Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20200325

Republicans and democrats alike, especially that are watching this and understand the humanitarian crisis, unparalleled Health Crisis coming to new york city, when they hear the governor of that state begging for help for their residents, this is war. And, again, more people could die from this that have died everywhere combined according to a study the white house was at least concerned about last week. This is like a general under fire knowing that the enemy is approaching from all sides and begging for help for the sake of American People, for the sake of seniors. And the president s again, in that moment there seemed dismissive, almost contemptuous of that. And make no mistake were were going to show some schwartz from Johns Hopkins and Financial Times that show the crisis coming to america is going its going to be on an Unprecedented Health care crisis and its going to look much worse than china, much worse than italy, much worse than spain, much worse than france. We are going to be at the epicenter of this. I hope youre enjoying going around saying that theres nothing to this, because were going to show you. This is just data. These are facts. These are trend lines. This is like a hurricane thats coming onshore. And that hurricane keeps getting closer and closer and closer. And to be a floridian, im very aware of people who mock the warnings and ended up dead. You see Hurricane Katrina, remember those school buses in Hurricane Katrina that were in the parking lot where people could have been evacuated and they were saying why didnt they evacuate . They had all those school buses. Republicans were saying this especially. Well, the school buses are still in the parking lot, you have a president who has been saying hurricane wasnt coming, hurricanes not coming. The press scaring you about the hurricane coming its all a hoax. All these people in the media saying it was just a hoax. Friends, let me tell you something, you cant negotiate with a hurricane. Im from florida, i know that. You cant negotiate with a pandemic. And while india and Great Britain and the rest of the world see this hurricane coming and theyre shutting it down. Locking it down. And you know theyre locking it down because they saw what happened in italy. Politicians mocking this coming storm. And now theyre seeing people on the floor in the hallways of hospitals gasping for breath as they lie there dying alone. And thats moved from italy to spain. And, friends, as much as i hate to say this, its coming to the United States. The hurricane is coming. You know the press conference yesterday where the president was talking about were going to have everything lifted by easter . No. I mean, im glad people in the markets liked it, glad the markets went up. Thats really great for your 401 k s. Its great for the companies. Its fantastic. Thats not going to happen. Its not going to be lifted by april. Its just not. Its not going to be lifted by easter. Because were going to be looking at scenes out of new york City Hospitals, Health Care Officials tell me, that are going to look as horrid as what happened in italy. I talked to Health Care Officials that ran statewide Health Systems outside of new york and they all agree, new york is going to look like italy. If this president doesnt recognize that theres a storm offshore, doesnt recognize like indias leaders and Great Britains leaders and the rest of the worlds leaders, that storm is coming. Its not a hoax, its not one person from china like he said at the beginning of this crisis, its not 15 people who have it and pretty soon that numbers going to be down to zero. Show you the trend lines that show were soon to be the most infected country on the planet. And just because its not infecting you now, just because its not impacting your neighborhood now, what you did three weeks ago is going to impact you to what youre doing today, is going to impact you and your family and your community and your city three weeks from now. So, or the storm is coming. Mr. President , please, for the sake of Senior Citizens from florida to arizona, across america, in new york city, for the sake of people struggling even now in new york city, our doctors and our nurses on the front lines, mr. President , please, recognize that storm is coming and stop telling people theyre going to go out on their sail boats on easter day with a category 5 hurricane luring onshore. It is wednesday, march 20 5th. And with us we have White House Reporter for the Associated Press Jonathan Lemire. Host of msnbcs politics nation and president of the Nation Action Network reverend al sharpton. Nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of k. C. D. C. On sunday nights, kasie hunt. And historian author of the soul of america and professor jon meacham. Hes an nbc news and msnbc contributor. The white house announced a 2 trillion piece of legislation aimed at helping the free falling u. S. Economy from the coronavirus. Were going to dig into that bill and what it does for americans in desperate need of help. And as joe mentioned, President Trump continues his push to on the country back up for business now putting an Easter Sunday target date for his hopes of an economic resurrection. That, despite dire warnings from Health Officials on how dangerous that 2 1 2 week schedule would be. And new york city, that timeline for people in new york state which has now surpassed 26,000 as coronavirus cases in the state double every three days, the state marks almost half of the nationwide infection numbers. And as the death rate there continues to climb, Governor Andrew Cuomo warned yesterday that the fight to flatten the curve is far from over. We havent flatten the curve and the curve is actually increasing. The apex is higher than we thought and the apex is sooner than we thought. That is a bad combination of facts. New york is the canary in the coal mine. New york is going first. We have the highest and the fastest rate of infection. What happens to new york is going to wind up happening to california and Washington State and illinois, its just a matter of time. We are just the test case. And thats how the nation should look at it. Look at us today. Where we are today you will be in three weeks or four weeks or five weeks or six weeks. We are your future. While touring a Convention Center turned Field Hospital in new york city, Governor Cuomo criticized what he sees as a lackluster federal response to the increasingly dire situation and said that the peak of infection is still two to three weeks away. That scenario outpaces officials original projections and threatened to upend the already Strained Health care system with as many as 140,000 incoming cases. Right now, only about 53,000 hospital beds are available. And, as we talked about at the top of the show, new york city officials are already feeling the effects of the crush of patients. The New York Times reports that women giving birth at two leading new york City Hospitals networks are being told they must be in labor without spouses, partners, or dualas by their side as they institute one of the most restrictive visitor policies in the country for women giving birth. In the bronx r doctors at Lincoln Medical Health Center say they already only have only a few remaining ventilators for patients who need them to breathe. In brooklyn, doctors at Kings County Hospital Center say they are so low on supplies that they are reusing masks for up to a week, slathering them with Hand Sanitizer between shifts. One emergency room doctor told the paper, quote, the most striking part is the speed with which it has ramped up. It went from a small trickle of patients to a dell youuge of patients. And many in the city have been told to reuse their masks and other protective equipment. New York Hospitals are already struggling to treat the surge of new patients while some have tried to figure out how to keep their staff from getting ill with the coronavirus. And now White House Health experts are calling on those who have passed through or left new york city to selfquarantine for 14 zblas th 14 days. In is so important. To help stop the rapid spread of the disease. Everybody who was in new york should be selfquarantining for the next 14 days to ensure that the virus doesnt spread to others no matter where they have gone, whether its florida, north carolina, or out to far reaches of long island. What were seeing now is that understandably people want to get out of new york. The idea, if you look at the statistics, its disturbing. About 1 per thousand of these individuals are infected, thats about 8 to 10 times more than in other areas. Which means when they go to another place, for their own safety theyve got to be careful, monitor themselves. If they get sick, bring it to the attention of a physician. Get tested. Jon meacham, lets try to sort through what we heard yesterday from the president , the conflicting messages that weve been hearing. The president says hes a war time president. Weve heard from really the most esteemed Health Care Providers on the planet that up to 2. 2 million americans could die. As weve discussed repeatedly here, to put that in perspective for americans watching, those are more americans killed by this pandemic that have been killed in every war since 1776. And if we want to continue this analogy, the president keeps talking about getting our troops home and from afghanistan. More people have died in the past three weeks from this pandemic than died in afghanistan, u. S. Troops have died in afghanistan over the past eight years. Let me say that one more time. More people have died in the United States in the past three weeks from this pandemic than died in the past eight years in the afghanistan war. U. S. Troops. And, yet, jon, this president and so many of his advisers are making the calculation people are going to die. The economy is more important. Were going to were going to ignore our Health Care Officials and open things up knowing that, well, the stock market is more important than Senior Citizens, in their mind. How do we put this how do we even begin to put this in perspective, jon . Well, think we go back to margaret mitchell, which she is appreciate. Remember the scene in gone with the wind where all the confederates are at the barbecue and theyre going to go whip the yankees in two weeks and then be back and finish the party . And that was the beginning of four long years of what lincoln called the fiery trial. Theres a disconnect between surprise, surprise what the president s saying and what he wants to do. And its a sign, yet again, of a disconnect from reality. This is fortunately we have people in the administration, we should have people in the congress who need to make the case that youre making. Because otherwise, youre looking at an astronomical number of deaths and infections and far worse economic damage down the road. Theres a phrase from st. Paul that we have to be patient in tribulation. This is the great test, president kennedy used that in his inaugural address talk about the cold war. We have to be patient in this tribulation. And if you want this to be a war, had is as if you wanted Franklin Roosevelt to bring everybody home by washingtons birthday after pearl harbor. Almost literally thats what that means. It is. And that was that was the day in 1942 when fdr said, the news is going to get worse and worse before it gets better and better and that American People deserve to have it straight from the shoulder. He quoted thomas payne saying tirn tierney like hell is not easily conquered. Thats true here. Im not pretending this is easy. Im not trying to score some kind of political points against the president. But john adams told us facts are stubborn things. And what youre seeing in new york, what youre seeing in Washington State, what you seem to be seeing in california is what Governor Cuomo said, is not some isolated case, its the science tells us this is going to be everybodys reality soon. And so why cant we learn from that . And that should be what were doing. Lets learn from it and take the pain now and move forward. Why spread the pain out and worsen it . That defies logic. Yeah. This is it defies logic. It also is extraordinarily reckless with life, especially seniors lives. Theres nothing partisan about wanting to save the lives and ease the suffering of millions of americans if that can be done. I want you dan, do we have the chart of the u. S. Infections from Johns Hopkins university and it was in the Financial Times . It shows that, Jonathan Lemire, that iour rates are skyrocketin. Theyre going straight up. I want you to look at the lines at home. I want you to see country by country how the trajectories compare. Youll see that the United States is at the top of that top of that list within two days its going to double to be close to 100,000. That will mean that even early on in this crisis with our toughest two weeks ahead, we have more infections than italy. Well have more infections than china. Well have more infections in spain. The United States continues to skyrocket up. And when we havent even got to the worst part of this crisis. Yeah. The president s talking about bringing to an end and, mika, hes got to shut the country down. Look at south korea. Excuse me, jonathan. If you put that back up, youll see south korea is one of the only two countries that were able to flatten the curve. They did things that we could have done which leads to a conversation of void of experts in the white house leading to a collapse in our ability to respond. But they took measures from the getgo, acting quickly from the start. Widespread testing, Contract Tracing along with critical support from citizens. Rae minding citizens constantly through mass mess amgages to we masks and take preventative measures. They had masks. I want everybody to look at south korea. Youll notice that the south korean line has flattened. South korea, while the United States were skyrocketing, the fastest infections in the world, youll notice that were closer to the doubling every two days instead of even italys on the other side of their infections doubling every three days. South korea, had is completely flatlined now, south korea and the United States both had their first reported infection on the same day. South korean leaders got together, as that leaders article explains in the basement of a train station and said, a crisis is coming, a storm is coming, get your testing ready, this is the only way well be able to stop the spread. Within a week, the South Koreans had a test ready to go. Within a month, they had driveup testing all across the country. The president of the United States at that same time was saying that there was only one person from china, it was no problem, it was going away. And he had fired all of his experts. He fired all of his experts. He fired the pandemic panel. A week later, a week later the president was saying, oh, we only have 15 cases but it will soon be down to zero. Well, the president was telling you that this was not a crisis. The South Koreans were busily working getting ventilators, getting masks, getting gloves, and getting testing. Now, as ive said here for past two weeks, well judge the president on what he did in the fall. A lot of people claim they like what the president s doing right now. Thats democracy. Fantastic. So, well judge the president by what he does in the fall. Right now going back and focusing on that, its not really helpful, thats why were doing it in a limited way. But, Jonathan Lemire, when he has that track record and he has put us in this position where now, again, 2. 2 million americans will die if we dont work aggressively on this, according to the top health kpesh experts in the world, the top scientists in the world, the top doctors in the world, and you have a president thats now trying to rush americans back, wont lockdown the country like even india is doing, even italy has done, even spain has done, even Boris Johnson in Great Britain has done. You just sit here and you wonder whats going through the president s mind right now . I ask you that, jonathan. You report on him with the stakes so high that more americans could die than died in every war since 1776. Its not me, its not Robert Mueller saying that, its not nancy pelosi saying that, its scientists who are republicans, scientists who are democrats, scientists who are independent, scientists who dont really give a damn about politics are saying that. And the white house has seen that study, as you know, they saw it last weekend or two weekends ago and it scared the hell out of them. I know because they told me it scared the hell out of them. Jonathan, how do they go from that and talking about how horrible this is going to be last weekend to now having the president say this weekend and again yesterday were going to be open for business right as the storm crashes on shore . The surge in the United States cases that you pointed out is disturbing and only growing. And a moment, first, about new york city, also New York University had announced yesterday that medical students, fourth year medical students who were on track to graduate in a few months can graduate now if they have the credits. So they could be called up to the frontlines of this right now, so they could start working in Emergency Rooms and hospitals right now. New york city is going to need that. New york city, of course, is the home of this show and so many people who work here and appear on it, new yorks been through a lot of dark days, one september tuesday nearly 20 years ago in particular, new york will get through this. But this is going to be hard. And thats the the message from Governor Cuomo yesterday is that we have very dark days ahead in the next couple weeks. In what was a plaintiff cry to the white house for help, one that has fallen on deaf ears. The white house did say another 4,000 ventilators from the stockpile will come to new york state, but much more is needed. You saw in that clip you played at the very top of the show how this works. The president needs to be flattered. His aides have warned governors that they need to do that. That they need to play nicely with him. Theres no suggestion yet that the government has deliberately withheld equipment from the states. But theres a fear among the states that they might. So youre seeing governors like cuomo and newsome who are usually antagonistic trying to flatter the president in Television Appearances to try to hurry him along and press him into mobilizing and using the defense production act which to this point has not happened. We talked yesterday, joe, the president is impatient, angry, hes willing to break with his Health Officials. We saw some subtle pushback yesterday from dr. Fauci and others from the white house podium suggesting that that easter timeline was unrealistic. Its probably going to take more than subtle pushback to change the president. Now, of course, the countrys not going to go back to business entirely in a few weeks. It looks like the current plan there will be isolation in the hot spots, the new yorks, large states will stay locked down. The governors have the final say. The president didnt impose the lockdown measures, he cant lift them. But theres going to be a move to get a lot of this country back to work in a few weeks. It will be past that 15day window. But Easter Sunday appears to be target, even though by nearly every measure, every study, every Health Expert that is wildly premature, that is weeks premature, joe, and could only lead to the spread to other places, other perhaps rural parts of this country, other parts with lots of Senior Citizens like florida, arizona, parts of the country that dont have the Health Care System that new york has. New yorks is overwhelmed now and density plays a role in that. But other parts are going to be just as hard hit in a matter of weeks. Well, new yorks overwhelmed now and the worst is yet to come. In the next two weeks are going to be horrible, especially for the city, and you are going to see scenes out of italy if Governor Cuomos pleas are not heard. And even if they are heard, i think the windows already closed on new york city. The tragedys coming. The United States government needs to perform triage now and throw everything it has at new york because, as andrew cuomo said, theyre just at the tip of the spear. This is going to happen all across the country in the coming days and weeks and months. You know, jon meacham, this reminds me so much the president needing to be flattered. This reminds me of discussions weve had about his intel chiefs warning him about russian disinformation, warning him about russians trying to interfere with american democracy. And Jonathan Lemire asking that question in helsinki if he was concerned and he said, no, he didnt trust his own appointed intel chiefs in the United States, he trusted a former kgb officers word instead. Again, it was the president disregarding the expert advice of those closest to him because it didnt line up with his preexisting reality. Forgive me for giving another example of this, but remember when james mattis in 2017 got his entire National Security team around him and gave him a history of the post war world from 1945 forward . The president called it bs, got up, tabbed didn up, and it didnt line up, the facts did not line one his preexisting prejudices and so he said it was bs. Thats when Rex Tillerson had a certain name for him that hovered in the air. But many think were not talking about intel agencies and the next election, were talking about 2. 2 million americans lives at risk and this president deciding what Senior Citizens lives hes going to save and what Senior Citizens hes going to let die based on whether a governor from that state flatters him or not. That is where we are. Yeah. Theres the ancient axiom from the ancient world that character is destiny and destiny can also be translated as fate in that sense. And in this case, the character of the presidency is shaping the destiny and the fate of all of us. Its not some partisan paintball issue. Its not even about ukraine. Its not about the separation of powers. Its about the first incredibly important word in what jefferson wrote in the countrys mission statement. Its about life. Its not even about liberty or the pursuit of happiness, its about life. And the fundamental role of a government in the social contract is the protection of life. And so it seems to me that this is in no way a partisan point, this is a case for science, for data, for facts. And if were going to talk about an eclass as tick cal calendar, lets talk about open by ascension day. Thats 40 days after easter. Its a long time. But easter is going to be too soon, but you know what . There was there are other moments here. And i say that from a position where i can still do my job and im fully aware of that. This is were going to be going through an extraordinary stress test of empathy and reaching out. And there is an instinct on the part of a lot of us to want to do that for the president as well. We know thats not an easy job. We know that, you know, everything hits except local kuft locusts, as biden says about the first days of obama. But even with that empathy for the president , he has a fundamental responsibility to protect the lives of the life of the nation and the lives of americans. And theres precious little evidence in his haste to shut this down that hes going to fulfill that responsibility. And if he does shut it down so quickly, hes not going to, right in the virus is not hes not going to shut it down . Its not somebody its not Robert Mueller, right . Its not Chuck Schumer. Its not speaker pelosi. It is a virus. This is a virus. This is as real as it gets. Its a virus, mika. Hes not going to shut the government down. He also is not going to be able to tell everybody to go back to work on easter because thats when the storm comes on shore. So what we have, really, is the worst case scenario. Were in the middle ground. Heres this guy that got elected by saying youre fired and claiming that he was a tough leader. Hes actually just the opposite. Hes dithering right now while the storm is coming ashore. Hes trying to brand it his way. But hes afraid. Hes scared to do what he needs to do. Hes scared to do what every Health Expert in the world has told him will actually bring this virus to a halt and will actually allow people to get back to work. Hes scared right now and he needs to be encouraged and he needs to be strengthened by everybody who supports him to save seniors lives and to save millions of americans lives by shutting the government down now, making the hard decisions now. The country. And reaping the benefit several weeks from now, several months from now after we shut down the country like every other major power on this planet. The World Health Organization says now the u. S. Has the potential to become the new epicenter of the virus with nearly 55,000 cases, more than 10,000 within the last 24 hours. The agency says the u. S. Now represents 40 of all new cases worldwide. Combined with europe, the western world represents 85 of all new cases worldwide. We want very much to get to our next guest who joins us now, i believe, from the World Health Organization, dan, am i correct . Dr. Bruce joins us now. Doctor, from your perspective, the president says were going to open up by easter. Our top expert, dr. Fauci, says thats flexible. I think he might be receiving pressure from the president. Should the United States lockdown or whats the best guidance for the u. S. At this point . Well, what we look at is what works and what have we seen work around the world . And right now theres very, very few countries that have actually been able to reverse this this epidemic and bring their cases down to very low level. In fact, the only country thats done that is china. And it did do fundamental things to achieve that. The first thing it did was it spaced the people, you know, through shutdowns and lockdowns, et cetera, reducing the amount of societal contacts, it spaced the people. But the second fundamental thing that it did was it tried to stop the change of transmission by testing every single suspect case, by then isolating and making sure effective isolation of all the cases and then quarantining of their close contacts. It was that combination, not one piece or the other. Lockdown, slow down a virus like this, you have got to find those transmission chains, cut them to actually stop it. At the rate of infection that were seeing in the u. S. , do you foresee the u. S. Being able to reduce restrictions and guidelines in the next few weeks . I think i think the data are going to tell us that as it unfolds. And, you know, the u. S. Is a gigantic country so its very difficult to Say Something is going to happen right across the whole country. Youre going to see this evolve differently in each part of the country. And, again, if i just go back for a second to china, you had the wuhan experience which is very, very unique, but you had 30 other provinces that learned from that that moved very, very fast on the key functions that i just told you about. And as a result, they had very, very different outbreaks and they were able to get functional again much more rapidly than weve seen in wuhan where were nearly three months in before theyre lifting it. It would be 2 1 2 months from when it first hit and first put the measures in place there and when they actually lifted them. Doctor, i want to show you a chart that weve been showing our audience this morning. Im not sure if you can see it where you are, but this chart actually its the Johns Hopkins numbers. Yeah. And that the Financial Times puts in every day. If we can zoom in, guys, like we did last time, the United States obviously above everybody else now, above china, above spain, and were actually much closer to the line where we double every two days. Theres another chart, im not going to show here, that shows new york citys rate of infection going straight up. What is youre seeing the United States and spain and italy. I wanted to ask, how if we separate and americans get more aggressive on that, how long until that trend line starts to curve . Because we obviously are going to zoom past china and italy and spain within the next three next two days, actually. Yeah. Yeah. So the critical thing when youve got a rapidly increase rate of increase of disease like this, you have fabulous experts, the best people in the world there in the u. S. Guiding on this, people like tony are just superb. But the first thing youve got to do is try to take the heat out of this thing, slow it down, and youve got to make it difficult for the virus. Remember, this is a virus and as other speakers have said, it survives in people and its got to get from one person to another person. Every person in the u. S. Has got to make it more difficult for that virus which means that physical distancing people are talking about, which means the hand washing people are talking about, which means the respiratory precautions. Because if you do all of those things, you make it hard on the virus. You slow it down. Now, it takes a little time to see the impact of those. It can take as much as two weeks, even if you do it extremely well, because, remember, as soon as you put those in place, you already have a lot of people who have been exposed. Theyre incubating the disease and that can take one, two weeks for the incubated disease, lets say, to manifest. So it can take a while for those measures to kick in. And thats very difficult for a population, its very frustrating for a population reasoned it, and its really hard for the leaders who have to guide a population through these measures. Doctor, were going to stay with you. Im going to thank jon meacham for being with us as we continue talk. Thank you very much, jon. Doctor, you look at the chart and whats remarkable to me is how east does not meet west. The difference between countries in the east and countries in the western civilization. And, yes, we could say that china, of course, imposed restrictions that we cant in a democracy. But japan is a democracy, south korea democracy. And you see that south korea, japan, singapore, and hong kong, these four Asian Countries or city states were able to flatten the curve extraordinarily well. Talk about the difference between whats happened in asia and whats happened in europe and the United States. Sure. As you may have may know, i actually spent two weeks in china at really the peak and just past the peak of the crisis there. And what i saw was an extraordinary effort. I also know the south korean we had South Koreans, japanese, singapore folks all with us, actually, in that mission to china where we really examined what was actually happening there, what was taking the heat out of this thing. And, you know, what was most striking for me was the asian society. It wasnt what i was being told in terms of the measures being imposed by government, it was the passion, the diligence, the sense of responsibility, the seriousness of the average chinese. And i want to use that term very carefully, because they werent average, they are extraordinary people. But they were driven by a sense of collective responsibility for their elderly, for their population. And they they just had an extraordinary understanding of the disease and a commitment to do what was ever necessary. My translator when i was in wuhan there are was a young woman from another part of china just happened to be in wuhan on the day the lockdown came and she was there for a month at that point. I asked her, wow, this must be really difficult. I saw her cell phone and there was a picture two of gorgeous little kids on it. I said i guess theyre here with you, though. She said, no, theyre a thousand kilometers away. But this is my duty. This is what we need to do. Its not about me as an individual, its about us. And, you know, that was what enabled china and then south korea and japan, et cetera, very similar. Theyre all doing the same thing. They are putting shutdowns in place where necessary to slow it down, but then they are mobilizing their whole population to help with the identification, testing, isolation, and then quarantine and supporting people who are in quarantine. So its a Real Movement in these countries to apply not just the big shutdowns, because that just slows it down. But also those other fundamental pieces which take a massive mobilization of people to effectively, you know, flatten it, as youre seeing there now. Thats the big difference. Its the second piece of this which is so important to bring your population with you to be able to implement. Well, and, of course, unfortunately the state of florida while we keep this chart up, weve been seeing pictures of spring break, weve seen pictures of hundreds of hundreds of students on sand bar. I had one person who took their boat past that sand bar telling me that hes lived here his entire life and it was the most crowd the sand bar ever was. Thats while our rate is still going up. Golf courses across florida new orleans. They cant actually tee times are more jammed, the golf courses are more jammed than ever. Theres a real sense that what you saw in asia were not seeing here. I want to show you the next chart, doctor. And this is of cities and regions that have been impacted. And, of course, you see wuhan, lombardy, madrid, and washington, london, but you look all the way to the left, my god, new york city actually close to the line where the deaths will double every day. Talk about those trend lines in new york city and if it is true what i heard from Health Officials yesterday that new york is actually going to end up being as bad as italy or perhaps worse. Is it too late to overt that disaster . You know, i strongly believe you always fight your wars forward, right . And you are where you are in terms of the situation in new york. And the extraordinary measures that are being put in place are absolutely whats going to be needed as you go forward. You know, this effort to create massive isolation capacity to be able to get sick people out of houses, out of cramped areas where they may be contributing to the disease, this massive efforts to help people understand their role in transmission and to really slow this down. Because if you want to save lives in a crisis like this, part of it is treating the sick, yes, but the other thing is you have got to reduce the number of sick so that your health facilities, you know, your fabulous doctors, nurses, Health Care Workers, physios in new york can do their life saving work. But youve got to take some strain off them by taking some of the heat out of this thing by properly isolating the mild cases as well. Making sure everyone who has covid know they have it. Because one of the dangers with this disease, you know, they called it a mild illness, but the reality is people will get the virus, they may feel better a couple days later and they may think now im fine, i can wander bock back out into society. But those Healthy People who had mild disease can still shed that virus for 14 days which means they could go back out and start this thing all over again. So, you know, youve got to address all of those pieces if you want that trend line in new york to change. Can it change . Absolutely. But that requires all of the people of new york working with the governor, working with the mayor to get the measures that they know. Theyre saying the right things, they understand this disease. Doctor, thank you very much for being on with us this morning. Thank you so much. And sharing your absolute expertise. So weve got a lot to talk to, were going to get to kasie hunt about the legislation that was passed. I know you want to get i want to talk to reverend sharpton really quickly. Reverend, the challenge here is that were in the middle of a crisis, a humanitarian crisis and, again, the storms coming on shore in new york city. And i remember after Hurricane Katrina churches, my church, other churches, we would drive over to mississippi, louisiana every day and we could help. We could give people water, give mothers diapers for their babies, give them food, give them the necessities because the government wasnt helping. Here, just saw in the New York Times this morning that even a kind act of delivering groceries to a neighbor is dangerous and could spread the virus. I would guess for for the spiritual community, for those who usually reach out in times of these crises theyre not even allowed to do that. This is a very unique humanitarian crisis. And theres just a lot of people who usually step in and help during thats times are going to be sidelined because they would just make things worse. It is a very strange kind of situation because, as you stated with katrina or other disasters, we knew what to do. With this, theres all kinds of precautions and cautions that prevent that. I mean, our organization Nation Action Network has been working with the World Kitchen organization giving out food at our headquarters. But we had to do many different types of precautions to protect those that would come and get them that would have to be socially distant and those volunteers at Nation Action Network that would give it out. Weve done several how it all ready. But weve had to do it under the most unusual circumstance. The problem here, joe, as youve been saying, is new york has become the epicenter and were not even near the peak. And if were going to use the biblical language, i saw the president say yesterday that easter is special to him. Well, he needs to know the whole easter story. You cannot get to Easter Sunday without first going through the crucifixion on friday. A crucifixion proceeds the resser recollecti resurrection and we have not got up calvarys mountain yet to the crucifixion, we just have the cross on our back. Were going to go through a real crucifixion, a real height in this pandemic in new york, and as Governor Cuomo says, one that will go around the country before we can get to a resurrection sunday, a premature resurrection will lead to a disaster and we need to understand that, deal with it head on. All right. Theres also a relief more americans and Business Owners, small and large, 2 trillion legislation the white house calling the single largest main street Assistance Program in the history of the United States. Kasie hunt, lets talk about the laundry list here that they got through. 1,200 to most adults, 500 for each child, four months of unemployment instead of three, more than 100 billion for hospitals, 350 billion for Small Business, and 500 billion for corporations. Hows it going to work and what were the main sticking points . Democrats said that at this point theyre just going to take it up as it is. Can i i can before you answer that, kasie, can we just some breaking news here . Sure. Jonathan lemire tweeted this. The uk palace says heir to the thrown Prince Charles tests positive for coronavirus. Bbc news also prince of wales 71 tests positive for coronavirus and has mild symptoms. Go ahead and answer that and well follow this story. Yeah. Yeah, pretty remarkable, selfisolating in scotland really underscores the fact that this is something that obviously spares no one. I do think americans should be relieved that this deal came to be overnight. Democrats had essentially said they were going to draw a line in the sand, they werent going to let Mitch Mcconnells procedural votes go forward while they demanded more money for hospitals, more money particularly i think the thing that people should focus the most on is the expansion of Unemployment Insurance. Its now going to be for four months. Democrats consider that to be a big win. And for people at home, you know, thats a little bit of an extra cushion because i do think the underlying reality that weve all been talking about this morning is that easter is an incredibly unrealistic timeline for this to be over. And, you know, you dont have to listen to democrats if youre the president of the United States to try to understand that. I mean, liz cheney tweeted yesterday that theres no way were going to have an economy thats open and running if our hospitals are overwhelmed with people dying. Its simply not going to happen. Even senator Lindsey Graham who, you know, has been on a long streak of telling the president what he wants to hear said the opposite yesterday. He said, you know, this is not what we need to be doing. We need to be changing our behavior because this this what congress is doing, you know, i mean, were 45 minutes into the show, we are still in the thick of this pandemic. That is the main focus of the story. And congress is about to spend 2 trillion, it is unprecedented, and i think that the way that were still covering the story shows that its only the beginning. And we have some very real challenges in terms of whether or not were actually going to be able to get it to work. You know, if this president didnt take t doesnt take the actions he needs to take, congress is going to have to keep trying to make it better over time. But at a certain point when does it all potentially become ineffective . I think theyve been scrambling to try to make sure they can get this together and thats the question hanging over everybody. The one other point i will add to this is that we expect them to pass this in the senate today. But to get it through the house without bringing our whole congress back into the same room, i mean, joe, youve been on that house floor. Good luck social distancing with 435 people there. Bringing the house back is completely. You cant do it. Its so unrealistic. But that means that every Single Member of the house has to agree to move this package forward. And justin amash, who is one of the original tea party members, although now hes left the Republican Party over donald trump, already tweeting criticizing this bill, so hes somebody to watch. It only takes one to potentially prevent all of this from reaching the American People. And, kasie, youre so right. It is so jammed on the house floor, it is so jammed in the cloak rooms, its so jammed in the hearing rooms, it is it is a worst case scenario. I remember one time seven years in i walked on to the house floor and i thought, good god, there are a lot of people in this room. It is just packed. Its like its unfortunately its like time scare. A coup time square. Jonathan lemire we talked about the coming storm. I have a little bit of positive news for new york city in the summer, not easter, but this is from Financial Times. Scientists actually have found that heat and humidity actually that High Temperature and high relative humidity significantly reduce transmission of covid19. Its something that scientists that have been looking at whats happened in china for some time have been hopeful, but theyre starting to get more data that, perhaps, in new york and the northeast by june, by july, by august when the humidity goes up, that will, in fact, significantly lessen the impact of covid19. Lets lets talk more about this deal last night, jonathan, how it came together. The president , again, talking about bipartisanship online, in his press conferences, but at night hurling attacks against the democrats. How did this come together and is the president pleased with this bill . The president s approach to this was, as often is, a little bit scatter shot, youre right, in most of his Public Forums he was preaching the need for bipartisanship but on twitter slinging arrows at democrats. The white house is desperate to sort of get this done. You know, it came together after 1 00 in the morning so treasury secretary mnuchin was the lead on this. Others in the white house were at the capitol quite late. We have not heard the president weigh in on it this morning, but i think there is a sense that he does want to push this through. And, yes, in this case he was suggesting that theres going to be a need for more. This is a historic and massive package. It is bigger than the u. S. Government, i believe, spends in a year most of the time. But this will be something that they need theyre going to have to revisit because in the coming weeks as the effects of this, despite the president s hopes to reopen the nation for business around easter, at least some of it, this is going to be felt for a long, long time as we the markets are pleased with this, theres still every indication were staring at a recession if not depression. Kasie, let me ask you a follow up. Theres a lot of discussion the last couple days about the fate of this 500 billion slush fund for corporations with democrats really pushing for a lot of some sort of oversight needed. I believe a deal was struck on that. Could you walk us through what the agreement is . Sure, jonathan. And the idea is to essentially put an Inspector General in place to oversee these deals. And democrats were also focused on some provisions that would have kept secret the companies that were benefitting from this and they were able to make some adjustments to that. But i think one of the most critical pieces here and one thing im hearing underscored from democrats is that they did add a provision to prevent businesses that are related to the president , i mean, they outlined the offices, but in this case its President Trump, members of congress, and people who hold executive cabinet positions will not be eligible to receive this aid. So there was a lot of concern and frustration on the hill, especially after the president s comments over the weekend where, you know, he said it cost him a lot of money to be president of the United States that they were going to pass this bill and it was simply going to enrich the president and the Family Business that he has, you know, made some, you know, moves towards distancing himself from but that his oldest son still runs. And we know how focused he has been on that generally. Theyve obviously been pretty hard hit by this because a lot of their clubs, golf courses have had to close. But in this bill, they will not be able to tap into this aid that many other businesses and companies are going to need to rely on in the coming months. All right, kasie, thank you so much. Reverend al, we greatly appreciate you being in as well. And, mika, yesterday there become the recognition that at least by a lot of Business Leaders that they were confident that this bill was going to pass. Yeah. Because donald trump had to close down his hotels, his resorts, maralago, and as weve said for 3 1 2 years on Foreign Policy, if theres ever a Foreign Policy move that doesnt make sense to you, follow the money. It benefits him financially. Follow the money. Its and not follow the money as it pertains to campaign contributions. Its follow the money as it pertains to him personally, whether its having a close relationship with the philippines where he has, of course, properties there or the saudis when the rest of the world is shunning the saudis while donald trump bragged about the saudis paying him hundreds of millions of dollars during the campaign, they liked his, quote, toys. And here we have, again, a lot of Business Leaders and a lot of people on wall street making the calculation yesterday that donald trump was going to make sure that they were going to push forward to reopen business because his own properties and his own business was hurting so much. Thats their take. Were following breaking news. This sky news is reporting that the heir to the thrown Prince Charles is testing positive for coronavirus. Hes in isolation with camilla but she is testing negative. He is displaying mild symptoms, but they say otherwise remains in good health and has been working from home. But, again, the prince of wales has tested positive for coronavirus. Hes 71 years old, so obviously a real risk. Still ahead on morning joe, if the president wont invoke the defense production act, can Congress Force his hand . Were going to talk to the leader of a bipartisan effort aimed at forcing the white house to get medical supplies to the Health Workers who need them. Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin joins the conversation. Plus, one of the senators who will be voting today on that massive stimulus plan, democrat chris murphy will be our guest. Also, andrew cuomo, hes being called americas governor. Well talk about his leadership on the national stage. Plus, former senator Clair Mccaskill on the 2 trillion stimulus deal. There were no public hearings or formal review, so what exactly is in store for the American People . Morning joe is coming right back. Breast cancer on my birthday. I thought, im not letting anything take me away from my family without a fight. At Cancer Treatment centers of america, i had six, seven doctors that Work Together to take me through this journey. Theyre not just treating the cancer, theyre treating me as a whole person. And thats why i think am where i am today. Get care like no other at Cancer Treatment centers of america. Get care like no other has you covered withe fast, reliable internet. Finity with advanced security to help keep you secure online. And with the most tv shows, movies and streaming apps all in one place. With simple Digital Tools you can get the help you need or even trouble shoot your services on your own. Download the xfinity my account app or just say help into your xfinity voice remote. We are working to make things a little easier on everyone. Download the xfinity my account app today. Id love to have it open by easter. Okay. I would love to have it open by easter. Oh, wow. Okay. I will tell you that right now. I would love to have that its such an important day for other reasons, but ill make it important day for this too. I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by easter. During our town hall today you threw out a date where you think america could be working again, and thats Easter Sunday. Yeah. Thats 19 days from now. How did you come up with that day . Well, its nine to19 days bu another seven because weve been doing this from seven. Seven to nine. Yes. So from the time we close it up. So you could add seven to nine. Look, easters a very special day for me. And i see it of in that timeline that im thinking about and say, wouldnt it be great to vul after t have all the churches full. Who suggested easter . I just thought it would be a beautiful time. A beautiful timeline. Its a great day. Since the president said you and dr. Burks and others will be guiding him in make the decision, where are you now in this timeline 19 days from now. So, i mean, thats really very flexible. We just had a conversation with the president in the oval office talking about, you know, you could look at a date but youve got to be very flexible on a littler rally the literally day by day and week by week basis. Its a beautiful time, but it has nothing to do with this pandemic. And its not going to have anything to do with this pandemic as we see the surge of cases. Weve been showing you charts all morning. And its data. Its data that prediblingts pre these lines are going in the country. Its a beautiful time. For him. Remember the president saying if you wanted a test you could get a test . That was weeks ago. Theres no truth to that. We need tests. I talk to so many people right now that desperately need tests. Weve got frontline workers who desperately need tests. You look at new york city cops, theyre approaching the 10 level of people infected. They cant get tests. New York City Police officers cant get tests. New Orleans Health care workers and ems workers who are being stressed by this, being sidelined, they cant get tests. The president s words have been meaningless here. This entire crisis, sadly, he goes on and he speaks in these bland general ral blind general ralties, if you want a test you can get one, thats not the case. The president then saying a week later weve got 15 people that maybe have this. Soon it will down to zero. And at that time thats when all of his allies in the trump media were all saying that this was just the coverage, the increased fear about this coming pandemic was all a hoax. All they said it was all a hoax, well, of course, they and people that were running their companies were taking precautions because they knew it was not a hoax. Thats sort of like the senators that were saying that we were going to be prepared while they were dumping millions of dollars worth of stock. And so now we we come to where the storm is closer to shore, where new york city, whos, again, at the tip of the spear, just like they were on 9 11, just like they were in the war against terrorism, theyre going to be in this pandemic as well. And theyre already overwhelmed. And the storm is still offshore. Its coming. And, mika, for the president to talk about a beautiful time blandly, what he does, and i know that we talked about this yesterday after he said it, i said, you know, that timeline, dont even Pay Attention to that timeline because people wont be going back to work in mass at that time because were going to be experiencing the horrors of whats happening in new york and across other affected areas. The problem is, as hes done from the beginning, the president is sending a message to his supporters, people who listen to him, that its okay for them to go to beaches, its okay for them to hang out on boats on sand bars and congregate together in the hundreds, its okay for them to golf. Youve checked across florida tee times are actually tighter. Im told by several friends, than ever before. People are actually complaining i had one guy tell me that his dad was complaining that he couldnt get a tee time at his own golf course because so many people were jam packed in the clubs because this is they consider free time to catch up on their golf game. Mika, the message comes from the top. Well, and its a wavering message. The president needs to deliver a strong, steady message that we are at war, we can win this war, but its going to take the sacrifice of every american to act responsibly. This is a war that is won at home. The wavering at the top will end up in lives being lost. I mean, we had the president in the course of five minutes talking to the American People, talking about being open by easter and why thats a fun day for him. And then our top expert trying his best to navigate his relationship with the president but saying that date is very, very flexible when it comes to his point of view and his expertise. Im with fauci, if im going to look for my guidance, im not listening to President Trump and i would urge all americans to listen very carefully to this president and to be careful with the information that they are getting from him. There is a void in empathy that he has shown us for years and it is playing out right now. Because what you see is a president who is completely, completely removed from the suffering that is happening right now. Not only around the world, but inside the halls of new york City Hospitals and across the country. Well you know what where people have died from this virus and more people will die. You know whats so remarkable is that this is happening in his hometown. Like, this is happening where he lived his entire life. This this crisis, its a new york city crisis. And the hospitals where he was born, where his children were born, where he said goodbye, said farewell to his parents. Those are the hospitals that right now are begging for help. Those are the hospitals where doctors and nurses are already overwhelmed. And forgive me for continuing to make this analogy, but it is a category 5 storm thats coming on shore, its epicenter is in new york city, and the president has helped some. He and andrew cuomo have worked together fairly well. Yesterday he got impatient, though, and said that andrew cuomo needed to stop complaining. No, no, the storm is coming. The war is coming. And the federal government needs to engage like it has never engaged in a Health Care Crisis to get it done. Jonathan lemire is still with us. White house reporter for the Associated Press. Joining the conversation, republican strategist susan del percio. Former u. S. Senator now an nbc news and msnbc political analysts Clair Mccaskill. And at the white house, White House Correspondent for pbs news hour, yamiche. Good to have you all on board. Susan del percio where are youve been around new york leaders. We all remember what Rudy Giuliani did during 9 11. We remember despite what weve seen over the past four years with Rudy Giuliani, you saw him and others saw him marshal all the resources in new york city and also encourage the president of the United States to marshal all the resources of the federal government to help the people of new york city on 9 11. How far are we from that moment right now with this president . Its night and day, joe. And one thing that we saw with mayor giuliani was looking to coordinate efforts. He had a partner do that with the federal government. Andrew cuomos trying to do the same thing, but we have a president whos basing his leadership on volunteerism from other people instead of forcing people to manufacture whats necessary lea necessary, leading a coordinated effort, funding those businesses that need to get 24 hour round the clock manufacturing done for ventilators and masks and other things. But andrew cuomo like all the other governors are kind of on their own just to figure out their own plan. What was interesting about andrew cuomo, at least he reached out to other neighboring governors and theyre trying to Work Together. But not having a partner in the federal government is a disaster. And you use the term category 5 storm, which i completely agree with, and it made me think of another storm we had in new york which was super storm sandy. And when that happened, we saw hospitals having to close, evacuate patients. Well, this is going to be something that will affect not just a few hospitals, but all of those hospitals. Joe, we keep talking about people needing to be tested, which i think is right. But in two to three weeks people are going to be needing to enter hospitals and they are going to be turned away. So the president s not going to be able to get up there and say, oh, well well manufacture some more. No. People are going to be knocking at hospital doors and turned away and dying. And thats the message andrew cuomo is trying to present, as are many other governors. Right. And the president is not hearing it. He wants to have a special day for himself and have government open. So, claire mccaskill, one of my frustrations in this entire pandemic crisis and what many people consider to be a crisis of leadership has been that i fielded calls seems 24 hours a day from people complaining about the president and his lack of leadership. And i fielded these calls for two weeks now. And this is this is a 30,000 question from 30,000 feet. And my growing frustration is this. We are a constitutional republic. We have a madisonian democracy. We have three equal, coequal branchs of power. Is there nothing that the article 1 branch, is there knowing that congress can do other than throw money at economic problems . Is there nothing that congress can do on its own to to alleviate suffering of doctors and nurses and people on the front lines . I mean, were not a dictatorship, im not suggesting donald trump is acting like a dictator. But people are acting like he is. And its like this country of 325 Million People, our entire fate rests on what one man decides to do. If he decides to act recklessly and irresponsibly as he has at times during this crisis, then 2 Million People are going to die. I refuse to believe in america that congress cant do something about this or the health care side. What could congress you were there. What can congress do . Well, the problem is, joe, that whats needed here is, in fact, the executive power that the president has in our constitution. He tries all the time to grab executive power that he doesnt have. And now heres a moment where his constitutional executive power should be utilized and what you really see from congress is the republicans completely following whatever he does and saying its perfect. Youve seen a few senators say, wait a minute, we should not be letting the stock market dictate our meth care responhealth care but by in large, lets drill down what happened with the stimulus. Heres what happened with the stimulus package. Because Mitch Mcconnell got jammed on the last two bills that went through, he decided he would draft his own bill to reassert his power and try to jam it through with the democrats in the senate. That happened on sunday. The democrats said, wait a minute, this isnt right. Were not going to give you a 500 billion slush fund that lets the secretary, of the treasury and therefore donald trump decide what Companies Get money, gets to hide it for six months and allows them to give stock buybacks. Were not going to do that. Were not going to do this without more Unemployment Insurance. So what happens . Mitch brings it up again for a vote on monday and in this bizarre partisan exercise knowing he didnt have the votes, tried to jam it again. Well, i got to tell you, one thing congress did right this week was the democrats said enough. We are not going to take a stimulus bill, we can talk about pay into that later, thats all of our money theyre spending. But, you know, they stopped it and then insisted that there be an Inspector General looking over the slush fund. That there, in fact, cannot be stock buybacks with this money because theres going to be oversight from congress. That, in fact, people will get four extra months of Unemployment Insurance, 600 increase, which is huge for people who are losing their jobs. So the democrats did exactly what they should have done. And america probably will never understand how grateful they should be to nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumer and especially those Democratic Senators in tough states that stood strong even while Mitch Mcconnell was screaming that this was partisan blocking in an emergency and got a bill done that theyll vote on today that will make a difference. It is exactly what should have happened and Mitch Mcconnell should be ashamed for trying to jam a partisan version of that that was more corporate than worker. Well, it really was. And the fact that Mitch Mcconnell had the nerve to go on the senate floor and scream at the top of his lungs about trying to push through a bill that would allow stock buybacks from the biggest multinational corporations on planet who use all of their trump tax cuts to buyback stocks or the overwhelming majority of it is really its really very sad at this moment. And, mika, the same thing with that slush fund. 500 billion slush fund that he was going to give to donald trump to pass the money around anyway he liked. We know how that would have ended. Now, because actually some people held the line, were going to have five people overlooking it, a Bipartisan Task force overlooking it to make sure that businesses that really need the money, Small Businesses that really need the money actually get the money and theres not going to be a slush fund. There arent going to be stock buybacks, and the difference between what Mitch Mcconnell was screaming about and what happened at the end is a huge, huge difference. Which is actually going to help this economy much more than Mitch Mcconnell planned to just throw a slush fund at the problem. One other thing really too, we cant say it enough, republicans like liz cheney come out and said what weve been saying here, which is that the economic crisis continues as long as theres a Health Care Crisis. You cant rush a pandemic. A pandemic has its own timeline. Your job is to shorten that timeline, get past it, and then start working. Start working on getting people back to work. Yeah. Well, yesterday we saw on stage at the coronavirus update the president talking for quite some time about money and about the economy and about easter. Then his top scientist, ddr and dr. Fauci, they were trying their best to tell the truth without getting fired. And there was this disturbing moment where dr. Fauci backed up, finished his remarks and stood next to the president and looked at him. And there was a look of concern in his face that, perhaps, the president did not like what he was saying. And i saw in the Fox Town Hall dr. Birx talking and the president literally rolling his eyes and acting like a stubborn, spoiled little 5yearold really anxious for her to stop speaking. Because he doesnt want their information to scare americans from going back to work. Thats the logic thats playing out on stage. Anybody want to question it at this point . I actually, first of all, dr. Fauci has said that he doesnt want people in the media trying to separate him from the president. And i think its in everybodys best interest that dr. Fauci, dr. Birx, these other doctors remain on that task force. For sure. But there is, though, theres no doubt there is attention that we have to recognize. And that tension is businesses, Small Business whos are suffering so badly, businesses that are going to go out of business because of this unprecedented economic crisis. And, of course, the pandemic. Health care officials are scared to death at the pandemic thats coming. But then again, so are Small Business owners and big Business Owners and mid size Business Owners. There definitely is a split right now. There is a balance that has to be be at least thought through. But there is no doubt that theres a there is a tension between the Health Experts and the economic experts. But weve seen with larry kudlow, and ill just say, hes been a friend of mine for some time and i like larry so much. But larry is the one who said this was contained a couple weeks ago. And to disastrous results. He and Kellyanne Conway, Kellyanne Conway yelled at a cbs reporter for suggesting that this was not contained, yelled at a cbs reporter. So these political and economic advisers have no idea of the deputyeni depth of the pain and suffering that americans are going to feel. Yamiche, how is that playing out not only at the press conferences but behind the scenes at the white house . Well, President Trump is leaning into his political instincts in the middle of a Health Crisis and hes been successful when it comes to leaning into his political instincts when it comes to, of course, being elected. But what we see here is a president whos trying his best to take the information that hes getting and create this other kind of sort of dual parallel information stream where hes telling people actually i think my gut tells me that on Easter Sunday the churches should be packed and people should be able to go back to life as usual, at least many in some parts of the country. When in fact the federal governments own planning guide warned policymakers that this pandemic could last up to 18 months and even longer. President trump staged from the same White House Briefing room told reporters that this could last all the way to august. The president is making it very clear that he is making an economic decision. And he said i think most people are more people might die from the Economic Impacts of this than the virus itself, but theres no scientific evidence, no data to back up those statements. So what we see is the president trying to push his scientists into this nuanced view. You do someone like dr. Fauci making a nuanced argument. Yesterday he said well maybe parts of the country where there isnt an outbreak, we should study those places and see do they need to be eased in terms of guidelines or do we need to clamp down even more . But the president obviously at this point is the only person ive heard say that this government and this country would be ready by Easter Sunday to come together. Thats in 19 days. I dont see anybody saying in 19 days this pandemic is going to have peaked and then were going to be on the other side of this. Im going to go do Jonathan Lemire in a second, but i want to go and thank you for that insight, yamiche, youre so right. I want to good to claire mccaskill. Claire, im going to Say Something thats going to be extraordinarily unpopular not only for people who are watching, but also in my own household. I think if the senate hasnt completed writing this bill, i think its extraordinarily important for the health of this nation, and i just got a note, ive been worried about this all night and i just got a note from an ambassador who has the same concerns, its extraordinarily important that Donald Trumps own companies are not exempted from this bill, from this relief because by exempting Donald Trumps companies, you give him the worst incentives to reopen this government or to reopen this country quickly. Donald trump, as i said earlier, he makes decisions based on his bottom line. Its always been that way. By exempting donald trump and his businesses from getting relief, what you are doing is youre actually encouraging him to make rash decisions that are going to hurt america. And since we have a fiveperson panel to make sure that this isnt a slush fund, dont you think the wisest move, the most prudent move, and, yes, i will say this, the fairest move that the senate can make is to let donald trump and his Companies Get the same relief that every other business in their position will be getting . And the same holds true for the senators, for the congressmen and women, and for other leaders, they should be treated no better than everybody else, but should be treated the same as every other Business Owner. Yeah. As hard as it is to reconcile the fact that this president has made a lot of money off of being president and uses his properties and promotes his Properties Like a huckster from the oval office, i do think that now that theres going to be an Inspector General and theres going to be bipartisan congressional oversight, his companies, his business interests should be treated no better or no worse than any other companies. And youre exactly right. I mean, its sad so say that he would behave like a. He chew lent chiild and probabl irrational things if his company was exempted. We cant decide were going behave the way he does especially in a moment of national crisis. He should be included in a fair and transparent way. And maybe thats the most important thing that Chuck Schumer got out of his negotiation was theres now going to be some transparency. So the American People can see where this money is going, how it is being used. And the other thing that i didnt mention before that needs to be noted is they make sure that states will get this money not based on whether theyre blue or red. Weve watched when trump has tried to withhold federal funding from blue states because they dont do the things he wants them to do. That would be a disaster in this situation when you see the kind of pain that new york is going through and the kind of pain that california has gone through. So i think that the transparency and oversight absolutely Donald Trumps businesses should be treated fairly and in a way that all america can have eyes on it. And so i want to make a plea right now, i usually make pleas to the president of the United States that largely go unheeded. I want to make a plea on behalf of the American People who, again, they may disagree with me, but on behalf of their health to Chuck Schumer and nancy pelosi, now that there is transparency, now that you have an Inspector General and other people that youre going to help appoint to overseeing this, i think its very important that you allow Donald Trumps companies, the companies of senators, the companies of members of congress to be able to be treated no better or no worse than every other small, mid side, or Large Business in america. I understand the instincts of putting this provision in. But for the Public Health of this country, and so the president s only incentive in his mind will be making americans safe and healthy, you need to strip that provision out and treat the president no better or no worse than everybody else. Yes, i understand, i can hear it already. I hear what youre saying, isnt it sad, isnt it terrible that we have a president thats this way . Well i had a law proffer thesso says you have is and you have out. What is the law and what ought the law be . Were at the is here. What is our reality . Our reality is that the president is the president. Donald trump is the president. And its critical that his only incentive is getting americans healthy. And you can help move him closer to that side of that line by stripping out that provision and putting in a provision that treats him and other elected officials no better or no worse than every other Business Owner in america. Lets bring in morning joe chief medical correspondent dr. Dave campbell. Hes been studying this throughout the entire crisis and right now, dave, youre looking at asymptomatic carriers. This is such a mystery, especially with the lack of testing that is available in the United States because of obviously the botched start in this that we dont know how many there are out there. Why are they so important in terms of trying to figure out how to get to the other end of this . Mika, it was about a month or two ago that the world health kortion and T Organization and the China Mission came out with a report that suggested its very rare for those with infections to be asymptomatic. More recently out of iceland a country that has tested a high pr proportion of its inhabitants than any other country in the world found that one half of those that were tested to be positive were asymptomatic. The problem is if you arent testing as many people as possible, there will be a large pool of people like in the United States, like in new york, who are asymptomatic who are contagious. We were just told that you can have a mild disease, maybe a fever, the fever goes away, you havent been tested, but youre still contagious. So its this infective nature of this virus that needs to be tested, widely tested. And i think were hearing that through most of the experts that are talking. Flies in the face of what the recommendations are right now that you have to be sick to be tested. It makes no sense to me, quite frankly. Right. Thats like senator rand paul Walking Around capitol hill with no symptoms but with the coronavirus. And tested positive for it. Mika, as we said before, if those guyslines had beidelines place, every senator right now would be infected. And still could be, a lot of them. Dr. Dave, theres a growing number or it seems to be a surprising number, although im reading anecdotal cases around the country of young people who require medical care for the coronavirus because the overall thought, i guess, when this crisis first started to peak was that young people were somewhat immune from having symptoms. Yeah, mika, its no longer anecdotal. The reports are out that show that 1 out of 5 people from 20 to i think it was 44 in the hospital are positive. So if you look at the entire pool of those that are infected, a surprising number are in the hospital. 1 in 10 of those younger age groups are in the icu. So this virus, it doesnt discriminate between age, it inflames and damages the lung tissue. Ive always thought, and i still think, that the pool of young people who are vaping that we know has caused inflammation and damage to the lung tissue, i havent seen anybody look at the link between vaping and the unfortunate reality that a lot of young people are in the hospital or in the icu with lung problems from coronavirus. Dr. Dave campbell, thank you very much. Well be talking, of course, with you again tomorrow. So weve been talking about new york Governor Andrew Cuomos pleas for medical supplies as both local and hospital officials around the country are clambering for the distribution of vital medical resources to frontline medical providers that will literally make the difference between life and death. Joining us now from the Columbia University Business School and an expert on hospital operations management, carrie chan. Also with us, member of the Armed Services and Homeland Security democratic congresswoman Elissa Slotkin of michigan. Thank you both for joining us this morning. Congresswoman slotkin, first of all, whats the word from the front lines in your district and how theyre doing in the fight against this virus . Yeah, i would say we are hearing a pretty strong cry from our Health Care Workers, our first responders, that they just do not have the personal protective equipment that they need to keep themselves safe and to keep themselves on the front lines. Theres a real hierarchy of needs coming in in all the calls and emails were getting, that is number one. And getting people through the next few weeks where the orders for equipment arent yet in, but weve got to get through this next period. And then obviously next down the ladder is the economic impact. And just the absolute, you know, concern from people on how theyre going to get by and get through this period. Thats what were hearing and we hear Pretty Amazing stories of the folks who are sharing masks, you know, nurses who are sharing masks, people who dont feel like they have the equipment they need and are coming home to their families. So i think its important to think about this as sort of a different type of conflict. And the people on the front lines are very different than the conflict were used to. We need to recognize that and treat them the same way we would treat our frontline active duty military in a different conflict. Jonathan lemire. Carrie, my question for you is we just talked we just heard we just talked a lot about the plight of the situation in new york city and how things are going to only get worse. In fact, we had a lengthy discussion about new york last block and ill point out minutes later the president tweeted a defense of his handling of the city of his situation here. We saw that Governor Cuomo yesterday at the jav vidits cen which a center that theyre turning into a makeshift hospital. How quickly can that be turned into something that can actually help patients . How thorough is the treatment there . Will that be just sort of handled the other patients and so the hospitals can focus on coronavirus . Whats your sense of what actually can go on and what is legitimately a massive space but how useful will it be . Right. So i think that this expansion is certainly going to help new york city. We are going to be able to treat patients separate from the covid disease. And so this is going to help alleviate some of the strain on our hospitals in the city. Unfortunately, as we know, the citys Hospital Systems are already very strained. And so while this is going to help, you know, we need to do more to continue to enable our frontline providers to give care. And also to put them in a position where they are not overwhelmed and they are able to have the Resources Available to treat their patients. Congresswoman slotkin, what are you hearing i know youre hearing the cry for help for supplies from Health Care Workers, but what is it going to take to actually get the supplies in places in place in places like your district . For example, is there anything the president could do to speed up the process . Sure. I mean, i just coauthored a bill that we dropped yesterday that basically tries to force the president to implement the authorities he has under the defense production act. Hes announced it, the fema director has made some remarks about how theyre using it and then hes contradicted. The president needs to centralize the production. And in particular, in the retooling of some of our big manufacturers. A lot of these folks, especially our big autos in michigan, their suppliers, theyre doing this on their own. Theyre deciding to retool to make this protective equipment. But it really needs to be organized. And, again, that equipment is what were looking to come in two, three, four weeks from now. So we want the president to move on that. And, frankly, i worked on a lot of crisis when i was at the pentagon. I almost under no circumstances would recommend the legislative branch forcing the executive branch to enact these powers and tell them how to manage. But this is just a situation its just the outcry is so strong that its pushed us to do this to try to force the president to centralize the retooling of our big manufacturers. Susan del percio. Yeah, i think thats exactly right. We need to have the leadership and the coordination to get the products out for the end users. And, its interesting listen together congresswoman, it seems so clear and obvious and i dont understand why the president at this point hasnt been able to see it. Its so stark what needs to happen. But, again, when youre only looking at things as political problems and youre through what helps yourself, it makes it much more difficult to get things done for others. But i just also want to go back to how andrew cuomo has presented those factios. I wrote a piece earlier calling him americas governor. The reason he has been successful in that is because he is able to present facts, information, trends, whats going to need to be done, and lastly compassion. And when you have a president with no core values and you cannot trust, he cannot lead. Right. But the missing piece of that with Governor Cuomo is the mobilization from the president ial level. Carrie chan, thank you. Congresswoman elisa slotkin, thank you very much as well. One of the things, mika, that has surprised me over the past week is we do live in a really ideological time. But ive had friends and family members who support donald trump who usually lash out at anybody thats not wearing a red hat who have been very positive about andrew cuomo. It has surprised me time and time again. So there is a cry for leadership. People what leadership in this time of crisis. Claire mccaskill, thank you for being on this morning. Coming up after days of tense back and forth, senators have passed a 2 trillion stimulus bill. Well talk to one of the senate negotiators, minority leader shuck schumer ahead about that on morning joe. Ur sneezes tu . Try zyrtec. It starts working hard at hour one. And works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. Zyrtec muddle no more. I thought, im not letting anything take me away from my family without a fight. At Cancer Treatment centers of america, i had six, seven doctors that Work Together to take me through this journey. Theyre not just treating the cancer, theyre treating me as a whole person. 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By brushing with sensodyne sensitivity gum at home its giving you the relief that you need and the control that you need to take care of your oral health. And it creates a healthier environment. Theres no question its something that i would recommend. People what leadership in this on morning joe. Welcome back. Yeah are. Jonathan lemire, let me go to you really quickly. As we said the president is who the president is. A tweet three minutes ago from the president of the United States in the middle of a pandemic that is, again, its a white house has acknowledged may kill 2 million americans, the president decides to use his time and his platform this morning by tweeting this about mitt romney. First of all, mitt romney tests negative for coronavirus, Breitbart News reports. The president says this is really great news, i am so happy i can barely speak. Sarcasm, of course. He may have been a terrible president ial candidate and an even worse u. S. Senator, but he is a rhino and i like him a lot with an exclamation point. The president of the United States dont you just ask yourself the question right now about his stability . Well, of course, mika, we do every day. I wonder what about people in the white house right now watching this. But, you know, the thing is in the middle of this crises, first of all, mitt romney is of the age that yeah. This could have been a death sentence for him. His wife. His wife has underlying conditions. So if he were positive it could have been a death sentence for her. And donald trump cannot even in these times refrain from attacking somebody who is part of the United States senate. Were all in this together. The president said, and i agreed with him, were all in this together. And you just like what if mitt romney had tweeted Something Like that about the president this time, if he had tested or anybody else, i mean, the outrage from donald trump and his campaign and from from websites would have just would have been overwhelming. But he is held to such a lower standard. And by everybody that he does this again in the middle of the pandemic when he should be telling us what hes doing to get more masks, more ventilators, more tests. God, more tests for americans. So we we dont have 2 Million People die. As, again, the white house concerned about that study, thats not me, thats not the media, thats not fake news, thats not the hoax that people were talking about a couple weeks ago. The white house believes that. And, yet, Jonathan Lemire, hes mocking mitt romney this morning after mitt romney finds out that he doesnt have the coronavirus. You asked what the president s response would be if someone else tweeted that about him or his family, no one else would tweet that about his or his family. Lets flashback a couple days ago, the president was in the White House Briefing room when a reporter informed him that senator romney was moving into isolation because he had been exposed to senator rand paul who did test positive for the coronavirus. And the president said romney, oh, gee, too bad and then was asked if he was being sarcastic and he said he wasnt. Im sure when hes asked about this tweet he will say he wasnt sarcastic. He is being sarcastic. And it is, to your point, it is to your point that that is what he is doing right now at 7 fortyish in the morning during the height of this pandemic when he is claiming that the American Public can largely return to their normal lives in 2 1 2 weeks for Easter Sunday and pack the pews, even though that goes against what every Health Expert and most governors are saying what they need to have happen. This is a president who you point out might be motivated by financial concerns about his businesses, but is also more than anything is concerned about his reelection. And that is informing every decision he is making. He wants things, and that includes the economy, to, quote, go back to normal to he can go back to running the campaign he wants to run against joe biden, to be out there holding his rallies to secure another four years in office. Right. That is fueling everything he is doing. This is there is no doubt that if a ceo put out a tweet like that this morning they would be considered unfit to run a corporation. If a School Teacher put out a tweet like that this morning, they would be considered unfit to run a classroom. In fact, if any american put out a tweet like that with this type of crisis weighing down on them, they would consider be considered to be unfit. And so, again, i dont i dont understand with the responsibility, susan del percio, that this president has upon his shoulders with his plea as he was reading the teleprompter that with this pandemic we are all in this together. With his white house acknowledging the possibility that up to 2 Million People could die from the coronavirus, most of them Senior Citizens. Thats right. And if he thinks this is if he thinks this is going to distract us from the fact that he screed up screwed up on masks, ventilators, he screwed up on preparation, its not going to distract us, its just going to draw attention to the fact that whether he does things like this he looks unfit for the job. Im sorry, susan, go ahead. He was just going to respond. You said a key thing there, when he was reading from the teleprompter. Thats what his people are telling him to read. And when hes on his own, this ask what he thinks and how he processes things. And its all about him and people he deems his enemies. Id just like to say, im paraphrasing, mitt romney went out on his treat not only saying im negative for coronavirus, but im staying in a selfquarantine in an abundance of caution, which is exactly the responsible thing we should be talking about. Thats what leadership is. And i just keep going back to it. Donald trump is not offering this country what it needs at its being, and thats leadership. Speaking of leadership across the country, local officials are taking matters into their own hands to help stop the spread of coronavirus. Last night the city of miami ordered all residents to shelter in place and remain at home until further notice. A stayathome order was also issued in orange county, florida, which includes orlando and begins tomorrow. In washington, d. C. , all nonessential businesses have been ordered to close until april 24th. Charleston has become the first city in South Carolina to issue a stayathome order. And the entire state of vermont will be under a stayathome order starting at 5 00 p. M. Today. The governor says it will last until april 15th. And, Jonathan Lemire, as you said before, the president can say whatever he wants to say. And i think he does understand this about opening up by easter. But he understands that wont stop states and localities from doing their best to protect their people, to protect their Senior Citizens with these sort of stay at home orders which, again, as this crisis spreads across the United States when the storm comes on shore fully, were going comes onshore fully, well see this happening across the nation. I wonder if the president really is going to be one of the only leaders. The president being one of the only leaders to suggest people go back out to restaurants, go back out to bowling alleys, go back out to theaters and start spending money again. Hes one of the very, very few voices to suggest that now. And from the beginning, hes tried to put the onus on states to handle this crisis. Theyre responsible for getting their own medical equipment. Thats why he hasnt fully enforced the defense protection act, is that he is not exhibiting a national guidelines, hes not advocating National Standards outside of this one 15day trial period. Its going to be up to individual governors. I think what were going to see here is an attempt to isolate the hot spots, which mind you, are also to this point, largely in coastal blue states. That could change. We have discussed florida, according to a lot of Health Experts, looks to be the next epicenter of this outbreak. But this is were going to see individual governors have to step up and show leadership for their own citizens because the president is going to be urging across the nation for people to go back to work, to go to church, to tart their lives again come easter, and a lot of governors are going to have to say no, and that will test the relationship between the federal government and the states. Will the white house, will that impact what sort of federal assistance is delivered to these states, especially those who have governors who defy what the president wants . Unbelievable. Quite unbelievable. Mika, were talking about hot spots here. Of course, you can talk about coastal regions, you can talk about blue states. But again, evidence that congregating and being reckless causes disaster. Louisiana has been hammered. And theyre quickly becoming a hot spot because of mardi gras. And you can see it coming. I remember reading a Charlie Pierce tweet saying the First Arkansas case, first person who tested positive had come from mardi gras. Theres no telling the damage that that festival did in spreading this virus. Right now, there is a real Crisis Brewing in the city of new orleans and across that state. Well, the coronavirus cases have spread faster in the first two weeks of the states outbreak than it has in any other state or even country. According to an analysis by a professor at the university of louisiana at lafayette, over a 13day period, the increase in the number of cases placed the state on a trajectory for infections ahead of both italy and spain. Some of the hardest hit areas in the world. Just yesterday, louisiana reported 216 new cases, bringing the total number to 1,388 with 46 deaths. According to the nbc affiliate in new orleans, 94 Emergency Medical Service employees in that city have been exposed to the coronavirus. At least 28 of them have been quarantined. New orleans only has 170 ems employees, so a real Crisis Brewing there. A crisis really under way. Yeah, mika, and you look at those numbers. And the ems workers are getting sick. We have seen it in italy. We have seen it across the world, that the people on the front lines are having trouble treating those who have this disease. And its only going to get worse. Why is it going to get worse . Because we dont have the masks we need. We dont have the protective equipment we need. We dont have the gloves we need. And its weeks away. It is weeks away, and again, thats why its so critical that the president puts the defense production act in full force. But he wont. How is it possible . And he immediately, today, starts, Jonathan Lemire, that he today starts ordering companies, starts a National Call for companies to protect the people of louisiana, to protect the people of florida, to protect the people of new york, to protect people in red states and in blue states, because if hes looking at this politically, and thinking well, its just new york, because you know he is. Its just new york and california, the next hot spot is florida. If the president of the United States, and i hate to speak in such crass terms, but im speaking in terms he understands. If the press botches this crisis and seniors die in florida because of his botched leadership, it will be like george h. W. Bush botching hurricane andrew in 1992 and losing that state because he botched the handling of the crisis. So if all the president s crisis you will be run out of office. And it will start in the state of florida. It does seem like, joe, were heading towards, i hope not, but it feels like were heading towards a red state versus blue state divide, and potentially even urban versus rural. And to underscore, to bring it home about the president , his tone and leadership and where his focus is, hes tweeted again after the mitt romney tweet. This time to a link. Judge wont release avenatti, you remember michael avenatti. Judge wont release avenatti over coronavirus claim. The president tweets, gee, thats too bad. Such a fine guy. President ial aspirations, you know. Thats where we are right now, joe. Thats where we are. And the president , of course, is trying to distract. Mr. President , we need masks. We need gloves. We need ventilators. We need tests, because if you dont do that, youre going to be responsible. You are going to be responsible for the deaths of a lot of americans. Please, stop tweeting. Start working. Get this country moving. We are at war. You said it yourself. Bring us together. You said were all in this together. It starts with you. Coming up, senator Chuck Schumer will be joining us. Well be right back. How do you get skin happy 24 7 . Aveeno® with prebiotic oat. It hydrates and softens skin. So it looks like this. And you feel like this. Aveeno® daily moisturizer get skin healthy™ completing your 2020 census could mean smoother roads. Or more Emergency Rooms. Or more representation in our government. The census counts us all. And an accurate count helps inform where billions go every year. So, dont miss your chance to be counted. Were kind of depending on you here. Complete the census, online, by phone, or by mail. Shape your future. Start here at 2020census. Gov. We are doing very well with i think almost all of the governors. For the most part, it really has become something. Were dealing almost every day, speaking to each other, whether its conference calls. Usually well have 50 governors on the call at the same time. I think were doing very well. You know, its a twoway street. They have to treat us well also. They cant say oh, gee, we should get this and that. President trump on his relationship with the nations governors. Many of whom are pleading for help. Ill tell you off the top. When the president of the United States is saying that Governor Cuomo shouldnt be asking and im sure republicans and democrats alike especially that are watching this and understand the humanitarian crisis, unparalleled Health Crisis coming to new york city, when they hear the governor of that state begging for help for their residents, this is a war. And again, more people could die from this than have died in every war combined, according to a study that the white house was at least very concerned about last week. And this is like a general under fire, knowing that the enemy is approaching from all sides and begging for help for the sake of American People, for the sake of seniors. And the president s, again, in that moment there, seemed dismissive, almost contemptuous of that, and make no mistake. Were going to show some charts from Johns Hopkins and Financial Times that show the crisis coming to america is going its going to be an Unprecedented Health care crisis and its going to look much worse than china, much worse than italy, much worse than spain, much worse than france. Were going to be at the epicenter of this, and i hope youre enjoying going around saying that theres nothing to this, because were going to show you, this is just data. These are facts. These are trend lines. This is like a hurricane thats coming onshore. And that hurricane keeps getting closer and closer and closer. Being a floridian, im very aware of people who mock the warnings and ended up dead. You see Hurricane Katrina, remember the school buses in Hurricane Katrina that were in the parking lot where people could have been evacuated, and afterwards, you say why didnt they evacuate . They had all those school buses. Republicans were saying this especially. Well, the school buses are still in the parking lot. You have a president who has been saying the hurricane wasnt coming. Hurricanes not coming. The press is scaring you about the hurricane coming. Its all a hoax. Had all of his people in the media saying it was just a hoax. Friends, let me tell you something. You cant negotiate with a hurricane. Im from florida. I know that. You cant negotiate with a pandemic. And while india and Great Britain and the rest of the world see this hurricane coming, and theyre shutting it down. Locking it down. Theyre locking it down because they saw what happened in italy. Politicians mocking this coming storm. And now theyre seeing people on the floor in hallways of hospitals, gasping for breath as they lie there dying alone. And thats moved from italy to spain, and friends, as much as i hate to say this, its coming to the United States. The hurricane is coming. You know, the press conference yesterday when the president was talking about were going to have everything lifted by easter . No, i mean, im glad people in the markets liked it. Glad the markets went up. Thats really great for your 401 k s. Its great for the companies. Fantastic. Thats not going to happen. Its not going to be lifted by april. Its just not. Not going to be lifted by easter. Because were going to be looking at scenes out of new york City Hospitals, Health Care Officials tell me, that are going to look as horrid as what happened in italy. I talk to Health Care Officials that ran statewide Health Systems outside of new york. And they all agree, new york is going to look like italy. If this president doesnt recognize that theres a storm offshore. Doesnt recognize like indias leaders and Great Britains leaders and the rest of the worlds leaders. That storm is coming. Its not a hoax. Its not one person from china, like he said at the beginning of this crisis. Its not 15 people who have it and pretty soon that number is going to be down to zero. Show you the trend lines that show were soon to be the most infected country on the planet. Just because its not infecting you now, just because its not impacting your neighborhood now, what you did three weeks ago is going to impact you, what youre doing today is going to impact you and your family and your community and your city three weeks from now. So the storm is coming. Mr. President , please, for the sake of Senior Citizens from florida to arizona, across america, in new york city for the sake of people struggling even now in new york city, our doctors and our nurses on the front lines, mr. President , please recognize that storm is coming and stop telling people theyre going to go out on their sailboats on easter day with a category5 hurricane roaring onshore. It is wednesday, march 25th. And with us, we have White House Reporter for the Associated Press, Jonathan Lemire. Host of msnbcs politics nation and president of the National Action network, reverend al sharpton. Nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of case kasie dc, and jon meacham, an nbc news and msn brx krrbc cont. Senate leaders and the white house announced a massive deal, a 2 trillion piece of legislation aimed at helping to rescue the freefalling u. S. Economy from the coronavirus. Were going to dig into that bill, what it does for americans in desperate need of help. And as joe mentioned, President Trump continues his push to open the country back up for business, now putting an Easter Sunday target date for his hopes of an economic resurrection. That, despite dire warnings from Health Officials on how dangerous that 2 1 2week schedule would be. And now, well get to new york city. That easter timeframe for people in new york state, which has now surpassed 26,000 coronavirus cases in the state, double every three days, the state marks almost half of the nationwide infection numbers. And as the death rate there continues to climb, Governor Andrew Cuomo warned yesterday that the fight to flatten the curve is far from over. We havent flattened the curve. And the curve is actually increasing. The apex is higher than we thought, and the apex is sooner than we thought. That is a bad combination of facts. New york is the canary in the coal mine. New york is going first. We have the highest and the fastest rate of infection. What happens to new york is going to wind up happening to california and Washington State and illinois. Its just a matter of time. We are just a test case. And thats how the nation should look at it. Look at us today. Where we are today, you will be in three weeks or four weeks or five weeks or six weeks. We are your future. While touring a Convention Center turned Field Hospital in new york city, Governor Cuomo criticized what he sees as a lackluster federal response to the increasingly dire situation and said that the peak of infection is still two to three weeks away. That scenario outpaces officials original projections and threatens to upend the already Strained Health care system with as many as 140,000 incoming casing. Right now, only about 53,000 hospital beds are available. And new york city officials are already feeling the effects of the crush of patients. Tthe New York Times reports that women giving birth at two leading new york City Hospitals are being hold they must be in labor without spouses, partners, or dualas by their side as they institute one of the most restrictive visitor policies in the country for women giving birth. In the bronx, doctors at Lincoln Medical and mental Health Center say they already have only a few remaining ventilators for patients who need them to breathe. In brooklyn, doctors at Kings County Hospital Center say they are so low on supplies that they are reusing masks for up to a week. Slathering them with Hand Sanitizer between shifts. One emergency room doctor told the paper, quote, the most striking part is the speed with which it has ramped up. It went from a small trickle of patients to a deluge of patients in our departments. And emergency room nurse at a hospital in the bronx said that Staff Members at her facility, like many in the city, have been told to reuse their masks and other protective equipment. New York Hospitals are already struggling to treat the surge of new patients, while somehow trying to figure out how to keep their staff from getting ill with the coronavirus. And now, White House Health experts are calling on those who have passed through or left new york city to selfquarantine so important. For 14 days to help stop the rapid spread of the disease. Everybody who was in new york should be selfkwauquarantining the next 14 days to make sure the virus doesnt spread to others, no matter where they have gone, whether its florida, north carolina, or out to far reaches out long island. What were seeing now is that understandably, people want to get out of new york. The idea, if you look at the statistics, its disturbing. About 1 per 1,000 of these individuals are infected. Thats about eight to ten times more than in other areas, which means when they go to another place, for their own safety, they have to be careful, monitor themselves. If they get sick, bring it to the attention of a physician. Get tested. Jon meacham, lets try to sort through what we heard yesterday from the president , the conflicting messages we have been hearing. The president says hes a wartime president. We have heard from really the most esteemed Health Care Providers on the planet that up to 2. 2 million americans could die, as we discussed repeatedly here, to put that in perspective for americans watching, those are more americans killed by this pandemic than have been killed in every war since 1776. And if we want to continue this analogy, the president keeps talking about getting our troops home from afghanistan. More people have died in the past three weeks from this pandemic than died in afghanistan, u. S. Troops have died in afghanistan over the past eight years. Let me say that one more time. More people have died in the United States in the past three weeks from this pandemic than died in the past eight years in the afghanistan war, u. S. Troops. And yet, jon, this president and so many of his advisers are making the calculation, people are going to die. The economy is more important. Were going to ignore our Health Care Officials and open things up. Knowing that, well, the stock market is more important than Senior Citizens in their mind. How do we put this how do we even begin to put this in perspective, jon . I think we go back to margaret mitchell, which you will appreciate. Remember the scene in gone with the wind where all the confederates are at the barbecue and their going to go whip the yankees in two weeks and be back and finish the party, and that was the beginning of four long years of what lincoln called the fiery trial. Theres a disconnect between, surprise surprise, what the president is saying and what he wants to do. And its a sign yet again of a disconnect from reality. This is, fortunately, we have people in the administration, we should have people in the congress, who need to make the case that youre making. Because otherwise, youre looking at an astronomical number of deaths and infections and far worse economic damage down the road. Theres a phrase from st. Paul that we have to be patient in tribulation. This is the great test. You have president kennedy use that in his inaugural address talking about the cold war. We have to be patient in this tribulation. If you want this to be a war, this is as if you wanted Franklin Roosevelt to bring everybody home by washingtons birthday after pearl harbor. Almost literally. Thats what that means. It is. And that was the day in 1942 when fdr said the news is going to get worse and worse before it gets better and better, and the American People deserve to have it straight from the shoulder. He said tyranny like hell is not easily conquered. Still ahead, Chuck Schumer joins us. Plus, as the World Health Organization says the u. S. Now has the potential to become the new epicenter of the virus, well speak with a top Senior Adviser to the w. H. O. s director general next on morning joe. I knew about the tremors. But when i started seeing things, i didnt know what was happening. So i kept it in. He started believing things that werent true. I knew something was wrong. But i didnt say a word. During the course of their disease around 50 of people with parkinsons may experience hallucinations or delusions. But now, doctors are prescribing nuplazid. The only fda approved medicine. Proven to significantly reduce hallucinations and delusions related to parkinsons. Dont take nuplazid if you are allergic to its ingredients. Nuplazid can increase the risk of death in elderly people with dementiarelated psychosis and is not for treating symptoms unrelated to parkinsons disease. Nuplazid can cause changes in heart rhythm and should not be taken if you have certain abnormal heart rhythms or take other drugs that are known to cause changes in heart rhythm. Tell your doctor about any changes in medicines youre taking. The most common side effects are swelling of the arms and legs and confusion. We spoke up and it made all the difference. 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Dont take trulicity if youre allergic to it, you or your family have medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. Stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have an allergic reaction, a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, changes in vision, or diabetic retinopathy. Serious side effects may include pancreatitis. Taking trulicity with sulfonylurea or insulin raises low blood sugar risk. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, belly pain, and decreased appetite, which lead to dehydration and may worsen kidney problems. I have it within me to lower my a1c. Ask your doctor about trulicity. Yes. This moving thing never gets any easier. Well, xfinity makes moving super easy. I can transfer my internet and tv service in about a minute. Wow, that is easy. Almost as easy as having those guys help you move. We are those guys. Thats you . The truck adds 10 pounds. In the arms. Ok. Yep. Transfer your Service Online in a few easy steps. Now thats simple, easy, awesome. Xfinity makes moving easy with twohour appointment windows, even on nights and weekends. Go to xfinity. Com moving to get started. Organization says now the u. S. Has the potential to become the new epicenter of the virus, with nearly 55,000 cases, more than 10,000 within the last 24 hours. The agency says the u. S. Now represents 40 of all new cases worldwide. Combined with europe, the western world represents 85 of all new cases worldwide. I want very much to get to our next guest, dr. Bruce ailward joins us now. From your perspective, the president says were going to open up by easter. Our top expert, dr. Fauci, says thats flexible. I think he might be receiving pressure from the president. Should the United States lock down or whats the best guidance for the u. S. At this point . Well, what we look at is what works and what have we seen work around the world. Right now, theres very, very few countries that have actually been able to reverse this epidemic and bring their cases down to very low level. In fact, the only country thats done that is china. It did do fundamental things to achieve that. The first thing it did is spaced the people through shutdowns and lockdowns, et cetera, reducing the amount of societal contact, it spaced the people. The second fundamental thing it did is tried to stop the change of transmission by testing every single suspected taste, by isolating and then quarantining of their close contacts. It was that combination, not one piece or the other. Lockdowns slow down a virus like this. You have to find the transmission chains, cut them to stop it. At the rate of infection were seeing in the u. S. , do you foresee the u. S. Being able to reduce restrictions and guidelines in the next few weeks . I think the data are going to tell us that as it unfolds. And you know, the u. S. Is a gigantic country, so its very difficult to Say Something is going to happen right across the whole country. Youre going city this evolve differently in each part of the country, and again, if i just go back for a second to china, you had the wuhan experience, which was very, very unique, but you had 30 other provinces that learned from that, that moved very, very fast on the key functions i just told you about, and as a result, they had very, very different outbreaks and they were able to get functional again much more rapidly than we have seen in wuhan where its run a full nearly three months in now before theyre lifting it. About two and a half months between when it first hit, when they put the first measures in place and when they lifted them. Doctor, i want to hshow you chart we have been showing our audience. Im not sure if you can see it where you are, but this chart, its the Johns Hopkins numbers. And that the Financial Times puts in every day. If we can zoom in like we did last time, the United States obviously above everybody else now, above china, above spain, and were actually much closer to the line where we double every two days. Theres another chart im not going to show here that shows new york citys rate of infection going straight up. What is you see the United States and spain and italy. I wanted to ask, if we separate, and americans get more aggressive on that, how long until that trend line starts to curve . Because we obviously are going to zoom past china and italy and spain within the next three next two days actually. Yeah. So the critical thing, when youve got a rapidly increasing rate of increase of disease like this, and you have fabulous experts, the best people in the world there in the u. S. Guiding on this. People like tony are just superb. What you want to do, the first thing youve got to do is try to take the heat out of this thing, slow it down. Youve got to make it difficult for the virus. Remember, this is a virus, and as other speakers have said, this survives in people. Its got to get from one person to another person. And every person in the u. S. Has got to make it more difficult for that virus. Which means that physical distancing people are talking about, which means the hand washing people are talking about, which means the precautions. If you do all of those things, you make it hard on the virus, you slow it down. It takes a little time to see the impact of those. It can take as much as two weeks even if you do it extremely well, because remember, as soon as you put those in place, you already have a lot of people who have been exposed. Theyre incubating the disease, and that can take one, two weeks, an incrubated disease, t manifest. It can take a while for the measures to kick in. Thats very difficult for a population, very frustrating for a population, and really, really hard for the leaders who have to guide a population through these kind of measures. Doctor, you look at the chart and whats remarkable to me is how east does not meet west. The difference between countries in the east and countries in western civilization. And yes, we can say that china, of course, imposed restrictions that we cant in a democracy, but japan is a democracy. South korea, democracy. And you see that south korea, japan, singapore, and hong kong, these four Asian Countries or city states, were able to flatten the curve extraordinarily well. Talk about the difference between whats happened in asia and whats happened in europe and the United States. Sure. As you may know, i actually spent two weeks in china at really the peak and just past the peak of the crisis there. And what i saw was an extraordinary effort. I also know the south korean we had South Koreans, japanese, singapore, hong kong folks all with us actually in that mission to china where we really examined what was actually happening there, what was taking the heat out of this thing. And you know, what was most striking for me was the asian society. It wasnt what i was being told in terms of the measures being imposed by government. It was the passion, the diligence, the sense of responsibility, the seriousness of the average chinese. And i want to use that term very carefully because they werent average. They were extraordinary people. But they were driven by a sense of collective responsibility for their elderly, for their population. And they just had an extraordinary understanding of the disease, and a commitment to do what was ever necessary. My translator when i was in wuhan, this was a young woman from another part of china, just happened to be in wuhan on the day the lockdown came, and she was there for a month at that point. I asked her, wow, this must be really difficult. I saw her cell phone, there was a picture of two gorgeous kids. I said i guess theyre here with you. She said no, theyre 1,000 kilometers away, but this is my duty. This is what we need to do. Its not about me as an individual. Its about us. And you know, that was what enabled china and then south korea, japan, et cetera, very similar. Theyre all doing the same thing. Theyre putting shutdowns in place where necessary to slow it down, but then they are mobilizing their whole population to help with the identification, testing, isolation, and then quarantine, and supporting people who are in quarantine. So its a Real Movement in these countries to apply not just the big shutdowns because that just slows it down, but also the other fundamental pieces which take a massive mobilization of people to effectively flatten it, as youre seeing there now. Thats the big difference. Its the second piece of this, which is so important to bring your population with you to be able to implement. Doctor, thank you very much for being on with us this morning. Still ahead on morning joe, Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer will be our guest on the heels of the deal for that major 2 trillion aid package. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. How do you get skin happy 24 7 . Aveeno® with prebiotic oat. It hydrates and softens skin. So it looks like this. And you feel like this. Aveeno® daily moisturizer get skin healthy™ ati had six, seven doctorss that Work Together to take me through this journey. Theyre not just treating the cancer, theyre treating me as a whole person. Call us at Cancer Treatment centers of america that Liberty Mutual customizes your insurance, i just love hitting the open road and telling people so you only pay for what you need [squawks] only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. With a relaxing commute. A nice long lunch. And how about those skyscrapers . Run with us on a john deere gator. Nothing runs like a deere. Doprevagen is the number oneild mempharmacistrecommendeding . Memory support brand. You can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Hey allergy muddlers. Achoo . Do your sneezes turn heads . Try zyrtec. It starts working hard at hour one. And works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. Zyrtec muddle no more. From this evening. I must give the british people a very simple instruction. You must stay at home. If you dont follow the rules, the police will have the powers to enforce them, including through fines and dispersing gatherings. It has been announced, the Prime Minister announced it, saying from midnight tonight for the next 21 days, the country is going to be in a lockdown. I would love to have it open by easter. I would love to have it open by easter. I will tell you that right now. I would love to have that, such an important day for other reasons, but ill make it an important day for this, too. I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by easter. All right. Joining us now, the top ranking democrat in the senate, minority leader Chuck Schumer of new york. Senator schumer, were going to talk about this massive bill in just a moment. But first, a tale of several types of leadership. You see india, you see the uk locked down. You see our president saying were going to reopen at easter. Do you think thats possible . I would leave it to the medical authorities, mika. I have been busy writing this bill, so i havent been able to consult them, but it shouldnt be a politician who decides this. It should be the medical authorities, plain and simple. How do you think this bill is going to help the American People . Well, thats whats so important. This has been a long five days, but the bill is much better than the bill that was introduced. Let me go over it. Before i do, i want to give a shout out to the Health Care Workers, the nurses, the doctors, who are risking everything to help us. They are great. And just another little shout out, my staff did an amazing job on this bill led by jerry and megan, and i thank them. In the bill, there are five things that are greatly improved. If we had a tite frl the bill, it would be marshal plan for hospitals, workers, not corporations first. First and foremost, massive amounts of money for our hospitals, nursing homes, community Health Centers. They are on the front lines. Theyre so lacking equipment, ventilators, we know all about that. Theres a serious lack there. Other kinds of equipment as well, ppe, even new beds and things like that. There is 130 billion for them, a considerable increase from the original bill. Second, workers first. All these people who are being thrown out of work through no fault of their own, we have created something called unemployment on steroids. If your employer has to let you go, they dont let you go, they furlough you, and Unemployment Insurance pays you, for almost all people, their whole salary or close to it. And thats for four months. We got that extended to four months. So its not just a onetime payment. Its long term, help you with your mortgage, to pay the bills. Then whats good about it because youre furloughed, when god willing, this crisis is over, these businesses can reassemble. One of the things the workers and the employers worry about is whats going to happen to all the people who were a team who worked together so well . Thats number two, workers first. And we put real, real responsibility, as you know, theres a 400 billion package for corporate loans. Under the original bill, no one would know who was getting the money and what the terms were for six months. We have real accountability, transparency, and oversight. Well know each contract when it is signed, fully published within a short period of time. Congress in seven days, the public in 14 days, and we have an Oversight Board and an Inspector General. Thats really tough, has subpoena power, and can look at every one of these contracts. These are many suggestions of Elizabeth Warren who is an expert on this. And two more pillars. Money for local governments and state governments. As you know, theyre running out of money. Thats what we hear from governors, mayors all across the country. Theres 150 billion to help them survive the crisis, and finally, Small Business. And this is the one thing of the five that was in the bill originally. The way we wanted. And Small Businesses, my dad was a Small Businessman, exterminator. I know how Business People struggle. Now its worse. You spend years of blood, sweat, and tears building up your business and now its gone. This will give you shortterm very low or nointerest loans so you can keep your business going, and pay your employers to stick with you. This package is big help, quick help, for the American People. Right in the places we need it most. First and foremost, our Health Care System, and second, to all the people who are under duress and losing jobs through no fault of their own. So, senator, so much to go over here. First of all, congratulations to you. Thank you. Democrats, republicans, everybody working together to bring this in for a landing. Very important for so many reasons. Lets start, lets go down the list. Start with hospitals. 130 billion for hospitals. Where does that relief go . How does it get there . And does it do anything on the issue of ventilators, masks, the protective gear that those Health Care Workers so desperately need . Yes, one of the first and most important things of our hospitals bill is that they get lots of money, good amounts of money to buy the equipment that they need, and it also puts money into the system so more of these things can be produced and produced rather quickly. When theres so much money out there, theres an incentive to produce more. I believe the president should have used the defense production act. We encourage him to do that in the bill. We cant force him, but this plan gives money directly, directly to hospitals and other Health Care Institutions so they have the money, the purchasing power, to get these ventilators, these masks, these ppes. It also allows them to hire more nurses and doctors, it allows them to build more buieds, and its flexible. If you have a nurse and she has a child at home, you can use the moneys indirectly, but its allowed, to help pay for some child care so the nurse who had been retired or who was not on the job could come back right now in this emergency. So lets go next to Unemployment Benefits. You say unemployment on steroids. A worker has been put out of work, has lost their job over the past week or two. Theyre now going to be furloughed. They can get Unemployment Benefits for up to four months. When does that begin . After the president signs the bill. It begins almost immediately for two reasons. One, we greatly reduced the restrictions on applying for unemployment. Its going to be very simple and very easy. Second, we give the states much more money to hire people so they can take the new loads that are coming. We have all heard of the inability to get through. People call, they cant get through. There are long lines. They will be able quickly and easily to hire people, to help people get on unemployment quickly. Lets talk next about Small Business loans. I know so many Small Business owners who, like you, say work their entire life to build up their Small Business. They have seen it wiped out in the past couple weeks. I was talking to an attorney yesterday who has about 40, 50 businesses that he handles. He said every one of them, including huge corporations, getting wiped out. But if youre a Small Business owner, if you had, lets say, a big event coming up in april, and thats been wiped out, and youre facing bankruptcy, how do you get that relief, and how quickly can you get that relief . Again, and here, ben cardin, marco rubio, have done a very, very good job. Jeanne shaheen on our side as well, have done a very, very good job here. And you get the relief very, very quickly. The loans are at no or low interest so you dont have to go bankrupt. And at the and your workers are all paid by the federal government. So you get loans to help pay the expenses you have with no income coming in. You know, mortgage, insurance, utilities if you have those. And your workers are paid for by the sba, and again, just like Unemployment Insurance, you can do it quick, and we give much more money so they is hire many more people to get people to do this. So one of the better parts of the bill, one of the better changes of the bill was converting this slush fund that the president could throw wherever he wanted and by the way, i would say this of a democratic president. Democratic president s shouldnt have that power any more than a republican president should have that power. This has nothing to do with donald trump. This has everything to do with a system thats fair to republicans and democrats alike. Youre going to have five people on this panel, and youre also going to have an Inspector General. Who appoints those people and how quickly do those does that help get out to these larger businesses . Well, theres the president appoints, but its the advice and consent of the senate, so theres a real check on them, and one of the great ways we get accountability is making sure the entire loan documents are published very quickly. So if they start doing something untoward, youll know about it, joe. Youll know about it very shortly thereafter, within the maximum of two weeks, well know about it, and there will be an outcry, and they will have to stop doing it. I think, you know, loui d. Bran dize, sunlight is the greatest disinfectant. We throw a lot of sunlight. The old bill, you wouldnt know for six months anybody who got the loans, et cetera. This is very, very important, and frankly, Elizabeth Warren, who had experience with this, with the t. A. R. P. , helped us, had many suggestions we incorporated into making the accountability provisions. Which leads to my final question, which you may disagree with, but i want to get it out there. I talked about it earlier, how important it is that Donald Trumps companies be treated just like everybody elses companies. Since theres transparency, since we will know who gets it, since you will put in the checks and balances, dont you think its important that donald trump and senators and congressmen and womens businesses are treated the same and are eligible for these funds so no one will be encouraged to make policy decisions based on getting their own businesses open . Is there any way we can do that . I think the danger is much greater the other way, joe. That if they get a financial interest, then theyll make policy decisions leaning and bending in that direction. Look, i also believed, i think you believe, those who make the laws shouldnt directly benefit monetarily from the laws. We try today get better and better and better at that. This is just another example. Its not aimed just at donald trump but at anyone in high office. At the same time, somebody shouldnt be punished because they have chosen a life of public service. Im speaking of members on both sides of congress, as well as the white house. And again, if they go bankrupt, if their companies go out of business, then theyre susceptible to untoward influence, more susceptible than before. Well, joe, its not just me who disagrees with you. Its the founding fathers. They had something called the emoluments clause, which disagreed with your philosophy and said the thats not correct. The Public Office holder shouldnt benefit. Thats not correct, though. Thats two different things. I agree with you on the emoluments clause. I agree with you that donald trump shouldnt use his hotel in washington, d. C. To make money off of the presidency. In this case, though, were just talking about businesses, again, senators, congressmen, president s, businesses impacted by an act of well call it an act of god. You and i are going to have to disagree on that. I think the danger is the other way. Okay, mika. Senator, im wondering what information that youre taking into your office about new york city, which looks like its going to be ground zero . The epicenter of the crisis, as it hits the United States. On par with italy, maybe worse. Potentially a week away from being completely overcrowded, and already stories coming out of hospitals that are really, quite frankly, hard to hear at this point. It just many are very shocked that we are so lacking in our ability to keep up with the demand and the need for help that is out there. Is there anything more the president can do, that washington can do, to help new york get out of this situation . Yes, there is. The president should implement the defense production act. I called him. I was so feeling so urgent about this, having talked to so many. I talked to heads of many new York Hospitals, i talked to thed of the nurses union in new york, things like that. And the president should enact the dpa and command certain factories, which was done during world war ii, korean war, to make things that we need. Hes not doing that. Senator, why wont he . We dont understand. I dont know. Me either. Why wont he do it . This is simple. Here is my experience. I called him about a quarter of 12 00 a few nights ago and said oh, no, 11 00 in the morning. The days and nights all run into each other. About 11 00 in the morning, i said mr. President , you ought to implement the defense production act. Just implement it. He said yes, i will. I wasnt there. He must have been in the oval office. He screams out to someone, get the dpa implemented. By the afternoon, he had back aufd. I cant figure it out. This is something we desperately need. If you talk to our new york Health Care Providers, theyre desperate for ventilators, for ppe equipment. Some places, they dont even have enough swabs to do the tests, because theyre now getting more of the tests. This is inexplicable is the word i would use. Is the math as simple as this, if the president would actually enact it and focus mobilizing equipment and supplies getting to new york, less people would die and every day that he waits more people will die because supplies will not get there as fast . Is that the bottom line . He should certainly do this. Now, we have the second best alternative. All our hospitals and our Health Care Providers throughout the country will have large amounts of dollars, and that will inspire companies to start ramping up production of things like masks, like nasal swabs, like tests, and like ventilators. But it would be best if the president would do it. Thats for sure. New york needs it now. New york city needs it now. Not, you know, ramp up supplies, wait a few weeks for the production i couldnt agree more. And then look at deliveries. Were talking about today. As i said, i feel your anguish. I talked to people in this situation. I just cant understand why the president doesnt do it. I cant understand it. It really is shocking. Its inexplicable. Senator, we have one more question for you. Jonathan lemire with the Associated Press would like to ask you a question. Hi, senator. I know this is just now completed. It still has to go to the house for a vote. Well see the timeline rolled out in the next couple days. Theres already talk this wont be enough. How will you and your colleagues make the decision, when will you make the decision, as to when you have to reconvene to figure out the next stimulus package if indeed this drags out for weeks and months . Look, this is a big, bold package. 2 trillion. Thats about as much, a little more than the actual whole federal budget. And it covers large areas. I have only been able to mention a few. The five i mentioned on this brief time we have. But inevitably, there are going to be new problems that come up. Inevitably, there are going to be new things we have to do. And one of the great anxiety causing parts of this crisis is we dont know the future. We dont know enough. I just asked a wellknown doctor friend of mine not wellknown, but well established, and i said do you establish immunity after you get it once . He said we dont know yet. As well as isolation. We new yorkers love to be together, and we have to be separated, as you mentioned. So i think the odds are high were going to have to do something again. We have to see in the next few weeks what other problems havent been solved. This bill is a good bill. It doesnt have everything i would like in it, and there are a few things in it i dont like, but overall, we need it and need it fast. Its big, bold, quick relief for the american Health Care System and the american worker. Workers first has been the name of our proposal, which is now in large parts in the bill were voting on today. All right. Senator Chuck Schumer, thank you. Senator, thank you. A plan for hospitals and workers. Thank you so much, and thank you for republicans and democrats alike working together on this. We greatly appreciate it. Economists are making predictions about tomorrows jobless claims report amid the Coronavirus Crisis and the numbers are staggering. Here is Morgan Stanleys chief u. S. Economist on cnbc yesterday. Even in the financial crisis, even in recessions, no one was told you cant go out and conduct business. Doors werent shut in the way that they are now. We estimate that jobless now. We estimate jobless claims when they come in on thursday will be 3. 4 million. Thats a oneweek number. Thats unbelievable. Thats incredible. Goldman sachs and pantheon economics both predict the jobless claims will be another 2 and 3 million, while Morgan Stanley further projects that gdp will drop as much as 30 in the second quarter, which could push the Unemployment Rate to 12. 8 , a number not reached since the 1940s. Here we go. Joining us now is the governor of delaware, john carney, who yesterday issued several executive orders perioding to the spread of the coronavirus, including the closure of all nonessential businesses and postponement of a the states president ial primary. Thank you for joining us, governor, what are the numbers saying about your state and where its headed . Do you foreseeing being able to reopen everything magically at eastertime . First of all, a big thank you to my former colleagues in the house and senate for getting together to pass that legislation last night, and also a big thank you for the Health Care Workers here in delaware and across the country for what theyre doing. The situation on the ground here in delaware is getting worse. Were seeing more cases, our hospitalization rate is not as great as it is in some of the other states. Thats a good thing. So the focus really is to follow the advice of the scientists, the doctors, dr. Fauci and others, that is to flatten the curve. So to reduce the spread of the virus here on the front end, really to protect hospital resources on the back end. Part of that. Maybe the most important part of that is protecting our Senior Citizens, the most vulnerable population, and the ones most likely to be hospitalized, who need those services and the vent lators in short supplied. Our focus is on two things, making sure we have those resources, freeing up hospital beds, being prepared to stands up a mobile hospital if need be, and then on the front side, really pushing out the message to stay at home, shelter in place, only go outside for go to a permitted open business, to go to the grocery store, to assist a parent or family member. Really the message is stay at home, shell ner place, and then were working on the back end furiously to make sure we have the hospital resources we might need. We were talking to senator schumer, who has grave concerns, as i think most Health Care Officials do, about the shortages that doctors and nurses are already seeing in new york city. How do you make sure that your state is prepared as humanly possible so you dont face the same shortages . Right. So we think about all the different pieces of the puzzle and the limitations that we have there. So its first its beds, then icu beds, then ventilators to support those beds, but those beds are worthless unless you have the workers, the respiratory therapists to monitoring the beds, the nurses, the doctors. You have to have the protective gear, the masks, shields, gowns to protect those employees. And something that most people dont think about, you have to have daycare facilities to stay open or stand up ones on your own so that if those parents, those Health Care Workers have a place for their children to go. Otherwise theyre not going to show up at work. So were working on all those pieces, trying to figure out what is that most limiting factor. Right now, it looks like as those issues around making it possible for Health Care Workers to go to work, to go to the hospitals. Again my hat goes off to all of them for the great work they are doing. We are most concerned about Health Care Workers getting infected and creating a cycle. Theres also asymptomatic carriers, which is so concerning, because youre flying blind with no testing. What about, in your state, trying to separate the sick from the coronavirus six . Sick . Yeah, thats a really bick issue. It goes back to the beginning, right . We havent been testing nearly enough people from the start. So we never really know where we are. Because of the way the number of days it takes before you see symptoms, you can be Walking Around and dont know the virus. And by the way, the tests dont really work until you are symptomatic, so going out and testing everybody doesnt make a lot of sense, is what the science tells us. Were trying to be driven by the science. Weve stood up a Testing Program in each of our counties. Its easier to do in a small at a time like delaware. We dont have quite enough tests that we need, but thats ramping up as well form the bottom line is we dont know where we are on a daytoday basis. Were always a couple days behind, so we have to act and plan as if the situation is worse than the numbers tell us on a given day. We do know the hospitalization numbers, because obviously people are there and turning up in the emergency room. Thats a good indicator of where we are in terms of hospitalization rates visavis those who are testing positive. All right. Governor john carney, thank you very, very much. The coverage continues all day here on msnbc as this crisis unfolds. That does it for us this morning. 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Mitch mcconnell announced they have a deal. Good news for the doctors and nurses in Emergency Rooms around the country who are waiting for more help, more funding. Good news for families all across america. Last, we have a deal. But at the same time we are watching the number of cases continue to soar nationwide. This morning the number is close on to 55,000. The number of deaths is over 780. Thats 230 more than we reported just 24 hours ago. Worldwide, the number of cases is nearly 420,000, and