This is Washington Week. Corporate funding isd provi by ife isnt a Straight Line and sometimes you can find yourself heading in a new direction. Hp you work through thewi unexpecte Financial Planning and advice for today and tomorrow. Additional funding i provided by the estate of due anda patri yuen through the yuen foundation. The corporation for pustic broadg and cricks to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank yo oncegain from washington, moderator robert cost robert good evening. Revealing a debatde the eporting white house that is far from settled. While the coronavirus pandemic o grips the n theres a growing clamor inside the west wing to reopen the american economy. Myr the Washington Post and others, the ecos in free fall and president tru feels bu activity as soon as next month. Especially after the Labor Department said that 6. 6 million americans filed for unemployment last week. The president spoy out fri about his position an he was echoed by the attorney general, william barr, earlier in the week. Your doctors who are gathered here seem to be in doubt as to whether or not the country can reopen on may 1. They ceo you before may 1 and say the country is not ready, or huge parts of the country are not ready to reopen on may 1, will you listen t i th President Trump i listen to them about everything. Remember, theres no i understand the other side of the argument very well. This period of time, at the end of april, expires, i think we have to allow people to adapt more than we have. And not just tell people to go home and hide under the bed. Robert but the president s own experts are more cautious ae they unwilling to commit any date until they see more da. This is not the time to feel that since we have made such importt advances in the sense of success of the mitigation, that we need to be pulling back at all. Robert four top reporters join us to discuss these issues. Yasmeen abutaleb for the post, carl hulse, chief washington correspondent for the New York Times, amna nawaz, Senior Correspondent for the pbsews however, and Jonathan Karl chief correspondent for abc news and author of front row at the trumpno show, a New York Times bestseller. Good evening to you all. N, yasmou have been reporting on the task force all week. We saw all smiles today at thee white hoe dr. Fauci and President Trump. But whats going on behind the scenes are they winning the argument to keep the country closed down for weeks . Yasmeen i think we have to wait some sources i spoken to pointed to the fact that President Trump, before, was pointing to easter as an opening date. It seemed like that was inevitable. And then you know t to talk him out of that. I think the Health Officials do country at some point, but you safe and methodical and make re you have the right pieces in place. Right now the undstanding i and the agreement is they certainly dont have all the pieces in plabl to be to do it safely. Brder testing to make sure you dont have n outbreaks, contact tracing, tests to figure out who has immunity to the rus. None of that is in place. Its being discuss bud certainly not going to be ready bethe end of the month or at t beginning of next month. Robert when you think about the be competing with Health Experts about the timeline forth reopeng economy . Jonathan i think theres no question about it. The president h been hearing it throughout this period. Even before he made the decision to go from april 15 to april 30. There have been two camps. The president h had advisors from the start, robert, who have made the case that really the beginning of this was also an over taction. Thatir view. They believe, this is largely on the economic team, that youve got to have some kind of a reopen ing yclearly that is not the direction the medical experts are pointing to. I think this will beat ae care team and i am not sure where the president goes on this, you know. On one hand he sounds like hes getting ready to call for anen g. Hes saying once again the problem cant be worse than the cure. He is sounding like somebody who wants to do that. But at every major Decision Point so far, he hasctually listened to the health care experts. Robert on the business side, john who is listeningo . Who has his ear . Is it secretary me chew anyon ist friends on wall street . Jonathan certainly secretary mnuchin is an parent port of. This but hks the phone. You know that. His friends on wall street, his friends in the business world, hes talking to them, hearing from them, hearing a lot of argumentsn favor of getting the country back to work again and hes also hearing warnings that doing that too soonould be counterproductive a perhaps sastrous. Robert amna, i was watching you on newshour yestery. As much as President Trump wants to make this th decision abo g wenreho e thin will make decisions about their own states an when they reopen. Tell you and what ou or tate learning about governors, whether theyll listen to the president or not . Na youreeeing governors on the front line of this making the decisionsbout how theyre going to be handling the cases, the infection rate , the tesoct ement of the perform p. E. , that protective medical equipment that frontline workers need. Governors aren the front end, tip e of the speis t oip revis hear the arguments, the president waited three weeks before thehad their first con that he waited three weeks befo they had their first shelter in place, he said i dont think we should be doing this weeks and week os end because well havnoe an ec dastthorne back end. This huge debate has emerged now whic is which disaster do you mitigate . Do you try to address the he disaster which we know is spreading arn the country and really stop the economy in its tracks to do that first . Or do you try to do both things at the same time . Do you worry about the economic fallout and not take as many aggressive steps to address the hell fallout early on . Health experts will say you cant addresshe economic fallout before the Health Fallout and we dont have a good sense of whats needed thto addreshealth issue right nossw. Sippi even said, they were late to start testing. Didnt start until after the ca in early march. They dont have nearly the testing kits they need to be able to figure out how widespread it is and tres a patchwork of responsescross the before the governor stepped in robert carl, when y talk to your sources on capitol hillmark republicans are telling me privately that theervous about President Trumps decision here because their own electoral fates are on the line tied in with what the president doess. Whhe white house hearing from Top Republicans in Congress Democrats . They have to get these test , the antibody test, to show people have been i ected a maybe theyre safe to go back. I heard this repeat think from repuican senators saying this is the key. Weve got to get that going. We need to have millions of these by memorial day. So thats where theyre focused right now. I think theyre very nervous about reopening and have this another spike later on in the year closer to the election. They know theyre actually in pretty big trouble on the hill right now in terms of holding o to their majority. Saw some ratings shift on senate races this week. E president s trying to bolster these endangered republans announcin im sending x numbers of ventilators to colorado, sending x to arizona. But i think theres a lot of unease. People are pulling back from the idea already that congrs would come back april 20. So i think theyre probably ,gnaling to the preside lets slow down until we know exactly whats going to happen because not only is your political fortunes at stake, ours areoo. Robert on another front, health care, youre seeing a new development thatre important this week. Post shopows the coronavirus is infecting and a killingicanamericans and latinos at an alarming rate. We have a particularly difficult problem of exacerbation of a health disparity. We have known literally forer that diseases like diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and asthma are disproportionatelyti affl the minority populations, particularly the africanamericans. Tbert this was on front page of many newspapers. Its a development that leaderst across country are grappling with. When you look at the data and talk to your sources, what are you learning about why this is happening . Yasmeen i think, y know, theres an understanding that a lot of this comes down to systemic inequities between minority communities and white communities. Part of this is,is that some statesy only recen started collecting databased on race. So much of the early response was tests, getting tests, bt you did address the inequities that are inherent to the u. S. Health care srttem. F it is, as dr. Fauci said in the clip, preexistin conditions likeiasbe dte a rates in minority communities. We know that the coronavirus is espeally risky to people who have underlyingealth conditions. You see all of that starting to take effect. The state ist still very comprehensive so youve seen a lot of lawmakers calling for better data, so the administration can start to think about ways to address this. Robert when you listen to what yasmeen just said and thinkou all your reporting over the years about health care access, the burdens of care, what are you seeing right now with this pandemic and communities of color . Amna yasmeen is absolutely right. Thbers dont lie and paint th astonishing picture evenh w its limited, e data and uptorelying on ss ta co tthe federal government is not collecting it right now. Theyre not releasing it in a wmprehensive. But to take mississippi, inis mippi, africanamericans make up less than 40 of the state population, far they make up over 70 of all covid related they also make up a majority of the infection rate. We know this is happeni across the country. In places like michigan and ohio and virginia and North Carolina, releasing started that data too. Yasmeen is right, theres a higherdehronic b health burden, carried by africanamericans in particular. But its also a matter of when they are able to access care. Theres a minimizing of pain. A there dismissing of simp tops there. All those things wil lead, according to the experts ive talked to, to a profound mortality or morbidity rate. One of the reasons its important to get the data across th runt country is to know where to surge the resources when you do get them. Robert there was an exchange today between a reporter and the Surgeon General about this when you talk to sources at the white house, are they confront this . Are theyealing with this in the Trump Administration . Jonathan it caught their attention. These figures are a reflection of inequality in america and about the outlines of that inequality. s i think oing to be a similar situation to look at the economic impact. We have had some 16plus Million People file for Unemployment Benefits over the past threeek as you know, so Many Americans get their Health Care Coverage through their employer. This is an economic crisis and Health Care Crisis that is. Intertwined very close robert such an important point economic crisis, these dual crises in health care, carl, i all ties into, including the racial dispaty, with this congressional showdown over funding, in brief heres what we need to know. The Trump Administration wants to shore up the 2 trillion stimulus package with an additional 250 billion for Small Businesses. Speaker pelosi an democratsaney minorityowned businesses andy communanks and theyd like to see another 250 billion for hospitals andsetates. Te republicans and democrats both tried to pass their versions of funng late this week. Both efforts failed. Carl, the issue about race, about who is going to get access to capital, they per st not just on the health front but also the economic fnt. Whats next on chills they continue to negotiate about Small Business funding . Carl you know, you cant quarantine partisanship. We saw some of t that happens week. I think, you know, one of the interestinghings to me about this bob, is that senator mcconnell has been very inud cc mariulty v in osen a majority vote. Now hes strog face demrats who have real leverage inhis because he needs 60 votes for leeslation. They going to press their advantage. They, you know, whahappened was senator mcconnell in the white house wanted a straight through 250 billion for Small Business and the democrats said hey, wait a minute. Ee want to take care of some of the problems we there too. Got into a stalemate. I do think they are going to work this out probably by next week. Democrats areit dealing secretary mnuchin who is their dealing with him. Hey like i think then the bigger fight come do you think the road is e socalled phase four thatll be a much brotter thing. Thets democ they are not going to just sit there and say were going to take what the white house wants. I think one of f iascinating h it has police tallized some of these divides that weve had in the country andth k democrats see that and going into election they want to make sure they takecare of d what they see as their focus. Robert yasmeen, carl mentioned phase four, the next round of talks. I spoke to Speaker Pelosi this week who said hospitals need billions of dollars. When you talk toceour so where are the needs . As Congress Starts to look ahe to phase four, in terms of health care, where is money needed right now ashe pandemic continues . Yasmeen hospitals are seeing fdisproportionate numbers i. C. U. Patients and patnts who are staying in the i. C. Longer than usual. Theyve insurers have waived fees foru testing and know, some insurers have waived coronavirus treatment. S of but i think the biggest thing is that hospitals are seeing a hug surge of patients, many of them dicare patients, so the payments areow than in private insurance. And these i. C. U. Stays ang and the i. C. U. Is very expensive. A lot of hospitals especiay rural hospital or hospitals in smaller communities are say theyre bleeding money tiing to respond to thison crisis and have enough resources. You know, a lot of people here talked about nee supplies, protective equipment, ventilator, there areag sho ofs of just about everything right now. Need to work overtime for some of these tests that youre sending out, you needte nicians actually operating these tests is very ebs expensive. The need is spread throughout but for smaller hospitals, i think they say theyre hurti and bleing money trying to respond to the crisis. Robert lets finish by coming back to the president. He is at the lectern every day casting himself as the pandemic patron, personalizing the gornments spread of cash and supplies. New reporting showsim reusing his powers to remove two inspectors general in the past week. Michael atkinson the Intelligence CommunityInspector General, an glen fine, chairman of the Panel Congress create t. D. Oversee the administrations handling of the 2 trilliontim jus. John, mark meadows is the new chief of staff,ormer North Carolina congressman. Hes in there put in a new press secretary thiseek, but also been the president s conity danlt to try to push out i. G. s. Is this part of a purge of i. G. s well continue to see . Jonathan i would add a third Inspector General, the h. H. S. Spector general the president bitterly complained about this week, he hasnt fire her but he bitterly complained about her and the fact that she served ind government the previous administration. She served under plinton, bush, obama and now trump. Shes what you call a career publicervant. I would expect a continuation of a purge thats already been whhe prede hears the words Inspector General right now, what h thinks about is he thinks about the i. G. Finor the lligence community, atkinson, about the fact that atkinson was the one who passed on the whistleblower complaints regarding the ukraine call to verengthhaatco l to ttet his impeachment. He bitterly complained about th, evenhe notion of an Inspector General. When he realizes, learned that these are largely people that have done this fromti administ to administration, these are again career public servants, he sees this as an extension of what is allies call the deep state and a particularly nefarious one because theyre out to get hem at least in h nd. So yes, i thinkousel ymol re of this. Robert whats the cost for this kind of executive action . Think about Inspector General atkinson, very protective of whistleblowers. One of the people who protected the whistleblower about the ukrainian call between President Trump and president zelensky. Does this mean whistleblowers may be more hesitant to come forward . With the pressure from the highest in the land there was a Chilling Effect from people who felt ty had something to share. I heard this from people, different Government Agencies along the way. 123 inning ast real concern, r real fear out thats why you heard from lawmakers that more needs to be done to potentially protect anose because of the language tentis robert can Speaker Pelosi withi her select cee overseeing the stimulus try eveif theres an i. G. . S one t big problems with phase 3, the democrats insisting ot. N oversi President Trump doesnt think the congress should have a role in overseeing how he operates. Tis is amendous amount of money thats being shelled outt oin a phrase. Ks not just about corruption. Ps an eye on mon in this amount. I think the president will keep doing this as long as Senate Republicans kind of roll which they have done so far. They sent an angry let cher is sort o joke in washington, angry letter to come. I think if youre goi tot oie p, dererthnt geey action. That theyre willi do that. O far so this other group that Speaker Pelosi and senator mcconnell now have to come to agreement on a chairperson of that group, i think thats kind of an now. But the president will fight oversight until hes stopped by his own pay. Robert yasmeen carl im not done. Th jo the president thinks that hes the inspector no oversight, hell do the oversight. The president will oversee his own actions. I mean he said this exp citly. This is what he says privately as well. He doesnt need somebody looking over t hes going decisions. He detests the entire the idea these are internal watchdog, two of the dirty words or phrases hes come up with, whistleblower and Inspector General. He does that. He will be the ethics watchdog. He doesnt want somebody else doing. This think carl is exactly right. Unless republicans in Congress Stand up and say no, tre needs to be oversight by coness, and by inspectors general, this purge or stymy this will continue. Robert thats a critical point. It brings up the question of hydroxychlreoquine. Thedent is not only going to war with his own officials on the i. G. Issueut when it comes to the f. D. A. Which is taking its time wit o tri hydroxychloroquine, an antimalaria drug being used by someoctors to treat covid19, the president is getting ahead of his own f. D. A what kind of tensions has that caused on the task force as they move a yasmeen you know, i think it actually plays into the division we were talking about earlier between the Economic Task force, the president , the people who want to get the peoplepen and the medical professionals who want to dos thi methodically and make sure youre doing it safely. The drug factors into that. One of the argues medical professionals an outside experk have beeng is if youre going to get the country back to work and start reopening things, you need a therapeutic, something to treat coronavirus. The president and some of his advisors are leaning on hydroxychloroquine as the answer to that as something they can fine, you can s take it, you can take it to prevent it, i think the president at one point sd he might take it to try to prevent coronavirus even though theres no evidenc of that working. So i think a lot of this comes from the desire to ve some magic bullet that can treat the virus, that can get the country back to work, but the reality is ata dth allat conclusive. Me thing ive heard f sources over and over is you cant put too much pressure on a single rug because and dr. Fauci said this publicly if it doesnt work you need to mov on to the next thing. Robert we must leave it there. Th gk you to oursts for joining us. Make sure to watchhe Washington Week extra, it airs live on social media at 8 30 eaern and is later hosted on our website. For now, thank you. Our audince is growing i this difficult time. This weekly conversation and we appreciate those who keep coming back. We will continu taking you all as close to the news as we can. M robert costa, good night from washington. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] provided by ashington week life isnt a Straight Line. And sometimes you can find yourself heading in a new direction. Fidety is here to helpou work through the unexpected. With Financial Planning and advice for today andor tomw. Additional funding provided by the estate of arnold adams. And koo and Patricia Yuen through the yuen foundation, committed toridging cultural differencein our communities. The corporation for publicbr dcasting. Anby contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Nathan masters growing up here inersouthern california, i n felt very far from the beach. My familys weekly trips t rhythm to my summers. Back then, nothing seemed more natural than spng hours in the waves. I always felt totally at ease in the ocean alone. In southern california, the beach is part of our identy. Some ways, it defines ththern california lifestyle. How did this sandy strip between land and sea acquire so much cultural powe and why does it keep people feeling so young . Could these waters possibly be the mythical fountain of youth . L. A. Is an idea, as mu as a city, a set of hopes and beliefp that ed millions to move here. But behind the idea of l. A. Are the stors of people, dreamers who realized their vision for southern calirnia an o