Memory of our national heritage. My guests this morning, governors phil murphy of new jersey and Asa Hutchinson of arkansas, and infectious expert dr. Nahid beddalia. Plus about face. Allies of the president now urging people to wear a mask. Wear a mask. Maga should now stand for masks are great again. Governor of abbott of texas orders it. That is why today i am ordering a Face Covering requirement for all counties with more than 20 covid cases. Also, did President Trump ignore warnings of russian bounties on americans . It is dereliction of duty. Or was he not told . He didnt know about it, and im convinced of that. Ill talk to former National Security adviser for president obama, susan rice. Joining me for insight and analysis are former Homeland Security secretary jeh johnson, jay apka, and White House CorrespondentPeter Alexander. Welcome to sunday. Its meet the press. From nbc news in washington, the longestrunning show in television history. This is meet the press with chuck todd. Good sunday morning, and i hope youre having a happy and safe fourth of july weekend. Chuck todd is away this week, but for the second consecutive night on this Holiday Weekend, President Trump gave a divisive speech referring to opponents among other things as marxists and looters while down playing the surging pandemic. The coronavirus is exploding across much of the country with nine of the worst days happening in the last ten days. With 17 states now recording their singleday highs this week, many are closing down bars, restaurants, beaches and gyms. Some for a second time while others have delayed reopenings each as President Trump says he thinks or hopes the virus will just disappear. Health experts are pleading with americans, wear a mask, avoid parties, stay at home. This is serious. At the same time, the administration is scrambling to explain where the frz did nothing about intelligence indicating the russians were paying bounties to the taliban to kill american troops. Mr. Trump claimed he was want informed and hes attacked the news media and calling the story a hoax. The issue has raised the old watergate question, what did the president know and when did he know it and prompted a new one. Now that he knows, what will he do about it . Well get to all of that, but well begin with the growing pandemic and the president spending the Independence Day weekend hoping to divide americans against each other. The radical left, the marxists, the anarchists, the agitator, the looters. Stoking divisions during a national crisis, President Trump hosted two days of crowded celebrations with social distancing optional and few masks, leaning on the culture wars in an attempt to reboot his campaign. Last night on the White House South Lawn we will never allow an angry mob to tear down our statues, erase our history, indoctrinate our children. And at a fireworks display friday at mt. Rushmore, the president continues to make inaccurate claims as he plays down the pandemic. We have tested almost 40 million people. By so doing, we show cases 99 of which are totally harmless. Even as many fellow republicans join a chorus of Public Officials urging americans to scale back their fourth of july plans. The virus is spreading so fast there is little margin for error. This should be a wakeup call to all of us that we are in the fight of our lives. Reported cases are up more than 20 in 34 states over the last two weeks, even topping 55,000 cases a day overall. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around. But the president is denying those facts. I think that at some point thats going to sort of just disappear, i hope. The last month has been a tough one for the president with selfinflicted wounds on the virus. So i said to my people, slow the testing down, please. On race and policing. Theres looting. Theres probably going to be shootings. Retweeting a video of a supporter shouting white power and a his handling about intelligence about a russian to kill americans. I think its a hoax. Twothirds disapprove the handling of the virus, trailing joe biden in the battleground states. When youre in the barrel and youre getting bad press and the polls are against you you need to do something to say were moving in a different direction. After months of mixed messages the white house is settling on a new one. Learn to live with it. We have some areas where were putting out the flames and the fires and thats working out well. Around the country, many states like texas are making it clear its not working out well, issuing mandatory mask orders and even the president s allies are shifting their tone. Arm yourself with a mask. The stakes are too high for this political debate about protrump, antitrump mask. The people are saying i wish the president would put on a mask every once in a while just because it would make him look as if hes taking it seriously. And joining me now is democratic governor phil manufactury of new jersey. Governor murphy, welcome back to meet the press. I see you are at the jersey shore and the beaches behind you look empty, but there are people going to the beaches and many of them are not wearing masks. What is your message to people of new jersey and should there be a mandatory mask order . Good morning, andrea. Indeed, we are on the gem of the jersey shore here. Most of the beaches are quite crowded. Yes, the answer is unequivocally, wear a mask. The virus outside is a lot less lethal than it is inside, but when in doubt, when youre going out, put on a mask. The president downplayed the pandemic in his speeches this weekend and in fact said that 99 of the cases shows no harm. What is your response to the president s messaging . Listen, this thing is lethal. New jerseys paid an enormous price and have lost over 13,000 confirmed fatalities from covid19. Were starting to see a small spike in reinfection from folks coming back from places like myrtle beach and other hot spots. To me, it means we need a National Strategy and were only as strong as our weakest link and as you mentioned at the outset of the program, i said we went through hell. We cannot afford to go through hell again. We need a National Strategy right now. Unmasking has got to be at the core of that. You and your neighboring state, governor quote owe cuomo and governor of connecticut have peop enforced from people coming in from hot spots. We have to ask people to do the right thing and be responsible and new jerseyians by the milians halions have don thing from the get go. If theyve been traveling to a hot spot or visiting here and new york and connecticut, were doing this with them, as well, were asking folks selfquarantine. We have contact tracers that take their information down and we try to run every one of these cases to the ground, but its mostly a personal responsibility that were asking folks to do the right thing. Have your contact tracers come up with any evidence so far . I mentioned there was a wedding in myrtle beach and we absolutely have evidence of folks who were at that wedding who came back up to new jersey, jersey folks who were visiting there and weve got other cases that were running down. Thats the one thats most recent and most prevalent. Do you think there should be a National Mask requirement . I do. I do, andrea. Its become almost undebatable. As i mentioned this virus is more lethal inside than outside. When you leave your house put on a mask, there ought to be a national requirement. You delayed the opening of restaurants and i dont want need it tell you because im sure youve been hearing it, that people, Restaurant Owners are really upset. Amy russo, a Restaurant Owner told the new york times, shes in as obury park. We do the buying, sunday to monday deliveries and its insane. Theyre taking a huge hit having bought all of that food and the cleaning supplies. What do you tell those people . We have nothing, but sympathy for them, believe me. Its why we need direct federal cash assistance to states so that we can help those restaurants and Small Businesses out, but the choice is either we open inside or based on the data that we saw and the lethality of this virus inside or we lose people, we literally lose lives. When you combine indoors, lack of ventilation, sedentary, close proximity and you have to take your mask off to eat and those are bad facts and were just not there yet. Well get there, i hope, but were not ready for it. Are you concerned that after this Holiday Weekend youll see a spike in new jersey the way weve seen spikes elsewhere after the memorial day holiday . Andrea, were already seeing a little of that. Its less because of folks sitting on the beach looking at fireworks. Weve begun opening up the state showily, but surely and we knew there was risk associated with that. Its partly that. Its coming back from new jersey from hot spots so yeah, were not out of the woods yet without any question. Well, seeing you there down there in the jersey shore makes us all want to get out there, as well, but not to be this year for us. Thank you very much, though. Thank you for interrupting your holiday. Safe holiday to you. And there is still a great disparity among regions with the south and the west getting hit the hardest while the northeast is doing a lot better now. Joining me now is Asa Hutchinson. Governor hutchinson, welcome back to meet the press. Good to be with you, andrea. I dont need to tell you there is a spike happening now in the south and arkansas is also seeing a rise in cases. What do you intend to do . Should you be requiring mandatory mask and Face Covering use . Well, we all should be wearing masks, Face Coverings when we go out in the public or where you cant socially distance. Weve entered an executive order yesterday, friday in which allows the cities to pass an ordinance that mandates Face Coverings and we wanted to have a model so that everybody can have the same standard if they choose to to adopt that mandate. We are leading by example. I wear a mask when im out in public. This is important for us because when you want to grow the economy, whenever you want to bring people off the unemployment roles, the way you do it is to stop the spread of the virus by covering yourself, protecting others and protecting yourself. Youre showing by example when youre out in public and other republicans are and the president is not. He only is not wearing a Face Covering in public, but he held these huge gatherings over the weekend. South dakota and washington, d. C. Against local objections in washington. What example is that . Well, in terms of the gatherings themselves, a lot of them were canceled here in arkansas, the fourth of july celebrations trying to minimize that exposure, but when you look at a National Level i think its good that we celebrate the independence and its a controlled environment and it was outside in mt. Rushmore and it inspired many. Honestly, i would have liked to have saebmore Face Coverings there in order to set an example, but what you have to do on this virus, and there is a virus fatigue in the country right now and you have to live life. You cant stop every activity, but you have to be in a controlled environment in which you do protect yourself and others and take it seriously. So theres this balance of reflecting to remember america how serious this is and a beg fight that were in. At the same time lets manage our way through this so that we can continue to live life even though we are very, very tired of it. Have is no social distancing in south dakota. There were thousands of people there sitting absolutely crowded in and no Face Covering, as well . There should have been Face Coverings and they should have followed guidelines there. I know that its a controlled environment so its more of setting the example. I know how important this was to governor nome. Shes been asking the president about this months ago. This was not something that was set up at the last minute. It was planned and it was a controlled environment. With all due respect, though, if the president would have held a rally in arkansas as he did in tulsa, indoors and in phoenix, he had a big gathering there and weve seen secret Service Agents and other members of his advance now sick and the Vice President s advance in arizona, would you let that happen . Arkansas . There would have to be social distancing and wearing of a mask if you cant social distance and you have to follow our guidelines and thats what we would insist upon. Let me show you Governor Abbott and several other republican governors are now changing what they had originally said. Lets watch. We have flattened the curve. Now people understand that the thing doesnt just go away. Our goal is to find ways to coexist with covid19 as quickly as possible. Covid19 is not going away. In fact, its getting worse. I want to encourage people to go out and about and take a loved one to dinner and go retail shopping. Our message is clear. They are safer at home. Governor hutchinson, if greg abbot can change his mind, how about requiring masks for everybody in arkansas . I think thats whats unique about the governors leading and showing flexibility in the state and you look at how weve gone through in arkansas. You know, we have tightened restrictions and we had a targeted release whenever we see an outbreak, we tighten the screws again because we have to be able to respond and make sure people are following the guidelines. The governors have to be able to adjust to whats happening with the virus. Weve done that in arkansas. We were flat for a long time and we had a small increase. We went back down and now you see it going back up and were responding to that. Thats what governors do. Thats what we have to do. Let me just say whenever we are testing people, youre having more cases and were also watching the hospitalization and were doing our Contact Tracing. Its a strategy that we have to stick with, and we can see results from it that will help us to fight that virus. Thank you very much. Thank you for being with us today and thanks for being with us on a holiday and enjoy your Holiday Weekend, governor. All right. Thank you. Great to be with you. And joining me now Infectious Disease expert dr. Nahid bedalia. Whats your reaction to what hutchinson said and the nature of the Face Coverings at these rallies. Andrea, thanks for having me. Weve done this natural experiment a couple of times now. We know that when we go back to living were not living in a pandemic, we end up with more cases and those end up with more hospitalizations which lead to more deaths. Texas, arizona and North Carolina are pointing upward. How do we move forward . When we overwhelm the system with too many cases we, by necessity, start having shortages and the inability to respond in cases that are hard hit which are seeing delays in testing. You are seeing the inability to get enough personal protective equipment and our system is not responsive enough and not only that, but then were leading to a fallout on everybody elses health when Health Care Workers get overwhelmed and it basically affects everybody elses health. How do we move forward . We need this National Strategy and we need to drive the cases down. As you heard governor murphy say and governor hutchinson say. We have to coexist with this virus. We have to create the buffer space. Its a point system. Every activity, almost every activity we take during this pandemic carries risk. When we dont wear masks and when we wear large gatherings, were taking away from the social tally, were increasing societys burden of this disease and we as a society have to make those choices. What do we value more . Fall is coming, schools are opening and were having the discussion that carries its own risk and were looking at providing care for patients whose care is for the pandemic and we have to refer the resources to covid19 in areas that are hot spots. We have to make a choice as a society about where were going to expend that energy and where were going to allow that buffer so that we can continue the important aspects of our culture, and our civilization. And the European Union is such a great contrast. They have 400 million people, a greater population than we have and take a look at this and that theirs has come down and theyre up to 55,000 daily cases. What are they doing right particularly in places like germany and france, highly industrialized countries compared to us. Well, they started off with the strategy that we pursued in the beginning which we seemed to abandon after memorial day and it was such a level that you can then track transmission and new jersey is doing that. Theyre able to find new cases and thats the way to move forward. You put the resources in for testing and Contract Tracing and to begin with, you have to start with a place where you have so few cases that you can do that. Once there are too many cases Contact Tracing cant keep up either, and the other strategy is because we didnt pursue that initial stop, and getting to the point to lower cases where we get to break transmission, we are now in a position where we opened and we had to close again. The counties that are hardest hit, they have no option, but to close again and thats even more painful for the economies and more painful for