Stay updated with breaking news from Kristin simons. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
abbott is announcing a series of executive orders and laying out a plan to begin loosening certain restrictions there. governor abbott joining us now with more. governor, we were just listening to andrew cuomo of new york talking about that testing is key to reopening his state. do you agree with that? and if so, where is texas on testing? first, with regard to future strategies, testing is going to be so important. remembering this, however, leland and that is the situation happening in new york is far different than what is happening in texas and other places. for example, there will be unfortunately more people who pass away in one day in new york than we will have in texas in the entirety of this whole pandemic situation and as the president made clear, there are different strategies for different states. texas has not even come close to needing to use all of our hospital beds, all of our ventilators. in fact, all the prognostications about the potential dir ....
how and where the virus is spreading. steve. reporter: kristin, the u.s. is currently testing about 150,000 people a day. researchers at harvard say that number will need to triple if the u.s. is going to be able to safely reopen the economy. vice president pence said the u.s. was quickly ramping up the testing numbers. we believe the testing that we have today, chris, across the country, once we activate all of the labs that can do coronavirus testing, is sufficient for any state in america to move into phase one. reporter: not all states are waiting for new tests. the mayor of jacksonville opened up the beaches. he put in place limited hours, restrictions on towels and chairs but the crowds came, despite admonitions to keep up social distancing. the mayor of miami said the beaches would open up, he didn t say when. south carolina also prepared next week to reopen its beaches. texas as well as vermont opening up some limited shopping next week as well with curbsi ....
we re hearing from a source, they told rich edson that mike pompeo, the secretary of state himself went to president trump and said you need to fire this guy, steve linick. we found out late last night that he would be dismissed in 30 days. an obama era employee who briefed on ukraine last fall. the white house not commenting why the president did this. house speaker nancy pelosi put out a lengthy statement about the friday night firing. it s concerning that the president has taken the action as the house passes the heroes act, which contains critical funding for the state department ig to oversee and ensure the effective wise spending of coronavirus response funds. this firing will set back the important work of the office of inspector general to perform critical audits, investigations and inspection of u.s. embassies and programs around the world during the crisis. kristin, this is interesting, this is from the chairman of the foreign relations committee eliot engel. ....
to reopen this weekend. i m leland vittert. president obama, though, today had some harsh words for his successor at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. president obama slammed the administration s coronavirus response during a virtual commencement address on saturday. david spunt live at the white house as we await president trump s arrival from camp david. reporter: the fight between two presidents, the current president is supposed to land on the south lawn any moment. he was meeting with advisors at camp david. leland, as you know, it s no secret president trump has been extremely critical of his predecessor, former president barack obama, arguing that obama depleted the national stockpile, didn t leave anything left over. obama turned the tables yesterday. listen. this pandemic has finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge no know what they re doing. a lot of them aren t even pretending to be in charge. if the world s going to get bett ....
been a long year. kristin: it certainly feels that way. it s good to be with you, leland, on this historical day. i m kristin fisher and we re going to be having team coverage on this. we have mark meredith at the white house and we begin with lucas tomlinson at lafayette square which is right outside the white house. lucas. good afternoon, kristin. thousands of peaceful protesters have descended on lafayette square. it s peaceful, different from earlier this week when this burned. i asked her if she wants her police department to be defunded. we support our police department. we work hard every day to make sure we have the type of police and community relationships that will allow us to have safe neighborhoods. yesterday, mayor unveiled a new sign, and ordered the words black lives matters painted on with the same yellow paint that covered the streets. it covers two city blocks and it s not coming off anytime soon. the special soldiers forces from utah national gua ....