defending his decision to visit saudi arabia as he travels to the middle east next week against criticism and controversy surrounding the trip. the president set to meet with saudi crown prince mohammed bin salman. biden vowed to make saudi arabia a pariah. now as president he says his visit to the country is critical to u.s. security. >> that's right. "washington post" op-ed the president writes it's my job to keep our country strong and secure. we have to counter russia's aggression, put ourselves in the best possible position to outcompete china, and work for greater stability in a consequential region of the world. to do these things we have to engage directly with countries that can impact those outcomes. the president's trip has come under criticism because of saudi arabia's role in the murder of journalist jamal khashoggi. the saudi crown prince was said to be responsible for ordering khashoggi's murder. >> let's get some perspective on president biden's trip. a historian and professor at princeton university, julian, good morning. as always, grateful you are up bright and early with us. the president framing this visit as critical to u.s. security. i'm wondering what you make of his op-ed. >> well, he's trying to defend what is a shift from a focus on human rights, which he promised upon entering office, more of a practical geopolitical approach to dealing with saudi arabia and the region and he's come under a lot of criticism, and he's trying to lay out what the policy is. it's unclear if that will satisfy the critics, but he's trying to justify the shift and, also, to say that he is still concerned about human rights despite what the visit might appear to look like. >> the white house, though, saying this is not actually a shift. i do want to play some sound for our viewers because biden struck a very different tone on the campaign trail. listen to this. >> president trump has not punished senior saudi leaders. would you? >> yes. we were going to, in fact, make them pay the price and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are. there's very little social redeeming value in the present government in saudi arabia. >> biden also said the united states would not sell more weapons to saudi arabia. in fact, the biden administration has. doesn't this visit acknowledge what we heard from former president trump that ultimately the united states needs saudi arabia as a key ally in that region? >> well, it really goes beyond the former president. this has been an issue with saudi arabia since our alliance and our relationships with the country have become closer. it's constant this tension that we see. yes, participate of the backdrop is democrats were so critical of the former president and now president biden is trying to justify why this is different. but even if the administration says human rights is still front and center and there's limits to what the administration will do, they are going to be under the spotlight and he will have to keep explaining what is the rational for this despite the kinds of statements you just played. >> and part of the rationale, julian, has to do with the energy supply, right? >> no. when you're dealing with the region, the energy supply is front and center. and now this comes in the aftermath of something that wasn't happening when the president started his term. russia's war against ukraine and the kind of international chaos it's caused including with gas prices. so, yes, there's many arguments the administration will put forward. as this op-ed is published in the pages of the journalist who was murdered, it's going to be impossible to avoid this kind of criticism. >> it also comes amid a number of other challenges in the middle east. obviously the iran nuclear deal, the united states exiting that during the trump administration, and now there's sort of this stalemate between iran and other countries that are interested in reinstituting it. do you envision a scenario where president biden makes some headway in that regard during this visit? >> well, for sure. this is part of what's been happening in the region. he is not wrong in the op-ed that there has been more stability. more countries are coming into an alliance essentially against iran, and i'm sure as important as gas prices are and energy are, this is another top priority. and the more that he can solidify the region against iran, the more progress there will be in trying to remake some of what had been done with the iran deal originally. >> so we've listed a number of topics that will be the focus of his visit. i'm wondering what it would take for you to consider this trip a success. >> my guess is there won't be anything to come out of it because it's really long-term diplomacy that he's engaged in. so the measure for success obviously in the short term would be something with energy prices within the united states, but this is a long-term project and the goals that you have outlined creating stability in the region, creating stability against iran, these are going to take years. i don't think we're going to know in the next month if this was a success or not. and obviously the more that he can calm the criticism, if he can, that will be important to the administration. >> julian zelizer, always appreciate getting your perspective. thanks. >> thank you. >> of course. we're learning more about former white house counsel pat cipollone's testimony to the january 6 committee. cipollone testified friday. a source says the committee asked cipollone about pardons including for the trump family and whether trump wanted to pardon himself. the committee also questioned cipollone about the pressure campaign on then vice president mike pence among a long list of other thing. the source tells cnn cipollone did use executive privilege. questions that would not have required him to do so a. spokesman called cipollone's interview productive, and said he provided, quote, critical testimony on nearly every major topic in the investigation. the spokesman says the testimony also corroborated key elements of cassidy hutchinson's very explosive public testimony nearly two weeks ago. the committee will hold its next hearing on tuesday so we'll see portions of the hearing. >> we'll carry it live for you on cnn. it's been nearly a week since the deadly fourth of july mass shooting in highland park, illinois, that left seven dead and dozens more injured. >> officials there are calling on this very close-knit community to come together, to lean on one another and begin the healing process as so many struggle to understand how this sort of violence could happen. cnn's camila bernal have the latest. >> reporter: finding different ways to cope and to deal with the drama and what they lived through on the fourth of july. for many it was coming here to this rally to support each other. others have said they needed time. one resident who has lived here for 26 years was at the parade. he says he was very close to the shooter. now he goes back to the memorial every single day. he says talking really helps. others tell me they go through waves of emotions where sometimes they're sad, sometimes they break down, other times they're just in shock and feel numb. i also talked to a mother who was at the parade and she was there with her husband and her 2-year-old. she says her husband ran with her 2-year-old. she stayed behind trying to help the elderly. and what she told me when i asked about healing was i'm not healing. i'm evolving. and she said that part of that means taking action and speaking out against gun violence. here is what she said. >> every morning when i wake up, my soul is still crushing from what i heard and what i saw and the people who were separated from their children and the children who were crying and are different today because they experienced a fear they should never experience and that injury doesn't stop. >> reporter: and the rally was somber. it was emotional. it was also a time for this community to come together. organizers were asking for a couple of things. one of them being donations and support for the victims and for those that were injured. but the other thing they were asking for was legislative action. they say that is what comes next. boris, whitney? >> camila, thank you. new versions of the omicron variant are fueling a summer surge of covid-19 here in the u.s. that has health officials urging many americans to return to masking indoors. >> coronavirus infections nationwide are up 6% with more than 100,000 new cases reported every day over the last two weeks. cnn's nadia romero on where cases are rising the fastest. >> reporter: about a third of the u.s. population is now living in a county with a high covid 19 community level which means the agency recommends universal indoor masking. counties coast to coast are on the list. new york city in early 2020 hot spot is in a high-level area. >> our goal is to make sure whatever we put in place is going to stem the infections, keep down our hospitalization, and, most importantly, keep down those who die from covid. >> reporter: johns hopkins universities reporting new cases rising slowly. 108,000 new cases reported every day over the past two weeks up around 6% from the two weeks prior. the spread of covid-19 causing concern in los angeles county, too. >> it is looking more likely as cases and admissions continue to increase we'll enter the high level definition late they are month. >> reporter: plus health experts warn data on the rise may not tell the full story due to the widespread use of at-home test kits. >> on the honor system if you test positive, you don't show up. that's not showing up in the data. there's certainly more out there. >> reporter: a study based on health records from the veterans administration shows catching covid-19 over and over again appears to increase the chances a person will experience new and sometimes lasting health problems after their infection. people who had two or more documented infections had more than twice the risk of dying and three times the risk of being hospitalized within six months of their last infection. on the vaccine front on thursday the white house saying only about 2% of children under the age of 5 have received at least one shot of the covid-19 vaccine since the fda gave emergency use authorization on june 17th for both the pfizer and moderna vaccines. the two omicron subvariants may partially escape the immunity of prior infections. but experts say the current vaccines and boosters provide substantial protection against severe disease. >> in people who were fully vaccinated, particularly people boosted in the vulnerable groups, we're not seeing a rise in icu admissions, we're not seeing a serious rise in deaths. but what we are seeing are the gaps in immunity being exposed. >> nadia, thank you for that. it's not just covid case that is are rising, monkeypox cases also surging across the country. amid the growing numbers there is concern about a lack of testing and the vaccine rollout. what you need to know about monkeypox coming up. and, still ahead, cnn sitting down with some of the families of the uvalde school shooting victims. you'll hear their anger and frustration as they still struggle to get answers from law enforcement. ♪ 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(moo) mabel says for you, it's more like 5:15. man: mom, really? welcome back. the cdc says the united states used less than 10% of its monkeypox testing capacity between may 17 and the end of june. a report released friday by the agency says some clinicians and patients had challenges navigating the public health testing procedures including getting the right approvals. this comes as the world health organization says the number of monkeypox cases around the world has increased by 80% since late june. dr. matthew joins us to discuss the latest. dr. matthew, thank you so much for joining us this morning. so my first question for you is what is your reaction to the cdc saying less than 10% of the u.s. monkeypox testing capacity was used last month? does that mean we have big challenges here? that people just can't access the testing they need to? what is your initial reaction? >> yes, good morning, whitney. i think it's really a combination. i'm a primary care physician seeing 15 to 20 patients a day. i saw a patient who is bi-sexual with a rash in the genitalia area. i suspected it might be monkeypox. what i did was to call an infectious disease doctor. we don't necessarily have the means to test and send it to a laboratory. however, there are about five different laboratories we can work with. we don't have to get cdc's final confirmation. so i think with the decentralization process things will get better but, remember, this is a fairly new disease to most american physicians. if you see a rash, especially in the genitalia area, you need to have a high index of suspicion. >> so what is the biggest challenges to widespread testing at this moment? >> i think the biggest challenge is access. somebody comes into a doctor's office, will they have the capability to swab the area? and, remember, not everybody with monkeypox will have a rash. if somebody comes and says i have fever, chills and flu like symptoms and they may have potentially been exposed to somebody with the virus, you know, you're not going to be able to swab or culture anything because there's not a rash. we are coming up with a swab where you can swab the throat and other areas of the body. it's a combination of not having access, the fact that a lot of physicians are uncomfortable with the diagnosis, and, mind you, the rash of monkeypox, whitney, looks very much like the rash in somebody who has shingles or chicken pox. a lot of different challenges to overcome. >> so there is a vaccine available. who should get the vaccine and at what stage? is this something they should get preemptively, if they've possibly been exposed, what are the options here? >> both. the good news about the monkeypox vaccine it can be used for somebody who says, hey listen, i think i'm in a high-risk group. i want to make sure i don't ever get monkeypox. you can use it in somebody who says i think i was exposed. this person called me and says he thinks he might have monkeypox. it can be post exposure as long as we use it relatively quickly and in the first week or so of the potential exposure. >> early data suggesting that a large number of reported cases are among gay and bi-sexual men. the reality is anybody can contract this disease. how do public health officials avoid the stigma of pointing out this is affecting a certain community while giving that community that's disproportionately affected the adequate attention? what is the balancing act there? >> yeah, that's a balancing act. what's really important we need to be open about which populations at this time is being affected the most by monkeypox, and that is the gay community. we need to be honest. these are men who have having sex with other men and bi-sexual men as well but at the same time we should be careful about not stigmatizing the disease and preventing people who are not really open about their sexuality from seeking care. we all remember what happened in the early 1980s with the hiv epidemic where it was so stigmatized as a gay man's disease and we know that not to be true. it is a balancing act. anytime there's an infectious disease it tends to affect the margins of society before it gets into the mainstream society. anybody can get it with prolonged intimate contact. it doesn't have to be necessarily sexual activity. >> you raise a point about being honest with those who are caring for you. dr. mathew, thank you very much. >> thank you. still to come, protesters in akron, ohio, are demanding action after a fatal police shooting last month. we have an update after a quick break. ep number? 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