Good morning, everybody. It is monday, august 3rd, and im yasmin vossoughian. Weve investigate a lot to cover this morning. Were going to begin with the wave of new coronavirus cases spreading across the country. From coast to coast, the number of confirmed cases jumped by about 2 million during the month of july. The u. S. Ended the month with about 4. 5 million infections, up from 2 million at the end of june. The previous high was april when 880,000 new cases were recorded. Data shows cases of the virus are picking up. Illinois is reimposing restrictions and issuing warnings about a rise in hospitalizations. California recorded 214 deaths on friday, a record total for the state it. Marked the fifth time in july that california broke its singleday record for deaths. And florida is nearly half a million cases on friday. The state recorded 257 deaths, another grim record for that state. Nearly 100 of those victims were in miamidade county. Also white houses dr. Birx warned were in a new phase of this pandemic and urged americans to take precautions. What were seeing today is different from march and april. Its extraordinarily widespread. Its into the rural as equal suburban areas. Those in the rural areas, youre not immune or protected from this virus. Thats why we keep saying, no matter where you live in americaing you need to wear a mask and socially distance. And dr. Birx strongly defended her record yesterday following claims by House Speaker nancy pelosi that she and President Trump are spreading disinformation about the deadly virus. Politico reported in a closed meeting on friday you accused dr. Birx of the Coronavirus Task force of spreading disinformation about the pandemic. Is that true, and you do have confidence about her . I think the president is spreading disinformation about the virus, and she is his appointee, so i dont have confidence there, no. I have tremendous respect for the speaker, and i have tremendous respect for her long dedication to the American People, and i think it was unfortunate that New York Times wrote this article without speaking to me. I could have brought forth the data. I provide data every single day about the analysis. The day i brought the data and i was called pollyanna, ive never been called pollyanna. And ill stake my principles on utilizing data to really implement better programs to save more lives. So the new postmaster generals procedural changes at the u. S. Postal service, theyre reportedly creating backlogs of delivery that may threaten mailin ballots for the upcoming election. Hes ordered costcutting measures that prohibit on time delivery and requires mail carriers to leave mail behind to avoid extra trips or leave deliveries and routes. There have been delays of at least two days in many parts of this country coupled with the president s repeated claims that mailin voting is inaccurate and unreliable. Critics believe the changes are critically motivated and theyre designed to undercut the post at service ahead of the election. Postal workers telling the Washington Post the backlogs are becoming so dire if things continue, theyll not be able to locate the ballots in time for them to be processed. If they keep this up, theres no telling how many days worth of delays there could be, a postal worker from california has said. Also the president s Reelection Campaign will reportedly start running new attack ads today against joe biden in key early voting states such as michigan and South Carolina. More than half the ballots in 2020 will be cast before election day. In Battle Ground state such as minnesota and michigan, voting begins as early as next month. There are 39 states that offer some form of early voting. Trumps campaign has all but disappeared from the airways as it undertook a Strategic Review under new Campaign Manager bill stepien. On wednesday and thursday, the Trump Campaign spent virtually nothing on radio and tv advertising while biden spent just under 4 million in just those two days. He in anticipation, President Trump tweeted in part this, were doing a new ad campaign on Sleepy Joe Biden that will be out on monday. He has been brought even further left than crazy Bernie Sanders ever. Joining us is msnbc legal analyst Danny Lippman left. s talk about the Strategy Campaign to run new attack ads against joe biden in key voting states. What do you think of the move . Well, its you know, oftentimes you see ads in the last few weeks of the campaign, but its only early august that theyre under a lot of pressure to define joe biden as some type of scary figure that women in the suburbs will not, you know, roy tonight be president. But it offseason too late because joe biden has been defined by his own record and his career for decades, and so its much harder to make him someone that the American People dont think he is. They dont see him as a radical leftist when he is your kind of, you know, crazy uncle from pennsylvania. It will also be interesting to see the type of momentum joe biden builds when he announces who his Vice President ial pick will be as we anticipate will happen this week, as he said, the first week in august. Lets talk about these issues at the u. S. Postal service ahead of the november election. How concerned if at all is congress right now . The congress is, you know, very concerned, at least the democratic members, congressmen, senators the this new guy louis dejoy is a big trump guy and trying to destroy the Postal Service. Hes only been there a month or two. Im sure theyre going to have hearings and look into what can be done to reverse those procedural changes to have a smooth Election Campaign that many people are relying on the Postal Service to get their ballots and to get them back in time or otherwise we might have chaos on election day. I would note that if it turned out to be a blowout for biden, then some of these issues might not matter if hes just way ahead in many of the you know, the early results. You would hope that Election Officials are starting to count ballots as they get them instead of just waiting until the you know, until the day of the balloting. You would hope. Daniel lippman, thank you. Stay close. Im going to talk to you again in just a little bit. So reuters is reporting the president has agreed to give the company that owns tiktok 45 days to reach a deal with microsoft, according three people familiar with this matter. Microsoft said over the weekend it would continue discussions with chinese internet giant bytedance. Trump has threatened to ban tiktok and even use his executive power, citing security concerns, that it poses risks because of the personal data it handles. The president said hes willing to allow the transfer if they completely separate from china. It will transfer to and remain in the United States and anything external outside the United States will, in fact, be deleted. Still ahead, everybody, the president calls for the Death Penalty against one of the Boston Marathon bombers after an Appeals Court tossed his sentence. Also isaias is moving up the east coast after hitting floridas coast with heavy rain. Were tracking the path of that storm. Those stories and more when we come back. More when we come back. 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. 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Just press firmly and it continuously eliminates odors in the air and on soft surfaces. For 45 days. Welcome back. The president yesterday called for the courts to seek the Death Penalty for Boston Marathon bam bomber dzhokhar tsarnaev. Rarely does a person deserve the Death Penalty more, he tweeted. They must seek a doover of that. Our country cannot let the appellate decision stand. Tsarnaev and his older brother killed some and injured hundreds. His brother was killed by police. They agree that the jurors in boston were not screened for impartiali impartiality. Tsarnaevs attorney said its up to the government to decide whether to put victims through this. Joining me now, msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. Good morning, danny. Good morning. A lot of folks following this case pretty closely. Break down why the Appeals Court decision vacated the sentence and the possible next steps here in this case. Ever since me decades ago the case that gave us the maneuver fugitive, the Supreme Court has allowed a conviction to be overturned if theres too much pretrial publicity. Several decades ago nobody imagined publicity would be what it is today with the internet, social media, and everything else. Right off the bat, challenging that is an uphill battle, and then appealing a District Courts daerlgs etermination isr uphill battle. All of this pretrial information tainted his ability to have a fair trial and the district judge didnt allow him to inquire about it, however they may have been biased by it. So this case is going back down to the District Court not for a new trial on the liability phase but for a new trial only on sentencing. And really the only issue is whether or not he gets the Death Penalty or he just gets life in prison, and the court tossed just a couple of convictions on the firearm statute. But for really or purposes, the main point that its going back down to the District Court for the retrial on the sentencing phase, death or life in prison. What about the president ial tweets here . Do they play any kind of role if the government fights to get the Death Penalty back . Its ironic, isnt it, that the challenge is theres too much pretrial publicity, and the president adds to that pretrial publicity by tweeting about the defendant. Its interesting, going back many decades to the Charles Manson trial, that case was almost upended because president nixon at the time publicly opined that manson was guilty, and that threatened the trial back then. Now the president is tweeting the penalty outcome he wants to see in the new retrial penalty phase. The president may get his wish. Its really up to whichever new jury is impaneled to give or not give that ultimate sentence. All right. Danny cevallos, thank you as always. Great to see you this morning. Lets talk about retired Lieutenant ColonelAlexander Vinman who testified at President Trumps impeachment hare. He offer and oped. He writes in part. This after 21 years, six months, an ten days of active mip tair service, i am now a civilian. I made the difficult decision to retire because a campaign of bullying, intimidation, and retaliation by President Trump and his allies forever limited the progression of my military career. At no point in my career or life have i felt our nations values under greater threat and in more peril than at this moment. Our citizens are being subjected to the same types of attacks tyrants launch against their critics and political opponents. Those who choose loyalty to American Values and allegiance to the constitution over devotion to a mendacious president and hissal lyes are pun rushed to. This day i believe in the american dream. I believe in america right matters. I want to help ensure right matters for all americans. Stil still ahead, everybody, it was the first splashdown by astronauts in four years. Still head, a look at the space capsule and nasa crew. Were back in a moment. D nasa c. Were back in a moment oh, oh, oh, ozempic® announcer onceweekly ozempic® is helping many people with type 2 diabetes like emily lower their blood sugar. A majority of adults who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. Heres your a1c. Oh my a1c is under 7 announcer and you may lose weight. Adults who took ozempic® lost on average up to 12 pounds. I lost almost 12 pounds oh announcer for those also with known heart disease, ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke, or death. It lowers the risk. Oh and i only have to take it once a week. Oh oh, oh, oh, ozempic® announcer ozempic® is not for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. Do not share needles or pens. Dont reuse needles. 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Ive been taking prevagen on a regular basis for at least eight years. For me, the greatest benefit over the years has been that prevagen seems to help me recall things and also think more clearly. And i enthusiastically recommend prevagen. It has helped me an awful lot. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Around here, nobody ever does it. I didnt do it. So when i heard they added ultra oxi to the cleaning power of tide, it was just what we needed. Dad . I didnt do it. 1 stain and odor fighter, 1 trusted. Its got to be tide. Its hard to put into words just what it was like to be part of this expedition 63. It will be kind of a memory that will last a lifetime for me, just all the incredible teamwork and accomplishments with the highlights obviously being the four spacewalks that we worked together. Incredible. Welcome back, everybody. That was nasa astronaut doug hurley aboard the International Space station on saturday. Yesterday marked the first water landing by an American Space crew in nearly 45 years. Spacexs crew dragon capsule splashed down. What a moment it was to see. They transported astronauts bob behnken and hurley. Its considered a first step in a new era of commercial space flight and tourism. Also, almost two weeks into the baseball season, coronavirus cases are continuing rise. The st. Louis cardinals are bracing for additional positive test results today after confirming saturday that one player and three Staff Members tested positive. The teams threegame series in milwaukee over the weekend was postponed, and it is unclear the teams will play their game against the tigers starting tomorrow. But the Miami Marlins outbreak still appears to be the biggest in baseball with 18 players and two coaches testing positive last week. Commissioner rob manfred has warned the Players Union the season could be shut down if the coronavirus is not better managed. All right. Lets get a fit look at your forecast with msnbc meteorologist bill karins. Good morning. I know were tracking a Tropical Storm, but headed toward being a hurricane once again as it touches down on the coast. Yeah. Good morning you do, yasmin. Yeah, isaias has been bordering between hurricane strength and a Strong Tropical Storm over the past two or three days. It spared florida yesterday, but were watching the impact starting to rise later today and landfall tonight in the North Carolina and South Carolina border around myrtle beach. Heres whats new from the hurricane center. We now have Tropical Storm warnings in orange from the florida coast all the way up to new york city. This is all the way up the entire eastern seaboard thats go