Mask. Dr. Anthony fauci said theres no acbu ambiguity. All of those trials show consistently that hydroxychloroquine is not effective in the treatment of coronavirus disease. Not effective. A distraction at best as the new federal report shows nearly two dozen states are in the red zone. That means theyve reported more than a hundred new cases per 100,000 people in the past week. And another major developing story. The ceos of the countrys Largest Tech Companies are on the hill for a hearing that will begin this hour. Any minute now, in fact. Industry giants including jeff bazos, mark zuckerberg, tim cooke are going to address concerns over potential antitrust violations in big tech. Well bring you any big developments from that as they happen. But lets start in washington this afternoon where republican congressman Louie Gohmert has canceled that trip with the president after testing positive. He received his diagnosis while at the white house this morning ahead of that planned trip to his home state. The congressman who has repeatedly told media he would not wear a mask unless he had the coronavirus did not wear one at yesterdays judiciary hearing with attorney general bill barr. Fellow Judiciary Committee member and democrat jeffreys reacting to the news on the hill this afternoon. I heard about the irresponsible behavior of many of the republicans who have chosen to consistently flout wellestablished Public Health guidance perhaps out of fealty to their boss, donald trump, who is the head of the antimask movement in america. Joining me from capitol hill is nbc news correspondent leanne caldwell. Reporter we know he was supposed to fly with the president on air force one today to get to texas but he got a positive covid test, and so he was unable to make that trip. We also know that he appears to be in his office on capitol hill. He just did an interview with a local television station from his office there. We also know that gohmert is one of a group of House Republicans who tend to not wear masks, roaming the halls of capitol hill, being on the house floor. They say they are just they say theyre not going to do it. As you mentioned gohmert had told the media earlier he would if he tested positive, but it really is emblematic of the mask wars taking place across the country that is also happening here on capitol hill, chris. All right, thank you. Appreciate that. Lets go to the white house now where during his departure for texas President Trump once again defended his social media endorsement of unfounded online claims about the coronavirus. After attacking what he calls the radical left the president once again defended retweeting a debunked video claiming hydroxychloroquine can cure covid19. Trump also said hes very impressed with the controversial dr. Stella emmanuel but insists at the same time he knows nothing about her, but he promoted the video to his 84 million twitter followers. I was very impressed with her as doctors are with her. I knownothing about her. I just saw her making a statement with very respected doctors. She was not alone. She was making a statement about hydroxychloroquine with other doctors that swear by it, that think its great. So she was not alone. With me now nbc news digital senior White House Reporter shannon pettypiece. Hey, shannon. Whats the defense here . That the president doesnt know anything about this woman but also her opinion should be trusted . Reporter well, its again one of these situations where the president retweets something though the white house is saying he did watch the video before he retweeted it unlike some of the videos he retweets. Retweets things and then has to double down on the defense of tweeting them. The president obviously is a big believer in hydroxychloroquine despite the studies and recommendations from the administrations own doctors like dr. Fauci talking about the concerns and efficacy about it. He continues to be a big believer in it. Theres others in this Administration LikePeter Navarro who have been encouraging and pushing that belief in hydroxychloroquine. And the president is out there looking for defenders. There are not many doctors who are out publicly defending this except for this doctor who as weve noted yesterday has a questionable past and has talked about alien dna being used in medications and demons causing illnesses, but hes looking for a defense on this lane and hes found it in this doctor clearly. Yeah, with demons and aliens. Thank you so much for that. We want to talk more about that debunked video that was circulated by President Trump. Here are just a few of dr. Stella emmanuels false claims about the virus. I cant here to washington, d. C. To tell america to tell america no needs to get sick. I know if you want to talk about masks, hello you dont need masks. There is a cure. I know they dont want to open schools. You dont need people to be locked down. There is prevention and there is a cure. Well, thats just part of the story. Nbc news has learned of dark money flowing into emmanuels group which is called americas front line doctors. Lets bring in nbc News Reporter ben collins who broke this story. So, ben, i dont even know where to start here. But tell us about this group. When you look at this video, frankly, unless youre paying attention to what theyre saying looks very professional. You know, theyre standing with this impressive backdrop. Theyve all got these white coats on. Who are these folks . Thats exactly the plan, chris. In real life there were just as many people watching that as there were speaking at that event, but on facebook you wouldnt know that. And the 20 Million People who saw it in less than 8 hours on facebook wouldnt know it either. Its a group thats been around for 12 days. Its a group thats part of a larger pack called tea party patriots. Americas front line doctors what they call themselves registered their domain 12 days ago, a second shot i guess moving the needle, shifting the conversation a bit from Everybody Needs a mask to actually hydroxychloroquine works, dont wear a mask, the president was right all along. And thats what this is about. This is about proving the president right, and lending credence to something thats become like a prophecy on the right wing internet that donald trump knew something about hydroxychloroquine no one else did. How did this happen . Whos funding this group and groups like this . Do we know . Its a group back from the Tea Party Days a decade ago, and still made 24 million over the last six years just from donations and doing the sort of stuff on the internet that you see in terms of fundraising, so thats not new at all. The difference is, you know, the algorithm is this controversial sort of stuff that really drives up engagement on this stuff. So by the Time Facebook gets to it its way too late. And people who are political operatives, they can shift it over to the mask conversation. They can shift over, you know, talk about race and things like that. They can make this just as controversial and theyve done that in the last few days. I want to ask you since were going to have all these heads of tech before congress in just a couple of minutes when you look at this kind of thing, and my thought was how does something spread that quickly to this many people. Whats the one question congress should be asking . What are the guardrails here, and why, by the way . Why is this the thing preferred by your algorithm. Why is the controversial stuff that gives you miracle cures and quick answers to complicated problems, why is that still the thing being propped up on facebook . And why are the people allowed to do it continuing to do it over and over again . Its the same groups, what they call coordinated inauthentic behavior, thats their wording and theyre trying to crack down on it now. Really what youre going to see today is a pingpong ball. Democrats are going to say why cant you crack down on hate groups, on dangerous misinformation no other country has. And then republicans are going to say this is big tech censorship. Why are you sensoring all these people who are may not agree with but theyre allowed to say all these things about demons giving you endomitriosis and things like that. Thats the fight. But thats whats going to happen. Ben collins going on the record. Thank you, ben. Great reporting. People should go online and read your story. Theres a new federal report out meantime that was obtained by the New York Times first. It designates 21 states as red zones where the coronavirus is spreading quickly. All of those states had more than 100 new cases per 100,000 people in the last week. The report calls on local leaders to impose new restrictions to stop the spread of covid19. Joining me now is the professor of epidemiology at the ucla Fielding School of Public Health. Just last evening the president said most of the u. S. Is covid free. Now this federal report says the number of red zone states has increased from 18 earlier this month to 21. So where are we really . Well, you know, this is a good question. And the answer is follow the data. I think in everything were talking about today we need to follow the data. The data is showing us that we have upticks in cases in many places in this country, and we need to be acting accordingly. If we had a National Strategy that laid out exactly what we need to do when we see x number of cases and exactly what states need to do, how we need to move forward across the board, i think that we would be doing a lot better. The problem is that each state is left to its own devices to figure it out. And so National Strategy is where it becomes really critical. And again, we just need to follow the data. Yeah, even in a place like where i live, new york, where the governor has followed the data from the beginning and has been very strong in what people need to do, we saw a concert in the hamptons, people partying, seeming not to be doing anything in terms of social distancing. Whats the potential impact, if any, on these do these kinds of events have when you see these new spikes . You know, weve seen this in other countries. Im going to go back to my original statement, follow the data. And the data from other countries show that you can get a local epidemic under control, and then you open up like what happened in south korea. You could have a super spreader event at a party or a bar, and all of a sudden you start seeing cases again, and so we have to be very vigilant at all times, and we need to be just because we feel like weve gotten, you know, a little bit further along the way like in new york when you start having parties youre starting to have people coming back together, then youre going to see spikes in cases. And, you know, this is really important moment for everybody. If we want to get kids back in school, if we want to reopen the economy we need to really be careful, everybody. Just because things are getting a bit better in certain places doesnt mean were out of the woods. It takes one super spreader event to start a cascade of cases. And so the whole country right now needs to be coming together and really forcing these cases down and avoiding opportunities for big spread if we want to be able to reap the benefits. I mean, the bottom line is we are not out of the woods anywhere. Yeah, i mean you have the mlb season already up ended less than a week in. What is this outbreak among marlins team members mean for the rest of the league, do you think . What should be happening here . Well, i mean i think its one of these situations where we get to, quote, yogi bear out here and we can say two things. The future aint what it used to be, and you can observe a lot by just watching. What are we seeing here . Were seeing that it is very difficult to contain coronavirus and that it spreads easily. We also see that its very difficult to maintain social distancing. You just look at what happened, you know, in the last couple of days. We see cases with the marlins. Weve seen some of this where we see that social distancing is really not possible. Those dug outs look pretty crowded. Weve had a scenario with the game with l. A. And houston where we saw people coming together. Its very difficult under most circumstances to keep people apart, and theyre not wearing masks. Theyre going to be in close proximity. And the virus is there. So i think that we need to be really thinking about how were going to be able to proceed in a situation where people are not necessarily doing all they need to do. We dont have bubbles the same way we do, and we worry about people coming from other places. These teams are traveling and is so theyre bringing people from state to state and we could see more cases and not just in these players, but in anybody else thats in their vicinity. Anne, we really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us today. And a little bit later a growing trend in florida where a growing number of kids are contracting the virus. Ill speak to a florida teacher president. And a hearing just getting under way with the big tech four ceos from amazon crushing the competition to facebook and twitter being virtual breeding grounds for disinformation. Where is the accountability . But first deep state speculation running rampant after a photographer gets joe bidens notes about a rumored contender. Thats next. Bidens notes about a rumored contender. Thats next. New sensodyne sensitivity gum gives us the dual action effect that really takes care of both our teeth sensitivity as well as our gum issues. Theres no question its something that i would recommend. To bit never bothered me. Dust . Until i found out what it actually was. Dust mite droppings . Ewww. Dead skin cells . Gross so now, i grab my swiffer sweeper and heavy duty dusters. Dusters has three layers that grab, trap and lock away gross dust. Gotcha and, for dust on my floors, i switch to my sweeper. The textured cloths grab, trap and lock dirt and hair. 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A state he won by 9 points in 2016. In a morning poll released monday night former Vice President joe biden leads 4745 in texas. That marks a dramatic 11 point swing from two months ago. Joining me now is nbc news correspondent morgan chesky. So this visit is for fundraising for a visit to an oil rig as i understand it but the backdrop is this polling nosedive, its serious. Tell me a bit what youre seeing and hearing on the ground there. Reporter well, i can tell you that as far as statewide polls texas could be considered a battleground state, but at least in this area not just here in midland but across the entire basin when President Trump arrives hell certainly be doing so to a hometown crowd. If you go back in 2016 when he was elected more than 70 of registered voters here went republican compared to texas being 52 republican, so theres a very much bastion for President Trump here in the state of texas, and thats likely what hes going to encounter when he lands here in midland hes going to be doing any minute now and a motorcade will take him to odessa where hell have that private fundraising event. We confirmed itll be 120,000 plate ivent and you can stit with him at an exclusive round table for a price of 100,000. And after that the president will go to tour an oil rig site because as you can see behind me this is really the lifeblood for this area. We didnt to travel far to get a backdrop like this. And if you compare right now to a year ago the crash between the price of oil and saudi arabia driving the price of oil down and add a pandemic to that you have tough times for a lot of folks in this area. We know in the town of odeszasa unemployment has gone from 2 to 20 . People i spoke with today basically shared how tough its been over the past seven months as its been a double whammy here in this region. Take a listen as one man describes the Work Environment hes seen play out firsthand. Take a listen. How would you describe the past few months here between the oil crash and the virus . Detrimental, i mean its been bad. I mean the company i worked for we had about 80 people at the beginning of the year and now were down to about eight. Were holding on by threads. Reporter so the virus certainly a concern here in this region but also trying to bring this industry back to life on the forefront of so many minds especially with the president arriving later today. Chris . Morgan chesky, thank you so much for that. Meantime joe biden says hell choose his running mate during the first week in august. Thats next week. And thanks to the photo taken of bidens note card by andrew harneck at yesterdays conference there is renewed focus and you can see it there at the top in bidens own, Kamala Harris. So whats the campaign telling you, mike, about bidens notes on harris . Well, chris, the campaign is not commenting on what he might have meant, what was on those note cards, but you and i covered the white house together. We know what probably was going on here. The Vice President s team preparing him for some likely questions as he did take questions from us yesterday in wilmington. And one of the big issues about the deep search here is the question of trust here and whether theres a trust gap between the bidens and Kamala Harris over that real explosive moment in that first president ial pri