[Acosta:] More breaking news, we're following President Trump speaking out about the coronavirus pandemic a short time ago and making some stunning claims. CNN White house Correspondent Jeremy Diamond has details. Jeremy, the President seems unaware of how this crisis is escalating.
[Jeremy Diamond, Cnn White House Correspondent:] Well, Jim, you know, amid this alarming surge in coronavirus cases we really haven't heard much from the Presidents. Over the last five days, the President has been out of sight. But today he is breaking that streak making some movement on this question of masks, but where he's not changing is on this notion that the coronavirus is somehow simply going to disappear. The President's saying today that he believes at some point coronavirus will just disappear.
[Donald Trump, President Of The United States:] I think we're going to be very good with the coronavirus. I think that at some point that's going to sort of just disappear. I hope
[Diamond:] Tonight, President Trump is betting on wishful thinking to stop the alarming surge of coronavirus across the country.
[Unidentified Male:] You still believe so disappear?
[Trump:] I do. I do. Yes, sure, at some point.
[Diamond:] With coronavirus cases trending upward in 37 states and his own public health experts calling for swift action, Trump who once called himself a "wartime president" in the face of a pandemic, now appears to be taking a backseat. He hasn't appeared at a briefing alongside health experts in weeks and he undermined CDC guidelines by rallying thousands of people at an indoor arena last month. But today
[Trump:] I'm all for masks. I think masks are good.
[Diamond:] The President, who has found himself increasingly isolated over the issue of wearing masks now saying this
[Unidentified Male:] You would wear one?
[Trump:] Oh, I would. I would. Oh, I have. I mean, people have seen me wearing one. If I'm in a group of people where we're not, you know, 10 feet away, and but usually I'm not in that position, and everyone's tested. Actually, I had a mask on. I said, I like the way I looked. OK. I looked like the Lone Ranger.
[Diamond:] But the President is still resisting calls for a national mandate.
[Trump:] Well, I don't know if you need mandatory because you have many places in the country. People feel good about it, they should do it.
[Diamond:] Trump's comments coming after a slew of Republicans have stepped up their calls for Americans to wear masks while also resisting instituting a requirement.
[Gov. Brian Kemp,  Georgia:] We shouldn't have to require a mandate for people to wear a mask. It's the right thing to do. I trust people that they're going to do that if we ask them.
[Diamond:] Vice President Mike Pence also stepping up his calls for mask wearing if local officials agree.
[Mike Pence, Vice President Of The United States:] We believe that Americans should wear a mask whenever state and local authorities indicate that it's appropriate.
[Diamond:] The President's campaign, meanwhile, finding a fall guy for the President's Tulsa campaign rally. Reassigning its chief operating officer to a new role after Trump privately fumes, not about the lack of health precautions, but because the arena wasn't packed to the brim. And then there's the culture wars, Trump keeping up his defense of monuments to the Confederacy and threatening to veto a military funding bill because he would strike the names of Confederate generals from military bases. He is also attacking New York's Mayor for plans to paint Black Lives Matter in front of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, calling the slogan a symbol of hate and suggesting police officers should block the painting. Amid mounting evidence that Russia tried to pay Taliban fighters to kill U.S. troops, the President stepping up his attacks on those reports discrediting the intelligence as just another hoax even as his administration prepares to brief the country. President stepping up his attacks on those reports discrediting the intelligence as just another hoax, even as his administration prepares to brief the congressional Gang of Eight on the issue tomorrow.
[Trump:] This didn't rise to the occasion. And from what I hear, and I hear pretty good, the intelligence people didn't even many of them didn't believe it happened at all. I think it's a hoax. I think it's a hoax by the newspapers and the Democrats.
[Diamond:] And Jim, the White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, she had a briefing a few moments ago where she defended the President's comments about the virus simply disappearing at some point, saying that it's the President having confidence in the team that he's put together. But what's clear, Jim, is that this is a White House that doesn't want to make this latest surge look like that first surge. They don't want this to look like the national emergency style briefings that we saw during that early part of the Coronavirus pandemic when cases were surging and hospitals were reaching capacity. Instead they want this look very different because they want Americans to be less alarmed. Of course, Jim, the President's reelection is just around the corner. And that's a big part of this. They do not want Americans to feel like this surge is us going back to square one. Jim.
[Acosta:] All right. Jeremy, people are alarmed because this emergency is not disappearing. CNN's Jeremy Diamond, thank you very much. Let's bring in CNN White House Correspondent John Harwood and CNN Political Correspondent Abby Phillip. John, let me go to you first, the President now says he's all for masks, but so far, he hasn't really taken any steps to reflect that. How can he say something like that right now?
[John Hardwood, Cnn White House Correspondent:] Well, he's backing into it under extreme pressure from a whole range of Republicans. And what you have to ask yourself is given the scale of the crisis, given the scale the fact that very large states are now throwing reopening into reverse because of the threat of coronavirus in their states is backing into it good enough. In that clip that Jeremy just played a moment ago, Brian Kemp, the governor of Georgia said, well, you don't have to have a mandate. If you ask them, people will wear it. Well, the President isn't really asking people to wear a masks. He's saying, oh, it's OK. If they want to do it. That's fine. That is not leading on this issue. And you've got entire range of people I was at a briefing yesterday where the Surgeon General was pleading with Americans to wear a mask. And so were other members of the administration. That's a message that the President has a unique ability to deliver much better than anyone else in the country. He's not doing it. He sounds disconnected with reality about the scale of the crisis.
[Acosta:] That's right. He has the bully pulpit. And Abby Philip. President Trump says he likes how he looks in a mask, but this isn't about looks. It's about saving lives. What do you make of that comment?
[Abby Phillip, Cnn Political Correspondent:] Well, it really just gives you a window into how the President is approaching this and has been approaching this from day one. One of the things you have to remember is he has used masks as a political weapon against Vice President Biden because he has said that Biden looks weak. His campaign has used images of Biden wearing a mask in a campaign attack ads. So, it's not surprising that the President would be first and foremost concerned about the way that he looks and wanting to change that narrative before he changes his behavior on the subject of whether he will wear masks. But you know, I also think that this is a sign of how the President has had trouble with this part of the presidency, which is the way in which he has to demonstrate the kind of behavior that he wants the public to actually exhibit. The argument that the White House makes is that the President is tested regularly, and so they do not believe or they think if there's a very good reason for them to believe that he does not have the coronavirus and therefore doesn't have to wear a mask. But at the same time, the way in which he demonstrates leadership on this subject is what you're hearing from a lot of mayors and governors and people who are leading cities and struggling to get their populations to listen to government officials, they want the President to demonstrate that to his supporters. And he's always had a very difficult time with that part. It's usually do as I say, not as I do. And in this case, that's just not sufficient, given the level of crisis we're facing.
[Acosta:] Yes. And John Harwood, it took a new peak of infections, and many Republicans breaking from him on mass to get to this point. Is the President leading here or is he being led.
[Harwood:] He's quite plainly being led, and what was governing his behavior lately is the same thing that was governing at the beginning of this crisis. That is the idea that he doesn't want to disturb the psychology of the country around the state of the economy. In the beginning, it was to protect a strong economy that we began this reelection year. And now it's to try to protect the recovery. But it is quite obvious that the worse the coronavirus situation is, the worse the economy is going to be. And what the President doesn't get in this reelection calculation is one of the reasons. Why he's in deep, deep trouble for reelection is that people don't think he's taking the coronavirus seriously. So if he continues to not take it seriously in hopes of not disturbing the psychology, he's digging a deeper hole.
[Acosta:] And Abby, today the President repeated this line that the virus will disappear at some point. We've heard this before. Let's watch a compilation of when he said this before.
[Trump:] By April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away. When you have 15 people and the 15, within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero. It's going to disappear one day, it's like a miracle, it will disappear. This is going to go away without a vaccine. It's going to go away. And it's we're not going to see it again. Hopefully.
[Acosta:] Abby, as Ronald Reagan once said, there he goes again.
[Phillip:] Yes, I mean, it's basically magical thinking on the President's part, that somehow if you just ignore the virus, it's going to just disappear. That is obviously not how this works. And the problem for President Trump is that the American public understands that. They by and large, want the government to do more to protect them from this virus. They understand that their lives and their livelihoods are on the line here. You know, a couple months ago when this whole thing started the President's own aides, were telling me that he understood that he had to get control of the virus in order to have the best shot at reelection. But day after day, the President seems to have given up on that hoping that this thing will all just go away. But we could be facing really a worse public health situation than we faced a few months ago given the way that the cases are rising. And then if there is an economic fallback, where we're going backwards in terms of economic progress, I think the American public are not going to look at that very positively and the President could be in an even deeper hole when it comes to his political situation.
[Acosta:] Seems to be shaping up that way. John Harwood and Abby Phillip, thank you very much. This breaking news is just coming from new data from the Pentagon showing the number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. military has more than doubled since June 10. As of today, there are almost 65 Hundred service members testing positive for COVID-19. That is up just over 2800 three weeks ago. Defense officials say the rise in cases is happening largely in hotspot states, including California, Arizona, Texas and Florida. We're going to keep our eyes on that, as our service members need to stay safe in the middle of this COVID 19 pandemic like the rest of us. And coming up Massachusetts requires visitors from all but seven states to self-quarantine for two weeks. Will it stop the virus from spreading? I'll ask the mayor of Boston later. Multiple states are ordering bars to close again. Is there any way to keep them open and safe?