breaking news this evening on the tense negotiations between house democrats and the white house over that coronavirus relief bill we mentioned at the top of the hour. moments ago, president trump tweeted his full support for what he called a compromise and separately we learned a deal has, in fact, been reached between the white house and lawmakers. vote on it is expected tonight. i want to hand it over to chris for cuomo prime time. chris. >> it's just one step but it's an important step. anderson, thank you very much. i'm chris cuomo. welcome to primetime. my brothers and sisters, let's be honest with each other. we are at war. the president has finally declared a national emergency as the virus is attacking the country. okay? it got the jump on us. the election will decide how people feel about how we got here. right now, we have to focus on how we fight back. testing. it's about keeping cases down. but can we treat the ones that

we almost certainly have? we have never been in this situation. we, also, have been overcoming odds since the day we were born. we get the facts. we get a plan. and now, as ever, as one, let's get after it. let's start facts first. the enemy, the virus, does have a jump on us. and let's be straight about it. we know why. >> when you have 15 people and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero. >> we closed it down. we stopped it. >> now, remember, no one around him told him that or believed it. and here we are now, almost to the day that the president told you it would be over. he realizes the war has just begun. >> now, we're in a different phase. to unleash the full power of the

federal government, i am officially declaring a national emergency. >> now, he's in a new phase. we have not been in any phase but this one. he did not act quickly, early on. why am i harping? i have to because the president, still, doesn't own the truth. >> no, i don't take responsibility at all. >> now, remember this about the president. it will never be on him. it will always be about him. that's why our reliance on those around him and in the states and in ourselves is so important right now. let's start. take a look at the map. does this illustrate quick action by the president to you? the number of coronavirus cases here in america. just crossed the 2,000 threshold today. 48 dead. the most cases you can see are on the coasts. washington state, california, and new york right now. but what's most important is not to focus on the increase in the number. we know it's underreported.

we know it's going to spike and spike and spike because the testing rollout has been so slow. so what is our best defense? we have to follow the protocols of forbearance. that means reigning in activities on contact, even when we don't want to. why? that's flattening the curve concept. that's what it's all about. less contact equals less cases. okay? that's what this national emergency declaration could be helping. going to remove constraints on state and local governments, so they can do everything they possibly can to ramp up our woeful capabilities. because they're going to have to treat lots of cases. the worst cases. can they? what we do, our key, cooperation. their key, building up capacity. what are the numbers? the u.s. reportedly has a total of 5,198 community hospitals. that translates into about 792,000 beds. but it's not like they're empty. many of our hospitals are

already at high capacity with beds, per american, you know, not where we need to see. look. trump won't tell you this but you need to hear it. there will not be enough of what we need. beds. ventilators. icu capabilities. if we see a significant surge of new cases. now, how do we deal with that if? if we don't all suck it up and change habits, for just a few weeks, this is the future. without taking protective measures they call it, this is the curve. we're going to be overwhelmed. you see the red part? we don't want to be there. it will make so many more suffer. so what do we do? what millions of you are already doing. thank god for you. you are helping flatten the curve. you're staying home. you're doing the social distancing thing. you're self-quarantining. you are minimizing the odds of spreading the virus to someone else. here's what many state and local governments are doing. that makes sense in this context. you got to close things down.

17 states have, so far, closed schools in an effort to stem the spread. now, what are they doing with the kids in need who need to eat? we're going to deal with that tonight. drive-throughs worked well in australia, worked well in other places. new york just opened its first drive-through site today in new rochelle. it has the biggest cluster of coronavirus cases in the country right now. so that's a good tool. the national guard rolled in there to help clean and sanitize public spaces and hand out food to those who need it. remember, this is a war. we have to approach it as such. no now, war. what does that mean? what does it look like on the government's side? are we doing what we need to to so far? if not, what needs to change? what a perfect guest we got tonight for this. lieutenant general russell honorary. he fought this kind of war. and knows what creates wins and losses. general, always a pleasure. i always see you as more of a

brother because we've been through so much of this together, there's nobody i trust more. give me your quick take on what the stakes are here and how you feel about the state of the war right now. >> well, we're playing catchup. there was a saying from world war ii, america always do the right thing late. we're late to the game. but we can catch up. we got the capacity to catch up. we got to unleash the power of american industry. we've got to take care of our small businesses. and we've got to take care of the working poor. there was a lady today at a restaurant when she heard the news flash on the television that the governor was closing school. this waitress, who relies on tips and minimum wage, started crying because she got no option to take care of her school. we have to take care of families that need help and we have to work together as a team. and we don't see unity in washington. they've got to start operating as a team.

we got that eventually after katrina. but this is much larger, chris. this could cause a cultural shift in america and will change your laws forever, now that we see how vulnerable we really are based on this pandemic. >> what are you worried about in terms of change forever? >> i think what will change forever is we will see that we don't have to have people driving all the way across to go sit behind a computer. we will optimize virtual work. where people don't have to drive, taking people off the street. taking care of the kids at home and working. that's a workforce. we are a knowledge-based workforce but we got people drive into cubicles, say hello to each other, work eight hours, and go back home. they could be doing that from home. >> yeah. we're seeing that right now. >> keeping people off the street. limiting the distances. but we need to optimize that and

that need to be a way of the future, chris. and we need to make sure we don't panic. >> absolutely. attitude is everything in these situations. you taught us that during katrina. made the difference and those were very tough and angry circumstances. certainly, more than where we are right now. we'll see how this goes. in terms of taking care of the working poor, congress says they have a deal that the president is expected to sign tonight. it's just one step. we are going to look inside what is that step and what needs to be done, especially where poor kids are involved, you close the schools, where are they going to eat? now, i want to talk to you about capacity to treat what we know is coming. no matter what kind of testing we can get done, we know we are going to have a lot of cases that need to be treated. hospital beds. why is our ratio so much lower than, like, italy and china and south korea? why do we have such small capacity relatively? >> chris, when i was commander of joint force headquarters homeland security in 2004, we did a top-off exercise focused

on the pandemic and at that time, we knew we didn't have enough hospital beds. we didn't have enough respirators. and we didn't have enough ventilators. that was proven in multiple exercises, and it ran out after two to three days when we went to maximum capacity. we've got to fix this. and when i tell you it's going to change america, it's going to change our laws, we cannot come out of this hoping this will not happen again. we'll have to change just like we did after katrina and reorganize our medical response because the cdc was using a last-century model. >> just so you get this. maximum available right now, ventilators, okay. that's what you are going to need because this attacks the lungs. it's like a severe form of pneumonia. they're going to have to help you draegt for a little while. 160,000. nowhere near what we need. look. 1957-'58, 65,000. but the spanish flu, 1918,

742,000. so, look, we are going to be under equipped. you hear it from the governors, you hear it from the president. the equipment's not available. predictions. look. 4.8 million admissions. 1.9 million icu stays. right? what does that mean? that means -- i can't work the wall -- that means these people don't just walk in and walk out. 1.9 million. you don't have nearly enough beads. that's why we have to do as much as we can to flatten the curve and that's what we are doing. national guard. you're going to see them start popping around and start to help with this. my last question, general, for you is this. i see expanding capacity as necessarily involving the military. why haven't we heard anything about that? national guard being called up to create emergency facilities and address these states where we know there are cases? >> the military have been busy preparing. number one. their number one mission is to maintain readiness. independen inside that readiness is keep the force ready and to plan. you know, the military's been a

silent partner. taking in all of the people that were brought back off the ships and flown back from overseas has done that without any sweat. no problem. and also, part of the logistic training, as well as planning. we got capacity in the defense logistics agency to do much of the purchasing the government need. but right now, they are solid hand of success but they are standing by on orders of the president. right now, the governors are doing a great job with the guard like governor cuomo and governor edwards, here in louisiana, the guard can do many of these tasks to relieve first-line medical people who can get to the hospitals. >> right. >> our reserve forces, if we call them up, we're going to pull doctors out of hospitals. and that's a diminishing return asset and when we use it, we've got to make sure it's a resort -- last-resort action, chris. >> strong, strong point about that. i'm talking about just their

ability to put up structures quickly and create capacity on that level. but you're right. personnel is a precious resource. lieutenant general, as we learn more, please come back and help us understand where we are in this war and where we need to be. god bless. great to see you. >> test. test. test. take care of the poor. >> done. >> all right. we will stay on that. you have to. you want to close schools, great. how do you feed the kids? that's one of the questions we are going to take up with a lawmaker who's become known as a dragon slayer in congress. she tests power like nobody else. this time, the cdc. pushing to make sure that they were following the law as it already stands when it comes to covering the costs of testing. katy porter. what does she think about the state of play and where we're headed? next. 5g will change business in america. t-mobile has the first and only,

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here's what we know. president trump declared a national emergency. what does that do? frees up about $50 billion to help states combat coronavirus. it's a lot of money. it's not nearly enough. we also just learned that trump will sign a deal that pelosi negotiated with republicans. what does it do? more importantly, what does it not do? now, we bring in one of the champions of congress, democratic congresswoman katie porter of california.

it is always good to watch you use your legal acumen to e-vince truth from politicians. the recent addition is talking to the cdc about what they are supposed to be doing already to relieve testing cost. here's a taste. >> will you commit to invoking your existing authority under 42 cfr 71.30 to provide for coronavirus testing for every american, regardless of insurance coverage? >> what i was trying to say is that cdc is working with hhs now to see how we operationalize that. >> doctor redfield, you don't need to do any work to operationalize. you need to make a commitment to the american people so they come in to get tested. you can operationalize the payment structure tomorrow. >> i think you're an excellent questioner, so my answer is yes. >> what was that even about? like, why didn't he just say yes right out of the box? >> he should have. to be clear, the cdc has had this authority for weeks.

and my office wrote to the cdc a week ago putting this exact question to them. would they commit to using the existing law? the existing authority they have to make -- >> did they answer? >> they did not answer. they allowed the deadline to expire. and we wrote to them the night before the hearing, and told them we were going to press the cdc director on exactly this point. what did we see? we saw an administration that was unprepared. and that's exactly what we've seen from the trump administration. today, we heard president trump say this is an emergency. well, six weeks ago, on january 28th, my office wrote to him using the exact wording "public health emergency" and calling on him to take action. this is an emergency that has been flatfooted, that has been unprepared, and has put lives at stake. >> so now, let's look at the state of play. state of emergency. national emergency. that'll help on a couple of different funding levels. but really, it's about this bill. the first step that you guys put together. nobody's saying that this is all

that's going to need to be done. but here's what we understand. you tell me what i'm missing. the testing is in there. free coronavirus testing. two weeks paid sick leave. really important if you got to self-quarantine and you don't have paid leave at work. three months of paid family and medical leave. more food aid and medicaid funding. i want your open take on it but i do want you to pay attention to more food aid and medicaid funding because that's very unspecific and it is a probabpr the greatest area of need. but what's your take? >> with regard to food aid and medicaid funding, i think particularly the food aid is relatively straightforward. we are talking about using programs like the school lunch program to deliver lunches even though school is out of session. we already do that in the summertime. so i think the big battle here was around paid sick leave. which is incredibly important in fighting this virus. we're asking the american people to adopt public-health measures, and it's really important that congress, not only pass this

bill but that congress, adopt public health measures itself. congress, itself, has been flatfooted during this crisis in terms of how we deal with things. i am calling on congress tonight, on leaders of both parties, to adopt a remote-voting procedure to ensure that if we're not able to travel, if this public-health crisis worsens, that we are still able to have a quorum and we are still able to take votes. >> you're the law professor. what's going to be the pushback about why they don't usually allow remote votes? you know, we have seen that in the past. people are sick. will he or she be able to make it back in time? what's going to be the legal pushback? and how do you overcome it? >> there is no legal barrier, that i am aware of, to remote voting. it could be adopted tonight, this evening, as part of an updated rules package in the house. and then could be invoked if necessary. i represent the state of california. people are are worried. we have had outbreaks there. i answered the phone in my office this morning and talked, firsthand, to constituents about what's going on. but those constituents are also counting on me to cast those

votes. and we have a president who is threatening to potentially restrict travel from california and from washington and that might become necessary. you've seen the house floor, chris. it's a scrum of people. 435 members and 150 staff in close quarters, using the same voting machines. look. we're asking american businesses, schools, nonprofits, local governments, to be flexible and to obey public health guidelines. congress should be no exception. we should be willing here to be flexible and adopt a remote-voting procedure that can be invoked, if necessary. >> right. >> i don't think there's any excuse for us to disobey the public health guidelines and to refuse to use technology to adapt to this public health emergency. when, at the same time, we are legislating that business sqes communities do aexactly that. >> the policy point is no we want them there. we want them to be held

accountable. that's not what is going on right now with congress, not at least on that level. here's my concern. 2008. okay. i covered that very intimately. i was at abc news there. we had this great team doing it. and we saw a dynamic that smacks familiar to me. they took care of the banks right away. they dumped money into the markets. they came up with tarp and all these other things. elizabeth warren was fundamental in a lot of that and the policing of it. this feels like that, to me. that you tossed a ton of money into the markets. you got all the banks together and told them we're going to make you okay. don't worry about your credit lines. keep lending. but for the little guy, especially the kids who need the food and the elderly and those same impoverished communities that check the most-ri risk box i feel like we are not keying on them enough. am i wrong? >> i think the house package that we're going to vote on tonight does, as its name suggest, put families first. it's focused on free testing, on paid medical leave, on snap programs, on wic programs, on meals on wheels.

it really does put the needs of family first. but i am so glad you mentioned the foreclosure crisis. i lived through that. and today, when i watched the president's press conference there was a sense of déjà vu there. we are having all these ceos parade up. talking about how they are going to get help. how terrific they are. and we know we're not talking to patients, we are not listening to families who are being quarantined. we're not hearing the voices of parents, including myself, who are worried about what they are going to do with their kids come monday when school is closed. so i think there is a really important point here, which is to do the planning to ensure that the base of our economy, the american family, the hardworking people who go to work every day and take care of our economy, that they are put first in this. if you do that, the larger macro economic issues will follow. >> right. we're not just an elbow bump away of figuring this out. and, as always, congresswoman, this works both ways.

as i hear about emerging needs and people that are coming over with collect iv problems, i'll reach out to the office. you do the same. >> thank you. >> best to you for your health. all right. in that way, it's a two-front war, right? you have what do you do about the spread? testing and all the forbearance things. and then the boogieman here. the real front on this war is going to be treatment. so you got to figure out what where the enemy is going and how you deal with it and how you deal with those who are attacked by it. that's why we're going to bring in the one and only man worthy of the title chief dr. sanjay gupta with answers with the questions that you have. next. dancing around the pain that keeps you up again, and again. advil pm silences pain, and you sleep the whole night. advil pm and mine super soft? with the sleep number 360 smart bed, you can both adjust your comfort with your sleep number setting. but can it help keep me asleep?

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perhaps it's time to partner with someone who knows you and your business well enough to understand what your wealth is really for. boy oh boy. you see the reality at the grocery store? parents trying to figure out what to do with kids. how long are they going to be out? how do i get them to learn? what my kid's in college?

am i going to get my money back for board? employers being figuring out who has to stay, what can they afford. let's be honest. we've never been through this before. that's why we need sanjay gupta and the other leaders in our communities to help us understand things. sanjay, you have just been -- you are always an iron man but this is really something. all right. let's start with the grocery store. i think it's about the biggest disconnect we see. like everybody, we're going to be okay. you go to the grocery stores. people are not believing us. should i be stocking up? what are the necessities to buy? >> two things i want to say about this. one is that, yes, you should be stocking up. we talked about this several weeks ago as we started to get wind of this. at that point, i said take a look around your house. think about how would i live for two weeks if i had to just basically be in the house? do i have what i need? two weeks is a good amount of time. some people i think are

hoarding. don't hoard. look, we're all in this together and there is certain supplies that we're all going to need. this national emergency, we're used to thinking about that for storms. we are going to have to address including supply chain issues. supply chain becomes a real problem. so hopefully as part of this i think $43 billion that's now freed up, they really bring in fema to deal with supply chains. dod, hhs, they will deal with the medical side of things. fema's got to deal with this. >> okay. this is like the first real weekend that everybody has been told it's real. not a hoax. here's what you need to do and not do. big question. do i go out this weekend? do i go to a local restaurant? >> you know, i -- i -- i would say, if you need to. you know -- >> nobody needs to. >> it's one of these things. i mean, life is a risk/reward proposition. i don't want to take the joy out of people's lives. as we talked about last night, social distancing should not mean social isolation.

but i mean, you know, the goal is clear here. we want to break the transmission of this thing. the more times people are coming in contact, the harder it is to break that transmission. >> what about having people over? >> yeah. if you have people over -- yeah, think about the respiratory precautions. keep the distance. respiratory droplet. three to six feet. if it gets in the care, someone's coughing, that's how you get it. you got to disinfect your place ahead of time. the basic supply. >> especially people with kids. now, let's assume you're not sick. do you stay inside? can you go to a park? should you go to a bar? >> well, i think like with your kids, i think you can go to a park. be outside. it's easier to keep a social distance over there. festivals and concerts are different obviously because you're right next to each other. depends on the bar and the restaurant, too, if you are going to a place if you can actually keep distance. look, there are restaurants, as you know now, where the waiters are serving with gloves. so there are people being mindful of it in the restaurants. you got to do the same thing. >> for you this is a specific

question. especially, if a guy's going to take a lot of extra supplements and stuff as you have done in the past. people want to go to the gym. >> yeah. look. you know, gyms -- first of all, this doesn't transmit in sweat. gotten this question a bunch of times. it is a respiratory disease but there's so many high-touch surfaces in gyms. some gyms are going to be better about cleaning those surfaces than others. i think it's on you, the individual, to make sure if you are going to go to the gym, you keep your space clean. make sure you are disinfecting things that you are touching before you touch and after you touch it as well. but we are in this together. how i behave affects your health from now on, chris. and how you behave affects mine so we got to think about these things. >> the idea of we got to take care of the elderly, which kind of means you got to leave them alone but we got to check on them. can you go visit the elderly? you know, assuming you're not having symptoms? is it all right? should you keep them with you so you know how they are?

what should we do? >> for the time being, i think we probably want to minimize the visits to the elderly. that pains me a little to say. i was going to visit my parents this weekend, i'm not going to do it. they love you, by the way. they're watching i guarantee it. >> they're in a very exclusive group. >> but i call them. i'm going to stay in touch. social distancing does not need to mean social isolation. i was in new rochelle yesterday. i don't think i got the virus. but they're elderly. i don't want to be the person who transmits the virus. we, healthy people, have to think of ourselves as possibly holding the virus. if i did go and if people do decide to go, i'm going to be really extra diligent about things. and when i sit, i'm thinking about surfaces that i'm touching and how i'm interacting with my environment. that's -- that's what -- we should always be doing now. >> you know, look. two quick things. one, you can just tell from sanjay's tone, this is serious. it is a state of mind. you have to think about it this way because it could really make a difference. i don't want to hit you with a flattened curve every two seconds.

but if we don't do it the right way, we are going to suffer the wrong way. and the second thing is you don't need to see your parents. they're seeing you on television and i'm sure they're proud as hell as always. you are the best. give me some elbow. thank you very much, dr. sanjay gupta. now, this podcast has blown up and with good reason. "coronavirus:fact versus fiction kwo fiction" it is a must. it's a great tool for us right now. thanks to sanjay. this president now, he avoided today rktaking any ownership for what we know wasn't done right. and says he has not gotten tested. why harp on it? because if he won't admit the past, why do we think ohe will e responsible going forward? and what does it all mean politically? who better than the axe next?

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when you are leading in a war, accountability matters. but not with trump. the question is what will this mean for governance going forward? the election? and particularly, for democrats. cnn senior political commentator david axelrod joins us. thanks, axe, for doing this. you know, the big promise from trump was i, alone, can fix it. but now that we're in a fix, here is the latest iteration. >> the system does not -- is not really geared to what we need right now. it is a failing. all right. let's admit it. >> do you take responsibility for that? >> yeah. no. i don't take responsibility at all because we were given a -- a set of circumstances. and we were given rules, regulations, and specifications from a different time. >> is he telling the truth? >> well, look.

this is a pandemic of massive scope. but what we do know is that there were early warnings in late december. we know it was going on in china. katie porter just told you she wrote the administration in january. and he seemed more intent on minimizing the threat. i mean, it's -- one thing we know for sure. you don't win a war by denying there is a war. and that's what happened for weeks and weeks and weeks. his chief of staff called it a hoax. we also know, chris, that he disbanded, his team disbanded, the detect rairectorate within national security council on pandemics that was specifically designed to provide early-warning signals and monitor them and mobilize the government quickly. that was disbanded in 2018. it was started by the obama administration after -- after the ebola outbreak in 2014. so, you know, he -- there's no doubt that there were failures. some of them were systemic.

and -- and may not have been anticipated. maybe they should have been anticipated. but a lot of it just had to do with very poor reaction time. >> let me play a little bit of sound about the disbanding because that's in dispute as well. >> the officials that worked in that office said that the white house lost valuable time because that office was disbanded. what do you make of that? >> well, i just think it's a nasty question because what we've done is -- and tony had said numerous times that we saved thousands of lives because of the quick closing. and when you say me, i didn't do it. we have a group of people. >> first of all, tony fauci never said that it was a good move to disband that team. and the idea of a president saying it's not me, it's like the people around me. what does that mean for governance going forward? >> yeah. i think what he was trying to say there, just to defend the president for a second, even though it didn't make sense in the context of the question was the closing of the border to -- >> oh, i know what he was doing. you guys do it all the time in

politics. but he was skirting a question because it was bad for him. >> right. right. but -- and by the way, it wasn't a nasty question, which is what he always says in response to women who ask him tough questions. but look. his national security advisor, then it was john bolton, disbanded that office. that was on his watch. there's no ambiguity about that. they didn't think it was a priority. and we are playing a price for it now. >> so now the question becomes how does this play in the election? and, specifically, you don't have just politics. you have practicality. louisiana pushing its primary. we're told there's not going to be exit polling. you know, at the next group of primaries. what it could mean for conventions and beyond. what are your thoughts? >> look. i think it's a really good question. i think, for now, it kind of freezes the election. you know, you watch -- you watch this show and other shows and there's very little discussion about the election right now. that's probably in the short-term to the benefit of vice president biden, who's doing well. but in terms of the -- the

execution of the election, these are big questions. you know, i talked to tom perez the other day, the chairman of the democratic national committee, his view was, you know, they're still planning to go ahead and the convention. but we don't know. and if -- if there is no convention, which is usually a launching pad for the fall campaign, what do you do then? and technically, what do you need to do? how do you vote? i thought katie porter was very persuasive on this. should there be alternative ways of voting? and then how do you protect that vote, given what we know about election security right now? so there are a raft of questions that this is going to create. but, in some ways, i mean it's enormously important, secondary to the -- the -- the crisis, the challenge, we're facing right now. >> david axelrod, you are the man. it is good to have you in times as serious as these. god bless. best of health for you and the family. >> thank you. same to you. >> all right. look. understatement of the day. these are serious times. they are challenging times.

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this is not about him. it is about us. and we must face reality together. now, as a little sidenote, i get this is freaky. i'm with you. my kids are confused. my family's worried about what to do. my mother, you know, isn't 50 anymore. my in-laws, where should they be? should they be with us? no, that's too close. but how do we see them when hey need us? why are the foods disappearing? i'm living with it just like you. and starting this weekend, we're going to all face a new test. here are the musts. for me, you, all of us. if you're sick in any way that triggers flu suspicion, you got to stay home. hey. if you want, dm me on twitter and i will call as many of you as i can. practice social distancing. that means, you know, don't get up on somebody when you're talking to them. give them some space. don't go to big events. now, some people are ignoring these cues because they're tedious. and look.

let's be honest. we're selfish. but you know what? think about how many of us love to wave the flag and use the icon and say they love their country and they're patriots. you know what i say? prove it. if you don't refrain in those ways, ask yourself what it says about what you truly value. now, if you blow this off out of some misplaced sense that it's all manufactured to be bad for trump so you're going to ignore it, you fall into a category like that, you got bigger problems than coronavirus. okay? this is real. then we have the other extreme. full end times mode. it's leading scenes like this across the country. if you are anywhere affected, you've been seeing this. people buying bread. hand sanitizer. there's no hand soanitizer. buying things like it's going out of style. then there is this. that's where the tp's supposed to be. what's up with the tp frenzy? >> toilet paper is not an effective protection against

getting the coronavirus. >> all right. azar's joking but also missing the point. people are scared. a pandemic is scary. and the reality is not helped by a president who abused the truth. >> that's a little bit like the flu. it's a little like the regular flu. >> yeah. and it's a lot not like it. he downplayed the threat and did so for selfish reasons, by calling this virus another move on him. >> now, the democrats are politicizing the coronavirus. as you say how's president trump doing? they go, oh, not good. not good. this is the new hoax. >> new hoax. how do you like that now? the truth is spreading as fast as the virus, so even the president has to own it. and the other night, you saw the reality. he is as overwhelmed as anyone.

>> i am confident that by continuing to take these tough measures. >> whoa. i hope i don't catch a case of that, whatever that is. so on one level, it makes sense. when you know things are serious, and trump is feeding you a lot of bs, what do you do? you go for the tp. reason number two. it gives us a sense of control. why? i want to know i did everything i could. i feel helpless. right down to the last roll. number three. well, you got to think about this one. you heard others are going to the store so you decided to go. i did the same thing. now, steven taylor, author of the psychologic of pandemics, he puts it this way. we are social creatures. we look to each other for cues, what's safe, what's dangerous. and when you see someone in the store panic buying, that can cause its own kind of contagion. so turns out that anticipation of corona may be worse than corona itself.

why? 80% of us who get this virus, god forbid, many of us won't even know that we have it. but 100% of those who panic and hoard are absolutely keeping others from having enough. this is not a drill. it is not fake news. the only fake part is trump lying to you about the realities early on when he knew better. now, look. the real deal is the media, this show, we will hold power to account. the government has a lot to do. we will do our best to make sure they do it for you. but it's not about trump. it's not even just about the government. this is as much of a test for you and me. we have to be at our best. the good news, america has always been defined by how she handles a crisis. we are a country that is forged by hard times. hard times make strong people.

strong people make good times. we are strong. and you know what? it's not just us. the president said today we're not worrying about the rest of the world. wrong. the world is dealing with it. we're part of a community. and you know what else? the world is watching. you know, part of the job that i do is that i've been all over this country, in all kinds of disasters. everything you can think of from the natural to the all-too-human. and i have seen, time and again, how you guys come together. you come together when people need you. you come together when you don't even know each other. so let's remind the world why they look to us. why they look to us as a symbol of what freedom is all about. we know what to do. we know what not to do. we have to believe that we matter to each other. so let's get after it.

that's my argument taking you into the weekend. surrender the me to the we. it's about compassion right now. and you're going to see moments that celebrate the human spirit. i'm going to show you one that, out of personal bias, i will say could only have come from my people. you won't want to miss. next. >> cuomo primetime. brought to you by the deliciously healthy snack that's fun to crack. wonderful pistachios. get crackin'.

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i love this bolo. be on the lookout. look. we know these are difficult times. and by the way, we are nowhere done. okay? we have to do our part to contain this outbreak. all right. now, there are ways to cope even with the worst of it. italy is in a jam. but watch what happened on this street in sienna.

♪ >> i want to keep going but i got to end the show. it's sienna's town song. "while sienna sleeps." interestingly, sienna is the walled city and now they are even more walled in than ever but one voice more than ever showing local pride while locked down in their own homes. you can find joy in the pain. let's do that together. thank you for watching. cnn tonight with d. lemon. thinking about going from joy to pain starts right now. >> i thought that was you leaving my house on a sunday night. >> i wish i could sing like that. >> you know, i did the grocery store thing today as well and i couldn't find the tp. >> i got it. >> where'd you find it? where'd you go? >> i bought all of it. >> i