Number. Theyre set to hold another event in arizona, but cases there are spiking. Lets get over to the white house and kristin holmes. White house officials are insisting that the president was kidding about slowing down testing. Reporter thats right, boris. This is not the first time they have used this defense when President Trump has says something thats extremely controversial. The difference is, as you said, the backdrop of the coronavirus, that we are nearing that 120,000 cases. The however, they are sticking with that narrative. Administration officials say, quote, he was obviously kiting. White house trade divorce Peter Navarro doubling down on that narrative with our jake tapper. Take a listen. You know, it was tongue in cheek. Come on, now, that was tongue in cheek. I know it was. Thats news for you, tongue in cheek. Hes been saying similar things for month. Are you preparing for a second wave in the fall . Of course. You prepared for what can possibly happen. Im not saying its going to happen, but of course you prepared. Ill tell you what. Were more prepared under this president than we were when china foisted this on us to begin with. Lets not forget that, jake. China hid the virus, they created that virus, and they send over hundreds of thousands of chinese citizens here to spread that around and around the world. Did you say china created this virus . Did i hear you wrong . You did not hear me wrong. That virus was a product of the decline ease communist party, and until we get some information about what happened in those labs, what happened in that wet market, we know that virus was spawned in china. That is what i mean. Reporter so you hear jake tapper asking again and again, was it purposely created . We heard him say thats an open question, but able also in that interview, he repeatedly call it the wuhan virus, the china virus. Last night President Trump said china virus, wuhan virus, but took it a step further and called it the kung flu. He also said those were just another light moment during last nights rally. A light moment, something that white house official Kelly Anne Conway said was incredibly offensive and denied that it was said to. Despite bragging that 1 Million People rsvpd, the crowd failed to meet expectation, and some of those may have been trolls the president in a stunt organized mainly through tiktok. Lets bring in doni. The Trump Campaign is saying it was double that, close to 12,000. Either way the venue was clearly not filled. What happened . We should point out that there wasnt a cap on the number of people that could request tickets for the rally. It wasnt as if the tiktok users were blocking real Trump Supporters for going to the rally. The fact that the Trump Campaign was unible to fill this arena isnt the tiktokers fault really. Thattic a look at this tiktok of toren hudson, a 16yearold who took part in the protest. I just reserved two free tickets for the trump rally on juneteenth. Now i cant go, because my dogs goldfishs funeral is that day. It would be shame in everyone else did this, that would be bad, because we dont want that. So there was that massive push there for people to register for the event and not go, even includes kpop fans, who are among the sort of most organized people in the internet were involved in this effort. Boris . I did not expect kpop fans to be organizing this kind of stunt. What is the Trump Campaign saying about this . Brad parscale put out a statement earlier today, saying leftists and online trolls doing a victory lap dont know what theyre talking about. But all week the Trump Campaign and the president himself were boasting about a Million People registers, so if the the question still remains where were those 1 Million People last night . And. And where were the 40,000 people that the president planned for address outside . Just falling short of expectations. Donie osullivan, thank you. Lets look at someday headlines this event is generating. Trump rallies in red state america and faces sea of empty blue seats. That in a the washington post. The a. P. With trump comeback rally features empty seats, staff infections. From New York Times trump rally fizzles as attendance falls short of campaigns expectations. And from the drudge report, mag maga less mega. The campaign was touting beforehand the numbers were used to seeing. The campaign claims that supporters were scared away because of violence and thugsic, as the president called protesters. What do you make of all of this . Well, this is an extraordinary moment for a campaign that was trying to hit the reset button. The campaign not only assumed that it would fill a 19 thoseseat auditorium, but they would fill an overflow area. In fact they would fill it, that air force one took a little ride over it, so they could look at the gathering numbers of supporters. I believe it was on air force one that they decided since there wrnlt anything, they would cancel that overflow opportunity, so this was a major, major defeat for the campaign. Tiktok activism or not, the fact of statistic matter is they couldnt get their own people out. One, partly because of a lack of enthusiasm,s but two, because of the virus. Theres two kinds of forms of denial that i think the campaign is in. One is about the enthusiasm at the moment for the president , and two, its belabout fear of covid. Look, the president got an early lead in part because he got a lot of attention for stoking racial divides. Hes made a number of ratist statement as president , and he made a series of racially charged Statement Last night. Lets listen. So if you want to save yo your we have a great heritage, were a great country you are so lucky im president. Thats all i can tell you. I like the nfl. I like Roger Goodell, but didnt like what he said a week ago. Where does that come from in the middle of summer . Nobody is even asking. We will never kneel to our National Anthem or our Great American flag. Its a disease, without question, has more names than any disease in history. I can name kung flu. Just as a point of clarity here, the statement that Roger Goodell made at the behest of a number of nfl players was simply black lives matter. Is this as effective a tactic for President Trump as it was four years ago. I dont think it is, boris. Happy fathers day to my dad and all the dads. Look, heres the problem with President Trump. Now hes locked into speaking to that 40 of the country. Last night we saw him a little rusty, doing his latest hits. In the recent weeks hes been trying to play both sides of that nfl issue, making wild claims about what hes done for black american. I think the speech was just lackluster. As tim said, it was a flop. This is still anybodys race, but President Trump and his Campaign Team realized that their play really is continue to divide, because his the president s behavior has been so consistently divisive and at times racist over the course of the last 3 1 2 years, that he just is not seen as a sort of credible interlocketer, and so he doesnt have that avenue to pivot to, and now its about trying to turn out core supportors. You know, the one remark about theyre trying to do away with our heritage, who does the our refer to . Last night he did not help himself. President trump, a native new yorker, suddenly feels an affinity to southern heritage. Last night he drew attention to, when he carefully made his way down the ramp. The other is when he appeared to awkwardly drink water. I think we have that clip. So i was bent over, right . Trump spent more than ten minutes talking about his appearance at west point, and our fib lutz producer laney helped me look into this. He took 30 seconds talking about the lives lost. What do you think . Hes lost his mojo, at least for the moment. One of the things he was in 2016 was the shock and awe, and now hes pathetic, trying to explain something that went wrong at west point. Second issue is, you never tongue in cheek about death. The way in which he talked about coronavirus is a reminder he still doesnt take it seriously and is afraid of its political effects on its future. Can i add one thing . Of course. One thing that struck me about this speech is that even now there is so many conservatism in a speech coming from a republican president. No talk about not relying too much on government, no optimism, no stoicism, just this amalgamation of grievance and division that is his formula, and again that he stuck with. He has taken his party in a particular direction. He has taken his party in a particular direction. Thats a departure from his rep predecessors. The other thing that struck me last night is if the campaign had not made such a big deal about the million of people who showed up, we probably wouldnt be emphasizing the crowd size right now, and the campaign wouldnt be in a position to try to defend why we didnt see so many people there. It seems that they shot themselves in the foot. Yeah, they definitely did. They overplayed it. I think as you heard David Axelrod say is one of the things you want to do is overpromise and underdeliver. They did the complete opposite. They had people going out on venues saying we had hundreds of thousands of signups, and if you go by the fire marshal they didnt fill even half. I think their campaign will adjust. Theres a lot of time left. Last night they didnt help themselves. Last night it was a flop. Thank you both for joining us. Enjoy the rest of your sunday. Thank you. Up next, despite what the president set. The pandemic is not dying out. In fact, 23 states are currently seeing an increase in new case numbs, well look at how you minimize your risk, next. Youre live in the c newsroom. Weve recovered. Every time. We fall, we rise. We break, we rebuild. We stumble, we learn. We come together. We work together. We innovate and create. We meet up and get to work. We find our way forward. Every time. This has been the key to our survival, the key to our growth that whenever we thought we were at our weakest, this is when we became the strongest, became the best version of ourselves, and found our way home. Together. Masimo. Together in hospital. Together at home. 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. Welcome back. The next city to host a trump rally is in arizona. But they have seen an increase. Heres our report. Reporter pandemic . What painndemic . Those are my friends over there. Reporter arizona, a growing hot spot and home to a fight over masks. Look up and down the street, and the impact of the virus is everywhere. Some businesses still shut down. Bright signs warn to socially distance. One bar worker in a mask, but many of these tempe, arizona, resident . I think the masks are good, but i think they act as a placebo . It angers me. Im trying to be calm. Reporter this doctor in phoenix is seeing a dramatic increase, just like the rest of the state. This is whats happened to cases in arizona since march. The number of news cases continues to break reports nearly every day this week. Arizona was among the first states to reopen. Businesses back, the gatherings followed like the protests of police brutality, and marvs in public, as we saw in temper, not always used. To tell the whole world that basically im a social darwinist, if you die, i dont care, i just want my beer and burger, even kindergarteners have more empathy for other people. Its really upsetting. Reporter the letter 150i7bd by the doctors is to get the governor to issue a statewide mandate, writing please stand up and education as well as protection those who done understand the importance of masks. He says, instead, he will leave the policies to each mayor. The governo is saying ill let the mayors decide. The mayors could say ill letted neighborhoods decide. So you can see how quickly that could break down. This week he arrived wearing it, as he prepares the state to hopefully host the maskless president thursday, the governor says the white house protocol will call for mask. Ducey stressed that the event should go on. Were going to protect peoples rights to assemble in an election year. Reporter the city of phoenix passed an ordinance require masks in public places. So will they be subject to this ordinance . The city says yes, and las notify the white house. If the president isnt wearing a mask, will he get a ticket . Technically yes. In reality, no. The city says this ordinance is meant to be led by education. Ky kyang law, cnn. As we await the update, the white house seems to be downplaying the pandemic. President trump last night said he told officials to slow down coronavirus testing because of the rising number of cases in the united states. Of course his Campaign Says that was just a joke, but also in a wall street journal oped Vice President pence claimed, quote, there isnt a coronavirus second wave, this coming as Administration Officials tell cnn theaters actively prepared for a second wave. With me is a professor of Infectious Diseases at vanderbilt. You know the pandemic is here, boris. Coronavirus is spreading throughout the united states. Were still in that first wave and we are concerned that this fall there would be a second wave that might even be higher. People have a really heart time with that. They have a hard time understanding that they could be perfectly well, but still infected with the virus. They have a hard time wearing the mask for the protection of others. It intrudes on their independence, and, of course, its been politicized and the messages has been confusing. So here we are, but mask wears is absolutely fundamental as a way of reducing the spread of this virus. Right. Doctor, i want to ask you about my home state of florida. Over 3,000 new cases were reported today. Ier, more than 4,000. That was a daily record. Is florida becoming the next epicenter . Well, it looks that way, boris. Were having epicenters of various kinds around the country. Of course that has to do with opening up and people not being careful enough. In addition to the masks, you know, the social distancing and avoiding large gatherings. Large gatherings, particularly indoors, thats an ideal circumstance for this covid virus to spread. Something i found interesting about the situation in florida, in regards to some Governor Desantis that its shifting to people in their 20s and 30s. First of all, were testing more broadly and finding more of those cases, which of course is very, very important. These people tend to be less symptomatic, they get less ill, and they tend therefore to be spreaders. They can spread it among their fellow workers, their family members, and to people who they know who are althougher who might get more ill. Right. I do want to ask you about new york city. Its still on track to begin a phase two reopening. Its a huge milestone for a city ravaged by the disease. What could they take away from the turnaround in new york . Well, theres the example. The hottest spot in the country, people generally observing the restrictions, the recommendations for social distancing, and mask wearing in this highly congested place, and things were able to be turned down and around. Now, well see whether we can maintain that. Maintaining these constrictions, these recommendations are, of course, very, very important. The maintenance, if im asked, over the next months were having to sustain this over the long haul. Yes. Still an open question, especially considering in so many other areas we have seen a spike in rates of infection. Dr. Schaffner, we appreciate the time. Thank you. Thank you. Coming up, defund nascar, that was a message being flown today in talladega. This is after nascar banned the confess rat flag from their events. Youre live in the cnn newsroom. You doing okay . 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. Nascars ban on Confederate Flags is getting tested today in alabama. Fans are showing strong reactions to the new rule. Cnns andy scholes is there. We learned that the race is going to be postponed because of rain, right . Reporter thats right, yeah, the race is postponed to tomorrow afternoon, but the fans did show up today. The first big sporting event to allow a large number of fans. A nascar official told me the Confederate Flag ban is in place and if a fan tried to enter the raceway, they would have to remove it in order to enter the event. We walked around the grounds with many fans i only saw one person with a Confederate Flag on it, but there was a plane flying around with the words defund nascar. Then across the street from the track there are a number of gift shops sets Confederate Flag memmia billian. The owners of those shops said theyre selling more since nascar decided to put the ban in place. They told me they were going to continue to sell those items outside nascar events. We talked to a number of fans as well, and asked them for their thoughts on the decision. Its a heritage thing with the southern people. On until you bring it up, its not a racist thing for them, most of those people. Its Something Else taken away from them. I came here for the race, this and that. Im happy they did do it. Its just progress, moving on. I really didnt have a problem with removing the flag. I feel like theyre taking peoples rights away. Im living the american dream. Im mexican, selling trump and confederate paraphernalia. The dream is anybody can come he