hello, everybody. i'm john king in washington. thanks so much for sharing your day with us, and a very busy news day it is. the president says he'll reveal his supreme court pick on saturday, and the swift confirmation now appears very, very likely. the republican judiciary committee chairman promises a full senate vote before election day and two gop senators viewed as potential obstacles to that fast-track approach, mitt romney of utah and shelly moore of west virginia, say they are on board with the president's plan and there's also quite a crowded day on the campaign trail. we're now six weeks from today we count the vote. president trump heading to battleground pennsylvania and joe biden heads to new hampshire and kamala harris is in battleground michigan but we begin with a new interview and new warnings from dr. anthony fauci. >> what worries me the most, is what worries me is that in those areas of the country which is a large country heterogenous in many ways, if you don't have the

control now as we get towards the end of september of getting such a low percentage that it is entirely manageable, we know we could get into serious trouble if we don't do certain things, and i hope that that understanding is not going to frighten people but will jolt them into realizing that it is within our hands to prevent that. >> dr. fauci says a false slide into more hospitalizations and deaths is not inevitable but things don't look good. just under 30,000 new infections every day and six states pushing down their infection curve. dr. fauci also taking issue with cdc guidelines. he says you can be certain, quote, some transmission of coronavirus comes through particles in the air, and dr. fauci calling this sobering and stunning, those are his words. the united states just shy, just shy of 200,000 coronavirus

deaths. 200,000 american lives lost, 35 times the number of casualties the country suffered in iraq and afghanistan. it is within shouting distance of the number of americans who perished in four years of bloody civil war, but listen to the president telling a rally crowd last night nobody died, he said, who wasn't already at risk. >> it affects elderly people. you know, in some states thousands of people, nobody young, below the age of 18 like nobody. it affects virtually nobody. it's an amazing thing. >> the democratic nominee joe biden last night asking voters to pay no attention to the president and please do not forgot the cost. 200,000 lives. joe biden says that's because of the administration's poor response. >> we've been living with this pandemic for so long i worry we're risking becoming numb to the toll it has taken on us. you can't lose the ability to

feel the sorrow and the loss and the anger for so many lives lost. >> so many lives lost is right. the question now is which direction are we headed? let's take a look at the latest trends when you go through it. this is simply bad news. there's no other way to cast t.red and orange are bad, and you see a lot of red and orange. what does that mean, states heading in the wrong direction. more new infections now than a week ago. eight states reporting 50% more new infections this week compared to the data last week, eight. 50%, 16 reporting between 10% and 50%, higher infection rate this week than last week. look at that. 24 states heading in the wrong direction right now. 20 holding steady and only six states holding six fewer infections. look at all this red, right? this is a month ago. one month ago we were headed in a much better direction. we had 26 states trending down and only nine states trending up. this is what you want the map to look like. green is better and very sad and sobering trend map at the moment as we head into fall.

let's take a look at the case curve. where we are in new infections. this is troubling. yesterday's number. let hope it's a one-day blip. yesterday's number back above 50,000. new coronavirus infections reported in the united states yesterday. the trend line is heading back up. averaging about 40,000 new infections a day, yes, down from the summer surge but still double where we were headed into memorial day. the big question, why couldn't we keep it down here? why wasn't it pushed down more? we've gone through this painful summer and now into the fall of new infections here and when you have all the new infections it is inevitable, this map looks sad as well. 20 states reporting more deaths this week, more coronavirus deaths this week than the data a week ago. 20 trending up. nine steady and 21 trending down. here's where we sit, and this we thought this would happen yesterday. it's -- it's i suppose good news that it didn't but today the united states will hit 200,000 coronavirus deaths, just several hundred away from it. 200,000 coronavirus deaths and this is the question going

forward. all that rain in the rear view mirror. how much pain is still to come? if you look right here, you see 27 states in red on this map. positivity rates have increased, 27 states, higher positivity rates in the coronavirus test this week heading into next week which puts us as a crossroads. that's what dr. fauci talked about today in that conversation with cnn's dr. sanjay gupta. 200,000 deaths, sad, stunning, sobering dr. fauci says. the question is will americans do what it takes, do what it takes to push this down and push the case curve and push the baseline down. that's what dr. fauci says is imperative. >> the idea of 200,000 deaths is really very sobering and in some respects stunning. we have the capability of doing the things that we've been speaking about for so long, sanjay, that could prevent the transmission, the universal wearing of masks, the attention to keeping distance, the avoiding of crowds and trying to

be outdoors rather than indoors and washing of hands. sound so simple, sanjay. said them so many times but they are not universally implemented and employed. >> our chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta joins us now. sanjay, it was a fascinating conversation. dr. fauci trying to urge americans goat it together now so that things don't get worse again, and i'm going to use my term being diplomatic, urging people to do things that are contrary to what the president of the united states keeps doing. >> a very unusual conversation because he by nature is a very hopeful and optimistic person that has been of benefit but this idea that so many of these deaths looking backward for a second would have been preadvancible deaths. nobody like to think about it like that because people whose families who i keep in regular touch with, who lost family members, the idea that their loved ones death is described as

preventible, i mean, that's heartbreaking, right, john, but there are, as you point out, significant things that can still be done now going forward so there are not more preventible deaths. one of the big issues is still this idea of exactly how does the virus spread? i can tell you in the public health and scientific community for some time, the belief has been that this can like anary zol, not just through respiratory droplets, think of it more like smoke, how smoke might move through an indoor space. i mean, it -- it can linger, it can move beyond six feet. that changes a lot of things in terms of how we think about the virus. the cdc acknowledged that on friday and took that guidance down. it's a mess in terms of what people should believe, but i did ask dr. fauci about that specifically and here's what he said. >> you can make a reasonable assumption, sanjay, that some b and is by aerosol. the interesting thing about that

is that it doesn't change anything that we've been saying. it the means wear your mask. it means avoid close contact. it means avoid crowds, and it means what we've been saying the third or four things that i mentioned to you just a little while ago is outdoors is better than indoors because if you have aerosol indoors, you can have some recirculation. >> so, john, as he points out, dr. fauci, it doesn't really change what we should be doing which is wearing masks, but, john, you know, it's a situation if you believe that this could potentially be traveling by aerosol, wouldn't you wear a mask whenever you were indoors constantly? i mean, people say, well i'm six feet away, i don't need to wear the mask anymore. i think the idea of aerosol, what changes as a result that have belief you is should wear a mask when you're indoors even if you're sort of keeping away from people. the virus can linger. it can us suspend and can travel. >> i was also struck, sanjay, in the conversation where you were

politely asking dr. fauci about who gets hurt by this virus and in the context of the president in a way that is remarkably insensitive last night saying, you know, the only people who are getting real sick and the only people dying are the people at risk, lam so what attitude from the president of the united states and dr. fauci was trying to clarify that. >> he was pretty definitive on this. i said, look, my father watches. he's in florida. he's in his late 80s and has heart disease and hears this. it's just elderly people with heart disease. first of all, how does it make him feel, and second of all, it's not just elderly people. here's what dr. fauci said. the. >> it's very disrespectful to me because i'm in my 70s. i'm like your father. i could be your father, sanjay. the thing we need to remember, sanjay, that there are a number of people in our society of a substantial proportion who have underlying conditions, and if you look at the two groups that are at risk for serious

conditions, is the elderly and peep at any age with underlying conditions. >> right. >> underlining any age. >> and as you know, john, if you start talking about these pre-existing conditions. it's a significant percentage of the population that has some sort of preexisting condition. bottom line you is don't want this disease. no matter your age. you don't want this disease. you don't know what it will do to you and how long symptoms will last, and i think that's the point he was trying to make. >> every one of those numbers on the screen is a human being, a parent, a family, a child, and every one of them should be treated with respect. the thanks for sharing your perspective. we'll hit 200,000 lives lost to the coronavirus today, president trump still downplaying the virus and sometimes disrespecting its victims. joining me is the senior scholar at john hopkins university for health security.

doctor, it's good to see you. i want to start with something dr. fauci said in the conversation because he's been quite repetitive about this throughout the summer surge and throughout the fall. 52,000 new coronavirus infections reported yesterday. let's hope that's a one-day blip but the trend line is heading back up, got it below 40 and if it's trending back up into the 50s we're in some trouble. listen to dr. fauci explain why it's so important for him to shove down that baseline. >> the metric for me is the concern i've had and continue to have for this baseline of cases that we have every day. when you have a lot of cases floating around, it's much more difficult to contain that. it's unacceptable to not realize that we -- that we are entering into a risk period and we've got to the act accordingly. >> if you continue to have a concern and if you keep repeating yourself, that means what you're doing is not working, right? >> yes, but it is simply true

that we do have tens of thousands it of cases occurring every day, and people's behavior has been modified somewhat but people are still not realizing that we're in a pandemic which doesn't mean that you have to stay at home but means you have to be very mindful that the virus is with you, take common sense precautions, wear a face covering and avoid crowds. all of that is important to keep that number down because if you're a case contact investigator in the town, and if you've got hundreds of cases occurring every day and you can't keep up and chains of transmission will land on vulnerable people and you'll land in the hospital hand this has become the new normal now and i do think we have to prepare for acceleration in the fall when people can't be outdoors and that 40,000 may go up to an unsustainable level. >> i hope it doesn't turn out that way, but you're the expert on this and you have been right for months which is why we keep bringing you in. i want you to listen to the president last night. just making the point with san jail. every one of the numbers are numbing had on the side of the screen is a human being, but the president make the case last night he's handled the

coronavirus very well. listen. >> now we know that it affects elderly people, elderly people with heart problems and other problems, is if they have other problems, that's what it really affects, that's it. you know, in some states, thousands this of people, nobody young. below the age of 18, like nobody. it affects virtually nobody. it's an amazing thing. nearly 1 million infections and we'll hit 200,000 deaths this is an amazing thing. it affects nobody. it's nuts. >> completely backwards and not and as many with things on coronavirus it's not the president because most of what he says is outright lies about what happened and what has happened to this people because of this virus and everyone is susceptible and people who are hospitalized and die, we do have

younger people who die or have long haul symptoms. this is something you don't want to get and i don't think you can give the president or federal response to this any kind of president. we could have acted decisively in january, february and march instead of evagd the problem. we could have been like taiwan and taken a different route and these consequences are very severe and will continue to be severe. >> doctor, as always, great for your time and expertise and i sights. talk to you as i'm sure as we now head into the fall crossroads. the numbers are heading back up. up next for us, we shift to the supreme court and full speed ahead. senate republicans believe they have the votes to fast track the president's new supreme court nomination.

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president trump hopes to fill the supreme court vacancy

before the november election, his hopes are getting a major boost. democrats need two more republican votes to block the action but the democrats quickly running out of option. senator mitt romney says today he has no objection to acting quickly and shelly moore caputo of west virginia supports swift action. the judiciary committee chairman lindsey graham says he has the votes to move quickly. >> the nominee is going to be supported by every republican in the judiciary committee, and we've got the votes to confirm the judge, the justice on the floor of the senate before the election and that's what's coming. >> the premium on speed requires that this process be historically quick, about four weeks, from start to finish. let's get straight up to capitol hill. cnn's manu raju. senator romney today, a lot of movement now in the president's favor today. >> reporter: yeah. a lot of momentum on the republican side for the confirmation, you named it. one of the quickest confirmation hearings, typically two to three months by the time the president

names a nominee on saturday, we're about 38 days away from election day and the vote would happen before election day so we're looking at a month's time to push this nom thee through and behind the scenes republicans are planning a quick confirmation fight. i just talked to lindy graham, the judiciary committee chairman, he told me they are planning to move forward with a october confirmation hearing, probably three days worth of hearings and then votes will probably happen soon after. john thune, the senate majority whip, told me this morning he does believe he'll push to have the vote before election day despite their own position in 2016 against moving forward when president obama's nominee back in march of that year because they said at the time it was too close to the election but nevertheless they are pushing ahead and got that boost today from mitt romney who would yet to say what he would do and join calls to delay the vote or back the president. he made very clear he's backing the president. >> the decision to proceed now with president trump's nominee is also consistent with history.

i came down on the side of the constitution and precedent as i've studied it. it's appropriate for a nation if you will, which is center right, to go have a court which reflects center rights point of view which, again, are not changing the law from what it states but instead following the law and following the constitution. >> reporter: and i asked mitt romney whether or not he would support a nomination vote, confirmation vote after the election if it were to slip after the election, even if joe biden were to win and that vote would happen in the lame duck session of congress before the new congress is sworn in, before a new president were sworn in. he indicated he didn't want to deal with that. he said that's speculation but he made clear he's ready to vote and ready to vote before election day. john? >> the fast track is about to begin. cnn's manu raju, a very important day on capitol hill. manu, thank you very much. very much to share their reporting an insights, jackie

kucinich of "the daily beast" and you can say from interest groups how can they do this, why wouldn't they wait and joe biden says early voting is under way. the republicans have no hesitation about using their power and if you're mitch mcconnell or president trump you have to face the reality. odds are today, a lot can change in six weeks, that odds are today that joe biden wins the presidency, odds are today republicans may lose their majority in the senate. they see this opportunity to get a 6-3 conservative majority and they are going to use their muscle and exercise it. >> absolutely, and that's why it's not terribly surprising to see all these republican senators real falling in line on this. this has been a goal to have the court locked down like this for a very long time, and so having a bird in the hand, right? they have the votes they need and they are going to push forward with it. and democrats really don't have any recourse. there isn't any kind of tools in the toolbox that they can do to stop this, so the opportunity is there. this is about power. this is about changing the

supreme court for, you know, many, many decades to come, so -- potentially, so you -- it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who has watched the senate, particularly over the last couple of years, that this is coming down the pike. what democrats do have is political pressure, and that i think you're going to see really ramp up in the days to come. >> right. they will have to make a campaign issue of it now because it looks unlikely, unless something changes in the confirmation process itself, that this one is on a fast track and to it point the president said he'll make his pick saturday. he's waiting for the remembrances of ruth bader ginsburg. he'll make his pick saturday. we're told by many sources amy coney barrett, a federal appeals court judge is the favorite. a lot can change in a couple of days and the administration, also an interesting calculation for the administration signing on to this let's get this done before the election. to essentially deliver one more -- one more deliver rabble to the president's evangelical conservative base. >> yeah. the president is definitely

looking at his own re-election and he's comparing about his place in history as the 45th president, someone who potentially will have appointed three justices to the supreme court, but he's also looking at november 3rd. he wants to have this justice in place so he can go to his evangelical base and say look how i've changed the supreme court. even if you don't like my tweets or demeanor, look how i've shifted the balance in favor of an ideology that is much more in line with sort of you're eve july call views and your moderate or, you know, very conservative views on social issues, so the president is clearly trying to get this win and secure this justice and have them in place before election day. he has also been sort of discussing the idea that, you know, the election could be challenged in the court and that could also go to the supreme court, so this is a president who has relied on the supreme court on the majority of the supreme court for a lot of the major things that have happened under his presidency, from immigration to voting rights to the separation of powers and

even his own taxes, so he wants to have this in place as soon as possible and not leave anything to chance knowing that after november 3rd anything could happen with the senate majority or with his own position as president, so i wouldn't be surprised if he tries to put a lot of pressure on all the republicans to get this done as quickly as possible. >> it looks like they are going to move very quickly. to your point, jackie, earlier about politics. you know, of course, obama's pick was denied in 2016. merrick garland was appointed by president obama with nearly 300 days to election day. that's what joe biden is different. he says the democrats deserved their vote in 2016 but trump does not deserve his vote in 2020. he says because some people are already voting. >> we're in the middle of an election. by the time that vote comes up, if it comes up, there will have been close to 40% of the people who already voted. it's a violation of the spirit of the constitution to suggest that he should not wait until the outcome of the election.

>> it is clear though republicans are not going to listen to joe biden on this matter. my question is will biden feel more pressure from progressives to ramp up talk of expanding the court to add more justices, abolishing the filibuster and saying if the democrats win the presidency and the senate that they will try to change the math in the senate. will he have to answer to progressive pressure? >> he'll have to answer it and right now what they are trying to do instead of caving to that pressure or really addressing it with any sort -- with any sort of length is they are choosing to focus on things that could change at the supreme court and with the distribution that the -- the 6-3 distribution, things like the affordable care act could be in danger, abortion rights could be in danger. those are the things and -- those are the things you're hearing biden and the surrogates talking about particularly on health care because suburban women, people in the middle of

the pan demmic who are dealing with their health -- might not necessarily want to see their health care taken away, so they are focusing on more of these tangible issues rather than the progressive pressure. we'll see if they are able to keep that focus as the days go on, but, you know, that's where we are right now. >> appreciate the insights and reporting from you both today, fascinating in the supreme court chase and the campaign. six weeks from today we count the votes. coming up for us, a new "washington post" report says vladimir putin is most likely personally directing russian interference in the 2020 election.

there is new and important reporting today about u.s. intelligence assessment of russian interference in the 2020 election. the intelligence community is already on record saying russia is interfering again and its efforts are aimed at helping president trump, just like back in 2016. the new reporting details a new cia assessment that this new meddling can be traced to the highest levels of kremlin power. josh rogen of "the washington post" quoting from an august 31st cia assessment saying we

assess that vladimir putin and the senior most russian officials are aware of and probably directing russia's influence operations aimed at denigrating the former u.s. vice president, supporting the u.s. president and fueling public discord ahead of the u.s. election in november. he added some context a bit earlier on cnn. >> the government didn't want to release it, and i assure you when i told the government that i was going to release it they were not happy about it, but the bottom line is that this assessment came out on august 31st. it was published on the highest level classification, top key credit on what's called the cia wire, the worldwide intelligence review and was very, very closely held. >> let's discuss this now. with us our cnn national security commentator mike rogers, former chairman of the house intelligence commit and senior analyst and writer susan glasser. mr. rogers, if you were chairman of the white house intelligence committee today and the cia assessed that top creme lip officials from vladimir putin and his team were, a, aware and,

b, most likely or probably directing this, would you not expect your president to say or do something about it? >> well, auction lotulelei, and i would expect the intelligence committee so if i were chair we would have started this a long time ago. we do know in 2016 and before that putin was engaged in information operations, maligned information operations in the baltic states where there was a pretty large russian ethnic-speaking operation and they exported that to the united states for the 2016 election and we watched them come back in 2018. i think the national security agency did a pretty good job playing whack a mole with their efforts, and bain february of this year, congress was told, hey, guess what, he's back at it again. he takes a special interest in this. this is his former kgb training, and he has i think a unique way of presenting this discord in america that's real concerning to me, so absolutely. the president should come out.

coming should be unified in this, by the way and pushing back at any foreign interference. we know the chinese are doing something, maybe not as sophisticate, but all of them should be pushed back and it should be a public joint unity effort to say we won't tolerate foreign interference in u.s. elections. >> and yet, susan glasser, the president gave a speech to the united nations general assembly today, a perfect opportunity to call out vladimir putin, didn't happen. yesterday at the white house he was asked about the poisoning of the russian opposition leader, and he said this. >> who do you think poisoned alexei novalny in russia? >> we'll talk about that at another time. >> it is outrageous on every level, the president of the united states, his own secretary of state pointing the finger at russia saying he needs to answer questions about novalny and the president and the president is aware of this cia assess president and even before it and will not talk publicly again

about vladimir putin so this is left to ask the question why, what is it? >> that's right, john. i think this is very significant new reporting because it underscores that we're essentially experiencing exactly the same thing we experienced four years ago, and i should point out, that you know, of course vladimir putin is likely directing this interference in the u.s. elections uncertain significant matter, and it's not a system where rogue operators in the intelligence community are doing this just as it was not four years ago. what's extraordinary is that not only the president but the republican party has chosen essentially to ignore this. you do have a situation where once again trump appears to be in conflict with elements of his own government. the executive branch of the united states has one policy towards russia in which office holders like mike pompeo can claim they are talking tough about russia and yet the president of the united states refuses even to afriction blame

for the poisoning of alexei novalny with a banned kwepon that's only under the control of the russian government, and we've done and said nothing from the top levels of the government. the other thing to point out in this reporting is that it is -- the russian intelligence operative appears to be operating directly through rudy giuliani and other republican members and giuliani, of course, takes this information directly into the white house. trump himself in fact has been accused of reading the information that comes as part of the russian intelligence operation and he publicly approv approved his own fbi director for speaking about this under oath just last week. this is something that all the systems in the u.s. should be blinking red high alert on and yet nothing is happening. nothing is happening. we're letting happen again just as we did four years ago.

it's pretty amazing. >> pretty amazing is an understatement. chairman rogers, back to you. hate to put you on the spot and i know you're not in congress and i know you're not a fan how the president operates on issues like this. but let's listen to christopher wray, one of the few administration officials who still has the guts to say publicly things he knows will make the boss mad. listen. >> we certainly have seen very active, very active efforts by the russians to influence our election in 2020, an effort to sew divisiveness and discord and -- and i think the intelligence community has assessed this publicly to primarily denigrate vice president biden and what the russians see as kind of an anti-russian establishment. >> now the intelligence community, the intelligence community have made a distinction saying iran and china have a difference makes a

difference. when the attorney general is asked by the same jens director of director wray. listen to how he answered "question. >> do you accept that russia is once again interfering in the election? >> i suggest there's preliminary activist that suggest he might try again. >> the intelligence community has pointed to, are china and iran. which is the most assertive and most aggressive in this area? >> i believe it's china. >> which one? >> >> china more than russia right now? >> yes. >> why do you see that? >> because i've seen the intelligence. that's what i've concluded. >> the fbi does not believe that, chairman rogers. the cia does not believe that but the attorney general of the united states says he has concluded, at least he attributes it to himself, china, and he says he's seen some preliminary activity that they might try again in the context of russia. the that is not what he has been told. he's told there's active activity, major activity, that

they are trying again, not that they might. why? >> well, i can't -- i don't understand this notion that we're going to give russia a pass, and by the way, when i was chairman, i had some -- some information, some intel that came across my desk that suggested that the russians were working on certain members of congress, and there's ways to handle this had. one, i just invited the members to a meeting in my spaces with -- with the fbi to give them and run down the assessment on what those threats were and why they needed to be caution, and so i -- you know, everybody needs to be part -- you know, to have our hands on the oar to push back on the russians here including members of congress and including members of the administration. i will say this on china, and i agree with what the report said because we've watched it. i watched it as part of protecting democracy is the german marshall fund we track russians bots and russian miss information and so we know how active they are, but we also are

seeing china, and i think what they are saying, maybe i'm being generous here. what they are saying in china is they have really ramped up their intelligence operations targeting the united states which is true so they have done their part. as far as these -- these influence operations trying to pit americans against americans, boy, i think the russians have them beat hands down and we should be unified in opposition to this. this is not that hard. >> right. call it all out. if the chinese are active, the iranians are active, call it all out and with clarity and consistency, but we do not get that. mike rogers and susan glasser, thank you for the important insights. again, six weeks till election day. election year tensions between the pentagon and the commander in chief. ♪

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healthy, and that we know we'll enjoy. i feel better, i'm healthier, it's just incredible. myww your weight loss and wellness, all in one app. join for free and get three months free! plus you could be one of thousands to win an all-new amazon halo band! stunningly sad breaking news. the united states moments ago reaching a devastating milestone surpassing 200,000 deaths from the coronavirus. each one of those deaths a mother, a father, is a son or a daughter. cnn chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta remembers just a few of those we've lost over the past six months.

>> one year ago dr. nagy was a doting father of five and an even more doting grandfather. he was enjoying retirement with the love of his life, his wife stacy. >> i could be in the kitchen washing dishes at the sink and he'd come up and start kissing the back of my neck, you know, giving me chills in the back of my neck. >> reporter: on july 22nd, the 79-year-old passed away in the hospital separated from his family because of covid-19. naomi esqoval and carlos garcia mayor i'd for 28 years and as much as they loved each other they loved their boys nathan and isaiah even more. none of them, none of us, had even heard of covid-19 then. on july 2nd, naomi was brought to the hospital. that same day without her family by her side the 39-year-old mother of two died. 14-year-old isaiah thought standing over his mother's casket was the hardest thing he

would ever do, but just two weeks later their father who had been recovering from the virus was also hospitalized for kidney failure. on july 17th, 44-year-old carlos passed away as well. >> i didn't get to say good-bye to my mom or my dad and that's what hurts me the most right now. >> reporter: it was on february 29th when the first person in the united states was confirmed to have died from covid-19, and since then these stories have been repeated more than 200,000 times. it is true that age increases the risk for death. someone who is 50 to 64 years old is 30 times more likely to die of covid than an 18 to 29-year-old. for someone who is 56 to 74, that risk is 90 times higher. but make no mistake. there is no one who hasn't been touched somehow some way by covid-19. >> since he passed, at least we got to be with our family,

didn't have to go to an orphanage or anything. i'd rather be here than anywhere else right now is not comparisons are stunning. more americans lost in this pandemic than have died in world war i, the korean war, vietnam, iraq and afghanistan combined. we are now losing more than 800 people every day to this virus. >> more people than die from suicide or overdose or homicide or hiv. >> reporter: covid-19 is already on track to be the third leading cause of death in the united states this year, just behind heart disease and cancer, and keep in mind covid-19 is a disease we hadn't even heard of a year ago. the flu pandemic of 1918 is probably the closest model that we have to this pandemic, and in the first eight months of that year around 75,000 people died from the flu, and again sadly we have already lost 200,000 lives within the first seven months of this pandemic. ultimately over the course of

one year, 675,000 americans would die in the pandemic of 1918 in tragic and terrifying waves. the second which started in september 195,000 americans died that october alone. one influential model estimates if we continue our actions weekend reach 378,000 deaths by january 1st. but here's the thing. we don't have to. even without a break through therapeutic or a vaccine that same model estimates we could save around 115,000 lives by simply wearing a mask and preventing over 100,000 families from having to go through what isaiah, nathan and stayty have had to endure. >> he was the love of my life and i loved him. he was a part of me and i just -- i feel lost without him.

>> dr. sanjay gupta, cnn, reporting. i felt like... ...i was just fighting an uphill battle in my career. so when i heard about the applied digital skills courses, i'm thinking i can become more marketable. you don't need to be a computer expert to be great at this. these are skills lots of people can learn. i feel hopeful about the future now. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ balanced nutrition for strength and energy. whoo-hoo! great tasting ensure with 9 grams of protein, 27 vitamins and minerals,

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there are rare election year tensions between the commander in chief and senior pentagon officials. mark esper and chairman of the joint chiefs held an unusual call this month with the white house chief of staff. secretary esper and general millie objecting to the criticism of leadership. since that call with mark meadows they're said to be taking a different approach to dealing with the president. barbara starr here from the pentagon to share her reporting.

take us inside this fascinating story. >> reporter: john, you will remember back on labor day the president said that the top brass didn't like him because they were all about fighting wars and supporting america's defense companies. didn't exactly go over well to be basically accused of war profiteering and got on the phone with meadows and he tried to walk it back but essentially the bad feeling, the damage done. intentional or not, they have different approaches in the last several weeks and expected to continue to do so right through the election. esper continuing to travel, meet with troops, meet with foreign counterparts, overseas and in the u.s., on thin ice with the white house and allows him to say business as usual, i'm the defense secretary doing my job. general mark millie on good terms with the president, it is

believed, but he not intentionally perhaps not traveling overseas. pandemic is keeping him home the aides say but by staying in washington general millie is achieving one critical goal with the white house, a short distance away, quick drive over to the oval office. if things start getting hot, he can meet with the president face to face and offer his military at vice and a situation everyone is watching closely is civil unrest, protests in cities across the u.s. would the president try to put troops on the street? the pentagon doesn't want that. john? >> very important reporting. thank you. coming up, dr. fauci has advice for americans heading into the fall. the american passing 200,000 coronavirus deaths. hey there people eligible for medicare.

gimme two minutes. and i'll tell you some important things to know about medicare. first, it doesn't pay for everything.

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hello to our viewers in the united states and around the world. thank you for sharing this very busy, very sad breaking news day with us. we begin the hour with a horrifying statistic. the united states registered 200,000, 200,000 coronavirus deaths. dr. fauci this morning in an interview with dr. gupta calls that milestone sobering and stunning and