Transcripts For MSNBCW AM Joy 20200502

Members of congress, donald trump was reluctant to use the Defense Production act to nationalize production and distribution of these crucial items that could save lives. There was no such reluctance on tuesday when trump invoked that very same law to classify meat plants as essential infrastructure that must remain open. While Health Care Workers are forced to reuse masks until they fall apart, they should at least be able to score some chicken nuggets. Am i right . For the kids. Priorities. The move forces lowwage employees, many of whom are black, latino, or immigrant, to working conditions right for the spread of the virus. Already, more than 20 meat packing plants across the country have closed due to concerns about illness. According to a new report by the cdc, nearly 5,000 meat and poultry plant workers in 19 states have been diagnosed with covid19, 20 people have died. The federal government has also failed to coordinate the National Food supply which is why youre hearing about farmers dumping millions of gallons of milk. The chicken processor sandersson farms destroying 750,000 unhatched eggs per week. Farmers left with tens of millions of pounds of food that they can no longer sell to restaurants or hotels or schools. While in a seeming dystopian paradox, grocery shelves are empty, and lines for food banks are snaking around arena parking lots. For politico, trumps Agriculture Department has been slow to respond to this crisis. Just as trump lagged on using federal power to supply workers and sick citizens with lifesaving supplies, instead using it to make people work in harrowing conditions, risking their lives and their health and the health of their families. Joining me now is california congresswoman katy porter whos calling for more transparency in how the Trump Administration is using the Defense Production act. Andrew zimmer, host of whats eating america, and dr. Ezekial emmanuel, msnbc senior medical contributor and former Health Policy adviser for the obama administration. Thank you all for being here. Ill start with you, congresswoman. You wrote an oped in the Washington Post on tuesday, and ill read a little bit of what you wrote to you, it says, unlike most government contracts, dpa orders are not public documents leaving americans in the dark with one of the administrations key tools in its covid19 response. Explain what is dpa, what are dpa orders, and explain to me dpa meaning the Defense Production act, explain how the Defense Production act is supposed to work and how in your mind it has failed to work here. So the Defense Production act was passed during the korean war, and the idea was to allow the United States to harness its manufacturing capacity to meet Critical National security needs. So in essence when the president invokes the Defense Production act, they the government can order manufacturers to prioritize producing certain kind of equipment and can prevent price gouging of taxpayers as it does so. For a lot of things that we might use the Defense Product act for, you wouldnt necessarily be able to reveal to the American Public what you were producing. For National Security reasons. In this pandemic, its exactly the opposite. We need to know if the president has used the Defense Production act, what he has ordered, when it is going to come, and how he plans to distribute it. Without that, we continue to have all of the supply chain disruptions that weve been facing. And so just to put a pin on it, had donald trump initially invoked the Defense Production acts, dpa, had he done that initially could in theory the federal government, have the administration say okay, were going to have industries that normally make cars, right, make ventilators, and were going to distribute those ventilators in this way, were going to make sure every state has x number, that they have enough. Were going to do the same with test kits, and then we could do the same if he wanted now with the food supply. Could he have done a National Coordinated strategy if he had wanted to . Absolutely. The president should have used the Defense Product act to get ahead of the needs that were seeing, the personal protective equipment, the test kits, all of those things. Not just protective equipment but also i should a the testing supplies. He could have used the Defense Product act to do that. Thats why we have the law. So this is another example just like the ability for the cdc to provide for free testing where theres a law thats there for very good reason, but we have in this case an administration that failed to make good use of it. Now, all of a sudden when tyson and big corporations want him to use the Defense Production act to keep meat packing plants open and put workers lives at risk, he jumps to do it. Its a huge reversal of policy. But its because this time its coming at the request of Big Productions rather than what we saw before was big corporations lobbying against the use of the Defense Production act, even though it would have protected our frontline Health Care Workers. Yeah. And dr. Emmanuel, let me go to you on this. Heres the challenge the food supplys already disrupted. Its becoming more disrupted by the day. Were going to talk more with andrew about some of the at the farm end of it. In the production element of it, right . Like once meat is getting to these production plants, its now in the hands of people who are exactly in a position to get sick. Theyre working in these close quarters. Nbc news has been running and msnbc has been running this video all week of these plants where theyre trying to find ways to separate people. But as you see look at ting at screen, people are supposed to be apart six feet. When you think of who this is, the people who maybe donald trump doesnt think theyre important but their families do, their loved ones do, this is a this is a cohort that is 44. 4 latino, its 25. 2 africanamerican in terms of meat packing workers. These are lowincome people. Frontline has put some of the data out, as well. 51 51. 5 of these people are immigrants. 45. 1 of them live in lowincome families. And 15. 5 lack Health Insurance. So these are the most Vulnerable People who are literally processing our food. Your thoughts, dr. Emmanuel . Yeah. I think youre 100 right. They are immigrants, theyre lowwage workers, typically not very well organized, and even when they have a union with the Defense Product act that cant act for them in order to protect them. Society needs to protect them, we need them. If too many call in are sick, we dont first of all, we dont want them handling our food. And second of all, whats surprising to me a little bit is that we know from south dakota, the original outbreak in smithfield processing plant, that infection doesnt stay inside the factory. These people go home, they go out into the community. Often they dont know that theyre infected. They may be asymptomatic and could spread it in the community. Its not like they own keep it inside the factory. Its a wider issue for all of us to be concerned about. And one of the things i think is important for all of us is were in this together. Were a community. We shouldnt be trying to exploit these kind of workers for our own good. It is very important to have the food chain and the Food Supply Chain working and to have it without infection so that we can all be assured that the food we have is pure, that if we take out that chicken, somehow it doesnt have virus on it. So i think thats an important element. But you know, we cant exploit people for our own good. We have to ask everyone, tysons food, the government, Work Together to push this to squash this infection out. And it does seem to me that, you know, making these workers go to work sick is one of those episodes that were trying to exploit the weakest person in our society for the benefit of all of us. That just doesnt seem like the right thing to be doing. Indeed. Absolutely well said. Andrew, you know, the other end of that Food Supply Chain, at the start of it, were hearing about cattle ranchers having to euthanize cows or eggs being destroyed because even getting the food to where its processed or to be even able to fill in where food banks are going without while food is rotting on farms. Theres something wrong here with the coordination nationally. Obviously the usda has clearly not done enough. Can you talk a little about it . At that end, too, youre seeing a lot of suffering. Well, i just cant believe where we are. Weve been talking about this, joy, for five or six weeks, going back to my first appearance on your show. Yep. We predicted this. Im not sure which is worse the cult of secrecy thats been built up between the government, osha, the weakening of the cdc guidelines and big food, Companies Like tyson and jbs, or the cult of laziness and stupidity that congresswoman porter was referring to and that dr. Zeke was referring to. Its absolutely galling to me. We could have been using the Defense Production act six weeks, seven weeks ago. We could have been enrolling fema to be out and distributing the food that we know is perishable. Look, chickens lay eggs on a regular cycle. Cows need to be mixed on a regular cycle milked on a regular cycle. Vegetables grow on a regular and predictable cycle on farms that have been doing this, many of which for generations as the weather warms up and as spring starts creeping north. With the vegetables, the milk, the eggs, thats a distribution issue. Fema could have been you talk about laws that are on the books for people to be invoked. There are aspects of the National Emergency acts that the usda, that the department of ag, the white house could have invoked to allow fema to come in and distribute the food to where its needed. Remember, the biggest customer for food, many foods, 75 of fish in america is consumed in the restaurant chain that goes from the ocean to restaurants. When you take restaurants out of the equation, when you take schools out of the equation, those are massive, massively large customers. We could have taken that food and redirected it to Community Resource kitchens, to food banks, and, of course, to Grocery Stores. So this is this is just a stupidity issue. This is a lack of vision issue. Im just absolutely stunned by it. Do i think theres enough public outcry that we will correct it . Yes. But im petrified about the cult of secrecy thats going on in our plants. Those videos of the tyson meat plants that you see are from april 11th, april 12th is when tyson started requiring people to wear face shields in their plant. And it gives the illusion that things are quote unquote safe despite people walking past each other. Its not. It doesnt continue to be, and were putting our communities at risk because of the lack of transparency in our food factories. Yeah. And the Vice President mike pence showing up the mayo clinic with no mask on. Theyre not setting a good example. On the secrecy side, the secrecy and stupidity matrix that andrew talked about, congresswoman, on the secrecy side, we just found out that theres been yet another starting to look like friday night massacres, every friday, a dump of an ig, an Inspector General. Donald trump has now moved on friday to replace a top official at the department of health and human services. Her name is kristi grimm. She angered him apparently with a report last month highlighting supply shortages and testing delays at hospitals during the coronavirus pandemic. The white house waited until after Business Hours to announce the nomination of a new Inspector General for the department who if confirmed would take over for her. Thats a point one. The second data point ill give you is dr. Fauci who has been being made more and more scarce in terms of hes the one person in this administration that most americans trust. And now hes been blocked from testifying before a house panel next week. The white house says it would be counterproductive to take him away from his work. Theyre saying they will let him testify at a Senate Health committee hearing. I guess they like that body better because its controlled by mitch mcconnell, on may 12th. But are you concerned from an oversight perspective, congresswoman, that dr. Fauci is being made more scarce to congress, and that these igs are being run out of town because donald trump doesnt like the truth theyre telling . This pandemic is also a crisis of oversight. And President Trump is exploiting that to his advantage, and the losers here are the american people. This latenight friday night switch in personnel, youre right, it continues to happen. Its a real problem. And thats part of the reason that i introduced the accountability for acting officials act because right now we dont have actually senate confirmed, permanent appointees in so many critical jobs. So by using these acting officials which he can quickly fire and replace, were not getting the information that we need. And so absolutely i think dr. Fauci should testify. And ill point out that during the critical weeks leading up to the announcement of the pandemic, in february and late january even, throughout march, dr. Fauci testified in a bipartisan congressional briefing for all members, each and every single week. And he was terrific and helpful in providing members with education and things that we could take back to our communities. So i think he absolutely should be allowed to testify. And im very concerned about how the president continues to attack our Inspector General community which exists solely to protect the american taxpayers from fraud, waste, and abuse, and to make sure that these programs are effective on the ground. Yeah. You know, dr. Emmanuel, i think about, you know, in george w. Bush and the incredible screwup on the part of the administration when it came to hurricane katrina. Eventually he wised up to the idea that he needed somebody to handle this. That this was beyond i guess the scope of his capability to do himself. And you think about general Russell Honore coming in and handling it and being the sort of czar, the person in charge. Is that what donald trump needs . Does he need to put someone like dr. Fauci obviously has a lot on his plate. But somebody else. Like somebody that is in charge of this . He seems to be running point on it himself. And that seems to be the problem. Well, look, early on i suggested that what we needed was a lot of different groups responsible for different elements of this. I think as andrew mentioned weve got a problem in the food side of it, mainly a distribution problem because were, you know, food the plants were already planted, the chickens were already working on producing eggs. And its a distribution problem. We need a whole group that would handle that distribution. Similarly we need a group that would handle testing in this country that is still more than two months after they promised that every american could get a test, were not there. We have a whole series of problems that need to be addressed. Im not sure one person can manage all of that. But i do think you could have very welldefined areas and have a group that is in control of each of them. Tony fauci, i note that tony fauci has been at these press conferences day in and day out, standing up there for two hours. Maybe having ten minutes of time at the podium over that stretch of time. That didnt seem to be a waste of his time. So im not sure why going to capitol hill for a briefing that would be maybe two or three hours once would constitute a waste of time. Obviously a valid explanation. Yeah. They dont like that he would say things that are true. And last question to you on this, andrew by the way, by putting someone in charge, that doesnt mean jared kushner. It doesnt always mean jared kushner. That has not worked in the past. Last question to you on this, andrew. Among the many people not getting properly access to testing, i assume people picking our food are not getting tested or treated. We have no way of knowing the scope of potential outbreak among the people at the very front line in the agriculture industry. You and i have talked about that before. Im going to give you the last word on that. My friend, you absolutely read my mind. Its odd how this always comes back to testing. Tyson is standing behind hipaa laws, using them as a shield, saying we cant tell you the results of the tests in our plant. Governor rickets is doing the same thing in nebraska. The jbs company is doing the same thing in greeley, colorado. It all comes down to testing. Big food thinks that testing is something that they cant really talk to us about. And the reason is is that its going to reveal really, really scary numbers to people. When you test, you will find out results. They say its a onetime result. I disagree. I think it tells us where we need to be focusing our attention. And we hear reports from the field, im talking to my friends on farms in california and six other states who are saying that not only is there not testing going on farms, but they dont have the the same stories we hear from meat plants, that theres hot water, but theres not enough soap. Theres masks, but not shields. Theres gloves, but theres not enough protective headgear. I mean, its absolutely dumbfounding to me. It goes back to that, you know, that same old song, is it is it ineptitude, or is it a kabul of conspiracy . And you know, im praying that its ineptitude because we can get people in there, as dr. Zeke said, who can run different aspects of this and solve the problem. And i pray that its not im not being a delusional paranoid, but something tells me theres Something Else going on. Yeah. Well, i said when donald trump first got elected that what all of americans have to learn to do is use your lurid imagination because theres almost nothing they wouldnt do at least to mess things up. Look at the mushy language look at the mushy language thats being forced into our cdc and osha guidelines. Thats a big change. Thats coming from somewhere. Someone is changing that language, and i dont think its dr. Redfield. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, you dont test for things you dont want to know the answer to. That is part of the answer. Thank you so much to dr. Ezekial emmanuel, congresswoman porter, andrew zimmer, my friend. You guys are great. Be safe, please. Check out making the call. Next up, we will introduce you to necrpolitics. U to necrp. Were automatically refunding our customers a portion of their personal auto premiums. Learn more at libertymutual. Com covid19. [ piano playing ] i wanted more from my copd medicine thats why ive got the power of 1, 2, 3 medicines with trelegy. The only fdaapproved oncedaily 3in1 copd treatment. Trelegy the power of 1,2,3 trelegy 1,2,3 trelegy man with trelegy and the power of 1, 2, 3, im breathing better. Trelegy works three ways to open airways, keep them open and reduce inflammation, for 24 hours of better breathing. Trelegy wont replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. Trelegy is not for asthma. Tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high Blood Pressure before taking it. Do not take trelegy more than prescribed. 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New tide power pods one up the cleaning power of liquid. Can it one up whatever theyre doing . For sure. Seriously . One up the power of liquid, one up the toughest stains. Any further questions . Uh uh one up the power of liquid with new tide power pods. If youre an employer and you offer to bring your employee back to work and they decide not to, thats a voluntary, whats the word im looking for pardon voluntary we dont have it happen often, a voluntary quit. Therefore, they would not be eligible for the unemployment, the unemployment moneys. Thats called saying the quiet part out loud. Were waiting for a conference with new york governor andrew cuomo. First, many workers across the country are faced with an ultimatum risk your life and show up to work, or lose your job and your livelihood. As the number of coronavirus cases continues to grow nationwide, several republican governors are still pushing to reopen their states. For those workers who do make the potentially lifesaving decision to stay home, some republican governors have signaled they could be stripped of their unemployment benefits. Its a move that will disproportionately impact hourly and lowwage workers who are disproportionately black and hispanic. My next guest describes this reality using a term that i learned about this week from her called necropolitics. Shes here to break it down. Joining me is brittany cooper, associate professor at rutgers university, and author of eloquent rage. Also joining us is seth harris, former acting secretary of labor under president obama. And brittany, im going to tell you, the way to make me obsessed with you is to tweet complex words that i have to look up. Now im obsessed. I was like, oh, can we get her on the show . Im going to read the tweet that sent me into a swoon literally. And i looked it up and read a i went into a deep worm hole. I feel like you tweeted most black people are clear that this utterly that this utterly absurd push to reopen the country is all about a gross necropolitical calculation, that it is black people dying disproportionately from covid. Lets look at the disproportionate numbers in state after state after state after state. In washington, d. C. , youre talking about 45 of the population, but 75 of the deaths. New york, 9 versus 19. Louisiana, 33 versus 65. Michigan, 14, 46. You can see it on the screen. I had friends last week when we were talking about georgia say to me, oh, thats why kemp is doing it because theyre out of money, and they dont want to pay unemployment benefits. And voila. People are saying it. Your turn to talk, i will stop talking, brittany. Yes, thank you, joy. So you know, im from louisiana, its my home state, and those numbers are staggering. When i saw this beginning to happen, this narrative about how we werent just going to go ahead and reopen the country, there was a clear racial tinge to it. There was the sense that as news outlets like yours have begun to cover Racial Disparities that conservative politicians around the country made a big shift in the way that they were talking about this saying we can reopen the country. Underneath that, underlying that is this idea that these lives dont have value. So when i use the term necropolitics, that is a political theory term. It really refers to the politics of death. How governments, how state power entities use policy to determine whose lives are worth protecting, whose lives are valuable. And whose lives are expendable. I know that we dont typically like to think about our government as acting in that kind of way, but we are really facing a pandemic in which we have lost almost 65,000 people in a matter of eight weeks or so. So we are absolutely at this point talking about the politics of death, and we need the kind of terminology that helps to think about how is the government determining how its enacting policy. Yeah. I mean, you know, seth, when you think about it, you go all the way back, right, you know, the life of an enslaved person was only as valuable as how many they could reproduce of more people who were thought to be owned by the person that called themselves the owner. You go all the way through the history of american work, you know, the immigrant workers in the 1920s and in the gilded age, its not like people thought their lives had any value other than how many times they could crank the wheel. The ideas of giving them a day off or not an eighthour day. There would be violent strikes to try to get that, violence against them. The idea about american work, the people at the lowest end of the work pool, has always been a sense of do you value this human, or are they just a means to an end. And it feels like were back there again. I almost feel like were reliving the Calvin Coolidge era. Your thoughts, seth . I think thats precisely right. I think its a continuation of a long history in the United States of devaluing working people, particularly brown and black working people. This order that President Trump put in place under the Defense Production act, that essentially forces the africanamerican and latino workers overwhelmingly, also some white workers, back into chicken and pork and beef production plants so that they can be responsible for getting the food supply back in shape. Those are some of the most dangerous workplaces in our country. And so what were seeing is an exposure of the inequalities that have existed in our society for a very long time. And if we can start with the health inequalities. Theres an unequal distribution based on race of health care and Health Insurance in our country. This administration in a crisis easily could have responded to that with extending Health Insurance, reopening the obamacare exchanges, making Health Insurance more widely available, picking up the call to pay for all covid treatments for any worker, particularly a Frontline Worker whos exposed. None of those have been done. You cant say that you care about workers if everything you do, every policy, taking osha off the beat, not giving ppe, not providing Health Insurance, results in those workers having a much increased likelihood of death. Joy brittany, we have a story that mitch mcconnell, you know, just talk about make it real clear who you care about, right, who you give a damn about. Mitch mcconnell wants to shield companies from liability in coronavirusrelated lawsuits. Sorry, i interrupted you. Oh, no. Thank you. So one of the things that people have really struggled with here is the idea that because black people have disproportionate levels of comorbidities, things like asthma and high Blood Pressure and diabetes, that we are personally responsible for them. That there is a real resistance in this country ive seen it across the political spectrum to thinking about the way that structures produce those comorbidities. Thats what were talking about when were talking about necropolitics. Were not only talking about disparities in Health Insurance coverage, were talking about things like food deserts, were talking about things like lack of access to healthy to safe parks and places to exercise in addition to the crisis. Part of what that means is black folks already go into this with a disadvantage. Also because we are overrepresented in the essential worker economy. The other thing that im thinking about, im thinking about the educator in brooklyn, rena mungan who passed away on monday. She was a 31yearold wellesley educator in brooklyn who began going to the hospital in the middle of march asking to be tested. She was turned away three times before finally she was intubated in an ambulance and then hospitalized. And after nearly six weeks of fighting for her life, she passed away on monday. And that tracks with all of the research that we have about how there is a racial empathy gap in this country so that Health Care Workers, even our heroic frontline Health Care Workers, still dont believe black folks own account about what is happening in their bodies, and it literally meant that this sister did not make it even though she fought, even though she advocated for herself. Part of the reason folks are so uncomfortable. Go ahead. Go on. Go on. Part of the reason that folks are so uncomfortable in this moment is because we are being exposed to all of these Racial Disparities that we would rather not talk about. Of course we have seen an uptick in these things in the Trump Administration. And so this encouragement of these conservative governors by the Trump Administration and then taken up in all of these places, iowa, georgia, et cetera, is all about an underlying, devaluing of these lives. Look, thats not just racial. Conservative politics also devalues the lives of the working poor. And so were not talking only about a racial problem in this country, were talking about a disdain for the people who do the hardest work. We cant have a real conversation about that unless we begin to value the fact that many of those workers are black and latino. Yeah. I think its pretty fair to say that if you work standing up, if you do your job standing on your feet, you probably are not the primary concern of the Mitch Mcconnells of the world. Theyre like, get your behind to work because i need x, right. And you know, to go back a little bit, broader, seth, youve got all of these nurses, and we all know all of us know a lot of home care nurses, a lot of west indian, older west indian folks, west indian nurses. Youve got people who are, you know, working in Nursing Homes where theres a lot of death. Like disproportionate amount of death going on. Youve got Frontline Workers. Youve got you know sort of across the board these professions that are necessa necessaryits to keep us comfo s comforcomforts comfortable and at home, you put that against the unemployment number which im looking at here. 30. 3 million unemployment claims, 3. 84 million just in a week. Were heading toward what feels like a depression. And so its like the question is, what do you do, right . Like the simple thing and the thing that seems obvious would be to pay people to stay home. Thats what other countries are doing. Is that what we should be doing . Should we be saying were going to pay people to stay home . Yeah. Thats what we should be doing. The c. A. R. E. S. Act which created the paycheck protection program, a series of Small Business loans and also provided lending facilities to the Federal Reserve bank, was supposed to do that. The loans were supposed to go out and become forgivable, at least to Small Businesses, if they kept people on the payroll. But as we see the unemployment claims numbers climb over 30 million, plus the seven Million People already unemployed, we see that it may not be working. That the Small Businesses are shutting down because they simply dont have the capital to survive. We also know that the distribution of that money has not been in the least bit fair. It has been overly represented in Rural Communities and others. So i think that theres a real challenge for communities of color that for a long time were excluded from this program functionally because their lending institutions were not getting the money. Those businesses closed down. And people lost their jobs in those communities. So as a consequence of that, i think we really in retrospect made a big miss take. We should have done what europe did and just paid workers directly and kept them on, and that would have kept these unemployment roles much, much smaller. States would not be in crisis, websites wouldnt be crashing. And we would have a much better functioning economy and maybe we wont slip into depression. Thats not where we are eight weeks in. Yeah. And you know, what happens, brittany, oftentimes is when you get into these debates, that we start to creep back into hearing these sort of conservative themes of laziness. The reason people dont want to go back, they can make more money on unemployment. Theyd rather sit home. You go right back to some of those kneejerk themes, and its not always just republicans who do it. This was an error that the kentucky governor, andy beshear, quite a good governor overall, where he actually apologized to somebody who he had accused of unemployment fraud. Take a listen. We had somebody apply for unemployment for tupac shakur here in kentucky. That person probably thought they were being funny. They probably did. I owe somebody an apology tonight. Last night i spent a little bit of time talking about fraudulent claims holding us up. I mentioned an individual that had filed in the name of tupac shakur. I didnt know its my fault that we have a kentuckyan whose name is tupac shakur. I talked to him on the phone and apologized. People had to laugh about it because the the young mans name is tupac shakur, so it trended. The underlying thing is there is Lindsey Graham has been say, oh, you cant give people unemployment plus, theyre just going to be lazy and stay home. It goes right back there to these tropes that generally are targeted at black and brown folks. Your thoughts . Absolutely. So look, thats the way that the welfare queens, stereotype got started in the first place. There was one story of welfare fraud in chicago in the 1970s, and Ronald Reagan created a whole narrative about how this is just what black women were doing. Weve got to be extremely careful in this moment where people are in real crisis. We are seeing it, and we are seeing it across our communities. The other threatening is the u. S. Is having a reckoning with our deep investment in a world where we think that the job of folks is to work to live. Now, that is typically what we expect of black and brown folks, that their job is to be servants, that their work is to make the world comfortable for everyone else. That is built into the fabric of this country. But the reality that many of us who have had the privilege to actually shelter in place at home with relatively secure salaries are understanding that all of us were working too hard. That all of us were pushing ourselves far too much anyway, and for what purpose, right . And so there is this narrative particularly coming out of the right agenda by capitalism that says that our own purpose in life is that we live to work, right. And the challenge of that is that you cant work if you cant live. If you cant breathe. Just to sort of flip it, flip the corollary and to begin to get us to think. Im not on this particular broadcast today trying to say that we need to have, you know, trying to do a fullscale kind of push against capitalism. Im anticapitalist, precisely because it puts us in these ethical calculations. Im asking folks to think about what our relationship to capitalism is. When you begin to do that, then you have to think about the ways that we tax the most vulnerable folks in our populations, the ways that we fundamentally dont value them. The ways that we keep on saying that these workers are essential, but the idea that making meat plants go and making Peoples Grocery deliveries easier, that all of that stuff matters more than keeping people safe, helping people take care of their families, helping people have food to eat. All of which are choices the government can make. All of which are choices that the government made the last time we were in a great depression, to see the lack fundamentally of empathy on the right is the thing that i find most disturbing because this is not just a political conversation. Its also a moral conversation. When you begin to talk about necropolitics, youre also talking about how we think about life itself. And many people have said it budgets are moral documents. What we do about economies, how we value people making money and the conditions in which they work, also tell us something about where we are spiritually as a country. Were in a deep place of just making the wrong choices about who matters here. And so it disturbs people when i make claims, you know, i said on twitter as part of this necropolitics thread black lives matter. But that call never meant that only black lives matter. It meant that when you begin to think about how the least of these in our society are being treated, you create a context for everybody to have a better set of working conditions. Yeah. Indeed. I want to add to this conversation. Were having a bit of a truncated broadcast today because weve got in presser coming up. I want to add into the conversation former u. S. Housing and urban Development Secretary julian castro, also was a candidate for president. I want to throw this to you. Were seeing people line up in these i dont want to call them areas, theyre not protests. What you call them, when you when people are showing up with ar15s, brandishing weapons, intimidating workers, intimidating government workers and, you know, with hideous signs that are offensive and in some cases antijewish or racist, and demanding what . Like its not clear what theyre demanding. Demanding to infect other people . Demanding to make other people sick . In a sense, it is a very it is a mono racial whatever you want to call it, protest, that does feel like its directed at the fact that this policy of staying home at least is attempting to save the lives of people who are dying or that are primarily black and brown. Your thoughts, sir . Yeah. Good to be you with you, joy, this morning. You know, all of us have seen the video and the images coming out of michigan and other places of these folks storming the State Capitol, brandishing their weapons, you know, demanding that the state be reopened. We saw the tweets that donald trump sent out a week or so ago about liberate michigan, liberate virginia and so forth. And what is you put your finger on it, whats amazing is that if you took those images and you compared them to we11 years ago, the first year of president obamas presidency, and a lot of the signs and the messages and the spirit of those rallies, basically the same thing. Its basically the same thing. And so i think it gets at the longstanding grudge that many people have that in part is racialized and is racially motivated. And i also believe that, you know, when journalists have an opportunity to investigate some of these rallies, what theyre going to find is that they are organized and perhaps partially funded by the same organizations, far rightwing organizations, that have an interest in stirring these passions up. So you know, its astroturf basically. Yeah. And this time, though, whats different is that its endangering Public Health. Its making it harder for us to actually get past this covid19 crisis. Well and just quickly because were going to add more to this panel. If you were still running the other issue, were having this conversation about this nec ropolitical moment where people are deciding who is worthy of living, who is worthy of preserving their lives and who is not, right. And you think about Public Housing, a group of americans that are often not thought about, not, you know, not really paid that much attention to, who live in very close quarters, who are sort of by default living in situations where it is easier to get sick because youre on top of each other, what should be in a world where we had a normal presidency, what should be being done about that . Well, i mean, first of all, we have Something Like 26 billion worth of overdue housing repairs that need to be done in Public Housing. We lose 10,000 units of Public Housing every year to disrepair. In so many ways, weve underinvested in Public Housing. We need to make those investments. We need to ensure that people can live in good, safe, sanitary conditions. In some ways we went too far. Public housing has real value and real value Going Forward and being able to provide people a safe, decent, affordable place to live. However, i do think that along with that we forgot about in many ways the residents who live there. And we need to be going in the other direction of investing in them. We also need direct rental assistance. Thats a huge gap. You know, i want to commend folks like representative presley and representative denny heck who has proposed different pieces of legislation to provide rental assistance to people that dress preply need it desperately need it. As if by magic, i happen to have Ayanna Presley here. We had a little bit of a different show planned, but we are working on the fly. I want to bring in the congresswoman. Thank you so much for being here. I add you to the conversation because rent relief is sort of a day a defcon1 situation. Yesterday was not just may day, it was rent day for a lost t of people. Were having a conversation about who is valued in this moment with the pandemic crisis and who is not. Renters are in trouble, theyre suffering. Talk about the yesterdays that you have for trying the ideas that you have for trying to alleviate that. Sure. Well, first, i just want to commend my colleague, representative omar, for her legislation which im proud to be an original cosponsor of which would cancel rent. Were in the midst of a Public Health crisis. People are literally navigating a new normal just trying to stay alive. Your housing is your most expensive bill. To the points made by secretary castro and the professor, housing is a critical determinant of health, as well. Many of the Health Disparities we see, also why we need quality, safe, and affordable housing. Housing is the most expensive bill. While folks are navigating a new normal just trying to stay alive, they shouldnt also be worried about paying the rent. We should just cancel that and eliminate that worry. And congresswoman and pause mornintgages, as w. Absolutely. When they hear that, then you think 1,200. That wont pay the rent in anywhere in new york city, i can tell you that. Nowhere in new york city is that paying your rent. In most big cities, thats not paying your rent. Im sure in boston thats not paying your rent. The challenge people have is theyre watching the legislation happen. Theyre like, this isnt helping me, right. So what what can be done to change that dynamic . Yeah. Let me just say, you know, what happened yesterday were experiencing unprecedented hurt. In the wake of that, were seeing unprecedented active itch. Folks should not have to activis activism. Folks should not have to mobilize over what should be so obvious. This hurt is unprecedented. The relief should be felt by everyone. It requires unprecedented solutions, unprecedented leadership. And we need a relief package that puts the people first. And that does mean many other things which i hope to enumerate later. But it certainly means canceling rent. And you know, i think the reason this administration has such contempt for workers and for, you know, everyday families, is theyre disconnected. Secretary mnuchin thinks that some family can live off of 1,200 for ten weeks . That is 17 a day. And i think donald trump has contempt for workers because he doesnt know anything about doing work. All he does is play golf. So of course he has contempt for workers. But even when he plays golf, hes utilizing lowincome, oftentimes undocumented workers to make sure theyre cleaning up after him and serving his food and you know, making sure the green is its like he knows what workers look like. They look like black and brown people. Yeah. Well, thats right. And work gets done by workers. And while many people are just now getting the memo that these are essential workers, they have for too long been treated as if they are not essential, but they are disposable. So they dont have essential rights. Think about if we already had universal paid leave. Universal health care, how we would have more effectively and better weathered this storm. This is why i partnered with senator warren and representative khana to introduce the essential workers bill of rights. These workers deserve personal protection, protective equipment. They deserve hazard pay. They deserve to know when another coworker has tested positive, and they deserve paid leave. To center this, a constituent called me at 11 00 at night, essential worker, a single mom. The schools are closed, no one else to care for her child. She said, i feel sick, and i need to stay home with my child. Can you promise me, representative presley, that if i stay home that i wont lose my job . I could not guarantee that. This this bill would take care of that and it needs to be included in the next relief package along with the cancelation of rent. Yeah. On the rents cancelation thing, i want to stay with that for that. Secretary castro, not only were you hud secretary, but a big city mayor. On the rent cancellation front, i imagine it would be difficult to get a bill like that through mitch mcconnell, the grim reaper, but governors could make decisions acting like minipresident s here. Could a governor in theory implement rent cancellation in their state . Could Governor Cuomo announce that he is going to issue a rent cancellation . Not just for individuals, but also for Small Businesses, who, by the way, also have to pay re rent. Governors have picked up the slack. So have mayors across the country. In fact a lot of places, local communities they have instituted protections against eviction to answer your question, i do think a balanced package that provides rental relief is urgently needed, and in representative omars legislation, for instance, both sides of this are addressed. We need to address the side of the renter who is panicking, because its already the 2nd of the month and usually the 4th or 5th its thing went and a landlord can take action. And at the same time, with respect to landlords, and the bill addresses this as well, a lot of this is landlords are not landlords who own 25,000 reports. Theyre people who own a duplex oar a fourplex, and people have brought up, which is a legitimate point, that many of them have a mortgage on that property, so that legislation is thoughtful in beginning to address all sides of that equati equation, but to make sure that all of those vulnerable American Families panicking because they dont have the money for rent are taken care of. Thats what we need to do. I just wanted to say, yes, this legislation is very thoughtful and holistic. It acknowledges the hurt is unprecedented, and the relief must be felt equitably. By the way, banks were handed sight unseen 1. 7 trillion by the Federal Reserve. So the money is there. The trick of we dont have the money, that doesnt work on americans anymore. Now we know they have a lot of money when they want it, so they could mitigate loans or let people go on mortgages so that way people cannot charge rent. Theres plenty of funding. Thats right. Our state legislatures, i do have to give it up to massachusetts, where our state legislature has stepped up, and at least theres a more torium, but we do kneel to cans the rents and mortgages, and thats why im a proud doucosponsor. My hope is that were going to learn a powerful lesson from this experience, and that were going to begin to treat housing as a human right in this country, that this kind of movement will be the beginning of longer lasting change and we wont treat housing as a back burner issue in the way that we have for a long time. I so appreciate that point. Absolutely. Seth, its a holistic thing, as the congressman, the congresswoman and former secretary have set. Its can you pay . Can you then turn around and pay your rent and bills . It all goes together. At the job end of it, its very difficult to get around the simple idea that if the United States was doing what some European Countries were doing and providing enough of a monthly income i think senator sanders has been for this, its not 1200 per time, money per month, is that something the United States could theoretically be doing to change a lot of these de namics . No question about it. I think well have to do that. That 1200, which, by the way, ha only gotten out to about half american people. People who get paper checks, in large pasch havent received that money just yet. But yes, well have to do it again. This economic recession that were in, heading towards a depression is going to last, and 1200 doesnt just run out quickly in new york and boston. It also runs out in oklahoma and in butte, montana. Unemployment Insurance Benefits are not getting out to everybody who should be getting them either. Thats the other big economic support that people have. We know small and Large Businesses are laying workers off in large numbers. So were going to have to figure out a way for the government to cover the difference, because you cant pay bills with money you dont have. So that we can stay out of the deep economic depression to which were headed right now. Absolutely. Im going to give britney the last word, when we started with the tweet that inspired me. Its absolutely true we need a universal basic income. The right is resisting this, because theyre worried the left will get the things weve been pressing for in this crisis. Crises expose the way we need to go. We can do that by focusing on how the least of these in our country are faring. This housing crisis is driven by this terrible perception of black women as the undeserving and lazy poor, and that is driving so much of this, so these policies will get us there, but weve got to go farther. I hope we can start, but we have to start by deciding that living and our government doing things to promote the living and thriving and not just the chosen few is the way to the future that we want. Amen. Well, i think this panel was great on the fly. We mushed too panels together, and i appreciate it. It could not have been better. Stay safe, please. We are awaiting the press briefing from Governor Cuomo, would you well have a bit more of am joy after the break. A. They are the heroes, the helpers working on the front lines, and heres one small way that you can help them in return. Complete your 2020 census today. 2020 census data helps communities plan funding for hospitals, clinics, and Emergency Services across the country. An accurate count helps Public Health officials know who is at risk, and First Responders identify the resources they need to protect our communities. Complete your census at 2020census. Gov and help shape our future. You get way more than free shipping. You get thousands cwhen you shop forus atyour home at wayfair of items you need to your door fast the way it works best for you. Even the big stuff. You get a delivery experience you can always count on. You get your perfect find at a price to match on your schedule. You get free two day shipping on things that make your home feel like you wayfair. Way more than furniture. Were going to go for Governor Cuomo now. Its good to get out of the State Capitol and talk to people. Coronno queens, it was call corona queens before of virus. Theres no connection. Let me introduce my colleagues who are here. From my far left, pat foy, the chairman of the mta. To my immediate left Sarah Feinberg who runs the new York City Transit bureau. To my right gareth rhodes, deputy superintendent of the department of financial services, but has been with me for many years and is now helping on this up in albany. Today is saturday. I know that because its on the slide. Otherwise i may not have known that. I follow the days by whats on the powerpoint. Even when you are in uncharted waters, that doesnt mean you proceed blindly. You get whatever information you can, because you want to stay informed even when sailors sailed into unfamiliar territory, they would throw out a piece of lead with the rope. The lead would fall to the bottom and they would call back to the captain how deep the water was. The lead even had a piece of wax that would pick up what was on the ocean bottom, whatever sand, rocks, et cetera, so the captain could tell basically where he was. Uncharted waters doesnt mean proceed blindly, right . It means get information, get data, the best you can, and use that data to decide where youre going especially in this situation, we have such stress. Lets stick to the facts and make sure were making the best decisions with the best information we have. We do a lot of testing and tracking to find out where we are. We test the number of hospitalizations. Every night we find out how many people are in the hospital the day before. Weve been tracking that. Good news is that number is down a tick again. Sbubations. Thats good. The it would been relatively flat, about 900 every day, which is not great news. Yesterday was 831. Well watch to see what happens with that. S the number of watch every day, which is the worst, is the number of deaths. That number has remained obnoxiously and terrifyingly high. Its still not dropping at the rate we would like to see. It even went up a bit. Thats bad news. 276 deaths in hospitals, 23 in Nursing Homes, as everybody knows, Nursing Homes are where the most vulnerable population is, and the highest number of the most as a ruvulnerable popu. You use the data to determine actions. Not emotions, not politics, not what people think or feel weve been sampling across the state to determine the infection rate, so we know if its Getting Better or worse. Weve done the Largest Survey in the nation, testing for people who have antibodies. It means that that person was infected, right . Thats what the Antibody Test does for you. They have now recovered so that they have antibodies. I went through this with my brother chris. He got infected. Had you now has the antibodies. If you test him, he tests positive for antibodies. We have the largest sample now, over 15,000 people, which is an incredibly large sample. When we started on the 22nd, we had 2900 people surveyed at that time, we had about 13. 9 , just about 14 infection rate statewide. It then went up to about 14. 9, and today it is down to 12. 3. Now, statisticians will say this is all plus or minus in the margin of error, but its a large sample and its indicative. 14. 9 down to 12. 3. And you can see we test about every four or five days. We have so much at stake, so many decisions we have to make, we want to get those data points as quickly as we can. The 15,000 survey you can look at where in the state, who in the state, so that will inform our strategy. You can see its more male than female. Not exactly sure why that is. In new york city you see the number went from 21 to 24, and its down to 19. 9. So, again, thats a good sign. You always want to see the number dropping rather than the number increases. Within new york city you see the bronx is high, 27 , brook listen 1, queens 18, Staten Island 18. Well do more research to understand whats going on there. Statewide, you see its basically about flat this is predominantly an issue for new york city, then long island, then the northern suburbs, then the rest of the state, but erie county, which is buffalo, new york, has problematic. The racial breakdown we are looking at to study disproportionate impact, who is paying the highest price for this. Whats happens with poorer communities, whats happening with racial with the racial demographics, overlaid over the income demographics, and also if theres any information that could be instructive. Were still getting about 900 new infections every day walking into the hospital. That is still an unacceptably high rate. Were trying to understand exactly why that is, who are those 900 . Where is it coming from . What can we do to now refine our strategies to find out where those new cases are being generated, and get to those areas, those people to try to target our attack. If you remember we had the first cluster in the nation, the first hot spot was new rochelle, westchester. We sent ought sorts of resources into new rochelle, and we actually reduced that hot spot. So if you find a specific place or pattern that is generating infections, then you can attack it, but you have to find it first so thats what were looking at. If you look at the location of it, its not telling us much we asked the hospitals yesterday on a conference call, and asked them to take Additional Information from people who are walking into the hospitals, to try to find out where these infections are coming from. Are they Frontline Workers . Or are they people staying home . Are these infections that are being spread in the home . Or are they felonline workers getting up every day, maybe theyre getting it on Public Transit or at the workplace. But getting more information on from theyre coming from we asked the hospitals to collect that data yesterday. Well get that over the next couple dales. That will help us, again, get more information in the meantime we know that vulnerable populations are paying the highest price. Our seniors, our Nursing Homes and our poorer communities. Theyre the ones with higher infection rates, higher risk and higher exposure. Were going to distribute mask to those communities. New york city housing authority, so well be doing that today. Seven Million Masks is a large number. Theres about 9 Million People in new york city total, so 7 Million Masks is obviously will make a big difference. Were also funding food banks. The more this has gone on, the longer people are without a job, longer people are without a check basks become an important issue. Nobody can be evicted for nonpayment of rent. Thats true through june. So people are stable in their housing environment. The next basic need is food, right . We need help in funding the food banks. There are a lot of philanthropies in the business of helping people. If youre a foundation or a notforprofit on philanthropy or a person who wants to help, we could use more funding for food banks. The state budget is also very stressed with whats going on the andy body testing is very important, and well undertake a survey for transit workers. Transit workers have very much been at the front line. We talk about tench essential p working all through this. We know theres been a very high infection rate among transit work e workers we have said thank you a thousand time, but i believe actions speak lower than words. Were going to be doing that with more testing and more resources. Thats going to be going on right now form to keep our workers and our riding public safe, were going to do something thats never been done before. That is the mta will be disinfecting train 24 hours. This is such a amongmental undertaking, i cant even begin to drew i want it to you. The new york city subway system has never been closed. It operates 24 hours a day, because we have a 24hour city. Were taking the unprecedented step of closing the system for four hours at night from 1 00 a. M. To 5 00 a. M. , when the rider ship is lowest. Its lower right now because of everything, but its lowest from 1 00 a. M. To 5 00 a. M. Were going to close it then. The mta is going to literally disinfection ever train. I just viewed the operations on how theyre doing it. Its smart, its laborintensive. People have to water hazmat suits. They have a number of come cal that disinfect, but literally you have to go through the whole train with a misting device where they spray literally every surface. There are reports that say the virus can live two, three days on some surfaces like stainless steel. You look at the inside of a subway car, the rails, the bars, theyre all stainless steel. So to make sure the transit workers are safe, the riding public is safe, the best things you can do is disinfect the whole car, as massive a challenges is, but thats what the mta is doing, and theyre doing it extraordinarily well. Its just another sign of the dedication, the skill, the capacity of our transit workers, which is indicative of the story of new york. Theyre stepping up in a big wake. Its good and smart for the transit workers who have to work in that environment, but its also right for the riding public. We want people to know who have to use the subways and buses, because they are working, that theyre safe. The essential workers who have kept this entire society functioning have done an extraordinary job, and we want them to know that were doing everything we can do to keep them safe. You know, this was a delicate balance all along. We needed new yorkers to understand how dangerous this virus was, and we communicated that early on, so that when we want stay home, people understood they should really stay home, right . New yorkers can be a cynical bunch, and just because a governor says stay home, theyre not going to stay home unless they understand why they need to stay home. So we presented those facts, but at the same time were saying to essential workers, after hearing just how dangerous the virus is, and by the way, you have to go for work tomorrow. And they did. And if the essential workers didnt, then you would have seen a real problem. If you dont have food on the shelves, if you dont have power to homes, if you dont have basic services, if you police dont show up, if the Fire Department doesnt show up, if the emts donnell show t show u nurses and doctors dont show up, then you are at a place where youve never been before. So after communicating how dangerous this situation was, the next breath was, but Frontline Workers, you have to show up. And then did. And they did their job. Thats an extraordinary example of duty and honor and respect and love for what they do and who they are love for their brothers and sisters in the community. They demonstrated it. They didnt say it. They demonstrated it, every day when they get up and they leave their house. So god bless them all, but we also have to do what we have to do to make sure were doing everything we can to keep them safe, and this heroic effort on cleaning the subways is part of that. We will continue it, because we are new york tough, but tough doesnt mean just tough, it means smart, it means united, it means disciplined and it means loving. You can be tough and you can be loving. Theyre not inconsistent. Sometimes you have to be tough to be loving. Questions, comments . Reporter given that the homeless will have to leave the subway system, what actions is the administration taye to provide funding, any resources to make sure they dont move one problem to another. The homeless, ive worked with the Homeless Community since i was in my 20s. I ran a notforprofit. I was the largest provider for homeless families in the country. Came up with a whole new program, and implementing that so my knowledge of helping the homeless i think is sufficient. I know theres a lot of politics about help the homeless. You do not help the homeless by letting them stay on a subway car and sleep on a subway car in the middle of a Global Pandemic when they could expose themselves or others to a virus. That does not heche the homeless. I mean, it is common sense. To the extent people need a safe, clean, decent place and shelter, we should provide that. Even more to the extent people need services and help with an underlying issue, Mental Health services, substance abuse, job training, et cetera, we should provide that. So the notion to just let people sleep on the train because its good for them, its not good for them. We are funding an unprecedented amount in housing and services for the homeless. Part of what the problem has been has been connecting a homeless individual with those Service Services that is the difficulty. Its not as simple as saying, come with me, i want to help you im going to bring you to a community connection. That connection is difficult. You have to get that homeless person to a position where they trust and theyre accept iing i think its an opportunity now. Some have been sleeping on trains for years. You have to engage the homeless men and women with the appropriate skill set, and i think its an opportunity to get them off the trains and actually connect them to the services they have needed. Reporter but is it im sorry, governor. Theres been talk of using fema money, emergency money from hud to pay for hotel rooms, have you taken any action to make thor sort of Resources Available . We have funded for local governments. Its up to the local government to provide a strategy, but i think theres an opportunity here. Reporter i have a picture that an editor tonight this morning, and unfortunately there were three men sleeping any car, spread out. Do you realistically think that with this increased outreach, you know, because you push them out in the middle of the night, can we see an end to that, do you think realistically . Can you end all Homeless People . No, i dont believe you will. I would like to say yes, but i dont believe you will. You alternates had a certain amount of people who are homeless going back decades. Not like it is today, but you always had some people who for one reason or another wanted to drop out of society. You wont be able to help 100 . This will be the first time, that i can remember, that every homeless person by definition has to get off that train at one point. You know, to disinfect the trains, everyone has to be off the trains. I think thats an opportunity to engage Homeless People and link them up. Will you help everyone . No, but you help everyone that you can. Reporter rent strikes who has the money to pay for a hotel. If somebody cant pay the rent now and they dont pay the rent, they cannot be evicted by the landlord, period. You cannot be evicted for nonpayment of rent. It was an executive order, but its basically a law, so a landlord cannot evict a person for nonpayment of rent. If you can pay the rent, you should pay the rent, right . Im not saying dont pay if you can pay. Theres a morality in this, but if you cant pay, and many people cant bay because of economic circumstancings, and that is a law thats in may. Governor, can you describe more how its going to work, how many more employees will be needed . And what that essential workers need to travel between 1 00 a. M. And 5 00 a. M. , is there any help for them . We have chairman pat foye with us, and sarah, who runs the transit bureau, ill turn it over to them to give you more details. Let met start with the alternative service plan, and sarah will talk about the program of close the subway from 1 00 a. M. To 5 00 a. M. Let me step back. When the pandemic bo gan, we reached out to the Hospital Organization to labor unions and trade associations to get data on where their employees lived, what hospital they went to, what food preparation facility, as an example they went to. We did that in early march we have granular data to the number of passengers. We know from 1 00 a. M. To approximately 5 00 a. M. 10 to 11,000 of our customers travel. What we have done in connection with the announcement earlier in the week in albany about closing the subways, i and a bunch of my colleagues have reached out to the aflcio to the transit workers unions, to new york state and new york city, to the hospital association, 1199, 32bj, the building trades, Grocery Stores and the Grocery Store unions, thats a partial list, and were getting granular daughters about where their employees and members travel from and to, and to the extent we can, were going to Tailor Service to accommodate their needs. Ill turn to sarah in terms of the alternative service program. Sure. Thanks. So like pat said, 10,000 to 11,000 of our riders travel between 1 00 and 5g a. M. The last few weeks, we now what subway stops they use, and we know a lot of destination situation, were a Public Transportation agency, so we have to prioritize bus service. Most places the subway headways were about 20 minutes, so well have bus service that matches that. If you were depending on the subways, were going to try to match bus service. All right. We were listening to governor andrew cuomo. Hes turned the briefing over to someone else. Those of you who have heard the term mta being thrown out, if you do not live in new york city and are not family, the metropolitan Transit Authority runs the buses, subways, and of course in new york city the buses and subways are the main artery of getting around, and illnesses that impact mass transi obviously can shut new york city down and make it very difficult to end this crisis, because people ride very close together. A quick cup the data points. 5. 7 Million People run the subway every day. Metro north han will 300,000 riding in in connecticut and new jersey. So thats why youre hearing a lot of talk about the mta from Governor Cuomo and from the person speaking right now. Seven Million Masks have been sent to Nursing Homes for atrisk communities. Hes implemented an order to say no evictionses through june. People who cant pay their rent have rent relief through june. The question is, does that mean when june comes they have to pay the back rent . Thats a problem if you ghent to your rent relief and still have to pay the rent. No one followed up, or maybe someone will follow up on that. Antibody test for all transit workers. Thats being implemented, again, because transit is the artery of new york city, and cuomo announced the mta is going to disinfect all the trains from 1 00 a. M. To 5 00 a. M. That matters to you if you live in the tristate area or live and work in new york city. Well continue to monitor those updates in new york. Up next, the latest on the Sexual Harassment allegations guess former Vice President joe biden and his response. Get some coffee and well see you on the other sigh of the break. Would you please go on the record with the american people. Did you sexually assault tara reade . No, it is not true. Im saying unequivocally, it never, ever happened. Do you remember her . Do you remember any types of complaints that she might have made . I dont remember any type of complaint she may have made. It was 27 years ago, and i dont remember, nor does anyone else that im aware of. A friday, the apparent democratic nominee joe biden appeared on morning joe and categorically denied an allegation of Sexual Assault leveled by a former staffer in his Senate Office named tara reade. Reade alleges that the senator pushed her up again a wall and penetrated her with fingers under her skirt. She said he filed a complaint and shortly after that, she said she was fired. The claims must be taken seriously, full stop. Not least of all because were in the middle of a campaign. The observation we have is to tell what you we know and what we dont. Heres what we know. As of today ms. Reade made her allegation publicly for the first time on march 25th. A few weeks ago, nbc reached out to five people who ms. Reade said could provide corroboration of her claim. One did confirm that ms. Reade told them about the alleged assault at the time. The other said she recalled some details, but nothing about the alleged assault. The other three say they recall no such information. An interview has also you cant published by a neighbor. Last year eight women came forward to say biden hugged kissed or touched them in ways that made them feel uncomfortable. Reade is the only one that has since alleged an assault. To that point New York Times led an investigation and contacted nearly two dozen people who worked with mr. Bider in the early 90s. None corroborated the details and bidens office had a reputation for being a supportive workplace for women. We also have to talk about the tiling. Ms. Reade made her allegations in late march. Days before sanders announced he was suspending his campaign. Some biden supporters have questioned ms. Reades movives because of that timing. She voted for sanders in the primary. That doesnt mean shes unbelievable, but some say supporters have used the allegations to call for biden to be replaced with the indication that sanders should replace him. Ms. Reades story has changed in significant ways. She initially alleged a year ago that biden inappropriately touched her neck and hair, and only later up the claimed to Sexual Assault. Theres been a change in the reason she left her job. Early on she said she was pushed out after declining to serve drinks at an aevent. Back in march 2018, she had a blog posts praising Vladimir Putin. And one such blog post, which she published on medium and has since been deleted, entitled why a liberal democrat supports Vladimir Putin . She wrote president putin has an alluring combination of strength with gentleness, his sensuous image suggests a love for life. Ms. Reade now says her praise was misguided. Mean while joe biden isnt just any old democratic candidate. He was Vice President to the first black president of the United States, and before that, a senator with a decadeslong record. During the very same era in this this accusation lives, biden wrote and pass add controversial crime bill, that also contained the violence against women act. Before that, as chair of the Senate Judiciary committee, he was accused of taking anita hills claims against Clarence Thomas nearly serious enough, all things for which he will have to grapple as a president ial candidate. All of this is taking place in the me too era, when women are finally being given the space to have thinks kinds of claims taken seriously, but also when such claims have had widely different consequences for powerful men. From harvey weinstein, r. Kelly, bill cosby, to conservative men like brett kavanaugh, for whom the accusations got little more than a cursory fbi investigation, now she has to live in hiding to avoid death threats, wile he sits on the Supreme Court right beside Clarence Thomas. Oh, history, how you run. Here is what joe biden said about the kavanaugh accusations at the time. For a with imto come forward in the glaring light of the national spotlight, you have to start with presumption that at least the essence of what shes talking about is real, whether or not she forgets facts, whether or not its been made worse or better over time. Here is how he react to do mika reminding him of those words yesterday. Look, from the very beginning ive said believing women is taking the womans claims seriously when she steps forward, and then vetted. Look into it. Thats true in this case as well. Women have a right to be heard and at the press should rigorously investigate the claims, but in the end, in every case the truth is what matters, and in this case the truth is the claims are false. Nbc news have reached out to tara reade, but has not heard back. We have also invited her to appear on the show. While were contextualizing any claims of prominent political leaders facing Political Risk and personal embarrassment of Sexual Misconduct allegations, we must never, ever forget that were living in a world, in a country where the american President Donald Trump he assistants presently accused by two dozen women of harassment and assault. Even as the entire country heard him on tape about bragging about sexually assaulting women with impunity. My panel join mess now. We should note that cynthia once interned for bidens Senate Office. Erin, i write for the 19th, which focuses on issues of give me a sense of how this story is playing out among voters who have already seen this choice basically made in the primaries. Yeah, good morning, good to be with you. I think it is very important to point out as somebody who has covered this primary for the past year and a half, you know, conversations around women and their safety in the workplace and public spaces was largely left off the campaign trail and the debate stage, but at least this is now front and center. And survivors are frankly an important constituency that is weighing how these issues could affect how they choose to participate in our democracy, both in the primary and headed into the fall. I think it is important to see now that the former Vice President has finally come forward and addressed these allegations for himself what these women voters are going to make them. Youre right, i mean, now this is an election where were having a conversation about two men who have been accused obviously wide by Different Levels of accusations for the former Vice President and our incumbent president , but nonetheless this now is a conversation thats finally entered this 2020 election cycle and women voters are definitely paying attention. Yeah, you know, adrienne, it strikes me as some 20 people started off running for president , and we came down to essential what will by two silent generation white men will be going up against each other for the presidency. Both of whom have some issue or other thats related, although the scale is quite different with donald trump. I think that has to always be said. We can even put up the list of someone who accused him. I think its important to keep their stories top of mind as well. But there are similarities to these 2016 raise, and those are trumps accusers, similar to the 2016 race, in the sense that bill clintons issues from back in the 90s were used against Hillary Clinton. Youll all recall that infamous moment when roger stone paraded out some of the thinks bill Clinton Accusers to try to essential equalize Hillary Clinton and donald trump to say neither of these people is better. Theyre both just as bad, and her email situation is just as bad. It leveled the two of them. When you look at polls both those they were equally terrible, which you cant just make a jumpball choice. Now New York Times had a piece that came out overnight, the Editorial Board calling for an investigation of tara reades claims. It said biden has said that he would look to see the delaware papers released, he would like to see all of his Senate Papers released, and this is a start, but it does not go far enough. Any serious inquiry must include the trove of records that he dedicated to the university. There are growing calls for mr. Biden to make those records available to see if they contain any mention of ms. Reade or perhaps others who raise similar complaints. He was asked that repeatedly by mi mika. Thank you for basically acknowledging the fact that you laid out the discussion, by laying out the facts, going through a chronological timeline, and of course talking about what we went through in 2016. Before we really get into the discussions, its important to lay out the facts. Oftentimes we dont, and then we have this equalized Playing Field when its really not the case, to the point you made 24 accusers of donald trump, one person with some, you know, with some missteps perhaps in her stories of what shes said so far against joe biden. When it comes to the New York Times editorial, i was pretty disappointed because it did remind me of 2016, of everything that we had to go through about her emails. A couple things to push back on the New York Times editorial biden was vetted. When he went through the vetting process to become obamas running meat, everything is overturned. Theres no more stringent process. If Something Like this happened, im confident it would have been overturned, and of course we heard from the attorney who oversaw the vetting process in 2008, who said we never saw anything that accused him of Sexual Harassment or assault. It would have come across in that process. He took such a monumental step by saying, you know what . I want them to look into all of my documents in the senate archives, wherever they may live and uncover them. Something like this wouldnt live in the university of delaware. Its important to keep in mind that when a public official elected official, anybody whos served in Public Office decides to archive their records from their senate time or time working at the white house or wherever they were, these a choice, this is a choice that is meant to document their body of work for educational purposes, so Something Like personal records wouldnt live at the university of delaware. If they exist anywhere, they would live in the senate, live in the archives. He took the unprecedented step to ask that those records be released, should they exist. Got to give him major props for that. A lot of elected officials dont always take that step, especially if youre running for president. So props to joe biden. I thought hess was credible, very truthful. Mika was very tough on him. It was a very tough interview. To me i think he came across about as credible as one can be when going through this process. The lawyer who handled the vetting of joe biden during the Vice President ial search, said he oversaw a team of nearly ten lawyers who spent nearly two months digging through records. Any kind of complain about senator biden and Sexual Harassment never came up. I think thats fair to put out. Also the university of delaware has released a statement, saying it received the biden senatorial documents as a gift. We are currently curating the collection, the papers are not yesterday available to the public. Nbc news has report that had joe biden has requested the secretary of the senate release all of the records that would mean the personnel records, and that would by any reports actually directly related to personnel. I want to make sure i get that all out. Ishil to go to you, michelle goldberg. A couples of challenges that i think people are having with the way this is playing out, on the one hand theres concern for tara reade to have closure, to have her accusations look into properly, and then the sense of people pushing this the hardest dom primarily care for her. Theres a subtext of this being some kind of opportunity to maybe ultimately get for senator sanders a nomination he didnt win the oldfashioned way, righ right . You had Clara Sandberg saying now is the time to deal with the ramifications of tara reade, not this fall. There is simply no moral justification for biden to continue as the presumptive nominee out of respect for survivors and the good of the country, he should withdraw. That kind of thing is unnerving, i think. Clearly theres a lot of bad faith among both people on the far left and people on the right pushing this story, though that doesnt tell us much about whether the story itself is true or false, right . I think that you also had immense bad faith among the people who persecuted bill clinton, even though its pretty clear that bill clinton did in fact engage in Sexual Misconduct. Because it came through intentionally partisan just wait, timing, ticktock, so it was clear that she wanted to sort of deploy this bomb for maximum political effect, that doesnt mean its not true. Its entirely plausible to me if Something Like this happened to you, you would want to use it to take down the person who victimized you, but it does i think make it harder for people who i think it makes it harder for democrats particularly not to receive these im not on the Editorial Board, but im on the editorial side. I do like the dnc doing the investigation, maybe getting an outside law firm, the same way that some companies do when theres complaints. People are comparing this to Christine Blasey ford and brett kavanaugh. Christine testified under oath and the demand at the time was that the fbi you know, fully investigate her case. I dont think anyone wants William Barrs department to fully investigate this case, but i think it would be good to gather all the relevant document, gather whatever information is out there, and present it in one coherent package, as opposed to this kind of drip drip drip of confirmation half confirmation, rumor and innuendo. I think the worry that people have about the delaware records, it becomes a feeding frenzy, the media demands them, we want to comb through them. I want to go to you on this, cynthia. This is also a potential bigger story, though ms. Readest says she no longer has the complaint that she filed, so thats not available. Were not sure that mr. Biden was named in any complaint she filed at the time, but that being said, here hayes whether or not we know. There were people this is per New York Times who reade claims she told about the alleged harassment. Quote number one, in an interview with ted kauffman, he said i did not know scherr, she did not come to me. If she had, i would have remembered her. Quote two its so preposterous that senator biden would be faced with these accusations. I dont remember her, i dont remember this conversation. I would remember that conversation. Quote number three i never once witnessed or heard or received any reports of inappropriate conduct, not from ms. Read, not from anyone. This is mr. Bakers stance. Anyone. This is mr. Bakers stance there is also three tweets are from march by ms. Reade. They migrate. This is around the time that i believe senator sanders was losing in michigan i complained about Sexual Harassment of me. I was fired. My full account was never told in public. Last then he says biden sexually harassed me, and more, do not let me be silenced and also tweeted what do you make of these claims . Well, let me say, first, i do think its important that women are heard. I think its important that its taken seriously, which obviously we are doing today. I think its important that Vice President biden had a chance to confront the allegations and now we are at evaluation. From a professional prosecutor whos tried a lot of sex crimes cases. Heres what i see. I see a case that started in 1993, where the victim did not say she was sexually assaulted, by her own account. We dont have the written record of that. We do need to find it, but we dont have the written record. Then we have 26 years, pretty much 26 years of not accusing him of assault. There is one witness who says she did, but for the most of 26 years, out of her mouth we have not heard that. In march, it morphs into including pretty graphic details. Her own Family Member has changed his story a little bit, so the case has inconsistencies that require explanations maybe theres a good explanation, but you would have to have a serious interview to find out why is it that the story has changed so much . Its a big problem in a case like this. There is also the question in the change of the outcry witnesses and the very odd tweets about putin. I wish we had more time. Unfortunately we were truncated today because of the press conference. We have invited ms. Reade on the show. We hope shell accept our invitation. Thank you all very much, and a reminder, you can hear more from joe biden tonight on politics nation with reverend al sharpton. Stay with msnbc. Arpton stay with msnbc. And it wont be their First Experience with social distancing. Overcoming challenges is what defines the military community. Usaa has been standing with them, for nearly a hundred years. And well be here to serve for a hundred more. That family doesnt have to take out of their house. It relieves stress off of me to let me know im doing something good for the community, not just papa johns. Im doing something good for the community, and. L music fades in . Hey hi good day, everyone, from msnbc world headquarters, high noon here in the east, 9 00 a. M. In the west. More states back in business, even malls reopening, but what about the risk . If you decide not to wear a mask, part of me says i cant tell you what to do, but at the same time you have no right to infect my family and my friends that will become my patients when you go outside. The second round, what will happen with covid in the fall . The expectations for a potential resurgence. The fight for the right tags back on the beach. Plus looking back and revising history. What do you make of jared