"strange inheritance." thanks so much for watching, and remember -- you can't take it with you. [ bat cracks, crowd cheers ] "lou dobbs tonight" starts right now. [♪] lou: good evening, everybody. china is on the verge of becoming a global pariah. the chinese communist party's cover-up of the deadly contagion they unleashed on the world will bring consequences for the government and its leader xi jinping. xi's lies and deception have been exposed to the world. he ordered the the head of the institutes of virology to go on stage on say that the virus originated in wuhan.

xi and china's communist party are clearly to blame for their refusal to warn the world of the deadly virus they spread all around the world. what else are they responsible for? did they engineer the virus in the wuhan laboratory? if so, for what purpose? were they conducting research? or did they engineer a wave upon of mass destruction. the actions of xi and his government imply guilt and their stream of lies are inexcusable. as are their conscious decision to deny the truth when they could have saved millions of people from sickness and death. the wuhan virus infecting 2.5 million people around the world. it killed at least 168,000 more. in this country 141,000 --

41,000 have been killed and 776,000 infected. the price of crude oil fell 300% as demand if collapsed. and on the final day of the trading contract the price actually turned negative. as the wuhan virus wreaked havoc around the world, within president trump galvanized its allies to hold child today accountable for this deadly pandemic for which they are responsible. australia's government joining the white house in calling for a thorough investigation of the origins of the contagion as well as taking full account of the communist party's actions. australia's foreign minister declared an independent international investigation is the only way to learn the truth about this pandemic and declared australia will insist on that.

his words echos president trump's who called this weekend for an expanded investigation of china's lies and reaffirmed his commitment to the intelligence community's ongoing investigative efforts. president trump: we are talking to china. we spoke to them a long time ago about going in. we want to see what's going on. but if they are knowingly responsible, yes, then there should be consequences. you are talking about potentially lives like nobody has seen since 1917. they said they are doing an investigation. so let's see what happens with their investigation. but we are doing investigations also. lou: the president also taking steps to protect american lives, to move closer to the reopening of our economy. president trump invoked the defense production act to produce more testing swabs. this time the move following

days of radical dimm governors sucking testing is not a federal issue but a state issue. new york governor andrew cuomo today supporting the president. >> the president is right. the states -- testing is up to the states which will implement the tests. and logisticalliy coordinate the tests. i think the president is right when he says the states should lead. lou: joining me president trump's trade czar and assistant to the president peter navarro. good to have you with us. there is no question -- good evening, great to have you with us. there is no question. no matter what else, the origin of the virus itself, whether it was engineered. we know for an outright fact

that china refused to warn the world of the and dem you can they unleashed on the entire globe. that is unquestionable. what are we to do about it? >> one of the things i find troubling about the whole thing besides spawning the virus and hiding it from us for six weeks behind the shield that the world health organization, china vacuumed up all the personal protective equipment around the world while it was hiding the virus. evidence evidence directly from the chinese government customs duty union that shows in the month of january and february they bought 18 times more amount of masks, it was over 2 billion masks alone. they increased their expenditures? goggles and gloves. and this was around the world, lou.

all these countries, india, brazil, others getting infected, the reason why they don't have fad squat ppe there and in new york city and boston, chicago and detroit is because china basically is hoarding it. now they are also selling it back to the world at prices that are obscene. we are getting 50 cent masks for 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 dollars from china. these need to be investigated. this is not the right way for a country to behave which they claim they want to be part of. it doesn't parse. lou: the president of the united states has been telling everyone in this country and the world what china is, what it has done, and what fools american leaders have been to tolerate their scurrilous conduct, theft of intellectual property.

their insistence on massive trade surpluses with theouts, and their complicit agents, ifle you will, whether it be the chamber of commerce, wall street or corporate america as they insisted on outsourcing millions of jobs and offshoring production to cheap labor markets. it's absolutely a moment in which this president has once again been proved right, and now the action is what to be done about it because we have a lot of people in this country who are dependent on china or antibiotics, pharmaceuticals, intermediates as well as finished drugs. we are in one hell of a spot because of the damn fools who preceded this president and this congress. >> one of the big takeaways for the american people and congress, and something the president already knew is we

have to onshore our production, particularly for medicines and medical supplies and equipment. the good news here is what i have been seeing work on supply chain issues. the tremendous ability of our private enterprise, working with the federal government to move things in what i like to call trump time as quickly as possible. we saw gm stand up a ventilator factory in 17 days. within 0 days we were able to get ventilators into hospitals. lou: we document this on our broadcast he night. he evening and night we take the president's corona task force briefing. so we are well aware of that. but my question goes to what do we do now. as i said, millions of americans depend on primarily two nations for pharmaceuticals.

india and china. what are we capable of doing to make certain there is no gap in shifting production to the united states and making sure that everyone has an adequate supply? >> we are doing everything we can. we have been doing that since january to move up production. honeywell just intro dued a new factory making millions of masks. today trucks arrived in new york city. we are going to reinvigorate the garment district so masks can be locally made. we have an advanced manufacturing facility getting ready to open in richmond, virginia which will be able to provide some of those scarce medicines. it will be a tough journey. but you and i both know we can't can't -- can't depend on the rest of the world for that production. we working hard and understand

what the mission is. the ultimate mission is to protect the american people from the virus and get the economy back open. those two are synergistic in terms of what when need in terms of supplies and equipment. lou: those medicines and the reason imfocusing on it, the administration has done a marvelous job of meeting the demand of the states. and as new york's governor has affirmed. no one who needed a ventilator has not had one. so on the issue of pharmaceuticals, this is such a critical issue. we need to have some sense -- as to wet he or not we are going to have a gap. if we are going to have a shortage. how severe it will be. how we are going to deal with it. it's straightforward. even though we are reopening the

economy. we are still as you know, primarily dependent object china for those drugs. >> let me tell you something else about china that's alarming. one of the reasons they may not have let us in and given us the data on this virus early is they are racing to get a vaccine. they think this is a competitive business race. it's a business proposition so they can sell the vaccine to the world. but we are going to beat them because of president trump's leadership. we'll beat them was hhs has a five-company horse race. we are focused on the mission, we are doing everything possible and moving up production as fast as we can. this will be a difficult time. lou: have we established an organization, a private-public partnership as we have -- as your administration has in so many cases with pharmaceutical

companies in specific -- with the specific mission of making sure that shortage if undeed it does oh -- if indeed it does occur is brief as soon as possible with u.s. production? >> congress appropriated funds. barta is working closely with the private sector companies to make sure they have the funding, financing, cooperation with taking steve hahn at the fda, he's doing everything possible to get rid of the regulatory roadblocks. and we are focused on that mission. this is a president who knows how to get things done. we are focused on this, lou. that's the best i can tell you right now. lou: it's encouraging, but specifics are even more encouraging.

but peter, you all have done a terrific job and i want to be certain we say thank you for that. the other part you said about china thinking of this as a business competition. i have to suggest to you it's an existential competition and can't be dismissed as a commercial enterprise. the communist party intend for the world, they denied the truth and they risk the forfeiture of lives all around the world. peter we wish all the best of luck. thank you. breaking news tonight. the fda approved swiss drug maker navarrmake -- drug maker o supply kroar quinnipiac.

a lead researcher for the trial says they hope to have data on the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine by june. the state of new york sees its single day death toll decline. governor cuomo says deaths are down for a 6th straight day in new york to 478. below 500 for us the first time since april. deaths from the wuhan virus have also been declining in new jersey and connecticut. joining us tonight to take call of this up, dr. mehmet oz *, doctor, good to have you with us. it's particularly good to have you with us when there is demonstrable good news and evidence of a decline. what do you make of the decline

particularly in new york which has been the hottest of the hotpots in america? >> half the deaths in this country are in the new york-new jersey area. it's an area where they were hard hit. it's the area where we had the biggest trial to see if social distancing works. it does. it takes a toll. it was painful in the icus. they more than doubled their capacity in a short time. we don't want to repeat this. so in the best case scenario we won't repeat it in the united states. concerns over what we went through in new york will ripple through the fabric of the american healthcare system. they have to deal with one of the key elements of the cdc be task force guidelines which is to make sure we have enough capacity so we have a safety net

no matter what. lou: is it your sense we have adequate capacity. the federal government, the trump administration providing the ventilators necessary, the masks that were necessary. we are not hearing the horrible stories of short ands for nurses and doctors and healthcare workers that we were hearing a few weeks ago. are we in good shape as it thousand appears? >> it appears we are in good shape. pretty much the entire country here in thork city because the blinds are coming down of new patients. i say this knowing the battle is not done. the governor used the word halftime. that's probably the way to think about it. we don't want a relapse. because we are still pretty full in the i can -- in the icus.

normally we wouldn't see that's people come into the system. it's everything we had hoped. the question is how do we transition, where do we go from here to make sure we don't have a relapse. lou: to avoid that relapse, i suppose the easy answer is everyone stay in quarantine and stay at home, but that's not practicable. in fact we have to get back to work. lives depend on it. >> i don't think the right answer is to stay quarantined. there are some states that have not been hard hit and have strong civic leadership and a culture of people being careful in how they take care of themselves. let's see what works. there are other countries around the world that have not shut

down and only social distanced. you can't compare sweden to new york city. but they were able to get through this so far so good. so there are examples where people have been able to do this. less crowded areas. outside of main urban areas. over -- outside of major urban areas. if we have the testing that we know is essential, then you start to get more comfortable doing this in other areas of the country, eventually getting to the major urban areas. lou: there has been a lesson in federalism. the president saying the federal government has a role. but testing and other activities in fighting this con dayup belong to the states because -- contagion belong to the states because they have a sense of what's best for the folks who reside in their states.

that's quite a lesson for healthcare providers and the healthcare industry as well. your thoughts. >> one big issue folk need to get cleft on is supply chain management. hospitals hat a little bit of something, but not something else they needed. you had people putting together jigsaw puzzles but they are missing pieces they have across the street. it's not as easy as it seems to coordinate. you don't want to replicate that over and over again. the states are so different from each other that they will use different tactics to get through this which is why i'm happy you have an eastern, northeast corridor group of states and west coast group of states. you will see other coalitions coming together. the southeast is probably going to look a little different. you see the opportunities for states to figure out how to take the basic principles well laid

out in the cdc documents released where the white house thursday evening and roll that out and give people the flexibility required. it's essential to change how we think about public health. 60% of the american public is not in any way influenced as we open up because they have chronic be ill theses that make themselves vulnerable. 90 he * of the people who get admitted to the hospital have a chronic condition. obese, heart disease. diabetes. when they are at home they also have responsibility. the more you take care of yourself the better you will be able to manage your own chronic illnesses. and the earlier you can leave your home and be part of the recovery. >> it's a le somebody for an

entire nation, for an entire people. we cannot -- we have tremendous responsibility for our own lives. but we also have tremendous responsibility for the life of this nation. and for those who would consider ever again permitting outsourcing of critical pharmaceuticals, medical equipment. i hope the lesson is learned without further track difficult. dr. mehmet oz thank you. good to see you. cbs white house reporter tried to confront president trump on his response to the wuhan virus pandemic. she wasn't just asking a question. she was in full battle rage. yet she ignored the president's travel ban on january 31. we'll spare you a lot of the reporter's most aggressive whining and absurd and air began

efforts to debate a sitting president. but here is the president's response. president trump: how many cases were in the united states. i did a ban where i'm closing up the entire country. how many people died in the united states? and yet i closed up the country. and i believe there were no deaths, zero deaths at the time i closed up the country. nobody was there. and you should say thank you very much for good judgment. lou: we'll say it. and up sure she might have thought about it. thank you, mr. president. we would like to hear your thoughts on all of this. share your comments. follow me on twitter anden a graham @loudobbstonight. tomorrow jason chaffetz and michael pillsbury among our guests. up next, president trump takes on members of the deep state. comey, brennan and the boys.

judicial watch's tom fitton joins us after this quick break. stay with us. (music) ♪

[♪] lou: facebook is blocking groups protesting states' stay at home orders after the technology giant was informed such protests were in violation of state

distancing orders. who told them that? a facebook spokesperson said we removed the posts they do not follow the health parameters established by the government and are therefore unlawful. fbi i formant stephan hall bragging to george papadopoulos to get him to tawlsly admit there was collusion between the trump campaign and russia. the senate judiciary committee released the transcript. the collusion questions were dismissed and said the.

halper disappointed we presume. the fbi failed to inform the fisa court of papadopoulos' denying. president trump fed up with the deep state's efforts to joe throw his presidency. listen to how the president described the dirty cops at the fbi behind the efforts to try to overthrow him. president trump: now the tables are turned. investigate the investigators, i guess. these were crooked people. these are bad people. these are dangerous people. you know what they are, though? they are scum, they are human scum. lou: joining us tonight, tom fitton, the president of judicial watch. i have to say the president speaking very directly about officialdom under the obama era. both the fbi and the justice

department. do you concur? >> yes. they engaged in my view criminal conduct that's never been seen before in american history. the use of the intelligence agencies to concoct smears against the president or incoming president or candidate. spied on them beginning when he ran for the presidency. and that was an abuse of authority, abuse of power. lied to the court. we have they ever seen anything like it before. and the fact there has been zero prosecutions is inexcusable. i don't see anything coming up that the fbi or doj at the senior levels will be held accountable here. even these new unclassified materials suggest that someone uncovered this part. why thus this part coughed up to begin with. why wasn't it released when the

i.g. report was released why? because it demonstrated further criminal activity by the fbi. the fbi knew, the fbi was working with the russians directly and indirectly. they wanted to work with the clinton campaign on this. they knew steele was possibly using russian sources. either way the fbi was happy to work with steele directly on this. you have the obama fbi, the clinton campaign, and it looks like perhaps russian intelligence in a joint operation not only the candidate, the president-elect, but then the president of the united states. sedition that needs to be prosecuted. if this justice department can't figure out how to do it. the president should appoint a special counsel separate and

apart to do it. lou: the idea we would have more investigations is sickening to me. i'm not saying you are wrong. or that it would be wrong to do so. i am just saying september, 2016. we are talking bm four years ago. this is no accident it has been drawn out and the clock has been ticking throughout all of this. this has been a concerted effort. in that concert i don't doubt for a minute there is almost as' rinos working as there are radical dimms on capitol hill who arele actually complicit just because of their passivity if nothing else. it's outrageous where the american people are. the democrats have been cheering all of this attempt to joe throw a president particularly the democratic leaders of the house and senate.

and rinos are just as complicit because they haven't the character or integrity or energy perhaps -- they seem to be a lot of very low energy, these rinos to actually stand up for the country and a president. it's appalling. >> i get heated about it because it's sedition. this casual approach to sedition by our establishment class is beneath contempt in my view. the president is right to be outraged. but what is concerning is no one around him seems to be outraged. what is going to happen in the justice department even if they get to the position of being able to prosecute, someone who will probably be a lower-level official. they will say we were deciding whether to do something else, but we are getting close to the election and our guidelines

prevent us from doing anything. the fbi told us they can't give us any documents because of coronavirus. the state department says all those documents you want and biden and burisma and china? we are shut down until the coronavirus passes. it's not an essential government business to follow transparency law. lou: truth certainly is not part of their business. they have not been the originators of truth or transparency. i want to talk about stefan halper. he is one of those who has abated examination. he has not had a hard clear light cast on him. neither has christopher steele. neither have the intelligence agencies of australia, the u.k., italy in particular. this is the five eyes and they

are rolling this. it's easy inferred -- more difficult to prove it. but it's hardly conjecture to look at what we are seeing in that intelligence community international intelligence community to see some close work and orchestrated efforts on the part of some of those agencies with the central figures of the obama era campaign, intelligence campaign against this president. >> halper was getting cash from the defense department. it's clear it was walking around money to allow him to spy for the fbi, perhaps the cia. the question is which government agencies in the obama administration wouldn't involved in the investigation of president trump. and in terms of the foreign government, what western democracy weren't involved. we have now confirmation they

talked to the brits about christopher steele. there is other evidence the italians were involved. the australians were involved for downer. so this was an international conspiracy against president trump. he's right to be suspicious of the intelligence community whose credibility is zero. at least when it comes to analyzing quote russia interference in our elections and the reason behind it. lou: tom, it's always good to have you with us. well continue to take this up. it's an interesting whip and tale that goes on and on. thank you very much. house minority deputy whip drew ferguson joins us next.

covid-19 is threatening our nation. but during this critical time, you can make a difference. join the department of veterans affairs and save lives! we need medical professionals at every level - including retirees - to help care for patients in facilities in every state and through telehealth. you can be brought on quickly, and this won't impact federal retirement for retirees. will you join us? visit va.gov/joinus to learn more. ♪

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♪we ain't perfect but we try ♪get along while we can ♪always give love the upper hand♪ ♪paint a wall, learn to dance♪ ♪call your mom, buy a boat♪ ♪sing a song, make a friend♪ ♪can't we all get along? lou: the coronavirus task force. president trump: governors across the country are looking forward to phase one and announcing plans for an economic resurgence. at a time when millions of americans workers and families are struggling with the financial consequences of the virus. it's critical to continue the

medical war while with reopening the economy in a safe and responsible fashion. americans must maintain strict vigilance and continue to practice careful hygiene, social distancing and the other protective measures we've outlined. we continue to be encouraged that's of the areas hardest hit by the virus appear to have turned the corner. recent deaths are down very, very substantially. you can compare that with their peak not so long ago. and you have numbers of 0%, 25%. in detroit it's down 50%. congratulations. in norms they are down 6 -- in new orleans it's down 65%. one case per 10,000 people. far fewer that germany, switzerland, belgium, spain,

norway. austria, sweden. my administration continues to press congress to replenish the successful paycheck protection program which impacted 30 million american jobs. we hope to have an agreement soon and hopefully tomorrow the senate will be able to vote. a lot of progress has been made on that. it's a great plan. it helped a lot of people. we hope to have a vote maybe tomorrow in the senate. based upon the record low price of oil at a level that's very interesting to a lot of people, we are filling up our national petroleum reserves, strategic reserves. and we are looking to put as much as 75 million barrels into the reserves themselves and we'll top it out. that will be the first time in a long time it's been topped out.

we are also pushing for the deal to include an additional $75 million. our deal. we are talking about $75 bill for hospitals and other hospital providers. they have taken a huge financial hit in recent weeks. and visits, elective procedures, surgeries, et cetera, were canceled. we think they can get back on line and get it done. the hospitals have been fantastic. they stepped up to the plate. they did a great job. we appreciate it so much. for areas less affected by the virus we issued new recommendations about how to resume elective treatments. hhs distributed payments to a million healthcare providers across the country. we invested $1.4 billion in

community health centers to insure our most vulnerable communities including african-american and hispanic communities have access to the services and testing they need. earlier today vice president pence spoke with governors from all 50 states about our unified effort to defeat the virus. he had a great call. very positive. i would say in he way. prior to the call we provided peach governor with a list of the names and phone numbers and addresses of the labs where they can find additional testing capacity. we'll show it to you now if you need it. we'll give you the details. hundreds of labs are ready, willing and able. some of the governors -- the governor from maryland didn't really understand the list. he didn't understand too much about what was going on, now i think he will be sable to do that. it's pretty simple. but they have tremendous

capacity. we hope to be able to help him out. we'll work with him and work with all the governors. similar to the situation with ventilators, states need to assess their complete inventory of available capacity. some states have far more capacity than they understand. and it's a complex subject. but some of the governors didn't understand it. the governor from illinois did not understand his capacity. not simply ask the federal government to provide unlimited support. you have to take the support where you have it. but we are there to stand with the governors and help the governors, and that's what we are doing. they have a tremendous capacity we built up. you will be seeing that. we'll be introducing a couple of the folks to talk about it. i want to draw your attention to governor cuomo's remarks during this press conference. he said the president is right,

the state's testing is up to the states to do which will implement the test and logistically coordinate the tests. we have about 300 labs in new york. they are great labs, actually. it's my job to coordinate the 300 labs. i think the president is right when he says the states should lead. the governors are getting it together in new york. a lot of good things are happening in new york. i think the governor is going to come in and see us tomorrow afternoon. andrew will be coming in with some of his people. so we'll look forward to that. the -- some of the articles just recently came about if you remember, i:put out a statement today for a month it was all ventilator, ventilator, ventilator. it's all people could talk about. ventilators. we did a great job with that. we built a lot of ventilators.

we have so many now that at some point soon we'll be helping mexico and italy and other countries. we'll be sending them ventilators which they desperately need. they were not in a position to build them themselves. but we have thousands being built. he state has had -- they have the ventilators. if they don't, we have almost 10,000 in our federal reserve, our stockpile. and we did a great job with the ventilators. unfortunately the press doesn't cover it other than the fair press. that's under pressure we did that. nobody that needed a ventilator in this country didn't get one. the story that just came out how the media completely blew the trump ventilator story. i'm sure you would love to see that. that's by rich lowry.

respected journalist and pen. how the media completely blew the trump ventilator story. here is another one that just came out. kyle smith, the ventilator shortage that wasn't. the ventilator short and that wasn't. because we got it fixed. and we are going to help the states stockpile ventilators. so if a thing like this should happen again they have got them. the stories on testing are all over the place. we are actually in good shape. i will have the vice president and others speak to you about that. but we are in good shape on testing and we are getting better all the time. we'll see some interesting things. i thought before i went any further i would like to have the general who has done an incredible job, tell you where we are. we are still building beds and hospitals for people who need them. the hospital business generally

is getting pretty much closed out. but we are creating space for people just in case. i thought the general has been so impressive and has done upa great job. on behalf of the services and the federal government, he will say a few words about what we are doing right now. knew very much, sir. >> thank you, mr. president. on behalf of all of us in the department of defense. our thoughts and prayers go out to all of those patients and victims affect bid this terrible virus. the president and vice president talk about the heroes. but i have seen the doctors anders in nurses and all those who work very hard. we are proud on part of this noble calling. for my team i made it simple. i said there are three legs of this stool, they all have ss. sites, supplies and staff. so when governor cuomo called the president about 30 days ago.

he said i need help. worried about what could be tens of thousands of hospital room short ands. so the president and secretary of defense asked us to fly to albany with a team. on the way up we understood how complex of a challenge it was. we knew there was no way you could solve a complex catastrophe with a simple solution. we needed to work with hhs, fema, the vice president's task force and this down to the local level. some of the governors asked us to try to build a hospital in a parking lot or a field in two or three weeks. you can't physically do that. we said let's goat to where there is an existing facility. those that are hotel rooms or college dormitories, smaller rooms, or those in a large area lining fieldhouses and convention centers. we designed the facility that

could be non-covid or covid. we got that approved at the federal government to power that back down. we went to governor cuomo. he said i love the concept. i need you in the javits center. i'm ready for to you start working tomorrow afternoon. when we flew back we built the standard design and continued to be able to power it down through the rest of the team. so i want to show you a couple of slides here. we'll kind of let you know where we are at right now, mr. president. we had to do a bunch of assessments. 1,100 different locations we went to. we worked for fema, we worked for the president and we worked for governors and mayors. we said what do you think your demand is going to be. based on a lot of the modeling from this room here we understood what the peak curve was, and what he understood where is the bed short and. these 1,100 facilities. we are executing 32 different

facilities of about 16,000 beds. 8 of those are done. we have a lot more to complete. in a week and a half we'll complete more facilities. we have some pending. some governors and mayors are still wondering do they have enough bed space. and what's important is we need an agile plan. this virus gets a vote. this entire team, the federal government tried to be as agile as they can supporting the states and governors. the beauty of the plan is it doesn't have to be built by the united states army corps of engineers. we designed 52 facilities. and we gave those to the governors. they then imposed and put a lot of those on the ground and did those themselves. i'll show you some simple:pictures. let's go to the next side. this is an example of the javits

center. this one about 2,100 bed spaces. what you get is 11 or 12-foot square cubical. there is lights in there, a nurse call, there are nurse stations throughout. there are pharmacies throughout. this one started as non-covid but then came back in and put in central oxygen so everybody has oxygen behind their bed to take care of those patients. built this one, about 1,000 patients treated. i was up in detroit with governor whitmer. she walked us through and told us her intent in the tcs center. you will see the cubicals laid out. this is in the center of the convention floor. again a lot of great work by my guys and the corps of engineers, the mayors and the city teams

pulling together. the governor sat us down and said here is our intent of what we want to do. we went into another large convention center. this is 3,000 bed spaces, a very, very large build, and got this one done in a relatively short period of time. here is another one to help you understand the dynamic. this is in miami beach. i flew in to see governor desantis. my guys scoped out 450 beds. he said how long will it take to build this? we said probably until the 27th of april. he said how long do you need? they said they needed it the 21st of april. i'd told my guys you don't have until the 27th. you don't get to have the perfect solution. you have to get the mission essential done. lives are on the line and we have to get everything done to save those lives. this is one we are doing right

now, colorado, in denver, another gigantic convention center. you will see the cub the cubica. 6 miles of pipe to make that happen. in closing, i want to say we are very, very focused in the corps of engineers getting this done. but this is all about the team. the federal team, state team, local team, the vice president task force. a lot of people sitting here informed us of how fast we need to go. the governors and mayors made it happen. president trump called me three times and second the terry -- and secretary is pe esper was oe phone. the federal government, the mayors and the cities, we have taken that first s out of the

equation. of all the things i have done in my career, this is a noble calling to step up and stave american lives. thank you very much. president trump: anybody have a question for the general while he's here? he's done an incredible job. >> are there more projects beyond one you are identified. >> we are seeing the virus gets a vote. we are seeing some of these curves are stretching out where we thought we only had five or six days, we have a couple weeks. others we are seeing the opposite. where we didn't think we had some, we got six more requests in the last five or six days. they are smaller facility in remote areas. but we want to get in there and do the assessment. we work for the mayor, the city and the governor. we can get them doing if the mayors and the governors and the local officials make a fast

enough decision. president trump: the general is in charge of the wall on the southern border. it's very much under construction. you might give them an update. how are we doing on the wall? >> you stressed this and secretary is esper stressed this. we have to stake care of our civilians. everything we are doing whether we are building for the va or the department of defense or the southwest border, we are going out of our way. i talked to our commanders. we have 4,000 contractors out there and we have had no positives. same with my 400 employees. we are testing them with temperatures to make sure everybody is safe and everybody goes out of their way to do things the right way. construction is going very, very

smooth. our considers are extreme -- our contractors are very focused. we are well postured. this is an aggressive build. but we are postured well >> we're over 160 miles? >> 164 as of today, sir. >>h 164 myles. we'll have it done sometime next year. >> yes, sir. >> power for stepping people that shouldn't be coming into our country? >> same thing. if you have a standard design you trust in, it works very well, i've got a pat on the back commissioner morgan. he was very adamant, continue to make sure it supports his agents. so we have a design now certainly does that we have a phenominal contractor working in there, my corps of engineer

employees. it is going well. we don't see any significant problems. i think it is also important to point out we want to do this the right way. we try to balance this with environmental consideration out there. we're trying to do due diligence with any citizens that are affected. we're trying to make sure we protect all the things we need to protect to find that balance where we meet the administration's directive while at the same time, making sure we're doing this so everybody gets a vote and everybody has a fair shake. >> yeah, please. reporter: may i ask what you're doing regarding the availability of, at recreation sites the army corps of engineers operate, how is access going there and whether or not there are restrictions? >> i'm an engineer. i take guidance from some experts sitting on the bench over here. when the president says turn on america what we initially did like many other governors, shut down beaches, shut down cities. mayed a meeting with my commanders this morning as soon

as we think it is safe turn them back on. parking out 500 feet in a rec area in a camper is probably low threat. i will take guidance trot administration. when we get green lights to put the rec areas full up, let everybody do things safe way. we work for the administration. i want to do it safe, but i don't want to be the last guy that turns things on, not at all. yes, ma'am? reporter: thanks for -- [inaudible]. do you have any, can you say anything whether or not there are any specific efforts in communities hardest hit like black communities or latino communities, communities of color? are the army corps of engineers building any temporary facilities for those communities? >> we basically key off what the city asks for, the city and the governor. there are a couple of -- lou: the coronavirus task force led by the president and vice president pompeo, the general, army corps of engineers have to be mighty proud of him.

what a job the army corps of engineers has done for all of us. thank you so much to them. join us tomorrow. dr. ian lipkin, jason maria: good morning, happy tuesday. good to talk to you. i'm maria bartiromo, thanks for joining us. april 21st, 6:00 a.m. on the east coast. oil in focus. crude prices still in negative territory after falling after record low of negative. lower opening for the stock market this morning. take a look at where we stand as oil prices go down, so do stocks, dow industrials down and nasdaq futures lower by 26 after the historic oil decline yesterday fueled sel