His resort in virginia. Cases of covid19 continues to surge fueling the global mark. As you can see, the curve is not going down. The curve is not flattening. Msnbcs ongoing count four states set new records. Nevada, south carolina, florida and georgia. Floridas record yesterday broke the record set on friday which broke the record set wednesday last week. Florida reported 34,000 new covid19 cases in the last week. Look at that chart. The state has followed texas in implementing minor measures to stop the spread including reclosing beaches and bars. If i cant make money, you know what call my bartenders and tell them they cant work snow. All my bartenders and cooks cannot work. Certainly share everybodys concern about whats going on, but didnt think we would go backwards. The reason people didnt think they would be reclosing is simple. False optimism. Not listening to the science and a horrendous policy from elected leaders in washington. Things are becoming so dire in texas its forced something very, very rare to occur. A politician publicly admitting they were wrong. Governor greg abbott said if he could redo anything he would have slowed the reopening of bars noting that in the aftermath its easy to pinpoint how quickly the Coronavirus Spread in the bar setting. Of course, he could have simply listened to Health Experts and officials. Didnt have to happen this way. The governor was warned months ago that we were facing a looming potential Health Crisis and he absolutely wanted to do nothing about it. Its that sort of weak leadership that he showed from the very beginning of the covid19 pandemic that has made this absolutely worse. This is he knew it was going ton catastrophic. He was warned that it was. We have some of the leading epidemiologists and Infectious Disease specialists in the state of texas. He absolutely ignored all their warnings and he decided he was g going to follow trump. Meanwhile, take your hands out from under the covers if you have a fax machine in your house. Even if you dont, cue up those sound effects. Msnbc learned of another massive problem in texas. Most of the Contact Tracing is done by fax. Its 2020. One Texas Health Officials tells msnbc that people should, quote, not depend on Contact Tracing at this stage of the outbreak, end quote. Vice president pence and other members of the White House Coronavirus task force including dr. Birx are visiting texas today. Joining me now dr. Hillary fairbrother. Dr. Fairbrother, i spend a lot of time in houston. While its known for oil and other things, it is known as a remarkable center of health care. You have some of the finest hospitals in the country in houston. You have the same information everybody else had about coronavirus. How did it go so wrong in texas . Well, thank you for those kind words. Were have proud of our hospitals. Its the largest in the world. How did we go so wrong in texas . Thats the Million Dollar question. Everyone has their most current theory. Texas never got the number of cases that we were supposed to get. We never got the spike that we were reported to be looking for. Then starting may 1st we started reopening and our government started reopening. It wasnt that surprising because we didnt have the number of cases we were supposed to get. We did phase reopening like recommended, but we didnt have a decline in cases. We knew that coronavirus was looming. It was there. It had never left our community. It just never affected as many people or put a strain on our Health Care Resources as we had seen in other areas, particularly new york city. Then what happened, i believe and i think most people agree, as there was more and more phased reopening, particularly with more and more events that got people together, our amount of mask wearing and social distancing through our reopening was really not what you would want in order to prevent disease spread. So combined with reopening, combining people being back together again, plus not wearing a mask and not social distancing meant for uncontrolled disease spread and now weve got two weeks of escalating cases, two weeks of escalating hospitalizations. We are at capacity with icu beds and were where we are now. You are where we were many months ago in new york. The Surgeon General has just put out six tweets about the importance of mask wearing. I would suggest to people that they read them. Doctor, part of the problem here is the politicalization of science. America, houston, new york, we have some of the best epidemiologists, ak did cademac emergency room doctors in the world. They did provide us with evidence. At msnbc weve been having this conversation since january. We know what we can do to prevent the spread of the disease. Weve politicized science and politicized public health. I agree with you. I think that the politicalization of science is one of the reasons that we are feeling coronavirus far more deeply than other countries that we look like, whether in western europe or around the world. It makes me sad. It pains me. I understand why people are confused. If they go online, if they listen to different news sources, i get why theyre confused because there is such an incredible amount of mixed messaging. I like to say, listen, if you have a question about your health, if you have a question about science, ask your doctor. Ask a scientist. Stop going to a politician for news about science. I think that that would be a lot less confusing for people. I know the scientists in the country i feel their frustration as there has been a pretty consistent message through physicians and scientists about how to social distance, how to wear a mask, how to keep our communities safe, how to keep our communities that have reopened safe. Its not always on twitter by somebody who doesnt have a health care background. We have to get information from the sources and from our scientists. I feel for people that theyre confused. We have people out there that are delivering a consistent message and i ask you, please, if you have a question about coronavirus, as your doctor. So lets leave everybody with these words. We beg you please stay at home. Please socially distance. Please wash your hands and when you have to go out wear masks. This helps everyone and people who have to go to work take care of everyone that gets sick. Doctor, thank you for joining me. Associate professor of medical school in houston. Were learning about another controversy in the white house. A bombshell report in the New York Times states that american intelligence officials concluded that a Russian MilitaryIntelligence Unit secretly offered bounties to taliban mill immigrants to kill u. S. Led forces in afghanistan, including american troops. Thats a lot to understand. Thats what the report says. It reportedly came out amid the u. S. taliban peace talks aimed at ending the war. Its unclear when this bounty started. The New York Times reports that President Trump and his team were briefed on the situation earlier this year and while responses had been planned, the white house didnt take any action. In a statement, the director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe who has no National Intelligence experience, said trump and pence never received a believing about the alleged russian bounty. He didnt say whether the intelligence was included in the president s daily brief, the written product that trump is reported to virtually never read. Joining me now is Josh Letterman nbc news political reporter. Josh, you have been digging into this. Tell me what you know. What weve seen is a series of half denials targeting the fake news New York Times and an anonymous source. What do we know about the underlying thing . Is the white house saying thats not true, that russia wasnt offering or paying bounties . Reporter theyre not saying that exactly, ali. The Trump Administrations evolving response to this story creating more questions than answers. Not only why the president apparently was not briefed on what seems like a really dire piece of intelligence about russia offering money to afghan militants to kill u. S. And allied troops, why that information wasnt briefed to the president , whether it was included in the written president ial daily brief that you mentioned. If thats the case, raises the obvious question why was the president not aware of that . Why has no action, if this is true, been taken against russia for plotting this . The president responding in a tweet a few minutes ago, his First Response saying, nobody briefed or told me, vp pence or mark meadows as reported by the New York Times. Everyone is denying this and there have not been a lot of attacks on us. That last part is not correct. Two dozen troops died in afghanistan in 2019 alone. The president blaming this on a phony times hit job and trying to change the subject to hunter biden. We see a pattern here by trump where he tasks something thats black and white as if its unknowable. The president is the commander in chief. He can call up the cia director. He call up John Ratcliffe and say was this in my brief . He can get to the bottom of it and get answers. He has not done that. Thats why were seeing these calls not only by democrats, but by republicans demanding answers not only about what the president knew, but what he plans to do about it. Interesting point you make. As if its unknowable, it may be to you and me, its not to the president of the United States. Josh, thank you for your continued reporting. Were continuing to closely monitor developments coming out of louisville, kentucky. One man is dead and another hospitalized after a man opened fire in Jefferson Square park. Thats the site of mass protests after the death of breonna taylor. There was an individual pronounced dead at the scene. Another victim is getting treatment. The escalation comes after months of peaceful demonstrations. Taylor was an emt who was shot and killed in her bed by Louisville Police officers after they executed a noknock search warrant in the middle of the night. Taylors boyfriend opened fire and hit an officer in the leg. The police opened fire and shot taylor eight times. Taylors boyfriend had a licensed gun. The officers he thought were br breaking into his house. U. S. Attorney general bill barr is echos the president s concerns about faulty mailin ballots. Tada did you know Liberty Mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need . Given my unique lifestyle, thatd be perfect let me grab a pen and some paper. Know what . Im gonna switch now. Just need my desk. My chair. And my phone. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. There are times when our need to connect really matters. To keep customers and employees in the know. To keep business moving. Comcast business is prepared for times like these. Powered by the nations largest gigspeed network. To help give you the speed, reliability, and security you need. Tools to manage your business from any device, anywhere. And a team of experts here for you 24 7. Weve always believed in the power of working together. Thats why, when every connection counts. You can count on us. Without evidence the attorney general of the United States, bill barr, who along with President Trump continues to push conspiracy theories that mailin voting leads to fraud, theyre dead wrong. Its simply not true. Documented voter fraud cases in the United States are very few and nothing close to a level that would constitute common, let alone what trump says widespread fraud. The idea of voting by mail in this years president ial election is alarming to republicans who spent years who tried to limit the ways we exercise our right to vote. Bill barr isnt really worried about voter fraud. President trump isnt worried about the context of voting in this country. Theyre hypocrites who vote by mail, but refuse to afford you the same privilege. Mailin voting dates back to the civil war. Its an american tradition. Voting by mail works. Its legitimate and safe. Its the biggest threat to the president s reelection. Joining me now kim whaly, shes the author of what you need to know about voting and why. Kim, good to see you again. Its amazing. Every couple days we get a report about someone else in the Trump Administration who voted by mail in the last president ial election, in the one before that. They all vote by mail. They think voting by mail is fine, but not for the rest of us. Whats the problem there . There are five states that vote almost exclusively by mail already. This is something states know how to do. This propaganda coming out of the white house, as well as the attorney general, is reckless, its false, its devis divisive. The notion of widespread voter fraud doesnt make sense. It carries a five Year Prison Sentence under federal law. Second, there would have to be a collusion on a scale thats in conceivable. There would have to be hacking into the voter roles. These states know how to match where they sent the ballots to the number of ballots they receive. There are all kinds of auditing mechanisms, bar codes, the paper its printed on is special paper. There are double envelopes that go on. There are signatures that go on. Its false and outside the scope of the attorney generals expertise. The notion is actually divisive to democracy and its to make people think our elections arent functioning. Its an obvious employ by the president to win by keeping people home. Thats what the problem is, kim. Two Different Things can be achieved here. One is you confuse people and worry them its not safe. We in this country dont vote at levels you would think and the second problem is election results. We saw last week where we had primaries and it took a couple days to get the final vote because people voted by mail. It seems like trump is softening everybody up for the idea hes going to talk for days after the election how thats not a victory and thats not true and its fraudulent. How do we arm ourselves for that nonsense . Its problematic given the violence were seeing around black lives matter coming from the federal government itself. Theres concerns that well see this at the ballot box in november. The answer is what were doing right now. Its education. Unfortunately a lot of people believe the notion of voter fraud, even though the president commissioned a panel to find it and had to disband it. It just doesnt exist. At the end of the day, people need to understand this is the way we selfgovern. Its not political. Its not democrat or republican. Its we the people. If we dont have a functioning democracy, american democracy could slip away. We could see something for our children and grandchildren that is not about government by we the people. Given this evil virus that hasnt gone anywhere in part because this president hasnt done anything about it, were going to have to figure out ways to vote safely. Mailin voting is done for the military under federal law. In 2020 this is not the pernicious fraudfocused thing the attorney general is saying. Its not. Education is number one. I encourage everyone to ask for a mailin ballot and cast it if you cant go to the polls with your mask and Hand Sanitizer and understand, if youre in line, they cant turn you away before the doors close. We saw this in kentucky. If you get there and you were kicked off the polls, you can ask for a provisional ballot. You have to be given that under federal law. Dont just grab yourself. Grab someone not used to going and bring them along. Only half of eligible voters vote. If we get that back to 80 , we would take back our democracy. On july 4th were going to celebrate our history as a democracy. I dont know if people normally give july 4th gifts. Why not celebrate with a book called what you need to know about voting. This would help. This is the gift of democracy. Understand voting. Dont just understand it for yourself. You might be one of those people like me who votes and wears the sticker you vote. Go beyond that. Bring a person with you. If everybody got one other person to vote, we would take democracy back. Kim, thank you for writing the book. Kim whaly is the former u. S. Attorney and a professor at the university of Baltimore School of law. Lets turn to developments in the mississippi legislature. State law makers are expected to pass a bill that removes the confederate battle flag emblem from the state flag. Its still on the flag. Its 2020. Mississippi would be the last state in the country to do that. Governor tate reeves in a reversal has said he will sign whatever flag bill the legislature decides on. For more on how this happened lets go to dave ingram who has been following this. Dave, skip the part about the fact that theres a confederate battle flag on a state flag in this country. Lets skip the fact that the governor says hell sign it. Hes not all that hot on the idea. He said its erasing history. Today is the day this has to happen, right . Reporter thats right. I think yesterday the headline was historic. Today the headline will be history making. What youll see this afternoon in the house of representatives, they will come into session and vote on two pieces of legislati legislation. One that will remove the current state flag completely so it will leave the flag bare and then another commission for it to be placed on the ballot in november for the voters to vote on. Its going to be a historic day in the state of mississippi. As we saw yesterday from the procedural votes, everybody is on the same page and today its a formality to pass this. David, great to see you on tv.