Coronavirus US live: cases still increasing in two dozen states amid push to reopen

Republican senator Mitt Romney criticized Trump for attacking Joe Scarborough over a debunked conspiracy theory.

In a new tweet, the former presidential candidate said Scarborough was a friend and described the president’s attacks on the MSNBC host as “vile, baseless accusations.”

Romney specifically mentioned Timothy Klausutis, who wrote a letter to Twitter’s CEO asking him to take down Trump’s tweets about his late wife’s 2001 death.

“His heart is breaking,” Romney wrote. “Enough already.”

Romney has previously criticized Trump for some of his controversial attacks on his enemies, and the Utah senator was the only Republican member of the Senate to vote to convict the president in his impeachment trial.

Trump has consistently mocked Romney over Twitter since the trial, and the senator’s latest tweet will likely inspire another such attack.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert who has become one of the most recognizable faces in the US response to coronavirus, said he wears a mask in public partly to set an example for other Americans.

In an interview with CNN, Fauci talked about wearing a mask as a matter of respect for those around you. “You wear a mask; they wear a mask; you protect each other,” Fauci said.

When explaining why he specifically wore a mask in public, Fauci said, “I want to protect myself and protect others, and also I want to make it be a symbol for people to see that that’s the kind of thing you should be doing.”

Fauci’s comments come as Trump and Joe Biden have sparred over face masks, with the president questioning his Democratic rival for wearing a mask during a Memorial Day ceremony. Biden replied by saying Trump was an “absolute fool” for turning masks into a political issue.

This is Joan Greve, taking over for Joanna Walters.

Donald Trump is once again tweeting about a baseless conspiracy theory involving MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, who has become a frequent critic of the president.

“Psycho Joe Scarborough is rattled, not only by his bad ratings but all of the things and facts that are coming out on the internet about opening a Cold Case. He knows what is happening!” Trump wrote in a tweet this morning.

The “Cold Case” refers to the 2001 death of Lori Klausutis, who was a staffer for then-congressman Scarborough when she died of a fall as the result of a previously unknown heart condition.

Despite the complete lack of evidence of foul play, Trump continues to suggest Scarborough may be involved in Klausutis’ death.

Klausutis’ widower wrote to Twitter’s CEO asking him to take down Trump’s tweets about his late wife, but the company refused, and the president has kept up the baseless attacks.

When asked yesterday about the Klausutis family’s stated wishes for him to stop talking about the debunked theory, Trump said, “I’m sure that, ultimately, they want to get to the bottom of it, and it’s a very serious situation.”

Good morning, US live blog readers, there’s a very busy day ahead in coronavirus and politics news here so please stay tuned for all the latest updates.

Here’s is what’s in store so far today.

• As the nation continues with reopening the data continues to come in showing that two dozen US states are seeing increases in new coronavirus cases, while the US death toll this morning stands at 98,929 according to Johns Hopkins University, and the inevitable 100,000 grim milestone beckons.
• A new poll shows that only around half of Americans are certain they will line up for a Covid-19 vaccine if, hopefully when, such an inoculation is discovered and made available.
• New York governor Andrew Cuomo is back at the White House today, meeting Donald Trump at 11am ET for the latest talks on the coronavirus crisis.
• The president and first lady Melania Trump will travel later in the afternoon to Cape Canaveral on Florida’s Space Coast, where Nasa, in conjunction with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is scheduled to launch American astronauts into outer space from US soil for the first time since the Space Shuttle program was retired in 2011. They are headed for the international space station and hope to blast off at 4.23pmET.