Cnns nick watt is on the scene for us. Nick, the state is taking a huge new step to try to get the virus under control. Reporter a massive step, because the governor says this virus is still spreading. It was really interesting listening to dr. Anthony fauci today. He said that as a country, we never entirely shut down. Thats why we plateaued at a low of above 20,000 new cases every single day. Then we reopened. Were now up to about 60,000 cases. And now we are seeing spikes in places like texas, florida, and here in california. You mentioned, wolf, 1 in 100 americans have now been infected. Here in los angeles, its 1 in 75. California is closing down again. Effective today, requiring all counties to close their indoor activitactivities. Restaurants, wineries, movie theaters, Family Entertainment centers, zoos and museums, card rooms, and the shuttering of all bars. Reporter for counties like los angeles on the governors watch list of the worst, theres even more shuttering. Fitness centers, places of worship, offices for noncritical sectors. Personal care services, that includes hair salons, barbershops, and indoor malls. Reporter meanwhile, florida is smashing records. More than 15,000 new covid cases sunday, the most logged in any state, any day, ever. We have to get control of these numbers. These numbers are out of control. Reporter disney world just opened two parks, but if you dont wear a mask, you wont get the photo from your ride. Seriously, thats part of the enforcement. We can turn this thing around in two to three weeks, if we can get a Critical Mass of people wearing face coverings. Reporter but theres no federal mandate. Meanwhile, in texas, the average daily death toll just doubled, in a week. Harvard researchers say these eight states should also roll back reopening. You dont necessarily need to shut down again, but pull back a bit. Reporter dr. Fauci says in large part because people in some states who went from shutdown to complete throwing caution to the wind. Reporter atlanta already rolled back to phase i. The mayor and her family recovering. We are a textbook example of how quickly this virus spreads. We had one child in the house who was asymptomatic. I was also asymptomatic and my husband doesnt have any Underlying Health conditions, and this has hit him really hard. Reporter internal cdc documents uncovered by the New York Times suggest fully opening k through 12 schools and colleges would be the hardest risk option, and thats what Trump Administration wants. It is a political roll of the dice for us, and we are the dice. The teachers in the classrooms. Reporter los angeless second largest district in the nation just said school will start back in august, online only. There is a way out of all of this. New york city opened slowly, man dated masks and just reported no deaths from covid19 in a day. Zero. Now, worldwide, wolf, we have just passed 30 million covid19 cases. Nearly a quarter of them are here in the United States, in this country where we have the biggest economy on earth, plenty of money, many great minds, but we are doing something or many things very, very wrong. Wolf . I think its fair to say theres been a major, major failure in all of this given the numbers were seeing right now. Nick watt, thank you very much. Lets go to the white house where the administration has been taking direct aim at dr. Anthony fauci, as the renowned Infectious Disease expert has been publicly disagreeing with President Trump. Our chief white house correspondent, jim acosta, is joining us. Jim, we saw evidence of a campaign to try to discredit to undermine dr. Fauci. Now the president says theres nothing to see here. Thats exactly right, wolf. White house officials appear to be backing off after taking some jabs at dr. Anthony fauci over his comments about the coronavirus pandemic. The president and other officials are now saying on the record that mr. Trump and dr. Fauci have a good working relationship. Thats notable, given the fact that some aides to the president have been spending the last couple of days trashing fauci, even sending out Opposition Research about the doctor, anonymously, to reporters. After spending days railing against dr. Anthony fauci, President Trump and his top aides seem to be pulling back from what appear to be a campaign to undermine one of the nations most trusted health experts. I have a very Good Relationship with dr. Fauci. I have had for a long time, right from the very beginning. I find him to be a very nice person. I dont always agree with him. No, i get along with him very well. I like him. Reporter even though his access to the president is all but cut off and his tv appearance has been blocked by white house officials, it is fauci who is still offering americans a dose of reality. Warning the coronavirus pandemic remains a danger to the public. We havent even begun to see the end of it yet. But until you get it completely under control, its still going to be a threat. Reporter even as coronavirus cases reach Record Numbers in multiple states over the last few days, white house aides have blasted fauci anonymously, telling reporters several white house officials are concerned about the number of times dr. Fauci has been wrong on things. Why not have the guts to trash dr. Fauci with your own names . So, President Trump ill refer you back, theres no Opposition Research being dumped to reporters. The notion that theres Opposition Research and that theres fauci versus the president couldnt be further from the truth. Dr. Fauci and the president have always had a very good working relationship. Reporter while sometimes questioning the expertise of fauci, who was once awarded the president ial medal of freedom, mr. Trump appears to be putting his faith in people who arent scientists, retweeting this tweet from former Game Show Host, chuck willery, who claims, the most outrageous lies are the ones about covid19. Everyone is lying, the cdc, the media, democrats, our doctors, not all but most we are told to trust. Even though he has just recently embraced wearing a mask and is still downplaying the threat posed by the virus were at about 135,000 and well be somewhat higher than that by the time it ends. Reporter mr. Trump is offering up a new conspiracy that unnamed forces are working in cahoots to keep schools closed to damage his reelection chances. We have to open the schools, we have to get them open, and i think theres a lot of politics going along. I think they think theyll do better if they can keep the schools closed in the election. I dont think its going to help them, frankly. But i think they feel that by keeping schools closed,s that a bad thing for the country, and therefore thats a good thing for them. Reporter that came a day after education secretary betsy devos falsely claimed there is no health risk in sending children back to school, when its likely some students will pass the virus on to eeteachers. There is nothing in the data that would suggest that kids being back in school is dangerous to them. In fact, its more a matter of their health and wellbeing that they be back in school. Reporter former white house chief of staff, mick mulvaney, is acknowledging there have been problems with the administrations response, writing in an oped on cnbcs website, i know it isnt popular to talk about in some republican soir circles, but we still have a testing problem in this country. My reaction is that weve tested we lead the world in testing. Reporter as for his decision to commute the sentence of former Trump Campaign adviser, roger stone, the president is standing by the controversial move that was opposed by some top officials in his own administration. Im getting rave reviews for what i did for roger stone. Reporter attorney general barr who said he approved of the stone prosecution is now praising the president. First, let me say what an honor it is for me to serve under a president who is such a strong supporter of law enforcement. Now, as for dr. Fauci, the last time he spoke with the president was on june 2nd, more than a month ago. And white house officials concede it would be difficult to fire fauci. Im told fauci believes the best thing he can do at this point is to continue to tell the truth about the virus to the American People and that he has accepted the fact that he cannot do much to stem this criticism, occasional coming from the white house. Fauci has served president s from both partieses. Besides his experience in Infectious Diseases, he also appears to understand just how to survive here in washington, wolf. Dr. Fauci has served six president s, democrats and republicans, jim acosta, thank you very much p. Now lets bring in dr. Vivek murthy and dr. Peter hotez is with the Baylor College of medicine. Dr. Murthy, california taking a very big step backwards, shutting down all activities statewide. Youre in florida right now, youre down in miami which just set the record for the highest number of new cases reported in a single state over the past few months or so. Do other hot spots, do you believe, dr. Murtmurthy, need t follow californias example right now . Thank you, wolf. Its good to be with you tonight. The measures that california took to pull back on indoor gathering and these are exactly the right measures that need to be taken in many places. What we have seen and learned over the last several months with this pandemic is that half measures do not work. And unless we do everything we can now, we are only going to prolong this pandemic and prolong the loss of lives and the suffering that weve already sustained. What that means is that states that are experiencing major outbreaks, which include florida and texas and arizona and parts of california, south carolina, these states need to, one, require that masks be used in public and pull back on allowing bars and restaurants and other indoor activity to take place. Because this is what we know facilitatie ins the spread of t virus. The truth is, even if we did that, that would just buy us time. The question we have to ask ourselves is how do we use that time to prepare once we start to relax restrictions, once case loads come down . That means weve got to invest in expanding testing, in Contact Tracing capacity, this is the same playbook that we knew we had to execute in the earlier part of the year in march and april. But as a country, we failed to do that. And so we have another opportunity to do that, but its going territory us getting the case loads down. Its not going to be easy, but its what we have to do. Dr. Hotez, dr. Fauci says, we dont need to shut down just yet, but we havent seen the end of it yet. Whats your perspective from houston . Thats another hot spot right now . If you look, wolf, at the trend and the line going up, its accelerating rapidly. We were at 40,000 cases a couple of weeks ago. 50,000 new cases per day. Now were at 60,000 cases. That number is still climbing. So there is no end in sight. This doesnt go away by itself, wolf. This requires intervention and its going to require a federal plan. These are you know, i know people use the word hot spots. These are not hot spots, this is a massive resurgence of our covid19 epidemic sweeping across the southern half of the United States. Were out of control right now. And until theres this federal plan that lays out a strategy for all of the states and looks at what we have to do to get close to containment mode, well continue along this terrible path. Its not even conceivable that we could open schools right now in most of these southern states, because the minute we do that, teachers are going to start to get sick, bus drivers will start to get sick, School Cafeteria workers will start to get sick and it will happen within a couple of weeks. And the whole thing shuts down again anyway. So there is no plan, there is no there is not even an attempt to really be frank with the American People about the problem. You heard what the press conference today, there was no admission that this was a Huge Public Health threat to the American People. There were attempts to obfuscate the deaths and other things. Were not even in the position to admit that theres an issue. Yeah, i look at the numbers of americans, not necessarily just confirmed cases or hospitalizations, but deaths. Hundreds, hundreds of americans are dying every single day. And thats been going on and on, with no end in sight right now. Dr. Murthy, the White House Press secretary called the u. S. Response to this pandemic historic, saying the United States is beating the rest of the world on key metrics, including testing. Give us your reaction when you hear a boast, a claim like that. Well, wolf, i would respectfully disagree with that assessment. I think that our response strategy, as a country, has been, frankly, embarrassing. We have the capacity, the knowledge, the resources to mount this kind of response that a pandemic like this merits. And instead, were behaving like a failed state. Were not communicating truthfully with the public, were not executing in a manner that we can and the American People deserve. We said months and months ago that we would build and provide adequate testing in this country, that we would provide the contact tracers needed to contain infections. And we didnt do that. And were now, unlike many other countries, that were able to get levels of virus down, were suffering through another resurgence. And because of that we are, we are not able to open schools. Because we execute properly, we are not able to open up our economy. One of the hallmarks of pandemic leadership is that you have to step up and fill the gaps. You have to take responsibilities for actions and youve also got to make sure that you are getting resources to people on the front lines. Its not too late to turn this around, but without better leadership, we are in for a long, long struggle with the coronavirus. And many, many thousands more americans will be dead as a result of whats going on right now. Dr. Murthy, thank you. Dr. Hotez, thanks to you as well. Just ahead, much more on the president s motives on trying to undermine dr. Fauci, even as the white house tries to act like it isnt happen. And new numbers just in on the pandemics dangerous surge in texas. Well go there live and talk to a houston mayor about his call for a twoweek shutdown. Well be right back. Sure. Okay. Okay safe drivers save 40 guys guys check it out. Safe drivers save 40 safe drivers save 40 safe drivers save 40 thats safe drivers save 40 . It is, thats safe drivers save 40 . Hes right there. Its him hes here. Hes right here. Hi hi. Hey thats totally him. Its him thats totally the guy. Safe drivers do save 40 . Click or call for a quote today. My hands are everything to me. But i was diagnosed with dupuytrens contracture. And it got to the point where things i took for granted got tougher to do. Thought surgery was my only option. Turns out i was wrong. So when a hand specialist told me about nonsurgical treatments, it was a total game changer. 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What does all of this say about the president s priorities right now . Well, plainly, wolf, his priority is not getting a grip on the coronavirus coronavirus and what weve seen from donald trump donald trump throughout his protest is his priorities are selfglorification, and thats why hes been trying to shield his friends, who have been protecting him and to assail his enemies. Calling for prosecution and jail time for various people. On the coronavirus, the facts have made pretty clear right now, especially when you compare us, the United States with other countries that have succeeded in crushing the virus. Facts make pretty clear his mismanagement and lack of leadership have lit the country on fire. Therefore, the president is compelled to go to war against the facts, go to war against the people delivering the facts, thats the cdc and tony fauci and the irony of this, of course, is that what his priority has been in a Public Policy sense has been to reenergize the economy. But it was predictable and predicted that if you tried to reopen the economy prematurely, without getting a handle on the coronavirus, you were going to have a very shortlived burst and thats what were seeing right now, is the recovery is slowing down because of whats happening all across the sun belt. You know, sanjay, the white house is clearly trying to undermine, to discredit dr. Fauci, but do these attacks have any basis in truth at all . Well, look, i think you can see at this point that nobody knew everything there was to know about a brandnew virus, a Novel Coronavirus from the very start. The world has learned together to some extent about this. I think what has been stri