Transcripts For MSNBCW Andrea Mitchell Reports 20200807

Expectations with 1. 8 million jobs added and the Unemployment Rate falling to 10. 2 . Moments ago, new York Governor Andrew Cuomo announcing that the Covid Infection rates statewide in new york are now low enough to allow all School Districts to open including new york city, the nations Largest School system. And the gridlock on capitol hill continues. Democratic and white house negotiators will be meeting again this afternoon after being unable to close a wide gap all week as Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell stays on the sidelines and President Trump starts the weekend early. Hes at his bedminster golf resort where hes also holding fundraisers over the next few days. Ill speak to a member of the House Democratic leadership, south carolinas jim clyburn, and get his take on joe bidens recent controversial comments on black americans. We begin today with the pandemics impact. Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms joining me right now, madam mayor, thank you for being with us. A new report from the center for Public Integrity where dr. Deborah birx is mentioning increasing rates in georgia as well as other states. Tell me about the situation in atlanta. Its among a handful of cities where there are still major concerns. How are you dealing with the disease in atlanta . Its unfortunate, andrea, as i saw you mention that new york is opening up schools, because theyve been able to get on the other side of covid19. Unfortunately in atlanta and across the state of georgia we are headed in the wrong direction. Our numbers are continuing to rise, and our icu beds are at and beyond capacity at many of our hospitals. And we are continuing to face this challenge of reopening the state while not taking the precautions necessary to put us in a place like new york and so many other states who have been able to get to the other side of this virus. As you talk about the schools there, there is some footage, really disturbing footage of a school north of atlanta, where we see i think it had to shut down, we saw pictures that went viral, taken in a hallway, a corridor packed, crowded with students. Its less than an hour from your city. Its very concerning, andrea. I have four kids. I took two of my kids out yesterday to attend a taping that i had to do. And just watching my two kids fiddle with their masks. Theyre kids. They were taking their masks on and off. Its very difficult to expect our children to be able to abide by all of the rules that are necessary for us to combat covid19. And thats my concern, as schools are reopening across this state. Many School Districts, including the School District in the city of atlanta, have opted to go with Virtual Learning for the first few weeks of school. As ive said repeatedly, its not just about our kids. Its about our kids often being asymptomatic and infecting teachers and custodians and cafeteria workers. But unfortunately, in georgia, just yesterday, a 7yearold with no Underlying Health conditions died from complications related to covid19. So much for the president s declaring that they are almost definitely immune from it, the children. We know that there are these tragic cases. They may be outliers, but this is the tragedy and this is the risk to the schoolchildren, while you as a mom of four children know how important it is to get them back in the classrooms. How is atlanta responding to your urging them to wear masks, mandating it, the governor disagreeing, the lawsuit, how widespread is the wearing of masks from your observation . As ive been out, ive been very encouraged by the number of people that i see with masks on. And its very hot in atlanta, as you can imagine, right now. Its 90 degrees plus every day. But as ive gone into the Grocery Store and other places, people are Wearing Masks. And i actually was pleasantly surprised, because i didnt see many people Wearing Masks but people are certainly heeding the warning and very prefectuapprec that were pushing forward with a mask mandate in the city. Weve gotten notes from Business Owners who also express their appreciation. Were rapidly approaching joe bidens decision on a running mate. Can you at least clarify whether or not you have had an interview . I assume not an inperson interview, i dont think youve been traveling. Andrea, ill continue to refer you to the Biden Campaign for questions about that. But as ive said repeatedly, this is the most important election of our lifetime. John lewis reminded us of that with his parting words. If we dont exercise our right to vote, we will lose it. So i know theres a lot of speculation and excitement about who joe biden will name. But the most important persons name on that ballot will be joe biden. The former Vice President did try today to clarify a statement. He got a lot of backlash yesterday when he was saying that the Latino Community is diverse, quote, unlike the Africanamerican Community. He tried to say that he did not mean to suggest that the Africanamerican Community is a monolith. But is this a problem, the way he was articulating this . Well, i believe what he was trying to articulate was just in terms of voting patterns. But i know he doesnt believe we are monolith, because ive had these conversations with the Vice President directly, and weve talked about the growing importance and voice of the progressive wing of the party, fueled in large part by younger africanamericans. So i know that he does not believe that. And i though that as his policies have come forth, his policies reflect his appreciation of diversity within the Africanamerican Community. I do think obviously that it perhaps could have been expressed better. But i know his heart, and i know the conversations that i have had with him directly, and what hes expressed to me about his appreciation about diversity within the Africanamerican Community. And i know how busy you are, but i was really struck when i had a chance to listen to Michelle Obamas podcast yesterday where she talked about what she called a low level depression that shes experienced during the pandemic, largely because of the experience of George Floyds death, reliving a lot of the racism that she and president obama encountered on their campaign and when they were first in the white house. And it struck me that that is that experience, with all of these police cases, youve experienced them in georgia, as you know, thats something that a lot, millions of africanamericans, africanamerican women, are feeling. Absolutely, andrea. I appreciate the obamas for so many reasons, but i especially appreciated that she had articulated that, because just a couple of days before, i articulated something very similar to my husband. I said, im waking up feeling really down, and i almost used the exact words, low key depression. And it is something that clearly is felt by so many africanamericans. And seeing it in our kids, the level of anxiety and fear and frustration. And its difficult as africanamerican parents because we are supposed to reassure our children that everything will be okay. And it will be okay. We know well get to the other side of this. But its very difficult when adults and children are struggling to make sense of where we are in america, which again, is why i cant stress enough the importance of this election. This term of donald trump needs to be a comma in our history, not a period. I appreciate your answering that question so personally, i think its an important message. Thank you very much, mayor bottoms. Thank you. Dr. Ashish jha is the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute and he joins me now. Thanks for being with us, dr. Jha. Lets talk about this decision that Governor Cuomo Just Announced to open all districts. Theyve met the guidelines in terms of the infection rate, transmission rate. Is it safe . Andrea, thank you for having me on, and that is the big question, right . We all want our kids back in but the question is can we do it in way thats safe. And there are two parts to that. Part one is having Community Transmission at a very low level. And i do think much of new york, most of morninnew york, maybe a new york, meets that. But the second part is making sure buildings are ready, that theres ventilation, that you can have classes outdoors if you dont have all that, so really spacing kids out. Thats going to be a district by district, school by school decision. I guess what i would implore School Officials to do is to emphasize grades k5. I think we can go back to inperson learning in new york if we get it right. We have a big story breaking, mayor mike dewine of ohio tested positive for coronavirus, then hours later tested again and was negative. Then i saw dr. Gupta on Brian Williams show last night who said, wait a minute, guys, the kind of test he was given has very few false positives but the second test has a lot of false negatives. Can you weigh in on that . So were in the middle, as a nation, of transitioning to a new group of tests. These are rapid tests that i think a lot of us have actually been calling for more of them. And they dont have a problem with false negatives, but a lot of us argue its not a big deal if we test people often. You can actually still pick up most of the disease because the test is particularly good when you have the virus. What happened with governor dewine say bit confusing. It seems like he had a positive, then he had a negative with a pcr which can miss tests. At this moment if you asked me is he infected or is he not, i would say i dont know. He should probably have a repeat test in the next 24 to 48 hours. The jury is still out. The test he had last night can miss some cases, also has false negatives. This is one of those situations where we have to wait one more day, get a repeat and get a sense of where he really is. Thank you very much, thanks for that explanation, its always good to see you, appreciate it. Thank you. More than 16 million americans now are out of work and white house negotiators are heading back to the table with Congressional Democrats today to try to come up with a deal. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn joins us with the latest. Plus who does congressman clyburn think has the passion he says is needed to be joe bidens running mate . Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports only on msnbc. 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Speaker pelosi made clear to my colleague Kristen Welker that the two sides are far apart. This is life and death, life in terms of economic success and the life of our democracy. We have serious differences. This isnt about bickering. This is very major differences as to science, the role of governance in all of this. Joining me now is the House Majority whip, congressman James Clyburn of south carolina. Congressman, thank you very much for being with us. Thank you for having me. Its always good to see you, sir. Im wondering whether you think theres any way to narrow this gap. People are hurting. I know you sent your bill over in may and there should have been negotiations since may to narrow these differences. But we are where we are, and for two weeks they have made very little progress. Yes. And i think a lot of that has to do with the attitude that senator mcconnell has taken on it. When we first sent the bill over to him several weeks ago, a couple of months now, he made mockery of our efforts. 3 trillion effort to try to keep state and local governments open, to try to get Online Learning effected, telehealth, the kind of things we know we need to do in this pandemic. And he laughed at it and hes now walked away from it. And hes saying hes going to leave it up to the house and the white house. If thats what weve got to work with, thats what weve got to work with. But as you know, when youre dealing with a legislative body, and whatever we do has got to pass the senate, it would be a much better effort if the leader of the senate were involved in this process and let the two legislative bodies get together. To sit back and have people who dont run for stuff, never been involved in how to reach Common Ground, and to have the attitude being taken that the idea of a compromise is when you see things my way, and that seems to be the republican attitude on so many things. They want Common Ground as long as its their ground and you come over to occupy it. Thats not the way you do business. We ought to really have more serious discussions than we seem to be having. And Speaker Pelosi is at this hour right now at a briefing, she was just talking to my colleague Kristen Welker in the last hour. On meet the press, you told chuck todd that joe biden needs a running mate with a lot of passion, that he has the gre greatest heart but not a rahrah guy that will motivate people. Looking at that list, a lot of people are saying that the kind of passion and energy, the best campaigner on that list might well are kamala harris. It could be. She has a lot of passion, no question about that. But there are several others. Val demings is as passion as you want to be. I think she would fill the bill as well. And karen bass, karen is a very passionate person, and she has background and experience running. So i think that those women that are being talked about are all real good people. Now, susan rice, a lot of passion, in fact a lot of people hold her passion against her. She gets her language gets salty sometimes and people say thats too much passion. So shes not short on passion. There is also, were trying to clarify what hes said about the Latino Community, saying its more diverse than the Africanamerican Community. How do you react to that . The word diverse, you know me real well, you know im sort of a stickler for the word being what it is. And what he was talking about is whether or not, what continent. When you Start Talking to latinoamericans, youre talking about not just various communities and countries, youre talking about various continent. Theeth th eth ninicity, the div the ethnicity. Most africanamericans come from the caribbean or africa, our roots are basically in africa. All he was talking about was the diversity of not just the communities but also of the continents. And you bring those backgrounds and those experiences into the discussion and you dont have the same set of experiences that you would have if you didnt have this kind of diversity in your background. So the diversity could be within a community, within a state, but there is a broader diversity in his discussion and its more worldwide. But you dont get a chance to explain all that have in a sound bite world. Understood. Thats the perils of the campaign as well. I want to ask you about kanye west. I never thought i would be saying that to you, mr. Leader. But there we are. Hes now on the ballot in colorado and oklahoma and were told that a republican operative from the Trump Campaign delivered his petitions in wisconsin. Now, i know his family has said he suffers from bipolar and that this is not serious. But lets face it, what happened in three states in 2016 by, you know, 80,000 votes, decided an election, decided a presidency. Jill stein on the green party ticket. Could this be a Trump Campaign effort to try to siphon off votes from joe biden in battleground states . I dont think theres any question about that. We all saw what was going on there in wisconsin, where he was getting help getting on the ballot. But, you know, africanamericans, most especially, know what this campaign is all about. Theyve seen these kind of tactics before. We saw that here in south carolina. I have been saying for years now that this whole wrestling influence, i think their trial run was in the United States senate race right here in south carolina. So weve seen this before. We fell victim to it when we didnt know where it was coming from or what was going on. We now know, and were not going to make that mistake again. If you fool me once, that shame is on you. You fool me twice, that shame would be on me. We aint going to be shamed in this election. Well, the whip, the Democratic House whip, James Clyburn, congressman, thank you very much. Good to talk to you. And risk and rewards. A deeper dive into Vice President ial picks. Were just 88 days until election day. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. Tchell reports on msnbc. After my dvt blood clot. I wondered. Could another come around the corner . Or could it play out differently . I wanted to help protect myself. My doctor recommended eliquis. Eliquis is proven to treat and help prevent another dvt or pe blood clot. Almost 98 percent of patients on eliquis didnt experience another. And eliquis has significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. Eliquis is fdaapproved and has both. Dont stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. Eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. 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Absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. Its our weekend special. Save up to 500 on select sleep number 360 smart beds. Plus 0 interest for 48 months on all smart beds. Ends monday. It is indeed an unprecedented campaign, with almost no traditional campaigning and Virtual Conventions coming up because of the coronavirus. Joe biden is close to making his most consequential decision so far, choosing a running mate without being able to meet with them in person, as far as we know. Joe biden will be 78 years old when he takes office, meaning his Vice President must be a governing partner, possibly a future president herself. Its a decision that carries both risk and reward, something biden knows well having gone through the same process with barack obama. Reporter after months of speculation, joe biden is poised to make his high stakes pick. Every one of the women ive interviewed is qualified. Ive narrowed it down. Youll find out shortly. Reporter bidens short list, according to sources familiar with the search, his former rival, senator kamala harris. His onetime colleague former National Security adviser susan rice. And michigan governor Gretchen Wilmer. The campaign examining women of different backgrounds. History shows running mates can be political assets, a role biden has played before. In 2008, barack obama, a washington newcomer, chose the veteran senator to ease concerns about his own inexperience. Hes an expert on Foreign Policy whose heart and values are firmly rooted in the middle class. Reporter in 1960, another rising star, john f. Kennedy, put Senate Majority leader Lyndon Johnson on the ticket, the texan helping jfk win southern voters. He can play a role as Vice President , greater, more influential than any Vice President in recent times. Reporter in 1980, Ronald Reagan chose his rival george h. W. Bush, uniting the party. Im recommending george bush. Reporter in 1992, bill clinton picked a fellow baby boomer and son of the south, al gore, both reinforcing the case for generational change. The man standing beside me today has what it takes to lead this nation from the day we take office. Reporter still, some Vice President ial candidates famously backfired. George mcgovern chose Thomas Eagleton without vetting him. Eagleton was forced to drop out after only 18 days amid revelations he had been hospitalized for depression and treated with electroshock therapy. In 1984, Walter Mondale tried to jumpstart his campaign with the historic choice of a woman for Vice President , congresswoman geraldine ferrarferraro. I looked for the best Vice President and found her in geri ferraro. Reporter but ferraro was forced to defend her finances and her husbands business practices. At no time did i betray trust placed in me by my constituents. Reporter john mccain picked an untested governor he barely knew for the ticket. Governor sarah palin of the great state of alaska. Reporter sarah palin had a successful rollout, firing up conservatives. But she stumbled in interviews, raising questions about her knowledge and experience. When asked by katy couric what newspapers she read. I read most of them. Reporter what specifically, im curious. All of them, any of them. Joining me now, nbc White House Correspondent Kristen Welker, coanchor of weekend today, and susan page, Washington Bureau chief for usa today, welcome, both. Susan, thats a trip down memory lane. Hits, run, errors. What is your take on who is the right, perfect candidate, given his age and Everything Else that is at stake for joe biden . You know, theres never a perfect candidate. Youre always engaged in tradeoffs and calculations. And actually, what is more important i think is what this pick will tell us about joe biden, what it will tell us about what he really values, who he listens to, how he makes decisions, because at the end of the day, as you were pointing out in your piece, traditionally president ial candidates, win or lose, on their own. Their running mates usually only make a difference on the margins. Kristen, youve been doing so much reporting on all of this. There are a lot of other players to consider, barack obama, nancy pelosi. Who he is listening to . Well, i think that he is bouncing ideas off of both barack obama, nancy pelosi. His closest advisers, andrea. And i do think there is a lot of pressure on him to choose, as he has promised, not only a woman but more pressure for him to choose a woman of color. The question is, is he going to do that. Of course this pick comes against the backdrop of these National Protests calling for racial change. We had that gaffe that you just talked about. I spoke to a former obama adviser who said those types of moments only add to the urgency to pick a woman of color. So you think of a kamala harris, susan rice, but also tamcontamt duckworth as youve been reporting overnight. Michigans governor Gretchen Wilmer could help him win a battleground state. If you look at the latest polling out of michigan, her Approval Ratings are at 57 , quite high. Her lieutenant governor, africanamerican. The Biden Campaign and Vice President biden himself weighing all of those different factors as he makes this critical decision, but andrea, i think a key takeaway from your piece which applies to the Biden Campaign right now is, do no harm. They want to pick someone who is going to be sympatico with him, bring passion, but not come with too much baggage, andrea. Exactly. And susan, to that light, they have to find someone who is going to govern with him long term. He really does care about that. I think hes listening a lot to jill, to dr. Jill biden. I think thats right. He would really like joe biden. He would really like to have someone who has the same kind of Vice President that he was to barack obama. Now, that doesnt necessarily mean someone who doesnt have ambitions of her own. Thats been one of the things that have been argued about, like should he choose a woman who has national ambitions. Its hard for me to remember a Vice President ial candidate who did not have president ial ambitions, and that includes joe biden. Exactly, he wants someone who will be loyal, can govern in an emergency, but wont be out for herself. Thats the difference. And weve seen a lot of lobbying this time on all sides, Opposition Research being dumped on people. Its been a pretty fierce thing behind the scenes as well. Thank you both so very much. Susan page, maybe by the end of the weekend well know, Kristen Welker, youll break it, one of us will break it. Lets hope. Do you have a better sense of the time frame, kristen . I dont have a sense, the campaigns not ruling out monday, andrea. But it could slide. So i think you and i are going to have a busy weekend, hopefully well break it together. Well certainly be watching saturday today tomorrow morning, which you coanchor. A great weekend to both of you. New jobless numbers are out today. As another week goes by, the government failing to reach a deal to extend key benefits to those out of work because of the pandemic. Well drill down on that, stay with us. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. Heres your iced coffee america runs on dunkin Little Things can become your big moment. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not a cream. Its a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. With otezla, 75 clearer skin is achievable. Dont use if youre allergic to otezla. It may cause severe diarrhea, nausea or vomiting. Otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. Tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. Some people taking otezla reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. Tell your doctor about your medicines, and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Otezla. Show more of you. man and if y hm. 5 . Pregnant or planning to be. 9. 95 . 9. 95. Whats with all the 9. 95 notes . I thought youd never ask. Its about a Life Insurance plan with options starting at 9. 95 a month. Been seeing it on tv. We talked about getting more Life Insurance. Remember how much your brothers funeral cost . Yeah, his funeral expenses were a real eyeopener. North of 8,500. Exactly. man what do you like about this insurance . The 9. 95 price, and best of all, itll never go up. man but we could get it at our age with my medical history . I feel 25 here and here, but the mirror says otherwise. Dont worry. 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Business owners are also struggling, including a Restaurant Owner in arizona who has had enough of the lack of action from congress. She spoke to nbcs Vaughn Hillyard this week. Ive given up my health insurance. Ive given up my paycheck. Pretty soon ill be selling my house to try to keep this restaurant alive. At what point do i say this is all i got . My message to washington, d. C. Is stop bickering with each other. Many while, peepiople are starv. People did not get that money on friday. They just got 240 from arizona. Whats that going to do for anybody . And joining me now, nbc News Business and tech correspondent jo ling kent and former deputy labor secretary for president obama, chris lu. Chris, when you talk to people in the field, especially people struggling in terms of the demographics . Andrea, the recovery is very slow right now. Thats what the numbers say, and thats what were hearing from people at food banks and unemployed individuals all across the country. So you see the good news, the Unemployment Rate has dropped to 10. 2 . And thats better than expectations. The number has gone down for three months in a row. But yesterday, at a food bank, i was talking to people who were collecting 220,000 pounds of food, 2,500 families seeking aid. The overwhelming response was, look, we need washington to step in and do something. If you looked at Unemployment Benefits for people after the 600 a week expired, were talking about on average, nationally, 340some dollars a week for a family. So these are numbers that are very difficult to get by when it comes to getting food and making sure that you have a roof over your head. Now, andrea, as weve often been reporting here, members of minority communities, asianamericans, black americans, are being hit disproportionately hard by that. In todays labor report, you see the hard numbers behind it. You have africanamerican unemployment, 14. 6 . Thats 4. 5 points higher than the national average. You have asianamerican unemployment at 12 , hispanics and latinos, 13 . The pain in these communities continues to be very sharp. This is exactly what jerome powell, Federal Reserve chairman, has been saying, saying this will be especially severe for these communities. So the recovery is going in the right direction, its going very slowly, and it hasnt provided enough relief for communities here who are looking just to make it til tomorrow and be able to buy those groceries this weekend. And chris lu, from your perspective in washington, youve watched a lot of these budget talks. These talks seem particularly difficult to resolve, especially because its a threelegged stool. You dont have Mitch Mcconnell in there and you dont really know what the white house is going to do. Thats exactly right. There are some encouraging things in todays job numbers but the exact wrong message that the white house and congress should take from this is that now is the time to take the foot of the accelerate. As jo ling just said, you have states like arizona where the maximum benefit is 240. In florida, its 275 a week. Thats less than the federal minimum wage. At the same time that people are struggling to buy groceries, to pay their rent. And so whats important here is that the House Democrats have come to the table 2 1 2 months ago with a heroes act that would provide relief to the unemployed and businesses and state governments. Weve now spent 2 1 2 months dithering around, and Senate Republicans have left town. People are trying to figure out how to deal with this economic crisis right now. In washington, at least in the form of the white house and the senate, theyre not stepping up. Understand that notwithstanding where these numbers are today, we have 13 million fewer jobs now than in february. We have 5 Million People that have left the workforce completely. And we have a total of 31 Million People collecting some kind of unemployment. And they need the president to step up. It is obviously a big problem when these talks, theyre going to get together this afternoon, as you point out, theyve left town and its not that easy to pull this kind of deal together, and peoples benefits ended last week. Thank you so much, jo ling kent, thank you, chris lu, as always, to both of you. A growing concern at the heart of the u. S. Food supply is that essential immigrant workers have to choose, often, between getting tested and getting a paycheck. Well take an indepth look as past a collaboration between nbc news and telemundo. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. Reports on msnbc. All strength we aint stoppin believe me go straight till the morning look like we wont wait were taking everything we wanted we can do it all strength, no sweat and arent necessarily great for your teeth. The acid can actually wear away at the enamel which over time can cause sensitivity and a lot of people start to see their teeth turn yellow. I like to recommend pronamel to my patients to help them protect their teeth and keep the enamel strong. Nbc news and telemundo have launched an exciting collaboration on issues impacting the Hispanic Community in america. Theyre going to appear on all of our news platforms. Gadi gad vin gass examine the covid test challenges for essential farm workers in this report. We begin with gadi in california where latinos account for nearly half the states covid deaths. In californias Central Valley a quarter of our nations food supply is in the hands of an essential workforce with a lot of fear and a lot to lose. [ speaking Foreign Language ]. She says shes hoemg they dont get evicted. Reporter this woman and her daughter usually work picking grapes. But havent been able to since they learned 5yearold angel may have been exposed to covid at his daycare. You might not be able to work for those two weeks . Yes. Whats that going to do for paying the rent . Exactly. Its going to be a stress. Weve tried to be as proactive as we can. Reporter the ceo of california grapery is trying to make sure workers get paid for missed hours and hopes other farms do the same. Were going to take care of you if you think youre sick. Were going to do the right thing. Reporter but for many undocumented workers theres a fear and reluctance to selfreport. Even to doctors promising confidentiality. Are you guys asking for documents . Are you checking immigration status . Absolutely not. And that is not the intent at all. We are here to help. Reporter the governor of california has pledged 52 million to the Central Valley to help with testing and contact tracing, and as our colleague guar vin gass at telemundo has found the pressure to keep working is forcing some to ignore the povlt exposure to covid19. Thats right. The Farm Workers Union says up to 70 of farm workers out here are undocumented and they dont have access to Unemployment Benefits, so they just cant risk losing their livelihoods. Thats what salvador, a father of four who works in the fields, is afraid of. So three weeks ago he was exposed to coronavirus, somebody came over to his house, tested positive right after. He decided not to get tested because hes scared of testing positive and not being able to go to work and make money for his family. The 500 he and his wife bring home every week barely cover the bills, so he kept working, saying since he wasnt showing symptoms he didnt tell his boss. Instead he and other workers who thought they may be infected quietly warned each other to keep their distance. Ernestina works alongside hundreds of others at a pistachio packing plant. And even though they knew they were sick they would go to work. She got coronavirus and stayed at home for a month, missing out on two weeks of pay. But before she got sick she saw others hiding symptoms, holding in coughing fits for as long as they could. [ speaking Foreign Language ]. Reporter so she says at work she would go inside the restroom and she would hear her coworkers coughing because they were most likely sick with covid. For many a forced decision with dangerous consequences, health or livelihood, with the potential for disaster either way. Joining me now is our colleague guad vinegas from telemundo. That was an extraordinary report and so impactful on these workers having to make this choice between getting a test, their health, and their livelihood. Thats correct. They have to make this choice. And for many of them it is more important to make the money that they need than to go get checked and take care of their health. You look at guys like salvador who decided to keep it to himself. I asked him what if you had the virus and you were asymptomatic . He said, well, if that was the case i still kept my distance from people. But if i do get the virus i think i can beat it and keep working. But if i stop working theres nothing i can do if i cant make the money i need for my family. These are the stories. And this is what we found out when we spoke to them. And salvadors experience is reflected by what ernestina, who works in the pistachio packing plant experienced when she said she could hear her coworkers coughing in the bathroom, trying to disguise their symptoms, and that explains why they feel they have to go to work. Yes. Again, i repeat, a lot of them think they can beat coronavirus but they dont think they can overcome not making the money that they need. Now, i should mention that in california the governor did set aside 75 million for undocumented workers. But this wasnt enough for the 2 million workers in all the state of california, as we mentioned, up to 70 of the ones working in the farm industry could be undocumented. And a lot of these workers including salvador tried getting that aid that the governor set aside but the phone lines were too busy, there wasnt enough money and he couldnt get that help. So theres a lot of help thats necessary. Gadi mentions how theyre doing more contact tracing, more testing, but now california needs to set aside more money for a lot of these workers who need the funds in case they lose their job or they have to stay at home and theyre not able to work because either they might have the virus, theyre waiting for a test to get done or for whatever reason because as an undocumented worker theres no other resource. Guad, you thank you. And please bring us more of your collaborations. This was wonderful. We really appreciate it. And on a personal note before we go, we remember a man unique in american history. Retired general Brent Scowcroft has died of Natural Causes at his home in falls church, virginia. General scowcroft is the only person to have served as National Security adviser to two american president s, gerald ford and president bush 41. Hes widely viewed as having been the model in that job, and the way he led the National Security council. Advising, bringing diverse points of view together to the president , helping find consensus, and as a result enjoying unlimited rare access to the president s whom he served. Work first under henry kissinger, he was instrumental as a deputy in the opening to china. Later with bush 41 the shaping of postcold war europe. And in 1991 he was the guiding hand behind operation desert storm, urging president bush 41 to limit military operations to evicting iraq from kuwait but not going to baghdad and trying to oust saddam hussein. Later general scowcroft had a difficult frosty relationship with bushs son, 43, after he wrote a column arguing against the iraq war back in august of 1991. It was prophetic. Scowcroft was wise. He was thoughtful. I will always remember him for the kindness, for the twinkle in his eye, the warmth of his smile. He told Brian Williams in 1991 president bush was a superb leader. Perhaps, he said, the best grounded for the job of any president weve had. We could say the same of general Brent Scowcroft. The best grounded for his job of any National Security adviser since the job was created. Thats it for this hour. This week Chris Jansing picks up our coverage after a short break. Rt break. To severe psoriasis, Little Things can become your big moment. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not a cream. Its a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. With otezla, 75 clearer skin is achievable. Dont use if youre allergic to otezla. It may cause severe diarrhea, nausea or vomiting. Otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. Tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. Some people taking otezla reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. Tell your doctor about your medicines, and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Otezla. Show more of you. Anputs its customersnt or a wiin charge . Rier well, the good news gets shared. And it gets rated 1 for customer satisfaction. But dont just take our word for it. Take theirs. Its your wireless. Your rules. Only with xfinity mobile. Call, click or visit a store today. Good afternoon. Im Chris Jansing. Happy friday to everyone. And at this hour a potentially critical meeting in the office of House Speaker nancy pelosi. Shes hosting the other three key negotiators of the Coronavirus Relief package after last nights threehour session left no clear path forward. The speaker telling my colleague Kristen Welker this morning that democrats and republicans remain divided on the core issues of the bill. We