Stunning new comments about the government response. Right now, oklahoma, north dakota, nebraska, are among the two dozen states seeing significant increases in new cases. And the nation reported more than 45,000 new cases in the last day alone. In washington, talks on a relief package are set to pick up as House Speaker nancy pelosi signals the fight is likely to roll into next week. Negotiators, though, still deadlocked on multiple major issues including Unemployment Insurance. And in a wide ranging interview, President Trump says this about the battle against covid across the u. S. Right now i think it is under control. Ill tell you how, a thousand americans are dying a day. They are dying, it is true, it is what it is, but that doesnt mean we arent doing everything we can, it is under control as much as you can control it. Nbcs Shannon Pettypiece is at the white house, kasie hunt live on capitol hill. Shannon, the new comments from President Trump particularly when it comes to how he view the death numbers, they are drawing a lot of reaction this morning. Reporter right, it is part of the pattern of the president of downplaying the severity of the situation, even as his advisers, other people in his administration have really been trying to sound the alarm more on the seriousness of this, to get people to wear masks, to avoid crowds, to try and message out there the seriousness to get people to take action and get the virus under control. Here, though, is how the president and this axios interview described what he has seen when it comes to the mortalities that were facing in this country. Right here, the United States is lowest in numerous categories, were lower than the world. Lower than the world . Lower than europe. In what . In what . Take a look. Right here. Heres case death. Oh youre doing death as a proportion of cases im talking about death as a proportion of population. South korea, 300 deaths. It is like it is crazy you dont know that. I do. You think theyre faking their statistics, south korea, an advanced country. So confusing exchange here. And let me walk you through a bit. The numbers the president is talking about is the number of people infected who die. The number of deaths divided by the number of cases, we do a lot of cases helps us there because essentially you have a bigger denominator. Another number where the u. S. Does not look so good is if you take the number of people who have died and divide that by the total population, and there you can see among the most affected countries, the u. S. Is really one of the leaders when it comes to the number of people who are dying as a proportion of the population. The president doesnt want to talk about those numbers, hes focusing on the persicentage of people infected who end up dieing. Not to presentation preventing those who are sick with the virus from dying does not mean you have the virus under control. Something the president repeatedly said which is factually not correct. Millions of americans would disagree with the president s assessment that this is under control. Lets talk a little bit about whether or not we can expect any breakthrough in these relief bill talks. There are some new strategies being floated by republicans and the white house. If this stalemate doesnt end soon what are you hearing on capitol hill . Reporter well, ayman what were hearing essentially is that unfortunately americans are going to have to wait a little while longer before those benefits that they had come to rely on, that extra Unemployment Insurance that was coming for americans who lost their jobs as a result of this pandemic, were now seeing negotiations potentially dragging midway into august before they come up with anything and thats, of course if they are able to find a deal at all. Now, we did hear some notes of optimism from democrats, in particular yesterday, saying they think things potentially are getting more serious, the negotiations are entering a new phase. But republicans still are not on the same page, frankly, and Senate Republicans are nervous about how much money the bill is going to cost, this was not something they were focused on in the last round, of course and hasnt been something they have been focused on in the last few years of the Trump Administration quite frankly. But there are some political dynamics considering how badly the president s poll numbers are right now that are driving this new reality. One other thing that were watching is you have mark meadows, the white house chief of staff, who is now involved intimately in the negotiations, and he and Steve Mnuchin dont necessarily seem to be completely on the same page. And mnuchin, of course, the treasury secretary, who played a huge role in negotiating these earlier packages with democrats. Meadows, a former Tea Party House member who ring leader even, who has a reputation for being more conservative. So were watching to see how that dynamic potentially affects whether americans are able to get these checks, ayman. Kasie hunt, Shannon Pettypiece, thank you for starting us off. Breaking news as is we track the path of storm Tropical Storm isaias, barreling its way up the east coast. Tropical storm warnings in effect for more than 50 million americans. The coastline also bracing for potential flash flooding after parts of the carolinas were pulled overnight. Flooding and tornadoes leaving behind a trail of destruction you see on your screen. Hundreds of thousands also losing power overnight. Nbcs ron allen is in long branch, new jersey, where a state of emergency has now been declared amid the warnings about flash floodings we were talking about. There are high winds, possible tornadoes as well. Nbc meteorologist bill karins, he is tracking this storms path for us, ron, let me begin with you on the ground, what kind of preparations are you seeing as this storm moves closer . Well, as you said, state of emergency declared for most of new jersey. Here along the shore. You can see everything is sort of battened down, tied down, shut down, the trees are blowing, the big concern here is the wind, it is already expecting gusts up to 70 Miles Per Hour or so. The beach is deserted. The rain started to pick up. It is pelting us and it is only going to get worse. Were still a couple of hours or more away from the worst of the storm. You can see over there, there say few hardy souls who are still out here on the beach, but for the most part it is completely deserted. The state of emergency means that state offices are closed, the governor asked all nonessential traffic to stay off the roads, driving down here from new york there was not a lot of traffic out there. Theyre expecting a storm surge along the coast of anywhere from 1 to 3 feet or so. All this harkens back to Superstorm Sandy which happened about eight years ago when a lot of the coastline was just completely obliterated. No one was expecting that. That is the back of everyones mind. You can see how there have been fortifications built up along the seawall here, to protect towns like this one, Like Long Branch and all up and down the jersey shore. New jersey just started dining Outdoor Dining recently. This is going to be a big hit to restaurants who are concerned about their future. It is already a very tough summer to deal with because of covid. And now this. Again, the worst of it is still a few hours away, were starting to feel it here already. All right, ron allen, thanks, ron, i appreciate that. Stay safe. Now the perspective of 35,000 feet above ground, bill, give us the path of the Tropical Storm and where it is going over the next couple of days. Well, ayman, every tropical system is different. Theyre all unique. This is a prolific tornado producer. We already had 13 reports of tornadoes and we know now from the sheriff we have one fatality and significant damage to this trailer park in the town of windsor. We have some pictures and the sheriff says the worst damage hes ever seen in his county from any storm. He cant believe how destroyed everything looks. You see a vehicle on top of something there, this doesnt look like a tiny small tornado. Typically tornadoes with tropical systems, theyre shortlived and weak. This does not look to be weak. It may have been shortlived, but this looks pretty strong. Look how extensive this damage is and how ripped apart all even if they were mobile homes, still shredded. You see vebs tossed, youre talking about a pretty strong tornado. Thats our first concern. Lets show you the map, this is all the tornadoes we have seen as we have gone. Here is the one we showed you the pictures of. We had all of these tornadoes up the virginia coastline, now reported in maryland, delaware, and even one now in southern new jersey. So as the storm lifts northward, the tornado threat continues. Long island, southern new england, the new york city area under a tornado watch until 4 00 p. M. And it is this band right here, right over the top of Atlantic City, when that kicks through, thats the tornado threat area. So right now it looks like we got rid of most of our tornado warnings, we have one up in the poconos. There are a few some far away from the center. All the thunderstorm cells near Atlantic City off the coast, as those rotate inland, we could see additional tornadoes. Now lets talk about the wind threat. We have Tropical Storm warnings for roughly 54 million people, from eastern north carolina, to maine. And these wind gusts are really starting to pick up now. Atlantic city, 45, ocean city, 44, look to the south, still 60 in coastal maryland. As we go throughout the afternoon, the worst arriving and the beaches of new jersey and the next couple of hours and then as we go throughout 4 00 to 5 00 p. M. , thats when the highest winds are expected around new york city. I think well have millions of people without power by the end of today. Right now were roughly around 700,000. Dire situation for those people recovering in hard hit areas. Bill karins, thanks for that update. Keep an eye on it for us. Still ahead, the nations top Infectious Disease experts sounding the alarm in this new phase of the covid crisis. Why Anthony Fauci is warning the country must get the number of coronavirus cases down to just 10,000 within the next few months. And a recordsetting number of mailin votes in todays michigan primary. Were live on the ground. Plus, were going to talk to michigan secretary of state about what todays election will tell us about just how ready they are for novembers big vote in the middle of a pandemic. Te in the middle of a pandemic. Come on in, were open. All we do is hand you the bag. Simple. Done. We adapt and we change. You know, you just figure it out. Weve just been finding a way to keep on pushing. Wesimon pagenaud takesg athe lead at the indy 500 coming to the green flag, racing at daytona. Theyre off. In the kentucky derby. Rory mcllroy is a two time champion at east lake. He scores stanley cup champions touchdown only mahomes. The big events are back and xfinity is your home for the return of live sports. New polling from npr this morning shows 66 of americans say they prefer remote Distance Learning for children in their area come this fall. A view overwhelmingly shared by democrats while republicans are more divided with nearly 60 agreeing with trump that children should return to classrooms. In dallas, classrooms open in some capacity, Safety Measures under way over the next few weeks. Ppe is being delivered to more than 200 schools in that area. Joining me now, from that area, nbcs morgan chesky. Good to have you with us. Big decision for the area schools there. What is the hope by delivering this protective gear . Reporter yeah, ayman, good morning. The hope is that by delivering this ppe to the 200 schools in the dallas district, that when the time comes for district leaders to make that decision in Early September on whether or not they will have in class learning for the more than 150,000 students here in this district, theyre going to be ready, they still dont know how exactly that first day of school is going to look. And thats why every day for the next three weeks, theyre going to have trucks going behind me, loading up, with masks, with gloves, with clear dividers for students and theyre going to be delivering these to each of those schools. Theyre hoping that that will be enough to keep those numbers low enough to where they can resume somewhat normal level of learning. We do know that if and when a positive case makes itself available, dallas isd plans to immediately disinfect that classroom, and then begin Contact Tracing to make sure that theyre limiting exposure as much as possible. And thats really going to be the decision facing districts all across texas right now. We know they have been on the phone with houston isd, the largest in the entire state, and everyone is just trying to keep the trend going here in texas, because here in dallas, yesterday, we saw the lowest number of daily new cases of covid19 than we have seen over the past six weeks. 382 daily cases, if we go back just a week or two, were seeing consecutive days where that number topped 1,000. So city leaders, state leaders saying were doing the right thing, we need to keep this trend moving downward. And thats the hope with this ppe scheduled ahead of time, to get those stores in place. That said, the texas death toll has now exceeded 7,000 people and on top of that, the Houston Chronicle is reporting there may be a discrepancy in the numbers because of latinos who are dying at home that dont receive autopsies that could confirm they indeed died of covid19. So as these proactive steps are Going Forward and being put into place, there are still a lot of questions from a state wide standpoint on how to contain covid19. Morgan chesky live in dallas for us, thank you for that update. I want to bring into the conversation dr. Uch dr. Uche blackstock, yahoo news medical contributor and ceo of advancing health equity. Great to have you with us. Let me get your thoughts on the delivery of this ppe supply being delivered to schools in dallas. Do you think that is enough . Okay. So it is not enough. Im a parent. I have two children, in public school. I very much also want them to return to school, we know how Important School is in terms of not just education, but in terms of stability and other Specialized Services for children. However, certain factors go into play, and it is not just the resources that are available for this school on ppe, but it is also whether the schools are able to accommodate staggered scheduling, whether they can keep students about six feet apart. And the other major issue is the community transmission. We know right now the rates in texas are still quite high, though cases seem to be coming down. And so the rate of positivity that is seems to be the marker is below that it is safe to open schools. Right now i with sould say it i safe in texas. Let me get your thoughts on something Anthony Fauci said yesterday in terms of where we need to be for numbers for the future. I do not know, how can anyone know what the fall is going to bring. As i said often and it is the truth, were right in the middle of the first wave here. Were having surging of cases, you know, the last ones anywhere between 50 and 60,000 per day with a thousand deaths per day. We have got to get those numbers down. If we dont get them down, were going to have a really bad situation in the fall because as you get indoors and you get the complication of influenza, thats something that were going to have to deal with. Hes painting a grim picture there in the cocktail of influenza and covid19. How can we realistically get the numbers to a lower jumping off point going into the fall . So, you know, i agree with all of his points. I think that many others would agree that we really need a national coherent strategy. And that strategy is not just about shutting down all states, but it is about how do you deal with states that are hot spots, right . Those are states that probably need a universal mask mandate and to close nonessential businesses. The fewer states doing well, you may not have to be as strict with prevention measures. But we do definitely do need a coherent strategy. It is not too late. There are many more lives that will be lost if we really dont put some more restrictive measures in place. Yeah, so let me pick up on that point you raised, coherent strategy, it seems the majority of americans actually agree with you, a new npr poll shows that most americans do support a Single National strategy to combat covid19. More than threequarters of people actually support state laws that require masks, 60 support a Single National plan to open up businesses and return to school as well as a national twoweek shelter at home. Do you think a unified approach even if it does come late in the game as we are in now could still be effect whiff you haivee the support of 60 of the American Population . Absolutely. We have seen what happened in european and Asian Countries that have put universal mask mandates in place as well as physical distancing precautions and so it is not too late. As i mentioned a little earlier, many more lives will be lost, if we dont put more restrictive measures in place, and as dr. Fauci mentioned, in the fall, not only do we have cold weather forcing us indoors, but we also have flu season. And our hospitals are going to be absolutely overwhelmed at capacity with not just flu patients but Covid Patients if we dont mackke a change right now. One of the most important issues and distressing issues we learned in this pandemic,