>> for those who have been knocked down, counted out, left behind, this is your campaign. >> the presidential primaries and caucuses continue tuesday for idaho, michigan, mississippi, missouri, north dakota, and washington. watch our campaign 2020 coverage of the candidate speeches and results tuesday evening live on c-span, c-span.org or listen from wherever you are on the free c-span radio app. for more on the coronavirus response we're joined by a chief medical officer for the national association of community health centers. before we talk coronavirus, remind us first what community

health centers are, how many there are in the united states. >> sure. community health centers are the comprehensive care, primary care centers across the united states. so there's 1400 organizations. each have multiple sites averaging 8 to 9. there's about 12,000 health community centers around the nation. they have tstrategically placed in every territory. we offer comprehensive primary care including medical care, dental, or health. disorders a and many other things we do. we are the connection to really the safety net. we have 49% medicaid patients. we have 23% uninsured. we're the ones on the front lines providing primary care to the communities that really need it. >> for those uninsured, what happens with those folks? how much are you paid back for

the services? >> it's a great benefit. we have a great relationship with the bureau of primary health care. they administer the public health 330 grant. about 16% of each budget is made of that. that enables us to take care of the 23 % that have no health insurance. we have a sliding fee according to their family size and annual income, and so it slides so they can afford to see us. >> for funding, we saw congress and the president sign $8.3 billion emergency supplemental. what's in there for the emergency community health center? >> there's $100 million for community health centers. they're working on the detail on how it's dispersed, but i believe it will be to support the health centers in the response. >> is that enough? >> no. we can always use more. i think it's a start.

and we appreciate the bipartisan support. we have enjoyed the bipartisan support and we need more. i think we have a lot of potential. i think we'll get to it as we does things today. >> personal protective equipment. are there places or pockets where you're running out already in community health center? >> yes. we had a webinar on friday in conjunction with the cdc. 1900 people were registered. we heard from two centers in the west coast. seattle and asian health services in oakland. some of them are getting close. they're not completely out. they are running close. we're seeing that depending on the community they serve and the population, if there's a lot more people international people, asian pacific islanders, they're using it up faster. we're trying to keep track of that. i don't think we're at the critical level yet but watching it closely. >> should they be using their

ppp already? are they using it too soon? >> they're flying to follow the cdc guidelines and appropriately use the masks and equipment. i would say they are doing their best, but according to the education we're doing, we're trying to keep the patients. that where the challenge is. a lot of them are shifting into cohort groups where they examine one person will examine a group of people rather than one on one. they're using less ppp but the cdc is good at laying out the different angles to take when you have just regular supplies, when you're stressed and when you're in critical situations. they've laid that out. >> what do you want to teach the patients? >> i think teaching the patients is important. you've heard it all over the news from the cdc and nih. dr. fouci, to come in at the right time. and if you can, call ahead to does with your provider is it necessary to come in? have you had that exposure

history? maybe you don't know and are you having the right symptoms? are you elderly? do you have underlying conditions? those are the questions i think that need to be asked, but health centers are looking at alternative ways to communicate with their patients such as international community health centers in seattle and asian health services. they're looking toward going toward texting, phone calls, whatever they can do to communicate with patients prior to coming in. >> in terms of questions that need to be asked. if you need to ask your questions, the phone lines are open. if you're in the eastern or central united states, 202-748. 8000. medical professionals, 202-748-8002. we have the chief medical officer of the association of community health centers. let's talk about testing kits. do you have enough? where are they going? >> right now i don't believe --

i have not gotten any reports of health centers doing direct testing. as dr. fouci said yesterday, 1.1 million are supposed to be available. 640,000 are supposed to be distributed today. h million more by the end of the week. i got an article that talked about lab core last first made it available to ambulatory care facilities. i think quest came on later on in the week. those will be able to be done directly at the health centers. up to this point you've had to go to special labs. i think the challenge is to see that come into place. that's what we're waiting for. how do we get the test kits and send them in? what's the turn around time? lab corp. has quoted a multiday turn around. how do we pay for them? these are essential benefits. we want to see if we can bill

for this and recoup the work. >> there's 230,000 community health center employees. >> are they trained on giving the tests and going through all the proper protocols when it comes to this? >> i think that's why the health centers are strategic in responses to h 1 n 1 and coronavirus. our staff is actually required to have an emergency operations plan which is consistent with fema rules and regulations. and so we have a whole plan on mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. so we have all those in place already. we are required to have those. so probably more the front line staff, front office, clinical are trained in these. it goes all the way down to even purchasing. they talk about how do you respond and you keep your business going and how do you recover once you've been in the middle of the battle of the epidemic? so we are well prepared to handle this. >> what is your biggest concern

right now? >> i think i want to see the test kits fleshed out. that's a big one. i think especially for our uninsured patients, we have 23% of your population uninsured. sometimes we're not sure how the sliding fee will work with this. we need to work the details out of how to get the people covered. my main concern is the testing so we can identify, isolate, and really contain and work with the cdc and other federal partners. that and then i think as you mentioned the personal protective equipment is going to be -- could be an issue and we need to watch that closely. >> i'll let you chat with a few callers from around the country. susan from washington d.c., go ahead. >> caller:. hi. i want to find out what congress is going to do to reauthorize and how we're going to put pressure on them to do it. they're putting communities at risk for not passing funding.

we need long-term funding. >> good question. the coronavirus funding is one thing the 10 0 million, but the long term funding for health centers is at risk on may 22nd if congress doesn't act to reenact. this could damage the response we're trying to mount against coronavirus. so this puts into question a lot of the employees asking are we going to be stable? especially residency three-year progra progra programs. we've been getting two year funding. this doesn't bring stability for training or employment. we would like for congress to do a longer term funding if not permanent because i think things like these pandemics and responses are critical. health centers are uniquely placed to respond with these with over 12,000 locations around the country. >> what has been the numbers over the past decade or so in are we seeing health centers close for this funding reason or

have they been stable? >> we've been stable for 5 5 years. we've gone through continuing resolutions and sequestrations and we've survived. i think the main thing is that health centers are bipartisan supported. so over these 55 years we've had ups and downs but we have been there. i think there's few programs when you look at the federal government that have survived over 55 years in health center program is one of those. >> phone lines set up regionally. 202-748-8001 for mountain and pacific times. this doctor is with us until about 9:30 eastern time this morning. when it comes to all the other work you do at the community health centers how much is coronavirus taking away from that other work? what percentage of your response right now is concerns and patients who are worried about

coronavirus? >> sure. i think it varies by the geography and the country. as we've seen, the west coast has been impacted more dramatically because of the cases that have been popping up. and we're seeing more and more cases each day. we're now the east coast is now in play, and so we're seeing that come in. i think the main thing is in those areas, they are having more patients call. the phone calls are being taken up. people are coming in asking questions. this is where the education comes in. for us to educate our patients very clearly, cdc guidelines in when to come in and to use the alternative ways to communicate are critical. i would say it depends geographically who is getting pressed on this. i think overall the health centers are in good shape. it's very specific to location and where those pockets of cases are popping up. >> lee on twitter says i spoke with my doctor in new york city. she said all the hospitals are overwhelmed now and i already knew that because my husband

died due to a lack of care at our hospital here. concerns about when health centers become overwhelmed? is it a when or if at this point? >> yeah. sorry for your loss. i think it's right now a when. i think the health centers are trying to stay on top of it. the ones with the higher volume are figuring alternative ways to keep people out of the hospitals. hospitals are where people having the severe respiratory symptoms need to go. so that is why the health centers are key in this response. just like h 1 n 1, we need the put it in the health centers. we need to be the ones with the staffing, the ppe, the ability to test so we can get this under control. i think that's really important right now. >> tallahassee, florida.

on the line for medical professionals. good morning. >> good morning, dear. the new ncp coronavirus may not show signs of infections for many days, and by the time the fever or cough reflects, then it will then be 50% listen the lung capacity. i think we need a self-check also of people taking a deep breath, perhaps, and then holding the breath, and then if you experience some type of discomfort or coughing, then perhaps you could have something. i want to speak about physically the residency. i have my three young people, and we're retired doctors here, ten years retired, my husband and i. i'm still in the arena. i want to talk about the health centers. i appreciate your service, sir, and you are very, very knowledgeable of intercepting the residency component where we

only fund, and i think most people don't realize. the community health centers fund as i do a lot of work with community health outside as we refer and try to fill in the gap as the community health centers are filling in the gaps. 49 % as you stated uninsured population. here in florida, particularly, where we have in tallahassee, a very wonderful combination. we have the medical school here, and we also have pharmacy school. and we have the nursing with our community college. very strong three integrated programs. so the residency if you would tell the country, we need with the funding with the new emergency funding that is coming through, the residency program comes through the medicaid. i just had my son, daughter coming out of harvard and duke, one of the raid yolgss out of

duke, and john's miami wife is at the miami hospital. i'm linked into the context of what we need in the pipeline, sir. >> shelby, it sounds like it with a family very much in the profession. doctor? what would you chime in with? >> thank you for your service on the front lines but also your interest in graduate medical education. the health center program, the teaching health center program is critical for what we're trying to produce, and we've seen that physicians who train in health centers, 50% or more go back. we're fulfilling our goal of exposing them to the mission and the way we practice it's different and wholistic. when residents have a chance to work in a health center, that's when they really understand our mission and they understand our patients and our populations. they understand how to use social deterrents of health and consider those. health centers are the excellent

place to train and our hope is that they would stay after. so any funding we can do, and as i mentioned at the top, the health center program as well as is teaching health centers are critical to what we do. so we would appreciate congress to continue to fund those. because that's the whole pathway that you mentioned. once we train them, we would love to be able to offer them automatically national service dollars to help pay off the loans. the average medical student has $200,000 in debt when they get out. >> a couple coronavirus specific questions. the first from twitter. what's the surface life of this virus? >> yeah. right now they're looking at a -- if you look at nih and the cdc, they don't know yet. i've heard some up to nine days. we are using the regular sanitation of the cdc, wipe surfaces down and wait an hour before anyone else uses the

room. >> a question from one of our callers in the first segment. what are the main treatments once you get -- once you officially have coronavirus? and then when are you considered recovered? >> right now we don't have any specific treatments. nih, cdc are looking at that. that's what some of the money is going toward is understanding that. >> managing all the symptoms that come from it until your body can fight it off? >> exactly. right now it's supportive care. take care of yourself, eat right, sleep, exercise. not exposing yourself. social distancing. especially if you're elderly and have chronic conditions. those are the basics. basic hygiene, washing your hands, covering your cough. those are the main ways to do it. if you are diagnosed with coronavirus, it's like having the flu. you need supportive care. the person needs to be isolated. they need to be well hydrated. good nutrition. give them medications for the

cough and body aches. you have to just walk them through that. but until we have a specific treatment, that's what we have. and 80% of the people have a mild illness. it's the ones between that other 20% that end up being hospitalized and some of them die. >> florida, marsha. good morning. >> caller: good morning. i was wondering in florida, i don't know if this is across the nation, but in florida the pharmacists are allowed to do flu vaccines every year, and i was wondering why we couldn't make it so the pharmacists could also do the tests. as i understand it, it's more like a mouth swab? >> nasal swab, yes. >> good question. >> pharmacists have always been our allies. most health centers have pharmacies in-house.

i would love to see everybody get in to help out on this. a pharmacists if they have a vaccine, it would be great if they could do this. this is going to be a regulation issue if they could do the testing. that would help us so much. i think any place we can find out what's going on with our community and monitor that as i said earlier, if we can identify, isolate and contain, that's going to be the key for us getting this under control. >> dallas, texas, mark. good morning. >> i just had a couple ideas i'd like to throw out there. you watch i've never seen so many different ways to wash your hands and how you have to do it a certain way. if you don't cut your fingernails, it's not going to do a lot of good. it's going to help. cut back your fingernails if you're worried. number two, for optics, the biknockulars and eye glasses. they have wipes individually packaged and they contain alcohol. well, why don't you -- you wash your hands real well per the

world health organization. then you pick your phone up. what good is it? use the wipes. you can get 100 in a box for next to nothing. wipe your phones down. that's all i got to say. good bless. >> thanks, mark. i think anything we can do, you don't want to cause panic. we want to be reasonable about it. if you're around sick people or sick yourself, you should be wiping your surfaces down. this is just like the flu. take precautions and be wise and prudent. but i agree with you, i think we need to clean our cell phones and everything we have. >> give you a chance to weigh in on the president's tweet from not too long ago. the president saying the best decision made was the toughest of them all. which saved many lives. our very early decision to stop travel to and from certain parts of the world. >> i think whatever the reasoning, john, the united states is in a much better situation than other countries.

of course we're going to have more cases. people are in the process of getting tested. we'll find more cases. overall we're in pretty good shape right now. and we'll just have to see as dr. fauci says, this could turn in a day. we are prepared on the front line to approach this, whatever happens. if with we run into a emergency preparedness situation, we'll be prepared to address that. if it's more in the mitigation stage, we'll be in the front lines seeing our patients, communicating with them through texting and video, through chat. whatever it takes to take care of them. so i think right now we're in decent shape. but as the cdc and nih said, this could change any day. >> doctor, chief medical officer for the community health offices. community health centers, how do

you find one? >> get on the internet and google find a health center. find a health center. put in your zip code or address, and it will take you to the closest one. >> talking about the response. specifically among community health centers. tony is waiting in st. paul on the line for medical professionals. good morning. >> caller: good morning. i was going to touch on a few thinks and thank you for taking my call. i was at target yesterday. just get off of work one hour ago. not even a full one hour. it's been about 51 minutes since i clocked out of the emergency department. one thing i want to touch on was going to target yesterday morning. everyone is rushing out of the door with toilet paper and hand sanitizer. it makes no sense to me if there's no food. that's where the shortage would be if you're going to be quarantined at home with water and other resources. touching back in the health care field is the theft of ppe supplies and the sales online

that don't correspond. it's related back to a financial benefit for a certain individuals, and then i look at the government charging people literally to be quarantined or be secured to not expose other people. why aren't the tests free? and why aren't there facilities set up outside of the hospital that people can go to? because if you diminish the front line of the emergency department where people are being rushed into, what does that really benefit for the people that are going to have to call in sick that are your most talented staff typically? another thing i wanted to touch on also is with nursing homes, and the senior care. i can go into any nursing home just about in minnesota and before i get through the door, i'm going to smell urine. i'm going to smell a substance that shows it's not being properly cleaned and sterilized

so those individuals aren't affected. they're the most vulnerable right now. >> tony, you bring a couple good points. i want to the doctor a chance to respond to them. >> i think your last point, i think they're using the funds to really look closely at the extended care places. so i think their main focus is the infection control. so that's one of the focuses. your earlier point, tony, about the emergency rooms being overloaded, that underscores the need for the health centers to be fully supported and for them to be seen as the front line response to this pandemic. we're the ones that can sort through the cases and then send the ones that are necessary to go to the emergency room or hospital. that's critical. i hope your time is well spent and not being overloaded with unnecessary cases. we really need to sort through those, and use our resources the best way possible, including the emergency room and hospital. >> on nursing homes, a story in

today's washington times on the unique challenges to nursing homes. some of the numbers from that story. there's about 2.5 million people in the united states who live in long-term care facilities. we talked about the 566 confirmed cases in the united states. it's up to 22 deaths at this point. 16 linked to one seattle area nursing home. if you want to read more on the specific challenge to nursing homes, kelly kennedy and adrian gomez lincoln in the washington times. we hear from marie in california. good morning. >> caller: good morning. i have a question about work force within health centers. with health centers facing the funding, are you hearing about facing difficulties recruiting staff, especially in light in recent hospital closures? >> this is always a challenge for us in the health center world. it's challenging because health centers are in some of the most difficult places. rural, urban, poor communities,

and so unless you really understand what the health center mission is about and you're trained for primary care, it's difficult to recruit clinicians. that's why the teaching health centers are critical to what we do. the teaching health centers get them in our sites. they understand how we do primary care and the mission that we have, and the national service corp. helps us keep people that have trained and others that share the mission. those two programs are really critical for us. again, the long-term funding is also very important for us so we can keep our staff and maintain that work force. but this is an ongoing challenge for us in terms of training people, finding good clinicians and keeping them. we also work with nurse practitioner residency programs and p.a. programs, atsu university and we just started a new program to train physician assistants in health centers coming from their communities and keep them which is called

college for health and communities in the underserved. >> less than five minutes left in this segment. a couple text messages. if you've had the flu vaccine, does that make you less susceptible to getting covid-19? >> up to this point they don't know what the crossover rate is. if you get the vaccine, it helps you prevent getting the flu and then it keeps you out of the health center or thinking that you may be sick. so i would recommend anybody even now, if you haven't gotten your flu vaccine, get that. it helps us sort through and really rule out people that may have covid-19. please do that. we don't know for sure of the crossover yet, but it's a good thing to do. >> and linda in new hampshire speaking a little bit to a point that you were talking about earlier. there's been reports of people being tested and later charged as much as $9,000 if the test is not made free to all, a lot of people will not get tested. >> right. linda, i think this is

something, and that inbetween phase, as i mentioned earlier. and i stated that we'll have more tests out this week. i think when you get down to the nitty-gritty, front line is the billing procedure and who pays for it? we've heard from cms it will be covered as an essential item under care, and so when you are in the between phase, you have to work it out and do the paperwork and understand how to do it so your patients don't get the $9,000 bills. >> to leslie in florida. >> caller: i was calling to find out if the virus can be carried by someone without showing any symptoms like we see with many other diseases? a kid can go to school, come back, bring it home. never really gets sick, but another person in the household gets sick by being there. >> right. we don't know yet. we don't have the science for

it. there has been some cases where they have not identified the source. usually it's from someone that traveled or were on a cruise ship. right now we don't have that evidence yet. i would say if you are having any symptoms, again, back to the preventive thing. keep yourself healthy. well nourished. exercise, sleep well and use your regular hand washing techniques. that the best thing you can do. i don't think we should go around suspecting anybody or standing next to that they could spread it to you. it's going to be much higher rate if they're coughing and having symptoms than if they're asymptomatic. we don't have the science but they're looking at that. >> new jersey? >> caller: i'd like to ask why aren't we using more ultraviolet lighting? it seems to be that that's a really good technology right now that's being mass produced quicker than any kind of studies and tests and tests and tests. can you answer that question, please? >> yeah. i think we're looking for any

way possible to help fight this disease. we've been going specifically by the cdc and nih recommendations. they have not put out any recommendations yesterday for ultraviolet light. we're open to whatever they say. they're taking the lead. they're the technical experts. we're the front line people. we're the implementation scientists that take their guidelines and implement them. >> the $100 million, how much of that or is any of that for telemedicine to try to diagnose people before they get inside the community health centers, and if you were to use that, how many of your patients have the ability to use telemedicine? >> right. yeah. i don't think they have not specifically said how the $100 million are being dispersed yet and used for. we've had some conversations with the health care that asked us what we thought about that. that will be determined. if we can't use it for telemedicine, the thing that would be the most useful is using it for different ways to communicate.

right now we're working through telemedicine in general. how you can bill for it. all the medical legal issues. who is on which end. if they could broaden that for this case, i think it would be helpful if we could take texting and do facebook, face time, any way we can communicate with somebody that keeps them out of the health center, that would be beneficial. if we could figure that out, it would help us a lot. >> deborah, dayton, ohio. good morning. >> good morning. thank you for taking my call. i was wondering and maybe you could help me understand how that singapore and south korea, they could get the test equipment out so quickly to be -- to people who may be subjected but we're having a waiting time for it. i just don't really understand what the wait is for us here in america. >> right. good question. i think as i mentioned earlier, we're looking forward this week. i think this is going a turning point for us.

1.1 million are available right now. another 640,000 coming out today, and another 4 million by the end of the week. so i'm looking forward to us figuring that out. that's key to the response. we need the tools in our hands so we can identify, isolate, and contain. and that's really where we're at today. i'm looking forward to moving forward and getting those tools in our hands. right now we have few cases relatively speaking if you compare to south korea, singapore, and other countries that have been impacted. so we need to catch it early in the mitigation phase. >> last call from pennsylvania. >> reporter: >> caller: are you? i'm calling about the virus. the people that they are on the ships, they're going to ship them around, don't you think they should keep them in one spot and make them isolate them? because it doesn't show up for 14 days. and they've already been around the people on the ship. >> sure. >> that's how it's spreading. >> linda, i believe the reasoning is that they want to get them off the ship, because

being in such a concentrated area, again, we don't know how long this virus survives on objects. the goal is a clean situation and to have proper ventilation. i would not want to be cooped up on a ship for weeks and weeks. i think they're trying to be humane but also scientific where they can take care of these people much better on the military bases and really watch things closely. they can bring them the care they need and also the comfort and support they need after going through traumatic experiences. >> stick around. that ship you're referring to, the grand princess, our hope is within the next half hour of the program, to chat with one of the passengers on the grand princess. that interview coming up in the next segment of the washington journal. ronald, want to thank you.

nachc.org. appreciate your time. >> thank you. we would like to welcome back bill press, author, radio talk show host, a new podcast. former chair of the california democratic party. let's talk about breaking news on this sunday. first from the sanders campaign. jesse jackson endorsing bernie sanders. is this significant? >> i think it's huge. yeah, for bernie sanders. particularly in michigan. jesse jacksonen has a large following there. he's certainly -- has been for a long time, a leader in the democratic party with a significant following. prominent african american. one of the leading african americans in the country. and i think that -- and a gguy -- a politician who has also appealed to working class americans. that's been his message. i think that's very good for bernie sanders going into this next i don't know what we call this tuesday. right? in a way it's still the super

tuesday because there's some pretty important states. particularly the state of michigan. >> does reverent jackson have a following. is he relevant today? >> absolutely. and i think he always will. of course, his -- maybe his peak was when he ran for president in 1988, five that magnificent speech at the democratic convention. but he's still a major player and a major leader in the african american community. >> the other major story today, this morning, senator kamala harris from california endorsing joe biden. >> right. my adopted state of california, i must say, having been there 30 years being democratic chair of california. my home state is delaware which happens to be not the home state but the adopted state of joe biden. yes, you know, it's interesting. it's sort of like maybe the future and the past leadership of the african american community with jesse jackson

going one direction and kamala harris coming up. i think it's a very significant thing that she endorsed joe biden. she did not endorse right away. i think she wanted to see who was able to bring in new democrats, energize the democratic base. particularly do well in south carolina where she had hoped to do well. and i was wondering what she might do. i thought she might endorse biden. coming again into the next four primary states, four or five is huge for joe biden. very significant. >> and doing so in this video announcement, released this morning from the biden campaign. senator kamala harris. >> hey, everybody. i'm here in alabama. i arrived here to commemorate the 55th anniversary of bloody sunday. i'll be talking across the bridge again with john lewis and

so many great, great leaders and fighters. and i'm just here thinking about all the folks who for generations have fought and died for our civil rights, and fought to help our nation achieve its ideals. and you guys know, we still have yet to achieve those ideals but one of the greatest things is we are willing to fight to get there. i wanted you guys to know. you've been supporting me for so long, and i wanted you to know i have decided that i am with great enthusiasm going to endorse joe biden for president of the united states. i believe in joe. i really believe in him. and i have known him for a long time. one of the things that we need right now is we need a leader who really does care about the people and who can, therefore, unify the people. and i believe joe can do that. i am supporting joe, because i believe that he is a man who has

lived his life with dignity. he is a public servant who has always worked for the best of who we are as a nation, and we need that right now. there is so much at steak in this election. join me in supporting joe, and let's get this done. and come and hang out. we're going to be in detroit monday night. join us monday night. i'll see you later. >> we'll cover that campaign rally in detroit. part of our campaign 2020 coverage. why today? why not a few days ago before the california primary? >> i was wondering the same thing while i watched the video. it was powerful. it spoke directly to her people right from the heart. no doubt about her enthusiasm and the reality of it. i think she'll be effective in michigan and could have been in california. i don't know why she waited. i was waiting for her right after south carolina to come out for somebody. for the california primary, and she chose not to. so jesse jackson is significant.

kamala harris is significant. i'm waiting for elizabeth warren. and i think that's a really important question. you know? she ran a tremendous campaign, i think. made a great impact on that race. at one time it looked like she was going to be the progressive alternative to whoever emerged as the more centrist candidate. the fact that she did not endorse bernie sanders right away, i think, is significant. i'm not saying she will not, but it have not an automatic. i don't know what that speaks to, but i think she could still end up endorsing joe biden. >> and you wrote the following on this democratic primary. quote, it is looking more and more like biden is the candidate who can motivate the greatest number of democrats of all stripes to turn out and vote against donald trump. that is the only issue democrats should care about which is why i cast my super tuesday ballot for joe biden. now, you supported. you're friends with bernie

sanders. >> i am. first, i have to say, and i'm not abandoning bernie sanders. i think we have to step back for a second and give credit to bernie sanders. i think in many ways bernie sanders has won his crusade. he has reformed the democratic party. that's what he started out to do with his mission in 2016. that's why i supported him in 2016. i felt the democratic party needed a kick in the ass and they needed a shakeup. it was getting like the two parties were too much the same. and the democratic party had moved away from its base which is real working class americans. >> wasn't he at your house talking about running? >> yeah. as a matter of fact, the very first kitchen cabinet meeting or campaign strategy meeting was at our house on capitol hill which we -- carol and i hosted it over

carol's beef stew at dinner with 12 veteran campaign political campaign aides that i was able to put together to listen to bernie and hear his ideas and give him their advice about whether they thought it was realistic or not. but bernie's mission was to reshape and redirect the democratic party. get back to its roots. that's happened. today everybody is talking about the bernie sanders, running on the bernie sanders' platform. everybody is talking about raising the minimum wage to 15. everybody is talking about yu g universal health care. everybody is talking about affordable college tuition and getting rid of college today. this is the sanders' agenda. whether he's the person that carries that agenda into november of 2020 is the question. and i think, again, i come back to when i look at what happened in these primaries, a turnout is so important. there was a surge of turnout.

70% up in virginia over what we saw for barack obama in 2012. and that turnout went to joe biden. the new voters, 49% according to cbs of new voters went to joe biden. so i think the person who demonstrated that he can bring out the disaffected, bring out -- bring back those blue collar working class americans, older americans, african americans in particular who really could decide this election, joe biden is the one to deliver on them. as far as i'm concerned, and every democrat i talk to feels the same way. there's one issue. you know? it's not are you to the left or the right or the center on health care. it's who can beat donald trump and get rid of the most incompetent corrupt president we've ever had in our lifetime. >> one saying this race is close to being over. if joe biden wins michigan, is it over for bernie sanders? >> you know, i'm not the

statistician, but the people that you and i would look to, david wasserman being number one, say if joe biden wins michigan in effect, bernie sanders could never catch up. joe biden will walk into the convention with enough delegates to secure the nomination. >> let's get to your phone calls. eric is joining us from bill press's adopted home state, california. >> caller: thank you. i really enjoy listening to bill press back in the day on the talk show. mr. press, i'm working on unity issues. how do we bring this country back together? and the question is, even as a democratic, i see one of the biggest unity issues that we can stand by, the united states report for saudi arabia, nondemocratic military support

for the nondemocratic saudi arabia. it attack against the christian church. supplying arab muslims with nondemocratic arab muslims with weapons is a attack against the christian church. it will bring all the black and evangelists to the issue. let joe biden and bernie sanders know this is an issue. when trump is standing there dancing around with the arab muslims, this is a path against the christian church that we need to say something about, and t being attacked all across africa. all through even back to america. they are attacking the church with this money. and we can stand united and be bold with it. i thank you for the opportunity to speak against this battle. >> thank you for the call. >> yeah. i think you're getting up early in california as well. great city of compton. a couple of thoughts. number one, you're right. the challenge is to unite the

democratic party. young, goold, gay, straight, go down the list. african american, white, asian, to it. everyone. i do believe at this point that the person who has the best chance of doing that is the former vice president, joe biden. and i think he may be second on that list. the number one person i think who can unite the democratic party is donald trump. and i think he will be the number one motivator in people getting out to vote in november of 2020. on the point of saudi arabia, i think it's a long past time when it doesn't matter, republican or democratic president of the united states has to stand up and say that a lot of what saudi arabia -- been a great ally for a long time yrng but a lot of what they want for and represent and what a lot of what they're doing is wrong, and we should absolutely say so and call them out. look at the war on yemen which

they're pursuing with our tax dollars and the equipment that they bought from us. and look at the latest where the mbs, the crowned prince as again locked up members of the royal family and put them in while because they dare disagree with some of the things he's doing in the government. this is -- this has never been the democracy, but it's getting more and more of an extreme authoritarian rule, not to mention the murder of khashoggi. i think it's time we stop looking the other way when it comes to saudi arabia. >> you can listen to bill press and the bill prez pod released twice a week. he's the author of a number of books including "from the left". a look at the president trump

presidency. let's get to mike in akron. >> i was going to say buyer's remorse was a look at the obama presidency. where i felt he let us progressives down on a couple issues. and from the left, my memoir, i talk about something you mentioned earlier, the early bernie sanders days and getting together with bernie and some of his team to see if there was a path for him to run for president in 2016. >> and your other book, toxic talk came out in 2010. >> about talk radio. still toxic. >> what do you think of rush limbaugh? >> a fading giant. huge. i don't think anybody maybe since the days of father coglin have had the impact through talk radio on the american people that rush limbaugh did. but i think he's lost a lot of his clout, and he's become just a toady of donald trump. i think when you just jump into

the pocket of any one politician or political party, you sort of lose your credibility as a talk show host. >> that moment when he got the congressional medal of freedom from president trump at the state of the union address? >> i think it was one of the most disgusting moments in my lifetime and in the history of this country. here is a man rush limbaugh who is an out and out racist, and to be honored with the presidential medal of freedom which has gone to such great americans as martin luther king junior and rosa parks, or great people like mother teresa, rush limbaugh does not belong in the same building with them, let alone wear the same honor. >> part of the motivation by the president is because he's battling stage four cancer. >> i'm sorry. there are a lot of people with coronavirus today too. that doesn't mean they deserve the medal of honor, and i have a friend who is dying as we speak

of can karpancreatic cancer. that has nothing to do with the awarding of the medal of honor. >> let's go to mike in akron, ohio. good morning. >> caller: good morning. thank you for c-span, and i really like the idea of talking to bill press. admiring you for quite some time. i think of myself as a young whipper snapper. i'm only 66 years old. >> you are. >> caller: i voted for george mcgovern when i was 19 in 1972, and of course, shortly half that defeat, i played the song massachusetts on my turntable about 100 times a day. i'm so proud of that vote. my first four elections my candidates won a total of two states, massachusetts and minnesota. mccarthy won zero in 76.

bernie sanders reminds me a lot of mcgovern. i admire them both, but i don't think i can vote for bernie sanders. i wish that democrats or others would bring up the idea that as bad as the democratic party may be treating bernie sanders, have you put it that way yarks that's find, but you can't compare that to the way the gop treated mccain in the 2000 primary in south carolina. nobody has ever accused bernie sanders of having a black child out of wedlock like they did mccain in 2000. you can't compare that. john mccain was a maverick back then. further more, he was a war hero. i admire bernie sanders. he's not a war hero. he's a great guy, but mccain was a war hero. and one more comment. please, president trump will not reveal his tax returns. in my book, any candidate for the white house who refuses to reveal their tax returns, if

they don't have the courage to do that, they're a chicken and they belong to the man who has kfc, and mitch mcconnell should be the first customer to walk in there. >> mike, thank you for the call. >> i identify with so much of what mike says. i've supported a lot of same people. i walked precincts for mcgovern in 1972. as an aside, i am rereading, steve, i'm sure one of your favorite books which is "fear and loathing on the campaign trail in '72 ". all about the mcgovern campaign. it is so stunning how relevant it is still today, the stories from the campaign trail. so encourage everybody to go back and read it. i have to say you know, look, he said i don't think the democratic party is out to get bernie sanders. and i think a vote for bernie sanders is not a wasted vote at all. bernie sanders is really, again,

given new direction and new purpose to the democratic party. now we have a real i think very honest debate between i call it revolution and evolution. they're both -- they both want to get same place. with bernie sanders is more revolution. let's do it right now and throw these old systems out the window. with joe biden more of the experienced, seasoned evolution. we'll get there but we're going to take a little longer to get there. i think that's an honest debate for the democratic party and whoever wins that debate will be the next president of the united states. >> greg whitten, dr. allison gulvaney, and deborah berger. >> let me thank everybody