Transcripts For CNNW The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer 20

Governors for what he calls getting carried away with orders designed to keep people safely apart from one another. To keep people safe and alive. Heres the president just a little while ago over at the white house. There are a lot of protests out there. And i just think that some of the governors have gotten carried away. You know, you have a lot of people that dont have to be told to do what theyre doing. Theyve been really doing everything weve asked them. We have a few states where frankly i spoke to the governors and i could have gotten them to do, if i wanted, to do what would have been perhaps politically correct. But theyve been doing incredibly anyway. The president also blaming governors over and over again for not doing enough testing right now. Even though many states are reporting dire shortages of critical testing supplies. And also a shocking revelation today. Federal Health Officials now confirming to cnn the reason the United States was slow to roll out coronavirus testing in the early days of the pandemic. Fda officials now say contamination at a cdc laboratory caused weeks of delay, beeweeks of delay that greatly impacted the u. S. Response to this Public Health emergency. With the governments first explanation for what stalled those early initial crucial tests. Lets go to Jeremy Diamond, our white house correspondent, right now. Jeremy, what were some of the major takeaways from what we heard a little while ago from the president . Reporter well, wolf, from what he with saw from the president earlier today at the white house was his latest airing of grievances. And the president in particular shifting the blame and responsibility for the testing shortages that were seeing in several of the major hot spots around the country to governors, democratic governors in particular. The president at one point even suggesting that some of those governors dont want to use the Testing Capacity thats available. And now theyre giving you the other its called testing. Testing. But they dont want to use all of the capacity that weve created. We have tremendous capacity. Dr. Birx will be explaining that. They know that. The governors know that. The democrat governors know that. Theyre the ones that are complaining. Reporter now, wolf, we see the president there going after some of those governors despite the fact that his own Public Health experts have acknowledged some shortfalls with the testing issues across the country. Of course we know tham of these places are not able to test as much as they could. Some of these labs in fact are sitting unused because of the fact they are missing some of these critical supplies. And its not just democratic governors. Weve also heard from republican governors including the governor of ohio who said they are missing critical supplies including that chemical reagent that is needed to actually conduct these tests and to ramp up the scale of the testing that they are actually conduct across the country. But wolf, this was the latest attempt by the president to shift blame onto others. We have seen this president repeatedly. And testing chk has been one of the major issues throughout the entirety of this pandemic. The president earlier had said that he takes no responsibility at all for the testing shortages. Ip stead we have seen him blame a rotating cast of characters, wolf, everyone from the media to the Obama Administration to the World Health Organization and even china. That was a big focus today. Of course, wolf, there are different issues to criticize china on for the way it responded to this, its lack of transparency. But then wolf, the question is raised as to why the president during those critical weeks when the virus began spreading in the United States, he wasnt criticizing china. He was in fact praising its transparency. Wolf . Yes, he was. Jeremy diamond at the white house, thanks for joining us. As we saw tonight, the president continues to stoke his feuds with different governors. But the nations mayors are also playing key roles in this fight. The former chicago mayor rahm emanuel previously served as chief of staff to then president obama. His new book by the way is entitled the nations city why mayors are now rung the world. Mayor emanuel, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you, wolf. As you probably heard today, the u. S. Conference of mayors issued a statement. It was an important statement. Let me read it to you. In part. Without federal support many cities will be forced to lay off employees and make cuts that will hurt public safety. Whats the worst case scenario, that the mayor of chicago, mayor of new york, mimelyi, l. A. , so many mayors around the country are facing right now if they dont get a lot of federal Financial Support and dont get it soon . Well, wolf, theyre going to make theyre going to be faced and the publics are going to be faced with horrible choices between public safety, Public Health and all the basic services mayors are trying to keep going in their cities. Just think about also all the sanitation youre going to need and the capacity. Look, the economies in their cities have been adversely affected. Its true across the country. And the ability to keep funding basic functions of municipal government are going to be adversely affected which is why the congress and the white house, and i know the congress under Nancy Pelosis leadership understands and hears the not the complaints so much as the aspirations of the mayors and governors across the country to keep basic functions of the city operable and you need the United States government to be that partner. Theyre not asking them to do the job but asking them to be the partner in helping execute that job and putting the resources there. Otherwise these cities are simply going to go broke because theyre not going to have money to pay the bills. Well, its broke but its also remember, its to pay the bills of a police officer, an emt worker, a firefighter called on an emergency, Garbage Services that keep a certain level of sanitation. Your own city in chicago, you have Six Community Health Care Clinics that provide basic Preventative Care throughout the neighborhoods and poor neighborhoods. All those kinds of functions and more would be adversely affected. So its more than just keeping the lights on. Its actually delivering essential services as we as a Community Come together and try to help the most vulnerable in our cities. As you heard, the president just said a little while ago . Governors, hes referring to democratic governors, have gotten carried away, his words, with social distancing measures. Does that put pressure on state leaders to open up their states more quickly . You know, wolf, look, i really wish the president focused as much energy on how to bring the country together, lay out a clear concise plan with milestones, what needs to happen so those milestones could be achieved, as he does trying to figure out who to blame and shift responsibility. Look, early on china was clearly putting a Disinformation Campaign on. Unfortunately, President Trump was also acting in a totally dysfunctional manner. And the truth of the matter is you need testing. You need an entire Public Health system set up to handle whats going to be waves of obviously sickness here. Everybody wants to see some level of the economy and society and their Community Come back. But to do it in a responsible way requires a partnership between federal, state, and local governments with clear capacities, understanding, and one of the things that we just say to you is what is i think we should all take note of. While theres a lot of blame to go around, theres one place i would put one particular. Praise to the American People for taking on the responsibility of understanding what it means their role in Public Health. They have been incredible. And if youre honest and forthright with them and say here are our four milestones over the next four months, heres what its going to take from you, heres what were going to do, the American People will go forward and understand their role and function that way. Look, every governor, democrat and republican, who have been clear with the public, heres how were going to change your life, they have seen their poll numbers go up even when theyve been honest about something tough. The public will handle this. Dont lose sight of that. And rather than shift blame, try to point fingers, be forthright. Everybody wants to see the same thing, a balance of good health and Public Health with the ability to have some sort of normalcy return, knowing that were never going to be normal until fully normal until theres a vaccine. And given that, just be upfront with people, tell them the role they have to play, heres what were going to, do and if we all do this we can actually achieve the balance between saving our lives and saving our livelihood. Rather than making this an either or choice. I just want to get your reaction, mayor, to what the president just said. He was Jeremy Diamond was just reporting he blamed a lot of various institutions, people for the awful situation that the u. S. Is going through, the world is going through. But he also specifically blamed the Obama Administration. You were the white house chief of staff under president obama. He said, we inherited a broken, terrible system. Our cupboards were bare. We started with garbage. So whats your reaction when you hear the president go after the former president are in a way like this . Look, there have been repeated pandemics. And you know, president clinton in 1999 set up the first reserves. President bush in 2005 really built it up. President obama was very clear about what we needed with an Early Warning system around the world, how to put the reserves in place so we could actually be on the front end. The key to any pandemic, which is why president obama set up the system inside the National Security and our Early Warning system around the world, is what you do in those first weeks will allow you to stay ahead. And those first eight weeks President Trump was dithering, was dysfunctional, in denial about what the problem is. Those are lost eight weeks that are not like any other eight weeks. Now, rather than as i said, rather than try to spend all this energy trying to poind fingers at either china, president obama, governors, the media, take responsibility, not just the authority. And if you do that the country will respond. But he is spending all his energy trying to divide america and figure out who to blame rather than be accountable and responsible and being forthright with the American People. I actually ive said this before, wolf. Everything thats required of a leader in a crisis, being honest, being forthright, being a unifier, being understanding, what it takes and being clear about what it takes, are all going to run against his instincts. He wants to spin. He wants to not follow the science data. He wants to divide, not unite people. This is a challenge, and its going to work against donald trump because it runs against every instinct of his. And crisis require a level of leadership, of forthrightness, unity, and also understanding what the facts are. And none of those things in his last four years have you seen him been actually those are things he has aspired to or been transparent about. And i think its going to be a real problem for him as youre seeing right now. Mayor rahm emanuel, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you, wolf. Coming up, despite new cases and a lag in testing texas could be the first state to reopen in a matter of a few weeks. 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Let us work let us work protesters gathered today in austin, texas calling for the state to reopen one day after Governor Greg Abbott announced a may 1st target date for exactly that, which means texas is now potentially on track to be the first state to reopen despite lagging far behind other large states when it comes to coronavirus Testing Capacity right now. The governor assembled a task force to look at incremental steps for reopening as he balances pressure to reignite the worlds tenth largest economy with warnings from medical experts about the deadly consequences of a too early restart. Cnns ed lavandera is on the scene for us with more. Reporter texas Governor Greg Abbott has announced what he describes as a phased approach to reopening the texas economy. He made four major announcements. The first being that texas schools le main closed for the rest of this Academic School year, they will all remain online. Second hes outlining what he describes as retail to go. Essentially allowing Retail Stores to reopen in a limited way, allowing customers to come up to the doors and place orders and drive away with whatever it is that theyre buying. Thirdly, Texas State Parks will reopen on monday. And then the fourth announcement that the governor made is that an easing of restrictions on what kind of surgeries can take place in hospitals, and governor says in the next ten days or so they will even consider allowing more elective surgeries. All of this happening as the governor says the stay at home order will remain in place through the end of this 340 but that he will reevaluate that depending on the medical data that we have in flattening of the curve here in texas and where the coronavirus cases stand. But all of this really happening under a huge cloud here in texas. This is a state with 29 Million People, and it has a dismal rate of testing, coronavirus test at this point. Less than 1 of the population has been tested. The governor says a massive amount of private lab testing will come online by the end of april into early may, but there are few details about how many tests would actually be online and exactly how all of that would unfold and actually play out in reality. Thats where we stand now. As many leaders in cities like houston, dallas, san antonio, and austin have expressed a great deal of concern about the low levels of testing in the state. Ed lavandera, cnn, dallas. Thanks very much, ed, for that report. With governor abbotts target date of may 1st less than two weeks away he says, texas is past the worst of the virus. But the states data this week shows texass trend line in cases and deaths is still on the rise. The houston mayor Sylvester Turner is joining us right now. Mayor turner, thank you so much for joining us. Do you agree that the worst of the pandemic as far as texas is concerned is behind you . Well, wolf, we havent yet reached our peak yet. Some say were getting very, very close. But today, for example, we added another 121 cases confirmed positive to the citys total. We are now right at about 2,700. The good news for the city of houston is that we didnt add any deaths. Were the fourth largest city. We have 31 deaths from covid19. But were still in the storm. The very positive signs, im encouraged by that. There are fewer admissions to our hospitals. Our medical professionals are telling me it does appear well be able to handle the case load. But the existing capacity, all thats good news. But the testing has been very limited. And we need a lot more of that before ill start to feel even more comfortable. At his News Conference a little while ago President Trump mentioned your governor, greg abbott. I want to play those remarks, and then well discuss. Listen to this. I can tell you the governor of tex