Theyll be fixed. Theyll be rigged. The bush pac from democrats and republicans. E situation is and have the election on november 3rd as already scheduled. A live report from the white house straight ahead. Breaking news. At least one marine killed, eight others missing after a training accident off the coast of Southern California. A search and rescue Mission Still underway this morning. Home at last. Congressman john lewis laid to rest. Family, friends, and former president s coming together to celebrate the life of a man called a founding father. America was built by people like him. We live in a better and nobler country today because of john lewis. The call to action in the wake of his death. All that plus slam dunk. Puts it up and in lebron james the nbas return doesnt disappoint with two thrillers inside the bubble. And the commissioner of the nhl joins us live on the eve of hockeys big restart. Today, friday, july 31st, 2020. Announcer from nbc news, this is today with Savannah Guthrie and hoda kotb live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. And good morning, everybody. Welcome to today. It is a busy friday mornin were glad youre with us. Hoda got a jump on her weekend. Craig, its good to see you. Happy friday. Happy friday to you. Youll have to forgive the bags under my eyes. I was up watching the nba tournament. A lot is happening on this friday including isaias strengthening into a hurrica. Ri. Als going to have an update on the track and the timing in just a few moments. And then the doctor behind those controversial claims about hydroxychloroquine, the drug touted by the president. That doctor is now doubling down. What shes saying in an exclusive new interview with our nbc affiliate in houston even as the fda has revoked approval for that drug. We want to start with the latest on the virus. Cases continuing to multiple in raising fears about the next hot spots in the u. S. Weve got complete coverage. Well start with nbc National Correspondent miguel almaguer. Good morning. Reporter good morning. As the crisis in the u. S. Gets set to enter its fifth month, california is set to hit another grim milestone today. Half a million confirmed infections. It comes as students get ready to go back to school in states where the numbers are only getting worse. As the covid death toll rises to its highest level in months. At one point this week, roughly one american died every minute. In florida where nurse grover is on the front lines, the state broke its record for covid deaths for a single straight day. This is really an apocalyptic time for us. Reporter in texas, this emergency room doctor says hes fighting two wars. A war against covid and a war against stupidity. The first one i have some hope about winning. But the second one is becoming more and more difficult to treat. Reporter with the nation c the white house again called for schools to reopen on schedule. Young people are almost immune to this disease. The younger, the better. Reporter but a new study says children under 5 carry as much of the virus in their nose as older children or adults. Appearing with President Trump to encourage plasma donation, dr. Deborah birx said full face shields or goggles might be part of the solution. Tennessee has created teachers special teacher packs to ensure every teacher has a face mask, a face shield, gloves, and hand sanitizers. Reporter in hardhit arizona, some parents are being asked to sign covid liability waivers before their children come back to school. But art teacher marcy warner decided to retire instead. I love those kids and where i taught and what i did, but im not quite willing to die for them. Reporter excruciating choices in uncertainty with lives and livelihoods on the line. This morning in thng progress and the government says they want the vaccine to be 90 effective, but because so many doses will need to be available for the public, there may not be enough after one is developed until the end of next year. Craig . All right. Miguel starting us off in l. A. Thank you. Now to a controversial idea tied to the pandemic. An idea floated by President Trump. Delaying novembers election. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle quick to push back against that suggestion though. White house correspondent Peter Alexander has the very latest. Good morning. Reporter good morning to you. Never in this countrys history not during the civil war, the great depression, or even world war ii has the u. S. Delayed a president ial election. President trump for the first time yesterday raised it as an idea, one that was rejected by leading republicans. The president again attacking mailin voting without evidence and fueling questions about the validity of novembers results. Facing an uphill battle for a second term of the worst Quarterly Economic plunge on record that these elections will be fraudulent. Theyll be fixed. Theyll be rigged. Reporter President Trump is casting doubt on the integrity of the election arguing without evidence that mailin voting due to the pandemic will guarantee the election is rigged. I dont want to delay. I want to have the election. But i also dont want to have to wait for three months and then find out that the ballots are all missing and the election doesnt mean anything. Reporter that following this tweet suggesting the election be postponed writing, with universal mailin voting 2020 will be the most inaccurate and fraudulent election in history. And suggesting delay the election until people can properly and securely and safely vote . The president has no authority to delay an election. That power lies solely with congress. And theres no evidence mailin voting leads to voter fraud. Top republicans dismissed the president s idea. Well cope with whatever the situation is and have the election on november 3rd as already scheduled. Never in the history of the federal elections have we ever not held an election and we should go forward with our election. Reporter in April Joe Biden predicted President Trump would try to delay the election and at the funeral for congressman john lewis who spent his life fighting for rights, former president obama attacked President Trump without mentioning his name. There are those in power who are doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting by closing polling locations and targeting minorities and students with restrictive id laws and attacking our Voting Rights with surgical precision. Reporter and this morning the Washington Post is reporting that the Postal Service is now experiencing days long backlogs of mail across the country has a top donor running the agency put in costcutting measures. Postal workers are warning those policies could undermine their ability to deliver ballots on time. Peter, meanwhile millions of folks who rely on those 600 weekly unemployment benefits, federal benefits, theyre expiring today. What do we know about the possibility of any extension . Reporter yeah, so democrats in the white house are still miles apart in negotiations on a massive Coronavirus Relief package which all but guarantees those will expire today for tens of millions of americans. This comes as the federal government Just Announced the economy shrunk by nearly 33 last quarter. The fastest drop in u. S. History. Worse than the Great Recession and the great depression. And another nearly 1. 5 million new weekly jobless claims filed by Americans Last week. That is the 19th straight week with claims of more than a million people. Craig . All right, Peter Alexander at the white house for us, thank you. We want to mention now that all next week well be taking a closer look at the financial toll on millions of americans and what can be done about it. Its a special series called search for solutions the american economy. Well have it here on today and across all the nbc platforms. Thank you. One of the president s campaign allies, former president ial hopeful herman cain has died from covid19. Nbcs senior washington correspondent Andrea Mitchell joins us with more on that. Andrea, good morning. Reporter good morning, savannah. Herman cains website says he never accepted conventional wisdom which drives some people crazy. The website adds, thats just the way herman likes it. He burst onto the scene when cain ran for the republican nomination for president and was briefly out front. Herman cain, a Proud Tea Party conservative worked his way up from poverty to success in the restaurant industry. Last month the loyal trump surrogate attended the controversial indoor Campaign Rally in tulsa without a mask. Just nine days later, he was diagnosed with covid. Although it is not clear how or where he contracted it. He was a very special person. I got to know him very well. And unfortunately he passed away from a thing called the china virus. Reporter just days before testing positive, cain defended the president s decision to hold a rally during the pandemic. Trump tulsa rally. I was there. I saw it for myself. And it was an overwhelming success. Reporter and just before being hospitalized posting a since deleted tweet about the president s july 4th celebrausy jumped into the gop president ial race in 2011 even leading the pack before the first primaries. A colorful candidate known for his 999 tax cut. Slashing tax cuts across the board. Its a bold solution. Reporter even parodied on saturday night live. The plan was to get me a show on fox news. At 9 00. Reporter he soon dropped out after allegations of Sexual Misconduct surfaced which he denied. In the years that followed, cain hosted a syndicated radio show and made appearances on fox news. We have a new sheriff in town. His name is donald j. Trump. Reporter the president floated cain as a nominee for the Federal Reserve but he withdrew. Herman cain also had a history of cancer putting him in a high risk category for covid. Mitt romney last night calling cain a formidable champion of business, politics, and policy adding, st. Peter will soon here 999. Keep up the fight, my friend. Andrea mitchell in washington. Thank you. Now to some more breaking news on this friday morning. Al is tracking what is now a hurricane. Hurricane isaias is the strong storm that seems to be eyeing the east coast. How we looking, my friend . Well, right now, craig, our friends in the bahamas are under the gun for this one. A location about 385 miles southeast of nassau, bahamas. Its moving northwest at 17 miles per hour. Hurricane warnings up there. But we also have hurricane watches Tropical Storm watches for southern florida. Impacts today, it moves south of the bahamas bringing heavy rain. Upwards of 10 inches and a big storm surge. Then tomorrow, heavy rain and gusty winds for southern florida. The storm moves near the coast, but you also have to remember were within that area of possibility and probability of errors. Anywhere from 50 to 80 miles. And you can see Hurricane Force winds extend out 45 miles by tomorrow. So were within that cone of uncertainty. And then monday it moves along the carolinas possibly making landfall with rain, winds, high surf likely and may even skirt across the northeastern coast of new york and new jersey. Were looking for rainfall amounts anywhere from 1 to 3 inches of rain to miami all the way up to new york and 1 to 2 inches even in boston depending on the track. That could be even worse. Well continue to track this. All right, al. Ill take it. Thank you so much. We are also following search and rescue efforts off the coast of Southern California where at least one marine has died in a training accident. And others are missing this morning. Courtney kube is live with more. Reporter this was a routine Training Exercise that went wrong at about 5 45 p. M. Local time yesterday, right near san clemente, california. Leaving at least two others injured with one of those in critical condition. Search and rescue efforts are underway now being led by the u. S. Navy and the u. S. Coast guard. Its not exactly clear what happened here. Its being called a mishap involving an Amphibious Assault vehicle. 15 marines and 1 sailors were inside that vehicle when they went missing. All are assigned to the 15th Marine Expeditionary unit based out of camp pendelton. Writing this morning, we are deeply saddened by this tragic incident. Keep our marines, sailors, and their families in your prayers as we continue our search. Savannah, the investigation is currently underway. Okay, courtney. Thank you. Weve got a lot more to get to on this friday morning including the controversy surrounding the unproven consequences of hydroxychloroquine. The doctor in that is speaking out in a new interview. Morgan chesky joins us with that interview. Reporter good morning. After days of silence, were hearing from that doctor and minister seen in that video. Dr. Stella immanuel spoke to kprc and is now doubling down on those highly controversial and widely discredited claims. This morning one of the doctors featured in a nowbanned video about the coronavirus is speaking out. Of course they think im dangerous because im speaking truth. Reporter she was part of a video monday which featured a group of doctors claiming without evidence that theres a cure for covid19. She pushing hydroxychloroquine as part of the cure for the disease. Largely discredited by health experts. The president retweeted the video which was eventually taken down by twitter, facebook, and youtube. For violating misinformation policies. Im impressed with her and other doctors that stood with her. I think she made sense, but i know nothing about it. Reporter despite the backlash, in an interview with kprc, dr. Immanuel continued to claim hydroxychloroquine could be part of a cure. I dont know why its about it. When you have 300, 400 patients and none have died, it is not a minority view. Reporter dr. Anthony fauci says Scientific Data doesnt support her claim. All of those trials show consistently that hydroxychloroquine is not effective in the treatment of coronavirus disease or covid19. Reporter there are currently no drugs approved by the fda to prevent or treat covid19. And the National Institutes of health recommend against using hydroxychloroquine for treatment of the virus. Beyond her controversial coronavirus claims, dr. Immanuel has also drawn criticism for pushing unusual conspiracy theories. And for her beliefs about Demon Spirits and disease. Its off the beaten path to say demons are sleeping with you are they . Yes. Demons exist. Reporter now, dr. Immanuel admits she herself takes the drug and shes treated hundreds of patients with it. She says she plans on sharing her data at a later date. Savannah . All right. Morgan chesky, thank you very much. We turn now to yesterdays final farewell to congressman john lewis. An emotional tribute from family, friends, and former president s to his life and legacy as he was laid to rest. Nbcs blayne alexander has the story. Good morning. Reporter good morning to you. Congressman john lewis was honored yesterday by all four living former u. S. President s. Three of them in person right here baptist church. It was a stirring and Emotional Service honoring john lewis with a call to action. From the onetime church of dr. Martin luther king jr. Lead me on reporter a goodbye to the civil rights icon he inspired. We love john robert lewis. Reporter his legacy honored by friends, family, and long time staff. And nancy pelosi his congressional colleague of 33 years. When he spoke, people listened. When he led, people followed. We loved him very much. Reporter thats why nearly every living former president came together to help send him home. He was here on a mission that was bigger than personal ambition. In the America John Lewis fought for and the america i believe in, differences of opinion are inevitable elements and evidence of democracy in action. Reporter it was the stirring eulogy from the nations first black president who on the morning he was sworn in looked immediately to lewis. He was one of the first people i greeted and hugged on that stand, and i told him, this is your day too. Reporter and with election day fast approaching amid the tributes, a push to protect the Voting Rights act for which lewis almost gave his life. We should keep marching to make it even better. By making sure every american is automatically registered to vote. By adding polling places and expanding early voting and making election day a national holiday. Reporter after one final ride through atlanta, laid to rest but his impact left to live on. When we do form a more perfect union, john lewis will be a founding father of that fuller, fairer, better america. Reporter and savannah, he was laid to rest at southview cemetery. Its a historically Black Cemetery here in atlanta founded by a group of black businessmen because at the time black people were only allowed to use the back gates at existing cemeteries. Hes been laid to wife next to his late wife. What a stirring eulogy from president obama when he talked about how john lewis was younger than his daughters are now when he first stood up and protests. A young man, 20 years old, and how he changed the world. Such a fitting tribute yesterday. It really, really was. Absolutely. Mr. Roker, what else are we looking at now other than that hurricane barrelling towards floridas coast . Thats right. Well, weve got a stationary front thats bringing heavy rain to parts of the south, the Midatlantic States as well. Well look at that in the next half hour. A lot of heat. Recordsetting heat possible in the southwest ov