Everybody. It us july 2nd, and, boy, do we have a lot to cover this morning. Im yasmin vossoughian. So we have new cases of coronavirus continuing to skyrocket across this country. The u. S. Topped 50,000 new cases in a single day for the first time yesterday. Thats coming just a week after topping 40,000 for the first time. Among the states with the highest number of new cases, california, texas, arizona, north carolina, and georgia, all reporting record daily totals. The president blames increased testing for the surge, but data showcases are also rising in places where testing has decreased. At the end of february when the United States was investigating its first few cases, the president said the virus would, quote, disappear like a miracle. Were now at nearly 2. 7 million cases, and more than 129,000 people are dead. And the president is still saying the same thing. I think that at some point thats going to sort of just disappear, i hope. You still believe so. I do. And it seems, though, the president is changing his tone about one thing, face masks. Yesterday during an interview with fox business he said he supports wearing them. Im all for masks. I think masks are good. If i were in a group of people and i was close you would wear one. Oh, i have. People have seen me wearing one. If im in a group of people where were not, you know, ten feet away but usually im not in that position and evens tested. Because im the president , they get tested before they see me. But if i were in a tight position, i would do you think the public will see that at some point . I have no problem. Actually i had a mask on. I liked the way i looked. I thought it was okay. I had a dark black mask, and i thought i looked oklahoma. I looked like the lone ranger. No, i have no problem with that, and i think people should do that. To be clear, he wore a mask once on a site visit and he wore it in an area where he thought the press could not see him. Other than that, i dont think weve seen the president wear a mask the number of active military personnel infected with coronavirus has more than doubled in the last few weeks, according to new numbers published by the defense department. As of wednesday, nearly 6,500 servicemembers are infected with the virus. Thats up from june 10th. In the last week alone, the number of cases in the air force has nearly doubled as well. On june 10th, there were 600 cases. By yesterday, the number of cases has jumped to over 1,500. The uptick has happened mostly in states that have seen a surge in cases, florida, texas, arizona, and parts of california. We have new reports suggesting how much money russians were willing to pay taliban militants to kill american troops in afghanistan. Thats according to New York Times and afghan officials. It was up to 1 100,000 per soldier. The details of how the money was actually dispersed to those carrying out the fatal attacks and to what level the coalition occurred, those details still remain unclear. According to u. S. Intelligence reports cited by the times the middle man is a businessman who say among those who reportedly collected the bounty cash in russia, which intelligence officials described as multiple payments of, quote, hundreds of thousands of dollars. Afghan security agencies, they carried out sweeping raids to arrest dozens of his relatives and associates six months ago but found he had fled the country and was likely back in russia. The times is reporting 500,000 in cash was found in one of his homes during the raids. Nbc news has not confirmed bounty payments were made as part of the reported russian plot. And even as his own administration is working to brief lawmakers, the president is insisting the reporting about russia paying bounties for the United States troops is just another instance of fake news. On the issue of russia and bounties, if theres ever a scenario in which russia puts a bounty on u. S. Troops, how would you respond. First of all, theyd hear about it. But we never heard about it because intelligence never found it to be of the of that level where it would rise to that. When you bring something in to a president , and i see many, many things, and im sure i didnt see many things because they didnt rise to the occasion. This rose to the occasion. What i hear and i hear it pretty good, the intelligence people didnt even many of them didnt believe it happened at all. I think its a hoax. I think its a hoax by the newspapers and the democrats. All right. So yesterday morning on twitter, the president also called the russia bounty reporting just another made up by fake news and referred to it as just another hoax as you heard him say there. Meanwhile the Washington Post is reporting that the Washington Post is not planning an Immediate Response to the reports about russian bounties because according to two Senior Administration officials, President Trump does not believe the reports are true or actionable. During a briefing yesterday, White House Press secretary Kayleigh Mcenany was asked about the concern of russian reports of russian bounties. What does the president have to say to the families of military servicemembers who are afraid their loved ones might have been killed due to the russian bounty. The families are saying we want the United States and federal government to call us. What is this president s message to the military families in this country . Its unverified intelligence. Its continuing be assessed. The department of defense has said they do not know of any americans who have been killed related to this unverified intelligence thats currently being assessed. All right. Joining me now, White House Reporter for politico, gabby yor orr. Good morning to you. Thank you for getting up for us. We appreciate it. What kind of reaction are we getting over the president calling the russian bounties a hoax, especially when you have intel officials Briefing Congress about this, what the president is calling a hoax . Well, quite a few lawmakers were briefed on wednesday by intelligence officials. The Intelligence Committee is one of them. A lot of members on the committee has said theres no reason for them to believe that any of this intelligence is actually not credible, that they believe after going through the briefing there is legitimacy to it and the president should be taking it more seriously than he is. Representative adam schiff was another. They said the president should not be dismissing this simply as a hoax but instead explaining why he wasnt briefed on it if that is, in fact, true, though, we know based on what white house officials have told politico and other outlets recently there was an inclusion in the president ial Daily Briefing of the intelligence and the president needs to explain what his administration plans to do about it. The explanation that weve heard from White House Press secretary over and over again this week thatis simply unverified intelligence is not sufficing for these lawmakers and for the president s critics. Yeah. It is astounding to say the least, considering the fact you have folks in congress being briefed on this intelligence, and yet the president is continuously saying he believes it is a hoax. He has to admit it in order for it to be actionable. Its got you scratching your head as to whats happening in the white house now. Lets talk about the change in tone over the coronavirus, the president now supporting saying hes wearing a mask. He also says this thing is going to disappear like he said back in february. Now there are millions of folks who have contracted this virus. You also mention in one of your most recent reports the Vice President and others are commending governors who slowed their reopening plans in some states. What more can you tell us about the shift in position . Well, theres a lot of discussion inside the white house right now on exactly how much the president should be talking about coronavirus because as weve seen before, when he talks about things like masks, when he talks about the possibility of a vaccine, when he talks about state reese opening, oftentimes he contradicts himself. On the one hand he has mocked republicans for wearing masks. He has mocked his 2020 challenger, former Vice President joe biden for wearing a mask, but on the other hand, he said yesterday he would wear a mask himself if he was in a group. So theres a lot of shifting happening in the white house messaging with regard to the coronavirus, and the big internal debate right now, according to what my sources are telling me, is whether the president wants to resume these sort of daily or weekly briefings by the Coronavirus Task force, which is, of course, led by mike pence, that would give a lot of these states grappling with surges of the coronavirus on what to do, what the Health Officials encourage them to do, or whether the president should focus instead on the economy, on his reelection campaign, and just not talk about the disease as much as possible. And you cant help but wonder if this shifting mindset, if this shifting focus has to do with the fact that the coronavirus is now hitting more republican states than it was before in the northeast. Gabby orr, thank you. Stay close. Im going to talk to you again in just a little bit. Still ahead, e about, an Appeals Court judge talks about a book written by the president s niece can be published, but the legal fight may not stop there. Also pfizer fights for a potential coronavirus vaccine. Those stories, and, of course, a check of the weather when we come back. Check of the weather e come back. Facing leaks takes strength. So heres to the strong, who trust in our performance and comfortable, longlasting protection. Because your strength is supported by ours. Depend. The only thing stronger than us, is you. Because your strength is supported by ours. For bathroom odors that linger try febreze small spaces. Just press firmly and it continuously eliminates odors in the air and on soft surfaces. For 45 days. Cmon pizzas here. Whoa is that shaq . This is my new pizza the shaqaroni and its bigger than pizza because for every shaqaroni sold, 1 is donated to the Papa Johns Foundation for building community. 1 is donated to the Papa Johns Foundation bbut what if you couldg do better than that . Like adapt. Discover. Deliver, in new ways, to new customers. What if you could come back stronger . Faster. Better. At comcast business, we want to help you not just bounce back, but bounce forward. And now, with one of our best offers ever, were committed to helping you do just that. Get a powerful and reliable internet and voice solution for only 29. 95 a month for three months. Call or go online today. Welcome back. An Appeals Court judge has ruled that the publication of mary trumps tellall book about the president and trump family, that it can move forward. So the decision reversed a lower court order that temporarily halted publication of, too much and never enough, how my family created the world most dangerous man. He argued shes prohibited from publishing the book as part of an inheritance from her grandfathers estate. But the court decided its not part of it. He writes in part, unlike miss trump, s s has not decided to relinquish any of its First Amendment rights. The publisher may distribute copies while the case is being heard. So lets get into this now. Nbcs legal analyst danny cevallos, good morning to you. Good morning. This is confusing to me, ive got to be honest. Theyre saying she cant publish this book, though, she can write it. But the publisher, in fact, can publish it. How does that distinction there work with regards to this nda. The Appellate Division here is not issuing a final order. Theyre just issuing an order that preserves or fixes the status quo until theres a real and full hearing on the merits, and thats the key here. The court here is not saying that Simon Shuster can never be considered an agent of mary trump. Theyre saying robert trump and the plaintiffs didnt show enough evidence here to say that mary trump and Simon Shuster has an Agency Relationship such that they could be prohibited. In the future, there may be enough evidence that they should be considering an agent under this confidentiality agreement. For exam hello, her actual agent was enjoined under this appellate decision order. So this isnt a question of Simon Shuster never being restrained. Its just that in this particular hearing or order, there wasnt enough evidence. So they may come up with enough evidence in the future, but, yes, youre right. Now were left with this very strange situation where mary trump is prevented from publishing, but the publisher is able to publish what mary trump could not. But then you have the same issue that we have with the john bolton book, which is the book is basically out there. Its getting out there. Is there any enforceable nda, nondisclosure agreement, at this point when dealing with the president , especially when the information is already out there . Whats even the point of moving forward at this point . Its even stranger because the appellate decision order today tells us for now Simon Shuster is enjoined. What if later on the Supreme Court says, hey, no, you cant do that. What are you going to do . Talk about out there in the either already. Simon shuster is in a strange position already, plus the fact the appellate decision had changed because this originally was an agreement as to a real estate developer. Now its a book about the president of the United States and his family. The First Amendmenti issues thee do change. Danny cevallos, thank you as always. Still ahead, Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell breaks with the president urging him not to veto a massive defense spending bill that could remove the names of confederate bases. Back in a moment. Names of confederate bases. Back in a moment a manager here at Colonial PennLife Insurance company, to tell you it is possible. If youre age 50 to 85, you can get Life Insurance with options starting at just 9. 95 a month. Okay, jonathan, im listening. Tell me more. Just 9. 95 a month for Colonial Penns number one most popular whole Life Insurance plan. There are no Health Questions to answer and there are no medical exams to take. Your acceptance is guaranteed. Guaranteed acceptance . I like guarantees. Keep going. And with this plan, your rate is locked in for your lifetime, so it will never go up. Sounds good to me, but at my age, i need the security of knowing it wont get cancelled as i get older. This is Lifetime Coverage as long as you pay your premiums. It can never be cancelled, call now for free information. Youll also get this free beneficiary planner. Use this valuable guide to record your Important Information and give helpful direction about your final wishes to your loved ones. And its yours free. Its our way of saying thank you just for calling. So call now. Welcome back. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell yesterday urged the president not to veto a defense spending bill over a proposal that would require the pentagon to rename bases currently named after confederate leaders. Well, i would hope the pretty really wouldnt veto the bill over this issue. I hope the president would consider vetoing the entire defense bill, which includes pay raises for our troops over a provision in there that could lead to changing the names of some of these military bases. So the majority leaders comments comes after the president tweeted this. I will veto the Defense Authorization bill if the elizabeth poke honor as the warren of all people amend which will lead to the remanaming plu other bad things of ft. Bragg, fort robert e. Lee, and many other military bases is in the plan. They came up with a plan to rename at least ten bases within three years. All right. Lets switch gears and get a check on your forecast with meteorologist janessa webb. Good morning to you, janessa. Good morning, yasmin. Good morning, everyone wchlre seeing great conditions across portions of the east coast. Were still dealing with rain across the south. People are not able to enjoy the heat as its going to be stifling. This is currently what it feels like. 73 degrees in kansas city, lower 70s for st. Louis. We expect it to rev up to the 90s in some spots. The feelslike temperature on your skin, in the triple territory. Youre seeing the heat rise all the way across to missouri. New orleans, you start to get in on this as well as atlanta. We could potentially get up to about 30 Million People this afternoon. So high heat and humidity going to be in place for today. Cincinnati, youre at 90 degrees. We have record temperatures that are going to be in jeopardy for chicago. This is the ninth straight day that theyve been in the upper 80s to lower 90s. Even washington, d. C. , potentially going into this weekend going to be seeing their first heatwave of the season. I think you have many spots that the heat and humidity is going to be staying in place as we go into midjuly. So this is going to be a long stretch. Also the Severe Weather threat will allow some popup storms to really start to move into the wichita area all