Transcripts For CNNW CNN Debate Pre-Show 20200315

Supporting state governments for decisions that theyre making on mitigation to prevent the spread. But the whole issue of personal protective equipment and supplies and the capacity of our Health Care System is in the forefront of what were talking about every day and the secretary can address it. Thank you very much. First, being here at the podium, i just want to especially talk about the people in blue behind me. These are the leaders of the United States Public Health Service Commission corps that i am incredibly privileged to lead. Over 3,000 of them, americas Public Health warriors. Whether its going into the eastern congo or western africa to fight ebola, or if its staffing the nursing home in kirkland, being on the World Health Organization team in china, or helping to facilitate communitybased testing, these are americas Public Health heroes, and i just they rarely in fact, i doubt that there has ever been a time in American History where the leadership of the Public Health Service Commission corps has had the privilege of standing here on this stage behind the president and Vice President of the United States. I wanted to commend that. In terms of our capacities in our Health Care System, any pandemic like this runs the risk of exceeding our Health Care System capacity. And we must acknowledge that. That is precisely why the president and Vice President s strategy is, as dr. Fauci has repeatedly spoke, to delay and flatten the curve. The point of this is, instead of a spike of the curve, to delay and flatten that curve with the hope that you can keep the utilization of resources to be within the Health Care Systems capacities. In addition to that, the entire point of our pandemic planning over the last 15 years has been to put extra flex into our Health Care System. Thats why we have hospital preparedness grants that we fund every year through our preparedness program. Thats why we have in our Strategic National stockpile ventilators, Field Hospital units, like mass units, if youll remember those, that have capacity for hundreds of individuals. In terms of supplies, obviously this is an unprecedented challenge, unprecedented. And so, we will work to increase the supplies of personal protective equipment, of ventilators, of field medical unit hospitals that we can deploy. We have tremendous supplies, but we want to acquire more, and thats thanks to the bipartisan work of Congress Funding the emergency supplemental. That gives us the money to scale up production here and abroad, and were doing that. We dont disclose concrete numbers on particular items for National Security purposes, but we have many ventilators, thousands and thousands of ventilators in our system. We have received so far only, i think, one request for just several ventilators. One of the things in terms of Hospital Capacity thats going to be really important this is a really good learning from china that we got from the World Health Organization team that went there. If we have communities where we have enough capacity where we can put people who are positive with covid19 and have them be exclusively reserved for individuals who are positive for covid19, this reduces our need to try to protect patients from other patients, because theyre all positive already. We need to protect our Health Care Workers and our Service Workers in those facilities. This gives us reduced burden on personal protective equipment, but it also can give us greater capacity as we put field medical shelters up, as we consolidate into single facilities, as we dont need individual rooms, negative air flow, isolation, et cetera, a vastly more efficient utilization of our Health Care System. This is all part of the planning work that weve done and are promulgating throughout our Health Care System. So thats our strategy. Were going to keep building that capacity, though. Mr. Vice president use of the military . Go ahead. Mr. Vice president , you talked briefly about trying to make information more accessible online. So, can you give us a timetable for when you think a website will be available based on your conversations with google . And secondly, and this might be to the broader team, can you also talk specifically about how many of these tests have been sent out to states and how many you still have to send out . Well, let me say that were working with google, but were working with many other Tech Companies, and were truly grateful for the efforts of Tech Companies in disseminating best practices and guidance for citizens, online, all over the country. And today those resources are available. We literally heard not only from google, but from facebook and amazon and the public spiritedness thats reflected there is a credit to those Great Companies and a credit to all of the dedicated americans who work there. Our best estimate, and literally, the team has been working around the clock since friday, is that at some point early in the week that we will have a website that goes up, the purpose of which will be for people to go and first fill out a questionnaire so they can identify whether they fall in a category that dr. Burks described would indicate a need to have a test. Once they go through that questionnaire, then our objective is, as more and more of these sites come online, run by state governments working in cooperation with our team, our Public Health service team and fema, and also working in cooperation with local businesses and retailers, the people will know not only how to find it, but also the objective would be for them to literally be given a time that they can go and report for the test, but let me let the admiral speak to the timing on the testing and unpack that for you. So, in our design, i just want to emphasize, we talk about testing and we talk about so many things, but were really talking about people, and were trying to make this a very personcentric experience to clearly access the system, to be given clear guidance about how to go, when to go, information that even if youre not really indicated for testing, information you need to help protect yourself and your family. Then on the back end, very customized reporting, and were talking literally about having Telephonic Services to call individuals who have been tested let them know yes, no, and what the next steps are. We tried to envision this as a patient experience. Let me talk about the testing. Progressively over the course of this week, there will be rollout to different laboratories of approximately 1. 9 million tests. There are many centralized laboratories, the behindthecurtain, that you never see after you give your blood and you saw some of the ceos in the rose garden last week, like quest and lab corps, that are fully able, ready to run. They have been testing already, but fully able, ready to run within the first part of this week, the very high throughput testing. The 2,000 laboratories that are around the country that have a different platform, one thats amenable to so many labs in and out the big, hugest output, but very high throughput laboratories are progressing. They have to adapt the test slightly to their machines and get used to this. They will start lighting up monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday. I cant give you the precise timeline, except it has been an absolute priority of the laboratory associations, of thermo fisher, the company that made this test. You heard the president predict that it might be approved within 24 hours on friday. I think it was five hours after that in the middle of the night that the fda approved that. And thats the one thats going to be widely disseminated, high through, ae put thats going to be available. So, i know you want a specific time when these will light up progressively over the week. When that happens, there will be a centralized opportunity like in quest and labcorps. There will also be distributed opportunities like in all of the Major Hospital systems and labs that are in your area. And then that number of 1. 9 million goes up dramatically in the weeks coming forward. Im not going to say that the lab testing issue is over, because its not. Its entering the next phase. But the much higher priority now is, now that we have the testing available, how do we get people into the system to be tested in the appropriate prioritized way, and thats what weve really been focused on information, website, points of distribution model that are tried and true, enabling the states, providing them with equipment, supplies, knowhow and Commission Corps officers as needed to help man these or staff these as we move forward. So youll see this rapidly developing over the week. All right, guys, last question mr. Vice president , are you considering domestic mr. Vice president , market futures are down, despite the dramatic move from the fed that the president applauded, which suggests that theres still concern about, that we havent done enough to respond to the Economic Impact of this deal or of the coronavirus. Im wondering when specifically were going to hear from the white house about how youre going to impact or help impact the industries, from the airlines, the cruise ships. Right. And secondly, i wanted to talk about the legislation that came out. The white house fought to exclude workers at larger corporations from paid sick leave. And so im wondering what you say to, you know, somebody who flips burgers at mcdonalds or works at one of these large chains thats worried about staying home and potentially missing a paycheck . Well, first, let me say, we strongly support the house legislation, which, while it gives some flexibility to small businesses, which will be reflected in the regulations going forward, no American Worker should worry about missing a paycheck if theyre feeling ill. We cant say often enough to our fellow americans, if youre sick with a respiratory ailment, stay home. And as youve heard here today, over the course of this next week, were going to see testing become much more widely available, beginning in the areas the cdc will focus us as the highest priority. But working with members of congress, weve made sure that not only is testing free, but we have every confidence that the extension of paid and family leave to americans will be extended in a way that it should give every american that confidence. And let me say let me say with regard to the economy as a whole, i think the treasury secretary is working very diligently on the president s behalf we had the supplemental, 8. 3 billion bill. The house has now acted on important legislation that we fully support and we hope the senate takes it up this week. But whether it be the Airline Industry or the cruise line industry or the hotel industry. As the secretary said recently, we are in just the first few innings of this effort. And the president has directed us to bring the full weight of the federal government to bear to confront this crisis, first and foremost, on behalf of the health and safety of the American Public, but strengthening our economy, ensuring that those Vital Industries will be able to find their way through and grow strongly once this coronavirus has passed, will be a priority, and were already in discussions with members of congress in both parties about that next phase of the support. But let me say as i close, we will be back in the morning tomorrow for a briefing and also well have a Health Briefing in the afternoon. Again, i know i speak on behalf of the president when i say how grateful we are for all of the governors in the country, for all the local Health Officials, everyone thats coming alongside americans. We encourage every american to continue to use best practices and common sense. Even if youre not in a highrisk category, as the vast majority of americans are, remember those people around you who may well be. Remember those seniors with Underlying Health conditions. Its the reason why you need to keep washing your hands, you need to keep practicing good hygiene, cleaning those counters and surfaces to make sure that we dont convey the coronavirus to them. And finally, let me also just let me add to all the wonderful accolades of the Public Health Service Personnel behind me. These are all heroes. And i have to tell you, having been over at hhs yesterday, having seen the way these people drop everything and are rolling into this effort to expand testing across the country, it will be these people in these blue uniforms that you see at an awful lot of points of distribution, these Community Centers around the country. And for all theyre doing today, for all each one of them have done throughout their career, i know they have the thanks of this president , the Vice President and the American People. Thank you. About missing a paycheck . How can you say that . Companies . All right, so, there you have it. Its been an hour since this briefing started. The president came out right at the very beginning, and he was extremely upbeat about whats going on here in the United States right now. He says, were doing great. This will all pass. Just relax. And then he made this statement. Listen to this. Theres a very contagious its a very contagious virus. Its incredible, but its something that we have tremendous control over. Something, he said, that we have tremendous control over. And it was just a little after that, we heard from dr. Anthony fauci, the top Infectious Disease expert here in the United States, who totally contradicted what the president said. Listen to this. Because, as ive said many times, and ill repeat it, the worst is yet ahead for us. It is how we respond to that challenge thats going to determine what the ultimate end point is going to be. All right, lets get some analysis. Dr. Zeke emanuel is with us. A lot of people are wondering, wheres the president right now . What is he thinking when he says specifically that we have tremendous control over this . The numbers seem to be doubling every few days. I dont want to make a clinical diagnosis, but this was really disassociated from the reality that were seeing out there, and he does not seem to be listening to the experts that he has. I also have to say that the whole briefing was about testing, and testing is necessary, but its not sufficient. We need interventions that are going to slow this thing down social distancing and we heard nothing about it. And that has to happen quickly. You cant keep putting it off and often and off, and yet, the task force seems to be slowing that and not really responding as rapidly as we need. Time is of the essence here, and the sense of urgency, i didnt hear it from the task force or other people. And we certainly didnt hear it from the president , did we, Dennis Carroll . Well, certainly not, wolf. And i think what we did hear was, good news, late, but the diagnostic situation is moving forward in ways it should have happened two months ago. It appears to be moving forward now. But as was said, the diagnostic tells us where the virus is, it tells us who has the virus, but it doesnt stop the virus. And its social distancing is the one tool we have in the toolbox, and were seeing that spontaneously across the nation. Independent actions are being taken. Municipalities, cities, states. And to really bend the curve as dr. Fauci talks about, this has to be more than just spontaneous acts. It has to be well coordinated, thought through, and ultimately led at a National Level and were not hearing that. Hopefully, what dr. Fauci said about guidance coming out tomorrow will speak to this in more detail. A lot of work that needs to be done. Dr. Yasmin, lets talk about what the president said when he specifically said, this is something we have tremendous control over right now. Do we . No, we dont. We dont have control of the situation because we are so far behind in the academic response or the pandemic response. We heard so many assurances over the last hour and i have a legal pad with a list of testing promises made since midfebruary. None of these have transpired yet, so i need to see this to believe it, this idea that 1. 9 million tests will be available. We need to see that happen immediately. And also, i want to push back on this idea about 80 of people having a mild disease. Sure. But when you read the fine print when you read that clinical case definition, that mild disease includes people with a walking pneumonia. Anyone whos had that, anyone whos treated that knows thats a lower respiratory infection. It knocks people out. Thats what were up against here, and were not in control of that. Yeah, i spoke the other day with dr. Sanjay gupta, and it was very clear he made the point that even if you have a mild case of coronavirus, you may have longterm lung issues, lung disease, even if you dont necessarily feel it right away. Yeah, and were still learning that day by day, and thats the point here. Thats what makes us not be so much in control. Is this a novel infection, were on that steep gradient of the learning curve. And what you have even with the newer testing guidelines about who should get the test, who should get priority, were still going to be deluged with people who just dont feel well, who are really worried and who are confused, wolf, because the leading Public Health experts are saying one thing, and the president and Vice President are saying another. Thats how you end up in a situation where Health Care Systems become overwhelmed. Let me get Elizabeth Cohen into this conversation, our senior medical correspondent. Elizabeth, we hear one thing from the president , we hear another thing from dr. Fauci. Its going to lead to confusion out there. Oh, absolutely it will lead to confusion. And what ive been saying all this time is, look, as an american citizen, as our viewers right now, they have a choice. They can listen to the president or they can listen to the guy with the md after his name. Donald trump did not go to medical school. Donald trump is not an Infectious Disease specialist. He is not an epidemiologist. We all get to choose who we listen to. You know, and let me get some of our political analysts margaret, youre with us as well. The president was very pleased by this extremely dramatic move by the Federal Reserve to cut Interest Rates to near zero right now. Yeah. I want you to listen to what the president said. You know, it just happened ago, but to me, it makes me very happy. I want to congratulate the Federal Reserve. For starters, theyve lowered the fed rate from what it was, which was 1 to 1. 25 , and its been lowered down to zero to 0. 25 , so its 0 to 0. 25 . Thats a big difference. Its quite a bit, a point. And in addition, very importantly, the Federal Reserve is going to be purchasing 500 billion of treasurys and 200 billion of mortgagebacked securities, and that money can increase. But theyre going to start with that and thats really good news. Really good news. He was clearly pleased about the Economic Impact. He was. He said the fed was phenomenal and what they had done was phenomenal. I was really surprised to hear the News Conference start that way, although once the fed announcement came, it was obvious thats how it would start. But americans are trying to understand their health risk. It was obviously about confidenceboosting, what the president was trying to do. What the fed did was phenomenal. He said all would pass. He talked about how people are buying more stuff than they do at christmastime, and it was just in such a stark contrast to what we heard from admiral giroir who says this is not makebelieve, dr. Berks who said were going to see a spike in cases before it gets better, but i do think it was noteworthy that President Trump was disciplined enough to leave the podium before the questions began and turn those questions over to other officials. A very different line coming from so many of these other experts. Cristina alesci, our Business Correspondent, is with us as well. I take it futures right now not necessarily all that upbeat about what they heard. No. I think investors are trying to digest exactly what this means and whether this was a move to prevent possibly a market crash, we assure investors that the Federal Reserve is aware of the nervousness in the market. And let me just take you through what happened. So, the Federal Reserve cut Interest Rates to near zero. Lets put some context around this. This was an expected cut, but the fact that the Federal Reserve announced this on a sunday night does signal some urgency. So, i was on calls and emails with my sources who are trying to determine, is this a manic signal or is this a reassuring signal . Theyre trying to sort that out over the next couple of hours. Well be monitoring that to figure out where investors land along that spectrum. Another notable thing that the Federal Reserve did here was quantitative easing, that is, injecting cash into the system. That is supposed to reensure the orderly functioning of the markets, while all of this in a bid to calm the markets and reassure investors. Its an important point. Our political analyst from the Washington Post is with us as well. What was your bottom line . Well, i thought it was very interesting that dr. Fauci said were about to go into a critical point that could make or break the u. S. Response. It was very different from the upbeat statements that we heard from the president. Some of the words that he used tremendous, relax, everything is going to be fine, were doing great, im very happy about whats happening with the fed. That is not the words of a president who believes we are about to go into a critical makeorbreak moment where people need to make changes in their daily lives. We didnt hear anything from the president about social distance i ing. Were hearing that guidelines will be coming out from the white house, but nothing to discourage people from leaving their house this afternoon. With the president saying relax, we have this under control, it gives americans the sense that they can live their lives normally and not have to worry about what happened. Jeremy diamond was there at the News Conference. A pretty stark contrast between what the president said and some of the others said, jeremy. Reporter it certainly was, wolf. And i think what we saw born out here was what weve been reporting throughout this coronavirus epidemic, now a pandemic, which is that the president s primary concern really is with the economy, and that is what we saw the president focusing on today in the wake of that announcement from the fed. And the president here also trying to calm americans so that the economy doesnt suffer such dire consequences, rather than really focus on the Public Health impact of all this. Hearing the president repeatedly say, relax, that everythings going to be great, that everythings under control. Clearly, those remarks were aimed at keeping americans spending, frankly, to ensure that they are still boosting the economy. I asked the Vice President about those comments and why the president s message is so different. He dodged that one and said that everything that the administration is doing is at the president s direction. Let me get Ron Brownstein with a quick thought. What do you think, ron . You know, im just struck by the realworld consequences of the president s kind of disaassociated optimism. Look at the polling today, not only on the political reaction to this and the partisan divide between republicans and democrats over how hes handling it, but the enormous gulf between republicans and democrats and how they are responding and whether they are changing, in fact, the way they live their daily lives. There are consequences to the message the president is sending and that is being reinforced by so much of the conservative information kind of transmission belt. All right, guys. Everybody, thanks very much and thanks to everybody here in the situation room. Good that were separating a little bit and were living up to the cdc guidelines, unlike those officials at the white house that are all cramped on that little podium over there. To our viewers, thanks very much for watching this special edition of the situation room. The democratic president ial debate preshow with Anderson Cooper and jake tapper starts, actually with chris cuomo, i should say, Anderson Cooper and chris cuomo, starts in just a moment. I love rakuten, its basically free money. Its an easy way to earn cashback on the stuff im already buying. When you have a child and theyre constantly growing out of clothing, earning cashback from rakuten just makes everything easier. 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When bipolar i overwhelms, vraylar helps smooth the ups and downs. And good evening. Im Anderson Cooper in washington where the White House Coronavirus hearing just wrapped up and where at least one topic is expected to dominate the cnn president ial debate. The president s claim of tremendous control, of the coronavirus. And im chris cuomo here in new york. Messaging, as anderson is saying, is going to be key in the country right now. Leaders must tell the truth. Government must be held to account. But were all being tested, right, as much as any institution or office. Life is changing fast. This is the first weekend of, like, the new abnormal in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Questions about schools, work, food, travel, and of course, testing. Stories of not getting clarity and not getting tested are spreading, anderson, as quickly as the virus. Thats right. In just the last several moments, new yorks governor, andrew cuomo, announced that all Public Schools in new york city, westchester county, suffolk county, and Nassau County in other words, the new york metropolitan area will close this week. Today, dr. Anthony fauci, whos become the administrations primary truthteller, ramped up his warnings that this needs to continue more for the outbreak to be slowed enough so the Health Care System can actually handle it. He said life is not going to be the way it used to be. He wanted to see dramatic changes, talking about bars, restaurants, and at this evenings briefings, he was asked how seriously he meant it. I meant everything i said this morning on the shows, that, really, to protect the American People, well consider anything and everything on the table. Youre going to see some advanced and updated guidelines tomorrow that are going to address some, but not all of the questions and concerns. But on a daybyday basis, we look at this and we will do literally everything we can to ensure we safeguard the health and wellbeing of the American People, and that means anything and everywhere we will consider. Everything under consideration. Well talk about that tonight. And to that point, were going to talk about the large and crowded gatherings in the wake of the president s decision to bar foreign travel. Take a look at those pictures. Imagine youre an american. You arrive back in the United States. Youve been told social distancing, three to six feet. And for hours hour after hour after hour, you were squeezed next to hundreds of other people in long lines waiting to get back into the country. Late today, President Trump announced a major move to keep the economy afloat. The Federal Reserve cutting target Interest Rates to zero. The president praising that move by the fed. Joining us now for some perspective on what we just heard, Emergency Room Physician and former Baltimore Health commissioner, dr. Leana wen. Talk about this new effort to ramp up testing and this notion by the president that its total that they have total control over the virus. Well, look, im glad that were ramping up testing, but the problem is, weve been hearing about that, that very same promise, for weeks now. And clinicians and patients are still just as confused as ever. I mean, there are all these promises being made. But what we need now are very clear deadlines. Because otherwise, what im hearing from my colleagues around the country is that patients are showing up to ers. Theyre showing up to hospitals, to Doctors Offices, and crowding these spaces, asking for tests. And i wish the president would just come out and say, we dont have these tests right now. We will have the capacity in a week or two weeks or whatever, but we dont have them right now, so stop coming to the ers. And youre right, too, we really need to ramp up the seriousness of social distancing, because we have a really narrow window to prevent the transmission of coronavirus, and that window is narrowing every day, and we have to take this extremely seriously, understanding that its a great sacrifice and challenge that the American People are facing right now. It does seem like, i mean, to your point, that we have been hearing about, you know, oh, i feel like, i guess maybe it was two weeks ago that the million tests had gone out and there was all this happy talk about anybody who wants a test can get one. They never seem to acknowledge, we werent being truthful back then, but now what were saying is what really is happening. It is hard to have confidence. It seems like theres a lot of plans afoot. People use that word efforting, but to me, efforting means its not actually there, the tests arent actually in place and available yet, still. And thats right, and thats exactly it. We know that in times of Public Health emergencies that we depend on the government to tell us what they know, what they dont know, and whats the timeline for everything, because otherwise, how can we trust that anything thats said is going to be done . Weve been failed multipletimes before, and we really need to have clarity, and these deadlines have to be met. Yeah. I want to bring in chris. Chris, i know youve got questions for dr. Wen. Shes been so great with us over the last several weeks with some just factbased information. All right, its a really important conversation youre having also because youre getting mixed messaging, doctor, right . I mean, thats been happening for a while now. It doesnt matter outwardly, because people have developed an understanding of what this president and his relationship to the truth is or is not. The problem is whether or not the president gets in the way of certain steps that have to be taken because of messaging. Now, to that, my question is, testing matters. I think the argument can be made, though, that what youre saying, social distancing and the other preventive measures, now matter more because the horse is out of the barn. Youre going to have community spread. That takes us to capacity. What are your considerations and what is your understanding of where we are in terms of building up capacity to deal with the cases that will surely come . Thats a great question and thats exactly right, that we need to not just be looking at the problems of the past with testing. We have to move forward. And in anticipating whats next, we are anticipating a huge surge of patients, and our hospitals in the u. S. Are nowhere near capacity in terms of being able to accommodate all these patients, especially these critically ill patients, and thats why the idea of flattening the curve, reducing the rate of transmission so that even if we have the same number of ill patients, at least its spread over months instead of days or weeks. But in order to do that, we need people to practice social distancing now. Actually, we needed them to do it yesterday and the week before, but at least if we do it now, we can make a difference. And its not just with the elderly and those who are vulnerable. I keep hearing this message also from the Trump Administration oh, its only the elderly, its those who are chronically ill. Actually, all of us have to practice social distancing, because thats how were going to stop the transmission of the disease. This really takes all of us. So, stay at home, dont go out, and do everything we can to protect our communities right now. It is a real test of patriotism, because we have it so easy in this country in terms of doing what you want, when you want, how you want. And this is pretty much the first time that weve all collectively been told, no, and it will be interesting to see how people respond. Because it really is about us as much as any institution or plan. Dr. Wen, thank you so much, as always. All right, now lets get a take on what we heard about the Interest Rate today and the big dose of monetary medicine that the fed has been planning to pump into the economy. For that, of course, our chief Business Correspondent christine romans. Rate cut, fiscal policy and injections to the banks. What can it all mean . Reporter this was a powerful move, a really powerful move, and it showed you the feds throwing everything it has left, everything it has left at this problem lowering Interest Rates essentially to zero, announcing 700 billion of other purchases, quantitative easing, and saying its opening swap lines with a bunch of other central banks, too, so its coordinated with other banks around the world, chris. This was meant to send a powerful message, but futures are down as much as they can be. The stock market tumbling as much as its allowed overnight, 5 . I mean, one of the reasons here is, i think, you know, this is not a soothing sign but a worrying sign. And fed policy, chris fed policy cant fix the virus, right . It can make sure the oxygens flowing in the financial system, but the big concern is we dont know how far this virus will go and what the damage will be to the economy. Thats why the president was talking about pentup demand. That was signaling, right, christine . He was trying to say, boy, were really going to bounce back. The question is how the economy responds between now and then. And lets be honest, one of the reasons the fed doesnt have a bigger bat to swing at this is because the rates have been kept low, and there have been arguments both ways about that. So they didnt have a big cut in their pocket to bring. Reporter no, they dont. And look, a fed lower rates is something you do for a financial crisis or once theres already a recession here. We havent seen a recession yet. Steven mnuchin, the treasury secretary today said he didnt think there would be one, that there would be a big snap back in the second half and that is possible, the snap back in the second half, but a lot of the major banks say there will be a recession, but the question is how deep and how short, and we just tondont have theres n guidebook for this. We havent seen this before, what were seeing right now. I mean, you have life on pause. Essentially, the way ive been describing it is we are moving ourselves into a recession on purpose to prevent a bigger Public Health crisis down the road. Were pressing the pause button on the american economy. Weve never done that before. We have never dealt with an impetus like this before, but we have seen reactions like this before and the concern is, are they just going to help the big guys again . Thats why there was so much pressure on congress to do things for workers, paid leave and families. Christine romans, youll be on it like nobody else. Great to see you, especially on a sunday. Anderson . Chris, thank you very much. The white house taking action to try to help the economy, as weve been talking about. Meanwhile, there are questions about the conflicting messages on coronavirus. Want to bring in cnns senior political commentator and former adviser to president obama, david axelrod, political analyst gloria borger, political director David Chalian and National Reporter for politico, laura barronlopez. Gloria, we just heard the press conference. Again, just from a visual standpoint, all those officials tightly packed together othn th stage, not social distancing. What do you make of the message they gave and the president gives . The message that the president gave is completely at variance with what the experts are saying. And the president said and let me get this right we have tremendous control of the virus. Thats not true. We dont have tremendous control of the virus, which is why the experts are saying you have to selfquarantine, you have to practice social distancing, which is why schools are closing and the president says that, he leaves and then dr. Fauci comes out and says the worst is ahead of us. Thats exactly what fauci said. Fauci on the one hand saying, uhuh, and the president , who, by the way, leaves then, because he was so happy with the fed news, obviously, and he wants to give the good news. He wants to tell the American Public things are going great. And what he has done throughout this entire crisis, and continues to do, is box himself in, because he started out the crisis by saying, you know, this is small. Weve got it contained. Its like a light flu. Youre not going to feel it. And then every day that it gets worse, he has to figure out a way to stick with a part of that message, even though the Public Health experts are saying, this is not true. And a lot of people in america and i guarantee you, it will be most americans will be dislocated at some point to a great degree, and how does that message fit with what the president s saying . There is also, david, the Financial Markets reaction to the announcement by the fed. I mean, at a certain point, there are fewer and fewer levers for the federal government, for Financial Institutions or the fed to actually use. As christine was saying, and thats one of the really alarming things about this. But you know, as to the president himself, he simply cant stop spinning, he cant stop selling. And this is a situation where when youre the president of the United States what you owe people more than anything else is the truth, because we dont have control of this. And the way we get control of it is collectively. People need to take action themselves and they need the president and his team to be consistent in telling them how serious it is and what actions they need to take, so he is doing material harm to people by trying to spin his way out of a situation that is unspinable. And you give people a false sense of security. Right. And when you have a false sense of security, you go out to restaurants, as you always did, and you go to work as you always did, and you let your Children Play with others as you always did. Again, it does marken back to katrina, where you had Administration Officials slapping each other on the back, early days, saying you know, oh, wow, brownies doing a heck of a job. You had members of Congress Praising the administrations response to katrina when there are bodies still in the streets. And a good amount of these press conferences are these individual officials, from the Vice President to, you know, to various doctors and others who are on there, you know, praising the president , because that is what they have to do in order to maintain the president s the favor, i assume and praising everybody else for their hard work, as opposed to just focusing on facts. Yeah. I mean, we talk a lot on this set and elsewhere about president ial leadership and what is that . And we talk about that during election time. As david was saying, this is a moment when the president of the United States needs to kind of grab the country by its lapels and say, listen up, folks, im not a doctor, but im here to sort of guide us through what it is you need to Pay Attention to, whats really important here, because this is the only way to move through this process is through community, the national community. And hes not doing that at all. Hes not taking the country and saying, its so important that youre hearing what im saying right now. Its so important that, come here, dr. Fauci, listen to exactly what dr. Fauci is saying. Hes not doing that. He is only, only touting happiness when the market is up and frustration when the market is down. And on multiple fronts, its not just trump saying that theres tremendous control versus dr. Fauci saying the worst is yet to come. Also when President Trump is talking about young people and the effect the virus can have on young people, hes saying that young people are not strongly affected. Earlier today, dr. Fauci was saying, young people, you are not immune and you are not safe from getting seriously ill. And these are a lot these are the kids who are filling the bars, the young people who are filling the bars when they should be home and mindful and not in a Community Setting like that. Well, and then well, this is the you guys are making the point exactly, which is that one message that hasnt been coming from the president is that young people should be engaging in social distancing. This isnt just for the older population. And by the way, young people doing that is also beneficial to the older population of course. Because they are protecting the older population. Up next, the big Public Health question about Long Airport Lines as americans flood home from overseas. Can you imagine being trapped in an airport surrounded by all those people, given what we now know about social distancing . Could this measure actually make people sicker . Illinois governor joins us ahead. Who fought for you . Who stood up. Who stood strong. Who demanded to be seen. To be heard. To be counted. Learning about their courage and grit. Inspires us to pass it on. To the women who are next. Find your familys connection to this moment in history. At ancestry. Its more than just fast. It keeps all your devices running smoothly. With builtin security that protects your kids. No matter what theyre up to. It protects your info. And gives you 24 7 peace of mind. That if its connected, its protected. Even that that petcamera thingy. [ whines ] can your internet do that . Xfinity xfi can because its. Simple, easy, awesome. [ barking ] images coming out of Ohare International airport. Thousands of travelers coming in from overseas, overwhelming Custom Service there. The administration is trying to fix the problem. There are more International Place scheduled to arrive tonight. Authorities are obviously well aware of the problem now. What are they doing to fix it if anything . Reporter yes, anderson when you talk about those flights coming in it is based on what we saw last night. Now the governor their in illinois requested from the federal government more screeners to help this process, trying to get passengers physically from their plane through customs and onto american soils. Passengers were reporting waiting up to five hours going through that process entirely. They were packed into spaces by the hundreds which in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic is exact opposite of what Health Officials are recommending. So to give you an idea what passengers are seeing and part of the delays is you go through one round of screening of board of correction, you see under the normal circumstances then if you are coming from one of these countries under the travel restrictions, and then if you are showing symptoms and again have that relative traveler history, you go through a third round of screening for disease control. As you understand as i just heard from the head of the Chicago Department aviation things are running smoothly now with resources. We have to keep an eye on it. Chris. Anderson. Lets bring in the governor of illinois. Joining us now, thank you for joining us at this time what is your take on dealing with ohare of what people are reacting across the country and your ability to control it. My control of what they do is some what limited. We only found out about the situation at ohare because people are posting photos on twitter. We did not get a call from custom of border patrol. We did not get a call from the white house about the problem there. What we saw was you know hundreds of people packed into a small area. This is what i have given orders against and i am trying to protect people against in illinois. It is very upsetting to me and thats why i issued a harsh tweet last night and athis morning they reacted well and doubled the number of employees working. It seems to be working well. Although well have another full day as a result of the cutoff of the u. K. And ireland, we have another full day of travelers coming into ohare and jamming their way in. Hopefully theyll have manage through that tomorrow as well. Look, we are seeing across the country, governors are having to fight on their own. You will be no different there. Anything that comes up and if those people are locals or cases, you have to handled in your capacity for your Healthcare System now. In terms of what you do control. The primary for your state still being held on tuesday, are you questioning that decision . You know we have had validing goi ballots going on. We have early balloting and we had record early voting and a variety of areas across the state. And we had long hours as a result of my requests to our county clerks. Well have a robust turn out. On tuesday people dont have to choose to vote on tuesday, they can do it later today or theyre still open tonight. Frankly we expect not very many people at any given moment will be at the polling places. I am pleased of the way our county clerks handle things. I think well have a good election day. Governor, i hope you are right. Safety is a priority. Governor pritzker, well be watching, good luck going forward, be well. Thank you very much, chris. These issues are going to be discussed in just a little bit at the cnn debate thats going to happen between senator sanders and former Vice President biden, squaring off 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Just about an hour away. Stay with cnn. Well be right back. Wont it sink . alright, im going to get back to you. Im going to get back. People ask me what sort of person should become a celebrity accountant. And, i tell them, nobody. Nobody should. Theres nothing wrong with liking privacy, but i just dont think you need a separate private plane. But i, but i want it you cant claim that as a dependent because its inanimate thats what the pay me for. Not enough, though. Not nearly enough. Hey, buddy. Whats the damage . I bought it the waterfall . Nope a new volkswagen. A volkswagen . wow i think were having a breakthrough here welcome to caesars palace. Wait, youre in vegas . Sure looks like it wha, what, what . What are you doing back there . Good evening, we are an hour away from our democratic president ial debate in washington. It has been an hour since members of the task force as well as the president himself briefed reporters. Well be covering the big health and political headlines. They are all coming together on this big election. Of course rising bets. 3,400 cases riegts nght now in state except for west virginia. The president says relax, we are doing great, it will pass. Now dr. Tony fauci says, the worse is yet to come. People learning a big changes. New yorks governor announced schools closing in the biggest district in the city, west chester and nassau and dr. Fauci warns of more dislocations in everyday lives. Cases will become to hospitals. Will they handled them . Well see. Federal reserve boosting the economy. That was a big deal. The Public Health questions are looming large. Dr. Lena wynn is back with us. He also said relax which millions of people are confused of what the do in situations like this. That play back talks about consistent messaging and guidance which is giving people heads up that things are going to get back. It is going to get worse before it could get better so get ready for it. What else do people do when they feel a lack of personal control . They do thing that is are irrational like buying toilet paper. We need how testings are going out but also social distancing. Thats key right now. The press Conference Today and the administration is going to have 1. 9 million tests available this week. And we certainly heard Vice President pence talking about you know a million tests are going out there are already out there. You can get tested if needed. Is that enough . Are a million going out this week, is that significant . I mean it sounds like a lot of tests but the question is where are they going . What does the reality look like on the ground . I am talking to patients who have symptoms and may have exposures to someone who has coronavirus or calling around to their Doctors Office to the e. R. And hospitals theyre not getting answers. I spoke to doctors and nurses seeing e. R. Waiting room filled with patients colding ming in. Theyre taking up room in the e. R. And patients were having heart attacks and strokes are not able to get the care they need. So we really need to know where are these tests going. Whats the plan to roll them out . Whom has access to these tests and what does it mean for doctors of patients on the ground . Dr. Yasmeen. One of the things, reasons people care about tests not just to know whether or not they have virus but for Health Officials to be able to trace where that person has been and who they may have been in contact with given the fact that people cant be tested and there is no tracing to be done. What impact on tracing the virus and spreading the virus. Thats why so many of us have been hammering about testings early on. Early testing and epidemic response acts as prevention. You start to get focused to people in the community. We are 45 days into the declaration of this being a Public Health emergency. U. S. Have done a tiny fraction of the number of tests we should have done. That means we just dont know the true extent of spread in this country. It means we are about to see whats called an epidemic where you stop seeing the number going up and up but we should have seen it weeks ago. You are a dr. And you advise patients, what do you tell patients when they ask you who do i listen to . Do i listen to what the president is saying or what the Vice President is saying or dr. Fauci is saying. There is a lot of people talking and it is not clear. I would tell my patients to listen to the Public Health experts and their doctors and local Health Officials as well. We have the president saying things are going to be fine when theyre not. How can things be fine when we are seeing cases of patients are doubling every few days. We just watched the numbers of patients with coronavirus, patients dying from this disease everyday. We need the clarity of message and we need to be clear with the American People that this is very serious. These are extraordinary times. This is no t tt the time to liv your life as usual. I see people going around having birthday parties and celebrations and Saint Patricks day celebration. And bars are crowded. These are exactly opposite of what should be happening right now. Everyone needs to be clear about what we should do going forward. Dr. Wen and dr. Yasmeen. We appreciate it. Whats the trick . What the doctors just said is the right information but tough to hear if you are the one having to do to forbearance. The president wants to stay popular in this. Hes learning that lesson. Anderson well be back to you in a second. Pandemic is not just the backdrop for tonights debate. It is the foreground as well and everything in between. Joining us now for a look ahead, cnn jeff zeleny. Reporter this is a different moment in every way. For the first bit well see joe biden and Bernie Sanders alone. There is not going to be a studio audience. Everything about the mood and the moment is entirely different here. Joe biden wants to show that he is the epiphany and how he would be directing this country in a time of crisis. Also hes going something else. Hes going to extend to Bernie Sanders spoupporters. Hes ahead in delegates but hes trying to reach out to Bernie Sanders supporters. He moved in a couple of different directions. He assigned to a bankruptcy bill. Hes supporting three college. S the it is a plan and not quite as far reaching. He wants to press joe biden on the argument of progressive leadership. He wants to press him on those ideas. This is something thats going to be fascinating. The pandemic is front and center in all of this as these two men square off here tonight. Jeff zeleny, thank you so much. Van jones, coronavirus is going to be literally all over this debate tonight. Challenge for both sides . I think first of all, Democratic Party have an opportunity to put forward two statesmen of a time of crisis and unrest and uncertainty who can speak to our better angels and troying to bring us togethe. I dont think the country wants to see two old guys screaming at each other. They want to hear what you would you do to make sure we get through this thing well. If both campaign did not know that, Bernie Sanders has to make a decision because he wants to destroy biden or development. Thigh challenging biden, he can do it in a way that undermines joe biden or build him move him in the right direction. Thats the kind of nuance we are looking for. Tough to do in the context of coronavirus. Coronavirus is son quconsuming country and it is not what Bernie Sanders wants to talk about. You are right. Bernie sanders wants to win the president ial election. I think if Bernie Sanders decided i am not going to win, i need i dont think bernie is there yet. He still tries to win and hes got to strikes the right balance. People do not want to see these two going after each other in any kind of personal way. Bernie sanders just said he wants to go after biden on policy issues. Thats acceptable and nothings wrong with that. I expect them to drop their distinctions but i would be surprised if there is any personal attacks. I want to point out. This is not a subtle message. We are further apart, we are trying to send a message that separation is obviously something. You see on the debate stage tonight, debaters are going to be 60 apart those podiums and wider apart. This is all about trying to be consistent on the message that we got to take it seriously. Now, hthis is a tricky thing tonight. Bernie sanders wants to win. Bernie is going to try to make it a healthcare issue. It checks a lot of boxes. We have been talking about bernie, whats the challenge for joe biden . It is simple for joe biden. They want somebody whos experienced to lead. I am sure joe biden talked about how he did alabama and difficult time. He was able to bring our country together. Nafta is almost impossible for Bernie Sanders. Joe biden was the nominee. I agree bernie is going to want to make some points on policy issues. We have to bring out our country together. We have al president today how do you do that . Everybody is freaking out and theyre getting mixed messages and they cant get tested and things are changing. They want to see leadership. We need to show that we can take this on. You have a president that compulsively lies day in or day out. A week later, he said it will miraculously going away. When springtime comes in april. He told the other day that testing have been solved. They need to see the testing. Thats the problem that trump has had. He said there were 1700 engineers working on it. The company only has a 1,000 people. Well tell you the truth no matter what it happens in our crisis. I think that you are saying that d is not where Bernie Sanders does not want to measure measurement. It has not happened here yesterday but it has happened in italy. God forbid that happens. We do not have enough beds that you see in a lot of these hoeshl socialist countries. I think thats the point hes trying to make. This is going to show us exactly how broken our system is. Thats the conversation you see. I must say hes talking about funding capacity. Forecast is a little bit of a nuance issue. It is going to come up the night and a lot of people it was once compared to hurting cats. Keeping the party in line and on message, of course, tom perez is joining us next. S an honor to tell you that Liberty Mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. I love you only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. For ralphies appointment. Whos his groomer . Carrie. Full groom for sure what . I just booked ralphies appointment online. That work . Wait you what . Its that easy download the app or book online at petsmart. Com we are looking now of tonight democratic president ial debate. Tonight we are looking at social distancing as pointed out earlier. None of the kind of lek industry that comes with having the audience actually on hand. It is like i am meeting my fan club. A lot of people are home, right . So people are going to be watching this because theyre looking for some opportunities but also because of the moment we are living in right now. People care about government right now in a way they did not earlier in the election and leadership has been brought into very sharp focus so this is kind of 2008 if you think about it. The economy is melting down. It was new contacts injected into that election. The question becomes well, what does it mean for democrats and the two people who want to lead them right now. Lets get perspective from someone trying to hold the party together. Tom perez. Tonight you have to balance Huge National concerns, i am sure you are hearing it from your own family and friends, the concerns. What does it have to mean on the stage tonight . This is a leadership moment, this is a moment that calls for clear compassionate leadership. Leadership that is not afraid of facts. Leadership that will enable the American People to see that our Democratic Candidates are truly able to meet the moment. This is a serious and somber time. We all know that. Our lives are offended in ways that we did not imagine and frankly frustratingly are self preventable. We have a president who did not prepare for this. And so thats what we are going to see tonight. It will be more somber. You will see the candidates talking about the need for us to come together and talk about how they have dealt with similar issues in the past. There will be disagreements here and there. I think what you will see more than anything are two leaders who are exuding that leadership. Do you believe it is fair criticism for the president and his supporters for to point out what happened during the swine flew and it was not handled well and a lot more people died and a lot of the challenges for this administration are laws passed during the obama administration. Fair criticism . Absolutely. Here is why, the president walked into h1nh1n1, the epicen of h1n1 was mexico. Because they understood this, they were able to prevent it and by the fact they looked at the signs. They were prepared and acknowledged and did everything dr. Fauci did everyday and everything that donald trump should be doing but is not doing. In the after math of ebola, president obama introduced a number of bills of preparing this. They created an office of preparedness in the white house. What does this president do . He eliminates it. National security is not simply issuance of guns and terrorism. Thats a huge part of it. National security involves pandemic and things of this nature. This president does not get it. Night and day. Given the state of play right now, you are not lucky you are not running against tony rauci. I think you will have a tough test in your hands. National security you just said. If there starts to be a call of the primaries, too many people coming out. I am not worried of long lines on illinois on tuesday. A lot ofoptimism. If they start to become more pressure on you. The primaries have to stop and maybe no convention, are you worried of a domino effect. There are so many states and you look at washington and oregon and california and there is vote by mail. When you spread out early voting, you can eliminate or minimize the extent. Republicans have been fighting to make voting harder. The challenges that exists and making sure that we protect our Campaign Workers and our poll workers and our candidates. We dont minuimize the seriousness of this. If you look at the election taken place so far, last tuesday and super tuesday. We have been able to handle and we are going to continue to consult with Public Health officials. I think we can move forward. All four of the states, tuesday are moving forward. This coming tuesday is the third biggest hall of delegates. It is a large amount of delegates about 14 . Well continue our first moving forward and we are always going to put Peoples Health first and i think we can also move forward with our democracy. Well, i appreciate the answer obviously. It means one thing with the set of feedbacacts we have now. Lets see how our situation on the ground changes on what is safe or not safe. Tom perez, good luck with the debate tonight. Thank you as always for joinings joinin joiningjoining us. Our team is joining us now. What laura, wh laura, what do you think will be of the debate tonight . Different tone. If you had two fellow ons the stage together and theyre duking it out in a middle of a campaign, it would be different. I think tonight theyre going to unite against donald trump and the way he has handled the coronavirus. I think you will hear from joe biden about how they would have handled it differently in the obama administration. I also do believe that you are going to see a lot of Bernie Sanders saying to joe biden, i told you so. Hes coming around to a couple of sanders position on College Affordability and bankruptcy reform so you will see Bernie Sanders saying to biden, better late than ever. Do we know how the coronavirus, how it is going to affect of the primary on tuesday and the statesmen have been a lot of early voting as we have been talking about. We dont. Governor pritzker took that question. We dont know how it is going to impact to move forward of early voting. Anderson, we should focus on how astounding it is. It was just 18 days ago that they had their last debate. It was seven candidates on the stage. The speculation was if joe biden did not do well, his campaign may be over and Bernie Sanders was a front runner in that race. The fire was emerging as an issue. Think how dramatically the world has change. Biden is in a commanding position. One effect of the viruses it may free him in place of the advantages he has here. The tone of this debate is different. Biden is thinking likely of the nominee of the party now and hes going to try to use the debate to throw the branch to sanders support. Today he reiterated his support for a version of free college and not universal. Sanders put up 125,000. He wants to signify to those Young Sanders supporters. I hear you, your concerns are my concerns and well march together. Fauci says it is going to get worse from where it is now. People are working at bars and restaurants and hotels. There will be a lot of people out of work with all of these business, kids are out of school. American life has changed and it is going to be completely changed. We saw more so this week as you head into a workweek and a school week where you will be working from home or students are home and there is no school in person, in class. Thats why whats so intriguing about tonight is two reasons why this debate is so different. One is coronavirus, putting it into a completely different context to date. The second point is because the race itself is in such a different place. Joe biden started turn to the general election. He went out thursday to give a speech about coronavirus as a contrast to donald trump. That was his signal he was moving onto a general election context even though Bernie Sanders is considering his candidacy. How he balances that in a oneonone debate is going to be important to watch. This is joe biden responsibility and the burden on him to do it in a way that works for him. And the sanders campaign. His manager told politico they are not naive. They know it is a hard path. They are hopeful that the debate tonight can change the dynamic. They think one of his coach chairs told me they feel the coronavirus provide an opportunity for sanders who highlight what he considers the dysfunction of the Healthcare System and hell try to establish himself with biden and push biden up more. Stay with us when we return. Both men will be on stage tonight. Well see how both candidates answering questions about coronavirus. Stay with us. Executive transpor. And a beverage distribution supervisor. Now im a director at a Security Software firm. Wow, youve been at it a long time. The thing is, i like working. What if my Retirement Plan is i dont want to retire . Then lets not create a Retirement Plan. Lets create a plan for whats next. I like that. Get a plan thats right for you. Td ameritrade. Get a plan thats right for you. You cant claim that because its inanimate people ask me what sort of person should become a celebrity accountant. And, i tell them, nobody should. Hey, buddy. Whats the damage . I bought it the waterfall . Nope a new volkswagen. A volkswagen . i think were having a breakthrough here welcome to caesars palace. Thank you. I opened a sofi money account and it was the first time that i realized i could be earning interest back on my money. I just discovered sofi, and im an investor with a diversified portfolio. Who am i . i refinanced with sofi and i was able to cut my Interest Rate by forty percent. Thank you sofi. To absorb whatever is going to come its way. Epared were always preparing. Make sure that the network is working. All the time. We are constantly looking at it, were constantly monitoring it, take that responsibility very seriously. The most rewarding thing about the work we do is whenever we see a customer able to communicate back to their loved ones. That is why we do what we do. Were relentlessly committed to the network. So in times like this, america can stay connected to work, school, and most importantly, to each other. Its more than just fast. It keeps all your devices running smoothly. With builtin security that protects your kids. No matter what theyre up to. It protects your info. And gives you 24 7 peace of mind. That if its connected, its protected. Even that that petcamera thingy. [ whines ] can your internet do that . Xfinity xfi can because its. Simple, easy, awesome. [ barking ] we are about half an hour from the democratic debate. Also first to go without a live studio because of coronavirus. Our andrew yang, how do you think coronavirus will impact tonights debate and the ramifications of what this country is going through . The coronavirus is likely to dominate a significant part of the debate because it is dominating the news and publics attention. It is one of the reasons why i think a lot of people are watching the debate and everyone is stuck at home and there are no sports. For bernie, the Incredible Opportunity and challenge. It is an opportunity because he has a powerful critique of the Healthcare System that Many Americans can agree with and he can paint joe as a bit of an element tof defender of the status quo that many feel that are not up to the challenge for coronavirus. Because everyone is focused on families and schools closing and being too aggressive is not going to serve bernie as well. Hes going to have to try to balance but also not attacking too much because it is going to across negatively since most americans right now have bigger concerns on their mind and dont want to endorse someone whos playing politics. Can you imagine joe biden wanting to focus on President Trump and obviously focusing on the general election. Do you see sanders going after joe biden. Sanders for medicare for all and biden putting out all branches to try to get some of the young people of Bernie Sanders supporters. Do you see sanders going Double Barrel . We know joe is going to pivot at trump and the general at every opportunity. It is in bernies hand how aggressive he wants to be. The fact is joe and bernie get along. Theyre friends. Theyre not going to be too aggressive while trying to drag joe on healthcare and trying to remedy income equality and school loans and education. I wonder when you make and the other thing thats happening is the latest press conference of the president and the task force. I wonder what you heard today from the white house, the administration and also from the federal cutting Interest Rates. Cutting Interest Rates which are really little. You talked about them, the bartenders and hotel workers. I just passed a restaurant, we are closed until further notice because of the coronavirus. Think of the chefs and the wait staffs and parking attendance. Theyre going to go home and Interest Rates does nothing for them. Thats why we need to put cash in american hands to help keep families able to manage this crisis. People have only been home a day or two but the fact that we could be at this for weeks or months. It is unclear when well get an all clear sign because we dont have good data on the infection rate or how spread it is in the communities. Appreciate it. Thanks. Anderson, lets bring back the panel right now. On one level it is all complicated and influx and scary. It comes down to simple precept thats been ignored. Someone has to tell you the truth when it matters. Thats a precious commodity. How is that play . Is it presumptive . Bernie sanders is a straight shooter. We assume that hell go out there. We have seen debates and flipping the whole thing upside down when we saw bloomberg gets taken out by elizabeth warren. We dont know what bernie is going to do. On these kinds of issues, there are people and constituents that can hear a Bernie Sanders and hearing it totally differently. Why dont we forgive our Student Loans. Lets get your Student Loans off the table. If you are in prison and waiting for trial and waiting for three months or six months, let you come home. Homeless people, you got a bunch of schools and campuses and Hotels Opening and empty, you can come out with bold ideas that may put biden in a position that hes not up dealing with the full scope and scale of the challenge. You could see a debate performer from bernie. I think also this is a oneonone debate. There is not biden typically has not done well in debates. Hes got a couple of debates where hes done well. Bernie does not mess up. Hes on point and not confused. Sometimes biden can stumble a little bit. There is nothing to deflect here. It will be interesting to see if bernie goes after him. Do you think there is a chance that bernie does what van suggested that. You struggle d in the past and this country needs the truth. You could. If i am joe biden, i want to look calm, cool and president ial. I can respond to that. How . We are in a crisis. And they want to see somebody, thats what they want to see. Look, i am president ial. I can deal with this. Here you have the president of the United States in the middle of pandemic, what is he doing . Hes tweeting about hillarys emails and against Chuck Schumer and he says i may give a pardon to flynn. The world is worried to death today. It was donald trump who cut the unit inside the white house and the cdc funding economic response by 80 . We were forward leaning in 49 countries. We reduced it by third now because of the funding cut. Guess who got cut . China when this whole thing starts. Make sure the American Public knows the truth about this. The big debate is only 20 minutes away. Well see how it plays out in realtime as the nation without question faces a historic crisis. A lot of people will be home watching. Lets take a break now, stay with cnn. Liberty biberty cut. Well dub it. Liberty mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. For ralphies appointment. Whos his groomer . Carrie. Full groom for sure what . I just booked ralphies appointment online. That work . Wait you what . Its that easy download the app or book online at petsmart. Com a book that youre ready to share with the world . Get published now, call for your free publisher kit today breaking news of the new guidelines from the cdc. I want to read a portion of it. Large events of mass gathers could contribute to the spread of covid. The statement continues cdc in accordance of its guidance recommends the next eight weeks, organizers whether groups or individuals cancelled or postpone events consisting of 50 people or more throughout the United States. This recommendation does not apply to the daytoday operation like schools or businesses or higher learning. Back now with our political team. David, this has ramifications for upcoming primaries and uncharted water. 50 people, not that large of a group, right . Hearing that, you see cities and states say bars and restaurants are going to be closed. But some cities here in washington, there were guidel e guidelines not to close but keep it under a certain number. I dont know how you can gather in any kind of public space in that kind of way if you are limiting at 50. Whatever we thought about how life is going to change and the Different Things well have to do as individuals to alter our behavior, i just think hearing that information anderson suggests that it is going to be so much more than we thought we are going to have to do. The convention this center, the Republican Democratic convention. And republicans have said they have been looking at contingency plan and theyre preparing in case they do have to cancel which would be a mass gathering. Campaigns have started to adapt to this new normal that we have seen sanders and biden Holding Town Halls and chats and their campaigns are not doing door knocking anymore. They just are resorting to phone calls and texting. And also number of activist groups and mobilization groups across the state. They are now doing that a few days ago. This is not two months. This is not doing it for the next couple of weeks or to reassess. This is two months. That gives you an idea of this severity that the cdc sees it here and warning people to social distancing themselves and tony fauci talks about the curve and wants to see it flatten. On the one hand you have a president who says relax, we are doing great and it will pass. The hope is yes, it will pass but when because the cdc is now saying for two months you have to change the way you live. We have overlapping crisis here and so many as andrew yankeyang saying earlier in the wreeek Bernie Sanders and joe biden had backtoback statements after trumps disaster oval office speech. They wanted to rush in and show people what their president ial statement would look like. They were different in some way. Biden focused on a protocol of what the government should do. Bernie focusing on Human Dimensions and economic dimensions and the personal dimension of people whose kids are home from school so they cant go to work or you know, there is a whole range of issues here. It will be interest ing in the debate to see how much of a discussion evolves over those fundamentals which i guess what people are thinking about as they are sitting at home tonight wondering what the future will be like. And cancelling their plans. People have plans. Vacations with their family for spring break. If we are not doing that, how are we going to pay the babysitters if we are at home or if you work as a waitress. It is your personal finance situation and your business. What does your business do if your business has to cancel . I dont want to harp on this because it is so important when churchill took over in 1948 and say, you know, the germans are coming but i got this. Dont worry about it. Relax. I mean really is so important for the leader to say, this is a bad situation. We were all going to be have to be part of meeting that challenge. We just havent seen that. Well see if we see it from these guys. Its also rare you have a situation in which each of us is a player in the solution to this. It requires a massive societal change in behavior and willingness to wash your hands more regularly and not gt in someone elses face. And not go to bars and restaurants. I refrained from doing that. I know other outlets have started tel working. So other than coming in tonight, a lot of reporters are staying away from the hill or staying away from their news rooms. So its definitely a change in life as any of us are used to it. And it will have to continue clearly for the foreseeable future. One thing im looking at is whether or not any of the candidates talk about the notable exemption in the house bill. Which is that for the paid sick leave applied, it doesnt apply to companies with 500 or more employees. So that leaves out companies that are like walmart or amazon and seems like something sanders will jump on in a debate. It will be interesting. It was a lastminute statement. The democrats wanted to go that way and the administration in final negotiations, this is the the only place that they could have landed for knapp sit pelosi to pass it. I think they are going to try to go back at it. They couldnt get it this time. This reminds me of john mccain and his campaign talking about something greater than yourself. And that is what leadership sometimes has to ask of the public. To be a part of something thats bigger than you are for the greater good. And that is something we have not yet heard. And its not something, transly, that this president has been involved with headligrealls life in another capacity. Its a very different kind of situation he finds himself in. You want to turn it over to crisp his panel for the breaking news. Absolutely. Thank you very much. So 50 or less, lets avoid it. What does that mean . The obvious thing is that theres not a polling station in most parts of america that can meet that standard. So i dont know if anybody is doing the math on this, but what does it say about tuesday . We have super tuesday three coming up. Were in the middle of a national election. These things are starting to collide now. So the cdc said, as you were talking earlier on, the states control voting. So cdc says nothing 50 or above. Vans point is right what happens to the state primaries . The government north is running your particular state with your board of elections. You have to make the decision. People are going to vote on tuesday. We already have people that have voted by mail. The four elections are going to go on on tuesday. And i think cdc guidance for other big events around, but were not stopping the primaries on tuesday. I want to say i think its good that were starting to get some federal guidance and taking it seriously is important. If you lock at italy right now, thats a country thats on its back because they didnt manage this thing. Its not that you cant deal. If you have enough time, you can deal with all kinds of people. You just cant deal with them allinone day. Thats why youre trying to keep people from getting close to each other. However, this is a tricky balance here. On voting. We have democrats to make it easier for people to vote is. Early vote extnding. Republican legislatures around the country have stmicily stopped all that legislation. Maybe this will be an impetus to get this country to make it easy for everybody to kprz their right. Nobody wants to talk politics. They want things to work and get it done. Its a the lot of mixed messaging. Anderson was making a great pount. This president struggled with vending. But the country doesnt believe that leaders are about that anymore. What is the message you think that resinates best tonight from the podiums . I think a message of truthful leadership of somebody who is actually speaking the truth and not doing what donald trump has been doing, which is really saying a lot of things that arent true, send issing a lot of mixed messages. Telling people to do things us they shouldnt be be doing. The favor goes to biden for sure. Because hes a former Vice President. And so i think people are in this moment are looking for somebody who is very steady, who has experience and they are feeling unsafe. They are feeling unsure they are feel iing scared. So i think when it comes to those kinds of moments, you are looking for somebody more like joe biden. Were waiting on the two debaters to come out. Its supposed to happen any second now. Of course, as we pointed out earlier, those podiums are farther apart than were used to seeing. They are. Six feet apart. And done with the the number of folks there. You see former Vice President biden starting to come out. Sanders will be out there shortly. Were told that i think they wont be shaking hands. But thats the advanced word i got. Well see. Heres the moment. Do nay keep the social isolation thing . Here we go. Was that an elbow thrown at the jar of Bernie Sanders . It was sort of an elbow forearm bump. Theres going to be a pool spread. They are standing there for pictures. And that six foot of distance is something we have not seen anything gnu kind of debate quite like this. Really, as journalists, were always excite d about being witnesses to history. We have never lived through anything like this. So as soon as we know this is going to start, let me know. Van n terms of the uniqueness of it, how do you speak to the the uniqueness of this moment when its terrible in a different way every day. I think were going to look back on this as an inflection point. First of all, you have a lot of people who for the first time are really having to democrats have been talking about a Health Care System and a government that works. Yao looking down a brl of a real challenge. And this election matters. And how a leader steps up to the plate is going to matter for a lot of people. But also you have people who are having to i think differently about their neighbors and their responsibility to each other. This virus doesnt care who you voted for. It doesnt care what youz look like opinion its coming for all of us. Do you turn to each other or on each other . Thats going to be the opportunity for politics to dhang, for society to change and its a big test. Its the first time we have been told you guys are interdependent. Im only going to be as healthy as you help me be. Maybe that was the message this country needed more than anything else. Its horrible for it to come in a coronavirus crisis, but its important. To remember were all interconnected and in a community and even when people are panicking and starting to hoard whatever it is they are hoard iing to stop and think, wait, there are other people that are going to need these things. Take as much a as you need. Be reasonable and plan, but remember there are oh people that are going to come to that store and need to be able to have access to the same things and to be thinking about it that way. Very different drum beat than the us vs. Them, which has been dominating politics since the beginning of this administration. Real opportunity tonight to come out unified. This is a real opportunity. Trump and all his insanity, ul be delegate. You watched his tweets. Theres something seriously wrong with this guy. We have an opportunity to be big, bold, be president ial, show leadership. Im hoping that we come out of this debate tonight unified as a contractic party. Opportunity is only as good as it is captured by the people involved. Anderson, well see that any second. Now going to be a lot of people watching this debate with a different situation they are facing in their own lives. They are facing the potential of losing their jobs in the restaurant thas work, the airline they work for, the company they work for. And they are suddenly going to be looking at what sort of a safety net is there in a situation like this that they have not been in before. And its one of the few times we have been beating up on government and our institution trs three years. Now they are looking to congr s congress. What are you going to do . If i have to be quarantined, i dont have that kind of deal with my employer. Congress acted. Its good to see government work. This is just the beginning. Especially as we see the cases come. Theres going to be needs for these hospitals that cant be met. What is government doing right now to plan for what they know is going to happen. This debate is going to be seen by an awful lot of people. Cnn debate. Its going to be fascinating. We have never seen anything like it. It is about that time. The democratic president ial debate starts now. Good evening from washington, d. C. Welcome to this unique event. The cnn democratic president ial debate with the two leading candidates for the democratic nomination. Former Vice President joe biden and vermont senator Bernie Sanders. Candidates, its good to have you. Im jake tapper along with dana bash. We come together tonight at an extra oordinary time in our country when people are worried about far more than just president ial politics. Were in a National Emergency because of the devastating Global Pandemic of coronavirus. It has killed nearly 6,000 people around the world and 65 dead and more than 3,300 cases known here in