You. This decision, although expected by some, it was still shocking to a lot of white house aides, right . Reporter thats right, alex. Were learning this hour from sources close to the administration, according to Nbcs Carol Lee and Pete Williams that attorney general bill barr actually tried to convince the president not to offer this clemency to roger stone. The attorney general, in recent days, had called the prosecution of roger stone righteous and said that the sentence that roger stone had been given by the judge was in barrs view fair. The attorney general apparently unsuccessful in convincing the president not to go ahead and offer this commutation to his longtime friend, roger stone. But we know theres also opposition from other aides within the white house who were concerned about the political ramifications of the president offering this clemency, worried that there would be blowback from people who thought the president was intervening in the impartial, fair justice system, but we heard from the white house nonetheless last night, saying the president was offering this clemency to roger stone, who he said was a victim of a russian hoax. The white house going on in a statement to say that the president doesnt want to interfere with the efforts related to prosecution, but at this time, in light of the egregious fact, hes commuting the sentence. The president going on to say, roger stone has already suffered greatly and were treated unfairly. Roger stone is now a free man. But the concern here, alex, not just that the president seems to have been doing a favor for a friend, but whether the president wanted to offer clemency to roger stone, essentially in exchange for what roger stone has said was his decision not to cooperate fully with prosecutors by providing them information, potentially incriminating information about president donald trump. Take a listen to what house intelligence chairman adam sc hichlt hiff has to say. If you lie for the president , cover up for the president , if you withhold information that could incriminate the president. He will make sure that unlike other people, you dont have to go. There are now two standards of justice in this country, one for the criminal pals of the president and one for everybody else. Reporter but even as this outrage mounts from a lot of democrats, even a few republicans, alex, theres not a whole lot that anybody is really going to be able to do about this, because the pardon power that the president has, as well as his clemency power to offer commutations is pretty absolute. You cant go to a court and ask them to reverse the president s decision and essentially what critics are left with is the ability to make a political argument that the president shouldnt have done this and should be punished for it in november. But as far as trying to actually stop or block this action, there are not a lot of avenues for anybody to do that. Thank you for the reporting from the white house for that. Joining me now, as we continue this conversation, sam numberg. Its good to see you. Its been a bit. Let me ask you this. Given your history working with roger stone, what went through your mind when you heard roger stone would not be going to prison, and have you communicated with him . Ive not talked to roger since 2017 and i didnt want to talk to roger even when i could have, because i didnt know what would happen either if he went to jail or if he was commuted. Ill give him a call in a couple of weeks. I wanted to be sure that they couldnt say i was having any influence or was colluding with him on this. I was happy to hear about this. I understand that some people say theres political fallout. Alex, the reality is that there would have been tremendous political fallout from the president s right. He faced tremendous pressure from advocates in the house, from advocates on fox news, from advocates in conservative media. But the reality is, too, remember, he commuted the sentence. Roger is still under appeals. And the Justice Department acted horrendously. And im not surprised that barr was against this. Barr, you know, wanted roger to be the pound of flesh for everyone. Thats the reality. All we were asking is for barr to treat roger the way he treated flynn, and shame on barr. So, sam, youre interpreting one side of this. Theres another way to look at this. And that would be whether or not roger stone knows anything that could hurt donald trump and, if so, would that have impacted trumps decision to keep his friend out of prison . The reality is, as i said to you before, i believe roger and donald spoke about. [ inaudible ] roger, however, despite his best efforts, had nothing to do with the hacking, nothing to do with the releasing, nothing to do with the strategizing of wikileaks or whoever else. Therefore theres no criminal conspiracy. Thats why this case should never have been prosecuted, much less go over the witnesses they had. Steve bannon either lied to mueller or the house. He has his own problems, is under investigation in the Southern District. Roger stone was convicted of lying as well. How is this different . Look at what mitt romney was saying about it. Well, mitt romney, mitt cromney lied to us that he was going to run a competent president ial campaign against barack obama. Mitt romney has hated roger for a long time. That trial, i had problems with it, too, Amy Berman Jackson said things at the manafort trial, al alex, that made her conflicted to do this trial. It came out she lied. Of course, the judge said she didnt. Even on the accounts of witness tampering, you had randy say at the end of the day you may have it statutorily but i didnt feel like i was ever threatened. Thats what roger is appealing. So, sam, youre just saying that a jury foreman and a judge were lying. Where is the proof on that . No, im saying the judge was biased, conflicted, should not have done it. How about the jury foreman . Yeah, the foreman lied. The foreman absolutely lied. Are you familiar with it . Im not here to attack im not here to fight with you about it. The foreman lied. So, if you if the jury foreman lied, sam, that means the jury foreman took all of those jurors, the other 11 with the foreman, correct, in saying yep, we agree that its a lie. Thats a pretty serious allegation. Okay. So if she has a problem, she can sue me. I think shes a liar. In fact, go look at the Facebook Post she put up and then go look at what she said when they were questioning her if she had any bias. Its outrageous. I want the audience to look at this. If this was a democrat or anybody else, this was a c kangaroo court. Your buddy tweets last night maybe we should put roger in a grand jury now. Andrew, you could have put roger in a grand jury. He offered to meet with you guys. You had it in your head that you wanted to indict him. And you lost. This is a loss. At the end of the day, there was no criminal conspiracy i want to make this clear. No criminal conspiracy. Therefore, it was immaterial what roger said. It was immaterial that roger and the president had these conversations. The other issue is, why should roger go to a jail . The same that has released nonviolent criminals for covid. You cant make this up. Sam, he was convicted by a jury. You can argue this and continue to do so, and im sure youll be back again on the broadcast and may continue to do so then, but lets leave that right now and remind folks again, he was convicted by a jury, notwithstanding all youre saying there and the allegation the therein. Something i want to get your opinion on, the rising antitrump sentiment within the republican party. Lets take a look at a part of a new ad taking direct aim at gop senators, produced by the lincoln project. Some day soon, the time of trump will pass. This circus of incompetence, corruption and cruelty will end. When it does, the men and women in Trumps Republican Party will come to you, telling you they can repair the damage he has done. Theyll beg you to forgive their votes to exonerate trump from his crimes, ask you to forgive their silence. Learn their names. Remember their actions. And never, ever trust them. How effective do you think this ad is . What do you think the impact might be . Its a republican group. What do you think the president is thinking, as he sees this . Whats going through his mind . Well, i think that [ inaudible ] then thats their view. The party doesnt agree with them over 90 . I dont think the problem will have a problem with turnout. Alex, to me, this group is a little strange. Does that mean they want joe biden, nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumer all in power, like we had . Look, i will say this, sam. I think it does when you look at the options. And i will say, having spoken with one of the founders of the group, 43 alumni for biden. Thats the name. It consists of several hundred people. Cabinet members, former cabinet members during the bush 43 administration and people who worked in the white house. And theyre all saying of the two, we are actually supporting joe biden publicly, theyre doing so. So, im just saying, i think that answers your question. I wish i had more time for more questions. Nick is in my ear, telling me we have to go. See you soon, sam. Coronavirus pandemic, u. S. On another record daily high of cases, number of new infections topping 70,000 for the first time on friday. That number driven by an explosion of new cases across the south and west. As case numbers are surging, hospitals are struggling to keep up. In florida, nbc affiliate wfla reporting a new record of 435 patients hospitalized friday, at least 52 hospitals in the state have no available icu beds left. And this comes as disney world is set to reopen for the first time in nearly four months with new restrictions in place, to help prevent the spread of coronavirus. Well bring you a live report from orlando in a minute. Hospitals in texas are also feeling the strain. Nbc news reports houston hospitals are scrambling to open additional icu beds, forcing hospitals to treat hundreds of coronavirus patients in their emergency rooms. 12 of the busiest hospitals in the area are increasingly telling emergency responders, got to turn away. We cannot safely accept new patients. As mentioned, the Magic Kingdom is accepting visitors again. It comes amid the surging infection rates, which has made florida one of the biggest coronavirus hot spots in this country. Lets go to my colleague, nbcs chris pallone. The weather doesnt look too promising. I have to ask about the expected turnout today. The question is, how can they enforce social distancing guidelines . Reporter yeah. Hi there, alex. You noticed it. This is something that you cant really plan for. Although its a regular occurrence here in summer, in orlando, florida, just these belly washers that come by. I dont know if its dampening the spirits of people inside the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom, two parks that opened today. Its a different world for park goers who came out on this first day of being opened. Theyre being greeted at the front gates with temperature checks. Everybody over 2 years old has to wear masks, 4,000 Hand Sanitizer setups across the parks that people are going to now. Ive been cruising social media all day to try to see what it looks like inside the park. Obviously were not inside the park here. Crowds appear to be sparse, people are reporting, to put it a certain way. Certainly not the high number of people that you would expect on a saturday in july at this theme park, and thats by design. The only people being allowed in are people who make reservations. Theres three classes of folks who can make reservations. People who have hotel reservations, who had tickets already before the pandemic and pass holders. So, theyre limiting the number of people who can get into the parks. Theyre social distancing in lines. There are no more parades, no more fire works, anything that will draw a large crowd in an area. No more indoor performances. On social media, ive seen theyre taking the famous disney characters and instead of having them go up to kids and take pictures, theyre putting them on trolleys, carts and letting them drive through so everybody can see them. Its been closed for four months. Obviously, analysts say that the did izny corporation has been losing millions, perhaps billions of dollars as parks around the world have been closed. Theyve been eager to open up. Like you said, its against the backdrop of florida being the fastestgrowing state in the nation with coronavirus infections. The park opened up for previews on thursday and friday for pass holders and some employees, and we heard from one who went earlier this week who kind of described what it was like to be inside. It was with a lot of deliberation and careful consideration that we made the decision to actually stick to our reservation. We decided to continue living our lives and that we believe that we can do this safely, with a lot of research and a lot of work with our kids, be able to make this trip happen. Reporter okay. Just a correction. That was a family thats coming from california to visit today, and they were explaining why. Well be out here, all day, keeping an eye on this. Obviously, controversial move to open the parks in the midst of this pandemic, as fast as its growing in florida, well have to see what happens in the days and weeks ahead, alex. I apologize for making you stay out there in the rain. We do appreciate it. Im going to guess that has something to do with the park not being as crowded as it might have otherwise been, were it to have been brilliant sunshine today. Chris, thank you very much. Officials in arizona just added more than 3,000 new coronavirus cases, bringing the statewild total to just under 120,000 cases. The rate of positive testing, 11. 7 . Joining me now from arizona, assistant professor from university of Arizona College of medicine, also working in an emergency room. Thats why were glad to have you here, doctor. Not only is arizona seeing a Record Number of cases, but the States Health department is now reporting icu beds are 89 full. How about you and what you are seeing there in the er, how dire is the situation . Alex, thanks for having me. That 11. 7 is way lower than the states numbers and far lower than what were seeing in the er. For a couple of weeks now, everybody has tested positive. I discussed this with my colleagues. We actually all talk about it every time theres a negative test. Its so hard to get a negative test in the er. In the community youre more likely to get a negative test because those people arent as sick. But the states positivity numbers were 32 . 32, which is way, way higher than 5 threshold. This is on top of how busy our hospitals already are, how tough it is to find a bed. Whats scary is that the sickest patients are still yet to come and were already filling full. Were in a scary moment. Maybe there will be a miracle. None of the numbers look like theyre going that way and it definitely doesnt feel that way in the er. Counting on a miracle, i think, is a fools errand at this point. Lets hope, but meanwhile, age breakdown, half the cases are in younger residents, from 20 to 44. Dr. Akhtar, is that surprising to you . Those coming into the er, are they younger than those we had previously seen, people a little bit older . Ive actually seen fairly young patients coming in with sickness from the very beginning. We have quite a few young patients who come in sick. Elderly people definitely do worse than the younger people. Theres no denying that. But young people get generally sick. We have young people who have died and on top of that, theyre vectors for disease. It comes as people are talking about opening up schools. Even if they dont get as sick as the elderly, they can easily spread it to the elderly. Theyre getting sick, very sick, and spreading it to everyone. We live in a society with other people and people are infecting each other and were having trouble getting beds for them, whether theyre covid or not covid. Thats frightening. What about the research that has identified some sort of mute at strain of the virus . They think it will be more infectious than what weve been experiencing so far in the country. What does that mean for doctors and patients . Yeah. So, you know, tgen found that mutation. We work closely together. And this is sort of what ive been kind of fearing all along. Weve been so focused on vaccines and antibodies, and those are all very important, but nobody is talking about as much about prevention. We are, but people seem to be focused on treatment rather than prevention. This happens with viruses. They mutate. We know that. Many viruses have mutate. Even if you come up with a vaccine, even the flu vaccine when its really good is about 60 effective. Thats really awesome but its not 100 . The coronavirus is already mutating, as youve seen. It may be more infectious, may be less infectious, may be more deadly, less deadly but virus mutate. Thats what they do. The best way to prevent it is not getting it. Best of luck. Naacp ceo says facebook is a threat to democracy. Why he says the meeting produced nothing. Says the meeting produd nothing. Reinventing. Its what Small Businesses do. With comcast business, your Small Business can work faster, with powerful internet from the nations largest gigspeed network. Work safer, with all your connected devices automatically protected by securityedge. And work anywhere, with comcast business at home, our new businessgrade Internet Solution for remote workers. Whatever your business needs, comcast business has the solutions to help you not just bounce back, but bounce forward. Call or go online to find out more. Gubut force factors test x180 are tough. Can help us man up, america, by boosting total testosterone. Build muscle, fuel desire, and improve performance. Get test x180 from force factor, the 1 fastestgrowing mens health brand at walmart. Tonight, a large protest is expected in the bay area where a video showing a couple of defacing black lives matter mural. Passersby confront ed the coupl, asking why they were there. Were sick of this narrative. Thats whats wrong. The narrative of black lives matter . The narrative of police brutality. The narrative of oppression, the narrative of racism. Its a lie. Americas great. Its a lie. This is racist, what youre doing. This is racism, is what it is. Huh. Well, for their efforts, days later, Nicole Anderson and David Anderson were charged with a hate crime. Joining me now from the new black lives matter mural outside trump tower here in new york city. Gary, this california couple may have taken their cues from the president himself