given by a president who believes it is his duty to protect the american people. and, so, he has been criticized, and i think rightly so, for being unclear about what he was going to do because of the delta variant and what needs to be done in business, and you have heard him say business needs to do more, and now he s saying business has to do more. so i think he came out and said, okay, here are my six steps. will everyone listen to him? will people who are the 25% who are committed to not taking the vaccine change their minds? probably not. maybe some. but as a presidential statement, i think he came out and said, look, this is a problem. we want to get the economy going. on july 4th, the president said, we have gained the upper hand. and now because of the delta variant, he s coming out and saying, we need to do more. and if you won t do it on your own, i have a certain authority
delay routine exams because of the pandemic. we certainly wish the senator the best. this quick programming note. join jake tapper as he asked the tough questions about america s longest war. the cnn special begins sunday at 9:00 p.m. appreciate your time. hope to see you here tomorrow. ana cabrera picks up right now. hello. thanks for being with me. a six-pillar plan, one goal. and the pandemic. the president set to lay out his strategy just hours from now with a speech that comes just nine weeks after he declared independence from covid-19. on july 4th the u.s. was averaging 12,000 new cases and 200 deaths a day. then delta. and this is where we are now. an average of 150,000 new cases a day.
shannon, start with you in pennsylvania. the most visual, i think, you know trying to look at the calendar. it s still okay. it s july 28th. on july 4th, president biden wanted to celebrate this idea that we were moving beyond the pandemic. today getting a very visual setback. president biden s got to put a mask back on today. where are we headed here and what s this federal mandate going to look like? reporter: right. well, a white house official expected everyone to be in masks today given we are in the orange zone according to the cdc guidance. it doesn t appear the president is wearing a mask now. we ll see later. certainly something we re keeping an eye on and i was just checking with sources again to find out the latest on the mask protocol and whether they re following considered kr guidelines. to your much bigger point, the quote/unquote summer of freedom. independence from the virus. the messaging in june going into this month. clearly the masks are such a
his objective and his commitment is to bring transparency and truth back to government, to share the truth even when it is hard to hear. on july 4th, president biden touted independence from covid-19. today all across this nation we can say with confidence, america is coming back together. today we are closer than ever to declaring our independence from a deadly virus. but here is the thing. the 49% of fully vaccinated people in this country don t have independence because of the unvaccinated who still make up the majority, and some don t have a choice like young kids. a lot has changed because of that hesitation among many americans, millions, and the misleading claims that helped fuel it. but, for the record, it sure doesn t appear the white house is being fully transparent now when it comes to covid, at least when it comes to what is happening behind the scenes when
voting rights act and it s a reminder of what the stakes are here, that our democracy is on the line. jason: arizona amy coney barrett attorney general mark brnovich, a republican, he joins us now. he s been right in the middle of the fight and mr. attorney general, i ve got to tell you, i want you to explain to people what ballot march vest harvesting is. democrats took a position in california they were in favor of it. in north carolina, they were on of posed to it. now they go to court and they lost, making sure you vote in your own precinct. thank you for having me on on july 4th. happy birthday, america. in a nutshell, the case was about do states are the ability to enact common sense election integrity measures. ballots involves the process where candidates or political parties try to collect votes, sometimes put pressure on populations to vote a certain way. arizona like a lot of other states had limitations on that. the democratic national committee sued. we fought.