Transcripts For KGO This Week With George Stephanopoulos 20240713

It out in a minute and is there a way we can do Something Like that by injection inside. Our guests this week, michigans democratic governor, gretchen whitmer, the republican governor of maryland, larry hogan, plus white house Senior Adviser Kevin Hassett, and senator Amy Klobuchar on the economic response, and our powerhouse roundtable. Announcer from abc news, its this week. Here now, chief anchor, george stephanopoulos. Good morning, and welcome to this week. Exactly two months ago President Trump declared that the 15 coronavirus cases in the u. S. Would be close to zero in a couple of days. We all now know how wrong that was. As we come on the air this week, the number of cases in america is closing in on a million. At least 53,000 americans have died. In the weeks since the first stayathome orders more than 26 million americans have lost their jobs and officials across the country have been wrestling with the dilemma of our time, how to contain the Public Health emergency without crushing the economy. This week states like georgia and oklahoma began to reopen for business. More will follow starting monday, as others like north carolina, connecticut and michigan extend their restrictions into may and beyond. Michigans Governor Gretchen Whitmer has faced down protests over her stayathome order. She joins us this morning from lansing. Good morning, Governor Whitmer. How are you today . Good morning. Glad to be with you. You know, youve decided to extend your stayathome order until may 15th but eased up on some things like boating and golfing. How long do you expect the broader order to be in place and what will it take to lift it . Well, ive extended my order through may 15th with the acknowledgment that there may be adjustments that are necessary in the interim or to extend it as well again. What we know is that we have to have robust testing. We have to have community tracing. Weve got to have a plan for isolation for people that do get tested positive for covid19 in the future, and, as we think about reengaging sectors of our economy, really analyzing the risks associated with a particular sector, scoring that risk, determining what protocols need to be in place and being really smart about taking a step forward, measuring, understanding what its meant before we take another step forward or sometimes might have to take a step backwards. Weve got to be nimble and we have to follow the science and be really smart about how we reengage because no one, no one, even if youre a protester or the sitting governor or on another side of the issue, we know that no one wants a second wave. It would be devastating for the health of our people and for the economy, so weve got to be really smart as we reengage. Your legislature has now set up an Oversight Committee to oversee your actions. Any concern that youve gone too far in any way with the stayathome restrictions . No. I know that what we have done the vast majority ofeoe cae of that, what was looking to be, you know, just an astronomical increase and predictions with regard to how many people would lose their lives from covid19, we have flattened that curve because people are doing the right thing and people recognize the value of the order that ive issued. We also know that at the time michigan had the third highest death rate, the third highest number of positive covid cases, and we are the tenth most populous state. So we had a unique issue here in michigan. It was hitting us incredibly hard and thats why we had to have a unique solution. Even though it was more aggressive than other states, we have started to really push down that curve and weve saved lives in the process. Detroit democrats have censured one of your state representatives who credited President Trump with advocating that drug, hydroxychloroquine. This of course comes on the heels of the president s comments suggesting injecting disinfectants could kill the virus, something to be investigated. Was this censure of your state representative appropriate, and whats been the impact of those disinfectant comments from the president . Yeah, i dont know. You know, im not getting involved in those maneuverings of whats happening there. I can just say this, that its really important we get this right. We need to listen to experts and to doctors. You know, i know this state rep credits hydroxychloroquine with her, you know, success with covid19, but i do also know that the medical professionals are saying that thats not the case, we should not make that assumption. All i know is this, when the person with the most powerful position on the planet is encouraging people to think about disinfectants, whether it was serious or not, people listen, and so we have seen an increase in numbers of people calling poison control. So i think its really important that every one of us with a platform disseminate medically Accurate Information and i want to say unequivocally, no one should be using disinfectant. To digest it to fight covid, please dont do it, just dont do it. The next battleground in congress is going to be over aid to states. I know youve projected about a 3 billion hole in your state budget coming out of this crisis. Youve heard senator mcconnell, the republican leader in the senate, suggest that some states should consider bankruptcy. Is default an option for the state of michigan . No. And its outrageous for senator mcconnell to even suggest that. The fact of the matter is our General Fund Budget when adjusted for inflation is the same size it was when Richard Nixon was our president. We have been incredibly smart stewards. We have not made some of the investments i think we should have as a state because of this, you know, artificially low number that weve been working with, but the fact of the matter is that for senator mcconnell to suggest that is incredibly dangerous and i dont think that the vast majority of governors in this country, republican and democratic, would agree with him. Hes wrong and we need congress to step up and help states because this pandemic, its because of this Global Pandemic that we are all having to make tough decisions. We need the federal government to have our backs. Finally, governor, weve got an election, as you know, coming up in november. What steps are you taking in your state to ensure that voters can go to the polls in a safe manner . Were encouraging people to vote by mail. Michigans made Great Strides in terms of that ability in the last couple of years. The people of our state want that right so weve amended our constitution. Were going to encourage everyone who can vote by mail to do that. We cant put off an election because of a pandemic but we can take the appropriate steps to keep people safe so they can exercise their right in this country of ours and stay safe in doing it. We dont want people to come out and congregate anywhere right now much less in the foreseeable future so everything we can do to encourage vote by mail is absolutely the most important thing we can do and thats what were doing. Governor whitmer, thanks for your time this morning. Thank you. Lets get a republican perspective now from the chair of the National Governors association, governor larry hogan of maryland. Governor hogan, thank you for joining us. I know that yesterday was the deadliest day yet in maryland. Do you still expect to begin the first phase of reopening in early may . I laid out a plan yesterday that was very well thought out. First of all, wednesday we put out as chairman of the National Governors association, we put out a road map and a guideline for all the other governors across america about things that they ought to consider. Yesterday i launched our kind of road map to recovery for the state of maryland which incorporated some of those things that we put in the National Governors association plan. It took the input from really some of the top epidemiologists and scientists here in maryland from Johns Hopkins and from scott gottlieb, the former fda commissioner from aei report and from the hopkins report. Its very well thought out. Were watching certain metrics and looking at a pattern of numbers before we make any kind of decisions. Everything is going to be based on the numbers and the science. Were not going to do anything thats going to put anybody in more danger. I want to get our economy back opened just as soon as we can but i want to do so in a safe way so we dont have a spike, we dont cause more deaths or an overloading of our health care system. As chair of the nga, are you concerned that any of those other states were seeing now open, like georgia and oklahoma, that theyre moving too fast . So the president made it clear that the governors were going to be making their own decisions based on the facts on the ground in their own states and thats exactly what they are doing. Certain states are in different points of the curve and theyve got different situations on the ground and i dont want to second guess my colleagues in different states. Im not really that familiar with everything thats going on in every state because im so focused on whats going on here in my state and my region, but i think various governors are making decisions based on what they think is best for their state. Im going to be very cautious. Were going to make decisions on science. Were going to do things together as a region here in the washington metropolitan area with virginia and d. C. , where quite frankly while we have some encouraging numbers on hospitalizations and icu which are leveling off, were still going up with respect to the number of cases and the number of deaths. On friday, your Emergency Management agency put out an alert to the citizens of maryland making sure that they did not ingest or inject disinfectants after the president s comments and the president came out that day and had this to say about his comments. I was asking a very sarcastic question to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside, but it does kill it and it will kill it on the hands and that would make things much better. That was done in the form of a sarcastic question to the reporters. Many of your citizens didnt see it as sarcasm. Is that how you took it . Well look, i think its really important. This has been important to me from day one about communicating very clearly on the facts because people listen to these press conferences. They listen when the governor holds a press conference and they certainly Pay Attention when the president of the United States is standing there giving a press conference about something as serious as this worldwide pandemic. I think when misinformation comes out or you just Say Something that pops in your head, it does send a wrong message. We had hundreds of calls come into our emergency hotline at our Health Department asking if it was if it was right to ingest clorox or alcohol cleaning products, whether that was going to help them fight the virus. So we had to put out that warning to make sure that people were not doing Something Like that which would kill people actually to do it. How do you explain Something Like that . I cant really explain it, george. I just think look, i think the president s got to focus on the message, stick to the message and make sure that these press conferences are factbased. I think other people in the administration have been trying to make that clear to him as well. We saw a different kind of a press conference yesterday which i think may be showing that theres going to be a different trend in the future. You also saw this week senator mcconnell make those comments about states considering bankruptcy. You heard what Governor Whitmer had to say about that. She considered it just a dangerous idea, completely rejected it off the table. You said that senator mcconnell is going to reject it. Is it indeed off the table, this idea of states going into bankruptcy . So the National Governors association for over a month has been pushing this is a very bipartisan effort to get money in the fourth stimulus package, to get 500 billion to the states. So were on the front lines. Weve taken all these actions. Weve got to provide these Necessary Services to help people get back on their feet. Its critical to the rebounding of our economy. Weve talked with people in both houses, both republicans and democrats. It was very close to happening in this 3. 5. Senator mcconnell blocked it. We have a commitment from the president and the Vice President and theres Bipartisan Legislation in the senate to do something to help support the states. I just said i thought Mitch Mcconnell probably would regret making those that comment the other day. I think it just slipped out but im hopeful that we will be able to convince senator mcconnell to go along with the bipartisan bill in the senate and the administrations commitment to help the states in that final stimulus package. Finally, governor, your state has put off the president ial primary voting until june 2nd and youre encouraging people to vote by mail in the primaries. Are you giving that same guidance to the citizens of maryland for the general election in november as well, vote by mail . So we had an early we had an april primary and one of the First Executive orders i signed was to postpone that until june and to make that a by mail primary. We have a couple of presincts open, one in each county to allow for special folks, people that are disabled and blind for example and people that didnt have a fixed address but almost completely by mail. Our state board of elections is taking a look at that for the general election as well just to see were going to see how this thing goes in june and then we have several months to be able to prepare for that november election. Hopefully it will work out well. We want to make sure every single vote is countdown and we want to make sure that our citizens are safe while theyre exercising that right to vote. Governor hogan, thanks for your time this morning. Thank you, george. Up next, a closer look at the economic fallout and what it will take to contain it with the president s economic adviser Kevin Hassett and democratic senator Amy Klobuchar. Kevin hassett and democratic senator Amy Klobuchar. Pressure pushing down on me pressing down on you, no man ask for um ba ba be um ba ba be de day da ee da de da de da de da its the terror of knowing what the world is about. Watching some good friends screaming let me out pray tomorrow gets me higher, high on the edge of the night and love dares you to change our way of caring about ourselves this is ourselves under pressure high protein. Low sugar. Tastes great high protein. Low sugar. So good. High protein. Low sugar. Mmm, birthday cake. And try pure protein shakes, with 24 vitamins and minerals. Awe waste up to 20 gallons of water every time we prerinse lets skip the rinse. New finish quantum with activeblu technology, designed to clean without prerinsing. Switch to finish and skip the rinse to save water. Tums ver bell rings la stick when heartburn hits fight back fast. With tums chewy bites. Beat heartburn fast tums chewy bites keeping our customers, employees, and communities safe. During these Uncertain Times we want you to get Great Service without leaving the safety of your home. Shop at sprint. Com for free next day shipping and no activation fees on our best new phone deals, like a Samsung Galaxy phone for just 0 a month. Plus, youll also get a 100 prepaid mastercard when you switch online. Stay healthy and visit sprint. Com to get the services you need. For people with hearing loss, visit sprintrelay. Com struggling to clean tough messes with wipes . Try mr. Clean magic eraser sheets. Just wet, squeeze and erase icky messes in microwaves and on stovetops for an amazing clean, get the power of mr. Clean magic eraser in disposable sheets. Unlike ordinary wmemory supplementsr . Neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. Memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. Try neuriva for 30 days and see the difference. Socially distant, right . I mean, humans need other humans. Even if we cant stand closer than six feet, or touch each other. Theres still ways to. Touch each other. Like picking up food, or supplies, or, dropping them off. After all, cars were invented to bring us closer together. So, carmax is doing everything we can to keep you going. And thats the way it should be. This virus is testing all of us. And its testing the people on the front lines of this fight most of all. So abbott is getting new tests into their hands, delivering the critical results they need. And until this fight is over, we. Will. Never. Quit. Because they never quit. The cdc has identified a case of coronavirus in washington state, the wuhan strain of this. If you remember sars, that affected gdp, travelrelated effects. Have you been briefed by the cdc . I have. Are you worried about a pandemic at this point . No. Not at all, and were we have it totally under control. Its one person coming in from china. We have it under control. Its going to be just fine. President trump at the World Economic forum back in january. Were now joined by one of his senior economic advisers. Kevin hassett joins us from the white house this morning. Kevin, thank you for joining us this morning. Thanks, george. Lets talk about where the economy is right now, taking such a deep hit. More than 26 million americans filing for jobless claims. The president this week was talking about a possible vshaped recovery, short, sharp recovery, as early as this summer. Is that what youre seeing right now . I think a lot of its going to depend on what happens next. What weve done with the previous legislation is that weve built a bridge to sort of hopefully the other side of the disease but then we have to make sure that we have what it takes to prosper. I think senator klobuchar whos coming on i guess after me, shes got ideas about what should happen and republicans have ideas and im sure that over the next three or four weeks everybodys going to pull together and come up with a plan to give us the best chance possible for a vshaped recovery. Make no mistake, its a really grave situation, george. This is the biggest negative shock that our economy, i think, has ever seen. Were going to be looking at an Unemployment Rate that approaches rates that we saw during the great depression. During the great recession, remember that financial crisis around 2008, we lost 8. 7 million jobs in the whole thing. Right now were losing that many jobs about every ten days so the economic lift for policymakers is an extraordinary one. The last thing i promise not to filibuster. Ive been incredibly pleased to see how much i know its been a nasty time in washington, how much people have pulled together to get things to happen fast. When president obama was elected it was middle of december when they started to have the stimulus bill discussions with congress and it was the middle of february when they passed it. We just did a major, major bill in a week and thats because basically people care more about their country than the sort of nastiness in washington thats covered on the news every day. And youre right, an extraordinary unprecedented crisis, extraordinary unprecedented response. But youre starting to see that bipartisan or nonpartisanship kind of fray right now, especially with those comments last week from senator mcconnell talking about a blue state bailout and states considering bankruptcy. You heard what both Governor Hogan and Governor Whitmer had to say about that this morning. They considered it a dangerous idea. Theyre not considering it. Theyre saying they need aid. Are they going to get it . First theres already been quite a bit of aid, about 150 billion in the previous round. The thing i can say is that im just an economist but it feels like the constitution doesnt really allow states to declare bankruptcy and so whats going to have to happen is theyre going to have to work things out and the federal government is going to probably have to help them too. I know President Trump is open to negotiating in a bipartisan way as he has been in the previous bills to see hear from democrats, see what they want and then present them with his own ideas. But i think the state going bankrupt is something thats not really been anticipated by the founders so im not sure exactly i didnt see the clip from senator mcconnell but im not sure exactly what he was talking about. But youre right, the president has said hes open to more aid to the states and localities. The president has also talked about more Infrastructure Spending as well but one of the things youre starting to see in the senate among republican senators is more concern now about the debt. Theyre saying we have to go slow here right now before we approve another package because the debt is climbing so high. Is that a concern of yours . For sure. You know, i think the debt level in the u. S. Has climbed up to the point where in the economics literature we see that it can be a sort of long run negative for growth. And so for me i think that as we go into the next phase of legislation we need to think about long run things that we can do to try to get ahead of the curve on debt. For sure we need to do still some short run things but i think looking at long run changes that we can make to things to improve the debt situation, that should be something that should be on the table. As an economist, i can advise that. Im not announcing a white house policy right now. But invest what it takes now . Yeah, im just saying look at long run changes that we can make to help sort of improve the long run budget situation while were providing short run stimulus. Again, you have to understand that this is an unprecedented shock to the economy, that were going to be looking at Second Quarter negative gdp growth thats probably north of minus 15, minus 20 . Its the biggest negative shock that weve seen since the Second World War and with that kind of emergency, the good news is weve got this bipartisan action, this build a bridge to the other side but theres still going to be a heck of a lot of other problems that pop up. The thing that i think we were talking about this in the white house on friday. Whats most interesting is weve got this black swan of an event where weve had to shut everything down. And the interesting thing is more or less because of the legislation thats been passed on a bipartisan basis we havent seen 50 other black swans. The markets have been relative stable and the people are getting their money and the firms arent declaring bankruptcy at a rate that you might expect. So i think that weve so far kind of dodged a bullet with that and it means that i think markets are hopeful that we could get the vshaped recovery that the president is hoping for but i again dont think you get it if we dont have another round of really solid legislation. You mentioned the markets. There does seem to be a bit of a disconnect between what were hearing on the ground from people about the state of the economy right now and you just talked about it as well and the fact that the market doesnt appear to be all that far off of its alltime highs back in february. Is it accurately gauging the damage out there, and should americans expect that were going to be anywhere close to a new normal any time soon . Right, i think thats the hope and thats why, you know, if you look at the data, the thing one of the things that really jumps out at me is that the economic harm from the shutdown is spread pretty much uniformly across the country. Initial claims are actually the worst of any state in hawaii and it makes sense because the travel industry is so important to that state, but that damage to the economy is uniform but the disease is sort of allocated across the country in pockets. So what it means is that the decision by the president to sort of tell everybody to slow down at the state level and to shelter in place and so on had a really, really big collective effect and now that the states are starting to open up hopefully following the guidelines of dr. Birx and dr. Fauci, that we can maybe start to get back to normal. I think youre right that markets look like they expect that well get back to normal quickly. God willing, thats what happens. Kevin haslett, thanks for your time this morning. Thanks, george. Great to be here. Lets bring in senator Amy Klobuchar now from minnesota. Senator klobuchar, thank you for joining us. Thanks, george. Lets start with the state of the economy right now. What are you seeing in minnesota . I know your governor has started to open the state over the last couple of days, relax some of the guidelines. Number one, do you support that, and number two, do you see minnesota emerging from the damage relatively quickly . I support what our governor is doing. Hes been very careful and listened to the doctors and the scientists, and we are still under a stayathome order but whats been going on is that for quite a while hes had Garden Stores open and home repair stores open, hunting and fishing, and thats been a positive thing for our state. But like every state in the country, george, we are suffering from one important thing and that is a lack of National Strategy. You know, we can tune out this president s rants about chugging bleach but we cant tune out the fact that we have a lack of protective equipment, that we do not have enough testing, that there is an absence of national leadership. And so i enjoyed hearing kevin in that he did acknowledge the seriousness of this, but what he didnt bring up was the testing. We need to be able to test people at double the rate so that our meat packing plants in minnesota, the Food Processing plants in minnesota and in the midwest are able to reopen. Were going to have trouble with our food supply chain, george. Were going to have trouble in Rural America, and when i walk around my neighborhood, just like everyone else, you see boarded up businesses. Those are peoples hopes and dreams, and thats why democrats have pushed hard for the testing as a key element to opening up this economy and it should have happened months ago. Its pretty clear though, senator, that you are going to have a rougher road, at least at the front end of this. It doesnt look like youre going to have the same kind of bipartisanship as you all consider this next stimulus package which would include state and local government funding, presumably democrats have been pushing for more testing funding as well. It looks like this has slowed down. Do you still expect the kind of bipartisan cooperation weve seen in the first few packages . Well, there has to be some but in each package you saw the Democratic Party pushing for the testing, pushing for hospitals, pushing at Mitch Mcconnell and just refusing to agree to something that just helped certain people and not the rest of this country. I think youre going to see that again. And then i also think you see this long term. I just keep focusing on this lack of leadership in the president because of the fact that when you look back in history and youre a student of history. Out of the great depression, because of the leadership of roosevelt, we got Social Security and a safety net and longterm changes. Out of the embarrassment of russia and sputnik, what happened when john f. Kennedy was president . He got america to rally and the education we needed to put a man on the moon. This is this moment. You need to put someone in the white house you know ive supported Vice President biden and am excited about his candidacy. You need to put someone in the white house thats going to have that longterm vision and isnt going to spend day after day dividing people. So i look at the short term. Lets get the money out there for state and local governments, and then lets look at the long term of how were going to make a steady economy so we can once again lead in the world. Were not going to do it with this president. You mentioned Vice President biden. He suggested this week that President Trump might try to some way hold back the election, day the election. I know hes concerned about that. Do you know why hes concerned . Election day is set by congress, not the president. Well, i think hes concerned because of whats been going on in some of the states and how the president pushes some of these governors, and hes concerned because of what just happened in wisconsin. So lets look at it. While President Trump was in the white house ordering a mailin ballot to vote at home in the luxury of 1600 pennsylvania avenue in his slippers i dont know if he had on slippers but thats my image people in wisconsin are standing in garbage bags with masks on their face getting off of work at hospitals, standing in line having to choose between their health and their right to vote. Now nearly 20 of them are sick including a poll worker of the coronavirus. We cant let that happen in november. You heard republican governor larry hogan of maryland just say he wants to go to vote by mail. So do a number of republicans across the country. Thats why ron wyden and i are pushing for our bill with the support of michelle obama, the civil rights groups, to keep pushing to make sure that we have both vote by mail and early voting as well as voting that day so we have a whole new generation of poll workers. Its actually a really exciting thing to work on, george. Its about our very democracy. People cant lose their right to vote. President Trumps Campaign manager said he thinks minnesota could be in play and could go for the president in november. Is minnesota in play . I dont believe so. Not if i have anything to do with it. I look at the fact that minnesotans are a hard working practical group, and this president the way every day he rants and raves from the bully pulpit of that white house while we see hard working people going to work in our hospitals every day risking their lives, ordinary people doing extraordinary things. I was just as part of Vice President bidens soul of the nation, we did Public Service yesterday and i was at one of our food banks where you see people in line waiting for food and volunteers out there, young people. No, i dont think minnesota is in play because we want a real leader in the white house, and i am you know, the whole midwest, when you look at whats happening with our biofuel plants, with our commodities, with whats happening with our poultry, this is not a good situation, and the president , in my mind, has never done enough when it comes to Rural America, and now as they would say, the chickens coming home to roost and you have seen some real problems with people having to kill their chickens literally because of what is going on right now with our rural economy, and youre seeing coronavirus come here, not enough ventilators, not enough hospitals, and were going to have to really focus on Rural America in the months to come. Senator klobuchar, thanks for your time this morning. Thanks, george. It was great to be on and im glad youre feeling better and your wife is. Take care. Thanks very much. Glad john is feeling better as well. Roundtable is up next. Well be right back. N is feeling better as well. Roundtable is up next. Well be right back. To keep customers and employees in the know. To keep business moving. Comcast business is prepared for times like these. Powered by the nations largest gigspeed network. To help give you the speed, reliability, and security you need. Tools to manage your business from any device, anywhere. And a team of experts here for you 24 7. Weve always believed in the power of working together. Thats why, when every connection counts. You can count on us. We waste up to 20 gallons of water every time we prerinse lets skip the rinse. New finish quantum with activeblu technology, designed to clean without prerinsing. Switch to finish and skip the rinse to save water. It was a very struggling period of time. Up and down. Depression to exuberance. And you could name many, many cycles like that over the years. My generation, having come through so many wars and so many things. Persistence. Its the heartbeat of this country. Stick with it. Unlike ordinary wmemory supplementsr . Neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. Memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. Try neuriva for 30 days and see the difference. Step by step, were going to figure this out. Were gonna find a way through this. Were working really, really hard in hospitals, our nurses, our techs, all the docs. Its about staggering when people get sick so that the hospitals can cope. Were gonna go through an awful lot of these. All across puget sound, people have been stepping up and donating personal protective equipment. We stay at work. For you. You stay at home for us. Just know were all with you. Thank you, thank you so much. Thank you doctors nurses. [ aevery box has a mission to protect everything inside from everything outside. That is where the true glory lies. When whats inside matters, [ doorbell rings ]. Count on boxes. Paper and packaging. How life unfolds. Roundtable is standing by and ready to go. Well be right back. Roundtable is standing by and ready to go. Well be right back. You can be feminine and fierce. No sweat. Introducing new secret with essential oils. Fourtyeight hour sweat protection. Now crafted with pure, essential oils. Secret all strength, no sweat. And sometimes, you can find yourself heading in a new direction. But when youre with fidelity, a partner who makes sure every step is clear, theres nothing to stop you from moving forward. A partner who makes sure every step is clear, unlike ordinary wmemory supplementsr . Neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. Memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. Try neuriva for 30 days and see the difference. Open. Remember having that feeling for the first time . The first day you opened. The first day you had a customer, the first day you taught a class, had a client, a patient, a session. Open. Remember the night before you opened . Who could ever sleep . Open. But theres a different question we are being asked now. Are you going to remain open . Even when your doors are closed . Open. Thats how we show who we are. And theres another way to be open, to pull together or push, depending on the door. And we are making it work and we will continue to make it work together. Because open we stand. Which is why when it comes to his dentures only new poligrip cushion and comfort will do. The first and only formula with adaptagrip cushioning technology. Choose new poligrip cushion and comfort. Supposing we hit the body with a tremendous whether its ultraviolet or a very powerful light, supposing you brought the light inside the body which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. And then i see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute, and is there a way we can do Something Like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number in the lungs so it would be interesting to check that. Dr. Birx doing everything she could there to control her facial expressions, didnt say much after those comments from President Trump. We are going to talk about it now on our roundtable with our chief political analyst matthew dowd, patrick gaspard, the president of the open Society Foundations who served as political director and ambassador to south africa for president obama, our chief Congressional Correspondent mary bruce, and our chief White House Correspondent jon karl, out with a new best seller three weeks in a row called front row at the trump show. Jon, let me begin with you because you were front row at the trump show at the press conferences all through this Coronavirus Crisis and it did appear that those comments from the president on thursday talking about injecting, investigating injecting disinfectant, ingesting disinfectant, seemed to be a Tipping Point in this crisis. Well, it did set the white house back on its heels. You saw it in the shifting explanations, what happened at first. Actually, later in that press conference the president denied he said those words. The next day the press secretary said he was taken out of context. Then the president said that he was talking sarcastically and simply asking a sarcastic question of the reporters in the room. As you can see, all of those explanations were wrong. He did say it. He was not talking sarcastically and he was very clearly looking at his own experts off to the side when he said that. That said, george, the president wasnt telling the public to go out and try injecting bleach or anything like that. He was throwing out possible ideas to investigations, but the remarks caught his team by surprise and convinced many of them that this really is time to scale back these briefings. But matthew dowd, to even suggest that this is something that needs investigation is, i think, what took most people by surprise. Well, this president , i think, has two fundamental flaws in regards to leadership in the time of crisis and this is just an example of this. Every time the president seems to do something thoughtful and reasonable, he scores an own goal on himself either in a tweet or Something Like last week that he said, but fundamentally the president has mistaken that he thinks style is more than substance and leadership at this time you need more substance, and the second thing which i think the president should have done from the very beginning. The problem isnt the press conference. The problem is the president s conduct at the press conferences, and he should know that if you highlight people and let them take the lead who know more than you, let them run the show, dr. Birx or dr. Fauci, introduce them and allow them to conduct these, he would be much better off politically and our country would be much better off through this health crisis. Its just a fundamental leadership problem. He is unwilling to give up that limelight except now he seems willing to give up the limelight because he scored on himself. There are so many things that are mary bruce, we didnt hear a lot go ahead, patrick. I was just saying, there are so many things that are happening there. This is not just a failing of President Trump. Those of us who have worked in the white house understand that what is said at that podium really matters and the governor of maryland reported that hundreds of calls flooded their lines about whether or not these disinfectants could work on covid. But theres another other defection of leadership there. While all of us are sheltering at home, dr. Birx is sheltering in silence there in that moment. I know dr. Birx. I served with dr. Birx when i saw her speaking truth to power and saving lives in africa and elsewhere with hiv and aids, but she has to appreciate that her silence there is a damnable silence. Matthew said the president should deflect to his experts. Those experts have failed in this response. Not only do we have the silence of dr. Birx in that moment, but for the last many weeks now, dr. Birx has given us charts, not backed up with clear data thats shared. Theres no National Strategy on testing. Its every state for themselves. So theres utter failure across the board, and gop leadership is also failing in its silence here. They dont speak up when american lives are in peril. They seem to speak up when the polling shows that their seats are in peril. This is not just about donald trump. Were overly focused on donald trump here. Mary bruce, thats what i was going to bring to you. You saw again silence from republican senators on this question, not all the governors. This is coming as we have this other struggle weve just been talking about with the governors and senator klobuchar and Kevin Hassett earlier in the show. It appears that the bipartisanship weve seen on these first few recovery packages is starting to fray at the edges and youre starting to see a harder line from Senate Republicans against new spending right now. Yeah, a lot of that bipartisanship that we have seen so far seems to be going out the window and we are seeing a real split right now, especially within the Republican Party itself, about what should come next here. You know, so far you are seeing some republicans on the hill and the Trump Administration is seeming to suggest they want more spending, that they know theyre going to have to have another massive spending bill some time soon and yet youre hearing from Republican Leaders like Mitch Mcconnell that its time to hit the brakes. Look, so far a lot of concerns about the debt and the deficit have been put aside as theyve passed nearly 3 trillion worth of spending because the need has simply been so great. Now i think you are seeing a lot of republicans concerned that if they continue to spend at this pace that it could hurt them with their base, that it could hurt them among fiscal conservatives come november and its why youre going to see this question about aid to the states becoming such a huge flash point. I think its likely part of the reason that you may have seen Mitch Mcconnell come out and suggest that states shouldnt get a federal bailout, that they should be getting instead looking into possibly declaring bankruptcy, as we heard this morning he got a lot of pushback from governors on both sides of the aisle. And it is getting some pushback on capitol hill as well. You have some republican members who are saying they want to see near 500 billion provided to states. Democrats want up to 700 billion. George, Republican Leadership is resisting. We are going to now start to see another big fight on capitol hill. But jon karl, this seems to be one of those places where President Trump is going to be at odds with at least his base in the senate. He sure seems to be on the path of spend whatever it takes now. Hes never been particularly concerned about deficits either in his career as a Real Estate Developer or his career as a politician. My sense is his attitude is lets get as much money out there. He wants to inject this economy with as much stimulus as it he can possibly do because he knows that this is a big factor in his election. This has been the case all along, george. I think that what has driven largely the bipartisan agreement is the president has made it very clear that hes willing to spend whatever needs to be spent and for now republicans have gone along with it. Patrick, youve been especially concerned at the open Society Foundation with workers who are still falling through the cracks despite this massive several trillion dollars in spending. We have been, george. It was interesting to see the president s economic adviser on earlier and he said to you that the damage has been even, the economic damage has been even across the states. Thats absolutely not true. We know that women have been particularly vulnerable. We know that communities of color have been vulnerable and if youre a worker in states like florida where the unemployment system has been gamed against you for many years, its next to near impossible for you to get online, get benefits now. At the open Society Foundation weve partnered with many in philanthropy, many cities, more than a dozen cities where we have mayors and governors who are paying acute attention to those who are falling between the cracks, whether theyre domestic workers, Migrant Workers where the agricultural economy has been devastated, those who are working in factories and many average americans who have played by the rules and now when they need their government, they just cant get food. They cant get protective equipment for their work, and they certainly cant get unemployment benefits. So weve managed to see a bit some efforts of direct relief but its nowhere near whats needed from government. I just want to say that while it may be true that President Trump is not concerned about deficits, we all need to be concerned about where these resources are going. Were seeing now in this moment that over 170 billion in additional tax relief is going to the richest americans now while young people are struggling to make ends meet and families are living not from paycheck to paycheck but from paycheck to no paycheck. So tougher questions have to be asked about the administration of those benefits. Matthew dowd, this has all happened so quickly, all over the course of about five or six weeks. It does seem that the country is only beginning to come to grips with what this is going to mean for our government, for our society, for our politics, not only in the coming year, this election year, but for years to come. George, i think this is this is a longterm fundamental change in American Life and in world life. Think about where we were in two months ago, in february, long before we even were starting the spring. Were in a much different place. I dont think as states begin to open up were going to go back to any sort of old normal. Were going to be in a whole different place. I think how people associate will change. I think whats important in peoples lives will change. I think whats important in what people want in leaders will fundamentally change and the importance of truth and the importance of facts which weve had a debate about for three or four years i think gets even more highlighted on this. So i dont think it just changes what happens in the summer or what happens in this fall. Were going to have a fundamental election at this time that weve never had before in the midst of a continued pandemic. No one expects it to go away by election day, but i think for years to come this is a huge change. Think about the generation of folks that have grown up here, george. Theyve grown up with two wars. Theyve grown up with the great recession. Theyve grown up with a president thats been impeached and now theyve grown up with this immense pandemic thats killing thousands of people and making thousands of people sick in this country. This is a generational, fundamental change in our society. And jon karl, it does seem that the president and his team are only beginning to come to grips with what this does mean for his reelection prospects. Theyre dealing now with should the press briefings continue. Thats one question, but basically the entire rationale he had two months ago has just been decimated by this coronavirus. Absolutely. He was running on the economy and now what hes trying out is weve built the greatest economy in history, now we can build it again. But george, they are looking at the polling and obviously its early to be talking about general election polling, but its pretty devastating. Fox news had a new polling out that showed the president down significantly in pennsylvania and even down in florida. Other polling has shown him down in all those other key battleground states that he won last time around. He watches that more closely than anybody and theyre looking you saw some of the frustration come out earlier this week when he talked about how the other guy, meaning joe biden, the president said is in his basement not facing any questions. I think theres real frustration and real worry on the part of the trump team about this campaign. And jon, to stick to your point mary bruce, for the first time over the last few weeks youve seen hold on one second, patrick. Let me take this to mary and then come to you. You started to see both republicans and democrats now on capitol hill talk about the possibility that the senate, that the Republican Senate majority, may actually be something that can be challenged. Yeah. Theres certainly anxiety amongst republicans that the president and the way that he is handling this is doing himself more harm than good and that that could trickle down and potentially put republican candidates at a huge risk. Look, ive talked to republicans who fear that the two are intrinsically linked. If you are a candidate who ties himself closely to the president , that you could be in some danger here. And the party seems to be acutely aware of that. We have seen reports of this memo going out to republican candidates essentially encouraging them not to discuss the president s response to the virus. They are being told instead not to defend the president s response but essentially to pivot, to talk instead about china, to blame china, to say that china tried to cover this up, that ha hthat has hindered president s ability to respond. You are hearing a lot of optimism from democrats ive talked with. Youre seeing a shift in some key states and a surge of cash going to a lot of democrats in key states like arizona, north carolina, maine, colorado. So democrats are feeling optimistic but, george, so much of course depends on the state of the economy and the state of the recovery come november. Patrick gaspard . So jon was making a really important point about the states that are shifting and the anxiety were seeing amongst republicans. Think about this for a second. Right now joe biden is polling better among seniors than any democrat has since al gore in 2000. That has real consequences not just in florida but also in arizona and wisconsin as well. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won 20 states. Right now donald trump is not positioned to take back any of the Hillary States whatsoever and hes down double digits in recent polling in michigan and in pennsylvania. So all that biden has to do beyond michigan and pennsylvania is take one of those other states, and right now not only is he positioned to do that but republicans are on their heels in the senate and they can forget about making any gains in the house where all their candidates are trailing in fundraising and running around trying to defend the disinfectant injection comments. Matthew dowd, of course you served in president george w. Bushs campaign. I dont know if you can do this but im going to ask you to. Given what patrick just said, what we just heard from mary and jon, if President Trump called you up for advice and said what do i need to do to stay in this race and win reelection, whats the number one piece of advice you would give him . The first thing id say is handle this crisis well. Replace some of the people that are making decisions. Change how youre adapting this because the way you handle this crisis, both economically and healthwise, is going to determine your reelection more than anything else. Its a long way to november. Much can change, but he has to handle this crisis in order to preserve his reelection chances. Thank you all very much with our new fangled roundtable here during this pandemic. Well be right back. Ble here during this pandemic, well be right back. That is all for us today. Thanks for sharing part of your sunday with us. Check out world news tonight, and ill see you tomorrow on gma. Out world news tonight, and ill see you tomorrow on gma