Texas green lights more businesses to get back to work but some Health Care Workers worried about a spike in infections as hospitals in houston use virtual icus to monitor covid places. And across much of the country cases still rising. Newly released cell phone video showing this 25yearold unarmed black man out on a jog being chased by two white men in georgia, shot to death in the middle of the afternoon. The men not arrested. The d. A. Now sending the case to a grand jury. All action on hold while the courts are still in coronavirus lockdown. Race for a vaccine. The new hope this morning as one trial begins human testing. How promising are they . One of the lead investigators joins us live only on gma. Reopening disney. The first park set to unlock its gates since the pandemic began. The plans revealed to help protect visitors and what it means for resorts in the u. S. Malia and sasha obama, the former first daughters get candid. Im excited for her to be proud of what shes done. Opening up in the new documentary, becoming, released overnight on leaving the white house, public scrutiny and why theyre so proud of mom michelle. I want to see you be brave and honoring our heroes. Meet the courageous nurse saying goodbye to her family to fly to new yorks front lines. Her emotional journey, fighting to stay strong for her patients. Now gma is bringing in billy porter for an emotional surprise you do not want to miss. Its beyond special. And good morning, america. Happy wednesday to everyone, but especially to the nurses out there because it is National Nurses day. And they should be praised every day, but today it is official. We are celebrating those Health Care Heroes on the front lines of the pandemic, giving them a big shoutout coming up, and george, so well deserved. Whit, they give every day hour after hour and their work is far from over. The total number of covid cases in the u. S. Now around 1. 2 million. The death toll has passed 70,000 with cases still rising in so much of the country. Thankfully the number of new covid cases in the epicenter here in new york is trending downward, but take a look at this graph from the New York Times. If you exclude new york, cases in the rest of the country are trending up. And that is very concerning, george. But first were going to get to our exclusive interview with president trump. World news tonight anchor david muir had his temperature checked before sitting down with the president , and they sat at a very safe distance, 11 feet apart. The president in arizona for his first major trip in nearly two months, and acknowledging the risk of reopening the country but vowing were going to get back to normal. I want to start with reopening the country. I know this is your first trip back out into the country. Yes. In quite some time and youve said that the decision to open the economy is the biggest decision ive ever had to make. How do you and i suppose this is the central question. How do you save livelihoods without risking more lives . Well, i think actually the decision to close the country was the biggest decision ive ever had to make, and i have said that very loud and clear. I mean, we had the greatest economy in history, in the history of the world, not only our economy. It was our greatest economy, best employment number, best numbers in every single way, and they said, sir, we have to close the country. I said, what are you talking about, close the country . Because nobodys ever heard of such a thing. And we saved millions of lives by doing it, and by putting the ban on china very early was a big thing. But the biggest decision i have ever had to make was closing the country, and certainly, this is now also a big decision, but the people want to go back to work. I want to ask you about what dr. Fauci said last night about the reopening of the country. He said, its the balance of something thats a very difficult choice. How many deaths and how much suffering are you willing to accept to get back where you want to be . Do you see it that way . Do you believe thats the reality were facing, that lives will be lost to reopen the country . Its possible there will be some because you wont be locked into an apartment or a house or whatever it is, but at the same time, were going to practice social distancing. Were going to be washing hands. Were going to be doing a lot of things that weve learned to do over the last period of time. And we have to get our country back. Let me ask you about testing . Yeah. Right new in america, you know, early on there were hurdles. Dr. Fauci at the time acknowledged it was a failing. But for americans who do want to go back to work, should they be able to have access to a test now . Yeah. Should they know whether theyve been exposed to the virus . Yes. Should they know if somebody at the workplace is asymptomatic, or do they have to go back to work having faith in their leaders and you, mr. President , that the workplace will be safe . No, they dont they have to test if they want. You know, some people are strong believers in testing. So right now for any American Worker nervous about going back, if they wanted to get tested to see if theyve been exposed to the virus, they can have access to the antibody tests . They should have no problem. They should have no problem, and as good as this is, were even getting better. We came up dont forget, the cupboard was bare. The other administration, the last administration left us nothing. We didnt have ventilators. We didnt have medical equipment. We didnt have testing. The tests were broken. You saw that. We had broken tests. They left us nothing. And weve taken it and we have built an incredible stockpile, a stockpile like weve never had before. Many people have heard you say that along the way. They have wondered though, you know, youre three years into your first term. Youre now applying for the job again. What did you do when you became president to restock those stockpiles that you say were bare . Ill be honest, i have a lot of things going on. We had a lot of people that refused to allow the country to be successful. They wasted a lot of time on russia, russia, russia. That turned out to be a total hoax. Then, they did ukraine, ukraine. That was a total hoax. Then they impeached the president of the United States for absolutely no reason. There were two new studies out in the last 24 hours. One was from Johns Hopkins that said the death rate could double if were not careful with this reopening of america by june. The daily death rate. The university of washington saying we could have 135,000 americans dead by august. What do you make of those numbers, mr. President . A couple of things. First of all, these models have been so wrong from day one, both on the low side and the up side. Theyve been so wrong. Theyve been so out of whack and they keep making new models, new models, and theyre wrong. Those models that you are mentioning are talking about without mitigation. Let me ask, youve responded to the new studies out with the forecasts. Your own numbers have shifted over time. They have. They have. You said 60,000 americans could die. Thats what you said last week, i watched your town hall over the weekend. Right. You said, 75,000, 80,000 to 100,000 people could die. Which models are you looking at . And what should americans be prepared for as we reopen the country and head into the fall where we could see a potential second wave . Well, the upper number was as you know 2. 2 Million People and then there are some models or charts that showed higher than that. But 2. 2 Million People. I always felt 60,000, 65,000, 70,000, as horrible as that is i mean, youre talking about filling up Yankee Stadium with death. So i thought it was horrible, but its probably going to be somewhat higher than that. Let me ask you because people will look back and we have an election six months from now. Theyre going to look back to the beginning of this and wonder what you knew and when you knew it and i have no interest in going back over everything you said. But there was one thing you said that perhaps you could clarify. You said this at the end of february, a full month had gone by. You had stopped travel from china, and you said of the cases here in the u. S. , when you have 15 people, and when the 15 within a couple of days is going to go down to zero, thats a pretty good job weve done. Help me understand that moment. Did you really think we were going to 15 cases in the u. S. Let me i said even you would say worse than that. I said one person one time, and its true. There was a time when we had one person in this country. We knew about it. We worked on it, but we had one person. It mushroomed to 15 people, mushroomed. Other people were coming in also from europe. Dont forget but were at more than a million cases now. But dont forget. In january okay. Lets talk about cases. You know why youre at a million cases because we have more testing than anybody else. If we tested as much as these countries down here, okay, who dont do very much testing at all i understand the argument youre making. Look at your question. No, but you understand there is a huge disparity between 15 and more than a million cases. Was it an intelligence failure . Where was the breakdown that we didnt know the scope of this . Let me tell you this. I closed the border, if you want to use that term. I banned people from coming into china. I would be remiss if i didnt ask you one more question about nearly 70,000 americans whose lives have been lost. Grandparents, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters. Right. Weve lost more people now than we lost in the vietnam war. What do you want to say to those families tonight . I want to say i love you. I want to say that were doing everything we can. There is nobody i dont sleep at nights thinking about it. There is nobody thats taking it harder than me. But at the same time, i have to get this enemy defeated, and thats what were doing, david. Thats what were doing. Lets get more now from our chief White House Correspondent jon karl. And, jon, we just heard the president there acknowledge that more deaths are coming. As we also learned yesterday, that the white house is now discussing actually disbanding that Coronavirus Task force. Reporter george some unusual developments. The Vice President told himself late yesterday that the Coronavirus Task force would be dissolved, would likely cease its work sometime after memorial day. Now the president himself is tweeti tweeting. George some unusual developments on this. The Vice President himself told reporters yesterday that the Coronavirus Task force would likely be dissolved. Now the president himself is tweeting just the opposite saying the Coronavirus Task force, quote, will continue on indefinitely. Its focussed on safety and opening our country. He said they may add or subtract people, but says the task force will be focussed on vaccines and therapeutics. And, jon, we also learned yesterday of two new whistleblower complaints about the way the task force has been acting from a former official at the department of health and human services. Also from one of the volunteers who was brought in to help with Jared Kushners task force. Reporter yes, this one from dr. Bright, who was the person in charge of would be in charge of developing and mass producing a vaccine has produced a 58page whistleblower complaint saying that he was removed from his position because he was advocating he was warning of the dangers of hydroxychloroquine as the president was advocating that. He also makes allegations that his initial warnings on the dangers of this virus were ignored back in january and that there was cronyism pushing contracts towards people with political connections. The white house says these are baseless allegations. Jon karl, thanks very much. Amy . George, now to parts of the country trying to return to normal as some states ease restrictions. A new poll finds 63 of americans are concerned they will reopen too quickly. This as covid cases are still on the rise across much of america. Marcus moore is at a reopened mall in dallas with more on all of that. Good morning, marcus. Reporter well, amy, good morning. During the day you can see on the sidewalks and roadways more traffic as these restrictions are easing. More and more are getting out. Some are concerned about their safety, while others tell us it is high time to get life back to normal. This morning, more businesses gearing up to reopen. In texas, Governor Greg Abbott green lighting barber shops, salons and other personal services to restart this weekend despite an increase of nearly 2,000 covid cases statewide in the last 24 hours and almost two dozen more deaths. Theres no law that says you have to stay in. You do whats best for you, whats best for your family. Reporter Governor Abbott saying about 75 of the 906 deaths in the state so far are people aged 65 or over. Hes confident that hospitals can handle the pandemic. Texas is fully capable of being able to manage the Health Care Needs of everybody who contracts covid19. Reporter but some texas Health Care Workers worry what the next two weeks will bring especially as more people head to stores and beaches. Galveston packed this last weekend and more of the sick starting to go to hospitals. The people who get sick will take a few days to get sick. So thats why i think were more concerned in the next ten days than today. Reporter here at houstons methodist hospital, theyre using virtual icus to monitor covid patients, allowing them to treat more patients at once, while cutting back on potential virus exposure for nurses and doctors. Across much of the country cases still on the rise as states continue to open. Like illinois, on tuesday the state reporting its highest oneday fatality count since the start of the pandemic with 176 fatalities in the last 24 hours. Theres so much pressure for us to get back to that normal. But the truth is were still in a significant war with an enemy. Reporter in missouri where they saw 386 new cases monday, the largest single day increase in the state so far, officials announcing the youth baseball leagues can start this weekend but with a number of safety guidelines. Were also going to have only a threeplayer limit in the dugout. The rest of the kids well space out six feet apart behind the fence, behind the dugout to keep the kids safe. Reporter back here in texas, you might remember the dallas area salon owner who opened her business in defiance of the stayathome order. This morning she is serving seven days in jail and was ordered to pay a 7,000 fine as states begin to reopen. Whit . We could see more of those crackdowns in the days to come. Marcus, thank you. Now to growing concerns over our food supply from stores limiting meat purchases to wendys running out of burgers in some locations. And now some processing plants are reopening, raising questions about safety for those workers. Matt gutman joins us now from a restaurant in los angeles with more on that. Matt, good morning. Reporter hey, good morning, whit. What we are witnessing is the potential cratering of the meat industry. Beef and pork production down 35 since this time last year and the shock waves are being felt not just in barbecue restaurants like this, major supermarket chains and major restaurant chains as well. One in five Wendys Restaurants across the country at one point this week completely sold out of beef. And weve seen dozens of plants closed across the country. Thousands of workers sick and at one vegetable canning plant in wisconsin, 800 National Guard brought out to test workers and their family members. Now, we are starting to see plants reopen across the country but production is going to be significantly slower and union reps tell us that in order to protect our food supply, weve got to protect the workers, and that means better ppe for them. Now all of this is translating into higher prices. Right now we are seeing record prices for beef and pork, mostly folks will start to see that translated into the supermarkets or certain products like ground beef or hamburgers that well see rising more than 60 in the coming days and the bad news is this wild ride in the food industry, analysts tell us, isnt going to end until the pandemic does. Robin . Have to keep that in mind, okay, matt, thank you. We close out the half hour with a moment of triumph for a veteran who after a very long battle has beaten covid19. Was discharged from the hospital. He spent 50 days fighting that virus in milwaukee. His Health Care Heroes, you can see, they lined the halls to cheer him on, and he was thanking each and every one of them as well. Beautiful to see, amy and whit. Seeing him wipe those tears and that hug with so much meaning behind it. That was beautiful. 50 days. Incredible. Thank you for sharing that with us, robin. We are following a lot of other headlines this morning including Shanghai Disney reopening in just a matter of days. The plan to help keep visitors safe and what it means for parks here in the u. S. And the new Coronavirus Vaccine on the fast track already being tested on humans in one of the biggest trials in the world. One of the scientists leading that trial is with us live but first lets get a check of the weather and say hello to ginger. Ginger, good morning. Reporter hi there whit. Good wednesday morning. Im abc 7 news meteorologist mike nicco. Your accuweather highlights, the warming trend that begins today. It will be comfortable at night. A wild swing, 20 to 25 cooler from friday into tuesday. Today, 60s around the coast. 80s inland. Tonight, we fall back into upper 40s to mid 50s. You can see that heat thursday and friday. And well be right back. R t. Especially lately. Weve seen you become sweatpant executives, cat coworkers and pillowfort architects. Weve seen you doing your part. So, farmers will keep seeing you through. With fifteenpercentreduced personal auto premiums and immediate savings through our signal app, which gives a discount for safe driving. And then well do the next thing, and the thing after that, until this is another thing weve seen and done. \ Metast