increasing cases and the availability of things like testing and hospital beds. The basics of fighting this virus here in el paso . Well, on june 20th we had a little over 1,000 positive cases. And as of this morning, weve got 2,821. So we more than doubled in less than in a little over two weeks. But from a Hospital Capacity sta standpoint, were doing fine and the testing seems to be doing fine. Remember, we were we didnt open on the 22nd of may when the governor allowed us to. My conversation with the governor i said, i dont think were ready. We delayed it a week until the 29th. But the Testing Capacity seems to be fine. He sent in the National Guard to help us. We were testing the other day. I think we set a record at 2,600 for the day. Weve tested over 8 of our population. And, thus far, were we think were on target for that. Were not seeing any problems related to the basics from ppe to capacity either in icus or ventilators or anything like that. One of the challenges fairly unique to el paso, you have a twocountry community here. You are dealing not just with the city of el paso, but 2 Million People across the border in juarez. How does that play into this . Mexicos testing is not up to snuff necessarily. They dont have the same Hospital Capacity we do. How does that challenge play into responding to the virus here . Well, were concerned im personally concerned that we need to keep the bridges closed to nonessential. Right now in mexico, unless they changed it, they are only testing for symptomatic. But if there is a surge there, thats a real concern for us. We wouldnt know thats the case necessarily. They are telling us where they are, but im not real certain about that, and theyve got to do more testing. And the federal government controls their testing. They are doing it privately. So my other job is as a congressional reporter. Theres not been another relief bill yet. If you could wave a magic wand, what could the federal government give you today that would make a difference and save lives over the next couple of weeks . Well, from the standpoint of the c. A. R. E. S. Act funding, all we needed was a little more flexibility in how we could spend it. We received it directly as a population greater than 5,000. That was the bigger issue. There needs to be some consideration for cities right now. The u. S. Conference of mayors and a number of us are requesting more support from the federal government. I know theres some concerns there related to covering budget shortfalls that were because of failure to properly maintain your fiscal but in our case, thats not the case. We have a significant budget shortfall were having to cover this year. Last question well have time for. The schools are supposed to open here in less than a month, august 3 rd, i think, is the first dave schooly of school. Is there going to be a Normal School day for students . Were talking about postponing until the day after labor day. A little news there. Thats right. Theres a meeting today with the superintendents and our Health Authorities to discuss that. But i think a delay would probably behoove the children and the parents. Okay. Mayor, well leave it there. Thank you for coming out this morning. Chris, this is the challenge. Even in a city where you heard the mayor say, he thinks theyll be able to handle the medical surge. Having to delay openings of schools. You cannot have a full economic comeback. Parents cannot go back to work until theres some kind of solution to the School Systems. And you see how this crisis is going to continue to play out in cities and towns like this all across the country. No matter how dramatic the caseload numbers are or not. Yeah, the logistics boggle the mind for people like the mayor. Thank you. Well get back to you, garrett. I want to switch back to florida. This state has been struggling with how to respond to the rising number of cases. Cities like clearwater have stayed open. Im joined by the mayor of clearwater, frank hibbard. Its so good to see you. I want to ask you about some decisions you made. You left your beaches and restaurants open during the holiday, even though you said a majority of residents were against it. Why did you ultimately make that decision . Well, chris, since the beginning of this virus, weve been trying to protect lives and livelihoods. And as was said earlier, its a balancing act. This is a rubix cube of decisions that we have to make on a daily basis. One of the things, though, that we know is that close proximity is not a good thing. Not wearing masks. Not a good thing when you are in close proximity. So did you do things to make sure people were following the rules, even at places like beaches, mayor . Absolutely. We have Police Patrols going through our restaurants. Fortunately, the bars and nightclubs which were really a problem several weeks ago are closed at this point. But were going through restaurants, making certain that people are following distancing. They are escalating their sanitizing protocols. Were asking for courtesy of those around you and then just plain old common sense. We have a very expansive beach so we have distancing signs throughout. We have places to wash hands. We are sanitizing showers at all times. And we feel like the beach is a safe place. Its not a very hospitable environment for a environment with the salt air, the uv rays and saltwater. So how confident are you that two weeks from now, youre not going to see a surge in cases because of the decision that was made to leave the beaches open . Well, we patrolled the beaches all weekend. The weather was not optimal so we did not have issues with people moving away from their family units. If they did, then the police were there to ask them to make sure that they were properly distancing. And if they wouldnt follow that, then they were asked to leave the premises. I dont think the beaches are the problem. I think there are other areas that we have to be more concerned about. Like i said, the bars are certainly a place and the nightclubs. Those have been closed by state order. Now were just dealing with other inside activities. And thats one of the benefits of having the beach open. We do not want to corral people indoors. Folks have been looking for ways to recreate and its a lot better to do it outside than indoors. In spite of best efforts, state Officials Say icus in at least four hospitals in your county have hit maximum capacity, including Morton Plant Hospital which is in your city. How concerned are you about the situation and being out of icu beds . Well, that is not true at morton plant. Ive been in contact with the ceo and their folks. They still have capacity at the hospital. We certainly hope that theyre not going to need that, but they have capacity. Now, they are going to stop elective surgeries starting this friday, and its on a daily basis, those decisions, whether they will start them back up again. So lets talk about those daytoday decisions. The florida education commissioner said that Public Schools are going to be ordered to reopen in august and offer the full range of services to students and family. Do you have concerns about that, and do you consider that also something to be a decision that may need to be made on a daytoday basis as you actually get closer to the end of the month . It will be. Our School Systems in florida are on a countywide basis. But there are challenges as was said by your previous guests, if we do not have child care and schools open, its very difficult for people to go back to work. Fortunately, a lot of the summer camps and other providers for child care have reopened. Its been a challenge because theyre following the distancing protocols, but certainly we are coordinating with our School System to cooperate as best we can. First of all, to make a safe environment, but also on timing issues. Mayor hibbard, thank you so much. I know youve got a lot of work and a lot on your hands. We appreciate you taking the time. Thank you, chris. Four months ago, President Trump said anyone who wants a test can get one. Well, that was a lie. Why is it still so hard in so much of the country to get tested . And even if you do, why does it take so long to get the results . Plus, President Trump has been ramping up his culture war message as part his campaign. Is it beginning to cost him with some of his most ardent supporters . The open road is open again. And wherever youre headed, Choice Hotels is there. Book direct at choicehotels. Com. Latonight, silence it with newd byzzzquil night pain. At choicehotels. Com. Because pain should never get in the way of a restful nights sleep. New zzzquil night pain. Silence pain, sleep soundly. Robinwithout the commission fees. So, you can start investing today wherever you are even hanging with your dog. So, what are you waiting for . Download now and get your first stock on us. Robinhood. Yeah. This moving thing never gets any easier. Well, xfinity makes moving super easy. I can transfer my internet and tv service in about a minute. Wow, that is easy. Almost as easy as having those guys help you move. We are those guys. Thats you . The truck adds 10 pounds. In the arms. Okay. Transfer your Service Online in a few easy steps. Now thats simple, easy, awesome. Transfer your service in minutes, making moving with xfinity a breeze. Visit xfinity. Com moving today. This morning, with coronavirus cases on the rise in nearly 40 states, there are new concerns about Testing Capacity across the country, especially in the cities that need it the most. As the New York Times details, at a testing site in new orleans, city officials ran out of tests five minutes after the doors opened at 8 00 a. M. And many people had to be turned away. In phoenix, where temperatures have topped 100 degrees, residents have been waiting in cars for as long as eight hours to get tested. In san antonio and other large cities with mounting caseloads of the virus, officials have reluctantly announced new limits to testing. Joining me to weigh in is dr. Kavita patel, physician, and former Health Policy director under president obama. Garrett haake is still with me in el paso. Dr. Patel, weve been hearing for months that testing is widely available. I want to play what the president said back in march, four months ago. Anybody right now and yesterday, anybody that needs a test gets a test. Theyre there. Theyre there. The tests are beautiful. Anybody that needs a test, gets a test. But, doctor, thats not the case. And i know personally, members of my family who live in different parts of the country, when i told them i was tested, could walk into a facility here in new york and get tested without an appointment. They said we cant get tested. Can we control the rise in cases without getting a handle on testing . No, chris, and candidly, what were seeing is that places like arizona, for example, texas, they really have been pretty reactionary and had to wait until their cases surged in order to really evaluate their Testing Capacity. And thats why youre seeing days for processing. And the story is still the same that the swabs, the reagents, the staffing to even get the tests and process the tests in many of these states experiencing the surges are wholly inadequate. And it just points again to the lack of a National Infrastructure to have an ability to get help where they need it. So even in places that do have capacity, like here in new york, results can often take 3, 7, even 8 days to come back. For this to work, doctor, do we just need to figure out a way to get these test results a lot faster . Yeah, absolutely. Let me give you a contrast. Many hospitals can use their inhouse labs to run tests. Of course, they need to do that for their own hospital patients and staff, but they have the capacity to do what we call kind of high throughput testing which means they can process tests within an hour, two hours, at most, 24 to 36 hours. So, chris, this is something that is solvable. And weve talked for months about invoking things like the defense production act, but we havent really seen the actions. It is a solvable problem. And i do think that thats why its tragic that americans are not just waiting but if you dont know that youre positive, you can be unintentionally spreading the virus to others which is exactly the phenomenon were seeing in 23 states in the country. Dr. Patel, here in texas, we are seeing a lower fatality rate than we saw in some other states. How much much that is because of who is getting the virus in places like texas, and how much of that because were learning better ways to treat and care for the people who develop acute cases . Great insight, and were seeing it all across the country. And it is actually a little bit of both as well as an additional factor. Its a younger population that has the greatest degree of cases, but do not make a mistake. That does not mean that there nor consequence are no consequences. Theyre not going into the hospitals or icus at the rate we saw. Hospitals are better prepared and in just six months weve learned dramatically how to turn around what used to be almost a death sentence if you came into an icu and now you have a high probability of leaving the hospital after having a diagnosis of covid, which is pretty impressive. The third is that a lot of vulnerable populations, elderly, people who are older with chronic conditions, have heard the message and are trying to take precautions to stay at home. So its many of those factors. Doctor, how should people use the demographic information that were getting that africanamericans and hispanics are more likely to contract the disease or have severe cases . How should hospitals be making use of that information to treat People Better . Yeah, weve seen now enough data that not only we need to be having higher degrees of hospitalizations, death rates but we also know that so any state, and again, its unfortunate the federal approach has basically ignored this, but the states and counties really do need to dr. Patel, unfortunately, weve lost some of her audio. Its going in and out. The wonders of Live Television and also the technology. Thank you, dr. Patel. Garrett haake, well see you in a little bit. Up next, hospitals are filling up with these new coronavirus patients. Were going to ask an emergency room doctor what his biggest concerns are right now. First it has taken months but we now know some of the recipients of money from the paycheck protection program. The Small Business administration has released information about business and nonprofits that got more than 150,000 in those forgivable loans. So heres part of that list. Transportation secretary elaine chos family business. Foremost maritime got one. At least 43 planned parenthood affiliates. A private school named for the grandfather of President Trumps soninlaw, jared kushner. Kanye west limited Liability Company yeezy got a loan and Seven Members of congress or their spouses received loans. But the list released isnt complete since more than 80 of the transactions were below the 150,000 level. My psoriasis. Cosentyx works on all of this. Cosentyx treats the multiple symptoms of Psoriatic Arthritis to help you look and feel better. Dont use if youre allergic to cosentyx. Before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. An increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. Tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms, if your inflammatory bowel disease symptoms develop or worsen, or if youve had a vaccine or plan to. Serious allergic reactions may occur. Watch me learn more at cosentyx. Com. Were seeing a number of younger people, some of whom are actually fairly sick with this horrible virus. Weve seen whole families become infected with multiple members of the whole family coming in at the same time or following each other suffering from covid. Thats one doctor from the University Medical center in el paso, texas, describing the sharp increase in coronavirus cases there. Lets go back to Garrett Haake in el paso. Garrett . Chris, here in el paso, theyve been preparing for this surge. Theyve been seeing it coming and im joined by dr. Joel hendricks, the chief medical officer here at the University Medical center. Dr. Hendricks, talk to me about what youve seen over the last week, the last day in terms of the increase of cases and admissions here at the hospital. So certainly weve seen a lot of increase in our numbers. And its increased where were having to hold patients to be able to put them upstairs while we maneuver patients around. It is a surge. Were seeing it all across the country but in particular here we have that issue of being able to place them in the appropriate spot and with the staff necessary to take care of them. Glad you mentioned that. We were talking off camera. You mentioned the idea that ppe, bed space, those are less of a concern here than the ability to make sure you have the staff you need. You cant just pull nurses or respiratory therapists out of thin air. Youre right. Certainly we do not discount the need for personal protective equipment. That is very important. We have it now. We want to make sure as we go forward into the future we still have an adequate supply. Hopefully we will. Your labor is always an issue. This is a marathon. People get tired. People want to take a break. People decide they dont want to take care of Covid Patients. So we are looking at all our options on how we can get adequate staff, trained staff, to be able to take care of some of these very sick patients. Talk to me about the profiles of the folks coming in. We mentioned the idea that it tends to be younger patients. Dr. Michaelson said he sees full families coming in together. What your notiare you noticing is coming in and who is sick enough to be admitted . You are correct. We have a lot of the younger patients coming in now. Fortunately, they tend to get out a little quicker, which is good. Our throughput helps because were able to cycle them through. We may discharge six but get another eight or ten in at the same day. So thats good. We dont have as many people on the ventilators. So our number of ventilator patients from may in comparison was quite diminished. So were fortunate in that sense. You have an interesting, almost advantage over cities that have their surges in april or even may. Youve gotten to see the trial and error thats happened in other places. What have you learned about how to better treat those sickest patients. All the doctors here and the staff, administration are always look at what has taken place. So we learn from that. We learned about remdesivir and using it earlier. Weve tried to keep people off vents. All of these things have been helpful as far as the keeping them off the vents and keeping them out of the hospital. From a Public Health perspective, if there was one change you could see made out in this community that would keep more people out of your hospital for this, what would it be . Families are important. People are tired. They want to be with their families. When you are with your family, use personal space and consider using a mask. Even with your family members. In your own home . With your own another yes, correct. Okay. Chris, ill take it back to you. Garrett remember, in texas yeah, go ahead. Yeah, i was just going to ask the doctor, because one of the things we saw that was so helpful, doctor, here in new york city where i am, when all of this was at its peak was that so many states from out west that werent seeing the number of cases were sending literal physical help. Sending doctors, sending nurses and the governors here have said, we want to be able to return the favor whether its ventilators, whether its doctors and nurses. Have you had conversations with some of the states in this part of the country and do you feel confident that if your back is against the wall there is help here . So ventilators have not seemed to be a problem. So thats a good thing. Staffing is, as we mentioned. So i think the idea is that we have not had those conversations yet because we havent reached that capacity. As we move forward into the fall, i think that is where were going to really see some of the issues because you have noncovid sick patients coming to the hospital with influenza and other conditions and thats where youll need that staff and that help. We have not had those conversations but its good to know thats always a possibility. Yeah, and that also reinforces the fact that this is a marathon as weve heard so many times and not a sprint. Doctor, thank you. Garrett haake, youll be back with us as well. Thank you. Up next President Trump is doing his best to stoke a culture war. But outside of being offensive, is it just bad politics for his reelection . On to installation. Like way more vanities perfect for you. Nice. Way more unique fixtures and tiles. Pairing. Nice. Way more top brands in sinks and faucets. Way more ways to rule your renovation. Nice on any budget, with free shipping. Wayfair. Way more than furniture. Sprinting past every leak in our softest, smoothest fabric. 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In just the past 24 hours, the president has criticized nascar for banning confederate flags and the Washington Redskins for even considering a name change. Hes referred to the coronavirus as the china virus. And he talked up his border wall while slamming sanctuary cities filled with what he called angry mobs. Not peaceful protesters. It all seems to be part of a new reelection strategy aimed at sparking a culture war, or as the New York Times put it, adding to his playbook of stoking white fear and resentment. Carol lee is at the white house with more for us. Carol, what are you hearing from inside the white house or from the reelect campaign about this strategy . Well, look, outwardly, publicly, chris, everyone around the president is defending what the president is saying. We heard from the press secretary yesterday at length about this. She was pressed repeatedly on specifically the nascar tweet and was asked if the president was somehow defending or refusing to denounce the confessed rco confederate flag. She spoke to him about this. He was not making a judgment one way or another. Shes trying to defend the president on that. Privately, however, not all the president s allies think that this is a good strategy for him. But, clearly, hes decided that he wants to lean in to the culture wars, that he feels like were beneficial to him politically in 2016, and, really, he thought he was going to run on the economy. Hes not able to do that. Hes struggled to define joe biden and make him a boogieman in this 2020 campaign that he had hoped he could. And so you see him trying to sort of redirect the fear and frustration that the American People have about coronavirus, about the economy thats been dragged down because of it. And it seems as if this is at least where he wants to go now. You talk to people around him and, frankly, as has been the case since the president ran for it, for the presidency, hes really the one who decides these things. Hes decided for the time being, this is the direction he wants to go in. The problem he faces and the concern his allies have is this is a very different country in 2020 than it was in 2016. It is indeed. Thank you, carol. Joining me to talk about this more is former democratic congresswoman from maryland, Donna Edwards and former republican congressman from florida, david jolley, no longer associated with the gop. And Garrett Haake is back with me. Congresswoman edwards, as i looked at what the president said over the last 24 hours, i was reminded of maya angelou when she said, when someone tells you, shows you who they are, believe them the first time. What are your thoughts, though, on the president clearly relying on even ramping up this culture war strategy . Well, i mean, look, chris, i think we have to remember, the president began his Campaign Like this. Hes continued on this track. We remember his comments after charlottesville. Caging migrant children. And i think the president , as a candidate, its tough to run away from who you are. This is who the president is. Its his comfort zone, and its decades of him stoking racial division. And so its not a surprise that in his comfort zone, rather than retreating to the economy, we know hes done poorly on coronavirus. We know hes responded poorly when it comes to racial tensions. Hes digging in on what he knows. And its a failed strategy because he still is only speaking to a very small component of the voting base. And hes not growing that. And its showing in the polls. This is a loser, and its a losing strategy. In fact, david, a few of the members of the Republican Party have bucked the president in recent days. We saw Lindsey Graham defending the nascar ban of confederate flags. Senator Chuck Grassley saying hes not going to the Republican National convention. Do you think there is maybe a growing sense that standing by the president could actually be more dangerous than breaking with him . Well, yeah, look. They know that donald trump is an anchor around their neck. And i think republicans have already lost the senate. I said that yesterday. Because Donald Trumps coattails are pulling them down. But they have nowhere to go because theyve spent the last 3 to 4 years enabling this man and defending this man, supporting him, even celebrating him. And so their legacy is tied to Donald Trumps and there is no separation between the two. Look, we can examine Donald Trumps comments on racist behavior, on race. I agree with everything that donna said about it. But the missed opportunity here for donald trump and for any republicans willing to stand up is that leaders, great leaders unite the nation around a set of core values and shared principles. And weve seen it throughout history. Abraham lincoln in the midst of the civil war, while being reelected, he was taking it from all sides and didnt try to take shots at his opponents. He said its his job to bind the wounds of the nation. Lbj said, how can i get civil rights legislation enacted. Do i have to do it incrementally and can i bring the nation along with me. The opportunity for donald trump or any republican is to speak to unifying principles in this moment. Theyre fundamentally not doing that. The nation sees it and theyll reject that message from republicans in november. Which brings me, garrett, to you because before you make texas your second home it was a place called capitol hill that you spent most of your days. You know the politics of all of this. How is this all playing in texas . Does the president s strategy make texas more or less of a battleground state . Well, look. Texas will be as much of a battleground state as the Biden Campaign decides to make it. Its on the cusp of being competitive, but its going to take an enormous outlay of money and time and expense to compete across the state of 30 Million People and dozens of media markets. And texas is probably still going to be decided on the economy, not on cultural war issues. The economy in texas had done comparatively well under this president. Thats what they were banking on. Republicans have to ride the tiger here. Its all related. Look at the governors mask announcement last week when the governor put a statewide mask order in place. No less of a committed trumpleading republican than greg abbott. He got attacked on social media selling out to the liberal mob for calling for masks in public to fight the virus here. So republicans have to fight the beasts that they created to keep the economy that they need in texas to hold on to the state. If texas were to turn blue, thats essentially game over for the republicans chances of winning the white house. So donna and david, i want to ask you both this question. We only have 90 seconds left. But joe biden seems to be laser focused on coronavirus. He tweets a lot about wearing a mask. Talks about the president not doing enough to increase the testing xaft ining capacity. Do you think his strategy is clear . Do you think what hes doing is working or could he do more . Look, i think its clearly working, and i think joe biden is staying on message. Hes staying on message as a leader who will unite the country. Hes focusing on his character as a leader. And i think that thats a Winning Strategy for joe biden no matter where he does it and even if its in his basement. Do you agree, david . I do. Elections are ultimately about contrast between the candidates. Joe biden is accepting the responsibility of leadership. Donald trump is in a dangerous position in polls because he continues to show himself as disconnected from the anxieties of the American People. Even republicans are worried about what Schools Look Like in the fall, about returning to church. And theres a difference between bad policy and disconnected leadership. Trumps disconnected from the American People right now and thats a fatal flaw for a candidate. Yeah, when you talk about contrast, it is in capital letters. Thanks to both of you, and thank you, Garrett Haake. Up next, though, a world leader is suspected to have contracted the coronavirus as more countries pull back on their reopening. Were going to take you to some other hot spots around the world. Tada did you know Liberty Mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need . Given my unique lifestyle, thatd be perfect let me grab a pen and some paper. Know what . Im gonna switch now. Just need my desk. My chair. And my phone. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. [truck horn blares] vo the subaru forester. Dog tested. Dog approved. Leading armies to battle . , was that your greataunt, keeping armies alive . Drafting the plans. Taking the pictures. Was it your family members . Who flew. Who fixed. Who fought. Who rose to the occasion. When the world needed them most. Find and honor your ancestors who servered in world war ii. Their stories live on at ancestry. Developing now, two weeks after a National Coronavirus lockdown ended in spain, new hot spots are popping up there and in other parts of europe as well as asia. Our team of reporters is following the latest developments from all around the globe. Reporter thats right. There is nowhere that you see the Global Nature of this pandemic of the United States more than you do here in el paso, where were just across the border from the city of juarez, a city of more than 2 Million People where testing is sparse. You heard the mayor of el paso say only systematic people can even get tested there. The idea that the border ever really closes here is a fallacy. People go back and forth, they live on both sides of the border. Getting control of the pandemic in two cities in two countries that share very different politics and very different Public Health tools has been and will remain an enormous challenge here. And this is a similar challenge all around the globe, well go to Janis Mackey Frayer now in beijing where all of this started. What is the situation like on the ground in china now . Reporter well, every region of the world is struggling with this balance, this jugglingant, between restrictions and reopening. Officials here in beijing believe they have a fresh outbreak under control. But there are few places in the world struggling more than india. It is the third highest number of cases in the world behind the u. S. And brazil. And despite one of the earliest and heaviest national lockdowns, they have crossed 20,000 deaths, more than 700,000 cases, they have also ramped up testing and in particular in the southern states, theyre recording 25,000 cases a day there. Still, the hardest hit is in the cities, mumbai, new delhi, chen nigh, t chennai and theyre having to set up makeshift wards. This started because of the restrictions that were in place were being relaxed in june. And that caused this spike in cases. And this is the pattern were seeing in other parts of asia, japan, south korea, and in australia the city of melbourne has opted for a total outright lockdown for the next six weeks. Here in beijing, they relied on mass testing in order to get this outbreak under control. They have tested more than 11 Million People since the middle of june. Today, Officials Say they have no confirmed cases of coronavirus in china. They do, however, have a case of bubonic plague. You heard that correctly. The World Health Organization says dont worry about it. But it is a reminder that these old threats do linger. Now lets turn things over to matt bradley for the latest from europe. Reporter yeah, thanks, janis. In britain, and throughout europe were seeing the same dynamics you were talking about for the last couple of days in the states. Youre seeing an enthusiastic reopening and heading back to work, heading to bars and restaurants, and getting your haircut even. At the same time, seeing a spike in cases throughout the entire region. Here in britain, it was super saturday. Just last saturday. That means that pubs and bars and restaurants and hairdressers have opened up again with observing social distancing, but at the same time, authorities are worried and theyre pointing to some incrementally increasing about our number, that a factor by which the disease can spread. Thats been really troublesome to epidemiologists here. Because the reopenings like the states are happening in parallel to the spike in cases and doesnt seem to be much concern about it. In southern europe, spain had some of the worst cases in the entire world, has now seen two of its provinces have to close up once again and reclosing, going back to lockdown. Thats a dangerous thing, not just by biologically but also economically. It means the economy opened up and it is going back again and youre seeing the same thing in iran, which is also badly afflicted. Israel just some of the top Health Ministers re signed because she said her advice on returning to a lockdown has been ignored. Back to my colleague Garrett Haake in texas. Reporter i think that wraps up our tour of the world here. Certainly it brings home the Global Nature of this problem across the entire globe. Yeah, thank you, garrett, youll be back with us i think from dallas tomorrow. That will wrap up this hour. Im chris jansing. Ayman mohyeldin will pick it up next. Jansing. 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