Its about a patient who is having a stroke or a heart attack or is in a Motor Vehicle accident. We need to be able to have enough room in our hospitals and enough nurses and doctors in our hospitals to care for all of these patients. I know people are in a frenzy about their rights being challenged. But you also have to think about the rights of those that want to wear a mask and do wear a mask because its everyones right to live a safe and healthy life. Once again, we begin the show with sound from medical workers on the front lines of this pandemic. Welcome to thursday. It is meet the press daily. Im katy tur in for chuck todd. And once again, were awaiting the start of President Trumps News Conference at the white house. His third briefing during this hour in as many days. As we said yesterday, these renewed white house briefings appear designed more to address the president s political crisis, not the countrys medical crisis. There have been no Public Health officials at these briefings the past two days. And we dont know yet if there will be any alongside the president today. Todays briefing comes as the u. S. Hits yet another depressing milestone. 4 million confirmed covid19 cases. With the death toll now topping 144,000. It comes as the Labor Department reported today that weekly jobless claims rose for the first time in months, one day before a moratorium on evictions expires for 12 million americans, and one week before the 600 a week Unemployment Insurance bonuses also expire. And todays briefing also comes as the white house and Senate Republicans are struggling to reach a consensus over what Congress Next relief package will include, after announcing a tentative agreement amongst just republicans late last night on a 1 trillion deal. We were expecting to see the details of that deal this morning. But that still has not happened. Instead treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin and white house chief of staff mark meadows were back on capitol hill today for an emergency meeting with Mitch Mcconnell to try and iron out the two sides differences. And minutes ago, mcconnell said they have an agreement in principle on the frame of the package and that hell lay out the details early next week. But the disagreement among republicans over the aid package is indicative of deeper troubles within the party, a joint Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer hammered home earlier today. Now that Senate Republicans have finally woken up to the calamity in our country, they are so disorganized, to unprepared, they have even struggled to write a draft proposal in their own conference, they cant come together. Even after all this time, it appears the republican legislative response to covid is ununified, unserious, unsatisfactory. And as for President Trump himself, as we await his comments on the pandemic minutes from now, in an interview yesterday on fox news, he continued to downplay the importance of testing, continued to misrepresent the effects of virus has on children, and continued to suggest the virus will just go away. To me, every time you test, you find a case, and, you know, it gets reported in the news, we found more cases. If instead of 50, we did 25, we would have half the number of cases. So i personally think its overrated. But im totally willing to keep doing it. The children, whether its immune system, i guess, i was watching you one night, you said immune system, whatever it is, theyre a lot stronger than we are because tblit just doesnt e an impact, doesnt have almost any impact. This should be a team effort. Regardless, to a certain extent, it is what it is. Its going to burn out. Joining me now from the white house as we await President Trump is my nbc colleague carol lee. Also with us from capitol hill is politicos Senior Writer jake sherman, also an msnbc political analyst. And dr. Libby roy, nbc news medical contributor and a clinical assistant professor at nyu health. Carol, i want to start with you. Im wondering how the white house is feeling about these briefings. On the one hand hes mostly staying to script. On the other hand, he seems to be undercutting that message in his own i guess later personal time, or not really personal time, but when hes at his hotel hes not wearing a mask and talking to a bunch of people. When he did that interview with fox news yesterday, he undercut the message on testing. How do they feel about how this is going . Katy, when you talk about white house officials, the ones ive talked to, they feel good about these briefings so far. The president has had two. This will be his third. And they feel like hes largely stayed on message. Theyre far short ther than the were back in april which is the last time he held these coronavirusfocused News Conferences. Theyve been under 30 minutes. He largely stays on topic and doesnt veer off although hes asked questions that are offtopic as they expected he would be. But their sense is the whole purpose of this was to try to reset for the president , to get him positioned in a way that makes it at least appear that hes really leading on this crisis, given the way that americans are viewing his handling of it, which is obviously, poll after poll shows, they dont have a lot of confidence in the way hes handling this. So in terms of that, they feel like this has gone really well. Todays News Conference will be interesting because its a tougher time. Weve now crossed more than 4,000 cases. The president s own party is struggling to reach a deal for relief for americans that expire in a week from now and there are still problems with testing. Theres not a National Plan for that. He hasnt outlined how he will deal with a number of problems there. Then you talk about schools, the president said yesterday that he had a National Strategy for schools, and no one has seen what that looks like yet, were wait to go hear from him on that. Generally we dont know whether the president is going to come out by himself. He has for the last few days. He thinks this has gone really well and he sees himself as the messenger for the briefings hes getting from the experts. Obviously all of that information, that means, will go through his filter. Kellyanne conway said this was in response to bad poll numbers, wanting to build back the trust of the president with this virus. Are they waiting for a new set of poll numbers to come out to see whether this is moving the needle, and if it does not, what do we expect to see after that . Its a great question. I think that one of the things were going to see is that the president is going to do more of a mix, it wont just be him stepping out to the podium and delivering remarks and then taking questions from reporters here at the white house. Hell be hitting the road, theyve announced hes going to North Carolina next week. So hell be out and about a little bit more. There will be different types of events. But one thing that we know from our own reporting earlier this week is that part of what was driving this was the white houses own internal polling, they found when they did polling, that americans really had no idea what the government was doing, the federal government was doing in terms of a coronavirus response, and in their view, they and the president in particular feels like hes the best person to get out there and deliver the message and try to break through. Well see if that happens, though, katy. Speaking of what the government is doing, jake sherman, whats happening on capitol hill . The republicans dont have an agreement within their own party on what the next version of this relief bill might look like . They dont have an agreement. They dont have a clue at this point. I mean, they spent the last two weeks saying that this was the week that they would be able to put out their discussion draft. It wasnt a bill they were seeking to pass through the senate. This was just a bill they were looking to use as a marker for where they want to be in negotiations. And we were told it was going to come out at 9 30 this morning. Instead, at 9 30 this morning, we were standing outside of Mitch Mcconnells office waiting for mark meadows and Steven Mnuchin to come in to continue negotiating over this package. There are details, how much money for Unemployment Insurance, certain spending priorities, testing. Theyre kind of all over the place. In the capitol, power comes from your ability to pass something through your chamber and enter into negotiations with another chamber. So as republicans downplayed this today, they showed that not only do they not have the votes to pass something, they dont have unity in their party to even introduce something that never intended to get passed. Now, the administration is working this hard. Mark meadows and Steven Mnuchin are working this hard. Donald trump is nowhere near these negotiations. And thats probably for the better, because i think that meadows and mnuchin understand the politics better. But listen, they thought they were going to have this done by the end of this week. Now theres no chance theyll have any legislation passed by the end of next week. And whether they will have to extend Unemployment Benefits next week when they run out, we dont know yet. They keep saying no, theyre not going to do that. But we keep looking at a two to fourweek stretch where congress is going to kicking into high gear trying to get something through here before kind of the middle to the end of august to refresh the paycheck protection program, put more money to testing, more money to all sorts of priorities having to do with covid. State and local government funding, out the window. Republicans dont agree with that. So just a whole mess of priorities at the moment that are being mulled and considered. Jake, quickly, on the issue of a payroll tax cut, the president wanted that. Hes now saying that republicans arent bringing it up because democrats dont want that. Is that whats happening . No. Thats not true in any way, shape, or form. He had no republican support for this in the senate. The president , i dont know where hes gotten that information or whether its a lie, its just not the truth, based not on secondhand information but standing here in the capitol, talking to senators, many of whom, including in the leadership, have no interest in this. Some tv advisers larry kudlow, economists who dont have sway with the president , are pushing this. The president liked the idea. It had zero traction on capitol hill, among people elected to vote in the senate and house of representatives. Dr. Roy, lets talk about some of the other things the president has said, and just a couple of things he said to fox news. Hes talking about how testing is overrated, that if there were 25 tests done instead of 50 tests done, there would only be 25 cases, there would be half the number of cases. Is testing overrated . Katy, its kind of mindboggling that hes still talking about this same issue. Health professionals have quashed this, it couldnt be more clear. Testing doesnt cause cases. Its detecting whats already widespread in the community. We need aggressive testing to understand the scope of the problem. Not only do we need that widespread testing but we need a more rapid turnaround time so we can get people the care they need, isolate them, do the Contact Tracing. But no, its not overrated at all. We are not talking about the reason we are talking about it is because its still a problem. Two, three, four months later, i cant believe that were still talking about this as a problem, katy. What about how it affects children . I know largely children are not as severely affected by this virus as older adults are. But is that the same as saying that theres basically no children and it doesnt affect them at all, as the president has suggested . Yeah, im glad you brought up the issue of children and how covid19 is impacting them, because i really want to directly address a point that the president made. I feel like the president is saying that kids are really completely scotfree on this and thats actually not the case. Yes, its true that the disease, this infection, does disproportionately impact adults. But the cases weve seen in children, we have seen children, sadly, die from this, but weve also seen chronic long term consequences in terms of neurologic issues. So it is not accurate to say that children are completely safe from this. We need to actively protect them. And that, again, relates back to the School Reopenings and all these things need to be done carefully, katy, to protect children who are also considered a vulnerable population, just like our elderly, our chronically ill, children have to be prospected by atected by a society, katy. Carol, when it comes to trust on this issue, poll after poll shows that the American Public trusts the cdc. The American Public trusts dr. Fauci. They trust dr. Birx. The Health Officials that have been leading this task force. The president keeps saying that dr. Birx is just behind the door, that shes in the hallway while these briefings are going on. Has the white house given you an answer as to why shes not even in the room when the president takes the podium . Largely, katy, they want the president to be the messenger. Actually the president wants the president to be the messenger, he said so himself yesterday, that he feels like hes the one who is best suited to be delivering the message that the doctors and the experts are giving to him. But, you know, when you peel it back, its basically because the president wants to give the message as he wants it delivered. And weve seen a lot of tensions between the president and some of the experts that are part of the Coronavirus Task force, where he says something and they might correct him. I think the white house really wants to avoid those sorts of moments. You know, but as he rolls out various policies, as hes expected to do when he continues to address this issue more regularly if not on a daily basis, we may see some of those experts come out. But really what the white house doesnt want and what the president specifically doesnt want is what weve seen in the past where hell Say Something and he winds up having to be corrected really in real time, frankly. And so thats why i think weve seen this play out the way it has the last two days. And again, we dont know exactly how its going to play out today. We havent seen dr. Fauci on a lot of the broadcast networks lately but he has been talking to outlets. Lets play a little bit of what he told npr on tuesday. If we during those conferences come out and have consistent, clear, noncontradictory messages, i believe it would be very helpful in getting people on the track of knowing the direction that we need to go to get this pandemic under control. Jake, im wondering, how do republicans feel about the president leading these briefings and not deferring to the Health Experts . Senate republicans would like him more to defer to Health Experts. House republicans had a blowup the other day in which liz cheney, the House Republican conference chairwoman, the number three House Republican and the highest ranking woman in the House Republican conference, suggested a conservative member criticized her for defending anthony fauci, because really the politics of this are binary for republicans. Its either trump or whoever he doesnt like. And you cant in their estimation be for trump if youre for somebody hes feuding with, which is of course i dont really think that binary presents itself in any other political construct weve ever seen in our career, certainly at no other time in american history. I will say, though, most republicans would prefer that hes not up there every day, because as youve seen, he gets on to tangents where he, you know, wishes Ghislaine Maxwell well, or gets off on some other tangent, and the problem is that theres not enough medical experts at the podium. Thats what a lot of republicans keep telling me. Yeah, and again, the polling all shows that those are the people that are trusted right now during this pandemic. Jake sherman, carol lee, dr. Lipi roy, stick around with us, if you can, i know you can because we asked you ahead of time. I want to go to new jerseys governor phil murphy. Yesterday he called Senate Republicans working draft on a Coronavirus Relief bill that includes no new funding for state and local governments a, quote, slap in the face. Governor murphy, thank you for joining us. Again, still no funding for stale and local governments. What is that going to mean for new jersey . Oh, its a disaster, katy. Good to be on with you, but its a disaster, its completely irresponsible. Youve got a leader on the republican side in the senate who hasnt balanced a budget in at least 35 years, and it shows. We cant print money. Its devastating. For new jersey we think its a 20 billion price tag. Youve got expenses, not surprisingly, particularly in health care and other areas, that are exploding. Youve got revenues that have fallen off a cliff. And by the way, its long past the argument that its legacy states or its blue states. Its every state. You know, at one point or another everybody has been getting crushed here. And its the handwritieight of irresponsibility not to have a big slug of direct federal cash for states. Will this result in layoffs . Overwhelming. Leader mcconnell had said something a few months ago, that it wouldnt be a bad idea for states to go bankrupt. First of all, hello, thats not a good idea. Number one, thats not what will happen. What will happen, and its happening already, well have the painful, solemn duty to lay off the very people we need right now working in our hour of need. So these are firefighters, police, educators, health care, ems. Its a complete nightmare scenario, not just financially or fiscally, but in terms of the services these folks deliver, again, to our residents in their deepest, darkest hour of need. The president has also said he wants to pull funding from federal funding, which is not a large portion of the funding, but it is some funding, from schools that dont reopen fully for the fall semester. If youre talking about a budget shortfall, potentially laying off teachers, as you just said, and then losing money from the federal government, what is that going to mean for schools, for parents, for teachers, for students come the fall . That scenario is not a good one. But having said that, were going to do the right thing here. We cant allow the threat of this or that or a pending federal legislation to take us off the track of, in this very challenging environment, of doing the right thing for our kids, for the educators, for families. We want to try to have some semblance of normalcy. We recognize in our case weve got hundreds of School Districts. No two School Districts are alike. Thats why were asking, weve griffin broad parameters and we want each of the School Districts to come back and show how those parameters will actually be executed in their particular district. Theres just too much at stake with our kids, with the next generation. We have to do this right. We have to do it responsibly. We would like to have some semblance of normalcy. But we want to do it the riefrts. Right way. Whats your message to those who have to pay rent next week, a bit over a week, in august . Theres estimated of 40 of renter households who will not be able to pay rent in august. What do they do if the state doesnt have any money and the federal government isnt giving them any money . Please, god, the federal government extends not only do the states need cash but individuals need it. Small businesses. We Just Announced today a program to relieve lease payments for small businesses, which is a game changer. But please, god, the federal government extends the whole series of benefits that they have that they put out there several months ago. Were going to do everything we can at the state level. Weve created holidays now for many months where youre not allowed to foreclosure, youre not allowed to evict. You are allowed to defer rental payments or mortgage payments. Well do that as we can. But theres only one player that can print money. Theres only one player that can play the role of the indispensable party, and thats the federal government. We need congress and the president to extend these programs until we get through the darkest part of this crisis. Speak directly to your constituents. How much longer can they expect there to be a moratorium on rent payments, on mortgage payments . Listen, well do our best, but it depends on what the federal government does. It depends on what congress does. If something gets through congress thats accept sxhable capacity the sort of things were talking about, the hope is the president signs it immediately. Its good for everyone, including obviously working men and women and their families. Its good for both sides of the aisle. Its the smart thing to do, its the right thing to do, its the american thing to do. I promise the folks watching from jersey, well do everything we can. But we need the federal government. When was the last time you talked to the president . I spoke to him last evening, actually. Can you tell us anything about that conversation . It was short. He called me to check in on how we were doing. And also how my health was. I had had a Major Health Problem right at the beginning of this which feels like it was 10 or 20 years ago at this point. We talked about just generally obviously i updated him on how things were in new jersey. It was a short conversation. Weve been able to find Common Ground. Obviously there are a whole long list of things that we wouldnt agree on. I dont pull my punches, neither does he, but weve been able to find Common Ground along the way during this crisis and i hope we continue to. The white house knows very clearly, by example of what were talking about, our clear and stronglyheld opinion about the need for federal cash assistance for states, for individuals, for small businesses, et cetera. Did the president commit to help you with that within congress or did he just say no . He hasnt said no. B but, to be determined, is the way i would put it. Again, were persistent, were consistent in raising this with the white house, and well continue to. Governor phil murphy of new jersey, governor, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it. We just got the twominute warning before the president takes the podium. I want to go back to dr. Roy real fast, and jake sherman. Dr. Roy, what do you hope to hear from the president when he speaks . Actually, katy, i want to hear dr. Fauci speak, thats who i want to hear from. I speak for almost all of my colleagues and i think most of the public. This is a pandemic, katy, this is a health problem. I want to hear from the Health Experts. Im so sorry to interrupt you. The president has taken the podium. Lets listen. Thank you. Weve had a tremendous week uniting the country in our fight against the china virus. Ive reminded people of the importance of masks when you cant socially distance in particular. A strong message has been sent out to young people to stop going to crowded bars and other crowded places. Yesterday we made the amazing announcement for our plans to protect nursing home residents. Were working very hard on that. Were doing very well all over the country. And also about contracting with, uh, pfizer. We made a big, big beautiful contract with pfizer. We think theyre very close. But we have a lot of companies that are very close to produce a vaccine. And i wanted to come out again today to share some additional news with you. This afternoon my Political Team came to me and laid out our plans for the convention in jacksonville, florida. Its a place i love. And i love that state. The drawings look absolutely beautiful. I never thought we could have something look so good, so fast, with everything going on. And everything was going well. A tremendous list of speakers. Thousands of people wanting to be there, and i mean, in some cases, desperately be there. They wanted to attend. People making travel arrangements all over the country, they wanted to be there. The pageantry, the signs, the excitement, were really, really top of the line. But i looked at my team and i said, the timing for this event is not right, its just not right with whats happened recently, the flareup in florida, to have a Big Convention is not the right time. Its, uh, really something that for me, i have to protect the american people. Thats what ive always done, thats what i always will do, thats what im about. They said, sir, we can make this work very easily. We have great enthusiasm, incredible enthusiasm. Even the polls say about the most enthusiasm theyve seen. We can do this safely and we can do it responsresponsibly. I said, theres nothing more important in our country than keeping our people safe, whether thats from the china virus or the radical left mob that you see in portland where i want to thank Homeland Security and others in Law Enforcement for doing a fantastic job over the last few days, they went in, people were out of control for 51 days, a long time, and Homeland Security and other Law Enforcement with us went in and theyve done a great job protecting our property, federal courthouse and other property. And, uh, most importantly, protecting our people. Or the senseless violence that you see in chicago or new york or detroit, a lot of other cities, where so many people are shot and so many people are killed, and people elected me to help and to protect, so i told my team, its time to cancel the jacksonville, florida component of the gop convention. Well be starting in North Carolina for the monday as has always been planned, weve never taken that off, thats remaining as it is, the delegates are going to get together, thats where they do their nomination, so the delegates are going to North Carolina. Theyll be doing the nomination. And were going to do some other things with telerallies and online the week that were discussing, which would be really good. I think were going to do it well. And ill still do a Convention Speech in a different form. But we wont do a big, crowded convention per se. Its just not the right time for that. I care deeply about the people of florida and everywhere else, frankly, in this country and even in the world who would be coming into the state and i dont want to do anything to upset it. Theyll be doing very well very shortly. Were going to put some maps up of the country behind me. And youll see that, uh, the area that were talking about is a hotspot. Youll also see a lot of the country is has no problem whatsoever, most of the country, actually. So im always going to take care of you so that thats the way were fwoengoing to do it. Ive spoken to Governor Desantis and informed other political leaders. I want to thank the Jacksonville Community and its great mayor, hes a great guy, i really great guy, they wanted it so badly, and all the political representatives in jacksonville and in florida. And just very special people, a very special group. And they were there for us 100 . Today i want to provide an update on the actions were taking to support the safe reopening of americas schools. Parents around the world who have had their Children Home for the last few months have a greater appreciation for the fact that teachers are essential workers, that theyre essential to our childrens future. Our goal is to protect our teachers and students from the china virus while ensuring that families with high risk factors can continue to participate from home, very important. The American Academy of pediatrics has released guidance recommending that schools reopen. It said, quote, lengthy time away from school and associated interruption of Supportive Services often results in a social isolation, making it difficult for schools to identify and address important learning deficits as well as child and adolescent physical and sexual abuse, substance abuse, depression, and suicidal ideation. This in turn places children and adolescents at considerable risk of morbidity and of in some cases mortality beyond the educational impact and social impact of School Closures, there has been a substantial impact on Food Security and physical activity on children and on families. So its very important. And theres a highway. It goes both ways. The National Education association recently stated despite the momentous efforts of educators during the pandemic, Online Learning has never been an effective replacement for inperson learning and support. Being at the school, being on the campus, is very, very important. One study estimates that due to School Closures last spring, the average student will begin this school year roughly 35 behind in reading compared to the typical year and more than 50 behind in math. Thats a big statement. According to mckinsey and company, learning loss will probably be greatest among low income black and hispanic students. Theyre the ones that are hit the hardest, we dont want that happening. 30 million American Students rely on schools for free and reduced meals. Over 70 of the students who receive Mental Health services do so through their schools. According to hhs, one in five reports allegedly having to do with child abuse, they have neglect these are neglect and neglected cases submitted by educational personnel. So people in the Education World on the premises will be the ones that report neglect and other problems when they see the children. They know if theyve been negativi neglected, they know if theyve been hurt or harmed in any way. You see this at school. You dont get to see that if youre not going to school, its a big thing. Fortunately the data shows the children are lower risk from the china virus, very substantially. When children do contact the virus, they often have only very mild symptoms or none at all. And medical complications are exceedingly rare. Those that do face complications often have underlying medical conditions. 99 of all china virus hospitalizations are adults and 99. 96 of all fatalities are adults. That means that children are a tiny percentage, less than 1 and even a small percentage of 1 . In a typical year the flu results in more deaths of those under 18 in the United States than have been lost thus far to the coronavirus, many different names, many, many different names. The life of every child is sacred and must be protected. Our sole focus is the health and wellbeing of americas children. I have a very, very special person who loves children, who is, uh, i think one of the greatest athletes of all time, a lot of people say the greatest pitcher of all time known as a relief pitcher, could have been whatever he wanted, some people he is the greatest reliever of all time by far, substantially more saves than anybody else, in fact he got the president ial medal of freedom recently, and, uh, he, uh, im reading off these stats, i knew he was the best, i knew he was great, i didnt know it was almost double anybody else, but hes a man who loves children, has children, loves children, works hard with children, were going to go outside and be with some little leaguers, mariano rivera, you know hes the sand man, right . My wife said, darling, why do they call him the sandman . I said, you know, they play the song, he just puts the batters to sleep and thats exactly what happened. So having mariano here is a great honor, thank you very much. He was talking about children in schools, and, uh, theres nobody thats done more than you have, thank you very much, mariano, fantastic man. Given these considerations, we believe many School Districts can now reopen safely, provided they implement mitigation measures and Health Protocols to protect families, protect teachers, and to protect students. And we do have to protect the teachers and the families also. We have to remember that. All families should be empowered to make the decision that is right for their own circumstance. This is especially important if a child has Underlying Health conditions or lives with a parent or grandparent who is at higher risk. In cities or states that are current hotspots, well see that in the map behind me, districts may need to delay reopening for a few weeks, and thats possible, that will be up to governors. The decision should be made based on the data and the facts on the ground in each community. But every district should be actively making preparations to open. Again, the children obviously have a very strong immune system, maybe even as strong as yours. They seem to be able to fight it off and not have a problem. So, uh, its pretty amazing, actually. Great, great credit. Our strategy to safely reopen schools mirrors our approach nationwide. As we race toward the completion of a vaccine and therapeutics, the responsible path is to shelter those at highest risk while allowing those at lower risk, much lower in the case of young children, to resume work at school, as long as everyone practices vigilant hygiene and social distancing, we want that. A permanent shutdown was never the strategy which would ultimately lead to greater mortality and irreversible harm. We dont want to do that. At the same time, we have to get our economy going. We had tremendous numbers issued yesterday. Housing prices, pricing of housing up 21 , its the highest in history. Its the highest number in history, real estate housing, went up 21 . Today the cdc will provide Additional Guidance for how schools can reopen safely. I hope that local leaders put the full health and wellbeing of their students first and make the right decision for children, parents, teachers, and not make political decisions. This isnt about politics, this is about something very, very important. This is not about politics. I even think its bad politics if you do the wrong decision, very bad politics. Were asking congress to provide 105 billion to schools as part of the next Coronavirus Relief bill. This funding will support mitigation measures such as smaller class sizes, more teachers, and teacher aides, repurposing spaces to practice social distancing, and crucially, maskwearing. This money is in addition to the 30 billion we secured for schools and universities earlier this year. That money we have, some is distributed and some is not distributed. If schools do not reopen, the funding should go to parents to send their child to public, private, charter, religious, or home school of their choice. The keyword being choice. If the school is closed, the money should follow the student so the parents and families are in control of their own decisions. So i would like the money to go to the parents of the student. This way they can make the decision thats best for them. We cannot indefinitely stop 50 million American Children from going to school, harming their mental, physical, and emotional development. Reopening our schools is also critical to ensuring that parents can go to work and provide for their families. The council of economic advisers estimates that 5. 6 million parents will be unable to return to work if schools do not reopen this year. Its a tremendous problem. Its a tremendous problem. Schools have to open safely. But they have to open. More than a dozen European Countries as well as south korea, taiwan, and many others have already reopened schools and cases have not risen. We can achieve the same goal if we unite together, follow the best medical practices, and apply common sense. Well continue to support states and cities in the current hotspots in the south, southwest, and west. The governors, i know them all, theyre all very, very capable, theyre doing a very good job. Theyre working so hard. You wouldnt even believe it. We have nearly 30,000 federal personnel deployed in the states that need assistance. Were helping with doctors and nurses, medical personnel of all kinds. As a ppe update, were in close communication with governors in states. We have supplies, everything they could possibly need. Were very strong on supplies. You remember, i used to say the cupboards were bare . Well, now the cupboards are the opposite due to our historic efforts to crest National Stockpile and the state stockpiles. The vast majority of the states have 60 days worth of supplies on hand and most importantly, they have ventilators, because the ventilators are very, very hard to come by, at least in the past. Now were making thousands of ventilators a month and supplying them in many cases to other countries. For states that are making requests, were rapidly delivering. In the last 24 hours, fema has deployed more than 1. 5 Million Masks upon request, 1. 7 million gowns, and 600,000, uh well, let me change that. Weve created about 600,000 different supplies. We have 600 ventilators to arizona, North Carolina, pennsylvania, colorado, idaho, and washington. I think the number is 600. Were going to check that and well give it to you in a little while. But weve got a stockpile of thousands of ventilators. I think weve september out about 600 just recently. The United States has now conducted more than 51 million tests which is more than any other country in the world by far. Roughly half of the tests are either the rapid point of care tests which frankly solves a lot of problem and delay, five to 15 minutes instead of waiting for service both ways, in both directions, and then at the lab. But roughly half of them now, which is a tremendous increase, are five to 15 minute tests or tests done in a hospital where you get the results back in less than a day, in some cases immediately. Were continuing to surge testing to current hotspots such as miami and phoenix to detect those with the virus and take steps to stop from spreading it further. Here is a copy of the map. You have it right behind me, thats really very much indicating where the problems are. You see from that, its in great shape, lots of it. The northeast has become very clean. The country is in very good shape other than, if you look south and west, some problems. That will all work out. On therapies, weve worked with florida to ensure that over 40,000 vials of remdesivir are arriving this week. Its a lot. Thats really a lot. Theyre working round the clock to make it. Its had a tremendous impact. Weve also shipped thousands of vials to arizona, california, texas, over the past two weeks. Arizona is doing very well. Its heading down. Numbers are heading down. I think very quickly. The governor has done a great job. Theyve all done a great job. Theyve all done a great job. Working hard. Well continue to monitor the areas rising and with respect to cases, and we ask all americans to exercise vigilance, practice social distancing, wear a mask, do whatever is necessary so we get rid of this horrible situation, this horrible disease that was sent to us by china. It should not have been sent. They should have stopped it. They could have stopped it. They didnt. And the entire world has gotten infected. And a lot of countries are going through a lot right now. This morning i spoke with president putin of russia. And theyre going through a very hard time with this, in moscow in particular. I spoke to the crown prince of saudi arabia. Theyre doing well, but theyre going through a lot. Everybodys going through a lot. Yesterday i spoke to the heads of four different countries, all four are going through a lot, going through a hard time. This could have been stopped. It could have been stopped quickly and easily. But for some reason it wasnt. And well figure out what that reason was. So with that, if you have any questions, please. Reporter were you simply not convinced that you could keep people safe at the convention . I just felt it was wrong, steve, to have people going to what turned out to be a hotspot. When we chose it, it was not at all hot, it was free. And all of a sudden it happened quickly. It happens quickly. And it goes away and it goes away quickly. The key is we want it to go away without a lot of death, without a lot of problems. And were learning so much about the disease. Thats why were very cognizant of nursing homes. Were watching them very carefully. And people over a certain age. And especially people over a certain age with diabetes or Heart Disease in particular. But with a problem. So we didnt want to take any chances. So we had a lot of people, we have the delegates who want to be there, were going to do a fairly reasonably quick meeting in North Carolina. The nomination will be produced. And then well announce what were doing, how were doing it, whether its, uh, something thats done online, yes, you could call it online. So, uh, there could be nothing like our last convention, unfortunately. That was a great convention. And a great place, as you know. We had a we had a great time in cleveland. But its a different world, and it will be for a little while. We want to get the world back to what it was and i think well have that including great job numbers, including, uh, so many things that are happening, so positive. I have to say the stock market is close to records. The nasdaq, it is a record. Its already exceeded its highest numbers. Uh, but we want to get our country back to what it was. Reporter will you give the speech in the white house . We havent set that, steve, well be probably announcing that over the next few days. Reporter might that dampen enthusiasm for you . Look, weve done a great job, weve built the greatest economy in the world. Nobody close, not china, not anybody. We had to close it. We saved millions of lives. Then we opened it. But we had the best numbers in history for africanamericans, hispanic americans, asianamericans, every group you want to name. Young people without a diploma, young people with a high school diploma, with a college diploma, anything you want to name, we had the best numbers. Women doing incredibly. Never never been a time like that. And we had to turn it off because of what china did. We had to turn it off. And then all of a sudden, uh, now we turn it back on. And were doing very well. But it was a very bad china, speaking about china, the trade deal, uh, means less to me now than it did when i made it, when i made it it was a great deal, but theyre, uh, theyre setting records, yesterday was a record corn day. They purchased more corn than any order ever. And that went on for two or three days. And soybeans and all. It just means much less to me, can you understand that . It just means much less to me. Reporter was there one thing that changed your mind about the convention and did florida officials ask you to cancel it . No, they didnt. Were dealing with them but they didnt. I would just say safety. I could see, uh, the media saying, oh, this is very unsafe. I dont want to be in that position. Its safety, not because of the media, but thats what they would say, and, uh, well have a very nice something. Well figure it out. It will be, uh, it will be online in some form. Maybe it will be something even a little bit different. We have time. Were talking about the end of august. But, uh, i think it will be something that will be exciting. But there can be nothing like having 25,000 people. We had a tremendous thing planned, a tremendous convention planned in North Carolina. And it would have been very good. But a much smaller version in florida. But then we saw what was happening pretty quickly, we saw that that the virus was coming up that coast. So reporter the scenario, the situation in florida . No, i think its going to come and go, it will. You take a look at some of these locations, were heavily infected, to a point where deborah and i were talking that, you know, when you look at what happened in new york, and what happened in new jersey, and other places, and now youre looking, and its gone, i hope it stays gone. I think it will. But we had to be we had to be we have to be vigilant. We have to be careful. And we also have to set an example. I think setting the example is very important, uh, its hard for us it is hard for us to say, well have a lot of people packed in a room and then other people should not do it. Were talking about schools and we want them to be vigilant. Here you have a big room. I said, bars are crowded, other things are crowded. There is nothing more crowded than a convention. Youve seen them. You try to keep people away from each other, it is not that time of a thing. They probably cant do that. It doesnt work for them. So i think were setting an example doing that. If i could come back to school openings, you talk about money the congress is looking at to help schools who will want to reopen. If schools want to reopen, it is concerned about testing, would you consider directing some of that money toward testing for either a School District or individual schools . If thats what it took to open the schools . I think so. A lot of people feel differently about testing. We talk about it a lot. When we have 50 million tests plus, and we broke the 50 million test mark. Second in the world is india which has 1. 4 billion people and they had 12 million tests. And other countries that are very big had 2 million tests. Some countries essentially only test if youre sick and walk into a hospital, a doctors office, or youre literally really sick. They dont do tests unless youre really sick. So if thats what they want, that would be fine. You would encourage congress to take the tests . I would if they want. Weve done 50 million tests. Nobody even close in the whole world. You look at our death rate, you look at different statistics. Were doing very well. But one death is too many. This should never have happened. From china. Mick mcconnells office put out saying it is tailored for this part of the crisis. It does not include your pay roll. At a tax cut. The democrats dont want it. Theyre not big into the workers, i guess, and based on that, i told them last night. They want whats right for the country and hopefully the democrats ultimately will. But i said i think a pay roll tax would be good. You wont get it from the democrats. We need the votes. Its not like we have a majority but its not enough. We have an election coming out. So you still need democrat votes and we wont get the democrat votes on that. So i would like to see it. If were not going to get their votes, we have to go on to the next thing. A pay roll tax cut would have been very good and maybe something happens. Yes, please. You talk about setting an example on jacksonville. I wonder, some people will take away from this that youre pushing too far too fast. It seemed for a while the numbers were going up in jacksonville and you would have a problem with this. This comes at a time when were looking at schools reopening, the opening of the Major League Baseball season. The example of jacksonville too fast . Well, baseball is an example. We were discussing it. Youll be at an empty stadium. I agree, randy is with the yankees. He asked me to throw out the first pitch. I think im doing that august 15th at yankee stadium. How is the crowd going to be . And you know, it is like, you dont have a crowd. There is no such thing. It will be interesting, mariano. Hes not used to that. Ive been many places, the crowd goes crazy. I think it will be just as good without the crowd. Some people are born with it. I dont think. This is only for the Baseball Players but ive never seen a pitcher throw a ball where so many bats were broken as mariano. How do you do that . He said great parents when you get right down to it. How do you do that . Its called parents. Yeah. Just to finish, i think that we have to all set examples. I think Major League Baseball is setting an example by playing to empty stadiums and so are other sports. Then theyll allow a certain number in. I see golf soon will be allowing people to come in in percentages and all of a sudden we want to get back to normal. The key is to get back to normal. Nobody wants to see this. I think it is really good that baseball is opening. It looks like football is opening. It looks like sports are opening. We have, its a tremendous thing psychologically for our country, and were all, were going to see now some beautiful young little leaguers outside with a great future ahead of them. Theyre already practicing on the front lawn of the white house. And were going to go out and say hello to them and it will be really great. How about one more in go ahead. President trump, the Washington Post earlier today reported that one Thing Holding up the gop coronavirus bill is the white house asking that it include language regarding the fbi building in down washington, d. C. Is that true . I dont know that theyre putting it in this bill. I know they want to have a new fbi bill. This one is very old and it is really, it was never built to a very High Standard as youve heard. It has a lot of danger involved, panels falling off the outside, pieces of concrete falling off the building. And they want to build it at the site that they have it. They had options very far away from washington. And i said to them, you have to be near the justice department. Theres nothing than the site. The site they have now is better but they were looking at maryland and virginia and different places. They would have been too far away. So ive been encouraging them to build it. And you can have a choice. Renovate the existing building. Its not a good building. Or take it down and build a great building for the fbi for 100 years and have it be incredible, even with tracks on top. Theyre talking about, you have the fbi people like to work out a lot. And you could have literally quarter mile tracks on top. A very big site. A very wide site. So i think the best thing would be to build a new building and you have it a long time. Renovation can never be as good as a knew building. I know theyre talking about it. The fbi needs a new building and well get it done. Thank you all very much. Thank you all very much. The president ending his third coronavirus briefing. This time dr. Deborah birx was in the room. She wasnt just outside the room as the president said she had been for past two briefings. A couple short fact checks there. The president said that the democrats were not in support of the pay roll tax cut and thats why republicans were not pursuing that. Jake sheryl an fact xhekd and said there was a republican support. And senators cornyn, grassley, and john thune were against the pay roll tax cut. The president also showed a map saying that the Virus Outbreak is not that bad across the country. We would just add that there were 4 million cases that are now confirmed. More than 4 million cases confirmed in the United States alone. The virus is surging in some of the most populous states in this country, including california, texas, arizona, florida, and georgia. More than 4 million cases. Also, there are not enough tests and when you go out and get a test in these places where the virus is surging, it can take a week plus to get that test result back, making Contact Tracing nearly impossible. Big news as well. He cancelled the jacksonville component of the rnc convention. Remember, he moved it from North Carolina because the governor could not guarantee him a big inperson convention in that state so big news that the president has canceled the jacksonville portion of that convention. Lets to go carol lee. What is behind that decision . Again, he wanted to have it in jacksonville because North Carolina was not going to let him have it in person, necessarily. They were not able to guarantee it before the time came. Thats right. And the president announced this more than a month ago. He thought he could move to florida and get the kind of convention that he wanted and then we saw this huge spike in cases in the state. And this is a rare retreat for the president. According to our reporting, there were contingency plans going on behind the scenes. Yet the face of this, in terms of how they were speaking about it publicly, was that theyre full speed ahead. They were going to have the convention the president wanted. He said he was given a presentation from his Political Team about different options. We know they had started to look at three separate outdoor options for his speech, rather than the inside arena as was plands and he said that he decide that had now was not the time to have this convention because of the spike in cases in florida, katie. Really interesting news. The president canceling jacksonville. Carol lee at the white house, thank you so much. Thats all for tonight. A little short piece of the show right after that briefing. Well be back tomorrow with more meet the press daily. A quick programming note. Be sure to join chuck this sunday for a prime time special. Decision 2020. One hundred days to go. He will take a look at the state of the president ial race with our nbc news Political Team as well as some special guests will watch sunday night at 10 00 p. M. Eastern on msnbc, or you can catch it two hours earlier on nbc news now, cnbc. Com and telemundo. Com. In the meantime, the beat with ari melber starts right now. Hey, thank you. We will join biomedical experts to get into all the medical facts. Lets recap what we witnessed and learned coming out of our press conference as well as the known facts on the pandemic. This was President Trumps third Coronavirus Press conference. As he has explained, he is doing shorter versions of his presentations without medical experts in the room. And the