Claims before this crisis, which was back at the absolute depths of the great recession. Our best week in ten weeks is still more than twice as bad as it has ever been before. Thats how bad things are. The economy is officially in recession. The fed is predicting not only a severe 6 plus Economic Contraction for the country this year. The fed is also predicting that unemployment will stay above 9 for the year and will stay high beyond that. And, you know, we have spent all of this breath and ink having these frankly sort of stupid substancefree, reductive arguments about whether we as a country should work on trying to stop the coronavirus epidemic here or whether we instead shouldnt do that and we should prioritize our economic health. Well, it turns out, guess what, having a raging, out of control coronavirus epidemic thats killing tens of thousands of americans turns out that, tf tf itself, is a terrible thing for the economy. So, yes, the Economic Indicators are bad. They have been terrible, and they remain so. But youre also now seeing the market react as we see headlines all over the country, as National News organizations stick their heads back above the parapet and start to report with horror just how much things have not gone the way everybody hoped they would in terms of the epidemic. Things havent turned out the way they were supposed to, the way people assumed they would, the way people hoped they would when we decided to start as a country pretending that this thing wasnt really happening. So youre now seeing headlines like this, and the market reaction. Heres the Washington Post. Quote, as coronavirus cases rise nationwide, Public Health experts urge caution. Politico. Com, virus cases spike. Governors reject new lockdowns. The associated press, alarming rise in virus cases as states roll back lockdowns. The New York Times, Coronavirus Infections climb. Washington moves on to other business. I mean the thing is it might be fun to try to move on to other business. But when 800 to 1,000 americans are dying every day, when were looking at 200,000 dead americans by september at this rate, right, you can only ignore it so long before people notice the body count if nothing else, right, if not the rising case count that show that the epidemic is getting worse and faster in almost half the country. I mean heres for example, heres some case numbers. Heres alabama, arizona, arkansas, and florida, right . These are their curves, their case numbers, daily new case numbers each day. You see what all those curves are showing . This is not the way these things are supposed to look right now. Remember, everybody said we were going to have a first wave, and the wave would be over, and it would go down, and wed have this really chill, quiet summer where the epidemic was basically gone. That is not whats happening. Heres kentucky, nevada, north carolina, and oregon. Again, this is not the way its supposed to be going after they all reopened, right . And its red states and blue states. Honestly it seems like its disproportionately red states now where things are getting worse the fastest but its some blue states for sure. Heres another four. Heres South Carolina, tennessee, texas, utah. Utahs the only one of all these states that ive just shown that is at all considering hitting pause on their reopening plans because their numbers are not what they were planning on, not what they were hoping on, not what everybody said they would get. But these numbers, these bad case number curves, these are real, and they have consequences that even people who dont want this to be real are likely to have to Pay Attention to. So you are also seeing now headlines like this in the Washington Post tonight, dow slides more than 1,800 points on fears of coronavirus resurgence. The only nit i would pick with that headline is it might not be fears of coronavirus resurgence. It might be evidence of coronavirus resurgence. The New York Times tonight explaining the market bloodbath today this way. Wall street analysts have long cautioned that another wave of coronavirus cases that lead to a new round of stay at home restrictions and more layoffs could startle investors. Startling is one way to put it. But hows our government doing in the midst of these challenges . How are they rising to these challenges . Today the president went to dallas, texas, to do an event focused on race and policing, okay . A policing event in dallas. Well, in dallas the police chief is africanamerican. In dallas, the sheriff is africanamerican. In dallas, the local d. A. , the lead prosecutor for dallas is also africanamerican. The president today comes to dallas for his race and policing event. The white house invites none of those local officials to the president s event. Hmm, all top Law Enforcement officials in dallas are all black. None of them were invited to the president s event in dallas to talk about Law Enforcement. Now, the white house says they did invite the mayor of dallas, mayor eric johnson, who is also africanamerican. Mayor johnsons office told the white house that he was otherwise engaged, which is understandable. I mean how would you, the mayor, sort of show your face at the race and policing event with the president in your town when all of the top Law Enforcement people in your town were excluded and they all happen to be black . How would you go on being the mayor and dealing with Law Enforcement in your community if thats what you did . If you showed up for that when none of the other folks were invited . How else is the government doing right now . Today the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, general mark milley, issued a videotaped straight to camera apology for taking part in that death of the republic photo op where he marched out of the white house alongside the president wearing his combat fatigues and representing the United States military after the attorney general had ordered federal forces to shoot gas and rubber bullets at Peaceful Protesters outside the white house so the president could go pose for pictures holding a bible on the other side of lafayette park. General milley was there at that event, lending his credibility and the apparent support of the u. S. Military in his person to that event with the president. Later that night, he went out still in his combat fatigues to go strut around the streets of washington, d. C. He said to survey the situation. This was after the president had told the nations governors that day cryptically that he was putting general milley, quote, in charge. In charge of what . I dont know. But having a uniformed general walk around washington, d. C. Like he owns the place when maybe the president just told him he does own the place was something more than unsettling, and we dont know why it took a week and a half for general milley to realize the gravity of what he did wrong there and apologize for it. But he has apologized for it now, and that itself is an important thing. As many of you saw the result of the photograph of me at Lafayette Square last week, that sparked a National Debate about the role of the military in civil society. I should not have been there. My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics. As a commissioned, uniformed officer, it was a mistake that the i learned from, and i sincerely hope we all can learn from it. We who wear the cloth of our nation come from the people of our nation, and we must hold dear the principle of an apolitical military that is so deeply rooted in the very essence of our republic. Chairman of the joint chiefs of staff general mark milley today. You know, it is a hallmark of this moment in time that id guess about half the country now assumes that because general milley said that, because he talked about how people in the military wear the cloth of our nation come from the people of our nation. We must hold dear the principle of an apolitical military. I would guess about half the country now assumes that because general milley said that, the president will soon find a reason to replace general milley with somebody else who either doesnt feel that way about the necessity of an apolitical military or someone who at least can be counted on not to say so out loud. We are having an extraordinary governing moment right now in our country in response to the huge protests against Police Violence and for Racial Justice these past couple weeks. Tonight, for example, just before getting on the air, the whole city council in louisville, kentucky, unanimously signed on as cosponsors of what theyre calling breonnas law, a measure to ban the kind of noknock warrant that was used by police to storm into emt Breonna Taylors house and shoot her, kill her inside her home this past march. The city council in louisville will pass that ban unanimously. The mayor will sign it, and it will be a total ban on those kinds of warrants in louisville, kentucky. In minnesota, the states governor has just signed on to a sweeping redo of policing in that whole state, which among other things would take the police out of the business of investigating themselves in use of force cases. It would Fund Community groups to serve as an alternative to many functions of the police. It would put the investigation of officerinvolved deaths in the hands of the state attorney general rather than the hands of local prosecutors. Just sweeping reforms, very much focused on accountability for police. And the states governor now says he is on board with that in minnesota. I mean thats just two little snapshots of things going on, but this is happening all over the country. The ban on the use of choke holds. Reform measures for Police Departments that are more drastic, more creative, more progressive than we have seen in a generation. Its happening all over the country. Meanwhile at his dont invite the black police chief policing event in dallas today, the president of our country said out loud that seeing tear gas used against protesters these past couple of weeks was to him, quote, a beautiful scene. That was his phrase. He said seeing tear gas used against protesters was beautiful. He said it was like a knife cutting butter. You know, i feel like if we have learned one thing over these past threeplus years, we have learned that the sickness that you feel in hearing that remark from the president , in reading that quote from the president , the president loves that that turns your stomach. I mean the whole point of him saying stuff like that, of his campaign now making ads out of the clubbing and beating of protesters, the whole point of it is because he knows it makes you sick. He lives for your outrage. He lives for our outrage, right . Its his one neat trick for political gain and dominating the media outrage, distract, polarize, divide, radicalize, demoralize, rinse, repeat. What am i not supposed to say . Heres me saying it ten times. Go crazy. He loves how sickening this is to a big portion of the country, which is why its all the more important to look at what he is his administration are doing and not just what hes saying because he says the things he says to rile you up, to rile up the media, and to start that polarization cycle that he thinks in the end creates a shard of the American Public that would die for him even as everybody else is demoralized and split from one another over their outrage at his behavior. Thats why he says the things he does, right . Thats why his campaign behaves in this constantly increasingly inflammatory way. Its designed to have this psychological effect on us. So if you dont want to have your chain yanked in that way, if you do not want to be led by him and the way he calculates his political benefit, have a look at what he and his administration are doing, not what they are saying, particularly when you can get a look at what they dont really want you to know about what theyre doing. So in terms of thinking about todays news right now and what is going on at this incredibly dark moment for our country, i want you to know about two internal Trump Administration documents that have just been dug up and shown to the public despite the fact that the administration didnt want to show these things publicly. The first one comes courtesy of New Hampshire democratic senator maggie hassan, who basically told fema that they needed to make public this otherwise nonpublic document. Its a document that shows femas current approach to critical medical supplies that are needed for Health Workers responding to the ongoing and now once again growing coronavirus epidemic in our country. This document from fema shows specifically that, quote, the demand for medical gowns outpaces current u. S. Manufacturing capabilities. Also there is still no u. S. Based manufacturing for nitrile gloves. It says that after months this document shows that after months of pressure on federal officials to use wartime powers to mobilize u. S. Manufacturing plants, domestic manufacturing of this stuff, of gowns and surgical masks and other things like that, those things have only ticked up by a few thousand per month since the pandemic hit, which falls far short of the need now let alone any future need as the epidemic continues to grow and resurge. So there was that early panic about ppe. Then you started hearing less about it. Now our need for ppe is once again outpacing what weve got on hand for ppe. Whats fema going to do about it as the federal Emergency Management agency in this National Emergency . Well, they do have a plan for dealing with it, a twopart plan, flawless. First part of their twopart plan is that they think that as a country, as a matter of course now, we will just widely reuse all of our n95 masks and all of our medical gowns. That should be fine. Ask a nurse you know how sustainable that is for the long run and how safe. Well stop throwing away all of our masks and gowns, even the ones that were designed to be disposed after one use. Nationwide we will just reuse all that stuff. Thats the first part of their plan. The second part of the plan is that fema is expecting that things will get better. This is from this fema document that senator hassan has now forced into public view. Quote, steadily declining covid hospitalization rates should reduce daily hospital ppe usage. But demand through summer may remain constant as hospitals and states replenish stockpiles and to meet reopening requirements. So, yeah, they may want to build up their supplies again. They may need to artificially have extra on hand in order to meet reopening requirements, but theyre not actually going to be using a lot of ppe anymore, not with coronavirus hospitalizations dropping like we expect them to through the summer. Theyll drop off, right . I mean fema is assuming that covid hospitalizations are going to drop like a stone through the summer, at least through june and july, because thats what everybody is saying is going to happen in the summer, right . Its just supposed to go away . I mean if thats the hope, i understand the desire to hope for Something Like that. If thats the plan for the federal Emergency Management agency in terms of how we are going to deal with this as a country of 300 millionplus people, if the plan is to expect hospitalizations to drop because its summer, if thats the plan, we are in trouble because whats driving all those National Headlines now about worrying resurgence, worrying case numbers, right . Worrying growth in coronavirus and the signs of the epidemic all over the country. Its because among other things, were seeing hospitalizations go through the roof in multiple states all at once. And, no, when hospitalizations go up, its not a sign that youre doing more testing. Its a sign that youve got more people sick because your epidemic is big and growing. Texas, for example, has seen a 42 increase in hospitalizations since memorial day weekend. Total cases in texas, total cases in texas have shot up by onethird in just the past two weeks. But their hospitalizations, up 42 since memorial day weekend. In arkansas, total cases have shot up by a third in the past one week. In arkansas, hospitalizations are up nearly 90 since memorial day. In South Carolina, since the end of may, daily new case numbers have doubled. South carolina has set a new record for new cases in that state in 14 out of the last 15 days. The state epidemiologist in South Carolina saying last night in a public press conference, quote, i am more concerned about covid19 in South Carolina than i have ever been before. In the southwest, this was the front page of the Arizona Daily Star today. Arizona cases surging. Hospitals hit 83 capacity. But dont worry. Fema has a plan for keeping all of our hospitals supplied with the ppe they need to deal with lots of Covid Patients and full wards and full icus. Femas plan is that hospitalizations will probably drop a lot in months that start with j. Thats the plan. This is the other document you should also see. This ones from the cdc. This was obtained by reporter Christopher Wilson at yahoo news. This puts our response, our epidemic in this country, in context against whats going on right now in the other top ten worsthit countries on earth. And in this case blue is a good sign. Red is a bad sign. So you see the list of the top ten countries there, usa, brazil, russia, uk, italy, peru, germany. Germany, theyre getting way better. Over the past three days, newspaper cases down almost 50 . Italy, also good. Italy also down almost 40 . Spain down over 25 . Thats good. The uk is down as well. The uk is down just over 20 , all good. In terms of the color coding here, you can see were now getting to the countries that are doing slightly less well. Iran is not that much worse than the uk, but theyre down just under 20 in terms of their new cases over the last three days. Brazil is down just about 10 in new cases, which is not enough of a drop really for them to turn things around. The i mean the top ten Worst Epidemics where its still getting worse, this is places where things look bad, right . You see it starting to get into red there. India, peru, and russia, cases there are actually rising now. Theyre rising 1 , 2 , even 5 over the course of the last three days. Thats bad. And then theres us with already the Worst Epidemic on earth, and our case numbers between june 6th and june 9th rose 36 in those three days. And weve already got the biggest epidemic on earth by, you know, a factor triple were already more than triple the i mean its whether you want to talk about that or not, if youve got the largest epidemic on earth and youve got 2 million cases and youve got 110,000 people dead and youve got 21 states where cases are rising, and your case numbers are rising 36 in three days when youre already this bad, whether you want to talk about that or not, if thats your economy, thats your markets, thats your politics, thats your governance, thats everything, thats is a National Disaster. Its not a National Disaster that weve been through and were trying to get out the other side of it. Its a National Disaster right now. Lori garrett joins us next. Stay with us. You know whats good about this . Your signs pointing at my sign, so people are gonna look at my sign. Switch to progressive and you can save hundreds. You know, like the sign says. When your vneck looks more like a uneck. Thats when you know, its halfwashed. Downy helps prevent stretching by conditioning fibers, so clothes look newer, longer. Downy and its done. For spending a perfectly reasonable amount of time on the couch with tacos from grubhub . Grubhubs gonna reward you for that with a 5 off perk. doorbell rings [crowd] grubhub fireworks exploding yeah. This moving thing never gets any easier. Well, xfinity makes moving super easy. I can transfer my internet and tv service in about a minute. Wow, that is easy. Almost as easy as having those guys help you move. We are those guys. Thats you . The truck adds 10 pounds. In the arms. Okay. Transfer your Service Online in a few easy steps. Now thats simple, easy, awesome. Transfer your service in minutes, making moving with xfinity a breeze. Visit xfinity. Com moving today. Remember february . Seems like a lifetime ago. In late february, coronavirus had been found in three dozen countries around the world. About 80,000 people were infected worldwide. Less than 3,000 people had died. On february 25th, a senior officer at the u. S. Centers for disease control, dr. Nancy messen yea came right out and said it, said what was going to happen in this country. She said in a telephone briefing with reporters that a coronavirus outbreak in this country was inevitable. It was not a matter of if but when. And she said that, quote, disruption to everyday life might be severe, that it was time to start having tough talks within our families and our communities, the kind of tough talk she said that she herself was starting to have, including about closing schools, closing businesses, reorienting businesses to operate remotely, all the stuff that is now just our new version of regular life. That night, after that shocking briefing from that cdc official in february, i was joined on this show by pulitzer prizewinning science journalist Laurie Garrett, who spent three decades covering Infectious Disease outbreaks all over the world. And i asked Laurie Garrett about what we heard from the cdc, this dire warning from the cdc official. It was back at a time when we had a cdc that was allowed to speak to the public. But dr. Nancy messen yeas warning was shocking at the time. This is what Laurie Garrett had to say about that. Again, this was february. Check this out. Do you feel like the u. S. Government is sort of timing those kinds of public alerts . Are we past due for that sort of thing . Is it possible it could cause an overreaction at this point . Its long overdue. We should have been ready already, and were not. Every Single Company that has more than a handful of employees should have an epidemic plan in place. Do you have a way so that your workers can work remotely and not come in, not congregate, not infect others in the workplace . Every school, every university should be looking at how to have more and more of the coursework be handled remotely. And we dont have enough protective gear stockpiled or available in inventory to supply all those personnel in the United States right now. Today, rachel, in geneva they held a press briefing that went on and on and on, almost an hour and a half long. And it featured leaders of this team that had gone into china to investigate whats the status of the situation right now. And they said in no uncertain terms, everybody should do what china did. Well, now, can you imagine . Were going to shut down 100 million americans . Were going to shut every business in america . That was february 25th. You can see how long that was long ago that was in part by how close i was sitting to Laurie Garrett when we had that conversation. The idea that america would need to shift to those kinds of responses at that point was mindblowing. But, you know, being right is one thing. Being right in advance when nobody else can see it and it sounds like what youre saying is science fiction, thats not just a blessing. Thats a national resource. That is somebody worth listening to and going back to. Joining us now is Laurie Garrett. Shes a Health Policy analyst, pulitzer prizewinning science journalist. Laurie, i appreciate you making time to come back tonight. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Im grateful in i was grateful at the time. Im grateful in retrospect for how loud you were about what was coming even when nobody else was talking in the terms that you were talking. I have to ask you, i sort of just i dont want to guide you too much. I want to ask you big picture where you think we are right now. I feel very concerned about the number of states where the case numbers and the hospitalization numbers are rising every day now. How do you feel about where we are, particularly this many months into it . Oh, i think were in terrible shape. I think that the reproductive rate of the epidemic, meaning the rate at which any one individual is likely to infect another individual, is well above 1, which means that its still growing. It may not be growing at the astronomical rates that were occurring in march, but it is still growing. We havent snuffed it out. And in certain communities, its growing very frighteningly fast. In fact, one of the communities where you can see a graph that just suddenly in the last seven days went whew is tulsa, oklahoma, where the president will be holding a Campaign Rally very soon. And that rate of growth, that sudden surge, while the absolute numbers may be small because the population isnt enormous, that level of curve is really, really indicative of an outofcontrol situation. And we can see in isolated communities all over the United States a similar trend. Meanwhile, you know, when we talked back in february, we thought i thought that we were on the cusp of a truly global pandemic. We now not only are beyond the cusp, were fully into it, and the Southern Hemisphere is now raging as they go into their winter. So now every single one of the sort of secondtier economies, the socalled bricks economies, every single one of them has a giant epidemic going on right now. India, you know, south africa, brazil, indonesia, mexico. Go down the list. Meanwhile, in europe, while they seem to have generally declined in most of europe with the uk very much struggling, the Economic Impact is absolutely staggering. A new report just out this week from the oecd, which is basically the Financial Club of the richest countries on earth, estimates that every single country in europe, every single country in the oecd, is going to see a negative gdp. So their economies are going to be going backwards. In some of them, its really bad. The uk, france, italy are going to be approaching negative 15 gdp. I mean thats great depression. Thats staggering. Staggering. You know, we were after 2008, we were gasping because we were down to only positive 1 growth. Well, now theyre predicting for the United States negative 8. 5 . You know, to put this in perspective, rachel, the worstcase scenario pandemic plan that i saw last year said, gee, if it got really bad, we might have negative 4 gdp in the world. Well, just this week the world bank predicted the entire global economy, every single country on earth collectively is going into a negative 5. 2 gdp. So thats 5. 2 of the wealth of the planet just shrinks. And amidst all of that, we have a pandemic, and its not just miraculously going to stop. Its not miraculously going away. And here in the United States, we just have no National Policy. We have no consistent strategy across the nation. Theres no guidance coming to states in any coherent way from the cdc. Theyve essentially been quieted. And the whole entire stock market has been hanging by its fingernails until today when reality started to set in, thinking, okay, we got to have a vaccine. We got to have a vaccine, and thats going to get us out of this. We got to have a vaccine. Well, what, rachel, happens if either one of the frontline vaccines doesnt work properly or it gives a very weak immune response thats not truly protective, or worse yet it actually causes a negative side effect . Then what does the market do . Wow, i mean stand back and watch your dust settle. Laurie, in terms of the options that we have as a country, you just said that we have basically no National Policy and no coherent advice. I mean weve seen the failures in terms of the cdc as a worldclass organization become what it is right now. Weve seen the white house leadership on this evaporate to a large extent. I mean to the extent it was wrong headed, its now just gone. We do see states sort of running around like chickens with their heads cut off not knowing what to do. My question for you is this. As we see 83 hospital usage already in arizona with the numbers still going on. As we see texas, 42 rise in hospitalizations since memorial. As we see arkansas even worse than texas along those lines. We see the sort of strange were going to see on Health Care Systems as this epidemic just does its thing, do we have options for trying to respond in ways that are coherent and that will make a difference that are along the same lines as the options that we had in february and march, or have some of our options evaporated because our epidemic is mature and large now, and so therefore we cant do some of the things we might have otherwise done when it was in an earlier stage . I think our options for much of the country have indeed shrunk. Here in new york where i am seated right now, we have brought this epidemic down to a really manageable, almost victorious level after more than eight weeks of the entire city being under shutdown and a tremendous amount of sacrifice and hard work by literally tens of thousands of people. That needs to be mirrored around the country before and by the way, were only like gingerly going into phase one of opening this week. There are parts of the country that have never been on full lockdown, never brought their numbers down for any consistent period of time, and theyre already going into phase three opening, meaning just about everything is going to be opened, almost every kind of retail operation, almost all sorts of service operations, even reopening travel across state lines and so on. I mean this is just irrational. And i think, you know, here in new york youre going to hit a point where youre going to here a hue and cry from people who sacrificed so much, including their jobs and their kids going to school all these weeks, and now what . A traveler is going to come from florida where those restrictions have all been lifted and reintroduce covid to new york . How do you think new yorkers will feel about that . You see, heres where the insanity is. We dont have a national strategy, rachel. So whats going to happen as this evolves over the summer and the disappointment gets worse, the weather gets warmer, people really want to be at the beach, they want to be out and seeing one another, theyre fed up with being under lockdown, youre going to start to see more and more animosity between states, more and more tension within states, across counties that have low levels versus counties with skyrocketing levels. The kind of solidarity that is absolutely essential to conquering a disease like this is evaporating very fast before our eyes. And, you know, just to remind you because some of your audience may not have even been, you know, adult and paying attention when h1n1 exploded, the swine flu in 2009. But to put that in perspective, the cdc was fully in charge and did at least one full borne press briefing every single day and did briefings for governors, every day did briefings for state health leaders, county health leaders. The level of engagement was enormous, and the degree to which all of us looked to atlanta to hear whats the latest, what advice are you giving us was absolute. The result was that we had consistent policies across all 50 states and the territories. We knew what supplies everybody needed. We knew what vaccines everybody was going to get. We dont have any of that now. Laurie garrett, Health Policy analyst, pulitzer prizewinning science journalist, person from whom i learn something new every time i talk to you. Laurie, thank you. Its terrible news, but thank you for your clarity. I appreciate you being here. Thank you, rachel. All right. Much more to come tonight. Stay with us. Ay with us give me your hand i can save you. Lots of money with Liberty Mutual we customize your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Weve always put safety first. And we always will. For people. For the future. And there has never been a summer when its mattered more. Wherever you go, summer safely. Get zero percent apr financing for up to five years on select models and exclusive lease offers. [anthony] hey mama, whats up . [mama] im confused. Confused about what, everything ok . Yeah, i only see one price on my phone bill. That doesnt sound confusing mama. 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With less eczema you can show more skin. So roll up those sleeves. And help heal your skin from within with dupixent. Dupixent is the first treatment of its kind that continuously treats moderatetosevere eczema, or atopic dermatitis, even between flare ups. Dupixent is a biologic and not a cream or steroid. Many people taking dupixent saw clear or almost clear skin. And had significantly less itch. Dont use if youre allergic to dupixent. Serious allergic reactions can occur, including anaphylaxis, which is severe. Tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems, such as eye pain or vision changes, or a parasitic infection. If you take asthma medicines, dont change or stop them without talking to your doctor. So help heal your skin from within and talk to your eczema specialist about dupixent. If your financial situation has changed, we may be able to help. Just about three weeks ago, the young caharismatic mayor of montgomery, alabama, pulled the proverbial fire alarm. He gave a stark public warning about the hospitals in his city filling up and reaching capacity. This was the front page of the Montgomery Advertiser after he gave that warning. Montgomery hospitals down to one icu bed. This is why the mayor gave that warning. It was about that limitation on resources while this was the snapshot of their total cases, rising steeply in Montgomery County, alabama. That was the accumulated total. This was the daily increase in cases in montgomery. Bad, right . Youve already got that limitation on resources, and your case numbers are still trending up like that every day . So he sounded the alarm, and we asked him to be here on the show. Three weeks ago today montgomerys mayor stephen reed was here to talk about the situation in his city. He said that night that his city was, quote, at a point where we can see the cliff, and we dont want to get too close to it for fear of falling off. Well, tonight, three weeks later, montgomery has been teetering on the edge of that cliff for all these three weeks. Look at the situation there. Look at how they have been coping. Cases in Montgomery County still on the rise, unabated. This arrow shows where montgomery was three weeks ago, and you can see cases still rising every day after that. Whatever they were hoping to engender in terms of slowing the spread of the virus among people in Montgomery County, it did not happen. Also look at the chart of day by day cases. Still more spikes in daily new cases in montgomery. Now, as for hospitalizations, well, this is from the alabama political reporter in terms of how montgomery is coping. Quote, combined the four major hospitals in montgomery are treating more positive patients as of tuesday this week than at any point since the pandemic began. Heres the head of the alabama Hospital Association. Quote, were just full. I mean this situation is just not sustainable. The filling up and spilling over of hospitals in alabama, specifically in montgomery, the steady rise in new cases also comes as people have been gathering on the streets of montgomery and elsewhere in alabama in protest over the death of george floyd and protest against Police Violence and in favor of Racial Justice. Multiple protests, crowded protests over the last few weeks have added a new layer of complexity to a Public Health crisis and to how to govern responsibly and effectively in the middle of this coming from all sides. Montgomerys mayor stephen reed joins us again next. Stay with us. T. Stay with us there are people who can only get food from amazon. When you come into work, thats what drives you. My little one, i would say hes definitely proud of me. Every time he sees the blue prime trucks, he says, daddy, theres your people i know every single one of us is here busting as hard as we can go every day to make sure these packages get delivered. Makes it beautiful. 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So, to help you get back to full strength, were giving away free reopening kits at our website so you can safely reopen your doors. For all you do, from all of us, let us help you make it. Right now in montgomery, were at a point where we can see the cliff, and we dont want to get too close to it for fear of falling off. That was Montgomery Alabama mayor steven reed speaking on this show three weeks ago, sounding the alarm about Hospital Capacity in his city as the state of alabama continued reopening despite the steady climb in coronavirus cases there. Now three weeks later, three weeks after he sounded that alarm, cases are still climbing and the hospitals in montgomery are worth worrying about. Joining us now is mayor steven reed of montgomery, alabama. Mr. Mayor, thank you so much for making time to be with us this evening. When we first spoke, i said i wanted us to stay in touch. I wanted you to keep us apprise about how things are going in montgomery. So this is me checking back in with you. How are things going in your city . Rachel, i wish i could say they were going a lot better, but unfortunately theyre going in the wrong direction. Were at a point right now that well surpass where we were in may, and were only through the first 11 days of june. And unfortunately while we have beds and ventilators available, we are full, and we are at capacity in our icu beds here in montgomery. And we just cant seem to get people to understand that we have not won the battle with covid19 yet, and we have to continue to remain vigilant in this process. Right now in the city, it seems as though some people are wearing masks, some others are not. And i think thats problematic regarding the trend line we would like to see versus the one that is the reality right now. When you say that youre full, i saw the quote this week from the head of the Hospital Association saying this is not just sustainable. We are just full. But yet you say there are still beds available. People can still be treated when they come to the hospitals. How are the hospitals dealing with that in terms of flex capacity, in terms of moving people between different wards, in terms of how theyre handling being full but still needing to take in new cases, new patients, both those with covid and those without . Right now what were being told is that theyre able to see patients. Theyre able to deal with people as they come in. Its just that the icu beds that are full but they have capacity to convert other rooms into icu units. So they feel like it is a manageable situation right now, but its not one that we can sustain. And the problem with that is that our hospital staff is fatigued. Theyre emotionally and physically worn out, and were starting to see some of those cracks. And i think for a community such as ours, we have to remind ourselves that we each have a responsibility in this, and we each have to make sure that although we want to get to the end of this series so to speak, we arent there yet. Were still in the beginning or maybe the middle at best of this battle with the covid19 virus, and we have to do those things that we were doing just a couple of months ago. But right now we havent been doing those, and in talking with dr. Scott harris, our director for the department of Public Health, he believes this is the Perfect Timing for what can be traced back to memorial day weekend. And this is about that incubation time to see an outbreak when people gathered together over memorial day and certainly days before and after that are producing some of these results and these skyrocketing numbers. Mr. Mayor, are you concerned that i know you had some healthy protests in montgomery, alabama, just like pretty much every city in the country did in the wake of George Floyds killing and these Racial Justice protests. Are you concerned that that may also have been a factor in terms of new cases and new exposures in your state and in your city . I think that well see those results coming in the next few days and weeks, and i certainly understand those protesters who wanted to get out there to express their rage, their anger, and their frustration at the system. Here in montgomery, they were very peaceful. They were very purposeful, and we made it our priority to hear exactly what their complaints were and what changes they wanted to see. So i think that we will see some of those the impact of those protests in the upcoming days. What i think we see right now is this being a wedge issue unfortunately, and some people choosing to abide by the social distancing guidelines and others who are not. And unfortunately if youre in the grocery store, if youre out and about, you dont know whos asymptomatic or whos presymptomatic, or who is symptomatic. What we know is not enough people are wearing masks. Not enough people are staying at home. And we cannot sustain this rate of infection that is going on not only in montgomery but in other parts of alabama. Mayor steven reed of the great city of montgomery, really appreciate you taking the time to join us again, sir. You are one of the most hardhit cities in the country. Keep us apprised. We want to keep a National Focus on whats going on there. Good luck to you, sir. Thank you. All right. Well be right back. Stay with us. Seeing it today . Im amy mcgrath. And when i was in combat, leadership was on the frontlines. And today thats republican and democratic governors leading regardless of political party. But Mitch Mcconnell wont pass what he calls blue state bailouts. Hes political even when people are dying and millions have lost their jobs. I approved this message because i need your help to defeat Mitch Mcconnell. Its time for him to go. So as you head back out on the road, well be doing what we do best. Providing some calm in your day. With virtual, realtime tours of our vehicles as well as remote purchasing. For a little help, on and off the road. Now when you buy or lease a new lincoln, well make up to 3 payments on your behalf. For spending a perfectly reasonable amount of time on the couch with tacos from grubhub . Grubhubs gonna reward you for that with a 5 off perk. doorbell rings [crowd] grubhub fireworks exploding weyour dad was a hero. And heroes are necessary. I dont even know why you clean the truck. Are you trying to show up sexy to a fire . I like him. 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Under the tender ministrations of attorney general bill barr, the Justice Department nevertheless decided they would drop the prosecution of mike flynn. Tomorrow morning a federal Appeals Court is going to hear arguments on whether they are going to force the judge in flynns criminal case to go along with that, to go along with dropping the prosecution despite the fact that he twice pled guilty. Those arguments are going to be fascinating. Theyre going to be livestreamed. You can listen in starting at 9 30 a. M. Eastern tomorrow morning, which im very much looking forward to doing myself. Thats going to do it for us my. See you again tomorrow night. Now time for the last word with lawrence odonnell. The Michael Flynn case raises the old question how many times do you have to plead guilty to be guilty . And how much bullying does a federal judge have to take in terms of whether or not he is allowed to handle the case before him rather than have it yanked out beneath him by a Justice Department that seems to be acting for really odd reasons. Before you go, a quick protocol question. How do you address someone, a guest on the show later in the hour, a man who has won the president ial medal of