Hey there, im Joshua Johnson in for ali velshi on this Independence Day weekend. Good to be with you today. Saturday was full of the fireworks and celebrations and family and friends that were used to on the fourth of july even during a medical crisis. States continue to break records, including those once believed to have things under control. Texas reported more than 8,200 cases in one day. Hospitalizations also continue to rise with nearly 8,000 people admitted there. Face masks are now mandatory in texas. But not in florida. It also continues to reach new highs in coronavirus cases. The state has 11,458 confirmed cases. That is a hairs breadth from new yorks high in april, what had been the height of the pandemic. Overall, over 2. 8 Million People have been infected across the country. At least 30,000 americans have died. The president spoke at the white house for Independence Day, saying this about our fight against the virus. Weve made a lot of progress. Our strategy is moving along well. It goes out in one area and rears back its ugly face in another area. But weve learned a lot. Weve learned how to put out the flame. Lets head now to Nbcs Jay Gray who joins us live from dallas. Jay, what more do we know about who is being hospitalized as more of the hospitals reach their capacity . Reporter yeah, joshua, thats a problem across the state right now. And patients are much younger across the country. Here we are seeing patients within the 20 to 40yearold range who are contracting the virus at just an astounding rate. Lets talk first about texas. Yesterday more than 8,000 new cases, that of course a record in this state. And in dallas, more than 1,100 in one day. Just for some perspective on that, joshua, it took dallas 116 days when the pandemic began to get to 1,100 illnesses. They did that in one day yesterday. This weekend, they have done more than 2,100 new infections in the dallas area. It is, as you talk about, filling up hospitals. County hospitals here, parkland where we were reporting from yesterday, adding a fourth unit now to deal with the number of Covid Patients they are seeing. And then youve got hospitals in the houston area that are at capacity, especially when it comes to icu beds. And down in the rio grande valley, in the southern tip of texas, they are saying point blank, we have zero hospitals rooms left, please, they are urging residents there, stay inside, ride this thing out. Yeah, you had one of the i think most legendary live shots ive ever seen when you were driving down the road showing the line of people waiting in that incredible drivethrough line to get testing and it just went on and on and on. So i can understand how the backlog is so intense. You are standing in front of a church this sunday morning. Masks are mandatory in texas, but Worship Services are one of the exceptions to that, right . Reporter youre absolutely right. And this is the cathedral guadalupe, a church in down, a beautiful facility. Two people walked into the facility with masks this morning. The Dallas Diocese is requiring all parishioners to wear masks. Theyre leaving the decision on whether to hold services up to individual pastors. They cover a ninecounty area. There are some rural areas where it may not affect churches like it does here in the dallas area. I know to the north, in a community, richardson, theres one Catholic Church thats decided to have their mass outdoors. So theyre having outdoor masses to try and combat the virus. But youve got another church just down the street from where we are, first baptist, where the Vice President spoke last week, where theyre not requiring masks as a part of their worship service. Its a mixed bag as far as churches are concerned. Again, the diocese is saying that especially here at guadalupe, they havent seen large crowds of parishioners, theyre limiting the number that can come in. As i said, we only saw two this morning. First baptist is one of the largest churches in the country with thousands and thousands of people who attend on a weekly basis. Thank you, Nbcs Jay Gray joining us from dallas, texas. Texas and florida are not the only cases seeing increases, of course. Cases in arizona are also spiking, as are hospitalizations. Arizonas republican governor doug ducey has yet to shut down any businesses or issue a mandatory mask order. Joining us to discuss all of this is will humble, executive director of arizonas Public Health association. Also dr. Vin gupta, pulmonologist at the university of Washington Medical Center and an msnbc contributor. Good to have you with us. Will, arizona arizona, like som states across the south, seemed to have the virus under control while america was under stayathome orders. What happened . Were the orders lifted too soon . Was there not enough guidance given on how to reopen properly . What happened . Yeah, well, good question. In a nutshell, as you mentioned, we had a very successful stayathome order, really flattened the curve, gave us important planning time. The critical control point for us was may 15 when the stayathome order ended and we came out with essentially the honor system. People, businesses, et cetera, were encouraged to follow cdc measures but there were no compliance expectations and no enforcement. As a result, by and Large Business behavior and also individual behavior became prepandemic again, resulting in what you see now, just record cases and were in whats called crisis standards of care in our hospital systems, meaning its pretty grim, a triage system thats happening here and i hope it doesnt happen in other states. Dr. Gupta, washington was the first state to see a case in the u. S. , it had sporadic outbreaks, but it had not seen a huge spike like other states have. Why is that . Seattle hasnt, but i would say that and since im active clinically right now, ill say that eastern washington, pockets in central washington, yakima, are actively seeing outbreaks. Were getting life flights from that part of the state all the time. What ill say, what im noticing here in seattle relative to what im hearing from other parts of the state is similar to what will just mentioned. There is greater adoption of masks, theres greater adoption of just public guidance in king county here on the western side of the state. In yakima, where there is a massive outbreak especially among native american tribes, youre not seeing compliance. Bars are open, restaurants, indoor dining, things that we should be able to get in the lead on. I wish we had local leadership echoing what governor murphy and bill de blasio are doing on the east coast. Were not seeing that here and thats why we have these outbreaks. In arizona, what would you recommend, more mask wearing, shutting businesses down . What would you recommend . Mandatory maskwearing statewide. At least local jurisdictions are now allowed to put in mask ordinances, thats one thing. We need better Infection Control in our nursing facilities. Our Contract Tracing needs to ramp up some. One of the problems we have is the Contract Tracing capacity was built for, say, 500 to 1,000 cases a day, and were at like 4,500 cases a day sometimes. Were just being overwhelmed in that regard. On the testing front, youve heard this across the whole country, the importance of increased testing, we need that badly here. More than that, we need more prompt testing. The turnaround time in our state between a sample being collected and returned from the lab is between six and eight days. That kind of turnaround time makes Contact Tracing ineffective because that patient, that person, has been out into the community and affecting their family members and coworkers by then. So lot of things that need to happen in arizona. And youre showing something from prescott where im coming to you from right now, thats exactly what was going on yesterday. Let me not be presumptuous, will. What is your sense of how much if at all arizonans are adhering to these basic guidelines . We already know what it takes to slow the spread of covid19. Social distancing, Face Covering. The cdc has been saying it. Dr. Fauci has been saying it. Everybody has been saying it. Whats going on in arizona where everybody isnt just doing what we already know works . So, you know, its spotty. There are people that are doing the right thing. I mean, there are lots of people that are legitimately following the recommendation and guidelines. Its just that we dont have enough people that are following those recommendations, as you just saw at the county courthouse yesterday in prescott this weekend, people have a cavalier attitude, some dont believe this is a legitimate Public Health emergency. Some i think havent had something personal happen to them within their Friend Network or family members, so that they take it seriously. And then for some people, yoei z dont understand it, but for people it has become a political calling card, especially wearing a cloth Face Covering which is, by the way, the number one return on investment intervention that we will have until we get the vaccine. So i just dont understand that part of it. But those are the factors. Dr. Gupta, let me get your take on the white houses new approach to this virus, that we need to learn to live with it. Now, it seems like a lot of americans have already made that decision based on their actions. That kind of describes what will was getting at. What do you make of this idea that we have to kind of learn to live with coronavirus . Im not surprised at their messaging on this, joshua, not at all. Its part of this distorted, g, july 4th d vision of freedom onwards, this notion that to be free is to act whatever way you like even if its completely the antithesis of what myself and will are suggesting which is to adhere to the basic guidelines weve been hammering home for the last five months. This terminology, this mixed messaging from the very top is harming individuals. Goff for desantis, governor noem, actually taking some degree of theyre thumbing their nose at us. Youre referring to kristi noem in south dakota and ron desantis in florida. Absolutely. Theyre not doing the things they need to be doing right now. And part of reason why is we have individuals in the highest levels of leadership, at the federal level, at the state level, who have never touched a patient, who have never cared for someone with covid19. Thats why youre not seeing them build up capacity, youre seeing them talk about freedom in the most distorted way possible. Dr. Vin gupta and will humble, we appreciate your making time this morning, thanks very much. Well have more on coronavirus later in the hour. The mayor of san antonio will join us to talk about how his hospitals are overflowing with patients and how he is running his city with cases surging in texas, thats ahead. Also ahead, president ial choices on this Independence Day could scarcely feel different. The stark contrasts, next. Looks like they picked the wrong getaway driver. Theyre going to be paying for this for a long time. They will, but with accident forgiveness allstate wont raise your rates just because of an accident, even if its your fault. Cut sonny. Was that good . Line the desert never lies. Isnt that what i said . No you were talking about allstate and insurance. I just. When i. Lets try again. Everybody back to one. Accident forgiveness from allstate. Click or call for a quote today. Accident forgiveness from allstate. New fixodent ultra dual power provides you with an unbeatable hold and strong seal against food infiltrations. Fixodent. And forget it. For spending a perfectly reasonable amount of time on the couch with tacos from grubhub . Grubhubs gonna reward you for that with a 5 off perk. doorbell rings [crowd] grubhub fireworks exploding you know, sometime in politics you have to parse the smallest details to find little differences between president ial candidates even across party lines. That aint the case this year. We got more proof that have with President Trump and joe bidens vastly different messages on the fourth of july. Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children. Theres been a constant push and pull between two parts of our character. The idea that all men and women, all people are created equal, and the racism. Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our founders, deface our most sacred memorials, and unleash a wave of Violent Crime in our cities. We have a chance now to give the marginized, the demonized, the isolated, the oppressed, a full share of the american dream. Make no mistake, this left wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the american revolution. We have a chance to rip the roots of systemic racism out of this country. We have a chance to live up to the words that have founded this nation. We will not allow our country and all of its values, history, and culture, to be taken from them. This Independence Day lets not just celebrate the words. Lets celebrate that promise. Against every law of society and nature, our children are taught in school to hate their own country. Meanwhile, mr. Trumps rhetoric and actions may be catching up to him. A number of National Polls show mr. Biden with a significant lead. In some cases by double digits. Joining us now is robert costa, National Political reporter for the Washington Post. Hes also moderator and managing editor of Washington Week on pbs and an nbc news political analyst. His latest piece in the Washington Post is called trumps push to amplify racism unnerves republicans who have long enabled him. Also with us is Christie Greer from fordham university, cohost of the podcast faq nyc and the author of black ethnics. Good to see you both this morning. Robert, let me start with you. What is your sense of how republicans are feeling about how they will be perceived this november and perhaps beyond as President Trump digs deeper into this culture war . Working with my colleague phil rucker over the last few days, its evident that republicans, particularly in the u. S. Senate, are concerned that their hold on power could be slipping away because in states like maine where Susan Collins is up for reelection or colorado with cory gardner, even texas with senator john cornyn, a red state, republicans are on edge because the culture war in their view is not enough to hold on to that coalition of suburban voters and independent voters and women voters that you need to win in a tough political year. And President Trump, this is where he keeps going to politically, stoking these tensions on race, on culture, and someone like scott reed at the chamber of commerce told us that candidates are trying to keep their distance. Professor greer, yesterday ali velshi discussed how july 4th, Independence Day, does not feel the same for everyone. Colin kaepernick tweeted something much to the same effect. With regards to these two different sets of remarks, joe bidens remarks seem to be reaching out to everyone. President trump is remaining tight with his base. I know the president s rhetoric has rubbed a lot of people wrong but in a way, this is kind of what we examined from him, right . Yes, but i mean, joe biden is trying to create a message of unity as he campaigns for the presidency. And President Trump is doubling down on White Nationalist rhetoric. It was very clear even in his inauguration speech, that he saw two americas, one that voted for him, one that was against him. He has a distinct us versus them ideology in this country. As it callous nicifies, he sees political winds changing. My colleague Laurie Frasier wrote about more people of color being pushed out of cities. When we say suburban, hes going after white voters. Hes going after white Older Americans hoping they will be scared enough to vote for him. So these polls, i dont really worry about them, because its the summer. Im more concerned about october when people start to Pay Attention to elections and really think about how theyre going to make a voting plan in the midst of a Global Pandemic that the president has failed to control or even accept. Yeah, i would say amen to keeping the polls at arms length for now. As we get closer to the election, thats when i will want to know more about not only what they say but parsing the numbers and who specifically were talking about. Robert, lets say the president last night and at mt. Rushmore on friday. It seems he may be kind of disconnected from the reality across the country when it comes to covid, when it comes to race, but thats the way it might seem. It also seems like he knows what the strategy was that worked for him in 2016 and thinks that regardless of what his critics might say, it may work for him in 2020, so double down. As a political reporter i never try to guess whats in someones head or whats in someones heart. I look at their actions. If you think back and step back, there was a week ago today, the president of the United States retweeted a video that included a racist chant from one of his supporters. He later deleted the tweet but did not disavow it. He spent the week attacking the black lives matter movement. He has been defending confederate statues being held in place. He has clashed with his own party on whether to rename military bases that h