We wou be closer to the twins. Change in plans. Ok. Mom, are you painting again . You could sell these. Let me guess. Change in plans . At fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan. Announcer additional funding is provided by the estate of arnold adams. And koo and Patricia Yuen through the yuen foundation. Committed to bridging culturale dices in our communities. The corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions toour pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Once again, from washington, moderatorobt costa. Robert good evening. We begin t wighth the rapidly unfolding story here in washington. Leaders at both ends of pennsylvania avenue are now confronting a test to the american system. Uncertainty has gripped institutions ands. Sent health care, the economy, tional security, and politics. President trump declared a National Emergency on friday. Twoays after addressing the nation about the novel ru corona President Trump the action i am takincewill open up to up to 50 billion for states and territories and localities in our shared fight against thisisease. Were announcing a new partnership with private sector to vastly increase and o accelera cacity to test for the coronavirus. We want to make sure that those who need a test can get a test ry safely, quickly, and conveniently. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has worked all week on a sweeping aid package with treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin. To put families first, our legislation secures paid leave with two weeks of paid sick leave and familynd medical leave for those affected by the virus. And for thosire who lose th jobs, we are strengthening unemployment insurance, a critic step to protect workers economic security. Robert the earlier friday evening, the speaker announced that she has, quote, reached an agreement with the ministration to rolve outstanding challenges. Joining me tonighto open their notebooks are four reporters who have deep sourcing and insights into the washington dynamics of this Global Pandemic. Ki kim, senior Washington News corrpondent for wbur bostons n. P. R. News station. Ru toluse oipa, White House Reporter for the washington post. Susan page, Washington Bureau chief for usa today. And heidi przybyla, correspondent for nbc news. Susan, we ben with you. Writing a biography on Speaker Pelosi, she is at the center of the action as we me to this table tonight. It is unclear whether President Trump at this moment, 8 00 p. M. Will actually sign on to her agreement that she announced. Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin s on fox business few minutes ago saying there is an agreement. Whatusan you tel about where this is all heading over the weekend . Nanc ry pelosi i dch an agreement but it was with the treasury secretary, not with the president and i think thens negotiate see going on now are between mnuchin and hiso. Donald trump. Its reallextraordinary that we find a situation where its not clear to us if the treasury for the president suspect House Republicans are holding off on hear from trump. Nancy pelosi has suggested she might bring this up for a vote yway tonight even i republicans dont sign on. She could probably get it to the house. Probably cant get it through the senate and certainly couldnt get the president to sign it. Robert why are House Republicans toluse waiting for President Trump . Because they are completely tied to him ever since the 2018 midterms in which so many of thens moderate republiost their seats. The remnas of the Republican Party is has become the trum party. They have realized that if theyre going to keep their seats and going to be able to have any future in thety p, they have to be completely tied to President Trump. And really wait for his call in terms of what exactly theyre yoing to do. Whether or not tan support this is going to be based on whether or not the president tweets something saying i support this bill. So far, theres a lot in this bill thatemocrats like. Paid family leave, sick leave, pport for the uninsured. Theres not a lot of what President Trump want when it come to things like tryitng to payroll tax cut or other tax cuts for businesses or inrestries that he thinks impacted by this pandemic. So right now, President Trump is sort of waiting to see whether or not he will support this and until he says so, going to move. Are not the troubling part is that hes known what theyre negotiating the broad outlines and contours of it. And hes also known that the reason why the marketsere soothed today was on the expectation that there would be such a deal. And what the specific outlines of that were, were known to all of us. So if the president at this hour is not supportiv of this deal, what more is it going to take . Because pelosi did compromise as well on a number of elements in here, like the payroll tax cut orlike the payrax cut which the president wanted actually. But also the they were going tax creds, i believe, so shes compromised her part. And if we get to monday,nd the senate comes back which Mitch Mcconnell has made clear i theyre back, theyre not going to take the recess, and the president hasnt signed on to this, get ready for another wild ride. Robert and we looking at, kim, a washington that is divided along nnsylvania avenue. Speaker pelosi pursuing her greement with the treasury secretary. President trump at the same time declaring a National Emergency. Is it wht do you make of the standoff as a reporter . Well, donaldesrump the ent wants to seem that he is in control of this. That hes always been in control of this. And blaming everyone else for everything that goes wrong. So in that sense he doesnt want nancy pelosi to be t face of what is moving forward. Now, youre saying that washington is divided right now. One thing that coronavirus has done on the hill is unite wm ers. Lawmakers were looking to get some sort of relief and get some sort of relief qy. C lawmakers were unified in their condemnati a ofinistrators and people in the administration who went before congress this week to explain how we got to this pointco on navirus. It angered people on both sides of the aisle. The division is between the hill and pennsylnia avenue. And you have donald trump who has been angry throughout the week about somehow tngs have gone, who like said, sought to divert attention to other places and now hes trying to control it to allow nancy pelosi politically to take the narrative and to take very difficult for him. Its hard to reach a deal when the president and the eaker the house are not speaking. And they havent been speaking since impeachment. For which donald trump is bitter and blames nancy pelosi for handling. But theres a theres Something Like this had happened before which is during 2008 the big financial meltdo, Speaker Pelosi was in office then and george w. Bush was in the white house. They had not spokenor months because of their her opposition to the iraq war. But when the economy melted down, he did talk to her. They did do negotiations that got a clocial b bill through. An i see echoes of that in this debate today. Rort thats such an important point. Because you think about this moment. How do we give it conext and in that 2008 example, is a key one. But inside the white house, d ey see where it requires bipartisanship p andhaps on the payroll tax cut and other issues the white house may have to give . 2008 was the end of george w. Bushs presidency and wasnt running for reelection and present trump is running for reelection and thats made so much a difference in terms ofhi howwhite house is responding. Theyre looking at this through a political lens and looking at the stock market and the to sort of boost his position before the election even the payroll tax cut that hes wants it to h last through the election. So that americans arent hurt polls to decide whether to give him another four years in office. So thats a major difference the way President Trumps white house is dealing with this and one of the reasons why its be difficult toet republicans and democrats on the same page. Moving these thilys qui though, is theres no theres no parallel to this in terms of the importance of getting this doneusuickly. Be this deal is not even done and were talking about having to potential do a third round. Possibly, helping specific industries. And the whole point here is to soothe very panickedan nation. In doing that, you want to try and do it quickly to show that at w leastashington is all on the sameage and getting americ what it needs. What the things that have been happening in other countries where we know that these things have worked in terms of getting people t stay home, when they are sick. The one thing that makes us allynique from europe is the fact that we dont have paid sick leave. And gting that message out to understand the historic calamity that this could cause, in getting everybody on t same page, you know, i just to work against h if they oing dont get this done this weekend. Robert and your point about a third round of deals and negotiations, its very possible. When i was on capitol hill this week, everyone is talki about they already had the 8 billion deal. Theyre doing this deal now. But if the economy continues to move to full sto you could see bailouts of industries being discussed. A wle array of major measures from the Federal Reserve to congress to deal with this crisis. Eah. If were heading into a recession, and there are a lot of signs that we are, it could be a deep recession. It could be a serious recession. It could strike every corner of this nation because of the nature of this pandemic that were facing. And at that point, you will need congresndhe white house to be doing some things to juice the economy. Because for onehing, the Federal Reserve has done a lot of what it ha do. It has exhausted a lot of remedies they would have her lping an economy thats fallen into recession robert lets step back and discuss the president. Because beyond todays news he addressed the nation on march 11 and as tonse wrote i the post he has turned inward and imposed travel restrictions on one fourth of the worlds population and criticize other nations response effort and refused to speak hith these speaker and defied the warnings of his own Public Health experts. Trumps approach reflects his us against them mindset, tendency to assign blame, and isew combative vif geo politics. Kim, when you look at the president s News Conference today,esnd his addrto the nation earlier this wee you see him at one moment trying to show calm and l steadiness and lashing out at reporters and critics. Where is he at this momen its hard to tell from one momento the next. We also saw him this week call for unity and to putan partip aside. And he immediately went to his twitter account and started attacking democrats and blaming the entire thingn the obama administration. Just you talked about that 8. 3 stimulus package, emergency package, donald trump did he wan 2. 5 billion and it was nancy pelosi in congress that said no, no, you need mo. T to you. T and so all the while we have seen the president not only be all over theut place his instinct was to try to downplay it. Because he saw it as a political threat t say that people would get better. Saying we have everything under control. We have this website that people can go to and find out where they can get tested. The website isnt even done yet. So its hisnstinct to try to downplay things and talk himself out of things. Hes learning that coronavirus is the one thing that he cannot talk himself out of. Robert that speech he gavehe ed helped by Jared Kushner and Steven Miller based on yr reporting and other yeah. The speech was a disaster in the end because we saw what ppened in the markets the next day. We saw the white house and the administration having to clean up a lot of the president s mistakes. The president s travel ban on europe was panned by public expert w and even t he delivered it was not in line with what the actual policy was. So i think what you saw today was a president trying to sort a of hav doover and have another chance to talk to the and say th he is in public control. Because usually behind the oval behind the resolute desk in the oval office in the prime time address you normally expect a predent to show that they have control over a crisis. And thats not what we saw wesh ent trumps sort of fumbled statement on wednesday. Robert was part of the strategy tget c. E. O. s to standehind him and offer a few words . Yes. Weve seen that throughout the trump presidency. And hes always sort of called on that. He likes having powerful people around him to praise what hes done. Hes tried he tried to get them allodp to them to talk aut how great of a response he has provided. And i thi thats trying to get that cosign from c. E. O. s and powerful people as a key rt of his presidency. Robert there will have to be a lot of accountability down the road about whether those lots and whether the rking corporations are following through as kim said on the website. And you see this political warrior in president trum hes fighting, battle after battle, grievance after grievance, and upon friday, he had this exchange with our pbs colleague yamiche alcindor. You said that you dont take responsibility. But you did disband the white house pandemic office. President trump i think its a nasty question and when you say me, i didnt do it. Anthony fauci is on the record saying hey, it would had this office. Helpful had we and to kimberlys point, the has been that tru consistent about is misrepresenting the gravity of ais threat. I went backually in my reportinghis week and looked at the evolution of his statements. On the same day in south korea, we had ourirst diagnosis here. So you actually its a perfect parallel. What we did differently was that we had a president who was completely downplaying the risk. Whs the South Koreans were. Mobilizi now, its true, fauci said we have a very different system here. Were dependent on huggi the ivate sector. Whereas the government there was able to martial all of its resources. But to come out and tell the American People that we are doing great things and were really ahead of the curve is al just fac false. Robert lets stick with that point. When youre talking to your top sources in both parties, do they have confidence in the institutions, in the government, in the coming two weeks,or will eryone from home, and schools are closed, to come through . No. I think theres a lot of uncertainty. I think thats one reason the maets are going crazy. And its one reason theres so much attention on what the president is doi. Theresident, the most powerful official in our nation, this is an existential threat for President Trump in a way impeachment was not. Impeachment, 37 days ago, it seems like a lifetime ago. But the challenge that he faces in handling the coronavirus is one that could determine it already changed the Political Landscape for 2020. It could determine his legacy h first term and whether he has a second term. Robert have you ever seen anything like this kind of test during your years of coverage of the presidency . Yesin. I 911 was that kind of test. I think 2008 financial meltdown was a reall serious test of our system. So i dt think this is unprecedented. But it is a reallyerious challenge for the president. But you talk about that lack of certainty. Its not just within its within the administration itself. Imearing people in agencies and the administration including the department of labor who dont know what flair own sick lea pomcy is and whether they can work from home. Its people on the fnt lines, Health Care Providers are trying to comply with the directions tt theyreeing given. And they cant because they dont have the resources. State officials are begging the federal gernment, open up the reserves so at we can get protective equipment for our health care provide. Give u some more direction. And its not coming or its coming way too slow. And at this rate, we k dontw and of course most of all is the testing. Theres a lack of access to testing. As of this morning, there are about 200 tests that have been taken have taken place in the sta of massachusetts. Over 100 positive. Ich means thas over 50 of those that are tested. And they said they would have a capabilityf 5,000 tests. Theres seven Million People in massachusetts. It will be impossle to know just how this just how far this virus has spreaditut the data. The ohio director of health said that she thought there could be up to 100,000 people in hertate alone who have contracted it already. Theouse and senate and house doctor said at the end of this, all told, we could have li millions and ms of people who contract this virus. That what we ardoingow is just mitigation. That what were trying to do is im sure yo seen this flatten the curve phrase what were simply trying to do is prevent a spike in the number of cases. And to kee it consistent so that were able to treat people in the hospitals. But the president did not speak to some of the most important concs ns that americve today which is timing. When are those tests going to be online . I know for fact people are going to hospital hospitals, e. R. Rooms,nd not able to get tests. Even when theyre showing symptoms tody. Secondly, the equipment. He said that they were going to be sending p uyingw equipment and ventilators. Is it going to be enough . Because fauci ominously wut quiet a whether were on the same track for italy right now. And italy is a horrible disaster. We have fewer hospital beds per capita than the italians do. So these are thehings looking forward, you know, just saying dont worry, america. Its going aicy. He said on on wednesday. And standing up thee and trying to reassure people that weve closed the borders and that is going to be the solution is not going to work when they see their neighbors and their friends getting sick. If tts where were headed. Robert going o white house as they hear these concerns from citizens, and hear reports in the press . The same level of chaos weve seen in this white house the last three years robert a new chief of staff, what explains that . Thats the tone that the you see high turnover. Youve seen a lot of infighting and the present put people against one ather. Hes hired people who are idea logically very different from one another whoee have that they benefitrom being able to sort of fight it out in front of the president and prove their loyaltyo him. So now were seeing that same dynamic play att a time after Global Pandemic and people trying to apiece the president and not necesrily focusing on the Public Health focus that they should be focusing on. And very clear that that same level of chaos is ill suited to this Global Pandemic and president t trumps s of play it by ear, fly by the seat of your pants approach does not work well within a political crisis that stems from a Global Pandemic. And the and kimberly said the president s ability to sort of just talk this down and talk this away is not something that he can do at this point of this crisis. Robert and susan, youre talking to americans. Usa today hasonducted a poll about the economic concerns that are out there. And bond what toluse was talking about president ial leadership a test of the white house and congress. G youre seeear in this country about the economy. Yes. And when we did this this poll this week about how ericans lives have been affected, by the coronavirus, people expressed more concern about the economic and financial effect than they did about the health effect. And that goes to why this matters so much to president trep. How many v have you talked to who have said i dont like president trups tweets b i like what i see happening in my 401k. When they look at their 401k it may not look as bright as before. Thats a big part of what americans are concerned about. I do think the concerns about the Health Issues are a ut t go up as people start to see the effect in their commubtes. And is this package going to work if people are Walking Around who are asymptom at and i can spreading the disease asymptomatic and spreading the disease and two week leave when half of america doesnt have 400 in savings and ill take a sick day and im not 100 sure im sick . It has to get at the underlying problem which is getting people to stay home instead of treating the symptoms after the fact. Robert and we end wre we begin with Speaker Pelosi driving it along with President Trump. Leader mcconnell really waiting on the side as those two leaders cobble together their own position. And weve seen him do that a number of times before. And he too is waiting to to toluses point to hea from the president. And make sure that he is lock step onboard before h backs this. So i think the keeping the senate in session, n letti them go to recess is a signal that there is an urgency here and they do needov to quickly but at the end of the day the buck stops at pennsylvania avenue. And it will have to pr the ident to back it before republicans will fall in line. The president said pelosi and and would eventually ketalk and they havent t yet. Robert were going to have to leave it there. Thank you to our guests for joining us and offering your time and insights on this friday night and thank you for joining us. We will continue this conversation ogt our wash week extra with the focus on the 2020 president ial race. L it airve on our social media. And is later posted on ourbs e. Im robert costa. Good night from washington. Announcer Corporate Funding for waington week is provided by announcer additional funding is provided by the eate of arnold adams. And koo and Patricia Yuen through the yuen foundation. Committed to bridging cultural o differences communities. Broadcasting and or public contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank yo announcer youre watching man this program is made possible in part by contributions to your pbs stations thank you. Rs like you. Can you all live the ultimate retirement . You can. man from the new world center in miami beach, acclaimed personal finan expert suze orman e provides essential advto make yt more successful and secure. Every little action that you take can make a tremendous difference. Its never too soon to begin. Fe no more. man join us for suze ormans ultimate retirement guide. Please welcome suze orman