businesses must shut down from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m., between those hours, and this is because there are more than 1,000 cases of coronavirus in that city of 22,000 people and there have been more than 200 cases reported over the last couple of days. so when you do the math on that, it is -- and city officials are concerned there is no sign of the virus slowing down, the spread of the virus slowing down and there's also a great deal of concern as we've done some reporting on in the gallop, new mexico, area about the toll that it is taking on the medical resources there in that small community. so gallop, new mexico, just west of the albuquerque, new mexico, area, a bit of a remote area, not an incredibly small town but a place with 22,000 people, the medical resources are not capable of withstanding the onslaught of so many coronavirus

patients. so the government and city officials are concerned about how all this this is unfolding and that's why they're taking these dramatic steps in this unfolding today. >> got it, ed. thank you. we continue on. you're watching cnn on this friday afternoon. i'm brooke baldwin. thank you so much for being with me. any moment now, we will bring you the first white house briefing by the president's new press secretary, kayleigh m mcenanny. by the way, it has been 417 days since a formal briefing with a press secretary at the white house. and as we wait, at least 32 states are moving ahead with plans to ease some restrictions by the end of the week. yet others are extending their stay at home orders. and just in the last hour, we learned the state of louisiana is sticking with its order at least until may 15th, after the

largest jump in daily reported cases in nearly three weeks, 710 new infections there in one day, and yet vermont which experienced a day without a single new case, just announced it will reopen, just not some but many businesses next week. and as states move forward, some governors are met with protesters and keep in mind, they're not just opposing social distancing like these armed demonstrators there at the state capital in michigan. in georgia, one of the first states to reopen, protesters held a mock funeral procession said the governor's choice to reopen will cost lives. let's start this hour with my colleague there in california, nick watt and nick, you have been covering this growing divide over how various states are reopening. tell me what's happening specifically to schools. will kids be able to go back to class any time before the school year ends? >> reporter: probably not,

brooke. new york became the 4r5 5th sta to order there will be no more school this academic year and haven't made a decision for the fall because as he says, the fall is a long time away and boy, does it feel that way and as the cdc just reminded us, brooke, what we do this summer is going to be critical. this virus might circulate for another 2 years, says one new study, until 60% or 70% of us will be infected. >> there will be a rolling situation throughout the world, not just our country. it's very likely they will. >> reporter: the u.s. death count doubled the last two weeks. one model from northeastern university now suggests 100,000 of us will die by midsummer. but this morning in katie,

texas, a line at snap pi's cafe and grill. movie theatres can reopen at a quarter of capacity. >> beginning to see the beaches open, guests on the beach, and it's just painting an optimistic weekend for the future. >> reporter: in dallas county yesterday, nearly 180 new cases, the biggest single day spike they've seen since all this began. opening now under way in at least 32 states, but it doesn't appear any of them meet one of the white house guidelines that states have a edwadownward traj within a 14 day period. >> there are some states that look at that and kind of leapfrogging over the first checkpoint. and i mean, obviously, you could get away with that, but you're making a really significant risk. i hope they can actually handle any rebound that they see. >> reporter: the vaccine may be by january.

>> if we didn't care about safety, we'd be using these vaccines today. >> reporter: florida starts its process monday with restaurants and retail, but the state's three largest and hardest hit counties are excluded. >> in miami beach, we can't open at the same speed. a third of the infections, a third of the deaths are in our county. i don't know we'll be able to open up our beaches, really, before june. >> reporter: california, orange county beaches closed again by the governor after last weekend's crowds. >> we're going to have a temporary pause. >> reporter: one county supervisor called an act of retribution. two cities say they'll file injunctions. meanwhile, michigan's governor in the shadow of armed protesters at the capital extended her state's stay at home order through may 28th. the president suggested they make a deal with them. they're very good people but they're angry.

they want their lives back again. >> if i can pray for one thing right now, i would pray for the kind of leadership that gives us the fdr moments, the fireside chats, the winston churchill. this is going to get tough and we have to bring our country together. >> reporter: so some good news. the mercy, the navy hospital ship docked here in long beach, taking people from los angeles area hospitals to clear capacity for covid patients, that ship is not taking any more patients. they only ended up treating 76 people. that's good news. the mayor of los angeles, garcetti, was asked about schools opening in the fall. he's optimistic. he said, we're not going to be throwing the doors wide open though, careful steps. careful steps, brooke, that might just become our mantra. back to you. >> yeah. the new normal come this fall and beyond. nick watt, thank you. any moment now, president trump's white house press secretary expected to hold the

first briefing since taking the job last month. cnn white house correspondent kaitlan collins with me now. kaitlan, 400, what was it, 417 days. march 11, 2019. that was the last official full throttle white house press briefing. i mean, we're grateful for them, you know, a little transparency, please, but why are they doing this now? >> reporter: yeah, and we're hoping this is going to be a regular occurrence now that there is a new press secretary. it has not been since sarah sanders was in the job that we saw someone in the formal press secretary role taking questions from reporters regularly. and of course, we saw that she phased them out and then the one person who succeeded her, stephanie grisham, did not hold any press briefings during her entire tenure as press secretary. kayleigh is already holding a briefing after a few weeks. some people are taking that as a good sign this could be more of what's to come. it does come after a shift in the president's own briefings.

until this week, he had been regularly holding inside that room but not taken questions since last thursday when of course, the fallout over the president's remarks. and so there's a lot of things for kayleigh to be asked about today given what's going on. the president's comments yesterday about the intelligence he's seen, about where this virus originated, and so there are going to be a lot of things she's pressed on. we'll wait to see if any of the health officials from the coronavirus task force join her at this briefing so far, but this is going to be the first one in 417 days. so it certainly is a remarkable event. >> we'll take it as soon as we see her step behind that podium. let me ask you this because the president, didn't he just announce he has some travel plans this summer? >> reporter: yeah, the president said he is going to be going to mount rushmore on the july 4th weekend or july 3rd. cleared to go. it comes as the president is announcing this plan while we're still wondering what july is going to look like for this

country, and with the president's travel schedule, what it's going to look like. he talked about this before the pandemic but now the president said he's stabbedinding by the as south dakota said they're not sure but proceeding with playing the fireworks show but the president leaving town today for the first time since march when he went to virginia to see off the usns comfort which of course, then went to new york. he's going to camp david with a small group of aides including his new chief of staff, mark meadows, where he's expected to spend the weekend speaking with aides talking about the coronavirus pandemic and the question is, what else the president is going to do while he's there, before coming back to washington on sunday. >> kaitlan, thank you. we'll talk you on the other side of the briefing. appreciate you and just a reminder, jake tapper is digging deep on what happened with the u.s. response to covid-19. so don't miss jake's cnn special report, the pandemic and the president airs sunday night at 10:00 eastern. two more years of this?

a new report indicates that we might expect to live with the effects of coronavirus for a couple of years. we've got those new details on what to plan for, and i will talk to a man who was treated for coronavirus with the promising new drug, drug, i shouldn't say new, but remdesivir. white house says testing is under control so why can't doctors get enough tests for the senators returning on monday? since 1926, nationwide has been on your side. we've been there in person, during trying times. today, being on your side means staying home... "nationwide office of customer advocacy." ...but we can still support you and the heroes who are with you. we're giving refunds on auto insurance premiums, assisting customers with financial hardships, and our foundation is contributing millions of dollars to charities helping with covid-19 relief. keeping our promise to be on your side.

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with the freestyle libre 14 day system, a continuous glucose monitor, you don't have to. >> the americans who required hospital in patient care. 10 billion of the 12 billion will go towards hospitals treating 100 or more covid-19 admissions. hhs is distributing an additional $2 billion to the 395 hospitals in proportion to the amount of care they provide to low income and uninsured patients. this is consistent with our effort to ensure that americans who need federal government assistance the most receive it. we'll be releasing a breakdown of the states receiving this funding and the counties receiving this funding before

your new jersey, new york, illinois receive the most funding by state, while new york, new york, bronx, new york, and cook, illinois, receive the most funding by county as determined by our metrics. our health care providers as president trump has repeatedly acknowledged are heroes as we work to defeat the invisible enemy. this relief funding will help these heroes defeat this virus. and reacting to cares relief, one provider said thank you and god for this relief. i have tears in my eyes out of gratitude for these funds. thank you so, so, so much. additionally, 100 flights part of project air bridge cleated to date. these flights have expedited 1 billion pieces of ppe for health care heroes. the third phase of coronavirus relief also included $320 billion in additional funding for the paycheck protection program which, as you all know, provides forgivable loans to small businesses in order to keep their employees on payroll. this program has been extraordinarily successful

during the first round of ppe loans, 1.6 million and 1 million given to 10 or fewer employees. it's gone to small businesses and businesses that need it most. but the ppe, not just another government program, this is supporting every day americans who through no fault of their own found themselves in this predicame predicament. we saw this firsthand at the white house on tuesday. on tuesday, president trump welcomes small business owners and employees to the white house. these small businesses received ppp loans to help them pay their employees during the pandemic. biddie and boe employs 120 people with developmental disabilities coffee shop not too far away from here. they had to temporarily close its doors but because of ppp loans, they were able to rehire all of its employees. the real honor of getting the

meet michael, one of the employees at bidde and bose. if you wouldn't mind playing those remarks. >> president trump and ivanka, thank you a lot for inviting us. thank you, mr. president, for having us. i love my job and i am excited about going back to work. we love to use the phrase called not broken. that means me and all my amazing coworkers are not broken and we have lots to offer. i know the great country of the united states isn't broken either. so on behalf of myself, megan, amy and all the employees involved, thank you for inviting us over.

>> michael is an incredible young man. i gave him a call yesterday and asked what he was up to and he said he and his federal employees were handwriting notes to put in with their coffee packages they send out to consumers and one of these notes from another company that did put a smile on your face. michael is doing that each and every day. biddie and bose represent the hope on the horizon as their business embodies the american spirit. workers like michael show this country is not broken and that we will recover together. michael, thank you. you're an american hero, thank you for sharing that message of hope and with that, i'll take questions. >> kayleigh, welcome to the podium for the first time as well. >> thank you. >> the markets are down substantially today after the president yesterday suggested in the east room you might use tariffs to punish china over the coronavirus, is there any serious consideration being given to putting new tariffs on china or was the president just

spit balling yesterday? >> look, i won't get ahead of any announcements from the president but i will echo the president's displeasure with china. it's no secret that china mishandled this situation, just a few examples for you, they did not share the genetic sequence until a professor in shanghai did so on his own the very next day, china shut double his lab for, quote, rectification. they slow walked information on human to human transmission outside of the world health organization and didn't let u.s. investigators in at a very important time, so we take displeasure with china's actions but i certainly won't get ahead of the president with those announcements. >> is the president seriously considering forcing china to pay some sort of compensation, reparations, whatever word you want to put on it? >> again, when it comes to retaliatory measures, i will not get ahead of the president on that. >> thank you, kayleigh and welcome to the podium as well. >> thank you. >> the president said yesterday, a high degree of confidence that the coronavirus originated in a lab in wuhan, china, and yet his

own intelligence agencies say they're still investigating, so does the president have information and has he drawn a conclusion that the intelligence community has not yet? >> well, the president's statement is consistent with the other intelligence assessments. while we continue to have very limited and dubious data from china, current assessments indicated that president trump's statement is consistent with what some analysts believe is the epicenter of where the virus began and i would note that intelligence statement you're referring to made two points. one, this virus originated in china. two, that it began through contact with infected animals or was the result of an accident at a laboratory in wuhan. so i consider that consistent with what the president said that he's seen intelligence suggesting it could be in the wuhan laboratory. >> seems to lean into the idea this started in a laboratory whereas the statement we saw from the dni said we're still investigating those two options that you just laid out. is the president in any way

creating mixed messages by not saying personal investigator? >> intelligence is just an estimate essentially and it's up to policy makers to decide what to do with that intelligence. in this case, the policy makers, the president of the united states and he'll make that decision at the right time. >> any closer to deciding what to do about china? any recommendations on the consequences, anywhere near a decision? >> look, again, i won't get ahead of the president's decision or the timing of that decision but he takes this very seriously because the decisions of china that i referenced, slow walking some of that information put american lives at risk and rest assured, this president has one priority and that is the safety and the well being of american lives. >> thank you so much, kayleigh. welcome. it's been more than 400 days since a press secretary was put there. are you planning to do these on a daily basis at this point or will you pledge never to lie to

us from the podium? >> i will never lie, you have my word on that and as to the timing of the briefings, we do plan to do them. i'll announce the timing of that forthcoming but we do plan to continue these. >> welcome to the podium. question for you on project warp speed, can you give us more details. the president said ultimately he's in charge of this project, but will there be a day-to-day point person on this, what's the budget for this project and when can the american people realistically expect there will be a vaccine available? >> there is a day-to-day point person and that's the president of the united states. president trump. and with regard to vaccines, i would note the words of dr. fauci which are these. going into a phase one trial within three months of getting the sequences unquestionable, the world indoor record, nothing has ever gone this fast. under the president's leadership, we're in phase one. faster than ever before according to dr. fauci and that should encourage the american people. >> the budget, and there's

really no other point person? i mean, i know the president ultimately, i guess the buck stops with the president but he hasn't put somebody on the staff? >> i'm not going to get into any details as to exactly how that works but just rest assured, we're on an accelerated pace to a vaccine, at least for the phase one portion of clinical trial. yeah? >> thanks, the fed yesterday took an action appeared design to allow oil companies to access lending facilities. so i'm wondering if the president has spoken to chairman pow on th powell about this and if the white house is considering additional stanassistance to oi companies. >> i won't get into the president's personal discussions but i will just note that the president is always looking out for the nearly 11 million american workers in the oil industry and note we're filling the strategic petroleum preserve and 75 million barrels. that's the only announcement on the oil front i have today. >> thank you, kayleigh. the president tweeted this

morning about the protest in michigan. he essentially said that the governor of michigan should work with the protesters. called them very good people and said they are very angry. some of those protests, i'm sure you saw included heavily armed protests, members of militia groups. is he speaking about those members when he talked about very good people? >> the president was referencing generally in this country, you have a first amendment right to protest, i think that's something we all treasure here. and we should, rightfully. you have a right to do that, constitutionally, but you must protest within the bounds of the law. he encourages everyone to protest lawfully. also tone gau engage in social distancing guidelines. >> do you have any response to the imagery of people with long guns and storming the capitol going into face-offs with police officers and intimidating? -- >> again, the president said we must protest lawfully and act

within the bounds of the law. >> thank you for being here. the president said, with jared kushner talked about a great success story, some americans see it -- what's your reaction? >> look, jared kushner has, first of all, done a great job for this administration and what i would say to that is that his, when you talk about a success story, he was talking the story of this administration which is a story of mobilization for the american people, the greatest mobilization of american industries since world war ii. of course, we grieve for every american life that has been lost. but we want the american people to be confident in the response of this administration and that's what he was referring to. the fact that in the average year, the health care industry uses 25 million n-95 masks and we have delivered in this short time, 75 million n-95 masks, more than three times than what's used in a year.

some in the media saying we needed a million ventilators and this president has, we needed far short of that, not a single american has died for lack of a ventilator and the fact this president can look the american people in the eye and say, i am producing 100,000 ventilators this year, alongside the private sector, 100,000 ventilators, that's three times what we produce in the average year, i consider that a great success on behalf of the american people. >> the policy itself? >> we want to give the american people confidence. they have a federal government that is doing everything in our power to provide the necessary equipment to combat this invisible enemy. we grieve for the american lives. we've said that repeatedly. i'll echo that today. i pray regularly for those affected by the coronavirus. but we'll give confidence to the american people that you have a federal government under president donald trump to step up to give the greatest mobilization of the private sector since world war ii. >> thank you so much, kayleigh. thank you for being here.

president trump mentioned the situation in brazil a few times this week. besides talks of cutting off flights from brazil, are there talks in terms of sending assistance to brazil, sending ppe or ventilators to brazil, and is president trump planning to talk with president bols n bolsanaro? >> any excess supply, we certainly look to help other countries, but in terms of a specific announcement regarding brazil, i don't have any new information for you on that front today. >> kayleigh, welcome. one of the most important parts of your job though is to have access to the president. can you give us some indication, since you've been named press secretary, what kind of access do you have to the president to get what he's thinking relayed to us? >> i'm around the president almost the entire day. i was just with him. i think my staff can attest to the fact they have a hard time finding me because i'm normally

with the president in the oval office, so i am consistently with him, absorbing his thinking and it's my mission to bring you the mindset of the president, deliver those facts, so this president gets fair and accurate reporting and the american people get fair and accurate information. >> thanks, kayleigh. just following up on the question. blocking world health organization from coming in and investigating how it started. shouldn't investigators be allowed into wuhan to determine one, how the pandemic started and maybe a way we could expedite fiebdinding a cure? >> no secret that china stopped u.s. investigators from coming in. it was paramount importance to come into china in an expedited fashion and that didn't happen. with respect to the world health organization, they have some questions of their own to answer. the united states, as the president emphasized, 400 million to 500 million per year to the w.h.o. compared to china, roughly 40 million a year. but the w.h.o. appears to have a very clear china bias.

you look at this tulleliimeline it's damning for the w.h.o. on december 31st, you had taiwanese officials warning about human to human transmission. the w.h.o. did not make that public. on january 9th, the w.h.o. repeated china's claim that the virus, quote, does not transmit readily between people. that was quite apparently false. january 14th, the w.h.o., again, repeated china's talking points about no human to human transmission. they praised china's leadership on the 22nd of january, on the 23rd, they said, and this is incredible, the pandemic didn't represent a public health emergency of international concern and even on february 29th, you had the w.h.o. saying that when the coronavirus was spreading around the world, they chose to put political correctness first by opposing life saving travel restrictions, the travel restrictions this president put in place, the travel restrictions that dr. fauci praised as saving lives. and you have the world health

organization opposing a measure that saved american lives. that's unacceptable, especially at a time when the u.s. was providing $400 million to $500 million. john? >> kayleigh, last week, the president was saying he was not happy with georgia's governor brian kemp for beginning to reopening process and the way he was and the time he was. a week later, there have been some peaks and valleys in new kalss in georgia but overall, the trend line is down. do you know what the president's thinking about the georgia reopening is? >> the president is resolute in saying the states take the lead here. it's the governor deciding what's best for the state. i talked to the experts and talked to dr. birx and dr. fauci and they say rightfully so this president has always sided on the side of data which is why he encourages all states to follow the data driven guidelines to reopeni reopening, from georgia down the line, but ultimately, it's the

decision of the states and one note i would make about the president. this times of national emergency, we seem to have had a trend in this country where president aggregates power at the federal level but this president has devolved president. a principle i cherish, the right decision. >> has he said how he feels about governor kemp in the last few days? >> not in the last few days. >> the president pushes to reopen the country, does that mean he'll campaign in the states that will be reopening? >> so i would refer you to the trump campaign on that question, yeah. >> thanks for being here, kayleigh. you mentioned dr. fauci a minute ago. are we going to have any more press briefings with dr. birx or the health experts or shifting the message to focus more on the economy and less on the public health aspect? >> let me back up and talk a bit about how we approached disseminating information. and i talk with my colleague alyssa and we plan out the

communication strategy for this white house along with the president, what we do is say, what is the best mode for the public to receive this information at this time and we allow the news cycle and the needs of the american people to guide us and at the moment, what we see happening and i hinted at this in my gaggle last week, you have 35 states, probably more at this point with plans to reopen the country. americans are looking to reopening the country. we've had dr. birx in several event this is week, dr. birx and fauci out on the air waves. incredible people who have done a great service for this country but we allow the news of the day to guide us. what the american people need to hear and right now in a reopening phase which is why you see the president with ceos and small business owners, small business employees. today with some great heroes that have emerged from this pandemic and have done a lot of the hard work. so every day, we approach this as how can we disseminate this information. i supplement the president, and

he's the most accessible president in history. took questions twice yesterday and the day before. you hear from him quite often as well as our medical experts. >> so is the task force still meeting? what's the role of the task force? we have hundreds of people at a time. what role is the task force have versus the economic advisory group? >> the task force meets regularly. i go to those meetings and hear them. dr. birx is meticulously reviewing the data in granular detail. i watch them spend upwards of 2 hours in the task force briefing. those are still ongoing, rest assured. we want a safe reopening. we prioritize the health of the american people as well as looking forward to reopening this country. >> back to the statement from yesterday, a quote with your response that said the intelligence community also concurs with the wide scientific

consensus that the covid-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified. this was from the dni statement. how do you see this, how do you understand this and there was also a piece in "the new york times" that said senior trump administration officials have pushed intelligence agencies to hunt for evidence to support the theory that covid-19 was made in a wuhan laboratory. >> i can assure you that no one is pressing the intelligence community to come to a determination. the intelligence community statement stands. it's in perfect concert with what the president said. i encourage the media to convey the facts to the american people, which is that we're in line as an administration and we stand by the intelligence community and that is in complete concert with what the president said yesterday. round two, that's great. yes? >> thank you. former vice president joe biden

denied allegations of sexual misconduct against him. does president trump take him at his word given that the president said he has denied allegations against himself? >> what i would say is that we are pleased that the former vice president has decided to go on the record. it took him less than, what, 16 hours to follow the advice of the president of the united states and come out and publicly address those claims. we're glad to see he's on the record on this. >> something the president said moments ago in an interview, said that, quote, far more compelling than anything they had with respect to brett kavanaugh. what did he mean by that, what's more compelling? >> that's the president's assessment. i would point you back to his words. i think it was a grave miscarriage of justice what happened with justice brett kavanaugh. there's no need for me to bring up some of these salacious awful and verifyably false, i'll leave

it at that. >> kayleigh, asking this on behalf of a colleague. there's word decisions release to michael cohen to home confinement has been reversed. did the white house or indirectly intervene here? >> absolutely not. i would say there, but i'm glad you brought up justice because look, there's, again, a case of injustice that is yet to be brought up today, but i certainly would like to bring it up and that's the case of general michael flynn. what we all learned from that should scare every american citizen. the fact that you had jim comey admitting in december of last year that he violated a protocol by directing agents to confront flynn, something he would not, quote, have gotten away with under previous administrations. the fbi told flynn, he didn't need a lawyer when they came to meet with him. mccabe told fbi agents he didn't think flynn was lying and all the information we've learned

over the last few months and years culminates in the fact that we have a handwritten fbi note that says, quote, we need to get flynn to lie, quote, and get him fired. that was an unfair target on the back of general michael flynn, which could concern every american. any time there's a partisan pursuit of an individual and that certainly at least those questions are raised with regard to general michael flynn an honorable man who served his country. >> on that, when the president fired michael flynn, he said he was doing so because he had lied to the vice president and lied to the fbi. so given all that you've just said, isn't it still true, doesn't the president still believe michael flynn lied to vice president pence and lied to the fbi? >> first, let me address that vice president pence on the record about this, inclined to believe that flynn did not intentionally mislead him and

turn the question on you and just ask, does it trouble you the fbi said we've got to get flynn to lie? does that trouble you as a journalist and not only that, but as an american citizen. >> it's not my job to say whether or not it's troubling but the bottom line, the president said point-blank that flynn lied to the fbi and to the vice president, and i'm asking a very direct question. does he still believe that michael flynn lied to the fbi and the vice president? >> and again, i point you to the vice president's statement he's inclined to believe flynn did not intentionally mislead him and asking that all of you in your coverage, endeavor to report what is a very scary story when the fbi is saying, let us get someone to lie. i've seen very scant coverage of that. it's a story worth reporting and i hope the american people if you haven't heard it yet are getting to hear for the very first time. >> going back to the south china sea, we have an issue come up

this morning where you had the uss barry cross international maritime waters and then the south china sea. and chinese officials are saying that this will be a dead end endeavor. has the president spoken with any of the side on the chinese as far as what the united states is going to continue doing? is the u.s. navy ignoring these facts and keep going through these international waters? what are your responses to china's increasing aggression in the south china sea again? >> no news to report as to the president's conversations and for the specifics, i would redirect you to the nsc. >> thanks. in the same podcast interview, the president said that the democrats would, quote, have to give us a lot for aid to states. i'm wondering if you have any idea what the white house is asking for and secondly, what you'd say to somebody like governor cuomo who said the

president already told me a few weeks ago, he would support this type of assistance and why are we bailing out airlines or defense contractors but not the states that pay teachers or first responders? >> first, you brought up governor cuomo so i just thought it's a good time to remind everyone that governor cuomo praised the president's response in this covid-19 crisis saying what the president has achieved is a phenomenal accomplishment and thank governor cuomo for those very kind words but on that note, in regard to funding with states, phase four is something that we want to start negotiating on immediately and get to work on. the president has said, look, i will certainly look to consider heing states who have coronavirus reasons for the financial situation they find themselves in but doesn't want this to be an excuse for decades and decades of bad democrat governments that have run some of these states into a financial predicament, so he's mentioned that. in terms of the types of things

he wants to see in this phase four, i don't want to get ahead of the negotiations, but i do want to emphasize he's mentioned sanctuary cities. this is a really important issue that's cost american lives. last year, a brave ice officer arrested more than 120,000 criminal aliens charged with nearly 10,000 burglaries, 5,000 sexual assaults, 45,000 violent assaults, 2,000 murders and the last year, egregiously, 5,000 human trafficking episodes. american lives matter, ice men and women lives matter. that's in a phase four. >> the president's been vague about this. are you conditioning state aid to cities, not saying they would have sanctuary cities. >> no, not conditioning anything, but saying that is a negotiation item the president will bring up. >> thank you very much. so the president has in the past denied any of the allegations from the many women who have

accused him of sexual misconduct but that podcast to suggest the allegations that, what, more credible than brett kavanaugh. what about the allegations raised against him? what makes them any less credible than the allegations from tara reid? >> the president swiftly denied these allegations raised four years ago. he has always told the truth on these issues, denied them immediately and you're bringing up issues, like i said, from four years ago that were asked and answered and the american people had their say in the matter when they elected president trump as president of the united states, but the media, leave it to the media to really take an issue about the former vice president and turn it on the president and bring up accusations from four years ago asked and answered in the form of the vote of the american people. >> to john's question, because kel kellyanne conway suggested two

things could be true at the same time. the vice president said it's his belief that general flynn may have unintentionally misled him. that's three years after the fact, but two things that could have been true at the same time were that flynn lied to the vice president and also lied to the fbi. if you remove the fbi piece of that, would the president still have fired michael flynn for his belief that he lied at that point to the vice president? >> i'm not going to engage in a hype th hypothetical but echo yet again this was a grave miscarriage of justice. i am very glad that the fbi thought to keep a paper trail because what many said for a long time, pointing to the first few facts i shared with you culminating in the handwritten note. i'm glad they kept such good documentation to slow walk general flynn into a trap and essentially create, as i mentioned, a grave miscarriage of justice, so fbi, we can thank you for the great note taking. >> to follow up on that, john does bring up a point that

general flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi. >> i'm not going to get involved in what was a matter -- do you not consider it a miscarriage of justice when you have the fbi writing, we want to get someone to lie? is that a miscarriage of justice? >> in the end, he pleaded guilty. >> you know what the answer is. the answer is yes. and i would encourage the media to cover it because i've watched a lot of your networks. i've read a lot of your papers. i've seen a whole lot of scant information about michael flynn, when there was a lot of speculation about russia, russia, russia, culminating in $40 million of taxpayer money being lost in a complete and total exoneration of president trump. thank you guys so much. i'm going to cut this short now and go see my little 5 month here in a few hours. let me just say this. the president at 5:00 p.m. leaves today for camp david. it's going to be working and

talking with heads of states with elected officials. we have a great event coming up this afternoon and of course, everyone should watch the fox news town hall from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. it will be can't miss television like the highly rated president trump coronavirus task force briefings have been. thank you. >> all right. there you have it. kayleigh, her first at-bat as white house press secretary. again, the last briefing, 417 days ago. it was a lot there. we'll go through all of it, i promise you that. a couple of headlines. first, just questions on china. she was expressing the president's displeasure of china as that is the assumption this is where this originated despite lack of clarity perhaps from the intelligence community and nailing that down and that, of course, flies in the face of how the president initially responded regarding china. asked about the vaccine, quoting fauci, saying phase one, so kaitlan, rather, kayleigh was

saying faster than ever before with regard to the vaccine. on michigan, on those pro tests with the individuals of long arms walking into the state capital, said that protesters must protest lawfully and then this whole issue with the original national security adviser michael flynn and as she referred to, the miscarriage of justice. non-sec no n non-- will you pledge to never to lie to us and said never and then constant, on the defense of how this administration has handled this entire coronavirus crisis, defending the success story claims, what did you make of all of that? >> reporter: yeah, she said she would never lie to the press there, she gave her word and also said that she wants to make these press briefings regular occurrences again. of course, they were originally in this administration and

totally faded out before this pandemic when we started seeing the president himself come into the briefing rooms so that's notable in and of itself that they are going to be changing that because the press secretary who proceeded her did not ever brief during her tenure, so we should note that, it seems like they'll return to the more traditional format where she makes remarks and then takes reporters questions. in there 40 minutes toegtal and several notes, one, we had this reporting yesterday that there are aides crafting a list of possible retaliatory measures to china in response to the coronavirus outbreak. some of those range from several different options including demanding financial compensation. they're weighing things like sanctions, new trade deals. some people even floated the idea of possibly cancelling u.s. debt to china, we should note the president's economic advisers denied that. kayleigh said she did not want to get ahead of announcements so did not shed light on where the

president is with that but the intelligence statement we got from the office of national intelligence which the president seems to undermine just a few hours later, brooke, that was just a rare statement. we don't normally see him put out a statement like that, they don't believe it was manmade or genetically modified but investigating whether or not it came from contact with infected animals or a lab accident in wuhan. the president said he had seen evidence it originated in a lab in china. he did not cite the evidence. still a lot of questions about that because we know members of the intelligence community have been looking into this. >> and on the point of china, kaitlan, hang with me. daniel, let me bring you in. let's start on china for fact checking. financial penalty, on where this china originated by also talked about the president displeasure with china.

but he had -- i'm just looking at the dates back in january and february. he had praised china initially, no? >> he praised china over and over again, and yesterday, he claims to jim acosta was while he was negotiating a trade deal with china so he couldn't anger them, before the virus came. and that's not true at all. he kept praising them after the first virus case was confirmed in the u.s. in january, after the deal took effect with china on february 14th. he kept praising them through late february. so this was not just instrumental praise but praise beyond when he really needed to for trade purposes. >> here's another fact check for you, i jotted down this line. the president has always sided on the side of data. daniel? >> i think the full quote, she was claiming that dr. birx and dr. fauci had told her that he always sides with data. i don't know what they told her in private.

having watched the president, he proudly prefers to go with his gut in many cases. sometimes what i feel is better than what i think. he's an instinctual person. i don't know what birx and fauci might have told her behind closed doors. gloria borger, what did you make of that 40 minute briefing and the fact that kayleigh, when asked, said, setting the tone early on day one, saying she will never lie. >> well, i think journalists are going to hold her to that standard. we'll see how that lasts. given the person for whom she works, i would have to say a couple of things strike me. first of all, she was playing to an audience of one and you know who that is. watching from the oval or wherever he was, watching to see how she performed. and she really hit the notes, it seems to me, @president wathat

wanted her to hit, not only about the coronavirus but raising the question of general flynn because -- >> out of a question about michael cohen. >> michael cohen, she turned it to a question about general flynn and she said, you know, i think the american public should be aware of this miscarriage of justice, and that he was slow walked into a trap and then she was asked, well, wait a minute, the president fired him because he lied to the vice president and by the way, he did also plead guilty and she said and raised what the vice president said yesterday, well, pence is now inclined to believe general flynn. so it seems to me we could read into that from what the president said the other day, he would rehire him, that there may be a pardon in the works at some point pretty soon, and i sense that she was doing that for the president. there is no doubt in my mind

that she would raise an issue at a press conference largely about coronavirus to talk about this. second thing to me, she was always because they know how popular tony fauci is in the country and she was saying we're on his side. we're on the same side as tony fauci who has been, as you know, very cautious about reopenings in the country. so she was very careful about that. and third thing and then i'm done. >> keep going. >> talking about empathy, she kept talking about how we're praying for you and every night i keep everybody who has been affected by the coronavirus in my prayers because that is what you have not heard from the president. so i think she was trying, in her own way, to make up for that deficit that the president has when he does not talk about those affected in a very convincing way. >> i'm so glad you brought that

up. all three of those points but especially you are so spot on on the empathy point and you've written about the lack of empathy with this particular president. let me go back to kaitlan just on gloria's points about michael flynn and gloria hit on it, but the president fired him and so now she's taking this right turn into bringing up and -- kayleigh speaking of justice, let me go on a riff on michael flynn. what did you make of all of that. >> reporter: and remember the question was about michael cohen and how he was supposed to get out of prison early because of the coronavirus outbreak. he was going to spend the rest of his time at home and i think that is still -- that is something in flux and was asked if the white house had intervened in that and she said no they have not and pivoted on her own to michaelful flynn ande

president said he was tormented by dirty cops and the question of what it comes down to is the vice president and his interactions with the vice president. because if you remember at the time shawn spicer was the press secretary and he said flynn was leaving his job not because of anything he had done wrong but lost the confidence because he lied about his interactions with the ambassador. he also lied to the chief of staff at the time, the press secretary at the time because they were interacting with reporters about this. and speaking to them about what flynn's interactions were as the questions were still being raised because we know a lot of information now at the time we were still working with bits and pieces and we were figuring out the conversations that he had. but you saw the vice president himself start to turn on this yesterday when he was asked about this and he said he didn't believe that michael flynn

intentionally misled him and that is striking because that was something at the time white house officials were so surprised by because he lied to the vice president when asked directly a question about that. but i should point out, the people that work in the white house now, a lot of them are different than the staff that was making it up in -- making up the staff in the makeup of the team back in 2017 when the flynn stuff was happening. there are a few people there, kellyanne conway, dan skefino but it was a big deal in the white house when they found out he had lied to the vice president. so it is notable that the president is out there defending him saying he was done wrong by the department of justice and leaving open the possibility that he could bring mike flynn back to the administration. maybe a pardon as well. but he said it doesn't have to come to a pardon. this case gets overturned on its own. >> that is an extraordinary moment. nonsequitur to bring her up.

elizabeth cohen, let me bring your voice into the conversation. you watched the briefing. kayleigh, out of the gate, obviously was touting these success stories, showed this video clip and i have no doubt this -- this young man, michael from the local d.c. business is an extraordinary young man but it was like -- she was touting these examples of success stories in the wake of this fatal virus and can you just -- i don't know -- react to that and juxtapose that with the chaos that was the federal government response in the beginning. >> yes. it is one thing to sort of bring out this one person who may have been a recipient of some federal aid and look, wasn't that a good thing, dallit is different to l at the entire response. it was chaotic. just getting out a simple test to look for a virus, not complicated. just getting that out was a mess. now we've moved on to another mess and that is antibody testing.

so while kayleigh can talk about all of the wonderful things the government has done, i think it is agreed among every researcher i talked to is when they relax the rules for antibody test, they said, hey, you could sell an antibody test in this country without proving to us that it works. you didn't have to show any data. and then when researchers put those tests to the test, they found they were getting terrible results was the word that one of them used. really terrible results. they were terribly inaccurate. that is creating more of a mess. six weeks later since they did that, it is still a mess. nobody knows which antibody tests work well and which don't. so chaos is an excellent word to describe that situation. >> i appreciate that perspective and the facts on the test. thank you. and just staying on the facts. daniel dale come back in because here is my next question. kayleigh talked about how states should follow federal guidance but the president has at times

cheered states to reopen without meeting his own guidelines. >> that's right. and i think there was a significant misstatement, i'll put it generally because it is her first briefing, from kayleigh about the president's tweet in which he expressed support for michigan protesters he didn't say whom, but some were militia members and was asked who he was talking about, the people that stormed the state building and he said the president was referencing generally you have a first amendment right to protest. that is not what he said. this is not a general expression of the right to protest this is support for the protesters and i think we should point out that kayleigh significantly misquoted the fbi notes regarding michael flynn. she quoted the note saying we need to get him to lie. it said what is our goal, truth/admission, get him to lie. it is the get him to lie part

but didn't say, quote, we need to get him to lie and that is what she said it said. >> thank you for the fact check. gloria, back over to you, the comments that he's done a great job and jared kushner's comments just don't match with reality. >> no. no, look, this is her first outing as i was saying. donald trump is watching. she's a team player. she didn't go, you know, off the page once. and there is another interesting answer, there is a lot of obviously joe biden gave an interview today about his own issues with tara reade and kayleigh was asked about that and, again, again not going off the playbook here, she said when she was asked about donald trump's own issues with women, she said donald trump has always told the truth on these issues. now, we know that, daniel dale

tell me, we know that verifiably not to be the truth. >> right. >> we know that donald trump signed a check. ask stormy daniels, right. >> right. >> so i think that, again, on the playbook for donald trump in every single way. >> i want to come back. this is i think the last question and then i'm out of time and hand it over to kate but your point a second ago about praising fauci, right. how kayleigh was praising fauci. what is still missing are briefings from dr. fauci and dr. birx. you wrote a whole column about the doctors and their own approval numbers versus this president. should they not be out front on a more regular basis? >> well, i think they should. i think it is what the public wants to hear. we're very lucky at cnn because we just had dr. fauci, for example, on our air last night. but i think what we've seen is

kind of an evolution here, which is first it started with mike pence, and the doctors, then they were getting a lot of publicity and donald trump couldn't stay off the stage, then it came to the president, doing those briefings. then his aides advisers and republicans saw his poll numbers going down because the more the public saw him, the less they liked him. so he's kind of now been doing these smaller events with ceos and the rest that kayleigh mcenneny spoke about and kayleigh will do the briefings and then the question is that we still have an answer to your point, brooke, is what happens to the doctors, when will we hear from the scientists? she said they're taking to the states every day. well that is great. but they need to talk to the american public every day and the problem may be that tony fauci is worried. he's worried that in a lot of

places the states are not following the guidelines that they carefully laid out and the president is not criticizing them except for perhaps georgia, if you recall. and so there could be a conflict there because fauci and dr. birx don't report to him in the same way that others do so i think that may be an issue. >> we're lucky to have fauci on last night for a town hall and hopefully we'll see the scientists in addition to the white house briefings, maybe they'll be back. gloria, thank you very much and thank you to you for chatting with me. i'm going to turn things over to kate baldwin. i'm brooke baldwin. thank you for being with me. our special coverage continues now with kate. hello, everyone, i'm kate baldwin, thank you for joining us this hour. it is a tale of two pandemics, depending on what state you live in, the next month is going to look very