Good morning. Its tuesday, july 7th. Im Alicia Menendez. We begin with President Trump and his xenophobia. Yesterday he amplified his message in a series of tweets, asking when nascar driver Bubba Wallace would apologize for the noose found h his garage, suggest nascar made a bad decision by banning the Confederate Flag. He again referred to the coronavirus as the china virus. He called out the cities of new york and chicago to stoke fear of immigrants and crime. He accused sports teams that are rethinking their names of giving in to political correctness. The Washington Post robert costa reported this yesterday. A trump adviser tells me this morning that many in the president s circle are eager to turn to biden and china, to make that front the battleground. Very little appetite for this continued focus on race. But the president in60s on driving his own message t adviser says. Meanwhile coronavirus has left no state unscathed as cases continue to surge. So far the u. S. Has over 3 million cases and reported at least 131,000 deaths. The u. S. Has added 330,000 cases in the week of july. The surges are seen in tennessee, West Virginia, and florida. Hospitals have reported theyre almost at capacity. Yesterday morning arizona announced that 89 of the states intensive care unit beds were full. Meanwhile mixed messaging continues to come from the white house with President Trump making the false claim that 99 of covid19 cases are, quote, harmless. Meanwhile, dr. Thounanthony fau said its the beginning of the pandemic. He urged for the situation to be addressed immediately. The current state is really not good in the sense that as you know we have been in a situation where were averaging about 20,000 new cases a day. Two days ago it was at 57,500. So within a period of a week and a half, weve almost doubled the number of cases. So in answer to your first question, we are still knee deep in the first wave of this, and i would say this would not be considered a wave. It was a surge or resurgence of infections, superimposed upon a baseline, francis, that got down to where we never really wanted to go. As the number of coronavirus cases climbs across the u. S. , many states are implementing extra precautions to limit the rate of infection. In florida, the mayor of Miamidade County said he will reclose restaurants, dining rooms, gyms, and many other business businesses, but will keep beaches, stores, and hair salons open for now. The mayor of West Virginia made Face Covering mandatory inside buildings when social distancing is not possible. And mayor ned lamont said hes keeping an eye on whats happening and paused reopening phase 3 indefinitely. Atlantas mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms says she has contracted covid19. The democratic mayor is often mentioned as joe bidens possible potential running mate. Heres what she had to say about coming into contact with the virus. Im processing all of this. I just received my results. My husband literally has been sleeping since thursday, which is just not like him, so i decided that we should all get tested again. We were tested two weeks ago, and we were all negative. Our results came back positive today, and its a shock because what ive seen with him is not out of the ordinary for seasonal allergies, which are just about yearround allergies in atlanta. It leaves me for a loss of words because i think it really speaks to how contagious this virus is, and weve taken all of the precautions that you can possibly take. We wear a mask, were very thoughtful about washing our hands. I have no idea when and where we were exposed. Meanwhile, mississippi governor tate reeves said yesterday hes awaiting results from his covid test tweeting in part, quote, it appears numerous members of the Mississippi House are confirmed to have contracted the virus last week, only one of whom i was briefly in contact with. Chuck grassley announced he will skip the Republican National convention for the first time in 40 years concerned about the coronavirus. The iowa senator told reporters monday im not going to gond aim not going go because of the vie raus situation. Hes attended every Convention Since he was elected in 1980. It was move id to florida. Joining me now, jace caruso. Most cases are harmless. We know the president s advisers want to extricate him from this messaging. Why are they not able to do so . Because the president , i think he signaled this months ago he was tired of taking advice from people around him and he was going to go with his gut instinct, and his gut instinct in times of crisis is to ignore it, pretend its not happening. We saw this in february and march when he said the virus was going to magically disappear, go away one day. Here it is. Its not july. Things are still bad. 131,000 deaths later. And now hes out there, pretending that 99 of the cases are harmless, and its just ridiculous. At this point, i dont think hes people are saying, why wont he change, why wont he do this. I dont think he wants to. He wants to be a trump that his instincts are going to guide him in 2020 as it did somewhat in 2016. And yet you have republican senator Chuck Grassley who says hes not going to go to the Republican National convention, citing the virus as a big part of his rationale. I wonder if there are other republicans who will follow suit. There might be. As you said in your report, Chuck Grassley is 86 years old. Hes one of the more Vulnerable People to hospitalization and death from covid19. So it makes sense that he doesnt want to go. There may be others as well as it gets closer, as we continue to see the sevenday averages rising, knowing President Trump is not going to want to implement any kind of social distancing within the Republican National convention, any kind of mask wearing. Yeah, i think it would certainly be possible, especially amongst older senators. Jay caruso, thank you. Coming up, we wei in on the Electoral College and a woman calls in on a black man who was bird watching in the park. Those stories and a check of your weather when we come right back. Ther when we come right back experience the adventure of a bigger world in a highly capable lexus suv at the golden opportunity sales event. Lease the 2020 nx 300 for 339 a month for 36 months. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. 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. 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. our bargain detergent couldnt keep up. With us. N turns out its mostly water. So, we switched back to tide. One wash, stains are gone. Daughter slurping dont pay for water. Pay for clean. Its got to be tide. Welcome back. The white woman in central park caught on tape calling the police on a black man who asked her to put her dog on a leash is charged with filing a false police report. Please call the cops, please call the cops. Im going tell them theres an africanamerican Man Threatening my life. Please tell them what youd like. Amy cooper will face up to a year in jail if convicted. Amy cooper issued a public apology in may for making a call that quickly cost her her job and her dog at least temporarily. According to the new york times, this is the first instance in the u. S. With a white person being charged with filing a false complaint against an africanamerican. In a rare unanimous decision, the Supreme Court held that fr that a state may require president ial electors to support its popularvote winner. Elena kagan writes the state instructs its electors that they have no ground for reversing the vote of millions of its citizens. We have with us legal analyst danny cevallos. Is it as straightforward as it seems . Well, on the one hand the electors argue that the right to vote is so sacrosanct, so cherished, they shouldnt interview, but the states prevailed, arguing that the constitution gives them broad power to appoint electors, and that power to appoint including power to control and the power to fine or penalize if these electors go rogue. So it does stop chaos in advance of the election because those states that choose to regulate their electors can do so constitutionally. But keep in mind there are many states that choose not to regulate their electors, and so the decision does not require them to fine or penalize their electors. States are free to allow their electors to go rogue and change their mind and do whatever they want. So that could lead to some chaos for some states. On the amy cooper case, i wonder what you make of this misdemeanor charge. Its a little different in new york. Its a ticket in the sense that shes given a ticket to appear, but it is a misdemeanor charge, and the charge is not a raciallybased crime. It is for giving a false police report, and she has to do so knowingly. That means that its more than reckless, more than negligent. She had to know what she was filing is false. I suspect that her defense is going to argue she believed in her heart that she was being threatened, and given that the default rule is they have to prove their case, the government, beyond a reasonable doubt, that reasonable doubt could favor the defendant in this case. So this is a defensible criminal case even though in the court of Public Opinion it is apparently very indefensive. Danny cevallos, thank you very much. Still ahead, new reporting about a republican governor flying on air force one with the president after being exposed to a trump staffer who tested positive for coronavirus. That story and more next. E next joint pain, swelling, tenderness. My psoriasis. Cosentyx works on all of this. Cosentyx treats the multiple symptoms of Psoriatic Arthritis to help you look and feel better. Dont use if youre allergic to cosentyx. Before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. An increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. 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When your vneck looks more like a uneck. Thats when you know, its halfwashed. Try downy fabric conditioner. Unlike detergent alone, downy helps prevent stretching by conditioning and smoothing fibers, so clothes look newer, longer. Downy and its done. South dakota governor christie nome joined trump Onboard Air Force one. Despite close contact with guilfoyle the day before, she traveled. A photo shows the two women hugging. A spokesperson for nome shows she tested and the south dakota governor does not plan to get tested again. Asked about why noem was asked to travel with the president in the first place, they said in part, quote, they take the president s health very seriously. They would net put him in harms way. For a first look at your forecast, lets go to meteorologist bill karins. Bill, what have you got for us . Good morning to you, alicia. The storms continuing right through the Early Morning hours. As we look at the radar, a lot of it is finally ending, but yesterday was just a mess. We look at the northeast. We look at the last 12 hours. Each of these blue dots is a high wind report. Each of the white dots is a large hail report. And yours truly, i got to go storm chasing yesterday afternoon. I took my 10yearold son with me and we punched right into the center of what we call a hail core right in front of one of these large storms. It was the largest hail ive seen in the seven or eight years ive lived here. The largest i could see was about 1inch hail. Theres a lot of trees down and cleanup needed throughout the region. Lets look at todays forecast and what were going to be dealing with. Later on today, well see strong storms through the Northern Plains coming out from the rockies. Watch out montana, north dakota and could move to duluth, minneapolis. The building storms could become a big story by the end of the week frchl the Southern Plains through the ohio valley, yesterday was the hottest day of the year in many arias and today will be equally as hot. Were going to see a full week of 90plus in the great lakes and hundreds will build in oklahoma through areas down to texas. The temperature forecast, the heat index this afternoon for i think the 13th day in a row, washington, d. C. , will be over 90. Chicago will feel like 95 to 100 along with areas of ohio. Very warm from wichita to little rock. The heat continued through wednesday. Especially look at dallas there, up to 102 by the time we get to saturday. Alicia, did you get any of those thunderstorms sunny say good because they didnt do too much damage. I did. Loud, pelting against the window. It was wild. Yep. Yeah. For this region of the country, it was unusual. Thanks. Crazy. Thanks. Thanks, bill. Major League Baseball seems to be struggling to administer coronavirus for its Upcoming Season as several teams were forced to cancel workouts yesterday after failing to receive results. Last years world series participants, the Washington Nationals and the Houston Astros as well as the st. Louis cardinals and Oakland Athletics all postponed practices over testing delays. The team collected its own saliva samples and mailed them to the testing facility in utah according to espn. The angels decided to hold an optional practice yesterday. Then there was a rain delay and they believe it was a shortrange situation. The general manager found it much more alarming releasing a statement saying the mlb, quote, needs to work quickly to resolve issues with their process and their lab. Otherwise summer camp and the 2020 season are at risk. The Washington Post wrote testing problems cast doubt on viability of mlb season, days after baseballs return. Theyre looking to add another lab and speed up streamlined testing. Still ahead, President Trump tweeted yesterday nascar racing fans have gone down. Well have more on that. Also trump falsely claims that 99 of coronavirus cases are totally harmless. Were back in a moment. Totally harmless were back in a moment were taking everything we wanted we can do it all strength, no sweat 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. You cant always stop for a fingerstick. Betes is supported by ours. With the freestyle libre 14 day system, a continuous glucose monitor, you dont have to. With a painless, onesecond scan you can check your glucose with a smart phone or reader so you can stay in the moment. No matter where you are or what youre doing. Ask your doctor for a prescription for the freestyle libre 14 day system. You can do it without fingersticks. Learn more at freestylelibre. Us. It wont wait for a convenient time. Or for hospitals to get back to normal again. Thats why, at Cancer Treatment centers of america, we arent waiting. Were right here, still focused on the only thing we do, providing worldclass cancer care, all under one roof. Because cancer isnt just what we do, its all we do. Cancer Treatment Centers of america. Call now for an appointment. Welcome back. Im Alicia Menendez. We begin this half hour with President Trumps tweet yesterday attacking nascar driver Bubba Wallace, asking if wallace has apologized to those who stood by his side after discoveri