This situation were in now didnt have to be. And, you know, i feel like part of the reason that Governor Cuomo has become a National Leader and not just the leader of new york on this in this crisis and on this subject is because hes not only speaking plainly about the challenges that are in new york and you can trust what he says and he doesnt say stuff that is made up or aspirational but hes also sort of talking about things as a human being in a way that is very relatable, talking about the anguish and the anxiety and the fear and a lot of the other things that i think other leaders are sort of afraid to talk about for fear of looking weak. It makes him look stronger. I think it also makes him even more trustworthy when hes conveying the terrible news that hes been conveying. But yeah, hes fully there, fully engaged with this crisis in a way that i think connects with people in a powerful way. Its i think hes modeling an important kind of leadership. Yeah, its really a moment where he basically every day delivers the best parts of himself as a person, as an experienced governor, as someone who worked in the federal government and puts all that to work every day. Its really what we should hope to see from people in his position more frequently. Yeah, thats right. And its not that new york has had a perfect response to coronavirus. Far from it. But when it comes to communicates with the public what about is going on and what the challenges are, it helps to be real and know what youre talking about, to cite reliable information and to be real both about the facts and emotions that they bring up. Its just i mean, these are these times will test us all but hes modeling leadership in a way that i thinks important. Thanks, lawrence. I appreciate it. Thank you, rachel. Thank you very much. Well, senator Kamala Harris will join us tonight on a day when the president of the United States once again ducked responsibility for leadership in this countrys coronavirus war. Well get senator harriss view of where we are in that war tonight and if we have the time, well ask about the decision by the Democratic Party to move the Democratic Convention from july to august. Senator harris is, of course, on the short list of all of us who have publicly guessed about who that convention might nominate as the Vice President ial running mate. Well also be hearing from some of the front line troops in this war. Well hear from an e. R. Doctor in chicago and another e. R. Doctor in michigan later in the hour. We begin tonight with the numbers. As of tonight, there are 243,234 reported cases of coronavirus in the United States. We have every right to believe that at least double that number of people are actually infected with the virus at this time but have not yet been tested. And as of tonight, there are 5,877 reported deaths from coronavirus in the United States. The total number of reported cases of coronavirus worldwide is now over a million. 1,013,839. And the number of deaths reported worldwide is now at 52,947. The United States now has the largest number of reported cases in the world and within a week or two the United States might surpass italy to have the largest number of reported deaths from coronavirus in the world. And donald trump has conferred upon himself the title of wartime president. And certainly Poetic License could allow for a president fighting this pandemic to be labeled a wartime president if and only if the president was leading the countrys war against the coronavirus but donald trump said today in very plain english that he is not doing that. Donald trump said that he is just a backup. He repeatedly said were a backup. Meaning we, the federal government are just a backup for the states who have to fight this war and the hospitals in those states where the front line troops are fighting this war and risking their lives. Donald trump is just a backup. Just a backup. And the troops are troops like rayburn fairweather, who was he is as respiratory therapist at a hospital in brooklyn. He went to hell and back with the coronavirus. He became infected with the virus in mid march. Tested positive. He quarantined at home in brooklyn locking himself away from his wife and 11yearold son. He fought the virus alone at home. He recovered. And now he is back at work, risking his life once again for his patients. In his countrys war on the coronavirus. Rayburn fair waerth told the New York Post that he didnt hesitate to go back to work. He said, i love my job, and i was very bored at home. Donald trump is not rayburn fairweathers leader in this war on coronavirus. Donald trump says were a backup. He said that in a tweet today and said it again repeatedly at the White House Briefing today. He said it in a letter to senator Chuck Schumer. Were a backup. Remember when president Franklin Roosevelt said were a backup in world war ii . Thats not what wartime president s say. The day after pearl harbor was attacked, president roosevelt addressed congress as they voted on a declaration of war and said, we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger. With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will again we will gain the inevitable triumph. Today, with more americans dead from the coronavirus than died at pearl harbor, donald trump said were a backup. At the darkest hour of world war ii for the british before the United States entered the war, it seemed that a successful nazi invasion of britain was inevitable. At that time british Prime MinisterWinston Churchill was being advised to negotiate some form of surrender to hitler. Instead, Winston Churchill got on the radio to tell the british people we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrenderer. And today donald trump, who calls himself a wartime president , said were a backup. Donald trump brought the imagery of war into the White House Briefing room in the person of a navy admiral who seemed to bring good news about the delivery of 200,000 masks to new york city hospitals. The 200,000 is going out as we speak. Very specific about that. It will be delivered tomorrow. Can i ask a question . Let me be clear on that if i can. What jared announced, what the admiral just unpacked, is that pallets are being loaded right now to send 200,000 n95 masks to new york city, to the Public Health hospitals. To the Public Health warehouse in new york city. All the health care workers, help is on the way. Help may be on the way to the hospitals or the warehouse . No, we have no idea where help is actually going to go because in questioning by white house reporters it turns out those masks are not being delivered by the federal government to any hospitals at all. No hospitals. Those masks are being distributed to commercial distributors, profit makers who will then sell them to the highest bidder including bidders in foreign countries. This product that were moving is primarily commercial product that would enter the commercial system and be distributed through financial business transactions between hospitals and these distributors. Just to clarify, that explains why states say they are bidding like theyre on ebay. Because the supplies are going to the private sector and then they have to go there to get the supplies. Thats normally how things s work. Right . So im not here to disrupt a supply chain. Disrupting the supply chain is exactly what you are supposed to do in war. Disrupting the supply chain is exactly what the governors and hospitals are asking for. They are asking the federal government to take complete control of this process. Not leave it to the war profiteers that have states bidding against each other to only have then the federal government come in and outbid them all on the same masks they delivered to that warehouse and when the federal government buys those masks back as it might, were finding that states that vote for donald trump and have republican governors who donald trump aligns himself with get whatever they want when they ask the federal government for it. Even the states that havent been taking the reasonable precautions that new york and california have been taking and those friendly governors, those trumpfriendly governors like Florida Governor ron desantis have been rewarded by the trump supply chain, rewarded in effect in a way for their recklessness. The homicidal recklessness of allowing these spring breakers to crowd florida beaches when the whole world, the whole sane world was telling the governor of florida that he was criminally negligent in allowing those people into effective each other on those beaches as they did. Everyone was telling the Florida Governor that except donald trump, who wants to be called a wartime president. If Franklin Roosevelt had told Winston Church hill were just a backup and never actually became a wartime president leading the United States in war in europe against hitler, then german troops would very likely have marched into london the way they marched into paris. American troops never would have liberated a nazi death camp if Franklin Roosevelt had told Winston Churchill and the American People were just a backup, were going to leave europe to europe. Leave europes fight to europe. If donald trump is a wartime president , then the phrase has no meaning. Because donald trump is so profoundly ignorant of history, he has no idea how to even sound like a wartime president. He has no idea how to fake the role that he claims he wants for himself. And with no one in command of the american response to the coronavirus, the front line troops have to look to hospital administrators or their governors or their mayors or a friend they know who has a friend who can get them an n95 mask. Judy Sheridan Gonzalez knows what the front line is like. Judy Sheridan Gonzalez is an emergency room nurse in new york city and she knows what is happening statewide in new york, the state hit hardest, because she is the president of the new york state nurses association. We are the warriors in the front lines fighting this pandemic. When you are at war, you know who your enemy is. You know who they look like. We dont know what this looks like. Its a microscopic enemy. And we do not have the arms and we do not have the armor to protect ourselves or to protect the public from this enemy. Leading off our discussion tonight, nicholas christoph, pulitzer prizewinning columnist for the New York Times. He has been interviewing the people on the front lines, doctors, nurses, about the coronavirus. Also with us, dr. Ahmet pohl. Hes an e. R. Physician, Emergency Room Physician at northwestern medicine in chicago. Dr. Pohl, what is your sense of we are on the front lines tonight, especially in terms of supplies, necessary supplies for the safety of the physicians, the nurses and others on the front lines, others working in the hospitals . Its a very difficult situation, lawrence, ill have to admit. Ill say my own personal experience, i was in the Emergency Department last week. I did not myself run into any problems with having limitations to my access to the equipment that i needed personally. But certainly the reports i get from friends and colleagues of mine, a very large study that was conducted by a company that i work for that sampled the entirety frankly of the physician user base and had responses from across the country, is reflecting the practical reality being somewhat disconnected if some of the things that were hearing and some of the things frankly that you covered in your opening there. I think whats missing frankly is that plain talk. I appreciated the conversation you had with rachel. We need to just have a plain conversation about that reality in order to ensure that folks, particularly those firstline responders are aware that other people are aware of their circumstances at that front line. And doctor, what about the medical equipment . In addition to the Safety Equipment for the people working, what about the necessary medical equipment that needs to be distributed to the states that need it the most . Yeah, its a difficult situation. Again, i mean, its complicated in the United States to answer that question holistically. Ill say from my own experience in chicago we had the benefit of some time. We had a little bit of lead time that our colleagues and brothers and sisters in new york and new jersey did not necessarily have. I have a very close family friend who actually works at elmhurst hospital, and the reports that i hear from him are very dire in terms of there being shortages. And i know everyones seen the pictures on the news as to how dire that circumstance is. But what i can say is in chicago were trying our best to stay at least one day ahead of the surge. Everyone is reflecting the modeling thats up to date nationwide and individual states certainly make decisions based on that data as well. So were doing the best that we can but this pandemic certainly overwhelmed the Health Care System in a wide variety of places across the United States and were not well equipped frankly to respond with the appropriate amount of protective equipment or machinery, frankly. Lets listen to what Governor Andrew Cuomo just told rachel in the last hour about basically the trump position that the federal government, donald trump is just a backup to the states. Governor cuomo says that is not the way to do it. Lets listen to this. Where we are now, 50 states all trying to buy the same equipment from china and then the federal government comes in with fema which is trying to purchase the same equipment. This is not the way to do it. Nick christoph, it sounded good at the briefing today at first when they said 200,000 masks, n95 masks on the way to new york, theyll have them tomorrow. Then with questioning you discover well, theyre going to a warehouse up there and then the bidding will start. And indeed, it may be foreign bidders who end up with those masks, not even american bidders. I mean, look, i admire people like dr. Phull so much. The heroes of the moment at this time in the u. S. Are those front line health workers, doctors, nurses, but also frankly technicians and cleaning staff. And we do them an incredible disservice when we send them out without proper protective equipment. And im just pained to hear the stories they tell about putting themselves at risk because they cant get basic equipment and, you know, i mean, protocols in this country are much less rigorous than those for chinese doctors and chinese nurses right now. And maybe to top it off when american doctors and nurses complain theyre now being fired or disciplined for raising those issues, for speaking up. I just find that, you know, unconscionable. And, you know, when you are dismissing workers at a time when you most need them, its not only unconscionable, its also idiotic frankly. Nick, i read that in your reporting, speaking to people whod run into trouble because they kind of publicly complained either on social media or other ways about we dont have what we need, and then the hospitals that they were working for had a serious problem with that. You report on one of them, anyway, when it became public that they had let that doctor go they then took that doctor back because they didnt like the way it looked. But its a very, very strange situation when you have doctors out there kind of fighting for themselves on social media and other ways publicly and then they get in trouble with the administrators. And then theyre not only fighting for themselves, which they have every right to do, but theyre also fighting for patients because, you know, one way to protect patients is to have proper ppe for the physicians and to use it properly. And so im glad that you have doctors like ming len in bellingham, washington who were raising these issues. And now hes been terminated. He doesnt know if he can be hired again at another seattle hospital. And new york at weil cornell you had an e. R. Doctor, anya ramilski. She didnt even protest publicly. She simply wanted to bring in her own ppe to try to protect herself and she was sent home. You know, like a seventh grader violating the dress code. And i just at a time when so many doctors and nurses and others are risking their lives for the rest of us, then to deny them the equipment that they need to keep themselves safe and in some cases to fire them for speaking out is just outrageous. Dr. Phull, can you give us any insight as to what hospital administrators are thinking in those situations . What is it that theyre so outraged by in these kinds of cases . Lawrence, thats such a difficult question to answer. Id like to say a couple things. First off, mr. Kristof, id like to thank you for your piece today. I read it. Some of the things you reported on frankly broke my heart. Thats not consistent of my own personal experience, which is but im certainly aware of other colleagues in the field that have run into this kind of difficulty. Its quite obvious thats not how we should be handling these situations. You made a very critical point in you