there were few things that were in the video that you couldn't even see in the transcript. >> so thankful that you were there. omar, thank you very much. i really appreciate it. thank you all for joining us today. i'm kate bolduan. "the lead" with jake tapper begins right now. this is cnn breaking news. >> and welcome to "the lead." i'm jake tapper. we begin today with the politics lead. the white house war on science and medicine has only gotten worse. but today the nation's top infectious disease expert is punching back amid new attacks from the white house, or more specifically, from trump trade adviser peter navarro who wrote today that dr. fauci has been wrong about every coronavirus issue they have discussed. a claim that seems quite difficult to believe for any

se sentinent being. >> i can't explain peter navarro. so i don't even want to go there. >> the white house communications team claims that they did not approve navarro's op-ed. though, of course, the criticism of dr. fauci, the attacks are of a piece. it comes after weeks of president trump criticizing fauci months of the white house refusing to let fauci do interviews with, say, me. more pointedly and recently, white house deputy chief of staff dan scavino posted this bizarre and nasty anti-fauci cartoon on facebook. and, of course, the white house communications shop put together what amounts to an opposition research document on dr. fauci. now, president trump this afternoon claimed he believed that the op-ed should not have been published and claims he has a very good relationship with the top doctor. fauci was asked this afternoon how he can do his job during this pandemic advising a white

house that is actively seeking to undermine him. >> well, that is a bit bizarre. and i have to tell you i think if i sit here and just shrug my shoulders and say, well, you know, that's life in the fast lane. [ laughter ] it is a bit bizarre. i don't really fully understand it. >> that's dr. fauci being character citiesly diplomatic. let me not be diplomatic. the white house campaign to undermine dr. fauci is dishonest. it's disgusting. it's underanged. and at a time of a deadly pandemic, it is the ultimate and responsibility, literally, more than 136,000 americans are dead because of this virus. and instead of an aggressive national testing and contact tracing program, the white house is instead launching an aggressive smear campaign against a guy trying to save our lives. and as cnn's kaitlan collins

reports, dr. fauci says his input to the president now goes through the vice president. >> thank you very much. >> reporter: president trump is now trying to distance himself from an extraordinary attack by his top trade adviser on dr. anthony fauci. >> well, that's peter navarro, but i have a very good relationship with dr. fauci. >> reporter: even though the president and the nation's top infectious disease expert haven't spoken in weeks, trump insisted they have a good relationship and said peter navarro shouldn't have published this "usa today" op-ed attacking fauci. >> i get along very well with dr. fauci. i have a very good relationship. >> reporter: dr. fauci said he found the recent attacks by the white house including an anonymous memo criticizing him bizarre. >> if you talk to reasonable people in the white house, they realize that was a major mistake on their part because it doesn't do anything but reflect poorly on them. >> reporter: as for the president's trade adviser, fauci said there are no words.

>> i can't explain peter navarro. he's in a world by himself. so i don't even want to go there. >> reporter: under the headline, navarro cited multiple instances where he and fauci have disagreed and said he only listens to him with skepticism and caution. the attack by an official with no medical experience on a taskforce member while the administration is dealing with an ongoing pandemic was stunning. hours after it was published, a white house spokeswoman said the op-ed was the opinion of peter alone and did not go through the clearance process. but the same press shop distancing itself from the attack on fauci was the same one that anonymously distributed a memo last weekend questioning his judgment. >> there is no opposition research being dumped to reporters. >> reporter: tension has been brewing between navarro and fauci for months over the use of hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug touted by trump. while the administration has tried to limit fauci's

experiences, he's continued to speak candidly about his relationship with the president. >> input to the president is now a bit indirect it. >> goes through the vice president. but clearly the vice president literally every day is listening to what we have to say. >> reporter: starting today, the trump administration has ordered hospitals to bypass the cdc by sending all covid-19 data to a central database in washington. the white house says the change will streamline things. but the move has concerned some health experts like the former acting cdc director richard besser who told dr. sanjay gupta this. >> i worry with the data going directly to hhs is that it could be further politicized. and that's the last thing you want. cdc is the nation's public health agency. they need to be getting these data. >> reporter: now, jake, as the president was leaving for atlanta, dr. fauci was showing up at the white house today for a task force meeting. it didn't seem to be by mistake that the vice president then

tweeted out this photo showing dr. fauci with a prominent seat and speaking at that meeting with vice president expense seated next to him, as that was going on, the president was arriving in atlanta where he is now giving a speech on infrastructure. but i do want to note when he got there, he was greeted by everyone and officials wearing masks on the tarmac waiting for him. though the president himself was not wearing a mask. >> all right. infrastructure week of course. kaitlan collins, thanks so much. let's bring in cnn's chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta. and, sanjay, i don't want to dwell on this too much. but these attacks on dr. fauci from the white house, dr. fauci calls them bizarre. that's a nice term for it. he said his input goes through the vice president, not directly to the president. what do you make of all this? >> and this op-ed that kaitlan was just reporting on, dr. fauci describes that as a big mistake. as you know, jake, as you've reported on dr. fauci for years,

as have i, that's significant to say that stuff because he's so measured in the way he speaks. so it's reaching a boiling point, jake. it's concerning. we're spending all of our time talking about this war of words that's going on between the scientific community and the white house. and we should be talking about the plans forward. so, i think it's really bothersome i think just as a citizen because we're in the middle of this terrible pandemic. and here is what ends up capturing all of their time. but, again, for dr. fauci to have said, look, that was just a mistake. we know that many of the things that peter navarro wrote about in that op-ed were not true. they simply aren't factual. he just wants to move on, i think. >> sanjay, let's talk about the fact now that coronavirus hospital data is now going to be first sent from hospitals to the department of health and human services rather than the cdc. now, hhs says it's because the systems at cdc are antiquated.

obviously, there's a lot of concern about this because the cdc is full of scientists, and hhs has scientists, has doctors, but it's essentially become a very political operation with secretary azar and now michael caputo who helps run the com shop there. what do you think about this decision? >> well, you have to put it in the context of everything that's going on here, jake. i mean, if this were just a single sort of thing you say, well, look, they have better infrastructure to absorb all the data that's coming in. perhaps you can make that argument. unfortunately, you can't say that, i think, given all that's been going on. i mean, i think that this is not a medical or even a public health decision. i think it's a political decision. it saddens me to say that. i have a lot of friends that work at hhs. i did ask dr. richard besser about this. he used to run the cdc right after this decision came out i happened to be chatting with

him. listen to how he framed it. >> given how political the response has been to date, it's a step backwards to have these data going directly to hhs in washington. it's another example of cdc being sidelined. and not only should the data be coming to cdc, but cdc should be talking to the public through the media every day. >> i'll tell you, jake. you know, at the beginning of this outbreak, as you may remember, we used to go to each department of health and each state and basically collect that data. at some point they said, okay, it's now going to go to the centralized sort of reporting through the cdc. that's how we've been getting these numbers and the data that we present on your program every day. if need be, we will go back to that old method and go to the states as well. because it's not entirely clear to me that we're going to have as good access to this data going forward. >> and let's also just remember the context of this is that president trump has misyuused

science and scientific agencies in order to push forward lies, for whatever reason. the example that comes immediately to mind is when he messed up about alabama being in the path of the hurricane and the national weather service put out the correct information. and then the commerce department, which runs the national weather service, and noaa, leaned on them to share false information with the public. and that's the concern that they will do something to corrupt this process sharing either incorrect data or, who knows what, that corrupts even further the faith that we can have in our scientific agencies that work for the government. >> yeah. it's an objective sort of story here that we're telling, right, jake? because it's based on data and figures. we often say the numbers don't lie. i mean, people can look at the story from all their different advantage points. but the numbers on the right

side of the screen, they don't lie. i really worry that if we lose some of the subjective part of the story here, or, as you're saying, jake, if it's misrepresented in some way, not only maybe not get access to it that what we do get is not correct, that would be a tragedy. because it's not going to change that people are still getting infected and still going to the hospital and still dying. it's just that we may not get these numbers the way that we used to. >> yeah. you can't use a sharpie to get us out of this pandemic. one other thing, sanjay. preliminary research published today suggests that skin rashes and rashes inside the mouth could be a symptom of coronavirus. but more study needs to be done. what would be the connection, if anything? >> i mean, this virus is behaving in such unusual ways. everything from the nose, you know, isolated loss of smell. jake, who would have thought that would be the sometimes sole symptom of this virus? covid toes, we've heard about that, just getting these lesions on the toes.

my guess is skin's the largest organ in the body. this is causing significant inflammation. so these rashes that occur on the skin are quite obvious. about 12 days on average after people start to develop symptoms they are getting these mouth lesions as well. i think it probably has to do with the inflammation that's overall happening in the body. >> sanjay, stay with us. coming up, dr. gupta is going to give us an inside look at how one school is preparing for the fall and the school year and the very real risks officials are trying to juggle. one state just announced it's canceling one of the most famous outdoor events in 2021. yeah, one of the most famous outdoor events in 2021 next year. stay with us.

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health lead with coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and deaths from covid-19 all increasing in different parts of the flaunited states, more than half of all states are now pausing or rolling back plans to reopen businesses. because of continued testing lags, california is among the states limiting who can now get a test. more than 50 hospitals in florida have run out of space in intensive care units. hard-hit alabama is now the 36th state to require residents to wear masks in public in hopes of slowing the spread. as cnn's nick watt reports. >> reporter: more theme parks opening up today in florida, just as the state passes 300,000 cases. and the positivity rate on tests in miami-dade passes a staggering 30%, which means the virus is spreading fast. icus are already full in 54 florida hospitals. >> the biggest issue is that we have a lot of aggressive noncompliant people.

a lot of the young people are saying so what if i get it. if i get it, it doesn't mean anything. >> reporter: more americans are being infected with this virus now six months in than ever before. >> right now the southern u.s. accounts for about a quarter of the world's cases of covid-19. think about that. just the southern half of the u.s. >> reporter: 19 states are now seeing their highest average daily case counts ever, including deep red alabama, which tomorrow is making masks mandatory. >> i always prefer personal responsibility over a government mandate. and, yet, i also know with all my heart that the numbers are definitely trending in the wrong direction. >> reporter: and heading to walmart? better bring a mask starting next week. oklahoma's governor also just made a surprising announcement. >> i got tested yesterday for

covid-19, and the results came back positive. so, i feel fine. >> reporter: just a few months back, he downplayed the virus, tweeting, then deleting, a pic at a packed restaurant in. tulsa where the president held that mask-optional rally where cases have now doubled more since. >> i can tell you that there will be masks in our schools. >> schools are going to be hot spots. kids are vectors for viruses. as soon as school reopened in 2009 after the h1n1, there was a spike. >> reporter: in arizona, nfl misters are now deployed. kids will be back in these classrooms in a little over two weeks. >> and here in california, pasadena has just canceled its

world-famous rose parade slated for new year's day 2021. san francisco says there is a surge there right now. schools will be online only. and across the state, if you're in what they call tier 4, which means that you're asymptomatic but really think you're at risk of being actively infected, right now you can not get a test because the state is trying to get the turnaround time and results under 48 hours. l.a. county, jake, just told us that we are right now in an alarming and dangerous phase of this pandemic. >> all right, nick watt in california, thank you so much with that grim news. in our 2020 lead, new quinnipiac poll just released just moments ago shows joe biden with a 15-point lead over president trump. 52% of registered voters say they would vote for the former vice president if the election were today. president trump's approval

rating stands at just 36%. that's a six-point drop from last month. and on the president's handling of coronavirus, he's getting his lowest marks since march. 35% approve of his handling of the pandemic. 62% disapprove. coming up next, the scary reality of the nation's top doctor is still baffled by coronavirus, including things such as why some people don't show symptoms, the lasting effects. we're going to talk to a former cdc disease detective about the mysteries of this virus. stay with us. up at 2:00am again?

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in our health lead today, it has been seven deadly months since the novel coronavirus first appeared in china and began spreading throughout the world. scientists and health officials around the globe are still struggling to fully understand its impact and its lasting effects. joining us now to discuss, the cnn medical analyst and former cdc disease detective. doctor, thanks for joining us. so the cdc director mistakenly thought there would be a break of some kind from the intensity of this virus in july and august. dr. fauci a few days ago said he remains perplexed by how it spreads. before we get into specifics, do

you have a theory as to why it has been so difficult for the nation's top public health officials to get a true handle on this virus? >> well, i will say that we are only seven months into analyzing, dissecting, and sequencing this virus, jake. so although there are still many mysteries and still many unanswered questions, we have actually made quite significant strides in terms of understanding more about transmission, more about how we could potentially develop vaccines. it's not surprising to me given what i know about science and the process of science that we still have so many unanswered questions. i think to other viruses that we know about that take decades of hard work and research to really get a grasp on that understanding. so seven months in i think we might be doing quite a good job in understanding this virus, even though it's perplexing, we still don't understand why some get sicker than others, why some of these symptoms seem so strange for a respiratory virus. but i'm not overly confused or

perplexed about the process because science isn't a bunch of facts. science is a process, a very dynamic one through which we are doing experiments and adding day by day to the understanding of a particular disease. >> i've heard of people that had this virus not just for two to six weeks as the cdc says, but, frankly for months with symptoms that range from severe acid reflux to inexplicable rashes, delirium, hallucinations. do we have any idea why some people get so much sicker than others? >> we're not entirely sure because already we know that about 80% of people who get infected will either have mild symptoms or absolutely no symptoms at all. right now geneticists are trying to understand is it something about our immune system that makes some people or resilient and others more vulnerable? there are of course systemic issues like race and racism and poverty that play into this too.

but a really broad variety of symptoms does make us think much more about the immune system's response versus the virus causing direct harm itself. but still a lot of questions, and i remain very worried in terms of what you're saying, jake, about these people that we're referring to now as longhaulers, people who get covid-19 but they're not just sick for a few days, they're sick wards of up to 60, 70, or 80 days. and right now we just don't have that data to say to them your symptoms will resolve by the time or you'll fully recover and then you're done with the symptoms. we don't have the evidence that give them that reassurance. >> and there's also data that suggests that antibodies, which the body develops after contracting this virus, to fend it off, the antibodies might wane after 60 to 90 days after infection. can we or can we not definitively say that after somebody gets it, gets better, that they can get reinfected or not? can we say that they will or

will not? >> right now, we cannot. and i really don't want people to have a false sense of security and think to themselves, oh, well, i had covid-19 back in march or april, i'm good now. we cannot say that for sure because what we're learning, the more that we study the immune response to this infection is, as you mentioned, 60 to 90 days after people have had the illness, their antibody levels are really point low to the point where we think they won't get a reinfection. we need to have a mindset where it's a possibility where potentially people could become reinfected a second time. ideally, that doesn't happen. we would like to see our bodies mount an immune response that's really robust that protects us for a long time but actually in keeping with other coronaviruses that we do understand a lot more about, jake, coronaviruses in general don't produce a very robust immune response with antibodies that linger for very long. so this kind of just fits into

that pattern. >> so yesterday the cdc director said that the u.s. had about 20 million coronavirus infections in the spring, even though only 2 million were diagnosed. they apparently came up with that number after looking at antibody tests. is it possible we also have no idea at all how many people right now have even had the virus? >> i think the tests, both the serologic tests and the antibody tests which tells you that someone is acutely infected gives us some indication as to how widespread this disease is across the states. but we always have to have that cava the that we are likely underreporting and that we are undertesting. we are seven months into this and the u.s. has still not got it together to make sure we are testing all the front line workers, all of the people that are vulnerable and need access to tests. and of course as we are seeing these spikes across the u.s., now we're seeing a backlog of

tests, we're seeing labs like quest diagnostic say to us that instead of a few days test turnaround time, it's eight to ten days before we're getting these covid-19 test results back. that really hinders our understanding of how bad the situation is in america. it could be a lot worse than even the official numbers are showing. >> all right, dr. seema yasmin, thank you as always for your expert. daniel goldman r. sanjay iso take a look at one school in the fall. investing today wherever you are - even hanging with your dog. so, what are you waiting for? download now and get your first stock on us. robinhood.

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in our national lead today, philadelphia just announced that most kids will be back in classrooms two days a week.

the school district will use a hybrid of in-person and at-home learning. the second largest school district in maryland, prince george's county announced today that no in-person learning will take place at least until 2021. houston schools will be virtual for at least the first six weeks of the school year. cnn's chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta right now is taking a look at the struggles schools are facing. >> so are you looking forward to the first day of school? >> i am. we have a group of students out there that are eager to get back to see one another. >> reporter: i don't relish the decisions that headmasters like keith evans have to make about his 535 faculty members and staff members and students at this school which includes my three daughters. >> the cafeteria is going to absolutely feel different. students will come in and they will grab lunch and go and eat in their classrooms and that kind of thing where we can maintain distance. >> reporter: no surprise,

physical distancing a key part of the cdc guidance. also recommended, wearing masks. teaching good hand hygiene, and not sharing supplies like books and pencils. >> if you could have anything you wanted that you don't have right now, what would it be? what would you like to have? >> we are really blessed with some great buildings and square footage here. that is the constraining factor i think in every school space. >> reporter: many other schools don't have that kind of space. and truth is, that problem alone in classrooms, hallways on, buses, may prove too much for some schools to open this fall. but perhaps even more vexing is that more than six months after the first u.s. cases of coronavirus, we still can't definitively say what role do kids play in transmission. one study found children carry just as much virus as adults and maybe just as infectious. but others have found differently in. one french study, a 9-year-old

boy with symptoms of covid-19 exposed over 80 classmates at three schools. none of those children contracted it. in new south wales, nine infected students and nine staff across 15 schools exposed a total of 735 students and 128 staff to covid-19. only two secondary infections resulted. one possibly transmitted by an adult to a child. >> the likelihood of children spreading the virus or transmitting it are still relatively low. however, in areas where there is a lot of transmission in the community, that could potentially increase the likelihood that an infected adult could step into the school setting. >> reporter: exposure is a concern for many teachers. according to a kaiser family foundation analysis, nearly a quarter of all teachers in the united states have health conditions that make them more vulnerable to the coronavirus. >> we're planning for all of

that as opposed to staying focused on students who have a more narrow band of risk in this. >> we need to move the conversation not towards whether schools should open or not, but towards how can we open the schools to ensure that they can open and remain open? >> reporter: how to do that is a challenge. >> we are planning, and we're moving toward a particular end. but we're also eyes wide open, ears wide open understanding how this is evolving. and we understand next week everything could change. >> reporter: sanjay, you and i have kids about the same age. if your kids were supposed to go back to school tomorrow, your daughters, would you let them? >> well, let me preface by saying it's a tough call. i don't want to make it seem like it's an easy call. but you got to keep in mind here where i am in georgia, the case

counts have been going up pretty steadily. they're in that red sort of patch on the map that we've been showing. so, what the guidelines have said, and i think they make sense, is if you have five days in a row of community increase, now is not the time to open schools. so i don't think tomorrow i would. i would like to see those numbers come down, possibly be virtual for a period of time, which they are planning in some school districts here in georgia. and then possibly back to in-person learning later on, hopefully. >> nearly a quarter of all teachers in the u.s. have health conditions that could make them more vulnerable to catching and suffering from the coronavirus according to a kaiser family foundation study. how do you protect them? >> yeah. this is really concerning, and there's been some remarkable sort of reporting around this interview. these teachers are talking about writing their wills this summer in preparation for going back to

the school year. there's a lot of concern here. obviously that can't be minimized. i think that's one of the big questions. we keep talking about this in the context of kids and students which makes sense. but the idea now that even if kids aren't major transmitters to those adults in the school, you are creating indoor settings now where adults are likely to aggregate. as you heard from keith evans, the headmaster at westminster, they are saying we will try our best to teach tkeep the teacher separate and do the maskwearing and social distancing. but there are some things that are very hard to do in a school setting that are compatible with as safe as you want to be. i think it's challenging. what they're doing at westminster, people are identifying now if they have pre-existing conditions. they're given options to possibly do things where they're not in direct contact with lots of other adults or students. they're trying to plan ahead. but there's no absolutely one size fits all here, jake. >> i also wanted to ask you, dr. fauci yesterday compared the impact and severity of

coronavirus to the 1918 influenza pandemic. you just spoke with dr. fauci. tell me more about that. >> yeah. i talked to him specifically about this. i think that people were left with this impression if this was like 1918, 50 to 100 million people died back then a hundred years ago when the population of the world was much smaller. is that what's coming here? and i think dr. fauci was very clear with me that that's not what he was trying to imply. what he said is that you have a novel virus that is highly contagious, it's more lethal than the typical flu and it's circumnavigating the globe. but he doesn't expect that sort of death toll. he doesn't think it's going to be as bad as 1918. and keep in mind, jake, a hundred years later we have critical care. we can put people on breathing machines as necessary. we have certain therapeutics. and obviously there is this race that's going on for a vaccine. so, i think it's going to be a

very different scenario thankfully, the similarity is just that the virus itself is similar. >> all right. dr. sanjay gupta, thanks again. appreciate it. and be sure to tune into cnn tomorrow night for a new cnn coronavirus town hall. that's at 8:00 p.m. with anderson cooper as well. a staggering new statistic about coronavirus and your children. out of the nation's top hot spot, florida, that's next. plus, president trump's niece says that her uncle is utterly incapable of leading this nation. what she says motivates the entire trump family. that's ahead. just over a year ago, i was drowning in credit card debt. sofi helped me pay off twenty-three thousand dollars of credit card debt. they helped me consolidate all of that into one low monthly payment. they make you feel like it's an honor for them to help you out. i went from sleepless nights to getting my money right.

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if florida were a separate country, it would rank eighth in the world for the most number of coronavirus cases. and that's today's national lead. florida reported 10,000 new

cases today, surpassing the 300,000 total mark. jackson health, florida's largest hospital system, reports a 226% rise in coronavirus patients in one month alone. cnn's randi kaye is in palm beach county, florida. another frightening figure. one in three children tested for coronavirus in florida tested positive. one in three. these aren't young adults we're talking about. we're talking about children. >> reporter: absolutely, jake. the florida department of health reporting that 17,000 children under the age of 18 have tested positive for coronavirus here in the state. about 8,000 of them between the ages of 5 and 14. yet, florida is still talking about opening those brick and mortar schools in just a few weeks. the governor is still saying it's safe. he says that it's, quote, extremely low. the risk in terms of children getting the virus and spreading it as well even though he's not a doctor. also here in florida, another grim note. for the third time this week, deaths have topped 100 here in the state of florida. and in terms of

hospitalizations, we now have more than 8,000 people hospitalized with covid-19 here in the state about 8,200. that's up 456, jake, from just yesterday. yet, a florida state representative on cnn earlier today trying to downplay that and downplay the virus. listen. >> south florida, most of my state is doing just fine. the two most important numbers, obviously, hospitalizations and fatalities where in most parts of the state have flatlined or gone down. >> reporter: that is just not true. in fact, we were at about 7,000 hospitalizations, jake, over the weekend. i watch this every day and we're now up to more than 8,200. so it's certainly not going down or flatlining. >> and, randi, despite the actual numbers, not the fake ones that the congressman was proposing, today disney is opening more of its parks in the orlando area. how does the company justify it? >> reporter: they're opening

epcot and hollywood studios. they're justifying it by saying that they're taking extra precautions. there will be hand sanitizer. people will have to take their temperatures before going inside. they'll have to wear masks. they will be handing those out if they don't have one. that's how they are justifying it. yet, jake, they are opening this food and wine festival, which is one of the biggest draws at epcot. they are opening that and premiering that today. so good luck visiting that area wearing a mask as well. >> all right, randi kaye in florida, the hard-hit state of florida, thank you so much. almost 137,000 americans have died of covid-19. today we want to take time to remember one of them. 13-year-old ana carter, the youngest person to die of coronavirus in oklahoma, ana was described as outgoing and funny, a girl with big dreams. she was theatrical. she would dance more than she would walk. she suffered from an autoimmune disease, which made ana

vulnerable to coronavirus. one of ana's biggest dreams was to find a cure for all autoimmune diseases. her mom asks that the rest of us don't let that dream die with her beloved ana. may ana's memory be a blessing. we'll have more news after this. okay, give it a try. between wisdom and curiosity, there's a bridge. between ideas and inspiration, trauma and treatment. gained a couple of more pounds. that's good for the babies. between the moments that make us who we are, and keeping them safe, private and secure, there's webex. ♪ ♪ beautiful.

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well the names have all changed since you hung around but those dreams have remained and they've turned around who'd have thought they'd lead ya back here where we need ya welcome back, america. it sure is good to see you.

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and it's dangerous to allow him to do so. >> president trump's niece, mary trump, calling for her uncle's resignation and also telling national public radio this afternoon that the president is emotionally and psychologically unfit for office. mary trump speaking for the first time since a judge ruled that she could promote her scathing tell-all book about her uncle the president after a legal challenge from her other uncle, the president's brother robert. the book is too much and never enough, how my family created the world's most dangerous man. cnn's sarah murray joins us now live to discuss it. mary trump recounts a time in 2017 when she visited her uncle, the president, in the oval office. what does she say about it? >> this book has a lot of her insights and a couple of her interactions since donald trump became the president. one of them is this visit to the oval office soon after he won.

>> reporter: he had never been in a situation before where he wasn't entirely protected from criticism or accountability or things like that. and i just remember thinking he seems tired. he seems, like, this is not what he signed up for if he even knows what he signed up for. >> reporter: she said that the president went on and said they're not going to get me. this was just after he had taken office, jake. >> yeah. and mary trump has a phd. she diagnoses the president and all the things that she says he has wrong with him psychologically. another explosive claim is her allegation that the president way back when paid someone to take his s.a.t.s for him. is she able to back that up with any evidence? >> this was a sort of wild allegation in her book that she had paid another kid to take the s.a.t.s. the white house said that it's absurd and it's not true. she said in this interview with

abc that this is a story she had been told by family members. but she did admit that she can't actually prove it. >> can i prove it's true? no. because i'm counting on people i trust who told me this story. so in terms of documentation, no, i can't prove it. but i can certainly say with 100% certainty that i was told this story by a source very close to donald. >> now, despite saying that she can't prove it, she went to, to say in that interview that she's absolutely confident it's true. she does have a phd. she has a background in clinical psychology and she brings that to the table throughout these interviews where she really describes donald trump throughout his life as someone who was constantly lying, constantly cheating, constantly kind of doing whatever he needed

to do to get ahead. >> yeah. the allegations she has about his mental state and psychological state are really stunning. thank you so much for that. our coverage on cnn continues right now. thanks for watching. we'll see you tomorrow. this is cnn breaking news. >> welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." we're following breaking news. the coronavirus death toll in the united states is now nearing 137,000 people. and cases are rising right now in 38 states. and that includes california, which has just reported its second highest one-day increase in new cases. more than 11,000, as well as 140 new deaths. president trump just left another hot spot, georgia, where he was talking about infrastructure, not about the pandemic. and he once again was not