Was allowed to wear them either. Maybe they chose on their own. I doubt it. Despite Company Protocols and a sign saying that everyone is required to wear a mask. And, also playing in the background, live and let die, that song. Terrific. Good morning and welcome to morning joe. It is wednesday, may 6th. Along with joe, willie and me we have White House Reporter for the Associated Press, Jonathan Lemire. And former white house adviser for health policy, professor and advice provost for the university of pennsylvania, dr. Ezekiel emmanuel. Hes an nbc news and msnbc medical contributor. And, joe, the u. S. Death toll from coronavirus is now topping 71,000 as President Trump continues his push to reopen the country. Nbc news has learned that over the coming weeks, the white house plans to wind down the Coronavirus Task force. A move that comes as the virus continues to spread rampantly in parts of the country. Because the president cant speak at the task force anymore without being heard. I mean, its its all because hes being hurt politically at this press conference if he cant talk for hours, he doesnt want dr. Fauci or dr. Birx to talk and educate americans. And theres more bad news coming in places like new york city, chicago, new hot spots are countereri countering the progress. Well get to all of what that in a moment, but this virus is not Getting Better. Its Getting Better in those hot spots, unfortunately its getting worse across the country. And just think about it, if you want to know how erratic this president is, his thinking, how hes hes acting in a way that shows hes out of touch where he alt, think about t with reality, hes going around and not wearing a mask when everybodys supposed to be wearing a masks, thats a small thing. But think about the fact that he sets out guidelines. Yeah. That the doctors help put together. And then he immediately tries to get people to break his own guidelines. And hes talking about stopping the Coronavirus Task force at a time when deaths go over 70,000. Think about this. Weve just gone over 70,000 deaths in america. 70,000 deaths. You know, a week ago we hadnt got to 60,000 deaths. 10,000 more people have died in one week. Again, in the past week more people have died than died on 9 11, died in our iraq war, died in the Afghanistan War over 19 years all combined, just in the past seven days. Thats from 60,000 to 70,000. Think about before that. We went from 50,000 deaths to 60,000 deaths in five days. And the cdc writes the white house a draft a few days ago, they get it this weekend, using Trump Administration numbers. Using Trump Administration numbers. They warned the president , they warned the white house. Where have we heard this before . The white house gets a warning. They warned the white house that the number of daily deaths are going to double between now and june the 1st. And the white house dismisses it, just like they dismissed the warning back in late january from white house officials that this could end up killing 500,000 americans and yet what happened the next month . The president went out, hed go to rallies, tell people it was a hoax. Well, let me let me just tell you, the president can talk to david muir, he can try to blame the democrats, but what he cant do, what he cant do is excuse what hes done over the past several months when he should have known better. And what hes doing right now. Its stunning. I saw the New York Daily News conservati they wrote that the president is not well. Reading from her piece, she said if this were your child, youd intervene as quickly as you could. And you would. Getting them the help they clearly needed. Likewise, if your friend were acting this way, you might suggest they go see a therapist to work through some of their anger issues. Absolutely. If this were your coworker youd probably i think i think thats actually gracious, you would alert someone in human resources. And what if this were the president of the United States acting this erratically . Not other these behaviors the norm for President Trump, but they seem to have worsened at the most precarious and critical time that our countrys faced since world war ii. As we face a Global Pandemic thats killed over 70,000 americans. Less than two weeks after unimaginably suggesting infecting disinfectants might kill off the coronavirus, the past few days have seen donald trump sprierl oiral out of cont. They continue to write, hes proven himself utterly incapable of staying focused on the biggest crisis a president can face. Whats he done instead . Hes spread unfounded conspiracy theories about the origins of the coronavirus, about former president barack basically, and about an msnbc cable news host. How much lower can you go than that if youre worried about me . What else has he done . S. E. Cupp says hes made statements that can only be described as delusional, like comparing himself to be a bra h abraham lincoln. Getting a letter of apology from joe biden, and spewing nonscience about his favorite drug. Its his obsession, hydroxychloroquine. Attacking two female reporters for doing their jobs, lamenting that they dont behave like donna reed, the act stress synonymous with the kitchen dwelling 1950s housewife that she played on television more than 60 years ago. He attacked another female cable news host calling her a thirdrate lapdog. And in the middle of the night, just couple days ago, at 12 45 a. M. He went on a 234word rant on twitter complaining about an ad released by a republican antitrump group whose leaders include george conway, husband of staffer kellyanne, in which donald trump used words like deranged, loser of a husband, and moon face to describe him. Yes, donald trump talking about somebody elses weight. Isnt that ironic . Dont you think . S. E. Cupp concludes with saying its frightening commentary on the slow normalization of this completely ill normal behavior that we can greet the president of the United States with mere shrugs and the only concerns from his inner circles seem not to be about the middental instability itself, but the political ramifications of it being exposed in daily press briefings. S. E. Cupp. She did a good job with that, why this normalization of the president s behavior is now making people unsafe. Really well done. If somebody were doing this in realtime, even not in a pandemic, if they were your child, if they were anyone. Your parent, if they were your grandparent, if they were a ceo at your company, if they were a coworker, if they were a football coach for your children, if they were you would be worried and you would take action. And, yet, the republicans just sit quietly by. Now were up to 70,000 deaths, the president s disbanding the Coronavirus Task force, and hes actually pressuring governors and Business Owners to actually not follow his own guidelines. And now hes freaking out about an ad that republicans did, a baptist, a christian whos voted republican his entire life, ben howell who helped put this ad together with some people, a bunch of republicans concerned about how donald trump is handling this pandemic. And this is whats whats freaking him out so much. Lets play lets play this ad thats made the president of the United States get worse. It was morning in america. Today more than 60,000 americans have died from a deadly virus donald trump ignored. With the economy in shambles, more than 26 million americans are out of work. The worst economy in decades. Trump bailed out wall street, but not main street. This afternoon, millions of americans will apply for unemployment. With their savings run out, mr. Giving up hope. Millions worry that a loved one wont survive covid19. Theres mourning in america. And under the leadership of donald trump, our country is weaker and sicker and poorer. And now americans are asking if we have another four years like this, will there even be an america . Paid for by the Lincoln Project which is responsible for the content of this advertising. Willie, a lot to digest from from s. E. Cupp and also that ad. Fact checked true. Everything that i saw there. But the president is getting weve been saying it for three years now. The president is getting worse. Id like to also point out there will be an america, whenever President Trump leaves office, thats the note in that one ad. Look, yesterday we saw a president who was ready to turn the page, who realizes that this pandemic thats killed 71,000 people and infected more than a million americans is getting in the way of his presidency. As he says, i created the greatest economy in the history of the country, fact check not true, that he wants to move on. He wasnt wear the mask, thats a signal that its okay not to wear the mask. Theyre going to to meeting for the task force, thats slowly going to go away because they feel like theyve crossed the threshold. He said outloud yesterday, there will be more death but with or without a vaccine, its going to pass. He says its just going to pass. And dr. Emanuel, we know why President Trump wants to move past this. Its hurting him politically. Its obviously cratering the economy, he thinks its going to hurt his chance to be reelected. But when he does all these things and when he says all these things and when he talks about that its going to pass, he is, of course, defying not just doctors like you, Public Health experts like you, but the people on his task force who are advising him. And so then it becomes up to dr. Fauci to go and do an interview at night and politely contradict everything the president has said during the day. But obviously, yesterday really crystalli crystallized, the president ready to turn the page despite the medicine, despite the Public Health. Yeah, i think the real worry certainly in the Public Health community is that were going to have wave two, wave three and youre going to have a premature loosening and also an unregulated loosening of the Public Health measures that weve put in place, no large gatherings, physical distancing, the wearing of the mask that have made a difference. We have a plateau. The unfortunate fact is that plateau is not really going down at an accelerated rate that you would hope, you would expect with the number of new infections. You can see from the map you put up, there are place wheres its getting to be a real serious concern. Minnesota, nebraska, part of the heartland of the president. Im not a im not the political brother, as i like to say, but did i study political science. Any president who had 20 unemployment, 33 Million People who are out of work, we would be writing that person off. Just think of Herbert Hoover during the depression was a blowout election. And i think that has to be really worrying the president a lot. On the other hand, ignoring the Public Health is not going to get the economy going. We have a lot of polls and we also have a lot of Empirical Data on behaviors that show that people are afraid to go out because of the Health Concerns. You can open up all the stores, but if people are afraid, theyre not going to go to the stores. And its hard to see how were going to assuage people unless we have good enforcement of the Public Health measures, you have some therapy, preventative medication or vaccine. And those are simply going to take time. Theres no way of rushing i mean, were doing everything we can to rush them. Everyone keeps saying if we get a vaccine in 12 to 18 months, thats going to be record time by a lot. And, yet, you know, we have to wait that long. That doesnt mean the economy is frozen. We can do certain things and lots of experts like me have said, you know, lets protect the very vulnerable, those with comorbidities and the elderly and we can slowly open up some parts of the economy. But you have to do it in an organized way. I think the president is trying to get past that. Well, but you cant get past that. You could add testing to that vaccine, clearly. But with testing i dont know one person especially on the science or on the political level that says using the dpa, the defense protection act, to streamline testing would not help testing get to the American People faster. Everyone believes it would, and that president refuses to use all of his power to get to testing. You have to ask to republicans, when is it not okay that hes negligent . That he doesnt do enough . When is it not okay . This move to disband the task force and reopen the United States as the virus continues to spread rampantly in parts of the country. The New York Times is out with a new piece detailing how new hot spots are countering the progress made in places like new york city, chicago, and new orleans. The times made this chart showing the curve in the new York Metro Area compared to the rest of the country. New york is trending downward while the rest of the country is trending upward. For example, Dallas County yesterday reported its Third Straight day of record cases on the same day the governor of texas announced a new wave of openings. Salons, barber shops on friday. Gyms and manufacturing plants in less than two weeks. The times notes the following the country is still in the firm grip of a pandemic with little hope of release. For every indication of improvement in controlling the virus, new outbreaks have emerged elsewhere leaving the nation stuck in the steady, unrelenting march of deaths and infections. It is rampaging through Nursing Homes, meat packing plants, and prisons, killing the medically vulnerable and poor. And new outbreaks keep emerging in grocery stores, wall marts or factories, and here is the president yesterday discussing the sacrifices hes willing to make. Yes, will some people be affected . Yes. Will some people be affected badly . Yes. But we have to get our country open and we have to get it open soon. Do you believe thats the reality that 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. Im viewing our great citizens of this country to a certain extent and to a large extent as warriors. Theyre warriors. We cant keep our country closed. We have to open our country. Jonathan lemire, clearly in the white house and for anybody who is worried about the impact of this pandemic, the economy needing to reopen is clearly urgent. I mean, this is an economic catastrophe, that is clear. Nobody denies that. But, without testing and without using all the powers of the presidency to get there, history is anyone in the white house telling this president history will remember him as a president who did not do enough . Its an economic catastrophe, one that could be overshadowed by the Public Health catastrophe if the nation reopens too quickly, again, mika. And what were seeing from this president and this white house is an effortly to almost seemingly will this pandemic out of existence to try to move forward, but not do so safely without the widespread testing. There are voices who are some business leaders, some influential allies of the president who are urging him to slow down. But right now those voices are being ignored. You mentioned that New York Times study. My colleagues in the Associated Press did a similar one looking at the data that suggested that if you were to remove the drop in cases in the new york city metro area, remove that from the overall numbers, youll see the rest of the nation is still rising and there are hot spots growing in places that will not be as well equipped to handle so many sick patients like a new york city with all of its hospitals who were able to do so. Theres also of course the concern of some flareups in some of the big cities as the weather gets better and more people are willing to venture outside and, perhaps, be a little careless with some of their social distancing. We saw the president yesterday refuse to wear a mask. You know, as part of his effort to project confidence, you know, at that arizona mask factory it should be noted. But also we need to be clear about something. He can project these images that will be on cable and newspapers of him not wearing a mask, not being six feet apart from some of the senior aides. But those in the white house exist in a bubble of reality. Theyre being tested every day. If youre in the white house and having contact with the president , youre having those 15minute tests to make sure you do not have the coronavirus. Of course, the rest of the nation still cant get those. The rest of the nation isnt able to have that sense of confidence when they try to make those tentative steps back into the workplace. And right now, you heard the president in that interview, you heard him sort of state plainly that he understands there will be more people getting sick, there will be more people dying. Right now this white house is focused on the economics, the economic crisis of this and they want to move forward. Theyre terrified of the jobs numbers coming out later this week. Theyre concerned about the Unemployment Rate. They feel like they need to try t