Clinton back in 2016. That is an encouraging sign for democrats. And this sign of the times, whats happening today, joe biden is doing a tele town hall with the states voting tomorrow. Bernie sanders is doing a virtual rally. Mike allen, live in d. C. , thanks for the update. Thank you for your coverage. Well be reading axios a. M. In a little bit. Sign up at signup. Axios. Com. That does it for us. Morning joe starts right now. Would you prefer a 14day, just sort of National Shutdown to slow this thing . I would prefer as much as we possibly could. I think we should really be overly aggressive and get criticized for overreacting. Should more americans be prepared to be hunkering down at their house . I think americans should be prepared that theyre going to have to hunker down a significantly more than we as a country are doing. The top Infectious Diseases doctor in the country, dr. Anthony fauci, with that warning yesterday on meet the press. Good morning. Welcome to morning joe. We begin this morning where we will most likely begin for some time to come. The many fastmoving developments with the coronavirus, changing public life as we know it. Heres where things stand right now. The u. S. Is under a National State of emergency, and the cdc has now updated its guidance, urging against any gatherings of 50 people or more in the next eight weeks. Stock futures are once again sliding despite Emergency Action from the Federal Reserve, slashing Interest Rates to zero. The senate is now poised to take up a sweeping bill, passed by the house, that includes free testing, extended sick leave, and 1 billion in food aid. Meanwhile, several states and cities across the nation have shut down restaurants and bars to sitin guests. California, illinois, and new york city among them. The city of new york also announced last night that it is closing schools, nightclubs, movie theaters, and other entertainment venues. The state of new york is now considering whether to join two other states, georgia and louisiana, in postponing their primary elections. The governor of california has called on more than 5 million Senior Citizens in his state, and those with Underlying Health conditions, to isolate themselves. This as the number of confirmed cases continues to surge. Now closing in on 3 rksz,500. Florida saw a huge spike this weekend, and West Virginia remains the only state without a confirmed case. And this was the result of the Trump Administrations hastily arranged airport screenings for travelers from europe. Scores of people crammed together that is a nightmare. In the types of crowds weve been told to avoid. That brings us to europe. The uk and ireland were added to the president s travel ban over the weekend. Italy, spain, and france recorded their highest death tolls for a single day. France, 29. Spain, 97. Italy, a staggering 368 deaths. Italy also recorded its most number of new cases in a day, 3,590. Spain and france have now joined italy in banning people from leaving their homes for nonessential purposes. With us, we have White House Reporter for the associated press, jonathan lemire. Washington anchor for bbc world news america. And associated editor for the Washington Post david ignat s ignatius. Editor from the times also joins us. There continues to be a disconnect, david ig ignatius. Actually, let me go to jonathan lemire, White House Reporter. There is a disconnect between what were hearing from the scientists and what the president of the United States is saying. From the beginning, the president was saying it was only a handful of people, 14, maybe 15, who would be down to zero in a week. The cdc was expressing real concern at the same time. The president talked about the coronavirus going away in april magically when things got warmer. He said it was going to go away magically and disappear, while his scientists were again warning americans. Yesterday, the president of the United States was saying it is all under control, while his scientists are all saying the same thing, it is going to get worse. We dont know how bad it is going to get. You even had some irresponsible members of congress, remarkably enough, republicans, of course. I have to say that, sadly as a former member, saying, oh, go out to your restaurants. Good lord. Devin nunes said, go out to pubs. That is the worst actual advice ive heard since a monologue was put on a certain network, suggesting that this was all a great hoax to take down the president of the United States. So you have the cdc doctors, scientists, experts from across the world saying one thing, and then you have the president of the United States completely disconnected from his own staff, saying quite another. Whats going on inside of the white house . Talk about the battle, actually, for the heart and soul, not of the country, but of this administration. Life has changed in america, and the president doesnt want to admit it, joe. Thats where we are right now. He has it is one thing for a commander in chief, for the executive of the United States, to preach calm, to be reassuring. Thats okay. Thats part of the job. But it is very different right now for the president , who seems to have, at least publicly, his head in the sand as to what is happening. Friday, after declaring the National Security, which was a step that was needed, he was urged to do by members of both parties, including some of his closest advisers, he reluctantly got there because he was afraid itd send a bad signal to the markets, acknowledging the severity of the crisis. When he did it, the markets responded well friday. He took a victory lap on twitter about it. Over the weekend, he appeared in the Briefing Room twice. Once saturday and once sunday. Saturday, wearing a campaign hat, suggesting this is all going to be over soon. That americans, again, stay calm. Thats the right thing to stay. But to not acknowledge the severity of the crisis is very different. Within the whoite house, weve had a couple of different factions. There is a growing sense of top advisers, including Vice President pence, fauci, and others, to be more candid about where things are going. Acknowledge to the American People that things are going to get worse before they get better. Others, including Jared Kushner and Stephen Miller, are focused more on propping up the markets, to downplay the severity of the incident, the spread of the virus. Even though, of course, we are seeing cases tick up day after day. The president and Vice President urged americans not to make runs on Grocery Stores, just buy for the week ahead. And last night, the cdc, against the backdrop of the democratic debate, suggests that americans should, for the next eight weeks, should avoid gatherings of 50 or more. Right. But it is changing American Life. It will change American Life, but theres not a scientist, theres not a doctor. I mean, im reading conservatives who have apologized for donald trump for three and a half years, when there was nothing left to defend, who are actually saying, this is serious. Listen to the scientists. I mean, im seeing it on blog posts from protrump people. Im seeing it everywhere. Yet, the president of the United States, david ignatius, is still saying, we have this completely under control. Its going to be okay. Things are going to disappear. Da david, heres the impact of it, okay . You can have dr. Fauci and every other great scientist going out, telling people the truth. But you have im still getting emails from friends of mine who support donald trump. Theyre saying how the president says this is overblown. I can still go about my daily life. You see pictures from disney world last night, just shocking pictures from disney world, with thousands and thousands of people crammed together. I thought it was closed. Packed like sardines on main street in disney world. You sit there thinking, i mean, just how many people there had the coronavirus and dont know about it. How many were they spread to . How many seniors are now going to die in the state of florida and across the nation because people that would go last night say, the president says it is not a big deal. The president says it is not a big deal, then he gets his scientists telling us how serious this is going to be. People just listen to the president. Hes still responsible for this chaos going on. Why cant he listen to his own scientists . You know, joe, thats part of the mystery of donald trump. He lacks the selfconfidence, the selfknowledge, the wisdom, perhaps, to listen to those who really are experts. I find it a little chilling just to watch all of those experts, the key people were depending on, crammed up on a podium behind the president , because he wants that show. Theyre all theres not much social distance there. I wish theyd give each other a little more space. I dont want anybody too near dr. Fauci. This period were living in, i dont think any of us have lived through anything quite like this, is giving us a lesson in what leadership is in the absence of it. When i look and read my history, i see washington in the early years of the revolutionary war face terrible adversity. Nothing went right. One failure after another. Yet, he kept the confidence of the troops and the country. Same thing with lincoln. Lincoln searched for a general who could win. Defeats early in the 1icivil wa sense of despair, desire to abandon the effort. Same with Franklin Roosevelt during world war ii. Roosevelt was a steady, calm president. He trusted his generals and scientists. He conveyed that, that sense that he was the nations father, if you will. He was going to help everybody get to where they needed. Hate to be partisan, but to quote what, i think, joe biden said last night in the debate, this is bigger than any of us. Thats the one thing that doesnt come through when donald trump speaks, is the sense of humili humility, which is at the core of real leadership always. It is. Ed, you look at the disaster that the testing rollout was. Again, i have to say, joe biden easily had his best debate last night, talking about testing, how wed handled testing. The president has been disastrous on testing. Were going to talk about the airpo airports yesterday in a second. No preplanning for that either. It was disastrous across the United States. Again, confining thousands of people in tight areas which, obviously, will spread the pandemic, as well. There you have, again, the president at the center of all of this, still not seeming to take any of this seriously. Again, having his people make the right moves now, but the president s own words still giving deniers a reason to say, what devin nunes said yesterday. Go to the pubs. Stop being a baby. Hang out wherever you go. What the president doesnt even, ed, is that spooks the markets. This isnt about me. Right . They think this is about the media, like trumpists . This isnt about me. When the president speaks that way i know the president. I know his failings. I know what hes incapable of. Its the markets, ed, that when they hear the president of the United States speak that way, saying we have it all under control, when he has no idea what the next three months are going to look like, the markets crash. It is exactly what they did overnight. So the president was clearly delighted by the feds move yesterday to slash Interest Rates to zero, have 700 billion of quantity of easing, ease that bazooka. What he said shortly after the fed did that was, we have tremendous power and control over this virus. It negated what the fed did. It indicated that the leadership was not aware of this scale and duration of this problem. Something that the fed, by its actions, had just signalled it did grasp. Again, very strong mixed signals there being reflected by the Market Reaction this morning in europe and asia. All down. Dow futures sharply down. I think, you know, the thing i always relate to, and im sure we all do in our own way, is that that United Airlines pilot, you know, who says, just a slight delay, ten minutes, we should be off and taxiing, and then half an hour later, saying, actually, it was a maintenance problem. Itll be a couple of hours. Then four hours later, saying, sorry, the flight is canceled. If you give bad news early, people trust you. Right. Donald trump keeps talking happy talk. Yeah. He keeps getting contradicted by the people working for him. And by the reality. You know, the thing is, mika, its something weve been say g i ing, literally saying, for three weeks. Longer. Give them the worst news. Prepare everybody. Prepare the markets. Tell them how bad it is going to be. Get in front of it. Get in front of it, then the markets will prepare for that. Theyll move on that. If you do a good job, you beat expectations, and youre awarded for it down the road. Ed, just like you said, he continues to talk happy talk, and theres a string of quotes that are going to follow him for the rest of his political life, saying theres only 14 people and itll be down to zero soon. This is going to disappear magically in april when it warms up. Everyone gets a test. Anybody that wants a test gets a test. It goes on. No tests here. Once again, this weekend, he talked about demoting the fed chairman. The fed chairman decides to reduce Interest Rates down to zero. I had complained last week that they were reduced half a point, and the markets crash because they saw that as panic. He needed to leave, the fed needed to leave something in their arsenal for when things really got bad. Because things, as dr. Fauci said, are still going to get worse. We have nothing left in our arsenal when you do what the fed did yesterday and reduce rates to zero. Theres not much left in the arsenal for when things really get bad three, four weeks from now. That is true. If you sort of keep with the analogy of keeping your power to drive, look, when front lines are being overrun, you dont want to keep the powder dry. You want to keep the powder. What the fed signalled is theyll do whatever it takes. There are things beyond going into negative Interest Rates. They can keep lending to Small Businesses, keeping credit going through the economy. What jay powell emphasized strongly yesterday is that this is a matter for fiscal policy. This has got to be congress. Its got to be strong public support for businesses that are failing, for payrolls that cant be met, for Health Care Workers to have child care so they can continue to do the health care work. This is a fiscal question now. So i think the fed has done whatever it takes. Said, now, its your turn. Thats going to require very strong sort of political signaling from trump, and hes going to have to talk to pelosi at some point. Yes, he is. Hes got to overcome his inhibitions on that score. To say the least. Now, listen, as the u. S. Extended its ban on travel from europe to include the United Kingdom and ireland, u. S. Airports faced avovercrowding, long lines, and hours of delays, as travelers returning from europe had to undergo screenings for the coronavirus. Scenes from chicagos Ohare Airport, jampacked terminals, people Standing Shoulder to shoulder, as officials scrambled to set up the enhanced entry screenings announced by the Trump Administration. How could they have been so illprepared . This is beyond. Look at this. Donald trump knew this was coming. He could have called out the National Guard if he had to. Could have done anything. Look at this. Once again, so illprepared. Look how close everybody is. Jampacked in there. Using the bathrooms. Stuck for hours. This is a disaster. Once again, the president is illprepared for a crisis. So, according to the Washington Post, officials acknowledged that 40,000 passengers returning from europe over the weekend had created chaotic conditions and strained airports, with many travelers reportedly wondering why the Health Checks put in place were not stricter and did not generally include temperature checks. Acting tre ining director of ho security, chad wolf, said the department was aware of the long lines and asked travelers for their patience. Why didnt they prepare for this . They knew this was coming. Patience . Illinois governor jb pritzker blasted the Trump Administration, asking the president to, quote, do something now. Heres what the governor had to say on meet the press. I got a call at about 11 00 last night, after that tweet from a white house staffer who yelled at me about the tweet. That is what i got. Were on our own out here. I wish we had leadership from washington. Were not getting it. So there is a Health Care Crisis, actually, katy, in chicago ohare. There are health care crises at all these airports where people are jampacked in for three, four, five hours at a time. 40,000. 40,000 people. Health care crisis. The white house is illprepared about this, though it was the president who set up the policy. They had to know this was coming. These people are forced to do exactly what dr. Fauci and the entire scientistic and medical team has been saying now for weeks. The whi