Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 05202020 20240713

This morning based on nine separate institutions indicating that we could potentially see another 22 thousand deaths here in the United States by mid june 22 thousand deaths here in the United States by mid june. A reminder that the house is in recess this week. The senate is in session. 2. Ve coverage on cspan as we approach memorial day weekend, we want to hear from you, your top concern as your state begins to reopen. All 50 states reopening this week. If you recently returned to work, here is the number. Anyou are a Business Owner, essential worker, here is the number. , here is thes number. If it seems a little bit different today, we are coming to you from my home and also a satellite location where this program is being directed. We will get your phone calls in just a moment. I reminder that the Senate Government Homeland Affairs committee will be holding a hearing this morning looking into a couple of things, including joe biden and his son hunter and his connection to the Ukraine Energy company. Also, an Inspector General that would be involved in the democratic government response. A new set of phone numbers this wednesday morning. When we first began the Program Years ago, we used to show the headlines. We will do so again today. This is the Washington Post. The hearing we covered yesterday, the full hearing is available on our website. Some conflicting signals from the fed chair who says there needs to be more stimulus. Whereas the treasury secretary says he wants to make sure the current 2 trillion that the president signed into law in the cares act is fully implemented. Because of coronavirus and fewer people traveling, this is the headline from the Washington Post as greenhouse emissions are now down 17 . Lelets get to your phone calls. As states begin to reopen, especially memorial day weekend with beaches opening on the east and west coasts, what is your number one concern . Will go first we to bobby from North Carolina. Caller good morning. I am a cashier at a Small Grocery store in North Carolina. I have been working ever since quarantine, considered essential. I have heard that many places are reopening. Ive been North Carolina. The governor is going to announce phase 2 opening up. This kind of worries me. My wife works at a hair salon. She is very excited about this. Ms are planning on reopening. If the equipment is dirty, how are you going to keep on cleaning . I know there is limited capacity. But that is my concern. Thank you for cspan and thank you, steve. Have a great day. Host thank you for the call and thank you for what you are doing. Todd is next in brentwood, california. Cspan is reflective of cnn and the rest of the Mainstream Media in that it is all about bad news and blame. Day after day, walltowall, more bad news. We are leading off with bad news straight from the new york times, Washington Post. Typical cspan, typical cnn. There is so much good news out there to cover if cspan and cnn were in the business of any kind of balance. Remdesivir, the numbers out of georgia, the numbers in california. There is good news all over the place. The dow is coming back. Just off the top of my head. How come cspan doesnt ever cover good news . Host thank you for the call. We are simply dealing with the facts and we appreciate your contribuon. That is what makes this program work. We go to kent now in wisconsin. Caller i think many people forget that without a healthy environment or a healthy populace, there is no economy. As far as the president and his medical remedies, let him try it. What have we got to lose . Host thank you. Again, we have a new set of phone numbers for you this wednesday morning. We are trying to get your reaction to what you think is the top concern as her states begin to reopen. For many, more than two or 2. Shutdown. F numbers, one if you recently returned to work, one if you are business or essential workers, and one for all others. We go next to james in pittsburgh, pennsylvania. Caller wow. Good morning, cspan and god bless you for taking my call. How are you guys doing this morning . Host we are good, how are you . A little bit different set up today. Bear with us, but we are glad to hear from you. Caller and im glad you are taking my call. I think it is time we end politics and give it back to the courts. This twoparty system in america is not working. We should have never had segregation. This has been complete chaos. Some people dont even know what they are doing. In pennsylvania, we have Governor Wolf and he doesnt know nothing. He cant run again, so theyre going to make other people miserable. That is what they are doing. We have to get rid of politics and gi it back to the court system. What do you think of that . Host thank you for the call. Rob in new rk city, you are next. Caller good morning, thank you for cspan. I am amused that you are being compared to cnn or whatever. The moment that someone tries to have an open and intelligent conversation a discuss issues and expand on issues and examine ofues, that the notion thinking and examining or studying is viewed as something liberalmore for the media or cnn. It is a sad state of affairs when we come to an antiintellectual position. I didnt go to college, but i have such high respect and i really dont read. Once in a while, i will pick up a book and i feel so satisfied when im done reading the book. We have a president who doesnt read. He doesnt even read the short version of the most important details of the day. He has it read to him. I haveh respect audited classes 40 years ago when i should have been in college. I sat and i listened and i used my common sense to Pay Attention. I didnt do the reading and the classes that i audited. I just sat there, but i learned a little. One of the things that i learned is that i had tremendous respect for the amazing amount of discipline and intelligence and that isulness and work involved when you study. This president doesnt do the work. He doesnt Pay Attention to the reading that is required, the intellectualism that is required. Every person like me who really doesnt have an education, who has children, we all want our children to study and learn and go to school and improve. But when it comes to this president , we give this guy a pass for someone who just shoots at the hip, talks about wacko medical why is this man even talking like he is a doctor, talking about medicine . Doesnt he have enough intelligence to separate himself out from the doctors . I beg all the people who are sending their children to schools to improve themselves to study, to require the same thing of our leaders. We want them to study and know the issues and improve themselves on a daily basis. You want our leaders to know the issues backwards and forwards. It is a tremendous amount of work, and that is the issue. Our president does not want to do the work. The only thing he wants to do is create the chaos. Paul manafort, michael flynn, fight, the fda is no good, the good. Cdc is no justified against people who have spent their entire lives studying issues in these departments that are experts. All of a sudden, everything they do is discounted, it is all him. It is all against this world is so turned upside down because of this president that we have an office who doesnt want to do the wk. He doesnt want to sit and read and study and become learned and knowledgeable and talk from a position of wisdom. It is just outrageous to me. Thank you for cspan. I have recently returned to work. Host rob, thank you for the call. Im glad that you are back to work. Again, for those listening on cspan radio, we are asking your top concern as states begin the process of reopening. We heard from governor andrew cuomo, one of the states that had the strictest lockdowns with different regions of the state, now reopening including in buffalo and rochester. Beaches in Virginia Beach now reopening. Reopening taking place in maryland and california. Expansive reopening and florida, georgia and arkansas. Next caller isan from stanford, virginia. Good morning. Thanks for waiting. Dan, you want this . Caller i am very conservative, but im not necessarily hardline conservative. I guess you would say i am an independent who leans conservative. I dont know who these people, that learning people are he says he is discrediting what he is talking about, whether it is general flynn or whoever it is. Those guys those guys are also learned folks. It goes both ways. Beyond that, we have to get kids back in schools. When those young minds are not being exposed, it is like a vine. Wine. The more struggle you put that mind through, like a vine, the sweeter the juice, the better the wine. That mind is that kids intellectual prowess. That guy is calling and contradicting the president. You have to get kids back in schools. That is coming from a conservative guy who wants education. There is a lot of folks that are very scared. Host how do you do that though . How do you get the schools to reopen . T, lets look at at the data says. I say with the data says because i am a little bit of a statistician. I actually know a little bit about that. The data says children are not higher at risk. Der teachers and such, maybe they are at risk. Maybe the teachers unions have a little bit o of say in this. I dont know. Im speculating there. What i say is, you have got to get the kids in. Thkids themselves are low risk. Especially those without preexisting conditions. Get them back in school. If you dont want to, that is each parents risk they are taking with their kids future and education. If you dont want to let your kids get back to school, i think it is a law, i think you have to. But if you choose not to, you want to homeschool, go ahead, but your kid is going to miss out on social development. You have that choice. As far as one person or small minority of people saying all of the kids shouldnt be back in school, absolutely not. That is a very bad idea. You have to get the economy cranking. We are killing the dep. Gdp. You have to get the taxes going, revenue. Im not saying raise taxes, but we have to keep the taxes flowing for all the services. Get to work so we can generate revenue. Host thank you for the call from virginia. Next up is rob from summer in a beach, what is happening in your state now . We are slowly reopening under governor desantis. My concern is that our president is making himself a self guinea pig. I am a pharmacist. Am an essential worker because he could have a heart copiousr he could have diarrhea or Something Like that concerns me. We need the science. I am a hard science type of guy. Pharmacology is a hard science. My issue is that we need to look at dr. Fauci, dr. Birx. We need to look at individuals he has put in charge with medical literacies degrees, pharmacy degrees, and actually believe them and not politicize hard science. Just what are the side effects of this drug . As you indicated, it has been around for about 40 years, primarily to treat malaria. The president indicating he has been taking it for the last week and a half. He did so at his own choosing and consultation with the white house dr. What are your side effects . Caller there are g. I. Side effects. We do have issues of stomachache and problems like that. There are joint pains and issues with sleep. We also have irritabilities. Central nervous system side effects, irritable mood, not being able to sleep. The most important one is that this family of drugs is known as quinones. My concern, like i said, we are doing a fantastic thing with the new vaccine, but there are a small group of individuals that dont have any side effects, that dont have any drug interactions. I dont know his medication profile and i really dont care. 70serson that is in their has a risk of high cholesterol and heart attack. Pid drug. On an antili there are side effects to that and there are drug interactions. That is the other thing you have to worry about. Drug likee a wrong when they are talking about, it has the same side effect as the hydroxychloroquine. Again, we have the joint pain, issues. Issues, cns we have got issues that are not benign. Treatment,ian, every you always have an upside and the downside. You always have to sigign an informed consent. When youre dealing medicions now and dispensing them, your pharmacist gives you a list of all the possible side effects so that u. S. The patient can be informed, so you can tell your doctor. Orally,i take something there is a possibility that i could have nausea and vomiting. That is perfect. All of a sudden, i start getting heart palpitations. You have got to call your doctor. Like i said, the only thing is, there are regulations. The humphrey act. The pure drug and cosmetic act, that came about because pharmacists were making sulfur drugs and little babies were dying in chicago because not everybody was making the exact same. The snake oil that was being sold in the midwest that could cure everything. Crockery. That is where the science of quackery came from. My concern is we have the leader of the free world yes, h he made his own decision, which someone, because we cant get the physician that is treating him to say because he doesnt want to violate his hepa yes, we discussed the side effects. When i discussed the side effects or when i got a call from a physician saying, i prescribed this. Prescribedyou this, which is a sulfur drug and your patient had an anaphylactic reaction. You could have idiopathic side dye in, which means the the hydroxychloroquine. Plus, our drugs are not made in the United States right now. They have a waiver from the fda, which means that they dont actually really have to do everything we want because the fda used to put instructors who were pharmacists into companies that actually made the drugs. When are we sending people over to india . Host im going to jump in. Thank you. You put a lot on the table. We appreciate your call and expertise and we are glad youre back to work in florida. Dylan is next from south dakota. Again, our focus this first hour, your number one concern, top concerns as your state begins to reopen. In some cases, quicker than others. Go ahehead, dylan. Are supposed to have a big bike rally here in august like we do every year. I work at a campground. I am a disabled vet from vietnam. I have a lot of concerns because we have a lot of veterans here that have underlying problems. Bikersey bring all these come in, it is just a big mess, really. I have got a lot of concern about this years rally. Our governor and the county here are going to make a decision on june 15. I pray to god that they cancel it this year. Th is where i am out with it at with it. We have got fort meade out here. As far as the medication that pharmacists that the pharmacist was talking about, they arent even using it through the v. A. System out here. I have got upper respiratory problems and all that stuff. I have kinda been isolating, but i started back to work at the campground. I kind of go and help out. That is my concern, anyway. For the kids, too. Because wemall area are about 10 miles from deadwood. They shut all the casinos up there and they are talking about reopening. It is kind of slow around here right now. I have been seeing a lot of cars from florida, washington. It kind of irks me when they come over here because i have got families, too out there in washington that i would like to visit, but i have jusbeen putting it off. My wife, she had cancer. She passed away on december 11. Obtained ahat she disease in her blood. I dont know what it was. Now. Ust here i appreciate host dylan, good luck to you. Thank you for your service, by the way. Sorry about the loss of your wife. Thank you for adding her voice to the conversrsation today. Our next collar is bill from miami, florida. Caller hi. Thank you so much for staying at home and keeping us updated with everything going on. Host a little different set up today. Caller i see. Very nice. Not one ofgest the biggest, but a little issue i have is people trying to get places like sea world, disney world, universal, places like that to reopen. I just really dont understand that. I understand places like hair salons those are important because people have to get their hair cut. But places like disney world, for example, i just really dont understand it. I understand that people work there and they are red of handouts and they want paychecks. But still, places like disy world are not really necessary. I know they are shopping grounds. Disney springs opened up. That is understandable, it is kind of like a mall. Host they opened on monday right . Caller i believe so. I know you have to follow social distancing, masks, stuff like that. I just dont see them reopening anytime soon and rightfully so. Theher concern i have is squirrel that died on donald trump what the heck . Host thanks for the call. Again, another set of phone numbers this morning. Your top concern as were state begins to reopen. One line if you recently arerned to work, one if you a Business Owner or essential worker, and a third for all others. Annette is joining us from norfolk, virginia. Go ahead, please. Caller hello . Host annette, you are on the air. Dan, you are next. Go ahead, dan. Good morning. Is ir my biggest concern guess a new thing. We have all heard about the military complex. I think we can all be pretty well assured now that we should while thereew term is still the militaryindustrial complex. Now, there is the medical industrial complex. What we are seeing witith this pandemic host why do you say that . Caller because we have a medical system that is based on profit. Incentive, when ashave a monetary incentive our health care syst is, we end up with things like what we are seeing. We end up seeing a super risky drug with absolutely no history of effectiveness or safety,. Emdesivir, being inserted and a proven drug, hydroxychloroquine, which was mainly used in south korea as their number one go to treatment for people who are tested positive for covid. Small dose over a couple of days. Germany used this exclusively. The Czech Republic has used this exclusively. Tuey is using this exclusively. There is all kinds of data about how to use this and how to pair this drug with another one. But here, in our Mainstream Media, we have all of these doctors in here who, quite isnkly, at this point, there criminal negligence in our entire medical system. It is manslaughter. The effectiveness of this drug host we will leave it there. Thank you for the call. Cindy is next from connecticut. Good morning to you. Caller hi. Good morning. Just on that hydroxychloroquine, just a quick thing. Everybody is screaming about side effects. I dont know. I think everybody has lost her mind. What drug does not have side effects . I have a Family Member who passed along time ago. Inot going to mention the name of the drug, but it was for toenail fungus. He got a rare side effect. He got leukemia and passed from toenail fungus, which will not kill you. You. Disease can kill i think the option to be there my sisterinlaw has taken it for 40 years for lupus. Itre is a study out there, doesnt get much airplay. They are having a hard time finding people who take this as a maintenance drug that have come down with covid. I think we should research this a ttle bit. I do think it is based on money. It is a very cheap drug. A drug for aook urinary tract infection and had a horrible reaction to it. She had Stephen Johnson syndrome, a lesser form of it. Your skin peels off on you are in the burn unit. People that cld Stephen Johnson syndrome die. Your skin peels off, you are in a burn unit for months. You lose your eyesight. Everything people that could stn johnson syndrome die. Peels. All seven leaders of your skin. This is scary about the side effects. Drug on the market that doesnt have potential side in 100,000m anyone people or whatever it is. Host we will leave it there. Thank you for the call. Mike from North Carolina. Good morning. Caller good morning. How are you today . Hello . Host good, how are you sir . Caller excuse me, i was eating my oatmeal while waiting for my turn. Host that is ok. Enjoy the oatmeal. Caller i apologize for that. ,y main concern as we reopen there is probably going to be spikes in certain places. What i get worried about, because it is already ongoing, we all know that this whole thing has become politicized. That was inevitable. We just cant escape that anymore. Everything is just going to be politicized. Here in North Carolina, i think we have done very well. It is tragic that we have lost 600 plus people to this, but we are a state of 11 Million People. We are sead out. We are not new york city. The media machine of this country is located in the heart of the worst outbreak of this. They appear to view the entire country through their lens. We are not. Florida, alabama, georgia, the carolinas. Texas has been hit. Generally speaking, the mountain states, and most of the Southern States have weathered this. Im trying to use a good word. Definitelyessed, compared to california, michigan, illinois, new york, new jersey and massachusetts. I am worried that once again, as we reopen, there is probably going to be isolated spikes in Nursing Homes or whatever. We have to weigh the ofnomic damage we are doing isolated people that cant work and cant feed their families. It is starting to be talked about now, suicide rates, social isolation. Host a big problem. , i had just as an fyi cancer surgery in january. Right as this was starting to break out, unbeknownst to us at the time. I have been in lockdown since midjanuary. I am currently going through chemo. I go to chemo every two weeks. Im on my pump right now which is why i have a little bit of a hoarse voice. I have to say that our Health Professionals at my Treatment Center and everywhere they are phenomenal. The only two places i go are to my chemo treatments to see my doctor and to the harris teeter, which is one of our local supermarkets. They have done a great job. I think after three months or two months of a lockdown, but three months of being aware of this, that most people, most thinking people have a handle on this, especially businses that want to reopen. I am dying for a haircut. My salon has been petitioning governor cooper, who is a democrat. I just say that because he is in line with other democratic governors in the United States. Resistant he has already pushed us back a couple of weeks. He is probably going to have to make an announcement today because his last extension on which is only phase 1, parks, beaches and someone. Tois just really resistant allowing restaurts and salons and gyms and so on and so forth. His last extension expires on friday. We are heading into memorial d weekend and we are a tourist state. We are a peach state and a mountain state. He is going to have to beach state and a mountain state. He is going to have to make a call today. I know that from talking to my salon owner friend, all of the organizations, their legal teams have a short them about the procedures and precautions that they are going to take. I think we are prepared for this, but we just dont know. It is the unknown. That aid, i just hope we are going to reopen. It is a coming inevitability. But how will the media portray it . Oh look, North Carolina opened and they got a spike in whatever. They are going to play it up to make it look awful and horrible. Like most of these governors have said, we have really identified a lot of the trouble spots and where this thing can grab a hold of. They can probably dispatch, for lack of a better word, covid swat teams to lockdown a facility or even a town. It is not two months ago. Thank you for your time host first of all, good luck with your treatment. You know the question people are asking are you still with us . The question is, with or without brown sugar in the oatmeal . Is he with us . Caller i am here. Host good morning, steve. How are you . Caller pretty good, can you hear me ok . Host we sure can. As i said, other than of a different set up because we are directing this from a satatellie location. Caller can you hear me ok . Ok. My 97yearold mother died a couple of months ago, i think it was due to the covid. I know she would want me to say that as a country, i think we need to be careful because we are all locked down. Pitch, the tone of peoples voices. Everybody is getting quite stressed. That couldme because be a domino effect. Stop the hatred. If we can to stop all of this political hatred and come together as a people, i think we are going to do a lot better with this virus, and also a lot better in our society. When nancy pelosi ripped that speech down the middle of the state of the union, it divides our country. Those kinds of things divide our country. We need to stop that. He is our president. I dont like a lot of things that he does, but he is our president and we have to stand behind him while he is there. I have to say i hope we can keep our stuff together and move through this. I feel for the people out there, especially those whose Bank Accounts are getting drained and they dont have money coming into pay bills and they have kids and family. Im sure they are hurting so bad and im glad the government is stepping up to help them. Ande can does come together help them and stop the fingerpointing and hatred, i think were going to do a lot better in the years to come for our kids and grandkids. That is about all i have to say. Thank you for taking my call. Host thank you for the call and we welcome our listeners on cspan radio. Again, we are asking for your top concern as your state begins to reopen, especially in anticipation of memorial day weekend. Some restaurants allowing a smaller capacity of 25 to 50 . Beaches on the east and west coast beginng to reopen with adherence to social distancing. Coming up at the top of the hour, congressman dan kildee, democrat from michigan. He will be joining us from flint. Next up is liz from tampa, florida. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am aegistered nurse heren tampa. We have our regular meeting daily. We see all the openings and we we are thereause with intensive care unit patients, we see the worst of the worst of the situation. We are concerned with the foring, and we are planning when everyone does opened up at 50 . Families want to take vacations. People are tired of being inside. It is understandable, but what we are seeing, our beaches are starting to reopen. What we are seeing is restaurants are opening, no one is wearing a mask, people are not social distancing. We are expecting a spike again. People aret like just it is like it never happened. It is like the virus is gone. We are planning for another huge influx of sick patients. Becauseould like to say things are opening up, i really wish that people would use their social disistancing and still pn on staying in as much as they can. It is hard to do, i understand. I am in that position myself. I want to stay in. I want to stay away from everybody. It is so scary. The reality of it is so scary. You dont know how your body is going to respond to it. We see 30yearolds, 40yearolds that are dying daily. Please stay vigilant. As hard as it is going to be, please stay vigilant for yourself and your friends. Thank you for taking my call. Host thank you. You are on the front lines as a nurse and thank you for what you are doing. Also ahead, congressman fred upton, republican from michigan will be joining us. Our next caller is from akron, ohio. Rick. Caller good morning, steve. I consider myself an essential worker. I am a volunteer football director for a program here in akron, ohio. Nobody gets paid. We are a nonprofit organization. The mayor here has kept us informed. Mike dewine does his reports. It iunclear w we areoing to conduct our football season. Probably 99 serve africanamerican children, kids. Ly 90 to25 a lot of parents and aunts and uncles bring their kids to these games and practices. I dont see how we are going to be able to operate safely. It is important that these kids get something to do. I dont know. Mike dewine has put out rules on softball and baseball as far as kids in play dont have to wear a mask. When youre on the benc you have to wear a mask. Fans stay six feet away from each other. Football is a contact srt. We just dont know and we are there. It is scary stuff. I feel for anybody who has to deal with it. Host thanks for the call and good luck with what you are doing in akron, ohio. Next up is michael from wilmington, North Carolina. What do you do . Caller i am a cna. I have been a cna for 24 years. I was wanting to speak out on we love the nurses and the doctors all over the world. The ones that are behind the scenes as far as the ones that work in the kitchen and the ones that actually take care of the proximity,n close right there holding their hands, feeding them, making su they stay clean, making sure they are washed, and making sure they are able to speak to their loved ones on the phone. I feel like we need to be more noticeable. The reason i feel that way is because, there is nothing wrong with looking at what is in front of you, but we are looking at the ones that are right in the midst, right close to them. We need to be more noticeable. We want people to see more speak more about us and give us more recognition. Nurses didand the the paperwork and talk to the doctors and families, but you have certain ones in their that are right there ones in t here that are right there in the room witith them. They are dealing with fluids and ballot movements. We are there to clean them and make sure they stay clean. When they y are depressed are nt able to speak to their families. I wish they would speak more on our behalf in the medical field and in the kitchen, and also the people that do the cleaning around the facility. We need to be more noticeable, more outspoken on us, too as well. That kind of bothers me a little bit more. We are right there with them. I understand we are certified nursing assistants, we are not actually nurses, we dont have thern license, but we are ones that are right there at the root of the situation. We are the first ones to sign in and the last ones to leave as well as the nurses. I wish they would speak more about us as well, too. There is another topic as well as far as you have got men and women who work in the field that have family and friends on everything, too. We also are the ones that have to pay bills. We have to make sure our families are safe. To go home ande making sure we dont bring home what we have from the facilities, the Nursing Homes and everything to our families at home as well as the janitor and the ones in the kitchen, the ones that are right there in the midst of it. I just wish they would speak more about us. I understand i have full respect rns, doctors. You have to look at people who are behind the scenes, in the room, right there. We are the ones that are really underpaid. We are the ones not making the kind of money that the nurses we the lpns are making, but are doing whatever they cant do or want to do. We are the ones going in answering the calls. Host youre absolutely right. Hospitals. N that in those ones. Nas, host yep. Angst again, and a little thanks again. As wele bit of a delay are coming to you from a different location. All of our coverage, including daily briefings with governors and events at the white house, we have chronicled them all on website, cspan. Org xoron navirus. Rg coro we have three phone lines this morning. One for those of you who recently returned to work, one if you are a business worker or essential worker, and one for all others. Next up is robert in maryland. Good morning. Caller good morning. The thing Everybody Needs to remember here, the people that are giving us these unconstitutional edicts are the same people that run us 25 trillion in debt. These are the same people that gave us weapons of mass destruction. They are the same people that allowed 19 hijackers to come into our country and blow up our buildings. These are the same people who have sat back for six months and could not figure out that a Saudi Air Force pilot in training in pensacola was a member of al qaeda. These are the people that are giving us these edicts. The truth of the matter is here, if you will look around, you will find that the democrats, and their real agenda is mailin voting. They want to be able to say the virus is bad, we cant go out in public, we cant stand in line and vote. We need to have mailin voting. They have already filed a court case in texas to get mailin voting. I knew buddy that knows anybody that knows anything about politics knows that texas is worth 35 electoral votes. They have already locked in california. If they lock in texas, its over. You look at michigan. Michigan just put in something today, mailin voting. If any of you got ballots that you didnt request already, there is your evidence. Google, because they are not going to tell you this. This whole scam is about mailin voting. If mailin voting happens, trump is guaranteed to lose in a landslide. They only have to steel texas. They only have to steel michigan. And they only have to steel ohio. This is the objective. You will notice in the cdc, they have made every every death is claimed to be covid. A lady died yesterday, 100 years old. They said it was covid. Every death is claimed covid. I agree it is here, it is not bigger than the flu. This is a political scam. This is about mailin voting. Dont let it happen or you will lose your rights. Rise up, america and take your rights back. Host the lady i think you might be referring to is annie glenn, married to the late senator john glenn who first orbited the earth ck in 1962 on board the mercury. John glenn passed awayn 2016. Glenn, who moved to st. Paul, minnesota to be with her daughter died yesterday as a result from covid19. She was 100 years old. If you are intested, you can go to our Video Library. 1984, an944 interview was conducted with annie glenn, who had a stuttering problem and her relationship with john gnn. They had been friends since they were eight years old and married for 73 years. You can check out that interview as part of cspans growing Video Library at cspan. Org. We will go to harold next in connecticut. What is your number one concer as connecticut and the tristate region begins to open up this memorial day weekend . Caller heres the good news. The air is cleaner, the birds are tweeting more. Mother nature, i think, is telling us something. The airngs shut down, is just unbelievable. We get all of, this residue from midwest jersey or wherever. That is all i got to say. Host this is the headline from the Washington Post. You can see emissns are down 17 as a result of covid19. Caller that is the good news. That is saying something. Host lets go to ralph from lancaster, pennsylvania. Good morning. What is your business . Caller i am a painting contractor. Comment that the mainstream med has a conflict of interest in. Whenever i watch the news, every commercial is to sell a drug. They are obviously being paid a lot of money to push their products. These guys that are talking on tv have got to be under the influence of that amount of money coming into their pockets from these companies. Of course, they are going to go against a drug that is selling six dollars a pill or whatever it is. The military hands out, from what i saw yesterday, 44,000 pills a day. I think they should study this with other drugs and see how it works. If the president is doing it, the military would not give the president that, i would think, ununle they have other ideas. I think they are onto something. That is my comment. Thank you for the host thank you for the call. Georges benjamin will be joining us in about 35 minutes to talk about what we are focusing on in our first hour which is states beginning to reopen. John is joining us from washington, d. C. Goodorning. Caller hello. Host good morning. Caller hi, good morning. Servicee a tour guide here in washington, d. C. Capital express tours. It is the little red golf co see golf carts you taking people around to different sites in the city. Obviously, we were shut down because tourism is not an essential business. So now, i am delivering food on which ise, financially, a totally different ballpark. Food. Asically able to buy i havent received any type of stimulus money or unemployment as a selfemployed person. I wanted to talk about the pharmacist that talked earlier about pharmacology being a hard science. Host sure. Caller does not account for the 50 placebo effect . And the fact that these chemicals have a different reaction in every Single Person differently . Really, medicine is not t realla hard science. Chemistry is a hard science, but we cant control those chemical reactions that take place in each individual. I just want to put that out there. Host let me ask you about your business. Do you think you will go back to it when tourism returns to our Nations Capital . Caller absolutely. Business. T is a lean we have low overhead. The golf carts are just parked right now. Its just me and my partner right now. We hadnt hired any employees. It is a seasonal his nose. Normally, we make it is a seasonal business. Normally, we make between 500 and 1000 a day. Especially during this busy season, Cherry Blossom season. Now, i am delivering food for 10 an hour. It is a little different. Host thank you for joining us from washington, d. C. Next up is robert from colorado. Caller this is brian and i am a Business Owner and Sole Proprietor from virginia. Sorry about that. Host no worries, go ahead with your, your caller go ahead with your comments. Caller sorry. Fastests is the mutating organism on the planet. They always were in the environment and they started mutating. This one is unusual because it mutated from the other influenza strain that was already here. A vaccinee they get to it, it will probably mutate into another thing. That is what the scientists are trying to warn us about, which our politicians corresponded lee ignored. That is why we are here. Going to have to adapt just like the virus is adapting to the environment that we polluted and caused. Businesses that can adapt, would do that. The last thing i want to say is, trump said, we are warriors going into battle. I am former marine. When my Commanding Officer tells me to go into battle, he makes sure im equipped with ammunition and armor to defend myself. Trump is sending us into battle with no weapons, no defenses. Ju go make money. Go make money for my rich buddies on staff. That is not warfare. That is slaughter and foolishness, like walking into an ambush and you know they are there and youre not ppared to deal with it. It is asinine. Host thank you for the call. A Senate Committee will be taking up the nomination of an Inspector General for overseeing this pandemic response. Live coverage on the cspan networks. The house remains in recess. Theyey are due back next wednesday. The senate is in session. Live coverage on cspan2. White house secretary press secretary expected to hold a News Conference today. We will have that for you as well. All of this on our website and on the cspan networks. Next up is charles in michigan. Good morning. Charles, are you with us . Yep, good morning. You are on the air, go ahead. Ok, we will try one more time for charles. Again, a reminder that the house is in recess. The sun is back at 10 00 a. M. Eastern time. We are going to take a short break and when we come back, the first of two members of congress from michigan will check in with what is happening in their congressional districts and the state. We will also talk to an expert about states beginning to reopen. Advice and lessons for states and cities across the country. You are listening to cspans washington journal live on this wednesday, may 20. Q a jeffight on discusses his book about the summer road trips taken by henry ford and thomas edison. The idea was to go ahead and take a car trip into the evergrowing everglades. It was pointed out to them that there is not really any roads there and it is dangerous and there are alligators and worse and people could die, but they knew better. The trip lasted a day and a half. There was a monsoon. There were snakes,there were sne alligators. They fled. But they liked the idea. It came about that they would take a trip once a year if they could. But with a little that are planning for disaster would be lessening. Sunday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspans q a. Onthis memorial day weekend tv. Saturday at 3 25 p. M. Eastern, James Patterson talks about his efforts to assist bookstores. Book, theatest house of kennedy. Forunday Foundation American greatness founder nick adams on his book trump and churchill. Lly paul talks about her pelosi, which looks at the career of nancy pelosi. At 9 00 p. M. On afterwards, facebook cofounder chris hughes talks about his book fair shot. Blood. She talks about his writing career and books on indepth. This memorial day weekend on cspan two. Host joining us from st. Joseph michigan is representative fred upton. Hes a member of the energy and Commerce Committee. Thank you very much for being with us. Guest you bet. Glad to be with your listeners and viewers. A sense ofou give us how your district is b beginning to reopen and what you can expect as the memorial weekend approaches . Guest you may hear some noise outside of my window. Which is across the lake from chicago. We were one of the first states to be totally locked down. No landscaping, no construction, obviously no retail businesses. We are now beginning to see that open up. Particularly the auto industry. Makeare starting to pickups again. Suppliers. Nen auto construction is now starting. Social distancing is a big part of that. [indiscernible] to no more than four per household. Our auto dealers were shut down. That has changed too. Of course, the governor announced that c come friday, particularly in those regions of the state we are a big state those regions that have had not a lot of covid19, not a lot lightening up on special restrictions. That includes traverse city. A lighteginning to see at the end of the tunnel. Onhad no deaths in detroit sunday. A relatively small number of deaths the last couple of days. As i talk to our Health Care Providers in southwest michigan, it seems like the curve has flattened, it is on the way down. We need to continue to be careful. I think we are through the worst of it, as our state would tell. As you know, we were watching and seeing a lot of demonstrations in state capitals, including in lansing, taking aim at governor whitmer. What was your reaction to that . Was that appropriate . Guest you always have the right to protest. I think the protesters themselves, took a step backwards when they did not practice social distancing and didnt ha masks on. The kkk,derate flag or the nazi symbols. I think that got out of hand. We are beginning to see things open up. So, most michiganders recognize we can move forward. Yesterday we covered a hearing that included Jerome Powell, the fed chair, who was asking for more federal stimulus. We also heard from the treasury secretary who says, lets take a wait and see approach. What is your view . What if anything does Congress Need to do moving ahead . Guest i am a member of the problem solvers caucus. ,t is the Bipartisan Group youve had a lot of us, we unveiled earlier this week a program to help our states and local units of government. 500 billion. Two thirds for the states, one third for the local counties. It is a formula that is tied to population. Will be an important shot in the arm particularly for has a like ours that balanced budget amendment. Facing real shortfalls. I think that has a real chance of moving forward, starting with the senate after we get new unemployment numbers in the next couple of weeks after memorial day. The package that passed in the house on friday, and i voted against it, was not bipartisan. 3 trillion, no hearings, 1800 pages. Poison pills were in that document. I think it sets the stage for the senate to reach a consensus that would be bipartisan, work with the white house, work with house leaders as well on both sides of the out. I think that you will see an aid package come back helping our small businees, the ppp is probably going to be exhausted in the next week or so. Research will see a reshoot of that. Hospitals, were able to get advanced payments for medicaid billings from previous months. [indiscernible] be converted from a loan a grant as they have suffered untold losses. Yeah, i think you will see a package move. But it wont be anything like what we saw passing the house on friday. Know iongressman, as you couple of years ago former Vice President joe biden had some positive things to say about you. He was criticized within his own party. What does that tell you about the state of american politics and the polarization we are seeing today . Saye a democrat cant something positive about a republican and vice versa . Guest thats unfortunate. I know you were going to have dan kildee on. In michigan we Work Together. Whether it is looking out for the auto industry, whether it is looking out for the great lakes. We have some differences, that is for sure. At the end of the day, particularly with divided government and that is the way that it is. That is the way it is going to continue. If you dont work with h the otr side, you see absolute gridlock. Eve got a Work Together there are decent and honorable people on both sides of the aisle. Me, i chaired the energy and Commerce Committee for six years in the house. All of it with president obama as president. If we didnt have that relationship with either the Vice President or the president , we wouldnt get anything done. That is not why i ran for office. Our phone lines are open. Again, i note. The lines are a little bit different. Our guest is congressman fred upton. He is joining us from his home in st. Joseph michigan. Our first guest is jean from new orleans, louisiana. Good morning. Caller good morning. I would like to thank cnn for this program. Watched news from europe, china, africa, and america. Here in america i watch fox and cnn. Knowis the only program i wealth that allows the everyday person to speak his mind. And give his opinion on issues. In dealing with the federal response to the pandemic, i feel the response was appropriate. During world war ii in england, the people were put in enforced blackos. People protested those blackouts at that time, what would have been the results . What im saying is that if the government comes up with a we have to have our good in mind. As a citizen and a soldier in this virus, our invisible enemy so to say, we have a responsibility not to brandish weapons and signs of discontent, but to make that sacrifice, sacrifice necessary to get us through this pandemic, this crisis. Let me jump in. Thank you for the call. Weve got the point and thank you for calling cspan. Congressman upton . Guest that is for sure. Whether it is finding the right number of supplies for our Health Care Providers, the work that needs to be done for testing so that, whether you work in an officer the factory line or the bagel shop, want to make sure your colleagues are safe. The work on finding the right therapeutic so that if you do come down with this illness we can do all we can to sava life and make sure that others arent exposed. And the continuing work on a vaccine. That is one of the very promising things we have seen in the last couple of ways weeks. The money that we have put out big spending of bills in the last couple of weeks. One of them, you know, when we added money for the ppp program, there was 1. 8 billion added for the nih so they can develop a process to help entities find the right answer for self testing. Entities0 different now have applied for some of those research dollars. So that you can self test at home. , if it getsg works approved by the fda, it will be a major step in making sure that we can open up and get our lives back to normal again. The caller is right, we have to Work Together. Hit doesnt just republicans and democrats, its all of us. We have never gone through Something Like this before and we have to marshal all of our resources. Congressman, i want to read to you, this is a few minutes ago from the president , tweeting out with reference what is happening in michigan. Let me read you the tweet and get your reaction. Michigan, seven point 7 Million People ahead of the general election. This was done illegally and without the authorization by rogue secretary of state in michigan. I will ask to hold up funding to michigan if they want to go down this path. Voter fraud. Your reaction . Hearing theust tweet for the first time. Let me just say this. We want people to participate in elections. Had no reason to get an absentee ballot for some time now. Yesterday in oregon, i want to thinke primary there, i 100 of the folks that voted voted by absentetee ballot, by mail. This is going to be new for us. Traditionally we always have our polls open. I dont know whether we will still have polls open, but apparently our state decided that they are going to send an application to every voter in the state. I dont know if it is going to get tested in the court. I know that it is a democracy and we want everyone to participate. There are areas that have done all mail ballots. That may be happening here. Election justipal a couple of weeks ago. I dontlive there, and know what the vote percentage was, but they did it by absentee ballot as well. Congressman, just to be clear. You dont oppose secretary of state sending those ballots to michiganders . Guest i want to make sure that the voter rolls are cleaned up. You not sending to dead people. Sorry about my friends in chicago, we dont need to se it to folks in chicago. We will probably hear from bobby rush over there. Did it yesterday in oregon. I think with the right procedures in place we can protect against voter fraud. We have to see where this virus is as well. Who knows what may change between now and november. Host when the president calls it voter fraud, what is your reaction to that . Again, and i was unaware of this tweet oregon is 100 . Some other states as well. I think if you have the right standards in place, it would not be voter fraud. I would like to think that our state, our county clerks would have a system in place so that they could ensure that there is not voter fraud. This august we are likely to be in session. On our primary date. I dont miss a vote. There is plenty of times on a tuesday when we are in washington. I do vote absentee. A nofault. Ve no reason. You can apply for an absentee ballot for no reason at all. So, we have standards in place here. Forknow, we had motor voter a long time. That is when you get your drivers license you are toomatically registered vote. That process has been in place for decades across the country. Additional steps we may want to take . We will probably look at other states that have 100 absentee ballots and see where it takes us. Our next caller is fro entwood tennessee, pat, thank for waiting period waiting period. The president shoots him downtelling them they are nasty, they are 30, all the horrible names that he can get away with calling everybody. I dont think he even needs to be on there. Hes not a doctor. I think he should let all of the doctors s do these briefings and tell the public what is going on. We have a doctor here in vanderbilt that does speak and say thanks. Afraid. They are why does he get to get away with this . The medicine and this is clearly, clearly for a parasite. The lariat is a parasite. A mosquito bite. Dogs allallowing across america. Butsee a dog in a buggy, the managers are not allowed to say is this a they are calling them therapy dogs. They are getting this stuff of the internet, putting these things on the dog and calling it this is my therapy dog. Soon everyone is going to have a , what . A therapy hippo . A man was in a store, he asked my friend, do you want to have my buggy . Are you kidding me . She said, do you think i want to lettuce in there where you have had a dog licking itself to death . We this is a parasite and are in a pandemic over this . And america wont let people even ask if this is a therapy dog, which they cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then, the other day this dog was up in a buggy and a woman sent her baby in a buggy. You put this baby where dog has been sitting or whatever they are wanting to bring in the store . Pat, im going to leave you there. We will get a response. Congressman . Guest there was a little difficulty on my end on the audio. I heard about the therapy dock dog licking itself. In and out on my end. Host let me go back to the earlier point about the namecalling. With the president often using the word nasty, referring to reporters, referring to the speaker of the house as nervous nancy. As you know, there is not much communication between the House Speaker and the president these days. What is the tone we are getting from the president . 3 guest i would have to say it is not helpful. It is never good point fingers. We have a huge issue. Peoples lives are at stake. They are petrified, worried about their jobs. They wonder how we are going to get back to normal. You have issues of Family Members not seeing each other. Parents in the 90s, grandparents, neighbors, all those different things. We need to take a deep draft and we need to Work Together. You know, let those partisan shots that take place at a political rally or something. In the meantime, weve got to do our job. Weve got to work with everybody that is willing to lift the cart and move forward in the right direction, particularly with the divided government. Im not one to point fingers at anybody in that respect. I think all of us would like to see us Work Together. The president , i dont think he has spoken a single word to Speaker Pelosi in a good number of months. I dont know that that relationship is ever going to be repaired, but at the end of the day if we are not moving together in the same direction we are not going to solve this. Ls take that tact instead. Next. Lets go to alan he is joining us from manassas, virginia. Caller good morning. Good morning, congressma guest how are you . Caller ou know, i want to congratulate you on your vote on this last house bill. I grew up in a democratic area. I dont know what area of michigan you are from. Grew up in gary which is a democratic area. I have never seen this kind of divisiveness, where the parties have not been able to work suchher and where there is personal animosity that is destroying this country. Just want to congratulate you on that. By the way, when i s say i grewp in gary, i am 82 years old. Ive been around for a while. I have never seen this when i have been in chicago. I have never seen this in the area in which i grew up. T is so destructive i must tell you, though i am a republican, the namecalling by the president i find absolutely destructive and not constructive at all. Say let me just host thank you to alan from virginia. Guest as a member of the problem solvers caucus, this is a group of 50 members divided republican and democrat. We took a civility pledge. Week, we do every zoom because every week as well. We took a pledge that we would leave our political labels at thdoor. We have great relationships with each other. We take good ideas, we help change the rules of the house, literally. More bipartisanship. We are working already on the next element of what phase four assistance toke, our local communities, working with our Small Businesses. He passed the major Immigration Reform bill for agriculture. , when he spoke to the farm conference in new orleans more than a year ago. That is the ly way you are going to get things done. But the republican senate, a democrat house. Lets face it, you dont override a president ial veto all that many times in a decade or two. With divided government, if you are not working together, youre not going to get anything done. That is the approach that has been our bedrock for the problem solvers caucus. Host congressman, what is your view on proxy voting . Guest you know, we had that boat last week. I voted no. When i first came to the congress, you could vote by proxy in committee. Someone voted present by proxy. Who knows where they work . Are going to see how this works. I think there is a lot of issues that are going to come up. That youve got to have a quorum, 218 votes to be members present on the house floor before you conduct business. Membersis rule, 22 constitute a proxy. Lets say, i dont know when this thing is going to start, but as we have seen with zoom that, sometimes electronics doesnt work. What happens to the member from guam . They are on a different day we are. Traditionally in washington we dont have votes in the middle of the week. Both start in the afternoon. With the three or four or five hour te change, it may be considerably different. What happens when the electricity goes out . What happens when that electricity goes out and you are , whether it be cable or electronics, he may not have power . How do you wave your hand and say, i want to be there . As many as 80 amendments on the house floor. You never know how they are going to go. Or 30 votes,e 20 literally in an hour. Based on all of that, how do you decide how you are going to vote on final passage of a bill that is important . Lot to be said about the relationship. Floor,u cover the house you are focused in on whoevers speaking. Those cameras are aimed at the rostrum. Occur,u watch a vote there was a lot of mingling going on. There was a lot of discussion between members on both sides of the aisle, talking about issues. Whether it be that boat or votes later on that day. Maybe it is cosponsorship. Anye is a bond among legislative body, in terms of the men and women that are own for the issues that they really understand pretty well. You looking for advice, youre looking at how those amendments impact the bill. You take that out of the process by this new proxy voting is going to keep us at our kitchen table. My friend don young, i dont know wheren alaska he is from. Its a lot different. They may not have electricity thed on dons story, in community he lives in. I dont know that they have running water. Where they going to be if they are not in washington deciding the vote . In world war ii and other tough times, weve been able to do it. Of colleagues have gotten quite sick on both sides of the aisle. Weve been able to survive this all right, and taking that right away, that you have to be present on the house floor i think is a mistake. Goingt know how you were to deal with committee markup. You cover most of the major committees. There is a lot of discussion going on on both sides of the aisle. Members checking with other members, asking about amendments. Energy and commerce, you have 54 members on that committee. Back of discussion in the as well as on the dais. By theall of it away process that was voted on this last week. I dont think it is going to work very well. We will see. The votes are there. The speaker had the votes to get it done. We will see how it works when she tries it, probably as early as next week. Host finally, where in your home are you this morning . Guest i have been upgraded to my side porch. I had a squirrel run by. I have a nice birdfeeder with cardinal on outside right now. I i started in my kitchen. Too many times warming up coffee in the microwave. Now im on my side porch. Across the street i can see lake michigan. Its going to be a niceay. Had issues with the water level the last number of days. It is a good day to be in michigan today. Spring is finally here. Host joining us from st. Joseph, michigan, congressman fred upton. A member of the house energy and Commerce Committee. Thank you for spending time with us. We appreciate it. Guest thanks. Good to be with you. Later, dang up kildee will be joining us. Also from michigan. When we return we will talk to an expert from the American Public Health Association as states and cities begin to reopen in advance of the memorial day weekend. What can we expect, what are the precautions should additions should take . We were listening to washington journal. It is may 20 and we are back in a moment. Sunday night on queuing day, historian jeff wayne discusses his book. About the summer road trips taken by henry ford and thomas edison. The idea came they would take a trip into the everglades. There would be exotic plants and animal life and it would be an adventure. It was pointed out to them that there were not any roads there and there are alligators and wars. They knew better. The trip lasted a day and a half. There was a monsoon. There were snakes. There were alligators. They fled, but they liked the idea. So, it came about they would take a trip once a year if they could. Betterh a little planning so disaster would be less looming. Sunday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspans q and a. This memorial weekend on book tv, saturday at 3 25 p. M. , James Patterson talks about his efforts to assist bookstores impacted by the coronavirus. Plus his latest book, the house of kennedy. Book, trump his and churchill. Eastern, molly ball talks about her latest book, pelosi, which looks at the career of nancy pelosi. Afterwards, on facebookok cofounder chris hughs talks about his book fair shot up your co fair shot. Aboutbout that she talks his writing career and books on indepth. Memorial day this weekend on cspan two. Host joining us from washington is the director of the American Public Health Association, dr. Georges benjamin. Guest got it could be here with you this morning. You know, states and cities beginning to reopen, beaches, restaurants. Malls, and retail stores. It is your biggest concern moving ahead . Guest my biggest concern is that people will not continue the good Public Health practices we have been doing. That means covering your nose and mouth, wearing a mask, physically distancing yourself from one another. Those types of things that are commonsense measures that we do. We have a tendency to forget. The ou served as secretary of health for the state of maryland. Your thougs on how Governor Hogan has handled covid19, the restrictions he put in place, and the path ahead for residents in that state . Guest ive been a supporter of the governor. I think he has been thoughtful. Following the health advice, following the numbers. Like many other states, it is a big state. The guidance he has given has been pretty good statewide. As we begin to reopen, we really have three or four different parts of the state. We haverural maryland, washington, and we have baltimore city. Each of those parts of this state are going to think about what reopening means based on the numbers ththey have and the resources they have. Loomingguess the question is, how do you define normal activities . As we move into july and august, what will be the new normal . Guest we are going to conontine to, as we begin to carefully go back to doing things, we are probably not going to be working many of us will be teleworking. Beast probably going to anchoring our work schedules. Our workaggering schedules. There is going to be a lot of attention paid to people who are sick. If you have a cough for the sniffles, you were going to have to stay home until we know for sure. Theres going to be a lot more caution in the way we practice our lives. Im wondering based on your expertise, how did we reach this point . Why is coronavirus, from your expertise, deferred from ebola, sars, or other viruses . Guest the interesting thing about all of those other viruses, what makes this one more difficult as it is much more lethal and much more infectious. That is what makes it different. Of course, it is new, so it has taken us a while to get a good diagnostic test for it. As well as gooderology. We donont have all of the answs to the immunity question. Are dividing our phone lines regionally. Different set of phone numbers. Please note. If you live in5 the eastern or central time zones. For those of you in the mountain or pacific time zones, 571 373781736. Health the american associate American Public Health Association . Guest the nations nonprofit which supports the practice of Public Health. We have been around since 1872. In fact, we were around last time we had a great pandemic. Have been working to improve your health and to try to encourage others so that we can address outbreaks like this. There is a debate going on in education circles, how elementary and secondary, and high schools will deal with covid19. Also colleges, some thinking about having a semester that would start earlier, perhaps in that thanksgiving time, then begin in february, perhaps a winter term that would be taught online. What do you think of that approach . Guest schools obviously need to be planning now for how they can decompress their schools. One of the things we learned in the last several years is that you can get a quality education online. With,ing that experience to an extent y you have to do facetoface education, is going to be one of the tasks of our schools. I remember when all of us who have gone to college no, and even high school, that it is an experience that is intimate. You horse around with your friends if you live on campus, you are living in conjugate settings, you are sharing food, sharing drink. It is not a good place for an Infectious Disease of this type to occur. We are going to have to figure out how we deliver a quality education while minimizing physical distancing. Allowing people to do good Public Health practices. More handwashing, more hand sanitizers. And less sharing of the kinds of things that we had in school. Thats going to be difficult. Eventually we will have a vaccine, some therapeutics. This disease will be conquered. Until we do that, schools are going to have a really difficult time. Either way, if youre talking about elementary schools, youve got to factor in the fact that the viability to go to work is totally dependent on someones ability to take care of my kids while my kids are getting their education. That puts another very difficult complication in the decision over whether you open up a school o or not. Host lets get to your phone calls. Barbara is joining us from pittsburgh. Good morning. Caller good morning, darling. Host ground the air. Caller oh, my gosh. Thank you. Subject is how does anybody feel ,bout how we are, i take it recorded as the highest country in the world for having loss of so many people because of the virus. It is no wonder with the president that we have. Number one, the budget for 2020, 800,000 for medicine, medication, and science. The research people. China 17, he gives. Illion worth of medical use did he not ask the leader of you using alle this for . No. His only interests anymore are trade. Well, i will tell you, we dont have to try and guess. Host barbara, thank you. Dr. Benjamin . Your reaction . Guest obviously, a lot of mistakes have been made through this outbreak. What i am hoping is, like everything else, we learn from things. That we come together as a nation and we address it. Opportunity to not repeat the last four or five months and do it much better as we go forward. That is one of the challenges you have when you have a new disease. Host our guest is a graduate from the Illinois Institute of technology. Illinoisuniversity of college of medicine. Our next caller is from birmingham, alabama. Victor, good morning. Caller good morning, sirir. Guest how are you . Caller all right. Let me turn this tv down. Ive got one question for the doctor. Do you agree that you wash be the first ones in t front of the line saying and telling the president what to do . He appears not to know. Number two. Do you think that children should come first . That is number two. Number three. Understand that you are the brain and he were the scientists, whether we are listening to the president . Thank you, sir. I am assuming victor is referring to vaccines. Guest i think the challenge for you going to have on the vaccine front is that, most likely we are going to give vaccines to adults first because we are going to test it in adults first and make sure it is safe and effective in adults. At some point they will also need to do vaccine trials in children. Vaccine thatthe comes out first will be tested in adults. I will remind everyone, children are not adults. Require their own specialized trial. Having said that, i am hoping that if we are able to get a safe and effective vaccine for the initial studies look at that may be possible within the next year that we have equitable distribution of the vaccine so that all populations have access. As you know, this disease has adversely impacted communities of caller and even n more than women in some cases. I want to make sure that everybody gets access to the the vaccine, that it is affordable. At the end of the day, you want to make sure that enough studies are done to make sure we do not have any complications we have not anticipated for the vaccine. Dr. Benjamin is a Public Health expert with the president touting the benefits of hydroxychloroquine and taking it, what message do you think that sends the American People . Guest i think it is a terrible message. It is the wrong message. Im not his doctor. Thent speak to therapeutics of that situation. Any physician that does that without examining the patient or their medical history is going down a rabbit hole. What i can say is that studies we have seen for suggest that,uine at least at this point, it should not be available for wide use. It should only be used for its existing their piece. It has some, but not covid19. To the extent it is being researched for any benefit might have, that it should be done only in a research setting. I think that answers that question. And my concern, of course, from a Leadership Perspective is that he did not get too far out. People follow what you do. Intove already seen that situations where people have heard the president Say Something and they have done something that has endangered their health, and in one case a gentleman tragically died. We want to make sure that people recognize recognize the people here you. When you have a bullhorn you have to be very careful what you say. With there talking executive director of the American Public Health Association. Paul is joining us from port royal, michigan. Caller thanks for taking my call. Can you hear me ok . Guest i got you. Caller hello . Hello . Hello . Host paul, we will try more time. We can hear you. Apologize for the delay. Caller im a little bit confused. On my screen it has dr. Georges benjamin. I believe this man said he is not a doctor. Why do they have doctor on the screen . Guest i am a physician. License, ely a license, trained physician. What i said as im not going to diagnose the tv screen, the president of the United States. Or any other patient. Caller ok. I understand. Listen, here in pennsylvania we found out that six out of 10 deaths that we have had from this virus has happened in old folks homes, institutions. Guidancei remember from the World Health Organization was, dont wear masks, masks and help. I turned the television on this morning and i see they are ling saying if you wait you wear a mask it is 70 helpful against this virus. The other thing was, about a week or so a month ago, i turned the television on and they were saying at a man at msnbc, 2 Million People are going to die from this. 2. 2 million. This is why we are so confused out here. I dont care if the president s physician tells him there might be some benefit to that pill. I think it was the same pill i took in vietnam. That is between the doctor and the patient. I turnlem is, every time the television on, unless i listen to cspan im not getting the real story. Six out of 10 patients that have died from this virus here in pennsylvania died in homes. I think there should be a full investigation. Why didid that happen . You put your mother, your grandmother in one of those homes, you expect them to be taken care of. Thank you very much for that insightful question. One of the challenges we have had in this outbreak is misinformation and disinformation. On the other hand, we have also had, because this is a new disease, have had a lot of changing information. One of the things that has not been done very well is explained to people why the information over time has changed. Let me give you an example. Exaxample ofxcellent the changing knowledge base. We know for sure that this it, you if you get would infect somebody else. Mouth or noseour when you cough or sneeze. That was pretty clear. There was some question about whether or not you could pass this on without having any symptoms at all. Over time, we learned that you did. That changed the equation. First of all, wanted to make sure that people would cover up their mouth with a mask if they were infected. Or if they were in a highrisk setting. He should wear a mask because there are people in their were sick. Secondly, once we discovered you can pass this on without have any symptom, walking down the street feeling fine, having symptoms but you can affect other people. Early on in the disease process, when you get infected, and we decided we ought to have everybody wear a mask for that reason. It also has an additional benefit that it might provide protection for you, even if you are not infected because you are around other people. If they cough it provides at least a basic barrier. Quite frankly, that has not been well explained. We need to overly communicate that we changed that guidance, and it did change. In terms of Nursing Homes, you are absolutely right. The challenge in Nursing Homes chronicanyone has diseases who are extremes of age are more impacted by this. Isease our Nursing Homes have become a place where too many people have died. In light of the lack of adequate testing early on, as shown a huge vulnerability in our system. We are hoping that everyone will continue to ramp up testing in Nursing Homes, ramp up the texting year in Nursing Homes, and improve the basic Public Health practices of Infection Control in those Nursing Homes so we can reduce the mortality. Lets go to marie, joining us in westville, new jersey. Caller good morning. I have two questions. The first one is, i wish he would go over the modernday hippocratic growth, includes being able to actually help people to die. The traditional one forbade euthanasia and abortion, and the matter one includes economic considerations. Comment one him to seeking manual saying, people shouldnt look to live more than 72. In other wds, there is a profit motive. The second thing is, with the drugs here, the most common side effect for remdesivir is respiratory failure and organ impairment. Formost common ones hydroxychloroquine are vomiting and weight loss. Italy and japan have been using hydroxychloroquine. I think there is a profit motive, and i expect dr. Faucis motives. If you would have somebody on, a panel to debate this, it would be very helpful. Say, i get upjust everyday worrying about how i can improve peoples health. A long 110ive to be years old, at least. And hope i can do the things, you can see im a bit overweight and im working on my weight. I have struggled with my weight my whole life. Other than that, i am in pretty good shape and pushing hard to live as long as i can. Way, is of by the have known dr. Fauci for many sou, smart, is a ethical physician and i really support him. I trust his guidance. Have done so for many years. I think the challenges we have around the complications of the two medications are the reasons we are doing clinical studies to understand how they impact patients with covid19. All medications have some complication. The idea is to make sure you dont give a patient of medication that is not going to help them and you weigh the various risks that patient has when you prescribed the medication. Whether it is aspirin, or tylenol, or an antibiotic, or cancer chemotherapy. We used to give people really dangerous medications to try to cure their cancer. We dropped their white blood cell counts. The ultimate goal was to cure the cancer. We get very effective at doing that. We were able to cure peoples cancer. Complications,e but let me point out the hydroxychloroquine thing. The most serious complication of that is a cardiac arrhythmia and sudden death. It is not just nausea and stomach upset that we are worried about. We are worried about sudden death due to a cardiac arrhythmia from that medication. That is why people are concerned about it. If it is not efficacious and it can kill you, and without your knowledge of knowing that is a risk we are concerned about people taking last color is from lewis. Go ahead. Caller good morning. I have a comment. I have seen this president talk out of one side of his mouth, on the others of the mouth they are in court trying to annihilate preexisting conditions dealing with the aca. He was a meteorologist, now he is a drug pusher. If doctors did not prescribe the medicines to these people, do you think they will go to the black market or the corner of the street trying to find this drug . I am a strong advocate for the Affordable Care act. I know the Supreme Court is going to look at that later this year. My organization filed a friend of the court brief in support of the aca. We are encouraging the Supreme Court to allow it to stand and not undermine the preexisting condition production people have protection people have. To answer your question about the black market absolutely. With people promoting medication, and you cannot get it, someone is going to try to make a profit. That is why it is important that we only speak to appropriate therapeutics and medications and that we have proper enforcement. The Drug Enforcement administration and the federal thatrities to make sure any black market occurs. When you are open, i will be there, but only once you are safetha. Store, weargrocery masks, wash hands, do everything family butotect my also protect my friends and neighbors. The answer is no. I am not ready to go back to taurants it downs restaurants it downs. Curbside, but not the way we were to end a half months ago. Dr. Jordan benjamin is the executive director of the American Public Health Organization joining us via zoom. Thank you for being with us. Guest thank you. Host we continue to check in with members of congress. A democrat from michigan will be joining us in a moment. Later, we will open our phone lines to be to hear from you about your top concern as states reopen. Washington journal continunues. We areack in a moment. On q a,y night historian jeff discusses his book vagabonds. Go ahead and take a little car trip into the everglades. Lots of exotic plants and animal life. It would be an adventure. It was pointed out to them that there are not really any roads there and it is dangerous and there are alligators and workers, and people could die, but they knew better. The trip lasted a day and a half. There was a monsoon, snakes, alligators. They fled, but they liked the idea. It came about that they would take a trip once a year if they could, but with better planning. Night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspans q a. This memorial day weekend on book tv. 3 25 p. M. Eastern, James Patterson talks about his efforts to help bookstores impacted by the coronavirus. Plus, his latest book the house of kennedy. Sunday, the foundation for liberty and american greatness founder on his book trump and churchill defenders of western civilization. Correspondentical molly ball talks about her latest book pelosi, which looks at the career of the speaker of the house of representatives. At 9 00 p. M. , facebook cofounder chris hughes talks about his book fair shot. Eastern, it 8 30 p. M. Thriller writer david ball. She talks about his writing career and books on indepth. Host we want to hear from you. States andncern as cities begin to gradually reopen in advance of memorial day. Our phonone lines are open. Heres how we are dividing the phone lines. If you have recently returned to again,number is your concern as states and cities begin to reopen. Talking about that with at least some restrictions being lifted. In virginia, Virginia Beach will be reopening for memorial day. Rochester and buffalo will be reopening in new york. And in other states, particularly down south, georgia, tennessee, arkansas, even fewer restrictions. We should point out our numberes are different today. Please note that. The area code is 571. The Senate Government affairs mmittee will be meeting today, taking up the issue of an inspector genal that will be overseeing the 2 trillion that will be passed. An investigation likely into the bidens, trying to get more information on burisma and of the connection between hunter biden and joe biden. Well have a lot more about that here on the cspan network. The senate is in session today at 10 00 a. M. Eastern the house is in recess. Your top concern as states and cities begin to gradually reopen. We do not have a color yet. We will get to your calls in a moment. All of our coverage, including the hearings taking place focused on coronavirus, as well as the president s daily are all available on our website at cspan. Org coronavirus. From florida, roger. Good morning. Caller good mning. Thank you. U. My concerns are is we are going back to the indoor situations. Everybody is scared to death to go inside. I think it comes down to airquality. They have to focus more on the air quality. The virus has to be sucked out of the air immediately. Hepa filters or Something Like that, so it is not transmitting very far. Is itf the history of it is moving and it is sensitive to air movement. That is something that has to be focused on. Masksat we have admitted are important, we have to evaluate the masks we are being given. I do not want e m 95s. They are too hard to breathe through. Obviouslyical mask is better in th directions than a piece of cloth. The fact that we are four months into it and we are still giving cloth masks and sewing masks out of our underwear when taiwan, from day one, gave each person in the country to masks a week 10 masks a week. So we are way behind the curve. We have the testimony of the guys from prestige ameritech the other day on cspan. He had four machines that sit empty that are capable of one Million Masks a day and we cannot get it together to do business with him. We are so lacking, and we have abandoned the people. I absolutely want the Emergency Services people and everything to have masks, but we have been neglected now and are at the back of the list, sowing our own stuff to think. It is comical. I cannot imagine. Ie hope is that we will cannot see the Political Parties getting together, but now we have facebook and we also have zoom. Ofbe some groups that smart people can get together and come up with the system. Thank you. Those n95 masks are essential for frontline personnel. Thank you for the call. Lets go to kathy, joining us from alabama. What is your number one concern . You have not really had a lot of restrictions, have you . Guest not hardline restrictions. Ismain concern as we reopen there is so many people who seem to be afraid. Whipped into a frenzy. They obsess over scientists giving us information. All medicines do have side effects. Viruses, can develop ininto something that can cause someone to die. 60s. N my i do not work. O t have a bone to pick excuse me i do not get to talk very much. I am concerned about the isolation people are going through. Isolation, people have to well, they do not have to but many people feel led to wear a mask. Do you understand that no one can see a smile . All icr eyes. I do not know if the people harm, the mask means me or if they intend to protect me from germs. I have always used common sen, given people their distance, but i do not believe we need to live in a society where our teenagers cannot date. I think we are getting away from being a free nation. That is my concern. Call we thank you from the for the call from alabama. Mary is next. What is happening in your state . Are lucky because our governor stepped up. We closed down early, so we are very lucky to have low numbers, but we are really struggling because we are an older population in this state, and we are poor. I have been in the service industry. For ab is working nonprofit, the other is the service indusy. Both of them have been hit hard. There is a lot of restaurants that will not be able to come back for long term with this continuing. Restaurant in the cannot take advantage of that Small Business loan because she does not have enough employees to use 75 of that loan for the employees and the benefits. She just does not have enough. Host what is she going to do . Without,he is going using her own savings. We are working part time. Everybody had to close down, then she had to keep the most essential, which is a kush, a which is a and cook, a dishwasher, and an employee to do takeout. We have to work twice as hard with minimum staff and hours to get that turnover just to reach their breaking point. Are inw, many of us rental properties. If you cannot pay the rent, you are out. Luckily, our governor stepped in temporarily because a new governor is around the corner and we will end up with a lot of Homeless People if you cannot work just to pay the rent. With minimum wage not being able to cover just your rent, it is really a struggle. You have to do two or three jobs. Necessarily those Jobs Available anymore. Call andnk you for the good luck to you in montana. We will go back to more of your calls on this issue as states and cities begin to reopen. Joining us from michigan is congressman dan kelty, a member of the house in House Committee of ways and means. Thank you for being with us. Caller thank you for having me on. Host flint making headlines because of the situation with the water. What is the situation today as you deal with so many Economic Issues and now this real Public Health threat . . Guest it is a tough siation. It is a crisis on top of a crisis. Just like the flint water crisis, this pandemic has both a health and Economic Impact. In the case of my hometown of flint, and dealing with the water crisis issues and health issues, especially affecting children, but also the Economic Impact of that is now layered on top of that, this coronavirus issue. Sure, know, i am coronavirus seems to have disproportionate impact on communities of color, a majority minority community. In michigan, 14 of the population is africanamerican. 32 of coronavirus cases are. 41 percent of deaths are occurring in the africanamerican community. It is a crisis on top of a crisis. That is why so mh of the intervention we have been focusing on in washington and at our state level is really important for a place like flint, saginaw, as they move forward. Momentets focus for a on the water situation. What is the status of that today . Guest the Water Quality is improving for sure. The lead service lines, the federal government stepped in and provided significant money to replace the lead service lines. That process is almost complete. Even though the Water Quality has improved, trust in that water system will take some time to restore. So many if not most Flint Residents still use bottled water for their own consumption. It kind of points to the biggest casualty, one of the biggest casualties of the water crisis. The loss of trust in the word of the government. Back then, the States Government told the residents of flint that the water was fine. In fact, told them they should just relax when that same State Government actually knew that the water had high levels of lead and new there had been a legionella outbreak. So the trust has been broken. That is going to a take going to take a lot longer than it takes to repair pipes. Host i went to ask you about how about House Speaker nancy pelosi. She referred to the president as morbidly obese. The prent and taking aim at her yesterday. It is pretty clear that they are not talking to each oth. How dangerous is that when you have two Public Officials who deal with Public Policy issues not communicating . Guest we wish there was better mmunication between the white house and the congress. The president himself has order many of his officials to not respond to subpoenas, to not appear before eric before our committees. The lack of communication goes well beyond any tension between the speaker and the president. I think it is a much broer issue than that. It is a problem. Leaders tois ok for have words. It is all a matter of substance and style. In the case of the speaker, there is a lotf substance behind the things that she says. I am not so sure that is the case with the president all the time. More important is that the administration itself has a responsibility to respond to the Constitutional Authority congress has, whether that is adhering to our appropriations builds bills that we pass, following the law, or responding to legitimate areas of inquiry where congress has an oversight responsibility. To me, that is the more fundamenl breakdown that, in indicative of the relationship between the speaker and the president. Host we are talking with dan kilby. Glenn is joining us from lancaster, california. Caller you act like you care about the constitution. We have 35 Million People out of work right now. People that we cherish that we want to come wee, wait in line but have 30 Million People taking our jobs 35 Million People being out of work. People doneillion to our economy for the last 30 years, taking our jobs, taking our health care, overcrowding our hospitals, and this pandemic has shined a light on this, and you thought our president fought our president in the constitution every step of the way. Host we will get a response. I understand the gentlemans concern. I think it is important we adhere to the constitution. That constitution not only provides us with rights and responsibilies. There is a responsibility for congress and the president to act in a responsible and responsible and a thoughtful patch thoughtful fashion when it comes to immigration. There was a bill we were ready to move on, but we cannot get the Republican House leadership to take it up. I think we have to be honest about what has prevented us from dealing with immigration issues in a conference of way. We are a country of immigrants. Noevery immigrant has come here through the same path, but every human ing, i think, has a right to have their rights protected. That includes american citizens, but it also includes people who are seeking a better life by coming to this country. Has a history we want to honor. We have to do it properly. I does a shame we have not been able to come around a comprehensive reform of our immigration system that protects the integrity of the promise of america. It will take us coming together. Host we know you are at your home in flint, michigan. Where it are you in the home . We call it a michigan room. It is a room in the back of my house where we have a small fireplace, a library. My wife is working from home at her desk. It is a Beautiful Day here. We have had incredible rain the last few days. In fact, we had serious flooding in the northern part of my district. Today, at home, and working from home. Host the next caller is from michigan. Kevin, you are on. Caller i have a question about how our governor has divided the state. My town is just below her opening of restrictions. Ed my town has no debts. I know we are right next to a county who has a little higher one. My biggest concern is about the state parks. I am a frisbee golfer. Dnr do not think they can keep our disc golf safe. Nodegree temperature virus will last more than 30 seconds. Why is the dnr not opening our disc golf courses is my number one question. It is something that anybody can do, it is outside. Thchances are minimal, extremely minimal. Can you tell me why our dnr nazis and acting like not opening our perks . Parks . Guest i am happy to respond. Congress does not vote on whether disc golf courses in western michigan are open. That is the decision that the governor has had to make. I will say this. The choices that she has made have ruffled some feathers, cause some discomfort. I would much rather take the discomfort of somebody who is maybe inconvenienced for a few weeks and is unable to throw a frisbee around because there is a concern about contact with the virus. We would much rather have that countiest than to see in the western part of the state have a spike in cases. It is interesting to note some of the states, by the way, that a couple of weeks ago where making the decision to open up or feeling like we have passed the crisis, are now seeing their numbers come up. It was not long ago that kent county, michigan, had very few cases compared to my home county of genesee. Now they have a significant number. The irony is the will governor the governor has been willing to take the heat to shut down elements of the economy. What she has done has worked and has prevented the spread of disease in those places. Now because there is very little disease and some of those communities, the argument is, well, we did not need in the first place. Maybe the reason we have not seen a greater spread and some of those communities is because the governor was willing to make the tough decision to temporarily shut down some elements of our economy in order to save lives. I have friends who died from coronavirus. I take a little more personally, the loss of those lives, then the inconvenience to somebody who wants to throw a frisbee around the park. I get it andnd i understand we wa to protect those rights, but we have to balance the interests of everyone with the interests of the few. If it is a matter of shorttermm inconvenience in order to save lives, even if the governor is going to take keep from people who do not like the choices she is making, i think history will treat the decision she is making favorably. Host s you probably know, the governor concerned confirmed with nbc that she has been in for limitary talks with joe biden to serve as a running mate. What do you think the odds are that she would be a contender for the vp position . Guest i think she would be a fine Vice President. She certainly has demonstrated willingness to dim and to make tough decisions. Obviously michigan is a critical state. She has detractors and supporters, but if you look at just the general views as to how this governor has managed this crisis, she is getting really high marks. She has shown the willingness to make hard decisions and not avoid those choices. That is a characteristic that Anyone Running for president could be looking for in a Vice President ial nominee. I think she would be a fine candidate. I think she would be a great Vice President. She is prepared. But that is obviously ing to be a choice that Vice President biden will have to make. There is a lot of really good choices that he has. Fortunately for us, the democratic party, that spot is full of highly qualified candidates. Mariannewill go to from lakewood, new jersey. Good morning. I want to know what do you do about ththe venom coming out of all you democrats . You talk about the president , about his lies and everything. And the with obama eight years we had to put up with his lies and what he did. Lets start with bill ayres. He was friends with the underground bomber. He did not say one word about it. Benghazi. He did not even go in and try to get those americans out. The redlines. You claim you are worried about children at the border and everything. What about those children that dying from alive, the Chemical Warfare going on in syria . Who went and helped . Trump. Ould go on and on and on and what about the namecalling that the hilary did with republicans because we voted for trump . She had the basket of all the names. What about all that . You talk from both sides of your mouth. Your phonies. You are phonies. You say you are worried about babies. What is all about what about all the babies you do not mind killing at planned parenthood . You should not have to have an abortion unless it means your health. Missed let me jump in. Do you think both parties are at fault . Do you think the president bears some responsibility for the tone and tenor in washington . Suchr if we did not have a corrupt media, he would not have to defend himself. Born and raised in brooklyn, new york. Went to school in new york and works. Then i moved to new jersey. I came from a democratic family. Brooklyn is mostly democratic. I had a large family. We belonged to the democratic party. I voted kennedy, bill clinton, and i was going to vote for obama until i learned things about him. Farrakhan. Let me tell you something. You do not want to look into anything he has tone wrong. You sweep it under the rug. That is what bothers us people. That is why i changed. Man, i nicelooking loved the way he spoke softly. Then i started investigating and looking into his background. That bothered me because you just let it slide and everything host thanks, marianne. Congressman, your reaction . I understand the caller concern about venom. There was certainly some evidence of that in her commentary. The fact that this current president has demonized the media and now we have people who parrot that language. The fact that this president has demonized the courts and we have people who parrot that language. Essentially, we have a president who is willing to o denigrate ad demonize the institutions of our society they guarantee a Civil Democratic society. Because they are in conflict with what he sees as his narrow interests. I understand legitimate criticism of president obama. But i think it is a bit of a stretch to compare any criticism of that president , or Hillary Clinton as a candidate for , as compared to the way the president , on a daily basis, uses language that i think my mom would not have allowed me to use in my household growing up did growing up. I get the point. There is a lot of venom. I have to ask the caller to consider whether or not some of the views she has my contribute to that venom and whether or not the president is the source of some of that. Chris, your next in virginia. The line for democrats. Good morning. I want to talk about the 36 million unemployed. The person who called and said a person who walks 1000 miles, does not know english, has no connection to anybody, king can take your job. What does that say about you . Are you saying they took the job of stewardesses, stockbrokers . Get real. Germany responded to their pandemic by testing, contact tracing, and then isolation. They did it and then they opened the economy. Business euros. They gave unemployment. They have no unemploymen problem. Down 150 countries locked nationally. We never did. Dpa tor impmented the produce masks, ppe, ventilators. He called it a hoax. He never dealt with it since january. Now he wants to blame china and the governors and the congress and he talks about obama. Obama, what did he do . He rescued the automakers, the government from financial collapse, unemployment went from 9 to 4. 5 . What is wrong with people . Why cant they see reality . I dont understand what they are talking about. What did he lie about, obama . Tell me, what is going on . Host thank you. Congressman. I appreciate the callers perspective. Concern i have is that trump and those who seem to rally around him have to be careful. They cannot have it both ways. They cannot claim that it is a problem of immigrants coming and jobs all of americans and at the same time claim that we have never had a stronger economy, before the pandemic obviously. Never had a stronger economy, lower unemployment. You cannot have it both ways. You cannot create a demon out of people who come from someplace else and take part in this country, which is built on immigrants. You cannot cant you cannot say those of the people interfering with the ability of the American People to realize their dreams, and on the other hand say we have never had a time when more americans have beenble to realize that dream. The president seems to be wiing to demonize people who are different in order to advance his own cause. That is about as plain as we can put it. I know some do not agree with that, but i do not want to dance around that. That is the reality. Congressman, in his testimony yesterday before the Senate Banking committee, fed chair Jerome Powell indicated that Congress Needs to step up with more stimulus. I ask you that because you are putting forth legislation, relief foream main street. What would that do if it passed . Guest there relief for main the relief from main toeet would provide support direct relief funds that are set up right now in many communities across the country to prove the very Small Businesses with immediate cash relief without having to go through the paycheck protection program, which as you know is structured as a loan to those businesses, that if certain conditions are met will be forgiven. Our view is that those very Small Businesses are really important, not just of the people they employ, but the owners that derive their income from it. They are part of the fabric of that community. They need to erect, immediate relief they need direct immediate relief. E Program Provides basic support they need so that when this crisis is over they are still standing. The barbershop, the beauty shop, the coffee shop. Ththose sorts of places are not getting the help they need. We want to make it a much more efficient system of getting them direct leave for a problem that a not caused by them, not result of anything other than the fact that we have had to shut down the economy in order to provide social distancing to save lives. We can help those businesses get through this and be ready to get back up and running again when the crisis is over. Communities will bbetter served. Host lets go to loretta. Shes joining us from florida. Good morning. Statement and a question. The statement is on the confrontation on the michigan armedl steps with the militarystyle weapons and vests and all that. Stathere some laws of the that prohibit people from doing that . Sake forods gods sake . Where is the anger coming from . I do not understand what these people are so angry about that they figure they have to be armed to make their point. Thank you. Question. H, a great in michigan we have had a whole series of these rather unusual protests, which at least according to some of the protesters are intended to object to where the governor decided to draw the line as to what should be open and what should be closed, which businesses ct stay open or what has to shut down in order to protect Public Health. That is a stent sibley what they said they were there to protest that is ostensibly what they said they were there to protest. Why that requires full battle gear, camouflage, basically highcapacity rifles, ak47s, goggles,helmets, confederate flags. What that is intended to communicate about whether a barbershop on main street can reopen about whether the coffee shop conserve takeout or in Dining Service is beyond my comprehension. They do want to make a statement about their rate to take a highcapacity their rates to take a highcapacity weapon into the capital, they should protest about the right to take a highcapacity weapon into the state capital, not whether the line should be drawn between going to purchase either a snow cone or an ice cream cone. It was a bizarre image and date and i think it drew against a legitimate argument about where that line should be drawn. I do not know why they did it. Majority ofw why a the Michigan Legislature decided it was a good idea to let people come into the state capital carrying any form of weapon they like, but they cannot carry a sign on a stick in order to the stateme action at legislature. Ak47 is lessan dangerous than a placard on a stick, the logic fails me. In our remaining minutes, a lot of tension around hospitals. What are you seeing . How are they faring with covid19 patients, and also with so many losing money . The governors actions caped us flatten the curve, the pressure is minimal as we so more patients get highquality treatment to save their life. That has worked so far. The effect has been that many of the elective procedures that hospitals are typically conducting have had to be postponed. There has been significant revenue loss. One of the pieces of legislation we pushed through in the cares acts Additional Support for those hospitals. Those hospitals, especially those that have high medicaid participation, have been really struggling. We have to make sure we soften some of those losses so they get back on thei feet. It is a problem, but when we can solve. As chair powell said, we are never going to be able to do this in a less expensive way than we are right now, whether it is investing in the long term or filling the holes in the short time shortterm. We should do it now. Host joining us from the congressman dan kilby. Thank you for being with us on cspan and for taking our calls. Guest thank you for having me on. Host we will go back to your calls. The number one concern you have as your state and city begin to reopen. Please note the phone lines. 571 3781735 if you have recently returned to work. If you are a Business Owner, essential employee 571 3781736. 7. R all others, 571 378173 you can begin dialing now. We will take a short break. You are listening to washington journal. We are back in a moment. This memorial day weekend on book tv. Saturday, bestselling author James Patterson talks about his efforts s to assist bookstores. Hisis leaders book latest book. Anddation for liberty american greatness founder and president nick adams on his bo trump and churchill defenders of western civilization. Time, volleyball talks about her latest book molly ball talks about her latest book pull oc. P. M. , facebook cofounder chris hughes talks about his book fair shot. On monday, it 8 30 p. M. Eastern, aldaccir writer david b talks about his career. Watch book tv this weekend on cspan two. Host it is 9 a. M. Here in the east. 9 45 a. M. Here in the east. At the top of the hour, live coverage of the senate. The house remains in recess. The epa10 00 here, administrator Andrew Wheeler sstifying about his agency role in the coronavirus. Web. Treamed on the concern as states and cities begin to gradually reopen. 571 3781735 for those who have recently returned to work. 6. 71 378173 7. L others, 571 3781735 dominic is next in new york city. Family myly whole family works. I am retired. They want to come out. It is ridiculous. I am hopefully i am hoping gradually evything will come back to the way it was. The relationship between trump and nancy pelosi. There was never a relationship. Do not forget what joe biden did, how he went to ukraine. She impeached trump and never questioned joe biden. Its a double standard. Unbelievable. They impeached him for 40 ofon, but obama got our uranium to russia. She said nothing. We have to put things in perspective. Putfully, everyone will dish everyone will go back to work. Go back have a good day. Host thank you. Guest good morning. This is howard. A couple things. Refrigeration, Small Business. One thing about this virus. Credit for this or that as far as where we are at. Is i see anybody doing smothering the virus. Not coming out, this that and the other, and it goes down. My issue is we are in a campaign. A lot of people say, why dont y i was thinking mobilized the National Guard . The mailman could deliver 10 masks a week to a house. And you cannot go out of the house without masks and gloves. Smother the disease. We are building hospitals and everything. Everyjust smother it, business could have security where you have to wash your hands, have on your mask, carry out, stuff like that. If you smothered the disease, you do not hardly ha to shut down. Smother it. Everybody, the National Guard is out. We have enough resources. Police force, National Guard, and all the businesses that are open. You have to wear the mask to go outside. That way, you will smother it. We are smothering it now little by little. But instead of sending money everywhere, just smooth the disease smother the disease. Make sure that when people move, they are masked up and everything. Not you are a mask sometimes and this, that, in the other. As long as people c move around without any supervision, they will do that, and we see that. The disease will continue. Much attention on Governor Kemp and what has been happening across georgia. What are you seeing in atlanta right now . Caller i see people out partying. I see extremely poor people not even just partying. Whatever,he bus, or people are not masked up like they should be. I see the mayor is trying to slow down with the governor is doing. I see the governor is pushing to open. Dont nobody have to take credit for everything. I am scared. I stopped working and just went home. Well, what a lot of people are doing. Smothering the disease. Nobody needs to take credit for that. They dont have no cure for nothing. What i am saying is they can smother it completely if they would have just put out you already have people delivering mail. Send masks to everyones house, gloves, sanitizer at every business in and out the door, which they are trying to do. But if they put all their resources into smothering the disease, like they are in some other countries. But host ok. We will leave it there. Thanks for the call. Good luck with your business. We will go to hometown, illinois. Robert, you are next. Concern. Y the news media, you guys are fair. I very seldom see any political persuasion coming from cspan. Other cnn cover and others do not cover this, flynn, obamagate, roger stone. They are not showing the good states. Andle are coming along well doing good and trying hard and the news media is the biggest problem going into the election. They are so terribly biased to trump hatred. You can see it gripping on their mouths. I think it is the new media. Thanks for cspan. Host we will go to p aurea, illinois. Peoria, illinois. People i think a lot of are being selfish. There is a pandedemic right now. People are just being selfish because they are having to stay in. They are not considering others. It is just unreal the selfishness running through america right now. Business owners, everybody pretty much. Other than a few. On talkingsman was about trump demonized the media. The media does need demonizing. If anybody with a brain has been seeing what is going on on the media knows that it is just bogus, most of it. They are turning this pandemic into a political race itself. It is crazy. The democrats are nuts right now. They are turning this into their own race of this pandemic, a political thing. Are notunreal that they really concerned about people. They are more concerned about winning an election. I mean, this is nuts. Care about the people in this world, you know . Why be so selfish . Everybody ought to be united right now to get this stuff gone off this planet. If are they just you we learned anything from this, it ought to be that these politicians are pure evil. If we learn anything from this. That is what we all learn. We need this government we need to clean house. I am not kidding about that. Anybody with a brain i mean, you ought to see this. It is as blatant as it could be. It is unreal. That is all i have to say. T thank you from the call for the call froillinois. Again, your top concern as your state and city begins to reopen. We are seeing that in all states at different levels. Next is george from florida. Good morning. Caller i can talk now . Ok. People ofto tell the the United States of america that we have a problem. Righteryone we know knows from wrong. The problem that does exist. It is up to the individual. Either he wants to protect himself or not protect himself. I am 87. I was here during the korean campaign. We were at war. When you are at war, you do one thing. You protect yourself. The same thing the president said now. If we are at war with this pandemic, there is one thing you have to do. Protect yourself. People know how to do that. And why they are reluctant to do that i have no idea, but remember one thing. Do whatever they themselves. Or die,ey wind up sick and they have no one to blame but themselves. Thing is to try to correct the situation. That is my peace. Piece. Thank you. Call thank you for your and your service. Columbus, ohio. Governorit from ohio mike dewine. Not will open with restrictions but recommendations. What are you seeing in columbus . I am on the conservative side of opening up. I think there has to be a balance between things opening up, restaurants, bars, businesses, along with people notg care and caution and being in big groups or not being outside of the limit of social diancing. My thoughtironment, is if people follow those instructions that we will have a nice, safe opening, and hopefully we will not have any reoccurrence of a shut down. Call anks from the for the call from ohio. Did you have another point . I think we lost him. Gary in atlanta. Gary, are you with this . We will try one more time for gary. Again, the senate is in session at 10 00 eastern time. The epa administrator will be testifying before a Senate Committee on the epas role in the pandemic. We will try again for gary and alanna. In atlanta. Good morning. We apologize. We should point out. A little bit different set up today. We are not in our normal building. I am coming to you from my home. We will go to fred. Good morning. Go ahead. [inaudible] we will try one more time. Go aad. Caller good morning. Host it is indeed. We have a lot of issues. Doing a lot of the sanitizing, checking temperatures. Host it sounds like you are walking. If you could just avoid that and complete your thought, we would love to hear from you. I am sitting in the chair. Congress of talking about coming back to work. Host we will have to let you go. It was kind of hard to follow. We will go to rick, joining us from new york. Good morning. I wanted to say that people have mentioned that people should feel safe before the they go back to work and customers will follow, but i do not agree with that. I think people need to be safe and measures should be taken to ensure that testing and