Good to be with you tonight from new york. Bharz are closing in louisiana and di any world is opening in florida. Two very different turning points as the coronavirus outbreak continues growing. Today florida recorded 15,300 new cases. It is the highest one day total for one state since a month ago. Theme parks are turning away guests without masks. Covid19 cases are increasing. More than three dozen states are seeing it increase. Hospitalizations and cases continue to rise. These statistics can easily feel disembodied and faceless. They keep growing with no end in sight. One face in the fight against code 19 is becoming a more direct target of the white house. It provided nksz with a dozen dments comments that they said dr. Fauchi was wrong on. A candidate would release about their opponent. The points against dr. Fauchi included his comments in january that coronavirus was not a major threat and not driven by asymptomatic carriers. Also mentioned, fauchis comment in march that people should not be Walking Around with masks. Those assertions did turn out to be wrong as we learned more about covid19. Still, Anthony Fauchi has not been on tv in a while but other Administration Officials made the rounds today including the southern general. We can turn this thing around in two to three weeks if we can get a critical mask of people wearing face coverings, practicing at least six feet of social distancing. That is a solid plan to turn this thing around, if we would all do our parts. Meanwhile betsy devos shared no dwib active plan to open up School Campuses this fall but she insisted they need to open. If there is a shortterm flareup for a few days, thats a different situation than planning an entire school year in anticipation of something that hasnt happened. Thats a very different thing. Theyve got to be back in the class room. Working families need their children in school. I know i again, i know that kids should be back in school. Cdc guidelines note that online classes show a low risk of infection. Devos wouldnt say whether we should follow that panel. Joining us an internal medicine physician. Kimberly atkins, correspondent for public radio in boston and jonathan allen, senior political analyst for nbc news. Com. Dr. Roy, let me start with you. Its good to be with you from a safe distance of at least this looks like devan its almost ten feet, isnt it . Im also metric. Its definitely over six feet. Were two meters at least. I want your reaction to what the Surgeon General jerome adams said. We prescribed leaches and cocaine and heroin for people as medical treatments. When we learn better we do better are you saying at that time you did not know because the cdc was looking at asymptomatic transmission of the virus . We were looking at that but the cdc, the w. H. O. , even an article in this new england journal of medicine still disputed where masks are effective. The leaches are still used in medication in some applications. Theres research on that. I wont start on cocaine and heroin. That seemed like a weird comparison. My interception was that datas constantly changing, evolving. Its not that dr. Fauchi was necessarily wrong. He was going by the data or the lack thereof. I want to go back to segment you were showing earlier. If i may set the record straight here. Dr. Fauchi is a gentleman who has devoted his life and his career to the health and wellbeing of the american people. He has just he is so wellrespected around the world. Think about it this way, joshua. You or any of our viewers had a very about thyroid or lupus medications, do they call their mayor, their representative or do they call a doctor . We should be listening to the career scientists and doctors like dr. Anthony fauchi. We know that President Trump and dr. Fauchi have not seen eye to eye. You dont fight with someone whos not on the ballot but donald trump has, what about this one . Yes. Its a great point that you make. Hes somebody who has attacked people within his own administration. Hes attack judge cure glel the last election. I think he won not in spite of it but because of them. Its not necessarily going to help Donald TrumpsApproval Ratings for that to happen. I think he does see fauchi whos in opposition with him and its hurting his base. Were seeing an emotion of his base for the first time. Were starting to see College Educated white men and women, older voters starting to pull away from trump. I think he must be trying to figure out a way to discredit fauchi with his Research Campaign to try to get some of them back, so theyre not listening to fauchi, so they dont become more alienated from the president himself. Im not a doctor but if im not mistaken, cocaine and opioids, if not heroin itself are still very much used in medicine. Is that true, doctor . Actually, yes. Even though heroin is considered a schedule one drug there are places who use heroin as a substance to cure opioid. Appearances that seemed to go well. How do you think that todays appearances by secretary devos rated with the white house . Well, if the scoring criteria is staying on message that schools like businesses like the economy muss reopen no matter what, she did exactly that. She didnt always stay along the lines of common sense that if schools dont have a plan of how to reopen safely in a way that doesnt put not just the students but also teachers and everyone else in that building that works in a way that doesnt put them in danger, then thats not going to accomplish her purpose. Her message was clear. Open up or else. As to how i to do it safely, its up to the local school kept to figure that out on their own. But opening schools is essential to reopen the economy and weve seen from the president that that is his top focus. He wants this virus to go away. He has repeatedly said falsely that this virus will go away, and despite the fact that weve seen more new cases in the last few days than ever, that plan is being pushed to move forward and were seeing secretary devos is staying in line with that. There was an upsetting story of a 30yearold man in texas who apparently attended a pandemic party, as some call it, died. He said as he died that he thought covid19 was a hoax. I dont see any value of speaking ill of the dead. We dont know yet how wide the socalled pandemic parties are. Theyre shocking but they might be rare. We just dont know. What do you think the proper response to these should be . I dont think that shaming people or wagging fingers at people will do any good. But what might do some good . First of all, id like to express my condolences to this gentleman and his family. Each person that passes away, when we think of 130,000, its almost unfathomable, right . But as a doctor, having seen People Struggle to breathe, struggling to live, wrooising in pain in hospital. In this pandemic they are by themselves in a sterile hospital room. As you know, visitors arent alloyed. Loved ones arent allowed. When i think of these individual people going to parties, thinking its not going to affect them. It chills my soul to the marrow to quote carole king. We try not to use shame. Thats not an effective strategy. I look at it from two points of view. Young people have a sense of invinceability but its also a lack of leadership. You need strong messaging from leaders saying, look, this is real and this is how you protect yourself. I do not leave my home without wearing a mask. Officials should be mandating that in order to save lives. The same aspect of this whole pandemic is a topic for another day but youre right. I dont see what good that would do. Well see what ultimately will do some good. Thanks. Nice to see you. Stick around. Wed like your help in the hour. 17 sailors and four civilians in san diego have been injured affidavit a fire on a navy ship. Nbcs Aaron Mclaughlin is in los angeles. Shes been following the story and has the latest. Aaron, how is the firefighter going . Is it out by now . Reporter well, not yet, joshua. Certainly its a shocking sight to behold, smoke billowing from the ship. You can see there fire, boats spraying the sides of the vessel with water. As of an hour ago, the Naval Surface forces tweeting that they were still trying to find the seats of the fire in order to extinguish it. We know that the federal fire is leading this effort. They have two crews on board the ship rotating with the u. S. Navy, trying to extinguish the fire. The real concern at this point is the fuel on board this vessel. Some 55 gallon fuel tank. Their real concern that this fire could persist through the night, so concerned that they have moved other vessels in the area away. Thank you, aaron. Thats the latest in los angeles. Coming up, President Trumps decision to spare roger stone from prison was highly controversial, including inside the white house. Who tried to stop it and why . That is next. And why that is next 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. And still going for my best. Even though i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib. Not caused by a heart valve problem. So if theres a better treatment than warfarin, im reaching for that. Eliquis. Eliquis is proven to reduce stroke risk better than warfarin. Plus has significantly less major bleeding than warfarin. 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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. Gubut force factors test x180 are tough. Can help us man up, america, by boosting total testosterone. Build muscle, fuel desire, and improve performance. Get test x180 from force factor, the 1 fastestgrowing mens health brand at walmart. Roger stone would have been two days from prison if President Trump had not commuted the sentence. The fallout continues over that decision and over an unexpected response to it. Today senator Linsey Graham who chairs the judiciary compete says he will grant the right to testify. Muller wrote an op ed on the kmu tags for the washington potion. He wrote that stone remains a convicted felon and rightly so. Joining the panel, professor maia wiley, don callaway, the ceo of pine Street Strategies and nbc intelligence and National Security correspondent ken delane . Ken, let me start with you and the op ed. It says that rormg stone remains a convicted felon, rightfully so. Can you explain why thats so significant . Joshua, unique among the prosecutions by roger mullers office the stone case went to trump. They made the president part of the case. They made clear to the jury that roshlg stone not only tampered with a witness but he did it to protect donald trump from embarrassment. He didnt want the public to know that the Trump Campaign was eager to get information from the russians, even if there was no conspiracy established. Theyre commuting the sentence of a person who lied to congress. Robert mueller goes to write this op ed to send a message that this prosecution was legitimate and that the people who conducted the investigations acted with sbeg fi and he said any sentments to the contrary are false. Multiple reports state that multiple white house firms advised against this kmu taste. Much of the concern was over political blowback. Its been a few days but what evidence is there to either support or refute those concerns . I mean, its hard to know exactly how voters are going to react to each thing but at this point, the president s permutations create a long laundry list for his opponents to make hay off of. Youre talking about him essentially commuting the sentence of somebody who defended him and Robert Mueller didnt say it ex plate italy in that op bid he suggested it but he suggested that one of the problems he had in trying to prosecute a conspiracy or even find that there was a conspiracy was that people werent forthcoming and were perhaps dishonest with them. The questions about roger stone lying to congress fall into sort of that same area. So what youve got is somebody who basically said he was not going to turn on the president giving a kmu tags for that. That will be something you hear about between now and election day. Besides the politics, theres the actual Practical Implications of this, that the president of the United States is making life easier for felons who align with him permanesonalr politically. His is a number of pardons and kmu tagss by President Trump. Hes among the first president s to offer a hookup connected to crimes such as murder, arson, even war crimes. These are a done deal whether he wins reelection or not. So where does that leave us . Well, it leaves us with a president whos running for reelection essentially on a platform that says that i will make a mockery of justice, that i will use mercy instead of in cases where mercy is indicated, something that we saw barack obama do with over 2,000 nonviolent offenders who had really harsh snepss for lowlevel crime. In this case hell use it for political favor, for political gain and to score points of people who say of payo who was accused of violenting the Constitutional Rights of people who were latino and joking about having concentration camplike conditions for undocumented immigrants or people he thought was undocumented but he rounded up. These are the kind of people hes going to stand with and hes going to stand with them while we have people like a brenda brant who barack obama gave clemens si to who had spent 21 years in prison, although shed never commit add Violent Crime and her boyfriend essentially flipped on her to get a lower sneps for himself. These are cases that right now the American Public is calling out for government to address in terms of a broken criminal justice system. And donald trump keeps breaking it further. The opponents of this kmu tags reportedly included mike meadows. To the best of our knowledge, mr. Meadows has neared resigned for hinted to do so. Maybe hes trying to be a steadying presence in the the white house as best he can. Right. What do you think . Theres no sincere opposition from the house. If there was, it would be based on the moral dilemma. I think nave made the calculation which is that none of his base is going leave him based upon this kmu tags. This president seems to not understand that to win a gem election you have to expand upon your base. That, to me, as a campaign guy makes me really worried about what his general election astrodome is if he does not plan to grow the base. He plans to say joe biden is cheating and i would lastly say that you cant look at this kmu tags separate as dr. Wiley was getting commutes and pardons and hooks up, as you said, josh war rich and connected people, most of whom happen to be white men. Having been accused, sits in Rikers Island and dies accused for stealing a backpack. Lima mcclain. Thats what this is about. Its about an unjust system and people are tired of it and the president continues to be a very highlevel illustration of that. Lets look forward a little bit. This does not appear just to be talk from senator graham about having Robert Mueller testify. He said a formal invitation is in the works. How significant would that be . I dont get the feeling that rormg stone excuse me that Robert Mueller really enjoyed testifying the first time. He didnt seem to dig it. It felt like grabbed political theater which frankly just felt theatrical. Yol know if it was as much light compared to heat. What would did bringing him before the Judiciary Committee accomplish . This is a cynical move by senator Linsey Graham. He did not perform well. People worked with robert mul every. Immediate become a fairly elderly guy. We dont know whether he wrote this op ed. The idea of bringing him before the committee to try to drill him about the investigation doesnt seem particularly useful unless hes going to bring his deputies who may with more knowledgeable. Theres something that didnt get told in the Robert Mueller hearing because he wasnt able to tell it. Its about a campaign that was eager and willing to accept help from a foreign power. That is seep by some as a scandal. Then theres the idea that the president obstructed justice. We havent talk about that much lately but its a historic episode and the public could benefit by learning more about it. Were seeing if he wrote it by himself or with a coauthor. Youre not saying we dont know if its legit, right . No. Its usual for prominent people to have help putting out a book. Im suggesting a report of people i talk to say that bob mueller who testified a year ago before congress was not the bob mueller they worked with as fbi director for those many years. It will be very interesting to see wh