u.s. alone. the exact number as of this moment, 100,769. at this time, last week, the number of cases was just over 18,000. at least 1,573 deaths as of today. last week, there were 241. today, president trump signed in executive order authorizing the secretary of defense and homeland security to summon service to active duty. and what else it could be doing, potentially, under biden administration. vice president biden will be responding to as many questions as possible over the course of this hour so let's get right to him. mr. vice president, welcome. thanks for joining us tonight. >> happy to be with you, anderson. sorry for the occasion but happy to be with you. >> i want to ask first of all before we ghet et to viewer questions, how is your life and dr. biden's wife life today? >> well, like everyone else, our governor has a stay in place order. so we're operating out of my home in wilmington, delaware. my day starts every morning when i have my medical team on the phone. we speak for anywhere from 20 minutes to -- to an hour. and they give me a brief like i have here laying in charts and everything. and how many deaths. how many -- how much has been done. how much have we been able to get done? equipment we can be able to get to people. et cetera. then after that, anderson, i do a -- an equally long briefing with my economic team. a group of economists and folks who work with me in the white house. and we go over, in detail, what needs to be done, as well as what is actually being done. what the congress passed and what the trump administration has done, has not done, or is slow to do. >> personally, i know your son beau's family lives very close to you. >> oh, yeah. >> you can't see your grandkids, can you? >> well, no, but i -- i -- every single day, i speak to all five of my grandkids. either on the phone or i text with them. and -- and they're all over but two of them, beau's children, live a mile as the crow flies from our home. and they come walking through the woods. there is a path through the woods and through a neighborhood. and we sit on our back porch and they sit out on the lawn with two chairs there and we talk about everything that is going on in their day. and talk about being home from school. and who's driving whom crazy. and so on and so forth. but at least i get to see them. and occasionally, jill and i live not far -- not far at all. we border a school. a large school that -- and we occasionally walk over and walk around the track by ourselves over there. bring the dog along with us. but otherwise, i'm just doing the things like we're doing with you now. and trying to keep abreast and trying to urge and how can i say it, cajole the president into doing the things that should've been done or could be done faster. also, anderson, speaking regularly with the governors of the country. i spoke with the governor of washington state today. the governor of michigan last night. the governor of pennsylvania. et cetera. and i -- just so i know what's on republicans governors as well to see what there -- what's happening on the ground for them. i spoke with the governor of louisiana not long ago. i missed a call with him today. but my point is that trying to keep focused on what's happening on the ground. >> so let's get through some questions. particularly about the -- the administration's response thus far. president trump has said repeatedly he wants the country or at least parts of the country opened up, as he said, as early as easter, which is just more than two weeks away. cnn town hall last night, dr. anthony fauci told dr. sanjay gupta and i he thought that was aspirational. the vice president used the same word today to describe it, aspirational. i am wondering what you think of the idea of opening up by easter, packing churches, and how long do you expect people will have to actually self-isolate? >> well, look. based on the data i'm getting from medical experts, they indicate to me that it's more likely to be sometime after the 31st of may, into june, before we'd be in that position. but nobody knows for certain. what we do know is that it's a false choice to make saying that you either open the economy or everything goes to hell. or, in fact, you take care of the medical side. you cannot make this economy grow until you deal with the virus. and we -- and that curve. we have an exponential curve of it going up. increasing every two days. doubling, lately, every two days. or every three days. and so we have to deal -- they're -- they're one in the same. you can't deal with the economic crisis until you deal with the healthcare crisis. in the meantime, congress has acted and they moved with a $2 trillion package on top of the one they already passed. and it's about managing. getting that out to the people. getting that out in the communities. getting that distributed. >> just -- just a few minutes ago, president trump said that he is going to decide monday or tuesday on social distancing guidelines. he already indicated new york obviously would remain as it is. bill gates said to sanjay and i last night that there should be basically a -- that a lockdown has to be nationwide for it to actually be effective. it's got to be across the country. for six to ten weeks. do you think there should be a nationwide lockdown, even in states that haven't seen a huge number of cases right -- so far? >> the answer is i watched you last night. and i thought bill gates was really insightful and i thought bill gates knew what he was talking about. i wish everyone could have seen that program. why would we not err on the side of making sure we are not going to have a repeat? what happens if, in fact, we don't lock down across the country? we leave other places open we find out because we haven't been able to test everybody that there is an upsurge and there is a new wave of coronavirus people acquiring coronavirus. and we're back in the same -- in the same deal. look. the -- that's why the congress went out and passed this legislation. we can make sure that people are not held totally harmless but held harmless as much as they can be. we should be getting money out to small businesses so, in fast, th they don't go under. and they can keep people on the payroll even if they are not showing up. we should be making sure we're in a situation -- for example, i talked to one of the governors said and i said now the congress did a good job on unemployment. they've not only provided a better case for it but they laid out you get $600 above what you ordinarily get up to $75,000 income. and i said now are you -- now, you saw the bounce over 3 million people file for unemployment. and i said you able to handle that? he said, well, no, i've gone -- went on and hired 200 more people. i said, you know, they passed a billion dollar piece of that legislation to allow you to be able to accommodate these changes. has anyone explained it to you yet? now, in fairness to the administration, it just got passed. but i hope what they do is what we did in another circumstance, which is an economic crisis, when we had a $900 billion recovery about the president asked me to handle. what we did, we had one place in the white house in the vice president's office. i put together an entire team. any governor, mayor, anyone could contact immediately, know where it was going. know what the money would be. know how it would get there, et cetera. there has to be management here. that's really critical. it should begin right now. >> just to be clear, if you were president now and again, you don't have access to all the information the president has perhaps but you said you've been talking to your experts. would you go the route that bill gates is recommending, which essentially is would you recommend to governors as every state to essentially lock down in order for -- for a period of several weeks? >> for -- for the time being, i would, yes, because here's the point. and you talked about it last night, anderson. you don't know who doesn't have it. you don't know who doesn't have the virus. so a lot of people walking around looking like they're pretty healthy. and they may very well have the virus and transmit it. so two weeks in what is going to be a long fight to deal with this is a small price to pay, especially since you can compensate people for the lost time now that, in fact, the legislation has been passed by the congress. >> let's get to questions from viewers. greg is a real estate agent from california who recently tested positive for coronavirus. he sent us this question. >> when i got sick on march 18th, i called around to all the urgent cares and emergency rooms and doctors that i knew. and i was told that i couldn't come in and get tested unless i had severe difficulty breathing. i felt like i was in a third-world country without the ability to get tested. so i finally found an urgent care through the help of social media and i was able to get tested. and, two days later, i had my results. if you were president, how would you increase the availability of tests? >> well, what i would have done in the beginning, is that making clear that we were going to need, all the way back in january, there was the intelligence community indicated that the -- this pandemic was on the horizon. i -- i wrote an article back in january '17 saying we should be prepared now and laid out the things i thought we should be doing then. look. the only thing we know in these crises of pandemics is the only thing that you really make a mistake is going too slow. going too fast meaning in providing the kind of help that is needed and planning for it is not a problem. i heard someone, today, i was in another show and someone asked me about, well, what happens if we make too many of the ventilators? we make too many of the test kits, et cetera. that's a little like asking in world war i, we may make too many landing craft. we're going to have some left over so maybe we could make sure we get it precise. get out now what can be gotten out now. now. now. and yesterday and last month and last week. and so i'm sorry you had to go through what you went through, greg, i really am. it's frightening. it's worrisome. but the tests are getting out more now. but they should be able to be available nationwide and that should have been right from the get go a objective of the administration. >> the president has been critical of -- of the administration -- you, president obama and you saying they inherited, you know, antiquated guidelines. and also, there are other experts who did warn after 2009 that medical equipment like life masks -- the masks -- were depleted after the swine flu outbreak. should the obama administration have done more to prepare for future outbreaks? >> well, we spent a lot of time. i was not part of it. our administration spent a lot of time working with the incoming trump administration. laying out exactly what could happen with a future pandemic and that they were likely, not unlikely, to occur. that -- that it does not -- pandemics don't, you know, get stopped by walls being built. they -- they cross borders quickly and easily. and -- and there are a lot that we did do. we set up an office within the white house directly to stay focused on this. in the president -- in the white house to deal with pandemics. and the first thing this president did -- maybe not the first but very first but he eliminated the office. took it out of the office. in addition to that, when we were talking about, early on in this crisis, we -- i said, among others, that, you know, you should get into china. get our experts there. we have the best in the world. get them in so we know what's actually happening. there was no effort to do that. he -- he didn't put any pressure on xi. i guess because of his trade deal, which wasn't much of a deal. and, in addition to that, what happened was we had one person in country who was working, he pulled him out of the country. and so i just don't think he has taken this seriously from the outset. and -- and, now, anyway, i just don't think he's taking it seriously. >> let me ask. if you become president, last night bill gates said that for -- for several tens of billions of dollars, which is certainly a lot of money but not a lot compared to the bailout that's just been passed. for several tens of billions of dollars, we, scientists, the desi scientific community, could set up processes by which the amount of time it takes to bring out a new vaccine would be drastically reduced from 18 months to a year, that you would have a much more robust system in place for the pandemic. is that something you would pledge to do as president? >> if you saw me sitting watching you, you saw me going, yes, absolutely, positively. let the scientist. let the scientists have sway. let them move. let's use supercomputing. let's use the capacities that bill gates talked about. and it would be worth every single penny that was spent. i mean, this is -- seemed to me it was a no brainer. and i -- the answer is, yes, absolutely positively. >> all right. this is question submitted by sherry. she is a speech pathologist from el paso, texas. here's your question. >> why is it that some rich and famous can have covid-19 test and get results in 24 hours? but the poor, elderly, like my father, who has been in the houston hospital for over a week who was tested on march the 19th, cannot get their results in a timely manner? what is wrong with this picture? >> we have not focused on dealing with what needs to be done from the outset. and that's when, you know, look. we talk about the ability to have tests. we can get results very quickly. i'm not a scientist but they tell me that that can be done. but what we have to do is we have to invest the time and money in getting them -- those -- those tests set up and made. scientists put them together. and what we're not doing is we're not doing that ourselves now. and what we're doing is we should be using the defense production act to do whatever we need to do. whether it's the parapidity wit which testing has to take place to get a result. to actually getting the test done. to investing in whether or not you have protective gear for our first responders, doctors, nurses, et cetera. we should be doing -- and what we finally did, i guess that he finally took my -- not my -- i advised but other people did, too -- using defense production act to produce ventilators and general motors is now going to be doing it. now, i found it interesting that if you notice, every time he disagrees with anybody, whether it's he says now he hoped general motors was going to do the right thing but they didn't. i forget exactly how he characterized it. he said but what do you expect? i know the kpachairman of that company. or when he talks to governors, he says be careful when you talk to that governor, they're not very good. or calls another governor a snake. this is not personal. it has nothing to do with you, donald trump. nothing to do with you. do your job. stop personalizing everything. >> he says that governors -- he says that governors should be appreciative. is that how government is supposed to work? >> i didn't think that was how it's supposed to work. i thought the federal government's supposed to do their job. the federal government. dealing with a federal national problem. and, look, one of the governors and i spoke to when they called and asked for help in terms of masks and other things. the president allegedly told her that, no, you -- take care of yourself. that's not my responsibility. i forget the exact phrase used. you heard it repeated again that we're not the delivery service. whatever the phrase he used was. so this governor went out and got local manufacturers to agree to go ahead and i think it was masks. make these masks. and they did. and then along comes the president and he outbids the state that had -- went ahead and did what he told them to do. outbids them and he takes the masks. i mean, this is -- there's supposed to be cooperation here. i mean, this has nothing to do with politics. and it really -- it really doesn't. it really doesn't. >> we're going to take a quick break. when we get back, we'll have more questions for former vice president biden. who fought for you? 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it's because of sofi, i was able to acquire my first home. this is victory! i did it! thanks sofi for helping us get our money right. ♪ and sometimes, you can find yourself heading in a new direction. but when you're with fidelity, a partner who makes sure every step is clear, there's nothing to stop you from moving forward. welcome back to our live cnn democratic presidential town hall former vice president joe biden. this question comes from van dang o'callahan. sorry, van. from brooklyn. she works in the fashion industry. take a look. >> hello, former vice president. my name is van dang o'callahan. i am here with my husband patrick and our son rowan. we live in brooklyn, new york. i am wearing this mask to protect my family, as i've been diagnosed, based on my symptoms, for the coronavirus. although i cannot be tested due to the limited number of tests available here in new york city. my husband and i are both hardworking, college-educated americans who, like countless other americans, will suffer as a result of this pandemic. i work full time for a small company that does not offer health benefits. my husband is a freelancer, we currently pay over $2,000 a month for health insurance for our family of three. my question for you is that when our savings account, inevitably, runs out due to him not being able to work right now, what is it that we sacrifice? do we sacrifice food? rent? or healthcare? >> you should not have to sacrifice anything. let me say that again. you should not have to sacrifice anything. not just because it's the fair thing you be taken care of, your entire family, and every family in your circumstance. but because it's best for the whole country. the entire economy. it's not just doing a favor for any individual. number one. your healthcare, you should not have to pay a penny for testing. and it should be available to you by now. we were promised it a while ago. it should be available for you to be tested and determine what needs to be done. number two. the house just passed an unemployment proposal that increases, by $600, the unemployment insurance you'd get whether or not you were part of, you have been covered by unemployment insurance or paid into it before, including your husband who may have been. he is a -- a -- a entrepreneur on his own. doesn't have employees. you will be covered. and that should be done but that requires the government to be -- the federal government to help the states set up the unemployme unemployment offices in a way that they can handle this enormous, enormous call on the need for being the -- the -- the unemployment insurance. thirdly, the cost of a test should be absolutely zero for you. number one. and, number two, i think the house and the senate are going to have to go back and make sure anything related to the cost of the coronavirus healthcare should be free. paid for out of the federal funds. but, equally important, one of the things i ask the president not to do and republican attorneys general about, i guess, week, ten days ago, is withdrawal their suit to try to do away with obama care do away with the healthcare provisions that we passed, which covers over 100 million people with pre-existing conditions. make sure that you are in a position where you are able to have insurance covers 20 million people who didn't have insurance. and, in fact, drop the suit. let's make sure people have the coverage that was available under obama care. do not -- do not -- try to strike it down. because we have to add onto that. we have to add onto that to make sure it's even more -- more available. more affordable. so all of those things. one, make sure that you are getting the test as rapidly as you can. you need not pay for that test. the house is going to have to come back and the senate again. anything relating to the coronavirus, you should not be -- cost any american to be able to pay for it, et cetera. >> let me ask, mr. vice president, you know, obviously more than 3 million americans have filed for unemployment benefits for the first time just last week because of the mass job layoffs. many also lost their health insurance. medicare for all would have prevented these kind of disruptions in healthcare coverage. your plan would preserve employer-based healthcare. i'm wondering in a case like this, is your plan better than medicare for all? >> yes, number one, it would be available to everyone. and we provide the plan i have provides an option, a medicare option, a public option for medicare if you can't afford the healthcare you had. or you lose it because your employer. automatically, you are covered if you qualify for medicaid. and so you would be covered. it can be passed and it's affordable. cost a lot of money but it doesn't cost $35 trillion over ten years. it cost close to a billion dollars. and -- and so, my point is, it's the quickest way to make sure we get covered. but, in the meantime, with regard to this virus, you should not have to pay anything for the cost of the virus. that should be directly appropriated money from the federal government. >> this next question comes from angela campbell, a teacher and union leader who lives in middle river, maryland. this is the question. >> the current covid-19 worldwide pandemic has laid bear the issues of so many workers in our economy that do not have a living wage or basic protections, such as paid sick leave. but are so essential that they report to work when it's deemed unsafe for everyone else to do so. if elected as our next president, what dollar amount will you set as our new national living wage? and what will you do to ensure that every worker has paid sick leave? >> well, number one, i would ensure every worker had paid sick leave, period. and across the board. and it should be up to 14 weeks paid sick leave. and number one. number two, there should be child care made available, as well, for people who, in fact, are going to find themselves in position of needing help. number three, the -- the national minimum wage should be $15 but that's not nearly enough. what we should be doing is making sure that we invest the kind of money that is going to be needed as we rebuild the economy into dealing with the -- for example, reimagining our infrastructure in this country. at the same time, we can be dealing with a lack of wage availability, a fair, decent wage, and dealing with -- with global warming. and we can do it by -- i have a program to invest a trillion dollars in -- in -- in both transportation and infrastructure. we can do that. provide good-paying jobs for people who are -- can make 35, $40 an hour and benefits. and, thirdly, we should make sure that we, in fact, make unions more -- more easy -- easier to unionize. and take on those companies that spend about a billion dollars a year now trying to prevent people from being able to unionize. and taking actions that prevents them from being able to do that. that's not directly related to the -- the -- the virus. but it's related to a living wage. it's related to people being able to compete. it's related to people being able to make a decent wage where they can raise a family. >> this next question is from amy. she is a clinical psychologist and professor from chicago. >> in order to manage covid-19, people have had to isolate in their homes. that was a wise move. but it's increasing rates of anxiety, depression, and other mental health problems and may have a negative effect on people's relationships. how will you enforce mental health parity allows? >> two things, doc. you know more about this than most anybody you're going to be listening to this. number one. we have to take away the stigma of -- i spoke with a group of healthcare providers today and first responders. and i talked about -- one of them talked about the -- the pressure on them and mental health issues that dealing with what you talked about, the separation and the economic anxiety. the physical fear of going into the operating room. or the physical fear of pulling someone out of a burning car that, in fact, may also be -- have had the virus, et cetera. so, first of all, we have to deal with the stigma. it is -- there is no distinction between a mental health problem and a physical health problem. they are both health problems and there should be absolute parity. insurance companies should have to cover both equally. number one. and we tried to do that in obama care. secondly, in terms of the idea of people being in a position where they can't have access to this healthcare, that's part of what i do, in addition to in my healthcare plan that not only provides for more funding for and -- and mandating parity for mental health issues but also opens a significant number of mental health clinics in the country. and you know, doctor, in most rural areas, there's still the same problems as every other area but they don't have these clinics available to them. so i double the number of mental health clinics that exist in the united states of america. number three, what we can do is -- and we have learned a lot and you know a lot about this. we learned that, in fact, you know, mental health problems develop, in many cases, very early. and so what i do is i triple the amount of money spent on early education. title i schools. schools from low-income bases. low-income neighborhoods. and i triple it from 15 to $45 billion a year. so that we can pay teachers more but, in addition to that, we can put everybody 3, 4, 5 years old into school, not daycare, school. we put in social workers and school psychologists. they can pick up the early signs of distress among students. generation z, as you know, is the -- has the greatest anxiety of any generation in the country. for the first time in american history. and last point that i think is important to mention is that we're in a situation where we've now learned that, for example, drug abuse doesn't cause mental health problems. mental health problems cause drug abuse. we can -- we can deal with a lot of things by getting early -- deal -- dealing with anxiety early on by doubling the number of school psychologists we have in our schools. >> there is, certainly -- i mean, there's just so much fear and anxiety across the country. you know, i'm in new york. the city, the streets, are, you know, empty. i have lived here all my life. never seen anything like it other than in war zones or people awaiting hurricanes in places. what do you say to people who are justifiably scared about their futures? about society's future? about what lies ahead? >> they are scared. but let me tell you. you know, you and i talked in a different context about my talking about we need to restore the soul of america. and start to deal with people with decency, et cetera. well, we're seeing the soul of america now. take a look what's happening. everywhere you look, you see people reaching out to help people. everywhere you look, you see people doing things that -- that represent who we are. this is an incredible nation. the american people are generous and decent and good and fair and bright and it makes you so proud to be an american. and what i think we should be looking at is how we extend this kind of reaching out to others that exists today as we move into recovery. into the health recovery and economic recovery. because it's who we are. we're -- we're an incredible people. i'm so proud. it sounds corny but i'm so proud to be an american. look what they're doing. i'll give you an example. a friend of mine used to work with me. a -- a guy who lives down in north carolina. has three beautiful young girls. and the school -- one of them's in kindergarten and school was out. they got a phone call from the kindergarten teacher and apparently wasn't the only grade in that teacher kids got a call from and said i am going to be coming by your house in my car beeping the horn. why don't you call out in the driveway on your tricycle and let's talk for a second? from the car. took her three hours to get through the neighborhood. they're continuing to do it. for example, my wife jill because we had that biden cancer initiative and the moonshot. well, one of the women on that -- on that group of -- among nobel laureates, as well as the major -- heads of major cancer hospitals, is a person that provides the kind of aid people need when they're frightened and scared and how they can -- how they can traverse the cancer system. because it's scary when you get that diagnosis. how do you show up for -- well, she gave jill a call. they're working on the following. that is, that we have a circumstance now she talks about how there are women, older men and women home who need chemo. they are afraid to leave the house to go get it. they don't know how to get there. they don't know what they're doing. so they are setting up a network of calling people. reassuring them. finding out what they need. putting together this entire network nationally so people can reach out and say it's going to be okay. we're going to get through this. we're going to get through this. tell us what you need now see if we can help you now. i mean, it really is. we're going to get through this. we will get through this. but we can make it a lot easier than harder the way it's being made now by the way the president started us off. >> vice president biden, stay right there. we're going to be back in just a few minutes with more from the vice president. >> okay. oking cold turkey. so chantix can help you quit slow turkey. along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. with chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting. chantix reduces the urge so when the day arrives, you'll be more ready to kiss cigarettes goodbye. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. stop chantix and get help right away if you have changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, depressed mood, suicidal thoughts or actions, seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking, or life-threatening allergic and skin reactions. decrease alcohol use. use caution driving or operating machinery. tell your doctor if you've had mental health problems. the most common side effect is nausea. quit smoking slow turkey. talk to your doctor about chantix. i thought, i'm 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. they're not just treating the cancer, they're treating me as a whole person. and that's why i think am where i am today. get care like no other at cancer treatment centers of america. get care like no other want to freshen your home ♪ without using heavy, overwhelming scents? 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[ "one morwoo!me" b[ laughing ]] woo! play pop music! ♪ no way dude, play rock music! yeah! -woah! no matter what music you like, stream it now on pandora with xfinity. and don't forget to catch "trolls world tour". let's party people! ♪ one more time and welcome back. we are live with democratic presidential candidate joe biden. i want to get to our next viewer questions. bob egan, restaurant owner from new jersey. he has a question about the economy. >> we at the sunset pub and grill in new jersey are feeling the pain, along with our staff and fellow restaurant owners. my question is big businesses have been bailed out so many times. what more would you have put into this bill if you were president to help the small family-owned restaurants? >> well, number one, you employ about as many people as most of the big businesses do, number one. and more -- number two, this time, i thought it was really important they put limitations on the money bailing out big businesses so they have to keep their -- they have to focus on the employee. keeping them on the payroll as long as they can. making sure they get compensated. not having allowed to buy back their stock. not benefitting the -- the -- the ceos and/or the stockholders. but the people who work for them. what i would do, and i think we've gotten a long way, the house, nancy pelosi's gone a long way. small businesses need help now. and so we have to make sure you're in a position to be able to get the kind of immediate aid that's available to you under this new legislation. and it's about management. how it gets out the door from the federal government and the white house. and that is that you should be in a position that your rent is able to be paid. you're not going to get behind that way. you should be able to keep people on the payroll and get compensated for doing that, as well as the fact that you should be in a position you can reopen again as soon as possible. in addition to getting a $1,200 direct payment, that's not nearly enough for the small businesses. we have to make sure the small business loans you get and/or the low-interest loans you get. they are in a position where we're going to say to the banks you got to get them out the door. as you knee, they'ow, they're n good at getting out the door the small business loans. so if, in fact, they do not do that, they do not make that their focus i would look to another version of the defense production act to force them to have to do that. that's their first priority. that's going to keep the economy in better shape than anything else we're doing. >> many european governments are protecting jobs, covering salaries and wages for companies in order to avoid mass layoffs with the huge number of americans filing for unemployment. is that something the u.s. government should cover? company payrolls? >> well, i think the -- the companies should, in fact, be in a position of trying to keep people on their payrolls and get compensated for keeping them on their payrolls. by the way, the idea that we are tasti taste taking care of employees up to a certain point but not taking care of the employees of the larger companies. not the stockholders. not the ceos but the employees, bank employees is something we're going to have to take a hard look at doing. >> he worked on broadway until he locket h he lost his job because of the virus. here's what he wanted to know. >> what is your position on a rent freeze to the communities most affected by covid-19 right now? millions, like me, have lost their jobs and have no way to pay their rent on april 1st. yet, in new york, our landlords have gotten a break on their mortgages while we renters have gotten no such relief. additionally, if you are in favor of a rent freeze, would you forgive rent not paid during the freeze? or would it still be owed after the freeze was lifted? >> i would make it a rent freeze for at least the next three months. freeze it and forgive it so that you're able to stay in that place because -- and in the meantime, though, if we got the money you're supposed to be able to get a $1,200 direct payment and unemployment insurance, etsz. et cetera. if that occurs and that's working, it makes a difference whether or not you have the rent freeze. if your unemployment benefits take you up to, essentially, what you would get -- make you whole up to $75,000, then, in fact, that would take care of it. but there should be a rent freeze. no one should be evicted during this period. period. >> vice president biden, some states like new york, massachusetts, they have issued moratoriums on shutting off utilities. you know, electricity, water, during the crisis. is that something you would support? >> absolutely. i'd do it nationwide. look. people -- here's the deal. you know, the vast majority of people who worry about the utilities being shut off are people who are living hand to mouth. are people living daily. the people -- the over 50% of the people who say that all the studies showed before this -- this great economy as he called it collapsed because of coronavirus. well, guess what? over 50% of the people said if they got a bill for more than $400 in a month they didn't anticipate, they couldn't pay it. they had no savings. they had no ability to do it. they'd have to borrow the money or sell something. so, yes, absolute, absolute freeze. >> this next question's from cindy ramirez, small business owner from new york and she's asking about the economy. >> vice president biden, as a female small business owner based in new york city, who is about to become six months pregnant, i have been on an intense roller coaster ride, to say the least. my husband and i, we own three bars and two spas in new york. and we are facing some serious debt accumulation in our future. it's really hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel right now. we believe that rent relief and grants, not loans, are the answer. so my question to you, mr. biden, is what will you do to help small businesses come out of this alive? >> just as you said. rent relief, number one. and direct payments, number two, that aren't loans. but the fact is that, beyond that, you're in a situation where, you know, you said that you are -- did you say you were pregnant? i didn't -- i lost you. >> she's -- she's about to be six months pregnant. >> about to be six months pregnant. well, by the way, as you -- what -- what we found out today is that the likelihood of you being affected -- your child being affected by this is highly unlikely. so i don't want you worrying too badly about whether or not the virus itself is -- there's no hard proof. but people are optimistic that that won't be the case. that you won't have that impact. >> we're going to take another quick break. >> scientists are. >> we'll have more with the vice president right after this. ebra, to take a first date, to grab a meal between soccer practice and piano. and even though tables are empty at the moment... ...the kitchens are full, prepping everything so it's just right. keeping customers safe. and making the food as delicious as ever. they're still there for you. now you can be there for them. while the doors may be closed, the kitchens are open for delivery. hey you, yeah you. ♪ i opened a sofi money account and it was the first time that i realized that i could be earning interest back on my money. this is amazing. i just discovered sofi, and i'm an investor with a diversified portfolio. who am i? 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[ cheers and applause ] now enjoy the second half of the commercial! even renters can bundle and save! where did that come from? the kitchen. it was halftime. more than ever, your home is your sanctuary. that's why lincoln offers complimentary pickup and delivery servicing. we'll pick up your vehicle and leave you with a lincoln loaner and the peace of mind that helps you focus on what matters most. that's the power of sanctuary. and for a little extra help, you can now purchase a new lincoln remotely, and defer payment for up to 120 days. with the great recession, we bailed the country out with add 900 billion bill. what i found was you have to manage it every single day. i put together a staff that was within the vice president's office. we took offices across the street and i was on the telephone without exaggeration with every single governor except one multiple times with over 150 mayors and county executives, laying out in detail how they could implement the money they were getting, what they could do and not do. making sure if they were going to put in new lighting of the streets because they didn't have the lighting that was available to them, to put in lighting that was better for the environment and made sure they couldn't do thing they thought they could do and urged them to do things they could do. it's about management day to day to day. i give you my word for the better part of that 18 months, i was literally on the phone at least three to four hours a day with my team talking about the detailed implementation. who do we ask for, what do we do, et cetera. it's very, very important. there should be one central place everybody knows they can pick up the phone and get someone at the white house. >> i want to show you video that showed the situation at the hospital there. she also said this. >> i don't have the support that i need and even just the materials that i need physically to take care of my patients and it's america. and we're supposed to be a first world country. >> god love her. >> i wonder what your message is to a doctor like that, the professionals, the nurses out there on the front lines taking care of everyone. >> they have to get whatever's needed first, first, thirsfirst. the thing the experts talk to me about in the morning is what happens if these docs are the ones getting sick, the docs and the nurses and the first responders aren't available? everything goes to hell. everything gets worse exponenti exponentially. they need the help immediately. they need the ventilators, they need the equipment, they need the masks, they need the protection and they need it now. now. they needed it -- they needed it two months ago, but they need it now and that should be the number one priority in whatever it takes. that's why, for example, calling out the retired medical personnel from the united states military are raising their hands saying we'll go in and help. the university of pennsylvania where i taught, where they graduated all their med students early so they could now go in and help in hospitals now. there's an urgent, urgent, urgent need now. we have to be able to protect these people. >> we have two minutes left. one of the things that's especially awful about the deaths of people with coronavirus is they often die alone without family and friends by their sides because of the needs to protect everybody, no one to hold their hands or family members at least holding their hands. more than a thousand families in the united states have had to plan funerals almost no one can attend for the same reasons. i wonder what your message is to those family and to all over the country. >> my message is god love you. you know, i've lost a couple children, i've lost a wife and it is incredibly difficult to go through and it's harder to go through when you haven't had an opportunity to be with the person while they're dying. my mom, my dad i was able to be with them and lie in bed with them as they took their last breath. my son i was able to do that. my deceased wife i was not able to do that. i was not able to be there. and it makes a gigantic difference for people. and seek help. seek help afterwards. seek help, talk to people who have been through it so they know, they know they can tell you that you can get through it. you really can. it's possible. but, boy, it is so, so, so hard. that's one of the cruelest, cruelest things that's happening. a very good friend of ours, her mom's in a nursing home in boston. she showed us pictures, she sits outside of the room in a chair, outside the window and just puts her hand on the window so her mom can touch her hand in the window. it's just this is the human connection is so, so profoundly important. and when you don't have it, you got to get help. and, by the way -- i'm not going to give my phone. but those who have been through that, you can contact my c campaign. i'm happy to try to talk to you. not that i'm an expert but just having been there, i'm sorry sorry for you. >> we are all in this together. i appreciate your time tonight, mr. vice president. >> thank you, anderson. you're doing a heck of a job. the news media is keeping this all straight, man. >> just trying to do our part. >> the news continues right now with chris cuomo right after a break. ccept an incomplete job from anyone else. so why accept it from your allergy pills? 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