Program, washington journal. Hearing your thoughts about the Coronavirus Crisis. If you missed any of our live coverage, much any time on demand at cspan. Org coronavirus. 2020 democratic president ial candidate joe biden held a virtual town hall on the coronavirus pandemic featuring three democratic governors. Michigans question, bill murphy in connecticut vermont. The talked about half the states are managing the spread of the coronavirus. The town hall was held at the former Vice President home in wilmington delaware. Thank you all for joining me today i dont want to take too much time, i wanted people to hear directly from you guys, your limited everyday, youre making tough decisions on the ground every day, youve been doing it from day one. There are a lot of scared people in this country, all across the country. Looking for leadership and clear guidance and so often, all of you, this is not a partisan statement. Local theaters, euro stepping up across the country. Republicans and democrats alike. I believe the federal government should be having your back. We should be fighting to get your states the ppe and funding you so desperately need this is not a moment for excuses or reflections are blanking, we are in the middle of a pandemic that was cost us more than 80000 jobs. Lives of millions of people. Millions of jobs. In a position where we just got on acclimate entrance this morning, numbers. 365 million claims since the crisis began. Almost 3 million new claims in the last week. Unemployment rate is nearing 15 , the highest since the great depression. 40 of households from 40000 or less experience job loss just in march. We are going to have to work harder and smarter than ever before to pull ourselves out of this economic tailspin i know what all of you know, the only way out of this is by following the science. Listening to the expert, talking and taking responsible precautions that help us reopen the economy. As we do, theres got to be federal support, state and local levels of our government so we are able to come out of this crisis stronger and more united. We have an opportunity to transform the economy as we come up, build a more inclusive and resilient but a class and i think they can withstand the next public crisis, whatever it is. Not just reward the people work while often wellconnected, its time for us to ensure everyone gets a fair trial in this country. Weve got a lot of ground to cover but lets start with this. The buyers can hit anyone. It doesnt affect every community the same. It hits the most vulnerable, the least resource and the hardest. Government, i know youve created a Michigan Coronavirus Task force on Racial Disparities to address disproportionate fact the virus is having on communities of color. What what if we learned i find it most stunning and heartbreaking, black populatio populations, three times rate higher than their white counterparts. I applaud your leadership because i can tell you, what are you focusing on . Little about the work your task force is doing the challenge and potential ways to address it because its not just michigan. Thank you. One of the great things i have found in the midst, ive been able to reach out and get counsel and try to address the issues in our states across this country and tell the story about whats happening here in michigan. This week, i lost another dear friend of mine to covid19, is on a ventilator for weeks on end. He was a champion on behalf of the people in detroit and the legislature and he passed away two days ago. Michigan has been one of the hardest hit states in the fight against covid19. Ive been working around the clock. Weve banned evictions. Weve expanded unemployment benefits, to help working people put food on the table and weve expanded healthcare for frontline workers. We are still working hard. There is a real threat of what could be the second wave that would dwarf the experience we had thus far. We want this sacrifice to have been for something. Working with a number of businesses like cbs and walgreens and by eight across the state. We worked with nearly all the state Health Insurance companies to waive costs including copays, deductibles and coinsurance for covid19 testing and treatment. The testing more and more every day. Our percentage of positive cases has gone down. We were at 6 sunday positive cases which is the lowest present weve had since the onset of the first cases march 10. The day you are here, that is the first day we got out of our cases and visits the lowest weve been since about. Weve still got a lot of work to do and theres no question that we need help from the federal government. The issue around Racial Disparities is one weve seen play out in michigan is the first state to release data around peoples rights. In illinois and louisiana. Here in michigan, 14 of our population is africanamerican and over 40 of our covid19 deaths africanamerican and the virus is simply holding up a mirror to our country to the outcomes for people of color in america, generally. Reminding us about inequities. The basic lack of access of healthcare to transportation to lack of protection in the workplace, the people who are essential workforce is often disproportionately people of color. These inequities hit people of color in the vulnerable communities hardest. We created a task force around Racial Disparity chaired by the governor. We are going to provide recommendations on how to address Racial Disparities in this moment but also a plan for going forward. Weve been focused on talking implicit bias and expanding healthcare. We know theres a lot more to learn in this moment thats why we are going to continue to speed this through not just the other side of covid19 but to inform policy agenda that really creates equitable outcomes and opportunities for people. Its also created something called the frontline partner switches kind of like this other bill, give opportunity for people around the front lines if they want to give additional skills, we want to make sure they stock shelves or Grocery Stores are showing up when we are in trouble, whether its the hospital or emergency and we need to do right by the people who have made sacrifices on our behalf. Its been a tough eight weeks but we are making a difference. All of these aggressive actions are starting to pay off but we are eating a lot more work to do. We need to make sure we have real partnership. This is not a political issue. Its a partisan issue. The enemy is the virus. You are a Good Government but i think youve done one hell of a job. One things i hope, maybe we can talk about this we come out of this, i hope we can deal with institutional inequities that exist because we are one of the few patients that every major crisis has faced in our history has been in a situation where we have come out stronger. Im finding, maybe we can go back to this later but im finding that this whole crisis has taken the blinders off for most people. The people who work necessarily prejudice but, you hear the canadian geese in the background, they are trying to get away from the virus. Anyway. What happened is, im finding people who are constantly calling me and i know we are all in place on the phone six hours a day but people are talking about how they didnt realize it was somebody making 7 an hour making sure they still had food. That person driving that delivery truck, the person who is the First Responder whose with the local fire department. These are the people, the hourly workers who are not able to stay home. They cant stay home. They are the ones risking their lives and losing their lives. But i think what you have set up is important because i was talking to your mayor in detroit was an old friend, i spent a lot of time in detroit, realizing the disparity and how this virus is affecting minority communities, we started arguing, i think all of you did that we should be keeping very detailed records about how and who and where and when but i think theres a lot more to talk about. Im sorry to go off on that. Governor, i know both of you are with same challenges. One of the things people are most concerned about . What are you hearing the most . What keeps you awake at night . I would be interested to hear what you put on top the list if you can. Let me just say, gretchen, its great to see her. Ive been so proud of the governors on both side of the aisle taking the lead on this. Thank you for listening to the cover because we have it on the front line. Something you and gretchen said that resonated with me, we raised the minimum wage here about a year end a half ago and people were talking about minimum wage or low wage earners and as gretchen said, our first response, they cant stay at home. Weve been asking them every day to go in and keep us safe. Youve understood your whole life, to your core mr. Vice president , its about dignity. Now we realize the Service Workers are a key part of the Food Supply Chain to keep us going. How about the janitors . We realize when they keep your office clean, they are keeping you safe. These are vital pieces of what we try and do. If we learn anything from this miserable virus, i hope we learn a lot of respect for the people doing the work in this country. First of all, my late mother would say you know what company im keeping today beginning with you and gretchen, extraordinary governors i look up to so often. Im thrilled to be with you and im thrilled to be with great compassionate conviction and a supporter of yours, president of the United States. That might get you in trouble,. I know, thats okay. Generally the spirit of our late friend. I was talking about him today. God bless him. Should we remain in the thick of this . Particularly at 100,000 president s, iuppercaseletter, new jersey, connecticut and new york continue to be, sadly in the positions of positive tests, hospitalizations and fatalities. Good news is, its gotten better, theres no question about that. But its still a reality that we are the region in the country, the density of the impact of this virus is unmistakable. So what do we worry about, what keeps me up right now is balancing that progress to take steps to reopen with the stark reality that this virus is still among us. We had almost 200 go into the hospital yesterday with covid19. We announced 244 fatalities today and get, the curves we look at that give us confidence that we can begin to take steps are going in the right direction so getting that balance right, so we opened up counties, state parks a week and a half ago. So far, so good. I announced today and your reputation is here still, our third senator from the good old days, you know the jersey shore as well as i do, under certain restrictions of density and social distancing would open our beaches for memorial day. We do that hopefully responsibly in our montrose are the Public Health creates economic health, not the other way around. Second, the data determines, if you look at the science data from the hard facts, it tends to get you into the right place. So getting that right, it keeps us up most at night. If you gave me to, i would say the other one is the federal government direct cash assistance to states. Theyre going up by the minute, our revenues have fallen off a cliff. I suspect gretchen would be in agreement with those statements. Theres nothing that could replace the existential role of the federal government. We need that direct cash that will allow us to keep firefighters, police, educators and Healthcare Workers, ms on the payroll serving the communities of the time when we needed the most. I say to all three of you, the most informed voters, i dont think people realize the only branch the government is able and has to be able to engage in deficit spending during a crisis is the federal government. You have to balance a budget, hired two, at the end of every time you submit a budget act, be in balance. The loss of revenue has been astounding as a consequence of this virus. Youve got a real problem. The economic crisis, financial crisis we had. The president asked me to take over a program, 800 billion of aid was going to go to state and local governments, not just that but to resurrect the economy get back working, to begin to rebuild. One of the things i learned off the bat was, had we not provided for hundreds of billions of dollars, in new jersey as well as michigan connecticut all across the nation, the number of firefighters you have to lay off and teachers and Police Officers and essential workers you have to lay off, its staggering. I know the majority leader fairly well, Mitch Mcconnell and i find it a little disturbing, talking about declaring bankruptcy. Youre not going to bail out because the very people you want to make sure state and local governments will continue to pay and keep on the payroll, they are carrying the rest of the country on the back. I dont understand what they are doing, what they are thinking about but you notice the majority the speaker of the House Minority leader in the senate have proposed a significant amount of money, about 850 billing dollars for state and local eight and i think it necessary, weve got to get out there now. Can i ask you one more question about this . What about the notion that, how prepared you think we are god forbid, some of the recommendations coming from some scientists that we may see a significant rebound in the fall of this virus . You think you have enough stockpile, ppe, enough equipment, to detect and trace . Talk about what your concerns about, the very things that you are going to be god forbid, predicting in the fall are going into the winter, you feel like youre in a position to have to go through the same awful circumstances he went through the last three weeks . Ill start, if thats all right. We know that until theres a vaccine, testing. 200,000 here every week. We have the capability to continue test, we are able to trace what we dont have are the critical, simple supplies. We are producing in italy which was shut down for a long period of time. Each of these needs swap. It has to be a certain type of swab so weve got some shipments from the federal government and we are grateful they have committed to giving us a weekly shipment. However, we were supposed to have a variety of different types of swabs in the most recent shipment because there are a variety different tests. One 100 we are grateful im n not, but its a different swap we cant use. We are missing something as simple as a variety of swabs. Theres a backandforth in the media about whether or not things exist. They exist but we need the right representation of them in order to fulfill our capabilities. That is the key to reopening and having a confidence. Keep it from having Community Spread and without those things, its not wise to go too far. I think thats one of the thin things. One of my concerns, we are not doing it right. Thats exactly right. It took them a long time to take this seriously. We were up there on our own but we are neighbors here. He was coming in from china, ready to get that all grows again. Phil and i and five other governors, withdrawn together, we are going to purchase this like gretchen said, december 26, this is going to go on for a while. We will make sure we have a stockpile in place for the fall. I do resent the idea of bailout. The federal government stood there and said slow down significant parts of your economy. Weve slowed them down and 90 of our budget shortfalls are related to revenue shortfalls. Right now, the government thinks they have to step up. If we want to get the economy going again, you dont want to be a blow on the economy so i hope they do the right thing over the next few weeks. Phil, do you have . And andrew cuomo we determined it would be smart if we could formalize, we did that in coordination with delaware. New york and connecticut. Some think thats really doing. Its no secret, we did not begin the pandemic with remotely the power and supplies we needed. Im grateful we were able to find on the ground with the federal administration, testing and the state of new jersey announced today two and a half men pieces of ppe, to give folks an idea of a volume of what we are talking about here. Are we prepared for a rebound in the fall or winter . I would say we are trying to get there. We had a team meeting on that today in terms of restocking bed capacity, ppe, ventilators, the volunteer Healthcare Worker or that raised their hand to come in and help. We are not there yet, though. Please god, lets not go through this. We not going to be out of us until we have a vaccine. I have, i call you everyday between an hour and an hour and a half of briefings with the former head, former surgeon general. The doctors across the country and they are thinking beyond what their scene and what needs to be done. Testing and tracing our a gigantic part of the answer in the meantime. Weve been with some exaggeration, a little slow off. Weve been way off the mark getting it to you all but one of the things that i think is important we figure out is, have you been thinking about, or is there any way in which there should be a federal way in which we do this but talking about hiring this basically a Public Health core that can be part of the tracing . As we move forward so we can determine who has, wherewith the virus was contracted and how to follow them early on, thats the first part. The second question, you know whats going on. The second part is, the world got together and decided their calling International Conference and seeking a vaccine. The president concluded he didnt want to participate. So you have whats going on all across the world so, what i am concerned about is if and when we get a vaccine, we are going to need literally billions we will need to have it available both here in the u. S. , rural as well as suburban and innercity but we are also going to need it internationally. I thought, we have great scientists that i think are the best in the world but the things are calling for his significant increase in funding for the ability to produce the vaccine here in the United States if one is found. So when you all talk together, you talk about testing and tracing . One of the things youre most concerned about in the area . So we dont get back into a burst of concern in the fall . I want to control the supply chain myself. I dont want to sit away around and wait for the plane to land from china any longer. Working with our Regional Governors here, your drink the same from we want to have as much stockpile we can control ourselves. Gina in rhode island making mass, or to make sure next time, we control our own destiny. One of the things i think you all did and i called for early on from supply offices. Military operation. We are going to work, you have to know where every weapon contained in missile and there is a supply office, you go to where the need is the greatest. The places that need the most help. The best of my knowledge, that does not exist right now. Is there one place you can call to get an answer what is available or not available . Or do you go to multiple places within the federal government . If at all. At least for us, its the administrator more often than not. I think rhode island native. I want to come back to the points you made, we are standing up our testing and Contact Tracing gretchen pathetic, in terms of a percentage of our population, we get a test every week. We will be at least 20000 tests a day by the end of this month. 5000 by the end of june. Contact tracing is a big piece so we started with the school of Public Health which will contribute several hundred folks from on top of the county folks who are already doing a good job but we said if you want to sign up to be a contact tracer, go to our main covid19. Nj. Gov website backslash tracing and give us your name. I made that announcement tuesday 1 00 this week, the next day someone asked me same time, how many had signed up and my colleague told me 24 hours, over 21000 people signed up to do this. The spirit of service might not just our state but certainly here and around the country and the amount of people who are desperately looking for a job right now. Exactly right. In order for you to effectively carry out your reopening plans and get the economy back on track, support workers and their families, you need resources and i know the rising cost imposed by the pandemic will hit you really hard. Like i said, the house has stepped up and said we should provide state and local funding so you dont have to make painful cuts this isnt a math exercise, making sure you dont have to cut firefighters, teachers and Police CriticalHealth Programs or stop work on roads and bridges. We include the recovery act 2009, is being critical to keep all these folks in place. What are you hearing from your mayors and county executives about the budget cuts that they are making . I assuming they are coming and asking for help. The budget cuts they are worried about if trump and mcconnell continue to block this funding. One of the local officials coming to you asking for . What shape are they in . They are in tough shape. We talk too often, i am guilty of this myself, this is a potential or possible eventuality, which runs the risk of abstract. Weve got right now municipalities laying off firefighters in new jersey. This is upon us. The numbers are significant. Our numbers are scheduled digit billions of dollars that we think we need and if we dont get it, i think mr. Vice president , our folks think its up to one third state level, up to one third of our workforce which is 200,000 people, not just out of their jobs but overwhelming, the people dealing with the residents. Unemployment claims filers, etc. So its real and its upon us. Its the essential workforce stop working. Look at our budget, we are anticipating 3 billion shortfall in the current fiscal year. It will be bigger than that in the next fiscal year. Public health, Public Safety and public education. All of which are absolutely critical in the global pandemic. We have to protect Public Safety and our kids have already been compromised. The usual loss over the summer is tough. We have to wrap our kids around sports so they can not lose all this time educational when they are not in the classroom getting it. A group of governors, this is front and center for every single one of us. We are the nga, trying to get congress to take action, we are grateful for house leadership but whats going to happen is the great unknown. States are full of good people who simply just want to work in our desperately lying on these fundamentals at risk here. If i could add, what makes the education particularly tou tough, cut by 20 and at the same time, youre probably going to have to shrink the size of our classes so theres social this and think there. Stagger schedules a little but, this is all coming on the heels of kids who schedules are interrupted. If you could give us certainty in terms of what we could plan a budget for, it will make a world of difference for these kids. I think its a gigantic deal. What ive be interesting to see, governors used to work with in the senate, like the governor of ohio and others, many are speaking up from republican governors and sank president , we need help. Heres what i am hopeful for, is one of my doctors said years ago when i was hospitalized with an aneurysm, my problem is, i am a congenital optimist but i think i am. I think what is happening as all of this is being stripped and people are beginning to see and understand how things work and how they dont work and why its time to step up. For example, if we get by, i think its a false choice to say we deal with employment or the virus. You cant separate them. Must you get the virus under control, unemployment and the economy is going to remain in real trouble. One of the things i think is important, as we get from stimulus into recovery, we have an opportunity to provide for real changes. For example, one of the things we are finding out across the country, its not about me but ive been pushing for dealing with 20 billion nationwide broadband. Dealing with this because in peninsula, q guttural lot of problems. We are finding out parents from families that are not used to having to be concerned about kids being able to get that education into now but they are home and supposed to be college, undergraduate school, high school, grade school, they finding they cannot get online. They cant follow the pieces, they cant do the classes. I hope im not kidding myself, i think we are going to be able to see some genuine recovery and as we deal with these issues. I think we can get 10 billion good paying jobs by dealing with infrastructure, the environment it will be clear to us that can be dealt with and will lead people to being stronger rather than weaker. Im sorry im taking advantage of you, is there anything you would like to talk about before we go . I like to talk about the fact we need a general optimist in the white house. [laughter] we learned a lot from us and we need to start thinking about what weve learned, that we can turn the corner on. You mentioned the digital divide, telehealth and community so the board of education so if you cant get access to the internet and online learning, you lose. We have to expand that. I hope healthcare has learned what telehealth is and we will build off of that. Weve learned a lot about Nursing Homes because we need somebody who can think big in the white house. Weve learned a lot about Racial Disparity and agenda for america that creates opportunity and equity. I hope weve learned to embrace science and let translate this into combat climate change. Im hopeful in all of this grim reality that we are all doing our best to get through on behalf of our people, that we take with us Lessons Learned that can make us stronger. United states theres opportunity and leaders on these fronts, theres real potential around this. I will echo and say i endorse everything they have just said. We need the optimism, we need to make decisions based on data science. We need to close the inequities gretchen talked about. Everyday, i speak to loved ones of families who have lost someone, i literally just got off the phone just before you called me, with missus craig whose son, michael, africanamerican cop, died from covid19. A healthy guy, a proud africanamerican community, a guy whos laid out every day. We cannot afford to learn these lessons again. Weve got to learn them down and take the steps we need to close those inequities, i could not agree more honored to be on this conversation with each of you. 85000 people die, they are not a member. They left behind entire families and communities and we all know from our own personal expenses but its awful hard to overcome the loss of a son, mother, daughter, husband wife. It takes a long time. The only thing i can tell those folks who have had those losses is that they are going to stay with you, they are in your heart, they are part of you. The way i have focused on his the way you can deal with it is have a purpose. The purpose is changing the circumstances that created this circumstance in the first place. Theres a lot of people willing to do that. You see those kids out of medical school signing up from nurses showing up from i drive you guys crazy over the last year talking about so america, we are seeing the soul of america. Its all those people who have just gone out and many of them risking and losing their lives. I know you all need to get back to governing so let me close by thinking again for your work and being available if i pick up the phone and call and ask for your input. You have been leaders in a time of crisis for real. I know for speak for all of us when i say thank you, thank you for all the people keeping our Community Running this place is their personal health and safety is resting in the process. The real american heroes are the doctors and nurses, Healthcare Workers, emts, firefighters and police. Its a personal privilege, a Family Member who had a problem, out on the west coast, found themselves in an emergency and these emts and firefighters showed up and brother to take care and shes fine now. But they show up. Then asked by the way from where you are from, how much money you have, what is your color or religion or background but they just dont do that. Grocery store workers, clerks, meatpackers, farmworkers, delivery drivers, mass transit workers, all of those folks, the lowest pay, least appreciated members of society but in this crisis, they are showing us what is essential and its making it clear about who is invaluable in our nation. I think its time we want these people and make this country work better again. I want to thank you all for taking the time and trying for insights, i know you are on the line every single minute. We talked today about a lot of difficult issues but i know we are going to get through this together because seeing the american character, we know theres not a single thing we cant accomplish. We are taking care of our neighbors, committed to getting the job done, thats what we see, every crisis in the past, i think its going to see us through again. Im usually the first one to show up in the last one to go home. Im not like the poor relative but anyway, thank you very much see youguys. See you, justin. Wilk as filtered coverage of the response to the coronavirus pandemic with white house briefings, updates fromgovernors and congress and our daily call in Program Washington journal. Hearing your thoughts about the Coronavirus Crisis and if you missed any of our live coverage watch anytime on demand at cspan. Org coronavirus. President trump talked about the development of a coronavirus vaccine. Ladies and gentlementhe president of the United States