Coronavirus pandemic with dr. Kristin englund from the Cleveland Clinic and later, author Rick Atkinson joins us to iscuss the 75th anniversary of ve day. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] host u. S. Workers continue to lose their jobs and file for Unemployment Benefits at a record rate. And in todays report on the overall jobs number for the month of april could be the worst since the great depression. It is friday, may 8, 2020. Good morning and welcome to washington journal. Well spend this first hour asking you how the coronavirus pandemic has impacted your job. Heres how to joins us. For those of you in the east and central time zones, 2027488000. In the mountain pacific time zones, thats 2027488001. You can also send us a text. That line, 2027488003. Include your name, where youre texting from. On twitter, were at twitter. Com cspanwj. And your posts at facebook. Com cspan. Like to hear how its affecting you. Are you laid off . Are you on furlough or part time . Are you an essential worker . Ed love to hear from you. The jobs numbers coming out in april at 8 30. This is from the Associated Press this morning. Their headline. A devastating report for april will show virus impact riding the u. S. Government on friday is poised to report the worst jobs set since 1948. A snapshot of the damage the coronavirus outbreak has inflicted on the economy. The Unemployment Rate for april could reach 16 or more. According to economies surveyed thats from the Associated Press. Three million more filed jobless claims. The u. S. Braces for what is to be expected friday to be the worst employment on record. U. S. Workers have filed nearly 33. 5 million applications for Unemployment Benefits in the seven weeks since the closures were put in place to combat the coronavirus pandemic, showing a wave of layoffs that is likely to push april job losses to record levels. Workers filed 3. 2 million job lest claims last week on thursday. It was the fewest since the week ending march 14 before the pandemic caused claims to spike but 15 times early march readings. Recent leadoffs are expected to thats from the wall street journal. 2027488000 the line for the eastern and central time zones. 2027488001, mountain and pacific. And there may be further federal aid ahead. Legislation being developed by the democrats on the house side and the house coming in today 10 00 for a pro forma session. Nancy pelosi with new coronavirus package. The speaker is in negotiations with the white house on the next aid bill. In her News Conference shembs asked if shes concerned about the mounting budget deficit these packages are causing. Speaker pelosi cll were talking about a stimulus to our economy at a time when premium crippled th concern about their physical wellbeing as well as their economic wellbeing. When we talk about food stamp, direct payments and unemployment , stay stimulate the economy. Their purpose is to meet the needs of people but they are a stimulus to the economy. And far better to spend our moneys that way when the republicans had no hesitation whatsoever in the dark of night in the speed of light pass a bill that takes almost 2 trillion in debt in order to give 83 of the benefits to the top 1 . So when we look at the needs at our people have, that top 1 , bless them all, we dont their success but their achievements, but there is no upside for our economy unless its Consumer Confidence and unless people understand that the wellbeing of our working people in our family is what keeps our economy strong so much yes, im concerned about the National Debt but i think its it would be penny foolish to say im sorry, we cant do snap to give you today because theres a National Department we just did 2 trillion for the wealthiest people in our country but we cant feed one in four children in our country because of the National Debt. So i think that i think that the secretary the chairman of the fed, chairman powell had said it again and again, publicly said it to me. Think big. Think big. The Interest Rates are very, very low. Think big. And thats what were doing. Host steve in charleston, South Carolina, first up. Caller good morning, bill. Hope you and your family are doing well. Host thank you. Caller well, first, i am retired but i do have a job. And i work for a company that staffs sporting events and concerts and that kind of thing. We have a 12,000seat venue in the North Charlton colosseum and when this thing first hit were in the concert season is basically what were in. And all those have been canceled and i he has no source of income. Im not getting any income. The earliest reschedule ive seen is for october. Thats just devastating to him. On the other hand, im not sure i want to get down in the middle of 12,000 screaming bus fans too. Its a mess. Were in the biggest mess ive ever seen in my life. Youre darned if you do, darned if you dont. You certainly dont want to kickstart the second wave of this thing. So its just the biggest darn mess ive seen in my life. Weve got this evil viral pyramid scheme going on. Host so steve, the venue you work for, you said october was the earliest that they thought they would reopen for concerts . Caller so far, thats what ive seen. It may change. But i havent seen anything in my email yet. You know, the that we have at professional tennis matches and sports vens use at baseball. Its all over the country, obviously. Host and the artists are reluctant to tour as well, right . Caller im sure. D i understand but think of all the other logistics involved the Truck Drivers that bring the roadies that are on the road and the Food Beverage industry. Its just awful. All the spinoffs are hurting too. Host great to hear your story this morning, matt. Lets go to matt in vista, california. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host tell us your story, matt. Whats going on with you and your line of work. Caller shipyard in southern california, which are there a few. We still havent been impacted by this. Ry few of my friends are affected by it at all. Host so in the shipyards, theres still ships coming in, still trucks coming in . Caller naval ship repair, actually. Host i see. Ok. So its essential work that it s, military navyrelated work . Caller i believe so. Matt from ght, california. 2027488001. Eastern and central, 2027488000. A couple of comments on facebook. This one from john who says this. Im a essential worker dodging the virus every day. Do your part. Wear a mask, he says. Russell says my entire industry is shut down. Doesnt indicate what that is. And this from john who says that history, 75 years ago today at 11 59 p. M. , the war in europe ended. Americans built the arsenal for event, sent our grandfathers and grandmothers to war. We were united in defending freedom, defeating up brutal enemy in saving the world to be made better. God bless with us the greatest generation. We then faced new challenges with the knowledge of our power in this unity. We overcame them. Now we face a new enemy. A virus as ruthless as any. We must unite, support our efforts and defeat it and with all the skills that we have, do your part. John, referring to 75 years ago today. It is ve day, victory in europe day. And i want to let you me a that we will be joined this morning by historian and author Rick Atkinson this morning at 9 00 eastern and our partners with American History tv. Rick atkinson the author of the american trilogy the guns at last night about the final year of the war, 9 00 eastern. Welcome your calls and comments as we welcome Rick Atkinson this morning. Back to your calls. This is william in maryland. Good morning. Caller hello. Hello. Host good morning, william. Youre on the air. Caller yeah circus produce an event in maryland and one a nonprofit called juice box jams. And its our fifth year. And at this point, were looking like we have to cancel it in july. Weve reached out the Governors Office multiple times to figure out what phase we need to be in and at this point, our only option to do an event is one of these driving events which is kind of weird keeping everybody in their car, driving in the Anne Arundel County fairgrounds and letting them do a drivethru festival. So for them, im sure were done for this year looking to move on to next year. Host do you think typically, how many people would you draw to an event like that . Caller its about 4,000, 2,000 to 4,000 people. Its a nonprofit. We let in military veterans, sponds, wives, significant others, children, all free. Last year, we did close to 1,500 people free 1,500 people. So for us, its really hard because we relied on donations and input from the community. Liquor sponsors and all that money is gone. For an event like ours, we make zero dollars we lose money every year to support our community and were not getting any feedback from the local government on what our options are. I wanted to move forward with the governor by just getting an approval to do a drivein event. And as a nonprofit, we dont want to do something that is with strict approval. Went to do something and have everybody look forward to. Host marylands governor came out with some new guidelines yesterday for outdoors events and yours was not covered in that . Caller no. Live events like that with that number of people are just not covered. We can go the beach. We can go to private beaches. We can golf and stuff like that. But, you know, and i wouldnt feel comfortable producing my event with 4,000 people either. I would much rather do something and theres plenty of space there. The idea is to have hourlong events. So you buy that 1 00 p. M. Ticket, you come in and you pull through all the vendors, you order some food, you park at the end and you watch a concert and you leave. Per hour. Tickets and you can drive by the vendors and hop out and everythings cleaned after you. And really, theres no money to be made here. Its really to help a community, shed some light, give some hope. Were all moving forward. Host well, thanks for calling in. Hope youre able to pull it off in some fashion. Pettersson foundation with their survey nearly, seven in 10 americans say their incomes have take an hit from the pandemic. We go to winter haven, florida, next and hear from brian. Good morning. Caller good morning. How are you doing . Host doing fine. Thank you. Caller yeah. I work for a grocery districts center and were actually nationwide. And weve experienced layoffs and they offer furloughs to employees that want to take time off and they can actually use time out of their vacation or they can go on furlough without being paid. But weve actually since florida has been opening up or reopening over time now, weve actually our business has picked back up. Kd so we did experience an impact at first and it wasnt too, too bad but like i said, now were just picking up. Looks like things may be getting back close to normal here soon. Host ok, brian, in florida. Other story were following this morning the front page of the Washington Times on the Michael Flynn case on the khris davis against flynn dropped is their headline the Justice Department on thursday dropped its khris davis against President Trumps First National security advisor Michael Flynn. A shocking reversal in one of the most highprofile cases brought by special Council Robert mueller. He plead guilty to lying the f. B. I. About his conversations with the russian ambassadors to the u. S. He was the first of the president s inner circle to admit guilt and agreed to cooperate with mr. Muellers search for russian collusion although last summer when he began a crusade to withdraw his guilty plea. Documents last week raised questions about the case against him. Among the revelations were showing the f. B. I. Showing there as no wrongdoing host there are several lead Opinion Pieces from that. And we will read first from the New York Times. This is their opinion piece from the Michael Flynn case. They said to review, mr. Barr is saying he cannot prove bars to which mr. Flynn has pleaded twice to guilty in new york. And for which there is ample evidence. For legitimacy and materiality, the f. B. I. Was on a host thats in the New York Times view. This is the wall street journals view. On the Michael Flynn case. And their headline is title. Titled the vindication of Michael Flynn. The document filed on thursday vindicate the generals reversal. The f. B. I. s interview as mr. Flynn was untethered and unjustified by the f. B. I. s county intelligence investigation to mr. Flynn. And at the interview was not conducted with legitimate investigative basis on the wall street journal where is we recommend the filing for readers who think this couldnt happen n america host the opinion of the wall street journal. Heres what President Trump had to say yesterday in the oval office during a meeting with Texas Governor greg abbott. President trump he was an innocent man. He is a great gentleman. He was targeted by the Obama Administration and he was targeted in order to try and take down a president and what theyve done is a disgrace and i hope a big price is going to be paid. A big price should be paid. Theres never been anything like this in the history of our country. What they did, what the Obama Administration did is unprecedented. Its never happened. Never happened. A thing like this has never happened before. In the history of our country. And i hope a lot of people are going going pay a big price because theyre dishonest, crooked people and theyre scum. I say it a lot. This should have never happened in this country. A duly elected president and they went after him by going after fine people. And those fine people said no, im not going to lie. I cant lie. And hes not the on one. There are many of them. And they all said i cant lie. They could have said Something Like oh, make up a lie. Trump loves somebody or something or some country. And they said no, you wouldnt have any problem. Thats what they were trying to do. And its a disgrace. The Obama AdministrationJustice Department was a disgrace. And they got caught. They got caught. Very dishonest people. But much more than this, treason. Its treason. So im very happy for general flynn. He was a great warrior and he still is a great warrior. Now in my book, hes an even greater warrior. What happened to him should never happen to him again and what happened through this presidency to go through a more than that and its Pretty Amazing when you think of it with what weve done with regulations and tax cuts and second amendments and all the things weve done. Its never happened and until two months ago, we had the greatest economy in the history. Unfortunately, like you did in texas, we to close it down. But for these people to have done that, i am very proud of general flynn, i can tell you that right now. Who would you like to see pay a price for this . President trump oh the people should pay a big price for what at the done for this country. They should pay a big price. And their partner, very complicit is a thing called the media. The medias totally guilty. And all of those writers and socalled journalists. Theyre not journalists. Theyre thieves. All of the journalists that received a Pulitzer Prize should be forced to give those Pulitzer Prizes back. Host President Trump yesterday in the oval office and just tweeting this morning about the flynn case saying yesterday was a big day for justice in the u. S. A. Congratulations to general flynn and many others. I do believe there is much more to come. Dirty cops and crooked politicians do not go well together. Back to our calls and comments about your job situation ahead of todays release of the unemployment numbers for april. A look at the chart in u. S. A. Today. Over the past seven weeks, 33 million file for unemployment. The past week, 3. 2 million. And the Unemployment Rate expected to go as high as perhaps 16 today by some reports. We go to calls and hear from dylan in sturgis, south dakota. Dylan, go ahead. Caller good morning, everybody. Work at a campground here during the bike rally. Host yeah. Caller and i dont think were going to have that bike rally. I truly hope we dont. Ive been off for about two months. And i just been isolating. But when i go downtown, i see a lot of cars from florida, washington. It kind of makes you nervous. Host well, dylan, the governor did not shut down the state entirely. Why do you think the sturgis festival and that happens in july or august, correct . Caller first week of august. Host ok. Yeah. Caller but this years going to be the 80th, its supposed to be the 80th. And they were expecting over 200,000. Host do you think bikers will be reluctant to come . Is that what youre saying . Caller well, the city says theyll come anyway some why even bother with they say that they cant put a fence around sturgis. So i dont know. But over on the west side of the state excuse