Hello, again everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. Im fredericka whitfield. We begin with the escalating battle of the president and the facts. There are more than 600,000 coronavirus deaths globally. 140,000 of those happening right here in the u. S. The startling spikes happening in two states in particular that have become the epicenters of the coronavirus pandemic. Yet the president of the United States downplaying the extent of the crisis. First, florida reporting another 12,478 new cases today. This as the state says hospitalizations have risen dramatically in recent days. More than 9,300 are now being treated. In texas, new cases and deaths seen a dramatic rise. Austin said a third of the citys coronavirus deaths happened in the last two weeks and the u. S. Navy is now going to south texas to help fight in the spread of the disease. Projections from the cdc say 150,000 americans will have died the virus by august 8th. But even as cases and deaths continue to rise, President Trump is downplaying the data arguing in an interview on fox news this morning that the numbers are being skewed citing european cdc models rather than official Johns Hopkins university data. We have the seventh highest mortality rate in the world. Our mortality rate is higher than brazil, higher than russia. And the European Union has us on a travel ban. I think what well do i closed them off. I did the European Union very early but when you talk about mortality rates, i think its the opposite. I think we have one of the lowest mortality rates. Thats not true. We have 900 deaths in a single day this week. Will you please get me the mortality rate . Kayleigh is right here. I heard we have one of the lowest mortality rates in the world. I heard we had the best mortality rate. [ inaudible ] number one low mortality rate. I hope you show this because it shows what fake news is all about. I dont think im fake news. There you are. The stats you said the worst mortality rate in the world and we have the best. All right. We have reporters covering all the coronavirus hotspots across the country. Lets get started with randi kaye in florida. The state is reporting more than 12,000 new cases today and hospital sae hospitalizations are also going up. Reporter they certainly are, fred. Everything seems to be going in the wrong direction here. 10,300 cases the day before. And now we have 12,478 new cases. 89 deaths bringing the grand total to 4,982 deaths here in the state of florida and more than 350,000 cases and not what they want to see. This is the fourth time since the pandemic started of a daily case number above 12,000 all in the month of july. The Positivity Rate about 18. 2 and if you look at miamidade the hardest hit county the icu capacity is well above where it should be. They have run out of icu beds at 127 capacity in Miamidade County and 2,008 people hospitalized there. Theyre out of icu beds. 507 people with covid needing icu beds and they have 398 so the governor here is doing what he can, certainly trying to say we are moving in the right direction, but local leaders are frustrated and asking why there isnt more help from the federal government. Listen to what a local mayor had to say. Ive been urging the governor to issue a mask in public rule for the state and the nation. Theres a population that will only listen to them. I think its important that they lead in moments like this. This is an opportunity for the president in an Election Year to basically, you know, lean into this crisis and show leadership. It would be great if we had a uniformity of message up and down from the urban city like ours all the way through to the president , of course. Reporter mayor suarez isnt the only local official saying that. Many mayors say problem with the mandate and the governor saying no mask mandate despite the rising numbers here, fred. That is striking for the republican mayor to say looking for a unifying message stretching from the state of florida led by republican governor all the way to the white house led by the republican president. Pretty striking. Thank you so much. Lets go to texas now as the number of deaths from the virus grows, the need for refrigerated trucks as morgues fill up. Ed lavandera is in ft. Worth and the u. S. Navy deploying teams in texas. What will be the role, ed . Reporter theyre coming in to help alleviate the pressure on the hospitals in many corners of this state as the pandemic continues to worsen here in texas. The governor announcing this afternoon that five u. S. Navy medical teams will be deployed to four different south texas cities and del rio,texas and all those areas in south texas where theres just an onslaught of these cases. The south texas area has been a hotspot within the texas hotspot and that is where medical professionals have been sounding the alarm of how dire the need is and the pressure on the Hospital Systems in that region because of the growing and skyrocketing number of coronavirus cases that were seen here in this state. So this is already on top of a large number of other military personnel teams that have been brought boo tinto the areas to in other areas. Ed lavandera, thank you so much. So despite the skyrocketing case count across the country, President Trump continues to downplay the coronavirus pandemic. In a combative interview, the president dismissing the surge of cases and deaths once again promising the outbreak will disappear. Do you still talk about it as quote burning embers . I want to put up a chart that shows where we are with the illness over the last four months. We hit a peak here in april. 36,000 cases. Cases. A day. Yeah, cases. Then it went down and now since june it has gone up more than doubled. One day this week, 75,000. Thats right. New cases. More than double. Chris, thats because we have great testing, the best testing in the world. If we didnt test you wouldnt be able to show that chart. This isnt burning embers. I say flames . Well put out the flames and put out in some cases just burning embers and we have embers and we do have flames. For more on this lets bring in Jeremy Diamond at the white house. The president continuing to falsely blame testing for this nationwide rise in cases as opposed to looking at the fact that the rising cases means a rising problem. Tell us what more is being said by the president and the white house overall. Reporter yeah. It is remarkable because we are more than a month now into the second surge of coronavirus cases and yet it seems that the president isnt still on the same page with the experts and the rest of us looking at the facts of the situation here. Once again the president deflecting blame at several points and one of the things to raise is the notion that testing in the United States is responsible for this rise in cases, rather than this surge which is real and in which we are seeing. Watch. Cases are up. Many of those cases shouldnt be cases. We have the best testing in the world and the most testing. No country has done what we have done in terms of testing. We are the envy of the world. They call and say the most incredible job. Our job on testing. Because were going to be up to 50 million tests. You look at other countries. They dont do tests but if somebody walks into the hospital theyre sick, theyre really sick, they test them then or in an a Doctors Office and dont have massive areas of testing and they do. Im glad we do but it skew it is numbers. Reporter now the president fact checked in realtime there by Chris Wallace saying while testing up 37 the cases in the United States up 194 . And the numbers are frankly worse looking at the hotspots like florida iand arizona and texas. This is a tired that yalking pof the president but goes against reality. The president in that interview was asked about the relationship with dr. Anthony fauci, the leading Infectious Disease doctor and scientist. What did the president have to say about him . Reporter it is interesting. The president tried to dismiss the notion in the interview of a White House Campaign to undermine the credibility of the dr. Fauci. The president saying that, pointing to the oped of Peter Navarro and saying that the White House Press shop put out talking points to diss credit dr. Fauci before that. Listen to how the president talked about this dismissing the notion of a White House Campaign and the president pointed out what he called mistakes of dr. Fauci. Hes made some mistakes but i have a very good i spoke to him yesterday at length. I have a very Good Relationship with dr. Fauci. Sir, this week, this weekend your white house put out a series of statements, socalled mistakes that dr. Fauci made. A closest aide put out this. Have you seen this . Dr. Faucet. It shows him as a leaker and an alarmist. I dont know that hes a leaker. Little bit of an alarmist. Reporter fredericka, this goes beyond the president and dr. Fauci. This is about the president versus the science and we saw that repeatedly not only with that repeated false claim of testing but in the way talking about the centers for Disease Control and dr. Redfield and disagreed that the virus is worse in the fall, disagreeing with the notion if everyone wore masks the United States to get this under control. Fred . Right. The latest microcosm of the president s fight with the truth. Period. Jeremy diamond, thank you so much. In the fox news interview President Trump also mentioned some new claims about coronavirus disappearing. Well fact check his statements coming up. A major new study finds older children spread the coronavirus just as much as adults. A Teachers Union president joins me live to discuss that and her new editorial. Later, the mayor of los angeles says his city on the brink of a new stayathome order. Are other cities considering a new order, as well . So whats going on . Im a talking dog. The other issue. Oh. Im scratching like crazy. Youve got some allergic itch with skin inflammation. Apoquel can work on that itch in as little as 4 hours, whether its a new or chronic problem. And apoquels treated over 8 million dogs. Nice. And. The talking dog thing . Is it bothering you . No. Itching like a dog is bothering me. Until dogs can speak for themselves, you have to. When allergic itch is a problem, ask for apoquel. Apoquel is for the control of itch associated with allergic dermatitis and the control of Atopic Dermatitis in dogs. Do not use apoquel in dogs less than 12 months old or those with serious infections. Apoquel may increase the chance of developing serious infections and may cause existing parasitic skin infestations or preexisting cancers to worsen. Do not use in breeding, pregnant, or lactating dogs. Most common side effects are vomiting and diarrhea. Feeling better . Im speechless. Thanks for the apoquel. Aw. Thats what friends are for. Ask your veterinarian for apoquel next to you, apoquel is a dogs best friend. Well the names have all changed since you hung around but those dreams have remained and theyve turned around whod have thought theyd lead ya back here where we need ya welcome back, america. It sure is good to see you. Teachers across the country say its not a matter of if they want to return to the classroom. It is a matter of how they can do so safely. In a new usa today oped the president of the xhern federation of teachers writes unless we have the resources to reopen it wont happen. If there were ever a moment for the federal government to step up to ensure equity and safety and help the nearly 90 of children who attend Public Schools this is it. And this is the author, right here, randy winegartner. So good to see me. It sure is, fredericka. Yeah. You know, this is this is a tough reality check for a lot of families across the country and teachers in the classroom. People have lots of questions. But you know, the white house chief of staff mark meadows said today that 70 billion of the next stimulus package has been directed by the president to go to schools so how confident are you that money will help teachers in districts get the resources they need to return to the classroom safely . Well, 70 billion is better than what weve gotten thus far which is essentially weve been begging since the middle of may to get 116 billion. And so, we need to see what they actually put into the package. I know theyre not negotiating with either Speaker Pelosi or leader schumer so im a little concerned about that but, you know, ive been with you for the last several sundays and saturdays and been very im more concerned today than i was four weeks ago. Why . Because of the surge. Uhhuh. Because of the surge. Because what happened is you have this huge surge of cases in california and arizona and florida and georgia. You have districts who have been trying to make plans. Thats part of the reason why everybody hears about hybrid masks, all these things that are precautions but you have no resources and so for the white house to say that today as opposed to four weeks ago when districts were really starting to plan, it is almost like theyre setting us up for failure. It is great but we need to eradicate the virus, reduce the spread. We need to actually have the safeguards and need to have resources. Let me say one more thing which is what devos and trump did a couple of weeks ago is unconscionable. They took what was a tough process to try to take an unprecedented virus and see how to make it safe in schools knowing full well that kids as well as teachers actually trance mitt the virus and they threw a Monkey Wrench into that planning by fearing so many people and throughout the country now we have teachers and parents scared because they think that trump wont make the school safe and frankly in florida he is allowing the schools to reopen unsafely. And so, with that, and even with the chief of staff making promise that money is on the way, there is some School Districts that are about to if doors were to open it would happen in a matter of weeks, three weeks, four weeks because early august many schools are scheduled to open. Do you believe that flood of money can get to any of those School Districts in time to try and assure safety if those schools were to open up . Look. If we can get the resources that we have been fighting for for months and can make the safeguards work, i think in places that are not surging virus we could probably open up. Okay. The issue is how do we make sure that we have the staggered scheduling . We have the masks and the physical distancing, the cleaning and the ventilation . Districts will try to do what others have not been able to do but we need the money, the planning and thats in places where we dont have a surge. Yeah. Got to happen first. In places with a surge gotcha. We did not lose that signal oh man. Hmm. Okay. I hope we can try to get it back. Hopefully some of the information she was able to impart is instructive to families who are very concerned, still have a lot of Unanswered Questions how best to prepare for a start of a school year, remote learning, in school or hybrid. Randi wait. See. I thought if i talk long enough she would come back and there you are this is what happens with technology. You know . Thats right. Make the best of it. Spotty. Sometimes it works and then sometimes we have to be patient. Talk to me about Something Else that you have espoused. You have been saying that the Upcoming School year could be a bridge year. What does that mean . Right. I want to actually raise up because my members and my leaders have been really trying to figure out how we meet the needs of students, emotional and learning needs, and the Massachusetts Federation of teachers in boston teachers y g union have a plan for that. Every kid is really different right now because every kid has been has dealt with the virus, the pandemic, in very different ways and so when i say its a bridge year we need to meet kids instructal and emotional needs and september on remote or whether were in person in a hybrid way, were going to have to assess where our kids are and then in some ways what were doing is we will have to group kids differently to actually meet their needs and thats what i mean by a bridge year. This is not a year like any other because of what happened last year and this year. Right. Thats where dedicating the resources in the right direction is critical. There are a lot of parents who fear that this potential school year is a potential setback. Because, you know, some of the kids may not make the adjustments and have the education because, you know, if its remote or hybrid and theyre worried. Look. I think we are all worried and if parents and teachers can Stay Together in terms of us really getting to know our kids this year and also having a the New York Times had a great editorial about this. Im glad somebodys seeing that connectivity as well as devices are absolutely imperative regardless of hybrid or not. We need the devices for kids. We need the connectivity for their homes. We need to make sure were still continuing grab and go and then i think we will have to do a lot of Small Group Instruction for kids and we alex ovechkto get t kids really well in august and september regardless of hybrid or remote. Great advice. Clear your schedule, i want you back. A lot more any time, fredericka, because you are doing such an Amazing Service for parents and for teachers by really talking about the real issues. I really appreciate it. We appreciate you. Im within of the parents whos really concerned, too. All right. I love all of our kids. Th