Health guidance. We know that large gatherings presents the biggest risk right now. Would you advise someone to go to a large gathering, yes or no . Well, craig, its not a yes or no. Every Single Person has to make up their own mind. There are going to be people going to beaches, going to barbecues, going to different environments, and they have to look at their individual risk. And that is exactly the problem. Here are the facts at this hour. Despite public warnings against mass gatherings, President Trump is traveling to mt. Rushmore today and encouraging thousands of people to gather for a fireworks display, with south dakotas governor refusing to require masks and forestry experts warning of the risks of wildfires out west. The president s trump comes as the Washington Post is reporting Vice President pence had to postpone his trip to arizona by one day this week after members of the secret service tested positive for coronavirus. Miamidade county in florida has put a 10 00 p. M. Curfew in case and in a major reversal, Texas Governor greg abbott who previously barred texas mayors from making maximsks mandatory, now making masks mandatory in the state. All this as republican officials, including the Texas Governor, are beginning to break away from the president s past criticism of masks, as he himself is facing a more serious reelection challenge because of growing criticism of his leadership on the pandemic. Economists, meanwhile, warning this months improvement at allimportant jobless numbers could be temporary given widespread rollbacks on reopenings with spikes occurring in a majority of our states. We start then with our reporters in two of those coronavirus hotspots, Msnbcs David Gura is at lyndon b. Johnson hospital in houston, texas, and nbcs Erin Mclaughlin is in Santa Monica Beach in california. Vid, t Texas Governors mask mandate is a big turnaround for greg abbott. What are you seeing in houston as those cases are spiking . Reporter andrea, you called this a major reversal and that is absolutely right. The governor for so many weeks has resisted calling for this kind of mandate. Yesterday he did late in the afternoon. I think its for two reasons. One is simply the data. As he looked to whats happening here in houston, in Harris County, and across the state, the kind of spikes theyre seeing, it has to be alarming to the executive of the state. The other is the pressure hes under from local officials. We got our hands on a letter that the mayor of houston wrote to the governor just a couple of days ago. In that letter, andrea, he said that he needs more ppe, he needs more support. He called for a mask mandate, he wanted to see one put in place. I sat down with the ceo of the Hospital System behind me here, Harris Health system, the safety net system in Harris County, it services a lot of people who are without insurance. This crossed the wires right as we sat down. I asked how he reacted to it. He said he wanted to get up and do a cartwheel, he was so decided that the governor had made this decision. I asked him, given what were seeing, given the governors decision to do this, how important is this moment . This is what he had to say. Its a fork in the road. Depending on the direction we go is going to determine what news story were going to be talking about on july 18 or july 20. We could have a story that says Harris County is now like new york, or it can be the story that Harris County was able yet again to flatten the curve. And i really hope its the latter. Reporter the doctor has only been on the job since march. This has consumed his entire tenure, overseeing this health care system. The hospital behind me is at capacity. He says hes working with other hospitals to move patients to bring in more staff. But things are getting very serious here, andrea, and Hospital Executives in this community are certainly worried about whats going to happen in the days and weeks to come. David gura, thank you so much. Erin mclaughlin, enforcement measures now in santa monica, 100 fine for failing to wear a mask as beaches now are closing. Reporter thats right, andrea. And a stunning sight here in santa monica. Let me ask cameraman scott to pan the camera over to show you the situation unfolding behind me. That parking lot down there right by the beach would normally be filling up with cars and people by the thousands arriving here to celebrate july 4th. You can see the beach there completely empty and closed. Just to my right is the Amusement Park, the iconic Amusement Park here in santa monica, also shut down. There will be no fireworks this weekend to prevent people from congregating, gathering together, exactly what authorities do not want people to be doing here in california this weekend. That is the situation playing up and down the california coastline as authorities here are struggling to get this under control. The numbers are also staggering. Hospitalizations up some 56 in the last two weeks. Number of confirmed cases approaching a quarter of a million. And authorities are now really trying to get people to wear masks. The state of california issuing a Public Service announcement starring previous governors including arnold schwarzenegger, that playing out on televisions across the state, urging the wearing of masks. Theyre enforcing mask orders, fines are 300 in the case of west hollywood, andrea. Thanks so very much, thanks to both of you, erin and david. Joining me now is dr. Mario ramirez, emergency room physician, former acting director of the office of pandemic and emerging threats at the department of health and Human Services and a texas native. Dr. Ramirez, thanks for being with us. I understand you still have family there so youre especially concerned, obviously, about whats happening in texas. Lets start there. Thats right, andrea, i group up in mccowan, texas, in one of the hardesthit counties now. I have several family members working in the hospitals there. The news coming out of that region is really concerning. Several months ago there were stories about how the local county judges and other folks had done a good job of putting restrictions in place. They were keeping case counts under wraps. Then of course you covered governor abbotts superseding order that sort of removed those. And now the governor has changed course and put those mask orders back in place. Im hopeful that things will get better. But thats going to take some time. The Surgeon General, dr. Adams, was asked today on the today show by craig, why people are not being required to wear masks at the mt. Rushmore event. Take a look at this. We will support governors and local officials with their decision making. They know their people best. Here is the challenge. If you make something mandatory, particularly for the younger age groups were talking about, many of them will rebel and do the exact opposite. If people understand why theyre doing it, theyre going to be more likely to comply. If its mandatory, theyll only do it when someones watching. While im not against anyone who has a mandate, i think the most important thing from a Health Communications point of view is helping people understand how they benefit and why they should do this. Isnt the biggest problem that the federal government has deferred to local governments and youve had a division between red state governors and in some cases mayors, and the National Government including the president . That sent a mixed message and politicized this whole issue of face coverings, which should be a Public Health issue. Andrea, youre right, weve been battling this politicization of not only the masking issue but the scientific debate as well. I respectfully disagree with the Surgeon General here. What our approach over the last few months has shown is pushing responsibility out to local jurisdictions and telling people why they should be doing something is clearly not enough. We are literally one of the only countries in the world watching their case counts go up when other countries similar to ours have seen their case counts drop down to zero. And what those countries were able to do is implement a National Coordinated strategy that the United States has failed to adopt. And there are a lot of reasons, some of them political, why thats failed to happen. But i just you know, i disagree with the idea that we can hand out responsibility and expect everybody in the country to do the right thing. Clearly thats not the case. And the Lieutenant Governor in texas, dan patrick, disagreeing with dr. Fauci, taking him on in this, take a look at this on fox news, where youve got now greg abbott finally agreeing, and showing remarkably that hes willingly to acknowledge that he was wrong and too slow to this, but the Lieutenant Governor is taking such a hard line, take a look at this. Locking down doesnt work. If it did, those two states would be doing better than texas. Fauci said today that he is concerned about states like texas that skipped over certain things. He doesnt know what hes talking about. We havent skipped over anything. The only thing im skipping over is listening to him. He has been wrong every time on every issue. I dont need his advice anymore. Just as a doctor, and im not a doctor, im just a citizen, to have the Lieutenant Governor of the state of texas saying that about dr. Fauci, bad enough that hes been pretty much silenced as far as public warnings are concerned, but to have that happen is really troubling. We should be really clear about this, andrea. Scientists like dr. Fauci do research and scientific work on behalf of the federal government to inform the decisions that our elected policymakers are exposed make. You know, and i think what we saw at the Senate Hearing the other day, where senator paul made similar statements about dr. Faucis opinions, but the truth is that citizens elect those officials to take that information in and then set policies for our society. Its not dr. Fauci who makes the policy. He provides the best recommendations for these folks. And in texas, this is an interesting case because the governor and Lieutenant Governor are elected independently, theyre not elect on a joint ticket. This puts the governor in the uncomfortable position of embracing a mask mandate while his Lieutenant Governor clearly feels the opposite. Lieutenant governor patrick is clearly willing to come out with his policy stance on this issue. But i think thats really the core of this issue, people are politicizing scientific officials as if theyre the ones making the policy, and thats clearly not the case. And overnight, the president again tweeting that its because of testing that these numbers are going up. If you want to fact check that for us. I think weve seen plenty of evidence that thats just not correct and its not accurate. What we have seen in numerous places, whether its arizona or texas or florida, is that hospitalization rates are increasing and in some of these areas in certain counties, were seeing testing positivity rates as high at 20 . That fraction doesnt go up just from the increase in tests that youre doing. That only happens because more people are developing the disease. The u. S. Is doing much more testing than we were doing three months ago but the problem is the result were getting is not the one we had hoped for. Dr. Mario ramirez, as always, thank you, and a safe Holiday Weekend for you and your family. Coming up next, politics and the pandemic. President trump battling crises on multiple fronts as he faces a looming election, a reelection contest. More on that, next. And later, fourth of july fireworks. Why the president s planned visit to mt. Rushmore is worrying both environmentalists and Public Health experts. This is Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. Stay with us. Reports on msnbc. Stay with us 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. Won these bluetooth headphones for 20. I got these three suitcases for less than 40. And shipping is always free. Go to dealdash. Com right now and see how much you can save. President trump and his Reelection Campaign are dealing with several crises this Holiday Weekend. The spreading coronavirus pandemic, clearly. His handling of intelligence on russia. And the countrys racial reckoning. The president is watching his polls plummet except on his handling of the economy. There has not been anything like this, record setting, shattering all expectations. Our economy is roaring back. Its coming back extremely strong. These are all historic numbers. A record, never had a number like that. Joining me now are nbcs White House Correspondent kristen welker, also coanchor of weekend today, gayle lemmon, a senior fellow at the council of foreign relations, and the New York Times correspondent peter baker. Kristen, most economists agree these economic increases are temporary because of the reopening. Basically the economy is only going to be as good as the issue of the virus and thats not Getting Better as far as we can see. Thats exactly right, andrea. President trump touting those strong economic numbers yesterday. And yet, the fact that a number of his aides and allies say, look, this may be temporary, you do see these states that are starting to scale back their reopening plans, and ultimately that could impact the state of the economy. And they think that ultimately, andrea, ultimately, he is going to be judged on his handling of this broader crisis, the coronavirus pandemic. And on that there have been a number of mixed messages. We saw that on display today where you had the Surgeon General on today talking to craig melvin and saying you should wear a mask, essentially urging people to wear masks, yet not being able to say if they should avoid large gatherings as we await President Trump heading to south dakota, to mt. Rushmore, to hold that big event this evening, where they will encourage Wearing Masks but theyre not going to require it. And so the president and the administration have been criticized for these mixed messages and saying that essentially its making it tougher for people to know how to navigate this crisis moving forward. There is also going to be, obviously, andrea, that big event here in d. C. We know that Hand Sanitizer stations are going to be set up, theyll be handing out masks, yet a lot of concern about the possibility that this could ultimately be one more big weekend of socializing that could impact the pandemic, andrea. And in fact the mayor is very much against it, telling people to stay home, while the president is saying come out to the mall. Just quickly i wanted to ask if youve learned anything more about those secret Service Agency who were preparing Vice President pences visit to arizona and contracted coronavirus or are showing symptoms, which limited the Vice President s efforts to just the airport. This is the second time this has happened, it happened in tulsa on the president s detail. Thats right, the second time its happened, andrea. It underscores how complicated it is to hold big events and to travel, frankly. So reports that as many as eight secret Service Agents did test positive ahead of the Vice President s trip. I reached out to the secret service who provided a statement overnight saying, quote, the health and safety of our workforce, their families, and that of our protectees remains the agencys highest priority. The agency continues to operate in compliance with the centers for Disease Control recommendations and the u. S. Secret service. So not disputing the reports, andrea, but really trying to underscore that they are focused on keeping their agents safe moving forward, andrea. Peter baker, youve covered so many president s. Again, the president seeing good numbers in his reelection polling at least on his handling of the economy, but the Labor Department is saying that nearly 5 million americans returned to work last month, but those were largely people who had been furloughed and the Unemployment Rate is falling to 11. 1 under their calculation, yet most economists say its at least 13 or 14 when you consider all the people who are no longer even looking for jobs. Well, thats right, and those numbers come from surveys done in the middle of june. In other words, two or three weeks ago, basically, before